[ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround NetHappenings News & Resources


Howdy,

Happy Reading for Today.


<Karen>


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CATCHING DIGITAL CHEATERS
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/plagiarism.html>

Learn how to write proper quotations, citations, and bibliographies.
Find website sources that are used by cheaters and find the website
sources that are use to fight digital cheating.

Electronic Sources: APA Style of Citation
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/APAcopyrightelectronic.html
How to cite email, discussion groups, journal articles,
individual works, parts of works, magazine articles.
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1)
Are you going to Vote? Do you want to learn who gave them money and how much they gave? 
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/vote.html
Did you send in some money to someone's presidential campaign? Did your neighbor? How much and to who? Type in your address and see who your neighbors have donated money to. 
Or type in someone's name to see who they contributed to.

2)
Alaska Day: October 18, 1867
http://www.cityofsitka.com/alaskaday/
Details about this annual event that "commemorates the Purchase Transfer of Russian claim of Alaska to the United States of America at Sitka on Oct. 18, 1867, and celebrates the diversity of cultures and historical perspectives of our people." Features illustrated histories of the transfer and the festival, and links to 
information about Sitka, Alaska. From the City of Sitka.


3)
About American Forests
http://www.americanforests.org/
Mission: Our mission is to grow a healthier world.
Vision: Our vision is to have healthy forest ecosystems for every community.
Strategy: Our strategy for achieving the mission is to provide action opportunities 
to targeted audiences to enable them to improve their environment with trees.
We do this by using the best science to identify conservation issues, then develop 
and market practical solutions that individuals and groups can apply.
American Forests' targeted audiences are individuals, community groups,
government at all levels, educators, and businesses.

4)
Do you want to motivate students with music?
http://www.Flocabulary.com
Flocabulary uses the educational power and social appeal of hip-hop music to foster literacy and promote academic success in the classroom and beyond. With our CDs, books, website, dynamic live shows and workshops, we bring our groundbreaking concept to thousands of students, teachers, and families. We are committed to making our products affordable for those in need. 

5)
Current TV
http://www.current.tv/
Website for this independent cable and satellite TV network and social news site launched in 2005 and led by former U.S. vice president Al Gore. Features a broadcast schedule, online "pods" (short nonfiction videos that tell a story, profile a character, or share an idea) that include viewer-created content, suggested topics and instructions for user-submitted material, and opportunities to vote on material. Requires free registration to contribute. 

The Alliance for Climate Protection
http://www.climateprotect.org/
The mission of this organization, founded by former U.S. vice president Al Gore, "is to persuade the American people -- and people elsewhere in the world -- of the importance and urgency of adopting and implementing effective and comprehensive solutions for the climate crisis." Its site features articles with suggestions for reducing 
climate change at home and at work, stories about people who are
working to help solve the crisis, and video clips.


6)
The Smoking Gun: Turn On, Tune In, Rat Out
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/leary/leary.html
This site addresses 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary's "work as a government informant in the early 1970s, a role detailed in FBI files recently obtained by The Smoking Gun. Jailed on narcotics charges in 1974, Leary began cooperating with FBI agents investigating his 1970 escape from a California prison." Features documents from Leary's FBI file, including excerpts from interview transcripts. 

7)
Group of Net, Media Companies To Announce Copyright Guidelines
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119269788721663302.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of Internet, media and technology companies plans
to announce today a set of guidelines they have agreed on aimed at
protecting copyrights online, according to a person familiar with the
matter.
The companies supporting the principles include CBS Corp., Dailymotion,
Microsoft Corp., NBC Universal, News Corp.'s Fox and MySpace units, Viacom
Inc. and Walt Disney Co., the familiar person says. Notably absent is Google
Inc., which had been in discussions about possibly joining the group, people
familiar with the matter say.
The guidelines are meant to address copyright-related issues that have
flared up as user posting of content -- particularly video -- to the Web has
boomed.


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MUSIC And COPYRIGHT LAW
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/Home_MUSIC.html>

How much do you understand about what you can download
and use in the classroom. Do you know what fair use is?
Find out the issues, ethics and procedures

File Sharing is Not Theft
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musiclaw4.html
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8)
Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/media/18broadcast.html?ei=5065&en
=3587dbb202bd2dcc&ex=1193371200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 ? The head of the Federal Communications Commission has
circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules,
including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper
and a television or radio station in the same city.
Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the
next two months ? a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for
some executives of media conglomerates.
Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago investor who is seeking to complete
a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against
the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York
Post and a Fox television station in New York.

9)
The New York Times announced that as of midnight tonight (US EST, 19 Sep)
the New York Times pay to view Select Service is no more.
All content previously offered under the paid service is now immediately available for all to view. 

10)
Some Basic Features You Should Demand When Buying a PC
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/News/mossberg.htm
It?s time for my annual fall PC buyer?s guide and, surprisingly, 10 months after Microsoft?s Vista operating system emerged, Vista is still the biggest puzzle in consumers? computer-buying decisions. Back in January, when I reviewed the massive new operating system, which took more than five years to develop, I called it ?unexciting? because many of the breakthrough features Microsoft had planned for it had been jettisoned, and most of the rest were already present in the rival Apple Macintosh operating system, OS X. 


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Women In Science Special Edition
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/womenspecialedition.html
Changing Girls' Attitudes About Computers
Computer Wonder Women
National Women's History Month
What you can do to help GRRLS get into technology!
Best Online Resources For Women and Minorities in Science and Technology
Educating Girls in the New Computer Age
HERSTORIES Classroom Project
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11)
"The World Digital Library initiative
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/17/business/library.php
will digitize unique and rare materials from libraries and other
cultural institutions around the world and make them available free of charge on the Internet. These materials include manuscripts, maps, books, musical scores, sound recordings, films, prints and photographs. The prototype was developed by the Library of Congress and UNESCO with five other partner institutions: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Egypt, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of Russia, and the Russian State Library. The prototype functions in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, the six official languages of the United Nations, as well as in Portuguese. It features search and browse by place, time, topic, and contributing institution. UNESCO and the Library of Congress signed an agreement to build 
the World Digital Library at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 17 October, 2007

12)
Daniel Cassidy 2007 American Book Award Winner
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/irish.html
will appear in NY to speak about the book
How the Irish Invented Slang
November 6th 7:30 PM New York
http://www.irishartscenter.org/language.htm

13)
Captive Shark Had "Virgin Birth"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6681793.stm
This 2007 article describes how genetic testing has confirmed that a female hammerhead shark reproduced through parthenogenesis, the type of reproduction that "occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male." Includes an audio clip, diagram of how parthenogenesis takes place, and 
links to related articles.

14)
The Elements Song: Do Your Students need to learn the Periodic Table?
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/IEC/elementsong.html
Voted the funniest page you'll be happy to share it.
Using the   device sing along with Tom Lehrer and

15)
Rock The Web on November 14, 2007.
http://www.rocktheweb.org/index.html
Engage the brand new or soon-to-be
voters in your U.S. History and government classes by joining in this
first-time "event" for the 2008 presidential election cycle. Specifically
designed for high school and college students, the event will allow groups
from thousands of high schools to join via the web in a live forum with
many of the top presidential candidates. Then they will be able to "vote"
through the Rock The Web site. See the detailed schedule by clicking on
"Program" under the Schools menu. This event is being presented by The Lou
Frey Institute of Politics & Government at the University of Central
Florida and the EWN Foundation. along with several partners (see the
site).
Schools must preregister (see form or link for "schools" on the home
page). A teacher may enroll as the coordinator for his/her school (one
coordinator per school, please). Once a school preregisters, its teachers
can receive a log-in, access the accompanying lesson plans to prepare
students, and have their students to "register to vote."

16)
IMPLEMENTING DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE
Upon lawful request and for a thousand dollars, Comcast, one of the nation's leading telecommunications companies, will intercept its customers' communications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The cost for performing any FISA surveillance "requiring deployment of an intercept device" is $1,000.00 for the "initial start-up fee (including the first month of intercept service)," according to a newly disclosed Comcast Handbook for Law Enforcement. Thereafter, the surveillance fee goes down to "$750.00 per month for each subsequent month in which the original 
[FISA] order or any extensions of the original order are active."
With respect to surveillance policy, the Comcast manual hews closely to the letter of the law, as one would hope and expect. "If your [FISA intercept] request pertains to individuals outside the U.S., please be sure you have complied with all the requirements in 50 U.S.C. sections 105A and/or 105B," the manual says, referring to provisions of the Protect America Act that was enacted last month. "Requests such as these can not be honored after one year and must be dated prior to February 5, 2008, unless extended by Congress." Comcast will also comply with disclosure demands presented in the form of National Security Letters. However, the manual says, "Attention must be paid to the various court proceedings in which the 
legal status of such requests is at issue."
In short, "Comcast will assist law enforcement agencies in their investigations while protecting subscriber 
privacy as required by law and applicable privacy policies."
At the same time, "Comcast reserves the right to respond or object to, or seek clarification of, any legal requests and treat legal requests for subscriber information in any manner consistent with applicable law." The role of telecommunications companies in intelligence surveillance is under increased scrutiny as the Bush Administration seeks to shield the companies from any liability associated with their cooperation in 
what may be illegal warrantless surveillance.
Also, there are new indications that the unauthorized warrantless surveillance program pre-dated 9/11. The Rocky Mountain News, the Washington Post, and others reported allegations that the government may have penalized Qwest Communications for refusing to participate in a pre-9/11 National Security Agency surveillance program that the company believed might be illegal. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202485.html
The Washington Post editorialized yesterday that the telecommunications companies should indeed be immunized against liability, as the Bush Administration desires. Even though it is not known exactly what the companies did, the Post said, they "seem to us to have been acting as patriotic 
corporate citizens in a difficult and uncharted environment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301069.html
Writing in Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald disputed that view, arguing that patriotism lies in compliance 
with the law, not in mere obedience to executive authority.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/14/rule_of_law/index.html

17)
Orange to offer UNLOCKED iPhones in France
http://www.powerpage.org/
France to Have Option to Buy Unlocked iPhone Through Orange
If you didn't want to live in France before, you may want to think
about moving over there now.
Following up on the news of Apple choosing Orange as its exclusive
telecom provider for the iPhone per its release in the country on
November 29th, Orange has also announced that the company will be
selling an unlocked version of the iPhone for a somewhat higher price.

18)
Google Blinks, and Today the Internet is a Little Less Free
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/latest-content-id-tool-for-youtube.html
YouTube introduced the beta version of its ?video identification? system, the purpose of which is to control the amount of infringing material that appears on the site. Google has developed a tool that will likely restrict the flow of legal content over the Internet, and absolutely raises the bar for each and every entity that serves as a conduit for copyrighted works. 

19)
Louisiana College account data lost
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/10592402.html
Hundreds of thousands of people who applied for financial aid from the State of Louisiana may have had sensitive data exposed when a Boston company lost a bundle of records, The Advocate of Baton Rouge reports. The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance hired Iron Mountain Inc. to store state scholarship and student-aid files, which included bank-account data and the Social Security numbers of students and parents. But the company lost the records during a move. The financial-aid office says it's unlikely that any of the missing information is being misused: All the records are compressed, and it would take "sophisticated computer skills" to unlock them, according to one official. But the office has posted an online message about the data loss, and it has set up a telephone hot line 
for people concerned about identity theft.

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