by George Sterling
Tho the dark be cold and blind,
Yet her sea-fog’s touch is kind,
And her mightier caress
Is joy and the pain thereof;
And great is thy tenderness,
O cool, grey city of love!
Mother hacks school grades
The AP says a mother tried to help her daughter’s chances for college by hacking the school’s records.
Caroline Maria McNeal of Huntingdon is accused of using the passwords of three co-workers without their knowledge to tamper with dozens of grades and test scores between May 2006 and July 2007 at Huntingdon Area High School in central Pennsylvania, the state attorney general’s office said.
McNeal, 39, is alleged to have improved her daughter Brittany’s grades and reduced those of two classmates to enhance Brittany’s standing in the 2008 graduating class.
First of all, why was she able to get the passwords of her co-workers? Actually, there is no second question. The fact that they shared passwords says a lot all on its own.
McNeal was charged with 29 counts of unlawful use of a computer and 29 counts of tampering with public records. Each count is a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Corbett’s office.
Harsh penalties for changing grades, but I do not see anything in this investigation about those who gave the passwords so she could change the grades. No charges against them? It also does not explain how she was caught. Did students notice the changes? Did the IT department see irregular behavior, such as grades changing outside of normal hours/cycles? Did a co-worker turn her in as part of a plea deal?
Hummer fails Chinese test
China is set ‘to block’ Hummer takeover.
Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery emerged as the surprise buyer for the brand earlier this year.
But China National Radio said Hummer is at odds with the country’s planning agency’s attempts to decrease pollution from Chinese manufacturers.
Standards in China for clean air and efficiency that exceed those in the US? That normally would be good news, but thanks to product management at GM it’s now bad news for America.
Her Dreaming Feet
Stretched in quotation marks, Times Square flares aortic in the bee-
bronzed dark. Broadcast of vendors & shoulders bustling with cannon
percussion in the retinal ring out of peignoir signage. A harmony
of women swim in the aquarium-fluorescence, unlined linendresses translucent beneath the yellow & claret lights. Compass
of this square fizzied orange soda sadness. Like gold teeth submerged
in a glass of green tea, a scrim between the lenticular & surreal–noble gas
marquees shift in the drizzle from flamingo to bordeaux, convergewith human activity, an arcade for the conspicuously need-to-be-kissed.
But digital billboards of nightgowns won’t hold us up when tenderness
turns to concept & is backswept from view. No more aerialist
tricks to resist, so the conductor retires to the wildernesswhile the city smoke-stiched with bluing alleys writes its own discography
as its lights buzz out a new alphabet, divine a new topography.
