The troubling terrain of lifelong learning: a highway cruise or a cross-country trek?

Educational theory now takes for granted that lifelong learning is inherently good. It is assumed that in a globalised era people need to continue learning over their lifespan. Without a demonstrable general awareness of determinants, educational theory pictures lifelong learning as a cruise on the highway of life. By contrast, educational research shows that it is more in the nature of a lifelong cross-country trek. Determinants are situated in the terrain of each person's unique life experiences. Although policy supports universal lifelong learning theoretically, the reality of the policy agenda is quite different. What little research into propensity to lifelong learning exists indicates that up to a third of the population not only do not but will not participate. Theory evidently does not fully reflect reality. However, research is providing an emerging picture of participation and non-participation in formal lifelong learning. Indeed, it is the terrain of people's lives which holds the key to understanding that participation and non-participation. Motivators required for a trek differ from those required for a cruise. Lifelong learning research is an area of educational research's terrain which should trouble theory until theory better reflects reality

Getting Into the Right Law School ( My Roommate the Moonie Scored in the 98th Percentile on the LSAT and Got Into Harvard. Why Didn\u27t I? )

Neither law schools nor their admissions officers care about the whole person

Recruiting Letters

Every recruiting letter has one of three basic messages: (1) yes; (2) maybe; (3) no

The Proper Role of After-Aquired Evidence in Employment Discrimination Litigation

A new defense to employment discrimination claims has gained acceptance in the lower courts. Employers who allegedly have discriminated against their employees because of race, sex or age are winning judgments on the basis of after-acquired evidence of employee misconduct. The evidence is “after-acquired” in the sense that the misconduct was unknown to the employer at the time the alleged discrimination occurred but was acquired later, often through the use of discovery devices in the employee\u27s discrimination action. Lower courts have accepted the proposition that if the employer would have discharged the plaintiff on the basis of the after-acquired evidence, then the defendant is not liable for employment discrimination, and the plaintiff, accordingly, is entitled to no relief. This Article criticizes the approach to the after-acquired evidence defense that is emerging in the lower courts. The Article rejects the premise that a plaintiff must be “fire proof” in order to prevail in an employment discrimination action. It argues that after-acquired evidence of a plaintiff\u27s misconduct should have no impact on an employer\u27s liability for discrimination. In liability determinations, the focus should be on what the employer actually did and not on what the employer might have done had it not discriminated. Discriminatory conduct causes harm and deserves legal condemnation even when the conduct would have been justifiable on other grounds

Land-Use/Land-Cover Characterization Using an Object-Based Classifier for the Buffalo River Sub-Basin in North-Central Arkansas

Sensors for remote sensing have improved enormously over the past few years and now deliver high resolution multispectral data on an operational basis. Most Land-use/Land-cover (LULC) classifications of high spatial resolution imagery, however, still rely on basic image processing concepts (i.e., image classification using single pixel-based classifiers) developed in the 1970s. This study developed the methodology using an object-based classifier to characterize the LULC for the Buffalo River sub-basin and surrounding areas with a 0.81- hectare (2-acre) minimum mapping unit (MMU). Base imagery for the 11-county classification was orthorectified color-infrared aerial photographs taken from 2000 to 2002 with a one-meter spatial resolution. The object-based classification was conducted using Feature Analyst® , Imagine® , and ArcGIS® software. Feature Analyst® employs hierarchical machine learning techniques to extract the feature class information from the imagery using both spectral and inherent spatial relationships of objects. The methodology developed for the 7-class classification involved both automated and manual interpretation of objects. The overall accuracy of this LULC classification method, which identified more than 146,000 features, was 87.8% for the Buffalo River sub basin and surrounding areas

The FIRST-2MASS Red Quasar Survey

Combining radio observations with optical and infrared color selection -- demonstrated in our pilot study to be an efficient selection algorithm for finding red quasars -- we have obtained optical and infrared spectroscopy for 120 objects in a complete sample of 156 candidates from a sky area of 2716 square degrees. Consistent with our initial results, we find our selection criteria -- J-K>1.7, R-K>4.0 -- yield a ~50% success rate for discovering quasars substantially redder than those found in optical surveys. Comparison with UVX- and optical color-selected samples shows that >~ 10% of the quasars are missed in a magnitude-limited survey. Simultaneous two-frequency radio observations for part of the sample indicate that a synchrotron continuum component is ruled out as a significant contributor to reddening the quasars' spectra. We go on to estimate extinctions for our objects assuming their red colors are caused by dust. Continuum fits and Balmer decrements suggest E(B-V) values ranging from near zero to 2.5 magnitudes. Correcting the K-band magnitudes for these extinctions, we find that for K <= 14.0, red quasars make up between 25% and 60% of the underlying quasar population; owing to the incompleteness of the 2MASS survey at fainter K-band magnitudes, we can only set a lower limit to the radio-detected red quasar population of >20-30%.Comment: 80 pages (single-column, preprint format) 20 figures, Accepted for publicated in Ap