Tea Party 4 April 2009

Graphic source: A natural born citizen of the United States of America

Video source: filmed with a Flip Mino HD

"American Tea Party Song" by Lloyd Marcus

The Founders on Liberty

Happy Nowruz Greeting to Iran

Nowrūz (Persian: نوروز /noʊruz/ ↔ [noʊɾuːz]; with various local pronunciations and spellings, meaning 'New Day') is the traditional Iranian new year holiday celebrated by Iranian peoples, having its roots in Ancient Iran. Since the Achaemenid era the official year has begun with the New Day when the Sun leaves the zodiac of Pisces and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the Spring Equinox. Apart from the Iranian cultural continent (Greater Iran), the celebration has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea, and some ethnic groups in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia.

Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians. The moment the Sun crosses the equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Persian families gather together to observe the rituals.

Kent State and "Ohio"

On 4 May 1970 the National Guard was called to the Kent State University campus. Troops squared off against a gathering crowd of protesters. When the students ignored orders to disperse, the guardsmen opened fire. Nine students were injured and four were killed; people who were there reminisce about their experiences and students have researched these events.

"Ohio," Neil Young

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

The lyrics are quoted here for educational purposes alone; the original copyright remains with the artist.

House Bill Indicating Young People Will Engage in Mandatory National Service

The House passed H.R. 1388: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act yesterday which includes language indicating young people will engage in mandatory national service programs as a fulfillment of Obama’s promised “civilian national security force.”

Candidate Obama addressed youth service on 2 July 2008 when he suggested national security could be entrusted to a civilian force.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded," Obama stated during a Colorado Springs rally.

H.R. 1388, known as the GIVE Act, was passed by a 321-105 margin and now goes to the Senate. The Senate has been considering a similar piece of legislation.

Under section 6104 of the bill, entitled “Duties,” in subsection B6, the legislation states that a commission will be set up to investigate:

“Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.”

Section 120 of the bill also discusses the “Youth Engagement Zone Program” and states that “service learning” will be “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.”

The White House is Watching You

A White House decision permitted the use of persistent Internet cookies in YouTube video files embedded on the redesigned WhiteHouse.gov Web site. Letting third-party cookies be placed on the site is a deviation from established executive-branch policy that leaves site visitors open to being tracked and profiled without their knowledge.

There are two types of cookies: persistent cookies and session cookies. Session cookies are temporary and can be easily deleted. Another type of cookie are persistent cookies.

"Persistent cookies can exist for many years in a user's browser cache, repeatedly identifying the user to the issuing web site across many visits. . . Usability aside, however, persistent cookies are specifically designed to uniquely identify users on return visits to web sites, often over the course of years. In terms of anonymity, this is bad. Advertisers have found innovative ways to exploit cookies to track users as they visit web sites that contain their ads or other content. The larger the advertising network, the greater the risk (p. 73)," states Greg Conti, security researcher and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) questioned a waiver that was issued by White House counsel concerning the use of cookies on the WhiteHouse.gov site. The waiver, which is now part of the site's modified privacy policy allows the use of persistent cookies by "some third-party providers to help maintain the integrity of video statistics."

Privacy advocates said visitors to federal Web sites should be able to view official information without fear of being tracked either by the government or by third parties such as YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. That expectation is consistent with the government's own stance on the use of cookies, according to a memorandum issued in June 2000 by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Google and the new administration are intertwined. With no experience in government, Google product manager Katie Jacobs Stanton will be the new President’s “director of citizen participation.” Google has been actively involved in the Obama White House, starting with Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s endorsement of Obama during the campaign and Google’s role in powering the Obama Weekly Video Address. Google Inc. donated $701,099 to the Obama campaign (Cf. http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php).

Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Digital Democracy, is concerned. He said that the decision to allow the use of persistent cookies in embedded videos is worrisome.

Tools such as YouTube's Insight software could be used to conduct in-depth analysis of the data collected from WhiteHouse.gov visitors, Chester said. And it isn't just third parties that could potentially use the tracking data, according to Chester.

Such information could "give the Obama White House a tremendous amount of insight into public behaviors," he said. "Do we really want the government to sanction the use of a consumer-profiling application that links our commercial behaviors with our civic behavior?"

How the White House responds to the concerns bears watching, Chester added. "This will be a litmus test on how to balance the interest in using new-media tools with privacy concerns," he said.

"Google is not just a benign corporate entity. It has a variety of special interests," said Chester, who has sparred with Google over data-privacy issues. "They're in a great position to push their agenda through with the support of the president and the Democrats in Congress."

John C. Calhoun

Term in Office: April 1st, 1844 - March 10th, 1845

Succeeded by: James Buchanan

* Born at “the Long Canes settlement”, in what became Abbeville County, South Carolina, March 18, 1782;
* Graduated from Yale College in 1804 and from Litchfield Law School in 1806;
* Admitted to the bar in 1807 and practiced law in Abbeville, South Carolina;
* Married Floride Bonneau Colhoun in 1811;
* Gave up the practice of law and established himself as a planter;
* Member of the State House of Representatives, 1808-1809;
* Representative from South Carolina, 1811-1817;
* Secretary of War in President Monroe’s Cabinet, 1817-1825;
* Vice President of the United States 1825-1832, when he resigned; was a Senator from South Carolina 1832-1843;
* Secretary of State in President Tyler’s Cabinet from April 1, 1844 until March 10, 1845;
* As Secretary of State, signed an abortive treaty for the annexation of Texas and aided in accomplishing annexation by joint resolution of Congress;
* Delegate of South Carolina to, and presiding officer of, a railroad-and-waterway convention held in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1845;
* Again a Senator from South Carolina 1845-1850;
* Author of voluminous writings and speeches;
* Died in Washington, DC, March 31, 1850.

"The Federal Government Is Bankrupt"

"The Federal Government Is Bankrupt"
With the passing of the Economic Stimulus bill, the cost estimate is $800 billion. The true deficit of the federal government should be grasped. The $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.
The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation, embedded in the Stimulus spending, is taken into account.

"As bad as 2008 was, the $455 billion budget deficit on a cash basis and the $5.1 trillion federal budget deficit on a GAAP accounting basis does not reflect any significant money [from] the financial bailout or Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which was approved after the close of the fiscal year," stated economist John Williams, who publishes the Internet website Shadow Government Statistics.
"The federal government's deficit is hemorrhaging at a pace which threatens the viability of the financial system," Williams added. "The popularly reported 2009 [deficit] will clearly exceed $2 trillion on a cash basis and that full amount has to be funded by Treasury borrowing.”

The Treasury has been largely dependent upon foreign buyers, principally China and Japan and other major holders of U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves, including OPEC buyers purchasing U.S. debt through London.

"Truthfully," Williams pointed out, "there is no Social Security 'lock-box.' There are no funds held in reserve today for Social Security and Medicare obligations that are earned each year. It's only a matter of time until the public realizes that the government is truly bankrupt and no taxes are being held in reserve to pay in the future the Social Security and Medicare benefits taxpayers are earning today."

"Social Security and Medicare must be shown as liabilities on the federal balance sheet in the year they accrue according to GAAP accounting," Williams argues. "To do otherwise is irresponsible, nothing more than an attempt to hide the painful truth from the American public. The public has a right to know just how bad off the federal government budget deficit situation really is, especially since the situation is rapidly spinning out of control.

"The federal government is bankrupt," Williams stated. "In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in federal penitentiary."
How does this information impact young people today? Feel free to discuss career goals, college, and your prospects for the future.

Go to:
http://gmicksmithsocialstudies.blogspot.com/
On the right hand side of the blog, answer: how much is the “Debt Per Citizen?” Each citizen of the United States owes how much to pay the U.S. National Debt?

Print out the answer to the questions and hand in the “In-box” as HW for EC.

Iraqis Believe in Democracy: Inspire Americans to Vote?

The results of participation in local elections all over Iraq is 51% according to the IHEC, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission.

The number of Iraqis who cast their votes 7.5 million.

Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time on Saturday (Jan. 31) to receive 15 million eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils.
On the other hand, the closet equivalent, American off-year elections, run around
37%, the "normal" modern midterm voter participation rate. In pointed contrast, the lowest rate--40%--was in Anbar, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad. The sprawling desert area was dominated in 2005 by al Qaeda in Iraq. Thus, in four years, the Americans succeeded in pushing out AQ in Iraq and Iraqis responded by voting with more confidence and a higher percentage of them voted than the average American.

In December 2006 the Iraq Study Group, concluded: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating (p. xiii)." And again they concluded that the situation in Anbar, one of worst four provinces cited, was "highly insecure (p. 6)."

Lobbyists In Washington

Mark Patterson, a former lobbyist with the financial firm Goldman Sachs, will be chief of staff for newly appointed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The news comes a week after the nomination of William J. Lynn III, a former Raytheon Company lobbyist, to be deputy secretary at the Department of Defense.

Also, William Corr, a former anti-tobacco lobbyist, was named as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services. Corr reportedly pledged not to take part in tobacco matters.

Goldman Sachs, as a recipient of some of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) money, could have a vested interest in decisions made by the Treasury Department. Likewise, Raytheon, a major defense contractor, would have an interest in decisions made at the Pentagon.

Objections came from government watchdog groups: Project on Government Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Government Accountability Office and Public Citizen.

Despite the appointments, the Obama administration is defending its commitment to strict ethical policies even after appointing lobbyists to key posts. The administration defends hiring lobbyists due to their exceptional qualifications.

Intro to Civilization IV: Colonization

Civilization IV: Colonization is a standalone title in the Civilization series, released in September 2008 for the PC, approximately one year after Beyond the Sword, the next most recent Civ4 expansion. Despite the fact that Civ4 is not needed to run the game, many elements have stayed the same, making Colonization both an old and new game. On the one hand, it is very similar to the 1994 classic, Sid Meier's Colonization, keeping intact the founding fathers system, economic model, and overall goals (see below). However, this game utilizes the Civ4 engine, interface, and graphics, enhancing it for sure, but relying on the quality of Civ4 to provide a foundation.

In short, this game is unique: instead of spanning a few thousand years, like in Civilization, Colonization zooms in on just a few centuries. The focus is the Age of Discovery, exploration, empire-building, and, later, indepedence. Players must found and grow their colonies while simultaneously balancing the requests and demands of natives and European kings, all with the intention of one day, if successful, creating a new nation through war. Though many common elements (war and peace, diplomacy, expansion, etc.) are present, Colonization combines them in a way that provides for an unparalled experience.

Below are key features of the game. Be sure to check out the other pages on this site for even more detailed info!

Economics
The colonial, supply-and-demand economy plays a key role in the growth of your empire. The primary goal of the game is simple: acquire raw resources from the neighboring land, bring them to cities via boat or wagon, and manufacture them into finished goods for sale in Europe, generating a profit and allowing the cycle to repeat. Although the process may sound one-dimensional, the methods certainly are not, and there are various ways to generate cash: finding treasure, parttaking in the Columbian Exchange with the natives, trading with other colonies, or sailing all the way to Europe. Unlike in Civ4, resources are in specific amounts: for example, creating a soldier requires 50 guns, not simply access to some resource. Thus, Colonization contains a much more realistic and in-depth economic model than Civilization 4.

Europe
Trade with Europe is the cornerstone of the game and vital to your colonies' success. Goods can be bought and sold, and individuals can be recruited to join your empire. In particular, Europe supplies experienced workers who are much more efficient than typical, unspecialized colonists. However, they also cost more, making your decisions regarding the workforce important. Your European King will also request money and tax increases from you, providing for potential conflict and affecting his stance towards your revolution.

Natives
In addition to other European countries, you must handle the natives who already inhabit the lands. They come into play in a variety of ways: offering the occasional gift of resources if relations are strong, demanding that you compensate them for their territory if you found a colony near them, or even declaring war on you if they deem you too invasive. Conversely, they might help you out in your fight versus the European king. Native burial grounds, like Civ4 goody huts, also cover the land, offering bonuses of gold, experience, treasure, or more to the first to discover.

Founding Fathers
Founding Fathers essentially are to Colonization what Great People are to Civilization 4: historical figures that provide a significant boost to your empire. By acquiring Political, Religious, Exploration, Trade, and Military points, you increase your chances of getting an offer from a Founding Father to join your empire and take a place in your Continental Congress. These individuals might provide an economic boost (increased production of a resource, for example) or military bonus (free promotions, etc.). Keep in mind that only one colonial empire can receive each Founding Father.

Revolution
Finally, once a player's colonies have become sufficiently developed and contain enough "rebel sentiment", a revolution can be declared and war with the motherland will ensue. As you scramble to defend your colonies, equipping colonists with guns and horses, the king will send over a Royal Expeditionary Force to squash the rebellion. In order to win the game, you must defeat all the king's land forces.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer is fully supported for Colonization, and players have the option of squaring off in a variety of ways: traditional Internet lobby or LAN games, Play by Email, Direct IP, or Hotseat. Games can have a maximum of 8 players, meaning that two players can work cooperatively to control one colony. Visit the Multiplayer forum for more info.

Customization
Like Civ4, Colonization is extremely moddable: Python, XML, and even the SDK (Software Development Kit) can be used to create simple mods or total conversions. The in-game WorldBuilder allows map editing, resource and unit placement, and the creation of scenarios on historical maps. For more discussion about modding, check out the Creation & Customization forum!

Ch. 4 Sections 1-4

Ch. 4 The Monarchs of Europe

The Homework for each Section is to answer the “Assessment” at the end of each section, Sections 1-4.

The Test for this chapter is scheduled for next Friday. We will finish the chapter by next Friday.

World History 2
Dr. Smith

Final Seed Wiki EC Point Totals (and student)

37, 42 #42
8 #14
32 #23
33 #33

Upcoming Attraction

Upcoming Attraction is a cumulative Test.

In particular, the Final Assessment material will consist of:

Chapter 4 Ancient Greece: 1750 B.C.–133 B.C.;

Chapter 5 Ancient Rome and the Rise of Christianity: 509 B.C.–A.D. 476;

Chapter 10 Muslim Civilizations: 622–1629.

Be sure to study these chapters.

Good luck.

On Applying to Upper Tier Schools

Ethan Nguyen
"On Applying to Upper Tier Schools"
12 May 2008

Nguyen's background at Vassar is in British Literature, in particular Milton. He was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. He is at Penn working on a double degree of Public Health and an MBA at Wharton.

The Ivy Scholar Initiative will assist low-income students when applying to the top tier colleges.

The question is, with so many applicants offering perfect scores, and not getting in, what can applicants from poor, urban schools do?

You have to "sell" yourself. The posture, speech, and way that you present yourself is critical.

You do not want a laundry list of many student activities but concentrate on three crucial elements: community service, leadership, and academics. You should tie these three together. Package yourself correctly and you are a stellar buy.

In the Asian Health Initiative, Nguyen has hired two students. 5-10 students were selected to be in the program, their essays were reviewed, they wrote hundreds of essays.

Students need to compete with applicants who have 25K in cash for college guidance and a coach.

How do you compete with that?

They have the name game going for them. They know high-powered people and get recommendations from them.

You have to develop the charm and charisma in order to negotiate as an applicant with fewer funds.

If your family makes less than 100K annually and you are accepted, you can attend Penn for free.

Read a great deal. Read the daily newspaper and stay abreast of current events. Be involved, don't follow a path. You have to be high achieving, motivated, have a sense of preparation. Take college summer classes. Connect to your community, and the globe.

Rhodes/Gates/Fulbright are all grants that pay for foreign travel and experience.

You need recommendations that work for you from leaders in the community.

Election Day Questions

Election Day Questions, 22 April 2008, Dr. Smith

Name: _________________________________________________________

Period: _____________

Questions to ask the voters:

What, in your opinion, is the biggest political issue or issues in American politics today?


Do other questions, such as the views of Obama's pastor, or Hillary's role in Bosnia, play a role in determining your vote?


Do the negatives about a candidate, lack of experience, lack of credibility, or associated with the Iraq war, play a role in determining who you will vote for?



In the general election, will you vote your political party, or would you consider voting for someone outside your political party?


What is your political party?

Who do you think you will vote for in the 2008 Presidential election?


Other than the three leading candidates for the Presidency, Ralph Nader and Ron Paul are also running, would you consider voting for them? Why or why not? Do you know much about them or their positions?


Where do you get most of your political information? Media? Books? Family/friends? Somewhere else?

Why is voting important to you?



Thank you very much for your time.

Chapters 6 & 7 Completed

Following the Mid-Term, and now having completed Chapters 6 and 7, students can answer and finish Chapter 8 material on seedwiki: per the directions provided in class.

Research on Bridge Collapse/Repair

Friday, August 03, 2007
Bridge collapse points to national problem
By Eric Kelderman, Stateline.org Staff Writer, and Chris Hamby, Special to Stateline.org

(Updated at 10:05 a.m. Friday, Aug. 3, EDT)

The Minnesota bridge that collapsed this week is just one of 73,518 "structurally deficient" bridges across the country that state and federal inspectors have deemed in need of significant repairs. While the total failure of a busy bridge is shocking, the problem of deteriorating bridges and not enough money to fix them all is well-documented.

At the time of the collapse Aug. 1, some lanes of the 40-year-old span of Interstate 35 over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis were closed while construction workers made surface repairs. But there were several flaws that in 1990 landed the 458-foot bridge over the Mississippi River on a list of "structurally deficient" structures compiled by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

That rating means "significant load-carrying elements of the bridge are found to be in poor or worse condition" and "typically require significant maintenance and repair to remain in service." The designation does not mean a bridge is necessarily unsafe, according to the FHWA.

The cause of the collapse, which killed at least five motorists and injured nearly 80, is not yet known. At least 8 people still were reported missing. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) was quoted as saying the bridge had been inspected in both 2005 and 2006 and was not slated to be replaced until 2020. Pawlenty now has ordered a statewide inspection of all bridges with a similar design, although it is not known how many other similar bridges there are, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters also called on states to immediately inspect any steel deck truss bridges similar to the I-35 structure.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R), in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball Thursday (Aug. 2), predicted that every governor now would order similar inspections for all major infrastructure.

The tragedy highlights a nationwide problem of deteriorating bridges -- as well as roads -- that states and the federal government are struggling to maintain in the face of fast-rising costs of construction and the shrinking value of gasoline taxes.

More than 26 percent of the nation's bridges were rated either structurally deficient, meaning the Minnesota bridge and more than 73,000 others were in need of major repairs, or "functionally obsolete," a group of 79,427 bridges deemed no longer adequate for the amount of traffic they carry. It would cost an estimated $9.4 billion a year for 20 years to bring all of the existing bridges up to date, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In fact, Minnesota's bridges fare well when compared with the rest of the states: 12 percent of the state's bridges were rated deficient or obsolete, according to 2006 FHWA data. Only Arizona has a smaller percentage of bridges needing major repairs.

Oklahoma has the highest percentage of bridges rated structurally deficient -- 27 percent. More than half of the bridges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts were rated either deficient or obsolete, according to the federal figures.

Bridges are just one piece of the transportation network strained by long-term neglect, a steady increase in the number of drivers, a stagnant source of funding and rampant inflation of road-building costs, according to a March 2007 study by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

The biggest hurdle to improving roads is that federal gasoline taxes, which pay for more than 45 percent of the nation’s transportation infrastructure, have not been raised since 1993 and are not even sufficient to cover the spending in the 2005 federal transportation law. While gasoline prices have skyrocketed to more than $3 a gallon, federal taxes to support road work have not because the 18.4-cent federal tax is added on each gallon -- not each dollar -- of gas sold. Federal gas taxes will fall $11 billion short of planned road projects by 2009, but the gap could be as big as $19 billion the following year, AASHTO found.

A longer-term problem is that the cost of building and fixing roads has grown rapidly in recent years. Between the last gas-tax hike in 1993 and 2015, construction costs will have increased by more than 70 percent, according to AASHTO. Federal gas taxes would have to go up at least 3 cents by 2009 and 7 cents more by 2015 just to maintain the current highway system and keep pace with the fast-rising cost of roads, the association estimates.

Instead of raising the federal gasoline tax, U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) introduced a bill, just hours before the Minnesota bridge catastrophe, to create an independent national bank to provide government financing for major infrastructure projects.

Some states have been willing to raise taxes for road construction. Fifteen states have hiked fees at the pump since 1997, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

But in the face of high gasoline prices, Minnesota's Pawlenty vetoed a $5 billion transportation package this year that would have been financed in part with a 5-cent hike in the state's 22-cent gas tax, last raised in 1988. In 2006 voters passed a ballot initiative to dedicate increased vehicle registration fees for transportation projects.

Pennsylvania, with one of the highest percentages of structurally deficient bridges, increased money for bridge repairs from $250 million to $600 million last year, Gov. Ed Rendell (D) told Stateline.org Aug. 2 at the opening of the annual Capitolbeat conference for statehouse reporters and editors. "Despite that, we can barely make a dent in bridge repair. To repair all 5,900 bridges would cost $8 billion," he said.

Noting that economic competitors such as Japan and Germany have undertaken massive infrastructure repairs, Rendell said the U.S. government also should invest in a massive repair program that states would have to help support to fix bridges and roads but also water and sewage infrastructure.

This year, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) vetoed a $19 million increase in transportation funding that would have been paid for with a 1.8-cent increase in that state's 28-cent gas tax. Maine Gov. John Baldacci (D) and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) both worked to scuttle bills to increase gas taxes for road construction.

Ridge told Hardball: "There's not a governor and state legislature on an annual basis that doesn't go through the political torment and anguish every year about how to pay for these things. Everybody knows there's a need and everybody is kind of reluctant to raise taxes."

Government Security Graded

Feds get C- security grade but Defense fails, DHS gets a D by ZDNet's Richard Koman -- The conventional wisdom is that the federal government deserves failing grades for computer security. After all, the big VA breach of a year ago has been followed by many more stories of agencies losing computers, suffering data breaches and failing to encrypt sensitive data. Today a House committee handed out security report cards for all [...]

Will America Be a Second Rate Power?

Universities Pressure Presidential Candidates for Science Debate

3/13/2008

By Dian Schaffhauser

Drexel University, Carnegie Mellon University, Temple University, Lehigh University, Lafayette College, and a number of other institutions of higher education, as well as museums and private companies, have called on the presidential candidates to participate in a science-focused debate on technology, climate change, health policy, and education.

"What we need is a debate focusing on how we're going to move this nation ahead in terms of the global economy and high quality jobs, tackling clean energy and climate change, reinvigorating science and math education, and solving our health care system," said debate organizer Shawn Lawrence Otto, CEO of Science Debate 2008. The grass roots debate has been scheduled for April 18 at The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia.

Among business leaders calling for the forward-thinking debate is Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. "This is not a niche debate," said Barrett. "The future economic success of the United States depends on out-performing the competition with smart people and smart ideas. Without the best education system and aggressive investments in basic research and development, we will become a second-rate economic power. With its outstanding universities and transforming economy, Pennsylvania is a perfect place for this discussion, and we hope the candidates for president take this very seriously."

At the time of this writing, no candidates had announced their participation.

Organized by a couple of out of work screenwriters, ScienceDebate2008.com signers represent 140 American universities.

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business. Send your higher education technology news to her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.

Cf. Dian Schaffhauser, "Universities Pressure Presidential Candidates for Science Debate," Campus Technology, 3/13/2008, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=59863