Headline May 03, 2015/ ''' EDUCATION INEQUITY '''

''' EDUCATION INEQUITY '''

IN PAKISTAN,  -YES, as matter of fact, in all of the developing world, even the world over, school fees are ridiculously high.

Putting such a high price on the fundamental right of education should be considered a  ''cardinal sin''. 

I recently heard an interesting conversation between a boy and his mother on this subject. The boy, who could nor have been more than 15 years of age, was asking his mother to let him drop out of school and buy him a laptop instead.

His argument being, ''You'll have to pay almost four lakhs in the next two years. Let me drop out and give my exams privately with the help of a laptop that will cost 75% less than my school fees. 

I'll study more with my laptop than I ever can with the absentee teachers.''

This student, of only 15 years of age seemed to make more sense than half the country at this point. If the ridiculously high fees being charged by schools is doing anything-

It is to increase the expense and the blood pressure of the common man and forcing his not-yet-adult son to make decisions he is not yet ready for.

A school is supposed to teach a child everything he needs to learn and apparently ''teaching a child how to learn without a school' is the latest trend in teaching.

The above observation comes from Syeda Maheen Qadri,  Karachi, Pakistan.  I thank her, and hope to see her on !WOW!.   

RESEARCHERS are finding that poverty can harm the brains of small children, perhaps because their brains are subjected-

To excessive cortisol {a stress hormone} and exposed less to conversation and reading.

One study just published in  Nature Neuroscience  found that children in low-income families had a brain surface area on average 6 percent smaller than that of children in high-income families 

FOR THE LAST DOZEN YEARS, waves of idealistic Americans have campaigned to reform and improve K-12 education.

Armies of college graduates joined Teach for America. Zillionaires invested in charter schools. Liberals and conservatives, holding their noses and agreeing on nothing else, cooperated:

To proclaim education the civil rights issue of our time. Yet I wonder if the education reform movement hasn't peaked.

The zillionaires are bruised. The idealists are dispirited. The number of young people applying for Teach for America, after 15 years of growth, has dropped for the last two years. The Common Core curriculum is now an orphan, with politicians vigorously denying paternity.

K-12 education is an exhausted, bloodsoaked battlefield. It's Agnicourt, the day after. So a suggestion: Refocus some reformist passions on early childhood. 

I say that for three reasons, says the author. First, their is a mounting evidence that early childhood is a crucial period when the brain is most malleable, when interventions are most cost-effective for at-risk kids.

''Neuroscience tells us  we're missing a critical, time-sensitive opportunity to help the most disadvantaged kids,'' notes Dr. Jack Shonkiff, an early childhood expert at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Growing evidence suggests what does work to work the poverty cycle:

Start early in life, and coach parents to stimulate their children. Randomized controlled trials, and good standard of evidence, have shown this with programs like Nurse-family Partnership, Reach Out and Read, and high-quality preschool.

These kinds of interventions typically produce cognitive gains than last a few years and then fade    -but, more important, also produce better life outcomes, such as less crime, fewer teenage pregnancies-

Higher high school graduation rates and higher incomes.

The second reason to focus on early interventions is that the low-hanging fruit has already been packed in the  K-12  world. Charter schools like  KIPP  showed that even in high-poverty environments- students can excel.

In New York City, which under Michael Bloomberg became a center for education reform, high school graduation rates rose to 66 percent in 2013 from 47% in 2005.

The Honour and Serving of the  ''operational research'' for great understanding continues. Thank you for reading and maybe, understanding. See Ya all on the following one.

With respectful dedication to All the Leaders of the Free World. See Ya all,  Your Excellencies, on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Enhancing The World '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

US 'will not fund research for modifying embryo DNA'

Modifying the DNA of embryos is a "line that should not be crossed", a leading figure in US research says.
Dr Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health director, was responding to reports that the first embryos had been modified in China.
He argued there were "serious and unquantifiable safety issues", big ethical questions and no compelling medical reason to do it.

- bbc.com

Headline May 02, 2015/ ''' THE {[HARD]} ROAD TO CHARACTER '''

''' THE {[HARD]} ROAD TO 

CHARACTER '''

HERE AT !WOW!, [Pakistan], -the World Students Society Computes-Internet-Wireless,  -the honour that belongs, also as ownership. to every single student in the world-

I continue to battle and in-turn get buffeted by high winds, when I ask the School, College and University heads for: ''The Road To Character.'' 

In these great and senior years of my life, nothing betters, for  -!WOW! and Sam Daily Times, than  ''Working in deadly earnest for  ''an older moral ecology''. 

So, I dedicate these lines to all the humans of the world with great character.

David Brook's  gift  -as he might put it in his swift, engaging way,  -is for making obscure but potent social studies research accessible and even startling, for seeing consistency- 

As the hobgoblin of little minds and for ranging as widely across the private domain as the public.

There aren't many writers on politics who will study  'emotional intelligence'' as closely as they do polls, and fewer still extol failure as enthusiastically as they do success.

Mr Brooks's flaws, as he he tell us with typical cheerfulness and ease at the beginning of his new book, are that '' I was born with a natural disposition toward shallowness''  and  ''I am paid to be a narcissistic blowhard. 

He is, in short, a near-ideal public commentator because he is happy to sacrifice complexity and nuance to spin a hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story that sounds far less shrill and ad hominem than most of the polarizing rants of the day.

In ''The Road To Character,'' he wriggles out of pigeonholes even more dramatically by delivering what feels like a very broad-brush, old-style commencement speech on the virtues of: sufferings, self-abasement and, truth be terribly told, a sense of sin.

The  ''comic sociologist''  who took and dispensed such provocative entertainment in his first two books,  ''Bobos in Paradise''  and  ''On Paradise Drive.'' turning a Tom Wolfean eye on the shock -bourgeois bohemians and the meaning of Trader Joe's-  is now working in deadly earnest to recover what he calls '' an older moral ecology.    

MR. BROOKS begins with sweeping overview of the nonintersecting worlds of moral logic and economic logic, as he has it, dividing us into an:

''Adam 1'' who seeks success in the world, and an  ''Adam 2,'' more deeply committed to character and an inner life.

A deeper problem is that all the eminences and ideals extolled are covered so hastily that a passage in chapter 8 will, again and again, clash with one in chapter 5. 

Hardly have we emerged from pages about the value of reason and self sacrifice than suddenly, out of nowhere, Mr.Brooks is serving up a {quite stirring} seven-page rhapsody to romantic love.

Minutes after we have been introduced to the charms of Montaigne and his unceasing examination of his whims and preferences, we're told that the host for self-expression is treacherous.

The columnist's grace is to avoid being predictable, but across the length of the book this can result in flagrant self-contradiction.

Yet every time I was growing tired either/or reductiveness, Mr.Brooks would disarm me with an unexpected fact or swerve. He begins his final chapter on today's ''Big Me''  sensibility by contrasting Johnny Unitas, the crew-cut-

Scrupulously invisible former gang worker whose Baltimore Colts made it to the Super Bowl in 1969, with his opposite number, white-shoed Broadway Joe Namath of the Jets. But where many of us would see this as a contest between the square gray '50s and the Summer of Love-

Mr. Brooks traces Mr. Namath's swagger back to the relived exhilaration of the years immediately after World War II.

Besides, he notes, the cult of self-esteem did have the happy effect of encouraging women, minorities and the impoverished to see themselves in the context of  possibility. For every blurred piety here  [We are all ultimately saved by grace''], there's a sentence that shames everything around it:

(''Philosophy is likely to be a tension between between competing half-truths'')

As it is, the author begins his book by saying it's an attempt ''to save my own soul.'' then leaves his soul to tremble between the lines as he affirms uncertainty with the certainty of a recent convert.

Two books ago. some readers may remember, he was carefully noting how calls to our  ''true loner self''   leave no time for sleep and Augustine's talk and original sin is   ''almost irrelevant''  in a  blue-skied  America.

Yet those high toned souls who turn away from his heartfelt sermon any be denying themselves real pleasure, for what Me. Brooks's  solemn, often troubled, some times infuriating work reminds us that there are-

Few newspaper columnists who are more fun   -and fruitful   -to argue with. Putting the book down, I realized that it had had never so excited Me as when I was convinced that it was wrong.

With respectful dedications to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Theatricality Of  Students Honours'''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Headline May 01, 2015/ ''' CYBER-IN-LAWS IN REVELATIONS '''

''' CYBER-IN-LAWS IN REVELATIONS '''

IN AN IDEAL WORLD,  a great global society like !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless, should, essentially manage its own self and in total conformity to the laws. But,.......

In legal reality, the Web is a super mass of abstractions , firing the imagination The Internet has given a whole new meaning to a group of familiar words.

Will an electronic morality manage to resist the effects of Web criminals, or commercialisation?  In its infancy the Internet brought together  people inspired by altruistic ideals.

Mercenary concerns could not have been farther from their minds. They were driven by the desire for change, and the excitement of working with this brand new technology.

When the masses arrived on the scene it was of course inevitable that there would be movement in a different direction. The Net today is may not have quiet fulfilled the Utopian ideal of its founders.

Nevertheless, it is a marvellous achievement that has revolutionised the world of communication in the space of just a few decades and is still developing at an astonishing speed. So be it,............. 

FEW COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD have an impressive record when it comes to universal human rights standards, so neither has Pakistan, even by a very magnanimous measure.

But the formulation of a contentious   Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015, which is pending parliamentary approval before it come a law:

Is Posing a major assault to and on  Freedom of Expression within the country.

In its current form, the proposed Bill, writes one distinguished author, would provide the ruling government blanket discretion to decide what can and cannot be seen or said on the  Internet within Pakistan.

And it prescribes serious penalties for potential transgressors.

The draft Bill, in its current form, poses a significant erosion of the rights of the individual, the impact of which would be felt by not only the  Information and Communications Technology {ICT}  industry-

But the business and legal community, print and electronics media, academia, students and ordinary citizens who use the Internet daily, and as well.    

ON THE QUIET AND for over some years, Pakistan has been trying to draft a bill against cyber crime, based hell of a lot on the existing British, American and Canadian laws.

A coalesced and comprehensive draft was prepared last year, based on consultations with key stakeholders, that to in turn put forth specific clauses to criminalize:

Hacking, Identity theft, using sexually explicit images for blackmail, and other widely recognised illegal online actions.

However, the  Ministry of Information Technology recently adopted the Bill, introducing prismatic and problematic new clauses. Therefore, in its current form, the proposed Bill is not a good piece of legislation.

While it does attempt to address the problem of using the Internet to promote terrorism or hate speech, its definition of what constitutes cyber terrorism is just too broad and not only problematic but also phlegmatic.

Moreover, the Bill aims to unnecessarily regulate Internet usage in a manner which would severely constrict freedom of expression.

For example under the current Bill, blogs, cartoons and caricatures deemed unsuitable or offensive will not only be taken down, but their authors can also be prosecuted, and those found guilty-

Could find themselves jailed for up to four years.

**Similarly, use of  Facebook, Twitter or other Social Networks to disseminate ''obscene''  or  ''immoral''  content is also disconcerting.**

The Pakistani state already exercises sweeping powers to exert control over the Internet, but the new Bill further broadens the scope of arbitrary encroachment of private space and justifies the use of punitive measures against freedom of expression.

Moreover, the proposed Bill lacks adequate checks and balances on investigative agencies, which could enable unjustified persecution and arbitrary abuse of power.

While the Minister of State for information technology and telecommunication claims that adequate safeguards have been put in place to prevent any possible misuse of power, there is not much evidence to this effect within the Bill itself:

To indicate that it cannot be misused for the purpose of vindictiveness, furthering personal vendettas, or to muzzle legitimate opposition or criticism.

Ignoring vocal criticism of a  Citizens Joint Action Committee on the proposed Bill, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 is now ready for Parliamentary approval.

One hopes that good sense will prevail and that the legislators will decide not to pass the Bill in its current form.

However, the lacklustre participation in the recent parliamentary panel convened to debate the Bill on April 16, was never very encouraging.

It would be very unfortunate to see a popular and a democratically elected government  put in place such a detrimental Bill despite the engaging attempts to points out its glaring weaknesses.

The Honour and Serving of  ''Technology operational research''  will continue. This is  just too important an aspect not to devout full attention to.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Cyberlaw, and billions by billions  users of ICT.  See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Suffocating Cyberspace '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Headline April 30, 2015/ ''' GOOGLE FASHIONS-UP FOR E-COMMERCE '''

''' GOOGLE FASHIONS-UP FOR E-

COMMERCE '''

TO FIND YOUR TIME to stand out and get an audience is much more challenging.

Programmatic digital spending is predicted to grow to $53 billion worldwide by 2018, from an estimated $21 billion in 2014, according to a study from Magna Global, the research and ad-buying unit of the Interpublic Group.

Many companies still intend to promote original content. Hulu, for instance, will showcase new shows like  ''Difficult People,'' which Amy Poehler is producing. 

Time Inc, said it would reveal eight to ten new digital programs. Conde Nast Entertainment plans to unveil two reality series. And now to Google.    

!WOW! is sitting on a big black zero on the e-commerce profile, thanks to all the laggard students.

And it could most easily be otherwise but I leave that to the students And as for Google, The web giant has long experimented with e-commerce through services like Google Shopping-

Which lets shoppers compare prices between different vendors, and recently launched Shopping Express, which lets users make grocery purchases from local retail stores and receive them on the same or next day.

But the company's e-commerce business trails far behind giants Amazon or Alibaba, the established go to sites for a plethora of products. 

Even interest in skinny jeans maybe waning, if  6 billion fashion related queries by Google users are any indication of this year's most popular trends.

Instead, consumers are Googling tulle skirts, midi skirts, polazzo pants and joggers, according to the company, which plans to start issuing fashion trend reports based on users searches twice a year. 

The new trend aggregations are are part of the company's bid to become a bigger player in e-commerce and fashion beyond its product search engine or advertising platform. 

In its inaugural report, Google distinguishes between  ''sustained growth''  trends, like tulle skirts and joggers, from flash-in-the-pan obsessions like emoji shirts and kale sweatshirts. It also identifies  ''seasonal growth''  trends, or styles that have come back stronger every spring-

And makes similar distinctions between sustained and seasonal declines, like peplum dresses and skinny jeans, and fads that are likely over and done, like 90s jeans.

Lisa Green, who heads Google's fashion and luxury team, said the company has begun working with major retailers, including Calvin Klein, to help them incorporate real-time Google search data into fashion planning and forecasting.

Fast fashion companies, for example, can take a trend identified by Google and run with it, Ms. Green said.

''We're interested in being powerful digital confidants for our brands, not just somebody they can talk to about what ads they can buy online,'' she said. ''They can say: 'Google has identified this as a trend, and we have six weeks to get this out on the racks.''

Google foray into the fashion world is part of a wider scramble to define, inform and tap into how people search online for everything they can buy, from clothes and jewelry to groceries and furniture.

In fashion, too, the soon-to-merge Yoox Net-a-Porter Group is set to flex its muscles as a luxury fashion retailing powerhouse. Google's weakness in product search, meanwhile, is bad news for its mainstay business of selling ads alongside search results.

Google is hardly the first to deploy data to predict what might be a hot trend this season. IBM, for example, analyzes posts on blogs, social media and news sites to gauge   ''social sentiment''   for a variety of brands, including fashion and retail.

In one early experiment in 2013, IBM declared that  ''steampunk''   -an industrial aesthetic inspired by 19th-century Britain   -was set to  ''Bubble up, and take hold, of the retail industry.''

That prediction has played out to a certain extent, judging from the popularity of  ''industrial''  or  ''salvaged''  furniture, for example, or body trainers and corsets     

Spotify, the music-streaming service, also offers free analytics to artists to help them gauge the popularity of their music or estimate how much the can earn from new tunes.

''People tend to make trend predictions based on a very limited numbers of observations,'' and that's very hit and miss,'' said Trevor Davis, a consumer product expert who led the project at IBM.

''The ability to detect trends  very early on before they really become noticeable, and to follow them, is invaluable.''

Just how much more accurate or useful Google's search data will be has yet to be seen. Mr.Davis said. One obvious weakness is that Google's data encompasses all searches that appear related, to apparel, regardless of whether the person searching- actually bought something, or even intended to buy something.

A search for  ''tulle skirt,'' conceivably, could signal a shopper looking for an item on sale, or a baffled fashion luddite looking for a definition of it.

With respectful dedication to all the Students of the great art of Marketing and Operations in the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Digital Imagination '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless