Students finds ways to thwart school iPad security

GREENWOOD, IN - Schools that have issued iPads to students are struggling to find ways to keep teens from thwarting security measures restricting their online access.

Up to 400 Center Grove high school students reprogrammed iPads so they could download games and social media apps within hours of receiving them. Students at Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools have tried to stop their iPads from linking to the school server controlling the websites they can visit.

Center Grove technology director Julie Bohnenkamp tells The Daily Journal the program school officials thought would restrict online access couldn't handle the number of devices it was filtering and made the iPads crash.

Experts say the issues show the importance of teaching children to use technology responsibly.

Information from: Daily Journal

Harvard asks donors for $6.5 billion

BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard, the richest university in the United States, said on Saturday it would seek to raise some $6.5 billion in donations to fund new academic initiatives and bolster its financial aid program.

The fundraising drive by the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution is believed to be the most ambitious ever undertaken by a university, ahead of one concluded last year by Stanford University in California that raised $6.2 billion.

Harvard unveiled its campaign at an event featuring Bill Gates, who spent three years at the school in the 1970s before dropping out to co-found Microsoft Corp.

Gates, who was ranked by Forbes magazine this year as the world's second-richest person behind Mexico's Carlos Slim, joked about his decision to leave the university during a talk before alumni and donors.

"You never say that you are 'dropping out' of Harvard. I 'went on leave' from Harvard," he said. "If things hadn't worked out for my company, Microsoft, I could have come back."

The university has already raised $2.8 billion from more than 90,000 donors during the pre-launch phase of the campaign, its first major fundraising drive in more than a decade, it said in a press release.

Harvard's investment portfolio is worth about $30.7 billion, roughly the size of the annual gross domestic product of the Baltic nation of Latvia.

That endowment shrank 0.05 percent in the fiscal year ended in 2012, after double-digit gains the previous year, according to the most recent figures from the university.

"The endowment is meant to last forever. ... It enables our faculty to do groundbreaking research and supports financial aid for our students," Vice President for Alumni Affairs & Development Tamara Rogers said in a statement. "In order to undertake new activities, we are going to have to raise new funds."

Nearly half of the money raised in the new campaign will support teaching and research, while a quarter will go for financial aid and related programs. The rest will go toward capital improvements and a flexible fund, according to Harvard, recently ranked America's No. 2 university behind Princeton by U.S. News & World Report.

Four years ago, Harvard was forced to suspend its campus expansion and put the construction of a $1 billion science complex on hold after its endowment lost 27.3 percent during the financial crisis.

The science building was slated to be the cornerstone of an ambitious 50-year expansion plan designed to increase the campus size by 50 percent.

BlackBerry to retreat from consumer market, lay off 4,500 employees

As rumored earlier this week, BlackBerry is to lay off 4,500 employees, around 40 percent of its workforce, and retreat from the consumer market. The layoff news comes in an unexpected early earnings guidance release, in which the struggling manufacturer reveals it expects to book losses totalling almost $1 billion in the most recent quarter.

The massive loss is mainly attributable to the disastrous sales performance of the company's Z10 smartphone, its first to run its new BlackBerry 10 OS. BlackBerry says it will take a "primarily non-cash, pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments in the second quarter of approximately $930 million to $960 million" due mainly to the Z10. In the second quarter, the company shipped just 3.7 million smartphones, most of which were running BlackBerry 7, the company's older operating system. The company was shy in revealing exactly how many BlackBerry 10 devices it sold last quarter.

The reason for the disparity between BlackBerry 10 and 7 numbers this quarter appears to be extremely over-zealous shipping in the previous quarter, leading to lots of unsold Z10s and, ultimately, the multi-million dollar inventory charge. Although BlackBerry would not break even without the charge, the shortfall would have been more akin to the meagre $84 million loss booked last quarter.

Moving forward, BlackBerry appears to be stepping back from the mainstream consumer market to focus on what it calls "prosumer" and enterprise-focused devices. It says it'll trim its smartphone offerings down from six to just four devices; two high-end, two entry-level. Its new Z30 smartphone is clearly aimed at the high-end, with the Z10 to be "re-tiered" as an entry-level handset — expect deep price cuts in the near future.

Speaking on today's news, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins called the changes "difficult, but necessary... Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user." The quote is as clear an indication as you'll get that BlackBerry sees no future for itself as a maker of consumer smartphones.

Although the change in direction is sure to disappoint fans, BlackBerry hasn't fallen as dramatically behind in the enterprise market as it has in the consumer landscape. Perhaps the only non-sour note in today's release notes that installations of the company's latest BlackBerry Enterprise Service servers increased from 19,000 to 25,000 in three months; a sign of progress in an otherwise worrying day for BlackBerry. The company's board says it's examining "strategic alternatives," with multiple reports strongly suggesting it's searching for a buyer to inject some much-needed cash into its day-to-day operations.

British cosmologist Hawking backs right to assisted suicide

LONDON (Reuters) - British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has backed the right for people who are terminally ill to choose to end their lives and to receive help to do so as long as safeguards are in place.

The wheelchair-bound Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged 21 and told he had two to three years to live. Now 71, he is one of the world's leading scientists, known especially for his work on black holes and as author of the international bestseller "A Brief History of Time".

Speaking ahead of the release of a documentary about his life this week, Hawking said he backed the right to die but only if the person involved had chosen that route.

He recalled how he was once put on a life support machine after suffering pneumonia and his wife was given the option of switching off the machine but this is not something he wanted.

"I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their lives, and those who help them should be free from prosecution," Hawking told the BBC.

"There must be safeguards that the person concerned genuinely wants to end their life and are not being pressurized into it or have it done without their knowledge and consent as would have been the case with me."

Assisted suicide is illegal in Britain and the issue of whether or not to decriminalize it for people whose lives are unbearable is a matter of debate in many countries.

Right-to-die advocates say people capable of making that decision should be allowed to die with dignity. Opponents say liberalizing the law could leave vulnerable people at risk.

Switzerland and several U.S. states are among places where some forms of euthanasia or assisted suicide are legal under certain circumstances.

Hawking, who has made guest appearances in TV shows such as The Simpsons and Star Trek, says his active mind and sense of humor are key to his survival.

Hawking communicates via a cheek muscle linked to a sensor and computerized voice system. He urged anyone with a disability to focus on what they can do and not regret what they cannot do.

"Theoretical physics is one field where being disabled is not a handicap. It is all in the mind," said the scientist, who works at Cambridge University.

The documentary "Hawking" by Vertigo Films is due to be released in Britain on September 20.

Disintegration of Comet ISON Would Pose No Threat to Earth

We have nothing to fear from the incoming Comet ISON, no matter how the icy object behaves during its much-anticipated close approach to the sun this November, scientists say.

Comet ISON will miss Earth by many millions of miles during its swing through the inner solar system — and so will its bits and pieces, if the comet happens to break apart along the way.

"During a breakup, comet fragments don't fly off in different directions like shards in a cinematic explosion," explains a new Comet ISON video released by the operators of NASA's famous Hubble Space Telescope. "They break off but continue to travel along the path of their parent body. So any pieces would remain far from us, millions of kilometers away."

While a breakup would be bad news for skywatchers hoping for a great show from ISON — which was billed as a "comet of the century" candidate almost immediately after its discovery in September 2012 — it could have a silver lining.

"If a breakup happens, we may be fortunate enough to witness a beautiful 'string of pearls' in the sky, similar to what Hubble observed when the comet S-W 3 broke up in 2006," the narrator adds.

Scientists think Comet ISON is making its first trip to the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud, a repository of trillions of icy bodies thought to lie 1 light-year or so from the sun.

ISON is streaking toward a solar encounter on Nov. 28, when the comet will skim just 700,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) above the sun's surface. If ISON survives that close pass, it could blaze up incredibly brightly in Earth's night sky, experts say.

Skywatchers and scientists alike are keeping a close eye on ISON, trying to predict just how it will behave over the coming months. Recent observations are not terribly encouraging, suggest that the comet is not brightening as much as expected or hoped on its trek toward the sun.

Colleges That Give International Students the Most Financial Aid

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.

Studying at a U.S. college is the goal of many international students. Realizing that goal often means paying the full sticker price for tuition and fees.

International students are not eligible for federal aid programs, such as Stafford and Perkins loans, or scholarships sponsored by state governments. Some schools offer need-based aid to students who are not U.S. citizens, but typically on a very limited basis.


There is hope for students coming from abroad, though. Nearly 345 ranked U.S. colleges offered financial aid to at least 50 international undergraduates during the 2012-2013 school year, with the average scholarship totaling $17,721, according to data reported to U.S. News in an annual survey.

Some of the top-ranked colleges and universities are especially generous.

Harvard University, ranked No. 2 among National Universities, awarded scholarships averaging $52,578 to 530 international students for 2012-2013. Williams College, the No. 1-ranked National Liberal Arts College, doled out scholarships to 80 international students. The average award was $54,671.


Both institutions are among the 10 schools that gave the most financial aid to international students. All of the schools placed in the top 50 in their respective categories in the 2014 Best Colleges rankings, and awarded an average scholarship of $52,764 to international undergraduates.

Getting into one of these elite institutions is no easy feat. The University of Chicago, which offered the highest average award to international students, had 25,273 applicants for fall 2012 and accepted 3,345.

Admission to one of these schools doesn't guarantee a scholarship, either. Only 57 of UChicago's undergraduate international students received financial aid during the 2012-2013 school year - less than 11 percent of all international undergrads.

Below are the 10 colleges that offered the most financial aid to international students during the 2012-2013 school year. Unranked colleges, which did not submit enough data for U.S. News to calculate a ranking, were not considered for this report.

School name (state)	Number of international undergraduates who received aid	Average aid   awarded to    international  undergraduates	U.S. News rank and category
University of Chicago	57	$56,414	5, National Universities
Williams College (MA)	80	$54,671	1, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Yale University (CT)	347	$53,774	3, National Universities
Skidmore College (NY)	80	$53,523	45, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Harvard University (MA)	530	$52,758	2, National Universities
Amherst College (MA)	146	$52,433	2, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Wesleyan University (CT)	83	$51,450	17, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Stanford University (CA)	110	$51,331	5, National Universities
Trinity College (CT)	146	$51,003	36, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Dartmouth College (NH)	260	$50,285	10, National Universities

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find financial aid data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2013 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The international student data above are correct as of Sept. 19, 2013.

Lack of students leads to closure of minority schools in Turkey

A lack of students in Turkey's minority schools is leading them to close down, says a report issued by the History Foundation.
According to Cihan news agency, the report, released at a foundation press conference, says that the steady decline in Turkey's minority populations, a rising preference among minority students to study at non-minority schools and enrolment limitations applied by the state have drawn student populations at minority schools down so far that many have had to close. The surviving
Armenian and Jewish schools seem to have reached stable enrolment levels, but low enrolment remains the single biggest problem facing Greek schools. In the 2012-13 academic year, 3,137 students attended Armenian schools, including 67 Armenian citizens; 230 students attended Greek schools (including students of Greek nationality) and 688 students attended Jewish schools.
"The number of students attending these schools may be increased and the schools may be saved from closure if students who are not Turkish citizens or who do not belong to the same minority [group] are allowed to enroll," the report says.
One of the biggest problems the report mentioned is the ambiguous status of Turkey's minority schools, which are officially considered neither private schools nor foreign schools. However, minority schools are still associated by the public with private and foreign schools, and are subjected to the legislation regulating private schools -- including a rule that prevents them from accepting students above a quota allocated by the ministry of education, which causes major financial problems and often makes it difficult for minority schools to survive on their budgets.
Another problem the report mentions is the reciprocity principle and minority schools. Though minority schools are affiliated with foundations managed by Turkish citizens and attended by Turkish citizens, the principle of reciprocity is imposed on the development of legislation governing these schools and in defining their rights and obligations. For example, if a Greek school in Turkey wants to hire a teacher who is a Greek national, the Turkish government will require Greece to hire a Turkish teacher to teach at a school in Greece.
According to the report, this reciprocity principle equates minorities with foreigners, offending them and forcing them to deal with a large number of bureaucratic and political problems. The report suggests dropping the principle of reciprocity when preparing legislation governing minority schools.
Yet another challenge minority schools face is a lack of trained teachers as Turkish universities do not offer specialized education in this field. The History Foundation suggests the establishment of special departments for each minority group's schools in Turkish universities.
No public authority or private institution is responsible for preparing the textbooks and education materials needed by the minority schools of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities, the report says. "Schools should also be provided with support for the translation and printing of textbooks. It is suggested that a special unit with a suitable budget and employing an adequate number of qualified employees be set up to develop textbooks and educational materials for minority schools in Turkey. This unit should be financed by the state.”

(Source: PanARMENIAN.Net)

Headline, September23, 2013

''' !!! RENE MAGRITTE : BELGIUM'S -

GEM OF- A GENIUS !!! '''

While Rene Magritte is hardly a household name, there are few households that do not know his images. His bowler-hatted men have become the logo of Surrealism   -and it's chiefly thanks to Magritte that the answer to ''how many Surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?'' is ''a fish''.

Yet Magritte's mass audience has not been gathered by, by the art world. You are more likely to see his works on the billboards than on gallery's walls.

Only 1992, only in 1992, the current Magritte retrospective at the Hayward Gallery lit up;  -was the Belgian's genius Surrealist's first large exhibition in that country for over 20 long years. But during this time Magritte's paintings have appeared on countless book jackets and advertising campaigns.

No other artist has been so ruthlessly plundered, his deadpan fantasies have been reproduced, paraphrased, and plagiarised to sell products ranging from cosmetics to the Greater London Council before it was abolished. 

Amidst the ubiquity of his imagery, Magritte the man has remained a comparative mystery.  This was intentional;  Whereas Salvador Dali's moustachioed persona has become as famous as his melting clocks, ''Magritte shunned celebrity and led a life of such simplicity and ordinariness that it bordered on the perverse.''

Apart from a three year stay in Paris between 1927 and 1930, this son of a stock cube manufacturer spent most of his life in Brussels. He took special pains not to behave like an artist. He painted some of Surrealism's most unsettling pictures in his immaculately carpeted living room while wearing a sober suit. 

And in contrast to the flamboyant liaisons of the majority of Surrealism's members, Magritte remained married to the same woman, Georgette Berger, for over 40 years, the childless couple channelling their affections into budgerigars and Pomeranian dogs.

It was this role of Mr Normal which acted both to conceal and complement one of this century's most subversive spirits. Magritte was capable of behaviour made all the more eccentric by coming from someone who had the outward appearance of a bank clerk.

During the Forties, when he was in late middle age, this good burgher of Brussels was not averse to supplementing his income   -as well as having a quiet laugh at the art world   -by faking works in the style of Picasso, Braque, de Chirico and Max Ernst,. 

No matter that he knew most of these artists personally and admired their work, the elderly joker also backdated and copied his own paintings when it suited him, and even applied his counterfeiting skills to banknotes.

Magritte had little interest in money for its own sake; the funds generated by these pranks financed a series of anonymous publications which were circulated under such raspberry-blowing titles as:

The Silly Bugger  and    The Imbecile.

Rene Magritte may have hidden behind a banal facade, yet painted some of Surrealism's most memorable works. 

Weird and Wonderful : In front of a Magritte and it's hard to know whether to Laugh or Scream.

This Honour and Post continues:

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Doha.. See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless : '' !! Sounding Off !! ''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless