Barry's World

Anytime you have people with power over others on a very large scale, corruption of some form follows. American colleges and universities have hidden their profit machine behind the “importance” of education for far to long.

Don’t get me wrong, education is very important. A college degree is still a major accomplishment and should earn the recipient more income over their lifetime than a person without. We still and always will have professions were college is required to learn the needed skills to perform the job, ie. doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. In time, colleges have found creative ways to increase their bottom line by taking advantage of students  who want or need  a receive a degree.

The world is simply a different place than it was 10-20 years ago or even longer.  Throughout history, upper level education was provided to a select few, usually the rich and priviledged. When everyone has a degree, the degree  distinguishes you less compared to those without, than it did in the past. It’s basic supply and demand. Those who earned college degrees from 1940-1990 had a major advantage over their competition. Since the majority of citizens didn’t attend college, these degrees had much more value as a whole. People began to see the importance of a degree and loan sharks began to make it possible for everyone to attend for a price.

Real Life Example: A friend of mine graduated from a 4 year state univeristy with a degree in elementary education in May 2009. Her graduating class had nearly 60 students receive the same degree. In December if 2009, another class graduated with close to the same # of students. Our county of roughly 90,000 citizens has close to 60 elementary schools, charter schools, and private schools for these new elementary teachers to apply at.  My friend was one of the lucky 20 or so graduates from her class to get a job as a first year teacher. That’s 20 job openings for over 120 graduates. Since a  public school year runs from August-June, this means yet another  class will graduate in May 2010 and 60 more students, or 180 total looking for a job that isnt there this August. The sad thing is that this is only counting students graduating from a single university, we have 3-4 smaller colleges in the county that will only double these #’s. As many as 65% of these graduates are 22/23 yeas old, in debt  and have a piece of paper saying they are qualified to work a job that simply isn’t hiring at the rate of degrees being attained and never will be. This doesn’t mean the degree is worthless by any means,  having a degree at all says something about one’s character and abilities. The real issue is that we end up with 100 teachers in 1,000 teaching while the remaining 900 take other, usually less paying  jobs from those without a degree at all over tmie.

Admissions

The first step in the college process is applying and being admitted into the school of your choice. A quick search of the internet and various universities show that the application fee of most schools will cost between $30-$70 with an average of around $40.  This is usually a non-refundable fee.  Many schools will charge additional  fees to send or recieve transcripts as well. None of these fees guarantee you admission, this is just the cost of them evaluating you. Though it varies from place to place, large state schools accept around 45% or less freshman applicants per year.

Real Life Example: In the state of Florida from 2005-2008, the major 5 public universities (Florida, Florida State, Florida International, UCF, and USF) have each decreased the % of admitted students each year, with the total # of applicants has increased slightly yeach year, In 2008, the freshman acceptance rate for these 5 schools combined was less than 38%, down from 52% in 2005. In total, 1,300 less freshmen were accepted, while nearly 15,000 more applied in 2008 than 2005.

Hyperinflation of College Tuition

From 1978 to 2008 the cost of living has increase 3 fold, medical cost have increased 6 fold, yet college tuition has increase an amazing 10 fold in only 30 years. Colleges have increased tuition costs an average of 4% each year duing this time. It costs nearly 3.5 times as much to attend a private school than a public school, which is the largest markup in history. In 2008, a study was done by NPSAS that concluded the median cumulative debt for graduating with a 4 years degree is $19,999. One in four borrowed $30,000 or more, while one in ten borrowed $45,000 or more.

As quoted from Wikipedia: “A generation ago, students could easily pay for public universities without student loans, simply by taking a part-time job. Students today are an exploited minority, being taken economically taken advantage of because they lack the historic perspective to appreciate the inequality.”

When the economy is booming, private schools raise tuition and when tax breaks are given the public schools follow. Just recently our president has made attempts to give students cheaper more affordable ways to pay for college and the schools are raising tuition in tune, yet again. What’s in place to stop them? Students get $1,000 loan, they charge $1,000 if students can get $2,000 loans, they will charge $2,000.

Transfer Credit

Many school do not allow students to transfer all previous credit into their degree programs. A common practice is to disallow previous core classes to count as core classes, but  allow them to count as elective credit. Schools sometimes don’t accept common credit from institutions located just miles away who are accredited regionally or nationally. Every class you take, every extra semester you are there,  is more money for the school. It benefits them to allow just enough credit to keep the student interested in the school, but not so little that the student will apply somewhere else where they may accept more transfer credit.  Some schools are better than others, no question. Professors, facilities, alumni, and prestige give a school the right to charge more or less for their services. Blatant refusal to accept valid transfer credits from qualified institutions is one of the biggest scams going. If they deny you 1 class, thats $300-$1000 you lose and they make.

Real Life Example:

Another friend had 80 hours of transferable credit, almost all in business related classes. A private school in Florida, who allowed up to 90 hours to be transfered in, would only allow 33 hours to be accepted. Of those, 21 would count towards electives. Financial accounting transfered in as financial accounting, yet micro-economics would be an elective credit and he’d have to retake micro-economics again at the private school for core credit. This same student applied at a 2nd private school (in the same athletic conference, with the same accredidation)  a month later and was approved for all 80 hours and was able to take classes for $150 less per class. Thats 47 more hours  for towards the same degree, and he’s saving another $3,000 in tution for the final 40 hours.

Falculty and Communication

Many colleges are so large that its almost impossible to get individual attention regarding questions or issues a student may face in a timely manner. Each conselor may have 100’s or even 1,000’s of students to advise in a given semester. While some schools offer great avenues for help and take advantage of new technology to do so, many contiune to be satisfied with the  statas quo. Students should not have to wait for hours to see an advisor or register for classes, then be treated as just another sheep in the flock. Colleges sometimes all to often forget that without the students, theres no money. Luckily for the schools, there seems to be an endless supply of sheep willing to take a gamble on this money machine diguised as an education system.

Real Life Example:

A local community college, Polk State College in Florida has 1+  hour waiting lines daily to see one of the few advisors available. Total enrollment is about 10,000 credit students (6,500 full-time) and 8,700 non-credit students, served by a staff of about 100 full-time faculty members. In 2009, they raised tuition costs by 16% after losing nearly a million dollars in state funding. In 2009, only 39% of their funds came from tuition. The state still pays 61%! The student body has grown over 10% for 4 straight years. This institution should be growing and profiting without massive tuition increases.

The following is from The Lakeland Ledger:

“PCC trustees will vote on the $33.2 million budget on Monday. The budget is about $1.3 million more than this year’s $31.9 million. It includes $2 million in federal stimulus money or non-recurring funds that will go toward hiring and maintaining the jobs of adjunct professors, Elliott said.

Money from the state decreased by $127,249 on top of $794,199 cut in January”

A closer look shows that they received 2 million from the Government one time, and will lose nearly a million in state funding per year…so because of this, they have an extra million this year and raised their costs 1.3 million. Meaning the tuition increases weren’t needed until the year following the government money in the first place. Seeing that 90% of the teachers at the school are/were adjunct professors  to begin with their salary should be covered by the old budget, plus the extra 4 years of 10%  more students attending. If they had 6,500 full time students now, 10% more next year would be 650 new full-time more students. 650 students times $2500 a year tuition is an extra 1.69 million dollars each year, which is over half a million dollars more than the funds they lost from the state. This total only includes 650 new fulltime students, not the extra part time students, not the extra parking tag revenue,  or even extra bookstore  revenue. It also doesn’t account for the new teachers they hire, or the new computers and equipment they need to accomodate these extra students. The bottom line is that this school, like so many around the country, charge the student double what the state takes away and results in a endless vicious cycle of higher tuition costs nationwide. But there’s more…

“One bit of good news for the school is that no layoffs are planned next year, Elliott said. Full-time positions remain frozen. It’s still unclear if raises will be given, but a $1,000 bonus given in December seems more likely, Elliott said.”

So if 100 full-time employees each get $1,000, that’s $100,000 spent. Now let’s say that the other 90% of non full-time employees also get the that same bonus, or a prorated version of it. Lets just say, it appears thats where the missing $300,000 or so ends up going. State cuts a million, government gives 2 million. We have an extra million left this year than last, so they up the budget 1.3 million…and amazingly the extra $300,000 goes mostly to bonuses. I am in no place to say whether any or all of these people deserve a bonus. Teachers are typically underpaid and most deserve more than they make. To increase tuition to every student a year earlier than needed to ensure a bonus isn’t right. Sounds alot like AIG and Bank of America doesn’t it?

When budgeting for gadget purchases, you should definitely include phone recorders as a top priority. These devices are very beneficial particularily if you need to keep track of various phone calls coming in and out of your office. You can control your employees by using the phone recorders. Such devices can be installed in each of your office rooms in order to pay attention to everything that is going on when you are not around. Therefore, you will have to take a better look at the wide variety of gadgets that can be found in order to choose the ones that can meet your needs and requirements. If you are a journalist, you could use recorders to capture every detail of interviews.

These devices are your best guarantee that you will not miss important details and essential conversations. This is one of the most effective tools you can use and it is high time for you to provide yourself with quality phone call recorders. Such devices may come in various qualities, sizes and shapes. Therefore, you will have to take your time and shop around in order to find the device that can meet your daily requirements. Such devices can provide you with a searchable database and you can use the database as often as you feel like it because it will always be there. You can also choose a device that will provide you with transcriptions options in order to optimize your time.

So, if you think it’s time for phone recording, you should look at local and federal laws to be sure that using phone recorders for your purpose is legal. This aspect is very important particulary if you plan to use the device for a long time. The phone recordersare very powerful tools and you don’t need to spend much in order to get one.. They were designed in order to capture the voices by using a digital file format. This format can be uploaded to your computer for storing the entire conversation. So, you need to shop around in order to find out more about the right type of phone recorders that can meet your daily demands.

As the folks who are making the next generation of ethanol made their pitch to Congress (see Cindy’s post from earlier), the people who are producing biodiesel from what could be the next great feedstock, algae, reminded members of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research not to forget about their truly green fuel.

Mary Rosenthal with the Algal Biomass Association told the representatives that despite some good progress for the algae biodiesel industry in recent years (not to mention the potential it holds), many of today’s federal biofuel policies simply ignore the role algae could play, limiting opportunities for funding and regulatory acceptance. She says she just wants a fair shake from the government:

Key to algae’s success in the fuels market will be ensuring:

1. Financial parity – Algae must receive the same tax incentives, subsidies and other financial benefits allowed to other first and second generation renewable fuels such as biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol.
2. Market parity – The federal renewable fuel standard will, for the foreseeable future, drive the U.S. market for renewable fuels. The current law focuses on corn ethanol in the near term and cellulosic ethanol over the long term. Algae based biofuels should be treated the same as cellulosic biofuels.
3. Regulatory parity – Algae must be recognized under the same regulations governing other traditional feedstocks, as an effective carbon reduction strategy and as safe for commercial production.
4. Appropriate treatment under federal climate change regulation – Algae production facilities can use CO2 from power plants and other emission sources to grow algae. This process can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Put a price on carbon that will send the right signals to the finacial sector, green energy companies and others to support the commercialization of the algae industry.
5. Provide support for government incentives in R&D and commercialization. Support for the funding that has been made available through the stimulus and Renewable Fuel Standard are types of program that helps develop the market for advanced biofuels.

Rosenthal urged Congress not to miss the opportunity of developing a truly renewable, sustainable fuel that will create jobs, reduce pollution and increase national energy independence.

Everyone like to watch DVD Movies on their PC’s, well at least I think they do, and with 3-D Blu-Ray movies coming out in the near future you should want to watch DVD’s and Blu-Ray movies sitting at your desk. I can imagine watching Avatar in 3-D on my computer screen but to do this you need either a Decoder or a Player software. In this article I’m going to focus on some funny reasons why you wouldn’t want to use a decoder. This is kinda a backwards way of wanting a feature. OK.

We all know what a DVD Decoder is right? Yes, software to allow playback of DVD movies on your PC’s. Now there are many bennies to having one, but no one has looked at the downside (like anyone cares, right?).

Since many of you will be unwrapping new PC’s this Holiday season, and thank you Windows for not including a way for viewing DVD’s, here is our ‘ehem’ list for not wanting to playback DVD’s.

#10: Paris Hiltons recent life is not yet on DVD.

#9:  William Hung’s Hanging with Hung ‘is’ on DVD.

#8: Who needs DVD’s when you have UMD’s.

#7: Um has anyone heard of M$ HD DVD player for the 360?

#6: Blu Ray is da bomb, and my PS3 is the wick.

#5: Forget all this digital stuff, my VHS is lovely.

#4: I’m sure Santa is getting me a new 1080p 70″ TV with a Starz subscription!

#3: My neighboor has a new iPhone, and I need to keep up with him.

#2: DVD’s? Vongo is where it’s at man!

And the #1 reason you don’t need a DVD Decoder is:

#1: Plan 9 from Outer Space - nuff said!

Written By: Rob Boirun who is the head of the BurnWorld Network which rates and reviews DVD/Blu-Ray Hardware/Software.

With thousands upon thousands of listings for online slots now available, it’s hard not to end up wondering where on earth the madness of slot machines originated.  Gambling games of chance have been around forever.  Many hold no hope of revealing their historical roots.  This is not, however, the case with our infamous one-armed bandits.

Online slots actually find their roots in American history. A man by the name of Charles Fey created the prototype form of this game all the way back in 1887 in San Francisco, California.  The game started out with three wheels, as is still commonly seen today and each wheel held 10 symbols.

The top jackpots paid came with a match of three bells, eventually leading this machine to be known as the “Bell” machine. The machine came with a lever on the side which was used to get the three wheels spinning. Here we find the beginnings of the “one-armed bandits” nickname.

In 1910, things began to change for the spreading “Bell” machine. Fey partnered with another man by the name of Herbert Mills. This teaming led to the still common fruit symbols being used today. These machines were produced by the thousands and weighed in at more than 100 pounds each.

Having seen the way-back background of slot machines, what is it that brought on the internet slot revolution? One of the reasons is the simplicity. Casinos first started using the machines as a distraction for wives and girlfriends as the “real” players sat in on table games. The game, in and of itself, was and is very simple.

To add the simplicity of getting to online slots in seconds over the internet makes the game even more appealing for even the most lazy people. No longer having to fight traffic, parking, crowds, and noise can make the simple gambler’s life extremely easy.

But are the internet slots as reliable as the traditional physical machines? Caution is needed but, in general, it’s a pretty good bet that they are. Most online slots today use a thing called a random number generator (RNG). As the name implies, the RNG is used to randomly select what symbols will surface on each simulated wheel face.

One-armed bandits have come a long way in converting to one-click wonders, but they seem to be as here to stay as their physical counterparts. The choices for online slots abound with almost no limit.

Did You Know?
Online slots offer payback percentages that top Las Vegas based casinos.

You can find the payback percentages of online slots at most quality websites. With that in mind, it’s almost as fun looking for slot machines that are fun to play, offer good payback percentages and have great graphics as it is to actually play them.

We must be thankful to Mr. Charles Fey because without him all of these great websites would never have existed. Also, there is little doubt that casinos would never have been as successful if this wonderful machine had never been invented. And, without him millions of people would never have had the thrill of yelling Jackpot from their easy chair.