article in salon.com reads Techno-dystopiaWhy are the Rainforest Action Network and other nonprofits running ads in the New York Times telling us that the Internet isn't "empowering" and computers in the schools are bad for kids?

Bridget Miller writes "Scott...you are a possible connection in the US for My Junior High School students Pen Pal Program here in Japan...right?... I am working with at least one other teacher in The states on this so...I had class today with one of four ninth grade classes and 19 of 40 students are interested in a letter exchange program...There are 11 more classes of 40 students to pitch the idea to...we could be in for a very big project...I hope so!Most of the interests of this group are pop culture based as well as boys who want to write to girls and girls who want to write to boys...Please get back to me asap re* the # of students (Junior high school please) and the kind of materials info etc they can exchange... i have never done this before but I think it is a great way to get the students to realize that another language can be useful...not just a grade you have to earn...I want this to be fun ... I'm thinking short letters, postcards, stickers, photos and stamps...drawings..and maybe ...for those students who really take it seriously...a cd or some other cool item that is really hard to come by...what do you think? I anxiously await your thoughts...Bridget"

Bridget Miller writes "My first week in the classroom ...all the students have seen my photos, listened to Luscious Jackson, Pop Hits of 1971-72, and Chemical Brothers, and can wave, and smile and say: how are you? Im fine and you? What is your name?...My name is???? and ask some very interesting questions...(when they are brave enough)..I assisted all three local teachers this week and each does things differently...Hatano-sensei and Yamada-sensei are strict and structured while Kobayashi-sensie is a little more free form..Each class dynamic is different as well....There is alot for me to learn here...I am very lucky because Hatano and Kobayashi are very receptive and willing to try different approaches..Yamada has said he will expect me to teach 1/2 of the class time however ...That's a little scary but also really nice...Guinea Pigs!!! Vanya's books and ideas are really inspirational...especially useful when I begin teaching the English class at the town Gym...Thank you Vanya!

The school was established 53 years ago and there are 2 buildings...the newest is 35 years old and the stairwells positiveley reek of insecticide..I have not seen one cockroach yet...not since I came to Japan...but I know they are here...the kids in the elementary school play a game called "gokiburi"--cockroach!...you evolve to higher life forms from cockroach status by giving correct answers...until then you must crawl around on the floor...because...after all...ain't nothin' more lowly than an 'ole cockroach!

Anyway...the classrooms are filled with 40 students each...everyone passes whether or not they study...the real test is the high school entrance exam which many 9th grade students attend jukku (cram school) in order to ace...many are too sleepy to do much during regular school because of jukku and so many club activities...soon though (this Sunday) their club activities will be over for 9th grade...they will study all winter and "get Fat"! according to Hatano sensei..it is a very unhealthy stressor...

This weeks lessons were all taken up with myself-intro...Jiko Shokkai...I got some great student interviews and made a bulletin board of Pop Music stars...there is a giant shrine to Britney Spears and Backstreet boys in the hall....the kids are thoroughly intrigued (I hope...)...the idea is to first grab their attention with some FLASH and then do a little selective mind molding and thought provocation...Teen Beat is 1400 yen over here if you want to send materials send me an email so we connect.

Very intersting article about a person who designs database and conducts data mining -- just like direct marketers -- to analyse human rights abuses. There is an article in Salon.com about him, but he wrote a book titled Making the Case: Investigating Large Scale Human Rights Violations Using Information Systems and Data Analysis which is published on the web and shares their findings about information systems methodology for documenting large-scale human rights violations.

Thanks to a little-known government bequest back in the 1960s, schools and universities control a giant chunk of radio spectrum, originally donated to enable schools to televise educational programming. With communications companies now clamoring for more frequency space to accommodate cutting-edge wireless services, analysts now say the schools' spectrum allotment may be worth as much as $160 billion -- enough cash to run all U.S. elementary and secondary schools for five months. The 120-megahertz allotment amounts to two-thirds of the spectrum allotted to the entire U.S. wireless phone industry, and is considered very high quality -- flexible enough to handle everything from TV signals to wireless networking. At this point, most of the spectrum is unused, and some industry groups are insisting the government reclaim their bonanza, so schools are looking very carefully at what kinds of deals they can cut that would bring in revenues without antagonizing their cash cow clients. "They have to start thinking about what its potential is," says an assistant chief in the FCC's Mass Media Bureau. "It may end up being the most valuable thing the institution has. Or it may go bust." from Wall Street Journal 6 Sep 2000, registration required

Los Angeles is a modern city with a large and diverse ethnic population. This site documents public art works, sculptural works, mosaics, and murals, in the downtown area, the University of Southern California, and other places in the city. The Public Art in Los Angeles web site is part of a larger project of the University of Southern California libraries to document Los Angeles, its past, present, and future.See the photos now

Listening to Nature. A sound walk across California.Great site to hear Nature

This definitive guide tackles difficult issues faced when dealing with complex Asian languages -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese -- in the context of computing or Internet services. It contains revised information from Ken Lunde's first book, Understanding Japanese Information Processing, as well as coverage of three additional languages and how they impact Internet resources such as the Web, HTML, XML, Java, and Adobe Acrobat.learn more

Explore some of the critical issues pertaining to corporate globalization on global exchange's websiteVisit site now

Cindy Flores Davalos, a 24-year-old with neon pink hair, speaks native Spanish and minimal English. But in her job as the editor of a women's channel at Elisito.com, an Internet company in Mexico City, she operates in a linguistic netherworld that experts call Cyber-Spanglish.Read full article