The Shadow Scholar
November 19th, 2010Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education:
I work at an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a month by creating original essays based on specific instructions provided by cheating students. I’ve worked there full time since 2004. On any day of the academic year, I am working on upward of 20 assignments.
In the midst of this great recession, business is booming. At busy times, during midterms and finals, my company’s staff of roughly 50 writers is not large enough to satisfy the demands of students who will pay for our work and claim it as their own.
You would be amazed by the incompetence of your students’ writing. I have seen the word “desperate” misspelled every way you can imagine. And these students truly are desperate. They couldn’t write a convincing grocery list, yet they are in graduate school. They really need help. They need help learning and, separately, they need help passing their courses. But they aren’t getting it.
For those of you who have ever mentored a student through the writing of a dissertation, served on a thesis-review committee, or guided a graduate student through a formal research process, I have a question: Do you ever wonder how a student who struggles to formulate complete sentences in conversation manages to produce marginally competent research? How does that student get by you?
I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created. Granted, as a writer, I could earn more; certainly there are ways to earn less. But I never struggle to find work. And as my peers trudge through thankless office jobs that seem more intolerable with every passing month of our sustained recession, I am on pace for my best year yet. I will make roughly $66,000 this year. Not a king’s ransom, but higher than what many actual educators are paid.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
Double Kill Shot Dealt to the Religion of Scientific Materialism
November 18th, 2010This reminded me of the Pioneer anomaly:
The Pioneer anomaly or Pioneer effect is the observed deviation from predicted trajectories and velocities of various unmanned spacecraft visiting the outer solar system, most notably Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11.
Both Pioneer spacecraft are escaping from the solar system, and are slowing down under the influence of the Sun’s gravity. Upon very close examination, however, they are slowing down slightly more than expected. The effect can be modeled as a slight additional acceleration towards the Sun.
The anomaly has no universally accepted explanation. The explanation may be mundane, such as measurement error, thrust from gas leakage or uneven radiation of heat. However, it is also possible that current physical theory does not correctly explain the behaviour of the craft relative to the sun.
Via: Technofascism Blog:
Since the technocracy needs to reduce everyone to a controllable, predictable material entity, it obviously favors a worldview that considers human beings to be nothing but trousered apes. To be properly denigrated, humans must be reduced to nothing more intrinsically important than a temporary, biological cog in the giant mega-machine’s creeking march toward greater progress and control over nature.
Unfortunately, to the dismay of the apostles of technocratic nihilism, this summer two findings, largely ignored by the mainstram media, were published that dealt devastating blows to the materialist philosophies that justify the technocracy’s agenda: 1) the conclusive evidence that Carbon-14 and other radiometric dating methods are invalid; and 2) strong evidence that the once universal and finely-tuned physical constants now actually vary throughout the universe.
The implications of one of these findings alone is enough to rewrite history and our place in the universe. But taken together, they seem to be almost a beacon from a lighthouse outside of time and space cautioning us not to venture further into the rocky crags of materialist philosophy.
Some readers who think that evidence for varying isotope decay and physical non-constants might not be a big deal would do well to remember that ALL scientific knowledge we have about the origin of the universe and life on earth is based on the assumption that radioactive decay is constant and that the physical laws are not different in different places in the universe. When these assumptions are shattered, we should be very skeptical about the versions of history that are currently being taught in schools as though they were the final truths of reality.
Senators and TSA Defend “Love Pats” at Airports
November 18th, 2010It’s sexual assault. It’s state sponsored sexual assault. See: TSA – Sexual Assault.
Via: CBS News:
“I’m wildly excited that I can walk through a machine instead of getting my dose of love pats,” Sen. McCaskill said.
Viewers Pull Plug on U.S. Cable Television
November 18th, 2010Via: Financial Times:
The number of people subscribing to US cable television services has suffered its biggest decline in 30 years as younger, tech-savvy viewers lead an exodus to web-based operations, such as Hulu and Netflix.
The total number of subscribers to TV services provided by cable, satellite and telco operators fell by 119,000 in the third quarter, compared with a gain of 346,000 in the third quarter of 2009, according to SNL Kagan, a research company.
Scientist Who Studied How Mosquitoes Transmit Diseases Dies After Ingesting Cyanide
November 17th, 2010Via: The Tampa Tribune:
A University of South Florida researcher stumbled out of her hotel room Monday night and told two guests she had ingested cyanide, police said.
Chitra Chauhan, 33, wife and mother of a 3-year-old, was pronounced dead at a hospital about two hours later, victim of an apparent suicide. A small amount of potassium cyanide was found on a table in her room.
The nature of Chauhan’s work and the manner of her death turned what investigators characterized as a private act into a public spectacle.
…
Chauhan worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research, which is housed at the USF Research Park on the south end of campus. The center was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to study bioterrorism and emerging infections.
Security is tighter throughout the research park because work is done there with private companies and the Department of Defense.
…
Chauhan was investigating treatments for tropical diseases common around the world, including malaria, USF said.
…
Chauhan has worked at USF as a post-doctoral researcher since Dec. 26, 2007. Her annual salary was $45,183. Police gave her address as a condominium on Palm Springs Boulevard in Tampa Palms.
She obtained a doctorate degree in 2005 from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi, India. She went to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana to join her husband, who had taken a faculty position there after finishing graduate school, said Professor Dave Severson, who runs the lab where she worked.
The lab studied how mosquitoes transmit diseases, and Chauhan focused on the transmission of dengue fever.
Related?
Genetically Altered Mosquitoes Released into the Wild
Bill Gates Funds Research Into ‘Flying Syringe’ Mosquitoes to Deliver Vaccines
Reader almaverdad sent:
Miami Sees First Locally Acquired Case of Dengue in 60 Years
FDIC Conducting About 50 Criminal Investigations Involving Failed Banks
November 17th, 2010Mmm hmm.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is conducting about 50 criminal investigations of former executives, directors and employees at U.S. banks that have failed since the start of the financial crisis.
The agency responsible for dealing with bank failures is stepping up its effort to punish alleged recklessness, fraud and other criminal behavior, as U.S. officials did in the wake of the savings-and-loan crisis a generation ago. More than 300 banks and savings institutions have failed since the start of 2008, but just a few have led to criminal charges being filed against bank officials.
For 18 Minutes in April, China Hijacked 15% of the World’s Internet Traffic
November 17th, 2010Via: National Defense Magazine:
For 18 minutes in April, China’s state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies.
This massive redirection of data has received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for those outside the cybersecurity community to grasp, said a top security expert at McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security company.
In short, the Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications — including emails and instant messaging — manipulated data passing through their country or decrypted messages, Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee said.
Nobody outside of China can say, at least publicly, what happened to the terabytes of data after the traffic entered China.
The incident may receive more attention when the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional committee, releases its annual report on the bilateral relationship Nov. 17. A commission press release said the 2010 report will address “the increasingly sophisticated nature of malicious computer activity associated with China.”
Said Alperovitch: “This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen.” And it could happen again, anywhere and anytime. It’s just the way the Internet works, he explained. “What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows.”
The telephone giants of the world work on a system based on trust, he explained. Machine-to-machine interfaces send out messages to the Internet informing other service providers that they are the fastest and most efficient way for data packets to travel. For 18 minutes April 8, China Telecom Corp. told many ISPs of the world that its routes were the best paths to send traffic.
For example, a person sending information from Arlington, Va., to the White House in Washington, D.C. — only a few miles away — could have had his data routed through China. Since traffic moves around the world in milliseconds, the computer user would not have noticed the delay.
This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this large amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect.
Scientists Warn Airport X-Ray Scanners May Be Unsafe
November 17th, 2010Via: AFP:
Some US scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.
“They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays,” Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, told AFP.
“No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner,” he said.
The possible health dangers posed by the scanners add to passengers’ and airline crews’ concerns about the devices, which have been dubbed “naked” scanners because of the graphic image they give of a person’s body, genitalia and all.
PRICE CONTROLS ON FOOD IN CHINA
November 17th, 2010Via: BBC:
China’s premier Wen Jiabao has said the government is preparing new measures to stem double-digit food price inflation.
“The state council is formulating measures to curb the overly fast rises of prices,” he said in a statement on the government’s website.
He gave no details, but they are said to include price caps, subsidies and penalties for food hoarding.
Meanwhile the Shanghai stock exchange has fallen nearly 10% in four days on fears of interest rate rises.
Painful price rises
The People’s Bank of China raised rates unexpectedly in October in response to growing inflation pressures, and has adopted a more hawkish tone since.
Consumer price inflation rose to 4.4% in October, which was up from 3.6% a month earlier and its highest level in two years.
Food price inflation has become particularly acute in China, with food prices rising 10.1% last month.
The average wholesale price of some vegetables in Chinese cities rose by nearly two-thirds in the first 10 days of this month, raising fears that food hoarding was exacerbating shortages.
Britain Now Offering Support to Ireland as Banking Wreck Continues
November 17th, 2010Via: AP:
As EU and Irish officials sought a way out of the country’s debt storm, Britain on Wednesday offered support on top of any that might come from the 16-country eurozone.
Britain, not part of the eurozone, “stands ready to support Ireland” in whatever the debt-stricken country needs to do to stabilize its troubled banking system, Finance Minister George Osborne said.
“It is in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system,” said Osborne, a day after the eurozone finance ministers failed to convince Ireland to accept a Greek-style bailout.
Irish and EU officials vowed Tuesday night to stabilize the banks at the center of Ireland’s financial crisis and keep it from spreading to other fragile euro-linked economies. Representatives of the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will travel to Ireland this week to determine what to do about the banks.
Ireland has taken over three banks and is expected to take over more in a bailout that has already reached euro45 billion ($61 billion) and likely will push the nation’s 2010 deficit to a staggering 32 percent of GDP. The government in Dublin insists that it doesn’t need a bailout from Europe, but growing doubts about Ireland’s ability to pay its bills have sent interest rates soaring on Irish bonds.
“It is natural (that the U.K. would be interested in helping to stabilize Ireland), because the United Kingdom and U.K. banks have a very, very significant exposure in Ireland,” said the EU’s monetary affairs chief Olli Rehn. “There is a very strong interconnection in the banking sector and the financial system between the two countries.”
Investors, disappointed that EU governments have yet to strike a bailout deal with Ireland, responded Wednesday by selling the treasuries of the eurozone’s most debt-threatened nations — Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy — in favor of the safest haven, Germany.


