This is the kind of educator the school system is dropping to satisfy some bureaucratic personnel requirement? Well, at least they have their standards.
One housekeeping footnote: We try to provide links to the stories that we find online, but the Conway Daily Sun is available on a subscription basis only. For the rest of you, see the Associated Press's writeup of the story on its New Hampshire wire.
Big Brother, the Man, E-Mail and You
Here are a couple of noteworthy items culled from all the news RSS feeds I subscribe to:
* The Austin American-Statesman reported that more than one-third of companies with 1,000 or more employees have staff that specialize in monitoring workers' messages for offensive content and corporate secrets, and another 25 percent plan to hire someone soon for that job. That's according to Proofpoint Inc., an e-mail security company based in Cupertino, Calif., washingtonpost.com's Brian Krebs noted the same study last week in the blog he writes about computer security.
* Connecticut legislators might not have to submit to such undignified monitoring. The Connecticut Post reported that the legislature passed an amendment that would make state employees' and lawmakers' e-mail messages exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act.
One of its opponents was state Sen. Ernest E. Newton II (D). Here's a little note on him from the Post: "Newton, the target of a federal corruption investigation, had his legislative computer records seized on Good Friday, when the Capitol was closed. Lawrence Cook, Newton's Senate spokesman, said Friday that Newton voted against it. 'I'm already under scrutiny,' Cook quoted Newton as saying. 'I wouldn't touch that amendment with a 10-foot pole.'"
The Return of Junk Mail
We're talking about the kind that you get in your mailbox, that lonely metal thing that sits at the end of your driveway. The Boston Globe said that companies are facing so many restrictions on their use of telemarketing and unsolicited e-mail that they're rediscovering the joys of murdering trees for advertising purposes.
Well, that's not how the Globe put it. Here's is reporter Jenn Abelson in her own words: "Direct mail, or so-called junk mail, is on the rise. With hundreds of television channels and dwindling newspaper circulations, marketers say snail mail is one of the last frontiers where they know they can find consumers in an increasingly fragmented media market. ... In 2004, companies and other groups sent out 96 billion pieces of direct mail -- up 12 percent from 86 billion pieces in 1999, according to the United States Postal Service. 'Companies are trying to utilize mail as opposed to telephone and the largest areas of growth are in credit card mailings and mortgages,' said Mark Aguinaldo, an analyst with the marketing research firm Mintel International Group Ltd. in Chicago."
Companies touting C-i-/@Al*i-s, ba*r*e*ly legal tieen g$ur!ls and German Nazi spam probably will stick to e-mail, however.
Send links and comments to robertDOTmacmillanATwashingtonpost.com.
