Mike is a Dick—Dick Nixon, that is

In the OC Register:

• Carona had secret cameras in his office (Peggy Lowe):

.....Former Sheriff Mike Carona had a camera recording events in his office, which was linked to a computer located in a secret compartment in a closet, sources told me tonight.
.....In yet another revelation in a case that never ceases to astonish, the hard drive of that computer was recently found in Carona’s old office, acting Sheriff Jack Anderson informed the Board of Supervisors this morning in a confidental email. Anderson said he has shared the revelation with federal prosecutors who have charged Carona with public corruption.
.....Anderson, who never moved in to Carona’s office, told supervisors that he hasn’t viewed the contents of the hard drive, as it’s password protected, all my sources told me.
.....“It’s like something out of ‘Get Smart’,” said one of my sources, referring to the old TV series.
.....The revelation raises so many questions.
.....For instance:

– Does this confirm the odd language during Carona’s conversations with former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl in the now-infamous tapes about the “pinhole” cameras?
– How many public figures — apparently unaware — were caught on digital tape?
– What does it mean for his federal case? Have the feds been over to seize the, well, evidence?
– Is it legal to do this kind of Nixonesque public taping?
– How much did it cost taxpayers to offer Carona a private video surveillance?

.....Will update tomorrow when I get copies of the email or confirmation from the sheriff’s office, both of which I’m trying to get tonight.

SEE ALSO, LA Times, 5/24: Video recording system found in former O.C. Sheriff Carona's office, P. Lowe's update

•14-year-old Irvine college grad wants to create artificial intelligence:

.....14-year-old Evan Ehrenberg is such a math whiz, he's made extra cash tutoring classmates at Irvine Valley College.
.....Today, the Irvine resident will put on a cap and gown to graduate from the school as its youngest graduate ever. An associate degree will be tacked on his resume….
.....Evan started at the college three years ago after trying public schools, private schools and homeschooling.
.....His parents took him to educational consultant Annemarie Roeper, who specializes in gifted children, because their fast learner was a bit bored. Roeper recommended that their son try college so he could learn from experts in their fields in a more challenging environment.
....."We were skeptical," said his father David. "A kid in college?"
.....At age 11, Evan took his first college class.
....."I wasn't that nervous," said Evan, reflecting back on that first day. "I was excited to go and learn at such at a high level."
.....The college route was exciting but not always easy. Evan started with "a C or something" on a quiz in physical anthropology with instructor Chris Loeffler.
....."I was a bit down that I had not done so well, and my professor said 'keep at it,'" he said. "She made me feel like I belonged at IVC, like a real student and not just a kid coming here."
.....Evan eventually snatched an A in that class – and in all his classes at the college, as one of 15 who will graduate summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA this year. His degree will be in University Studies with an emphasis in psychology.
.....At age 12, Evan took honors calculus with Professor Miriam Castroconde.
....."Everyone was like 'oh my gosh, there's a 12-year-old kid in here, what's he doing?'" Evan recalled.
.....But soon, the students realized that he belonged there and some even asked for his help. Students from other classes caught on that he was a math whiz and asked for tutoring, which led to a small side job for the youngster.
.....Evan strolled campus after his last final on Thursday and said he'd miss the friendly atmosphere with classmates who treated him like a peer and teachers who became his friends.
.....Spanish teacher Beatrice Tseng calls Evan "an inspiration and an amazement" for her class. Tseng said some students tried to coax Evan into going to UCLA with them.
.....But Evan will be moving north this fall where he will start at UC Berkeley as a junior.
.....Evan started college as a math major but switched to psychology when he became fascinated by processes that underlie human behavior and thought.
....."But I miss the math, the hard sciences," Evan said. So, he's found a way to bridge his two interests by majoring in cognitive science at Berkeley.
....."I'd probably work on building computers based on the layout of the human brain to give them more cognitive ability," he said of his post-Berkeley plans. He hopes to go for his doctorate as well.
.....Castroconde said she's seen young students who were very bright but had not developed the appropriate social skills for college. But she was glad to see Evan being very focused and mature for his age, fitting in well socially with an older group.
....."Sometimes I had to tell him it's working time, not chatting time," she said with a laugh. "But I have to do that for 25-year-olds too."
.....Before Evan, Irvine Valley College's youngest graduate was a 16-year-old, according to college records.

• From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

Margaret West has taught part-time for 21 years at Edmonds Community College, in Washington State, gaining good reviews and annual contract renewals. The FACE blog — part of the Faculty and College Excellence Campaign to get more tenure-track faculty slots and improve the treatment of adjuncts — reported that West was told recently that her services would no longer be needed and that a dean, asked why, told her “because I can.” This came shortly after West started running, unopposed, to serve as president of the faculty union — where she would be the first part-timer to lead the American Federation of Teachers unit at her college. “There is no excuse for what happened to Margaret. The administration at Edmonds Community College should be ashamed of themselves,” said the blog. A spokeswoman for the college, asked about the blog posting, released a statement that did not name West. The statement said: “Edmonds Community College values its longstanding relationship with part-time faculty.... Faculty assignments are determined through the appropriate deans in accordance with the negotiated faculty contract. We resolve all contract related disagreements through established processes.”

• From this morning’s New York Times: Online Video’s Grave Consequences:

.....For a decent sense of which organizations are still hellbent on hand-swatting every mosquito in the copyright-violation forest, the new site YouTomb provides a valuable service. It’s a video-sharing joint, but only for videos that have been removed from YouTube — for supposed copyright violations. And other reasons.
.....You can search by claimants, like crabby old NBC Universal, which recently yanked “Senator McCain on Saturday Night Live Weekend Update.” The whole site is also a good reminder of what sticklers they are over at the high-minded World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
.....The project comes from M.I.T., a copyright-reform-watchdog group called M.I.T. Free Culture.
…..
.....The M.I.T. crowd say they want to try to make YouTube’s complex takedown ideology more transparent. You don’t get to see the video — um, then it would be taken down again, see? — but you do get to see stills from the deleted videos, and read stats about the circumstances of its disappearance. I’m still mystified, but fascinated. Take a look at YouTomb.

• Be sure to check out Andrew Tonkovich’s posts at the Reg’s College Life blog. Here’s an excerpt from his latest, which concerns the south county high school teacher being sued for his remarks in class: Jesus Glasses! Joseph II! Historical Mythology!:

…Meanwhile, despite likely being advised by all of his attorneys against it, Corbett gave a public talk over the weekend to, of all groups, the OC chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He’s a provocative fellow.
.....Corbett pretty much read his lecture, with notes and asides. He is a gregarious, funny, engaging guy. He wore a conservative suit (sorry, couldn’t resist) and I kind of figured the lecture, titled “Historical Mythology and the Schools” was something like what he’s done in class for nearly twenty years, with only one complaint. You know, a survey of the political value of a variety of mythologies, Greek and Roman and Christian, to, well, Greek and Roman and Christian rulers. Like our own. “Anyone,” he read from his notes, “who challenges these myths does so at their peril, especially teachers.” Corbett is smart, and his thesis relied on familiar historical revisionists, including James Loewen…, Richard Hofstadter … but he really got cookin’ when he took apart the powerful American cultural myths of the founding fathers as believers in Jesus and then attacked the dispensational millenialists so many teachers have gotten tired of, ignored, rolled our eyes over but pretty much seem afraid to call the low-grade fascists (my phrase, not Corbett’s – he called them, helpfully, “reactionaries”) that they are: Falwell, Robertston, Rove, et al.
.....“Parents tell kids don’t talk religion and politics,” said Corbett, “but I think they’re the two things you should be talking about.” That got a big laugh, and applause from the AU crowd, mostly nice old people. And in response to a question from one of the wise seniors, he advised, “Truth is the measure of how to talk about the failings of religion.” Corbett is candid and open, and seems to think the case against him will fail. I hope so.
.....My favorite part of the appearance was his promise to take his own legal action, presumably to countersue the failed righties. “There are no risks for them,” he pointed out. He’s correct. Whatever his former student’s motives, the young man and his family risked nothing at all, not with a well-funded cherry-picking team of lawyers working gratis. Meanwhile, defending Corbett is costing the district and the CTA big bucks. See the strategy?....