Interesting tips on how to visit a museum from Marginal Review.

1. In every room ask yourself which picture you would take home (if you could take just one) and why. This forces you to keep thinking critically about what you are seeing. More crudely, you have to keep on paying attention.

2. Almost all museums (MOMA is one exception) hang large numbers of second-rate paintings by first-rate artists. Try to find them. Don't think it is all great, it isn't.

3. You are probably better trained at shopping than looking at pictures. Do some basic research on prices and pretend you are shopping for pictures on a budget. This will improve the quality of your viewing.

4. Go with a variety of people. It forces you to see the art through their eyes.

5. If you are visiting a blockbuster exhibit, skip room number one. There is too much human traffic, as the people have not yet admitted to themselves they don't care about what is on the wall.

A key general principle is to stop self-deceiving and admit to yourself that you don't just love "art for art's sake." It then becomes possible for you to turn this fact to your advantage, rather than having it work against you. Keeping up the full pretense means that you must impose a high implicit tax on your museum-going. This leads you to restrict your number of visits and ultimately to resent the art and find it boring.

So as part of Advertising Week 2005, interactive advertising agencies tried to answer the question last Tuesday of what teenagers want. The Interactive Advertising Bureau gathered 10 teenagers onstage at the Millennium Broadway Hotel to informally evaluate the creativity and effectiveness of three teenager-oriented interactive marketing campaigns, all before an audience of hundreds of industry executives. Article

Writing in the Disciplines, a new pedagogical movement that promises to revolutionize the learning process at every level. The aim of the program, which was sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, was to encourage students to write about concepts they were grappling with in the various disciplines.

The initiative was inspired by the discovery that there is no better way to master an idea than to write about it. Although the human brain is remarkably flexible, learning theorists now recognize that it is far better able to absorb information in some forms than others. Thus, according to the psychologist Jerome Bruner, children "turn things into stories, and when they try to make sense of their life they use the storied version of their experience as the basis for further reflection." He went on, "If they don't catch something in a narrative structure, it doesn't get remembered very well, and it doesn't seem to be accessible for further kinds of mulling over." Even well into adulthood, we find it easier to process information in narrative form than in more abstract forms like equations and graphs. Most effective of all are narratives that we construct ourselves.
...
Daniel Boorstin, the former librarian of Congress, used to rise at 5 each morning and write for two hours before going into the office. "I write to discover what I think," he explained. "After all, the bars aren't open that early." Mr. Boorstin's morning sessions were even more valuable than he realized. Writing not only clarifies what you already know; it is also an astonishingly effective way to learn something new. Article

In L.A., immigrants bypass English
Manuel Aliga, a Peruvian immigrant, has spent years studying Korean. He runs a store that sells soccer supplies in Koreatown.

Martin Paik, a Seoul native who emigrated to Los Angeles by way of Argentina, does not speak English. He writes a column on conversational Spanish for the Korea Times.
I
n California, Spanish is more important than English, Paik. "I haven't found any inconvenience because I don't speak English.

Half of Europe's Citizens Know 2 Languages
Half of European citizens speak a second language, according to a European Union survey released Friday.

The poll, conducted in June across Europe, found that tiny Luxembourg had the highest percentage of bilingual citizens, with 99 percent of those questioned saying they could master a conversation in a second language.

Hungary had the lowest number with 29 percent of its citizens able to speak another language. Britain was second last with 30 percent.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association challenges several statements made by Governor Edward G. Rendell today in opening the special legislative session regarding property tax relief.
"Governor Rendell's claim that school boards across the commonwealth were responsible for denying property tax relief to all Pennsylvanians simply ignores the reality of a public education funding system that relies heavily on property taxes and declining levels of state support, " said Thomas J. Gentzel, executive director of PSBA.

"A successful property tax relief plan must account for the purpose for which the taxes are collected - to provide children with a 'thorough and efficient system of public education,' as the Pennsylvania constitution demands."

Please visit the PSBA web site for a complete copy of today's press release. For a copy of Governor Rendell's press release, you may click here. Please feel free to contact Tim Allwein or Beth Winters if you have any questions.

Currently for every 100 men on campus there are 135 women with the sex imbalance expected to rise. Even with this inequity there are no Men Centers or Mens Studies a college president would be tarred and feathered for even suggesting their creation.

There seems little doubt that universities have become less male-friendly
in recent decades, to the point of being downright unfriendly in many cases. The
kind of statements that are routinely made about males and masculinity in
classrooms and hallways would get professors fired if they were made about
blacks, gays, or many other groups. Sexual-harassment policies start with the
presumption that men are guilty, and inherently depraved. And colleges now come
at the tail-end of an educational system that is (compared to previous decades)
anti-male from kindergarten on, meaning many males probably just want to get out
as soon as they can.
More

Here is an interesting twist. Instead of costing taxpayers an arm and a leg this schools is the major employer and life blood of the town.

After Midland, PA lost their major industry, their high school was closed. Remaining students were bussed to Ohio to complete their education. Their new Superintendent a former social studies teacher with an entrepreneurial spirit was given the task by the school board to rectify the situation.

Now Up and down Beaver Avenue, there are signs of new life in Midland: a bank building and hospital converted into a cyber school's headquarters; the old high school demolished to make way for a $23.6 million performing arts high school and regional arts center; the union hall revamped into offices with plans for a steel museum.

In this town of 3,000, the cyber school - one of the largest in the country - employs 270 people, including 95 teachers. But, around town, some say that is just the beginning. They hope the schools, and the performing arts center, will attract visitors to Midland with money to spend.
Article
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Login: John_Kerry@whitehouse.gov
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Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial, the latest legal chapter in the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools opened in a federal court in Harrisburg, Pa., yesterday in a case that could decide if schools should be allowed to introduce 'intelligent design' (ID) as an alternative theory to evolution.

The case comes as the nation's high-tech sector is urging U.S. schools to improve science education or risk forfeiting America's position as a global leader in science and technology. Critics of ID--including Eric Rothschild, the attorney representing eight families who are challenging a Dover Area School District policy on the grounds that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state--believe ID is a religious theory with no real scientific underpinnings. More

All the attempts of separating Church and State has just resulted in a new religion been forced fed students across this country. Why I Am Not An Environmentalist:The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology What schools need is less faith based environmental indoctrination and more fact based economic courses.

Owning a home often ties up hundreds of thousands of dollars that might be invested more safely and more lucratively elsewhere over the next decade. And while real estate brokers may hate to acknowledge it, home ownership involves its own versions of throwing money away, like property taxes and the costs of borrowing.

Add it all up - which The New York Times did, in an analysis of the major costs and benefits of owning and renting, including tax breaks - and owning a home today is more expensive than renting in much of the Northeast, Florida and California. Article

Seems to be back in operation. Had a varation of the y2k problem. Reached 1,000 topics and it went tilt.

Corpse Bride

Review by Emily Trosprel 8th Grade BHMS

Corpse Bride by Tim Burton, the producer and writer of Nightmare Before Christmas, is an original and well written film that ends up being quite entertaining. Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is getting married. He doesn't particularly want to, but after he meets his bride-to-be Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) the two fall immediately in love. However, after Victor forgets his vows during rehearsal, he flees in embarrassment only to put the ring on what appears to be a tree branch and by grave misunderstanding marries the corpse bride (Helena Bonham Carter).

Johnny Depp shines and fits perfectly into the role of timid Victor. Emily Watson and Helen Bonham Carter also bring their characters to life. The script is cleverly written with lines such as "Isn't the view beautiful? It takes my breath away. Well, it would if I had any." Danny Elfman, Tim Burton's longtime composer, adds in a few amusing, if a bit unnecessary, musical numbers. In the end Tim Burton creates another visually stunning and wildly creative animated comedy that's worth watching.

Corpse Bride receives three and a half stars out of four.

There are a lot of reasons that some people are considered shy. Research has shown that one factor is that some of us are just confused.

In a study published early this year, Dr. Marco Battaglia of San Raffaele
University in Milan, Italy, recruited 49 third- and fourth-grade children and
administered questionnaires to rank them along a commonly accepted shyness
scale. He showed each child a series of pictures of faces exhibiting joy, anger
or no emotion at all and asked them to identify the expressions. The children
who scored high on the shyness meter, it turned out, had a consistently hard
time deciphering the neutral and the angry faces. ... Unable to rely
on those helpful signals, they tend to go on high alert, feeling anxious about
any face they can't decipher. Time
Article

Want to be your own boss, have an entrepreneurial spirit,love the outdoors and hate the smell of burning fries Bumvertising may just be your ticket to a new career. See pictures of people that have already started their new careers.

Seem to have a little problem with the discussion board. All the new topics are being lumped together. Relatively certain it is President Bush's fault. Not enough grant money was given to obsecure local issue web sites. The little link about Bush flipping Lousianan must have made Karl Rove mad.

Hope to have the problem resoved As soon as the illegal alien worker bees can be rounded up and put back in the underground sweatshop. Everything should be OK but if you feel like writing a long missive on how to solve the world's problem keep a backup. You know how hard it is to get good help these days.

Since there has been a lot of griping about the Brandywine District web site, the editorial board of CCOBSD will be running a contest to find the best school web site in Berks County. The contest will be open for nominations for the next 2 weeks or until the editorial board gets bored with it.

Lets try being positive and give reasons why a particular site is excellent so that our district can copy the better features from them. To nominate a site go to the Topics section and find the "Web Contest" topic.

Links To Berks School Districts

Antietam
Boyertown Area
Brandywine Heights Area
Conrad Weiser Are
Daniel Boone Area
Exeter Township
Fleetwood Area
Governor Mifflin
Hamburg Area
Kutztown Area
Muhlenberg
Oley Valley
Reading
Schuylkill Valley
Tulpehocken Area
Twin Valley
Wilson
Wyomissing Area

In case you haven't enough trouble with taxes and energy prices minimum payment on credit card debt will double for most cards. from 2% to 4% of outstanding balance starting Oct. 15th. If you can afford it not a bad thing allowing you to pay off the balance in your lifetime.

For more information See Consumer Affairs article.

BATON ROUGE, LA. – The White House announced today that President Bush has successfully sold the state of Louisiana back to the French at more than double its original selling price of $11,250,000.

"This is a bold step forward for America," said Bush. "And America will be stronger and better as a result. I stand here today in unity with French Prime Minister Jack Shiraq, who was so kind to accept my offer of Louisiana in exchange for 25 million dollars cash."

"Jack understands full well that this one’s a ‘fixer upper,’" said Bush. "He and the French people are quite prepared to pump out all that water, and make Louisiana a decent place to live again. And they’ve got a lot of work to do. But Jack’s assured me, if it’s not right, they’re going to fix it."
...
“This is an unexpected but brilliant move by the President,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. “Instead of spending billions and billions, and billions of dollars rebuilding the state of Louisiana, we’ve just made 25 million dollars in pure profit.”
More

At age 4 success is . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 35 success is . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . having friends.
At age 80 success is . not peeing in your pants.

An article on the attempts to measure and qualify the effectiveness of teachers.

The first finding is that there is a large variation in teacher
effectiveness: some teachers consistently have a larger impact on their
students' achievement than others.

Second, easily observable characteristics like having a master's degree
or a passing score on the teacher certification exam are not correlated with
teacher effectiveness.

The most important single influence is experience: first-year teachers are
much less effective than others. The second year is significantly better, and by
the fourth year, most teachers hit their stride. It is not entirely clear whether this experience effect is learning by doing (the more you teach, the more effective you become) or survival of the fittest (those who are not good at teaching tend to drop out early). NY Times

The banning of flip-flops is not just something dreamed up only at Brandywine to make students life miserable. Causing fashion pain for the students is just an added bonus.

According to the college of foot and ankle surgeons, their popularity among
teenagers and young adults is responsible for a growing epidemic of heel
pain. Doctors see more and more people with heel spurs and other foot related
injuries. Doctors say that wearing flip flops can cause your foot to flatten
out, putting more strain on your ligaments in your foot. Article

lip-flops don't have to be banned entirely, but should be worn only some of
the time. Supportive athletic shoes or sport sandals as the mainstay of the
summer footwear menu will go a long way toward keeping your kid's feet healthy
and pain free all season long. Article

In the halls of New Canaan High School, the onset of warm weather means one
thing. The squealing squeak of sneakers has been replaced by the shuffling and
thwacking of flip flops smacking against the tiled floors. This is flip
flop freedom. But for school administrators who typically spend the spring
months battling against skinny-strapped tank tops, too-short shorts, tiny skirts
and other skin-baring apparel, the flip flops aren't so cool. But it isn't an
issue just of exposed skin. They're dangerous -- and schools across the country
are deciding to outlaw them.
Article

Other Dangers:
Wearing trendy flip flops could kill you, according to new research.The
fashionable footwear - ideal for the beach in hot weather - are putting the
lives of road users at risk.Three in every four motorists have admitted they
find it hard to drive in flip flops and road safety experts have warned that
wearing the sandals in the car could be a lethal decision.
Researchers claim a flip flop, worn by millions, can easily get stuck under the pedals and cause a fatal accident, The Sun says.

The Sun also says that German researchers revealed last year that
14 out of 25 pairs of flip flops they studied contained toxic chemicals known to lower sperm count in men and attack the liver, kidneys and reproductive organs. Article

Looking for a fun fall family activity. Try geocaching (pronounced "geocashing") which combines the internet and actually going out into the BIG ROOM. Beautiful time of year but just hiking to be walking can be boring. Geocaching combines a nature walk with the thrill of hunting buried treasure.

Geocaching is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the rules are very simple:
1. Take something from the cache
2. Leave something in the cache
3. Write about it in the logbook
Where you place a cache is up to you.

A cache can come in many forms but the first item should always be the logbook. In its simplest form a cache can be just a logbook and nothing else. The logbook contains information from the founder of the cache and notes from the cache's visitors. The logbook can contain much valuable, rewarding, and entertaining information. A logbook might contain information about nearby attractions, coordinates to other unpublished caches, and even jokes written by visitors. If you get some information from a logbook you should give some back. At the very least you can leave the date and time you visited the cache.

Larger caches may consist of a waterproof plastic bucket placed tastefully within the local terrain. The bucket will contain the logbook and any number of more or less valuable items. These items turn the cache into a true treasure hunt. You never know what the founder or other visitors of the cache may have left there for you to enjoy. Remember, if you take something, its only fair for you to leave something in return. Items in a bucket cache could be: Maps, books, software, hardware, CD's, videos, pictures, money, jewelry, tickets, antiques, tools, games, etc. It is recommended that items in a bucket cache be individually packaged in a clear zipped plastic bag to protect them.

Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

There are 201991 active caches in 218 countries. Hundreds are in our immediate area For more information on how to start visit Geocaching.com

Maybe this is just justification for some of us who are organizationally impared but where things are located is very imporant to those whose memory is spatially organized. Their worst nightmare is a clean desk and information stored in identical file folders in identical file cabinets.

Yates in 1966 wrote the classic Art of Memory the main thrust was that we are predisposed to remember things in the context of place, even where there is no significant connection between the thing remembered and the place where it is located, so that recalling the space is a powerful trigger to the recall of the associated information.

Such spatial mnemonic techniques were used subsequently during the Middle
Ages (it has been argued by Yates and others that the Cathedrals were organised
as aids to remembering the scriptures) and later, in the Renaissance, by such as
Giulio Camillo (1480-1544), Ramon Lull (1235-1316, his works revived in the 15th
Century), Giordano Bruno (1548-1592?), Peter Ramus (1515-1572) and Robert
Fludd.
...
It is interesting to note that memory has become almost an occult skill in
our own education system. For example, the idea of rote learning is deeply
unfashionable, but perhaps the deprecation of discredited methods for instilling
memory skills has accidentally spilled over into a deprecation of memory as
such. Books on memory are regarded with embarrassment by most academics and are
felt not to be part of serious scholarship. Such an attitude would have
astonished most previous centuries, and maybe we should begin to question
it.

One help in remembering a list of items like the planets is to to associate each one with an item in your bedroom. Mercury could be a lamp, Venus a desk.. This works out well when you just need the information for a test and you can do a memory dump afterwards.

OK you finally gave in to the theory that a nocturnal animal would be a good pet for a child and purchased one. Someone has finally came up with a use for them besides watching them run through tunnels or listening to them at 3:00 AM running around on their wheel. Now with simple tools and duct tape turn your new normal docile pet into a fighting machine that can protect your home and family.

This site started out as a way parents could exchane ideas and help improve education in the district. Lately the topic section has been more concerned with tax reform and ways to finance public education. So instead of fighting it the editoral board today has put in a link for both educational improvement and a way to retire with a smile.

That is the essence of middle schoolism as set forth in a stunning new Fordham report by Cheri Pierson Yecke. "Mayhem in the Middle," as it's called, is a thoughtful examination drawing on gobs of evidence that shows the middle grades are where U.S. student achievement begins its fateful plunge, and where a growing number of other nations begin to outpace us.
...

For years, there's been ample evidence that U.S. middle schools aren't pulling their weight. Generalizing, one can say that U.S. kids do reasonably well in grades K-4; that their performance falters in grades 5-8; and that (with splendid exceptions) it is dismal in high school. The middle grades are where trouble sets in and disappointment is born. One need only examine the 2004 long-term trend results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress for the latest evidence. But this is no new insight. By 1998, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) termed these grades "Education's Weak Link," and the phrase "middle-school reform" began to gain currency.

...

Two years later, Hayes Mizell of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, as astute a participant/observer as the middle-school movement ever had, declared that "there is disquiet in the middle school community." "Serious questions have arisen," he said, "about students' achievement levels and the capacity of middle schools to challenge students academically. . . . Too many middle level teachers continue to buy into the myth that young adolescents are so distracted that they have no interest in learning, and that there is no point in challenging them. . . . .

There is, then, a rising tide of doubt about the viability and effectiveness of middle schools."
Half a decade later, that's pretty much Yecke's view, too. Florida governor Jeb Bush has just named Yecke that state's new chancellor for K-12 education. She also authored the fine 2003 book, The War Against Excellence, which exposed both the shortcomings of middle-school education and the country's strange animus toward "giftedness." Article

A farmer getting on in years should be selling out and relocating. Why be concerned with property taxes when you can retire in Denmark.

The Danish government pays for the disabled and elderly
to watch porn and have sex with prostitutes. Caregivers in Copenhagen have found
that pornography and prostitutes have a greater calming effect on their elderly
patients than traditional medical treatment such as drug therapy. Staff at the
Thorupgaarden nursing home in the Danish capital have been broadcasting
pornography on the building's internal videochannel every Saturday night for
several years. And if videos and dirty magazines don't relieve the tension,
residents can ask the staff to order a prostitute for them. The caregivers have
told Danish media that pornography is healthier, cheaper and easier to use than
medicine, Lars Elmsted Petersen, a spokesman for the Danish seniors' lobby group
Aeldresagen, said. Earlier this year, the Danish government released a report
stating that sexuality is an integral part of life for the elderly and the
disabled. It recommended that caregivers help elderly residents satisfy their
sexual needs. All this sounds very reasonable to me. My only objection?
Government intervention could lead to shortages.
From Marginal Review

This site is an interesting learning resource targeted toward kids ages 8-13. (Adults can learn a lot here too!) The website is sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture and was developed by the Agricultural Research Service information staff in Beltsville, Maryland. Topics reviewed include "Tastes Like Chicken" (edible bugs), "Vinegar: More Than Just A Salad Dressing," "Powerful Plants Meet Tough Tanks," and what should be a Longswamp favorite "What's Good About Sewer Bacteria."

Brownsville Area Superintendent Lawrence L. Golembiewski says he has an idea that could save the Fayette County school district $1.2 million a year. The catch is students' school days would be longer and their parents might have to find a baby sitter one day a week.

Brownsville Area has asked the state Department of Education whether it could operate on a four-day school week. Golembiewski said the reasons for such a move are a matter of dollars and cents. As the price of fuel has gone up, so has the price of everything else. And Hurricane Katrina has only made matters worse.

Golembiewski said that by going to a four-day school week the district can save on transportation, utility and food costs. He estimates the savings could be 20 percent of the district's operating budget.
....
Wythe Keever, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said he has not heard of a Pennsylvania district attempting to convert to a four-day week.

"As far as contractual obligations, our view would be that the local association's current collective bargaining agreement would still be binding," Keever said. Any change in the school calendar that affects hours of employment would have to be negotiated with the union, he said.
Article

SAN FRANCISCO
The Pledge of Allegiance was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge who granted legal standing to two families represented by an atheist whose previous attempt to get the pledge out of public schools was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK6FUG0.html

HARRISBURG This spring, when nearly four out of five Pennsylvania public school districts rejected using slot-machine revenues to reduce property taxes, Gov. Ed Rendell regretted giving school boards the option of participating in the program known as Act 72.
On Monday, Rendell said correcting that mistake will be among his top legislative priorities when the Legislature returns later this month.
...

Dr. Joseph Yarworth, Muhlenberg School District superintendent, said making Act 72 mandatory will not change his opinion that the state has failed to provide significant tax relief.

“They may be able to pull the wool over the public's eyes and pass this,” Yarworth said. “Then property-tax reform will be off their agenda and you will not see anything from them for the next 15 years.” Today's Reading Eagle

With the states emphasis on overweight kids this article in NY Times Magazine could be helpful. All the schools would need to do is supply a mid-morning and mid-afternoon cup of fructose water.

Seth Roberts a 52-year-old psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley (that does shakes ones confidence) has been doing self experimenting for years. His theory is that the human body suppresses appetite when food is scarce and increases it when food is abundant. This worked out well in the stone age when a person ate when they could as much as they could to store up fat for the times when food was scarce. Now with food in over abundance the shut down signal is never realized.

So Roberts tried to game this Stone Age system. What if he could keep his
thermostat low by sending fewer flavor signals? One obvious solution was a bland
diet, but that didn't interest Roberts. (He is, in fact, a serious foodie.)
After a great deal of experimenting, he discovered two agents capable of
tricking the set-point system. A few tablespoons of unflavored oil (he used
canola or extra light olive oil), swallowed a few times a day between mealtimes,
gave his body some calories but didn't trip the signal to stock up on more.
Several ounces of sugar water (he used granulated fructose, which has a lower
glycemic index than table sugar) produced the same effect. (Sweetness does not
seem to act as a "flavor" in the body's caloric-signaling system.)

The results were astounding. Roberts lost 40 pounds and never gained it
back. He could eat pretty much whenever and whatever he wanted, but he was far
less hungry than he had ever been. Friends and colleagues tried his diet,
usually with similar results. His regimen seems to satisfy a set of requirements
that many commercial diets do not: it was easy, built on a scientific theory
and, most important, it did not leave Roberts hungry.

But will Seth Roberts's strange weight-control solution - he calls it the
Shangri-La Diet - really work for the millions of people who need it? We may
soon find out. With the Atkins diet company filing for bankruptcy, America is
eager for its next diet craze. And a few spoonfuls of sugar may be just the kind
of sacrifice that Americans can handle.

Keeping with what appears to be this weekend theme. There will be a

to support the Commonwealth Caucus plan on eliminating property tax in favor of a across the board 5% sales tax.

Some opponents say it is more like Kool-Aide drinking party focusing on tax relief for seniors at the cost of education for the young. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The taxpayers association is organizing the local bus trip in support. Cheapskate Floyd Falcone is now claiming he is just a regular guy and not a millionaire, so you will have to cough up $15.00 on your own for the trip. Additional information can be found in the discusion section

The Brandywine Fife & Drum Corp performing this morning at the Hays Creek Festival

Maybe a Brandywine teacher could revise this book to refliect the Euro-Weenie sport.

It's been ten years in the making, but a former California middle-school
teacher insists he's found a way to accomplish the unthinkable: getting students
to do homework on the weekends--while watching football, on the couch.


Forget about sophisticated graphing calculators. No need to lug giant
textbooks home every night--not anymore. With the start of the professional
football season less than a week away, veteran math instructor Dan Flockhart
says a teacher's best bet for getting students interested in mathematics is
football--fantasy football, that is.

Flockhart--who spent several years as a math teacher at a San Mateo
middle school before going to work as a professor at College of the Redwoods in
Eureka, Calif.--believes so strongly in the concept that he's written a book to
help other teachers integrate the popular gridiron computer game into their
lesson plans.

Houston Texas and other nearby cities took in thousands of evacuees many of them school age children. Now they are trying to enroll these kids in local school and it is taxing all the available resources. If a school organization wants to help fellow students contact Operation Backpack. This is a true grassroots effort to raise school supplies for these students

There was a follow up article in Sunday's Reading Eagle on Dead Trees.

Two BH students died of injuries they suffered in the collision of a compact car
and a dump truck on Route 222. Shay Keiper 16 of Stony Hill Lane, LS twp and
Amber Krammes 17 of South Haas St Topton died of multiple inuries. Benjamin Ruth
and Patrick O'Neil both of Topton remain in critical condition.
The car was
struck on the passenger side by the northbound truck when Ruth pulled out from
Kunkel Road headed toward Topton

After reading about the scum firing on rescue workers, looting, murder in New Orleans and thinking that people could sink no lower. In many wasys an article in todays paper exceeds event that.

Theft of guitar cross astonishes half brother of accident
victim

Jeremy J. Deck of West Lawn said he is astonished
that someone would steal the cross he made for the memorial at the scene of a
car crash that killed his half-brother Shay M. Keiper.

Deck who played music with Keiper, placed the cross, which he make out of two
guitars, at Route 222 and Kunkel Road in Maxatawny Township Friday. Sunday
morning, it was gone..

The editorial board had different opinons on putting Emily's lastest movie review during this tragedy. In the end it was decided to proceed. People have asked what they can do, sometimes the best thing is just to enjoy your own family amd friends. Going to the movies, attending sporting events but just have an enjoyable time together. We will all have periods of heartbreak in life, this is a beautiful holiday weekend try to maximize the good times.

The Transporter 2

Review by Emily Trosprel 8th Grade BHMS

It's certainly action-packed, in a mindless way, and on the whole, Transporter 2 is a quite fun. In it, Frank Martin (Jason Statham), an ex-mercenary, is a chauffer to the young son of a wealthy family. When the son is kidnapped, Frank must spring into action to save him. However, he soon realizes that it was more then a simple kidnapping. The acting was surprisingly good, especially from lead actor Jason Statham. Amber Valletta, Matthew Modine, and Alessandro Gassman also give strong supporting preformances.

One negative point is that this film is extremely unrealistic. In one such scene, the villain's have attached a bomb to the bottom of Frank's speeding car. So Frank flips the car off a ramp, does a 180 in midair, and bumps the bottom of the car with a dangling construction hook, which, obviously, scrapes the bomb off of the car right before it explodes. However, the fight scenes (of which there were many) were expertly and creatively choreographed, and the visual effects were decent. If you like action, you will like this film. If not, then you would be better off to avoid it.

The Transporter 2 receives two and a half stars out of four.

The paper reported one death but apparently another pasenger has also died since publication. No further details at this time. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the parents, family and friends of these students.

Youth killed, four injured in Maxatawny Twp. crash
From our news staff

One youth was killed and four other people were injured Friday when a car and a dump truck collided Friday afternoon at Route 222 and Kunkel Road in Maxatawny Township, officials said.
Berks-Lehigh Regional police Friday withheld the identities, ages and genders of the four youths riding in the car, pending notification of family members, but confirmed that they were all juveniles.
The driver of the truck, Edward Lutterschmidt, 50, New Tripoli, Lehigh County, was treated in Lehigh Valley Hospital for minor injuries.
The car's front-seat passenger was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred shortly before 1 p.m., police said.
The car's driver and the two other passengers were flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown. Their conditions were unavailable late Friday.
A death ruling had not been issued Friday.
Police gave this account:
The crash occurred when the car, traveling south on Kunkel Road, went through the stop sign at Route 222 into the path of truck, which was going northbound on Route 222.
Route 222 was closed until the investigation was completed and the wreckage cleared about 3:30 p.m., police said.

The Big Easy, brings to mind food, drinks,music, authors and the general spirit of "Bon TonRoula (Let The Good Times Roll)". A city always known it was eventually doomed looking death in the eye by celebrating funerals with a joyous parade and music. It was however always the geopolitcal prize from the founding of the country through WWII.

from stratfor (registration required):
New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize By George Friedman...

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover. The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on….

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time…. The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States….

Rafe Esquith, who for 20 years has gotten amazing results teaching everything from algebra to Shakespeare to inner-city Los Angeles fifth graders, will make you rethink at least a few prejudices you may have had about education. Or at least, he made me do so. And that’s an achievement in itself
Because he’s a public-school teacher, I assumed he’d complain about underfunding. Nope. “We always had lots of cash; we didn’t always spend it wisely, but the money was there,” he writes in There Are No Shortcuts, his fascinating book about his teaching career. MORE

In no paticular order.
American Red Cross
Catholic Charities is involved, and probably has lots of resources to draw on in the heavily Catholic New Orleans area.
Austin Bay is recommending Episcopal Relief and Development.
Liz at Rightalk suggests that animal lovers donate to the Humane Society.
Here's a link to Mennonite Disaster Services. The Sanity Inspector says they're highly efficient.
Reader Peter Viditto recommends The Mercy Corps
Here's the link for Methodist Relief.
Lisa Larkin recommends Operation Blessing.
The Salvation Army does good work. (WalMart just gave them a million dollars, but that's just the barest beginning of what's needed.)
Hugh Hewitt recommends Samaritan's Purse
Scott Ott recommends Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
Numerous readers recommend United Jewish Charities.
Here's a link to LDS Humanitarian Services.
Soldiers' Angels has a special relief fund to benefit returning servicepeople in the disaster area.

HUGH HEWITT is trying something new for disaster relief. This is a great idea where an organization like a Church or other community organization adoptes a similar one in the effected area. Gives it a more personal feeling and rebuilds one community at a time.

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit for this information