[MARKETWATCH] “Compared to their poorer counterparts, young people from upper-class backgrounds (and their parents) are more likely to use the Internet for jobs, education, political and social engagement, health and newsgathering, and less for entertainment and recreation,” Putnam writes. Interesting concept. I'm surprised no one's looked into it before.
“Affluent Americans use the Internet in ways that are mobility-enhancing, whereas poorer, less educated Americans typically use it in ways that are not.” The same raw material is there for everyone. The internet doesn't care if you're rich or poor. If you're smart you can drink deep at the well. If you're a dumbass you'll never do more than splash around in the shallow end of the pool.
This is not to say the wealthier kids are using their iPhones to watch lectures on thermodynamics. They also send spend much of their Internet time sending off Snapchats, playing games and watching YouTube videos. But since social networks online tend to reflect social networks in real life, the wealthier kids have more people to draw on digitally to help advance their education and careers. (Parents in the top fifth of the economic hierarchy have 20% to 25% more friends than parents in the bottom fifth, and they know people in a far wider range of occupations, studies show.) There's nothing to stop anyone from making those acquaintances on social media.
In fact, the social connections common to the wealthy may be even more important in an age where everyone can freely download all the world’s information, Putnam says. “Just because teens can get access to a technology that can connect them to anyone anywhere does not mean that they have equal access to knowledge and opportunity.” But that's precisely what it means. Just because horses can get access to water does not mean that they'll drink.
A technology that reduces all the world’s information to ones and zeroes may exacerbate our division into haves and have-nots, Putnam says. “At least at this point in its evolution, the Internet seems more likely to widen the opportunity gap than to close it.” A tool is a tool. Give me a chisel and a chunk of rock and I won't carve it into Perseus or Zeus or David. I don't have that talent. Give some kids the internet and they'll drink deep of human knowledge. Give it to others--maybe even most of them--and they'll email selfies.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
People in the west who are poor have a poor attitude.
No amount of fining the (genuinely) productive will change that, in fact it will make it worse.
#3
"You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can't justify your existence, if you're not pulling your weight, and since you won't, if you're not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we can not use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can't be of very much use to yourself."
#4
Wait....how do the poor have such open access to the internet and computers and such again? Oh....cause they're only 'poor' compared to people here.
Yep, our poor have flat screen TV's, computers, air conditioning, cars and smart phones.
#11
geez...don't Obama phones have a browser? Poor is a relative term. It's all about what drives you as a person...relative wealth is irrelevant for this discussion.
[DAWN] THE gruesome trend of killing people on the basis of their ethnic or religious affiliation in this country shows no sign of abating. The latest incident in this regard is the killing of over 20 individuals in Balochistan's ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Mastung district on Friday.
As reported, gunnies stopped two Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -bound coaches and pulled out the passengers; after checking their CNICs to determine their identities, the victims were taken to the nearby mountains and massacred. The victims hailed from district Pishin and almost all of them were Pakhtun.
Such atrocities have occurred previously in Mastung; last year a bus carrying Shia pilgrims was bombed in the district while in 2011, Hazara passengers were pulled off buses and butchered in a similar manner.
Elsewhere, in April a number of non-Baloch labourers were shot as they slept in Turbat. There has also been an upsurge in the assassinations of Hazaras in Quetta over the past few days.
At the time these lines were being written, no group had grabbed credit for the carnage. Usually it's Lashkar-e-Jhangvi or its false nose and mustache Jundullah.
Of course, in Balochistan there are multiple strands of violence: sectarian death squads have remained active; Baloch separatists have been censured for targeting 'settlers' while the security establishment has come down heavily on Baloch political activists in the name of crushing the insurgency. External actors have also been accused of fuelling unrest in the province. Just general mayhem, not specifically targeting an ethnic group or sect, is usually the Baloch Liberation Army or one of its iterations.
The provincial home minister has pointed to the possible involvement of RAW in this incident, Most violence in Pakistain is initially ascribed to RAW. Somehow it invariably turns out to be home-grown jihadis. I never even consider RAW as a possibility since we haven't seen them do anything in the past 14 years we've been watching.
while other politicians have voiced concern that the violence could be linked to destabilising the China-Pakistain Economic Corridor. Probably back at RAW headquarters they're laughing so hard they're afraid their sides are going to split. They don't need to destabilize Pakistain--the Paks are doing well enough at it themselves.
What is clear is that the Mastung carnage is an effort to inflame ethnic discord in the province by pitting the Baloch and Pakhtun communities against each other. While non-Baloch have been killed in the past, this is perhaps the single biggest incident in which local Pakhtuns have been targeted. In this regard, Balochistan's politicians did well on Saturday by calling for calm and communal harmony.
The provincial chief minister has said a multiparty conference will be convened in the days to come to discuss the situation. Oh, goody. Another multiparty conference. Maybe Samiul-Haq can be on this one, too.
In fact, the entire debate needs to be shifted to the national parliament in order to find long-lasting solutions to Balochistan's security and political problems.
Moreover, further investigations need to be carried out to determine who is responsible and if solid evidence of external involvement emerges, Islamabad must take up the issue through diplomatic channels. The perpetrators of this brutal crime must be brought to justice; but this latest carnage must not be used to justify a more intensified crackdown on Baloch political activity.
Balochistan needs a political solution, not a militarised one. While security concerns are key, the political alienation and sense of deprivation that is felt by significant portions of Balochistan's population must also be addressed by the state to prevent further violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... on Sunday said that Pakistain's acquisition of nuclear power "smashed India's dreams".
Aziz was addressing a gathering of the Nazaria Pakistain Council where he also said that Pakistain's enemies would not succeed in sabotaging the Pak-China Economic Corridor (PCEC).
"Pakistain's adversaries have started their conspiracies to sabotage the Pak-China Economic Corridor, but make it clear that enemies' nefarious designs will never succeed."
He also said India's desire for regional hegemony would not be allowed, and stated that economic prosperity and self-reliance are imperative to a strong defence.
The adviser said Pakistain ─ and the entire region's future ─ was dependent on the completion of the PCEC.
Talking about the war on terrorism, Sartaj Aziz said Pakistain has to fight a war against evil ideologies, including extremism and terrorism, which are harming the country.
Aziz's assertions follow statements by the Pakistain Army that Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is involved in terrorism in Pakistain.
A May 5 conference chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif at General Headquarters "took serious notice of RAW's involvement in whipping up terrorism in Pakistain," according to a statement by Inter-Services Public Relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"Pakistain's adversaries have started their conspiracies to sabotage the Pak-China Economic Corridor, but make it clear that enemies' nefarious designs on our strawberries will never succeed." FIFY.
Posted by: Lemuel Dark Lord of the Jutes6153 ||
06/01/2015 13:54 Comments ||
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#2
See also WAFF >[Tribune.PK] INDIA'S RAW AT FRONTLINE TO SABOTAGE [Balochistan-based = China-Pakistan] ECONOMIC CORRIDOR, CHINA WARNS PAKISTAN.
and
* SAME > IN POK, CHIEF OF HARDLINE JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI
[anti-India] ANNOUNCES OFFER OF RS$1.0BILYUHN FOR ANYONE WHOM ARRESTS NARENDRA MODI.
* FYI WORLD NEWS, TOPIX > INDIA WARNS ISIS CAN GET NUKES FROM PAKISTAN.
[DAWN] THE alleged involvement of educated youths in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Safoora Goth massacre has once again ignited the debate on growing extremism among educated and higher-income groups.
As expected, the media stirred the debate and commentators tended to focus on different aspects of extremism including its root causes. Some tried to explain the problem in religious and others in political and educational terms.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
It's when the world that danced to the socialist tune that all the problems were begot by America discover, it was only the flea bitten mangy watch dog that crapped in too many places and barked at night that was keeping the barbarian and anarchy at bay. Welcome to the Real World 101 snowflakes.
The bottom line is that the U.S. is stuck with bad options and constrained by the contradictions that define the region’s politics. Policies would have negative implications whichever way we turn. There are no neat, let alone comprehensive, solutions to Iraq, Syria, or most other challenges confronting U.S. policymakers. The Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi was right: Great powers meddle in the affairs of small tribes at their own risk.
[UNIONLEADER] COMMENCEMENT SEASON brings a respite from the sinister childishness rampant on campuses. Attacks on freedom of speech come from the professoriate, that herd of independent minds, and from the ever-thickening layer of university administrators who keep busy constricting freedom in order to fine-tune campus atmospherics.
The attacks are childish because they infantilize students who flinch from the intellectual free-for-all of adult society. When Brown University's tranquility of conformity was threatened by a woman speaker skeptical about the "rape culture" on campuses, students planned a "safe space" for those who would be traumatized by exposure to skepticism. Judith Shulevitz, writing in The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , reported that the space had "cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies."
The attack on free expression is sinister because it asserts that such freedom is not merely unwise but, in a sense, meaningless. Free speech is more comprehensively and aggressively embattled now than ever before in American history, largely because of two 19th-century ideas. One is that history - actually, History, a proper noun - has a mind of its own. The other is that most people do not really have minds of their own.
Progressives frequently disparage this or that person or idea as "on the wrong side of history." They regard history as an autonomous force with its own laws of unfolding development: Progress is wherever history goes. This belief entails disparagement of human agency - or at least that of most people, who do not understand history's implacable logic and hence do not get on history's "right side." Such people are crippled by "false consciousness." Fortunately, a saving clerisy, a vanguard composed of the understanding few, know where history is going and how to help it get there.
One way to help is by molding the minds of young people. The molders believe that the sociology of knowledge demonstrates that most people do not make up their minds, "society" does this. But progressive minds can be furnished for them by controlling the promptings from the social environment. This can be done by making campuses into hermetically sealed laboratories.
For decades, much academic ingenuity has been devoted to jurisprudential theorizing to evade the First Amendment's majestic simplicity about "no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." We are urged to "balance" this freedom against competing, and putatively superior, considerations such as individual serenity, institutional tranquility or social improvement.
On campuses, the right of free speech has been supplanted by an entitlement to what Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education calls a right to freedom from speech deemed uncongenial. This entitlement is buttressed by "trigger warnings" against spoken "micro-aggressions" that lacerate the delicate sensibilities of individuals who are encouraged to be exquisitely, paralyzingly sensitive.
It is the demand for coercive measures to do for our mental lives what pharmacology has done for our bodies - the banishment or mitigation of many discomforts. In the social milieu fostered by today's entitlement state, expectations quickly generate entitlements.
Students are taught to expect intellectual comfort, including the reinforcement of their beliefs, or at least those that conform to progressive orthodoxies imbibed and enforced on campuses. Until September, however, the culture of freedom will be safe from its cultured despisers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Thank goodness, we get a reprieve from this idiocy.
Attacks on freedom of speech come from the professoriate
The profesoriate is very often not the best and brightest contrary to the legend (and arrogance) in their own minds.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security 
[DAWN] THE alleged involvement of educated youths in 
The attacks are childish because they infantilize students who flinch from the intellectual free-for-all of adult society. When Brown University's tranquility of conformity was threatened by a woman speaker skeptical about the "rape culture" on campuses, students planned a "safe space" for those who would be traumatized by exposure to skepticism. Judith Shulevitz, writing in The 
