Kevin Kelly -- Cool Tools

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_communications.php

Free Directory Assistance

Free phone 411

The number is 1-800-Free 411, and it's pretty self-explanatory. It's free directory information. Works on cells and land lines. The other day I was about to call a store, and my sister shouted 1-800 Free411 at me as I pulled down her driveway. I dialed it on my cell phone, and gave the name, town, and city. Somewhere in there they air a 12 second commercial, but then they give you your requested number, and even repeat it twice. I haven't experimented yet, but you MAY even be able to circumvent the commercial by pressing "2" on your keypad.

Cell phone companies in MOST parts of the world only charge you for calls you place; incoming calls are free (as they SHOULD be), so I'm annoyed enough when I return to the USA. If I can find a way to keep large corporations from taking more $$ outta my hide, I do it. When cell phone companies charge you up to $2.50 for a directory information request, I'll listen to 12 seconds of blather instead.

-- Duffy Franco

1-800-Free 411
1-800-373-3411
Free411

12 Principles of Animated Video/Life?

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_visual_media.php

Twelve Principles of Animation 

1. Squash and Stretch.
2. Anticipation. This is setting up the action before it happens, usually with a slight movement in the opposite direction to the main one.
3. Staging. This is related to the way the film as a whole is "shot," considering angles, framing, and scene length.
4. Straight-ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose. Straight-ahead action starts at one point and finishes at another in a single continuous movement, such as running, whereas pose-to-pose is a variety of actions in one scene requiring clearly delineated key frames to mark the action's extreme point. How the in-betweens are executed can alter the whole rhythm of the action.
5. Follow-through and Overlapping Action. Follow-through is the opposite of anticipation. When a character stops, certain parts remain in motion, such as hair or clothes. Overlapping action is when the follow-through of one action becomes the anticipation of the next one.
6. Slow In -- Slow Out. This means using more drawings at the beginning and end of an action and fewer in the middle. This creates a more lifelike feeling to the movement.
7. Arcs. These are used to describe natural movement. All actions create circular movements because they usually pivot around a central point, usually a joint. Arcs are also used to describe a line of action through a character.
8. Secondary Action is just that, another action that takes place at the same time as the main one. This may be something as simple as turning the head from side to side during a walk sequence.
9. Timing. This is something that can't be taught. In the same way that comedians who rely on it to get the most from their gags have to learn it through experience, you too will get it right only through practice. Timing is how you get characters to interact naturally. Timing also has to do with the technical side of deciding how many drawings are used to portray an action.
10. Exaggeration. This is the enhancement of a physical attribute or movement, but don't make the mistake of exaggerating the exaggeration.
11. Solid Drawing. This conveys a sense of three-dimensionality through linework, color, and shading.
12. Appeal This is giving personality to the characters you draw. If you can convey it without the sound track, you know you are on the right track.

These are not hard and fast rules, but they have been found to work since the early days of animation. Bear them in mind at the storyboard stage and your animation will definitely have more fluidity and believability.

Kevin Kelly -- Cool Tools

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_communications.php

Goog(le) 411

Free directory assistance

Directory assistance has always wanted to be free. Since it launched six months ago, Google's foray into phone-based information for business listings has become the easiest, quickest, most efficient free 411 I've used. I'm amazed more people don't have it programmed into their phones. Best part: there are no pre-roll ads. Another well-known option is 1-800-FREE411, but it can take 20 seconds before the "What city and state?" finally arrives. With GOOG-411, the same prompt is delivered in 4 seconds. Time is precious, but even more so if you're on a conservative plan with limited minutes. For that same reason (read: frugality), I'm less inclined to use SMS-based 411 or Google SMS. GOOG-411 also connects your call to the business for free, so there's no need to jot down or memorize any digits. Dialing "411" and paying $2 is like flipping through one of Ma Bell's analog phone books when you've got a connected laptop right in front of you -- an easily-remedied symptom of a bygone era.

-- Steven Leckart

1-800-GOOG-411
Available from Google

Four Types of Government Operatives: Bullies, Muggers, Sneak Thieves, and Con Men: Newsroom: The Independent Institute

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2091

Four Types of Government Operatives: Bullies, Muggers, Sneak Thieves, and Con Men 
December 20, 2007
Robert Higgs

Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer—except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.

—George Orwell, Animal Farm

The beginning of political wisdom is the realization that despite everything you've always been taught, the government is not really on your side; indeed, it is out to get you.

For example, for many years, a single congressman from northeastern Pennsylvania—first Dan Flood and then Joe McDade—substantially enriched the anthracite coal interests of that region by inserting a brief, one-paragraph limitation rider in the annual appropriations act for the Department of Defense. The upshot of this obscure provision was that Pennsylvania anthracite was transported to Germany to provide heating fuel for U.S. military bases that could have been heated more cheaply by using local resources. This coals-to-Newcastle shenanigan was a classic sneak-thief gambit, a thing of legislative beauty, but every year's budget contains thousands of schemes that operate with similar effect, if not in an equally audacious manner...MORE

Black-on-Black Thought Crime - The New York Sun

http://www.nysun.com/article/68809

Black-on-Black Thought Crime

Review of: Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal

By JOHN McWHORTER
Special to the Sun
January 2, 2008

Randall Kennedy has a gift for choosing topics: In four years he has covered perhaps the three most crucial issues in intelligent black discourse. First came "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" (2002), a bestselling exploration of the N-word; then a book on black-white romantic relationships, "Interracial Intimacies" (2003), and now here is "Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal" (Pantheon, 228 pages, $22), on the tarring of certain black thinkers and figures as Uncle Toms taking a buck to work against the interests of their own people.

Mr. Kennedy, a Harvard Law School professor, is black, and part of what has driven him to write this book is being called a sellout himself on occasion, especially by people claiming that the title of the N-word book inherently condoned the usage of the word itself. Martin Kilson, Harvard's first tenured black professor, proposed that the goal of the book was "to assist White Americans in feeling comfortable with using the epithet."....MORE

New Participatory Project: Classroom Propaganda of Yesteryear

New Participatory Project: Classroom Propaganda of Yesteryear

via Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch 

by Sheldon Rampton on 1/1/08

"Capitalism", a Coronet film, explained the American economy through the story of a corner grocer and kids buying supplies for a wienie roast.

We've started an article on Sourcewatch about Coronet Instructional Films, a company that produced cheesy "social guidance" films in the period following World War II, dealing with topics such as personal hygiene, appropriate dating behavior for teenagers, and American economic and social values. The unintentionally humorous qualities of these films have made them ripe targets for ridicule on Comedy Central's Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and elsewhere. However, they had a serious purpose, according to Ken Smith, who has written a book about what he calls "mental hygiene" films. "Adults were scared," he says. "We forget that nowadays and look back on the '50s as an innocent time. No, parents were scared shitless of the same things they are now. Whether it was how to teach a kid to behave on a date or not to have sex or to drive safely, there was a world full of dangers, and that's why these films exist." In addition to amusement, therefore, studying these films can provide insights into social attitudes as well as the propaganda techniques used to indoctrinate a generation of Americans.

You can help with this research by expanding the article on Coronet Instructional Films or by adding articles about similar filmmakers, such as Sid Davis or the Centron Corporation. Perhaps you'd like to watch one of the films -- many of which can be found online at the Internet Archive -- and add a description, summarizing and analyzing its content. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here. 

Have fun, and thanks for your help!

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; Forgotten Step Toward Freedom

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; Forgotten Step Toward Freedom

via NYT > Slavery by By ERIC FONER on 12/29/07

A significant milestone in American history has gone strangely unnoticed: the 200th anniversary of Jan. 1, 1808, when the importation of slaves into the United States was prohibited.

What compassion and loving kindness is not, Part 5

What compassion and loving kindness is not, Part 5

via The Urban Monk by Albert on 12/7/07

Children’s bedtime stories are the biggest treasure trove of spiritual wisdom. It is right in front of us, in the bookshops, in the arms of the sleeping children, but we ignore them.

The lessons contained within are priceless; but it is saddening. Sometimes, parents who read these stories to their child, they don’t believe in them either. Just nice little stories, they think, to shield them form the real world for as long as possible.

There is one story from my childhood:

A long time ago, there lived an old lady. She was of aristocratic blood, rich, and a big fan of the theater. And every night of the long, dreadful winter, she would take a carriage to the theater, where they made a show of the grandest tragic stories ever written. She would sit inside and cry, shed tears of sympathy, for the fake characters and their fake drama.

And all the while, the carriage driver and the horses, would be sitting outside in the cold. Shivering, hiding from the winds as best they could inside the wooden carriage. And after the show was over, the grand old lady would majestically re-enter her carriage. “Back to the mansion!” she would snap haughtily.

Compassion is not a feeling

What then, is compassion? This is one of the distinctions I struggled to understand – compassion is not a feeling!

Compassion springs forth from the heart; it is the heart, the ocean. It is not just a feeling, feelings are merely ripples. They cost nothing, and they mean nothing.

This is something that western psychologists have often gotten wrong; they’ve categorized compassion as a feeling – a mere emotion! No different from anger, from humor, from pride. These are all fleeting, they’re all based on something that passes away in time. He feels angry; his car has broken down for the third time. Her son won the local basketball tournament, her chest swelled with pride.

And is this what compassion is? Just a mere, fleeting, emotion? You see a child who has fallen, scraped her knee, and you feel a surge of pity. Is that all it is? Something that arises and then disappears, never to be seen again? If that is so – was it even there in the first place?

It is easy to read the story of the grand old lady, and shake our heads. But how many of us have not done the exact same thing she has? That childhood story came to mind simply because I have seen it happen in various guises in others, and in myself.

As Osho said, what do feelings matter, when your house is on fire? A man of feeling will cry and shout while your possessions are burning. A man of compassion will begin moving! He does not waver – it simply has to happen, he simply has to do something. Compassion moves your body - you have no choice in the matter.    MORE.....

Compassion is not just action

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Posts you might like:

• The elusive key to emotional mastery, Part 2: Accessing the Deepest Issues
• Emotional Mastery, Series 2: Troubleshooting and expanding the techniques
• The definition of compassion and loving-kindness
• How to maximize your chances of success with an action plan
• Have your say: Influence the Urban Monk
  

Arms Trade Spending

Arms Trade Spending

via Global Issues on 10/30/07

Updated figures on arms sales between 1999 and 2006 shows that a select few developing countries were again the main focus for arms sales in 2006, although overall sales ($40 billion) that year were slightly down from 2005, the year with the highest sales in the period covered ($46 billion). The top arms sellers throughout this period were the US, Russia, France, United Kingdom, and Germany. The bulk of the sales went to developing countries, mostly to India, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, South Korea, South Africa, and Singapore. Graphs and charts have been updated.

Beginning the Year with Fresh Starts & Modest Changes

Beginning the Year with Fresh Starts & Modest Changes

via 43 Folders by Merlin Mann on 1/1/08

It was a year ago this month that I decided to try and focus less on New Year’s resolutions and more on what I called “Fresh Starts and Modest Changes.” People tell me they enjoyed the posts on this topic, so I wanted to share them with you again this year. Here’s the series wrapup post, which originally appeared on January 30th of last year.

Series Posts: “Fresh Starts & Modest Changes”

• 43F Podcast: Fresh Starts & Modest Changes
• Fresh Start: The Email DMZ
• Modest Change: Cancel something
• Modest Change: Learn the qualified “yes”
• Fresh Start: Replace one project
• 43F Podcast: Modest Change: Honor Thy Energy

Earlier this month I began a short series of posts and podcasts called “Fresh Starts & Modest Changes.” It was meant as an antidote to the pressure that many of us feel to upend our lives with poorly thought-out new year’s resolutions. The idea was to get you thinking less about the unlikelihood of success in mounting sudden, ginormous change, and more to suggest some subtle adjustments for making life just a bit more pleasant, productive, and your own. Tweaking as you go, instead of trying to treat your mind like some kind of a microwavable corn dog.

We’re getting to the end of the month now, so I wanted to wrap up with a few thoughts on the value of small changes, but I’d also love to hear about any of your own fresh starts and modest changes — particularly hoping you’ll share the ways you’ve had the best success keeping on track with the adjustments you’ve chosen to make.

Why small? Why modest?

As I said in the inaugural podcast of the series, there are most certainly excellent candidates for huge and immediate change in life. Abusive relationships, destructive behavior, and such like are absolutely worth abandoning as quickly as you can, to be sure. But for most of us, it’s tricky to flip a switch and suddenly decide to be someone substantially different from who we have been for years.

Throughout this month, a wonderful quote from Walden has been turning over in my head:

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives.

So just as, in this instance, new clothes can be seen as a fancy uniform that won’t produce in its wearer the skills, mind, or experience for their intended vocation, our new year’s resolutions usually leave us feeling like a chump and a failure.

What a mess.

The trick inside the trick

The point, as ever, is that change is not to be found in the play-acting and sense of personal revolution that the resolution — good-natured as its intention may be — demands of us. The real cipher is to just get into the habit of noticing the small things that might bring about outsized improvements in our lives.

Have you ever put up with a squeaky door for years and then one day, for whatever reason, suddenly found yourself grabbing the WD-40 and lubricating that particular nuisance out of your life? I have, and I’m here to tell you, it’s awesome. You actually stand there wondering why you never had the presence of mind to affect such an improvement — ridiculously trivial though its solution may be.

One occasional downside of human wiring is our uncanny ability to tune out anything that’s (apparently) unchanging, consistent, or just not horribly broken. Sure, we’d fix the new hole in our roof the second it started pissing rain on our plasma TV, but we’ll completely space out an inefficiency in our daily email ritual that silently takes an hour out of every working day. We’d call HR if our check didn’t arrive on time, but most of us might never think to try drinking one less latté a week (even though it might, over a year, amount to the equivalent of a day’s pay).

My point is that we’re not particularly well suited to addressing problems until they’ve become big problems. And that’s the point at which we tend to start gnashing teeth, rending garments, and promising the sky that we’ll Be Good if we can just get one more chance to get it right. And, yeah, sometimes we choose New Year’s Eve to make that case to ourselves and to the sky, and, man, is that ever a crummy night to try and suddenly realign your life.

Smaller smaller

When we keep it small, we’re telling ourselves that the problem’s not just us and the problem’s not just the world. We’re admitting that there are simply times when, for whatever reason, our heads get out of the game for a while, and that by allowing ourselves to gently incline back toward what’s really in front of us, we may be able to oil a few of the squeaky doors in our lives. We’re chucking ourselves on the arm and reminding ourselves we’re basically okay and just needing to occasionally wake up and see the stuff that needs our intervention. We’re putting the puppy back on the paper.

---

Series Posts: “Fresh Starts & Modest Changes”

• 43F Podcast: Fresh Starts & Modest Changes
• Fresh Start: The Email DMZ
• Modest Change: Cancel something
• Modest Change: Learn the qualified “yes”
• Fresh Start: Replace one project
• 43F Podcast: Modest Change: Honor Thy Energy
  

Does Judgment Trump Experience?

 Does Judgment Trump Experience?

via HBS Working Knowledge on 1/4/08

Published:	January 3, 2008
Author:	Jim Heskett

The publication of a new book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, by Warren Bennis and Noel Tichy warrants attention if for no other reason than the range of experiences that they bring to the topic. The event coincides with an issue that has arisen in the U.S. presidential campaign, an issue of broad relevance: Does judgment trump experience?

At the risk of oversimplification, according to the authors, good judgment is characterized as a process of preparation (sensing and identifying the need for judgment calls, framing and naming the judgment call, and mobilizing and aligning the right people to carry it out), making the judgment call, making execution happen, and learning and continuously adjusting after the call is made. Good leaders use knowledge of self as well as that of social networks, stakeholders, and the organization. The authors don't believe that judgment comes naturally. But they are sure it can be learned, even though they aren't sure how to teach it.

To read more:

Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls (New York: Penguin Group, 2007).

Warren Bennis and Noel Tichy, "Judgment Trumps Experience," The Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), November 29, 2007, p. A19.

Prathima Kathiresan: Struggling for Control - washingtonpost.com

Prathima Kathiresan: Struggling for Control - washingtonpost.com

In the room where young teachers often eat lunch, first-year science teacher Prathima Kathiresan is venting. "I spend half my day saying 'Be quiet! Be quiet!' "

Get A Clue To You---- Self- Assessment

It's important to understand that no career test can pinpoint precisely what you should be. Rather, career test results merely give you some idea of careers you might want to explore, given your interests, your skills and abilities and your personality. That's all -- no more, no less.

Testing Options

But that alone is a pretty good benefit. So take a trip to your campus career center and see if the counselors there offer any of the following career tests:

* Strong Interest Inventory (SII): The SII is all about your interests, or what you like to do. You answer questions about various activities, and then the test results suggest some general-interest areas and specific occupations you may want to consider. You also wind up with a sense of where your interests lie in six broad areas: social (helping, instructing), investigative (researching, analyzing), conventional (accounting, processing data), artistic (creating or enjoying art), enterprising (selling, managing) and realistic (building, repairing).
* Self-Directed Search (SDS): Similar in scope to the SII but shorter and quicker, the SDS is another popular tool that measures your interests and points you toward -- or away from -- the six areas listed above.
* Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): The MBTI measures your personality -- in essence, what makes you tick. The first of its four scales tells you how you prefer to focus your attention -- whether you're extraverted or introverted. The other scales measure how you look at things (sensing vs. intuitive), how you generally make decisions (thinking vs. feeling) and how you deal with the world around you (judging vs. perceiving). Combined, this information can help you understand what type of work you'd like to do, with whom, how, why and even where.
* Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS): The CAPS is one of the few career tests that does have right and wrong answers, and it is also timed. Essentially, you attempt to answer questions in eight different areas -- ranging from mechanical reasoning and spatial relations to verbal reasoning and language usage -- all in a predetermined amount of time. When you're done, you have a wonderful idea of where your natural abilities lie. You haven't just guessed about them, you've actually demonstrated them, if only on a test.
* JASPER: Monster's Job Assets & Strengths Profiler: This tool, offered by Monster, allows you to evaluate your workplace personality and leadership styles to get an idea of how others see you. You can leverage this knowledge in your job search.

Remember: That old admonition you often hear on TV, "This is a test. This is only a test," applies here as well. Your career test results aren't going to tell you anything. But they will point you in some specific and potentially fruitful directions, one of which may well be the major or career you confidently decide to pursue.

This article originally appeared on Monster.com.

Fighting for Hearts & Minds for What?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

'Human cockfighting'
After years of being tarred by politicians ("human cockfighting," Sen. John McCain once called it) and roundly ignored by the nation's sports pages, mixed martial arts is coming to a state near you -- if it hasn't already arrived. Thirty state athletic commissions sanction the sport. And in its push for 50, UFC has not only changed its own rules substantially, it's also changing the rules on your TV set, for rival sports and for the wider culture.

Mr. Ratner has steered a mixed-martial-arts bill through the Illinois legislature, and it awaits the governor's signature. In Michigan, he's gotten one through the House, and the Senate is likely to approve it shortly. Mr. Ratner will spend the coming weeks hopscotching through New York, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

"I may never have a fight in Iowa or Idaho," said UFC President Dana White, "but I want it legal there, too."

This isn't just about bringing UFC fights to Madison Square Garden -- though that's part of it. It's a strategic, rear-guard action to protect the sport from its barbaric past....MORE

Links:
http://www.ufc.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts

No Worker Left Hanging

American Society of Employers - Update Articles, August 2007
by: Pat Goggin

Governor Jennifer Granholm unveiled her long-awaited - No Worker Left Behind program on August 1st.

The program is designed to retrain upwards of 100,000 displaced Michigan workers to prepare them with what the Governor describes as, complex skills needed in cutting-edge industries that will fuel future economic growth.



The vision is that workers who take advantage of this opportunity will be at the front of the line and able to take advantage of high-demand jobs such as those found in advanced manufacturing, healthcare, biotechnology and renewable energy. The program also targets entrepreneurial endeavors.

The program is generous; an individual may qualify for up to $5,000 per year for two years at a state college or university, as well as at licensed proprietary schools such as ASE. The program even provides resources for childcare.

One does not need to be unemployed to take advantage of the program. Any person who has received a notice of termination or layoff from employment, or any employed person with a family income of $40,000 or less, may qualify, according to a fact sheet put out by the Governor's office.
Participants must, however, complete a skills assessment administered by Michigan Works!

The program takes into account the business climate in the different regions of the State. It will align training opportunities geographically with high-demand occupations available in that region.

Michigan Works! will assist these new workers in finding opportunities, as well as work with employers to identify qualified applicants. Participants must pursue either an associate's degree or occupational certificate in a high-demand occupation. Completion of a Bachelor�s degree or even a Master's degree may also qualify.

Those interested and qualified may begin the process immediately, but they need to be confident of their decision; this is a one-time offer and available on a first-come, first-served basis. An individual has three years in which to sign up and four years in which to complete the program

To fund the program, the Governor plans to use $37 million of federal money formerly earmarked for job training. Despite the current budget crunch in the state, the Governor hopes for an eventual $40 million of additional state funding. Ms. Granholm says that by redirecting federal funds currently used for job training, the program will make Michigan more attractive to job-creating businesses.

For additional information about No Worker Left Behind, call Michigan Works! at 1-800-285-WORKs, or e-mail them at nwlb@michigan.gov, or visit their website at:
www.michigan.gov/nwlb">http://www.michigan.gov/nwlb">www.michigan.gov/nwlb

Source:
www.michigan.gov; http://www.michigan.gov/documents/nwlb/NWLB_FAQ_final1_201864_7.pdf

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/nwlb/Update3_Aug07_204557_7.pdf

Working with CLAAY

Duquesne University’s Career Literacy for African American Youth (CLAAY) is a program that assist middle and high school students to define, pursue and achieve their career and academic goals through career mentoring, tutoring and related programs.

CLAAY is looking for career mentors to work with middle school and high school students during the 2007-2008 school year. This school-based career mentoring and academic tutoring program serves students in ten high schools in the City of Pittsburgh, at McKeesport Area Technology Center, and in five school districts in Beaver County (Aliquippa, Ambridge, Beaver Falls, Freedom and Rochester).

This fall CLAAY will begin working with students at Woodland Hills High School. The time commitment for CLAAY career mentoring is 16 hours during the school year (3 hour mentor training and 13 hour school-based career mentoring). CLAAY career mentors meet with their student at their school two hours per month between October 2007 and May 2008.

CLAAY is seeking enthusiastic, motivated, and committed volunteers who desire to make a positive impact on the future career direction of students in our region.

If you interested in becoming a CLAAY career mentor and/or need more information about the CLAAY program, please contact Damon Bethea at 412.325.1565 x31 or
at damon@winnets.com.

Please feel free to also check out our Website at www.ccwd.duq.edu/claay.

yesterday, tomorrow, today

Ghetto Life 101

The audio diaries of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, two young boys living in one of the most notorious public housing projects in America.

The candor in Jones and Newman's diaries brought listeners face to face with a portrait of poverty and danger and their effects on childhood in one of Chicago's worst housing projects.
Like Vietnam War veterans in the bodies of young boys, Jones and Newman described the bitter truth about the sounds of machine guns at night and the effects of a thriving drug world on a community...MORE

ONLY Six Ways?

From Kimeiko Hotta Dover,
Your Guide to Adult / Continuing Education.

Six Smart Ways to Improve Adult Education

In the study, New Skills for a New Economy:
Adult Education's Key Role in Sustaining Economic Growth and Expanding Opportunity, MassInc offers six suggestions for improving adult education to alleviate Massachusetts' basic work skills deficiency. Adult education programs everywhere can benefit from these suggestions:

1. Offer weekend classes- while a significant number of Adult Basic Education (ABE) class registrants indicate a preference for studying on Saturdays, less than two percent of ABE classes are currently offered on that day. There are no classes offered on Sundays, and registrants are not asked whether they would like to study on Sundays.

2.
Retain experienced full-time teachers - although full-time teachers are signficant determiners of program quality, just over one-third of Massachusetts' ABE teachers work full-time. Attrition in ABE is high - almost three-quarters of the ABE teachers have been with their programs for less than three years.

3. Technology and distance learning - increase the availability of these flexible learning options.

4. Funding - most ABE funds are presently granted to community-based private providers who arrange classrooms and hiring on a class-by-class basis. MassINC argues that this arrangement makes the system more fragile than if the funds were directed at institutions with permanent staff and infrastructures.

5. Intensity of instruction - short, intensive classes appear to yield better results than brief periods of instruction conducted over a long period of time.

6. Link ABE to the workplace - offer classes in workplaces, with employers paying employees to attend at least half of the class.

What do employers want?

What do employers want?

In 1995, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of an international adult literacy survey (IALS) in the report, "Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society."

The study compared adult literacy skills in twelve countries, including the English-speaking nations of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
IALS examined three types of literacy:

Prose - the ability to understand and use information from texts such as editorials, news stories, poems and fiction.

Document - the ability to understand and use information in various formats, including job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and graphics.

Quantitative - the ability to apply arithmetic operations in activities such as balancing a chequebook, calculating a tip or determining interest on a loan.

Survey participants were graded on a five level scale:

Level 1 - very low level literacy - may not be able to determine an appropriate dose of medication from its label.

Level 2 - low level literacy - can perform simple tasks using material that is simple and clearly laid out.

Level 3 - basic literacy - the minimum desirable level by employers in most countries.

Levels 4 and 5 - high literacy - able to integrate several sources of information and solve complex problems.

Factors such as computerization, technological change and global competition have led to greater demands upon employees.
Employers increasingly demand minimum literacy levels of 3 or higher from their workers....MORE

from the desk of Natalie Green

CONTACT Pittsburgh Volunteers Needed!

CONTACT Pittsburgh, a crisis and suicide hotline, is looking for nonjudgmental listeners to provide immediate emotional support to adults and teens. Volunteer Crisis Line Specialists are needed to work at the center’s crisis hotline, which is staffed 365 days a year.

Last year, trained volunteers handled more than 20,000 calls from adults and teens with problems ranging from family conflict and physical abuse to addiction and suicide. If you’re looking for a place to serve, and if you’re willing to listen, CONTACT may be the opportunity to put your compassion to work.
Each and every one of our volunteers undergoes a rigorous, comprehensive training program, receiving education in topics as diverse as suicide, elderly and teen issues and the concerns of returning veterans.

With the speed of life increasing ever more rapidly in our world, the need for an understanding voice increases as well. Won’t you consider becoming a lifeline for someone in need?

Classes will be held on the following dates:

Thursday, September 20 from 6 to 9 PM

Tuesday, September 25 from 6 to 9 PM

Saturday, September 29 from 9 AM to 2 PM

Tuesday, October 2 from 6 to 9 PM

Saturday, October 6 from 9 AM to 2 PM

Tuesday, October 9 from 6 to 9 PM

Thursday, October 11 from 6 to 9 PM

Participation is mandatory at all training sessions. Applications are due September 7.


Upon completion of the training, volunteers are asked to work 8 to 12 service hours per month.
For additional information about becoming a volunteer, contact Christy Stuber of CONTACT Pittsburgh at
(412) 820-0100 or cstuber@contactpgh.org.
For more information about CONTACT Pittsburgh, go to
www.contactpgh.org.
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FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDER FACTS-WORTH THE READ

* Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading known cause of preventable mental retardation

* Estimates of the incidence in the U.S. is 1 in 100 live births have a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
At that rate, it is more common than Autism.

* A new study done in Italy, where it was thought there were almost no fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), they found an incidence in first graders of 1 in 25 to 1 in 50 children affected by an FASD.
As that was an active surveillance study, and in the U.S. we have only done passive surveillance,
that is thought to be a more accurate estimate of the incidence.
At that rate, it is more than 3 times as common as Autism.

* It is often unrecognized and/or misdiagnosed leading to inappropriate, unsuccessful treatment

* Many of the children and adolescents with an FASD reside in foster homes, adoptive homes, or residential settings and have frequently experienced multiple moves often because the FASD has not been recognized

* There remains a tremendous amount of stigma resulting in people not wanting to look at the possibility of an FASD. However, women do not use alcohol during their pregnancies because they want to give birth to a child with an FASD.
This is not a matter of shame, blame, guilt, or judgment. Rather, this is a matter of how to help
individuals and families be successful.

* This is a lifelong disorder

* The overall costs of raising one person with an FASD range from $860,000 to $4.2 million over a lifetime (presentation by Hendrick Harwood of the Lewin Group found in the “Grab and Go” section of the SAMHSA FASD Center for Excellence website: www.fasdcenter.samhsa.gov.

* The effects of alcohol on a fetus begin before most women know they are pregnant.

* There is no proven safe amount of alcohol to use during pregnancy; the only proven
totally safe amount to use is none.

* Prenatal alcohol exposure can cause damage to the brain

* Intelligence may or may not be affected

* Children and adolescents with an unrecognized FASD often fail with typical education, parenting, and treatment approaches due to the way their brain functions

* People with an FASD can be very successful with the proper recognition and support.

* FASD is a human issue. We must never lose sight of that. It affects the lives of individuals, families, systems of care, and entire communities.

* This is one of the few birth defects that is 100% preventable

There are a number of fact sheets that can be downloaded from the Center’s website: www.fasdcenter.samhsa.gov that may be useful for further information.
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eliminating racism
empowering women

Please Save the Date:
YWCA Racial Justice Awards Reception & Dinner
Friday, November 30, 2007
6:00 PM
Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
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YWCA Racial Justice Awards

Award Purpose and Categories
Through the YWCA's Racial Justice Awards, the YWCA seeks to promote a
society in which all people receive equal treatment and have equal
access in the workplace, public services and spaces, through the justice
system, in the classroom, and throughout the greater Pittsburgh
community.

For the past 16 years, the YWCA's Racial Justice Awards have recognized
people and organizations that have made a difference in promoting racial
justice.

To encourage broader implementation of positive actions and
groundbreaking changes that forever serve to enable racial equity and
bring about systemic change that creates a diverse community, in 2007
the YWCA is expanding its racial justice awards to include individuals
and/or organizations in the following categories:

* Community Engagement
* Community Service and Public Safety
* Company / Business
* Education
* Government
* Legal

The awards will be made to salute individuals, companies, and/or
organizations in each category that have implemented new laws, policies,
practices, procedures, programs, guidelines, and similar sustainable
actions that positively impact people of color in the broader society.

Nomination Process
An individual, organization, and/or company can nominate an individual,
company, and/or organization in any one of the categories.

Self-nominations are accepted as well.

The nominee's actions should significantly benefit Pittsburgh area residents.
The nominee should have undertaken a groundbreaking action within the past two years that should
have made an irrevocable, positive change in how people are treated in
the applicable category.

Examples of fundamental changes that would have
qualified in their time include actions leading to:

t

he Civil Rights Act of 1964,
Americans with Disabilities Act,
Title 9 Legislation,
the Home Rule Charter of 1998,
the Saunders Taskforce,
Small Business Administration,
new workplace employment guidelines/policies,
changes to procedures for counsel or law enforcement,
legal or legislative actions,
community event or activity, or creation of a new office or community
program to enable fair treatment and inclusion for all, and similar
efforts.

Nominations should be printed and submitted either electronically or via
mail.
Online: www.ywcapgh.org
Email: rja@ywcapgh.org

Fax: 412-391-5109 (Attention: Racial Justice Awards)

Mail: YWCA Racial Justice Awards, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh, 305 Wood
Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Attachments should be limited to 5 pages.

NOMINATIONS ARE DUE TO THE
YWCA BY 5:00PM EST AUGUST 24, 2007.

Award Selection

The YWCA's Racial Justice Award Committee, comprised of a broad cross
section of Pittsburgh's community leaders, determines the award
recipients. Each entry is judged on a sliding scale to identify:

* leadership taken to address racial inequity;
* quantifiable change that is now enabled;
* initiative taken to address the specific problem identified;
and,
* timing, breadth of impact, and geographic scope of action.