| Card mills take 'agents' for a ride
The pitch is seductive and sophisticated.
Qualify for deeply discounted travel. Earn commissions on your own travel expenditures and on that of your friends and family. Build your own travel business with income from others you bring into the fold. Deduct your travel spending from your taxes. Do all of this for less than $500 up front and $50 per month.
Tens of thousands of people are giving it a whirl by buying travel agent credentials. Some do prosper, but many who got their credentials through these "card mills" will be out of the business in less than a year, according to documents from one company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
.
200 protest tardiness penalty
Two hundred students at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Roxbury protested a crackdown on tardiness yesterday by blocking doors and hallways and preventing hundreds of other students from getting to class on time. School officials locked down the school after the protest, banning people from entering and exiting and keeping students in the same classroom the last two periods of the day. "The headmaster put the school in safe mode," said Jonathan Palumbo, a spokesman for the Boston school system. "Any issue going on in the hallway needs to be addressed quickly." The protest was unusual at the school, which typically has a well-behaved student body of 1,300 and boasts test scores in math that are among the top in the state. Officials said two fights had broken out at the school earlier this year.
Introducing The iTaser: MP3 Player Meets Hip, Portable Shock Device
Deborah Kerr in The King and I recommended whistling a happy tune when afraid, but now fearful Americans can sing along to their favourite tracks while shooting anyone who causes them consternation with a 50,000-volt electric charge. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which is expected to receive more than 140,000 visitors this week, is no stranger to bizarre gadgets but the iTaser - as it has been dubbed - must rank as one of the oddest. It combines a Taser stun gun, used by 12,000 law enforcement and security forces, including the Metropolitan police, with an MP3 player and earphones. As to which tracks anyone toting such a device might download on to the 1GB player that is integrated into the gun's holster, anything by Sparks or Frank Zappa must be fairly high on the list.
Get Schooled
I think the larger problem isn't that students don't always like what their teachers select (for goodness' sake, that's been a problem since schools started assigning reading!)but rather that some teachers make consistently poor choices. By poor I don't mean that someone doesn't like the book, but that the teacher repeatedly "alienates" the same group. I agree with you on all of your arguments, but I don't pretend that some teachers are not irresponsible in their "literature" selections. As to how to entice more boys to read, did I actually see that you blamed parents?! :) .
Harris impressive in Nets debut
Not a bad debut in New Jersey for point guard Devin Harris: 21 points and 5 assists in 21 minutes of action. Obviously, he's not going to average a point per minute once he works his way into the starting lineup ahead of Marcus Williams, but I think he should be able to continue the strong season he was having in Dallas before he got hurt. He can only be helped by playing in the Eastern Conference, which isn't quite as stacked at the point guard position as the West. Williams, on the other hand, had another good night at the point for the Nets, going for 11 points and 8 assists in 30 minutes. If you can sell high on him to someone desperate for assists, this might be your last chance, because Harris will keep getting more and more of the point guard minutes as the end of the season gets closer.
2008 Toyota Land Cruiser - Cruisin' 'Bruknail'
The Toyota Land Cruiser is one of the premier 4x4 vehicles around. Toyota Jamaica brought one to the ADA motor show last year and we were eager to get our hands on it. So when we heard that they were having a test day on a remote area in off-road conditions two Saturdays ago, we jumped at the chance. The place was Greenwich Farm, Newcastle, and the track was a precipitous trail called BRUCKNAIL that was used as a route for carrying produce on four-legged animals. Two strapping journalists were about to button themselves into this 'voluminous' vehicle. Actually, there was more on offer; the public was invited as well, with a Hilux Vigo, RAV4, Prado and two models of the Cruiser ('07 and '08) to be sampled. The upstart Terios was there too. Getting there was half the fun; the climb through the Blue Mountains from Papine really reminds one of how beautiful this country is.
|
