Columbine: 10 years later

Update: A comment by a reader of the daily blah blah and a post by security expert Bruce Schneier that anyone should read. I believe that they present the same point: no matter what security measures schools take, in the end it is the school community that will solve the problem of violence./Update

Today (April 20th) marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. Twelve innocent students, one teacher were killed, more than 20 were injured by two heavily armed Columbine students (before the pair shot themselves) in what became the worst school-based crime in the United States. Since then, more school-based mass killings have occured, and the BBC has an interesting (though outdated) chronology of events.

Most news outlets have carried reports and memorials for the tragic events. A partial (and incomplete) list follows:

• BBC audio
• BBC report
• CNN

Ten years later, the question remains unanswered: “How do you prevent such an event from happening?” In an earlier posting, I had suggested that the answer may lie in both the home and the school, both functioning/working together, side by side for the benefit and welfare of the children and the greater school community, but even this bonding may not be enough in socially turbulent times.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

I.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Surviving Columbine: What We Got Wrong (abcnews.go.com)
• Sunset Vigil Marks Columbine’s 10th Anniversary (abcnews.go.com)
• A Decade After The Columbine Massacre, School-Safety Questions Linger (mtv.com)
• Columbine 10 years later: just another school, with a history (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

no hope

I came across this link using stumble, a nice little thingy which redirects you to various places across the net, places and pages you either like or dislike and you let the system know about it.
Anyway, enjoy the little piece of proof that human idiocy and ignorance know no limits.

http://view.break.com/335023 – Watch more free videos

Powered by ScribeFire.

when sysadmins ruled the earth

You must read “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” (link to full story text), a fantastic, and scary, and grab-you-by-the-throat, and not-want-to-let-it-until-it’s-over story authored by Cory Doctorow.  As Cory writes in his site, he started writing the story just as London was being bombed by terrorists in July 2005.  The story chronicles a doomsday scenario of end-of-the-world apocalypse, with massive attacks and counterattacks (everyone against everyone else) and the attempt of Toronto based sysadmins to keep their servers up and running in the midst of the attack.  The rebuilding of the democratic process, the first cyber elections, the restoration of life are all blended together.  The story earned the 2007 Locus Award for best novelette.

My favorite excerpt:

“I’ve got a 486 downstairs with over five years of uptime. It’s going to break my heart to reboot it.”
“What the everlasting shit do you use a 486 for?”
“Nothing. But who shuts down a machine with five years uptime? That’s like euthanizing your grandmother.”

Please visit and read the story.

I.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Fuddenheim

An absolutely hilarious story about a little war going on “… in the small town of Fuddenheim”, this is a story (in allegoric language) of the opensource movement and a well known Corporation located somewhere in the northwest of the US.

Read more of the story of Rinus Poortvliet, Omnifast GmbH, Linexx eV and more, here

I.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Legends of the fall

It was sad to watch a great player like Zidane end his career in such a low note last night at the final game against Italy.
Perhaps, his send-off was part of the reason team France could not score an extra goal and take the trophy home.

Passions run high during the game, emotions can make you say and do things you will regret afterwards.

Anyway, he will always be remembered for his total contribution to modern football and not just one mindless action.

Adieu, Zizou. Merci!

I.
PS. More on ubuntu in a new P4 box in an upcoming posting.

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone.

Save the Internet : Support the Campaign

I was reading Wil Wheaton’s excellent blog this morning and came across this amazing posting about Net Neutrality Basically, a scheme to transform the entire internet into categories based on fees and moneys paid to and from players who have money. You have money, your site gets preferrential treatment. You don’t have money to pay, your site gets lost in the great internet highway.

As we speak, the bigg telecommunication corporations are trying to push legislation through the U.S. Congress. If approved, the visibility of a website on the internet may be controlled by how much the website owner can dole out. I believe that this development is of greater interest and does not affect only the sites/users in the US, rather it affects all of us. I would strongly urge everyone to display the following image as a sign of protest. Also, to write even briefly about this event. And if in the US, to contact their local representative and voice their disagreement.

The Internet is, probably, one of the largest learning tools. As an educator and information consumer, I often rely on information sources which may not be available to me here in my corner of the world. I don’t want to be excluded from various libraries, academic consortia, publishers, etc. because someone else has decided so without my consent.

Take action. Now is the time to keep the internet free and neutral

IKD

May 1st

May 1st, today.

Different countries, different celebrations, different perspectives…

Most countries celebrate Labor day today, with the exception of the United States where the original May 1st demonstration happened in Chicago two centuries ago… If you want to read more on this, follow this link. Also a detailed account of the events in Haymarket appears in the pages of my favorite book, Alienist, by Caleb Carr. (John Schuyler Moore describes the events to Dr. Laszlo Kreizler as they travel by train to Washington, DC).

At least, in my neck of the woods, in addition to labor celebrations, the first day of may is also a chance to celebrate the coming of spring (although admittedly, rather belatedly). Flowers gallore, flowers everywhere. I can only offer a small digital glimpse of flowers we picked up in Patras Psila Alonia Square, where traditionally florists set up temporary shops and sell flowers the day before.

Hope you enjoy,

I.

Remembering Dunblane and Erfurt and Columbine

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the incident at Dunblane, Scotland, where a lone gunman entered the local school and killed 16 students and one teacher before killing himself. The BBC has a detailed account of the events if you don’t know how it all happened.

Next month also marks the anniversaries of similar incidents in Erfurt, Germany (an equally violent and deadly incident where 16 people died—13 teachers, 2 students, 1 police officer), as well as the highly publicized incident at Columbine Highschool, in Littleton, Colorado.
The BBC has a chronology of school-related violence and school shootings of recent years.

What caused these shocking events? Experts attributed them to various social, educational, psychological factors. But how do you deal with the pain, the sorrow, the anger? How do you try not to let it happen again? How do we make schools safe havens for students to learn and to grow?

I believe that the answer lies in two places at the same time: the school and the family. By bringing these two close together, there may be a chance at preventing such violent incidents from happening again. Parents and teachers and students working in the school community, building and maintaining a community of learning and growth and health (both physical and mental). This was the focus of this Socrates-Comenius 2.1 action on dealing and preventing school violence. More information can be found here and I hope you will find it helpful.

IKD

Orange go dancing…

Gerry, Gerry, Gerry!!!

Wow, what a weekend for all die-hard Orange fans… If you have not followed it, good ole’ Cuse beat the odds, won four in a row, beat the buzzer, and did a repeat at the Garden. All the details are here. Now on to the Big Dance…

Thanks Gerry for those wonderful games…

I.