Reader’s Links, Feb. 12, 2018

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

114 Replies to “Reader’s Links, Feb. 12, 2018”

  1. The latest development in the ongoing war between the White House and the FBI is that the Trump administration is now proposing to demolish the Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., that serves as FBI headquarters, and to replace it with a new building.

    It is a prime piece of real estate. Perhaps Trump can figure out a way to save the taxpayers some money by putting a hotel, condo, or office building on the property, and moving the FBI to somewhere less expensive, like the Virginia or Maryland exurbs, or to some job-thirsty rustbelt location.

    https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2018/02/trump-proposes-demolishing-fbi-headquarters

    • https://patch.com/virginia/kingstowne/new-fbi-site-proposal-dc-final-blow-virginia-suburbs Updated Feb 12, 2018 4:18 pm ET
      The General Services Administration recommended funding a new FBI building at the current J. Edgar Hoover Building in a recommendation to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, The Washington Business Journal reports.
      GSA also proposes reducing the DC area FBI workforce to 8,300 as it moves about 2,300 staff to locations in Alabama, West Virginia and Idaho.
      A committee spokesperson told the Business Journal a hearing is set for Feb. 28. GSA and FBI staff will provide testimony.

      • Isn’t this better?
        “…reducing the DC area FBI workforce to 8,300 2,300 as it moves about 2,300 8,300 staff to locations in Alabama, West Virginia and Idaho.”

        • That would be better, but I did like the idea of keeping the groups semi intact, better to split the entire group up into much smaller groups.

  2. Three people, including an aide to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, were arrested after allegedly creating and running a “fictitious” police force, complete with fake badges, weapons, uniforms and police-type vehicles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday.

    An investigation of the group began in late January when various law enforcement agencies across Southern California received mailed letters from the “Masonic Fraternal Police Department” advising that David Henry had been elected the MFPD’s chief, according to a Sheriff’s Department’s news release.

    The letters “immediately created suspicion and confusion within the law enforcement community,” the release said.

    http://ktla.com/2015/05/06/3-arrested-after-creating-fake-international-police-force-lasd/

  3. Turkey assails US over ties with Syrian Kurdish militia (abcnews, Feb 12, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-assails-us-ties-syrian-kurdish-militia-53013721

    “Turkey’s foreign minister assailed the United States on Monday, claiming that American forces in Syria are intentionally stalling the fight against Islamic State militants as an excuse not to cut ties with Syrian Kurdish militiamen as Ankara has demanded.

    Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Istanbul that U.S. forces are leaving “pockets” with IS militants intact to justify continued cooperation with the Kurdish militia.

    Speaking ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later this week, Cavusoglu said Turkey’s ties with the U.S. are at a make-or-break stage and that Washington needs to take “concrete steps” to regain Turkey’s trust.

    “Our relations are at a very critical stage,” Cavusoglu said. “Either we will improve ties or these ties will totally break down.”

    Ankara is riled over Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG — the top U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group.

    Turkey considers the YPG a “terrorist” group linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey’s own borders.

    Turkey’s military launched a cross-border operation into the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in northern Syria to rout the YPG from the region.

    Ankara has also threatened to expand its offensive to the YPG-held town of Manbij, east of Afrin, where the U.S. has a military presence, setting the scene for a potential showdown between the two NATO allies that back different sides in Syria’s complex and multi-layered civil war.

    But the operations in Afrin have been slow-going. In more than three weeks of fighting, Turkey has managed to capture a handful of hilltops and villages. Some 10,000 Syrian opposition fighters — paid, trained, and equipped by Turkey — are also participating in the campaign. Turkey has lost 31 soldiers in the campaign, according to its military.

    The U.S. is not militarily invested in Afrin.

    Sipan Hemo, commander of the YPG, conceded that Turkey’s operation had taken “some strategic points” in the Afrin areas, but said it was not considered “a major advance.”

    Turkey’s martial superiority lies in its airpower. Kurdish fighters have shot down a helicopter but have no answer to the F-16s and other jets flying raids over Afrin.

    Syria’s government maintains that Turkey’s operations are “illegal” and a violation of Syrian sovereignty. It is allowing the YPG to send humanitarian assistance through neighbouring government-held territory to Afrin, but not troops or weapons, according to Hemo…”

    • Turkey to rename US Embassy street after Syria offensive (acnews, Feb 12, 2018)
      http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-rename-us-embassy-street-syria-offensive-53023014

      “Ankara’s mayor has announced plans to rename a street where the U.S. Embassy is located after the Turkish military offensive in Syria that is deepening tensions between the United States and Turkey.

      Mayor Mustafa Tuna said in a tweet on Monday that Nevzat Tandogan Street (nev-ZOT tan-doh-AHN) will be called Olive Branch Street.

      Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch last month to drive a Syrian Kurdish militia out of northwest Syria. The militia is a major U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group; Turkey has labeled the Syrian Kurds as “terrorists.”

      In November, Turkey renamed the street where the United Arab Emirates has its embassy after a long-dead Ottoman military commander. It was a reaction to an Emirati minister’s retweet of a claim that the Turkish president’s “forefathers” pillaged the holy city of Medina.”

      • It’s a crashing failure!
        State media is reporting it using ‘White Helmet’ re-runs.

        Turk the Berzerk oughta read history instead of costume-dramas written by the sycophants in his closet.

        Al-Q – even using Nato equipment – can’t be compared to the pre-purge Turkish military. It’s ok, sheer mass will overwhelm the target population in the end. Won’t be easy to hold, though.

        • Take that region through shear weight of numbers will be expensive, trying to hold it will be more expensive. The fun and games are moving to a new level.

  4. Syrian militia says large number of IS foreign fighters held (abcnews, Feb 12, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/syrian-militia-large-number-foreign-fighters-held-53019170

    “The Syrian Kurdish militia partnering with the U.S-led coalition to fight Islamic State militants said Monday that it is holding a “huge number” of foreign fighters in Syria and none of their home countries want them back.

    The head of the People’s Defense Units, or the YPG, Sipan Hemo, speaking to reporters in a conference call Monday, said more than half of those detained in the battle against IS in Syria are foreign fighters from all over the world, including Russia, Europe, China, Japan and Arab countries.

    The future of those militants remains unclear and the process for bringing them to justice unsettled amid a debate, mostly in Europe, about whether they should be allowed to return home…”

  5. Iran MPs confirm suicide of held Iranian-Canadian professor (abcnews, Feb 12, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-mps-confirm-suicide-held-iranian-canadian-professor-53022767

    “Iranian lawmakers confirmed that an Iranian-Canadian university professor killed himself while he was in custody, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported Monday.

    The report quoted the head of parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying some members of parliament, including moderate deputy parliament speaker Ali Motahari, said after watching CCTV footage from his time in custody in Tehran that Kavous Seyed-Emami took his life.

    Boroujerdi said Seyed-Emami’s “family also accepted this, so they did not ask for an autopsy.”

    “The video showed that Seyed-Emami takes his shirt off and prepares for suicide,” Boroujerdi said.

    Boroujerdi added that considering that he was a university professor, he was kept in a proper cell. “Unfortunately, Kavos Seyed-Emami, for whatever reason, could not bear the prison conditions,” he said.

    The semi-official Fars news agency quoted spokesman of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, as saying, “The issue is quite clear because prepares his shirt as a rope to commit suicide.”

    Hosseini added that Seyed-Emami tried to make it appear to guards that he was asleep.

    On Saturday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said authorities had arrested several unidentified people on suspicion of spying under the cover of implementation of scientific and environmental projects.

    The chief justice of Tehran province, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, described the case as being in its early stages in a Sunday report by ILNA.

    “Some people who collected and transferred information to strangers were identified and some were arrested, and some might be arrested in the future,” he said.

    Omar Alghabra, Canada’s parliamentary secretary for consular affairs, tweeted that the Canadian government was concerned about the circumstances of the death.

    “Our thoughts are with his family. Canada has asked Iranian authorities for answers,” Alghabra tweeted.”

  6. Oxfam’s deputy chief executive has resigned over the handling of a sex scandal involving aid workers.

    The British charity is accused of concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

    Penny Lawrence said she was “ashamed” and takes full responsibility.

    The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into Oxfam – which denies a cover-up – but details of its scope have not yet been released.

    The watchdog says it has concerns the charity may not have “fully and frankly” disclosed everything it knew about the claims.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43027631

  7. EXCLUSIVE: Married senior policy advisor to President Obama pleaded guilty to sex crimes for taking pictures up women’s skirts on the DC Metro and resigned before the government could fire him
    William Mendoza, 42, was the executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education
    The married father earned $140,000 a year in President Obama’s White House
    In November 2016, he was arrested and charged with attempted voyeurism
    He was caught trying to take photos up women’s skirts in DC Metro stations
    Mendoza was also spotted looking at a video of a woman in a dressing room
    He was given a 90-day suspended jail sentence and one year’s probation
    The Native American activist resigned, but has since been barred from working as a government employee because of ‘suitability’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5379107/Senior-policy-advisor-Obama-took-pictures-skirts.html

  8. the guardian – ‘Russia wants to hack the Oscars’: smear campaign targets Syrian nominee

    Feras Fayyad, the film-maker behind Last Men in Aleppo, has become the subject of a vicious effort to discredit his work

    The film-maker behind the Oscar-nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo has been targeted by a smear campaign that seeks to paint him as a terrorist sympathiser in the run up to the Academy Awards.

    Director Feras Fayyad spent a year working with local journalists to follow a handful of volunteer rescue workers in the besieged Syrian city as they rushed towards bombed buildings to try and find people in the rubble. The resulting documentary has earned widespread critical praise and won awards including the Sundance grand jury prize.

    However, the international recognition has been accompanied by an organized attempt to tarnish the film-maker’s reputation, following a playbook of Russia-backed disinformation and manipulation.

    “It is like Russia wants to hack the Oscars like they hacked the US election,” he told the Guardian.

    Since the Oscar nominations were announced, Fayyad, a Syrian national, has become the subject of several articles by Russia state news agency Sputnik News and “alternative news” sites to discredit his work, describing it as a “propaganda piece funded by western governments” and an “Al-Qaida promotional film”. Others have trawled through his social media accounts and published pictures of his family and friends. Syrian state media has followed suit. On Twitter and Facebook, dozens of accounts have accused Fayyad of being a liar and terrorist sympathiser.

    Other Oscar-nominated film-makers and Academy members say the campaign could affect Fayyad’s chances of winning the award.

    Chris Hegedus, who made Oscar-nominated documentary The War Room, described the articles as “outrageous” and said that they “made us see how Russia and others are meddling beyond social media and political elections”.

    “It can definitely influence voters and make them question the legitimacy of a film to have false reports circulating and rumours that a film’s integrity is questioned,” she said.

    Producer Amy Ziering agreed, mentioning other “white noise disinformation campaigns” including one that targeted her campus rape documentary The Hunting Ground and another that took aim at An Inconvenient Truth.

    “It can very much damage an Oscar campaign’s success, but even more importantly it can damage the ability for important and necessary truths to be told,” she said.

    Fayyad is baffled by the attacks on his reputation, particularly as he feels that the theme of his documentary is not the White Helmets as an organisation but an intimate look at the lives of a handful of people struggling to get by in a civil war.

    “The film is coming from the side of the human being. It’s about a Syrian who is torn between his responsibility to his community and to his family,” he said, speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, where his film was screened.

    It’s a dilemma that Fayyad has experienced in his quest to make documentaries about people in Syria. In pursuing his work on the ground he attracted the attention of Syria’s intelligence service, and spent many months being tortured in prison on suspicion of being a spy.

    After being arrested at the airport and bundled into a vehicle with his T-shirt pulled over his head as a makeshift hood, Fayyad recalls peeping down from his blindfold at the knock-off Adidas shoes of one of his torturers. For months he passed between beatings, starvation and periods in isolation, stepping over dead bodies left in corridors and bathrooms. The Syrian regime insisted he was a spy working for the US or Europe.

    Those months behind bars flash into Fayyad’s mind when faced with the unfounded criticism of his work. To be accused of being a spy or propagandist is a terrifying prospect.

    “In the community in the Middle East this is shameful and it would make people not trust me if they think I’m collecting information for the FBI,” he said.

    He is daunted by the prospect of winning, believing it could exacerbate the harassment. “I feel scared about what we might go through,” he said.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/06/last-men-in-aleppo-feras-fayyad-syria-russia-smear-campaign

    • the guardian How Syria’s White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine

      The Russia-backed campaign to link the volunteer rescuers with al-Qaida exposes how conspiracy theories take root: ‘It’s like a factory’

      The Syrian volunteer rescue workers known as the White Helmets have become the target of an extraordinary disinformation campaign that positions them as an al-Qaida-linked terrorist organisation.

      The Guardian has uncovered how this counter-narrative is propagated online by a network of anti-imperialist activists, conspiracy theorists and trolls with the support of the Russian government (which provides military support to the Syrian regime).

      The White Helmets, officially known as the Syria Civil Defence, is a humanitarian organisation made up of 3,400 volunteers – former teachers, engineers, tailors and firefighters – who rush to pull people from the rubble when bombs rain down on Syrian civilians. They’ve been credited with saving thousands of civilians during the country’s continuing civil war.

      They have also exposed, through first-hand video footage, war crimes including a chemical attack in April. Their work was the subject of an Oscar-winning Netflix documentary and the recipient of two Nobel peace prize nominations.

      Despite this positive international recognition, there’s a counter-narrative pushed by a vocal network of individuals who write for alternative news sites countering the “MSM agenda”. Their views align with the positions of Syria and Russia and attract an enormous online audience, amplified by high-profile alt-right personalities, appearances on Russian state TV and an army of Twitter bots.

      The way the Russian propaganda machine has targeted the White Helmets is a neat case study in the prevailing information wars. It exposes just how rumours, conspiracy theories and half-truths bubble to the top of YouTube, Google and Twitter search algorithms.

      “This is the heart of Russian propaganda. In the old days they would try and portray the Soviet Union as a model society. Now it’s about confusing every issue with so many narratives that people can’t recognise the truth when they see it,” said David Patrikarakos, author of War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the 21st Century.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories

      The White Helmets Are A Propaganda Construct

      Contrary to what its multi-million dollar international PR campaign would have you believe, the “White Helmets” are not a group of volunteer search-and-rescue workers that sprang spontaneously out of the Syrian soil. When you peel back the layers of foreign financing and reveal the foreign intelligence operatives and murky lobbying groups at the heart of the organization, what you find is that the White Helmets are, in fact, a propaganda construct.

  9. YouTube removes 120Dezibel video:

    The #MeToo movement is about exposing the corruption specifically in Hollywood but also more broadly in other industries about powerful men exploiting women. It has had great success in America with the exposure and subsequent expulsion of Harvey Weinstein and many others.

    120Dezibel is the European offshoot of the #MeToo movement, with a twist. It is about exposing migrant violence, rapes, and links to terrorism.

    While so called ‘feminists’ preach the virtues of a 7th century death cult and how hijabs ’empower’ women, real feminists and activist in Europe and in Iran take to the streets to protest their abuse at the hands of fanatics who would take their rights away under the guise of ‘religious freedom’.

    After thousand of people watched the movement’s video, shared it and raised awareness, YouTube decided, in an Orwellian fashion, to censor it. It had no foul language, it had no graphic images, it was only a video of German women talking about their plight and about what has been happening all across Europe. Even so, their channel no longer has the video up.

    https://www.defendevropa.org/2018/the-establishment/120dezibel-movements-video-taken-youtube/

  10. OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put Justice Department lawyers on notice Wednesday for their response to a proposed class-action lawsuit on military sexual misconduct, saying their arguments are out of line.

    The lawsuit was brought forward last year by three former service members who say they were harassed or assaulted while in uniform. They are seeking $800 million for themselves and others in similar situations.

    Justice Department lawyers filed documents in late December in which they asked the Federal Court to quash the suit, which comes as military leaders are pushing for a culture change to eliminate all forms of sexual misconduct in uniform.

    The documents include a number of arguments for why the lawsuit has no reasonable chance of success and should therefore be dismissed before going to trial.

    Officials for Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan refused last month to comment on the federal lawyer’s response because the case was before the courts.

    But Trudeau on Wednesday said that the arguments were “of concern to me, and I’ve asked (Wilson-Raybould) to follow up with the lawyers to make sure that we argue things that are consistent with this government’s philosophy.

    “Obviously the lawyers’ argument does not align with my beliefs or what this government believes.”

    http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/pm-orders-review-of-justice-arguments-against-military-sex-misconduct-lawsuit

  11. INDONESIA
    Buddhist monk threatened by Islamists (Video)
    Mathias Hariyadi

    He is accused of proselytism. Wrath of the radicals sparked by his charity work, he was forced to read and sign an admission of guilt. Authorities rule that the allegations made by the fundamentalists are groundless.

    Jakarta (AsiaNews) – In the village of Kebon Baru (Banten province), an unknown radical Islamic group forced the Buddhist monk Mulyanto Nurhalim to sign an agreement, in which the religious committed himself to abandon his home following accusations of proselytism . The episode happened last February 4, but was unearthed only six days after an online video that portrays the monk reading and signing the document went viral.

    http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Buddhist-monk-threatened-by-Islamists-(Video)-43076.html

      • She was laying down a false trail trying to cover her from being prosecuted for her crimes and at the same time to cover Obama.

    • http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/grassley-uncovers-bizarre-email-susan-rice-sent-trumps-inauguration-day/
      https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-graham-uncover-unusual-email-sent-susan-rice-herself-president-trump-s
      Ambassador Rice appears to have used this email to document a January 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting between President Obama, former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates regarding Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. In particular, Ambassador Rice wrote:

      “President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book’. The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.”

      Grassley and Graham were struck by the context and timing of this email, and sent a follow up letter to Ambassador Rice. The letter reads in part:

      “It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation. In addition, despite your claim that President Obama repeatedly told Mr. Comey to proceed ‘by the book,’ substantial questions have arisen about whether officials at the FBI, as well as at the Justice Department and the State Department, actually did proceed ‘by the book.’”

      Grassley and Graham have asked Ambassador Rice to answer a set of questions by February 22, 2018 so the committee may further assess the situation.

    • Something about this Susan Rice email to herself is very off…

      Sign up for News from Washington Examiner

      Email Address
      Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are calling on former national security adviser Susan Rice to explain an email she wrote to herself on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration that insisted Obama wanted to make sure the probe into Russia’s election meddling was done “by the book.”

      On Jan. 20, 2017 — moments before Trump took the oath of office to become president — Rice emailed herself about a briefing that took place that month with the intelligence community about Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election.

      Then-President Barack Obama had a meeting on Jan. 5, 2017 with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Rice and then-Vice President Joe Biden were also present at the Oval Office meeting.

      At the end of her email describing the meeting, Rice wrote that from a national security perspective, Obama “said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”

      The email, Grassley and Graham say, is “unusual” and want answers on a variety of questions.

      http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-republicans-examining-the-curious-email-susan-rice-sent-to-herself/article/2648880

      • That email stinks worse then a dead fish that has been laying in the hot sun for several days.

  12. reuters – Russians killed in clash with U.S.-led forces in Syria, say associates

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian fighters were among those killed when U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with pro-government forces in Syria this month, former associates of the dead said on Monday.

    A U.S. official has said more than 100 fighters aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad died when coalition and local coalition-backed forces thwarted a large attack overnight on Feb. 7.

    Russia’s Defence Ministry, which supports Assad’s forces in the Syrian civil war, said at the time that pro-government militias involved in the incident had been carrying out reconnaissance and no Russian servicemen had been in the area.

    But at least two Russian men fighting informally with pro-government forces were killed in the incident in Deir al-Zor province, their associates told Reuters on Monday.

    One of the dead was named as Vladimir Loginov, a Cossack from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. Maxim Buga, a leader of the Cossack community there, said Loginov had been killed around Feb. 7 along with “dozens” of other Russian fighters.

    The other man killed was named as Kirill Ananiev, described as a radical Russian nationalist. Alexander Averin, a spokesman for the nationalist party he was linked to, told Reuters Ananiev had been killed in shelling in the same fighting on Feb. 7.

    Reuters was unable to independently confirm either man’s death.

    Grigory Yavlinsky, a veteran liberal politician who is running for president in elections next month, called on President Vladimir Putin to disclose how many Russians had been killed in Syria and in what circumstances.

    “If there was large-scale loss of life of Russian citizens, the relevant officials, including the commander-in-chief of our armed forces (Putin), are obliged to tell the country about it and decide who carries responsibility for this,” Yavlinsky said in a statement released by his Yabloko party.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia/russians-killed-in-clash-with-u-s-led-forces-in-syria-say-associates-idUSKBN1FW2DC

  13. President Donald Trump released his fiscal year 2019 budget proposal on Monday.

    Included in the budget is a proposed overhaul to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), typically referred to as food stamps.

    Under the proposal, SNAP recipients would begin to receive some of their benefits in the form of a package with groceries inside.

    https://archive.fo/ZIouu#selection-923.0-939.129

  14. World Economic Forum – This is the teaching method that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg love

    Over the past few years, Bill Gates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings have all endorsed a teaching method known as “personalized learning.”

    It involves students guiding their own lessons with the help of technology, while teachers take on more of a coaching role if problems emerge. For its apparent benefits in getting kids up to speed in reading and math, advocates have claimed it could — and should — become the future of US education.

    But personalized learning is so new, many teachers still need to learn how it works.

    Starting this academic year, one of the largest school networks using personalized learning, Summit Public Schools, is hosting a residency program to address that skills gap. Across eight locations in California, 24 teachers will spend one year learning the skills to personalize students’ education in the future.

    “We are modeling teaching through the student learning experience,” Adam Carter, Summit’s Chief Academic Officer, told Business Insider. This year, approximately 330 schools serving thousands of students in 40 states will use the Summit Learning Program in some capacity, whether online or in-person.

    Four days a week, each resident teacher will be paired with a teacher in a Summit school. They’ll spend the remaining school day working on their own. All the while, they’ll learn about the strategies that makes personalized learning so appealing, according to leaders like Gates and Zuckerberg: Socratic discussions, small group workshops, and self-guided coursework.

    The teachers will also convene in similar groups to learn about the style of teaching they’ll be relying on. In that way, Summit hopes to generate a group of teachers that understand personalized learning inside and out because they, themselves, have learned through the method.

    “Not only does this experience build expertise,” Carter said, “but is also builds empathy for students.”

    Summit doesn’t expect personalized learning to become the default mode of instruction in all schools, Carter said. Rather, the network wants to continually adapt to what research says is most effective for helping kids learn, even if that means abandoning personalized learning. Those kinds of insights are determined by things like the needs of a given school and its surrounding community.

    The current research seems to support Summit’s model for now. A study published last year found that kids in 62 schools using personalized education scored higher on reading and math standardized compared to kids learning without personalized instruction. Many who were below-average scorers ended up above-average.

    In other countries with successful education programs, the personalized model seems to be a deciding factor in success. Students in Finland and Peru, for example, receive personalized learning through cleverly designed classrooms and mobile devices that allow students to work at their own speed.

    Residents in Summit’s new program will ultimately earn a California Preliminary Teacher Credential from Summit Public Schools. Summit may also offer teachers a full-time job if they excel in their position.

    “The real barriers to personalized learning have always been structural,” Carter said. “What we’re trying to do is provide new structures that are more about students and less about how things have always been done. The desire is there. The know how is there and the systems are there. This is possible.”

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/this-is-the-teaching-method-that-bill-gates-and-mark-zuckerberg-love-71d26278-dec5-498b-b951-70b8276d34ed

    ===============================
    Summit Public Schools
    http://www.summitps.org/

    wikipedia – Summit Public Schools

    Summit Public Schools is a charter management organization (CMO) with eight schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and three schools in Washington state. Summit operates eleven schools in total, enrolling approximately 2,000 students. All eleven schools are tuition-free, public charter schools with no entrance requirements. The headquarters is located in Redwood City, California.

    Summit is the recipient of grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Public_Schools_(Charter_school_operator)

    ==================================

      • Homeschooling was pretty much all “personalized”.
        I like the idea of starting from a topic that grabs the kid’s curiousity, then pursuing every aspect. History, geography, literature, science, art:
        – -bubonic plague
        – -1492
        – -August, 1914

  15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=FhJMix5McLM

    Note: Remember, Page was an FBI undercover employee who worked a sting operation that revealed and, eventually, convicted 3 Russian spies, even testifying in court against them. This ‘contact with Russian spies’ was then used to get the FISA leve I warrant against Page – the highest level, as if Page had been proven to be a spy himself.

  16. Can we get some Danish speakers on this?

    Asylpolitik – nicht nur für ihre Partei, sondern auch für die nationale Politik und letztlich ganz Europa. In einem Dokument stellte die 40-Jährige diese Woche Forderungen auf, die selbst gestandene Politfüchse überrumpelt haben.

    Kurz gesagt, will Frederiksen das Asylrecht auf dänischem Boden abschaffen: Es soll für Nicht-EU-Bürger nicht mehr möglich sein, in Dänemark ein Asylgesuch zu stellen. Wer es versucht, so der Plan, soll in ein von Dänemark geführtes Lager in Nordafrika gebracht werden, wo das Gesuch behandelt wird. Ins Land gelassen werden sollen lediglich noch direkt von der UNO ausgewählte Quotenflüchtlinge. Für alle anderen soll gelten: Wem in den nordafrikanischen Lagern Asyl gewährt wird, der soll danach sein Leben in einem UN-Lager fortsetzen. Das Ziel sei, sagt Frederiksen, dass Flüchtlinge gar nicht erst nach Europa zu gelangen versuchen. Die UNO solle stattdessen Anlaufstelle für Flüchtlinge in Nahost oder in Afrika werden.Dazu brauche es harte Verhandlungen. Doch dann könnten Tote im Mittelmeer verhindert werden, sagt die Sozialdemokratin, die Chefin der grössten dänischen Partei, die aber in der Opposition ist. Ihren umstrittenen Vorschlag bezeichnet sie als «nötig, wenn wir für Dänemark und für die Flüchtlinge sorgen wollen». Letzteres will sie mit mehr Entwicklungsgeldern erreichen.

    http://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/nachrichten/international/rechte-forderung-von-links;art9640,1196276

    • Socialists want to abolish asylum law on Danish soil

      http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luzernerzeitung.ch%2Fnachrichten%2Finternational%2Frechte-forderung-von-links%3Bart9640%2C1196276

      DENMARK ? The Socialists want to abolish the right to asylum in Denmark. Instead, the country should operate refugee camps in North Africa.

      Niels Anner, Copenhagen

      Mette Frederiksen, head of the Danish Social Democrats, wants a radical change in asylum policy – not only for her party, but also for national politics and, ultimately, the whole of Europe. In a document this week, the 40-year-old made demands that have taken by surprise even self-proclaimed political foxes.

      In short, Frederiksen wants to abolish the right to asylum on Danish soil: it should no longer be possible for non-EU citizens to seek asylum in Denmark. Anyone who tries, according to the plan, should be taken to a camp run by Denmark in North Africa, where the petition will be treated. Only quota refugees selected directly by the UN are to be let into the country. For all others, who should be granted asylum in the North African camps, who should thereafter continue his life in a UN camp. The goal, Frederiksen says, is that refugees do not even try to get to Europe. Instead, the UN should be a focal point for refugees in the Middle East or in Africa. That requires tough negotiations. But then dead people in the Mediterranean could be prevented, says the Social Democrat, the head of the largest Danish party, which is in opposition. She describes her controversial proposal as “necessary if we want to take care of Denmark and the refugees”. The latter wants to reach them with more development fund

      click through to read the rest

  17. BREAKING: Multiple London buildings hit by HUGE blaze as 97 firefighters tackle flames (express, Feb 13, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/918111/London-fire-Northolt-fire-fire-engines-firefighters-warehouse-Wembley-Long-Drive

    “FIFTEEN FIRE engines and 97 firefighters have rushed to Northolt in London to tackle a huge fire within multiple buildings that has left smoke billowing into the sky, it has emerged.

    The flames at the industrial estate on Long Drive in Northolt has left multiple warehouse units engulfed.

    Station Manager Ben King declared: “This is a very visible fire.

    “We would advise nearby residents to keep their windows closed as there is a lot of thick smoke in the area.

    “We have a lot of fire engines on the scene so people should avoid the area where possible.”

    The fire brigade was called at 11.28pm on Monday – crews from Northolt, Wembley, Southall, Ealing, Harrow and other fire stations have been called to the scene.

    The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

    Firefighters will be battling the deadly flames “throughout the night”.

    In an update, they declared: “Firefighters are working hard at the scene of the fire to prevent it spreading to other units. They will remain on scene throughout the night.”

    More to follow…”