technology and school

Holland Park School in London and Ku-ring-gai High School in north Sydney have begun taking attendance by using student finger prints. Students are identified and their time of arrival is recorded when they press a finger on an electronic pad located at entrances or in classrooms. If they fail to press they will be recorded as absent. A fingerprint scan of each pupil will be converted into a number that can be recognized by readers each time they press the pads.

Some parents are upset with the fingerprinting of their children. They feel that fingerprints are private data and the school should not be accessing it for attendance. Some call it intrusive. Others say it violates right to privacy and treats kids like criminals. What do you think? Does this violate your constitutional right to privacy?

Joe the Plumber

Who is Joe the Plumber??? What do we know about him and his "influence " on the election?

$$$$

It takes a lot of money to run a campaign. Look at how much the candidates are spending. Post amounts and comment. Look not only at Obama and McCain, but Frankin and Coleman in Minnesota.

Obama Begins Advertising In Xbox 360 Video Game

Last week I told you Obama would be buying a 30 minute prime time "commerical" spot on CBS, NBC and ABC-the main 3 TV stations across the nation. The cost is expected to be $1 million per station. A few former candidates have also departed from the traditional advertising format to buy blocks of airtime. In 1992, Ross Perot bought time on network television and Hillary Clinton paid for an hour-long town hall special on Lifetime television, a cable network aimed at women, during the Democratic primary campaign.

He is now charting new territory. Video game publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that the Obama campaign bought in-game advertising for the Xbox 360 racing game "Burnout Paradise." The ad is actually seen on a roadside billboard. The sign has a picture of Obama and says, "Early Voting Has Begun," and also includes the website voteforchange.com. The company said the ads were sold much in the same way that television, print, and radio outlets handle political advertising. EA also said the ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the development team.

Why isn't John McCain doing the same? McCain took public financing and by doing so, is limited in how much he can spend. He is on an $84m budget for these elections. Obama has no such constraints. The candidate this week increased his spending on television advertising to $3m a day, and is expected to spend even more as the election approaches. The McCain camp, in contrast, spent about $1.6m a day.

Thoughts...............

the 'global vote' for president

What would happen if the whole world could vote in next month's U.S. presidential election?

The folks at the Economist have launched an international poll asking just that. And they're taking this hypothetical seriously -- they've even redrawn the electoral map.

In the Britain-based magazine's Global Electoral College, each country is given at least three electoral-college votes. Countries are allocated more votes in proportion to their population size. Under the system, for example, the United States has 432 votes. China has 1,900. Iran has 104.

So let's get back to the big question: Who would win the global vote, John McCain or Barack Obama? Well, voting in the Global Electoral College doesn't close until Nov. 1, but early returns show Obama with a massive lead.

The Democrat has 8,482 electoral-college votes. The Republican has just 16.

The World Reacts and Comments on the Bailout Package

The instability and uncertainty affect not only us, but the rest of the world. Financial markets around the world fell after the bailout was not passed and credit is drying up around the world. Here is what some of these world leaders are saying about our current financial problems.

Latin American leaders say the U.S. must quickly fix the financial crisis it created before the rest of the world's hard-won economic gains are lost."The managers of big business took huge risks out of greed," said President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, whose economy is highly dependent on U.S. trade. "What happens in the United States will affect the entire world and, above all, small countries like ours."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on U.S. lawmakers to pass a package this week, saying it was the "precondition for creating new confidence on the markets — and that is of incredibly great significance."

European Union Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said: "The United States must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country, and for the sake of the world."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe blasted the world's most powerful country for egging on uncontrolled financial speculation that he compared to a wild horse with no reins."The whole world has financed the United States, and I believe that they have a reciprocal debt with the planet," he said.

What do YOU think?