What is noir? According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, it’s “crime fiction featuring hardboiled cynical characters and bleak, sleazy settings.”
You could say that. But being a noir writer, myself, I see it as a state of mind. A character’s bad attitude. Nice people doing bad things that turn around and bite them back. A bad guy getting what he deserves. Noir isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely for me. And I’m not alone.
On Sunday, June 3rd, I was pleased to be among “my own kind,” at Shade, in the West Village. The “Noir at the Bar” reading/gathering lasted from 6–9:30 P.M. and was hosted by Todd Robinson (“Big Daddy Thug,” editor of Thug Lit) and Glenn Gray, another noir great.
As editor of the cutting edge ezine Yellow Mama, I enjoyed meeting YM alumni Gray, Thomas Pluck, and Richie Narvaez. In person, they were as charming as their gritty works promised.
I was up first, with “Dishes, Dishes, Dishes,” a story that appeared in A Twist of Noir back in July 2011. What an audience! A few minutes earlier, the crowd was talking loudly and laughing. But the place was dead quiet when my colleagues and I read our stuff.
When Narvaez read the excerpt from his story "Unsynchronicity," I shut my eyes and saw the whole story play out, like a film. It was that beautiful and visual. "Unsynchronicity" is part of his collection Roachkiller and Other Stories.
Other readers included Pluck (“Black-Eyed Susan”), Jason Starr (Tough Luck), Justin Porter (“The Headstone”), Jonathan Hayes (A Hard Death), Jen Conley (“Metalhead Marty in Love”), and Todd Robinson (Dirty Words), himself. Robinson sported one of the coolest T-shirts, ever (an ax-wielding bunny rabbit), and presented us with Thug Lit tees (Wish I could wear mine to work!). Readers also got copies of the original story collection Noir at the Bar. Other noir collections were raffled off.
I was proud to be part of this event and delighted that so many noir fans came to meet us. Hope we can do it again real soon.
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A behind-the-scenes look at an education publisher written by editors from the English Language Arts, Foreign Languages, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies departments.
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By: the Editor,
on 5/4/2012
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By: Cindy,
on 4/17/2012
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I recommend this short novel since it is a seminal document in Soviet history as well as a “good read.” One Day is the first piece of Soviet literature to reveal the horrors of the Gulag (system of prison camps of the Stalin regime). Solzhenitsyn himself was a prisoner in the camps for eight years, beginning in 1945. After Stalin’s death, he was released but had to serve three more years in exile in Central Asia. He was rehabilitated in 1957. Solzhenitsyn then became a high school physics teacher while secretly working on the manuscript for One Day. He was considered a very good teacher by his students for presenting topics of physics in an interesting way.
One Day is fiction, but it is based on the author’s experiences in the Gulag. Solzhenitsyn submitted his manuscript to several Russian literary journals, and was at first rejected. Finally, the journal Novy Mir (translated as "New World") agreed to publish it, but government censors refused to allow that. In 1962, however, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev personally intervened and called for the publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in Novy Mir. This intervention is sometimes compared to Khrushchev’s 1956 denunciation of Stalin at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a speech in which he talked of Stalin’s abuse of power and cult of personality.
The New American Library edition (2008) of One Day has a useful Introduction by the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko and a less scholarly Afterward by Eric Bogosian, the American actor and novelist. Bogosian’s contribution should have been edited since he said that One Day was first published in 1961 instead of 1962, which is the year given in the Introduction. And he implied that the Gulag was all in Siberia, yet parts of the Gulag were in European Russia as well, in the north.
Why is One Day a great work of fiction? Though it follows one character during just one day, this character and that day represent all the prisoners in the Gulag and the total experience of those who lived and/or died from the late 1930s through the mid 1950s. Some 1 million people were released from the Gulag in the 1950s. However, forced labor camps and political prisoners still existed in the Soviet Union until the Gorbachev era.
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The biologists at first thought the die-off might be caused by any number of other factors—bacteria, a virus, changes in weather, a toxin, or some contaminant brought in by a cave explorer from another region. But by 2011, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey had performed numerous experiments and gathered enough information to be certain of the cause of the huge bat die-off, which by then had spread 2,000 kilometers across the eastern United States and into Canada. More than five million bats have died across this area. The cause was indeed the Geomyces fungus, which attaches to living bats in the middle of the winter when they are most vulnerable during hibernation.
The bats typically gather in groups of hundreds and thousands, in areas known as hibernacula, where they cluster for warmth as their body temperatures decrease. The fungus thrives in the cold and is passed between the closely packed bats. It attacks the wings and other tissues of such species as the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus, digesting and replacing the healthy tissue with fungal cells. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the little brown bat has had a more than 90 percent drop in its population since it was hit by the fungus. There are five other bat species that have also been affected in North America, but not to the extent of the little brown bats.
What had puzzled scientists at first is that the same white-nose fungus condition
By: the Editor,
on 3/14/2012
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Pie? Pi?
We all know what pie is, but what is pi ?
), which was first used by William Jones in 1706 and later adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.
By: the Editor,
on 3/6/2012
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Maybe. But right now your goal is to pass the Florida Reading Retake 2.0.
Florida students must pass the Florida Reading exam to receive a high school diploma from a public school. Students who have failed the Grade 10 Reading test can meet this requirement by passing the Florida Reading Retake 2.0 exam. The “Retake” assesses the same Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, but with only multiple-choice questions. Students can retake this exam as many times as they want, and can even enroll for a 13th year of public high school, if they need more instruction! (Hey! I’ll make it next year!)
Amsco’s Mastering the Florida Reading Retake 2.0 includes a Diagnostic test with Analysis Table, nine chapters, and two full-length Practice Tests. Each chapter includes benchmark explanations, instruction and review, literary and informational texts with graphics, guided practice, and independent practice. New information is provided e.g., narrative and descriptive writing and text features. All multiple-choice questions are aligned to the new Test Item Specifications
Special features include Understanding the Benchmark (which introduces the content of each benchmark and suggests activities for in-class or at-home practice), Making the Assessment Connection (which lists types of multiple-choice questions that will assess the benchmark and the kinds of reading selections found on the test), FLORIDA FLASH (which provides important information about the exam), RETAKE EXTRA (which gives helpful hints about strategies to use when reading a selection and answering test questions), Try It Out (Practice makes perfect!), and On Your Own (Go ahead, challenge me!)
Reading selections consist of a high-interest mix of informational and literary texts aimed at upper-level high school as well as adult students (No kid stuff!). Readings are accompanied by visual texts such as diagrams, graphs, illustrations and photos aimed to prepare students for what they’ll find on the actual test.
By: Midge,
on 2/24/2012
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The following article was published February 21, 2012 by fivecentnickel.com.
Teens and Money
Written by Jeffrey Steele
The last 10 to 15 years have seen unprecedented numbers of Americans doing wacky things with their money, and paying big time for their mistakes.
About 12 years ago, for instance, a lot of folks bought into the tech bubble just before it became a tech wreck. Two years later, having seen their nesteggs decimated by the stock market plunge after dot.com went dot.bomb, many sold out of stocks in the trough, only to watch the markets suddenly rocket higher. Then, having licked their wounds and assembled a bit of cash, many couldn’t resist buying into housing at the top of that bubble, only to be wiped out again.
But why should such miscues be any surprise here in the good ol’ United States, where personal finance seems the most taboo of scholastic subjects?
I mean, this is a land where in our 12 years of elementary, middle, and high school, we learn obscure tidbits about the Magna Carta, far-out geometric algorithms, factoids about the flora and fauna of Tanzania, and other insights we’ll never use again, but are shut out of any kind of lessons on the one thing we’ll need to do every minute of the rest of our lives, which is manage money.
Those Awkward Years
No wonder the only group more prone to bonehead cash maneuvers than American adults is American teens. The University of California reported a few years ago that American teens were spending at about a $179 billion annual clip. Yet, when given a national standardized money management test, high school seniors tallied an average grade of 48.3 percent, a failing score.
“High school seniors have little knowledge of money management, savings, investments, income and spending,” the UC system reported. “A vast majority of students 16 to 22 have never taken a class in personal finance, with two-thirds admitting they could benefit from more money management lessons. Alarmingly, nine percent were rolling over credit card debt each month.”
Today, only nine states have any type of program to assess students’ financial literacy, and fewer than one in five teachers feels he or she is equipped to teach classes in financial literacy, according to a recent study by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.
That report found financial literacy on the part of both the population as a whole and on the part of teens was low, which may have to do with increasing legions of folks being “unbanked,” and having higher levels of indebtedness, as well as lower rates of wealth accumulation and financial planning.
I can certainly attest from personal experience to the comparative lack of personal financial skills by American teens. Why, I recall that as a teen-ager, my own main interest in life was blowing as much money as possible on eight-track tapes.
And this was in 2004.
New Initiative Needed
Just kidding, of course. But it’s clear we need a new initiative to tackle teen financial illiteracy. And it’s being provided by Amsco School Publications, Inc., a 75-year-old New York City-based family-owned company that publishes textbooks and supplementary materials for students in grades 7 through 12.
Amsco School Publications has recently created Personal Finance, a textbook designed to teach American teens what they need to know to live fiscally responsible lives. That includes setting financial goals, researching and planning careers, understanding banks, knowing where to save and invest, using credit wisely, and comprehending why insurance is needed, even at young ages.
I recently had a chance to talk to Amsco’s vice president of sales and marketing Irene Rubin, and asked her why her company decided to tackle teen literacy. “We knew there’s a problem, because of the credit card debt
By: the Editor,
on 2/22/2012
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To see samples of the book visit our Web site and they can be found in the Free Downloads section.
By: Midge,
on 2/17/2012
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Over the past few months, Amsco School Publications, Inc. has been mentioned in several national publications, blogs, and on educational Web sites. We think that our blog followers might be interesting to see what is being said about us.
E-Commerce News.com January 24, 2012
The iBooks Profitability Puzzle
By Erika Morphy
MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network 01/24/12 5:00 AM PT
Apple's new iBooks textbook market saw lots of activity over the weekend as users downloaded 350,000 copies of books, according to Global Equities Research. If iBooks catches on in a big way, it'll certainly be profitable to Apple. But whether it will be a good deal for authors and publishers has yet to be determined.
Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iBooks textbook initiative, launched just last week, has clearly struck a chord in the market. Ditto its accompanying textbook authoring tool, iBooks Author. Both have taken off at a significant pace, according to a report by Global Equities Research.
More than 350,000 textbooks have been downloaded via iBooks over the past three days. In addition, there have been more than 90,000 iBook Author downloads. iBook Author is a free authoring tool to create textbooks for Apple iBooks.
A Big Impact
The numbers seem to indicate many students and educators at least interested in seeing how Apple wants to break into the market. However, as the ramifications of the textbook store and authoring tool become clearer, some industry observers are having second thoughts as to whether this would be a good thing.
For starters, textbook publishers could find their margins squeezed, perhaps uncomfortably so. As Global Equities notes in its report, more than 50 percent of textbook industry revenues come from the sales of introductory books.
Then there is the lock-in for authors that use Apple's authoring tool. Migrating to other platforms is simply not an option, at least with this current platform.
Global Equities Analysis
Global Equities' initial take on how publishers will fare in the system is that they will in fact make more money selling an iBook textbook priced at US$14.99 versus a traditional printed textbook priced at $125.
That is because 50 percent of the textbook industry consists of used books, which deliver zero revenues to publishers. Also, the textbook supply chain is a complicated one, consisting of distributor, wholesaler, retailer and finally student. At each step the markup is between 8 percent to 15 percent, for a total of between 33 percent to 35 percent -- excluding actual distribution costs.
Conversely, the cost of an iBook production is 80 percent less than a print product. Global Equities declined to provide further details.
Some publishes of textbooks, though, disagree with Global Equities' assumptions, not to mention its math. Larry Beller, president of Amsco School Publications, told MacNewsWorld the firm has been offering its own e-books for roughly a year and a half. Pricing for the two products -- print and e-book -- must remain roughly the same in order to provide revenues for the authors, he said, which are compensated differently than authors of fiction or non-fiction books.
"With Apple's platform coming out we will have to rethink some of the numbers, but it won't be a significant difference. It can't be." He added that there is still an important print market for college students -- and especially elementary and high school students -- that won't go away even if this platform becomes popular.
An iOS-Only Tool
For others, the authoring tool is the one that raises the most concern. For instance, writers who use iBooks Author to write books they intend to sell may only distribute them through Apple's services.
"There is a lot about this tool that I don't think authors will realize at first," Br
By: the Editor,
on 2/15/2012
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Valentine’s Day is a “hit or miss” event.
If you’re happily involved, it’s a hit. If you’re alone, and don’t want to be, it’s a miss. Couples don’t need Valentine’s Day to rub in how deliriously happy they are to others. Still, how can they resist?
According to Chad Brooks’s article, “Men Will Spend Twice as Much as Women for Valentine’s Day,” total spending for this year’s holiday may reach $17.6 billion, with the average person spending more than $126. It went up almost 10% since last year.
That’s a lot of rubbing in. Brooks’s article also says that the average guy will probably spend $168.74 on Valentine’s Day gifts. That’s a lot more than the average woman.
Meaning men love more than women do?
In the Amsco anthology Short Stories, there are three stories that make me wonder . . .
In Herman Wouk’s “The Party” (1948; from The City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder), eleven-year-old Herbie is madly in love with his red-haired classmate, Lucille. He’s lost in his fantasies, where she’s his underground queen. In reality, he’s scared to speak to her.
He and his family get invited to a housewarming party at Lucille’s house. Herbie keeps changing the part in his hair, then combs his hair straight back, tries to appear older, more sophisticated. “Isn’t that silly?”His sneering older sister Felicia tears him down, makes him doubt himself.
At the party, Herbie is in his glory. “He was in Lucille Glass’s home,” Wouk writes. “He had shaken her hand. He had sat beside her on a sofa for ten minutes, eating corned-beef sandwiches and no more aware of taste than if he had been chewing straw. The girl . . . seemed not of this world, but a changeling fallen from a star.”
To his delight, Lucille takes Herbie to the garage. In the Glass family Chrysler they sit, eating chocolate ice cream, and talking about . . . everything! He exaggerates his knowledge of astronomy (What boy wouldn’t?) and claims he won’t marry till he’s fifty-five, and then only to a red-haired woman.
Poor Herbie. He thought she was his, after that. Till his new hairdo had a meltdown. Lucille howled with laughter. Even worse, his sister Felicia and her guy Lennie had seen the whole thing. “What’s the matter, Fatso?” Lennie says. “Got cooties?”
Of course, Herbie loses Lucille, but to . . .
For an hour, he tried to rebuild the ruins of the underground palace, but it was wrecked forever. Nothing was left but its queen, and she no longer wore crown and robe, but a white bow and a party frock. And he could not even compel her to sit by his side. Her faithless majesty went on and on dancing with Lennie.
In John Collier’s
2 Comments on LOVE ME DON'T, last added: 2/10/2012
Hey, kids. A few days ago, I saw a TV commercial about a “Back to School” sale. 
Uh-oh, it’s that time of the year again, I thought. It’s time for students to start planning for the next academic year. And I don’t mean what clothes, shoes, and accessories you’re planning on wearing. Remember all the vocabulary you learnt in your foreign-language class? How about those pesky grammar rules? If you answered “yes,” congratulations! If you answered, “no,” you need to get to work; but don’t worry: there are plenty of Amsco books to help you review and get ready for this year’s challenges. Amsco foreign-languages workbooks aim to provide students with a concise and systematic review of the essential elements of the target language. Abundant and varied communicative exercises help students master each grammar topic. These workbooks are designed so that each chapter is complete in itself. The chapters may be used in any order, according to the student’s individual needs. Explanations are clear and concise, and are followed by numerous examples. There is a great variety of exercises that provide both communicative and written practice. Check out some our offerings: Spanish First Year Spanish Two Years Spanish Three Years Spanish Four Years French First Year French Two Years French Three Years French Four Years Italian First Italian Two And Three Years And there are many more. I’m sure you will find something that suits you. Good luck!
By: Midge,
on 7/18/2011
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You may be asking: What has La Nada to do with me? Well, remember all those snow storms and cold weather last January and February? They may have been caused by La Nada. According to NASA climatologist Bill Patzert, “La Niña was strong in December, but back in January it pulled a disappearing act and left us with nothing—La Nada—to constrain the jet stream. Like an unruly teenager, the jet stream took advantage of the newfound freedom—and the results were disastrous.” The jet stream meandered wildly around the United States and the weather pattern became dominated by strong outbreaks of frigid polar air, producing blizzards across the West, Upper Midwest, and Northeast in the United States.
In the spring, there were many strong thunderstorms and tornados. Russell Schneider, Director of the NOAA-NWS Storm Prediction Center, explains: “First, very strong winds out of the south carrying warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico met cold jet stream winds racing in from the west. Stacking these two air masses on top of each other created the degree of instability that fuels intense thunderstorms.”
According to Patzert, “The jet stream—on steroids—acted as an atmospheric mix master, causing tornadoes to explode across Dixie and Tornado Alleys, and even into Massachusetts.”
The next time someone asks you: What’s up with the weather? You can say: “It’s nothing,” and smile sweetly.
By: Uriel Avalos,
on 7/14/2011
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 |
| After the big test, students brush up on probability by playing blackjack |
- Each multiple-choice question is an independent event with two outcomes: correct or incorrect
- The probability of answering one question correctly is 1/4, or .25.
By: Midge,
on 7/13/2011
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 |
| Danger! |
First, the bad plant news. I recently wrote a blog about an invasive fish species. There are many invasive animal species–both on land and in the water–that wreak havoc on native ecosystems. There are invasive plant species as well. Conservationists are already familiar with invasive plant species that can clog waterways or take over landscapes. But people usually do not think of invasive plants as personally threatening in the way that invasive animals can be. Think of the pythons that are now spreading through Florida. Now, however, there is an invasive giant weed that poses a threat to humans and it sounds like something from an Aliens movie. Called the Giant Hogweed, this plant is originally from the Caucasus region of Eurasia. In the 1900s, it was introduced to Europe, Britain, and North America as an ornamental species; it grows to over 15 feet in height and sprouts clusters of attractive white flowers. Now this plant is officially listed as a noxious weed; people are warned not to touch it because of the risk of skin irritation. It turns out that the sap of the Giant Hogweed can cause blisters and scarring in humans, and can even result in blindness if it comes into contact with the eyes. Giant Hogweed is called a phototoxic plant because its sap causes severe inflammations when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Blisters develop within 48 hours and form scars that can last several years. The plant should be removed by personnel from government environmental agencies, since cutting or mowing it can expose one to the dangerous sap. Be on the lookout for this giant plant and do not be tempted to touch it!
By: Perry Morse,
on 7/12/2011
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 |
| Students reenact the signing of the Constitution. |
The concept and organization of the second book (I haven’t read the first one) is formulaic. Organized first by state and then by the signers in that state, the authors provide a brief biography of each of the 39 men. The biographies are short (4–5 pages each) and include interesting facts presented in a well-written way. For example, George Clymer of
By: Cindy,
on 6/24/2011
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Actually, it wasn’t the woods. It was Mexico. In 1913, Bierce wanted an eyewitness view of the Mexican revolution, so he took off with the rebel troops. He was never seen or heard from again.
He was more than just a horror writer, but stories like “The Damned Thing” (1898) show he was one of the best. In “The Damned Thing,” a hunter is savagely killed and mutilated by an invisible animal. Another goodie is “A Diagnosis of Death” (1909), in which a skeptic is warned of his oncoming death by his doctor’s ghost.
Bierce was also a satirist. His The Devil’s Dictionary (1906), originally called The Cynic’s Word Book, contained definitions that crossed in common usage. (E.g., he defines cynic as “a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.”) His fierce literary criticism (Oscar Wilde hated him) and scathing view of life led people to call him “Bitter Bierce.”
“War,” he once said, “is God's way of teaching Americans geography.”
I was impressed by all the Civil War stories he wrote. The most famous was “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1890), which depicts a Confederate supporter who is about to be hanged at the bridge he tried to sabotage.
“Chickamauga” (1891), his most tragic war story, is from the point of view of a six-year-old boy, a Southern planter’s son. It starts out innocently enough, with the boy crudely making a wooden sword (that even his ex-soldier father doesn’t recognize!). He leaves the plantation and marches off to play “war games.”
In the woods, the boy gets lost, and falls asleep on the ground from sheer exhaustion. When he wakes up, he thinks he sees animals creeping through the woods. Actually, they’re mangled Union soldiers (the Battle of Chickamauga was one of the worst Union defeats in the Civil War), crawling away on hands and knees. Their pale, blood-streaked faces amuse the naïve boy, who’s reminded of circus clowns.
In one grisly part, the boy attempts to “play horsey” on one soldier’s back:
The man sank upon his breast, recovered, flung the small boy fiercely to the ground as an unbroken colt might have done, then turned upon him a face that lacked a lower jaw--from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone. The unnatural prominence of nose, the absence of chin, the fierce eyes, gave this man the appearance of a great bird of prey crimsoned in throat and breast by the blood of its quarry. The man rose to his knees, the child to his feet. The man shook his fist at the child; the child, terrified at last, ran to a tree near by. . . .
In the distance, the sky is red. Surrounded by the wounded, crawling mob, the boy marches ahead, playing that he is their new leader (even turning to ma
By: MsLuhks,
on 6/28/2011
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Happy Tau Day, the most exciting math holiday you’ve yet to discover! Today, June 28th is 6/28, which contains in order the first three digits of tau (τ), the rival of math’s most popular irrational number, pi (π).
In 2001, Bob Palais wrote an article for The Mathematical Investigator called ,“π is wrong!” In it, he insists that the choice of using π in our mathematical formulas for hundreds of years is no good. He argues that the use of τ would simplify many formulas and its derivation is much more intuitive. (Notice that the symbol resembles that for pi, but with one "leg" instead of two.)
The significance of our beloved irrational number π is that it is equal to the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter--in notation, π = C/d. However, the most defining characteristic of a circle is not its diameter but its radius. A circle is defined as the collection of points on a plane that are exactly the same distance, its radius, from a point, its center. Palais argues that intuition should direct us to the use of a more elegant Circle Constant, tau, where τ is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius--in notation, τ = C/r.
Self-described “notorious mathematical propagandist” Michael Hartl takes the argument even further in his now-famous “The Tau Manifesto,” which he published on Tau Day of 2010, exactly one year ago. He demonstrates with many adapted formulas that the factor of 2 is unnecessary if we incorporate it into the ratio itself. For instance, the periods of basic trigonometric functions f(x) = sin(x), and f(x) = cos(x), are in both cases 2π. Why not change them to tau instead? Palais and Hartl each list numerous other examples from calculus and physics, in which the factor of 2 is rendered obsolete by replacing 2π with τ.
The really intuitive part is revealed if you think of angle measure. How things are done now with π, a half turn of the circle is π radians, and a full turn is 2π radians. Should we adopt τ instead, τ radians would be a full turn, τ/2 radians a half turn, τ/4 radians a quarter turn, and so on.
There are, of course, instances where π appears un-doubled. For instance, the formula for area of a circle: A = πr2. Hartl shows, in a mathematically sophisticated way, that the replacement of π by τ even in this instance is the more sound choice, since it is analogous to similar formulas in physics.
An article in today’s BBC News paints the issue as a violent conflict, with pi detractors up in arms over a lifetime of educational betrayal, which seems to this mathematician something of a manufactured controversy. (I can imagine you'd be upset if you are the sort of mathematician that has memorized pi to the nth digit. If you are one of these folks, here's the start for your new parlor trick: reciting tau, 6.283185307...) 
Is it worthwhile to switch to tau use, an
By: Henry the Elder,
on 6/29/2011
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Amsco’s Lingua Latina, Books I and II, by Professor John Traupman of St. Joseph’s University, deal with the Latin language and Roman history and culture. In Book I, Dr. Traupman describes a Roman of dubious character who was murdered in 52 B.C. Publius Claudius Pulcher (the Handsome) belonged to one of the most aristocratic families of the Roman Republic, the Claudii. One of his ancestors had built Rome’s first highway, the Via Appia, in 312 B.C. Nevertheless, he changed his name to Clodius in order to get political support from the common people, or plebians.
Clodius became a notorious gang leader. He and his followers terrorized the streets of Rome. (The Roman world, at that time, was ruled by the First Triumvirate of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus. These three men brought stability and order to Rome and its provinces. However, they were intense rivals. Each sought an opportunity to eliminate the other two. The death of Crassus in battle against the Parthians ultimately led to civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Pompey lost his head and Caesar emerged as sole ruler of the Roman world.)
Clodius’ sister Clodia was called pulchra because of her great beauty. Like her brother, she lived a wild life, taking many lovers. Among them was the poet Catullus. Brother and sister were admired by some and feared by others. They were involved with the leading political figures of the late Republic.
Among Clodius’ many criminal activities was the affair of the mysteries of the Bona Dea in December 62 B.C. These mysteries were open only to women. Dressed as a woman, Clodius entered the house of Julius Caesar while the mysteries of the goddess were being celebrated. Upon discovery, a scandal erupted. Clodius was accused of attempting to carry on an affair with Pompeia, Casesar’s wife. Whether this was true or not, Caesar divorced Pompeia. Clodius was brought to trial, but avoided conviction by bribing the jury.
After the departure of Caesar for Gaul, Clodius and his gang became masters of Rome. Milo, a rival gang leader and politician, was a candidate for the consulship (Rome’s highest office) in 53 B.C. Clodius’ opposition led to street battles between armed bands of the two leaders. Milo’s gang was strong enough to hold Clodius in check.
On
Summer is a great time to relax, party, and catch up with friends and relatives. But it is also the season when thousands of students immerse themselves in a foreign culture and language by studying abroad. Summer study-abroad programs have been around for as long as I can remember. They are ideal for people with a rigorous schedule or for those who simply wish to spend their summer abroad experiencing new worlds. Summer programs can be taken for credit and as part of a curriculum, or as an extra activity that will expand one’s perspective for future studies and work. Here are a few examples of places where you can study abroad during the summer:
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| University for Foreigners of Perugia (Italy) |
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| University of Malaga (Spain) |
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By: the Editor,
on 7/1/2011
Blog: Amsco Extra! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
--Rich
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By: LeaB,
on 7/6/2011
Blog: Amsco Extra! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Teaching, Culture, Add a tag
Last July, I wrote a blog post for National Blueberry Month. This year, I’m getting a bit more ambitious. It turns out that every month of the year is dedicated to something, make that various things. According to my research, each month includes a minimum of seven different celebrations or commemorations, from pecans, to cholesterol awareness, to toilet tank repair. While many of the monthly celebrations can be useful for classroom ideas, not all of them are appropriate. Here, to help you sift through the options, is an incomplete list. Click on the available links for resources to help you make each month a part of your classroom or school. January National Book Month, National Hobby Month, National Soup Month, Fat Free Living Month, Bread Machine Baking Month, National Fiber Focus Month, National Mail Order Gardening Month, National Eye Health Care, National Hot Tea Month, National Volunteer Blood Donor Month. February African-American History Month, National Sweet Potato Month, National Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month, National Hot Breakfast Month, National Snack Food Month, National Dental Month, Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month, Chocolate Lover's Month, American Heart Month, American History Month. March Women's History Month, National Nutrition Month, National Peanut Month, Music in Our Schools Month, Youth Art Month, National Caffeine Awareness Month, American Red Cross Month, Mental Retardation Month. April Pets Are Wonderful Month, Community Service Month, American Cancer Society Month, Thai Heritage Month, Stress Awareness Month, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, National Pecan Month. May Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Mental Health Month, Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month, National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, Better Sleep Month, Older Americans Month, National Artisan Gelato Month, National Share A Story Month.
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By: MsLuhks,
on 7/8/2011
Blog: Amsco Extra! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Assessment, Math, Standardized Tests, Mathematics, Add a tag
 They say that there is no such thing as a stupid question. New York State mathematics teachers whose students took the Regents Exam in Algebra 2 and Trigonometry last month (June 2011) are likely to disagree. The test contained a controversial question that asked students to find the inverse of a non-invertible function. Here’s the problem in question:  The problem was in the 2-point, or short answer free response, portion of the exam, testing the learning standard that demands students “determine the inverse of a function and use composition to justify the result.” (A2.A.45) The wording of the question strongly implies that the inverse of the function does indeed exist. However, since the function given is not one-to-one, there is no inverse. Teachers got loud, complaining to representatives of the Board of Regents, the group that writes, edits, and distributes the exam. The Board responded with a memo called, “Scoring Clarification for Teachers,” which acknowledged several ways that students could interpret the question and demonstrate their understanding of invertibility of functions.Was the response satisfactory? The Board's memo cites “variations in the use of [inverse] notation throughout New York State,” which seems to evade blame for a lousy question. A prominent math teacher blogger responded on his blog, “How could the test-makers not be aware of ‘variations in notation’? Also, notice how there is an asymmetric justification burden on a kid claiming (correctly) that the inverse does not exist.” A lousy question shakes the faith that teachers and students have in the standardized test as a valid assessment of student understanding. For instance, the same blogger concluded, “I have no confidence in New York State’s ability to create a good test of mathematics, at any level.” It is my sincere hope that this controversy and the appearance of a misleading question will lead to both (a) more opportunities to explore the meaning of invertible functions and one-to-one functions, demanding students to be more savvy test-takers; and (b) increased scrutiny and more careful construction of New York’s Regents exams. In short, as educators, better instruction and better assessment should be our smart answer to this, or any, stupid question. 
1 Comments on Controversial Question in New York State Algebra 2 and Trigonometry Regents Exam, last added: 7/12/2011
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Loved your coverage Cindy. Thank you!
I like your definition of noir.
Cool blog. I love the art. I want to get a skull so I can put a cigar in its mouth now. I mean, an extra skull. I have one, but I'm using it.
This is awesome! I wish they had events like this where I live :( You know what is really funny? I had an idea for a tattoo of a skull with a cigar in it's mouth just before I logged in today.