Clipmarks | RayWatkins's clips

The Tale of Three Detroit Electric Car Programs

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:14:42 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: Published November 10, 2009

Chrysler is killing its dedicated electric car program. General Motors is moving forward with its sleek electric-drive Caddy. What do these news flashes tell us about Detroit’s prospects in the bold new era of EVs and plug-in hybrids?

On Friday, Chrysler Spokesman Nick Cappa said that its in-house team of electric car development engineers had been disbanded and will be folded into the company’s org chart. This announcement comes three months after Chrysler took $70 million in grants from the US Department of Energy to develop a test fleet of 220 hybrid pickup trucks and minivans. It comes less than year after Chrysler built its case for federal aid—it received $12.5 billion—by showing flashy designs of electric sports cars, trucks and vans, and promising 500,000 battery-powered vehicles on the road by 2013.

Reporting the Collapse

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:33:04 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: Today: Poverty keeps growing in the U.S. but the press is almost blind to it

Clip Source: campaign.constantcontact.com

If Michael Harrington, author of "The Other America: Poverty in the United States," were alive today and writing an update of his 1962 classic, he would probably not need to change a word of the following observation from that book:

"...(T)he poor are politically invisible. It is one of the cruelest ironies of social life in advanced countries that the dispossessed at the bottom of society are unable to speak for themselves. The people of the other America do not, by and large, belong to unions, to fraternal organizations, or to political parties. They are without lobbies of their own; they put forward no legislative program. As a group, they are atomized. They have no face; they have no voice...."

Further, Harrington wrote, "society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. It is increasingly slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation."

'There hasn't been two seconds of intelligent discussion about living standards in Afghanistan'

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:31:32 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: By John Hanrahan

Clip Source: campaign.constantcontact.com

Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, one of the foremost experts on extreme poverty in underdeveloped nations, says it is past time for the United States to end its war in Afghanistan, the world's fifth poorest nation.

In an interview with Nieman Watchdog in November, Sachs said the United States should reverse its priorities and fund major sustainable development programs, which would not only help reduce Afghanistan's overwhelming poverty but would be a surer way to help achieve greater U.S. security.

President Obama on Dec. 1 announced a 30,000 troop increase in Afghanistan. But in the speech, he made no direct mention of Afghanistan's extreme poverty or the link between poverty and extremism that can produce terrorists who might threaten the United States and other western countries. He spoke of no strategy for development programs, with his only mention of development aid a brief unspecific reference to agricultural assistance.

The Dark Side of Digital Backchannels in Shared Physical Spaces

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:38:04 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: Posted by Joe McCarthy on December 04, 2009

Clip Source: gumption.typepad.com

Recently, I've been disturbed to read about some significant frontchannel disturbances arising through the use of Twitter backchannels to heckle speakers at conferences. Having finished off my last blog with an example of the beneficial ways that Twitter helps us connect with consequential strangers, I want to revisit some issues that initially arose [for me] 5 years ago, surrounding the use of another backchannel tool in another conference context, and reflect a bit on the dark side of how Twitter can leave us vulnerable to maliciously consequential strangers, even when we are in the same physical place ... and in some cases, especially when we are in the same physical space.

Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:35:44 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: By Marc Parry

Tweckle (twek'ul) vt. to abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking.

Clip Source: chronicle.com

Once upon a time, conference goers could do little more than passively fork their cheesecake when a snooze-inducing keynote speaker took the podium. No longer. The microblogging service Twitter is changing a staple of academic life from a one-way presentation into a real-time conversation. Flub a talk badly enough and you now risk mobilizing a scrum of digital-spitball-slinging snark-masters. This is from a higher-education conference in Milwaukee:

we need a tshirt, "I survived the keynote disaster of 09"

Lack of computer access hampers some students

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:50:54 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Julija Pivoriunaite's heart sinks when one of her teachers at Glasgow Middle School announces that students must go online to do a homework assignment. It happens almost every school day.

The 11-year-old's mind whirls with the complicated and stressful options available to get her assignments done, since her family has no reliable Internet service at home. She could work after classes in her Fairfax County school's computer lab, but it is open just two days a week. The library has free computers, but time online is limited if it's busy. Finding rides is tough.

Stage Fright

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:06:19 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: How to read Philip Roth's quartet on aging.
By Judith Shulevitz

Updated Monday, Nov. 16, 2009, at 6:54 AM ET

Clip Source: www.slate.com

Not long ago, Philip Roth gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal, one of several in various publications that occasioned some surprise, since Roth is a notoriously reclusive writer. In this interview, he revealed that his latest novel, The Humbling, is the third of four short novels. The first two, Everyman and Indignation, came out in 2006 and 2008, respectively. The fourth, called Nemesis, will be published next year. "Together," he said, "the four make a quartet."

A need to 'dig beneath the corporate surface'

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:17:02 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: COMMENTARY | November 10, 2009

Simon Johnson of MIT says reporting like Ida Tarbell's of 100 years ago is badly needed today. One suggestion: the press should take on the financial institutions that helped cause the financial collapse, and are even benefiting from it.

Clip Source: www.niemanwatchdog.org

Economist Simon Johnson wants to see modern-day muckrakers take on the nation’s economic collapse and the financial institutions that helped precipitate -- and are even benefiting from -- the collapse.

In an interview with Nieman Watchdog, Johnson, professor of global economics and management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, emphasized that he believes there are many fine journalists doing a good job of covering the economic news on a day-to-day basis. What’s largely missing from the mainstream press coverage of the last year, though, is “the long, in-depth, comprehensive dissection of a financial institution, going through all the nuances and details of how the institution is run, taking a skeptical look at the people who run it, and investigating how we got to where we are today.”

Are Today's Grads Unprofessional?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:27:17 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: — David Moltz
October 23, 2009

Clip Source: www.insidehighered.com

Today’s college graduates do not exhibit as much professionalism as their employers expect of them, according to a new study from York College of Pennsylvania.

As part of the small liberal arts college’s effort to rebrand itself as a place where “professionalism” is cultivated, its newly created Center for Professional Excellence commissioned a survey of more than 500 human resources professionals and business leaders to gauge not only what they think “professionalism” means but also how well the recent college graduates they have hired exhibit it.

The results of the survey, released Friday, suggest that colleges need to change how they prepare their students for the working world, particularly by reinforcing soft skills like honoring workplace etiquette and having a positive demeanor.

Correcting a Style Guide October 13, 2009

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:02:10 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: — Jennifer Epstein
October 13, 2009

Clip Source: www.insidehighered.com

Scholars turn to style manuals for guidance in authoring error-free manuscripts, but what happens when the manual itself is laden with errors?

Users of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association are trying to answer that question now, after the APA last week released dozens of corrections to the first printing of the book’s sixth edition. In addition to being used in psychology, the manual is also used in sociology, economics, business, nursing and justice administration, among other fields.

“It’s egregious,” said John Foubert, an associate professor of education at Oklahoma State University, who bought two copies of the book – one for his office and one for home – when it was released in July. “These are the standards for how we write our manuscripts and how our students write their papers …. The irony is so thick.”

Write Like Sarah Palin

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:29:38 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: A Slate contest.
Posted Monday, Nov. 23, 2009, at 6:45 PM ET

Clip Source: www.slate.com

What is the single worst sentence in Sarah Palin's Going Rogue? According to Slate's Going Rogue index, it comes on Page 102: "As the soles of my shoes hit the soft ground, I pushed past the tall cottonwood trees in a euphoric cadence, and meandered through willow branches that the moose munched on." Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times didn't have to read past the first paragraph for her nomination: "I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier."

These sentences have the markings of what might be called the high Palin style (her writing, as opposed to her speeches): multiple references to local flora and fauna, heavy use of PSAT vocabulary, slightly defensive tone, difficult-to-parse meaning.

Nature's Rejects

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:51:57 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: The music of the castrati.
By Jan Swafford

Posted Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, at 1:28 PM ET

Clip Source: www.slate.com

It's not the pyrotechnic pieces that are the most difficult, Cecilia Bartoli says. "The beautiful sad arias are the hardest to sing, because I am moved almost to tears. I know they were singing those arias out of their own sorrow." Bartoli is talking about her new recording, Sacrificium, which concerns the most exquisitely unsettling episode in the history of music: the castrati and the music written for them.

From the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, tens of thousands of male children were castrated before puberty to preserve their high voices, then subjected to a brutal and relentless program of vocal training. The first instruction, wrote an observer, "was inseparable from the whip." As in all eras of musical education, the result was a few idolized stars like the celebrated Farinelli; a steady supply of well-trained singers for church, court, and opera; and myriad also-rans and nobodies. In this case, particularly tragic nobodies.

How to Write a Great Novel

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:26:32 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: By ALEXANDRA ALTER

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Richard Powers lounges in bed all day and speaks his novels aloud to a laptop computer with voice-recognition software. Junot Diaz, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning novel "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," shuts himself in the bathroom and perches on the edge of the tub with his notebook when he's tackling a knotty passage. Hilary Mantel, whose Tudor drama "Wolf Hall" claimed this year's Man Booker Prize, jumps in the shower when she gets stuck. "The number of pages I've got that are water marked, I can't tell you," Ms. Mantel said.

An unusually robust crop of books from some of the biggest names in literature has landed this fall. Kazuo Ishiguro, Orhan Pamuk, Mr. Powers and Nicholson Baker have new books out this fall, along with a host of other prominent authors.

Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:12:21 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins

Clip Source: blog.oup.com

Birds are singing, the sun is shining and I am joyful first thing in the morning without caffeine. Why you ask? Because it is Word of the Year time (or WOTY as we refer to it around the office). Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year. This announcement is usually applauded by some and derided by others and the ongoing conversation it sparks is always a lot of fun, so I encourage you to let us know what you think in the comments.

Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: unfriend.

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:49:24 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: By WINNIE HU
Published: November 14, 2009

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Between Craigslist and eBay, the Internet is well established as a marketplace where one person’s trash is transformed into another’s treasure. Now, thousands of teachers are cashing in on a commodity they used to give away, selling lesson plans online for exercises as simple as M&M sorting and as sophisticated as Shakespeare.

While some of this extra money is going to buy books and classroom supplies in a time of tight budgets, the new teacher-entrepreneurs are also spending it on dinners out, mortgage payments, credit card bills, vacation travel and even home renovation, leading some school officials to raise questions over who owns material developed for public school classrooms.

“To the extent that school district resources are used, then I think it’s fair to ask whether the district should share in the proceeds,” said Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.