http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Fri, 4 Mar 2005 13:23:54 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/04/132354.php Richard PorterThe teacher in Brick, NJ who was videotaped by students in his class this past week is another case of a teacher in school systems abusing his position, in this case, to badger and verbally assault his students. Now this is a serious wrong doing by this educator and I am on the record for growing tired for this type of thing when it comes to children and school. When I send my kids to school, I want to know two things, that they are safe from harm and they are being educated (academically, not by a teacher's hidden agenda). Yet, somehow, in this case, the teacher was wrong, but how innocent were the students? Specifically, how innocent is the one who taped this meltdown?A recent article details a current investigation by police into the website of the student who taped and posted the mentioned tirade online. Apparently, there is another video on that site which features the student in question (dressed as Santa) with others, vandalizing Christmas decorations on people's front lawns, including smashing and destroying reindeer and snowmen. So, we have been shown a clip on TV with the Brick, NJ teacher screaming and yelling, again completely out of line; but what happened prior to this verbal attack? We do not know and we may never know. The facts remain that an abusive teacher abusing his power may or may not have been provoked by students with a history of vandalism and absolutely no common sense. Why would they post such destructive and illegal behavior online? Obviously they were proud of the pigpen they created. Culture26306@blogcritics.org Fri, 4 Mar 2005 13:23:54 EST