1. Grade Inflation: Colleges With the Easiest and Hardest Grades
(iStockphoto)
(MoneyWatch) Grade inflation has been raging for years on college campuses, but professors at some schools have never got the message to go easy on the grading.
Where do college students encounter the toughestgrading? Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke professor, who created GradeInflation.com, compiled a list of schools earlier this year of the toughest graders.
At the 16 colleges and universities on the list, it's significantly harder to get A's than the typical campus. Not all of the schools have particularly low GPA's, but Rojstaczer observed that there are selective schools on this list that would prompt you to expect more A's.
At private schools the average GPA is 3.30 and at some of these schools the average is 3.5 or even 3.6. At Brown University, two thirds of the grades are A's. It's hard to imagine kids trying too hard when they know everybody is going to "earn" an A.
Professors at less selective colleges and universities tend to give out lower grades.Overall, students at state universities earn lower grades than their peers are private schools. According to Rojstaczer, the average GPA is 3.01 at state schools, but the GPA at many state flagships the GPA is 3.2.
Despite grade inflation, most students do not earn all A's, according to federal education statistics. According to the feds, 11% of students attending public institutions get mostly "A's" while 17% of students at private schools earned the same distinction. Eleven percent of students at public schools earn mostly A's and B's, while 15.5% of private school students do.
Where do college students encounter the toughestgrading? Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke professor, who created GradeInflation.com, compiled a list of schools earlier this year of the toughest graders.
At the 16 colleges and universities on the list, it's significantly harder to get A's than the typical campus. Not all of the schools have particularly low GPA's, but Rojstaczer observed that there are selective schools on this list that would prompt you to expect more A's.
Colleges & Universities With the Toughest Grades
East
- Boston University
- MIT
- Princeton University
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Midwest/South
- Auburn University
- Florida International University
- Hampden-Sydney College
- Purdue University
- Roanoke College
- Southern Polytechnic State
- University of Houston
- Virginia Commonwealth University
West
- Cal State University-Fullerton
- Harvey Mudd College
- Reed College
- Simon Fraser University (Canada)
Where Are the Easiest Graders?
Highly selective schools, both public and private, tend to award much higher grades. In a paper ongrade inflation, Rojstaczer insisted, that wealthy students, who gravitate to private colleges in greater numbers, are receiving unfair advantage by having access to easier A's.At private schools the average GPA is 3.30 and at some of these schools the average is 3.5 or even 3.6. At Brown University, two thirds of the grades are A's. It's hard to imagine kids trying too hard when they know everybody is going to "earn" an A.
Professors at less selective colleges and universities tend to give out lower grades.Overall, students at state universities earn lower grades than their peers are private schools. According to Rojstaczer, the average GPA is 3.01 at state schools, but the GPA at many state flagships the GPA is 3.2.
Despite grade inflation, most students do not earn all A's, according to federal education statistics. According to the feds, 11% of students attending public institutions get mostly "A's" while 17% of students at private schools earned the same distinction. Eleven percent of students at public schools earn mostly A's and B's, while 15.5% of private school students do.
2. "The X Factor": Astro, Drew dumped
Judge L.A. Reid, eliminated contestant Drew Ryniewicz and judge Simon Cowell onstage at FOX's "The X Factor" on Dec. 1, 2011 in Hollywood, Calif.
(Credit: Fox)"The X Factor"
For on last night's "The X Factor" results show, the kids were told - in terms that one of them could barely bear to hear - that they were not all right.
Astro and Drew were shown the door in an exit as painful as gout.
There are many who believe that Simon Cowell has added one 'l' to the end of the 'gal' in Svengali. There would be those after last night's show who would have believed that he would stoop to nothing in order to tweak a nation's nose for affection.
The drama unfolded like a papier mache horse.
The mentors came out with their remaining performers, which meant that Paula Abdul twiddled her thumbs and sucked in her cheeks.
First to be told he was through was Chris Rene, which was sweetly unjust. Rene had performed with abject ordinariness the previous night. Soon, Melanie Amaro and Rachel Crow had joined him in the sanctuary of hope.
Of the remaining four, it was clear that Drew couldn't cope with the idea of being sent away.
While Astro, Marcus Canty and Josh Krajcik all seemed to offer a touch of equanimity, she looked as if she was waiting to hear whether she would live, die or be sent off to record a Christmas album of old Pat Boone songs.
When Krajcik was told he was safe, Drew began to weep. She wept and wept and wept until you wished someone would offer her a handkerchief or a box of tissues.
Even when it was Astro who was told that he had polled the lowest number of votes and therefore had to go back to Brooklyn, Drew's lips continued to wobble, as her nose trembled and her eyebrows struggled for survival.
Astro handled his exit with peculiar grace. In a touching US Weekly moment, he even revealed that he was missing his girlfriend. At least one imagines it was his girlfriend.
Naturally, presenter Mannequin Man Jones turned to Drew and said: "How are you feeling?"
Memo to Mannequin Man: When a little 14-year-old is trembling and weeping, it would suggest that either her puppy has died or she's worried she's about to be booted off "The X Factor."
In the singoff, Drew marched forward and sang Roxanne's "Listen To Your Heart" with gusto, power and emotion.
At the end, she trembled some more, wept some more, and shuffled off the stage.
Marcus Canty, on the other hand, reached for Gladys Knight's "Neither One of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)."
Canty should never reach for the hem of Gladys Knight, never mind one of her songs. He garlanded this song with elements of beseeching, punctuated by elements of screeching.
When it came to the verdict, Reid claimed he always believed in Drew. He also claimed he always believed in Canty. He always believed in himself a little more, though, so he wished Drew farewell.
Cowell bizarrely declared that he was the reason that Drew that was in the bottom two.
"I shouldn't have chosen that song," he said of "Billie Jean." "It was too slow. I should have listened to the others."
Nicole Scherzinger waffled about how much she believed in Drew. Yet she was moved more by Marcus Canty's, well, who knows? Something about him laying his heart out on the floor. It must have been when he crawled between the legs of eight dancers a couple of weeks ago.
She placed the axe blade upon Drew's neck and pressed hard.
Paula Abdul also claimed to be unaccountably moved by Canty. She, too, sent Drew into, perhaps, the office of Dr. Drew.
"Simon, what did you want to say?" asked Steve Jones blithely of his boss.
Cowell, acting enraged, gruffed: "I don't want to say anything."
Drew kept on weeping, as Crow and Amaro rushed out to console her.
Some might wonder just how staged all of this was, just how enraged Cowell truly might have been and how much this young girl was being used for TV drama.
Neither Astro nor Drew is what might be termed as a mainstream performer.
Might it just be that these two were being showcased as much as was humanly possible, so that Cowell and Reid will be able to launch them with gusto to their specific niche audiences?
Might they, indeed, use future episodes of this show to display the news that Astro and Drew have both signed contracts? And, miracle upon miracle, might they announce that both have songs already recorded for the nation's gullibles to buy and take on their travels?
Still, this night was about feelings, drama and pathos that no soap opera could possibly rival.
"Drew, one final word," demanded Jones of this poor distraught girl.
"Jesus loves all of you guys," she offered.
That, she said, was the only reason she was in the competition. This was what all of her performances were intending to communicate.
So why, some might ask, had all the songs been so sad?
3. Ginger White apologizes to Herman Cain's wife, kids
Ginger White
(Credit: AP Photo/Greg Bluestein)
Ginger White, the woman alleging she had a 13-year sexual affair with Herman Cain, apologized Thursday to Cain's wife and their children for her actions, which could end up putting the nail in the coffin on the Republican businessman's bid for the White House.
"I am not a cold-hearted person. I am a mother of two kids. And of course my heart bleeds for this woman because I am a woman and being in a situation like this can not be fun," White said on MSNBC.
"And I am deeply, deeply sorry if I have caused any hurt to her and to his kids, to his family. That was not my intention. I never wanted to hurt anyone and I'm deeply sorry. I am very sorry," she told host Lawrence O'Donnell.
The candidate is set to meet late Friday with Gloria Cain for the first time since White's allegationsbecame public to decide whether to press on with his campaign.
Asked by the New Hampshire Union Leader if he would drop out of the race if Gloria asked him to, he immediately said he would.
"Yes. But my wife wouldn't ask me to get out. She wouldn't ask me to get out. I would make a decision based upon how all of this stuff is affecting her. Because I will put her first. But she is not the type to say: you ought to get out," Cain said.
Cain's standing in public opinion polls was falling after revelations that he been accused of sexual harassment and engaging in inappropriate behavior with several women.
But the revelation Monday that Ginger White claimed to have had a long-standing affair with Cain changed the minds of many Cain backers who had been on the fence, including two New Hampshire state lawmakers who were backing Cain and jumped ship to support former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Just eight percent of likely Republican voters at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses support Cain, according to a poll released Friday by the Des Moines Register. That is about a third of the 23 percent support Cain had just over a month ago.
Cain said he would "reassess" his candidacy as his campaign donations plummet. The former Godfather's Pizza chief executive did not cancel a campaign stop in Rock Hill, S.C., Friday that is scheduled to take place before his meeting with his wife in their Atlanta home. He did cancel a planned Friday night appearance at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
White said the affair was purely sexual and not about love and neither ever said "I love you" to the other.http://www.cbsnews.com/
"It wasn't a love affair. It was a sexual affair, as hard as that is for me to say and as hard as it is for people to hear it. You know, it pretty much is what it is. And that's what it was," she told MSNBC.
Cain and White have both said he gave her money to help her pay her bills as she struggled financially. Cain says their relationship was merely a "friendship."
Earlier in the week, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopolous, White said "this was not sex for money."
SOURCE:http://www.cbsnews.com/
1) A sign that the U.S. economy may be recovering. The unemployment rate dropped from 9% to 8.6%. This makes the U.S. economy suddenly look like it might be turning around. In November there were 120,000 new jobs created, and many businesses with the intention of adding employees in 2012. The only worry is that the European debt problems could casue a slow down in the promising U.S. economy. Europe is the 2nd largest exporter we do business with. But for now this week has shown an increase in auto sales, homes sales and the dow market is up by 7.01% this week.
2) Some of the jobs that are the fastest growing right now are in the mining industry. The town of Ely Minnesota was home to one of the largest iron ore mines years ago, and after that ended the town became a tourist town to the boundary waters. Now there is a huge need for copper and the 2nd largest copper deposit in the world lies in Ely. There are adding 6,700 new mining jobs a month in this industry, paying 20.00-28.00 dollars an hour.
3) A new chemotherapy treatment is being used to treat some stomach, abdominal, colon and appendix cancers. Although it is controversial because the patient is in surgery and open about 10 hours, and it could cause damage to healthy tissue, it holds great promise for patience with these types of cancer. It has been in use at The University of California for about 10 years with great success. The oncologist makes an incision in the patience abdominal cavity and then removes any cancerous tissue, they then fill the abdomen with hot chemotherapy and slosh it around for a few hours before removing. The chemo is heated to around 108 degrees which is hot enough to kill cancer cells and is still tolerable to healthy cells. Although this is not widely used, it gives hope to cancer patience with poor prognosis's.
Source: CBS Evening News
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