What News Am I Reading? What Should You Know?
The news dump is the one abiding "feature" of the House of Lapp. It's time.
EU Tells Everyone to Stop Traveling So Much
"In the near future, people are going to become increasingly aware that aircraft emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases, far more than cars or trains," said Manfred Stock, a researcher at the climate research centre in Potsdam outside Berlin.
"If we add to that the fact that in coming decades our summers are going to get warmer and warmer, holiday-makers would do better to head for Sylt, in the North Sea, than to fly to the Seychelles," he added.
Germans are the world leaders in expenditure on foreign travel, with 2006 figures showing they accounted for 11 percent of global spending on trips abroad, but they do not seem opposed to the suggestion.
[...]
Stephen Bakan, a researcher at the Max Planck institute who attended a round table discussion on the subject, predicted that the weather changes wrought by global warming would dramatically change people's preferred holiday travel destinations.
"Travellers are in for a change of scene," he said.
"The Alps will see less and less snow in the winter, so people will go skiing in Scandinavia instead, and the Mediterranean will have to compete with beach resorts in the north."
Full text here.
High School Students Are Bored Bored Bored
According to a new study, many high school students in the United States are bored in class and have considered dropping out. The High School Survey of Student Engagement, conducted by Indiana University, surveyed 81,000 students from 110 public and private schools.
Seventy-five percent of participants attributed their boredom to a lack of interest in the material presented in class. The study also revealed that nearly a third of respondents had no interaction with their teacher. Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, the project's director suggested that student boredom stems from the teaching style used in the classroom and recommended interactive methods of teaching to engage students, like discussion and debate instead of lectures.
Full text here.
One Conservative Literally Asks For Middle Ages To Come Back
"As D'Souza continues his campaign in op-eds, speaking engagements, and television appearances, you can see the coherence of his case. There is a difference only in degree, after all, between Islamism's view of the role of women and that of James Dobson or Tim LaHaye. Very, very few women control any religious institutions on the religious right. Patriarchy rules there as it rules in Pakistan. There is only a difference in degree between Islamism's view of the relationship between mosque and state and Christianism's view of the relationship between church and state. If law cannot be neutral between competing moral ideals, and if it must reflect God's will regardless of the views of religious minorities, then you can see why D'Souza is so affronted by Turkey's secularism, and why he sees the Declaration of Independence as an essentially religious document. Any space for non-believers is, in the Islamist and Christianist view, an assault on belief itself. The notion that blasphemy, pornography, or homosexuality should be protected, let alone celebrated, is anathema to Islamists and Christianists alike. D'Souza's sole sin is to say so publicly in a way no one can misunderstand. He has blown the medievals' cover."
Full text here (you have to register, but it's free and very much worth it).
Caring For The Fate of the Montagnards (See: Vietnam War)
I had a longish debate back in the day with charvakan about the relative merits of what he called "caring about the Montagnards," which he thinks is sort of the geopolitical equivalent of selling ice to the eskimos (if I'm wrong, I'm willing to hear about it in comments). Anyway, in my travels through the labyrinthine Iraq War spending bill now being "considered" by the president, I recently found the Senate had snuck this in (the Karen are an ethnic minority fighting the Burmese junta):
"In the Senate emergency war supplemental: AUTOMATIC RELIEF FOR THE HMONG AND OTHER GROUPS THAT DO NOT POSE A THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES- Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)) is amended-- (1) in clause (vi) in the matter preceding section (I), by striking 'As' and inserting 'Except as provided in clause (vii), as'; and (2) by adding at the end the following new clause:
'(vii) Notwithstanding clause (vi), for purposes of this section the Hmong, the Montagnards, the Karen National Union/Karen Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA), the Chin National Front/Chin National Army (CNF/CNA), the Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD), the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP), the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Mustangs, the Alzados, and the Karenni National Progressive Party shall not be considered to be a terrorist organization on the basis of any act or event occurring before the date of enactment of this section. Nothing in this subsection may be construed to alter or limit the authority of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to exercise their discretionary authority pursuant to 212(d)(3)(B)(i) (8 U.S.C.1182(d)(3)(B)(i)).); and the Karenni National Progressive Party shall not be considered to be a terrorist organization on the basis of any act or event occurring before the date of enactment of this section. Nothing in this subsection may be construed to alter or limit the authority of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to exercise their discretionary authority pursuant to 212(d)(3)(B)(i) (8 U.S.C.1182(d)(3)(B)(i)).'."
Learning about the law is like watching sausage get made -- you may like the result, but you don't actually want to watch the process.
EU Tells Everyone to Stop Traveling So Much
"In the near future, people are going to become increasingly aware that aircraft emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases, far more than cars or trains," said Manfred Stock, a researcher at the climate research centre in Potsdam outside Berlin.
"If we add to that the fact that in coming decades our summers are going to get warmer and warmer, holiday-makers would do better to head for Sylt, in the North Sea, than to fly to the Seychelles," he added.
Germans are the world leaders in expenditure on foreign travel, with 2006 figures showing they accounted for 11 percent of global spending on trips abroad, but they do not seem opposed to the suggestion.
[...]
Stephen Bakan, a researcher at the Max Planck institute who attended a round table discussion on the subject, predicted that the weather changes wrought by global warming would dramatically change people's preferred holiday travel destinations.
"Travellers are in for a change of scene," he said.
"The Alps will see less and less snow in the winter, so people will go skiing in Scandinavia instead, and the Mediterranean will have to compete with beach resorts in the north."
Full text here.
High School Students Are Bored Bored Bored
According to a new study, many high school students in the United States are bored in class and have considered dropping out. The High School Survey of Student Engagement, conducted by Indiana University, surveyed 81,000 students from 110 public and private schools.
Seventy-five percent of participants attributed their boredom to a lack of interest in the material presented in class. The study also revealed that nearly a third of respondents had no interaction with their teacher. Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, the project's director suggested that student boredom stems from the teaching style used in the classroom and recommended interactive methods of teaching to engage students, like discussion and debate instead of lectures.
Full text here.
One Conservative Literally Asks For Middle Ages To Come Back
"As D'Souza continues his campaign in op-eds, speaking engagements, and television appearances, you can see the coherence of his case. There is a difference only in degree, after all, between Islamism's view of the role of women and that of James Dobson or Tim LaHaye. Very, very few women control any religious institutions on the religious right. Patriarchy rules there as it rules in Pakistan. There is only a difference in degree between Islamism's view of the relationship between mosque and state and Christianism's view of the relationship between church and state. If law cannot be neutral between competing moral ideals, and if it must reflect God's will regardless of the views of religious minorities, then you can see why D'Souza is so affronted by Turkey's secularism, and why he sees the Declaration of Independence as an essentially religious document. Any space for non-believers is, in the Islamist and Christianist view, an assault on belief itself. The notion that blasphemy, pornography, or homosexuality should be protected, let alone celebrated, is anathema to Islamists and Christianists alike. D'Souza's sole sin is to say so publicly in a way no one can misunderstand. He has blown the medievals' cover."
Full text here (you have to register, but it's free and very much worth it).
Caring For The Fate of the Montagnards (See: Vietnam War)
I had a longish debate back in the day with charvakan about the relative merits of what he called "caring about the Montagnards," which he thinks is sort of the geopolitical equivalent of selling ice to the eskimos (if I'm wrong, I'm willing to hear about it in comments). Anyway, in my travels through the labyrinthine Iraq War spending bill now being "considered" by the president, I recently found the Senate had snuck this in (the Karen are an ethnic minority fighting the Burmese junta):
"In the Senate emergency war supplemental: AUTOMATIC RELIEF FOR THE HMONG AND OTHER GROUPS THAT DO NOT POSE A THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES- Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)) is amended-- (1) in clause (vi) in the matter preceding section (I), by striking 'As' and inserting 'Except as provided in clause (vii), as'; and (2) by adding at the end the following new clause:
'(vii) Notwithstanding clause (vi), for purposes of this section the Hmong, the Montagnards, the Karen National Union/Karen Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA), the Chin National Front/Chin National Army (CNF/CNA), the Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD), the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP), the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Mustangs, the Alzados, and the Karenni National Progressive Party shall not be considered to be a terrorist organization on the basis of any act or event occurring before the date of enactment of this section. Nothing in this subsection may be construed to alter or limit the authority of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to exercise their discretionary authority pursuant to 212(d)(3)(B)(i) (8 U.S.C.1182(d)(3)(B)(i)).); and the Karenni National Progressive Party shall not be considered to be a terrorist organization on the basis of any act or event occurring before the date of enactment of this section. Nothing in this subsection may be construed to alter or limit the authority of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to exercise their discretionary authority pursuant to 212(d)(3)(B)(i) (8 U.S.C.1182(d)(3)(B)(i)).'."
Learning about the law is like watching sausage get made -- you may like the result, but you don't actually want to watch the process.
posted by Lapp at 12:20 PM
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