**top performers**. Top salaries should depend on top performance. Average salaries should be the result of average performance. People performing below the average should be asked to leave. We don't have time for our public education system to be a career of "last resort" for people that can't do anything and teach poorly.
Throw money at the situation and it will get better? Are you serious? We're spending already over double what we were spending on our students 20-30 years ago, and we haven't seen anything but continued failure and degeneration of our country's academic performance.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html#1
I am also a young parent with two kids (one in first grade, one that won't be in school for another few years. But when it comes to you and your kids, and if you are in a situation where your public schools are mediocre but you have the option/ability to put your students into a better Charter (or perhaps Private) school, that you're not going to jump at the opportunity? Are you honestly saying that you will keep your children in a sub-par public school because you don't want to "hollow them out further and make them worse?" I seriously doubt you would.
If you want to compete with these Charter Schools, then don't use these isolated instances of sensationalized journalism to try and make broad generalizations about all Charter Schools, but how about instead you focus on improving our public school system so that we're not driving families to these alternatives? I'm a product of a public school education (high school graduate in 2003), and I remember people would fail classes, students would be held back grades, teachers would grade our papers with red ink, not everyone was given a pat on the shoulder and told "good job for trying, here's a gold star."
Our current public school system is one based on passing arbitrary standardized tests, where teachers are hounded by administrators that haven't seen a classroom in 15+ years to make sure their kids pass. My sister in law teaches elementary school. She is forbidden from giving any student a grade less than 50% on an assignment. Don't turn it in? That's okay! Here's a 50%! Didn't answer the question correctly. That's okay, at least you tried. Math is hard! Here's a 50%! She can't even grade students papers in red ink because of the psychological "trauma" that it will cause. Come on people...give me a break!
The real psychological trauma will be when these kids are passed all of the way through high school with a 4th grade reading level, no ability for critical thinking, and a chip on their shoulder that they're smart and they'll never experience failure. What our public schools are doing is wussifying our kids and making them think that they don't have to work hard to succeed. They are going to be sadly mistaken when they go to college (because, you know, nowadays every kid DESERVES to go to college) or get their first job and they end up failing a class or getting fired because they aren't capable or willing to do the hard work.
Parents that don't care are a big problem, but by schools caving to these parents and passing them up through the grades without the necessary knowledge, just so they don't have to deal with irate parents, they are doing these kids a disservice. I'm completely for criminal punishment of parents that don't support their children's struggle to obtain a basic minimum education.
I work in Environmental Health and we get requests to perform an ergonomic evaluation all the time. Most of the time people call us thinking that we'll simply be able to get them a more expensive chair and that's the extent of what's required to work ergonomically. First, get out of the mind-set that you need to spend a lot of money to create an ergonomic work environment. Many people think that in order to have a workstation that is "ergonomic" then you need to have a piece of furniture that's been stamped ergonomic by the manufacturer. But that's simply not the case; you can create a completely ergonomic work setup with standard furniture without the need to pay a premium to buy an "ergonomic" workstation. You can do a lot to improve the ergonomics of your workstation by simply rearranging where you keep your equipment. If you have your monitor to your side so you constantly have to look over when you type, then move it in the middle. The top of the monitor should be at your eye level (it's more comfortable to look down slightly while you're typing than it is to look up or straight ahead for extended periods of time). If you're constantly leaning over to see your screen, bring it closer to you. Try and get away from wrist-rests; despite what you might think, having your wrists constantly sitting on those "ergonomic" wrist rests is actually terrible for your wrists and your typing technique. If you spend a lot of time on the phone, use a headset instead of picking up the phone and awkwardly holding it in place with your neck. Make sure your feet are flat on the floor...really all you need in a good chair is firm lumbar support and the ability to adjust its height so your legs aren't dangling or bent awkwardly (use a footrest if you're short and can't touch the ground with the chair all the way down). Buy a simple document holder to hold documents you are reviewing while you work, rather than have them laying flat or holding them in your hands. Take frequent breaks from your work (5 minutes every hour is usually recommended). This all will work wonders to improve your productivity and also reduce your risk of developing any type of repetitive motion injuries.
Given the technical specifications provided by the manufacturer, the NOHD for the 1W 532nm laser is 149 meters (~488 feet). Anyone that is closer than 488 feet from you, if they were to have intrabeam viewing of the beam or a specular reflection would exceed the MPE for this laser and would experience a very severe retinal burn. There's absolutely no reason for anyone other than a researcher to own a laser like this.
If you were foolish enough to purchase this laser, make sure whatever goggles you purchase have an OD of at least 4.
There have been NO radiation-related deaths due to what has happened at Fukushima, despite all the BS you see on TV. Two people died in the tsunami (due to water).
You apparently want job training...not a college degree. A bachelor's degree is not training for a job. It's to teach you how to think and solve problems for yourself. How to absorb knowledge, interpret information and apply it to a variety of situations. Part of that involves studying the subjects you seem to want to avoid. Find a trade school. A college degree is apparently not for you if all you want is job training.
You are paid a certain amount of money per month/year. There is a minimum amount of time/week you are expected/required to be at work. If your position is "exempt," then they are not required to pay you overtime for any hours of work over 40. So basically, you're paid for the job you do, not for the amount of time it takes you to do the job. A salaried exempt employee would make the same amount of money if they worked 40 hours or if they worked 60 hours a week.
Um, a cold is caused by a virus so there's nothing going to the ER or any physician or clinic could do to treat you. You suck it up and wait for it to run its course. And a scraped knee you should be able to use common sense and say to yourself: "clean and disinfect the wound and then cover with some type of bandage." That wasn't too hard was it?
I'm a conservative, voted against BHO, and I wouldn't vote for Palin for President. First, I don't like quitters, and the way she quit her governorship, that's not a characteristic I want from my president. Second, I don't think we really need a president to talk to America or other world leaders with stories about the way things are done in Alaska. She was a bad choice for VP and she's a bad choice for the top spot.
Where have I been? We're out of a recession? Unemployment numbers have returned to normal? We've reduced our deficit and no longer owe our grandchildren to China? Wow...that's news to me. I'm gonna get my Barack Obama voting fingers ready in 2012 if that's all true...
If students want to waste their money and their education updating their facebook status, let them. For those of you that think what's going on in rows ahead of you is distracting: START SITTING IN THE FRONT ROW. Problem solved.
Let the students devalue their own education. When they enter the real world and realize they wasted their time in college, they'll realize their mistake. If what goes on in rows ahead of you distracts you, then move to the front row. Problem solved.
If they have the money to afford a laptop to go sit in a government building and get online, then they have the money to pay for internet at their home. There are plenty of ways to get online (public libraries for example) if you lack a home internet connection or a computer at home. No need to get all federal government facilities wired with free public wifi.
And who's to say that even if we change the antropogenic behavior that it will result in a reversal of the climate change? If there is a damage being done, who's to say that we know for sure that these policies will fix the problem? If there's no guarantee that reversal is even possible, why spend all the money and change our lifestyle to try and prevent it? The money would be better spent preparing ourselves for the impending doom and gloom rather than trying to prevent it.
The last time I checked, when the geocentric model of the universe came under attack, it was the SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY that supported the geocentric model and was lockstep behind that theory of how our universe was organized. It wasn't until people went AGAINST the common scientific consensus that the theory changed, and even then, those that went against the scientific consensus faced massive amounts of animosity and hardship for their viewpoints. My point being: science is not and should not ever be done by consensus. As soon as you get scientists getting together saying "this is what's happening, don't question it", you've thrown out the scientific method and the idea of scientific skepticism. I don't care how many scientists say that "global warming is occuring." Great, let them take that standpoint. But it's ludicrous that the idea that the scientific "consensus" being challenged should be anything other than embraced by the scientific community. Let the skeptics make their claims. There's no need to argue with them or try and silence them if there's no evidence to support their theories. But I see the opposite happening. I see climatologists being basically excommunicated from the scientific community for failing to fall lockstep behind the dogma of human-caused global warming. I see meteorologists that have been fired because they have not fully support the idea of global climate change. I see peer-reviewed journals failing to publish contradicting articles because the "peers" believe what they wrote contradicts the ideas in which they have invested so much of their careers. I see vehement personal attacks against anyone that dare question the ideology (near religion) of global climate change. The question never gets asked: hmm...what incentive would these scientists have in order to so strongly support their viewpoint and try and silence their critics?
It's also interesting to note that all of the previous temperature increases in the earth's history have also been marked by drastic increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. I doubt there were any big oil company throwing tons of CO2 into the atmosphere 100,000 years ago, so it begs the question: is the atmospheric CO2 increases that we're seeing now causing the warming, or are they a result of the warming? We read that CO2 increases are causing the warming, but who's to say that the warming couldn't be causing the release of sequestered CO2 into the atmosphere? The correlation between increased CO2 and temperature increases does NOT denote CAUSALITY.
Yeah, because internet access is a RIGHT and the government should be spending our taxpayers money to make sure everyone should be able to get online.
The government has no place doing this.
Slashdot Mirror
Do they want to try and use the new particle collider to blow up /. BETA?
**top performers**. Top salaries should depend on top performance. Average salaries should be the result of average performance. People performing below the average should be asked to leave. We don't have time for our public education system to be a career of "last resort" for people that can't do anything and teach poorly.
Throw money at the situation and it will get better? Are you serious? We're spending already over double what we were spending on our students 20-30 years ago, and we haven't seen anything but continued failure and degeneration of our country's academic performance. http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html#1 I am also a young parent with two kids (one in first grade, one that won't be in school for another few years. But when it comes to you and your kids, and if you are in a situation where your public schools are mediocre but you have the option/ability to put your students into a better Charter (or perhaps Private) school, that you're not going to jump at the opportunity? Are you honestly saying that you will keep your children in a sub-par public school because you don't want to "hollow them out further and make them worse?" I seriously doubt you would.
With no actual plan on how to actually change anything!
If you want to compete with these Charter Schools, then don't use these isolated instances of sensationalized journalism to try and make broad generalizations about all Charter Schools, but how about instead you focus on improving our public school system so that we're not driving families to these alternatives? I'm a product of a public school education (high school graduate in 2003), and I remember people would fail classes, students would be held back grades, teachers would grade our papers with red ink, not everyone was given a pat on the shoulder and told "good job for trying, here's a gold star." Our current public school system is one based on passing arbitrary standardized tests, where teachers are hounded by administrators that haven't seen a classroom in 15+ years to make sure their kids pass. My sister in law teaches elementary school. She is forbidden from giving any student a grade less than 50% on an assignment. Don't turn it in? That's okay! Here's a 50%! Didn't answer the question correctly. That's okay, at least you tried. Math is hard! Here's a 50%! She can't even grade students papers in red ink because of the psychological "trauma" that it will cause. Come on people...give me a break! The real psychological trauma will be when these kids are passed all of the way through high school with a 4th grade reading level, no ability for critical thinking, and a chip on their shoulder that they're smart and they'll never experience failure. What our public schools are doing is wussifying our kids and making them think that they don't have to work hard to succeed. They are going to be sadly mistaken when they go to college (because, you know, nowadays every kid DESERVES to go to college) or get their first job and they end up failing a class or getting fired because they aren't capable or willing to do the hard work. Parents that don't care are a big problem, but by schools caving to these parents and passing them up through the grades without the necessary knowledge, just so they don't have to deal with irate parents, they are doing these kids a disservice. I'm completely for criminal punishment of parents that don't support their children's struggle to obtain a basic minimum education.
I work in Environmental Health and we get requests to perform an ergonomic evaluation all the time. Most of the time people call us thinking that we'll simply be able to get them a more expensive chair and that's the extent of what's required to work ergonomically. First, get out of the mind-set that you need to spend a lot of money to create an ergonomic work environment. Many people think that in order to have a workstation that is "ergonomic" then you need to have a piece of furniture that's been stamped ergonomic by the manufacturer. But that's simply not the case; you can create a completely ergonomic work setup with standard furniture without the need to pay a premium to buy an "ergonomic" workstation. You can do a lot to improve the ergonomics of your workstation by simply rearranging where you keep your equipment. If you have your monitor to your side so you constantly have to look over when you type, then move it in the middle. The top of the monitor should be at your eye level (it's more comfortable to look down slightly while you're typing than it is to look up or straight ahead for extended periods of time). If you're constantly leaning over to see your screen, bring it closer to you. Try and get away from wrist-rests; despite what you might think, having your wrists constantly sitting on those "ergonomic" wrist rests is actually terrible for your wrists and your typing technique. If you spend a lot of time on the phone, use a headset instead of picking up the phone and awkwardly holding it in place with your neck. Make sure your feet are flat on the floor...really all you need in a good chair is firm lumbar support and the ability to adjust its height so your legs aren't dangling or bent awkwardly (use a footrest if you're short and can't touch the ground with the chair all the way down). Buy a simple document holder to hold documents you are reviewing while you work, rather than have them laying flat or holding them in your hands. Take frequent breaks from your work (5 minutes every hour is usually recommended). This all will work wonders to improve your productivity and also reduce your risk of developing any type of repetitive motion injuries.
Given the technical specifications provided by the manufacturer, the NOHD for the 1W 532nm laser is 149 meters (~488 feet). Anyone that is closer than 488 feet from you, if they were to have intrabeam viewing of the beam or a specular reflection would exceed the MPE for this laser and would experience a very severe retinal burn. There's absolutely no reason for anyone other than a researcher to own a laser like this. If you were foolish enough to purchase this laser, make sure whatever goggles you purchase have an OD of at least 4.
There have been NO radiation-related deaths due to what has happened at Fukushima, despite all the BS you see on TV. Two people died in the tsunami (due to water).
You apparently want job training...not a college degree. A bachelor's degree is not training for a job. It's to teach you how to think and solve problems for yourself. How to absorb knowledge, interpret information and apply it to a variety of situations. Part of that involves studying the subjects you seem to want to avoid. Find a trade school. A college degree is apparently not for you if all you want is job training.
OSHA has no jurisdiction over state or federal government entities. :-D
You are paid a certain amount of money per month/year. There is a minimum amount of time/week you are expected/required to be at work. If your position is "exempt," then they are not required to pay you overtime for any hours of work over 40. So basically, you're paid for the job you do, not for the amount of time it takes you to do the job. A salaried exempt employee would make the same amount of money if they worked 40 hours or if they worked 60 hours a week.
Um, a cold is caused by a virus so there's nothing going to the ER or any physician or clinic could do to treat you. You suck it up and wait for it to run its course. And a scraped knee you should be able to use common sense and say to yourself: "clean and disinfect the wound and then cover with some type of bandage." That wasn't too hard was it?
The only thing that democrats do is complain and point blame, so sounds like a job right up their alley...
I'm a conservative, voted against BHO, and I wouldn't vote for Palin for President. First, I don't like quitters, and the way she quit her governorship, that's not a characteristic I want from my president. Second, I don't think we really need a president to talk to America or other world leaders with stories about the way things are done in Alaska. She was a bad choice for VP and she's a bad choice for the top spot.
One of Carter's biggest problems was that he was an idiot president and has left nothing of a legacy.
They're democrats. All they do is sink to lower levels.
Where have I been? We're out of a recession? Unemployment numbers have returned to normal? We've reduced our deficit and no longer owe our grandchildren to China? Wow...that's news to me. I'm gonna get my Barack Obama voting fingers ready in 2012 if that's all true...
If students want to waste their money and their education updating their facebook status, let them. For those of you that think what's going on in rows ahead of you is distracting: START SITTING IN THE FRONT ROW. Problem solved.
Let the students devalue their own education. When they enter the real world and realize they wasted their time in college, they'll realize their mistake. If what goes on in rows ahead of you distracts you, then move to the front row. Problem solved.
If they have the money to afford a laptop to go sit in a government building and get online, then they have the money to pay for internet at their home. There are plenty of ways to get online (public libraries for example) if you lack a home internet connection or a computer at home. No need to get all federal government facilities wired with free public wifi.
And who's to say that even if we change the antropogenic behavior that it will result in a reversal of the climate change? If there is a damage being done, who's to say that we know for sure that these policies will fix the problem? If there's no guarantee that reversal is even possible, why spend all the money and change our lifestyle to try and prevent it? The money would be better spent preparing ourselves for the impending doom and gloom rather than trying to prevent it.
The last time I checked, when the geocentric model of the universe came under attack, it was the SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY that supported the geocentric model and was lockstep behind that theory of how our universe was organized. It wasn't until people went AGAINST the common scientific consensus that the theory changed, and even then, those that went against the scientific consensus faced massive amounts of animosity and hardship for their viewpoints. My point being: science is not and should not ever be done by consensus. As soon as you get scientists getting together saying "this is what's happening, don't question it", you've thrown out the scientific method and the idea of scientific skepticism. I don't care how many scientists say that "global warming is occuring." Great, let them take that standpoint. But it's ludicrous that the idea that the scientific "consensus" being challenged should be anything other than embraced by the scientific community. Let the skeptics make their claims. There's no need to argue with them or try and silence them if there's no evidence to support their theories. But I see the opposite happening. I see climatologists being basically excommunicated from the scientific community for failing to fall lockstep behind the dogma of human-caused global warming. I see meteorologists that have been fired because they have not fully support the idea of global climate change. I see peer-reviewed journals failing to publish contradicting articles because the "peers" believe what they wrote contradicts the ideas in which they have invested so much of their careers. I see vehement personal attacks against anyone that dare question the ideology (near religion) of global climate change. The question never gets asked: hmm...what incentive would these scientists have in order to so strongly support their viewpoint and try and silence their critics?
It's also interesting to note that all of the previous temperature increases in the earth's history have also been marked by drastic increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. I doubt there were any big oil company throwing tons of CO2 into the atmosphere 100,000 years ago, so it begs the question: is the atmospheric CO2 increases that we're seeing now causing the warming, or are they a result of the warming? We read that CO2 increases are causing the warming, but who's to say that the warming couldn't be causing the release of sequestered CO2 into the atmosphere? The correlation between increased CO2 and temperature increases does NOT denote CAUSALITY.
Yeah, because internet access is a RIGHT and the government should be spending our taxpayers money to make sure everyone should be able to get online. The government has no place doing this.
It was probably an old irradiator used to treat cancer.