Users of CoberTOUR(sm) can get an overview of insurance coverages in their state or dive deeper and learn even more about particular coverages. Plus, there are also example stories about how people may use particular coverages, which I think are helpful. Plus, people who are bilingual can switch from Spanish to English or visa versa.

Initial internal feedback has been positive. However, if you have time to check it out, please let me know what you think. It’s been so much fun working on such an interactive product that is also educational. I learned a bunch about insurance in the process and from the project team that transculturated the content, did the video shoot, and developed the technical pieces — they were all fantastic (and so nice about my broken Spanish).

It’s a first for me: a striped cow.

After a little research, I think it might be a rare Dutch Belted Cow.

Below are a few links I’ve come across may be of interest to people who think similarly.

Common Language Project: Positive Reporting Across Borders
Happy Rant – also check out his blogroll
Yes Magazine

There was consensus among many of the candidates on the following issues:

Criminal Justice System
- eliminate minimum sentences for non-violent offenses
- treat powder cocaine offenses like crack cocaine offenses
- create rehabilitation programs for non-violent offenders
- create good jobs in inner cities that pay more than the minimum wage

Poverty
- expand WIC programs
- increase jobs, education
- let tax cuts lapse for wealthy Americans

Education
- fund birth-preschool programs so that all children have good/fair/head start
- pay teachers to go to inner cities and rural areas
- provide access/opportunity to all to get college education

Healthcare
- several candidates mentioned supporting universal healthcare.
It is the first time that I have heard it positioned as not only something we need to do for all americans, but also it would be a solution for businesses b/c they are overwhelmed paying for it for their employees.

Katrina
- there was a question asked about supporting a human rights bill to repopulate New Orleans and other Gulf areas. The point was made that its not just getting people back, but we need to rebuild the infrastructure (hospitals, fire, police, etc.)

The candidates by and large didn’t take issue with each other. Many times they all agreed with each other, with just a few exceptions. Also, in one answer Obama said he was going to finish one of Edwards’ points when Edwards ran out of time b/c it was a good point.

I think it was Kucinich who said that we should repeal NAFTA. Gravel was the wild one. He said that we should get rid of the income tax and replace it with a sales tax.

The biggest difference between the candidates is how polished they are when speaking in public. It’s really apparent that the top candidates have spent a good deal of time practicing good intelligent answers to fit the short amount of time they have for each question.

Here’s my take — I think Clinton had good answers, especially in the 30 second time slot. She sounded knowledgable about infrastructure and economic issues. Biden was well-spoken, but I can’t remember any strong points he made. Edwards distracted me by enumerating his points with his thumb in the air, and he tried to tell stories in the short time slot that didn’t work so well. Obama was well-spoken but can do even better with sound bites. As I said above, Gravel was the wild one with much different answers and often condemned his fellow candidates for not taking more drastic positions that would really create change (iho). Sorry, but the others all ran together for me.

However, I just checked the JetBlue site and there is now a YouTube video from CEO David Neeleman linked from the homepage.

It’s not just that companies need to be proactive in their communications, but they also need to be able to respond quickly when something goes wrong. They need a failover communication plan.

It would make an interesting article to examine how different companies respond to problems like these….what language is used, how quickly they respond, what mediums they use, and to what effect.

Interesting read (actually, it reads more like science fiction):
Call for neuroethics as brain science races ahead
— Scientists who are working on brain scanning say that in some cases brain scans can reveal a person’s intentions. One of the examples in the article is about how this technology could one day be used is at the airport. Our luggage would go through one scanner and our brains would go through another.

(not taking sides this early in the game…i’m just saying)

More on this company here: Web 1.0 Undead Rise: AGLOCO

Writing “Agloco spam” from urlhunter could be considered a digital literacy as it links the company and the negative activity and is better than linking del.icio.us with the unfavorable keyword or activity as I almost did when I wrote the above sentence. However, how much negative conversation is still a good thing for the company? I tried to mitigate that by not linking to the company’s home page; however, if you were teaching digital literacies, would you use this event as an opportunity to discuss the issue with students or just advise them to just click delete and move on?