Olive Court now closed to Hawkeye Tailgaters

For years, football fans have parked at Iowa City's Olive Court and passed a ball, grilled brats and enjoyed a beverage. But the former owners say they're tired of cleaning up the mess.

Sheryl Neuzil is quoted on KGAN's web site as saying they parked 700 cars every home game for a fee of $25 per car. That comes to $17,500 per home game. At that rate, six home games per year generates $105,000.

Were they really tired of it or did they see much higher dollar signs by selling it off to a developer? KGAN: "Neuzil signed a deal Wednesday and 31 condos will be here next fall."

She said she was sorry it happened, but "...that's the way it goes."

The "it" being business, I imagine.

Filenames

I like complaining about the way media professionals misspeak regarding the Internet, not really understanding how it works. They'll skip the "." between the "www" and the domain name and say, "w-w-w-c-n-n-dot-com". Or they think they have to refer to a slash in a web address as a "backslash" (clearly a regular old "slash").

My other big pet peeve is putting spaces in filenames. This would've been unheard of back in the DOS days, when filenames were limited to 11 characters ('mypost10.txt', for instance) and when spaces were simply not impossible. Filenames were also not case-sensitive. But today, with long filenames, people try all sorts of crazy things, like long desriptions, complete with caps and spaces and bizarre characters. And while most technology supports long filenames, not all are fully friendly to them, most notibly web browsers and email programs.

Case in point: when you upload a file that has spaces contained in it, diffrent programs treat the spaces differently. In some cases, the space is replaced with a '%20'. But not always. In the graphic above, you see the URL, which is sent via email, is showing has a filename that clearly has a space, but the hyperlinking stops before the end of the URL, causing a click to result in an incomplete address.

We should still be using short, descriptive filenames without spaces.

DMPS: $14,500 per pupil

I'd put Des Moines' school district budget at $385M, from the State of the Schools speech last fall. That's wildly outdated today. Board member Jon Narcisse said [on WHO Radio] on August 2 that the budget was $415M this year. Plus he said the district had tapped its $20M reserve. Assuming that's accurate, I'll adjust my figures and restate the cost per pupil is now $14,500 this year or $80 per day, assuming 30,000 kids still attend school in the district. $80 per day! With a student-to-staff ratio of 6:1, that's like paying each of the 5,000 district staff members an annual salary of $87,000 to teach your kids.

If you could entrust three competent people with 18 students and say, "go spend 180 days with these kids, secure the needed resources, and teach them what they need to know," would it cost $261,600? For that, you could build the classroom, feed and cloth the students, equip them each with notebook computers, fully loaded with world-class educational software.

If you think you're being fleeced, you probably are. But at some point, we have to stop blaming the leaders we choose and begin to take responsibility as members of the community -- citizens and media alike -- or ineptitude and greed continue to flourish.

$70 per student per day

I was reading a welcome message by Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring (http://www.dmps.k12.ia.us/schoolboard/1sebring-index.htm) and her State of the Schools speech entitled. "EDUCATING DES MOINES. THEN. NOW. TOMORROW." (http://www.dmps.k12.ia.us/schoolboard/1stateoftheschools07.pdf) from October of '07.

From these two sources, I retrieved some facts that paint a picture. Here, let me help you with that brush.

The budget for school year '07/'08 was $385,500,000.00 (that's 385-point-5 Million dollars). There are 30,000 students and 5,000 staff. That seems like a lot of money and a lot of staff, doesn't it?

I think so. I'll break the big numbers down into the most singular form possible for context and to help us get our mind around what they represent. Let's start by figuring the per-student dollar figures. It's $12,850.00 per year and $71.39 per student per day for 180 days. There's a 6:1 student-to-staff ratio.

It takes the Des Moines Public School District more than $70 per day, per student, to teach the three Rs. Amazing!

Another way to look at this, in somewhat equivelent terms, each member of the school staff could be paid $77,000 to handle six kids for 180 days per year. That actually seems pretty doable. And you wouldn't need actual teachers; just teaching facilitators. Each TF could pay a monthly fee and get all curriculum materials via a teaching server on the Internet. Student logins, attendance recording, testing, etc., all done by computer, with you as their facilitator/principal/custodian/cook.

Imagine that you're one of the TFs. You'll have to hold class at your house because you (and 4,999 others) are receiving the balance of the annual school budget to take care of all six students' educational needs.

You're gonna have to buy a few things, like computers, desks, supplies and internet access, but you could still perform OK in an average house. No bussing required because the students probably live within a block or two.

Might want to install a basketball hoop.

HOT LUNCH PROGRAM
You don't have to buy their lunch (unless they can't afford), because the district doesn't have to. You do have to prepare lunch though. That's OK because the $210 per week the students bring you to make lunch will easily cover all the hotdogs, hamburgers, mac & cheese, tader triangles and fish portions you'll be needing. Really, a pan of boiling water and an oven are all you really need to cook school-like food.

Smartphone Start-Ups Have a Friend in This Fund - NYTimes.com

Smartphone Start-Ups Have a Friend in This Fund - NYTimes.com

This could be something. iFund invests in select startup companies that write applications for the iPhone. To give you an idea of popularity of these apps, Apple's iPhone App Store has served 60 million of then since the store's launch last month. Blackberry maker RIM (Research in Motion) sees this trend and will announce a yet-to-be-named fund specializing in developers of applications for its smart phone.

Are we paying attention? One thing we don't fully appreciate about hundreds of millions of smartphones in users' hands is that they have eyes, ears, know their location and are connected to the Internet. Developers can leverage these assets to unimaginable ends -- with potentially questionable aims, possibly creating a transparent world or the mother of all big brothers.

Gannett 2Q profit falls by 36 percent

I don't believe the paper's decline is because of any perceived liberal bias, dittoheads. Fewer readers get their information from print because there are so many free and instant sources -- including this web site. 1. Local delivery audiences are dying off -- literally; and 2. local advertisers don't understand how to market to an audience that's obviously shifting to online sources. Consider that a typical newspaper reporting staff today is comprised of two-thirds online content producers.

That's telling. And it lends a lot of credence to the Craigslist argument in the comment section of this story; my baby boomer mother uses it.

And partly because...it's the economy, stupid.

This is an awkward time for traditional media, but I assure you that "liberal bias" is nothing more than a branding campaign aimed at the feeble-minded.

To fix the nation's problems, circle the wagons

When we see what has become of our nation and the impending crisis that faces it, we the people should take action and not wait around for the next election cycle.

Problem
The economy, the war, forced taxpayer charity, immigration issues, diminishing standard of living and inaccessible health care in this country are all related to the ineptitude of congress, who acts as agency for corporate and foreign interests instead of its constituents.

Solution
A temporary national charter mandating the legislature, executive and judicial to implement and support the following measures immediately:

• Recall all diplomatic personnel, armed forces and materiel to US soil and ports
• Withdraw from world financial complex
  
• Eliminate Homeland Security
  
• Secure all borders and waters
  
• Place a moratorium on all all foreign trade and aid
• Eliminate national income tax
• Redesign transportation infrastructure to support universal electrified rail
• Replace coal and petroleum derived energy with wind, solar, hydro and nuclear
  

Interesting comments regarding FEMA buyouts

In 1794, Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees. James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object, saying, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." James Madison, you'll recall, is the acknowledged father of the Constitution, and he couldn't find constitutional authority for spending "on the objects of benevolence."

Your congressman might say, "Madison was all wrong; after all, there's the 'general welfare' clause." Here's what Madison had to say about that: "With respect to the two words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." Thomas Jefferson echoed similar sentiments saying, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."

Walter Williams, http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams111302.asp

I'm all for giving. Giving is the duty of private citizens, both individually and collectively via charitable organizations. The federal government has no authority to take money from taxpayers for the purpose of giving it to the needy. Charity is a personal, voluntary act of love toward our fellow man. Don't confuse charity with taxation, a compulsory act under duress.

When the government takes over, the whole transaction becomes less personal and more clinical. Giving gives way to taking. Gifts give way to entitlements.

Any of you who believe charitable giving is the duty of government should ask yourselves (and James Madison) if you're living in the wrong country.

Politics is a useful smoke screen

Narrow-minded partisan hacks look pretty silly calling each other names, while extolling the virtues of politicians who facilitated the sale of our country to China and the Mideast at bargain-bin rates. Because of these petty distractions, people still hope, sadly, that the outcome of the presidential election will make a difference.

And before long, they may also feel silly.

The power base is comprised of banks, insurance companies and investment houses who derive immense benefit from war, open borders, free trade and skimming your paycheck -- and they care not about national boundaries. It's laughable that they watch the money flowing into the Mideast and China, yet they sit in their protective bubbles and engage in ignorant online debates about which idiot will be most useful, as US President, to the quality of their individual lives.

The FEMA flooded home buyout program is forced charity

Under what authority can the government buy flooded private properties? James Madison said it doesn't exist, referring to "objects of benevolence", which is a compulsory levy, usually assessed by kings, with no other authority than the claim of prerogative. When the government is in the business of charity, like funding and administering buyouts of private homes, it becomes taxation without representation, which you're compelled to hand over, as if a king had demanded it.

My fear is that we're moving fast toward a nation where lazy, ignorant clods comprize the majority, who elect criminals to lead.

Identity theft solutions, not blame

My 17-year-old son, a multi-generation US citizen, was approached recently by a foreign national living in the US illegally, who solicited his identity for the sum of $5,000 to help him bring members of his family to the US and work under assumed identities. Fortunately, he declined the offer. But others will accept. Far more citizens will have their identities compromised.

There's great value in the identity trade, which has become a commodity industry, and there's a reason for it. And while the political class watches you all bicker about who's fault it is, your fellow citizens are getting soaked by the financial complex and raked over the coals.

The solution is to make compliance the new path of least resistance -- a financial no-brainer -- by causing great expense to the individuals reaping the benefits of cheap labor, who promise the cheapest possible labor force. You'll know who they are because they speak loudest for immigrants' rights.

One of the extremely few true responsibilities of the government is to guard against foreign invasion, but a nation rife with ignorance will never demand it.