Pay as you go used to be a simple concept. Top up cash, spend cash, top up again; maybe you'd get a free text or two if you plumped for a voucher beyond the bare minimum. 4G is relatively new to the UK, and as such, we're seeing carriers experiment with different tariffs that are supposed to be ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/vdMVk1eQvvY/LONDON (AP) — Lights, camera, appeal!
Television cameras were allowed for the first time in one of Britain's highest courts Thursday after a partial lifting of a nearly 90-year ban on filming in courts. The landmark shift comes after years of campaigning from broadcasters such as the BBC, Sky News and ITN.
James Harding, the BBC's director of news, said broadcasting proceedings at the Court of Appeal will help viewers understand how the justice system works. In the first broadcast case, a man lost his appeal of a 7-year sentence for counterfeiting.
Lawyers' arguments, judges' comments and sentencing remarks may be filmed, but victims, witnesses and defendants may not.
Some cases will be broadcast with a 70-second delay.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Andy Henion
henion@msu.edu
517-355-3294
Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. A national study led by a Michigan State University economist suggests Catholic schools are not superior to public schools after all.
Math scores for Catholic students dropped between kindergarten and eighth grade, while math scores for public school students increased slightly. In addition, Catholic students saw no significant increase in reading scores or better behavioral outcomes between kindergarten and eighth grade.
"Across many outcomes, both academic and behavioral, we don't find anything that seems to point to a real benefit of Catholic schools over public schools," said Todd Elder, MSU associate professor of economics.
There are more than 2 million students in 6,700 Catholic schools in the United States, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.
The study, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, is the first to examine test scores starting in kindergarten. Results from the first national standardized tests in math and reading taken just weeks after the start of kindergarten show that Catholic school students perform much better on average than public school students.
That huge gap is likely due to higher socioeconomic status for families who send their children to Catholic schools, Elder said. "What you see is that the kids who go to Catholic schools are much, much different the day they walk in the door than the kids who go to public schools."
But if Catholic schools were truly better, as past research implies, that achievement gap would widen as the students progressed through school and it doesn't, in either math or reading, Elder said. In fact, when it comes to math scores, the public school students closed the gap considerably by the eighth grade.
"That's the shocking finding," Elder said.
While previous research has noted that Catholic school students generally outperform public students academically, it has missed the point that Catholic students essentially start off in kindergarten with an advantage that has nothing to do with the schooling itself, he said.
One possible explanation for lower Catholic school achievement is that Catholic school teachers typically make less than public teachers. The study notes that in 2008, private elementary school teachers had an average salary of $35,730 compared to $51,660 in public schools a 45 percent difference.
"Some people say Catholic schools are doing more with less," Elder said. "But these findings suggest they're not doing more with less that they may, in fact, be doing less with less."
Another possible explanation is that public schools have better designed curriculum, the study says.
Elder analyzed the data of about 7,000 students who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. The students were surveyed in kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fifth grade and eighth grade.
In addition to math and reading scores, the study looked at behavioral outcomes and other factors including absences, suspensions, tardiness and repeating grades. "Taken together," the study says, "the estimates in this paper do not point to any beneficial effects of Catholic primary schooling."
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Andy Henion
henion@msu.edu
517-355-3294
Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. A national study led by a Michigan State University economist suggests Catholic schools are not superior to public schools after all.
Math scores for Catholic students dropped between kindergarten and eighth grade, while math scores for public school students increased slightly. In addition, Catholic students saw no significant increase in reading scores or better behavioral outcomes between kindergarten and eighth grade.
"Across many outcomes, both academic and behavioral, we don't find anything that seems to point to a real benefit of Catholic schools over public schools," said Todd Elder, MSU associate professor of economics.
There are more than 2 million students in 6,700 Catholic schools in the United States, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.
The study, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, is the first to examine test scores starting in kindergarten. Results from the first national standardized tests in math and reading taken just weeks after the start of kindergarten show that Catholic school students perform much better on average than public school students.
That huge gap is likely due to higher socioeconomic status for families who send their children to Catholic schools, Elder said. "What you see is that the kids who go to Catholic schools are much, much different the day they walk in the door than the kids who go to public schools."
But if Catholic schools were truly better, as past research implies, that achievement gap would widen as the students progressed through school and it doesn't, in either math or reading, Elder said. In fact, when it comes to math scores, the public school students closed the gap considerably by the eighth grade.
"That's the shocking finding," Elder said.
While previous research has noted that Catholic school students generally outperform public students academically, it has missed the point that Catholic students essentially start off in kindergarten with an advantage that has nothing to do with the schooling itself, he said.
One possible explanation for lower Catholic school achievement is that Catholic school teachers typically make less than public teachers. The study notes that in 2008, private elementary school teachers had an average salary of $35,730 compared to $51,660 in public schools a 45 percent difference.
"Some people say Catholic schools are doing more with less," Elder said. "But these findings suggest they're not doing more with less that they may, in fact, be doing less with less."
Another possible explanation is that public schools have better designed curriculum, the study says.
Elder analyzed the data of about 7,000 students who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. The students were surveyed in kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fifth grade and eighth grade.
In addition to math and reading scores, the study looked at behavioral outcomes and other factors including absences, suspensions, tardiness and repeating grades. "Taken together," the study says, "the estimates in this paper do not point to any beneficial effects of Catholic primary schooling."
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
He’s always felt the freedom to express his thoughts regardless of the occasion, and Kanye West unleashed some new fury while performing in Las Vegas on Friday night (October 25).
The “Jesus Walks” rapper shared his thoughts on a plethora of topics during a nearly-ten-minute speech during his high-energy set.
Kanye declared, "People tell me how I should act when I'm on TV. F--k TV," Kanye said in the diatribe. "People [are] trying to tell me how I should act when I do an interview. F--k an interview."
He also told the crowd to stop shopping at Barneys New York following allegations that some store employees had racially profiled customers.
"That's that broke n**ga racism. Don't touch anything in the store. Excuse me that's that, 'can I help you sir?' That's that racial profiling out in front of Barneys and s**t. Talking about, 'Did you steal that?' And it's that rich n**ga racism, that's come in... come in please buy more, please buy more... I know you just got some money and can't wait to spend it n**ga."
Unfortunately, West’s rant may put a strain on his relationship with Jay Z who has decided not to pull his new collection from the store’s shelves.
Check the video below!
Paying a visit to the doctor's office today (October 30), the charming Rosie Huntington Whiteley made her way out of a medical building in Beverly Hills on the way home from her checkup.
Exquisite in a gray dress and boots, the "Transformers" starlet walked with pomp, holding a matching gray handbag.
In related news, the 26-year-old actress, along with a handful of other familiar names, are hard at work on a brand new movie, called "Mad Max: Fury Road."
Slated for release in 2014, the action-adventure flick stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Mel Gibson. As of now, the movie does not have a set synopsis, so stay linked to GossipCenter for more news about Rosies upcoming movie!
For all their notoriety as wasteful "pork barrel" projects, earmarks did have one obvious benefit: They helped congressional leaders pass spending bills. A multibillion-dollar appropriations package was much easier to sell to members if they could brag about something for their home states. In recent years, with earmarks banned, spending bills have largely been replaced with "continuing resolutions," which simply keep spending levels for existing programs going for a few more weeks or months.
Hendricks' manager Ted Ehrhardt told MMA Fighting that the lights used to film the commercial were placed too close to the fighter and they burned through his skin. As a result, Hendricks missed days of training while his skin healed.
"Ehrhardt said Hendricks tried to resume his training two days later, however, the burn was bothering him too much so he went to a doctor who prescribed an ointment to help heal it. Ehrhardt said Hendricks, who wasn't available to speak about the incident, missed one-to-two days of training, and the injury healed in a week.
'Johny never gets pissed off about anything,' Ehrhardt said. 'He was just mad that it was messing up his training, that's all.'"
Ehrhardt also said that the UFC apologized to Hendricks for the incident and the former national champion wrestler did not ask the promotion to pay for any of his medical expenses related to the burns. By the way, Ehrhardt says that Hendricks never gets sun burns in the summer time so, you know, those lights were pretty bright.
Fighters often talk about how promotional duties to hype fights can get in the way of the training they need to do in order to be ready to fight on game night. Hendricks may have just beaten all other fighters for promotional-related nuisances.
Remember, Hendricks won't be simply boxing at UFC 167 - he'll be fighting mixed martial arts against a man who is primarily known for his grappling and wrestling. Chances are, a big part of St. Pierre's strategy will be to put Hendricks on his recently burned back.
That's not really fair, but who should be blamed at this point and is there anything that could be done, short of postponing the match up and effectively ruining the UFC's 20th anniversary show. Hendricks himself has not yet commented on the situation and it isn't known if he ever considered pulling out of or postponing the fight because of his burns.
Hopefully Hendricks' bosses over at the UFC will throw some extra discretionary cash his way to begin to make up for his medical costs and, perhaps most importantly, his lost time training for the biggest fight of his career.
Check out the UFC 167 commercial below to see for yourself how Hendricks got burned:
Follow Elias on Twitter at @EliasCepeda
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-welterweight-contender-johny-hendricks-suffered-second-degree-194033969--mma.html