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Online Colleges Could Spy On Students - By Law

Thanks to a new bill in congress one small paragraph would allow distance education colleges and universities to install spy cameras into student’s homes. Of course none of our representatives are objecting to it. Think of the future when almost all education is done from home. George Orwell must be rolling over in his grave.

Tucked away in a 1,200-page bill now in Congress is a small paragraph that could lead distance-education institutions to require spy cameras in their students’ homes…

...The paragraph is actually about clamping down on cheating. It says that an institution that offers an online program must prove that an enrolled student is the same person who does the work…

...But some college officials are wary of the technologies, noting that they are run by third-party vendors that may not safeguard students’ privacy. Among the information the vendors collect are students’ fingerprints, and possibly even images from inside their homes.

“This is taking a step into a student’s private life,” said Rhonda M. Epper, co-executive director of Colorado Community Colleges Online. “I don’t know if we want to extend our presence that far."…

Link (via slashdot)

Predicting the Weather with Clouds

In this Instructables a person can gain the skills to forecasting the weather by looking at the clouds in the sky. This should really be something everyone should know how to do, but in the age of the lazy and moronic Idiocracy seems to become the law of the land.

Cirrus clouds are white wispy clouds that stretch across the sky. By all accounts, cirrus clouds indicate fair weather in the immediate future. However, they can also be an indication of a change in weather patterns within the next 24 hours (most likely a change of pressure fronts).

By watching their movement and the direction in which the streaks are pointed, you can get a sense of which direction the weather front is moving.

Link

Two Backpackers Found after Being Lost for 5 Days

Anyone who has been backpacking knows the fear of getting lost. Luckily two wonderful ladies were found after being in the middle of “we have no idea where the fuck we are” for FIVE days.

Lost for five days in Denali National Park, a Gaylord, Minn., woman and her friend were ferried to safety after a surprising cell-phone call.

Searchers had scoured hundreds of square miles of Alaska wilderness for a young Minnesotan backpacker and her friend for five days and found not a trace.

Then, on Wednesday morning, a cell phone rang.

Eight hours later, Abby Flantz, 25, of Gaylord, Minn., and Erica Nelson, 23, of Las Vegas were safely back at park headquarters, hungry but unhurt, hugging emotional family members, thanking their rescuers and looking forward to a shower, a hearty meal and, Nelson said, “maybe a beer.”

In this case technology saved them. With a GPS device they wouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place, but where is the fun in that. Now that we have ‘tech’ camping all it’s doing is making people dependent on those devices we rely on. All I can say is one has to walk before they can run. That is especially true when it comes to learning backcountry survival.

Link

Locating the Perfect Barbershop

The Art of Manliness blog has a post about the wonders of the traditional barbershop as a staple of, well, manliness. I am forced to agree. I prefer the ‘shave and a haircut’ to a ‘styling’. What makes this article even better is that the endcap to it encompasses a barbershop locater.

A barber knows how to cut a man’s hair. If you’re like most men these days, you’re probably going to some unisex chain salon like Supercuts. I used to do it too. Most of the time, I’d walk out of these places with a crappy haircut. Sometimes, my haircut would look decent for the first week or so, but then it would grow out into a horrible bowl.
The problem is that many of the people who work at salons are not trained barbers. They’re cosmetologists. The difference between the two can spell the difference between a dopey-looking haircut and a great one.
A barber is trained to cut with clippers, the main tool in cutting a man’s hair. Cosmetologists, on the other hand, are trained to use scissors. Their training is also geared towards catering to women’s hair. They become experts in styling, coloring, and perming- things a man has no need for. That’s why when you ask the cute stylist at SuperCuts to use the number 2 on the clippers, you walk away with a bad haircut. She’s probably not well versed in how to use them. But a barber can employ the clippers with finesse…

Link

Link to Barbershop Locator