Re: [Ugnet] another test message
Got it, thanks. Semei == On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Kiggundu Mukasa kiggu...@kym.net wrote: This is another test message ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Those Born 1930-1979
Those Born READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE---VERY WELL STATED TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we* *rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. *And* we were OK. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!* * Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them. CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives *for our own good*. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. * ** Kind of makes you want to run* *through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!* The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?' For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this. For the rest of us...pass this on ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] How Credit Swaps Spread Financial Rot
While it's true Clinton Administration was involved in the deregulation of the financial system, blame should go to all the parties. At the time all this was taking place, the Republican party was in control of both the House and Senate. The particular regulation being referred as the actual cause of the current crisis was passed in the Senate unanimously. There is no denying that this happened on Bush Administration's watch. It should also be noted that Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank thought that the market were capable of regulating themselves without government intervention. Quite possibly if * laissez*-*faire hasn't been order of the day, * some serious damage to the world economy might have been prevented. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96333239 How Credit Default Swaps Spread Financial Rot by Alex Blumberghttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9407 *All Things Consideredhttp://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2 ,* October 30, 2008 · If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, credit default swaps helped spread the illness worldwide. Like many parts of the financial system these days, credit default swaps are so complicated, simple bankers couldn't have created them. They were invented by people like Gregg Berman. My formal training is in physics, he says. I studied experimental physics and nuclear physics before joining finance in 1993. Now just to be clear, Berman didn't invent these things, but he works for Risk Metrics Group, which helps people manage risk, and so he thinks about them a lot and he's good at explaining what they are. Imagine, he says, you buy a bond from Ford for $100. You're holding your bond and you are worried about Ford's credit. So you enter into an agreement with another party where you say to other party, 'I will pay you some money — 2 percent a year, 3 percent, 4 percent — and what you need to do is give me protection.' If Ford should go bankrupt, then I'm going to give you this perhaps worthless bond and you're going to give me my $100 back. In the big context, it looks like insurance. So is insurance what we are talking about? People with bonds, which are already considered safe, trying to make them safer? Well, it didn't stay that way. *Insurance On A Home You Don't Own* I think Mae West said it very, very well when she said, 'I used to be Snow White, but I drifted,' says Satyajit Das, a risk consultant who was around when credit default swaps first appeared. For 30 years, he has worked with hedge funds and bankers all over the world as a sort of a financial hired gun. He saw first hand how what started as insurance morphed into something else entirely. In the 1990s, he says, he was a fan of credit default swaps. But by about 2003-2004, I was starting to get nervous, Das says. I could see the market had gone from a very legitimate purpose to something which was much more racy and interesting but also much more dangerous. He says along the way, it stopped being insurance. The line between investing and speculation or gambling in financial markets is always a pretty gray one, he says. And speculation is always a motive.So, how did we get from one of the safest activities on the planet — insurance — to one of the riskiest — gambling? There's one key difference between an insurance policy and a credit default swap. *The way that I first described the credit default swap is, you own the bond and you want to transfer the risk to someone else. But what if I want to buy protection but I don't own the bond? Berman says. But isn't buying protection on a bond you don't own like buying fire insurance on a house that's not yours?* It is exactly like buying insurance for a house you don't own, Berman says. So it's like you took out fire insurance on your home, and I also took out fire insurance on your home, and a thousand other people took out fire insurance on your home. And when that happens, what you're doing is, you're betting on the house. So, a CDS allows people to get paid off by insuring something they don't own — not a house in this case, but a bond. *How Credit Default Swaps Work* A credit default swap is what they call an over-the-counter instrument. It's not something that's traded publicly on an exchange, like a stock. Instead, it's a private deal between any two people with more than $5 million — so that means, effectively, someone at an investment bank, or a hedge fund, or at a big commercial bank like Citibank and Credit Suisse. They all have credit default swap desks. Now, every day, the guy at this desk is getting thousands of e-mails and calls from people who want to enter into credit default swap contracts with him. Sometimes those people want it for insurance. They have a bond from say, the ABC Co., but they're a little worried about ABC Co.'s financial health. They call the guy at the desk up and say, Will you sell me credit default swap protection? In
[Ugnet] What U.S. owes to other countries
In the book titled I.O.U.S.A by Addison Wiggin Kate Incontrera, former Comptroller General of United States does argue that: *the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility.* He may be right if the figures stated hereunder are to believed. Admittedly debt as a percentage of GDP is not at unreasonable levels it will need to be fixed before it becomes a serious problem. Semei = With all of the bailout and deficit spending talk during the Presidential election, American voters became (painfully) aware of the debt the U.S. owes to other countries.China was mentioned several times during the debates and currently the U.S. owes them a cool $541 billion. Certainly not good on the surface and even worse when you discover that China is neither the only country we owe or the most amount of money we owe. So who else is on the list? Japan holds U.S. debt in the amount of $586 billion. United Kingdom holds U.S. debt in the amount of $307 billion. OPEC* nations hold U.S. debt in the amount of $179 billion. Caribbean Banking Centers hold U.S. debt in the amount of $147 billion. Russia holds U.S. debt in the amount of $74.4 billion. *OPEC includes Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, among others. No Free Ride… The debt is in the form of U.S. Treasury securities. In a nutshell meaning it must be paid back and it must be paid back with interest. Sooner or later a large amount of money must leave the U.S. to pay back the creditor countries. The government and the American economy have yet to put a hold on this deficit spending. It has grown dramatically over the past 8 years. For example, today's debt to China ($541 billion) was $61 billion in 2001. Like a young couple that has gotten out of hand with a credit cards the U.S. spending needs to be reigned in and immediately controlled or stories about U.S. being foreclosed on will no longer be farfetched jokes on late-night television but a painful reality. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Barack Obama's ascendance
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-081028-obama-all-pg,0,6564040.photogallery ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Can You Count on Voting Machines?
Interesting article to read - Semei http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?_r=1oref=slogin Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Mr President , What's 'Partisan' politics?
Hi John, Thanks for Paul's clip. Did Paul ever do high jump in High School? It's just incredible that he could jump so high!! He must be very athletic. That said have you heard from Juliet and Sanyu since we last spoke? I should imagine Juliet and Paul are now in Uganda . Quite possibly being reacquainted with Amin's days when walking was the order of the day. I understand there is some serious gas shortage in the country. In Paul's case it should be quite an experience. I also hear a lot of Kenyans have crossed into Uganda as refugees to escape the ethnic fighting. Enough of this stuff. By the way my home phones are now working. The Vonage one is (708)747 0796 and AT T is (708)2838250. I had to get an ATT one because it was the only way to get DSL. They are charging $16.00, a month, before taxes, for it . Then I have to pay $25.00 (before taxes) for Vonage . Chances are I will switch to another provider of DSL , which doesn't require installing a telephone line. I am staying with these folks to recoup the initial costs I incurred in installing the DSL. Take care. Semei - Original Message From: Bwambuga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Uganda Net ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 8:53:05 PM Subject: [Ugnet] Mr President , What's 'Partisan' politics? ...History never repeats itself; it is only the unenlightened or the forgetful who repeat the mistakes of history... Mr President, what’s ‘partisan’ politics? TRADITIONAL LEADERS: Dr Oloka Onyango President Yoweri Museveni’s “Letter to the Kabaka” run in Daily Monitor and Sunday Vision is the most articulate expression of the problem of bad governance that results from a continued and excessive stay in power. The letter not only instructs the Kabaka when to speak; but also what he should speak about, to whom the Kabaka should address himself when speaking, and when the Kabaka should shut his mouth. Despite its placid introduction, the President’s letter is not an appeal; it is a command! To fully understand the President’s problem one needs to take a short step back into history. The precise history in this case relates to the restoration of the Buganda Kingdom in 1993 and to the reasons why Museveni supported its restoration. It is important to recall that the kingdoms (with the obvious exception of Ankole, which was not a vote winner) were restored in mid-1993, shortly before elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA). Among the few voices who spoke out against the move was that of Solome Bbosa, President of the Uganda Law Society at the time, and current judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Justice Bbosa advised that the matter of traditional leaders should be given a full and comprehensive examination in the debate that was to take place in the CA. After all, the Justice Odoki draft of the Constitution contained several provisions on the restoration of traditional rulers which would be given a full consideration in the national debate. For her efforts, Justice Bbosa was condemned as a member of FOBA-Force Obote Back Again-by such luminaries of the time as the late Dr Samson Babi Mululu Kisekka (Vice President), Abu Kakyama Mayanja (Attorney General/Minister of Justice), and Prof. Apolo Robin Nsibambi (then Minister of Constitutional Affairs in the Buganda government, and current Prime Minister) who were intent on securing their positions as the main links (bayungirizi) between Buganda and the NRM government. On his part and true to character, President Museveni declared that any attempts to stop the restoration would be met with (military) force as he was eying the many votes that would come from Buganda as a result of the restoration. What was the result of all these manouvres? In the first instance, there was very little debate on the legal character of the restored kingdoms with the exception of the clause designed to ensure that they remained ‘non-partisan,’ a clause that has been opportunistically (mis)interpreted by the President to mean support for the NRM. Thus, President Museveni sees no problem with employing members of the Royal Family in his office as Presidential Advisors or letting them speak at his electoral campaigns, while he does not hesitate to condemn Royals who declare their support for the political opposition. The second problem with the restoration was that there was no indication of who had the right and the power to determine what actions by traditional leaders should be regarded as ‘non-partisan.’ Quite clearly, it should not be the President, because he has a direct interest in the matter. Thirdly, the law did not provide for any institution or forum with the mandate to resolve a dispute between traditional leaders and the central government over actions that may be regarded as ‘partisan.’ In brief the term ‘non-partisan’ was not subjected to any concise definition. While it is quite
[Ugnet] Abayudaya
Subject: Abayudaya, from the Luganda word for Jews. Welcome, The eastern Ugandan town of Mbale is home to a small Jewish community, known as Abayudaya, from the Luganda word for Jews. Shalom - welcome in Hebrew - is painted on the wall of the Hadassah infant and elementary school just outside Mbale. It is the only Jewish primary school in the country and caters to its small community. Hands up! Children wave their hands in the air in response to the question: Who here is Jewish? Pupils are taught to chant the Hebrew alphabet and can sing the Israeli national anthem. We teach them that because all Jewish people are connected to the land of Israel, Headmaster Aerron Kintu Moses explains. Music is important to the Abayudaya, who have produced two CDs of religious songs. Warrior The synagogue, in the grounds of the Semei Kakungulu secondary school, was recently constructed. Kakungulu, a warrior, was used by the British to help conquer Uganda. He fell out with the colonialists, settled in Mbale and in 1919 converted to Judaism, without ever having met a Jew. By the time of his death a decade later, he had 2,000 followers. Dressing up The headmaster at the secondary school prepares to pray. The Abayudaya are a tiny minority and few Ugandans even know that they exist. The group have also been through difficult times, particularly in the 1970s when then-President Idi Amin, a Muslim, forbade Jewish observance. Many Abayudaya converted to Christianity or Islam, and numbers dwindled to around 200. School walk The Abayudaya are currently experiencing a revival, with more than 750 members. After years of being off the tourist map, Uganda has greater contact with international Jewry, particularly from the United States. Well-wishers have donated money, and facilities have expanded. Now, Muslim and Christian students walk through the lush green hills to attend the Jewish schools. Convert The community mikvah - a bath for ritual purification - has been used twice in the past three years by foreign rabbis to officially convert 345 Abayudaya to Judaism, including Jeje pictured here. Judaism is not an evangelical religion; Jews normally inherit the faith from their mother. Until the ceremony the Abayudaya were not even considered Jewish in the eyes of world Jewry. Decorated doorway The door of an Abayudaya home, decorated with religious symbols and a mezuzah - a religious parchment attached to doorposts of Jewish houses. Contact with foreign Jews means that the Abayudaya are more knowledgeable about mainstream Jewish beliefs. And they will be even better served when their rabbi returns from Israel, where - thanks to foreign sponsorship - he is attending religious college. Confident Twenty years ago Jewish children, like these, would have been mocked or marginalised. But as the community grows, so does their confidence. As one young man put it: Being called Jewish used to be an abuse. We even used to fear to say our religion. But now if you say you are Jewish, people take it as normal. And some even admire you. Pictures and words by Anna Borzello. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] The 2007 Darwin Awards
Usual disclaimers apply. If you already know the winners, sorry for any inconvenience this posting may cause. Semei The 2007 Darwin Awards Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us. Here is the glorious winner: 1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach , California , would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked. And now, the honorable mentions: 2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and, after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved. 3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her. 4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days. 5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit. 6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer . . . $15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?) 7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape. 8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from. 9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan , at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away. (*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER) 10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had. In the interest of bettering mankind, please share these with your friends and family...unless of course one of these individuals by chance is a distant relative or long-lost friend. In that case, be glad they are distant and hope they remain lost. *** Remember ... They walk among us! *** - Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net
[Ugnet] Graduating Minority Student Football Athletes
What college athletic teams enroll high numbers of minority athletes and graduate them in six years? Check it out by way of this link. http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_9685.shtml Semei - Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today!___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Comments About Minority student-Athletes called Racist
I think the professor is up to something. It could be even a great opportunity if student-athletes, whether minority or not, got a fair shake of the revenue accruing from their efforts. Especially those who don't make to the pro level - Semei From Diverse Online http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/printer_9622.shtml === Current News Rutgers Professorâs Comments About Minority Student-Athletes Called Racist By Associated Press Sep 30, 2007, 21:17 TRENTON, N.J A longtime critic of Rutgers University's drive into big-time sports is being criticized over a newspaper article comment that university officials have branded as racist. At the end of a New York Times article last week about William C. Dowling's failed efforts to get Rutgers to turn away from high-stakes athletics, the tenured English professor responded to arguments that athletic scholarships provide opportunity to low-income, minority students. âIf you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that's fine,â Dowling said. âBut they give it to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school.â Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy told local newspapers that Dowling's comment was âa blatantly racist statement.â In a statement released by the university, Rutgers President Richard McCormick called it âinaccurate and inhumane.â âIt also has a racist implication that has no place whatsoever in our civil discourse,â Dr. McCormick said in the statement. A Rutgers spokesman said Thursday he did not know if Dowling would face any sanctions. Contacted Thursday, Dowling defended his statement, saying that Mulcahy and McCormick had taken it out of context, that he was directly answering a question related to minorities. âIf someone has a way to answer that question without mentioning race, I would like to hear it,â said Dowling, who called the officials' accusation of racism the âcheapest rhetorical ploy I've ever heard.â Dowling, who said he was arrested in the South during the 1960s for work in the civil rights movement, said McCormick was racist for running an athletics program that exploited minorities. âNone of these kids would have been able to get into Rutgers if they hadn't been able to throw something or kick something or slam dunk something,â Dowling said. Rutgers' aspirations to elite status in college athletics, most notably in football, have provoked considerable controversy over the years in the university community, with some arguing that the university should spend less and compete at a lower level. And last year, the university axed six of its smaller intercollegiate sports teams amid state budget cuts, even as more money was poured into the football program. The investment in football has paid off in unaccustomed success for the team, a sold-out stadium and major increases in sales of licensed merchandise. Last year's team went 11-2, won a bowl game and finished No. 12 in the final AP poll. This year's team is 3-0 and ranked No. 10 in the country. Rutgers athletic officials say the football team's 2.7 grade-point average is on par with the university as a whole. An NCAA academic progress report for the 2003-04 to 2005-06 school years listed the Rutgers football team's academic progress as being in the 80th to 90th percentile for Division I football programs. - Don't let your dream ride pass you by.Make it a reality with Yahoo! Autos. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Gang convicted of top car thefts
Apparently a couple of folks, with Ugandan sounding names, are among those convicted U.K's biggest stolen vehicle racket. Semei === http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/6994958.stm A gang has been convicted of masterminding the UK's biggest ever stolen car racket. High-value cars such as Porsches, Mercedes and BMWs were shipped out of the UK after being stolen in thefts, burglaries, robberies and carjackings.The defendants from London, Essex, Kent and Bedfordshire were found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods. The last of the gang, who shipped most of the cars to Africa, was sentenced on Friday at Luton Crown Court. The scam involved s hipping the cars to Mombasa in Kenya where most would then be moved to Uganda. Racket cracked Police recovered 92 cars worth £4m but suspect at least 200 were sent abroad between May 2005 and April 2006.The racket was cracked in a joint operation between three police forces, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent. Judge Richard Foster said the scale of the conspiracy was unprecedented and what could be proved was just the tip of the iceberg. The scale and sophistication of this operation cannot be overstated Judge Richard Foster The gang set up an elaborate system to load the cars in to containers and ship them out of the UK using false paperwork and disguising them as containers full of electrical goods. Judge Foster told the gang: The scale and sophistication of this operation cannot be overstated and a large profit has been made.We can find no reported case that comes close to matching the magnitude of this case. This was a sophisticated and professional conspiracy. The only woman in the gang worked for Mercedes UK in Redhill and used inside knowledge to supply the gang with paperwork and details for genuine Mercedes so the cars could be ringed and appear legitimate. Some of the gang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen cars while others were convicted by a jury during two trials held earlier this year at Luton Crown Court. Gang sentences Abdu Gatsinzi, 37, of Brynmaer Road, south west London, was jailed for eight years.Wycliffe Ssali, 31, of Harrowden Court, Luton, was jailed for eight years. Martin Clark, 46, of Antlers, Canvey Island, was jailed for seven years. Raymond Severn, 54, of Bramble Lane, Upminster, Essex, was jailed for six and a half years. Godfrey Esimu, 34, of Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, in north London, was jailed for five years. Gary Lambourne, 25, Creswick Walk, Bromley, Kent, was jailed for seven years. Allen Kalisa, 30, of Brynmaer Road, south west London, was jailed for two years. Patrick Eseru, 42, of Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, in north London, was jailed for 15 months. Shafiq Kamuhanda, 35, of Grantham Road, east London, was jailed for three years. Maqsood Ahmed, 36, of Springfield Drive, Ilford, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years. Ton Leo, 35, of Tollgate Road, east London, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years. Colin Walter, 23, of Portree Street, Bow, east London, was handed a 12 month community service order and ordered to pay £1,000 costs. Story from BBC NEWS:
[Ugnet] Wikipedia
This is another interesting article to check out. Ladit Peter-Rhaina Gwokto don't take me to task. Usual disclaimers apply. Semei === Politics : Online Rights See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign By John Borland 08.14.07 | 2:00 AM CalTech graduate student Virgil Griffith built a search tool that traces IP addresses of those who make Wikipedia changes. Photo: Jake Appelbaum On November 17th, 2005, an anonymous Wikipedia user deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excising an entire section critical of the company's machines. While anonymous, such changes typically leave behind digital fingerprints offering hints about the contributor, such as the location of the computer used to make the edits. In this case, the changes came from an IP address reserved for the corporate offices of Diebold itself. And it is far from an isolated case. A new data- mining service launched Monday traces millions of Wikipedia entries to their corporate sources, and for the first time puts comprehensive data behind long standing suspicions of manipulation, which until now have surfaced only piecemeal in investigations of specific allegations. Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of Cal Tech computation and neural- systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses. Inspired by news last year that Congress members' offices had been editing their own entries, Griffith says he got curious, and wanted to know whether big companies and other organizations were doing things in a similarly self- interested vein. Everything's better if you do it on a huge scale, and automate it, he says with a grin. This database is possible thanks to a combination of Wikipedia policies and (mostly) publicly available information. The online encyclopedia allows anyone to make edits, but keeps detailed logs of all these changes. Users who are logged in are tracked only by their user name, but anonymous changes leave a public record of their IP address. Share Your Sleuthing! Cornered any companies polishing up their Wikipedia entries? Spotted any government spooks rewriting history? Try Virgil Griffith's Wikipedia Scanner yourself, then submit your finds and vote on other readers' discoveries here. The organization also allows downloads of the complete Wikipedia, including records of all these changes. Griffith thus downloaded the entire encyclopedia, isolating the XML- based records of anonymous changes and IP addresses. He then correlated those IP addresses with public net-address lookup services such as ARIN, as well as private domain-name data provided by IP2Location.com. The result: A database of 34.4 million edits, performed by 2.6 million organizations or individuals ranging from the CIA to Microsoft to Congressional offices, now linked to the edits they or someone at their organization's net address has made. Some of this appears to be transparently self-interested, either adding positive, press release-like material to entries, or deleting whole swaths of critical material. Voting-machine company Diebold provides a good example of the latter, with someone at the company's IP address apparently deleting long paragraphs detailing the security industry's concerns over the integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's CEO's fund-raising for President Bush. The text, deleted in November 2005, was quickly restored by another Wikipedia contributor, who advised the anonymous editor, Please stop removing content from Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism. A Diebold Election Systems spokesman said he'd look into the matter but could not comment by press time. Wal-Mart has a series of relatively small changes in 2005 that burnish the company's image on its own entry while often leaving criticism in, changing a line that its wages are less than other retail stores to a note that it pays nearly double the minimum wage, for example. Another leaves activist criticism on community impact intact, while citing a definitive study showing Wal-Mart raised the total number of jobs in a community. - Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above
[Ugnet] Mobile library delivers books to remote Venezuela
Quite an interesting article - Semei http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6929404.stm Venezuela's four-legged mobile libraries A university in Venezuela is using a novel method to take books into remote communities and encourage people to read. As James Ingham reports, the scheme is proving a great success. The village children love reading the books that the mules bring Enlarge Image Chiquito and Cenizo greet me with a bit of a snort and a flick of the tail. Mules are too tough to bother being sweet. They do a hard job which no other animal or human invention can do as well. But these mules are rather special. They are known as bibliomulas (book mules) and they are helping to spread the benefits of reading to people who are isolated from much of the world around them. My trek started from the Valley of Momboy in Trujillo, one of Venezuela's three Andean states. These are the foothills of the Andes but they are high enough, especially when you are walking. Slow but steady The idea of loading mules with books and taking them into the mountain villages was started by the University of Momboy, a small institution that prides itself on its community-based initiatives and on doing far more than universities in Venezuela are required to do by law. Spreading the joy of reading is our main aim Christina Vieras, project leader Accompanying us was local guide Ruan who knows a thing or two about mules. He was their boss, cajoling them carefully as they started up the hill at a slow-but-steady, no-nonsense plod. The deeply rutted, dry and dusty path snaked its way up. The sun beat on the back of my neck. We were all breathless, apart from Ruan. Diving for books A break came when it was my turn to ride a mule. I enjoyed a great view of the valley but held on tight as Chiquito veered close to the edge. Hot and slightly bothered after two hours, we reached Calembe, the first village on this path. Anyone who was not out working the fields - tending the celery that is the main crop here - was waiting for our arrival. The 23 children at the little school were very excited. Bibilomu-u-u-u-las, they shouted as the bags of books were unstrapped. They dived in eagerly, keen to grab the best titles and within minutes were being read to by Christina and Juana, two of the project leaders. Spreading the joy of reading is our main aim, Christina Vieras told me. But it's more than that. We're helping educate people about other important things like the environment. All the children are planting trees. Anything to improve the quality of life and connect these communities. Internet plans As the project grows, it is using the latest technology. I love reading books and we get told some really nice stories Jose Castillo 12 years old Somehow there is already a limited mobile phone signal here, so the organisers are taking advantage of that and equipping the mules with laptops and projectors. The book mules are becoming cyber mules and cine mules. We want to install wireless modems under the banana plants so the villagers can use the internet, says Robert Ramirez, the co-ordinator of the university's Network of Enterprising Rural Schools. Imagine if people in the poor towns in the valley can e-mail saying how many tomatoes they'll need next week, or how much celery. The farmers can reply telling them how much they can produce. It's blending localisation and globalisation. Local enthusiasm The book mule team played noisy games with the children, listened to them read and lunched with the adults, discussing over a hearty soup and corn bread how the community can develop the scheme.
[Ugnet] Bum Rap at O'Hare Security Check-In
Yesterday, September 13, 2006 the charges against Amin were dropped. But Amin swears he is not going to be traveling with the pump any more because it gives him a lot of trouble. Stated hereunder is how Amin got into trouble with TSA U.S. Transportation and Security Administration. His attorney claimed that from "right from the get-go, it made no sense that a guy who had worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq wouldn't know the consquences of saying, 'I have a bomb'." Apparently the misunderstandings were brought about by his accent coupled with the fact that he didnt want to be embarrassed in the presence of his mother by explaining what he was actually carrying. Unwilling to openly say the words penis pump while his mother stood nearby, Amin twice whispered something that, according to Amin, the guard misinterpreted as bomb'. Semei == Bum Rap at O'Hare Security Check-In Penis Pump or Bomb? By Counter Punch News Service Mardin Amin, an Iraqi arrested at O'Hare airport now faces serious felony charges of disorderly conduct. He could get three years in prison. A female security guard claims Amin uttered the word "bomb" when she was examining a small black squeezable object she'd taken from his bag. For his part, Amin, on his way to Turkey with his mother and his children, claims he was whispering to his mother that it was a "pump" in fact a penis pump. The judge believed the security guard and now Amin faces the felony charges. Counter Puncher and Arabic-speaker David Price clarifies the affair. "As an anthropologist and Arabic speaker," Price tells Counterpunch," let me call attention to a vital aspect of this story. Simply put, Arabic has no 'Ps' and all native Arabic speakers voice their bilabials as 'Bs', thus it is pretty obvious that any native Arabic speaker with an accent would say the word 'pump' as the word 'bumb' --which the poorly-trained and overly paranoid airport security worker mis-heard as 'bomb.' "As has happened here, with newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times, news pieces with the words 'penis pump' will generate guffaws from sea to shinning sea, but by not stating what the obvious context of this misunderstanding is, the Sun Times is adding to a dangerous climate of American anti-Arab sentiment." Professor Price urges the chortling scriveners and newsreaders of Chicago's entertainment industry to do what they can to reduce climate of hysteria by shedding some public light on what actually happened in this case.After Wednesday's hearing, Amin said airport security officials never gave him an opportunity to explain the misunderstanding. And he said he would never utter the word "bomb" while going through security "Come on -- what do you think?" said Amin, who lives in Skokie and works for a janitorial service. Amin does not consider the pump unusual. "It's normal," he said. "Half of America they use it." Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Pepsi Exec Likens America to Middle Finger
On May 15, 2005, Indra Nooyi, Indian Woman, to be PepsiCo's New Chief Excutive Officer (CEO) gave the following speech to the graduating class of Columbia University Business School. Some in attendance viewed her comments, which comparedAmerica's position in the global marketplace to a middle finger,as insulting and unpatriotic. When she gave this commencement speech she was Chief Financial Officer(CFO) of PepsiCo's.Good evening, everyone. ...This evening, graduates, I want to share a few thoughts about a topic that should be near and dear to your hearts: the world of global business. But I am going to present this topic in a way that you probably havent considered before. Im going to take a look at how the United States is often perceived in global business, what causes this perception, and what we can do about it. To help me, Im going to make use of a model. To begin, Id like you to consider your hand. Thats right: your hand. Other than the fact that mine desperately needs a manicure, its a pretty typical hand. But, what I want you to notice, in particular, is that the five fingers are not the same. One is short and thick, one tiny, and the other three are different as well. And yet, as in perhaps no other part of our bodies, the fingers work in harmony without us even thinking about them individually. Whether we attempt to grasp a dime on a slick, marble surface, a childs arm as we cross the street, or a financial report, we dont consciously say, OK, move these fingers here, raise this one, turn this one under, now clamp together. Got it! We just think about what we want to do and it happens. Our fingers as different as they are coexist to create a critically important whole. This unique way of looking at my hand was just one result of hot summer evenings in my childhood home in Madras, India. My mother, sister, and I would sit at our kitchen table and for lack of a better phrase think big thoughts. One of those thoughts was this difference in our fingers and how, despite their differences, they worked together to create a wonderful tool. As I grew up and started to study geography, I remember being told that the five fingers can be thought of as the five major continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Now, let me issue a profound apology to both Australia and Antarctica. I bear neither of these continents any ill will. Its just that we humans have only five fingers on each hand, so my analogy doesnt work with seven continents. Clearly, the point of my story is more important that geographical accuracy! First, lets consider our little finger. Think of this finger as Africa. Africa is the little finger not because of Africas size, but because of its place on the worlds stage. From an economic standpoint, Africa has yet to catch up with her sister continents. And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand. Our thumb is Asia: strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the worlds economic stage. Our index, or pointer finger, is Europe. Europe is the cradle of democracy and pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business. The ring finger is South America, including Latin America. Is this appropriate, or what? The ring finger symbolises love and commitment to another person. Both Latin and South America are hot, passionate, and filled with the sensuous beats of the mambo, samba, and tango: three dances that if done right can almost guarantee you and your partner will be buying furniture together. This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, the United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the US a leg up in global business since the end of World War I. However, if used inappropriately just like the US itself the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what Im talking about. In fact, I suspect youre hoping that Ill demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I am not looking for volunteers to model. Discretion being the better part of valour...I think Ill pass. What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the US the long middle finger must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand...not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. the middle finger sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally. Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand giving
[Ugnet] Peace talks with Uganda's rebels
Fyi...Semei The Economist July 22, 2006 A rumble in the jungle; Uganda and SudanPeace talks with Uganda's rebelsThe Lord's Resistance Army tries to explain itselfMORE renowned for kidnapping children, massacring peasants and chopping off lips than anything else, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has rarely bothered to articulate its grievances. But now that the secretive Ugandan rebel group has finally come out of the bush to attend peace talks with the Ugandan government, hosted by neighbouring southern Sudan, it is seizing every opportunity to paint itself as a group of valiant freedom fighters, battling the oppression of the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, and his power-hungry ethnic elite.Few in Uganda will believe much of this. But since the talks started last weekend, the rebels realise that they have to give some sort of justification for the mayhem they have caused, not least among their own Acholi people. Up to now, what most people have learnt about the LRA is that it wants to rule Uganda according to the Ten Commandments. Long regarded as nothing more than a small bunch of madmen roaming the wilds of northern Uganda, the LRA has come under increased international scrutiny in recent years. The dreadful consequences of its guerrilla war are partly what has forced it to the negotiating table. Almost 2m northern Ugandans have been forced to live in squalid camps as part of the government's counter-insurgency strategy, while the rebels' move last year to Garamba, in Congo, broadened the conflict. The first-ever indictments for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague were issued last year against the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, and his four top commanders.Mr Kony faces 33 charges, including murder and sexual enslavement. Now eager to cast himself as the defender of a legitimate cause, he has given his first television interview, denying the charges and saying he wants peace.The rebel delegates at the talks in Juba, southern Sudan's capital, started outlining their demands for a political solution to a rebellion that started 19 years ago. They want a greater share of power and wealth for their native north, though they have yet to spell out specific proposals, beyond calls for compensation for cattle looted by Mr Museveni's forces and a quota system to give northerners more access to state jobs and education. They also want the Ugandan government to close its camps in the north and to disband the national army, before reconstituting it under international supervision to redress what they say is discrimination against northerners.Also on the agenda this week was a ceasefire. The rebels want one immediately, but Uganda says that the LRA has used such agreements in the past to rearm, so it will not accept a truce until a final, comprehensive agreement is signed. Whether the two sides can broker such a deal will depend a lot on whether Mr Kony and his fellow indictees feel confident enough to take part in the negotiations. Mr Kony sent others to this first round in his stead. Mr Museveni has offered to protect Mr Kony and the four wanted commanders from prosecutors in The Hague for the duration of the talks, though he has no legal authority to do this. The rebels are mindful of the fate of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, who was flown off to The Hague last month to face war-crimes charges, three years after he had agreed to a peace deal.The absence of the LRA leaders will complicate and slow the talks. The rebel delegates in Juba are mostly members of northern Uganda's Acholi tribe who live in London and Nairobi, many of whom have not been home for years; they include a teacher, a lawyer and a businessman. Some see them as little better than opportunists who are after personal gain and have little idea of the revulsion the rebels have generated among their own people in the north. The irony is that their complaints about graft and nepotism would resonate with many Ugandans, were it not for the rebels' brutality. Mr Museveni changed the constitution last year, allowing him to win a third term in February's elections and raising fears that he intends to hang on for life. Meanwhile, Ugandan officials regard the LRA as a vanquished force; proposals to reconstitute the army under foreign control are, they say, unthinkable. The only thing the government still wants to discuss is the terms of the LRA's surrender. Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
[Ugnet] The 7 Deadly Sins Of Professors
This is a follow up to an earlier article "The 7 Deadly Sins of Students". Sorry for any inconvenience for those who mayhave read this text already.Semei = http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2006/05/2006051201c/careers.html Friday, May 12, 2006The 7 Deadly Sins of Professors By Thomas H. Benton An Academic in America "Thomas H. Benton," an assistant professor of English, offers his take on academic work and life. Last month I sermonized about the "7 Deadly Sins of Students," and it resulted in some predictable reactions: protestations from students and affirmations from professors.The students, mostly, have learned not to take responsibility for their actions. If they fail to do assignments and miss a substantial number of classes, it's because they are so busy, even though said busyness -- if the truth be told -- consists mostly of playing video games, watching television, attending sporting events, and going to drunken parties. In my experience, the ones who are truly busy -- because they are working long hours at a job while going to school, have children to mind, or serious health problems -- are rarely the ones who make excuses about busyness.It's traditional to think that pride is the root cause of the other deadly sins, but sometimes it works the other way around: Many students have too little to do, and, as the saying goes, "idle hands are the devil's workshop."But this is not interesting. Slothful students are not news. They have always been thus, and they always will be. To dwell on the shortcomings of students smacks of professorial pride more than anything else. Were most of us any different at their age? If so, it might have been because we had better teachers and better institutions that guided our moral development and had the courage and support to stand behind their beliefs.In some respects, the students are right: Professors are to blame. We cultivate students' unmerited pride with high praise for mediocre work. And we tolerate all of the other sins by abdicating responsibility for the culture of our classrooms. Again and again, I have heard students say their classes are so easy that almost no effort is required, even for top grades. Residential student life, at many institutions, is mostly free time to explore and indulge one's vices. And we professors -- too busy chasing our ambitions -- avoid maintaining standards because they are time-consuming and costly to our teaching evaluations.Once again, the traditional model of the "Seven Deadly Sins" provides a helpful means of understanding why so many students are unhappy with their professors, and why so many professors are unhappy in general:Sloth: Like their students, professors claim to be so busy that they can't give proper attention to their teaching. Some professors begin classes late and dismiss them early; others rarely keep their posted office hours. Students used to complain about deadwood professors reading their lectures from yellowing notes. That's less common now than canned PowerPoint presentations, film screenings, and group discussions in which students -- most of whom have not done the reading -- attempt to do the work of the absentee professor. All of those techniques use up class time with a minimum of effort and learning. In addition, professors can avoid the hard work of grading by requiring fewer assignments, making them "objective" (i.e., machine gradable), and -- when written assignments and exams are mandated by the curriculum -- inflating the grades. High grades require less written justification, result in fewer student complaints, and require no follow-up advising. Of course, in many contexts, all of this grading can simply be shifted to teaching assistants and adjuncts who will likewise inflate grades for the same reasons. It's easy to blame the situation on administrators, but the corporate university crept into place because, over the last three decades, professors -- out of apathy and a desire to pursue their own interests -- have slowly abandoned the governance of their institutions to the values of the marketplace.Greed: Professors often say that they didn't become teachers out of a desire to get rich, but it's hard to believe that most professors chose their careers solely out of a desire to foster "social justice" or some other fashionable form of ostentatious altruism. More often, I think people become professors out of a lack of options: What can one do, after all, with an undergraduate degree in medieval studies or art history? Most entry-level jobs seem unsatisfactory to people who think of themselves as exceptionally gifted. Unlike doctors and lawyers, most professors forgo big money, but, as a group, they are even more ravenously hungry for status. Humanities faculty members, for example, are less concerned about the higher salaries earned by their counterparts in science (who do
[Ugnet] The 7 Deadly Sins of Students
Worth browsing, assuming you haven't done so already. Semei From the issue dated April 14, 2006 AN ACADEMIC IN AMERICA The 7 Deadly Sins of Students Undergraduates increasingly seem to choose self-indulgence and self-esteem over self-denial and self-questioning By THOMAS H. BENTON I've been teaching for about 10 years now, and, of course, I was a student for 20 years before that. So I have some experience observing my students' sins, and perhaps even more experience committing them.The sins that I see in the everyday life of the typical college student are not great ones. Most of the time, they don't seem like "sins" at all, even if one accepts the religious significance of the term. But they spring from thoughts and behaviors that, over time, become habits.Enabled by institutions, students repeatedly take the path of least resistance, imagining they are making creative compromises with duty that express their unique talents. So they choose self-indulgence instead of self-denial, and self-esteem instead of self-questioning. They do not understand that those choices will eventually cause more unhappiness than the more difficult paths they chose not to walk.The traditional model of the "Seven Deadly Sins" provides a helpful means of categorizing and perhaps simplifying the complicated and cumulative experience I am trying to describe:Sloth: Students often postpone required readings and assigned preparations, making it hard for them to understand their classes the next day. Gradually, lectures and discussions that were once interesting start to seem boring and irrelevant, and the temptation to skip classes becomes greater and greater, especially when the classes are in the morning. Sometimes students arrive late with in my opinion insufficient shame, closing the door behind them with a bang. Slothful students regard themselves as full of potential, and so they make a bargain: "I will be lazy now, but I will work hard later." Like St. Augustine, students say to themselves, "Let me be chaste, but not yet." More on lust later.Greed: Students often pursue degrees not for the sake of learning itself but with the aim of getting a better-paying job, so they can buy a bigger house and fancier cars than those owned by their parents and their neighbors. That often leads to greed for grades that they have not earned. Some students cheat on exams or plagiarize their papers; others, sometimes the most diligent, harass professors into giving them grades unjustified by their performance. The goal of such cheaters and grade-grubbers is not the reality of achievement but the appearance of it. They will then apply to graduate programs or entry-level jobs that they do not really desire and for which they are not really qualified. They want to be lawyers, but they are bored by law courses. They want to be doctors, but they do not care about healing people. They want to go into business, not to provide useful products and services, but to get rich by any means necessary. And so they come to believe that no one has integrity and that there is no basis other than the marketplace by which value can be judged.Anger: Seemingly more often than in the past, professors encounter students who are angered by challenging assignments, which they label with bureaucratic self-assurance "unfair" or even "discriminatory." When students do not succeed, they sometimes conclude that their professors are "out to get them" because of some vague prejudice. Students feel entitled to deference by professors who "work for them and should act like it." They do not come to office hours for clarification about an A-; instead, they argue that they are paying a lot of money and, therefore, deserve a high grade, and, if you don't give it to them, they will "complain to management," as if they were sending back food in a restaurant. One hears rumors of cars and homes vandalized by angry students. But perhaps the easiest places to find uncensored student rage are the anonymous, libelous evaluations of faculty members found online at Web sites such as RateMyProfessors.com. Often those evaluations say less about the quality of a teacher than they do about the wounded pride of coddled students. More on that topic soon.Lust: I have seen students come to classes barefoot, with bare midriffs and shoulders, in boxer shorts, bathing suits, and other kinds of clothes that, even by fairly casual standards, are more appropriate for streetwalking than higher learning. When did liberation from uniforms transform itselfinto the social demand that one prepare to be ogled in the classroom? It is hardly a surprise that on RateMyProfessors.com, students are asked to rate their professors' "hotness" in other words, the teachers' worthiness to be
[Ugnet] Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use Of His Creation
FYI - Semei == The Chronicle Of Higher Education June 12, 2006 Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use of His Creation Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia compiled by a distributed network of volunteers, has often come under attack by academics as being shoddy and full of inaccuracies. Even Wikipedias founder, Jimmy Wales, says he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldnt use it for class projects or serious research.Speaking at a conference at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday called The Hyperlinked Society, Mr. Wales said that he gets about 10 e-mail messages a week from students who complain that Wikipedia has gotten them into academic hot water. They say, Please help me. I got an F on my paper because I cited Wikipedia and the information turned out to be wrong, he says. But he said he has no sympathy for their plight, noting that he thinks to himself: For God sake, youre in college; dont cite the encyclopedia.Mr. Wales said that leaders of Wikipedia have considered putting together a fact sheet that professors could give out to students explaining what Wikipedia is and that it is not always a definitive source. It is pretty good, but you have to be careful with it, he said. Its good enough knowledge, depending on what your purpose is. In an interview, Mr. Wales said that Wikipedia is ideal for many uses. If you are reading a novel that mentions the Battle of the Bulge, for instance, you could use Wikipedia to get a quick basic overview of the historical event to understand the context. But students writing a paper about the battle should hit the history books. Comments I find the best use of Wikipedia is when I need to get a slightly biased, almost neutral opinion on a person. For example, I didnt get the Family Guy jokes about Roman Polanski, and Google did not tell me what made people make fun of him. Then I checked Wikipedia and bam! Sean Jun 13, 12:25 AM What kind of idiot cites Wikipedia? The point of citation is to hold an individual responsible, or to give credit to an individual. The nature of Wikipedia is collaborative, and thus non-static and in constant flux. There is simply no credit to give, and thus no accountability for the truth of the arguments. I appreciate Wales suggestions it is quite good (I use it all the time) for broad overviews of unfamiliar topics. It has its place, but an academic source it is not. Grant Jun 13, 01:00 AM Never assume anything from one source is correct. If you cant find two other people willing to risk their reputations on the information then its probable not worth risking yours. Philip Jun 13, 01:00 AM How are history books any more definitive than wikipedia? Its called his-story for a reasonits a version of the past. Original sources are generally preferable but quite rare. If a college student can use any other encyclopedia or library book, why not wikipedia? Inspite of the prejudices, its not less accurate (generally). How many books in a library are primary resources? No encyclopedia is, yet they are generally accepted. Matthew C. Tedder Jun 13, 01:01 AM __Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Young Emissaries...still joyous
Fyi. Dance ReviewChildren of Uganda: Young Emissaries From a Troubled Land, Joyous Still By GIA KOURLASPublished: April 13, 2006 Children of Uganda, a troupe of 22 young dancers and musicians, doesn't mess around. As soon as the curtain rose at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night, the stage, awash in vivid blue, was a veritable explosion of frenetic hips and pulsating drums. It was euphoric.Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Miriam Namala and Peter Kasule during the performance by Children of Uganda on Tuesday night. The haunting paradox is found in the biographies of the performers, nearly all orphaned by the devastating AIDS epidemic and civil war in the region. The baby of the troupe, Miriam Namala, 6, lost her father to AIDS when she was an infant; her mother is H.I.V.-positive, but in her rendition of "Titi Katitila," she commanded the stage with an uncanny maturity. Her sweet voice and slyly silky movement, executed while balancing a pot on her head, seemed to emanate from a profound inner vibration. The song she sang was about how one sleeps better after seeing a friend. Simply but beautifully lighted by Darren W. McCroom and featuring 16 scenes, the show is produced by the Uganda Children's Charity Foundation and directed by Peter Kasule, a founding member of the group, which began in 1996. Serving as an elegant tour guide, Mr. Kasule discussed the origins of dances while extolling the virtues of Uganda. The second act, which had a tendency to drag, included audience participation: Mr. Kasule choreographed a dance heavy on arm-waving for an enthusiastic crowd of seated participants. But the show was revived in the finale, "Bakisimba," a traditional court dance that featured the entire company, hips quivering as the performers, low to the floor, shifted weight from side to side, invigorating the scene with that elusive thing called joy. There may be charming children in the group; the girls in particular exuded a liberating power that wasn't lost on a pair of young blondes in the audience who wildly practiced some steps during intermission. But above all, this is a professional company. In none of Mr. Kasule's speeches was there a mention of AIDS. Along with art, Children of Uganda is a celebration of dignity. Performances continue through Sunday at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 242-0800. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/arts/dance/13chil.html? New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big.___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] 50 best Web sites
Folks this is worth looking at assuming you haven't done it already. Radio Katwe didn't make the cut.http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/technology_internetcritic/ Semei Yahoo! Travel Find great deals to the top 10 hottest destinations!___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] The Hyperaddictive Library of the Future Called Wikipedia
Fyi...usual disclaimers apply. Semei --- Top Higher-Ed News for Friday, March 4, 2005 The Hyperaddictive Library of the Future Called Wikipedia Everyone's encyclopedia Four years ago, a wealthy options trader named Jimmy Wales set out to build a massive online encyclopedia ambitious in purpose and unique in design. This encyclopedia would be freely available to anyone. And it would be created not by paid experts and editors, but by whoever wanted to contribute. With software called Wiki-- ( Hawaiian term for "quick" or "super-fast" - "wiki wiki" ) which allows anybody with Web access to go to a site and edit, delete, or add to what's there--Wales and his volunteer crew would construct a repository of knowledge to rival the ancient library of Alexandria. In 2001, the idea seemed preposterous. In 2005, the nonprofit venture is the largest encyclopedia on the planet. Wikipedia offers 500,000 articles in English - compared with Britannica's 80,000 and Encarta's 4,500 - fashioned by more than 16,000 contributors. Tack on the editions in 75 other languages, including Esperanto and Kurdish, and the total Wikipedia article count tops 1.3 million. Wikipedia's explosive growth is due to the contributions of Einar Kvaran and others like him. Self-taught and self-motivated, Kvaran wrote his first article last summer--a short piece on American sculptor Corrado Parducci. Since then, Kvaran has written or contributed to two dozen other entries on American art, using his library and photographs as sources. He's added words and images to 30 other topics, too--the Lincoln Memorial, baseball player Carl Yastrzemski, photographer Tina Modotti, and Iceland's first prime minister, Hannes Hafstein, who happens to be Kvaran's great-grandfather. "I think of myself as a teacher," Kvaran says over tea at his kitchen table. To many guardians of the knowledge cathedral--librarians, lexicographers, academics-- that's precisely the problem. Who died and made this guy professor? No pedigreed scholars scrutinize his work. No research assistants check his facts. Should we trust an encyclopedia that allows anyone with a pulse and a mousepad to opine about Jackson Pollock's place in postmodernism? But the Wikipedia community of 16,000 contributors self-motivated and self-taught amateurs is surprisingly efficient in policing the site and checking one another's material, according to Pink. "Instead of clearly delineated lines of authority, Wikipedia depends on radical decentralization and self-organization open source in its purest form." The software that made Wikipedia so easy to build also makes it easy to manipulate and deface. A former editor at the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica recently likened the site to a public rest room: You never know who used it last. Read the full story from Wired "The Book StopsHere" by Daniel H. Pink - March 2005, pp 124-139. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html Discover Yahoo! Find restaurants, movies, travel & more fun for the weekend. Check it out!___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Losing party in USA elections may go the spoils
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/10/31/losing_it?pg=full Do you Yahoo!? Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. - www.yahoo.com___ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] The Timeline of Art History
Fyi...Semei. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History reaches the present: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah The Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated especially by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. The Museum's curatorial, conservation, and educational staff--perhaps the largest single corps of art experts anywhere in the world--research and write the Timeline, which is an invaluable reference and research tool for students, educators, scholars, and anyone interested in the study of art history and related subjects. The Timeline is currently over 20,000 pages, consisting of around 300 chronological narratives, 750 special topic essays, and 5000 color illustrations of Museum works of art. It is supplemented by maps, comparative works of art, and site photography. You will also be able to take advantage of the comprehensive index organized by subject, special topic, artist, or accession number to find a specific theme or work of art. The Timeline production team will continue to add images and essays to the online resource in the next few months, so please return for updates. Deborah Vincelli on behalf of Teresa Lai, Project Manager, Timeline of Art History Deborah Vincelli Electronic Resources Librarian Thomas J. Watson Library The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, New York 10028-0198 __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.___ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Some of the U. S statistics for 1904
Perhaps most of you have seen this. For those who haven't and interested in checking out the various commentaries, on the subject, can click to the following links. Usual disclaimers apply - Semei. http://journals.aol.com/peaseljr/TheOpinionsofPeaseljr/entries/89 http://www.drugster.com/anarcho/usa1904.htm http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=41362 The year is 1904 ... one hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes. Here are some of the U. S statistics for 1904: The average life expectancy in the US. was 47 years. Only 14 percent of the homes in the US. had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars. There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per ye ar. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year. More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home. Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard" Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eg gs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason. The five leading causes of death in the U.S were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke The American flag had 45 stars Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30. Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented. here was no Mother's Day or Father's Day. Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-timeservant or domestic. There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.___ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
ugnet_: College Test Fraud
6 Indicted in College Test Fraud Admissions Exams Were Allegedly Taken in Md. for Pay By Linda PerlsteinWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, July 17, 2004; Page B02 An indictment handed up Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore charges five men and a woman with defrauding university admissions exams at testing sites in Bethesda, Lanham and Columbia. The defendants, from New York and New Jersey, are accused of taking money from clients from several states and posing as them, sitting for 590 exams over two years -- including the Graduate Management Admissions Test, required to get into most business schools, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language, which foreign students often must take to be accepted to college or graduate school. If convicted, the defendants -- Ping Shen, 56, Lu Xu, 34, Zhigang Cao, 38, Qian Wang, 26, Feng Wang, 26, and Gang Yang, 36 -- would face one count of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yang is from Plainfield, N.J. The others live in New York City. The case goes far beyond Maryland. Shen, Cao and Xu pleaded guilty recently to identity theft and forgery charges issued last year by the Manhattan district attorney's office, which also charged several New York students who paid for the exams. Cao and Xu were sentenced this spring to prison terms; Shen faces a prison term at his upcoming sentencing, said Jeremy Saland, the assistant district attorney handling the case. The Maryland case alleges that the group defrauded Educational Testing Service, which administers the English exam; the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the business exam; and Baltimore-based Thomson Prometric, which gives the exams at testing sites for the two companies. From at least January 2001 until July 2003, according to the indictment, some people arranged the scheme and others carried it out by taking the exams in clients' names. Students must provide photo identification at the testing site, said Ray Nicosia, director of test security for Educational Testing Service. At the testings, the impersonators allegedly used fake IDs that had their own photos, as well as the names and addresses of the students who were signed up to take the tests. For added security with the English test, a photo is taken at the testing site and included on the score report that is sent to colleges and graduate schools. The test-takers charged this week allegedly had test results mailed to themselves, replaced the photos with ones of the students who hired them and mailed the altered reports to the schools in a way that looked as if they came directly from ETS. Nicosia said Educational Testing Service became suspicious two years ago because of big boosts in scores for the students involved and because it was tipped off. After one test-taker was confronted, officials confirmed that a bigger ring was involved and turned the case over to the FBI. "We have canceled most of the scores that were involved," Nicosia said. When schools were notified last September, he said, "some students were denied admission and some were kicked out of school." In the Manhattan case, the district attorney alleged that Shen placed ads in a Chinese-language New York daily, offering test coaching services. Interested parties would be told that instead of test preparation, they could pay as much as $3,000 to have someone take the exam for them, the district attorney's office said. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
ugnet_: A Story on How Company Policy Began
Usual disclaimers apply...Semei. Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. And that, my friends, is how company policy begins.
ugnet_:
· A University Is Not a Business (and Other Fantasies) Milton Greenberg Continuing claims by the mainstream higher education community that education is not a business and is not susceptible to market forces will increasingly be viewed as a Luddite fantasy. View: PDF 267KB| HTML Format
ugnet_: FW: Top 8 Morons of 2002
Usual disclaimers apply...Semei. 1. WILL THE REAL DUMMY PLEASE STAND UP? ATT fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence. 2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Police in Oakland, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, Please come out and give yourself up. 3. WHAT WAS PLAN B??? An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, wherein the kidnapper proceeded to withdraw money from own his bank accounts. 4. THE GETAWAY! A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked at the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him. 5. DID I SAY THAT??? Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a line-up. When detectives asked each man in the line-up to repeat the words: Give me all your money or I'll shoot, the man shouted, That's not what I said! 6. ARE WE COMMUNICATING?? A man spoke frantically into the phone, My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart! Is this her first child? the doctor asked. No! the man shouted, This is her husband! 7. NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED!! In Modesto, California, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun, but unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.(hellooo!) 8. THE GRAND FINALE Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, California, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22 ft. boat going. It was very sluggish in almost every manoeuvre, no matter how much power was applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working condition. The engine ran fine, the out drive went up and down, and the prop was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. NOW REMEMBER...THIS IS TRUE ... Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Agribusiness Flash animation
http://www.themeatrix.com/
ugnet_: FW: [Fwd: Patriot Act 2010?]
Is this an awful scenario, or what? THIS is what it's come to Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your... Customer: Hi, I'd like to order. Operator: May I have your NIDN first, sir? Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's 6102049998-45-54610. Operator: Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Which number are you calling from, sir? Customer: Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information? Operator: We're wired into the system, sir. Customer: (Sighs) Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas... Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir. Customer: Whaddya mean? Operator: Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice. Customer: Damn. What do you recommend, then? Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Yogurt Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that? Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion. Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then. What's the damage? Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, sir. The 'damage,' as you put it, heh, heh, comes $49.99. Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number. Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit. Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here. Operator: That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's overdrawn. Customer: Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take? Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick 'em up while you're out getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward. Customer: How the hell do you know I'm riding a bike? Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid up, so I just assumed that you'd be using it. Customer: @#%/$@?#! Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop. Customer: (Speechless) Operator: Will there be anything else, sir? Customer: No, nothing. oh, yeah, don't forget the two free liters of Coke your ad says I get with the pizzas. Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics. John F. Manion Secretary, Notre Dame Class of 1956 (NORTON Anti-Virus protected) Visit our website: http://alumni.nd.edu/~class56 http://alumni.nd.edu/~class56 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: An early Christmas funny
A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards. A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards. She says to the clerk, May I have 50 Christmas stamps? The clerk says, What denomination? The woman says, God help us. Has it come to this? Give me 2 Episcopal 4 Catholic, 10 Presbyterian, 12 Lutheran and 22 Baptists. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: AGOA GIRLS
To be sure, the said subject has been around for some time. Nevertheless it doesnt hurt to get to the New York Times take. Semei = New York Times November 14, 2003 U.S. Trade Law Gives Africa Hope and Hard Jobs By MARC LACEY UGOLOBI, Uganda Uganda is banking its future on 1,400 girls young women, really plucked from their villages around the country and plopped down in front of row upon row of sewing machines at a vast factory here outside the capital. Every time they stitch a pocket, attach a button or hem a skirt, the leaders of the land tell them, they are performing acts of patriotism that will help transform this country's economy. These are the AGOA girls, as the Ugandans call them, named for the American trade legislation that lured their employer, Tri-Star Apparel, from Sri Lanka to Uganda. To hear President Yoweri Museveni tell it, AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, approved by Congress in 2000, is the best thing the West has done for Africa since independence. AGOA, which reduced or eliminated tariffs and quotas on more than 1,800 items, has drawn similar factories across Africa as foreign investors, mostly from Asia, seize upon its incentives to give this underdeveloped continent a chance. For workers the job can be as grueling as a day in the fields, still Africa's most common way of making a living. The Tri-Star workers, all new to formal employment, say their shoulders ache and their feet swell by quitting time, which bosses sometimes extend into the evening if a big deadline looms. But at least they have work. Job creation has been dramatic. For the first time in some African countries, the largest employer is no longer the federal government but a private enterprise. Kenya has projected 50,000 AGOA-related jobs. Lesotho estimates it has created 10,000 new jobs in the last year, most of them going to young women. Made in Uganda, say some of the tags on clothing sent to Target, Mervyn's and the Children's Place. Made in Lesotho, say others bound for stores like the Gap and Limited. The labels, representing a tiny percentage of apparel imports to the United States, give tremendous pride to countries that have long been at the margins of the global trading system. Although products from oil to umbrellas to fresh yams are included under the trade law, clothing exports appear to be giving stagnant African economies the biggest stimulus. Foreign apparel manufacturers, mostly from Asia, have made a beeline to Africa, mostly because the trade law allows them to sidestep quotas that limit the apparel they may export from Asia to the United States. By shifting to Africa, manufacturers can operate quota free under the law. Uganda has seen its exports to the United States increase from a minuscule $32,000 in 2002 to $909,000 in the first nine months of this year, an increase that will widen by year's end. The biggest winner may be tiny Lesotho, which has become the largest African apparel exporter to the United States. Its exports grew from $129.5 million in 2001 to $267.7 million by the end of this September, according to United States government statistics. While jobs have been created, most of those getting rich from AGOA are not Africans but Asian investors, rising numbers of whom have returned to Uganda after being expelled in the 1970's by the former dictator Idi Amin. To fill the jobs, Uganda had a countrywide recruiting campaign, with government officials aiding in the process. Workers take home $40 a month, live in a company dormitory and eat three free meals a day at the company canteen. The jobs attract plenty of interest among Africa's legion of unemployed even if workers sometimes complain that the salaries above average in the local market go far quicker than they imagined. The products we're making are fetching a lot of money, said Rebecca Bagonza, 28, who has a diploma in social work but could find no other job than the one at Tri-Star. Shouldn't the people who make the clothes get some of that money? She is not the only AGOA girl who has not completely bought into Mr. Museveni's economic blueprint for the country. The introduction of factories has also introduced something relatively rare in Africa: the labor dispute. In an embarrassment to the president, who visited Washington earlier this month to urge American officials to extend AGOA benefits, hundreds of Uganda's AGOA workers recently walked off their jobs, accusing their supervisors of exploiting them. The AGOA girls wanted to form a union, a kind of protection that is weak in Uganda and throughout Africa. The boss at Tri-Star, Veluppillai Kananathan, a Sri Lankan businessman, promptly fired nearly 300 workers whom he considered trouble makers. The women marched to Parliament, camped on the lawn for nearly a week and won the sympathy of some top government officials. The
ugnet_: Preparing textbooks and tests for students
The left wants schools to teach an idealized vision of the future, says Diane Ravitch, author of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (Knopf, 2003). The right wants schools to teach an idealized vision of the past. THINGS TO AVOID Here is a list of banned words and stereotypes that are used as guidelines by writers, editors and illustrators while preparing textbooks and tests for students: *blind leading the blind: banned as handicapism *busybody: banned as sexist, demeaning to older women *courageous: banned as patronizing when referring to a person with disabilities *egghead: banned as offensive, replace with intellectual *fairy: banned because it suggests homosexuality, replace with elf *Founding Fathers: banned as sexist, replace with the Founders or the Framers *jungle: banned, replace with rain forest *mentally ill: banned as offensive, replace with person with a mental or emotional disability *one-man band: banned as sexist, replace with one-person performance *polo: banned as elitist *senile: banned as demeaning to older people *senior citizen: banned as demeaning to older people *snowman: banned, replace with snow person *tomboy: banned as sexist Here are some images that are to be avoided: *women as more nurturing than men *men as active problem solvers *men playing with sports or working with tools *girls as peaceful, emotional and warm *pioneer woman riding in covered wagon while man walks *African Americans who are baggage handlers *Native Americans with long hair, braids, headbands *Asian Americans as very intelligent, excellent scholars *Hispanics who are warm, expressive and emotional *older people who have a twinkle in their eyes Source: Diane Ravitch, author of The Language Police, How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
ugnet_: Study hits war views held by Fox fans
STUDY: FOX WATCHERS ARE WRONG Heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as media consumers who rely on National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a study released last week. http://www.sunspot.net/features/bal-to.fox04oct04,0,5444015.story?coll=bal-f eatures-headlines Study hits war views held by Fox fans By David Folkenflik Sun Staff October 4, 2003 Heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as media consumers who rely on National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a study released this week by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. When evidence surfaces that a significant portion of the public has just got a hole in the picture ... this is a potential problem in the way democracy functions, says Clay Ramsay, research director for the Washington-based Program on International Policy Attitudes, which studies foreign-policy issues. Fox News officials did not return repeated requests yesterday for comment on the study. Funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation, the study was conducted from June through September. It surveyed 3,334 Americans who receive their news from a single media source. Each was questioned about whether he held any of the following three beliefs, characterized by the center as egregious misperceptions: * Saddam Hussein has been directly linked with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. * Weapons of mass destruction have already been found in Iraq. * World opinion favored the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. To date, as measured by government reports and accepted public surveys, each of those propositions is false, according to the center. The Bush administration has argued that evidence will be found of the weapons in Iraq as will direct links between Saddam and the al-Qaida members who planned the 9/11 attacks. But President Bush has been forced to acknowledge that no such proof has surfaced. Sixty percent of all respondents believed in at least one of the statements. But there were clear differences in perceptions among devotees of the various media outlets. Twenty-three percent of those who get their news from NPR or PBS believed in at least one of the mistaken claims. In contrast, 80 percent of Fox News viewers held at least one of the three incorrect beliefs. Among broadcast network viewers there also were differences. Seventy-one percent of those who relied on CBS for news held a false impression, as did 61 percent of ABC's audience and 55 percent of NBC viewers. Fifty-five percent of CNN viewers and 47 percent of Americans who rely on the print media as their primary source of information also held at least one misperception. The three evening network news shows command the largest audiences, together typically reaching between 25 million and 30 million viewers nightly. But Fox News, the top-rated cable-news outlet, has steadily increased its viewership by offering a blend of hard news and opinionated talk that often takes on a patriotic sheen. Its top show draws more than 2 million viewers nightly. Among those who primarily watch Fox, those who pay more attention are more likely to have misperceptions, the report concludes. Only those who mostly get their news from print media have fewer misperceptions as they pay more attention. The PIPA study suggests a strong link between people's understanding of the news and its source. That link held true throughout different demographic segments, such as those based on education level, viewing habits, and partisan leanings, Ramsay said. It proves that what we're doing is great journalism, says NPR spokeswoman Laura Gross. We're telling the truth and we let our audience decide. More information on the study can be found at www. pipa.org Copyright (c) 2003, The http://www.sunspot.net/ Baltimore Sun http://st.sageanalyst.net/NS?ci=703di=d013pg=ai=
ugnet_: University shuts Down Bake Sale
University Shuts Down Bake Sale By Associated Press September 24, 2003, 11:17 PM EDT DALLAS -- Southern Methodist University shut down a bake sale Wednesday in which cookies were offered for sale at different prices, depending on the buyer's race or gender. The sale was organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas, who said it was intended as a protest of affirmative action. A sign said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks. Members of the conservative group said they meant no offense and were only trying to protest the use of race or gender as a factor in college admissions. Similar sales have been held by College Republican chapters at colleges in at least five other states since February. A black student filed a complaint with SMU, saying the sale was offensive. SMU officials said they halted the event after 45 minutes because it created a potentially unsafe situation. This was not an issue about free speech, Tim Moore, director of the SMU student center, said in a story for Thursday's edition of The Dallas Morning News. It was really an issue where we had a hostile environment being created. The sale drew a crowd outside the student center and several students engaged in a shouting match, Moore said. David C. Rushing, 23, a law student and chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas at SMU and for the state, said the event didn't get out of hand. At most, a dozen students gathered around the table of cookies and Rice Krispies treats, he said. We copied what's been done at multiple campuses around the country to illustrate our opinion of affirmative action and how we think it's unfair, he said. Matt Houston, a 19-year-old sophomore, called the group's price list offensive. My reaction was disgust because of the ignorance of some SMU students, said Houston, who is black. They were arguing that affirmative action was solely based on race. It's not based on race. It's based on bringing a diverse community to a certain organization. The group sold three cookies during its protest, raising $1.50. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled universities could use race as a factor in admissions under limited conditions. In Texas, universities had been banned from using race as a factor under a 1996 decision by a lower court. image001.jpgimage002.jpgimage003.jpgimage004.jpgimage005.jpgimage006.jpg
ugnet_: Religious Debate
Several centuries ago, the Pope decreed that all the Jews had to convert or leave Italy. There was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, so the Pope offered a deal. He would have a religious debate with the leader of the Jewish community. If the Jews won, they could stay in Italy, if the Pope won, they would have to leave. The Jewish people met and picked an aged but wise Rabbi, Moishe, to represent them in the debate. However, as Moishe spoke no Italian and the Pope spoke no Yiddish, they all agreed that it would be a silent debate. On the chosen day, the Pope and Rabbi Moishe sat opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. Rabbi Moishe looked back and raised one finger. Next the Pope waved his finger around his head. Rabbi Moishe pointed to the ground where he sat. The Pope then brought out a communion wafer and a chalice of wine. Rabbi Moishe pulled out an apple. With that, the Pope stood up and declared that he was beaten, that Rabbi Moishe was too clever and that the Jews could stay. Later, the Cardinals met with the Pope, asking what had happened. The Pope said, First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there is still only one God common to both our beliefs. Then, I waved my finger to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us. I pulled out the wine and wafer to show that God absolves us of all our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin. He had me beaten and I could not continue. Meanwhile the Jewish community were gathered around Rabbi Moishe. What happened? they asked. Well, said Moishe, First he said to me that we had three days to get out of Italy, so I said to him, Up yours! Then he tells me that the whole country would be cleared of Jews and I said to him, we're staying right here. And then what, asked a woman. Who knows? said Moishe, He took out his lunch so I took out mine. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Is Iraq awash with new armies ? - SZ
Chicago Tribune August 15, 2003 Lethal Iraqi guerrillas are not just `loyalists' Author: Georgie Anne Geyer, Universal Press Syndicate Coming from Iraq, the new realizations by our war planners ought to stun us with their sheer obviousness. For instance, the U.S. military has suddenly recognized that kicking in the doors of Iraqis' homes, blindfolding and kicking their husbands and fathers, and searching the women is not endearing them to all those they came to liberate. As Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, chief commander of allied forces in Iraq, said last week, I started to get multiple indicators that maybe our iron-fisted approach . . . was beginning to alienate Iraqis. (Odd Iraqis! Most people just love to have their doors kicked down in the middle of night!) It also is dawning on some American policy-makers that although they have predicted after each seminal event a real letup of attacks on Americans, that simply is not happening. Take the killings of Saddam's two monster-pawns two weeks ago. Udai and Qusai are gone; but that has had little effect on the guerrilla war against the United States. Instead, it grows in ferocity--and complexity--every day. Today, as during all of Iraq's brutal history, violence emerges from every type of often disorganized small group, and not always from above. As military historian William Lind of the Free Congress Foundation wrote in a recent commentary: Contrary to the mythology of the neo-cons, the guerrillas are not controlled by Saddam, nor are they fighting primarily for him. It is likely that there is already more than one guerrilla movement, with more than one set of motives and ultimate objectives. Both will proliferate as time goes on. And in a recent Baghdad dispatch called Random Death published in The New Republic, the well-informed writer Hassan Fattah further debunks the comforting, but delusionary idea that the resistance in Iraq is only from former regime loyalists. Instead, he reports persuasively, Iraq is awash in new armies (tribal militias, Islamic fighters, brigades of former Baathists, gangs, money mafias, and people simply bent upon revenge). The Americans think these groups are organized vertically--that you can simply take out the heads and the bodies will collapse or implode, and the threat will eventually fade away. But most of these are organized horizontally and with many causes that feed upon themselves. These types of guerrillas simply keep re-emerging in different forms--just as they have throughout Iraq's history. Wouldn't it be prudent to consider that this is what we are really facing? The blithe idea that things will just get better in Iraq and that America's fortunes will blossom will surely be proven false. What you see today may well be what you'll get tomorrow. Despite the fact that they will get much of the blame for the lack of coherent management of Iraq after the invasion, the American military is not the responsible party here. Responsibility rests, as it always has, with the zealous group of neo-conservatives whose real interest is not democracy in Iraq but the exercise of raw American power in the world on behalf of their egomaniacal imperial ambitions and their dedication to the expansionist dreams of he far-right Likud party in Israel. In this group's grandiose plans, the American military, professional and voluntary, is looked upon simply as a force to be used for whatever purposes they divine. In fact, they have encouraged the iron-fisted approach on the part of the American military because it divides them from the local people and keeps our soldiers more under the neo-cons' control. To say they have no sentimental attachment to the American military is a grave understatement. It was this group's decision--and fault--that there was no planning for the day after the invasion to stabilize Iraq. All the planning done by the State Department and the CIA was deliberately discarded by this group, situated around the secretary of defense and the vice president. Meanwhile, our American troops, the ones trying to do a serious and honorable job, endure a situation inside Iraq at least as serpentine and Machiavellian as the plotting of the neo-con cabal's here. Iraq was a war of choice. We didn't have to be there. Our soldiers are smart, and they know this. But these circumstances make them feel that the Iraqis should be immediately grateful and that they should then be able to go home. As the whole operation instead explodes in their faces, they find the complete opposite. Foreign Islamists are returning to Iraq to fight the invaders. The reconstruction (whenever that can begin) is estimated to cost Americans $1 billion a day. And instead of Iraqi oil paying for everything, oil is being imported into Iraq to try to get things moving. Even in Vietnam, America was not in such a labyrinthine and
ugnet_: Judge 'Tarzan' benched
The Boston Herald, August 5, 2003 HEADLINE: Judge 'Tarzan' benched BYLINE: By NOELLE STRAUB Boston Immigration Judge Thomas M. Ragno was placed on administrative leave yesterday after complaints he joked about Tarzan to a Ugandan woman named Jane seeking asylum at a recent hearing. Ragno will remain on paid leave pending the results of a review of the accusations, which were first reported in the Herald yesterday. Obviously the matter just arose today and these allegations were brought to our attention, said Greg Gagne, spokesman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. Gagne said the matter was referred to the department's Office of Professional Responsibility to carry out the review. The procedure and length of the process remains unclear. This is an internal matter that is open and it would be inappropriate for me to comment, said Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez. The woman's request for asylum was rejected by Ragno. Her lawyer has filed an appeal that included an affidavit from her doctor at the Boston Medical Center. Jane, come here. Me Tarzan! Ragno said at the beginning of the June 20 hearing, according to the affidavit. This was overtly racist and degrading and humiliating to both my patient and me, and egregious behavior from a United States official, wrote Dr. Sondra S. Crosby, who said her client had been beaten, raped and tortured as a political prisoner and her husband killed. Ragno also allegedly called the weather number on speaker phone during the hearing to plan his weekend and told the court he was looking for a condo on the South Shore. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has a long history of working on immigration issues, said those seeking asylum have often witnessed horrific violence, been tortured, or seen family members murdered. Our asylum system is meant to offer safety and fairness to those seeking protection, Kennedy (D-Mass.) said. When that system breaks down because an immigration judge neglects his responsibility, it is not only a travesty to that individual seeking protection, but it makes light of the gravity of our humanitarian obligation. These asylum applicants have suffered enough. It is not too much to ask that they be treated fairly and with dignity, Kennedy added. Immigration judges are technically Justice Department lawyers and effectively have lifetime positions. Ragno has been with the immigration division for three decades. The judge refused comment on the matter and media inquiries to the Immigration Court at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building were referred to a Justice Department public affairs office in Virginia. Susan Akram, clinical associate professor at the Boston University School of Law, said there have been complaints against Ragno for years and efforts to challenge him both in appeals of cases and directly to the Justice Department. But the problem for a lot of immigration lawyers is, if they have to appear before him again they have to worry about how far they can go because he can take it out on them and their clients, she said. In 1996 a federal immigration appeals court slammed Ragno for a skeptical and hostile demeanor in another case. Semei Zake
ugnet_: Re: Stella Awards
Usual disclaimers apply. Semei It's time once again to consider the candidates for the 2003Stella Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old StellaLiebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully suedMcDonalds.That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most uniquelysuccessful lawsuits in the United States for last year. Actually,joint awards should be given to the plaintiff attorneys and theflaming idiots on the juries who awarded anything at all to thesemorons--who deserved NOTHINGThe following are this year's candidates:/Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by ajury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddlerwho was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the storewere understandably surprised at the verdict, considering themisbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son./ A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medicalexpenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheelof the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps./Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house hehad just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able toget the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener wasmalfunctioning. He couldn't reenter the house because the doorconnecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. Thefamily was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked inthe garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi hefound, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner'sinsurance claiming the situation caused him un due mental anguish.The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000./Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 andmedical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his nextdoor neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner'sfenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury feltthe dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr.Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun./A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson ofLancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a softdrink and broke her coccyx! (tailbone). The beverage was on thefloor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 secondsearlier during an argument./Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner ofa night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroomwindow to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. Thisoccurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the windowin the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She wasawarded $12,000 and dental expenses./This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski ofOklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having drivenonto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmlyleft the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cupof coffee. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed andoverturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him inthe owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The juryawarded him $1,75 0,000 plus a new motor home. The company actuallychanged their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in casethere were any other complete morons buying their recreationvehicles.
ugnet_: Re: The Wit of Steven Wright
The Wit of Steven WrightIf you're not familiar with Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said: "Iwoke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen ... and replaced byexact duplicates."Here are some more of his gems: I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize. Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back. Half the people you know are below average. 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. OK, so what's the speed of dark? How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink? If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked someth ing. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy. Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now. I intend to live forever -- so far, so good. If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. What happens if you get scared half to death twice? My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder." Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
