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The performances this time will come from The Black Keys and OneRepublic, not Miley Cyrus and Dave Matthews.

The venue will be University Village, not Bellevue Square.

But the M.O. and goal are the same: Generate excitement for the opening of a Microsoft Store, and hope that carries over to the brand and the products in the store.

The latest Microsoft Store — the software giant’s 12th — is to open Thursday morning at University Village, right across the parking lot from an Apple Store.

High-profile events are scheduled, including the opportunity to play on Kinect for Xbox 360 game consoles with retiring Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller and former Seattle Mariner Edgar Martinez on Thursday, and performances by The Black Keys and OneRepublic on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The new retail store, with 40 to 50 employees, is the second for Microsoft in the area. The Bellevue Square store, where Cyrus and Matthews performed, opened last year.

Nationwide, Microsoft plans to open two more this fall — in California and Virginia. And Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said earlier this year that the company plans to get to 75 stores in the next two or three years.

The idea is to put a fun and friendly face on a company sometimes perceived as stodgy, and to better position the brand in consumers’ minds — a weak spot for some Microsoft products.

While Microsoft dominates with its Windows operating system and its enterprise operations for businesses, its record with consumers has been spottier.

Console leader

It leads in sales of its game console, the Xbox 360; and the Kinect for Xbox, with its motion-sensing and voice technology, has been popular.

But that buzz hasn’t translated into significant sales of Windows Phone, which lags far behind its competitors.

The company is even farther behind in the market for Web tablets.

That’s why having a way to reach customers directly and give them hands-on experiences with Microsoft products is especially important now, with the expected launch of the newest Windows Phone 7.5 Mango handsets sometime in the next few weeks.

And Windows 8 Web tablets are coming, perhaps as soon as 2012.

“Where else can they showcase their products?” asked Kate Newlin, a new York-based business-strategy consultant. “A number of the classic places have dried up, gone away, like Circuit City. even at the places that are still around, they can’t really do what it is they’d like to do to tell the bells-and-whistles pieces.”

Decade old

A tech-company retail store is nothing new, of course.

Apple opened its first store about 10 years ago and today has more than 300 around the world.

All, or nearly all, of Microsoft’s stores are near Apple stores — no accident since the shopping centers where they’re located are heavily trafficked and generate some of the highest revenue per square foot in the U.S.

When Microsoft decided to open a store a few doors down from the Apple Store in Bellevue Square, the Apple folks worried it would cut into their sales, said Bellevue Square owner Kemper Freeman Jr.

“Instead, the first 30 days of the Microsoft Store, the Apple Store’s sales were up 87 percent for the month,” Freeman said. “I wish my competitors could help me that much.”

What they found out was that having two stores in the same shopping center did more than if only one were there.

“People like to comparison-shop, even if they tend to be a Microsoft fan or an Apple fan,” said Freeman, who added that both stores are among the most successful retailers in Bellevue Square these days.

Stellar sales

Jeff Green, a Phoenix-based retail analyst, says that, in total, both Apple and Microsoft’s stores rank well above the industry average in sales.

Apple’s average sales per square foot stands at about $5,250, he estimates, while Microsoft’s is at $1,500 — still about three times that of the industry average for specialty stores.

Microsoft won’t confirm that figure nor will it disclose whether the stores are profitable yet.

But Mika Yamamoto, Microsoft’s general manager of marketing and customer experiences, said the stores are seeing year-over-year increases in revenue.

She also said the stores’ customer-satisfaction scores, as well as indicators of how likely a customer will recommend the stores to family and friends, are high.

The stores provide a testing ground to see what approaches work best in reaching customers, something Microsoft can relay to its partners who sell its products.

“We hope the entire ecosystem can learn [from what we learn at the Microsoft stores how best] to sell Office or demonstrate Kinect,” Yamamoto said.

Made for testing

When customers walk into the 4,198-square-foot store at U-Village, they can expect to see — and try out — everything from Windows 7 PCs and Windows Phones to Kinect for Xbox 360.

It’s a smart move, according to Newlin, the business-strategy consultant.

As Microsoft develops its flagship operating system — with the upcoming Windows 8 featuring a radical redesign with a touch-friendly, tile interface — and launches its new version of Windows Phone, it has several options to try to reach customers.

It can fly at the “30,000-foot level of advertising, or [go down to] the beg-and-wheedle level, where you hope the sales guy at the big-box store is going to deliver the message,” Newlin said.

Or there’s a third option: “To own the story, own their own narrative,” she said. The stores then become part of Microsoft’s overall communications strategy. “They’d be crazy if they don’t.”

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

Planning applications submitted to Lake District National Park Authority

1:30pm Tuesday 18th October 2011

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planning applications submitted to Lakeland District National Park Authority include: Ambleside: 1 fascia sign, at Shinglers, Compston Road, for TOG 24; supply and install 3 no. Evance Iskra R9000 wind turbines on 12m monopole masts, at Kirkstone Pass Inn, for Mr John Jennings; new garage and side extension, at 1, High Coppice, Gale How Park, for Mr & mrs Foreman.

Broughton-in-Furness: Installation of 4 kwp solar photovoltaic panels, at Yeat House, Woodland, for Mr D. Beesley.

Cunsey: Hydro electric power generation plant, comprising an intake, buried pipeline and turbine house enclosing a turbine and generator, at Cunsey Beck Hydro Scheme, for Trustees of Graythwaite Estate.

Grange-over-Sands: Replacement utility room, new study and sunroom extension, at Ellerthwaite, Lindale, for Mr & mrs Jackson.

Kendal: Conversion of storage building into games room and store, at low Fold, Kentmere, for Mr I. Hopkins.

Staveley: Replacement of existing porch (wooden structure), at 1, Brow Lane Cottage, Brow Lane, for Mr D. Bottomley.

Ulverston: Demolition of former stone buildings and construction of steel portal framed stock building, at new Close, Oxen Park, for Messrs H.&J.E. Watson; removing an exisitng door, taking down two small sections of internal partition wall and adding a small section of balustrade which will match exisitng, at Silverholme, Graythwaite, for Graythwaite Estate.

Windermere: 1 wooden pole, at Andante, Greenstiles Park, for Mr D. Wroe, Openreach; demolition and reconstruction of conservatory on the east elevation, single storey extension to west elevation, alterations to roof above lounge and internal alterations, at Crofton, Ferney Green, for Mr & mrs Merrick; to make a loft extension and install a dormer window to the rear of the building, at 3 Meadocroft Cottages, Meadowcroft Lane, for Mr N. Greenall; proposed demolition of existing lean-to and construction of two storey side extension, taking down existing wood shed and re-locating, at Nineveh, Winster, for Mr R. Taylor; new 26 bedroom (60 person capacity) accommodation unit including vehicular and pedestrian access, associated hard and soft landscaping, car parking, external lighting to illuminate car parking and pedestrian routes, bin storage, earth works and boundary treatment, at Towerwood Outdoor Education Centre, Tower Wood, for Mr B. Stott, Directorate for Children & Young People; proposed detached garage and construction of boundary wall, at Ashness, Ferney Green, for Mr a. Cumpsty; demolition and reconstruction of cottage, at Ferry ab Cotage, Ferry Nab, for Mr G. Farthing; change converted day room (former garage) to self catering holiday unit (bed-sit) studio flat (retrospective), at Park View, 6, Quarry Brow, for mrs R. Cave.

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Photo diary offers glimpse into different life of Lambeth woman

2:20pm Saturday 1st October 2011

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A part-time gynaecologist has taken a photo for 365 consecutive days as a documentary of a year in her life.

Lambeth resident, Susanna Bryan, is opening a window into her life on social media platform blipfoto.com.

Susanna said: “There is something quite compelling about trying to represent your day through just one image per day.

“It quickly became embedded into my everyday life, and holds a very special place in it.”

“I started it when I was on maternity leave, and wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep it up once I returned to work.

“What I found was that it became more important than ever. It’s also a great way to communicate with distant friends and family.”

“I’ve always loved photography, but knew very little about it.

“I’d been on a basic two day photography course a few months before and knew that the only way to get better was to practice.

“I used to take my camera everywhere with me, but never get it out of the bag as I wasn’t sure anyone else would be interested in my images.”

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Michael Lyons lost his appeal against his sentence at the Military Appeals Tribunal in the Royal Courts of Justice today, 13 October. the Dale Farm Travellers lost their case in the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday. seems justice is in short supply.

More information about Michael and his connection with Bradley Manning here.

This ruling means that Michael will have to serve another four weeks at the military prison in Colchester. Letters and cards mean a lot and are likely to be especially appreciated by Michael in the next days and weeks, so get yer pens and paper out. Information about writing to Michael Lyons here.

It’s a long and expensive journey for Michael’s wife Lillian to visit him.

If you would like to make a contribution to help with these costs, you can make a cheque out to “London Catholic Worker”, write “Lyons” on the back of the cheque and send it to “Michael Lyons Support” c/o Giuseppe Conlon House, 49 Mattison Rd, Harringay, London N4 1BG or make a payment directly to the Catholic Worker bank account:

London Catholic WorkerAccount number 20066996Sort code 16-58-10Reference: Michael Lyons

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has outlined strategies to control fusarium wilt, a destructive fungal disease reportedly ravaged banana plantations in Mindanao.

THE 15.1-percent decline in merchandise exports in August 2011 reflects the softening global manufacturing activities on the back of weak demand, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

“Prices of our electronic exports were pulled down by weak global demand….

THE Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) is set to sell on “as-is, where-is” basis 78 real properties with a combined minimum disposal value of P263.57 million in a public bidding on October 25, 2011 at the PDIC Training Room, 9/F SSS Bldg., Ayala Avenue, Makati City.

Up for…

MAKATI CITY — Davao-based entrepreneur Ferdinand Maranon is this year’s Emerging Entrepreneur. the president and chief executive officer of Sagrex Corp., a company that exports microwavable frozen saba banana, was given the award during the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines…

THE multi-million dairy development project in new Corella, Davao del Norte captures the human-centered development agenda of Governor Rodolfo P. del Rosario, known as P.E.O.P.L.E.

The P23-million dairy project, being implemented by the Land O’Lakes (LOL) with funding from the United…

MASTERPLAN developer Camella is set to break ground for the 3rd building of Camella Northpoint, its landmark condo development in Davao City, tomorrow.

“This groundbreaking signals the start of construction of this mid-rise, 10-storey building,” Marlon B. Escalicas, Camella Davao general…

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Contrary to reports, the transport of fresh tuna bound for the foreign markets has not been affected by the ongoing labor dispute between the management and workers of Philippine Airlines (PAL), exporters here said yesterday.

AS MUCH as 73 percent of processed applicants hurdled the initial screening of the successful “Oplan Kabuhayan” job fair initiated by Davao City Representative Karlo B. Nograles last October 6 to 7 at the NCCC Mall.

Figures culled from the Nograles job fair showed that a total of 3,259…

THE two-day “Mindanao One” exposition set at the Tent of the World Trade Center in Pasay City will include a roster of high profile personalities from the government and private sector.

KORONADAL CITY — A move to require mining companies to submit their operational plans has gained ground at the South Cotabato Provincial Board even as the local Catholic Church vowed to intensify its anti-mining campaign in the area.

Board Member Agustin Dema-ala said the bill he…

ESTABLISHMENT of various industries in Davao helped in decreasing the poverty incidence in the region, said an official of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

KORONADAL CITY — Some P144 million has been allotted for the repair and upgrading of the Allah River Irrigation system that feeds 12,000 hectares of palay farms in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said.

The National Irrigation Administration, a…

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — in a bid to lessen their vulnerability from being bought or bribed, family members of slain media workers in the infamous Ampatuan massacre may engaged into dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) farming.

Ric Cachuela, chair of the Justice now Movement — the association…

RESTAURANT chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Philippines is banking on the economic growth of the Visayas and Mindanao for most of its expansion plans.

IN RESPONSE to the growing demands for high performance and low-cost printing solutions, printer manufacturer Epson launched new products that provide the market with the lowest cost per page without compromising printing quality.

THE City Government of Davao is set to join the roster of local government units (LGUs) that have completed and are implementing a Business Permits and Licensing system (BPLS).

In Thursday’s National Competitive Council Roadshow held at Grand Men Seng Hotel, city planning officer Roberto…

JAPAN has become the top trading partner of the Philippines since the two countries set into motion a bilateral economic partnership agreement in December 2008.

This was the assessment made by Kenichiro Koreeda of the Embassy of Japan last Saturday in a review of the economic relationship…

STAKEHOLDERS of the banana industry in Davao Region were alarm over the onset of the dreaded Panama Disease, which has already affected several banana plantations.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — German firm Herhof GmbH has recently forged an agreement with the local government unit (LGU) of Glan, Sarangani for the construction of a $100 million waste-to-energy facility there.

The foreign company is also eyeing the establishment of the same facility in Davao…

KORONADAL CITY — Climate change adaptation must be given serious consideration if the country wants to bolster the competitiveness of its mango industry in the global market, with Mindanao cited as a potential major producer due to its “favorable year-round weather.”

This, in a gist was…

PRICES OF consumer goods and services increased to 4.8 percent in September 2011 compared to the same month last year. this was due to weather-related disruption in supply and high-priced gasoline, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

“The faster increases…

A NEW Cebu-based airline is now expanding its operation and adding new routes to connect Cebu-Bohol-Davao and Cebu-Bohol-Cagayan de Oro.

SIX Mindanao designers will take centerstage in the upcoming “Mindanao One” exposition on October 14-17, at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Their creations — exquisite and artsy crafts — will be launched during the first-ever Mindanao expo in the nation’s capital.

“We have…

ORGANIZERS of this year’s staging of the Davao Trade Expo (Date 2011) will open a business matching activity that aims to provide a venue for businessmen to meet the right customers and suppliers.

The business matching event, dubbed as “Buyers-Sellers Exchange,” will be launched as part…

HEWLETT Packard (HP) Philippines, in partnership with Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), launched Wednesday a phenomenal advocacy against counterfeit and proliferation of fakes.

Gary McAulay was kneeling on the floor of a small storage space while he flipped through yellowed pages of an old Manhattan Beach newspaper.

One large volume he’d pulled from a shelf contained 1916 copies of the defunct Manhattan Beach News, which in those days covered “interesting local events of the week” and “record business” for a hotel.

A ladder was propped up behind McAulay as he read headlines in the cramped room surrounded by cinder-block walls and lined with shelves. They held framed photographs, a bound book of the city’s original ordinances and scores of copies of newspapers that have covered the town over the years, including the Manhattan Beach Pilot, Messenger and Wave.

“They’re old, they’re fragile … they’re crumbling,” McAulay said of the publications. “Essentially we have 100 years of newspapers. the history of Manhattan Beach is in these papers.”

Some day, the lifelong South Bay resident and board member of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society hopes the public will be able to leaf through the volumes much like he did, but in a comfortable space with controlled access and seating at the town’s new library.

McAulay made the request earlier this month at a meeting organized by the city and county to provide an update on the library project – a 21,500-square-foot building that will replace the 12,188-square-foot structure the county operates near City Hall.

Local historian and fellow historical society board member Jan Dennis said she has for years pursued the same goal – to create a library resource room dedicated to local historical collections.

Dennis, a former mayor who has written six books about the town, said she’d be willing to donate pieces from her own collection, which includes photographs, original city maps, budget documents and a 1915 telephone book with names of Manhattan Beach’s original residents, along with their occupations.

Dennis said some of her materials – which she makes available today to researchers willing to sit at her dining room table – came from trash bins she got permission to look through outside the old City Hall, when it was being demolished. (Damaged in a 1971 earthquake, the building was torn down that year after 55 years of service, according to one of her town histories.)

Dennis said she’s been approached about possibly sending her collection to California State University, Dominguez Hills but that she isn’t ready to do so.

“There’s a lot of good reason why a resource room is needed here in town,” Dennis said. “History is the backbone of any community.”

McAulay said it was about a year ago that the society moved its newspaper collection from a 1905 beach cottage the organization operates as a museum in Polliwog Park to the storage area. It’s essentially a closet space connected to the park’s former restroom building, and provided a safer alternative for storing newspapers and other paper materials than the wood cottage, McAulay said.

“Needless to say, it’s really, really dry,” he said of the old red house. “As a board member, I started to get a little worried about it.”

He and society board President Stephen Meisenholder said they are grateful the city has provided the society with the additional space. It’s locked and the materials are secure, and Meisenholder said the cinder-block walls help control the temperature of the room (although not necessarily humidity).

At the recent meeting concerning the new library, county Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd raised concerns about providing the proper temperature controls – along with the appropriate staffing – when McAulay broached the subject of the historical archives.

While Todd said the library has and will continue to offer a local history collection – many of the town’s early publications can be viewed on microfilm, for instance – she also explained that personnel costs do not involve having an archivist on staff, and that a room with climate-controlled conditions was not planned.

“I don’t ever want to accept a collection I cannot properly take care of,” Todd said to McAulay.

But she did offer to meet with him to discuss the request in more detail and suggested that grant money could be available to scan and catalog various materials for a digital archive.

Todd could not be reached for further comment last week.

Earlier this year, the city of Torrance completed a five-year, $60,000 effort to digitize old copies of the Torrance Herald and Torrance Press – made possible in partnership with the local historical society and the Friends of the Torrance Library.

McAulay would welcome the chance to create a digital database from the newspapers the society has in storage, he said.

But both he and Dennis also still see the benefit of being able to go to the library to view hard copies of materials that have helped shape or that document Manhattan Beach’s history.

“There are things in here that I know have never come out because who looks at these?” McAulay said, gesturing to the old newspapers and bound city ordinances in storage. “These are not merely documents, but they’re artifacts.”

Published: Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 4:34 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 4:34 p.m.

“We’re spending a lot of money on education, and when you look at the results, it’s not great,” Florida Governor Rick Scott told a luncheon crowd of the Northwest Business Association in Tallahassee. “Do you want to use your tax money to educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology? I don’t.”

Finally, somebody in a position of authority has had the guts and common sense to acknowledge what should have been obvious to everybody:

Anthropology is a waste of time.

And there’s virtually no money in it.

Our great universities have been pumping out anthropologists for a century, and what have they accomplished?

They’ve dug up a few dinosaur bones, and spent thousands upon thousands of man hours observing the tribes of Papua New Guinea, but these things have done precious little for the bottom line.

Gov. Scott is right on the money. not one more of our valuable tax dollars needs to be spent creating a bunch of freeloading, intellectual non-job-creators. as the governor said, we need to force the best and brightest of Florida’s students to be engineers and scientists who can help us crush our economic competitors in China and India.

Anthropology is just step one, however. There’s so much more dead weight in academia. We need to take out the red pen, go department-by-department and decide: which majors should we keep, and which need to be thrown on to the anthropological heap.

English majors: get rid of ‘em! these chumps may have been important a few decades ago, but then somebody invented a little thing I like to call “spell-check.” Say goodbye, go read Chaucer on your own time.

History majors: Sayonara. This is the 21st century, and we’re not going to keep pace in the global technology race by reading and talking about stuff that happened hundreds of years ago. as some philosopher once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” so, you see, we can all find out about history next time it happens.

Biology majors: This is a hard one. some biology majors may end up inventing a drug that might bring in billions of dollars, and maybe cure somebody of something. But other biology majors concern themselves with low-profit endeavors, like examining the lives of endangered turtles. so we’ll break it down like this: GlaxoSmithKline biologists can stay; turtle biologists, get out.

Math majors: It’s extremely important to be able to accurately add and subtract financial data, especially when you need to send bills to Medicare, pay large settlements to the government, or purchase elections. still, we have calculators that can do the job nicely, and most math majors are more concerned with theorems and square roots, which have little economic value.

Psychology, sociology, philosophy, and anything with the word “classical” in it, we’re coming for you, too.

Once we’ve eliminated these economic ciphers, we’ll have a lot of empty buildings at Florida’s prestigious institutions of higher learning. A few of them, of course, will have to be used as shelters for unemployed anthropologists, but there will still be a many classrooms open to create new, 21st century majors that can make this country competitive again.

How many of our most brilliant students would have chosen to major in Profiteering, but were never given the chance? and the fact that there’s never been a Large Scale Polluting Major is one of the great crimes in higher education.

Thanks to Gov. Scott, it’s a great day for Florida’s universities. Once these changes are instituted, we’ll finally be on the path toward building a greater, anthropologist-free America.

And, just maybe, the people of Papua New Guinea can get some peace.

Assistant Professor of Journalism

Department of English

Valdosta State University

What they do: LinkedIn is one of the premier professional social networks. Users create profiles that list business skills and professional accomplishments, and then add trusted business world contacts to connect with colleagues, previous co-workers, business peers, etc. LinkedIn also offers paid accounts, which adds more social networking tools to let users expand their network beyond just the people they know personally.

Why you should buy: LinkedIn is used to find and keep in touch with clients, service providers and experts. the site also lets users search for jobs and gain the insider connections that make getting a job easier.

-Ads can be targeted by industry, type of job, user seniority, company size, geography, number of connections and gender.

Audience: LinkedIn currently reaches more than 8 million business users, which include executives from fortune 500 companies. the average household income is around $130,000. the site serves up more than 100 million impressions each month.

Formats/how much (contact for rates):120×600 Tower160×160 Tower234×60 half Banner728×90 LeaderboardHome page featured text link

LinkedIn accepts both static image and rich media banners. the site typically accepts big ticket advertisers directly. For smaller buys, advertisers can purchase space through AdBrite.

Contact:linkedin.com/static?key=advertising_contactsite.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/purchase_form.php?other_product_id=17036

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A high school in La Palma, California, is coming under fire for a system that publicly identifies and treats students differently according to their scores on the state standardized tests. Students who perform at the highest levels in all subjects receive a black or platinum ID card, while those who score a mix of proficient and advanced receive a gold card. Students who score “basic” or below receive a white ID card. Students with black or gold cards get certain privileges, such as free entrance to sporting events and discounts at local business events. those with white ID cards get no such privileges, and have a designated line in the cafeteria, while the elite black and gold cardholders have a different line. the majority of students at the school have white cards, so guess which line is longer?

A school administrator reportedly advised female students at an assembly to go to dances with boys with black cards rather than white cards.

Parents have complained that this is akin to bullying, and that low performing and learning disabled students feel stigmatized by the program.

Reporter Scott Martindale at the Orange County Register broke this story Tuesday, and followed up yesterday by speaking with a motivational expert who raised concerns about the program. But the principal, Ben Carpenter, defended the program vigorously, asserting that it has helped the school raise its API score from 880 to 895.

Principal Carpenter pointed out that prior to the program, many students did not care about their test scores. he said, there was nothing in it for them, other than an intrinsic motivation they may or may not have. the intent of the gold card program was to provide an incentive for all students, to say, “Hey, there is something in this for me. I can get something out of performing on this exam.”

This program addresses a genuine problem. many of our students do not see a connection between their performance on standardized tests and their own lives. they are not motivated to even try. I have seen students put their heads on the desk during testing, or fill in bubbles in random patterns. as we attach ever higher stakes to these tests this behavior can have very harsh consequences for the schools and individual teachers as well.

The trouble with this approach is that it intensifies the damage our obsession with testing is doing. It essentially “brands” students according to their academic performance on this one set of tests, and then rewards or humiliates them accordingly. Test performance has become literally the basis on which these students are identified. This means the majority of students at this school belong to a subclass, and they are being trained to think of themselves as unworthy of the good things in life due to their inferior performance. Of course, school leaders are hoping this will encourage everyone to try harder, but for many students, this is not a viable strategy. the English language learners, the learning disabled, these students struggle to succeed. Even First Lady Michelle Obama has described herself as being “never a great standardized test taker.” Defining the worth of students based on standardized test scores is not likely to result in many magical turnarounds.

The quality of a student’s work should not be reduced to a few test scores. Learning should be so much richer and more complex than these scores can ever indicate. and all of our students should be treated with equal respect, and not discriminated against based on their test scores. Test scores are not useless, but making them central to the mission of a school, and even worse, central to the identity of individual students, is a big mistake. some parents are responding to the testing craze by going so far as to opt out of standardized tests altogether. Programs such as this one make that an understandable choice.

UPDATE: the Orange County Register this morning reported that the Anaheim Union High School District has discontinued the most controversial aspects of this program. the District released a statement which reads, in part:Students will no longer carry color-coded binders. Cypress High School and Kennedy High School will provide uniform binders and uniform school ID cards for all students, at no cost to them. … the privileges that are of a public nature, such as faster lunch lines, will no longer be in place.

They plan to create a new, apparently less public, incentive system.

Update 2: From Donovan Wheeler comes this cartoon, drawn a week ago, reproduced here by permission.

What do you think? is this program a wise way to motivate students to perform well on tests?

Thursday,22 Sep 2011 New Age Exploration

New Age Exploration Limited (“NAE” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the completion of a private placement of ordinary shares raising A$4 million from an institutional investor and a sophisticated investor (the “Placement”). the Placement will be conducted by way of issuing 33,333,334 ordinary shares at an issue price of A$0.12 per share. the Placement represents a 9% premium to the closing price on 19 September 2011 and a 14% premium to the 10 day volume weighted average trading price ending 19 September 2011.

The funds raised will be used to advance NAE’s Colombian coking and thermal coal projects including accelerating early production of coking coal from the Subachoque Project, pay for costs of the placement and for working capital purposes.

NAE is pleased to welcome the following shareholders to its share register;

· Resource Capital Funds (“RCF”), a group of mining-focused private equity funds that is currently actively investing its fifth fund, Resource Capital Fund V L.P., with committed capital of $1.02 billion,

· mr. Chee Siew Yaw, a sophisticated investor, who is a successful Singaporean businessman and investor and is seeking to further his investments in the natural resource sector.

NAE Managing Director Gary Fietz commented “We are pleased to have been able to secure this funding in the current volatile markets. the fact that we were able to raise this funding at a premium to our current share price illustrates the quality of our Colombian coal projects and our development strategy.”

“We are especially pleased to have the support of each of RCF and mr Yaw and look forward to their long term support as key investors in our Company. the funds raised will be used to advance our exploration and development programs on our Colombian projects, in particular to accelerate bringing the Subachoque project into early production.”

The Placement will be undertaken in two tranches. Tranche one involves the issue of 12,000,000 ordinary shares under the Company’s existing placement capacity on 27th September 2011 with the balance of shares outstanding under the Placement (21,333,334 Shares) being issued subject to shareholder approval at the Company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting, expected by early November 2011.

Binding agreements for all of the Placement participants have now been signed and 100% of the funds will be received prior to 26th September 2011. the funds received for the portion of shares subject to shareholder approval ($2,560,000) will be held in trust until such time as shareholder approval is obtained. If shareholder approval is not obtained, such funds will be repaid to the Participants.

Placement shares will rank equally with existing ordinary NAE shares upon being issued. Patersons Securities Limited acted as Lead Manager to the Placement. No fees were paid on the RCF portion of the placement.