This is a cover up to hide the real motivation: she is a woman and black, and none of you want her involved in a tech company. Disguise this all you want as opposition to the war or Bush or whatever. It is really opposition to her gender and race. This is how you do in silicon valley where blacks and women are considered token employees hire to look good. So make up stuff about her and move her out. Now you have your high-tech lynching hiding behind phony moral outrage.
Got any evidence for this claim? That people are really opposed to her because ~"she's black and a woman" and not because she helped start a war that killed thousands, predicated on lies and misinformation?
Had Dropbox put former Vice President Dick Cheney (male, white) on the board, I suspect the firestorm of controversy would be far, far greater. As for "make up stuff about her," her comments regarding the Iraq war are on the record and are not fabricated.
Overlooked sidebar: the fact that we are having this discussion, that China is listening to some degree, and that Apple is having an influence on Chinese labor conditions speaks volumes about how capitalism changes nations for the better. Anywhere a degree of free trade is introduced, freedom expands. In this case, these workers are going to be better off in the long run with Apple, because someone, somewhere in the Chinese bureaucracy, is making some money in the supply chain, and they don't want that to ever stop - even if that means giving these workers just a little more freedom, safety and salary.
As a teacher in a ghetto school, and as a child of parents who grew up poor (and of grandparents who survived the great depression), let me help him make some distinctions.
I have noticed two distinct types of poverty. The first is the OP type: generational poverty based on dependence and a mind-set of either victimization or unbreakable poor choice habits. They are stuck. Getting these kids out of the situation, is as he says, nigh impossible. I've taught 1000s of these kids, and their upbringing, the habits they learn, and don't learn, the role models they have, are difficult to escape and change. A handful of students out of each grade somehow leave - and never come back. The one characteristic they all seem to share is that somewhere along the line (genetics or personality) they have a work ethic or type A character. Even so, they do not have the social skills to advance very far in their careers past college and entry-level job.
The second type is the working poor. They don't really exist anymore as I know them in my parent's generation. They bust ass in 16 hour days of hard labor, save money and penny pinch, always planning for the future. Now days, this attitude is found in many middle class families. My uncle won't even collect his SS check because "he doesn't need it." My relatives would rather starve than take anything from the government or even their local church.
The first type learns how to do the opposite: game the welfare and social system for every penny and benefit and get, even if it requires dishonesty. These people coach their children on what to say at school to the adults to ensure they get all of the free benefits, and to ensure we don't call welfare for an inspection of their homes or income.
You've made a mistake writing all of this and placing it in public. It can now be used in court in any way his attorney sees fit. Don't talk to anyone or ask for anyone's advice. Get a lawyer now and turn it the case over to him or her ASAP.
There is a basic problem with many of these ideas. Current research in education is showing that technology alone is not enough enhance student learning. In other words, putting a computer, device, method or software in a classroom adds nothing to test scores or student outcomes. (As a time saver, I'll let you Google up the citations). We have learned this far too late in education, having spent billions and billions in this area with virtually no return in concrete results. The trend is to use these things as fancy drawing and typing and adding gizmos that simply replace pens and paper: a waste of potential.
It is also true that teachers don't want to mess with more of this stuff. We are already beat over the head on a regular bases with the latest and greatest methodologies, books, ideas, etc. on a regular basis. Ask any experienced teacher about their faculty development meetings and they will just laugh and tell you about the last 30 years of innovations that were supposed to have changed education.
Here is what someone needs to do in my opinion. Ideas should include LONG TERM training (2-3 years) that is mandatory in their sales package, back it up with solid research, and provide a payment model similar to a lease or student pay-to-play (where you aren't hoping their newest principal or school board also likes the idea the previous group did). In other words, PROVE it works, teach teachers how to use it, and give schools a realistic way to pay for it over a period of years. If not, you're just another one of the 40-50 "latest and greatest" idea I've seen come and go over the decades.
That is the answer pure and simple. You can cloak it in deep discussions about statistics and attitudes and backgrounds. But there it is, naked for all to see. Liberals OWN acadamia and will not give it any of their power over the curriculum, philosophies, budgets and directions to any group who holds other ideas, much less ideas the may change the balance of power they hold.
Sadly, the most important part of her article, "We are never the best interrogators of our ideas. It requires motivated critics to lay bare our hidden assumptions, our misreading of the data, our factual inaccuracies" will go unoticed by the people who need to hear this information the most. It is ironic that the very essence of universities: scholarship and research, are the things most damaged by conservative discrimination. The ideals that should be held highest are the ones most damaged, and also the things LEAST cared about, behind money and power.
"Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won;t see antisemitism" Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves."
Yes.
To imply that the media has no influence on the general mass of population is ignorant at best. There is a reason most governments censor the media, seed the media with favorable information or outright ban them: they move people to action.
Dawkins and most others here are missing the primary issue: evidence. What qualifies as [evidence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence) for scientific purposes is limited. It excludes (or minimizes) evidence the human beings accept in most other areas. You would no more cite your neighbor's belief in the shape of the earth for a scientific paper than cite the number of flowers you bought your wife as proof that you love her. There are many reasons people believe Bible accounts for rational reasons outside of scientific evidence.
Also implicit in most of the posts here and Dawkin's piece is to assume there is zero scientific evidence for a young earth or any other Biblical story. As Feynman was fond of saying, it isn't up to science to determine truth all the time, but rather what is more or less likely based on what we currently know. It is most likely our universe is X years old based on what we know now, but even those ages have changed by wide margins in the last century. We don't know how much more it will change in the next century. But we are as sure about the current age as astronomers were 100 years ago.
For the record, based on our present scientific knowledge, it is more likely our earth is 4.5 billions years old than 5000. But we don't know for sure, do we?
You have to know what you don't know. In other words, you need a sense of the gaps that exist in your knowledge and then fill those gaps. This is a side effect of...
... and a key part of continuing education in any field. The best way for students of any age to grasp this is to take practice tests. Look at what you missed, and go fill in that gap. A similar method it to look at a completed project or paper and wait for the aha moment, "I didn't know you could do that." Then you go find the answers.
Ugh, another story provoked by the tragic shooting in Arizona. Worse yet, it implicitly links Beck to the shooter by its timing. It's clear now there is no link. Period.
The shooter's videos and writings cite everything from the Communist Manifesto to Mein Kempf. His friends describe him as a liberal. Most people are unaware Ms. Gifford is Jewish. Is that why this Nazi-influenced man killed her? Let's not draw lines connecting things that create a desired picture. If he was Arabic and owned a Koran, would we make the same leap that some would eagerly make if actually owned a book by Beck? What if he was a registered Republican (he registered independent and didn't vote in the recent election)? Stop it folks, please.
He was a nut case, plain and simple; no more and no less.
That being said, can we agree that violent rhetoric and imagery is a poor choice for anyone in politics? Does it really matter if it a map with cross hairs created by a PAC supporting Sarah Palin or a map of bullseyes created by the DNC? So Beck uses violent wordplay? Don't forget Obama, "They bring a knife, we bring a gun" and "hit back twice as hard" or even "punish your enemies." Just yesterday, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa said about GOP Gov. Rick Scott: "They ought to put him against a wall and shoot him." We can find an equal number of bad examples from all parties, races and genders.
Maybe it's time for everyone to stop.
P.S. His most violent video rant has the song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool playing in the background. I would be remiss to point out what a horrible influence heavy metal music is on our youth today. That must be the real reason why he shot those people...
