Monthly Archives: September 2014

Nature, Humans, post-human nature
I apologize for some shocking footage... Humanity is shocking 🙁 Nature will survive humanity and if we don #39;t come to our senses, our existence on this plane...

By: musback

Excerpt from:
Nature, Humans, post-human nature - Video

Eight men have been arrested in connection with human trafficking in Bristol

EIGHT men have been arrested in connection with human trafficking in Bristol.

Two women, aged 18 and 21, contacted police at the end of August to report incidents of sexual exploitation committed against them at a property in Eastville.

The women also gave details surrounding the arrangement of forced marriages and an investigation was launched.

As a result of police enquiries, six warrants were carried out yesterday morning under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), at four addresses in Bristol and two in Birmingham.

The properties were in Eastville, Easton, Southville and Oldbury Court in Bristol and in the Hockley area of Birmingham.

In total, eight men were arrested:

A 42-year-old man from Birmingham was arrested on suspicion of trafficking, rape and assault. He has been bailed for these offences but has been remanded in custody in relation to an outstanding warrant.

All the other men arrested were from Bristol:

Two men, aged 38 and 36, were arrested on suspicion of trafficking and have been released on bail.

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The Bristol Post commented Eight men arrested in connection with human trafficking in...

If you think that focusing on improving relationships among teachers is just a warm and fuzzy idea that doesnt really matter to student achievement, read this post by Esther Quintero, senior fellow at the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute,where this first appeared.

By Esther Quintero

Debates about how to improve educational outcomes for students often involve two camps those who focus on the impact of in-school factors on student achievement and those who focus on out-of-school factors. There are many in-school factors discussed but improving the quality of individual teachers (or teachers human capital) is almost always touted as the main strategy for school improvement. Out-of-school factors are also numerous but proponents of this view tend toward addressing broad systemic problems such as poverty and inequality.

Social capital the idea that relationships have value, that social ties provide access to important resources like knowledge and support, and that a groups performance can often exceed that of the sum of its members is something that rarely makes it into the conversation. But why does social capital matter?

Research suggests that teachers social capital may be just as important to student learning as their human capital. In fact, some studies indicate that if school improvement policies addressed teachers human and social capital simultaneously, they would go a long way toward mitigating the effects of poverty on student outcomes. Sounds good, right? The problem is: Current policy does not resemble this approach. Researchers, commentators and practitioners have shown and lamented that many of the strategies leveraged to increase teachers human capital often do so at the expense of eroding social capital in our schools. In other words, these approaches are moving us one step forward and two steps back.

I would argue Daly and Finnigan did that this somewhat broad and diffuse notion that relationships matter is not some warm and fuzzy idea, but rather that it could hold an important key to educational improvement. Social capital is malleable; policies can and do shape teachers professional networks and how they function. For example, Gamoran, Gunter and Williams (2005) showed that sustained and coherent professional development can be used to create strong collegial ties (or social capital) among teachers. Similarly, Sun, Frank, Penuel & Kim (2013) showed that strategies that promote informalteacher leadership can be a mechanism to disseminate effective classroom practices through interactions something that formal leadership networks are not well-equipped to accomplish.Supovitz, Sirinides and May 2010demonstrated that principals indirectly affect the instructional practice of teachers, which in turn produces improvements in student learning; thus, principals attention to concepts like mission and goals or community and trust have subtle yet real organizational influence. Finally, one could also imagine a set of policies that incentivized not just teacher collaboration, but entire schools within a district (or even across districts) working together, an approach that would bolster social capital and cohesiveness at another level: The entire system.

But lets back up a little bit; why is social capital such a central concept? A number of studies suggest that good things happen for students in schools where teachers work together routinely. Here I review four empirical papers* showing that students learn more when their teachers are embedded in more supportive and collegial professional networks, and that teacher collaboration may have as great an effect on student achievement as teacher human capital. I hope, as do the authors of these papers, that this information can be used to guide future investments in each [form of capital] (p. 1103).

***

Despite the importance of teacher interaction and collaboration our understanding of how they influence student outcomes is still limited (see also Datnow, 2012 and Penuel et al., 2009). In fact, few studies make that direct link.

Continued here:
Strauss: Do students learn more when their teachers work well together?

The human race is over in New Hampshire. OK, not really, but a man who was running for political office in the Live Free Or Die state named human lost his primary race last night.

Human was once known as David Montenegro, until he decided to legally change his name to human, complete with a lower-case h. He was running against Democratic state Rep. Rose Marie Rogers, but only a few wanted human in office. According to the Associated Press, human lost 181-30.

Montenegro has been legally known as human since 2012. If his name sounds familiar, thats because he was in the headlines back in November 2013 when he fought to get a vanity license plate that read COPSLIE. The state Division of Motor Vehicles initially said he couldnt use the phrase, but he eventually won his battle in court.

As the Washington Post pointed out, he explained to local media that his goal was to fight for the rights of other human beings, not to make a name for himself.

Rogers represents the city of Rochester and has held the seat since 2012.

Read more from the original source:
Human race over in New Hampshire

President Obama said the U.S. will work with a "broad coalition" of foreign partners to combat the Islamic State in his public address on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. (The Associated Press)

September 10 at 11:08 PM

President Obama has made a number of milestone foreign policy statements as he sought to move the nation to a post-9/11 national security policy that draws on American values, international coalitions, and diplomacy more than military operations to protect the country. At the core of his vision has been an end to Americas post-9/11 wars and a turn toward nation-building at home, as he has put it. The excerpts below chart the halting progress he has made toward that goal.

May 21, 2009 | At the National Archives, Washington

} Obama underscores the continued threat from al-Qaeda and the need to protect Americans. He says the country lost its way during the George W. Bush administration and pledged a counterterrorism strategy consistent with American values.

Now this generation faces a great test in the specter of terrorism. And unlike the Civil War or World War II, we cant count on a surrender ceremony to bring this journey to an end. Right now, in distant training camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives. That will be the case a year from now, five years from now, and in all probability 10 years from now.

Dec. 1, 2009 | At the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.

} Announcing an increase in U.S. troops for Afghanistan and an end date for the deployment.

I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means or our interests. And I must weigh all of the challenges that our nation faces. ... I dont have the luxury of committing to just one. Indeed, Im mindful of the words of President Eisenhower, who -- in discussing our national security said, Each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs. Over the past several years, we have lost that balance. Weve failed to appreciate the connection between our national security and our economy.

Dec. 10, 2009 | Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, Oslo

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The groundwork for Obamas post-9/11 national security policy

Bulgarias Kristalina Georgieva, who will hold the post of Commission Vice-President, responsible for Budget and Human Resources, said that Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker chose her because of her independence.

Georgieva spoke to a small group of journalists after Juncker announced the appointments of the 27 commissioners. The announcement of her portfolio made big headlines in her home country, Bulgaria, where President Rossen Plevneliev expressed pride that for the first time, a Bulgarian had received such an important Commission portfolio. Previous EU portfolios held by Bulgarians are Consumer Protection, held by Meglena Kuneva between 2007 and 2009, and Humanitarian Aid, which Georgieva still holds.

Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki introduced Georgieva's candidacy as soon as he took office, on 6 August.

Georgieva said she had learned about the possible appointment following a meeting between Plevneliev and Juncker during the 30-31 August EU summit. The summit decided on the appointment of Italian Prime Minister Federica Mogherini as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a post for which Georgieva was also a strong candidate.

>> Read: Juncker tries hard to get Georgieva on his team

Georgieva said that Juncker had chosen her because of her independence, because she is not a person who yields to pressure, be it from a government, a political party, or special interest groups.

Indeed, Georgieva, a former World Bank Vice President, has been away from her country long enough to be seen as detached from national politics. She was nominated for her first term by the centre-right government of then-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, but has never been an activist for his party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria).

In his speech, Juncker said Georgieva has won the admiration of heads of state and governments and of MEPs, and who has been able to build an impressive network of international contacts during her current term in office.

Just as Mr. Timmermans, Mrs Georgieva will have to work with all the commissioners, Juncker said. According to organigrams of appointments, only Georgieva and Frans Timmermans, the Dutch First Vice President for Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights, have all the remaining commissioners reporting to them.

Georgieva said that all the commissioners knock on the door of the budget commissioner, and that she had been doing that as Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner.

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Georgieva: Juncker chose me because of my independence