Cougars very rarely attack humans. They're also more likely to kill a human that's jogging than one that's walking. Grandparents also like to tell stupid, hyperbolic tales that are often completely fictitious. My guess: One kid, at one time, got killed by a cougar on the way to school and the story turned into, "Kids got killed by panthers all the time! Feel pity for your poor grandma, I had it so much harder than you!"
"I think it's every woman's responsibility to have as many kids as they possibly can." - Some chick said that to me the other day. For real. I asked her how the planet would support all those people in a couple generations and she said she had never thought about it that way before. Unfortunately, she already has several children.
The only tool for the survival of the human race is a ticket off this rock.
I'm pretty sure we'll have plenty of time to worry about that after all the other things you mentioned are taken care of. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I think he was being extremely sarcastic. Three Swedish fish, toilet paper, the cheesy pump your brakes thing at the end. . .
Of course, he's modded to +5 100% Informative, so I guess the joke's on the mods. Also, if he was telling the truth, his great grandma was fucking spoiled. My grandfather never had maple syrup to soak his moldy bread in (and that's the truth - raiding the baker's trash can was how he would often find a meal).
what you bought actually only has a 2 year shelf life, I don't care what their marketing department tells you.
The supplier's website says that with mild, dry storage conditions, the food is good for up to 25 years. My guess is their estimate is closer to the truth than yours.
Your guess seems to assume it's good to begin with.
I'm sure it lasts. It's probably stuffed full of so many preservatives it'll even kill cockroaches. My question is, in the case of armageddon, where does someone find a clean water source for all that dehydrated food while hiding in his basement? He better start digging a well - and I mean an old school one, a person can't depend on electricity with armageddon going on.
Maybe if cashes in on a large portion of that net worth (sells some cars, takes out a mortgage) he could cover his roof in solar panels and buy enough weapons and ammo to fend off the zombie apocalypse. It would probably be prudent for him to line his property with landmines every six months or so (gotta replace the ones set off by deer and coons and whatnot).
Of course! Most people have gotten so used to square meals that if we start tossing them cubed meals there is a risk they will be unable to process it.
Take out the corporate environment and I'd be willing to be that over 10% of PCs are Macs. Percentages don't really matter in this case, anyway. A very tiny, insignificant amount of homes had Macs in 2000. Today, it's a common for a home to have a Mac. That's what I consider huge growth, and Apple's sales data will back that up. Marketshare is a non-factor.
It appears I was wrong about the Civics (I think - I'm pretty sure they halted either the 2-door or hatchback model for a year or two in the States but after two minutes of searching I couldn't find anything to back it up so I'll just concede that point). Anyway, there was a significant design shift between sixth and seventh generation Civics thus resulting in a decline in the modder market for them (not that it hurt sales - modders usually bought them used). Anyway, I wasn't claiming that the whole market for aftermarket parts collapsed, it just seriously declined and Civics lost their status as the mod car du jour (not to mention Honda brought out those Si models, which didn't really need any souping-up and modding in general declined in popularity).
You're the second post to correct me on the Dreamcast thing - I don't understand where either of you got the idea that I was talking about HL2 when I said 'Half-Life' and mentioned a PS2 port. . .
I think my arguments make sense. They may be wrong, but they're not incomprehensible. Here's a less ranty version: Newell, being a former Microsoft employee and part of their circle of cronies, was too loyal to the company he was no longer a part of. He made the mistake of assuming that as long as he rubbed their backs the favor would be returned. Now he's backpedaling on this strategy because Valve and Microsoft's interests are no longer aligned. It was a strategic blunder on his part because it left him with the short end of the stick. Steam is liable to be destroyed by Win 8 and this whole VR thing they're working on probably won't save the company because they unveiled the secret too soon. If Valve has any kind of future, it's probably resembles their past more than their present: as a developer of original games, not a distributor or hardware designer/manufacturer.
Irrelevant, the Dreamcast was Sega's console not MS,
Better check the software that thing ran. . . it was XBox 0.5
Regarding Mac OS X . . . Valve started supporting it long after it was obviously profitable. Mid-tier games sold poorly on Mac OS X (until the app store) but top-tier games, as Blizzard demonstrated, raked in a nice profit. I understand this situation with HL 1, but with HL 2 he took preference to MS's platforms and neglected all others (he publicly trashed the PS3 port, blaming dev woes on the system).
Linux geeks are the ideal market for Valve. In fact, that pretty much is their market. Linux geeks tend to run multiple OSes (and would buy HL twice to have it on Linux). The reason Valve games are much more successful on the PC than they are on consoles is b/c that's the type of niche they appeal to.
But Valve doesn't have any investors. You've no idea what you're talking about.
My point was that he might need the help of investors to get the project off the ground. I don't think this is the case, but it's the only logical reason I can see for announcing it so soon. It's far too early to get the hype train rolling.
True, I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't think anything about my post tried to disguise the fact that it was a bunch of speculative BS.
They're still hiring designers and engineers to get this thing off the ground and it's already revealed? Newell criticized MS for copying Apple ("[T]rying to copy Apple will accelerate, not slow, Microsoft's decline.") yet he really should have copied Apple in this instance rather than go the old MS route. The MS route is to show off a product in the early prototype stages. The Apple method is to show off a functional product. Maybe Newell is trying to attract the attention of potential investors. If not, he just made a huge blunder. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft probably already all have working VR prototypes and associated patents. Now they just have to combine that hardware with the 'augmented reality' concept (and two of those companies can take a short-cut by partnering with Google).
Really, Newell dug his own hole. He stayed closely allied with Microsoft from the creation to Valve until the unveiling of Windows 8. He's mad that their new OS might wipe out his business, yet he helped contribute to Microsoft's stranglehold on the PC gaming market. Perhaps if he didn't want to be dependent on another company that has a history of stabbing partners in the back, then he would have ported Half-Life to something other than PS2 (and only after the Dreamcast - Microsoft's console - became an apparent failure). Newell's last minute support of OS X and Linux reeks of desperation. Like the PS2 port, it's an 'oh shit!' moment. Well, he's the one that threw his company's weight behind Windows and XBox. OS X has undergone huge growth since its inception, Linux geeks are the ideal market for Valve products, yet he ignored those markets in favor of laying golden eggs for Microsoft. Maybe he thought being a part of their good 'ole boys network would always pay off.
The only reason I feel somewhat sorry for him is because his company is committed to making quality games. I don't play video games anymore, but I like people who are committed to creating things of high quality. But Newell's quality products were dependent on non-quality products. It's like whatever company that makes the best aftermarket parts for Hondas. Whoever that was, I bet they tanked in the early 2000s when Honda went away from those tiny two-door Civics that were so popular among modders.
Is there a strong republican candidate? I know there's a lot of nut jobs that the vocal minority loves, but none of them have a better chance than Nader ever has.
I think the pool of nominees this year was particularly weak because stronger candidates felt like going up against Obama was a waste of time. The guys who ran this year were all looking to bolster their public image, book sales, or egos. Only the really foolish ones thought they had a chance (Romney, Huntsman - gotta be morons to think a Mormon could get elected to the presidency . . . scratch that. Gotta be a moron to be a Mormon).
I don't think a bad plan is necessarily better than no plan. Furthermore, I think it's better that Obama has plans rather than a simplistic list of bullet points that can be reduced to the size of a/. comment. Also, the more specific things a candidate insists they will do the less I believe them: the president rarely has the power to do the things most candidates claim they will do and their agenda should be fluid and open to compromise. So a presidential candidate with an impractical five point plan strikes me as a fool, a liar, or both.
Just for the sake of argument, since you accuse Obama of being vague:
1) What does promoting domestic energy entail? Giving large subsidies to oil companies so they can 'research' domestic energy opportunities? That's what it sounds like to me. Nice and vague.
2) Standing up to China . . . oh dear, he must be a fool. How does he intend on doing this? Very vague.
3a) What job training programs? Are they actually even worth a damn? Even if, is this something the government should be subsidizing?
3b) Stand up to teacher unions? Because those damn teachers are leaching all our tax money by making as much as factory workers. I guess they stand in the way of 'student choice' by politically opposing government subsidizing private and charter schools. Why, for a conservative, does Romney want to subsidize so many things? Also, how exactly does one blame teachers for the country's educational woes when statistics clearly show that the biggest deterrent one can have from receiving a quality education is simply being poor? In the same classroom, with the same teacher, the wealthier children will consistently outperform the poor children. But let's not look at 'vague numbers' - let's make vague accusations that imply that teachers in general are incompetent and greedy (make sure you ignore that unlike the majority of Americans, they're college educated and most could make more doing something else).
4) The deficit is hardly the scary monster everyone pretends it is. It's like college loans. You can't make them go away, they're a big scary negative number, but even if your wages get garnished they'll never really drive you to being destitute. So, even though on paper you really have less money (a large negative number) than the bum you pass everyday walking into the office (probably a smaller negative number - or maybe a positive one consisting of the sum of his change cup), you never envy the bum and you never consider him better off than you. In this case, Greece is the bum. Our debt is an inconvenience, their debt ruined them. That's because the number on paper is pretty irrelevant - it doesn't account for one's resources, it's not the be all, end all of one's worth. But it's easy to be vague and scary and behave like the graduate who's freaking out b/c they're a hundred grand in debt.
5) This is a vague way of saying: dog-eat-dog. Washington's regulatory climate does little to stifle small businesses. It's local regulation that stifles small businesses. Hell, the economy in general stifles small business. National regulation prevents banks from doing things like fraud. It prevents dirty industries from polluting the way Chinese factories do. Want more small businesses? Provide universal healthcare so people can afford to take the risk of starting a small business: As it stands, once a person gets a decent job with good benefits, he becomes scared to quit for the sake of a risk. Healthcare's like taxes: The middle class pays for most of it and it takes a huge chunk of their income. The rich pay more than anyone else, but a smaller percentage of their income than the middle class (basically, it's an inconvenience, the house isn't being put up for mortgage). The poor pay nothing. So, economically, it makes more sense to be a bartender that doesn't report most of his tips and receives welfare than to be a teacher. Make too much money, and all of a sudden you have to pay for health insurance (and co-pays) and now you technically
Actually, true socialism is the economy of every first world nation on earth. Laissez-faire is a myth and just as impractical as communism. If you want a true free market go to Somalia or some other third world shit hole. You damn well won't find any Howard Roarks or Henry Reardens.
No one with the kind of wealth Gates has amassed is required to give 1 single penny back but a lot of them do it anyway.
Actually, everyone with the amount of wealth Gates has amassed is required to give massive amounts back in the form of taxes. Unless they hide their money in a 'charitable' organization that allows it to be used for investments that personally enrich the owner rather than enrich the country through tax revenue.
Possibly. Except for the fact that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) do not worship Joseph Smith.
Jews don't worship Moses. And Muslims don't worship Muhammad. It's still disingenuous for Mormons to claim to be Christians. That's like considering Lord of the Rings fan-fiction to be part of the official canon.
It doesn't try to replace teachers, it's an attempt to change the role of teachers. Instead of being a lecturer - basically thrown in the spotlight in front of a large group of kids and trying to teach them all at once - a teacher can now work with individuals. The data Khan Academy provides them is phenomenal. They know who is working on what and how well they're doing. This allows the teachers to focus on the kids who need help while letting those who are ahead of the curve continue working at a faster pace.
I have all the love in the world for teachers and I agree they are generally disrespected and underpaid. But one of the main ways they're disrespected is by being forced to teach using an archaic system that just doesn't work no matter how good of a teacher they are. This whole idea that "tenth grade students should test at this level and eleventh grade students should test at this level" is flat out incorrect. Khan Academy may be only an assistive technology, but it's the first assistive technology that can fundamentally change teaching for the better to come about since the chalk board.
If you didn't actually quote the OP, I would have thought you replied to the wrong post by accident. What do corporations have to do with Khan Academy, which is a non-profit funded by donations?
I mean, I fully agree that the 'privatization' of certain government services is a bad thing, I just don't see how it's relevant. If anything, Khan Academy can save our education system from the abysmal failure it's been for years. Best of all, it's a solution that doesn't depend on charter schools, which is the whole privatization attack on education. Khan Academy allows public schools to save massive amounts of money by unchaining them from the parasitic relationship textbook publishers have with them and gives them a useful purpose for all those computers laying around (really, until Khan Academy, I thought all those computers in K-12 schools were a huge waste of money).
I don't see how this is an issue of liberty. Who cares who has 'legal' ownership over his iTunes library? It's digital. He can just make a copy for each of his heirs, stick it on an HDD or iPod or something, and give it to them today. He doesn't have to wait to die to share it with them. The whole copying music issue is something the recording industry and all their big bad lawyers definitively lost.
But seriously -- you're paying twice as much just to get MacOS.
This is something I have to explain over and over: OS X is nice, but I pay twice as much for the trackpad. I can't use a non-Mac laptop without plugging in a mouse.
Unfortunately "Linux for Morons" is the only thing likely to grow market share as most humans are morons.
I dont blame them really - for most people, it's just another appliance.
But morons ask non-morons for OS advice. Morons pay attention to what non-morons use, and then use that.
The trick is a balance. Make it usable for morons but hidden beneath the surface is everything a geek wants. This is how OS X became so successful. No one trusted Mac OS in the 90s not b/c only a small niche used it, but b/c the wrong niches used it. No one turned to their graphic designer or teacher friends for computer advice. Then OS X comes out and geeks flock to it - most as their third OS and they just wanted it b/c of the concept, but it was really good so it didn't take long to become their primary OS. And then they recommended it to morons who asked for advice.
If there was a Linux desktop environment that I could comfortably recommend to the computer illiterate then I would. Just because Gnome and Unity tried to dumb things down doesn't mean they're useful to anyone. That's the difference between Gnome and OS X's approach - OS X isn't designed to cater to morons, it's designed to cater to everyone.
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Like this thing and a keyboard?
Cougars very rarely attack humans. They're also more likely to kill a human that's jogging than one that's walking. Grandparents also like to tell stupid, hyperbolic tales that are often completely fictitious. My guess: One kid, at one time, got killed by a cougar on the way to school and the story turned into, "Kids got killed by panthers all the time! Feel pity for your poor grandma, I had it so much harder than you!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America
"I think it's every woman's responsibility to have as many kids as they possibly can." - Some chick said that to me the other day. For real. I asked her how the planet would support all those people in a couple generations and she said she had never thought about it that way before. Unfortunately, she already has several children.
The only tool for the survival of the human race is a ticket off this rock.
I'm pretty sure we'll have plenty of time to worry about that after all the other things you mentioned are taken care of. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I think he was being extremely sarcastic. Three Swedish fish, toilet paper, the cheesy pump your brakes thing at the end. . .
Of course, he's modded to +5 100% Informative, so I guess the joke's on the mods. Also, if he was telling the truth, his great grandma was fucking spoiled. My grandfather never had maple syrup to soak his moldy bread in (and that's the truth - raiding the baker's trash can was how he would often find a meal).
Thanks for explaining the joke -_-
Sarcasm should be noted with Comic Sans font. That's my new rule for the internet.
Of course, that would be a strange sig for a libertarian. . .
what you bought actually only has a 2 year shelf life, I don't care what their marketing department tells you.
The supplier's website says that with mild, dry storage conditions, the food is good for up to 25 years. My guess is their estimate is closer to the truth than yours.
Your guess seems to assume it's good to begin with.
I'm sure it lasts. It's probably stuffed full of so many preservatives it'll even kill cockroaches. My question is, in the case of armageddon, where does someone find a clean water source for all that dehydrated food while hiding in his basement? He better start digging a well - and I mean an old school one, a person can't depend on electricity with armageddon going on.
Maybe if cashes in on a large portion of that net worth (sells some cars, takes out a mortgage) he could cover his roof in solar panels and buy enough weapons and ammo to fend off the zombie apocalypse. It would probably be prudent for him to line his property with landmines every six months or so (gotta replace the ones set off by deer and coons and whatnot).
Of course! Most people have gotten so used to square meals that if we start tossing them cubed meals there is a risk they will be unable to process it.
What about Jell-O?
Take out the corporate environment and I'd be willing to be that over 10% of PCs are Macs. Percentages don't really matter in this case, anyway. A very tiny, insignificant amount of homes had Macs in 2000. Today, it's a common for a home to have a Mac. That's what I consider huge growth, and Apple's sales data will back that up. Marketshare is a non-factor.
It appears I was wrong about the Civics (I think - I'm pretty sure they halted either the 2-door or hatchback model for a year or two in the States but after two minutes of searching I couldn't find anything to back it up so I'll just concede that point). Anyway, there was a significant design shift between sixth and seventh generation Civics thus resulting in a decline in the modder market for them (not that it hurt sales - modders usually bought them used). Anyway, I wasn't claiming that the whole market for aftermarket parts collapsed, it just seriously declined and Civics lost their status as the mod car du jour (not to mention Honda brought out those Si models, which didn't really need any souping-up and modding in general declined in popularity).
You're the second post to correct me on the Dreamcast thing - I don't understand where either of you got the idea that I was talking about HL2 when I said 'Half-Life' and mentioned a PS2 port. . .
I think my arguments make sense. They may be wrong, but they're not incomprehensible. Here's a less ranty version: Newell, being a former Microsoft employee and part of their circle of cronies, was too loyal to the company he was no longer a part of. He made the mistake of assuming that as long as he rubbed their backs the favor would be returned. Now he's backpedaling on this strategy because Valve and Microsoft's interests are no longer aligned. It was a strategic blunder on his part because it left him with the short end of the stick. Steam is liable to be destroyed by Win 8 and this whole VR thing they're working on probably won't save the company because they unveiled the secret too soon. If Valve has any kind of future, it's probably resembles their past more than their present: as a developer of original games, not a distributor or hardware designer/manufacturer.
Irrelevant, the Dreamcast was Sega's console not MS,
Better check the software that thing ran. . . it was XBox 0.5
Regarding Mac OS X . . . Valve started supporting it long after it was obviously profitable. Mid-tier games sold poorly on Mac OS X (until the app store) but top-tier games, as Blizzard demonstrated, raked in a nice profit. I understand this situation with HL 1, but with HL 2 he took preference to MS's platforms and neglected all others (he publicly trashed the PS3 port, blaming dev woes on the system).
Linux geeks are the ideal market for Valve. In fact, that pretty much is their market. Linux geeks tend to run multiple OSes (and would buy HL twice to have it on Linux). The reason Valve games are much more successful on the PC than they are on consoles is b/c that's the type of niche they appeal to.
But Valve doesn't have any investors. You've no idea what you're talking about.
My point was that he might need the help of investors to get the project off the ground. I don't think this is the case, but it's the only logical reason I can see for announcing it so soon. It's far too early to get the hype train rolling.
True, I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't think anything about my post tried to disguise the fact that it was a bunch of speculative BS.
They're still hiring designers and engineers to get this thing off the ground and it's already revealed? Newell criticized MS for copying Apple ("[T]rying to copy Apple will accelerate, not slow, Microsoft's decline.") yet he really should have copied Apple in this instance rather than go the old MS route. The MS route is to show off a product in the early prototype stages. The Apple method is to show off a functional product. Maybe Newell is trying to attract the attention of potential investors. If not, he just made a huge blunder. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft probably already all have working VR prototypes and associated patents. Now they just have to combine that hardware with the 'augmented reality' concept (and two of those companies can take a short-cut by partnering with Google).
Really, Newell dug his own hole. He stayed closely allied with Microsoft from the creation to Valve until the unveiling of Windows 8. He's mad that their new OS might wipe out his business, yet he helped contribute to Microsoft's stranglehold on the PC gaming market. Perhaps if he didn't want to be dependent on another company that has a history of stabbing partners in the back, then he would have ported Half-Life to something other than PS2 (and only after the Dreamcast - Microsoft's console - became an apparent failure). Newell's last minute support of OS X and Linux reeks of desperation. Like the PS2 port, it's an 'oh shit!' moment. Well, he's the one that threw his company's weight behind Windows and XBox. OS X has undergone huge growth since its inception, Linux geeks are the ideal market for Valve products, yet he ignored those markets in favor of laying golden eggs for Microsoft. Maybe he thought being a part of their good 'ole boys network would always pay off.
The only reason I feel somewhat sorry for him is because his company is committed to making quality games. I don't play video games anymore, but I like people who are committed to creating things of high quality. But Newell's quality products were dependent on non-quality products. It's like whatever company that makes the best aftermarket parts for Hondas. Whoever that was, I bet they tanked in the early 2000s when Honda went away from those tiny two-door Civics that were so popular among modders.
Is there a strong republican candidate? I know there's a lot of nut jobs that the vocal minority loves, but none of them have a better chance than Nader ever has.
I think the pool of nominees this year was particularly weak because stronger candidates felt like going up against Obama was a waste of time. The guys who ran this year were all looking to bolster their public image, book sales, or egos. Only the really foolish ones thought they had a chance (Romney, Huntsman - gotta be morons to think a Mormon could get elected to the presidency . . . scratch that. Gotta be a moron to be a Mormon).
I don't think a bad plan is necessarily better than no plan. Furthermore, I think it's better that Obama has plans rather than a simplistic list of bullet points that can be reduced to the size of a /. comment. Also, the more specific things a candidate insists they will do the less I believe them: the president rarely has the power to do the things most candidates claim they will do and their agenda should be fluid and open to compromise. So a presidential candidate with an impractical five point plan strikes me as a fool, a liar, or both.
Just for the sake of argument, since you accuse Obama of being vague:
1) What does promoting domestic energy entail? Giving large subsidies to oil companies so they can 'research' domestic energy opportunities? That's what it sounds like to me. Nice and vague.
2) Standing up to China . . . oh dear, he must be a fool. How does he intend on doing this? Very vague.
3a) What job training programs? Are they actually even worth a damn? Even if, is this something the government should be subsidizing?
3b) Stand up to teacher unions? Because those damn teachers are leaching all our tax money by making as much as factory workers. I guess they stand in the way of 'student choice' by politically opposing government subsidizing private and charter schools. Why, for a conservative, does Romney want to subsidize so many things? Also, how exactly does one blame teachers for the country's educational woes when statistics clearly show that the biggest deterrent one can have from receiving a quality education is simply being poor? In the same classroom, with the same teacher, the wealthier children will consistently outperform the poor children. But let's not look at 'vague numbers' - let's make vague accusations that imply that teachers in general are incompetent and greedy (make sure you ignore that unlike the majority of Americans, they're college educated and most could make more doing something else).
4) The deficit is hardly the scary monster everyone pretends it is. It's like college loans. You can't make them go away, they're a big scary negative number, but even if your wages get garnished they'll never really drive you to being destitute. So, even though on paper you really have less money (a large negative number) than the bum you pass everyday walking into the office (probably a smaller negative number - or maybe a positive one consisting of the sum of his change cup), you never envy the bum and you never consider him better off than you. In this case, Greece is the bum. Our debt is an inconvenience, their debt ruined them. That's because the number on paper is pretty irrelevant - it doesn't account for one's resources, it's not the be all, end all of one's worth. But it's easy to be vague and scary and behave like the graduate who's freaking out b/c they're a hundred grand in debt.
5) This is a vague way of saying: dog-eat-dog. Washington's regulatory climate does little to stifle small businesses. It's local regulation that stifles small businesses. Hell, the economy in general stifles small business. National regulation prevents banks from doing things like fraud. It prevents dirty industries from polluting the way Chinese factories do. Want more small businesses? Provide universal healthcare so people can afford to take the risk of starting a small business: As it stands, once a person gets a decent job with good benefits, he becomes scared to quit for the sake of a risk. Healthcare's like taxes: The middle class pays for most of it and it takes a huge chunk of their income. The rich pay more than anyone else, but a smaller percentage of their income than the middle class (basically, it's an inconvenience, the house isn't being put up for mortgage). The poor pay nothing. So, economically, it makes more sense to be a bartender that doesn't report most of his tips and receives welfare than to be a teacher. Make too much money, and all of a sudden you have to pay for health insurance (and co-pays) and now you technically
Actually, true socialism is the economy of every first world nation on earth. Laissez-faire is a myth and just as impractical as communism. If you want a true free market go to Somalia or some other third world shit hole. You damn well won't find any Howard Roarks or Henry Reardens.
No one with the kind of wealth Gates has amassed is required to give 1 single penny back but a lot of them do it anyway.
Actually, everyone with the amount of wealth Gates has amassed is required to give massive amounts back in the form of taxes. Unless they hide their money in a 'charitable' organization that allows it to be used for investments that personally enrich the owner rather than enrich the country through tax revenue.
Possibly. Except for the fact that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) do not worship Joseph Smith.
Jews don't worship Moses. And Muslims don't worship Muhammad. It's still disingenuous for Mormons to claim to be Christians. That's like considering Lord of the Rings fan-fiction to be part of the official canon.
Wouldn't it be 'Joseph Smith?'
It doesn't try to replace teachers, it's an attempt to change the role of teachers. Instead of being a lecturer - basically thrown in the spotlight in front of a large group of kids and trying to teach them all at once - a teacher can now work with individuals. The data Khan Academy provides them is phenomenal. They know who is working on what and how well they're doing. This allows the teachers to focus on the kids who need help while letting those who are ahead of the curve continue working at a faster pace.
I have all the love in the world for teachers and I agree they are generally disrespected and underpaid. But one of the main ways they're disrespected is by being forced to teach using an archaic system that just doesn't work no matter how good of a teacher they are. This whole idea that "tenth grade students should test at this level and eleventh grade students should test at this level" is flat out incorrect. Khan Academy may be only an assistive technology, but it's the first assistive technology that can fundamentally change teaching for the better to come about since the chalk board.
If you didn't actually quote the OP, I would have thought you replied to the wrong post by accident. What do corporations have to do with Khan Academy, which is a non-profit funded by donations?
I mean, I fully agree that the 'privatization' of certain government services is a bad thing, I just don't see how it's relevant. If anything, Khan Academy can save our education system from the abysmal failure it's been for years. Best of all, it's a solution that doesn't depend on charter schools, which is the whole privatization attack on education. Khan Academy allows public schools to save massive amounts of money by unchaining them from the parasitic relationship textbook publishers have with them and gives them a useful purpose for all those computers laying around (really, until Khan Academy, I thought all those computers in K-12 schools were a huge waste of money).
So, what are you complaining about?
What's the difference between the right thing and the ethical thing?
I don't see how this is an issue of liberty. Who cares who has 'legal' ownership over his iTunes library? It's digital. He can just make a copy for each of his heirs, stick it on an HDD or iPod or something, and give it to them today. He doesn't have to wait to die to share it with them. The whole copying music issue is something the recording industry and all their big bad lawyers definitively lost.
Slashdot has a deserved reputation for being the territory of Hardcore 20-Something Linux Fanboys
Dude, you're so behind the times. Try 30-something.
sheeple are still using stupid memes
Like 'sheeple.' Good going, Nietzsche.
But seriously -- you're paying twice as much just to get MacOS.
This is something I have to explain over and over: OS X is nice, but I pay twice as much for the trackpad. I can't use a non-Mac laptop without plugging in a mouse.
Unfortunately "Linux for Morons" is the only thing likely to grow market share as most humans are morons.
I dont blame them really - for most people, it's just another appliance.
But morons ask non-morons for OS advice. Morons pay attention to what non-morons use, and then use that.
The trick is a balance. Make it usable for morons but hidden beneath the surface is everything a geek wants. This is how OS X became so successful. No one trusted Mac OS in the 90s not b/c only a small niche used it, but b/c the wrong niches used it. No one turned to their graphic designer or teacher friends for computer advice. Then OS X comes out and geeks flock to it - most as their third OS and they just wanted it b/c of the concept, but it was really good so it didn't take long to become their primary OS. And then they recommended it to morons who asked for advice.
If there was a Linux desktop environment that I could comfortably recommend to the computer illiterate then I would. Just because Gnome and Unity tried to dumb things down doesn't mean they're useful to anyone. That's the difference between Gnome and OS X's approach - OS X isn't designed to cater to morons, it's designed to cater to everyone.