From the NY Times:
The Camera Never Lies, but the Software Can…
From the Spanish Embassy
Glenn Reynolds has a nice summary of today’s Washington DC Silent March at the Spanish Embassy.
From Jeff Jarvis: a 4.2MB PDF of El Pais amazing coverage.
Madison Schools Budget Update
Lee Sensenbrenner has a summary of the nearly $10m in proposed cuts to next years $308m Madison schools budget:
The chops fall hardest on custodians, teachers and support staff. But they also take a significant toll on high school athletics, including big fee hikes, fewer teams and coaching positions as well as the elimination of all high school athletic directors.
No upper level administrators would be affected by the proposed cuts.
Additional background here….
Stunning VR Scene from China
liu zen shares a stunning Quicktime VR Scene from China:
Situated in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
Guilin has always been famous for its scenery and culture.Guilin is a
karst basin surrounded by mountains. The Li River flows through Guilin
from north to south.
Liu’s email: liuyz37@hotmail.com
Wisconsin Backs out of Matrix Personal Data Mining Project
Wisconsin Representative Terese Berceau emailed me last night that the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office decided to back out of this project.
Gina Barton writes:
Citing both financial and privacy concerns, Wisconsin law enforcement officials have changed their minds about becoming part of a computerized information-sharing network.
The network, funded by a $12 million federal grant, aims to create a clearinghouse of information authorities can use to track terrorists and criminal suspects. Advocates say it simply consolidates data already available to investigators, allowing them to access it more quickly. Detractors worry that it could be used to mine computer files for details about ordinary citizens.
Madison School Budget Cuts
The Madison Metropolitan School District announced their recommended budget cuts [265K PDF] today. (MMSD Budget site)
Barb Shrank passed along two budget documents from a March 1, 2004 presentation to the School Board.
Board of Education Agendas, Minutes & Schedule
Laptops in Schools? Maine, Michigan & Virginia Experiences
There’s been much discussion recently regarding laptops in schools, including a recent chat I had with Madison Superintendant Art Rainwater (MP3 3.7MB – video on the way)
From District Administration:
For those who envision laptop computers in the hands of every student, this may be the best of times and the worst of times. While classrooms using this approach are churning out success stories, growing state budget deficits are threatening future funding, leaving educators to wonder whether laptops for everyone is a great idea that they simply can’t afford.
A four-year, $37-million initiative to provide laptops to all seventh and eighth graders in Maine has transformed middle school classrooms there and generated positive reviews. At the same time, the state’s budget crunch has left the program’s longer-term future up in the air. In Michigan, a plan to equip the state’s sixth graders with laptops recently lost more than half of its $39 million funding before it could get started, thanks to an almost $1 billion state budget shortfall.
Police to Arrest Truant’s Parents
Milwaukee goes after truant parents:
As part of an intensified effort to cope with the problem of truancy in Milwaukee, police will begin Monday to arrest parents of truant children. District Attorney E. Michael McCann called it “a new tactic” in the fight against truancy.
By John Diedrich, Sarah Carr and Derrick Nunnally
Senators Stocks Beat the Market by 12 Percent
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Senators beat market by 12%
Corporate insiders beat the market by 5%
Typical US Household underperformed the market by 1.45%
“The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors,” says the author of the report, Professor Alan Ziobrowski of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
From the Financial Times….
Ice Climbing VR Scene – Extraordinary
Ignacio Ferrando Margelm shares a stunning Quicktime VR scene from a recent ice climbing expedition (I don’t know where this was shot)
He shared this note: “The wheather was fine to do this (max temperature -8:C) but not for my foot fingers…. I wait 2 hours in place and lost some sensibility…”