This was on /. and seems like an interesting perspective:
http://worldchanging.com/archives/001450.html
posted by geoff on 10/30/2004 03:51:27 PM
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I went to a local politics forum at the Indiana Union Wednesday night. Kevey, Bz, and Steven all happened to be there too, probably as a testament to Bz ferreting out what's going on. It was a really disheartening experience. From living in Bloomington for a year, it seems like the political structures work pretty well. I don't hear too many complaints and the town seems prosperous enough (although some of the new development of luxury apartments for college kids, and the retail to support these things, makes me think that it's a little too prosperous). However, this panel discussion featuring county party heads (I think) from the Democratic, Libertarian, and republican parties ended up being nothing but political cheap shots and party-line ideology with very little mention of the reality of the issues or even specific candidates and their positions.
Even though the party representatives didn't delineate the issues, one could get some idea about some of the issues that are on the political radar for central Indiana and the buzzwords related to them. Here is some of the things that candidates mentioned.
- Labor and the right of various groups to organize
- Sewage Treatment in Monroe county (Shawnee Bluffs)
Bloomington gets its water from Lake Griffey (or is it Lake Monroe, or both. I really need to figure this out). Apparently, there are new developers building homes at the shores of this lake. Some developers want to have their own (presumably private) water treatment plant for these homes. I don't know if these are connected, but the Democratic representative warned of mismanagement of water treatment leading to sewage being dumped into the lake (e.g. the water supply)
Update (2004-10-29) - The body of water in question is definitely Lake Monroe. County Surveyor Kevin Enright's statement at the Farm Bureau forum is pretty illuminating about this.
Here is a message board thread that has some debate about the issue: http://talk.assmotax.org/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=4326&forum=10&start=0
Here is a Herald-Times article that summarizes the issue pretty well and gives some of the county comissioner's perspectives on it. - Bloomington (or is it also Monroe County Jail too) overcrowding.
- Mentally Ill in Prison
This issue actually came up in relation to a candidate - Democrat Michael Woods who is an Indiana University Law School student running for the County Counci, At-Large office. He argues that many in jail are mentally ill and that they are better served by other programs/social services than by sitting in jail and contributing to overcrowding. He advocates training law enforcement to recognize the mentally ill so they can divert these individuals from the jail system into social services. Sounds good to me.
- Mentally Ill in Prison
- Taxes
- Training Tax
This is a tax on businesses. The libertarian candidate described funds going to retrain workers who had lost their jobs. I tried to google for this and couldn't find any information on a "Training Tax". I did find mention of a "Training Tax Credit" which goes to businesses to help them recover the costs of providing additional job-skills training for their workers. The libertarian objected to this tax because she argues that while all businesses (including small ones) have to pay into these funds, large corporations use most of the funds.
- Inventory Tax
Both this tax, and the property task were cited by both the Republican and Libertarian candidates as being the main reasons for lack of business growth (and attracting businesses) in Indiana. They argue that an antiquated tax code and too much paperwork make businesses go to neighboring states.
- Property Tax
- Training Tax
- Energize Indiana
This is a Democratic proposal that a lot of candidates at the state level cite. The Democrats argue that manufacturing jobs that have traditionally been a big deal to Indiana are not only being lost to neighboring states, but to other places in the world because they can be filled at a much lower cost. Traditionally, argue the democrats, business development has involved tax abatements, or tax breaks, usually to large corporations, to attract them to come to Indiana. However, when these manufacturing jobs are being quickly lost from Indiana, the democrats argue, why subsidize these companies. The Energize Indiana initiative argues that economic development should come from state partnerships with Universities to develop a home-grown, high-tech industry in Indiana.
- Education
- Tuition Increase Caps for Higher Education
- Private lenders for student loans
- Charter schools/school choice
- State Budget Spending Cap
The democrats argue that the republicans, in the interest in minimizing taxes, have put a spending cap on the state government which effectively creates a zero-sum tradeoff between prisons and education. Because there is no new money, if you want to increase funding for prisons, you have to decrease funding for education. - I-69 New Terrain
The Republican candidate for governor supports this, the current Democratic governor approved the route suggest by the federal government, but the Dems seem unwilling to accept responsibility for the plan. The Dem. party spokesperson argued that no Dem. candidates advocate this at the local level.
This road has been characterized as a "NAFTA highway"
It is important to note that the route has already been chosen by Federal comissions. This ads a certain sense of inevitability to the whole thing and some suggest that the issue has now become how to make the I-69 extension as unobtrusive as possible. As one forum panelist said, "building big roads means losing small town character."
This issue has been categorized as an issue that is only a hot one for central Indiana. Other parts of Indiana already have to deal with the reality of this road and are, therefore, much more apathetic to it. This categorization came in direct response to claims that the Democratic governor's support of this had hurt his popularity.
The Libertarian gubenatorial candidate, Kenn Gividen is the only candidate that opposes I-69 New Terrain. He argues that instead of routing it through central Indiana where it's unwanted, it would be better to use a route that followes I-70 and I-41. This route goes through counties that want the road. He also argues that funds that would be used for the I-69 project would be better used going toward the maintenence of existing roads. - Transportation
- Area 10
I think that this is a pretty marginal issue, but it's often on the county budget chopping block. It's a bus for rural county residents that has a set route, but will diverge to pick up county residents directly from their home.
- Truck Toll Lanes
The liberatrian candidate argues that this is a solution to improving transportation in Indiana. It will decrease traffic, fund road maintenence, and help establish Indiana as a trucking/logisitics hub (which the Libs. seem to think is the future of economic development in Indiana) - Tax reform as factor
Some argue that the current tax structure limits funds available for road improvements. I think that this is a similar argument as the previously mentioned example about trade-offs between prisons and education.
- Area 10
- Development
Update (2004-10-29): I found this article (here are parts 2 and 3 of that article) that does a pretty good job of introducing development issues and the players in them in Bloomington.
Both the Rep. and Lib. panelists categorized Bloomington as being anti-business. This seemed more a matter of oppinion or perception and wasn't really backed up by any kind of figures. The Dem. representative countered this by saying Bloomington is at the top of the state in terms of jobs and economic development. An interesting exchance was when an audience member questioned the Rep. and Lib. claims by citing all the new apartment buildings and college-related businesses that have been popping up in Bloomington as signs of economic development (she didn't say this explicitely, but I detected a sense that she saw this as maybe a little too much development). There wasn't a strong response to this question from either the Rep. or the Lib.
The Rep. and Lib. want to change regulation and taxation to attract businesses to the region.
The Dem. panelist argues that much of the economic development will come from businesses that support the IU community.
The Dem. panelist frequently noted the need to encourage high-tech industry growth.
The Dem. panelist made frequent reference to the idea that the current policy of managed growth and focussing on quality of life issues is what will attract continued growth to the region - Social Services
Reps. and Libs. argue that the private sector should play a greater role in providing social servies. The Dem. panelist argued that currently, the private sector isn't stepping up to the plate. - Positive Progress
In a question about the inflamitory, partisan nature of the rhethoric in the forum, the Dem. panelist argued that this wasn't the case before a group called Positive Progress came to prominence in Bloomington. The Dem. panelist characterized the group as wanting to remove zoning laws. I think this is insane. Smart use of zoning, as I've come to understand, is one of the best tools for building strong, liveable communities and makign productive, managed growth. The sierra club categorizes them as a "a rabid pro-development group". I don't know his role, but the name Jeff Brantley comes up a lot when I google for Positive Progress. Positive Progress, or those behind it, are involved in this election by a highly publicized media buy which involves billboards categorizing Baron Hill, the Democratic candidate for US Representative - District 9 (and the incumbent) as supporting flag burning (among other things). I don't know much about Baron Hill, but this ridiculous opposition, to me, seems grounds enough for him to get my vote.
- County Landfill (solid waste district)
Update (2004-10-30): This is an issue that gets a lot of press. I don't really understand the history of it or the implications of the landfill closing this year. Here's a message board post that cites a recent Herald-Times article about it and might offer some insight.
posted by geoff on 10/30/2004 10:25:32 AM
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I've always wondered about this. You can link your project's release names with CVS' internal revision numbers for files.
https://www.cvshome.org/docs/manual/cvs-1.11.17/cvs_4.html#SEC48
posted by geoff on 10/29/2004 09:34:21 PM
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In the Status Bar on the main timeline, click the Edit Multiple Frames button. (It looks like two dark overlapping squares)
posted by geoff on 10/29/2004 03:04:01 PM
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Guerrilla News Network: "Eminem's Mosh"
So everybody's talking about this. From threads on the democratic dailykos.com blog to my anarcho friends. I watched it but can't say I had any immediate reaction. Maybe any kind of politicization of youth culture is a good thing. I don't know.
posted by geoff on 10/29/2004 12:56:58 AM
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On the 10/25/2004 SBC bill, the monthly fee for DSL was $49.95 instead of the usual $29.95. The reason for this is that my contract ended in October and I didn't choose to renew the contract. I was allegedly supposed to have been informed of this by e-mail and postcard, but I never received either. I renewed the contract, effective Nov. 4, 2004 which will bring the price back to $29.95 a month. It may take 1-2 billing cycles for the price change to take effect, after which, I should be credited. The contract ends Nov. 5, 2004. There is a $200 early termination fee, but Yolanda, the customer service rep that I spoke with, says that this only applies if 1 year or service has not been fulfilled. Since I met my contractual obligations for a year, the $200 early termination fee should not apply to me if I cancel before Nov. 4, 2005.I was also given a $20 credit towards October. The systemw as down so she had to escalate this to another team. It make take 1-2 billing cycles for this to take effect. The tracking number for this incident is 93307316.
posted by geoff on 10/28/2004 05:04:48 PM
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I found yet another voyeuristic, productivity sucking website, http://www.reallysmalltalk.com/.
I started resuming work on the tests for the Boxcar online store. Unfortunately, I've reached an impasse with submitting the first checkout form. It looks like there is a problem with the following:
onsubmit="validate(form)"
It looks like this is either 1) not getting executed or 2) detecting something as problematic when it shouldn't since it appears like the following code in the validate function isn't getting executed.
document.form.action = "checkout2.php";
Actually, upon adding some debugging code, it looks like the function is getting executed, it's just the following line that's not getting executed:
document.form.action = "checkout2.php";
posted by geoff on 10/28/2004 01:53:06 PM
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http://cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/ep_card.pdf
posted by geoff on 10/28/2004 09:42:15 AM
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I fought with Photoshop and Illustrator trying to make the Defiance, Ohio patch design. This article, Drawing with Photoshop Halftones should be very useful for some of the things I want to do. Unfortunately, the image that I have to work with is 72dpi so I couldn't really do a whole lot with it. I need to find the original and scan it in at a high dpi. I scanned in the crows picture and that is a good start. Now I just need to make a logo for the "Defiance, Ohio" text since I couldn't find any fonts I didn't think were cheesy. I think I'm going to make the font and then cut a stencil of it, spray it, and scan that. Also, I'm going to find an anatomy book for help with drawing the skeleton for the kids with squirt guns design.
posted by geoff on 10/27/2004 05:26:22 PM
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BBC NEWS | Technology | Bush website blocked outside US: "Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush."
Fuck. As if the world needed another example of the Bush adminisration's arrogance. Also, this sucks for overseas absentee voters. Nice one George.
posted by geoff on 10/27/2004 10:27:05 AM
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Time tracker : I coded up this little script to try to keep track of the time I spend on various projects.
Classroom blogs (03:31:00) : I coded up a plugin that simplifies the posting interface and hides the front page post text from the students. I wrote up a quick proposal for my vision of how this would be used and e-mailed it to mom.
Voting (04:06:00) : E-mailed Matt Lackey about Indiana electoral politics. He's sending me some info. Tried calling League of Women voters. Got machine. I found this really cool Citizen's Toolkit (Bloomington election resource web site) which has some really good links. The best is video from CATS of the candidate forums that I missed.
I compiled this list which should reflect, pretty closely, the ballot. The list is based on info from http://www.co.monroe.in.us/clerk/Candidates.html. Update: I moved this discussion to a seperate post - http://geoff.terrorware.com/archive/2004_10_24_index.php#109906697491231786
posted by geoff on 10/27/2004 01:35:50 AM
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Motivation
increasingly, educators are having a difficult time integrating technology into their curriculum. As compliance with educational standards becomes more challenging, there is less time for educators to master new technologies and to create separate technology-centered educational experiences for students. So, the challenge becomes finding a way to incorporate technology into existing classroom activities and educational goals.
Journaling has long been a foundation of the language-arts classroom. Rather than the traditional, highly structured, reports, essays, or stories that we all remember from our school days, journaling allows students to write about topics that are relevant to their lives. It may also give them a means to develop their own context for recent classroom lessons. It is the hope that by giving students the opportunity to write on their own terms, they will become more comfortable with the practice of writing. Then, they will be able to respond more effectively to lessons that reflect the mechanics of writing.
One of the most difficult parts of technology education is keeping information relevant. Teaching students how to use a particular software application may amount to memorizing steps or processes, but does this translate to confidence with computer software in general? Will students be able to adapt to new computing platforms and applications that they may encounter in their future educational or professional careers? Certainly, the difficulties that many schools have in maintaining up-to-date technological resources (or providing access to those resources) does not make matters any easier.
Still, even with the difficulties of technology integration in the classroom, technology holds a certain mystique with students. Youth raised on PlayStation and the Internet may respond more enthusiastically to technology in the classroom than to other more traditional teaching mediums.
Blogging
One of the most exciting technologies that has gained prominence on the Internet is the emergence of the "blog". A blog is a sort of online journal that uses web-based content to allow an average person to share ideas and information with others on the Internet. Frequently these blogs reference and respond to other web content and include a dialogue about the ideas contained in the journal posts. The 2004 election season saw both journalists, politicians, and activists using blogs to share information about various races and issues.
Blogs are typically built on top of web-based technologies. While the server-side installation and maintenance of a blog can involve a number of different technologies, the blog author adds and updates the blog content using only web browser software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Because the software application application used for blogging is the familiar web browser, even technology users with limited levels of technological proficiency can participate in the application of blogging technology.
Blogging in the classroom
While there are many possible applications of blogging technologies in the classroom, many of which are already being explored by many educators, this proposal focuses on using a blog in the student's journaling exercises. The advantages of this application are numerous. First, since blogs were initially conceived as journals, their use as a replacement for paper and pencil journal writing is a natural one. Instead of technology instruction coming at the expense of other classroom activities, students get to use and become more confident with technology while doing their usual classwork. Second, since the technology involved with blogging is relatively simple, both educators and students need little extra knowledge to begin using the technology. The added benefit of this is that students can "play" with the technology and develop confidence and their own methods for learning technology without unneeded interaction with teachers. Furthermore, because more and more software applications are moving to web interfaces, using web-based software on a frequent basis will prepare the student for using such software in other educational pursuits or the workplace. Also, the novelty of using technology may, for many students, foster some much needed enthusiasm for writing activities. Finally, the technology makes more effective use of both student and instructor time and can be used to make for more meaningful writing experiences. The teacher can view all his students' posts through a single interface rather than being bound to a heavy stack of paper. She can view and respond to her students writing from home, from the computer lab, from a wireless-enable coffee shop - anywhere with an Internet connection. The teacher no longer has to contend with illegible handwriting and can even encourage students to correct their own spelling mistakes using spell-checking features of the software. Also, the time-honored blaming of canines for lost assignments has difficulty translating to the digital realm. The commenting features of many blogging software applications also allows for teachers to easily communicate with their students about the writing and could also allow for peer review between students.
A sample implementation
To demonstrate an implementation that could be used for blog journaling in the classroom, I installed the WordPress blogging package on my server. I chose the WordPress package because it is an Open Source project. Not only does this mean that there is no cost for the software or for the underlying technology, but it also means that the source code for the project is available for modification. This would allow educators to modify the software to best meet the needs of their students. In fact, I wrote a plugin to restrict access to certain content for the students and to simplify the posting interface.
The sample classroom blog can be accessed at http://terrorware.com/wordpress/.
When you visit the classroom blog without being a user, or as a student user, you will notice that the title and body of the sample posts are replaced with the text " You do not have permission to view this information". This is to allow students to keep their writing private from other students. However, this behavior can be modified if desired.
Logging in
To begin playing around with the classroom blog, one should log in by clicking the login link to the right of the page.
One can log in with the following credentials depending on whether one wants to see the blog as would the student or the teacher:
Role: Student
Username: student
Password: student
Role: Teacher
Username: teacher
Password: teacher
Student use
Once logged in as the student user, one is taken to the Write page which is used to make a new journal entry. One can enter a title for the journal entry and type the body of the entry in the appropriate text boxes. When one is finished writing, one can commit the journal entry by clicking the Publish button.
If one wishes to see a list of previous entries, one can click on the Edit link at the top of the page. One can then click the Edit or Delete links next to the journal entry listings to modify or remove those entries.
The basic student use of the classroom blog is limited to creating new entries and viewing, modifying, and deleting past entries. Of course, the functionality can be expanded to allow for commenting, team editing, and other more advanced behaviors if desired.
Students can (and should) log out of the classroom blog by clicking the Logout link at the top of the page when finished.
Teacher use
When one is logged in as the teacher, one should notice that the front page (accessed through the View site link at the top of the page) now shows a summary of recent journal entries. This could be used by teachers to quickly see their students' work. The teacher can then return to the administrative pages by clicking on the login link again.
Clicking on the Edit link at the top of the page will display a list of all the students' entries. These entries can be sorted based on date or searched. Clicking on each entry's title will allow the teacher to see the full text of the entry. As with the student interface, entries can be deleted or edited from this menu.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this proposal has motivated the advantages of using blogging technology in the language arts classroom as part of journaling exercises. Furthermore, the example implementation should give the reader an idea of how the technology works and the ease with which it can be integrated into the classroom. Even with the mounting challenges facing educators, technology can still be used in the classroom in simple yet exciting ways!
posted by geoff on 10/26/2004 09:26:18 PM
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Educational Blogging article
posted by geoff on 10/25/2004 03:40:48 PM
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http://www.dailykos.com
posted by geoff on 10/25/2004 01:24:19 AM
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