Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Nothing ls Lost
"Nothing Is Lost" by Noel Coward, from Noel Coward Collected Verse. © Methuen Publishing, Ltd., 2000.
Deep in our sub-conscious, we are told
Lie all our memories, lie all the notes
Of all the music we have ever heard
And all the phrases those we loved have spoken,
Sorrows and losses time has since consoled,
Family jokes, out-moded anecdotes
Each sentimental souvenir and token
Everything seen, experienced, each word
Addressed to us in infancy, before
Before we could even know or understand
The implications of our wonderland.
There they all are, the legendary lies
The birthday treats, the sights, the sounds, the tears
Forgotten debris of forgotten years
Waiting to be recalled, waiting to rise
Before our world dissolves before our eyes
Waiting for some small, intimate reminder,
A word, a tune, a known familiar scent
An echo from the past when, innocent
We looked upon the present with delight
And doubted not the future would be kinder
And never knew the loneliness of night.
Deep in our sub-conscious, we are told
Lie all our memories, lie all the notes
Of all the music we have ever heard
And all the phrases those we loved have spoken,
Sorrows and losses time has since consoled,
Family jokes, out-moded anecdotes
Each sentimental souvenir and token
Everything seen, experienced, each word
Addressed to us in infancy, before
Before we could even know or understand
The implications of our wonderland.
There they all are, the legendary lies
The birthday treats, the sights, the sounds, the tears
Forgotten debris of forgotten years
Waiting to be recalled, waiting to rise
Before our world dissolves before our eyes
Waiting for some small, intimate reminder,
A word, a tune, a known familiar scent
An echo from the past when, innocent
We looked upon the present with delight
And doubted not the future would be kinder
And never knew the loneliness of night.
Online Harassment
As Web Use Soars, So Does Online Harassment
Weekend Edition Sunday, January 27, 2008
As the number of Internet users increases, so does the risk of encountering online harassers.
Weekend Edition Sunday, January 27, 2008
As the number of Internet users increases, so does the risk of encountering online harassers.
Jane Hitchcock knows firsthand how damaging online harassment can be. In 1996, after a fake literary agency tried to con her, she tried to put a stop to its scam. The scammers didn't appreciate her efforts and came after her — virtually and physically.
"In January of 1997, they began posting controversial messages ... and listed my home phone number and home address and it went from there," she says.
Hitchcock, who is now president of the volunteer organization Working to Halt Online Abuse, reports about 75 cases of online harassment a week. She says that a large number of the victims range in age between 18 and 30. Most are women, and the harassers are largely men, she says.
Liane Hansen spoke with Tim Wedge, a computer crime specialist at the National White Collar Crime Center, to learn how victims like Hitchcock can protect themselves from online harassment.
Weekend Edition Sunday's month-long series on Cyber Crime was produced by Davar Ardalan and Laura Krantz and edited by Jenni Bergal..
This is the final part of a four part series. To hear this broadcast and get links to the other parts of the series Click Here.
"In January of 1997, they began posting controversial messages ... and listed my home phone number and home address and it went from there," she says.
Hitchcock, who is now president of the volunteer organization Working to Halt Online Abuse, reports about 75 cases of online harassment a week. She says that a large number of the victims range in age between 18 and 30. Most are women, and the harassers are largely men, she says.
Liane Hansen spoke with Tim Wedge, a computer crime specialist at the National White Collar Crime Center, to learn how victims like Hitchcock can protect themselves from online harassment.
Weekend Edition Sunday's month-long series on Cyber Crime was produced by Davar Ardalan and Laura Krantz and edited by Jenni Bergal..
This is the final part of a four part series. To hear this broadcast and get links to the other parts of the series Click Here.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
A United Europe in the 21st Century: Eclipsing the American Dream?
We attended a lecture by Rick Steves in Salem this past week. We were expecting a travelogue, but instead got to hear many of his views concerning globalization. Below is an excerpt from one of the topics he touched on. To read the entire article Click Here. It is well worth reading.
The American Dream vs. the European Dream — Two Very Different Visions
As Europe emerges as an economic and cultural superpower, it's becoming clear that its beliefs and traits are often 180 degrees different from the United States'. The American Dream emphasizes autonomy, national pride, and material wealth. Meanwhile, Europe's vision of the future emphasizes community, cultural diversity, and quality of life. While America values hard work, property ownership, and a unilateral foreign policy, Europe champions fun and free time, human rights, and multilateralism.
America pursues military security by unilateral action; Europe builds interdependent alliances. In personal life, Americans achieve happiness by self-reliant accomplishment; in Europe, a full and meaningful life requires lots of communities and relationships. While the American Dream emphasizes economic growth at any cost, the European Dream stresses sustainable and environmentally safe development. While the American Dream glorifies the work ethic, the European Dream strives for fun and leisure. The American Dream is tied to religion, while the European Dream is secular. While Americans sport red, white and blue bumper stickers saying, "Proud to be an American," Europeans believe we're all in this together. While the American Dream is personal, the European Dream is communal. This may seem naively altruistic, but ultimately Europeans recognize that looking out for the greater good ( the "common wealth) is in their own best interests. And superstars are not as prized in Europe — where they say the grain that grows taller will be cut first — as in America.
America (and all the cultural influences it has graced — or cursed — the planet with) is still envied, but it's no longer as admired as it once was. Our way of life no longer inspires, but is increasingly derided. American ad jingles that used to sell in Europe now turn people off. We are actually feared, as most Europeans rate the United States as the most dangerous (to world peace) country on the planet.
The American Dream vs. the European Dream — Two Very Different Visions
As Europe emerges as an economic and cultural superpower, it's becoming clear that its beliefs and traits are often 180 degrees different from the United States'. The American Dream emphasizes autonomy, national pride, and material wealth. Meanwhile, Europe's vision of the future emphasizes community, cultural diversity, and quality of life. While America values hard work, property ownership, and a unilateral foreign policy, Europe champions fun and free time, human rights, and multilateralism.
America pursues military security by unilateral action; Europe builds interdependent alliances. In personal life, Americans achieve happiness by self-reliant accomplishment; in Europe, a full and meaningful life requires lots of communities and relationships. While the American Dream emphasizes economic growth at any cost, the European Dream stresses sustainable and environmentally safe development. While the American Dream glorifies the work ethic, the European Dream strives for fun and leisure. The American Dream is tied to religion, while the European Dream is secular. While Americans sport red, white and blue bumper stickers saying, "Proud to be an American," Europeans believe we're all in this together. While the American Dream is personal, the European Dream is communal. This may seem naively altruistic, but ultimately Europeans recognize that looking out for the greater good ( the "common wealth) is in their own best interests. And superstars are not as prized in Europe — where they say the grain that grows taller will be cut first — as in America.
America (and all the cultural influences it has graced — or cursed — the planet with) is still envied, but it's no longer as admired as it once was. Our way of life no longer inspires, but is increasingly derided. American ad jingles that used to sell in Europe now turn people off. We are actually feared, as most Europeans rate the United States as the most dangerous (to world peace) country on the planet.
Friday, January 25, 2008
China's Harbin Ice Festival 2008
Harbin Ice Festival 2008
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The Harbin Ice & Snow Festival, established in 1985, is held annually early January and lasts for over one month. Harbin is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, attracting hundreds of thousands of local people and visitors from all over the world. This years park features ice and snow sculptures based on the Olympic Games. Blocks of ice are carved into sculptures and buildings and lit from within to provide glittering lights of ice.
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
STATE BUDGET CUTS: SHADOW OVER OUR FUTURE
STATE BUDGET CUTS: SHADOW OVER OUR FUTURE
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
The grim news is pouring in from across the country: state budgets, buffeted by the bursting of the housing bubble and the gathering winds of economic recession, are in increasingly terrible shape.
In a fiscally toxic brew of declining home sales, deflated property values, mounting foreclosures and reduced sales tax receipts, state deficits are mounting fast. Among the 21 states that have already made estimates, 14 expect shortfalls totalling $29 billion in the next fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Poster child of the new hard times is California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggests cutting (even in the face of rising costs) virtually every state program by 10 percent -- K-12 education to child care subsidies, public parks and beaches to doctors who care for the poor.
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
The grim news is pouring in from across the country: state budgets, buffeted by the bursting of the housing bubble and the gathering winds of economic recession, are in increasingly terrible shape.
In a fiscally toxic brew of declining home sales, deflated property values, mounting foreclosures and reduced sales tax receipts, state deficits are mounting fast. Among the 21 states that have already made estimates, 14 expect shortfalls totalling $29 billion in the next fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Poster child of the new hard times is California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggests cutting (even in the face of rising costs) virtually every state program by 10 percent -- K-12 education to child care subsidies, public parks and beaches to doctors who care for the poor.
The hard times are sending governors scrambling for fast fixes. With New York’s shortfall pegged at $4 billion, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is weighing a plan to securitize, or sell off, part of future state lottery proceeds. In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick is considering counting some $900 million in proceeds from license fees of three new casinos that the legislature hasn’t even authorized.
And in New Jersey, which faces a $3.5 billion shortfall and has accumulated a staggering $32 billion debt over recent years, Gov. Jon Corzine wants to increase fees on toll roads and issue up to $38 billion in bonds against future toll revenue.
But there’s a limit to revenue gimmicks -- in time all of the bills have to be paid. And the coming recession may be harder than ever to reverse because property taxes, a point of stability before, are now declining with foreclosures and declining value. What’s more, rising energy prices are taking a big bite out of the economy.
Check the spending side and there’s cause for alarm, too. Many states have never fully recovered from the sharp cutbacks they made in education, health coverage and child care in response to the economic slump of 2001-2004 that was triggered by the technology stock slump and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And inflation is driving up the cost of government services.
So should governments just slash their budgets willy-nilly, hoping for a better day?
No. That’s the firm opinion of Stephen Levy, director for the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. Levy focuses his argument on California, but it fits most of the country. We have strong growth sectors in Internet services, biotechnology, trade, finance and entertainment. But with a tidal wave of skilled baby-boomers soon to retire, our workforce will include fast-rising numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants, their children and grandchildren -- many of them lagging in the critical educational skills needed in a high-tech, intensely competitive global economy.
So California, Levy suggests, shouldn’t take the huge risk to its schools of a $5 billion cut under the Schwarzenegger budget. California can only compete successfully, he argues, if it invests more -- not less -- in education. Plus, like the entire U.S., California needs to invest in badly lagging infrastructure.
“The battle for economic growth is not a civil war among the states any more,” note Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene in Governing magazine. Rather, it’s competing with fast-rising, low-wage nations such as India and China. Which means our only chances are in innovation, productivity, marketing and entrepreneurship -- all requiring top level educational skills.
But look what California has done. From 1984 to 2008, it let its per capita spending on prisons increase 126 percent, while its per capita spending on its public universities -- once its claim to world fame -- declined 12 percent. “Prisons,” the Sacramento Bee editorializes, “are sucking the life out of higher education in this state -- and thwarting the aims of economic advancement and social mobility.”
So what’s Schwarzenegger’s solution? Shorten sentences of 28,000 prisoners, saving $1 billion by the next budget year -- but still go ahead with his program to build 53,000 new cells at a numbing cost of $15 billion for construction and debt service.
Even while California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer suggests eliminating all state support for the University of California system!
A sane California, Levy argues, would raise taxes $7 billion this year, recession notwithstanding. The increase would be about one penny out of every $2 that Californians -- whose aggregate income is some $1.5 trillion -- actually earn. The collective family of California, he suggests, can take the one cent from eating out or buying a fancy car and put it into education -- a small enough sacrifice compared to the kinds of tough decisions our grandparents had to make during the Great Depression.
Talk about going against today’s political grain! But if there’s to be a promising California (and American) future, sufficient funds to invest in the future aren’t just some nice idea. They’re indispensable.
And in New Jersey, which faces a $3.5 billion shortfall and has accumulated a staggering $32 billion debt over recent years, Gov. Jon Corzine wants to increase fees on toll roads and issue up to $38 billion in bonds against future toll revenue.
But there’s a limit to revenue gimmicks -- in time all of the bills have to be paid. And the coming recession may be harder than ever to reverse because property taxes, a point of stability before, are now declining with foreclosures and declining value. What’s more, rising energy prices are taking a big bite out of the economy.
Check the spending side and there’s cause for alarm, too. Many states have never fully recovered from the sharp cutbacks they made in education, health coverage and child care in response to the economic slump of 2001-2004 that was triggered by the technology stock slump and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And inflation is driving up the cost of government services.
So should governments just slash their budgets willy-nilly, hoping for a better day?
No. That’s the firm opinion of Stephen Levy, director for the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. Levy focuses his argument on California, but it fits most of the country. We have strong growth sectors in Internet services, biotechnology, trade, finance and entertainment. But with a tidal wave of skilled baby-boomers soon to retire, our workforce will include fast-rising numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants, their children and grandchildren -- many of them lagging in the critical educational skills needed in a high-tech, intensely competitive global economy.
So California, Levy suggests, shouldn’t take the huge risk to its schools of a $5 billion cut under the Schwarzenegger budget. California can only compete successfully, he argues, if it invests more -- not less -- in education. Plus, like the entire U.S., California needs to invest in badly lagging infrastructure.
“The battle for economic growth is not a civil war among the states any more,” note Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene in Governing magazine. Rather, it’s competing with fast-rising, low-wage nations such as India and China. Which means our only chances are in innovation, productivity, marketing and entrepreneurship -- all requiring top level educational skills.
But look what California has done. From 1984 to 2008, it let its per capita spending on prisons increase 126 percent, while its per capita spending on its public universities -- once its claim to world fame -- declined 12 percent. “Prisons,” the Sacramento Bee editorializes, “are sucking the life out of higher education in this state -- and thwarting the aims of economic advancement and social mobility.”
So what’s Schwarzenegger’s solution? Shorten sentences of 28,000 prisoners, saving $1 billion by the next budget year -- but still go ahead with his program to build 53,000 new cells at a numbing cost of $15 billion for construction and debt service.
Even while California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer suggests eliminating all state support for the University of California system!
A sane California, Levy argues, would raise taxes $7 billion this year, recession notwithstanding. The increase would be about one penny out of every $2 that Californians -- whose aggregate income is some $1.5 trillion -- actually earn. The collective family of California, he suggests, can take the one cent from eating out or buying a fancy car and put it into education -- a small enough sacrifice compared to the kinds of tough decisions our grandparents had to make during the Great Depression.
Talk about going against today’s political grain! But if there’s to be a promising California (and American) future, sufficient funds to invest in the future aren’t just some nice idea. They’re indispensable.
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