“The Cato Institute Responds to President Obama’s State-of-the-Union Address,” by Dan Mitchell, January 25, 2012

Cato Institute

hat tip What About Paris?

A Meditation on Money – “the difference between an obligation and a debt: an obligation becomes a debt when you can put a number on it.”

Serendipity – “The history of scientific discovery is peppered with breakthroughs that came about by accident.”

Shanghai – “We’re from Shanghai. We care only about money. You want to talk politics, go to Beijing.”

Complaints Choir of Singapore – YouTube

Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like

photo credit: Christine Ann Dunne

Use a straw to remove the center from strawberries.

See Hull Strawberries Using a Straw, from New Nostalgia, Amy Bowman

More clever ideas and clever tools

• Cool Tools
• Festival of Frugality
• Home Ec 101
• New Nostalgia
• Squawkfox
• The Dollar Stretcher
• ToolMonger

HT Zach Weiner

The Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Amendments to the Constitution, all in a handy pocket-sized booklet. The Pocket Constitution from TheCapitol.Net is also available for purchase in multiples of 30 copies. Single copies are FREE. Includes free copy of the Bill of Rights card from Two Seas Media.

A free download of TheCapitol.Net’s Pocket Constitution is available on Scribd.

Free Print Copy of our Pocket Constitution:

• Free copy with every book order and every audio CD order from TheCapitol.Net’s web site.

• Single copies of this Pocket Constitution are available at no charge by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with first class postage for two (2) ounces to: TheCapitol.Net, Pocket Constitution, PO Box 25706, Alexandria, VA 22313-5706. Requests with insufficient postage will be returned or destroyed. Only 1 copy per request.
• Social Studies and Government Teachers: You can combine up to 35 of your students’ separate SASEs (each SASE must have first class postage for two (2) ounces attached) into one large envelope that you mail to us for free copies for your students. Enclose a note with your name, name of your school, course taught, grade, and school address. Requests with no school info or insufficient postage will be returned or destroyed.
• No phone, fax, or email requests will be accepted for complimentary copies.
• Available while supply lasts.

Also available as a free ebook (PDF).

For more information, see TCNPocket.com.

Also see TheCapitol.Net’s FREE pocket edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

How many presses can claim 40 percent of their books as winner or finalist in one of the publishing industry’s most prestigious awards? TheCapitol.Net is one that can. The Virginia-based DC-area publisher has published ten titles, all on understanding how the federal government, Washington, and the media actually work. Four of them have received recognition at the Benjamin Franklin Awards–the premier award in the independent publishing world.

Organized by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), and selected, in 2011, from some 1300 entries, the Benjamin Franklin Awards often go to much larger publishers, such as John Wiley & Sons, Dorling Kindersley, and Harvard Common Press.

Yet, at IBPA’s 23rd annual award ceremony held at Book Expo America (BEA) in New York recently, The Capitol.Net’s Testifying Before Congress: A Practical Guide to Preparing and Delivering Testimony before Congress and Congressional Hearings, by William N. LaForge, took top honors in the Professional and Technical category, while A Better Congress: Change the Rules, Change the Results, by Joseph Gibson, was a finalist in the Politics and Current Events category.

These two books, honored at the 2011 awards ceremony, join previous finalists Congressional Deskbook (2006) and Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers (2005) in achieving this honor.

Publisher Chug Roberts commented, “I’m thrilled that the quality of our books continues to be validated by this group of very tough judges. We’ve always tried to create books that complement our courses and are truly useful to those trying to get something done at the federal level, and this recognition demonstrates that we’re succeeding.”

Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers Congressional Deskbook Finalist, 2005	Congressional Deskbook Finalist, 2006	Testifying Before Congress Winner, 2011	A Better Congress Finalist, 2011

To see more information about TheCapitol.Net’s books, go to TCNBooks.com

TheCapitol.Net is a privately held, non-partisan publishing and training company based in Alexandria, VA. For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Full Press Release on BusinessWire

The sticker price at Princeton or Stanford, including room and board, is upward of fifty thousand dollars a year. Public colleges are much less expensive–the average tuition is $7,605–and there are also many less selective private colleges where you can get a good education, and a lot more faculty face time, without having to spend every minute of high school sucking up to your teachers and reformatting your résumé.

photo credit: JL Johnson | User47

Higher education is widely regarded as the route to a better life. It is sometimes pointed out that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were college dropouts. It is unnecessary to point out that most of us are not Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s possible, though, that the higher education system only looks as if it’s working. The process may be sorting, students may be getting access, and employers may be rewarding, but are people actually learning anything? Two recent books suggest that they are not. They suggest it pretty emphatically.
. . .

[Richard Arum (N.Y.U.) and Josipa Roksa (University of Virginia) in "Academically Adrift"] argue that many students today perceive college as fundamentally a social experience. Students spend less time studying than they used to, for example. In 1961, students reported studying for an average of twenty-five hours a week; the average is now twelve to thirteen hours. More than a third of the students in Arum and Roksa’s study reported that they spent less than five hours a week studying. In a University of California survey, students reported spending thirteen hours a week on schoolwork and forty-three hours socializing and pursuing various forms of entertainment.
. . .

Sixty per cent of American college students are not liberal-arts majors, though. The No. 1 major in America is, in fact, business. Twenty-two per cent of bachelor’s degrees are awarded in that field. Ten per cent are awarded in education, seven per cent in the health professions. More than twice as many degrees are given out every year in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies as in philosophy and religion. Since 1970, the more higher education has expanded, the more the liberal-arts sector has shrunk in proportion to the whole.

Neither Theory 1 nor Theory 2 really explains how the educational system works for these non-liberal-arts students. For them, college is basically a supplier of vocational preparation and a credentialling service. The theory that fits their situation—Theory 3—is that advanced economies demand specialized knowledge and skills, and, since high school is aimed at the general learner, college is where people can be taught what they need in order to enter a vocation. A college degree in a non-liberal field signifies competence in a specific line of work.

Theory 3 explains the growth of the non-liberal education sector. As work becomes more high-tech, employers demand more people with specialized training. It also explains the explosion in professional master’s programs. There are now well over a hundred master’s degrees available, in fields from Avian Medicine to Web Design and Homeland Security. Close to fourteen times as many master’s degrees are given out every year as doctorates.

“Why we have college,” by Louis Menand, The New Yorker, June 6, 2011

Andrew Klavan’s “One-State Solution”.

Hmmmm, just might work….