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29 Jun 2011 14:32

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World: North Korea is looking to avert a revolution

  • fear North Korea seems afraid of a revolution similar to those we’ve seen in the Middle East. They bought a lot of anti-riot gear from China, and there’s been extra police forces around. But where do the revolutions usually start? With the kids in college.
  • reaction North Korea has closed all of their universities until April 2012, blaming it on their ailing economy — all the students have to go work in factories. This might be true, but more than likely it’s not — they’re trying to keep those most likely to revolt from doing it. source

22 Jun 2011 19:11

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World: Syrian government runs dorm raids on students at Damascus University

  • Crackdown at a Syrian college: The Syrian government’s security forces launched a series of violent raids into dormitories at Damascus University, where strongman Bashar al-Assad gave a speech earlier this week. Opposition members and witnesses claim that the violence, which reportedly injured 21 and killed 3, was in response to the students at Damascus failing to participate in pro-regime rallies. Also not to be forgotten — 130 students arrested by security forces, now under the harrowing care of Bashar al-Assad’s government. source

19 Jan 2011 16:19

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U.S.: LA mayor speaks out on possibly accidental school shooting

  • No student should ever fear for his or her life within the halls and classrooms of our schools. We must work together to ensure safety in and around our schools so that all students can benefit from an environment conducive to learning.
  • L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa • The mayor responded to the shooting at Gardena High School, which police authorities believe may have been an accident. The seventeen-year-old who is responsible reportedly brought an automatic handgun to school in his backpack, and during his class it fired, wounding two students. source

16 Apr 2010 17:32

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U.S.: “A little soap opera”: Thousands of images in school spying case

  • Apparently, they were using the webcam-equipped laptops for constant surveillance. The Lower Merion, Pa. School District, currently facing a class-action lawsuit for its role in a webcam surveillance scheme, reportedly took photos of plaintiff Blake Robbins while he was sleeping, chatting, and so on – as many as 400 images of Blake alone over a two-week period. (Just imagine how that worked for all the other kids with school-issued laptops.) Administrators reportedly loved the service, which has now been disabled, and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has introduced legislation to block usage of surveillance software for this purpose (smart idea, dude). source

22 Feb 2010 21:37

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Tech: How the Lower Merion webcam-spying sausage was made

  • The dude talking on this clip, Mike Perbix, is the network tech for Lower Merion School District. In this webcast, he’s talking about the spying software installed on all of the machines given to students at Harriton High School, called LanREV. He’s promoting the product, which tells you exactly how invested Perbix was in this technology. Did it ever hit him, or the district, that parents and students might be really pissed about this? The author of the blog post investigating LanREV, by the way, tells you how to remove it in a later post. He calls it a trojan. source
  • Update: Oh, and the kid who got in trouble for reportedly using drugs? He was eating Mike & Ike candy. This school district is run by an institution of idiots.

20 Feb 2010 15:36

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Tech, U.S.: Pennsylvania school district learns spying on students a bad idea

  • 42 number of times the school turned on the webcams to check on behavior (they did)
  • one student was nailed by the school for reportedly selling drugs in his home (he didn’t)
  • one class-action lawsuit was filed as a result of the privacy-infringing app (oh boy) source
  • The result? Students are totally up in arms about the violation in privacy, with some students noting the laptop is open in their bedrooms even when changing. Dear Lower Merion School District of Rosemont, Pa.: You guys are idiots. We don’t live in a nanny state.

19 Nov 2009 20:49

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U.S.: UCLA students are pissed at their university right now

  • 32% increase the amount UCLA administrators are increasing tuition over the next two years, to heavy student protest source
 

26 Oct 2009 08:58

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U.S.: College students say that racism at play in Chicago nightclub

  • 200 white students from Washington University, who were on a senior trip got admitted to the nightclub, which had a no-baggy-jeans dress code, without a problem source

16 Sep 2009 20:53

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Offbeat: Who’s the first president? Oklahoma kids have all the wrong answers

  • 75% of kids didn’t know Abe Lincoln was the first president source

08 Sep 2009 10:02

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U.S.: Obama’s education speech: Officially capitalist, not socialist

  • And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. … You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
  • President Barack Obama • In lengthy prepared remarks to students, which he’ll say later today. Obama’s been getting lots of unfounded criticism lately about attempting to indoctrinate the kids into socialism with his speech. Yeah, whatever. This speech is as American as apple pie and tea bagging. • source