High Costs of Education

A larger proportion of students than ever attend college in the United States, yet the top colleges have become more and more selective. It’s an age of scarcity and an age of plenty. College is also an increasingly more expensive proposition, with tuition alone around $10,000/year at state colleges and over $30,000/year at private institutions. It’s a huge leap of faith; to take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt as a teenager, to study something that may or may not still prove interesting to you four years down the road, let alone relevant in a world where technology “disrupts” industries on a regular basis. This choice doesn’t impact the student alone. For many parents, having “boomerang kids” has become the new normal, delaying their retirement so that they may support the (now fully grown) baby birds that have returned to the nest.

Of course, the arguments for attending college are well-worn axioms. College graduates experience significantly lower levels of unemployment; the pay gap between college grads versus those without a four-year degree has risen every year since 1980. Some studies have even shown that the decision not to go to college has an opportunity cost as much as $500,000 over the course of a lifetime. When compared to the average debt a student assumes (now hovering around $37,000), the cost becomes negligible.

And there are the less tangible benefits that also play a role in the decision to go to, and stay in, college. There is a pervasive cultural narrative that college is the only way to acceptably enter the middle class, a narrative propagated by higher-ed PR campaigns. Colleges also provide an easy opportunity to socialize and network, a must when personal referrals make you twice as likely to be interviewed and 40% more likely to be hired. College graduates are also more likely to vote, have better health, and report higher levels of happiness than those who have only a high-school degree. There are also the experiential factors to consider; college can be transformative for some students, allowing them to discover new passions and instilling a life-long love of learning.

Of course, college is not a magical panacea. Colleges often fail to train students in the real-world skills they will need at professional jobs, with as many as 4 in 10 students graduating without the higher-level reasoning skills required to be successful in white-collar jobs. Even in booming areas such as software programming, college Computer Science curricula have the effect of driving away a lot of potential programmers. As a consequence, the industry then meets its demand for programmers either through 

Gabriells artwork

Police covering their Arse & the value of human Life..."Toddler critically injured in Georgia SWAT raid"

This story has is amazing in the police trying to cover their rear end. Clearly there was negligence by them. There informant was wrong but to suggest that they did nothing wrong and an innocent child, and even the parents appear to be innocent as well is amazing. The police should be at the least covering all the cost of the child care. That should be automatic and not something that needs to be thought about. Their actions, whether appropriate or not led to the injury of this innocent child. This is irrespective of the parent insurance. The second obvious fact is there are thermal camera's that are used, to suggest that they did not know is to suggest their ignorance or negligence or outright lie. There is no other options. Clearly they did not know all the occupants of the building so they could have waited till the morning, but because of cost they chose to rush the building leading directly to the injury of this child.

We need to be a society that value's people, all of them. Clearly the police are trying to cover there actions saying they did nothing wrong, but they did. Which denigrates all police who are trying in earnest to protect the people, all the people.

The problem we have in society is we have come to accept that civilian life is less important than police life, this is true in Afghanistan, iraq and Georgia.

Toddler critically injured in Georgia SWAT raid

ATLANTA — A toddler was critically injured when a stun grenade was thrown into his crib during a SWAT raid, his family said.
Police came to the house around 3 a.m. Thursday, and the grenade they threw into the house exploded on the child's pillow, Vox said. The 19-month-old child, Bounkham Phonesavanh, was severely injured.
“He’s in the burn unit,” his mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, told WSB-TV. “We go up to see him and his whole face is ripped open. He has a big cut on his chest.”
Police raided the home after deputies bought drugs from someone at the location, and executed a no-knock warrant on the Habersham County home. They said they saw nothing to indicate there was a child at the home, according to Vox.
Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell told the AP that officers followed the correct procedure by using the grenade. When deputies and police officers arrived at the house, something was blocking the door from the inside.
USA Today reported that Terrell didn't know it was the playpen of the 19-month-old child, nor did police know that the boy was in the playpen sleeping.
"There was an obstruction, they inserted a flash bang, they had to push the door open. When they entered the door, they noticed it was a playpen, or like a pack-and-play type device," Terrell told USA Today. "There was a young child in the pack-and-play."
Terrell said their confidential informants, who bought drugs at the house, told them there were not any children in the home. He told USA Today his office always checks to see if there is a possibility of children in the home, but an interview with the child’s parents revealed they were keeping the children out of sight.
"They (told us they) knew that the homeowner's son was selling meth, so they kept the children out of sight in a different room while any of these going-ons were happening," Terrell told USA Today.“I’ve talked to the D.A., I’ve talked to the GBI,” Terrell told Access North Georgia. “I’ve given them the whole information and they say there’s nothing else we can do. There’s nothing to investigate, there’s nothing to look at. Given the information given, GBI’s SWAT team would have done the exact same thing — they’d have used the exact same scenario to enter the house.”
"He's in the burn unit. We go up to see him and his whole face is ripped open. He has a big cut on his chest." —Alecia Phonesavanh
The family was visiting from out of town, staying with a friend after their Wisconsin home was burned. They said they do not have health insurance, and friends have set up a GoFundMe* to cover the medical costs.
Their lawyer, Mawuli Mel Davis, said the family is encouraging further investigation and hoping for criminal prosecution of the officers.
"It's unbelievable those officers continue to be on the street and continue to be employed after the way the family was treated and the son was injured," Davis told the AP.The suspect, Wanis Thomethera, 30, was arrested along with three others during the raid.

He must have been a ....

Women are always saying that men can't confess to being lost. Now I  never really have that problem, I just like to solve the problem on my own.

Reliving the Crimean War or A new Crimean War

Wiki Article on the Crimean war
Russo-Japanese War

No one seems to be talking about history, but it is reasonable to take a second look, not just at the populations of the region but also at the history of the region. This is a region that the has had vast conflicts in the past and much human suffering involved. No nation in the region has not been involved. Its an interesting example of how choices that were made 100+ years ago are still affecting the choices today. When looking at the 20th century it was bloody and war mongering, but not compared to the 19th century. In fact if one looks at the 20th century the big change has been the information made available to the public. Mama's now know where their babies going to go and die. Or not, for as the century developed we can now send in remotely piloted vehicles to take out the guilty, their children and anyone else who happens to be in our way.

The big problem than is information is becoming the thing to keep secret. Now It appears that Russia is trying to right a problem that came about well over 100 years ago. Why its taken this long is a surprise, but that is what it appears, and most are suspecting that if you just play stupid for long enough everyone will forget. Which is probably true, so... so anyone want to place a bet on Russia keeping at least southern Crimea?

Sugar Tax or Tax the fatties

Sugar tax may be necessary, England's chief medical officer says

C & H Sugar
Tate & Lyles Golden Syrup
(strangely enough they sold off the sugars devision in 2010 to an American Company)

This is probably a good idea, apart from the evidence of its effectiveness at curbing consumption is not to evident. If we compare the consumption of tobacco to sugar increased tax's to my knowledge has never been proven to be effective in cutting out, people still seem to smoke at enormous amounts. 

Would taxing sugar or no, probably not, and the secondary products would have less effect. Increasing people eating healthy would have a better effect. The most effect to curb obesity is to design living spaces for walking and having an active lifestyle. 

What we really need is better labeling and more research into the effects of the sugars and processed food ingredients effects on people.

Freedom to choose or not to

The question arrises what is the attorney generals job supposed to be. Is it there job to determine the law or to defend it and prosecute it. For that matter what is the role of the government, is it to protect the people or to promote itself.
These are two end of a spectrum, which must be addressed. It seems as though many people have a more communist view that the government should take care of everything and let them decide on the other hand others have the view the government is there to defend the people, provide law and order, promote infrastructure but largely step aside for daily lives.
These are two very different views. Lately most of our politicians have been voted in on the premise that the government would take care of us. Ie Obama care.
  Erik Holder announced that in his opinion that Discriminatory Laws Don't Need Defending. I suppose that he is looking back to laws and orders in Nazi Germany and comparing discriminatory laws in that manor. In some ways then he is correct. Nazi Germany laws that enshrined persecution of one group against another was wrong, not just wrong but evil. Though this is not accurate analogy as no one is harming life or limb, other in reference to abortion and one group believes its just a blob of flesh, and the other that its a life. Thus it would appear to me to be that those who believe its a life can argue that they should resist the governments and when brought to trial argue that they were justified as the argument the attorney general gives and thus the president.
    Ultimately the president and the attorney general are responsible for upholding the law of the land, whether they like or agree with it or not. They nor I can pick and choose. The constitution is the law of the land and says that we elect politicians who pass laws.
   Some have argued that as it contradicts the constitution then the state attorney generals don't have to defend the law. The supreme court has not ruled that any states law on same sex marriage has breached the federal law, thus that argument has no grounds. We are a society that has said we have the rule of law, but now the attorney general says we can pick and choose which of those we will enforce. Are  not all laws discriminatory in that they say one set of people, can or can not do something. Ie. they say those who speed will get a ticket, those who break in and rob a house can not and will be penalized. Thats what a lawful society does, it eliminates the arbitrary of individuals. The DOJ/AG has to work with the courts, but they are not the court, the courts are the courts and the AG is the AG prosecuting the governments case.

I actually don't have a huge issue with the whole point as I don't see it as any different than what they have had for ten years, it changes nothing under God. It allows a lot of people to get on their high horse and push people away on all sides, but I do have an issue with the government spending so much time on it when they have other things to do, like fix the health care bill.
Erik Holder on discriminitory laws don't need defending

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu

In the 19th Century, Japanese people called the northern island of Hokkaido "Ezochi".

It meant "Land of the Ainu", a reference to the fair-skinned, long-haired people who had lived there for hundreds of years.

The Ainu were hunters and fishermen with animist beliefs.