U.S. 'Deeply Concerned' With Turkey's Move To Block Twitter: “The United States is deeply concerned that the Turkish government has blocked its citizens’ access to basic communication tools,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. “We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people’s access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association and runs contrary to the principles of open governance that are critical to democratic governance and the universal rights that the United States stands for around the world.”

I always wondered this when buying $1 body wash at Dollar General:

Last year, New York magazine investigated how thieves were stealing laundry detergent to sell for drug money. One Safeway reported losing up to $15,000 a month in stolen detergent. Who would have expected the city’s underground economy to intersect with its legitimate economy thanks to such utterly boring products? [Priceonomics]

via Why Do Drug Stores Put Soap Under Lock and Key?.

Body Washes, soaps and clothing detergent are all being secured in stores now.

Netflix Reed Hastings wants to put an end to school boards and replace public schools with charters:

Hastings suggests that the “stable governance” of charter schools leads to stable schools, but, alas, big changes occur in charter schools. Let’s look at Rocketship, on whose unofficial board of advisers Hastings sits. Rocketship became known — and won $2 million from the Obama administration to help it grow — with a “blended learning” model that is designed to incorporate traditional classroom settings with a computer “Learning Lab” for students. The idea behind the lab was that students could learn basic lessons in math and reading while teachers could work with students on more complicated material. Part of the attraction, too, was that the computers would cost less than hiring more teachers. But get this: Last year Rocketship realized it had to revamp its fabulous “Learning Lab” because it wasn’t working very well. The charter network’s Web site says it is still piloting ”flexible learning spaces at some of our schools — spaces that will allow our teachers be even more effective and students to learn even more.”

What he’s arguing for is less governance, not better schools. Here’s the real story, public schools are more than fine outside of school districts in impoverished, urban areas. In fact they are pretty damn good:

About education. And unlike other folks who parachute into the ed debates with the usual silver bullets (more charter schools! higher standards! fewer teachers unions!), he [movie maker M. Night Shyamalan] actually diagnoses the problem correctly:

You know how everyone says America is behind in education, compared to all the countries? Technically, right now, we’re a little bit behind Poland and a little bit ahead of Liechtenstein, right? So that’s where we land in the list, right? So that’s actually not the truth. The truth is actually bizarrely black and white, literally, which is, if you pulled out the inner-city schools — just pull out the inner-city, low-income schools, just pull that group out of the United States, put them to the side — and just took every other public school in the United States, we lead the world in public-school education by a lot.

And what’s interesting is, we always think about Finland, right? Well, Finland, obviously, is mainly white kids, right? They teach their white kids really well. But guess what, we teach our white kids even better. We beat everyone. Our white kids are getting taught the best public-school education on the planet. Those are the facts.

It’s like we own 10 buildings, and 3 are on fire. So the Hastings solution is to turn the fire hose on all ten houses. The idea of public school systems is not broken. The countries we are “losing” too implement public schools. It has been perpetually improving and adapting in middle class and wealthy school districts across the country for decades. It’s the ability to deliver quality education in impoverished areas that is the issue. Wanting to get 90% of kids in the nation into charters is a corporate growth strategy, not an academic development strategy.

Read Businessweek’s article: “The Jeep Plant Mitt Romney Said Was Moving to China Is Hiring 1,000 Workers in Ohio”:

“You’ve gotta remember, these people [the regular workers] are working 10 hours a day, six days a week,” a UAW boss who helped negotiate the deal told the Blade. “It’s very important to have the day off you want with your family.” The Blade further reports that Chrysler has already hired 380 of these temp employees and converted 50 of them to full-time jobs.

Eat, Sleep and Jeep.