Darkavich's Daily Ramblings Ramblings of a Mad Sys-Admin

November 22, 2009

In search of…Quality Education

Filed under: Items in the Pensieve,OWL's — Darkavich @ 3:06 am

As some of you know I had started my Masters Program in Educational Instructional technology at National University. I had many reservations about taking an online program. Unfortunately, my reservations were justified. After two months, I have decided to withdraw from this program. Many factors influenced this decision, but the primary factor (many others can be discussed over a beer) was that after 8 weeks, there was not a single moment of real instruction. The program was designed like a correspondence course. The online/live lectures only served as a high-tech office hours. Nothing was actually taught in these classes.

I generally feel that if I am spending over $1500 a month for an education,  I should get instruction that is more than what books to read and what assignments to turn in.

I am sure there is a lot of quality online education out there, but National University is definitely not one of those schools. I am going to reset and follow up on the Masters program at SDSU. I just need to get past the GRE component of entrance requirements. I plan to check with them after the new year.

I am sad and frustrated that this didn’t work out, but better to decide now than after I had spent even more money.

pork, it’s not just for dinner.

Filed under: Items from the Quibbler — Darkavich @ 2:53 am

I have been reading and talking to a lot of people lately about the misinformation about the H1N1 outbreak. The swine flu (yes, that is what it is) had it’s name changed because the hog farmers felt it showed them in a bad light and their profits might suffer from people not wanting to buy their products. http://nationalhogfarmer.com/swine-flu/0430-swine-changes-to-H1N1/

While talking to my friends and acquaintances I was amazed that not a single person knew the source of the flu (or any flu). Flu 101: In short, the Flu comes from the close proximity of species like birds and pork. Basically, poultry that is raised too close to pigs is how flu’s propagate. The birds infect the pigs and the pigs infect people. You can read all about it at the National Institute of Health: http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/Flu/understandingFlu/definitionsOverview.htm

This latest outbreak of swine flu was advertised that it started in Mexico and that we have nothing to worry about because something like that could not happen in the USA. It’s funny how every news agency jumped on the bandwagon to point the finger at a country that could not defend itself. This strain may not have started in Mexico, but more than likely actually in North Carolina. http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/

Don’t let people use propaganda to try to convince you that it’s not the fault of the farmers. It’s amazing that on the hog farmers web site they claim there is no link between pork and the flu when even the CDC and NIH sites have proven the link. For many centuries the world had no flu. The flu 1st appeared in 1918
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
when farmers started mixing their chickens and pigs in same area. This may have been the result of military practices during WW1. This practice continues today and until world procedures change we will always have swine flu.

Will I stop eating port? Heck no! I love my BBQ. But, I recommend that people educate themselves and NOT repeat the propaganda they hear on TV or from the lobbyists.

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