Categories
Education News

16-year-old Connecticut girl killed by jilted teen after she refused to go to junior prom with him

FACEBOOKMaren Sanchez, 16, has been identified as the girl who was killed after she was stabbed by a fellow student at Jonathan Law High School in Milford, Conn. 

A jilted teen killed a 16-year-old girl in a Connecticut high school on Friday after she refused to go to prom with him, friends and witnesses said.

The violence erupted after Chris Plaskon, also 16, shoved Maren Sanchez, down the stairs and tried to choke her inside Jonathan Law High School in Milford about 7:15 a.m., friends told the Daily News.

The boy – using a kitchen knife he brought from home – then stabbed Sanchez in the neck, witnesses and cops said.

“She was screaming,” one friend, who was inside the building at the time of the attack, told The News. “There were students in the hallway when it happened. The kids who saw it are all a wreck.”

Emergency workers found the bleeding teen, a junior, in the stairwell and rushed her to Bridgeport Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

FACEBOOKMaren Sanchez was part of the high school’s drama club and was expected to perform in a show next weekend.

Plaskon was cuffed by a school resource officer before cops arrived, Milford Police Chief Keith Mello told reporters.

The suspect, who was not officially identified because of his age, was not immediately charged.

“The unprovoked attack on Maren this morning has unfortunately, for our family, resulted in the permanent loss of Maren Victoria Sanchez: a bright light, full of hopes and dreams, with the future at her fingertips,” the girl’s adult cousin, Edward Kovac, told reporters Friday afternoon. “Maren should be celebrating at her prom this evening with her friends and classmates. Instead, we are mourning her death, and we are trying as a community to understand this senseless loss of life.”

FACEBOOKMaren Sanchez showed off her prom dress March 3 in a Facebook group dedicated to student’s gowns. “Yay,” she wrote beside a smiley face emoticon. “so excited!!!” She was stabbed to death hours before the dance April 25.

The gruesome killing shocked friends of Sanchez, an honor student who was active in several after-school programs.

“She was a vibrant contributor to the school community and we will greatly mourn this loss,” Superintendent Elizabeth Feser said. “We are devastated as a community.”

But even her accused killer had a respected reputation.

“He was smart, he did well in classes,” the friend said. “Something had to snap.”

Sanchez, who was a member of the school’s drama club, was expected to appear next weekend in the group’s performance of the musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” friends said.

She was slated to peform several small roles and act as puppeteer of the the star character, a plant.

Students mourn in front of Jonathan Law High School. A group of kids spraypainted a rock with Maren Sanchez’s first name and birthdate.

The school was placed on lockdown immediately after the attack, but the order was lifted soon after police arrived.

Students and staff were dismissed from school about 9 a.m.

The school’s junior prom was scheduled for Friday night at a banquet hall in nearby Stratford, but officials said the event would be postponed to another day.

Sanchez was excited for the prom, posting a picture March 3 to Facebook of her wearing her prom dress.

“Yay,” she wrote next to a smiley face emoticon as she modeled her floor-lenth, marine blue gown. “so excited!!!”

Read more: NYDailyNews

Categories
Education News Politics

Christie: Classless and Clueless

It’s not enough that Governor Chris Christie is not going to make a full contribution to the state’s public worker pension system, despite promising to do so as a result of his signing the pension and benefits bill in 2011. And it’s also not enough that he continues to blame public workers for the state’s economic and fiscal messes.

It’s far too much, though, for him to blame cuts in cancer research and other programs on the fact that the state’s pension obligation would take too much money out of the budget. Yes, it’s politics. Yes, it’s a tactic to deflect interest and attention away fro the George Washington Bridge scandal, and yes, it’s not beneath a man who will say anything to become 2016-relevant again. But this kind of class warfare is disgraceful.

Blaming public workers and asking them to pay more for their pensions, which would take money out of the economy at a time when he should be stimulating it, continues Christie’s consistent failures on the economy. He could instead be asking the wealthy to pay more to help bail out the state. He could have approved the third railroad tunnel between New York and New Jersey, which would have provided jobs and a needed infrastructure project. He could have raised the nation’s lowest gasoline tax, which not only would have provided funds but would have sent a message that it’s time for New Jersey’s drivers to economize for the environment.

Hell–he could have allowed Tesla to sell some cars in New Jersey.

But no. New Jerseyans are stuck with a governor who hasn’t a clue about how to successfully grow an economy and invest in education. All he has is a surplus of bluster, and that we don’t need.

Register your comments at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Education

DC triplets can take their pick of Ivy League schools

 

Triplets Malik, Khalil and Ahmad Jones. (Photo courtesy of NBC Washington)

Malik, Ahmad and Khalil Jones are triplets who attend Georgetown Day School in Washington D.C., and they have each earned major achievements in both academics and athletics.

The brothers, who all have a 3.7 GPA, have earned acceptance into some of the nation’s most prestigious schools and only have a few weeks to make their final decision.

The impressive trio credits their success to the discipline and work ethic instilled in them from their parents and the tough competition they have among each other.

“You can’t let the other person be better than you, because you don’t want to be the worst one right?” Khalil jokingly told NBC Washington. “So, it’s kind of like we’re always pushing each other.”

Their strong bond has encouraged the three young men to work hard and in turn, they have collectively accomplished great feats. Now, they have narrowed down their school choices but remain undecided between two Ivy League institutions: Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Either way, the Jones’ brothers are definitely on a road to much success.

Malik said, “If one of them can accomplish something, then without a doubt, I can definitely do it, too.”

Categories
Education Technology

ANYBODY CAN LEARN

SOTW: “I can make an app do whatever I want!”

Alex
3rd grade
Phoenix, AZ

Alex is a 3rd grade “small business owner” on a roll. He has three apps in the Google Play store.

Tell us about your apps.
I got started when I got introduced to App Inventor in class. “Draw” is an app that you can draw things and change colors, take a picture from your gallery, make it the background for your drawing. I thought you might want to make a moustache on your friend. Or you might want to save your work so you could show your friend. The two others are for my Vikings report from social studies.

What do you think computer science will achieve by the time you grow up?
We’ll get things by clicking on an app or phone. Be able to change things at your house without even being at your house. I don’t think flying cars will happen – I mean, it would be cool, but do you really need that?

What are your favorite inventions that use software?
I like MiniClip.com and Minecraft. For learning to code, I like the farmer levels onCode.orgScratch, and App Inventor 2.

What do you like about computer science?
Computer science has made everything easier. My favorite thing about coding is I can make something on a device that two months ago, I couldn’t. I can make an app do whatever I want it to do!

 

Categories
Education

5 Daily Routines Of History’s Greatest Artists

Wikimedia Commons

From left: Pablo Picasso, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mark Twain

Why is it that geniuses tend to have the most intriguing routines?

According to Mason Curry, author of ”Daily Rituals: How Artists Work,” a “solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies.”

In other words, having a set routine lets you put all of your energy into the work you’re doing, rather than spend your time deciding which work to do.

Harvard Business Review writer Sarah Green recently looked into the routines of brilliant artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jane Austen, and Ernest Hemingway, to find out how they got their work done. Here’s what she found:

They minimized distractions.

With our increasing use of technology, brain researchers are finding that we’re more distracted, and it’s making us dumber. But history’s creatives — authors especially — knew to block out the noise. William Faulkner didn’t have a lock on the door to his study, so he brought the doorknob with him. Austen kept a door hinge squeaky so she’d always know when people were approaching. And if Mark Twain’s family wanted to speak with him, they’d blow a horn, so as to not disturb him with a knock.

They went for a daily walk.

Armed with a notebook, Friedrich Nietzsche took a two-hour walk twice a day, once in the morning and again after lunch. Immanuel Kant also had a daily walk after lunch. Meanwhile, Charles Dickens, Soren Kierkegaard, and Ludwig van Beethoven all did their thinking while meandering. (Although Beethoven did some of his best composing while bathing.)

They drew a line between important work and busywork.

“Before there was email, there were letters,” Green writes at HBR. ”Many (creative geniuses) would divide the day into real work (such as composing or painting in the morning) and busywork (answering letters in the afternoon).”

They weren’t very social.

While some behavioral scientists have found that having strong connections makes you more successful, some of the most influential creative people lived in relative isolation.

Take Simone de Beauvoir, whose 1949 “The Second Sex” gave a theoretical voice to feminism. A friend of Beauvoir’s said her lifestyle included “no parties, no receptions, no bourgeois values… It was an uncluttered kind of life, a simplicity deliberately constructed so that she could do her work.”

Semi-isolation worked for painters, too. As Green reports, Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier designated their Sundays as “at-home” days, so they wouldn’t have to deal with the “obligations of friendship.”

They stopped before they were running on empty.

Hemingway was rigorous about his productivity. He’d track the number of words he wrote per day on a chart, “so as not to kid myself.” But he was also careful not to exhaust his creative stores. In an interview with the Paris Review, Hemingway emphasized the importance of building a creative rhythm, saying you shouldn’t finish your work for the day unless you know how you’ll start tomorrow.

“The important thing is to have good water in the well,” Hemingway said, “and it is better to take a regular amount out than to pump the well dry and wait for it to refill.”

Categories
Education Health

Mental health issues in academia: ‘stories are not cries of the privileged’

‘Stories about mental health issues in academia are not cries of the privileged but vital to the future of research.’ Photograph: Alamy

“There are rather a lot of moaners in educational circles,” comments one Guardian reader on a recent article on mental illness among doctoral researchers and academics.

“There are plenty of skives in academia,” adds another commenter who thinks PhD students and university lecturers really have nothing to complain about, especially not in in comparison to other workers.

And an anonymous doctoral student confesses they experience a constant “internal conflict about the extent to which those of us who are lucky enough to be undertaking research at PhD level should complain about the difficulties on the path we have chosen”.

Not cries of the privileged

Lots of people talk about privilege these days, and it’s part of the conversation about mental health too. They refer to the “privilege” of being able to attend university and complete a degree, the “privilege” of carrying out out doctoral research, and the “privilege” of making your passion your job in the form of an academic career.

If you enjoy one or more of those privileges, the argument goes, then apparently you forfeit your right to draw attention to your struggles as an individual, to those of your wider profession, or to the working conditions that exacerbate – perhaps even cause – these issues.

If you have the privilege of making your voice heard, then don’t. Shut up and put up is the only path to which you are entitled once you are in a position in which people may listen, no matter how hard you’ve worked to gain that voice. A rich irony, of course, particularly for those of us who are educationally privileged but belong to marginalised groups on one or several other levels, be it through colour, class, ability, or gender.

Mental illness is not an issue confined to academia

Speaking about mental illness in academia is not to say that the sector’s workers are subject to worse conditions and expectations than those in other areas of employment (even if, on some levels, this may be the case). It is not a dramatic swoon of a handful of academics, complaining, with a sweaty brow and hand on forehead, of their terrible lot. Rather, these discussions and narratives are a small part in a bigger social and medical puzzle, a beginning to the de-stigmatising of mental illness more broadly, beginning – but not ending – in higher education.

Mental illness is not an issue confined to academia, but this makes it no less important to discuss it within this particular context. Neither are mental health issues confined to one particular group involved in higher education: they afflict administrative staff, management, researchers, and postgraduate and undergraduate students alike. All are caught up in a complex system of relationships defined largely by a combination of issues within and outside of the academy, including the marketisation ofand neo-liberal trends in university education.

Discussions contribute to a wider social issue

If open discussion of mental illness in academia is only a sign of our privilege, what do I tell the student who confides in me when they experience panic attacks, depression, and post-traumatic stress, and when they do so precisely because I discuss mental health issues openly?

What do I tell the doctoral researcher who feels the pressure of part-time contracts and competition so acutely that they regularly and increasingly doubt their own worth, not only as a scholar but also as a human being?

Should I tell them, as one commenter put it, that their lives are “pretty easy going compared to [that of] a miner”?

Unhelpful notions marginalise academic groups

Equally unhelpful, of course, is the notion that mental health issues are just part of the job. That they are psychological battle scars only the strongest and smartest can bear, those chosen few, the elite who are “made” for academic life (a notion which for so long has largely kept, and continues to keep, marginalised groups out of the academy and has reinforced so many other notions of privilege).

The wealth of advice out there on how to cope mentally at varying stages of higher education and in academia is testament to the fact that it is not only a “failing” few who struggle.

It demonstrates that we, whose profession it is to seek knowledge, recognise the problems of our sector and the impact they have on the quality of our work, the future of higher education, and our lives.

It shows that, in the slow process of change we are trying to initiate, we acknowledge our own as well as others’ struggles as worthy of attention and support. And we will not perpetuate the silence in which mental illness has been cloaked for so long both within and outside of the academy.

Nadine Muller is lecturer in English literature cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University – follow her on Twitter@Nadine_Muller.

h/t – The Guardian

Categories
Education

Fix Dents in Car Bumpers With Boiling Water

SEXPAND

To save on mechanic costs, a DIY approach can help. And there are plenty of car repairs you can do yourself. For example, over at Imgur, user sxpnthr uploaded a guide on how he fixed a car dent with boiling water.P

If you drive, there’s probably little you hate more than getting your car repaired. It’s usually an expensive, time-consuming hassle no one … Read…

The Car Repairs You Can (Seriously) Do Yourself, Despite Your Abilities

Car repairs can drain your pocketbook fast, but you can do a wide range of repairs yourself, regardless of your technical skill. We’re not just… Read…

All you need is a teapot of boiling water, rubber gloves so you don’t burn yourself, and another pot of cold water. Pour the hot water on the dent, and while it’s warm, reach from the inside and pop it out. Then, while it’s in the original shape, pour cold water so it quickly cools down. Check out the full gallery below for step-by-step instructions with pictures.P

Just fixed a dent in my bumper | ImgurP

Categories
Education News

30 Of The Most Powerful Images Ever

We should warn our readers that some of these pictures may upset them, while others may fill them with joy. But that’s precisely because these images reflect some of the best and worst parts of the human experience and world events. Our post of must-see photos from the past described our history while these photos, for the most part, describe our present – our suffering and our triumphs, our perseverance and our failures, our compassion and our hatred, our intelligence and our stupidity.

Some of these photographs may mean more to some of our readers than to others. But hopefully, they will remind us all that the world can always use a little bit more love, tolerance, compassion and understanding.

P.S: we always try our best to credit each and every photographer, but sometimes it’s impossible to track some of them. Please leave a comment if you know the missing authors.

1. Starving boy and missionary

Image credits: Mike Wells

2. Inside an Auschwitz gas chamber

Image credits: kligon5

3. Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner.

Image credits: James Stanfield

4. Father and son (1949 vs 2009)

Image credits: Vojage-Vojage

5. Diego Frazão Torquato, 12 year old Brazilian playing the violin at his teacher’s funeral. The teacher had helped him escape poverty and violence through music

Image credits: salvemasnossascriancas.blogspot.com

6. A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano in Chechnya in 1994

Image credits: drugoi.livejournal.com

7. Young man just found out his brother was killed

Image credits: Nhat V. Meyer

8. Christians protect Muslims during prayer in the midst of the 2011 uprisings in Cairo, Egypt

Image credits: Nevine Zaki

9. A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, in 2009

Image credits: abc.net.au

10. Terri Gurrola is reunited with her daughter after serving in Iraq for 7 months

Image credits: Louie Favorite

11. Indian homeless men wait to receive free food distributed outside a mosque ahead of Eid al-Fitr in New Delhi, India

Image credits: Tsering Topgyal / AP

12. Zanjeer the dog saved thousands of lives during Mumbai serial blasts in March 1993 by detecting more than 3,329 kgs of the explosive RDX, 600 detonators, 249 hand grenades and 6406 rounds of live ammunition. He was buried with full honors in 2000

Image credits: STR News / Reuters

13. Man Falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11. “The Falling Man.”

Image credits:  Richard Drew /AP

14. Alcoholic father with his son

Image credits: imgur.com

15. Embracing couple in the rubble of a collapsed factory

Image credits: Taslima Akhter

16. Sunset on Mars

Image credits: nasa.gov

17. Five-year-old gypsy boy on New Year’s Eve 2006 in the gypsy community of St. Jacques, Perpignan, Southern France. It is quite common in St. Jacques for little boys to smoke

Image credits: Jesco Denzel

18. Hhaing The Yu, 29, holds his face in his hand as rain falls on the decimated remains of his home near Myanmar’s capital of Yangon (Rangoon). In May 2008, cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar, leaving millions homeless and claiming more than 100,000 lives

Image credits: Brian Sokol

19. A dog named “Leao” sits for a second consecutive day at the grave of her owner, who died in the disastrous landslides near Rio de Janiero in 2011.

Image credits: Vanderlei Almeida / Getty Images

20. “Wait For Me Daddy,” by Claude P. Dettloff in New Westminster, Canada, October 1, 1940

Image credits: Claud Detloff

21. An old WW2 Russian tank veteran finally found the old tank in which he passed through the entire war – standing in a small Russian town as a monument

Image credits: englishrussia.com

22. Flower power

Image credits: Bernie Boston

23. A woman sits amidst the wreckage caused by a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunam, in Natori, northern Japan, in March 2011

Image credits: Asahi Shimbun, Toshiyuki Tsunenari /AP

 

24. The Graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, Holland, 1888

Image credits: retronaut.com

25. Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012

Image credits: Gary Cosby Jr. / AP

26. Demonstration of condom usage at a public market in Jayapura, capital of Papua, 2009

Image credits: Adri Tambunan

27. Russian soldiers preparing for the Battle of Kursk, July 1943

Image credits: Shirak Karapetyan-Milshtein

Update: Our reader Leif-Erik pointed out that this photograph was actually created in 2006-2007 for a photo competition. It is based on archive photos from the war in Russia in 1941-1945.

28. During massive floods in Cuttack City, India, in 2011, a heroic villager saved numerous stray cats by carrying them with a basket balanced on his head

Image credits: Biswaranjan Rout / AP

29. An Afghan man offers tea to soldiers

Image credits: Rafiq Maqbool / AP

30. Some parents, likely now in their 70′s, still looking for their missing child.

Image credits: reddit.com   via boredpanda

Categories
Education

Chicago Urban Prep Achieves 100 Percent College Acceptance, 5th Year in a Row

PHOTO CREDIT: CHICAGO URBAN PREP/ FACEBOOK

Chicago Urban Prep Academy has perfected their formula of achievement.

For the fifth consecutive year, the African-American male charter school is sending all of its 240 seniors to a four-year college or university.

“I got into Georgetown University which I will be attending in the fall,” student Derrick Little shared.

According to The Grio, the young men of the class of 2014 celebrated their stellar accomplishment during a traditional ceremony were they exchange their red uniform ties for a red-and-gold striped tie.

Graduating senior Dumar Harris told NBC Chicago, “The tie represents to me moving on from a boy to becoming a young man and actually doing something with my life,”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended the ceremony Tuesday to give the students uplifting words and advice. NBA star Dwayne Wade also donated $10,000 through his foundation Wayne’s World.

School founder and CEO Tim King remarked on the accomplishments of his students, “Urban Prep is not for everyone, and those students may leave us but the fact that some students choose to leave us should not be used as a weapon against the students who have chosen to stay and have achieved this incredible accomplishment.”

 

h/t – essence

Categories
Education Health

This Horrifying Infographic Shows What Sleep Deprivation Can Do To You

Bloodshot eyes, discolored skin, and an increased risk of diseases await those who don’t get enough sleep, as this terrifying infographic from The Huffington Post illustrates.

It’s generally recommended that people sleep for seven to nine hours a night, but nearly 40% of Americans get less than that. And the effects of sleep loss can kick in after just one night.

Check out what can happen if you don’t sleep enough:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-shows-impact-of-sleep-deprivation-2014-4#ixzz2yg5E7u5s

Categories
Education Health

8 Common Habits That May Damage Your Kidneys

The kidneys are important body organs, they take care of the urination process in our bodies by filtering body waste. Despite being such an important component of our body many of us do not properly care for them and millions of people die each year from kidney disease. There are habits many of us have that can harm our kidneys. Here is a list of some habits to avoid for healthy kidneys:

1. Drinking inadequate water
Not drinking enough water is the biggest contributor to damage that our kidneys bear everyday. The main job of our kidneys is to drain metabolic waste from the body and regulate erythrocyte balances. When we do not stay properly hydrated, the renal blood flow decreases, ultimately resulting in accumulation of toxins in the blood.

2. Long-term full bladder
A habit many of us have is delaying the call of nature. When we leave the bladder full of urine for an extended time, different complications in urinary tract may arise: Hypertrophy of detrusor muscle is one example of such complications which may lead to formation of diverticula. Hydronephrosis (increase of urine pressure in kidneys) is another example which is caused by chronic back pressure on kidneys, ultimately resulting in renal impairment.
Urinary incontinence due to overflow is also another serious complication of long term urinary retention.

 

3.Consuming too much sodium
Metabolizing the sodium we consume is another job for our kidneys. The salt we eat is the prime source of sodium and the majority of our sodium intake needs to be excreted. When we eat excessive salt the kidneys keep busy excreting sodium, which may cause long term stress on our kidneys. 90% of Americans consume too much salt and here are some useful tips to manage your salt intake.

4. Consumption of too much caffeine
When we feel thirsty we often choose beverages other than water like soft drinks and sodas. Many of these beverages contain caffeine. Caffeine can elevate blood pressure and high blood pressure puts strain on the kidneys which can damage them. According to Mayoclinic, most healthy adults, can consume about two to four cups of brewed coffee a day and stay away from harmful effects of caffeine.

5. Pain-killer abuse
Taking pain-killers for low-grade pain is a bad habit many people have. Most pain-killers have severe side effects and can damage different organs, such as kidneys. Research shows taking pain pills long term reduces blood flow and deteriorates kidney’s function.

6. Too much protein
Over-consumption of red meat and other protein-rich foods can deteriorate damaged kidneys condition. A protein-rich diet is essentially healthy unless you suffer from kidney damage and your doctor recommends a protein-restricted diet. Too much protein increases the metabolic load on our kidneys.

7. Ignoring colds and flu
Ignoring the common cold and flu is a habit that can cause kidney damage. Studies show people who have kidney disease also have a history of avoiding resting while sick. It is also observed that people with kidney disease are more sensitive to significant changes in weather.

8. Too much alcohol consumption
When we drink alcohol we often ignore the proper quantity suitable for good health. Too much alcoholic intake is a kidney-damaging habit. Alcohol contains toxins which put stress on our kidneys and can damage them.

 

Source- http://www.kidney-support.org/living-with-kidney-disease/14.html
Source- http://www.zimbio.com/Kidney+Cancer/articles/S3f63FubRSv/bad+habits+lead+kidney+failure

Categories
Education Technology

The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now

It’s time to update your passwords to various sites affected by the Heartbleed bug.

IMAGE: MASHABLE

COMPOSITE. ISTOCKPHOTO

SOBERP

An encryption flaw called the Heartbleed bug is already being called one of the biggest security threats the Internet has ever seen. The bug has affected many popular websites and services — ones you might use every day, like Gmail and Facebook — and could have quietly exposed your sensitive account information (such as passwords and credit card numbers) over the past two years.But it hasn’t always been clear which sites have been affected. Mashable reached out to various companies included on a long list of websites that could potentially have the flaw.

Below, we’ve rounded up the responses from some of the most popular social, email, banking and commerce sites on the web.Some Internet companies that were vulnerable to the bug have already updated their servers with a security patch to fix the issue.

This means you’ll need to go in and change your passwords immediately for these sites. Even that is no guarantee that your information wasn’t already compromised, but there’s no indication that hackers knew about the exploit before this week.Although changing your password regularly is always good practice, if a site or service hasn’t yet patched the problem, your information will still be vulnerable.

We’ll keep updating the list as new information comes in.

see the complete list at Mashable

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