Archive for December, 2011

How Government Regulation Killed an excellent education

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

Are you aware that we in the United States spend between over $8,000 to $15,000 per student per year to run our school system? It’s true, but have you ever considered why it costs a lot? Sure there are difficulties with the colleges being top heavy, however the real reason our school system is broken is a result of government regulations an incident law from lawsuits brought against our schools.

Everyone knows that bureaucracy, regulation and lawsuits can ruin any business or government agency creating huge inefficiencies and lack of productivity. So, it should not be too surprising to determine what is happening in our school system. Currently, teachers are scared to discipline within the classroom for fear of losing their jobs or just being sued.

Often, the college district does not support the teachers, and this is why the attrition rates for new teachers is alarmingly high. Over 50% from the new teachers leave within the first 3-5 years. Each time a lawsuit is brought more rules are created, so when large lawsuits are won by the ones that sue schools, more regulations occur.

This means more oversight, more risk management personnel and much more costs in training and attorney’s fees to defend our schools from future lawsuits. Schools not to need to be drown in political correctness or bureaucracy, and teachers do not have to fear losing their job when Johnny acts out and needs to be disciplined. It’s time to get government over regulation from the classroom and deny some of these outrageous lawsuits steal money from our educational system. So, please think about this.

Maps and Locations – Free Country Outline Maps

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

It’s a well-known proven fact that maps don’t require vocabulary skills. An illiterate will in all probability have the ability to interpret a map but not written directions. Still the majority of the travel and property websites on the net do not use maps. I strongly believe that all website must have a small outline map from the city where the business is located and could constitute the nation as well.

Business map, within their very basic format, have the outline or even the boundary of the city. The position of the business can be shown like a colored dot or even the business name or your logo may also be shown rather than a dot. An appealing phrase at the bottom or center of the map can summarize your company. The inset of these a town map might have the country map with basic demarcations of the state or province boundaries and your city shown prominently.

This conveys towards the visitor a feeling of belonging, a feeling of direction, that the clients are located in the West or East or North or South. In all probability he’ll remember the general location and what your business ddeals with, better than what from the address. We humans possess a way with pictures. The question comes, how to get the map after which how to edit it as suitable for the needs you have. There are many mapping sites which offer you with outline maps at low costs. You can travel to them and purchase these fully editable maps and feed your specific information and employ it in your website.

But what you need is a small country outline map, why pay $50 or even more for an online mapping site for it. Yes you are right. A rustic outline map should be available for $20 or may be $10 or even free. So how do you create a free map for the site. Just go to Google Earth or Google Map, display your country’s full extent, save the screen as image. Now use Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand to vectorise the outline. You have your vector country outline map. Add the appropriate information and use it how you want.

All simple maps can be easily created by this process however for big and complicated maps you need cartographers or map makers. All maps can not be made by just drawing lines, you need GIS exports, some re-specifications, might be some adjustments along with a pleasing design which conforms to the utilisation of the map. No wonder, map making is really a lovely amalgamation of art and science.