Want to stay in the loop for the next 12 months but are worried that you won’t understand the lingo? David Randall reveals the words and phrases you’ll need to keep your street cred intact this year The New Year was so young it was barely on solids when the words reached us. And they were not just any old words. These were buzzwords – words so trendy they squeaked; expressions so full of sociological meaning they hurt your eyes when you read them: micro-boredom, digital diet, energy dashboards, negawatts, geo-fencing, GRIN Tech, instapreneur, and many more. They were in a chart produced by Future Exploration Network, trend-spotters to American cutting edgistas (our own feeble attempt at buzz-word coinage). A few were faintly familiar; most were new; all threaten to represent trends that are the very height of zeitgeist. Intrigued, we went in search of more upcoming words and phrases. The result is this, the IoS 2009 Buzzword Glossary. Personal Co-rumination: Excessive chattering about problems, real and imagined. Leads to the amplification of real anxieties, and creation of new ones. Has increased markedly in recent years, as email, messaging, texting, and Facebook have given the self-obsessed […]
The story of America’s descent into torture in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has been told now by many writers. Mark Danner, Jane Mayer, and Ron Suskind have written brilliant expositions of the facts, showing how the drive to prevent the next attack led the administration’s highest officials to seek ways around the legal restrictions on coercive interrogation of suspects.[1] After the abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light, the military itself commissioned three detailed investigative reports, including highly critical ones by Major General Antonio Taguba and by a panel led by former defense secretary James Schlesinger. Among other factors, they blamed ambiguity in the standards governing interrogation-an ambiguity ultimately attributable to the attempts at evasion directed from the top. Congressional committees have held numerous public hearings into the use of coercive interrogation tactics at both Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. The Center for Constitutional Rights, the ACLU, and the NYU Center on Law and Security have each published collections of official documents, which effectively indict the government using its own words.[2] But undoubtedly the most unusual and deeply revealing take on the subject is the work of the British lawyer and law professor Philippe […]
I was at a friend’s house this evening and, for the third time over the holidays found myself in a crowded room, pressed against a gaily lighted Christmas tree, listening to a conversation about Barack Obama’s choice of Rev. Rick Warren to lead the invocation at his inauguration. On all three occasions the feelings expressed have been outrage, and unhappiness because it did not respect … fill in the blank. This response it seems to me is very short sighted. Here’s my take: The choice of Rick Warren was an act of political genius. The legalistic Christian Republican base puts great store by symbolic gestures, and is very touchy about getting what it believes is its due of respect. In one gesture Obama has both given the Religious Right increased dignity and arranged to have one of the new generation of leaders of this large fundamentalist minority basically say grace over him and his administration. And I believe that is how it will be seen by the Christian Right. Witness the criticism Warren has received from even more conservative quarters. In another gesture largely overlooked, Obama ends the public celebration of […]
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jeremy Kennefick and Geoffrey Gailey are both new science teachers, one a career-changer, the other fresh out of graduate school. Both are teaching in high-poverty districts, where the needs are greatest. And both are surrounded by a rare level of support – financial incentives, mentors, and groups of other new teachers to consult with as they grow in the profession. It’s no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year. ‘We desperately need more qualified … science and math teachers, because of retirement,… overcrowded classrooms … and people teaching out of [their] field,’ says Angelo Collins, executive director of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) in Moorestown, N.J., which offers fellowships for teachers in these […]
WASHINGTON — Thwarted by President Bush in their efforts to expand federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are now debating whether to overturn federal restrictions through executive order or by legislation when they assume full control of the government this month. Both President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have made repealing Bush administration restrictions announced in 2001 a top priority. But they have yet to determine if Mr. Obama should quickly put his stamp on the issue by way of presidential directive, or if Congress should write a permanent policy into statute. The debate is not academic. Democrats who oppose abortion say such a legislative fight holds the potential to get the year off to a difficult beginning, even though the outcome is certain given solid majorities in both the House and the Senate for expanded embryonic stem cell research. ‘It is a very divisive issue, and it is a tough way to start, said Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat from Nebraska. ‘You don’t want to stumble out of the box. In addition, many of the Democratic gains in Congress, particularly in the House, have come in more conservative areas, with strategists […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
