I don't know which cinema you go to, but mine charges me $2 more iirc. $12 instead of $10. Even IMAX 3D is only $16, vs $15 for regular IMAX. These are in relatively modern Regal or United Artist theaters, although I go matinee quite a bit, so my prices may be off by a dollar here and there vs. evening prices (but matinee isn't really discounted much more than a $1 anymore anyway).
I'm an idiot, I admit, not among the connoisseurs of cinematography, I do like some 3D movies. I know it's often just crass commercialism, but so are the majority of films now and always anyway. But for me to watch, they have to be made for 3D, and have to have an engaging story and other qualities. The first three movies (irl, chronologically) fail at the former and the last three movies at both.
Maybe in 20 years,/.ers will be railing at an ancient Lucas as he releases Star Wars in Smell-O-Vision. Maybe the last three movies they'll just release one big stinkbomb into the theater every viewing. And he'll be sitting in the corner in a wheelchair with a blackrobe on, cacking like mad.
The customer pays for "internet". Not AOLnet, Ynet, or any other subset including the ISPs.
They are saying they would be willing to rip off the customer in order to double dip. Company A nor B has "bandwidth" once it reaches the ISP, it is the customers, to be used as they see fit. Not the ISP, who sold it to the customer already.
Or maybe people other people just don't spend a lot of time getting bent out of shape over the death of someone they didn't know and to whom they had no connection. Personally I find it just as distasteful to make insincere public expressions of sorrow over something that actually doesn't affect you at all because "it's what you're supposed to do" or because you want to show all the other random anonymous slashdotters what a sensitive and caring person you are.
If it's about textbook, follow the Japanese model. They give students short paperback texts, 80-120 pages, that lasts 6 to 8 week in their subject instead of a heavy, intimidating tome that contains way too much information for the scope of the class. While we're at it, a state or nation can probably hire someone to write these books, someone to illustrate, and someone to edit it. Get feedback from teachers, and make necessary changes the next time around. (Instead of aesthetic, which textbook publishers do.) It will be all in public domain. States and nation will be able to copy off each other freely.
They usually contain as much info as a textbook, lack a little handholding explanation sometimes but cost only $12-13 on average. A six to eight week text should be much less. I wish wikibook would take off, but I think they need to start giving a financial incentive for it really to take off.
Kindles and iPads are both gadgets. Gadgets are okay but they not the solution here. Plus, with kids and bullies, they break. I would prefer the iPad, I owned a kindle and I hated it -- all it does is read novel at bad contrast. At least with an iPad, I could see someone developing a Rosetta Stone like software in the future, but for all topics, which imo, is the way to go. Plus the school could send out schedules and grades on it. But I think that's years away so it's all moot.
You used the shittiest tool for the job and are complaining about the results?
Air Rifles can be perfectly adequate. I have seen them kill squirrels, rabbits, and even groundhogs from 75 yards away with a single shot.
First, you indicated you had to pump you gun multiple times. Multipumps are notoriously weak, probably the weakest airgun system out there. You also indicate you used pellets and bbs. Well,.177 pellets (normally shot through a rifles barrel) are not exactly the same size as.177 BBs (smoothbore) which , so a barrel that accepts both has to be compromised and bigger, so there will be air escaping around the pellets, therefore the speed will be slower and that reduces penetration (BBs have crap penetration to begin with). It sounds like this is the cheapest Walmart special out there.
Although you can get squirrels with.177 pellet guns,.22 air guns are accepted as better for hunting (.177 more for plinking). You can get air guns in.25 to.5. The most common type of air gun is spring loaded and something like the Gamo Whisper is okay, although I think a PCP like the Benjamin Discovery is better even for a beginner because it's more powerful, lets someone shoot shot in close sucession, and doesn't have the double recoil that spring loaded guns do, hence more accuracy.
Maybe because they can be the geekier type that have less social lives, maybe feel alienated from those around them, and thus easier to isolate and brainwash. The fiercest arguments I see online are among geeks/nerds as well, many think they are absolutely correct in any area they have studied...
I'm not saying this is a norm for geeks, but I could definitely see a subset vulnerable to fanatical groups and at the same time, valued because of their skills.
But isn't what everything the US government produces public domain? (Yes, this is Sweden and top secret is another issue but let's just assume for your argument.) So, are you saying that the government ignore copyright and essentially make a photographer's work (who isn't working for contracted by the government) public domain at will? Are you saying that Government material become a mishmash of IP licenses? What?
Textbooks aren't cheap. And also, they're heavy. In Japan, (and a lot of asian countries) they don't have the tomes we do for students, but instead have booklets that are usually 120 pages give or take that is used for 6-8 weeks. It's all the material they cover in that time span and yes, the kids can write in it, as they keep it. They're probably cost the school just a few $$ each.
Heavy tomes are great for reference but what's the point of including everything and the kitchen sink? A reference book in the classrooms are good enough. American schools really need to pay a one time fee to have these books written up and just keep using them. Or have some type of open textbook initiative where people can contribute (not necessarily for free). Algebra isn't going to change in 100 years and neither are many subjects. The ones that do can be upgraded periodically.
I think the iPad is a great market idea. But this is thowing money at an issue and schools need to get back to basics and not use gadgets to better themselves. In 50 years, I can see many subjects being taught in some quasi-Rosetta Stone way (not the greatest or most extensive software - just the idea of kids getting individual attention from a computer, instant feedback, and going their own pace, and not being boring).
It varies state by state, but for example, I looked it up and Florida's minimum injury protection is like 10k. Bodily injury limits to other people paid by insurance are the same limits as the insurance coverage. And property damage for an entire accident can be 10K as well. IIRC, that's for an ENTIRE accident, not per person injured or each car destroyed, etc.
Being underinsured or uninsured, both medically and with car insurance, is a major problem in the USA.
The number of kids who should be old enough - in late highschool - to behave at least somewhat sensibly and look both ways, but instead blindly walk out in front of oncoming traffic because they know they won't be blamed if they or someone else is hurt is mind boggling. It is now way too RARE to see kids actually look both ways crossing a road.
I have a nephew who, with his group of emo friends, walks out in front of cars intentionally and laughs when they have to swerve and veer off-course.
Of course, there is going to be a driver that isn't paying attention and one of those little emos are going to get hit. Whether or not they get the blame won't be the point. The point will be if they'll ever get to walk again and whether the guy is really covered insurance-wise. The minimum coverage a ton of people have in this country isn't going to cover shit when it comes to an extensive hospital stay, nevermind if you're crippled for life. And many people don't have enough assets to sue for. All those kids would likely end up doing it drive their own parents to the poor house or extended legal battles.
It's shit like this that makes me want to put multipe cameras on my car just in case I do have an accident.
Just last week, a kid nearly killed himself on my car while texting on the phone and riding a bike going from the parking lot of a strip mall across a main street, with his free hand on the front brake lever.
It was a 45mph zone and most cars zip through at 55mph at that point and it's not a place to expect pedestrians (nor was there a light). Luckily, I saw him and screech to a stop 10 feet in front of him, but he looked up and was so surprised and hit his own brake so hard that he flipped forward and took a total spill.
He was cut up pretty good, could have been much worse, but hopefully his self-inflicted wounds cured him of his dumbassery. He looked 15 too, hope he remembers that lesson when he gets into a car.
I suppose it can. There are legal companies that sell boilerplate contracts online like for a landlord/tenant, so people can print them out and use them for a fee. I don't suppose if another company sprang up and used their templates, those companies would be too happy. If the original companies wrote the templates themselves, I can't imagine why they wouldn't have a case.
As an environmentalist I believe one of the best ways to reduce human impact on the Earth while improving human lives is to focus on pragmatic quality. Buying quality is even better than recycling. It's actually better for the planet to drop a couple thousand dollars on an office chair that will look like new in twenty years, than to buy five or six cheap chairs over the years that fall apart. That's true even if you recycle the junk chairs. In the meantime you're a lot more comfortable. Environmentalism doesn't necessarily mean wearing a hair shirt, although buying the very best may not always be possible with one's immediate means.
I would caution against judging quality purely by the price tag. Sure, you're not going to get quality at the $1 store. OTOH, I have owned several recent model Mercedes in my life and the car I'm most happy with as far as reliability is concerned is my current Honda Civic. And it cost 1/3 of the amount new compared to the Mercedes. Mercedes, especially the diesels in the 1980s, were rock solid until they started getting too many electronics in them. Always electrical problems, which can be as expensive to fix as any drivetrain problem. Those specific models I owned were not exactly fashion statements either, just lower end pragmatic cars.
Imo, from overall buying experience, pragmatic qualities tends to correlate with price under the bottom half or third of the industry price range depending on the product, and fluctuate wildly thereafter.
As another example, 30 years ago, Ikea made really crappy Kitchen cabinets. Absolute garbage. Doors would loosen and tilt after several weeks of use and using a screwdriver to tighten it up fixed it for a day or two tops (many big box stores still sell these crappy systems). Wanted quality cabinets, you had to get them custom built. These days, the metal hardware was redesigned and dramatically improved on the better and more expensive Ikea cabinets so not everything comes loose in 5 minutes and are actually better than custom built for a fraction of the price in terms of durability and I'd even venture looks in many cases.
What price generally guarantees you is that the manufacturer can turn to a certain level of raw material and amount of processing/labor involved and still turn a profit. What is does not is that they will crank up the level of raw material/processing, nor that they will actually design it well.
--vocal: just talking for an hour, which is popular in many religions, and we all remember what the sermon was about last Sunday, right?
Maybe your problem is that you're attending church, not the format. Or the speakers are speaking at you rather than to you.
I have seen many fascinating talks like the "Never Talk to the Police" lecture on the Internet which may had 3 or 4 graphics/slides in half an hour but were never the focus of the talks for more than a few seconds to supplement the speech content. Also, if slides were all that, we wouldn't dread the relative with a slide projector and pics of all his vacations.
No, it comes down to content and delivery and taste of the listener. A poor speaker isn't better with PowerPoint, probably worse as he doesn't speed up but drones on bulletpoint by bulletpoint.
i would be happy to pay teachers and school administrators 6 figure incomes, provided they churned out highly educated students
Teacher's pay come from taxes, specifically school taxes on property. In my area, failure to pay these taxes are the number one reason for foreclosure. Whether they know it or not, everyone is affected by it, whether you pay rent (a big chunk will go toward these taxes) or have your own home. Because it's rather uniform in an area, unless you have an extravagant home, it's also a fairly non-progressive tax, meaning the poor will have to pay a larger percentage of their salary towards it than a richer person.
Now, any one teacher is a small and temporary part of a students life, they're likely attending 100+ students in a semester. There may be special cases, but they are the exception.
Also, I've observed that parents can promote their child's education more than anyone else, Einstein's father was an electrical engineer and his mother well educated, Paul Erds's parents were both mathematicians as well. They have a huge impact.
Now, every parent isn't like that, but I would posit, rather than paying teachers exorbinantly (which 6 figure incomes is, along with generous benefits) for dubious results (studies have show $ is no great motivator), I suggest we just pay teachers fairly/well so monetary problems don't dominate their minds all day, and cut costs in other ways, so parents have more money themselves, perhaps more time, and thus make a potential low student to teacher ratio situation in every home.
Now, not every parents do this, but with the money saved, more teachers could be hired, and anyway, your thinking adds to thought that parents outsource their parenting too much already by throwing money at the problem and making others responsible instead of themselves -- which seems to rob every succeeding generation more and more.
Also, it's likely the administrator's in you area already get 6 digits. Principals in my area earn 200k and superintendants 300k. I don't see much value in the money spent.
This may seem like nothing, but swimming is a sport of hundredths of a second, so every little bit counts.
Only in the top echelon, not high school or even the average college level. Also, if everyone is under the same conditions when competing, what does it really matter? The state champion is the state champion and will recieve attention from scouts.
It is reprehensible for a school board (ANY school board) to spend so much damned money on a building when the REAL key to eduction (teachers, DUH!) are underpaid, undersupplied (way too many have to buy materials out of their own pockets) and set in front of huge classes (most of my daughter's classes have 40 students in them this year) only to be judged by standardized tests.
I don't know where you're parents taught, but it must vary by geography. In my area, teachers get paid 40k to start. It's not unusual for 10 year "veterans" to get 80k and the more senior staff (20+ years) 100k+. On top of that, they have cadillac healthplans for their entire family, something I know costs the average small business owner $1500+ a month now. They also have regular interval vacations like the students, and 3 months off in the summer. Now, they say they do some work then, but that usually consists of a 3 day "conference"/vacation somewhere luxurous, going to "advanced" college courses (but depending on the degree aka administration, they can be rather easy, I have seen the coursework firsthand) that will result in higher pay, and a few days after school stops and before it starts.
None of the blue collar workers I know have it so well and none of the white collar workers I know have it so laid back.
Now maybe it's not par for the course, this county is in the top-200 richest in the country (but not something what I consider beverly hills area, hardly) and is all suburbs, but the myth of the underpaid teacher cannot be so generalized. In fact, the K-12 teachers recieve much more pay/benefits than the county's own community college profs - although I have to say more profs went out of their way for me than any teachers in k-12.
Anything that doesn't aim to recoup it's own costs, let alone make a profit isn't a business. This intent is fully visible, that operating several years with loss, that she goes on funding her hobby without making changes.
But two wrongs don't make a right. Philadelphia has been losing population since the 1950s, partly with shit like this. In fact, all of PA has budget troubles, but not because the government doesn't rake enough cash in, but in both cases because of having too many union workers, ridiculous pensions, and spending too much. In fact, they are raising the school taxes here because of the losses in the 2008-9 stock market decline and apparently the teachers can gamble in the market and never lose. I believe Philly too was looking how to recover cityworker pensions though increased taxes? But who will bail out the taxpayers?
And whoever wrote the line in the summary "yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income." Fuck you. The taxpayers are not some piggybank to be siphoned off at will. There are very few places I see that really cut spending even though the private sector does. The governments' job used to be to carry out it's limited enumerated duties and impose a tax needed to cover it, not maximize it's own revenue.
That would be like me saying I can't put a GPS on my car to keep tabs on where it goes when my son drives it. If you're on facebook at work when you should be working, I think the employer has a right to know about it. Also, no cameras? So they can't utilize technology, but they're still allowed to stand behind you and watch you work, right? The only difference between the two is the technology behind the first one.
I would have an expectation of privacy, if I go to the bathroom. I also don't want the moments I wipe my nose or reset my underwear recorded and made public. Even if it's on company time.
OTOH, a stripper would have different expectations of privacy. But I'm sure even a porn star wouldn't want their dressing room bugged and recorded.
And yeah, you can stand behind me and watch me work. I guess that is reasonable if I worked at 7-11 or we were at a construction site where you were a foreman. But that makes me self-conscious, and even a US WW2 manual I read once said that if in the bosses or superior's presence the workers suddenly jump and become super busy, suspect that they were slouching on the job. It would be enough to monitor the results of my work in my industry. You can't tell a competent coder from an incompentent one by how much they type anyway.
I also don't want my personal email monitored anymore than my private phone calls, even on company time, because the world doesn't stop just because some time clock gets punched. Life goes on. But if that personal stuff is taking so much time as to interfere with my work to a greater extent that normal, by all means, fire me.
OTOH, if you want stuff private, don't put it on facebook!
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know which cinema you go to, but mine charges me $2 more iirc. $12 instead of $10. Even IMAX 3D is only $16, vs $15 for regular IMAX. These are in relatively modern Regal or United Artist theaters, although I go matinee quite a bit, so my prices may be off by a dollar here and there vs. evening prices (but matinee isn't really discounted much more than a $1 anymore anyway).
I'm an idiot, I admit, not among the connoisseurs of cinematography, I do like some 3D movies. I know it's often just crass commercialism, but so are the majority of films now and always anyway. But for me to watch, they have to be made for 3D, and have to have an engaging story and other qualities. The first three movies (irl, chronologically) fail at the former and the last three movies at both.
Maybe in 20 years, /.ers will be railing at an ancient Lucas as he releases Star Wars in Smell-O-Vision. Maybe the last three movies they'll just release one big stinkbomb into the theater every viewing. And he'll be sitting in the corner in a wheelchair with a blackrobe on, cacking like mad.
The customer pays for "internet". Not AOLnet, Ynet, or any other subset including the ISPs.
They are saying they would be willing to rip off the customer in order to double dip. Company A nor B has "bandwidth" once it reaches the ISP, it is the customers, to be used as they see fit. Not the ISP, who sold it to the customer already.
Thank you.
I'd prefer Stallman's outspoken extremism vs the quiet extremism that corporations would place us under if no one spoke up.
If it's about textbook, follow the Japanese model. They give students short paperback texts, 80-120 pages, that lasts 6 to 8 week in their subject instead of a heavy, intimidating tome that contains way too much information for the scope of the class. While we're at it, a state or nation can probably hire someone to write these books, someone to illustrate, and someone to edit it. Get feedback from teachers, and make necessary changes the next time around. (Instead of aesthetic, which textbook publishers do.) It will be all in public domain. States and nation will be able to copy off each other freely.
Even if the don't do it this way, short paperbacks are much cheaper. Look at the Schaum Outlines:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=schaum+outline+series&x=0&y=0&sprefix=schaum+ou
They usually contain as much info as a textbook, lack a little handholding explanation sometimes but cost only $12-13 on average. A six to eight week text should be much less. I wish wikibook would take off, but I think they need to start giving a financial incentive for it really to take off.
Kindles and iPads are both gadgets. Gadgets are okay but they not the solution here. Plus, with kids and bullies, they break. I would prefer the iPad, I owned a kindle and I hated it -- all it does is read novel at bad contrast. At least with an iPad, I could see someone developing a Rosetta Stone like software in the future, but for all topics, which imo, is the way to go. Plus the school could send out schedules and grades on it. But I think that's years away so it's all moot.
You used the shittiest tool for the job and are complaining about the results?
Air Rifles can be perfectly adequate. I have seen them kill squirrels, rabbits, and even groundhogs from 75 yards away with a single shot.
First, you indicated you had to pump you gun multiple times. Multipumps are notoriously weak, probably the weakest airgun system out there. You also indicate you used pellets and bbs. Well, .177 pellets (normally shot through a rifles barrel) are not exactly the same size as .177 BBs (smoothbore) which , so a barrel that accepts both has to be compromised and bigger, so there will be air escaping around the pellets, therefore the speed will be slower and that reduces penetration (BBs have crap penetration to begin with). It sounds like this is the cheapest Walmart special out there.
Although you can get squirrels with .177 pellet guns, .22 air guns are accepted as better for hunting (.177 more for plinking). You can get air guns in .25 to .5. The most common type of air gun is spring loaded and something like the Gamo Whisper is okay, although I think a PCP like the Benjamin Discovery is better even for a beginner because it's more powerful, lets someone shoot shot in close sucession, and doesn't have the double recoil that spring loaded guns do, hence more accuracy.
http://vimeo.com/5285448
A car that could have long been in production if the government actually funded innovation and wasn't simply looking out for unions.
Maybe because they can be the geekier type that have less social lives, maybe feel alienated from those around them, and thus easier to isolate and brainwash. The fiercest arguments I see online are among geeks/nerds as well, many think they are absolutely correct in any area they have studied...
I'm not saying this is a norm for geeks, but I could definitely see a subset vulnerable to fanatical groups and at the same time, valued because of their skills.
I disagree. What does more voting help? I think the 17th amendment weakened the republic.
If you voted, you bought into and legitimized the system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIraCchPDhk
But isn't what everything the US government produces public domain? (Yes, this is Sweden and top secret is another issue but let's just assume for your argument.) So, are you saying that the government ignore copyright and essentially make a photographer's work (who isn't working for contracted by the government) public domain at will? Are you saying that Government material become a mishmash of IP licenses? What?
It's a great website.
Textbooks aren't cheap. And also, they're heavy. In Japan, (and a lot of asian countries) they don't have the tomes we do for students, but instead have booklets that are usually 120 pages give or take that is used for 6-8 weeks. It's all the material they cover in that time span and yes, the kids can write in it, as they keep it. They're probably cost the school just a few $$ each.
Heavy tomes are great for reference but what's the point of including everything and the kitchen sink? A reference book in the classrooms are good enough. American schools really need to pay a one time fee to have these books written up and just keep using them. Or have some type of open textbook initiative where people can contribute (not necessarily for free). Algebra isn't going to change in 100 years and neither are many subjects. The ones that do can be upgraded periodically.
I think the iPad is a great market idea. But this is thowing money at an issue and schools need to get back to basics and not use gadgets to better themselves. In 50 years, I can see many subjects being taught in some quasi-Rosetta Stone way (not the greatest or most extensive software - just the idea of kids getting individual attention from a computer, instant feedback, and going their own pace, and not being boring).
No, in the US.
It varies state by state, but for example, I looked it up and Florida's minimum injury protection is like 10k. Bodily injury limits to other people paid by insurance are the same limits as the insurance coverage. And property damage for an entire accident can be 10K as well. IIRC, that's for an ENTIRE accident, not per person injured or each car destroyed, etc.
Being underinsured or uninsured, both medically and with car insurance, is a major problem in the USA.
I have a nephew who, with his group of emo friends, walks out in front of cars intentionally and laughs when they have to swerve and veer off-course.
Of course, there is going to be a driver that isn't paying attention and one of those little emos are going to get hit. Whether or not they get the blame won't be the point. The point will be if they'll ever get to walk again and whether the guy is really covered insurance-wise. The minimum coverage a ton of people have in this country isn't going to cover shit when it comes to an extensive hospital stay, nevermind if you're crippled for life. And many people don't have enough assets to sue for. All those kids would likely end up doing it drive their own parents to the poor house or extended legal battles.
It's shit like this that makes me want to put multipe cameras on my car just in case I do have an accident.
Just last week, a kid nearly killed himself on my car while texting on the phone and riding a bike going from the parking lot of a strip mall across a main street, with his free hand on the front brake lever.
It was a 45mph zone and most cars zip through at 55mph at that point and it's not a place to expect pedestrians (nor was there a light). Luckily, I saw him and screech to a stop 10 feet in front of him, but he looked up and was so surprised and hit his own brake so hard that he flipped forward and took a total spill.
He was cut up pretty good, could have been much worse, but hopefully his self-inflicted wounds cured him of his dumbassery. He looked 15 too, hope he remembers that lesson when he gets into a car.
I suppose it can. There are legal companies that sell boilerplate contracts online like for a landlord/tenant, so people can print them out and use them for a fee. I don't suppose if another company sprang up and used their templates, those companies would be too happy. If the original companies wrote the templates themselves, I can't imagine why they wouldn't have a case.
IANAL though.
and not copyright infringement.
I would caution against judging quality purely by the price tag. Sure, you're not going to get quality at the $1 store. OTOH, I have owned several recent model Mercedes in my life and the car I'm most happy with as far as reliability is concerned is my current Honda Civic. And it cost 1/3 of the amount new compared to the Mercedes. Mercedes, especially the diesels in the 1980s, were rock solid until they started getting too many electronics in them. Always electrical problems, which can be as expensive to fix as any drivetrain problem. Those specific models I owned were not exactly fashion statements either, just lower end pragmatic cars.
Imo, from overall buying experience, pragmatic qualities tends to correlate with price under the bottom half or third of the industry price range depending on the product, and fluctuate wildly thereafter.
As another example, 30 years ago, Ikea made really crappy Kitchen cabinets. Absolute garbage. Doors would loosen and tilt after several weeks of use and using a screwdriver to tighten it up fixed it for a day or two tops (many big box stores still sell these crappy systems). Wanted quality cabinets, you had to get them custom built. These days, the metal hardware was redesigned and dramatically improved on the better and more expensive Ikea cabinets so not everything comes loose in 5 minutes and are actually better than custom built for a fraction of the price in terms of durability and I'd even venture looks in many cases.
What price generally guarantees you is that the manufacturer can turn to a certain level of raw material and amount of processing/labor involved and still turn a profit. What is does not is that they will crank up the level of raw material/processing, nor that they will actually design it well.
Maybe your problem is that you're attending church, not the format. Or the speakers are speaking at you rather than to you.
I have seen many fascinating talks like the "Never Talk to the Police" lecture on the Internet which may had 3 or 4 graphics/slides in half an hour but were never the focus of the talks for more than a few seconds to supplement the speech content. Also, if slides were all that, we wouldn't dread the relative with a slide projector and pics of all his vacations.
No, it comes down to content and delivery and taste of the listener. A poor speaker isn't better with PowerPoint, probably worse as he doesn't speed up but drones on bulletpoint by bulletpoint.
I bet apple may get some rentals sooner than the DVDs come out. Perhaps days after an episode comes out.
Also, like albums, entire seasons may be cheaper than singles.
Brother makes good lasers/leds imo.
Teacher's pay come from taxes, specifically school taxes on property. In my area, failure to pay these taxes are the number one reason for foreclosure. Whether they know it or not, everyone is affected by it, whether you pay rent (a big chunk will go toward these taxes) or have your own home. Because it's rather uniform in an area, unless you have an extravagant home, it's also a fairly non-progressive tax, meaning the poor will have to pay a larger percentage of their salary towards it than a richer person.
Now, any one teacher is a small and temporary part of a students life, they're likely attending 100+ students in a semester. There may be special cases, but they are the exception.
Also, I've observed that parents can promote their child's education more than anyone else, Einstein's father was an electrical engineer and his mother well educated, Paul Erds's parents were both mathematicians as well. They have a huge impact.
Now, every parent isn't like that, but I would posit, rather than paying teachers exorbinantly (which 6 figure incomes is, along with generous benefits) for dubious results (studies have show $ is no great motivator), I suggest we just pay teachers fairly/well so monetary problems don't dominate their minds all day, and cut costs in other ways, so parents have more money themselves, perhaps more time, and thus make a potential low student to teacher ratio situation in every home.
Now, not every parents do this, but with the money saved, more teachers could be hired, and anyway, your thinking adds to thought that parents outsource their parenting too much already by throwing money at the problem and making others responsible instead of themselves -- which seems to rob every succeeding generation more and more.
Also, it's likely the administrator's in you area already get 6 digits. Principals in my area earn 200k and superintendants 300k. I don't see much value in the money spent.
Only in the top echelon, not high school or even the average college level. Also, if everyone is under the same conditions when competing, what does it really matter? The state champion is the state champion and will recieve attention from scouts.
I don't know where you're parents taught, but it must vary by geography. In my area, teachers get paid 40k to start. It's not unusual for 10 year "veterans" to get 80k and the more senior staff (20+ years) 100k+. On top of that, they have cadillac healthplans for their entire family, something I know costs the average small business owner $1500+ a month now. They also have regular interval vacations like the students, and 3 months off in the summer. Now, they say they do some work then, but that usually consists of a 3 day "conference"/vacation somewhere luxurous, going to "advanced" college courses (but depending on the degree aka administration, they can be rather easy, I have seen the coursework firsthand) that will result in higher pay, and a few days after school stops and before it starts.
None of the blue collar workers I know have it so well and none of the white collar workers I know have it so laid back.
Now maybe it's not par for the course, this county is in the top-200 richest in the country (but not something what I consider beverly hills area, hardly) and is all suburbs, but the myth of the underpaid teacher cannot be so generalized. In fact, the K-12 teachers recieve much more pay/benefits than the county's own community college profs - although I have to say more profs went out of their way for me than any teachers in k-12.
Anything that doesn't aim to recoup it's own costs, let alone make a profit isn't a business. This intent is fully visible, that operating several years with loss, that she goes on funding her hobby without making changes.
But two wrongs don't make a right. Philadelphia has been losing population since the 1950s, partly with shit like this. In fact, all of PA has budget troubles, but not because the government doesn't rake enough cash in, but in both cases because of having too many union workers, ridiculous pensions, and spending too much. In fact, they are raising the school taxes here because of the losses in the 2008-9 stock market decline and apparently the teachers can gamble in the market and never lose. I believe Philly too was looking how to recover cityworker pensions though increased taxes? But who will bail out the taxpayers?
And whoever wrote the line in the summary "yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income." Fuck you. The taxpayers are not some piggybank to be siphoned off at will. There are very few places I see that really cut spending even though the private sector does. The governments' job used to be to carry out it's limited enumerated duties and impose a tax needed to cover it, not maximize it's own revenue.
I would have an expectation of privacy, if I go to the bathroom. I also don't want the moments I wipe my nose or reset my underwear recorded and made public. Even if it's on company time.
OTOH, a stripper would have different expectations of privacy. But I'm sure even a porn star wouldn't want their dressing room bugged and recorded.
And yeah, you can stand behind me and watch me work. I guess that is reasonable if I worked at 7-11 or we were at a construction site where you were a foreman. But that makes me self-conscious, and even a US WW2 manual I read once said that if in the bosses or superior's presence the workers suddenly jump and become super busy, suspect that they were slouching on the job. It would be enough to monitor the results of my work in my industry. You can't tell a competent coder from an incompentent one by how much they type anyway.
I also don't want my personal email monitored anymore than my private phone calls, even on company time, because the world doesn't stop just because some time clock gets punched. Life goes on. But if that personal stuff is taking so much time as to interfere with my work to a greater extent that normal, by all means, fire me.
OTOH, if you want stuff private, don't put it on facebook!