"All the masturbation, blow jobs from German spies, and casual visits to whore houses? Mostly what I remember about that book was all the masturbation, and something about cap'n crunch." People tend to remember what's important for them.
"I used to work with a guy who grew up in Bulgaria under communism there. Starting at about age 13, he was required to work a few hours every day in a local factory. The sort of exploitation of workers, especially child labor, that was normal for capitalism in the late 19th century was normal for communism in the late 20th century." I call bullshit. I asked several people born in the USSR and a coworker born in Poland in 1955: they said "Maybe during WW2, but unthinkable after that"; the Polish guy said "I wanted to work as a paperboy when I was 14 and the newspaper needed my parents' permission".
I really don't mean to be an ass, but I can't express politely what I think of what you posted.
"Teachers... are in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union" No, they are not - see the links. By the way, Payscale has the median pay for an elementary math teacher with 1 year of experience at about 36k (min - 28, max - 44k). So your claim of a "starting pay at 41k" is false.
"More education for teachers wouldn't solve the problem. Having a teacher with a masters degree is like having a McDonald's employee with 8 years of culinary school training... A person only needs to be about two levels ahead in a subject to be able to effectively teach the subject."" This was the cause of my derisive and impolite comment. If you don't understand why it's wrong, this _is_ embarrassing.
I don't know what school you went to, but it sucked monkey balls apparently. Capitalism as well as communism both "lifted millions of people out of poverty" as well as "made millions poorer".
"Teachers, while not earning rock-star salaries, are in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union. More education for teachers wouldn't solve the problem. Having a teacher with a masters degree is like having a McDonald's employee with 8 years of culinary school training. The extra training doesn't bring anything to the table. A person only needs to be about two levels ahead in a subject to be able to effectively teach the subject."
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the US is so fucked up right now. Because of idiots like the one above.
"Maybe the US is by far the largest country in the set, with the largest immigrant population to boot." It's scary to imagine what bottom position would the US occupy without the "largest immigrant population to boot".
"From the Yahoo summary: "Japan, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Flanders-Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Korea all scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test" Except for Japan, these are all much smaller countries than the United States. I'd be more interested in a comparison equally large countries like India, China, Russia and Brazil." 1. Are you high? "Except for Japan"? Japan is now bigger than Canada or Australia? Finland is, by the way, not that much smaller either. 2. I'm pretty sure Russia rates better than the US even considering that their education/science took a huge hit after the USSR's collapse.
"The purpose of college/university used to be to be educated in many subjects, to be well rounded, to be a critical thinker, etc. Today, it is to get a job." Great point.
"Oddly enough, success in today's economy (or any other day's for that matter) doesn't depend very strongly on how well you perform on a multiple choice test. The U.S. has been scoring poorly relative to other countries for decades now, and continues to be the world leader in innovation and productivity. It is no coincidence that Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc., etc. are all American companies, or that the Internet was created in America, not to mention the personal computer, integrated circuits and transistors. Or GPS, or air travel, or (going back a bit) the light bulb and audio recording."
Do you seriously think that the people who founded Apple, MS, Google, HP, IBM, etc, or those who invented the Internet, PC, IC, GPS, split the atom, etc. didn't perform very well on tests? Do you know any scientists who didn't (excl. Edison, who - I'm pretty sure - would do just as well if he was lucky to have smart teachers)? Are you high? All those people were very smart and highly educated. Who modded this up? Former C students?
No, my bet is that you got modded down b/c you were being silly. The chances of the WW3 that would have Russia and the US on the opposite sides are minimal. Saying anything else just proves that you are clueless about both countries and the geopolitics in general. They might - and most likely will - oppose each other indirectly - through proxy wars, but those conflicts will be limited in their scale. Russia has much bigger problems than duking it out with the US. The same applies to the US. Moreover, they really have nothing to fight over right now.
"Iceland is building a 50 to 70 acre data center" First. Holy cow! 70 acres!!! That's like... like... 0.11 sq miles!!! Dear lord!!!
Second. Have you actually read the article you linked? They are building a data center hoping to lease it out to a foreign company like Apple, Facebook, etc. Is that somehow equivalent to the NSA HQ in your mind?
"...a black man can be elected President of a nation that's mainly populated by black people..." Are we still talking about the US? The US black population is less than 13%.
Slashdot Mirror
It may be rude, but probably completely legal - a train is a public place with no expectation of privacy.
20% profit is "barely skating by"? That's just fucked up.
So, you're an agnostic?
"All the masturbation, blow jobs from German spies, and casual visits to whore houses? Mostly what I remember about that book was all the masturbation, and something about cap'n crunch."
People tend to remember what's important for them.
"I used to work with a guy who grew up in Bulgaria under communism there. Starting at about age 13, he was required to work a few hours every day in a local factory. The sort of exploitation of workers, especially child labor, that was normal for capitalism in the late 19th century was normal for communism in the late 20th century."
I call bullshit. I asked several people born in the USSR and a coworker born in Poland in 1955: they said "Maybe during WW2, but unthinkable after that"; the Polish guy said "I wanted to work as a paperboy when I was 14 and the newspaper needed my parents' permission".
"Hitler monitored everything he could, he was a Socialist. " ...Umm... Beg your pardon? o_O
"the re-entry capsule just miracle'd itself stable."
IIRC Russian capsules actually do stabilize themselves.
" The Soviet Union broke apart quickly and peacefully; not a single shot was fired IIRC"
You're remembering incorrectly to put it mildly.
I envy people like you so much.
"It's worked out well for the Soviet Union and for Czechoslovakia."
Czechoslovakia - Yes
USSR - Holy fuck, dude. Just check google before posting or smth. Start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
I really don't mean to be an ass, but I can't express politely what I think of what you posted.
"Teachers ... are in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union"
No, they are not - see the links. By the way, Payscale has the median pay for an elementary math teacher with 1 year of experience at about 36k (min - 28, max - 44k). So your claim of a "starting pay at 41k" is false.
"More education for teachers wouldn't solve the problem. Having a teacher with a masters degree is like having a McDonald's employee with 8 years of culinary school training ... A person only needs to be about two levels ahead in a subject to be able to effectively teach the subject.""
This was the cause of my derisive and impolite comment. If you don't understand why it's wrong, this _is_ embarrassing.
I don't know what school you went to, but it sucked monkey balls apparently. Capitalism as well as communism both "lifted millions of people out of poverty" as well as "made millions poorer".
"Teachers, while not earning rock-star salaries, are in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union. More education for teachers wouldn't solve the problem. Having a teacher with a masters degree is like having a McDonald's employee with 8 years of culinary school training. The extra training doesn't bring anything to the table. A person only needs to be about two levels ahead in a subject to be able to effectively teach the subject."
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the US is so fucked up right now. Because of idiots like the one above.
"the starting pay for the teachers is $41k a year. I'm not going to complain about the teacher's pay, but starting a career at $41k isn't poverty."
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/high-school-teachers.htm - the median pay was 53k in 2010.
http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/high-school-teacher/salary - the median pay was 54k in 2011.
"in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union" my ass.
"Maybe the US is by far the largest country in the set, with the largest immigrant population to boot."
It's scary to imagine what bottom position would the US occupy without the "largest immigrant population to boot".
"From the Yahoo summary: "Japan, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Flanders-Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Korea all scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test"
Except for Japan, these are all much smaller countries than the United States. I'd be more interested in a comparison equally large countries like India, China, Russia and Brazil."
1. Are you high? "Except for Japan"? Japan is now bigger than Canada or Australia? Finland is, by the way, not that much smaller either.
2. I'm pretty sure Russia rates better than the US even considering that their education/science took a huge hit after the USSR's collapse.
"The purpose of college/university used to be to be educated in many subjects, to be well rounded, to be a critical thinker, etc. Today, it is to get a job."
Great point.
One of the best comments in this thread.
Please homeschool your children. We don't want your genes in the society.
Your post just proves the point of the discussion. Please go back to high school. European preferably.
"Oddly enough, success in today's economy (or any other day's for that matter) doesn't depend very strongly on how well you perform on a multiple choice test. The U.S. has been scoring poorly relative to other countries for decades now, and continues to be the world leader in innovation and productivity. It is no coincidence that Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc., etc. are all American companies, or that the Internet was created in America, not to mention the personal computer, integrated circuits and transistors. Or GPS, or air travel, or (going back a bit) the light bulb and audio recording."
Do you seriously think that the people who founded Apple, MS, Google, HP, IBM, etc, or those who invented the Internet, PC, IC, GPS, split the atom, etc. didn't perform very well on tests? Do you know any scientists who didn't (excl. Edison, who - I'm pretty sure - would do just as well if he was lucky to have smart teachers)? Are you high? All those people were very smart and highly educated. Who modded this up? Former C students?
Can't you just throttle the relay bandwidth?
Odd. Why would Hulu care whether anyone is a Tor node?
Seriously? You couldn't even check Wikipedia before posting? Holy fuck you're an idiot :D
No, my bet is that you got modded down b/c you were being silly. The chances of the WW3 that would have Russia and the US on the opposite sides are minimal. Saying anything else just proves that you are clueless about both countries and the geopolitics in general. They might - and most likely will - oppose each other indirectly - through proxy wars, but those conflicts will be limited in their scale. Russia has much bigger problems than duking it out with the US. The same applies to the US. Moreover, they really have nothing to fight over right now.
"Iceland is building a 50 to 70 acre data center"
First.
Holy cow! 70 acres!!! That's like... like... 0.11 sq miles!!! Dear lord!!!
Second.
Have you actually read the article you linked? They are building a data center hoping to lease it out to a foreign company like Apple, Facebook, etc. Is that somehow equivalent to the NSA HQ in your mind?
We apparently studied different history. When did Russia invade Germany?
"...a black man can be elected President of a nation that's mainly populated by black people..."
Are we still talking about the US? The US black population is less than 13%.