In case you're too busy reading your bible I've mostly re-posted this just for you.
The fossil record can't show a smooth transition because not everything fossilizes (MOST don't) and very small fossils like mice etc. are very hard to find/identify, which is why the hunt continues. Do you really expect man to excavate the whole of earth and find most fossils?
Extinction events, by their nature, can wipe out even the most fit species, leaving a distinctly new evolutionary path for PREVIOUSLY less fit organisms on a global scale.
One of the marvels of science is the ability to fix mistakes and move on, instead of never eating bacon.
God is an inconsistent character and therefore cannot be followed with logic. Let me paraphrase biblical legend:
God: Hey, Abraham! Go kill your son. Abraham: OK. God: No not really. Abraham: No really I'll do it! God: I'm not fuck kidding, don't do it! Abraham: Here I go. God: Now you're blind.
Jesus (God as a human on earth) never pulls any shit like that, he's basically a peaceful Jewish, buddhist for his time.
The fossil record can't show a smooth transition because not everything fossilizes and very small fossils like mice etc. are very hard to find/identify, which is why the hunt continues. It's not convenient by any means.
Extinction events, by their nature, can wipe out even the most fit species, leaving a distinctly new evolutionary path for PREVIOUSLY less fit organisms on a global scale.
One of the marvels of science is the ability to fix mistakes and move on, instead of never eating bacon.
The further collecting of evidence will only solidify evolution in those with open minds, not those who BELIEVE evolution is trickery, which craft or a test by their god. Remember when God had to blind Abraham, just to stop one of His vain, egotistical tests that nearly lead to the death of an innocent person? Even God couldn't reason with a scared, intellectually primitive follower; too bad so many remain and propagate their ignorance.
For the record, nowhere does the bible (yes, I've read it) implicitly deny the idea of evolution, God simply doesn't bother to explain the laws of nature (to include math) to a bunch of sheep herders; like make sure your pork is cooked well done to kill the harmful stuff. If you can't accept evolution, then tell me how rain is made using only the word of God to refute science.
I despise the idea of a hate crime. Why is beating, killing or talking negatively to someone because they're gay, ethnic minority etc. any different than a heterosexual, white male engaging in a similar act against another heterosexual, white mail in the Unite States? Intentional is intentional regardless of personal differences/reasons. The laws should and should have treated murders, beatings, harassment etc. equally. Bigots, behind the bench and in juries handing down lenient sentences, are the reasons the class of "hate crimes" exists, not the nature of the crimes themselves. All murders are equal, but some murders are more equal than others.
In that act is also this little bit, for those of us who can't detect humans in the back seat after we turn the car off.
SEC. 31504. UNATTENDED PASSENGER REMINDERS.
(a) Safety Research Initiative- Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall complete research into the development of performance requirements to warn drivers that a child or other unattended passenger remains in a rear seating position after the vehicle motor is disengaged.
(b) Specifications- In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary shall consider performance requirements that--
(1) sense weight, the presence of a buckled seat belt, or other indications of the presence of a child or other passenger; and
(2) provide an alert to prevent hyperthermia and hypothermia that can result in death or severe injuries.
(c) Rulemaking or Report-
(1) RULEMAKING- Not later than 1 year after the completion of each research and testing initiative required under subsection (a), the Secretary shall initiate a rulemaking proceeding to issue a Federal motor vehicle safety standard if the Secretary determines that such a standard meets the requirements and considerations set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of section 30111 of title 49, United States Code.
(2) REPORT- If the Secretary determines that the standard described in subsection (a) does not meet the requirements and considerations set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of section 30111 of title 49, United States Code, the Secretary shall submit a report describing the reasons for not prescribing such a standard to--
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives.
Nature is unpatentable, something everyone knows and understands until you get a law degree. Please, please, please let this ruling stick!
These same justices also need to decide that Monsanto's GMO crop products are WILLFULLY contaminating other people's property. If Monsanto can stop their GMOs' pollen from being carried by the wind, then they can lay claim to all plants with Monsanto genes, until then...
That's the problem there is no policy support. If you complain high enough, a call gets made to make you an exemption. No one want's to embarrass anyone or stand up to anyone AFTER incorrect/improper technology decisions have been made. So, the burden get's put on the IT department to find a way to make it work, like spending unbudgeted money from IT on command of higher ups.
No it's not a QOS issue. You can't convince some of our employees not to buy $399 laptops for school from Wal-mart. "Why does a wireless access point need to cost $400? Can't you just go to Best Buy and get a $50 one? The one I have at home works just fine." They just think we're trying to buy Porches when a Nissan will do all they want and more, but they are wrong."
The IT department was recently, briefly under "business and operations," but when the HR director who led the restructure left and a new asst. superintendent of curriculum and instruction came in, she got IT moved under C&I so she could have direct access to its budget. She was employed for less than 3 years and lost over ~$500,000 worth of grants because she fired her secretary, who kept "nagging" her to finalize some grant paper work for money already awarded.
That's partly the case. I'm convinced that some of the administrators we've gone through lately either needed a job or used us to gain experience and leave. Thus they have no regard for the longevity of the district, only their own immediate gains. Our current superintendent was the 3rd or 4th choice. The other applicants turned it down, one didn't even know he had applied.
As far as I can tell, everything's kosher; just bad decisions funding unplanned pet projects by higher ups to get funded by the IT department with an operational budget who spreads their money throughout the year so they don't operate 8 months of the year penniless.
No mater what breaks, gets lost, stolen or neglected 95% of the time, no one pays for it unless it's IT; because the asst. super says, "just do it, we'll worry about responsibility/accountability later." We can't bill internally for anything.
Each person up the chain can tell the person below them how to spend their budget, zero out their budged, "borrow" money or just take some regardless of planning so long as it's legal. When the assistant superintendent runs out of money they poke around in our budget because we didn't blow it all in October.
We have a chronic problem multi-year funding. The next administrator (high turn over) that comes along stops infrastructure upgrades so they can spend it on THEIR vision. The only funds that are successfully committed are those that are contractual. They halfway made us install prison refurb, 6 year old Dells to teacher's and students, only slightly better than what they replaced and now, 2 years later, need to be replaced...
Admin refused to commit to any significant and/or long term IT spending.
The assistant superintendent refuses to run or look at reports from the help desk. One of the techs fills out a paper form each week with a basic outline of what they did, because the boss's boss wants to keep a record of what she does.
Teachers bitch and moan because we started forcing their computers to sleep and require a password to resume from stand-by after 30 minutes. "Dr. XXXX I can't do my job because I have to type in a password because I left my computer alone too long." "My students are too dumb to type in stand-by passwords, it's effecting their learning time."
The boss is head of everything, jack of all trades minus programing; 1 "educational technology specialist" and 3 general tech support. ERATE is about 89%, but the school can't/won't fund the initial costs of new projects or upgrades and await ERATE reimbursement. Everyone else's pet projects get funded before more useful general IT projects and upgrades, unless it aligns with what someone else want's to do.
I'm not in charge, by any means. The boss is retired military, so his boss's word is God so he doesn't push issues. The assistant superintendent's exchange inbox reached it's limit of 5Gb, so she call over and told the boss to increase it. He said just save or delete old mail; now her inbox is 7Gb. Our attachment limit is 50Mb because they can't be bothered to use the shared folder; administrators and secretaries commonly have email with attachments bounce back.
We have less than 3500 students and falling, about 300 teachers and staff, Texas 3A. The administrative job titles are created so the pay can be bumped up. An assistant superintendent gets paid more than a director who gets paid more than a coordinator... It's hard to get administrators to work here so they find creative ways to pay them more.
We only have the budget for about ~50 new computers to REPLACE old ones, so we reuse the Win XP Pro licenses. NEW and ADDITIONAL computers we try to get with Win 7 Pro. Too many "important" people have to have a recognizable brand name; they already complain about our white boxes.
Too many educational software applications will only run on MS Windows, and many of our administrators and staff are brand conscience. One admin refuses to use anything but HP printers because "they print better." We are running a mixed Linux/Windows server environment. I tried to get the district to switch to OpenOffice, but the Texas Education agency always sends out documents in the latest MS Office format. I suppose because I didn't mention I brush my teeth, that I've never heard of a toothbrush.
No, funds are being misappropriated yet, just poorly spent.
e.g. Admin: Why are so many of our teacher computers 5-8 years old and so slow? IT: Because we only have enough money to replace ~50 computers a year (out of about 1000), and you said student workstations were a priority. Admin: OK, we'll get the grant writer on it. A grant for ~$60,000 comes in and is spent on a grant manager, aid, new software, consumables and a 10 station lab with custom software and furniture.
OR
Admin: Why doesn't the school district have wi-fi ANYWHERE? IT: Because when we budgeted for it, you cut our budget by 25%/$120,000 (Texas educational budget cuts) and wi-fi got the ax along with a new server, student email address security cameras..., because we HAVE to have a firewall, internet service, anti-virus, student management and reporting software (contractual payments), 3 technicians, EMERGENCY repair and service funds... Admin: OK, that's understandable. We're going to borrow $5000 dollars for ~12 touchscreen tablets for administrators and principals and make you pay for cellular internet service for all of them until we get wi-fi. Can't we just plug in Best Buy wireless switches in a bunch of class rooms?
OR
They start buying SMARTBoards, Infocus machines and Elmos (interactive whiteboards, projectors and document cameras). They mostly become $2500 overhead projectors, and they refused to budget for replacement bulbs.
They demand the quality IT resources of MUCH wealthier schools, on a small and declining budget. The powers that be, mostly, only give to the IT budget what the state says they must.
No, we're not running active directory, yet. We've been trying for 3+ years, but admin doesn't see the value in it, despite being told it is the only way to automate or implement specific requests. They buy educational software and then ask why they have to manually add students; the software only integrates with active directory.
The IT boss refuses to specifically pitch/sell necessary upgrades to his superiors because "we don't have the money."
A major problem is that the faceless structure of a company allows those who run it to make amoral decisions. Nearly all decisions are driven by profit and legality, not even the latter sometimes. Ethics and morals seem a bygone relic, impediments to "success."
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In case you're too busy reading your bible I've mostly re-posted this just for you.
The fossil record can't show a smooth transition because not everything fossilizes (MOST don't) and very small fossils like mice etc. are very hard to find/identify, which is why the hunt continues. Do you really expect man to excavate the whole of earth and find most fossils?
Extinction events, by their nature, can wipe out even the most fit species, leaving a distinctly new evolutionary path for PREVIOUSLY less fit organisms on a global scale.
One of the marvels of science is the ability to fix mistakes and move on, instead of never eating bacon.
To see evolution in action read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_moth#Evolution/ [wikipedia.org]
Any other "creative" ideas you'd like to vomit my way?
God is an inconsistent character and therefore cannot be followed with logic. Let me paraphrase biblical legend:
God: Hey, Abraham! Go kill your son.
Abraham: OK.
God: No not really.
Abraham: No really I'll do it!
God: I'm not fuck kidding, don't do it!
Abraham: Here I go.
God: Now you're blind.
Jesus (God as a human on earth) never pulls any shit like that, he's basically a peaceful Jewish, buddhist for his time.
The fossil record can't show a smooth transition because not everything fossilizes and very small fossils like mice etc. are very hard to find/identify, which is why the hunt continues. It's not convenient by any means.
Extinction events, by their nature, can wipe out even the most fit species, leaving a distinctly new evolutionary path for PREVIOUSLY less fit organisms on a global scale.
One of the marvels of science is the ability to fix mistakes and move on, instead of never eating bacon.
To see evolution in action read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_moth#Evolution/
Any other "creative" ideas you'd like to vomit my way?
The further collecting of evidence will only solidify evolution in those with open minds, not those who BELIEVE evolution is trickery, which craft or a test by their god. Remember when God had to blind Abraham, just to stop one of His vain, egotistical tests that nearly lead to the death of an innocent person? Even God couldn't reason with a scared, intellectually primitive follower; too bad so many remain and propagate their ignorance.
For the record, nowhere does the bible (yes, I've read it) implicitly deny the idea of evolution, God simply doesn't bother to explain the laws of nature (to include math) to a bunch of sheep herders; like make sure your pork is cooked well done to kill the harmful stuff. If you can't accept evolution, then tell me how rain is made using only the word of God to refute science.
I despise the idea of a hate crime. Why is beating, killing or talking negatively to someone because they're gay, ethnic minority etc. any different than a heterosexual, white male engaging in a similar act against another heterosexual, white mail in the Unite States? Intentional is intentional regardless of personal differences/reasons. The laws should and should have treated murders, beatings, harassment etc. equally. Bigots, behind the bench and in juries handing down lenient sentences, are the reasons the class of "hate crimes" exists, not the nature of the crimes themselves. All murders are equal, but some murders are more equal than others.
In that act is also this little bit, for those of us who can't detect humans in the back seat after we turn the car off.
SEC. 31504. UNATTENDED PASSENGER REMINDERS.
(a) Safety Research Initiative- Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall complete research into the development of performance requirements to warn drivers that a child or other unattended passenger remains in a rear seating position after the vehicle motor is disengaged.
(b) Specifications- In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary shall consider performance requirements that--
(1) sense weight, the presence of a buckled seat belt, or other indications of the presence of a child or other passenger; and
(2) provide an alert to prevent hyperthermia and hypothermia that can result in death or severe injuries.
(c) Rulemaking or Report-
(1) RULEMAKING- Not later than 1 year after the completion of each research and testing initiative required under subsection (a), the Secretary shall initiate a rulemaking proceeding to issue a Federal motor vehicle safety standard if the Secretary determines that such a standard meets the requirements and considerations set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of section 30111 of title 49, United States Code.
(2) REPORT- If the Secretary determines that the standard described in subsection (a) does not meet the requirements and considerations set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of section 30111 of title 49, United States Code, the Secretary shall submit a report describing the reasons for not prescribing such a standard to--
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives.
Nature is unpatentable, something everyone knows and understands until you get a law degree.
Please, please, please let this ruling stick!
These same justices also need to decide that Monsanto's GMO crop products are WILLFULLY contaminating other people's property. If Monsanto can stop their GMOs' pollen from being carried by the wind, then they can lay claim to all plants with Monsanto genes, until then...
That's the problem there is no policy support. If you complain high enough, a call gets made to make you an exemption. No one want's to embarrass anyone or stand up to anyone AFTER incorrect/improper technology decisions have been made. So, the burden get's put on the IT department to find a way to make it work, like spending unbudgeted money from IT on command of higher ups.
No it's not a QOS issue. You can't convince some of our employees not to buy $399 laptops for school from Wal-mart. "Why does a wireless access point need to cost $400? Can't you just go to Best Buy and get a $50 one? The one I have at home works just fine." They just think we're trying to buy Porches when a Nissan will do all they want and more, but they are wrong."
The IT department was recently, briefly under "business and operations," but when the HR director who led the restructure left and a new asst. superintendent of curriculum and instruction came in, she got IT moved under C&I so she could have direct access to its budget. She was employed for less than 3 years and lost over ~$500,000 worth of grants because she fired her secretary, who kept "nagging" her to finalize some grant paper work for money already awarded.
That's partly the case. I'm convinced that some of the administrators we've gone through lately either needed a job or used us to gain experience and leave. Thus they have no regard for the longevity of the district, only their own immediate gains. Our current superintendent was the 3rd or 4th choice. The other applicants turned it down, one didn't even know he had applied.
As far as I can tell, everything's kosher; just bad decisions funding unplanned pet projects by higher ups to get funded by the IT department with an operational budget who spreads their money throughout the year so they don't operate 8 months of the year penniless.
No mater what breaks, gets lost, stolen or neglected 95% of the time, no one pays for it unless it's IT; because the asst. super says, "just do it, we'll worry about responsibility/accountability later." We can't bill internally for anything.
They don't understand why we keep telling and explaining not to buy $399 laptops from Wal-mart. They just see it as twice as many computers.
We can't get district administrative support, because Wal-mart sells a brend name laptop for $399.
Each person up the chain can tell the person below them how to spend their budget, zero out their budged, "borrow" money or just take some regardless of planning so long as it's legal. When the assistant superintendent runs out of money they poke around in our budget because we didn't blow it all in October.
We have a chronic problem multi-year funding. The next administrator (high turn over) that comes along stops infrastructure upgrades so they can spend it on THEIR vision. The only funds that are successfully committed are those that are contractual. They halfway made us install prison refurb, 6 year old Dells to teacher's and students, only slightly better than what they replaced and now, 2 years later, need to be replaced...
Admin refused to commit to any significant and/or long term IT spending.
The assistant superintendent refuses to run or look at reports from the help desk. One of the techs fills out a paper form each week with a basic outline of what they did, because the boss's boss wants to keep a record of what she does.
Teachers bitch and moan because we started forcing their computers to sleep and require a password to resume from stand-by after 30 minutes. "Dr. XXXX I can't do my job because I have to type in a password because I left my computer alone too long." "My students are too dumb to type in stand-by passwords, it's effecting their learning time."
The boss is head of everything, jack of all trades minus programing; 1 "educational technology specialist" and 3 general tech support. ERATE is about 89%, but the school can't/won't fund the initial costs of new projects or upgrades and await ERATE reimbursement. Everyone else's pet projects get funded before more useful general IT projects and upgrades, unless it aligns with what someone else want's to do.
I'm not in charge, by any means. The boss is retired military, so his boss's word is God so he doesn't push issues. The assistant superintendent's exchange inbox reached it's limit of 5Gb, so she call over and told the boss to increase it. He said just save or delete old mail; now her inbox is 7Gb. Our attachment limit is 50Mb because they can't be bothered to use the shared folder; administrators and secretaries commonly have email with attachments bounce back.
We have less than 3500 students and falling, about 300 teachers and staff, Texas 3A. The administrative job titles are created so the pay can be bumped up. An assistant superintendent gets paid more than a director who gets paid more than a coordinator... It's hard to get administrators to work here so they find creative ways to pay them more.
They absolutely won't go for it; I tried. I even suggested we only use Linux for student computers; no dice.
We only have the budget for about ~50 new computers to REPLACE old ones, so we reuse the Win XP Pro licenses. NEW and ADDITIONAL computers we try to get with Win 7 Pro. Too many "important" people have to have a recognizable brand name; they already complain about our white boxes.
Too many educational software applications will only run on MS Windows, and many of our administrators and staff are brand conscience. One admin refuses to use anything but HP printers because "they print better." We are running a mixed Linux/Windows server environment. I tried to get the district to switch to OpenOffice, but the Texas Education agency always sends out documents in the latest MS Office format. I suppose because I didn't mention I brush my teeth, that I've never heard of a toothbrush.
Thanks for all the comments.
No, funds are being misappropriated yet, just poorly spent.
e.g.
Admin: Why are so many of our teacher computers 5-8 years old and so slow?
IT: Because we only have enough money to replace ~50 computers a year (out of about 1000), and you said student workstations were a priority.
Admin: OK, we'll get the grant writer on it.
A grant for ~$60,000 comes in and is spent on a grant manager, aid, new software, consumables and a 10 station lab with custom software and furniture.
OR
Admin: Why doesn't the school district have wi-fi ANYWHERE?
IT: Because when we budgeted for it, you cut our budget by 25%/$120,000 (Texas educational budget cuts) and wi-fi got the ax along with a new server, student email address security cameras..., because we HAVE to have a firewall, internet service, anti-virus, student management and reporting software (contractual payments), 3 technicians, EMERGENCY repair and service funds...
Admin: OK, that's understandable. We're going to borrow $5000 dollars for ~12 touchscreen tablets for administrators and principals and make you pay for cellular internet service for all of them until we get wi-fi. Can't we just plug in Best Buy wireless switches in a bunch of class rooms?
OR
They start buying SMARTBoards, Infocus machines and Elmos (interactive whiteboards, projectors and document cameras). They mostly become $2500 overhead projectors, and they refused to budget for replacement bulbs.
They demand the quality IT resources of MUCH wealthier schools, on a small and declining budget. The powers that be, mostly, only give to the IT budget what the state says they must.
No, we're not running active directory, yet. We've been trying for 3+ years, but admin doesn't see the value in it, despite being told it is the only way to automate or implement specific requests. They buy educational software and then ask why they have to manually add students; the software only integrates with active directory.
The IT boss refuses to specifically pitch/sell necessary upgrades to his superiors because "we don't have the money."
A major problem is that the faceless structure of a company allows those who run it to make amoral decisions. Nearly all decisions are driven by profit and legality, not even the latter sometimes. Ethics and morals seem a bygone relic, impediments to "success."