Well, a friend of mine says, "In light of the country’s financial situation, a little education goes a long way." 

And I agree!

Hopefully, you’ll find something of interest or usefulness on this site. 

"Money Smart Week Wisconsin^SM is a public awareness initiative made for you.  It began in 2006.  It aims to build your financial knowledge so you can deal with your own money more quickly, confidently and shrewdly.   Use this site to find classes and events near you.  Most activities are free.  They offer unbiased financial education. "




Click old Ben Franklin for a visit...

"Just four years ago, Capt. Brian Von Kraus, now commander of Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, was a platoon commander, fighting a kinetic war against insurgent forces here in Anbar."

“The Americans, all they see is bad news; bombs, crimes, all of this,” said the 29-year-old Boston native, standing amongst a throng of local youth while he handed out another batch of American letters. “With the pen pals, American kids can talk to Iraqi kids and see the reality of the good stuff and see how similar they really are to the children over here in Iraq. I’m sure we all have common misconceptions and I hope this can clear some of that up.”


Read the entire story from Operation Iraqi Freedom Multi-national Force

Separation of Church and State? 

Ben Stein says "No"  ....  both Darwinism and Creationism should be taught in school .... 

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Judge Rules Against Intelligent Design   í here

What do you think?  Should Creationism be taught in Biology class?


 

Workers spray concrete on the walls of the Svalbard Global Seed
Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway, during the construction phase in August.

In announcing it would create a global seed bank on the Svalbard Islands,
Norway did not say exactly where but the archipelago includes a few
existing settlements like this one at Alesund

Have you ever wondered what would happen to the world's supply of seeds in case
of a global catastrophe? 

Something such as plant epidemics, natural disasters like flooding, the dreaded climate change, or war?

Are you aware of the  Svalbard Global Seed Vault  in Oslo, Norway? 

It is called the "Doomday Vault."

The vault is blasted into the permafrost of the Arctic, 300 miles from the mainland.  The temperature of the vault will be kept at zero degrees Fahrenheit.  It's like a safe-deposit box.  Each country owns what they deposit in the vault and can take it out at their own will 

The vault is due to open February 26, 2008.

"It's very satisfying to see the vault evolve from a bold concept to an impressive facility that has everything we need to protect crop biodiversity," said Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen.

Norway first proposed building what it called a "Noah's Ark" for the world's seeds in June 2005, and started construction a year later, blasting a nearly 400-foot (120-meter) tunnel into a frozen mountain and placing the vault for foil-wrapped seeds deep inside. Each sample holds about 500 seeds."


There already are about 14,000 seed banks in the world run by individual countries.  But some of these have already been wiped out, such as in the Philippines, destroyed by a typhoon, South Asia, destroyed by tsunami, or in Iraq (looters) and Afghanistan (by Taliban), destroyed by war.  The Svalbard vault is intended as a final backup for all other seed banks.  

"The vast collection is intended as a hedge against disaster so that food production can be restarted anywhere on the planet should it be threatened by a regional or global catastrophe."

Click on the icon below for information about the complete history of the Doomsday Vault, including frequently asked questions:

Were you aware we even had "seed banks" around the world? 

Do you think this is a cool idea?

Are you "unglued" when you realize the seed banks of some countries have already been destroyed and it took until 2008 to get a "Doomsday Vault?"  I mean, come on .... 

This is a postscript to my previous blog entry regarding advanced video technology surveillance, linked directly to police departments,  installed in schools in New Jersey.  

I would like to focus this entry on something no parent ever wants to face.  That would be the thought of terrorism entering our own schools, right here in Franklin, Wisconsin.

Eric Shoemaker, a retired law enforcement administrator wrote a paper titled:
 

Terrorism in American Schools:  The First of ALL Fears


Eric is a retired Public Safety Administrator with over 23 years of service on college and university campuses.  He is an author of over two dozen publications on law enforcement and public safety topics.  He is also a retired active and reserve U.S. Army officer. 

His paper details school terrorism attacks on the following schools, and their motivations:

The Bath, Michigan Consolidated School Case     1927

The Columbine, Colorado High School Case     1999

The Belsan North Ossetia, Russian School Number One Case     2004

The West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania  (Amish) School Case     2006

Shoemaker also discusses the Islamist Jihad and their view on women and children as being collateral damage in jihad and his thoughts on the LIKELY terrorist threat to U.S schools. 

He states, "On an emotional level, no matter how unlikely, and perhaps because al Quaida or Belsan-type attack on an American school or schools is so unthinkable, it becomes the first of all fears.  But, just because something is unthinkable, does not mean it is likely."

"When looking at examples of school massacres in the United States, there is greater likelihood that the threat comes from a pair like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris who had  a series of problems, plus firearms.  Other likelihood rests with lone disturbed individuals such as Andrew Kehoe or Charles Carl Roberts IV."

"Mitigating the risk of terrorist targeting of American schools is an exercise of dispassionately determining the greatest threat and then devising strategies to mitigate and manage that threat; be it individuals armed with firearms, explosives, or toxins that can be introduced to the victims through water, air or food.  The Columbine Review  Commission report to Colorado Governor Bill Owens is a detailed account of the events and lessons learned.  It contains valuable insight that by extension can provide a framework for action to combat violence of the type that, to many, is the first of all fears."

PLEASE take the time to read Eric Shoemaker's entire paper, Terrorism in American Schools:  The First of All Fears.  It's only six, short pages.

Then, PLEASE take the time to leave your thoughts ...

Also, go back to my last post and think about it again.   Is high-tech video surveillance something we might want to consider in Franklin Public Schools?

What do you think about the possibility of an Islamist Jihad attack here, on U.S. soil, in our own schools?

If you would like to contact Eric Shoemaker, his email is jjackoe@comcast.net

Thanks for reading this article.

Terrorism in American Schools: The First of All Fears also formatted in TEXT  here ß

Sign Of Times: NJ School Cameras Fed Live To Cops

Demarest School District Installs Laptop Surveillance Videos Monitored,
Operated By Local Police

DEMAREST, N.J. (CBS) Jay Dow  ― Surveillance cameras rolling inside our local schools is nothing new, but what's taking place inside Demarest's public schools is truly cutting edge: a live feed from more than two dozen cameras with a direct connection to the police.

It's an expensive, but effective tool that could be a sign of the times with an increase in school shootings over the years.

The system, which cost about $28,000.00 can even track movement in a crowded room.

"When they arrive, they can pull up the school's live feed and do a sweep instantly," Demarest Police Chief James Powderley tells CBS 2.

Patrolling officers have access to the video feed from headquarters and several laptops. To address privacy concerns, all of the cameras are installed in public areas and are not equipped to pick up audio.

The video capabilities are extremely impressive. Each of the laptops can pick up 16 different angles at one time, turning a single operator into a mobile surveillance team.

In an emergency situation, Powderley says the cameras -- complete with zoom and pan functions -- also cut down search and response times. "One officer has 17 eyes in multiple locations. It's amazing," he says.

Schools Superintendent Larry Hughes says if nothing else, the ability to digitally timestamp and archive the video should discourage bad, even criminal behavior.

"It doesn't hurt that people know and that if something is going to take place at your facility, if it does deter people from doing that, it's an added benefit," says Hughes.

Students seem pleased with the high-tech devices.

"I would want the police to be there right away if something happened to our school. Especially with all these bomb scares happening now, I know the high school had a couple," says one student.

Plans are already underway to install a more advanced system in Northern Valley High school, which can alert a patrolling officer when someone is in distress or suddenly falls down.

FAIR USE NOTICE: The above may be copyrighted material and is made available on "Unglued" on a non-profit basis for educational and/or discussion purposes only. This is believed to constitute a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 USC § 107. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.   If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for  purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

As far as I know, it doesn't look like  Franklin Public School's will be installing the high-tech laptop surveillance video monitoring system at the high school any time soon. 

Not with a price tag of $28,000.  Especially after the Board just surprised us with a 5.9% school tax increase, rather than the 5.6% we didn't want, but were expecting.

I suppose it would be nice, though.  After all, we do have several bomb-threats each year.  We can be thankful we haven't had to deal with any type of school shooting and we hope that time will NEVER come. 

The reality is though, FHS is very close to the House of Correction, and it has had several escapees. 

And, on Nov. 2nd, three of our elementary schools were put in a precautionary "hold" due to an armed robbery during the morning hours down on 27th Street at a restaurant/bar. 

I don't know about you, but I would rather see this surveillance system installed at the schools than an auditorium.  A Franklin Cultural Center shared with the high school would do just fine in my opinion.

 To be continued in next post  . . . "The First of All Fears" . . .


What do you think about high-tech surveillance at schools?  At our schools?   

What about the safety of our students?