I love this piece in ESPN The Magazine about how it seems to have become acceptable to cry in sports.
Green Schools Report Coming Next Week
I spotted this on the Society of Environmental Journalists' Web site:
Around April 28, 2006, the National Academies' National Research Council is expected to release a final report on the impacts of "green schools" on the health, performance and productivity of students, teachers and staff.
Judging from an interim report
released late in 2005, the NRC committee's findings could apply to most
schools, providing good information for any journalist on the education
beat (Lynda Stanley, (202) 334-3374, or Patrice Pages, (202) 334-2492). Some of the main points of the interim report were:
- There aren't many
"green schools" yet, and they are hard to define, but generally they
include a wide range of traits such as good site selection and site
planning; good consideration of health, comfort, and energy impacts, as
well as conservation of materials used in construction; easy and
resource-efficient operation and maintenance; and safety and security.
- Excess moisture can cause health problems, and most schools don't do a good job of controlling moisture.
- Poor indoor air quality affects health, productivity, and learning, and some schools have poor IAQ.
- Ventilation rates higher than the current minimum standards likely will be beneficial.
- Lower noise usually means better student achievement and improved teacher health.
- Overall, better building condition is directly tied to better student achievement.
The committee expects
to elaborate on these findings and address additional topics, including
lighting and climate control, in the final report.
While you're on the topic of schools, you may want to address asbestos issues. [The Environmental Protection Agency] has a national program
to encourage proper inspection for and management of asbestos in
schools. States generally have primary responsibility, but EPA has had
to take the lead for some states. This program doesn't receive much
publicity, but there may be many stories lurking if states aren't
following through.
42 States Have $urplu$
Stateline.org says:
Forty-two
states project to end this fiscal year with a surplus totaling $28.9
billion, making it easier to balance budgets and reinvest in programs
cut during the fiscal downturn in the first half of this decade,
according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
After
weathering years of budget shortfalls between fiscal years 2001 and
2005 when states fell more than $265 billion in the red, state revenues
soared beyond expectations in 38 states this fiscal year, which ends
June 30 for all but four states.
Beware the Little Lost Thumb Drive
I have one hanging
around my neck on my ID chain. My little thumb drive memory stick saves
me nearly every day, because I dump so much stuff on it when I am working on
things at the office that I want to finish at home.
But businesses
and even the most secret branches of government are figuring out that
one little lost thumb drive can cause big security problems. See this from MSNBC.
How to Cover Retirement As a Beat
I just love The New York Times "Retirement" section. I find so many multigenerational stories there.
Just click on the link above, and you will find stories about saving
for retirement. And, because there are so many baby boomers on the
retirement bubble now, you'll learn, there are specialized employment
agencies for folks who are 50 and above.
There is a story about retiring rock'n'rollers and even how to retire in another country. It is cool stuff.
I am pleased that
journalists are starting to rethink the addiction to stories that
appeal primarily to the 50-years-old-and-younger crowd. That is not where the
audience growth is going to be in the next decade.
Limited Web Domains Available
There
are now so many registered Web site domain names that every two- or
three-letter combination and every two- or three-letter combination
with four
numeric digits is spoken for. So says this Web site, called Yafla.com, which has done some analysis.
If
you want one of the 676 possible two-letter sequences, for instance, for
an acronym or abbreviation, you're out of luck: They're all taken. Even
allowing for digits, giving 1296 combinations, again every single
variation is taken.
Of
course, that's ignoring the fact that .COM registrars now mandate a
3-character minimum length, so it wouldn't be an option anyways.
Of
the 17,576 possible three-letter sequences, again, every single one
is already taken. Adding digits to the mix (note that I'm
intentionally ignoring obtuse dashes for such short domain names,
though technically they are legal from the second character onwards),
giving 46,656 permutations, yields a larger number of garbage domain
entries giving a false hope of 228 seemingly open domains, yet
they aren't actually available.
The site says the
most popular male, female and family names listed by the U.S. Census are
all also taken. More than 268,000 domain names include the word "sex" and more than 143,000
include the word "love."
Deadly Pets
Al's Morning Meeting reader Meagan Dorsch sent me an interesting story that KSFY-TV in Sioux Falls, S.D. produced.
The piece was about a family that bought a cute little reptile for
their kid, only to learn by watching a nature show on TV that the little newt
is fatally poisonous. The pet store told the TV station that it does not
post warnings about the pets, but that it is up to the customers to ask
questions. Huh?
Does anybody regulate the sale of hazardous pets?
Should they?
In Kansas, the state legislature is considering such a bill. Some towns, like this one in Pennsylvania, ban ownership of some exotic animals.
What kind of creepy critters are for sale around your local pet shops?
In Florida, people who get tired of their pythons just turn them loose in the wild, where they grow and multiply. It happens so often that wildlife officials have set up a python hotline to report the huge snakes. Here is a story from NPR.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium
of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of
Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the
information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed
and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
