Greatest Valedictorian Speech Ever By Alaine Caudle Of Doniphan West High School (VIDEO)
May 26, 2011 No Comment
Do you remember your high school valedictorian? If you do, do you remember his or her graduation speech? No, right? Well, Alaine Caudle of Doniphan West High School, knows that, and apparently, had no intention of going down that way. Before we go any further, let us take a moment to point out that for the first time, possibly ever, we are 100% serious about the headline of this story. There is no sarcasm intended, no snide mockery, no bait and switch. When we say this is the greatest valedictorian speech ever, we mean it. Alaine Caudle is our new hero. Note to people in their teens and twenties everywhere: this is what being a confident, naturally funny person looks like. Good luck in college, Alaine! If you decide to go into comedy, let us know. WATCH: We get it — you’re busy. Only have time for one web bit a day? Here’s The One thing we think you cannot miss today.
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It may not be as big a surprise as Google hoped it would be at this point, but the company has now officially announced its NFC-based Google Wallet mobile payment service, complete with backing from a number of retail and financial partners including Subway, Macy’s, Wallgreens, Toys ‘R Us, First Data, Citibank and MasterCard — plus Sprint on the carrier side. In the case of MasterCard, that partnership means Google Wallet will be fully compatible with the PayPass contactless payment system. Trials are beginning immediately, with a full release planned for this summer. Also announced is Google Offers, which will deliver an “offer of the day” to your inbox, and let you seek out other offers from retailers. Developing… Gallery: Google Wallet Gallery: Google Offers Google Wallet mobile payment service, Google Offers announced originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Kung Fu Panda 2 Trailer Download Kung Fu Panda 2 XBOX 360 Full Game Free 5 – 26 – 2011 Kung Fu Panda 2 Hits The Track ryantarrayo515 says: @alfatarrayo515 yes. Sna. Ppalabas pa naman na Kung Fu Panda 2 . Let's see how will she react inside the moviehouse. Hehe.
Continue reading …Casey Anthony’s former boyfriend testified that the young mom seemed to be having the time of her life during the period prosecutors say she killed her toddler daughter. Tony Lazarra said he and Anthony “hit it off” after meeting on Facebook and the couple spent hot nights in his bedroom…
Continue reading …A one-legged homeless man in Portland was left to drag himself out of jail over the weekend because his wheelchair had been moved to an off-site storage facility after he was picked up on a drinking citation. “Scottie” Hamilton, a 37-year-old Iraq veteran who lost his leg in a motorbike…
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Gadgets need to be rounded up and thrown in a cell right alongside meat glue, child pageants and other notorious public enemies. The crime? Stressing people out, according to researchers at Ipsos Mendelsohn. The evidence? A survey of affluent Americans with a household income over $100,000 who moaned that their lives are more “complicated” than they were a decade ago. Damningly, the vast majority of these respondents also admitted that their lives are more “technology-infused” than a decade ago. The researchers also highlighted evidence from a separate poll of affluents, showing the growing prevalence of certain gadgets that add to the “complex calculus” of our lives: E-reader ownership has doubled over the last eight months, smartphone ownership is up to 52 per cent, and a third of affluents either own a tablet or expect to buy one soon. Sufficient proof, it seems, to send these poor devices down for life — especially if we disregard all the other things have have stressed out rich Americans over the past decade (recessions, deficits, bad TV serials) and the possibility that busier people might actually need more technology to help them cope . Gadgets convicted of making us miserable, dodgy stats used as evidence originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …It’s official . Sarah Palin has purchased a home in Arizona, the Wall Street Journal reports. And that’s boosting expectations that she’s inching closer to announcing a race for the presidency, notes AP . The conservative state—where daughter Bristol also just bought a house —could serve as a strong base for…
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Regulator Ofqual’s chief executive backs plans and admits there is ‘a public perception that things aren’t what they used to be’ Exam boards could be fined for offering second-rate qualifications, the government’s exam standards regulator for England has warned. Glenys Stacey, the Ofqual chief executive, said it was “unusual” that the regulator did not have the right to impose financial penalties and spoke of the need for penalties as well as incentives for boards. The education bill going through parliament gives Ofqual greater powers to hold exam boards to account, but new legislation would be needed before it could fine them. The regulator is currently able to de-register an exam board and prevent it from offering qualifications, but the bill would gives it an extra responsibility to ensure that England’s examinations and qualifications keep pace with its international competitors. Stacey told the Guardian that Ofqual may “find that our range of powers needs augmenting in some way”. “All regulators want the greatest range of tools and you’d expect us to be seeking those. We are intent on working the tools we have in earnest, it’s whether a fining option has a particular place,” she said. “There may be a place for fining … we will be exploring this with government.” However, Stacey added that Ofqual was working with exam boards, rather than “plotting against” them. In March, a government-commissioned report into vocational courses- said thousands of students were gaining qualifications did not lead to jobs or further training. Professor Alison Wolf, an expert in public policy, found that while there were some worthwhile apprenticeships in building and manufacturing, and hairdressers’ training was of a good standard, there was a raft of courses “that do not do people any good”. Stacey said Ofqual, which was established as an independent non-ministerial government department a year ago, was developing a “harder-wired” stance so that exam boards were at “the level we prescribe and we have real certainty about what they prescribe”. She spoke of the need for “carrot and stick incentives” so that qualifications were “at the line or above it”. “Regulators have to earn their stripes. They don’t seek to be liked, but they seek to be respected,” Stacey said. “The regulator is planning to hold discussions over whether standards have fallen, risen or been maintained with exam boards and others “close to the issue”. The regulator’s chief executive said it faced a challenge in changing the view that exams were getting easier. “There is a public perception that things aren’t what they used to be. As a regulator we need to get under the skin of that,” she said. “What we hope to get is a better understanding as to what the perception is and what the reality is.” Stacey said the regulator would be looking closely at qualifications offered in Singapore, South Korea and Finland, among others. Last July, Ofqual said a science GCSE that almost 500,000 pupils took was too easy. In some cases, pupils had to gain fewer than half the available marks to be awarded an A grade, and only six out of 30 marks for a C. Students were not given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of scientific concepts. Earlier this week, a report by Ofqual showed that the number of A-level and GCSE qualifications taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland fell by almost 6% last year, while Diplomas, BTECs and City & Guilds courses shot up by 11%. Schools GCSEs Regulators Vocational education Further education Students Higher education Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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Conservative peer will be sentenced in six weeks after denying six counts of false accounting The Tory peer Lord Hanningfield has been found guilty of six counts of expenses fraud. Hanningfield – tried at Chelmsford crown court under his name, Paul White, on Thursday – had denied six counts of false accounting relating to his parliamentary expenses. The prosecution said he had claimed for overnight stays in London, between March 2006 and April 2009, when he had actually returned home to Essex. White told the court he had seen it as a “living out of London allowance” rather than overnight subsistence. The jury found the 70-year-old peer guilty on all six counts and he will be sentenced in six weeks. White, who was an Essex councillor for 40 years and led the council from 2001 until he was charged in 2010, was made a life peer in 1998. He was a frontbench spokesman on business while the Conservatives were in opposition, but was suspended from the parliamentary party after being charged. During the trial, he said he “quite honestly assumed” he could claim the maximum amount after learning that this was what 85% of peers did. Asked by his defence counsel why he thought he was entitled to the full sum, he said: “The £30-£40 a day that was then available on the daily allowance was very little.” The peer, from West Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, told the court he spent “a minute a month” completing the Lords expenses claim form in exactly the same way each time, not even including rises in train fares. “If I had known how important some people saw those forms [as being], I would have done much more. I didn’t see it as self-certifying, I saw it as means of getting expenses,” he said. “No one ever told me those forms were so important. I am horrified to be where I am now because of those forms.” He said he had been told nothing about expenses when he was given an induction into the House of Lords for new peers and paid “very little attention” to the guidelines on the back of the claim forms. Hanningfield said many other peers saw the Lords as a “club”. He alleged that another peer who had a main home in London had designated a cottage in Wales as their primary address and claimed the full allowances for overnight subsistence. The court heard that White, from a farming background, receives only the state pension and a small agricultural pension of £120 a month. He would be entitled to a local government pension for his 40 years on Essex county council, but “never got around to filling in the forms”, the jury was told. The peer said he paid off the mortgage on his bungalow 10 years ago, but recently remortgaged it to help pay for his lawyers during the trial. Prosecution over his expenses spelled the end of his long career in Essex politics; he stepped down as the county council leader the day he was charged. In 2005, he was behind a parliamentary question which revealed that Tony Blair had spent more than £1,800 of public money on cosmetics and make-up artists for media appearances since becoming prime minister. White became emotional during his trial when he was asked whether it had been appropriate to claim back the cost of paying someone to walk his dog. “As I lived alone, I wouldn’t survive without my dog – it’s someone I could talk to and walk with,” he said, adding that he had worked long hours and allowed work to “take over my life”. During his trial, he denied living an extravagant lifestyle, saying: “Most of my clothes are from Marks & Spencer. I enjoy the occasional glass of wine but that’s about it. I have no savings, no stocks and shares, nothing like that.” MPs’ expenses House of Lords Conservatives David Sharrock guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NEC Director Gene Sperling has been a supporter of the deficit-hawk side of the Obama administration team, which I’ve been very unhappy about, because of what might be cut in their grand bargaining scheme. But yesterday he turned my head (in a good way) with his no-nonsense approach and rebuke to Paul Ryan’s ridiculous Randian budget, this time while speaking at another Pete G. Peterson deficit do-dah. WSJ: Anyone who thought the White House and House Republicans were close to a deficit-reduction deal only needed to sit through five minutes of the 2011 Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in Washington. Those would be the five minutes when House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) wrapped up his wide-ranging remarks and when White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling began his talk.“I want to point out how isolated the House Republicans are,” he said. “Serious people doing serious discussions do not take an absolutists position that you cannot have a penny of revenue.” He said Mr. Ryan has “put himself in a box” with his unwillingness to raise tax revenue. He said this forced Republicans to call for “very severe cuts” that if “explored” by Americans “they would not be proud of.” Mr. Sperling attacked the House Republican proposals to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, saying that the $770 billion in savings Republicans wanted from changing Medicaid would be unnecessary if Republicans would agree to roll back certain tax cuts. “You can’t say to anybody who would be affected by that, that we have to do that, that we have no choice,” he said. “The fact is that all of those savings would be unnecessary if you were not funding the high income tax cuts.” He also said that Mr. Ryan was wrong when he said that raising taxes as part of a broader package would hurt economic growth. “Everything he said I heard nine million times in 1993 ,” said Mr. Sperling, who was NEC deputy director in the Clinton administration and later became Mr. Clinton’s national economic adviser. With all the deficit blabber coming from the Beltway — from the Village press to the Cat Food Commission to the Gang of Six and then to VP Biden’s group — I, like many, have been waiting for the shoe to eventually drop. And Medicaid seemed like the most vulnerable target to be part of some grand-ass bargain proposal. NEC Sperling hit Paul Ryan hard over the head just by using the Bush Tax Cuts alone. He makes other important points as well. Digby: No Dice To medicaid Cuts This is really important. Sperling has been one of the foremost proponents of the Grand Bargain and this pretty unequivocally takes Medicaid cuts off the table. It will always be vulnerable — whenever the Republicans get the chance they will try to cut Medicaid, especially once it is expanded to cover more people. They will be desperate to call it a welfare program that somehow is keeping people from being productive members of society. But if the Dems can at least protect what exists now and get the expansion enacted it will be harder. Sperling’s comments were terribly important in that it positioned it as a safety net program that helps the middle class as much as the poor and I’m not sure most people know that. You rarely hear much about Medicare, but a huge number of families across America use it. It’s an important part of the safety net for our seniors. You know, Republicans used the bogus ” death panels” talking point to attack health-care reform, but what Paul Ryan proposed in reality are real death panels, because if anything like his ideas are ever implemented, the consequences for our seniors will be catastrophic. d-day weighs in : Sperling apparently also said “From a values perspective, we should be very deeply troubled by the Medicaid cuts in the House Republican plan.” This is excellent. If the White House fights for Medicaid rather than wanting to gain “credibility” through a deal, it cuts off that avenue of escape for Republicans. Safety-net programs could then get untouched and deferred until after the 2012 elections. This would be the best-case scenario at this point.
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