Corruption Index 2012

Transparency International has released their Corruption Perceptions Index 2012, complete with an video that explains the purpose of the index and what corruption is.
 

For librarians, this index can help to answer the questions:

• How safe is my investment in this country? 
• How much of my philanthropy/donations get to the people who really need it? 
• If I travel to this country, how likely is it that a bribe will be necessary for business? 
• My foreign service exam/international studies course included a question about corruption: what countries are the most corrupt?

"How to get a degree with free or laundered credit", from Chronicle of Higher Education

This is an interesting example of a student cobbling together an associate's degree by taking low cost courses from a variety of providers and placing them into on coherent transcript through the ACE transcript service.

Now, throw the MOOC offerings into the mix (as ACE seems to be implying it will evaluate), while maintaining the no residency requirement, and you can see how a student could put together their own degree at a much lower cost, with less face to face classroom time, than currently available. I could also see other "colleges" using their advisors to map out just such a plan for their students--or entrepreneurial students like Linder creating their own path.