But B.C.'s Simon Fraser University is taking punishment to a whole new level, introducing a grade of FD -- meaning failure with dishonesty -- the worst possible grade a student can receive.
Dr. Rob Gordon, acting chair of the senate committee on academic integrity, says:
"What used to be a lot of cheating in libraries has changed quite significantly. We now have to be concerned about cheating during exams with high-tech devices and the inappropriate use of internet sources and downloading, including online companies offering services to students that promote academic dishonesty."The mark, which has yet to be used in its introductory semester, will stay on the student's transcripts for two years after graduation. The implications for employment after graduation should be obvious.
"They only use this grade in particularly egregious cases of dishonestly or in cases when they've committed acts of dishonesty several times and haven't learned from their lesson."
* Provocative or inappropriate photos or info--53%
* Drinking or drug use--44%
* Bad-mouthing previous employee, colleague or client--35%
* Poor communication skills--29%
* Discriminatory comments--26%
* Lied about qualifications--24%
* Leaked confidential info from previous job--20%
* Profile provided a good feel for personality and fit - 50%
* Profile supported candidate's professional qualifications - 39%
* Candidate was creative - 38%
* Candidate showed solid communication skills - 35%
* Candidate was well-rounded - 33%
* Other people posted good references about the candidate - 19%
* Candidate received awards and accolades - 15%
"We recommend that people do not wear gloves when handling collection items unless they are touching certain vulnerable surfaces such as un-protected photographs, lead seals or the surface of a globe.
Instead we prefer people to ensure that they have clean, dry hands. There are several reasons for this. Gloves can blunt touch and make people less manually dextrous as they cannot feel the item that they are handling. This can cause them to grab at the item they are viewing or to hold it too firmly. This can actually increase rather than minimise the risk of damage to the item.
It is also very difficult to turn or lift pages with gloved hands. We have recently filmed a series of short videos which demonstrate the best way to handle and use different types of collection items.
This includes a video entitled 'Using Gloves with Collection items' which demonstrates how difficult it is to turn or lift pages with gloved hands. These videos can be viewed on our website by following this link.
Lastly gloves can also catch on loose pigments or fibres as well as picking up and transferring dust."
"The great part about this is that because the Archive is providing the server space for free, every RECAP user is saving the court system work. Each time you download through RECAP, you avoid having to go through PACER’s servers at all. So yes, RECAP will mean a decrease in PACER’s revenues, but it also means a decrease in the things those revenues need to pay for. It’s an all-around good thing. It saves attorneys, researchers, and citizens money. It saves the government computer resources. And it makes the law just a little bit more free and accessible."
“We’re on the precipice of a culture shift around how the mass market experiences music,” Alex Rigopulos told me recently. Rigopulos is the 39-year-old co-founder and chief executive of Harmonix Music Systems, which developed The Beatles: Rock Band and created the original Rock Band and Guitar Hero games that are its foundations. Although video games are associated more with guns than with guitars, music games are now the second-most-popular type on the market, ahead of sports and not far behind the traditional action category. The first Guitar Hero game came out in 2005. Two years later, Harmonix, now owned by MTV, introduced Rock Band. Together, Guitar Hero and Rock Band (now rival franchises owned by competing companies) have altered the way fans relate to music.
Playing music games requires an intense focus on the separate elements of a song, which leads to a greater intuitive knowledge of musical composition. “When you need to move your body in synchrony with the music in specific ways, it connects you with the music in a deeper way than when you are just listening to it,” Rigopulos went on to say. Paul McCartney said much the same thing when I spoke with him in June. “That’s what you want,” he told me. “You want people to get engaged.” McCartney sees the game as “a natural, modern extension” of what the Beatles did in the ’60s, only now people can feel as if “they possess or own the song, that they’ve been in it.”
Google has begun testing a new engine for its search product code named "Caffeine". According to Google it is designed to “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”
