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A Culture Of Technical Knowledge: Professionalizing Science And Engineering Education In Late-Nineteenth Century America, Paul Keith Nienkamp

Electronic Reference Materials

This manuscript examines the intellectual, cultural, and practical approaches to science and engineering education as a part of the land-grant college movement in the Midwest between the 1850s and early 1900s. These land-grant institutions began and grew within unique frontier societies that simultaneously cherished self-reliance and diligently worked to make themselves part of the larger national experience. College administrators and professors encountered rapidly changing public expectations, regional needs, and employment requirements. They recognized a dire need for technically skilled men and women who could quickly adapt to changes in equipment and processes, and implement advances in scientific knowledge in American …

President Bush Wanders Onto Nbc Set

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

George W. Bush was interviewed live on NBC by Bob Costas just a few hours ago. A short but wide-ranging interview, the President covered China’s human rights record (“America better remain engaged”), China and religion (“once religion takes hold in a society it can’t be stopped”), Georgia (“I was very firm with Vladimir Putin”), Sudan (“Joey Cheek has just got to know that I took the Sudanese message [to the Chinese government] for him”), and doping in sports.

The interview was enormously casual–to Costas’s question if Hu Jintao was “receptive” to Bush’s message on Sudan, Bush responded “It’s hard to …

What Happened To The Women?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was so magnificently awe-inspiring as to prompt the NBC anchors to declare that, if there were a trophy for the opening ceremonies, then it must be retired. Vancouver and London certainly have their work cut out for them.

Yet as I watched a string of stunning performances of Chinese men—banging on brass drums, doing quasi-qigong dance, executing a shanshui painting with their bodies while dancing on the world’s largest LCD screen, etc., etc., all capped by the 7’6”-tall flag bearer Yao Ming—I wondered, where did China’s 640 million women go? Sure, a 9-year-old …

Big And Small Nation(Alisms): A View From Aotearoa-New Zealand, Paola Voci

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

And so it was. All as expected; all that is indeed the stereotypical China: the long civilization, the characters, the Confucian traditions, the big inventions, the huge number of people, and of course the fireworks. Zhang Yimou copied and pasted it all together so that the audience—both “them” and “us”—could safely enjoy familiar images, saturated with spectacular effects.

And there I was watching it all on TV like billions of others, an Italian “sinologist” turned into a Chinese film and media researcher in the USA, who ultimately landed in New Zealand five years ago to teach about China in Dunedin, …

Building Beijing, Eric Setzekorn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Even before Beijing was awarded the Olympic Games in 2001, the pace of construction in the city was frantic and relentless. A combination of expansive central planning, low interest loans, and a real estate bubble have all contributed to the construction of hundreds of new buildings and massive infrastructure development. Lax regulatory and environmental laws combined with a desire by politicians to make Beijing a “showcase” have enticed dozens of the world’s best architects to experiment with new designs and new materials on a scale not possible in New York, London or Berlin. While some critics bemoan these new designs …

Questioning The Olympic Project: Lessons From Seoul, Sam Goffman

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“You Americans look down on us—you think of us as low-educated and savage. I hope the Olympics can change all that.”

One could be forgiven for thinking the above statement is from contemporary China. In fact, the statement is from a South Korean travel agent, who said it on September 16, 1988, one day before the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Summer Olympics, held in Seoul.[1]

It is striking how many of the expectations regarding what the Olympics will do for China’s status in the world reflect earlier expectations in other East Asian countries that have hosted the Games—Japan in …

Beijing Olympics 2008: The View From Vancouver (Host To Winter 2010 Olympics), David Luesink

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It is interesting to note the similarities between criticisms of Olympic preparation in Vancouver and Beijing. Although the famously beautiful city of Vancouver is still two years away from hosting the winter Olympics in conjunction with the mountain village of Whistler, we are already running into the standard problems and criticisms familiar to Olympic planners of the past few decades. While air quality and the national human rights record are not likely to be the major issues for Vancouver, other themes show up on a regular basis in the local press, including cost overruns, natural disasters, transportation problems, and the …

Contemporary Chinese Journalism: An Interview With Judy Polumbaum, Timothy Weston

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I’ve just finished reading China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism by Judy Polumbaum with Xiong Lei. Given the plentiful recent discussion of the Chinese media and censorship during the lead up to the 2008 Olympic games, this book makes for fascinating and very timely reading. It consists of a short introduction by Judy Polumbaum, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Iowa, and the transcripts of interviews that she and Xiong Lei, who has worked as a reporter in Beijing for twenty-five years, conducted from late 2005 until late 2006 with journalists currently working in …

Beijing’S Olympic Pollution Forecast: "Haze" And Hot Air, Alex Pasternack

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For an idea of what kind of air athletes and spectators can expect during the Olympics–and what Beijingers can expect for some time to come–the past week has offered telling indications.

Or it hasn’t.

At the start of last week, for the fourth day in a row, emissions made it hard to see down the street, despite the fact the government ordered half the city’s cars off the road and closed factories. Officials said they would implement an emergency contingency plan on top of the existing anti-smog measures if pollution lingers closer to the Games.

Twenty-four hours later, the difference …

Making A Sure Decision Now For Potential Disaster Assistance Later, Bradley Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

The new farm bill included some significant changes in the farm income safety net. As a result, crop producers will need to make a number of decisions about new farm program participation, some in a very short period of time.

The first program decision for crop producers is the simple question of signing up for the 2008 commodity programs. These crop support programs did not change for 2008, except for some legislative language that will eliminate farms with less than ten base acres from the farm program, unless those farms were limited resource or socially-disadvantaged farms. The deadline for sign-up …

Wishful Reporting, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My tea nearly dropped to the table here in Leicester, England, when I saw The Independent headline. “Beijing 2008 Olympics: Tiananmen orchestra fails to drown out clamour of protests,” it read, conjuring up images of Richard Gere and a chorus of Tibetan monks chanting a hundred violinists off a Tiananmen stage. So, it’d finally come, the wellspring of protest of the regime had burst, I thought. I started to read. An orchestra of 2,008 musicians was flown in from all over the world, I learned, while “foreign and local groups… have been told to give plenty of notice” for permission …

The Olympics Around The World: Japan, James Farrer

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

While the English language press has been reporting that over 100,000 police and 30,000 soldiers have been readied to protect China’s Olympic city, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun has come up with figures a full order of magnitude higher. The August 4, 2008, morning Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo edition) ran a front page feature article reporting that despite claims by the Chinese government that no one has been made to leave the city, nearly 1.4 million migrant workers have been moved out of the city for the Olympics. In turn, the report says, nearly 1.2 million police and 200,000 army personnel have moved …

A Few Olympic Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Just in case you can’t get enough, here are a few more:

1. Geremie Barmé’s excerpt on Wang Shuo on Danwei is a fascinating twist on “sports competitions” and national humiliation.

2. Monroe Price has a recent piece up at the Huffington Post on internet censorship.

3. Check out this charmingly self-reflexive piece by the L.A. Times‘ Ching-Ching Ni on the experience of returning to Beijing and finding the city of her childhood gone.

4. Exhausted by the Olympics already? How can you feel this way when there’s 2016 to think about?

5. Find out “Who’s Your Buddha?” in this …

Class And The Olympics, Eric Setzekorn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Only a short six-hour ride on board the shiny new bullet trains moving at 230km per hour from Beijing, the formerly sleepy port city of Qingdao will be host to the Olympic sailing events for 2008. As a sport with relatively high costs and requiring access to the ocean or at least large lakes, sailing is not a popular sport in China but is emerging as a favorite of the newly rich. In Qingdao and Beijing the influence of class has fundamentally affected government planning and China’s Olympic development. Rather than bring investment and tourism into poor or less developed …

China Overload

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

What’s that, you ask? We couldn’t tell you. We can’t get enough of the China coverage splattered across magazine covers and op-ed pages. A lot of the stuff is for subscribers only, so we won’t be directing you to recent China pieces in Harper’s and elsewhere. Here are some links to the free pieces, found on the pages of the usual suspects as well as some unusual ones:

1. Here’s an unusual one: Architectural Digest has a series of stories on contemporary decor and architecture in China, including a photo spread of a “villa” outside Chengdu, a slideshow of 19th …

Terracotta Ambassadors, The First Emperor, And The “Cursed” Farmers, Xia Shi

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

About twenty terracotta figures are currently on display at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, California in an exhibit scheduled from May 18 through October 12. Later, the exhibit, including statues of ten warriors, court officials, an acrobat, a bare-chested strongman, musicians, a stable boy, chariot horses and bronze water birds, will make stops in Atlanta, Houston, and Washington, D.C. It is said that this exhibit not only includes pieces of the highest quality, but is also the largest collection of the figures ever to leave China.

“As China gears up for the 2008 Olympics, it’s a …

Nobody (?) Likes A Spoiler, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On July 31st, SBS, a major South Korean broadcast network, aired a short clipshowing details of the carefully guarded rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (the video clip has now been removed from all major news and video sites). As the news (and the clip) spread on the web, Chinese and Korean news, portal sites, and users on blogs and message boards expressed, to put it mildly, consternation. On popular Chinese portals like sina.com and 163.com, polls show that a large percentage of the respondents support revoking the offending station’s broadcasting privileges, or investigating who bore …

Nebraska Community Learning Center Network: Expanded Learning Opportunity Fund Mapping Project, Mitchel Herian, Nancy Shank

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Table of Contents:

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on Terminology and Population
Fund Mapping Challenges
Approach and Presentation
Fund Mapping Results
Current Funding
Survey of Nebraska Funding Sources
Summary of Federal Funding Programs
Early Childhood Care
Survey of Nebraska Afterschool Programs
Federal Funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers
Nebraska Crime Commission
Parental Involvement
Potential Funding
Summary of Federal Programs
Discussion of 2008 Survey of Funding Sources
Future Directions and Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A - Summer 2008 Survey of Organizations that Fund Expanded Learning Opportunities
Appendix B - Potential Federal Programs for Expanded Learning Opportunities
Appendix C - …

Show Me The Money!, Mitchel Herian, Nancy C. Shank

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Table of Contents:
What Are Expanded Learning Opportunities?
Identifying resources available to support expanded learning opportunity programs in Nebraska
Some Key Findings of the Fund Mapping Project

Global Climate Change: Opinions And Perceptions Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Miguel A. Carranza, Bruce B. Johnson, David J. Peters

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

It is predicted that the earth’s climate will change because of the buildup of greenhouse gases. However, the exact effect of these gases on the climate is difficult to predict. Given these conditions, what do rural Nebraskans think about global climate change? Do they think global climate change will impact them? What are their opinions about the causes and effects of global climate change? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions.

This report details 2,496 responses to the 2008 Nebraska Rural Poll, the thirteenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions …

University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension Connect, August

Connect (University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension)

Inside this issue:

pg. 3 Food biosecurity
pg. 5 Youth entrepreneurship
pg. 6 Range judging

Land Values And Cash Rents: 2008 Summary

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Reports

Farm real estate values, a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms, averaged $2,350 per acre on January 1, 2008, up 8.8 percent from 2007. The $2,350 per acre is a record high and $190 more than a year earlier.

Both cropland and pasture values for 2008 are record highs. Cropland values rose by 10 percent to $2,970 per acre, up from the previous high of $2,690 in 2007. Pasture value rose by 6 percent to $1,230 per acre.

While commercial and residential development has slowed in many regions, farm real estate values continue to increase. …

Degrees Should Serve Some Life Skills On The Side, Carla Kimbrough

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

I think college is much more than a time to gather career-related skills. I'd love to see a college course focusing on life management skills and creating life plans so students can live life to the fullest. My philosophy about this type of education extends beyond journalism. Life management includes skills such as setting goals, managing time, resources and money and making sohd decisions that affect the present and the future. Setting goals is critical to achieving any level of success — however one defines success — because goals provide direction in all aspects of life. In many of the …

Gender And The Political Economy Of Knowledge, Ann Mari May

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The importance of increased levels of education in improving the status of women throughout the world is well established. Higher levels of education are associated with lower birth rates, higher incomes, and greater autonomy for women. In fact, it has been argued that education is a fundamental prerequisite for empowering women in all spheres of society (Lopez-Claros and Zahidi 2005: 5).

In the last third of the twentieth century, women have made particularly significant strides in many countries. For example, UNESCO reports that women’s share of enrollment in higher education in Switzerland rose from 3 per cent in 1985 to …

Measuring Immigration’S Effects On Labor Demand: A Reexamination Of The Mariel Boatlift, Örn B. Bodvarsson, Hendrik F. Van Den Berg, Joshua J. Lewer

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

Why do immigration shocks tend to have benign effects on native wages? One reason is that immigrants as consumers contribute to the demand for their services. We model an economy where workers spend their wages on a locally produced good, then test it via a reexamination of the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift” using Wacziarg’s Channel Transmission methodology. Current Population Survey data on workers in 9 different retail labor markets and Survey of Buying Power data on retail spending by consumers in Miami and four comparison cities are used. We find strong evidence that the Mariel Boatlift augmented labor demand.

Statistical Comparison Of Residential Soil Concentrations Of Pcdds, Pcdfs, And Pcbs From Two Communities In Michigan, Avery Demond, P. Adriaens, T. Towey, S.-C. Chang, B. Hong, Q. Chen, C.-W. Chang, A. J. Franzblau, D. Garabrant, B. Gillespie, E. Hedgeman, K. Knutson, C. Y. Lee, J. Lepkowski, Kristen M. Olson, B. Ward, L. Zwica, W. Luksemburg, M Maier

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The University of Michigan dioxin exposure study was undertaken to address concerns that the industrial discharge of dioxin-like compounds in the Midland, MI area had resulted in contamination of soils in the Tittabawassee River floodplain and downwind of the incinerator. The study was designed in a rigorously statistical manner comprising soil measurements of 29 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 766 residential properties, selected probabilistically, in the Midland area and in Jackson and Calhoun Counties (Michigan) as a background comparison. A statistical comparison determined that the geometric mean toxic equivalent (TEQ) levels in samples from …

Diagnostic Prevalence Rates From Early To Mid Adolescence Among Indigenous Adolescents: First Results From A Longitudinal Study, Les B. Whitbeck, Mansoo Yu, Kurt Johnson, Dan R. Hoyt, Melissa L. Walls

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To investigate change in prevalence rates for mental and substance abuse disorders between early and mid-adolescence among a cohort of indigenous adolescents.

Method: The data are from a lagged, sequential study of 651 indigenous adolescents from a single culture in the northern Midwest United States and Canada. At waves 1 (ages 10-12 years) and 4 (ages 13-15 years), one adult caretaker and one tribally enrolled adolescent completed a computer-assisted personal interview that included Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children- Revised assessment for 11 diagnoses. Multivariate analyses investigate effects of wave 1 adolescent diagnosis and wave 1 biological mother diagnosis (University …

Chinese In Cambodia, Caroline Finlay

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Foreigners travelling to Phnom Penh in the mid 19th century didn’t find a sleepy Khmer fishing town. Instead, they happened upon thousands of bustling Cantonese traders. Their legacy in the Sino-Khmer population continues as these long settled immigrants dominate the oil and tourism industries and own countless shop fronts in Cambodia’s cities, while newly arrived mainland Chinese invest in garment production and construction.

In the 1800s, French colonials allowed Chinese-run businesses to flourish. William Willmott, a mid-century expert on Chinese communities, claimed the ethnic Chinese controlled 92 percent of Cambodian commerce in the mid 1900s. They traded in urban areas …

Faq#7: Why Were Chinese People So Angry About The Attempts To Seize The Torch In The International Torch Relay?, Susan Brownell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I have just returned from five days in the earthquake disaster zone in Sichuan province, where I was a member of the “People’s Olympic Education Promotion Team” that visited Deyang city to conduct “Youth Olympic Games Re-enactments” at six local primary and secondary schools. There I realized that for the people we encountered, The Torch is a sacred object. I call it The Torch because that is what they called it – 火炬 – as if there were only one, and no further adjectives were necessary.

The project expressed the mission of Donnie Pei, a professor at the Capital Institute …

Smoke And Mirrors: China And India

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After reading a short excerpt from Pallavi Aiyar‘s new book, Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, at Danwei.org, we wanted to ask her a few questions about her experience as a journalist and writer working in China (Danwei has also postedan interview with Aiyar, asking for her insights on the relationship of and comparisons between China and India; and additional reviews of the book have been posted at the WSJ China Blog and The International Herald Tribune). Here are her answers to our questions, followed by a short excerpt from the book.Smoke and Mirrors can be purchased at this …