Too Little Too Late
November 4, 2008
Too Little Too Late
by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson
In an address to a conference at the Law School on Saturday, President Brodhead apologized for several aspects of the administration’s handling of the lacrosse case. The text appears here.
Apologizing to the players was the right thing to do. However, I cannot help but feel that, once again, circumstances forced his hand. After all, the administration had been belligerently insisting that they had gotten things more or less right and have clung to that position up until this speech. Now, there is the prospect of imminent lawsuits by the unindicted players and a review of President Brodhead’s first three years in office is underway. Just as the revelation that Mike Nifong was hiding evidence forced him to speak out in December, we see President Brodhead reacting rather than leading.
His apology also is incomplete. It is inevitable that mistakes would be made in trying to deal with such a bizarre and unprecedented situation. No one would have expected different. That mistakes were made is not really the problem.
What President Brodhead really needs to take responsibly for and has yet to do so are the selfish motives that drove the administration’s policies. The administration wanted the case to go to trial. It believed that, if the case were dismissed before trial for whatever reason, people would say that Duke used its influence to have it dismissed. Robert Steel, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees told me that a year ago. That is also why President Brodhead, despite being savagely maligned for doing so, clung to the concept of Reade, Collin and David “proving themselves innocent.” That was not just an isolated, unfortunate choice of words. President Brodhead repeated this formulation only a few days ago. Dismissal is the proper procedure in the case of weak or baseless charges. Indeed, prosecutors have an affirmative legal and ethical duty to dismiss such charges where they are not based on probable cause or where they do not themselves believe in the guilt of the accused. However, the administration pretended not to know anything about these concepts.*
If Reade, Collin and David had to be exposed to the risks associated with a trial by a corrupt, unethical prosecutor who had done everything he could to inflame the jury pool, that was just the way it had to be. Steel told me that it did not matter if they were convicted because all the problems with the case would be sorted out on appeal. That is not the way the appeal process works and I told him that, but that was still his plan.
The most disturbing outgrowth of this policy was that the administration not only did not want to speak up itself. It did not want anyone else doing so either. Administration officials would privately bad mouth the players to reporters and anyone else who expressed doubts about the charges or the fairness of the procedures used. I know. I heard this garbage myself. They were still doing it after the Attorney General’s report came out to justify their actions.
In the end, the administration’s policies were never about ignorance of the facts or credulity concerning the motives of public officials. The facts were irrelevant. It was all about keeping up appearances. Moreover, the views of some groups carried more weight than others. It is the same policy that lead to Ryan McFadyen being suspended, Mike Pressler being fired and Kim Curtis going unpunished.
President Brodhead, as he did in May, reckons that he has things figured out now. However, a recent series in the Chronicle detailed how the administration has been modifying the University’s judicial code to eliminate most of students’ procedural rights and how the administration punishes students on the mere accusation of Durham police officers without further proof despite well documented abuses by the Durham Police department. If the lacrosse case has taught us anything, it is that procedure matters. Unfortunately, it appears that the administration has learned absolutely nothing at all.
Duke needs and deserves strong leadership. In making his apology, we find President Brodhead doing precisely what he has been doing all along: embracing and conforming to whatever the prevailing understanding is regardless of its validity. It is gratifying that people finally understand what was actually going on. However, nothing has changed at Duke.
Throughout this entire ordeal, we have criticized the administration, but, unlike a number of other critics, we did not call for President Brodhead to be removed. Instead, we tried to support him and give him the courage he needed to be a leader and to do the right thing. We tried to engage the administration in a respectful dialogue about the issues. We have nothing to show for those efforts. I am glad that FODU could help the public understand the extent of Mike Nifong’s misconduct. However, that satisfaction is tempered by the fact that we spent a year doing someone else’s job for them.
It has long been our position that the administration’s words must be matched with deeds. Unfortunately, the time for action has come and gone. Last May, I wrote President Brodhead asking him to appoint a commission to look at the administration’s response to the lacrosse case. He appointed one to look at the first couple of weeks. Why not the other eleven months or so? We could not have changed the past. However, could have made sure that the same mistakes and moral failings are not repeated in the future. That is what we wanted and that is what most of the families, despite the wrongs done to them, really wanted. President Brodhead gave us the brush off. That was his last possible opportunity to actually do some tangible good. He has made his choice. It is time to look somewhere else for leadership.
President Brodhead is now undergoing a performance review to determine whether his contract should be renewed. Information on how to participate is here. I know what we will be recommending.
In criticizing President Brodhead, it should be kept in mind that he alone is not responsible for the University’s official policies and conduct. Indeed, those above him and below him bear greater culpability and their status needs to be addressed as well. Robert Steel, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees bears the greater responsibility for Duke’s official policies regarding the lacrosse case. Getting rid of him is a bigger priority for me than getting rid of Brodhead. Many of those below President Brodhead carried out these policies in the manner described above and with far too much enthusiasm. President Brodhead often simply appeared to be there in the middle. However, that in and of itself is a huge problem.
*[Edited for clarity]
Citation Statistics: A Report From The International Mathematical Union
November 4, 2008
Citation Statistics: A Report From The International Mathematical Union
Citation Statistics
A report from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in cooperation with the International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS)
Executive Summary
- Relying on statistics is not more accurate when the statistics are improperly used. Indeed, statistics can mislead when they are misapplied or misunderstood. Much of modern bibliometrics seems to rely on experience and intuition about the interpretation and validity of citation statistics.
- While numbers appear to be “objective”, their objectivity can be illusory. The meaning of a citation can be even more subjective than peer review. Because this subjectivity is less obvious for citations, those who use citation data are less likely to understand their limitations.
- The sole reliance on citation data provides at best an incomplete and often shallow understanding of research—an understanding that is valid only when reinforced by other judgments. Numbers are not inherently superior to sound judgments.
Using citation data to assess research ultimately means using citation‐based statistics to rank things—journals, papers, people, programs, and disciplines. The statistical tools used to rank these things are often misunderstood and misused.
- For journals, the impact factor is most often used for ranking. This is a simple average derived from the distribution of citations for a collection of articles in the journal. The average captures only a small amount of information about that distribution, and it is a rather crude statistic. In addition, there are many confounding factors when judging journals by citations, and any comparison of journals requires caution when using impact factors. Using the impact factor alone to judge a journal is like using weight alone to judge a person’s health.
- For papers, instead of relying on the actual count of citations to compare individual papers, people frequently substitute the impact factor of the journals in which the papers appear. They believe that higher impact factors must mean higher citation counts. But this is often not the case! This is a pervasive misuse of statistics that needs to be challenged whenever and wherever it occurs.
- For individual scientists, complete citation records can be difficult to compare. As a consequence, there have been attempts to find simple statistics that capture the full complexity of a scientist’s citation record with a single number. The most notable of these is the h‐index, which seems to be gaining in popularity. But even a casual inspection of the h‐index and its variants shows that these are naïve attempts to understand complicated citation records. While they capture a small amount of information about the distribution of a scientist’s citations, they lose crucial information that is essential for the assessment of research.
The validity of statistics such as the impact factor and h‐index is neither well understood nor well studied. The connection of these statistics with research quality is sometimes established on the basis of “experience.” The justification for relying on them is that they are “readily available.” The few studies of these statistics that were done focused narrowly on showing a correlation with some other measure of quality rather than on determining how one can best derive useful information from citation data.
We do not dismiss citation statistics as a tool for assessing the quality of research—citation data and statistics can provide some valuable information. We recognize that assessment must be practical, and for this reason easily‐derived citation statistics almost surely will be part of the process. But citation data provide only a limited and incomplete view of research quality, and the statistics derived from citation data are sometimes poorly understood and misused. Research is too important to measure its value with only a single coarse tool.
We hope those involved in assessment will read both the commentary and the details of this report in order to understand not only the limitations of citation statistics but also how better to use them. If we set high standards for the conduct of science, surely we should set equally high standards for assessing its quality.
Joint IMU/ICIAM/IMS‐Committee on Quantitative Assessment of Research
Robert Adler, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology
John Ewing (Chair), American Mathematical Society
Peter Taylor, University of Melbourne
Source And Full-Text Available At
[http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Report/CitationStatistics.pdf]
ViewPlus: Feeling is More Than Seeing
November 4, 2008
ViewPlus: Feeling is More Than Seeing
Friends/
A Remarkle Development: Tactile Reading .
What the ViewPlus technology does is to create image files that can be rendered in tactile form (via a tactile touchpad or printed out with an embossing printer) and also in audio (via text-to-speech technology). At the core of this technology is an image format known as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Unlike bitmapped image formats like TIFF and JPEG, SVG is an XML-based format that provides the images as vector graphics (the core of PostScript and PDF) with text and metadata in XML.The ViewPlus technology does what Dr. Gardner referred to as the “best possible conversion” from any given image format. When the images are already in vector form (for example, as EPS files within a PostScript or PDF file), it converts them to very accessible SVGs. When dealing with the more common TIFF or JPEG files, the software detects and OCRs the text (including labels within the graphics) and does the best it can with the image file. But having done so, it enables the software—or the user—to infer information about that graphic information. In fact, the next version of the ViewPlus software will enable authoring, so that users can add descriptive information to the SVG file.
The benefits to the print-disabled user are obvious. Dr. Gardner demonstrated how a graph that was otherwise inaccessible to a print-disabled user was made meaningful: He could feel the slopes of the various lines on the graph, and as he did so, the software read labels describing the lines, including the values of datapoints, as he touched them.
The most electrifying moment of Gardner’s presentation came when he pointed out how excited his sighted physicist colleagues were when they saw this demonstrated with a graphic. What the ViewPlus software had done with that image was nothing less than adding the semantics that takes it from being “dumb” to dynamic data. Imagine a whole collection of such images in which a researcher could use a computer to search for certain patterns, values, and features and do comparisons or calculations on them.
This is Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Semantic Web: information that a computer can understand. Not just store, find, and deliver, but understand.
[snip]
Source
[http://sspnet.org/News/ViewPlus_Makes_Images_Accessible/news.aspx]
The waffles are served
The smell of fresh waffles wafted through the air at the all-you-can-eat waffle brunch hosted by the School of Computing and Engineering on Thursday in Flarsheim Hall.
“It’s a good thing I went running this morning,” said Caleb Dady, junior, Computing and Engineering.
Competitions Free Prizes & Offers
November 4, 2008
Competitions Free Prizes & Offers
Win a Free nutrition consultation with London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston
A DLR ‘get out more’ competition gives you the chance to win a free nutrition consultation with one of London’s top clinical nutritionists or one of 40 relaxing Lush cosmetics products.
Milk just like barium based drink
Cost-Effectiveness and Patient Tolerance of Low-Attenuation Oral Contrast Material: Milk Versus VoLumen — Koo et al. 190 (5): 1307 — American Journal of Roentgenology
For years, countless people have had to force down about 1,200 cc of a barium contrast drink before having CT scans of their abdomen and pelvis to diagnose bowel disorders and abnormalities. The barium coats the insides of the esophagus, stomach and intestine, appearing dark while the intestinal wall appears brighter. The contrast from the barium allows radiologists to better visualize the bowel wall and more clearly delineate the bowel cavity and soft tissue. Barium drinks, however, can come with unpleasant side effects like constipation, diarrhea, nausea and cramping. The acidy-burning taste of the chalky, milky liquid can make getting it down one of the most unpleasant parts of the diagnostic test.
Children especially balk at drinking the barium–based drinks.
Clever researchers at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City thought , “hmmmm - constipation, diarrhea, nausea and cramping?…..same syptoms many people have if they drink milk” They wondered if milk might work just as well.
And it does!
No statistically significant differences were seen between whole milk and VoLumen with respect to degree of bowel distention and mural visualization for all segments of bowel studied
‘Brainy Bread’ Saves Environment
November 4, 2008
‘Brainy Bread’ Saves Environment
Response Source | Press Releases - Brainy Bread Now Affordable With Omega 3 Algae Oil Food Ingredient - Could Save Environment
Omega 3 Brainy Bread, Pasta, cheese and yoghurts could save the planet!
The company that gave us V-Pure, the world’s first fish free vegetarian and vegan Docosahexaenoic acid - (DHA) and Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) product has recently bought the rights to a new product that could make products such as ‘Brainy Bread’ and ‘Brainy Pasta’ a viable and affordable possibility.
Eau Plus now have a range of Algal Oils and products and have dramatically increased their production capabilities through acquistion of a new European fermentation facility. Other algal oils on the market just contain DHA but V-Pure has both DHA and EPA making it the perfect product to use to manufacture vegan and vegetarian superfoods that will sustainably address the essential fat famine in modern diets.
“This nutrient rich algae food ingredient could transform the food manufacturing industry and at last re-address the balance between easily available foods that contribute to health and foods that leave us with a net nutrient deficit” says London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston.
Eau + also have a new groundbreaking dairy free calcium drink.
See also Nutra Ingredients
Nutritionists and Dietitians
November 4, 2008
Nutritionists and Dietitians
If anyone had any doubt about the differences between Nutritionists and Dietitians Catherine Collins put them straight on Radio 4 recently - ‘if your urine is too dark or you are thirsty then drink squash and coffee’ she told the Radio 4 listeners
She insinuated her clinics are full of people maimed by incompetent Nutritionists. In our nutritional therapy clinics we regularly see people who feel they have to pay £95 an hour because they have been failed by their NHS GPs and dietitians, left to suffer for up to 20 years with missed obvious clues to their underlying symptom causing conditions.
I guess that’s another difference with dietitian Catherine Collins and a good nutritionist , instead of hyperbolic whinging on the radio that all Doctors and dietitians should get some basic nutrition training or be thrown in jail, qualified Nutritional therapists get on with the job of healing people.
The final difference between Nutritionists and dietitians is the most important one. Patients rarely get ’sent’ to a nutritionist, they don’t have to come, sent by their doctor. Patients choose to come, choose their therapist, choose to pay and choose to follow a nutritionist’s advice. Patients usually arrive at our clinics after a personal recommendation from someone who’s life we have already transformed.
Yes it is a constant thorn in our side too, that there are some truly awful practitioners out there that call themselves nutritionists. Surprisingly we can’t get wait to get regulated (as long as the EU leave us the tools to do the job). However although regulation will weed out some of the Personal Trainers that call themselves nutritionists and a host of other ‘Jack of all trade’ alternative therapists it won’t solve the kind of problems that provoke Collin’s vitriolic attacks. GP’s are heavily regulated, it doesn’t stop them missing things that experienced qualified nutritional therapists regard as blatantly obvious. You can’t know everything - that’s why you have specialists.
It’s great that dietitians are finally regulated and now required to participate in regular professional development but old habits die hard and there are still the odd few that are able to do more harm than good. (Ice cream and custard creams for osteoporosis!!??!!) Frustated by the constraints of dietetics as a therapeutic tool some dietitians have gone on to learn about nutritional therapy and are now some of the most dynamic practitioners out there.
A modicom of common sense maybe useful here. Choose a nutritional therapist who specialises in nutrition, with experience, with insurance, with recognised qualificatons and preferably with a personal recommendation.
Nutritional therapy is performance based. If therapists don’t get people well, patients won’t come back, they won’t tell their friends and they won’t pay the money. Chances are they won’t be in business for very long.
If you want a dietitian make sure you get a good one
Always go to your Doctor first (it’s free!) if they can’t help you give us a call!
Tony Bishop-Weston - Nutritionists London Foods for Life
Kate Winslet on weight issues - Boston Herald
November 4, 2008
Kate Winslet on weight issues - Boston Herald Kate Winslet on weight issues
New Zealand Herald
Boston Herald -
By Herald Wire Services Kate Winslet never wanted to become a famous actress because she was self-conscious about her weight. “I was fat.
Kate Winslet Angered by Airbrush Accusations
Winslet slams 'airbrushed photo' claims
Dell asks workers to take unpaid vacation - Reuters Dell asks workers to take unpaid vacation
Reuters -
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Computer maker Dell Inc has asked employees to consider taking up to five days of unpaid vacation as it struggles to cut costs in the face of weak global demand.
Dell to implement more cost-cutting measures: WSJ
Dell Looks to Save Dollars Through Additional Cost Savings Measures
Democrats Pick Up House Seats in Boost to Majority (Update1) - Bloomberg Democrats Pick Up House Seats in Boost to Majority (Update1)
NECN
Bloomberg -
By Mark Drajem and Nicholas Johnston Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Democrats captured US House seat in Florida and Connecticut and were leading in other close races across the country as the party tries to expand the majority it gained two years ago.
Old-School Moderate Connecticut Republican Shays Goes Down in Defeat
AP calls 7 of 8 House races in Wisconsin for incumbents
'Breathtaking' Numbers of Americans Flood the Polls - Washington Post 'Breathtaking' Numbers of Americans Flood the Polls
New York Daily News
Washington Post -
By Mary Pat Flaherty and Amy Goldstein An unprecedented outpouring of voters translated into waits of several hours today at polling sites from southeastern Virginia to Arizona, amid sporadic reports around the country of voting machine malfunctions, …
Voters Find Long Lines, but No Catastrophes
Election en route to shatter voter turnout records
Dow ends up over 300 investors brush off weak data - Philadelphia Inquirer
November 4, 2008
Dow ends up over 300 investors brush off weak data - Philadelphia Inquirer
NEW YORK - Investors believing that Wall Street is on the verge of a yearend rally piled into the market Tuesday, brushing off more weak economic data while they scarfed up stocks and propelled the Dow Jones industrials up 300 points to its highest close in four weeks. It was the biggest Election
Circuit City plans to close 155 stores - Tehran Times
The company, based in Richmond, Va., said that it would close 155 of its more than 700 stores in 12 markets, including Phoenix and Atlanta, by Dec. 31, laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force. Circuit City also said it would further reduce store openings and planned to work with
Breaking News: Obama wins Mich., Wis., N.Y.; McCain wins Wyo., Ala. - Yahoo News
November 4, 2008
Breaking News: Obama wins Mich., Wis., N.Y.; McCain wins Wyo., Ala. - Yahoo News
Obama wins the battleground state of Ohio and its 20 electoral votes (AP). Heading into the election, Obama led McCain by 7 points. Ohio was considered a must-win state for McCain. However, the Obama campaign flooded the state with volunteers in March, specifically rural and suburban regions. Obama
Obama’s grandmother dies after battle with cancer - CNN
(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said Monday. This photo provided by the Obama campaign shows Obama in 1979 with his grandmother Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. She was 86. “She was the cornerstone of
Uniblue PowerSuite 2009
November 4, 2008
Uniblue PowerSuite 2009
Uniblue PowerSuite 2009 Uniblue’s PowerSuite 2009 combines RegistryBooster, SpeedUpMyPC and DriverScanner, creating the ultimate solution for updating your PC and delivering improved system stability and increased computer speeds. The problem: Your PC is a complex combination of advanced technologies which needs managing to get the best from it. Without regular updates, the drivers your PC uses to run [...]
Uniblue PowerSuite 2009
Uniblue’s PowerSuite 2009 combines RegistryBooster, SpeedUpMyPC and DriverScanner, creating the ultimate solution for updating your PC and delivering improved system stability and increased computer speeds.
The problem:
Your PC is a complex combination of advanced technologies which needs managing to get the best from it. Without regular updates, the drivers your PC uses to run all of its hardware, can become obsolete. Unless cleaned, your system’s registry will become disordered and bloated. And there are a whole range of other system changes, network boosts and disk cleanups which you need to run regularly, to keep your computer running optimally.
The solution:
Anti-virus products are important, but alone won’t guarantee your PC’s privacy and performance. Combining three powerful Uniblue utilities in one package PowerSuite 2009 helps ensure total system speed and security. DriverScanner updates drivers to improve network and hardware functionality. RegistryBooster scans and defrags your PC’s registry removing harmful entries. Finally SpeedUpMyPC wipes sensitive files and implements various performance enhancements.
Size: 10 MB
Drug and Alcohol Rehab
Drug abuse and alcohol abuse becomes more increasing from year to year, this become a nightmare for everyone, even many teens has been addicted to drug, this problem not only happened in big country, but in small country facing the same problem, this problem become more serious, the government also announcement we must war to the drug abuse, for they who has been a drug addicted or alcohol
