News Article Roundup

A look at some of the articles floating around cyberspace this week:

Are you worried about security? Both in the computer world against hackers, and in the real world against terrorists? Well, after reading the articles here and here, you probably should be...

Methinks we should concentrate more on following the ten we already have, instead of trying to come up with an 11th commandment, but it was probably all for fun anyway...

I've mentioned the gap in minority test scores enough times already, it's almost becoming a pet project of mine. I'm always amazed at the alternate explanations people come up with to explain it in order to avoid the obvious. Things like "The SAT is racist" or "blacks underperform on standardized tests because they hear the 'stereotype' that blacks underperform on standardized tests." Here's a Wall Street Journal article debunking the second of these. Why is it so hard to figure out that minorities score lower because they generally live in poorer neighborhoods and get a worse education from their similarly poorer schools? Because that would require them to look critically at their own schools and communities instead of just blaming other people... Prediction: when the income gap between average white and minority families closes, the gap in test scores will close too--just like magic...

This story and this one might be funny if they weren't scary at the same time. Is there any doubt we have a problem in society with people who avoid responsibility any way they can? Or is the problem the media which constantly suggests 'alternative means' of avoiding doing things you don't like...?

Five years after the fact, this article asks the question "What motivated the Columbine High School killers?" Well, here's one reason: they knew that after doing so, the media would be constantly talking about them--mentioning their names and posting their pictures--for years afterward...just like the article itself does.