>Eat more dog food 9 (8%)
Buy a second hand Mercedes in stead of new 18 (16%)
Send your kids off to work 9 (8%)
Have or shop at a garage sale 6 (5%)
Eat out less 69 (62%)
Votes : 111
We found the a full 69% said they would eat out less and 16% said they would buy a used instead of a new mercedes but only 8% said they would eat more dog food!
>THE NEW YORK TIMES
October 19, 2008
By KAREN ANN CULLOTTA
School officials and parents across the nation are turning an increasingly critical eye on the time-honored tradition of voters’ casting ballots in the gymnasiums and hallways of neighborhood school buildings while classes go on as usual just a few yards away.
Citing a litany of safety concerns, many officials are opting to keep youngsters home on Nov. 4, Election Day.
“School districts across the country now spend millions of dollars each year on controlling access to buildings with locked doors and surveillance cameras to keep strangers out,” said Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, an advocacy group, in Cleveland. “In a post-Columbine, post-9/11 world, we shouldn’t be opening the doors at our schools on Election Day, and just hoping everything will be O.K.”
The decision to cancel classes on Election Day in the Rockland public schools in Massachusetts stemmed from an accident — an elderly driver, on his way to vote in the state’s presidential primary on Feb. 5, struck and critically injured an 8-year-old girl outside an elementary school in a neighboring district.
The accident and the response by Rockland officials caught the attention of a PTA president in Aurora, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, a mother of two whose worries about the use of schools as polling places prompted the district to give students the day off on Election Day.
“The impetus for our resolution was simply a parent who asked, ‘Does it make sense for the security measures we have in place at our schools to be abandoned on Election Day?’ ” said Robin Church, president of the Parents’ Council at Indian Prairie School District 204 in Aurora. “We all agreed that student safety was paramount every day, and that includes Election Day.”
At the Smithtown Central School District in New York, Election Day will find teachers and administrators gathered at a professional development conference, while the district’s 11,000 students enjoy a holiday from classes.
“The decision to have a nonattendance day in November coinciding with Election Day was a no-brainer,” said Smithtown’s superintendent of schools, Edward Ehmann. “Our parking lots are already crowded with people coming and going on a regular school day, and this election is expected to have a record voter turnout.”
In Allen County, Ind., which includes Fort Wayne, students will be in school on Election Day, but voters will not. Officials have moved the polling places from schools to churches and other public places.
“In today’s world, we ask a mother to show her driver’s license before she can deliver cupcakes to her daughter’s classroom,” said John H. Weicker, security director for Fort Wayne Community Schools. “But on Election Day, we were allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to walk in the front door.”
The wisdom of closing schools on Election Day has skeptics, including Kathy Christie, chief of staff at the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan organization. She described the effort to separate students from voters as a “knee-jerk reaction.”
“It breaks my heart to think we are losing the opportunity to send a very strong message to children about their civic duties,” Ms. Christie said. “Keeping kids home on Election Day also creates an inconvenience and another worry about day care for their parents.”
Chicago is one city where classes will not be canceled, nor polling places relocated, on Nov. 4.
“Our schools are public buildings, and we need to make them as available as possible to our community,” said Mike Vaughn, a Chicago Public Schools spokesman. “Our primary concern is that there is not a disruption to the students, so we’ve made sure the voting booths are not located in high-traffic areas.”
It is a decision with which the Cook County clerk, David Orr, whose jurisdiction includes the Chicago Public Schools, respectfully disagrees, especially since a record number of voters are expected to cast ballots.
“In an ideal world, it would be nice for children to see voters in their schools,” Mr. Orr said. “But you have to ask yourself, what if?”
>The Fly has learned that the recent daytime intrusions into two separate Ridgewood public schools have prompted a grass roots movement to keep children out of school on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4th. It is expected that an informal e-mail and flyer campaign promoting the movement will begin shortly.
The movement’s leader, who wishes to remain anonymous at this time, told The Fly that “There will be many strangers in my child’s school because it’s a polling place and I just don’t think that school administration can give parents any assurance that these people won’t get anywhere near my child.”
At this time, the official Ridgewood BOE website makes no reference to the most recent daytime school intrusion, in which a male/female burglary team made their way inside of the Ridge School on West Ridgewood Avenue and rifled through the personal belongings of several staff members. One intruder was apprehended on the scene by uniformed Ridgewood police officers; the other managed to escape.
Will you be sending your child to school on November 4th or not?
>From kitchentablemath.blogspot.com
https://www.kitchentablemath.blogspot.com/
Monday, October 13, 2008
Ted Nutting on the math mess
I’m a high-school math teacher in Seattle. When I hear Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington, say that this state is “at the bottom in the production of scientists and engineers,” and warn that our graduates “will be washing the cars for the people who come here for the best jobs,” I know what the problem is. It’s math. We are failing to educate our children in mathematics. I know how that came about, and what we can do about it.
The problem is national in scope, but in Washington state our difficulties can be traced principally to Terry Bergeson, superintendent of public instruction for the past 12 years. She oversaw the writing of our state’s weak, vague math standards, basing them on a “reform” idea to promote “discovery” learning. This has turned teachers into “facilitators” who “guide” children in learning activities. It has promoted “differentiated instruction,” placing students of wildly differing abilities together where some students cannot do the required work, often to the detriment of those who can.
She has moved away from rigorous testing. The “reform” math she champions encourages such things as journals, portfolios and group projects that tend to form large parts of classroom grading systems, while test results are relegated to a lesser role. The math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), aligned to her faulty standards, tests math skills at a low level. Even so, about half our 10th-graders fail it.
She has wasted millions of dollars on “professional development” to encourage teachers to put “reform” theories into practice. These theories are supposed to make it possible for all students to learn math. But few students know significant mathematics, and most know very little. About half of our students entering college now have to take remedial math. Many of our students who do succeed use private tutors, and the racial achievement gaps have widened. “Reform’s” emphasis on equity and fairness has been revealed to be empty talk.
My experience tells me that we can fix this, and quickly. I am the Advanced Placement calculus teacher at Ballard High School. I don’t teach Bergeson-style. I tell my students what they need to know, they do problems to understand how it works, and they demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through testing. Up until this year, we’ve insisted that our students who take AP calculus actually be able to do the work.
We at Ballard have by far the best AP calculus program in Seattle Public Schools, based on AP test scores. I have no special magnetism or charisma; I’m not a cult figure for teenagers. I have high standards and I require the students to work. If they don’t work, they know they will probably flunk. But they do work, and I am proud of them. I also have the benefit of having an older textbook that doesn’t fit the “reform math” model, and most of my students have had an excellent pre-calculus teacher the year before.
In most of our other math classes (and I doubt that Ballard is unique in this), we’ve tended to follow a “reform” model. We’ve passed students on from class to class; there is no meaningful threshold they must cross to enter a more-difficult class. Since we find that many students in our classes cannot do the work, we dumb down the courses. We say we are admitting unprepared students into our classes in order to “challenge” them.
But students should be challenged in the classes that they are qualified to take, not sent on to classes where they cannot do the work. Unfortunately, things are changing, even in our school’s AP calculus classes: We’re starting to admit unqualified students, and our program will soon begin to deteriorate.
It’s not just Ballard’s AP calculus program that is successful, and it’s not just the top students. North Beach Elementary in Seattle [was this Niki Hayes’ school? will find out] switched its math curriculum to Saxon Math in 2001. This excellent series teaches real math and does not follow Bergeson’s fuzzy, reform-oriented ideology. North Beach did this with reluctant agreement from Seattle Public Schools because the PTA paid for the books and because the superintendent supported site-based decision-making. North Beach’s passing rate on the WASL rose from 68 percent in 2000 to 94 percent in 2004 — and yet, every year parents worry that real math will be scrapped. Recently, the school has had to seek waivers to avoid having to teach the district’s “reform” math.
Legislators have begun to understand the problem. At the Legislature’s direction in 2007, the state Board of Education reviewed our state’s math standards, finding they were failing. The Legislature set up a system to fix the problems, but that system gave Bergeson the opportunity to sabotage the process. She stacked the committees selected to rewrite the standards with like-minded ideologues. The results were so bad the Legislature refused to accept the rewritten standards, sending them to the Board of Education to fix.
Bergeson then stacked the committees set up to select curricula for state approval. That process is not complete, but the first results are discour-aging. The Legislature had required that the new mathematics standards be based on (among other things) the standards of Singapore, consistently a leader on international tests, but Bergeson’s initial submission of texts ranked Singapore Math, that country’s official curriculum (and a superior one), dead last out of 12.
Most school-district administrations have gone along with Bergeson and share responsibility for this mess. Even as an uproar arose nationally against the programs Bergeson promotes, Seattle started using two of them in elementary and middle schools.
None of this is necessary. Students can learn math. My students learn it. If our education leaders would follow the lead of our Legislature, stop ignoring obvious successes and support what actually works, we would see major improvements in just a few years.
Ted Nutting is the Advanced Placement calculus teacher at Ballard High School in Seattle.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
>Posted by packerma October 15, 2008 18:43PM
As the election approaches, Rep. Scott Garrett has a 2-1 fundraising lead over Dennis Shulman, his Democratic challenger for the 5th District seat, according to campaign finance reports filed Wednesday.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/garretts_fundraising_outpaces.html
Garrett, 49, a Sussex County Republican, has $571,000 in cash on hand, while Shulman, a Bergen County Democrat, has $279,000, according to their Federal Election Commission reports for July 15 to Oct. 15.
However, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has promised to bolster the 58-year-old Shulman’s coffers, after labeling the race Tuesday as one of its “Red to Blue” campaigns, in which Democratic challengers are to receive more funding and assistance to try to defeat GOP incumbents on Nov. 4.
“We think this means Dennis is well-positioned for October, especially as the national party has made the race a priority and Dennis’ grassroots support continues to expand exponentially,” Shulman’s campaign manager, Jeff Hauser, said Wednesday.
Garrett’s campaign notes he has outpaced his own fundraising, as compared with the 2006 election.
“We have exceeded the fundraising activity from previous elections by almost $300,000, and our cash on hand is twice that of our opponent,” Garrett campaign manager Amanda Gasperino said Wednesday. “These numbers are proof that voters in the 5th District want a congressman who will fight to protect New Jersey taxpayers and their family budgets.”
The campaign finance reports show the following figures:
Garrett had $649,000 at the start of the quarter; raised another $281,000; spent $359,000; and has $571,000 cash-on-hand. About $179,000 of Garrett’s contributions came from individual donations while $98,000 came from political action committees, or PACs, including the New Jersey Right to Life PAC, American Conservative Union, and several banking, insurance and finance groups.
Shulman had $258,000 at the start of the quarter; raised another $328,000; spent $307,000; and has $279,000 cash on hand. Some $205,000 of Shulman’s contributions came from individual donations while $69,000 came from PACs, including the NARAL Pro-Choice PAC, the American Federation of Teachers and several labor unions.
Shulman also loaned his campaign $53,000 in the third quarter. He loaned his campaign $35,000 in the second quarter and also has provided $14,000 in in-kind expenses.
Garrett has not loaned any of his own money to his campaign.
Of Shulman’s loans to his campaign, Gasperino said: “It’s clear that he has been unable to raise the amount of money he needs to fund his negative media buy .¤.¤. he’s forced to dip into his own pocket because 5th District voters refuse to fund his incessantly negative and baseless attack ads.”
Hauser said Shulman “has engaged a vast grassroots support that will work in the field and friend-to-friend to bring the vote out, whereas Garrett has gone financial services PAC-to-PAC to build a top-heavy campaign, out-of-touch with the district.”
Shulman has run ads blasting Garrett as “corrupt” for receiving a farmland tax assessment on nearly 10 acres of land used by his brother for a Christmas tree farm — but not listing the farmland as an asset on federal disclosure forms.
Garrett is an attorney from Wantage who is known as New Jersey’s most conservative congressman. He has said he is not required to disclose the farmland because he does not earn any income from it.
Shulman, of Demarest, is a psychologist and a rabbi. He has been blind since childhood. If elected, Shulman would become the first rabbi in Congress.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/garretts_fundraising_outpaces.html
>Posted by cjrothma October 16, 2008 05:11AM
Gov. Jon Corzine today will propose a broad stimulus package designed to protect the state against the global financial crisis.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/governor_looks_to_aid_banks_an.html
With the state’s economic footing and his own political fortunes on the line, the Democratic governor is scheduled to address both houses of the state Legislature at noon at the Statehouse in Trenton. He is expected to speak for about 20 minutes in the Assembly chambers, which will be filled with economists, lobbyists and others eager to hear the former Goldman Sachs CEO’s plans.
Tim Larsen/Governor’s Gov. Jon Corzine
Corzine has said his agenda will “bridge troubled waters” in the short term and “lay a foundation” for growth when the downturn ends.
Earlier this week, Republican lawmakers proposed slicing the state sales tax in half during the holiday shopping season, saying it would help consumers and merchants beset by fears of a long economic downturn. The plan would cut the 7 percent state sales tax to 3.5 percent from Thanksgiving through Jan. 4. It also would halve the sales tax in Urban Enterprise Zones, which already charge a discounted 3.5 percent, to 1.75 percent.
Corzine plans to propose investing $250 million from the state pension fund in community banks to spur lending to small businesses, and directing $45 million in state funding to homeowners facing foreclosure, officials said Wednesday.
The infusion of pension funds would boost banks’ liquidity, helping local businesses to obtain the credit they need to operate, according to administration and legislative sources familiar with the governor’s proposal.
The state Economic Development Authority would play a matchmaking role between borrowers and banks, and the deposits from the pension fund would be insured, said the officials, who requested anonymity because they were speaking in advance of the governor’s address.
Help also would be offered to about 1,500 New Jerseyans in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure, through two initiatives that would spend $45 million from the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to stabilize neighborhoods, according to Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), chairman of the Senate Economic Growth Committee.
The pension investment and foreclosure assistance programs represent a piece of the Democratic governor’s total economic-stimulus package. Overall, the plan is expected to contain more than 20 separate items ranging from emergency food and heating assistance to new tax breaks for businesses that create jobs.
Other components of Corzine’s plan include infrastructure projects such as roads and schools, a green jobs program encompassing wind and solar power and biofuels, and legislation to improve the state’s business climate.
The total cost to the state — not including the investment of pension funds — is expected to be about $150 million, to be paid for out of existing state revenues, the officials said.
Recognizing the moment’s political implications for Corzine, who faces re-election in 2009, Republican lawmakers have spent the week attacking his economic record and unveiling plans of their own, including a five-week sales tax “holiday.” Top GOP senators also urged Corzine to suspend real estate sales taxes and New Jersey’s new paid-family-leave requirements to help the state become more competitive with its neighbors.
“This state and its economy have been broken for a long time,” said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), who reiterated support for the GOP proposal to cut the 7 percent state sales tax in half for the holiday shopping season. Corzine does not support that plan.
Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said a proposal to allow businesses to carry net operating losses for 20 years instead of seven is among Corzine’s efforts to bring New Jersey in line with other states.
Making that change, and possibly others, to corporate tax policies “would send a strong message that New Jersey officials understand that job creation and job retention is the surest way out of this current economic downturn, and that we need to improve our business climate,” said Art Maurice, first vice president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.
James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Policy and Planning, said Corzine can affect the overall economic downturn in three primary areas — increasing state construction spending, assisting households caught up in mortgage foreclosure or joblessness and easing taxes and regulations on business.
But he cautioned that even the most comprehensive list of New Jersey cures will not reverse a steep global economic decline.
“The tides here are very, very strong. And there’s no way at the state level you are going to be able to confront them directly,” Hughes said. “At the most you can deflect them a little.”
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/governor_looks_to_aid_banks_an.html
>There used to be a time when Ridgewood residents were smart enough to sift through all of the new theories and ideas and separate the wheat from the chaff. They would implement only those ideas that were of the highest caliber and which would measurably improve their own value and greatness and those of their children and neighbors. These sound primary individual decisions would yield a secondary effect of fundamentally improving Ridgewood as a whole which in turn lead to the by-product of elevating and sustaining Ridgewood as a premier community.
Now it seems like the residents are so focused on the primary goal of building and maintaining the perception of “premier status” that they are easily fooled by any charlatan claiming to have something new… Many current residents are so insecure in their own judgments that they happily relinquish their decision making power to any golden tongued “expert” touting some “shiny new” theory or idea. Everything is treated as wheat even when it is chaff…and when one dines on too much chaff, one is not long for this world.
>BETHPAGE, N.Y., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced that it has successfully deployed Optimum WiFi wireless Internet access in commercial and high-traffic locations across its Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester/Dutchess service areas as a free enhancement for its Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers. Optimum WiFi has also been activated on the commuter rail platforms and station parking lots across Long Island, and at many Metro North stations as well.
Already the largest and most advanced consumer WiFi network in the nation, based on geographic coverage, Cablevision has more than doubled the size of its activated Optimum WiFi service area just since its initial deployment update early last month. Over the next two years, Cablevision plans to deploy WiFi in the commercial and high consumer traffic areas across its entire tri-state service area.
“We are pleased to announce that Optimum WiFi is now available to customers across Cablevision’s Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester/Dutchess service areas, as our market-wide deployment continues,” said Kevin Curran, Cablevision’s senior vice president of wireless product development. “Free and broadly available WiFi access is already becoming a popular enhancement for our Optimum Online customers, and a significant differentiator over our competitors. With an estimated 300 million WiFi-enabled consumer electronics devices shipped last year – a figure that is expected to grow to 1 billion by 2012 – we believe the interest and value associated with Optimum WiFi is only beginning.”
Current Optimum Online customers using laptop computers and portable WiFi-enabled devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry can access Optimum WiFi through a simple sign-on screen. Once a customer logs into the service by entering their Optimum User ID and password, the network delivers fast symmetrical speeds of up to 1.5 megabits-per-second.
Cablevision currently provides Optimum Online high-speed Internet service to more than 2.4 million customers, more than 51 percent of the homes passed by Cablevision’s fiber optic network, the highest penetration of any Internet service in the nation. Optimum Online customers are already familiar with the benefits of wireless access, with more than half using wireless routers in the home.
Optimum WiFi uses the same standard used in wireless home networks, 802.11, and any device that is certified by the WiFi Alliance as adhering to the 802.11 standards and has a browser will be able to access the Optimum WiFi network. Cablevision has launched a consumer Web site, located at www.optimumwifi.com, to provide customers with additional information on Optimum WiFi, including tutorials and detailed coverage maps, which will be updated as the deployment continues.
Previously activated Optimum WiFi community zones – which are still providing service as the market-wide deployment increases – include Denville, Ridgewood and Tenafly in New Jersey, and Parkchester in the Bronx.
About Cablevision
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) is one of the nation’s leading media and entertainment companies. Its cable television operations serve more than 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area. The company’s advanced telecommunications offerings include its iO TV(R) digital television, Optimum Online(R) high-speed Internet, Optimum Voice(R) digital voice-over-cable, and its Optimum Lightpath integrated business communications services. Cablevision operates several successful programming businesses, including AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv, through Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, and serves the New York area as publisher of Newsday and other niche publications through Newsday LLC. In addition to these businesses, Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. The company also operates New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre, and the Chicago Theatre, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas. SOURCE Cablevision Systems Corp.
>From the Ridgewood News
Friday, February 8, 2008
Reader Viewpoint
“Math program is ‘inherently flawed'”
BY LAWRENCE MASKIN
There seems to be a callous disregard for parental input regarding our district’s current math programs. Balanced approach is what we’re hearing time and time again. Our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Ms. Regina Botsford, stated last April that the math program at Travell was balanced. Then, this summer, Ms. Botsford stated that they had reset the balance. Currently, Ms. Botsford states that we have to find the balance. Why would the administration and BOE whole-sale adopt a program that needed a balance adjustment not just once, but three times! Yet, they still search for that balance.
To me, the program was inherently flawed from the start as evidenced by this need for constant reshuffling. They are taking an experimental program with no track record that is highly criticized and sprinkling in the tried and true traditional math with a proven past high record of success. As a former biologist, I can tell you this is analogous to a dilution. In this case a huge dilution of the very math that put Ridgewood on the map as an educational powerhouse of the past.
They keep repeating, “we need math for the 21st century.” What the heck does that mean? Have standard equations honed through the centuries changed somehow with the times? Doesn’t 2 plus 2 still equal 4? Supporters of diluted math say that parents simply don’t understand it because it looks different from what they had learned in the past.
They tell us to “have blind faith in the program.” Surely they must be joking. The program expects children to solve problems in multiple ways with little emphasis on obtaining the correct answer. Therefore, it is the journey, not the destination. Let me repeat that — GETTING THE CORRECT ANSWER IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF MATH. Oh really? Since when? In this diluted math program’s methodology, the most important thing is explaining your thought process. Tell that to your pharmacist when he’s measuring your medication. Perhaps your accountant can “guesstimate” your taxes. Let’s hope he errs on your side.
They keep saying this math has “real world” problems. There have always been “real world” problems to solve in math. In fact, from the very beginning of elementary school education we have all had problems such as theses: There are 3 oranges in one basket and 2 oranges in another basket. What are the total number of oranges in both baskets?
They keep saying, “Deep understanding” of math. I see a convoluted methodology severely lacking content. They call practice, “Drill and Kill.” Are you kidding me? How does one become proficient at any endeavor without practice?
This math uses what’s called a “spiral approach.” This means you briefly visit a topic, move on to other topics, move on to get more topics and ultimately return to the first topic. The preliminary findings of President Bush’s current panel on math education recommend moving away from this approach. Yet this is the methodology our Board of Education is continuing to embrace.
According to the state test, NJASK, our students are doing very well. Sounds great, right? Well the fact is our state standards received poor marks from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In addition an independent non-profit educational institute gave our state standards a “D” grade. Additionally our children are only required to pass 50% of the questions on the state test in order to be rated proficient. I thought 50% was failing. So, rather than soar well beyond those paltry standards, we just simply meet them.
Did you know there are 3 different math programs in our 6 elementary schools?
Did you know there are no math textbooks in the diluted math programs?
Did you know our kids are expected to discover answers on their own in groups, rather than teacher directed instruction? When students ask a question regarding a math problem, the teacher’s first response should be, well, what do you think”?
Did you know for the past 7 years Benjamin Franklin Middle School ranked in the top 1-2% in math (out of more than 1300 middle schools in New Jersey) utilizing traditional math. So what did the Board recently decide to do– replace it with this diluted math.
Did you know this math program is considerably more expensive to us taxpayers than traditional math?
Did you know this math has been highly criticized by the top 200 mathematicians in the United States?
Did you know this controversy continues in states around the country?
Did you know our Board used our tax dollars – more than $90000.00 to hire an expert to help us figure out this problem? Her conclusions were essentially that we need to partner with a local university to help us through this matter.
Did you know our teachers have to be totally “retrained” to teach math and that the training needs to be ongoing and long term? The list goes on and on…
Ultimately this long term erosion of our kids’ math education will affect their ability to compete in the global job market. You simply have to look at those nearby out of town districts that are continuing to educate their students with solid, time proven programs. There are also available programs that emulate the best international math curricula in the world. They are readily available and offer solid content and provide world class results. Why these are not even considered is baffling and frustrating. Because our school district’s reputation and our academic successes from years past are continuing to fall by the wayside our property values too will drop as a result. Ridgewood cannot afford to ride on its reputation. As the phrase goes, you can pay me now or pay me later. It appears here in Ridgewood we are doing both.
>I do not believe this site is connected at all with Ridgewood Public Schools. Although it has picked up the look of the RPS website it is not hosted through the schools. Beware. Does anyone have some info?
The comprehensive Online Directory is one of the most popular features of the Ridgewood High School Alumni Online Community. Find out what your old friends are up to both personally and professionally. Complete profiles include current professional information such as job title, company name, career category, and business address and phone number. In addition, you’ll find residential address and phone number, academic profiles, names of spouse and children – and of course, email address.
Visit the Ridgewood High School Alumni Online Community Today!
https://www.graduateconnections.com/ridgewood/
>
>WARWICK – Two New Jersey men were killed Sunday afternoon when their motorcycles collided on Long Meadow Road near the entrance to the property owned by King’s College, town police said.
Warwick police Sgt. John Rader said the men — one from Mahwah, one from Ridgewood and both in their early 20s — were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names were withheld pending notification of their families.
Warwick detectives – with the help of the state police’s accident reconstruction team – are still investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred around 4 p.m. Rader said it appeared that one motorcycle was broadsided by the other as it was making a turn.
Anyone who may have witnessed the crash should call Warwick police at 986-3423.
[email protected]
https://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081013/NEWS/81012013
>
One of the first known celebrations marking the discovery of the “New World” by Christopher Columbus was in 1792, when a ceremony organized by the Colombian Order was held in New York City honoring Christopher Columbus and the 300th anniversary of his landing in the Bahamas. Then, on October 12, 1866 the Italian population of New York organized the first celebration of the discovery of America. Three years later, in 1869 Italians in San Francisco celebrated October 12 calling it C-Day.
To mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison made a commemorative proclamation. But it was Colorado, in 1905, that became the first state to observe a Columbus Day. Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually, and in 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. That’s where it remained until 1971 when Congress declared it a federal public holiday on the second Monday in October.
Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1505)
Columbus, the son of a wool merchant and weaver, was born in Genoa, Italy and went to sea at the age of 14. Following a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal in 1470, he swam ashore and settled in that country.
Between 1477 and 1482 Columbus made merchant voyages as far away as Iceland and Guinea. But in 1484, his “Enterprise of the Indies” idea fell on deaf ears when he presented it to King John of Portugal. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Spain, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella became more interested in his adventuresome ideas.
To the New World
On August 2, 1492, Columbus set sail in search of the East Indies. The voyage was financed by Ferdinand and Isabella by making the city of Palos pay back a debt to the crown by providing two of the ships, and by getting Italian financial backing for part of the expenses. The crown had to put up very little money from the treasury.
Columbus and 90 crewmen boarded the three ships that were to make the first voyage to the New World, the Niña, Pinta, and the flagship, Santa Maria. On October 12, 1492, Columbus first saw the islands of the new world, landing in the Bahamas. Later in the month, he would sail to Cuba, and to Hispaniola (now Haiti). He thought he had reached the East Indies, the islands off Southeast Asia.
Contrary to popular belief, most educated individuals in the 15th century, and especially sailors, already knew that the earth was round. What was not realized by Columbus, however, was just how big a globe it was. Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the planet.
Seaworthy Cuisine
The menu for Spanish seamen consisted of water, vinegar, wine, olive oil, molasses, cheese, honey, raisins, rice, garlic, almonds, sea biscuits, dry legumes such as chickpeas, lentils, beans, salted and barreled sardines, anchovies, dry salt cod and pickled or salted meats (beef and pork), salted flour.
Food, mostly boiled, was served in a large communal wooden bowl. It consisted of poorly cooked meat with bones in it, the sailors attacking it with fervor, picking it with their fingers as they had no forks or spoons. The larger pieces of meat were cut with the knife each sailor carried. Fish was eaten most often. On calm days, the crew would fish and then cook their catch.
Return to Spain and Additional Voyages
On Christmas Day, 1492, the Santa Maria sank off Hispaniola. Columbus departed for Spain on January 16, 1493 on the Niña, arriving there on March 4.
Columbus made three additional voyages to the New World. The second voyage set sail in September, 1493, with 17 ships. During his expeditions, he helped to colonize Hispaniola, and discovered the South American mainland. He did not, however, see mainland North America during any of his voyages.
He returned to Spain for the last time on November 7, 1504. He died at Valladolid, Spain on May 20, 1506, at the age of 55.
Controversy
Much controversy exists over Columbus’ expeditions and whether or not one can “discover” an already-inhabited land. The natives of the Bahamas and other islands on his journey were peaceful and friendly. Yet many of them were later enslaved by the Spanish. Also, it is known that the Vikings explored the North American coast 500 years before Columbus.
Nevertheless, Columbus’ expedition was unique and important in that it resulted in the first intertwining of Europe with the Americas, resulting in the first permanent European colonies in the New World.
>Since so many in Ridgewood are affected by the current banking crisis…….
by Human Events
10/10/2008
Sen. John McCain’s 2006 demand for regulatory action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have prevented current financial crisis, as HUMAN EVENTS learned from the letter shown in full text below.
McCain’s letter — signed by nineteen other senators — said that it was “…vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]…operate in a safe and sound manner.[and]..More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either…should fail.”
Sen. Obama did not sign the letter, nor did any other Democrat.
see the letter
>Obama & Friends: History of Radicalism
‘Hannity’s America’ investigates Barack Obama’s ties to controversial people and radical groups including exclusive information revealed for the first time
Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special
Sunday Night @ 9pm on FOX
