Diane's Discoveries

Hillary Clinton, Through a Lens Wrongly

Here's a well thoughtout description of women competing in the world. Read the whole article by Deborah Tannen, an authority on the subject.

Hillary Clinton, Through a Lens Wrongly

By Deborah Tannen

This isn't about Hillary. Well, okay, it is.

But it isn't only about her. It's also about every woman who has ever been underestimated, failed to get credit for work she did or been denied opportunities to do work at which she would have excelled.

With Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential primary victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island last week, Democratic voters continue to evaluate her abilities and her chances of winning in a general election -- and are confronting the double bind that women in authority, including Clinton, face: If they speak in ways expected of leaders, they're seen as too aggressive, but if they speak in ways expected of women, they're seen as less confident and competent than they really are.

Companies invite me to speak about my research on women and men at work because they want to make sure that they accurately assess everyone's abilities when deciding whom to promote. Just so, voters need to understand the double bind when deciding who deserves the ultimate promotion to presidential candidate....

Link: Hillary Clinton, Through a Lens Wrongly - washingtonpost.com.

Pictures worth more than a thousand words...

I presently use Flickr for my online photo storage, but if you're looking for an alternative website to upload your photos, check this article in USAToday by Jefferson Graham: Pictures worth more than a thousand words on upgraded photo sites - USATODAY.com.

Would you pay $40 to $60 a year to ensure that all your digital photographs are safely backed up online and that you can access them from anywhere?
What if you could also share these pictures on the Internet, without bugging your friends to buy prints, in a beautiful display?
That's the offer from SmugMug and Phanfare, two photo sites with significant new upgrades. If the only photo-sharing you're familiar with is via Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Snapfish or another mainstream service whose aim is to sell you lots of products, these sites are definitely worth a look.

Every Single Being Is Creative

You will want to take five minutes to read David Warlick's notes from a presentation by Richard Florida

Link: 2 Cents Worth.

Richard Florida Presentation

Hurricane Katrina news from bloggers

This comment from Anne Davis: EduBlog Insights : EduBlog Insights.

Following the blogs

It's been hard to think about much else other than the tragedy that has unfolded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I've just been following the blogs. I put my trust in the many blogs that are from every day citizens. I look on all the evolving ones from the media with some skepticism. Many of those are informational only from that media's perspective. Usually comment features are not included. We need give and take, back and forth communications so we can develop relationships that work better than the top down mentality we currently have. I am weary of rhetoric from our political parties. I wonder if events like these will be the catalyst to help us understand how stories from many can help us develop the wisdom to trust and begin to understand that we must change. To me, it is not a question of whether bloggers are journalists. Somehow that is not relevant. Maybe this can be the toppling of how we look at journalism, if that is what we want to call it. I like to think of it as communications from the people - authentic, real and a phenomenon that we are just beginning to understand.  Will it be heeded? Will we start to trust and respect the building communities? We need more from the people. The voices need to be heard.  We need much more from our current administration. We need more voices from our educators. We need to get our student voices in the mix. Sometimes I feel real hope but I have to say at the same time I feel fear that we won't learn from all this. There is so much to sift through and it is really hard to know and understand what is true and what is not.

A Blogger Brings Reality to News

I have posted a complete post from Anne Davis so you will be sure to read it all; then you need to go to her blog and follow the links for more information: EduBlog Insights : EduBlog Insights.

Bloggers record Katrina destruction

c/Net news publishes this article, "Bloggers record Katrina destruction". It was good to see Kaye Trammel's name in the article. She gives us an up close and personal account on Kay's Hurricane Katrina Blog.  Check her post on How to help and the one on Lessons learned.

I still find it amazing to follow the conversations and be a part of these first-hand accounts. The article has numerous links to blogs and many other resources. What a top-notch resource all these first-hand accounts, photo galleries, and discussion forums will be for classroom teaching now and in the future.

This storm has had devastating effects for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The remnants of Hurricane Katrina crashed into Georgia last night. The western part of our state seemed to get the worst of it.I read on Wikipedia that  80% of New Orleans is now said to be under water, which in some places is 25 feet deep.Some experts predict a million people could become homeless as a result of the storm. What a devastating event this is! It will have far reaching effects for quite some time. My heart goes out to all the people who have been in Katrina's path. FEMA has  a list of voluntary organizations who are seeking cash donations to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states.

A couple of things I noticed about Kaye's blog that is of interest from a blogging perspective.

Here's her About blurb:

"Looks like I'm not going anywhere for this hurricane, so if you want to know what is going on in Southern Louisiana then just stop by here for my little dispatches from the front lines. As long as I have power, I'll post updates to the blog. After that if you are still interested in me, you can check me out at my normal blog so this is mass communication?."

Anne goes on to say: I wanted to point out the 'about' space as I think this is so important on blogs. I have been reading numerous blogs over the past few days, both Katrina related and educationally related. It is incredibly frustrating not to know who is behind the blog. It really makes a difference and let's you understand the author's perspective. 

This post gives her take on how she feels LSU is missing the boat in being a part of the coverage on Katrina. It's her view as a public relations professor 

Then her response to a national media reporter who said "in storms like these we see the limits of technology":

"We had 2 days notice to evacuate. Time to pay at the pump to fill the gas tank. Time to charge the mobile devices we knew would keep us company if the power went out. Blogs that let is talk to people in Germany or those 5 blocks away. Power restored within the same day it was knocked out by the hurricane.

Lest we forget I'm still typing these posts from my BlackBerry.

So don't tell me we learned the limits of technology in the last 24 hours. I say we've pushed them."

You can tell Kaye is a "true educational blogger" because in the midst of this devasting event she is continuing to teach and learn.

Here's her post on what the blog has done for her:

"I'm not done posting but I'm sure now that the event seems to be passing some of you will resume your normally scheduled lives. So before I lose you I wanted to say thank you for reading the updates, caring about the people of Southern Louisiana & the Gulf Coast & helping keep me sane.

From Israel, to Florida, to NYC, to Germany, to Indiana, and back to Baton Rouge - it has been great to have something constructive to do during the hurricane.

Being alone in an apartment while your husband is in another state during a hurricane is not the most fun thing I've done. The past few hours I have been fighting boredom & restlessness. Especially given that the power, cable & Internet are out. Having you all comment, give advice & just generally "be there" really helped manage the situation.

I'll keep updating this thing mainly because I know my family is still worried, but I did want to say thank you for reading."

Changing the Subject?

On July 24th Frank Rich, a columnist for the NY Times wrote a thorough and very enlightening editorial which I just discovered from an email I received from the NY Times. I'm glad I read the article and recommend that you read it also. Following is just a tidbit of the complete editorial; the complete article is at: Eight Days in July - New York Times.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S new Supreme Court nominee was a historic first after all: the first to be announced on TV dead center in prime time, smack in the cross hairs of "I Want to Be a Hilton." It was also one of the hastiest court announcements in memory, abruptly sprung a week ahead of the White House's original timetable. The agenda of this rushed showmanship - to change the subject in Washington - could not have been more naked. But the president would have had to nominate Bill Clinton to change this subject.

When a conspiracy is unraveling, and it's every liar and his lawyer for themselves, the story takes on a momentum of its own. When the conspiracy is, at its heart, about the White House's twisting of the intelligence used to sell the American people a war - and its desperate efforts to cover up that flimflam once the W.M.D. cupboard proved bare and the war went south - the story will not end until the war really is in its "last throes."

It takes a village

Here's an excerpt from NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's very interesting article: If It's a Muslim Problem, It Needs a Muslim Solution - New York Times.

...it is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere. Only the Muslim world can root out that death cult. It takes a village.

What do I mean? I mean that the greatest restraint on human behavior is never a policeman or a border guard. The greatest restraint on human behavior is what a culture and a religion deem shameful. It is what the village and its religious and political elders say is wrong or not allowed. Many people said Palestinian suicide bombing was the spontaneous reaction of frustrated Palestinian youth. But when Palestinians decided that it was in their interest to have a cease-fire with Israel, those bombings stopped cold. The village said enough was enough.

The Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden...

It Just Gets Worse

Just a few paragraphs from an editorial in the New York Times by Bob Herbert:It Just Gets Worse - New York Times.

Last week's terror bombings in London should be seen as a reminder not just that Mr. Bush's war was a hideous diversion of focus and resources from the essential battle against terror, but that it has actually increased the danger of terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

The C.I.A. warned the administration in a classified report in May that Iraq - since the American invasion in 2003 - had become a training ground in which novice terrorists were schooled in assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other terror techniques. The report said Iraq could prove to be more effective than Afghanistan in the early days of Al Qaeda as a place to train terrorists who could then disperse to other parts of the world, including the United States.

Larry Johnson, a former C.I.A. analyst who served as deputy director of the State Department's counterterrorism office, said on National Public Radio last week: "You now in Iraq have a recruiting ground in which jihadists, people who previously were not willing to go out and embrace the vision of bin Laden and Al Qaeda, are now aligning themselves with elements that have declared allegiance to him. And in the course of that, they're learning how to build bombs. They're learning how to conduct military operations."

Oakland Strokes win title in borrowed boat

HENLEY, ENGLAND — Just one week after claiming the U.S. Rowing Junior National Championship, the Oakland Strokes varsity women's eight captured the Peabody Cup at the Henley Women's Regatta on Sunday.

After overcoming setbacks with the borrowed boat they had to assemble, the Strokes spent three days adjusting to the boat and the 1,500-meter Henley course, which was 500 meters shorter than the Strokes are used to.

The Strokes had to row and win two races on Saturday in the single-elimination format to advance to Sunday's semifinals and final as a result of the draw for the Peabody Cup.

Cox Ariel Frost with rowers Tayrn O'Connell, Laura Heppert, Anne Schier, Ashley Jones, Sarah Moore, Lauren Hofmayer, Tory Kaso and Joanna Jacob manned the women's varsity eight boat.

In their first race on Saturday the Strokes beat King's School Worcester by at least three lengths. When the race was no longer in doubt, the Strokes dropped their stroke rate to conserve energy.

The Oakland crew defeated St. George College in the afternoon race, also by at least three lengths, to advance to the semifinals, where the Strokes faced the U.S. high school champions, the Lawrenceville School of New Jersey.

The Strokes dominated Lawrenceville, finishing three lengths ahead while conserving their energy for the final later that afternoon against the Kent School of Connecticut.

In the final, the Strokes built a lead after the first 500 meters and continued to extend it on their way to winning in a time of 5 minutes, 7 seconds, just a few seconds off the course record. The five seniors on the crew — Jones, Moore, Hofmayer, Kaso and Jacob — finished the season undefeated and won two national championships during their careers.

Source: Inside Bay Area - Oakland Tribune - Prep Sports.

P.S. Ariel's sister, Alana, will be starting her senior year at Williams College (Williamstown, MA), and is doing her second summer of research with one of her professors. Alana also loves sports and is on the Women's Softball team at Williams, but she is pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. In September Ariel will be starting her senior year at high school; she also has plans to take pre-med courses in college.

Grandma's Bragging Rights

All right everybody, you may not be interested in rowing stories but I claim "Grandma's Bragging Rights", so as you glance at this story, concentrate on the last two paragraphs (and last sentence) where it talks about Ariel Frost's team!

Strokes come back to Oakland with gold

CINCINNATI — The Oakland Strokes youth rowing program executed a clean sweep of its races at the 2005 U.S. Rowing National Youth Invitational held over the weekend.

The Strokes women's 8, lightweight women's 8 and varsity men's 4 teams each brought home a gold medal from the national championship, topping the programs' performance at last year's Invitational.

The Strokes started off the weekend with all three teams winning their events in Saturday's heats.

On Sunday, ...In the women's 8 race, the Strokes repeated as national champions in dramatic fashion. While the crews were warming for Sunday's finals, there was a collision between the Strokes and the Everett Rowing Association of Washington. The collision damaged the Strokes' boat and completely disabled Everett's boat.

After a nearly two-hour delay for repairs and to find a replacement boat, the Strokes, coxed by Ariel Frost with rowers Ashley Jones, Sarah Moore, Lauren Hofmayer, Tory Kaso, Taryn O'Connell, Jo Jacobs, Laura Huppert and Anne Schier, defeated Everett with a time of 6:56.05 for the gold.

The Strokes' women's 8 will go on to the Henley Women's Regatta in England to compete with top international crews.

The Henley Women's Regatta in England is an international, "by invitation only", event. Can you imagine practicing and competing on the Thames river in England? Ariel will be a high school senior in September; she joined the Oakland Strokes as coxswain in her freshman year.

Source of the article: Oakland Tribune - Prep Sports.