I hear ya... I was a solid B student (GPA-wise), but I only started attempting to be academically focused in the latter half of my sophomore year. I was in advanced classes through middle school, but I was so uncomfortable with all the middle/upper-middle class kids, I decided not to enroll in them in 9th and early 10th grade. 11th and 12th grade was an all-out struggle with my goal to "get out". My dad got his GED in prison, my mom never graduated from 8th grade. I never knew life without food stamps and welfare. Needless to say, I was the first to have a shot at going to college.
I didn't graduate with honors... but I got a full ride to every university that accepted me and I thrived. I received about $5,000 in competitive scholarships for my first year, but a large amount of need-based aid carried me through the rest of my undergraduate education.
I don't think it's too little nor too late. This is two major decisions that they've turned around and admitted that they didn't appropriately measure their audience correctly-- BEFORE implementation. How many companies do you know that do that?
Their actions were affected by their audience... do we have expectations above and beyond that?
I'd prefer not to give any rewards that don't have any direct connection to their current area of education. The profit motive with little/no oversight always breeds cheating. Furthermore, if that's not so much a problem (though I doubt it), when the rewards stop, they may stop attempting to achieve.
Instead, the goal should always be to satisfy and enhance intellectual curiosity.
We stopped offering rewards based on cohort goal attainment a long time ago. We found that students would get the bad news of not being eligible to receive their prizes, get their assignments/tests back, then, later, swap scores to find out who "screwed it up" for everyone else. That child was then mocked and ostracized.
What is best, as you say, is to work hard at finding the best ways to interest *every* student in the classroom. And that's hard work.
They revel in it as a defense mechanism. They're not going to sulk in the line. They're going to find people like them and claim that their area is better by virtue of them being there. It's called being human.
Take a bad kid, teach him/her well, let the child show mom/dad/grandma/social worker how amazingly hard they've worked in school and you'll see that attitude change. But it won't change without that special attention... the special attention the high achievers receive from advanced elementary school classes through AP classes in high school.
You are right about the "smart" lines getting bullied and ostracized, though (in most schools). That's because most schools only have sufficient funds to afford a couple good teachers, small school supply allowances, and open class rooms for a select few students that, according to their records, already look like they're going to succeed. It makes the smart kids in the smart lines a very small minority-- easy for picking.
That sounds like a wonderful idea and I would have really loved it as a primary/secondary school student. But, that would have cost my high school $21,000 (400+ graduating class) for my graduating year... not to mention how that profit motive and even survival pressure from home would have further affected cheating at the top.
And why cater to the top 5%? They're already the most likely to get scholarship funding.
Indeed. Certain climates are better than others for a bike commute. I know people who bike commute in the dead of winter in Minneapolis and plenty who do in the summer in the southwest US (as I do). But humidity in the American South, in my opinion, is the barely conducive to human existence, let alone joyful biking.
(Disclaimer: I grew up in California's arid Inland Empire with 120+ degree summers. I'm a humidity WIMP.)
6:45am - Wake, shower, and dress (I don't consider this personal time) 7:10am - Commute to work (obviously not personal time) 7:40am - Start work 5:15pm - Leave work, Commute home 5:35pm - Arrive at home 10:00pm - Go to sleep
I put in some extra time because I'm one of those lucky people who gets to enjoy what he does at work. Anyway, there's a bit of a catch with my schedule: I bike commute. I get a healthy dose of exercise on my short 2.5-mile commute route both in the morning and in the afternoon.
I don't pay for parking. ($57/month on my campus) I don't pay for auto-insurance. (I choose not to own a car, but non-commuter cars can get significantly lower auto insurance) I don't pay an auto-loan. I don't pay for gasoline. I don't pay for a gym membership.
However, my rent is quite high. To live near the school, my partner and I pay $1530/month for a 700 sq. ft. 1-bedroom apartment. In other parts of the country, I'm sure rent would be much less severe and living near work so that one can completely abandoned motorized commuting would be even easier (financially).
Here are my responses as the survey submission system isn't playing nice:
1) 5+ years
2) Multiple Visits Daily
3) The community comment moderating system, being able to track my comments and those who respond to my comments, the intelligent population (when browsing at 2+), the people who take the time to track a conversation- and more so the people who respond with questions as opposed to angry assertions.
4) The site is very sluggish. When not signed in, the comment system is barely manageable and signing in doesn't take me back to the page from which I decided to sign in... it takes me to the home page!
5) Extremely likely
6) Slashdot is a news aggregator which values intelligence and intellectual curiosity. While I am a complete geek for many subjects I see articles worth reading every day that are often unrelated to my normal preferences and comments clarifying or contradicting those articles. Anyone who I think has a genuine curiosity about the world, I direct to Slashdot.
It's a beneficent project, subsidized by the government, for the sake of bringing digitally-assisted education to the masses. They're not concerned with profit margin. They care about being able to afford their goals.
It's been quite a while since the summary made so little sense to me that I didn't bother to read the article. Sometimes, I like to be reminded of how much I just don't know.
Gasoline taxes pay for less and less of California's freeways and roads. This report (http://goo.gl/AgBO0) shows that less than 51% of freeways are paid for by what can be considered as user fees (registrations, gas taxes, etc.). The rest is paid for by bonds and other, unrelated taxes.
From the paper:
"The reasons for the decline in the share of highway costs covered by gas taxes and other âoeuser feesâ are not mysterious. The federal gasoline tax and most state gasoline taxes are not indexed for inflation, and the federal gasoline tax has not been increased since 1993. In 1999, federal gasoline and diesel taxes collected $29.8 billion for highways, and in 2008, the same taxes collected $30.6 billion for highways. Adjusted for inflation, the yearly taxes collected between 1999 and 2008 shrank 32 percent, even though we continued to build more new roads and bridges."
If we're suggesting areas of study to rule our nation, here's my vote for the council or congress:
(1) Epistemology - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.
(2) History - To prevent making the same mistakes over and over.
(3) Ethics - The study of the many ways in which individuals decide to act (and treat one-another) based on their priorities, knowledge, and assumptions.
(4) Fact-based Sciences - All the basics of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.
(5) Research-based Math - Mainly economics
(6) Social Psychology - To understand how and why groups of people act the way they do.
You exaggerate and make your opinions seem looney. Areas of heightened sensitivity: -- Airports -- Federal Buildings -- Court Houses -- High Schools -- College Campuses -- Post Offices -- Monuments of American Financial Dominance
Heightened security in those areas does not make a general police state. If you actually believe it does, then you don't understand what a police state is. (Try Soviet Russia, East Germany, Nazi Germany, a variety of war-torn African nations...). What we live in is a corporatist, reactionary security state where fear of fear and failure compels normal law enforcement agencies to be hyper-vigilant.
Your average cop (let alone UNIVERSITY cop), doesn't give a damn about dominating the populace... s/he just wants to prevent all possibility of another Virgina Tech.
The fact is that thorough knowledge of Firefly quotes are not required for a "tenuous grasp on reality". Yes, they're ignorant of Sci-Fi cult followings and their interpretation of the poster was severely flawed, but given their understanding and the highly sensitive nature of talking about shooting people on a college campus (which is the only part they care about), it's hard not to see their reasoning.
It wasn't harassment and aggravation, it was an incorrect response.
No. "Deference to authority is submissive". Kindness does not have to be submissive. It can be assertive and confident, but it would always afford dignity of all involved (dignity and pride being very high up on law enforcement priorities). The problem isn't how a department or an "authority" is treated, but how the *people* wearing the badges are treated.
The type of dystopia that allows for universities to grow into massive entities that may have 40,000+ in high density on the campus at any time in addition to specialized infrastructure and needs.
This doesn't represent all university PDs, but it's *a* list.
Academy of Arts University Azusa Pacific University Berkeley Community College District Butte Community College District California Baptist University California Institute of Technology California Lutheran University Cal Poly State University California Polytechnic State University CSU Bakersfield CSU Channel Islands CSU Fresno CSU Stanislaus Cal Tech Pasadena Carrington College California Chabot Community College Chaffy Community College Chapman University Culinary Institute of America College of the Desert College of Sequoias Concordia University, Irvine Contra Costa Community College District Police El Camino College Fresno Pacific University Fullerton College Holy Names University Imperial Valley College Loma Linda University Los Angeles Community College District Marin Community College The Master's College Mills College Mt. San Jacinto College North Orange Community College District Occidental College Pacific Union College Rancho Santiago Community College District Riverside Community College District Saint Mary's College of California San Bernardino Community College District San Diego Community College District San Francisco Community College District San Joaquin Delta College District San Mateo County Community College District Santa Clara University Santa Clarita Community College District Santa Rosa Junior College Sierra College Solano Community College District Stanford University State Center Community College District UC Berkeley UC Davis UC Hastings UC Irvine UC Merced UC San Francisco UC Santa Cruz University of Nevada, Reno University of Redlands University of San Diego University of Southern California Ventura County Community College District Victor Valley Community College Westmont College
You're right. Honorably, as the poster intended, there's nothing wrong with stating that you won't shoot unaware and unarmed opponents.
However, college campuses, like airports, are areas of heightened sensitivity to threats of violence (especially from firearms and explosives). If someone personally identifies with a series of triggers (for lack of a better word) to kill someone with a firearm, law enforcement will likely take issue.
It's common sense. Don't talk about bombs at an airport. Don't talk about shooting people on a college campus (or any educational campus). Of course, sometimes there's over-reaction. (I'm looking at you, Boston.) And sometimes there's too much haste to action (University of Wisconsin, Stout). But the worst thing you can do in those situations is make a big deal of it because law enforcement digs its heels in and forms a nearly impermeable blue line... and then nothing constructive happens.
It was irrationally reactionary to take the poster down before consulting the owner. But there are better ways to respond to bad moves than insults and crying wolf.
Rent-a-cop = Private security, rarely allowed to carry weapons, subject to local jurisdictions.
Actual cop = Public security, required to carry weapons, run the local jurisdiction. The Chief in question is an actual cop.
She is a public servant by oath. She graduated from Metropolitan State University and the FBI National Academy (210th session). I don't know what she drives, though a modified crown vic is a good assumption. She doesn't hide under overpasses with a radar gun (she would have her officers and corporals do that).
You're right, anyone can wear a badge and act like a prick and that doesn't make them a real cop... they have to be certified and hired, first. She was certified, hired, and promoted to Chief over many years of service. She's definitely a cop.
Slashdot Mirror
I hear ya... I was a solid B student (GPA-wise), but I only started attempting to be academically focused in the latter half of my sophomore year. I was in advanced classes through middle school, but I was so uncomfortable with all the middle/upper-middle class kids, I decided not to enroll in them in 9th and early 10th grade. 11th and 12th grade was an all-out struggle with my goal to "get out". My dad got his GED in prison, my mom never graduated from 8th grade. I never knew life without food stamps and welfare. Needless to say, I was the first to have a shot at going to college.
I didn't graduate with honors... but I got a full ride to every university that accepted me and I thrived. I received about $5,000 in competitive scholarships for my first year, but a large amount of need-based aid carried me through the rest of my undergraduate education.
I don't think it's too little nor too late. This is two major decisions that they've turned around and admitted that they didn't appropriately measure their audience correctly-- BEFORE implementation. How many companies do you know that do that?
Their actions were affected by their audience... do we have expectations above and beyond that?
I'd prefer not to give any rewards that don't have any direct connection to their current area of education. The profit motive with little/no oversight always breeds cheating. Furthermore, if that's not so much a problem (though I doubt it), when the rewards stop, they may stop attempting to achieve.
Instead, the goal should always be to satisfy and enhance intellectual curiosity.
We stopped offering rewards based on cohort goal attainment a long time ago. We found that students would get the bad news of not being eligible to receive their prizes, get their assignments/tests back, then, later, swap scores to find out who "screwed it up" for everyone else. That child was then mocked and ostracized.
What is best, as you say, is to work hard at finding the best ways to interest *every* student in the classroom. And that's hard work.
They revel in it as a defense mechanism. They're not going to sulk in the line. They're going to find people like them and claim that their area is better by virtue of them being there. It's called being human.
Take a bad kid, teach him/her well, let the child show mom/dad/grandma/social worker how amazingly hard they've worked in school and you'll see that attitude change. But it won't change without that special attention... the special attention the high achievers receive from advanced elementary school classes through AP classes in high school.
You are right about the "smart" lines getting bullied and ostracized, though (in most schools). That's because most schools only have sufficient funds to afford a couple good teachers, small school supply allowances, and open class rooms for a select few students that, according to their records, already look like they're going to succeed. It makes the smart kids in the smart lines a very small minority-- easy for picking.
That sounds like a wonderful idea and I would have really loved it as a primary/secondary school student. But, that would have cost my high school $21,000 (400+ graduating class) for my graduating year... not to mention how that profit motive and even survival pressure from home would have further affected cheating at the top.
And why cater to the top 5%? They're already the most likely to get scholarship funding.
Indeed. Certain climates are better than others for a bike commute. I know people who bike commute in the dead of winter in Minneapolis and plenty who do in the summer in the southwest US (as I do). But humidity in the American South, in my opinion, is the barely conducive to human existence, let alone joyful biking.
(Disclaimer: I grew up in California's arid Inland Empire with 120+ degree summers. I'm a humidity WIMP.)
That doesn't sound so bad. Here's my schedule.
6:45am - Wake, shower, and dress (I don't consider this personal time)
7:10am - Commute to work (obviously not personal time)
7:40am - Start work
5:15pm - Leave work, Commute home
5:35pm - Arrive at home
10:00pm - Go to sleep
I put in some extra time because I'm one of those lucky people who gets to enjoy what he does at work. Anyway, there's a bit of a catch with my schedule: I bike commute. I get a healthy dose of exercise on my short 2.5-mile commute route both in the morning and in the afternoon.
I don't pay for parking. ($57/month on my campus)
I don't pay for auto-insurance. (I choose not to own a car, but non-commuter cars can get significantly lower auto insurance)
I don't pay an auto-loan.
I don't pay for gasoline.
I don't pay for a gym membership.
However, my rent is quite high. To live near the school, my partner and I pay $1530/month for a 700 sq. ft. 1-bedroom apartment. In other parts of the country, I'm sure rent would be much less severe and living near work so that one can completely abandoned motorized commuting would be even easier (financially).
Have you tried Meta-Moderating Lately?
http://slashdot.org/faq/metamod.shtml
(http://slashdot.org/survey.pl)
Error 503 Service Unavailable
Service Unavailable
Guru Meditation:
XID: 332511767
Varnish cache server
Here are my responses as the survey submission system isn't playing nice:
1) 5+ years
2) Multiple Visits Daily
3) The community comment moderating system, being able to track my comments and those who respond to my comments, the intelligent population (when browsing at 2+), the people who take the time to track a conversation- and more so the people who respond with questions as opposed to angry assertions.
4) The site is very sluggish. When not signed in, the comment system is barely manageable and signing in doesn't take me back to the page from which I decided to sign in... it takes me to the home page!
5) Extremely likely
6) Slashdot is a news aggregator which values intelligence and intellectual curiosity. While I am a complete geek for many subjects I see articles worth reading every day that are often unrelated to my normal preferences and comments clarifying or contradicting those articles. Anyone who I think has a genuine curiosity about the world, I direct to Slashdot.
7) Yes, Yes
8) I'll give info if requested...
It's a beneficent project, subsidized by the government, for the sake of bringing digitally-assisted education to the masses. They're not concerned with profit margin. They care about being able to afford their goals.
From the wiki:
Operating system Android 2.2
Power Internal rechargeable non-removable lithium-polymer battery
CPU 366 Mhz processor ;on chip Graphics accelerator and HD Video processor
Storage capacity 2GB (Internal)Flash memory, expandable upto 32 GBmicroSD
Memory 256 MB LP-DDR2/DDR2
Display 7-inch ; 800x480 reolution
Input Multi-touch resistive touchscreen display, headset controls
Connectivity Wi-Fi connectivity ;GPRS
It's $35 after government subsidy. It's been a government research program to close the tech gap between the rich and the not-so-rich.
There's been plenty of discussion about the tablet over the last year and a half. Much conjecture about whether it would happen ( http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/india-35-tablet/ ). But what struck me most when all the jabber started was the enthusiasm of one minister: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817 .
It's been quite a while since the summary made so little sense to me that I didn't bother to read the article. Sometimes, I like to be reminded of how much I just don't know.
Thank you Scheme Language Standard!
Gasoline taxes pay for less and less of California's freeways and roads. This report (http://goo.gl/AgBO0) shows that less than 51% of freeways are paid for by what can be considered as user fees (registrations, gas taxes, etc.). The rest is paid for by bonds and other, unrelated taxes.
From the paper:
"The reasons for the decline in the share of highway costs covered by gas taxes and other âoeuser feesâ are not mysterious. The federal gasoline tax and most state gasoline taxes are not indexed for inflation, and the federal gasoline tax has not been increased since 1993. In 1999, federal gasoline and diesel taxes collected $29.8 billion for highways, and in 2008, the same taxes collected $30.6 billion for highways. Adjusted for inflation, the yearly taxes collected between 1999 and 2008 shrank 32 percent, even though we continued to build more new roads and bridges."
If we're suggesting areas of study to rule our nation, here's my vote for the council or congress:
(1) Epistemology - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.
(2) History - To prevent making the same mistakes over and over.
(3) Ethics - The study of the many ways in which individuals decide to act (and treat one-another) based on their priorities, knowledge, and assumptions.
(4) Fact-based Sciences - All the basics of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.
(5) Research-based Math - Mainly economics
(6) Social Psychology - To understand how and why groups of people act the way they do.
You exaggerate and make your opinions seem looney. Areas of heightened sensitivity:
-- Airports
-- Federal Buildings
-- Court Houses
-- High Schools
-- College Campuses
-- Post Offices
-- Monuments of American Financial Dominance
Heightened security in those areas does not make a general police state. If you actually believe it does, then you don't understand what a police state is. (Try Soviet Russia, East Germany, Nazi Germany, a variety of war-torn African nations...). What we live in is a corporatist, reactionary security state where fear of fear and failure compels normal law enforcement agencies to be hyper-vigilant.
Your average cop (let alone UNIVERSITY cop), doesn't give a damn about dominating the populace... s/he just wants to prevent all possibility of another Virgina Tech.
The fact is that thorough knowledge of Firefly quotes are not required for a "tenuous grasp on reality". Yes, they're ignorant of Sci-Fi cult followings and their interpretation of the poster was severely flawed, but given their understanding and the highly sensitive nature of talking about shooting people on a college campus (which is the only part they care about), it's hard not to see their reasoning.
It wasn't harassment and aggravation, it was an incorrect response.
Touche, good sir.
No. "Deference to authority is submissive". Kindness does not have to be submissive. It can be assertive and confident, but it would always afford dignity of all involved (dignity and pride being very high up on law enforcement priorities). The problem isn't how a department or an "authority" is treated, but how the *people* wearing the badges are treated.
The type of dystopia that allows for universities to grow into massive entities that may have 40,000+ in high density on the campus at any time in addition to specialized infrastructure and needs.
This doesn't represent all university PDs, but it's *a* list.
California Colleges and Universities Police Chiefs Association
http://www.ccupca.com/ccupca-members.shtml
Academy of Arts University
Azusa Pacific University
Berkeley Community College District
Butte Community College District
California Baptist University
California Institute of Technology
California Lutheran University
Cal Poly State University
California Polytechnic State University
CSU Bakersfield
CSU Channel Islands
CSU Fresno
CSU Stanislaus
Cal Tech Pasadena
Carrington College California
Chabot Community College
Chaffy Community College
Chapman University
Culinary Institute of America
College of the Desert
College of Sequoias
Concordia University, Irvine
Contra Costa Community College District Police
El Camino College
Fresno Pacific University
Fullerton College
Holy Names University
Imperial Valley College
Loma Linda University
Los Angeles Community College District
Marin Community College
The Master's College
Mills College
Mt. San Jacinto College
North Orange Community College District
Occidental College
Pacific Union College
Rancho Santiago Community College District
Riverside Community College District
Saint Mary's College of California
San Bernardino Community College District
San Diego Community College District
San Francisco Community College District
San Joaquin Delta College District
San Mateo County Community College District
Santa Clara University
Santa Clarita Community College District
Santa Rosa Junior College
Sierra College
Solano Community College District
Stanford University
State Center Community College District
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Hastings
UC Irvine
UC Merced
UC San Francisco
UC Santa Cruz
University of Nevada, Reno
University of Redlands
University of San Diego
University of Southern California
Ventura County Community College District
Victor Valley Community College
Westmont College
You're right. Honorably, as the poster intended, there's nothing wrong with stating that you won't shoot unaware and unarmed opponents.
However, college campuses, like airports, are areas of heightened sensitivity to threats of violence (especially from firearms and explosives). If someone personally identifies with a series of triggers (for lack of a better word) to kill someone with a firearm, law enforcement will likely take issue.
It's common sense. Don't talk about bombs at an airport. Don't talk about shooting people on a college campus (or any educational campus). Of course, sometimes there's over-reaction. (I'm looking at you, Boston.) And sometimes there's too much haste to action (University of Wisconsin, Stout). But the worst thing you can do in those situations is make a big deal of it because law enforcement digs its heels in and forms a nearly impermeable blue line... and then nothing constructive happens.
It was irrationally reactionary to take the poster down before consulting the owner. But there are better ways to respond to bad moves than insults and crying wolf.
Rent-a-cop = Private security, rarely allowed to carry weapons, subject to local jurisdictions.
Actual cop = Public security, required to carry weapons, run the local jurisdiction. The Chief in question is an actual cop.
She is a public servant by oath. She graduated from Metropolitan State University and the FBI National Academy (210th session). I don't know what she drives, though a modified crown vic is a good assumption. She doesn't hide under overpasses with a radar gun (she would have her officers and corporals do that).
You're right, anyone can wear a badge and act like a prick and that doesn't make them a real cop... they have to be certified and hired, first. She was certified, hired, and promoted to Chief over many years of service. She's definitely a cop.