************************************************************** Educational CyberPlayGround Community http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ K12 Newsletters Mailing List - Subscribe - Unsubscribe - Set Preferences http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/K12Newsletters.html Advertise on K12 Mailing List http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html All Mailing Lists http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html ************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NHN: 1/18/05 NETHAPPENINGS NEWSLETTER #11 NEW THIS WEEK for <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NHnewsletter.html> ***************************************************************** Dear Readers, Welcome to the Net Happenings Newsletter, launched by the Educational CyberPlayGround, this newsletter features a new format with the emphasis on both news and resources. Karen Ellis* Founder of the Educational CyberPlayGround invites others to help sponsor the Net Happenings Newsletter which is published to all members of the NetHappenings Mailing List. Written by Classroom Teacher Alan Haskvitz 1997 National Teacher's Hall of Fame All USA Today First Team Teacher 1994 National Middle Level Teacher of the Year (NCSS) [e] newsletter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [w] http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/al.html <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> IN THIS ISSUE <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> IN THE NEWS Crime against teachers Military Recruiting on campus ADHD drugs study Rich Parents abandon school districts ABC's pick people the year Album of the Year and it's impact on technology Technology + Society predictions of the year Recent Microsoft Service Pack 2 Patches New Source to search Google privately How to avoid DRM spyware Hacker software will protect everybody INTERESTING SITES Nation master Investors Supporting Spyware Subscription logins and passwords for use Ebooks for disabled users Sign up for the national do-not-call list Gifted resources Conferences QUOTES FACTOIDS SITES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> IN THE NEWS <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> Underpaid, and now this. Violent Crimes Against Students Decrease: But not Crimes Against Teachers. Statistics indicate that crime is down, but the report found that from 1998 through 2002 teachers were the victims of an annual average of 233,900 crimes at school, more than 90,000 of them violent. That translates to an annual rate of 51 crimes per 1,000 teachers. The report shows that urban teachers are more than twice as likely to be victims of violent crimes than those in suburban or rural school districts and that male teachers are attacked more often than female teachers. Some insurance companies are now offering coverage. <http://www.horacemann.com/html/disability/darp.html> <http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/11/30/violent_crime _in_schools_drops_by_50_percent_since_early_1990s/> Republican military recruiting law invalid according to courts Universities may bar military recruiters from their campuses without risking the loss of federal money, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled recently. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/education/29cnd-recruit.html> This decision was in reaction to the Republican backed law that would force universities to make a decision between losing federal funds if they refused. <http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2004/03/23/University/U.House.Bill.May .Give.Military.Recruiters.Campus.Access-638866.shtml> ADHD Drug Used As Study Helper Adderall, a medication normally used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Adderall is the amphetamine most widely prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD. As with other amphetamines, regular users of Adderall can soon become dependent on it to get through the day. Dubbed "kiddie coke," Adderall is being used - and abused - by increasing numbers of high school and college students on campuses across the United States. <http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1130/p11s02-legn.html?s=hns> "In Fremont, Calif., immigrant students are earning top grades, and their affluent parents are threatening to create their own school in order to keep standards high. Hear NPR's Claudio Sanchez." click and listen <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4190129> ABC News named bloggers as 2004's people of the year. Their reasoning? Bloggers influenced the year in politics and news. Bloggers unseated Trent Lott in 2002, they fact checked Dan Rather and they provided first hand accounts of the tsunami. What is Blogging, explained. <http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/whats_the_deal/> Grey Album is Album of the Year 2004 The Grey Album Danger Mouse Jay-Z, meet the Beatles: Because of current copyright law, the Grey Album is illegal. The best album of the year is illegal because of copyright law. You are not allowed to buy a copy of the best album of the year because of copyright law. Is copyright law promoting art? http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/music/musiclaw3.html In all, 1,286 internet experts looked at the future impact of the internet and assessed predictions about how technology and society will unfold. http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/trends.html Microsoft Patches Flaw in Service Pack 2 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1504-2005Jan11.html> Microsoft Corp. issued a trio of software updates to fix security holes in computers powered by its Windows operating system, including one flaw that hackers are using to infiltrate PCs equipped with a massive security upgrade the company released just five months ago. Download http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com An open source Google - without the ads Daniel Brandt has released the source code for his "Google scraper" a server that uses Google's minimal 'ie' interface to provide users with ad-free searches http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/11/open_source_google_scraper Hackers Use DRM To Plant Massive Amounts Of Spyware <http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57700514> Hackers are turning digital rights management features of Microsoft's Windows Media Player against users by fooling them into downloading massive amounts of spyware, adware, and viruses. Think Like a Hacker By Deb Radcliff Network Life, 01/09/05 http://www.networklifemag.com/weblogs/securitychief/2005/007187.html Last week, I interviewed a hacker named Geoff Shivley, whose experiences remind me of the hackers I encountered while researching the infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick for a best-selling book. Like other hackers I know, Shivley started young, in middle school. And he began with phones payphones, specifically--which he switched on and off and made ring with musical tones to impress his friends. This, ahem, skill, is called "phreaking." <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> INTERESTING SITES <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> Nation Master: Let's students compare countries like no other and is great for bar bets. This is the best geography site on the web for statistics to compare countries. NationMaster has this and more: Most Murderous (Columbia, South Africa, Jamaica) , Most Militaristic (Israel, Singapore, United States), Most Taxed (Vatican City, Falkland Islands, Monaco), Longest Living ( Andorra, Macau, San Marino) , and much more. Should be easy to motivate students with this type of data. http://www.nationmaster.com/ Investors Supporting Spyware <http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/investors/> Products considered spyware, due to tracking and/or collection of sensitive information (often, lists of web sites users visit) either without any notice and consent at all, or without meaningful, clear notice yielding informed consent; and they have received major financial investments. Ebooks for disabled users with visual impairments who can use a service like TumbleBooks Readables http:www.tumblebooks.com to increase font size and those with mobility impairments who can use an arrow or another key to turn pages when turning pages on a physical book would be impossible. Gov Track http://www.govtrack.us/ Want to know the status of a bill on the floor of Congress, who misses the most votes, or who gets the most bills passed? GovTrack.us is like School House Rock on steroids for adults (oh, and children). Govtrack.us uses the Technorati API to show what bloggers are saying about bills as they work their way through Congress. National Do Not Call List Sign Up Website <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.html> Teaching the gifted learner <http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/gifted.html> Conferences for all subject areas You can even sign up for notification by subject and country. http://www.conferencealerts.com/ Music conferences <http://www.sun.rhbnc.ac.uk/Music/Conferences/> Technology conferences <http://www.imd.macewan.ca/imd/content.php?contentid=26> <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> QUOTES <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~Author Unknown What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. ~Karl Menninger "Those people who don't drink and don't smoke and eat all the right foods...they don't live any longer; it just seems a helluva lot longer." ~ Joseph Jackson Willett, 95 <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> FACTOIDS <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> Approximately one-third of the nation's teachers leave the profession during their first three years of teaching, and almost half leave within five years. 96% of Americans believe it is important that public school teachers be licensed in the subject areas in which they teach. <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> SITES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> University Handbooks from most everywhere <http://www.campus-adr.org/Staff_Admin_Building/searchpolicies.html> Car Reviews from a Family Viewpoint <http://www.motorists.org/new/carreviews/index.html> Bug Me Not A link to a large number of subscription logins and passwords for use at the free websites of newpapers that require users to subscribe. It's http://www.bugmenot.com/ There's also a Firefox extension for it that's very nice: http://extensions.roachfiend.com/index.php Thanks for reading, Al http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/al.html TO SUBSCRIBE TO NETHAPPENIGS <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html> <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> NetHappenings Newsletter copyright Educational CyberPlayGround. All rights reserved worldwide. For information on reproducing items from this newsletter, please visit http://www.edu-cyberpg.com//Community/NHnewsletter.html Subscription instructions are available at: http://www.edu-cyberpg.com//Community/NHnewsletter.html Internal and External Redistribution of this email needs to contain this copyright information box. 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