Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks - Education- msnbc.com

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Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks - Education- msnbc.com
Adds references to "laws of nature and nature's God" to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.
Replaces "democratic" in references to the form of U.S. government with "constitutional republic."
In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specifies a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
Requires economics students to "analyze the decline of the U.S. dollar including abandonment of the gold standard."
Ensures that students learn about "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association."
In teaching about the civil rights movement, students must learn about the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent approach.
Specifies that Germans and Italians were interned in the United States as well as the Japanese during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
Requires that the history of McCarthyism include "how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government." The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.
In sociology, requires the teaching of "the importance of personal responsibility for life choices" in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
In economics, the curriculum revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, to the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. The board also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout the texts with the “free-enterprise system.”
Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

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Technology Review: Solar-Power Breakthrough

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Technology Review: Solar-Power Breakthrough: "In his experimental system, Nocera immerses an indium tin oxide electrode in water mixed with cobalt and potassium phosphate. He applies a voltage to the electrode, and cobalt, potassium, and phosphate accumulate on the electrode, forming the catalyst. The catalyst oxidizes the water to form oxygen gas and free hydrogen ions. At another electrode, this one coated with a platinum catalyst, hydrogen ions form hydrogen gas. As it works, the cobalt-based catalyst breaks down, but cobalt and potassium phosphate in the solution soon re-form on the electrode, repairing the catalyst."

The second remaining step in artificial photosynthesis is developing a material that absorbs sunlight, generating the electrons needed to power the water-splitting catalysts. That will allow Nocera's catalyst to run directly on sunlight; right now, it runs on electricity taken from an outlet.

The system can use electricity from any source. But there are a couple of reasons to focus on solar. First, the ultimate goal of the research is artificial photosynthesis, because solar power is the biggest source of energy we've got.

The second is a more practical issue. Note that, near the end, the article talks about the need to improve the rate of oxygen production. Right now, the rate is very close to what would be needed in artificial photosynthesis, but not fast enough to be practical in conjunction with wind power or other sources of electricity, according to NREL's John Turner.
With his start-up company, Sun Catalytix, Nocera hopes to make the system affordable enough to allow individual homes to generate their own fuel and electricity on-site. By distributing hydrogen production in this way, the new method could potentially solve the problem of hydrogen transportation

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Op-Ed Contributors - How American trade policy relies on faulty measures of productivity. - NYTimes.com

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Op-Ed Contributors - How American trade policy relies on faulty measures of productivity. - NYTimes.com:

"With the economy still in need of government life support and the future of American manufacturing in doubt, relying on faulty productivity data is a formula for disaster."

FOR a quarter-century, American economic policy has assumed that the keys to durable national prosperity are deregulation, free trade and a swift transition to a post-industrial, services-dominated future.
In reality, though, wage gains for the average worker have lagged behind productivity since the early 1980s, a situation that free-traders usually attribute to workers failing to retrain themselves after seeing their jobs outsourced.In 2009, the data show, Americans needed 40 percent fewer hours to produce the same unit of output as in 1980.
But there’s a problem: labor productivity figures, which are calculated by the Labor Department, count only worker hours in America, even though American-owned factories and labs have been steadily transplanted overseas, and foreign workers have contributed significantly to the final products counted in productivity measures.
The result is an apparent drop in the number of worker hours required to produce goods — and thus increased productivity. But actually, the total number of worker hours does not necessarily change.
This continuing mismeasurement leads economists and all those who rely on them to assume that recorded productivity gains always signify greater efficiency, rather than simple offshoring-generated cost cuts — leaving the rest of us scratching our heads over stagnating wages.

Because productivity gains in part reflect job offshoring, not just the benefits of technology or better business practices, then the American economy has been much less innovative than widely assumed.
Digging through the recession reasons, this seems to me one indicator that do not work. Another is so called "value added tax", useless here, useless in Grecian economy.

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Iron Curtain (European history) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

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Iron Curtain (European history) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia: "'Iron Curtain.' Encyclop�dia Britannica. 2010. Encyclop�dia Britannica Online. 05 Mar. 2010 ."

1953:		Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died in Moscow and was succeeded by Georgy Malenkov.
1946:		British Prime Minister Winston Churchill popularized the term “Iron Curtain”—describing the separation between Soviet and Western nations—in a speech at Fulton, Missouri. Time line by Google search !

1. 
   

   1946

   Jul 7, 1946 - Maj. Gen. A. Kolissonitko of the soviet army greeted eight Americancorrespondents at Weimar by saying he was glad to prove how false and foolish is the fable of the iron curtain around the Russian occupation zone of Germany. IRON CURTAIN'. LIFTS, BUT-ONLY FOR QUICK PEEK ... From 'IRON CURTAIN' LIFTS, BUT ONLY FOR QUICK PEEK - Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access ...

2. 
   

   1948

   May 25, 1948 - The Iron Curtain, controversial film version of the Canadian spy trials, comes to the screen of Loew's, starting Friday. The 20th CenturyFox picture has attracted much at tention for its outspoken attack on . Communism, and been picketed in several centres. The amazing disclosures of a ... From Controversial film iron Curtain' Due into Loew's Theatre Friday . - Related web pages news.google.com/newspapers?id=ROwiAAAAIBAJ ...

3. 
   

   1950

   Feb 14, 1950 - What does the switch in Russian policy in East Ger many portend for Europe? It seems that for the present there is to be no more talk of Ger man unity, or of "getting' back to the Potsdam Agreement." Moscow has become bent on thoroughly Communising the part of Germany it controls, ... From Clamping Down The Iron Curtain . - Related web pages news.google.com/newspapers?id=PbgQAAAAIBAJ ...

4. 
   

   1951

   Jun 12, 1951 - United States air force headquarters tonight called off as hopeless a search along the iron curtain border for two United States jet fighters that vanished Friday--possibly in communist Europe. FEAR US JETS. LOST BACK OF. IRON CURTAIN Hunt in West Europe Fails to Yield Clew ... From FEAR US JETS LOST BACK OF IRON CURTAIN - Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access ...

5. 
   

   1952

   May 5, 1952 - The latest State Department regulator regarding visits by American citizens to the Soviet Union or the countries it controls sets up a uniform procedure for all, extending provisions formerly applicable only to some. With regard to all these nations citizens of this country must now ... From IRON CURTAIN PASSPORTS - Related web pages select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res ...

6. 
   

   1953

   Sep 17, 1953 - Missing Mrs. Donald MacLean, whose British diplomat husband is believed behind the Iron Curtain, was reported today to have left her automobile here last Friday night and said she would come back for it in. Missing Family Feared Behind Iron Curtain . LAUSANNE. Sept. ... From Missing Family Feared Behind Iron Curtain - Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/452252362 ...

7. 
   

   1955

   Nov 16, 1955 - some positive achievement 'at the Geneva conference has evaporated as a result of an ex tension of the prevailing dead lock to the last item on the agenda — namely, the lifting of the Iron Curtain. At the Western Foreign Ministers have pointed out, the problem of the Iron Curtain lies ... From The Iron Curtain Stays . - Related web pages news.google.com/newspapers?id=sYAtAAAAIBAJ ...

8. 
   

   1956

   Jun 30, 1956 - President Eisenhower today approved a United States policy on relations withRussia which is designed to tear down the Soviet Iron Curtain. Decision Ends 6-Month Debate Within Administration on Policy Toward Russia. WASHINGTON, June 29 (Al President Eisenhower today approved a United ... From Eisenhower OKs Plan to Banish Iron Curtain - Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/445842712 ...

9. 
   

   1963

   Nov 29, 1963 - West European newspapers Tuesday praised President Johnson for what they called courage and sincerity in pledging himself to continue the fight for the late President Kennedy's policies. West and Iron -Curtain Papers Praise Johnson. ' Pursuit of Kennedy Policies Hailed as 5 Evidence of ... From West and Iron Curtain Papers Praise Johnson - Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/464785752 ...

10. 
    

    1989

    Jul 13, 1989 - BUDAPEST (AP) - US President George Bush, proclaiming "the Iron Curtainhas begun to part," yesterday saluted Hungary's strides toward economic and political freedom. "For the first time, the Iron Curtain has begun to part. And Hungary, your great country, is leading the way," Bush ... From Marx U students cheer Bush Proclamation that 'Iron Curtain has begun to …- Related web pages pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/470717191 ...

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Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate - NYTimes.com

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“Scientists must continually earn the public’s trust or we risk descending into a new Dark Age where ideology trumps reason,” Dr. Pachauri said in an e-mail message.

But some scientists said that responding to climate change skeptics was a fool’s errand.

“Climate scientists are paid to do climate science,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, a senior climatologist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. “Their job is not persuading the public.”

He said that the recent flurry of hostility to climate science had been driven as much by the cold winter as by any real or perceived scientific sins.

“There have always been people accusing us of being fraudulent criminals, of the I.P.C.C. being corrupt,” Dr. Schmidt said. “What is new is this paranoia combined with a spell of cold weather in the United States and the ‘climategate’ release. It’s a perfect storm that has allowed the nutters to control the agenda.”

The answer is simple, he said.

“Good science,” he said, “is the best revenge.”

Good science means a $ 30 to $ 60 / CO2 metric ton tax increase. Nope better breakfast. Forget a new car. $ 7 / gal at gas pump. That is the price for a science melting Himalaya glaciers.

Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate - NYTimes.com

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