A 4 year degree involves other topics traditionally and it is not just to employ the less important topics. Broadening student minds and trying to create actual intellectuals who were "well rounded" was the goal of many and for some it still is. Latin is pretty useless but the older schools required it of all students; not only as a filter but there was a traditional perception of that ability being part of being a smart educated man (not as bad as how women had to learn total BS at finishing schools.)
You could argue those traditional ideas were without merit and we should break from the past. I would not. I do not think an intellectual can be narrow in focus; different "modes" of thinking and kinds of intelligence overlap into topics where they are not well suited but can produce great results. NEW thought is quite rare and most papers written contain very little new conceptually; maybe some trivial stuff you can think of if you just put in a little time on the topic. Quite a bit of new innovative thinking involves thinking across disciplines AND CREATIVITY (aka right brain thinking.) Sadly, I cringe just using the word "innovative" or even "new" since those have lost most meaning today. Einstein played music, its possible he wouldn't have done what he did without exercising that half his brain (I'm not solely giving credit to that 1 activity but didn't just use 1 half his brain.)
Bio-mimicry is all the rage today but previously people were wasting time studying creatures at depth; it wasn't a waste in the end was it? Many pointless things turn out to have use or influence another area - its not merely mental exercise with benefits but the work itself often proves useful in unexpected ways later on. Back to bio-mimicry, we study nature/evolutionary solutions to problems and by adapting those solutions to new areas we "innovate" -- surely, you can see how a broad education or intellectual thought is a similar process?? can't you? (The creativity part is especially critical in finding bridges and cross application.)
Interactive lectures can not be compared to a video. Group dynamics differ so greatly and the combinations of factors are so great I won't believe much of anything claimed anymore than I think you can guess my 8 digit password (which is a much smaller domain.)
Costs issues: Private schools are big business. The loan system is really really big business; larger than credit cards! Naturally the big corps lobby to raise costs so they can rape you further. People seem to forget is that public subsidy for public education has gone down by about HALF in a generation! Also, the few unions left have kept their people's pay from going down as much as other sectors - school operating cost is not really higher its that you are lower!! People bitch about the ones who jumped out of the pot instead of realizing that the pot is slowly boiling them! Then the fools vote to turn up the heat...it is so sad. Just like healthcare, a huge overhead is the funding scam but we can't talk about that instead we have to fight over smaller issues (some are not even issues.)
Ha! it is windows XP; it is not safe plugged into any network with their silly security patches! A decade of patches and its still a joke. You firewall that sucker down like crazy and hope nothing gets on it by other means (or in the few min its online without protection and gets hacked.)
Approximately 70 cents on a gallon of gas in the USA is for the "market" to gamble with under the farce of creating stability. The price of oil never seems high enough to even mention this sacred cow; which should be the big elephant in the room. Every big jump we have to endure empty rhetoric about the miniscule gas taxes... or long term solutions we won't fully support, so they remain long term.
Iran has strong ties to China (oil) and that makes it too complicated for the USA to easily sell the mess it will create.
CEO Meg Whitman explaining away another big HP failure that was not her fault? Why does this feel familiar?
A lot of people should have quit so she could blame them for her troubles-- could you get a better recommendation than the CEO saying they are failing because you quit their huge corporation? (except perhaps that it is Meg Whitman...although maybe nobody holds her record against her anymore since they did hire her back again.)
Replace the congress. MOST of them. Then maybe there is some hope; assuming whatever pres doesn't label them enemy combatants and disappear them...
We get the same plans against the people regardless of who gets in.
2020 is around the time we'll be considered done. Rome didn't fall in a day you know, neither did USSR for that matter either. Mark my words. Not that it matters when it comes, nobody will remember the "nuts" who were correct; making people feel good is all that matters and that is the root of the problem.
Problem is, will the USA go down nicely like the UK did or will they try to take as many down with them?
I followed Ron Paul before he was popular. I know Paul-tards and they say the same thing. Funny but that is not far from what the Obama fans were telling me back in 2008...
The rigged primary races against Paul in 2008 and they will pull the same dirty tricks again and MAYBE it'll get some attention this time. There also wasn't a big fuss made about the debates Paul was barred from in the 2008 primary race when his numbers were higher than Rudy Giuliani. I occasionally that new reality-TV show called "The GOP primary debates" and have noticed how little airtime Paul gets (but its better than nothing.)
You can't be a leader by veto. That is, assuming he would get in against the whole system's onslaught. Obama would clobber Ron Paul anyhow; the big money and their media won't back Paul.
The break from reality the fans have is always the same... Its not a dictatorship UNLESS they go with the power elites; like Bush did, but as soon as they step out of line or go against the flow all that power that seemed to be there is gone. One could see this as Obama was being put into his place the 1st couple years.
NO, the newer bulbs COST MORE and they also have a chicken/egg problem in that they need to be popular before they can be cheap enough to be popular... It is an infinite loop that needed to be stopped and the market's behavior perpetuated it with no reason to break out of it. Doing the right thing has NOTHING to do with it-- that requires consumers to be educated and responsible in huge numbers.
WALMART: Americans say they want jobs; they'd like to buy American so they can keep their jobs, yet they bought Chinese and put themselves out of work by buying cheap Chinese products that until recent years were clearly inferior.
The American public can't even save its own economy and you think they are capable of buying wisely?
Obama got in by a lot and it was a clear message that was sent; Obama didn't get that message himself but it was quite clear people wanted a big change with their new outsider of a new color with a vague broad message of change.
The biggest obstructionist move EVER in the history of the nation was the response. Ron Paul wouldn't be any different, he couldn't bend over backwards with compromise and get much of anything or become a moderate; both which Obama did and neither of which actually worked. You are not thinking; Ron Paul would get LESS out of them than Obama did. Then as things got worse, incumbents would be punished but its not likely people supporting him would get in; but those with the money to hire marketing to exploit whatever the trends are will -- the most corrupt ones... as we had in 2011.
The problem is getting enough honest ones in office when the process is so controlled to filter those people out.
Make money from late fees and human processing errors OR make money from "convenience" fees. Funny how they all wanted it electronic for years so they would save themselves money and now they are charging YOU for saving them money.
Not much choice when they all suck.
The FCC bandwidth should be government run like the roads and they get some sort of timeshare over it; at least we can have some real competition and much higher bandwidth (broader frequency range available instead of selling off small frequency monopolies.)
New flash: A new discovery was made finding that an Ancient society referenced something we've heard about in our mythology. Could this mean the myth is true??;-)
Free enterprise makes you eat their brand-name vegetables. Only a marathon running health nut would get a full salary; that is, until they are middle aged and are let go for less costly younger employees.
You people always point out the obvious as well as miss many obvious aspects (well sadly, not so obvious:)
1) Coal is subsidized, at all levels. From corruption leading to historic mountain tops being destroyed to the state subsidies for destroying them to the legal cover for the health costs and deaths resulting from it. In many states, if you lived on surface coal, they'd kick you out cheaply and take the land but if somebody wants to put wind towers within eyesight it gets stopped dead in its tracks.
2) Coal externalizes costs. Pollution costs which lead to many costly side problems. We made a law to force seat belts in cars on the grounds it costs other people more money (also covered with the "for your own safety" BS.) But we can't force seat belts on big monopoly-like industries... In my state we have regulations and then we have WAVERS for those regulations among other lawyer games; plus our neighbor states are more corrupt and we have to put up with their shit blowing over here. Plus we exported our industrial pollution to China (along with our jobs) putting those regulated internal costs BACK AGAIN to externalized costs... but this time also externalizing our jobs too.
3) A LONG HISTORY exists for traditional fuel-- infrastructure and everything. One can't expect a system designed around a few technologies to work the same when the core tech is replaced with something different. The grid is designed around centralized monopoly powers; a decentralized power grid would be a market; that is, an actual free market. What puzzles me how free market propaganda is used to defend monopoly situations and how easily people swallow it. The grid should be like the roads-- a government managed infrastructure on which markets depend.
4) Sun shines in OTHER locations when it is not shining upon you (aka; you are not the center of the universe.) Wind blows often when there is no sun. Wind blows in other locations when it is not by you. The larger the distribution grid and the smarter it is the more the spikes are averaged out to the point where there is no need for base load at all. Yes this is possible and it does cost to build up such a system just as it cost a crazy amount of money to build the primitive grid we have today. We can't invest that money today; I wonder how today's people could get any power if past generations didn't do it for us. Base load needs are actually far less than people think and could actually be eliminated completely in most situations.
5) Most power needs are DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS. Obvious enough? Biggest single use of power? Heating and Cooling. IR light still happens on cloudy days.
6) Our ignorance/foolishness about our finite resources created a wasteful culture with unrealistic expectations. It wasn't solely demand that raised prices over time, the cheapest sources RAN OUT! (peak oil happened many times) Responsible use costs more; conservation costs more; recycling costs more (until new stuff costs more than recycling does.) You SHOULD pay a bundle to heat your wasteful house-- in the 1950s you could skip insulation and just burn more fuel because it was totally irresponsible and ok to do so-- besides the house would cost more than the cost just burn more fuel! Tax it and you get thrown out of office by the selfish voters. The world didn't come to an end when people were forced by reality to use insulation due to the reality of raising fuel prices... Now you are thought of as a fool to not insulate... The whole perspective of most people is usually out of touch with reality; a sustainable system of any kind has significant constraints vs what our thoughtless procrastination allows.
7) Alternative power can not compete with existing monopoly power. Its not really a legit "marketplace"-- its a rigged competition and one that the big industries love to sucker you into a losing battle. If you want something smarter, greener, better it is going to COST MORE and that is reality! Coal is free energy you just have to spend money to harvest and use it
Mod parent up! That is a large part of it!! The system and its reality distortion warps how we look at a lot of things; its far more influential than what Steve Jobs did.
Gasland is just an intro to the problems of natural gas. People just don't have the balls to switch over smartly; we have to idiotically transition over time and procrastinate. Only an actual WAR (we've not had one in some time) seems to get people seriously moving. We can fight the Nazis and win in no time but we can't solve our energy problem over decades.
Eisenhower knew the military complex having been involved with it personally from two sides and how it was growing to be a huge threat.
Eisenhower did not do science or research and had little understanding of them. As science was providing more answers it became a huge factor in intelligent decision making; obviously, that means science 'producers' have a great deal of unelected influence just like the military was also doing -- the difference being theirs is actually EARNED and WARRANTED while the military complex doesn't deserve jack.
Sure there is similarity and they both can undermine the "will of the people" except science deals in REALITY which does not always match with public perception. Eisenhower also didn't seem to grasp that global science consensus is different that what our military industry wants and that somebody can actually LEARN and verify the information they are given.
Not audio, but text files on CDs. Library already has had audio books for decades; previously on Tape, now on CDs. Using CDs would put it into the traditional role and require some physical interaction and wear.
Sue the publishers for not providing CD versions of books; or when they try to prevent a library from scanning a physical book to CD.
Half the voting Americans are clueless and can easily be suckered into believing a decent politician is an undercover Muslim from Kenya who wants to destroy the nation under a Fascist dictatorship and impose communist socialism. (I'm not making that up, its been said multiple times for years.)
In Australia when their ruling party fucked up big they lost every seat except a some cities; but in the USA with the 3 branch GOP 8 year foobar 100x worse they only barely lost control of 2 branches but easily gummed things up for the upper 1% until the next season of advertizing. (Plus the crook democrats need a cover story to excuse them from selling out and essentially being republican.) Sorry, if I offended the loyal customers who think Republican means something other than the brand name it now is which was bought and payed for many years ago. The dems are not in a much better shape.
Are Americans just that much more stupid than Australians? perhaps. Australia REQUIRES EVERYBODY TO VOTE; perhaps that is the main difference? Parliament systems are probably better.
School has more important things to teach than typing. Kids grow up with typing exposure; not much time needs to be put into it if any time at all. Somebody who needs it for a job can learn proper typing on their own instead of wasting a whole semester on it as my high school offered while allowing students to graduate with almost NO science education. My relative's children must take typing and computers around 9th grade; its not optional. That is even more stupid, they learn MS Office as well. They were doing papers and operating a computer beforehand just fine.
WRITING as I've frequently been told by a developmental child psychologist, is important to early brain development and will impact other subjects later on. Even though we do not need to write anything down anymore (except in math class) children should at least get that mental exercise. Typing is NOT as effective so handwriting should be taught-- me, I'd kill off cursive to spend more time on math (or maybe just cut down the time on cursive down a lot.) Sadly, we need to teach how to read an analog clock - I thought that was a waste of time but then apparently so did many schools and I've run into ADULTS who can't read a clock!!! unbelievable if I hadn't seen it multiple times.
The real problem is teaching people to learn on their own-- any dimwit should be able to figure out how to read a clock but here we have a bunch of adults who "can't read a clock" with some sort of mental block because even passively one has to pick it up somehow. (as I did BEFORE it was taught to me in school.) I run into way too many adults crippled by similar mental blocks and the older they are the worse it is-- because older people have developed and entrenched more defensive behavior patterns (this is partially why people generally appear to get more conservative with age.)
If a child has ANY computer class in school, that time should be used for applying education psychology more than any current (likely out of date already) technology. Its rare to have that kind of time to focus on meta-cognition and psychology and no stupid testing system to dictate everything. I would bone up on my developmental psychology and learning theories and use that time to do critical thinking projects. programming would be likely involved. Typing would get maybe a week at most just so everybody knows where their hands should go and how to sit. I'd probably re-read my copy of MindStorms and The Children's Machine. Maybe I could get legos involved, just because kids are so mechanically/spatially retarded (except the shop kids, who are "exceptional" relative to the new norm and I could go into depth on that one...) I KNOW people who buy new TV remotes when the batteries go dead! (Apple users too; I don't wonder how apple got the idea.)
The more I learn about learning/education and development the less realistic the popular views become. There is no born-in natural IQ; people can mold their brains far more than is realized (yet everybody hears about brain damaged people re-learning amazingly impossible things but doesn't realize their fully functional brain should be more capable of such big changes.)
Hey, I was in a hurry. you got the point. Besides I never type perimeter but I do type parameter plenty-- ever notice how you think one thing and do another? happens more as I get older; conditioned patterns pop up without noticing. proof reading? forget it.
ANYBODY who has programming experience should be strongly opposed to GM foods! We can't get simple closed digital systems we supposedly understand and built 100% to function properly as designed where 99% of the time the errors are not an issue. So we are supposed to blindly put our faith into a field newer than computer science, which is vastly more complex, analog, with slower debug cycles, can self replicate, with commands we do not really understand (we largely just splice segments of code like some beginner programmer hacking together google results,) and which has to interact with many other different systems?
Foolish is not strong enough of a word to cover it.
GM foods in the EU are possibly worse than other high-money organized propaganda because not only is it like big oil and big tobacco but as Wikileaks has shown the USA government is heavily pressuring them on behalf of their corporate masters (Monsanto) to force monopoly FOOD backed by stupid "I.P." laws which already have been used to crush legitimate natural farmers and seed suppliers out of business or over to GM crops. Science has little to do with the issue; its BIG POWER politics and that reality distortion field at work.
I've used many layouts. For high school I am not sure. Depends on usage.
The silly typing courses many high schools have-- if that is all it is for, then old terminals are plenty good + make it more office like with typical office chairs etc since posture is part of that topic. Adjustable screens, keyboards etc should be part of it-- as the parent post suggests. possibly even have a couple styles to choose from (learning to type is a waste of time, but learning to save your hands and back is so important later...) no desk needed for such a class... Classic typewriters would outlast any computer and work just as well to build that skill. keyboards are cheap; typing programs run just fine on Apple ][s. I might have a WORKING one in the basement, probably still runs typing tutor...
The worst "lab" I've had is a normal room with a parameter of computers desks. This makes it easy to see what people are doing and stand in the center area; its horrible for college lectures because they can't use the computer and see what you are showing; on the plus side, they can't use the computer... Our newer "labs" decided upon this kind of layout to make a clean break between lecture and computer lab time physically; I hate this while others like it. For high school this may work out; despite it requiring more floor space than a normal room - its not all that disruptive to make them move during class; they are kids and likely need some moving around...and some discipline in doing so maturely. Without locked down machines you know they'll goof off and if you lock it down, a kid like myself will be distracted by that challenge... You can easily see what is going on with a parameter layout (plus equip the room far cheaper.)
The coolest lab I've seen was one with individual desks that had monitors IN THE DESK; it was odd to look downward but also really cool. takes a little getting used to-- I've not got that lab, the math dept has it. probably good for their needs.
Daylight is nice; however, a brightly lit room is more important than windows; full spectrum bulbs are enough. When I was in school it was dim all the time; now they seem to have double the lights! A board student or easily distracted student LOVES WINDOWS. I shut the blinds. Skylights waste energy in heating or cooling in most places.
Every computer lab I've used which was full became stuffy after a while; I figured it was the extra heat in the room that caused it to feel that way; except in rooms designed as labs where they had extra venting planned... Those would often seem too cold and dry (I should complain someday.) I would STRONGLY recommend some of the NASA plants... actually, a ton of them would be needed-- hang them around the parameter of the room up high and SOLID. The feeling of the room is greatly improved by this; plus the humidity will be more natural and the oxygen level will be higher. (see snake plant, I think its the best one on the list. I don't have a room of my own or I would do this.) Peppermint. Its a smell, not a taste and its a mental stimulant like ginko (it works, ginko doesn't do jack for me.) Two proven impacts: 1) mental subconscious connection to the room and past situation upon entering the room. 2) it wakes you up mentally although it has to be rather strong for that. There is no official allergy, but I sprinkle the oil around the room secretly before class. The plant doesn't smell as much but you could grow that... (I suggest putting a few drops on the keyboards, haven't busted one yet!)
Metalic PAINT... I hate cell phones... the kids these days (girls) can text amazingly fast... if you could only get them to properly type gossip to each other under their desks...
ANY kind of development work can use LARGE monitors! actually, 2 cheaper ones makes a lot of sense... since most people are going to laptops and will hook up a 2nd display... If you do any graphic work, get nice monitors; if its just typing any crap will do. DO NOT get all-in-one computers. that is just stupid. Also if you do developm
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-Ben Franklin (yes THAT one)
A 4 year degree involves other topics traditionally and it is not just to employ the less important topics. Broadening student minds and trying to create actual intellectuals who were "well rounded" was the goal of many and for some it still is. Latin is pretty useless but the older schools required it of all students; not only as a filter but there was a traditional perception of that ability being part of being a smart educated man (not as bad as how women had to learn total BS at finishing schools.)
You could argue those traditional ideas were without merit and we should break from the past. I would not. I do not think an intellectual can be narrow in focus; different "modes" of thinking and kinds of intelligence overlap into topics where they are not well suited but can produce great results. NEW thought is quite rare and most papers written contain very little new conceptually; maybe some trivial stuff you can think of if you just put in a little time on the topic. Quite a bit of new innovative thinking involves thinking across disciplines AND CREATIVITY (aka right brain thinking.) Sadly, I cringe just using the word "innovative" or even "new" since those have lost most meaning today. Einstein played music, its possible he wouldn't have done what he did without exercising that half his brain (I'm not solely giving credit to that 1 activity but didn't just use 1 half his brain.)
Bio-mimicry is all the rage today but previously people were wasting time studying creatures at depth; it wasn't a waste in the end was it? Many pointless things turn out to have use or influence another area - its not merely mental exercise with benefits but the work itself often proves useful in unexpected ways later on. Back to bio-mimicry, we study nature/evolutionary solutions to problems and by adapting those solutions to new areas we "innovate" -- surely, you can see how a broad education or intellectual thought is a similar process?? can't you? (The creativity part is especially critical in finding bridges and cross application.)
Interactive lectures can not be compared to a video. Group dynamics differ so greatly and the combinations of factors are so great I won't believe much of anything claimed anymore than I think you can guess my 8 digit password (which is a much smaller domain.)
Costs issues:
Private schools are big business. The loan system is really really big business; larger than credit cards! Naturally the big corps lobby to raise costs so they can rape you further. People seem to forget is that public subsidy for public education has gone down by about HALF in a generation! Also, the few unions left have kept their people's pay from going down as much as other sectors - school operating cost is not really higher its that you are lower!! People bitch about the ones who jumped out of the pot instead of realizing that the pot is slowly boiling them! Then the fools vote to turn up the heat...it is so sad. Just like healthcare, a huge overhead is the funding scam but we can't talk about that instead we have to fight over smaller issues (some are not even issues.)
Ha! it is windows XP; it is not safe plugged into any network with their silly security patches! A decade of patches and its still a joke. You firewall that sucker down like crazy and hope nothing gets on it by other means (or in the few min its online without protection and gets hacked.)
Approximately 70 cents on a gallon of gas in the USA is for the "market" to gamble with under the farce of creating stability. The price of oil never seems high enough to even mention this sacred cow; which should be the big elephant in the room. Every big jump we have to endure empty rhetoric about the miniscule gas taxes... or long term solutions we won't fully support, so they remain long term.
Iran has strong ties to China (oil) and that makes it too complicated for the USA to easily sell the mess it will create.
CEO Meg Whitman explaining away another big HP failure that was not her fault? Why does this feel familiar?
A lot of people should have quit so she could blame them for her troubles-- could you get a better recommendation than the CEO saying they are failing because you quit their huge corporation? (except perhaps that it is Meg Whitman...although maybe nobody holds her record against her anymore since they did hire her back again.)
Replace the congress. MOST of them. Then maybe there is some hope; assuming whatever pres doesn't label them enemy combatants and disappear them...
We get the same plans against the people regardless of who gets in.
2020 is around the time we'll be considered done. Rome didn't fall in a day you know, neither did USSR for that matter either. Mark my words. Not that it matters when it comes, nobody will remember the "nuts" who were correct; making people feel good is all that matters and that is the root of the problem.
Problem is, will the USA go down nicely like the UK did or will they try to take as many down with them?
I followed Ron Paul before he was popular. I know Paul-tards and they say the same thing. Funny but that is not far from what the Obama fans were telling me back in 2008...
The rigged primary races against Paul in 2008 and they will pull the same dirty tricks again and MAYBE it'll get some attention this time. There also wasn't a big fuss made about the debates Paul was barred from in the 2008 primary race when his numbers were higher than Rudy Giuliani. I occasionally that new reality-TV show called "The GOP primary debates" and have noticed how little airtime Paul gets (but its better than nothing.)
You can't be a leader by veto. That is, assuming he would get in against the whole system's onslaught. Obama would clobber Ron Paul anyhow; the big money and their media won't back Paul.
The break from reality the fans have is always the same... Its not a dictatorship UNLESS they go with the power elites; like Bush did, but as soon as they step out of line or go against the flow all that power that seemed to be there is gone. One could see this as Obama was being put into his place the 1st couple years.
NO, the newer bulbs COST MORE and they also have a chicken/egg problem in that they need to be popular before they can be cheap enough to be popular... It is an infinite loop that needed to be stopped and the market's behavior perpetuated it with no reason to break out of it. Doing the right thing has NOTHING to do with it-- that requires consumers to be educated and responsible in huge numbers.
WALMART:
Americans say they want jobs; they'd like to buy American so they can keep their jobs, yet they bought Chinese and put themselves out of work by buying cheap Chinese products that until recent years were clearly inferior.
The American public can't even save its own economy and you think they are capable of buying wisely?
Obama got in by a lot and it was a clear message that was sent; Obama didn't get that message himself but it was quite clear people wanted a big change with their new outsider of a new color with a vague broad message of change.
The biggest obstructionist move EVER in the history of the nation was the response. Ron Paul wouldn't be any different, he couldn't bend over backwards with compromise and get much of anything or become a moderate; both which Obama did and neither of which actually worked. You are not thinking; Ron Paul would get LESS out of them than Obama did. Then as things got worse, incumbents would be punished but its not likely people supporting him would get in; but those with the money to hire marketing to exploit whatever the trends are will -- the most corrupt ones... as we had in 2011.
The problem is getting enough honest ones in office when the process is so controlled to filter those people out.
Make money from late fees and human processing errors OR make money from "convenience" fees. Funny how they all wanted it electronic for years so they would save themselves money and now they are charging YOU for saving them money.
Not much choice when they all suck.
The FCC bandwidth should be government run like the roads and they get some sort of timeshare over it; at least we can have some real competition and much higher bandwidth (broader frequency range available instead of selling off small frequency monopolies.)
mod parent up
New flash: ;-)
A new discovery was made finding that an Ancient society referenced something we've heard about in our mythology. Could this mean the myth is true??
Free enterprise makes you eat their brand-name vegetables.
Only a marathon running health nut would get a full salary; that is, until they are middle aged and are let go for less costly younger employees.
You people always point out the obvious as well as miss many obvious aspects (well sadly, not so obvious:)
1) Coal is subsidized, at all levels. From corruption leading to historic mountain tops being destroyed to the state subsidies for destroying them to the legal cover for the health costs and deaths resulting from it. In many states, if you lived on surface coal, they'd kick you out cheaply and take the land but if somebody wants to put wind towers within eyesight it gets stopped dead in its tracks.
2) Coal externalizes costs. Pollution costs which lead to many costly side problems. We made a law to force seat belts in cars on the grounds it costs other people more money (also covered with the "for your own safety" BS.) But we can't force seat belts on big monopoly-like industries... In my state we have regulations and then we have WAVERS for those regulations among other lawyer games; plus our neighbor states are more corrupt and we have to put up with their shit blowing over here. Plus we exported our industrial pollution to China (along with our jobs) putting those regulated internal costs BACK AGAIN to externalized costs... but this time also externalizing our jobs too.
3) A LONG HISTORY exists for traditional fuel-- infrastructure and everything. One can't expect a system designed around a few technologies to work the same when the core tech is replaced with something different. The grid is designed around centralized monopoly powers; a decentralized power grid would be a market; that is, an actual free market. What puzzles me how free market propaganda is used to defend monopoly situations and how easily people swallow it. The grid should be like the roads-- a government managed infrastructure on which markets depend.
4) Sun shines in OTHER locations when it is not shining upon you (aka; you are not the center of the universe.) Wind blows often when there is no sun. Wind blows in other locations when it is not by you. The larger the distribution grid and the smarter it is the more the spikes are averaged out to the point where there is no need for base load at all. Yes this is possible and it does cost to build up such a system just as it cost a crazy amount of money to build the primitive grid we have today. We can't invest that money today; I wonder how today's people could get any power if past generations didn't do it for us. Base load needs are actually far less than people think and could actually be eliminated completely in most situations.
5) Most power needs are DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS. Obvious enough? Biggest single use of power? Heating and Cooling. IR light still happens on cloudy days.
6) Our ignorance/foolishness about our finite resources created a wasteful culture with unrealistic expectations. It wasn't solely demand that raised prices over time, the cheapest sources RAN OUT! (peak oil happened many times) Responsible use costs more; conservation costs more; recycling costs more (until new stuff costs more than recycling does.) You SHOULD pay a bundle to heat your wasteful house-- in the 1950s you could skip insulation and just burn more fuel because it was totally irresponsible and ok to do so-- besides the house would cost more than the cost just burn more fuel! Tax it and you get thrown out of office by the selfish voters. The world didn't come to an end when people were forced by reality to use insulation due to the reality of raising fuel prices... Now you are thought of as a fool to not insulate... The whole perspective of most people is usually out of touch with reality; a sustainable system of any kind has significant constraints vs what our thoughtless procrastination allows.
7) Alternative power can not compete with existing monopoly power. Its not really a legit "marketplace"-- its a rigged competition and one that the big industries love to sucker you into a losing battle. If you want something smarter, greener, better it is going to COST MORE and that is reality! Coal is free energy you just have to spend money to harvest and use it
Mod parent up! That is a large part of it!! The system and its reality distortion warps how we look at a lot of things; its far more influential than what Steve Jobs did.
Gasland is just an intro to the problems of natural gas. People just don't have the balls to switch over smartly; we have to idiotically transition over time and procrastinate. Only an actual WAR (we've not had one in some time) seems to get people seriously moving. We can fight the Nazis and win in no time but we can't solve our energy problem over decades.
Eisenhower knew the military complex having been involved with it personally from two sides and how it was growing to be a huge threat.
Eisenhower did not do science or research and had little understanding of them. As science was providing more answers it became a huge factor in intelligent decision making; obviously, that means science 'producers' have a great deal of unelected influence just like the military was also doing -- the difference being theirs is actually EARNED and WARRANTED while the military complex doesn't deserve jack.
Sure there is similarity and they both can undermine the "will of the people" except science deals in REALITY which does not always match with public perception. Eisenhower also didn't seem to grasp that global science consensus is different that what our military industry wants and that somebody can actually LEARN and verify the information they are given.
Not audio, but text files on CDs. Library already has had audio books for decades; previously on Tape, now on CDs. Using CDs would put it into the traditional role and require some physical interaction and wear.
Sue the publishers for not providing CD versions of books; or when they try to prevent a library from scanning a physical book to CD.
>unless you are one of the two people in the world that actually uses it appropriately.
1) George Carlin
2) ? you ?
Half the voting Americans are clueless and can easily be suckered into believing a decent politician is an undercover Muslim from Kenya who wants to destroy the nation under a Fascist dictatorship and impose communist socialism. (I'm not making that up, its been said multiple times for years.)
In Australia when their ruling party fucked up big they lost every seat except a some cities; but in the USA with the 3 branch GOP 8 year foobar 100x worse they only barely lost control of 2 branches but easily gummed things up for the upper 1% until the next season of advertizing. (Plus the crook democrats need a cover story to excuse them from selling out and essentially being republican.) Sorry, if I offended the loyal customers who think Republican means something other than the brand name it now is which was bought and payed for many years ago. The dems are not in a much better shape.
Are Americans just that much more stupid than Australians? perhaps. Australia REQUIRES EVERYBODY TO VOTE; perhaps that is the main difference? Parliament systems are probably better.
School has more important things to teach than typing. Kids grow up with typing exposure; not much time needs to be put into it if any time at all. Somebody who needs it for a job can learn proper typing on their own instead of wasting a whole semester on it as my high school offered while allowing students to graduate with almost NO science education. My relative's children must take typing and computers around 9th grade; its not optional. That is even more stupid, they learn MS Office as well. They were doing papers and operating a computer beforehand just fine.
WRITING as I've frequently been told by a developmental child psychologist, is important to early brain development and will impact other subjects later on. Even though we do not need to write anything down anymore (except in math class) children should at least get that mental exercise. Typing is NOT as effective so handwriting should be taught-- me, I'd kill off cursive to spend more time on math (or maybe just cut down the time on cursive down a lot.) Sadly, we need to teach how to read an analog clock - I thought that was a waste of time but then apparently so did many schools and I've run into ADULTS who can't read a clock!!! unbelievable if I hadn't seen it multiple times.
The real problem is teaching people to learn on their own-- any dimwit should be able to figure out how to read a clock but here we have a bunch of adults who "can't read a clock" with some sort of mental block because even passively one has to pick it up somehow. (as I did BEFORE it was taught to me in school.) I run into way too many adults crippled by similar mental blocks and the older they are the worse it is-- because older people have developed and entrenched more defensive behavior patterns (this is partially why people generally appear to get more conservative with age.)
If a child has ANY computer class in school, that time should be used for applying education psychology more than any current (likely out of date already) technology. Its rare to have that kind of time to focus on meta-cognition and psychology and no stupid testing system to dictate everything. I would bone up on my developmental psychology and learning theories and use that time to do critical thinking projects. programming would be likely involved. Typing would get maybe a week at most just so everybody knows where their hands should go and how to sit. I'd probably re-read my copy of MindStorms and The Children's Machine. Maybe I could get legos involved, just because kids are so mechanically/spatially retarded (except the shop kids, who are "exceptional" relative to the new norm and I could go into depth on that one...) I KNOW people who buy new TV remotes when the batteries go dead! (Apple users too; I don't wonder how apple got the idea.)
The more I learn about learning/education and development the less realistic the popular views become. There is no born-in natural IQ; people can mold their brains far more than is realized (yet everybody hears about brain damaged people re-learning amazingly impossible things but doesn't realize their fully functional brain should be more capable of such big changes.)
Hey, I was in a hurry. you got the point. Besides I never type perimeter but I do type parameter plenty-- ever notice how you think one thing and do another? happens more as I get older; conditioned patterns pop up without noticing. proof reading? forget it.
ANYBODY who has programming experience should be strongly opposed to GM foods! We can't get simple closed digital systems we supposedly understand and built 100% to function properly as designed where 99% of the time the errors are not an issue. So we are supposed to blindly put our faith into a field newer than computer science, which is vastly more complex, analog, with slower debug cycles, can self replicate, with commands we do not really understand (we largely just splice segments of code like some beginner programmer hacking together google results,) and which has to interact with many other different systems?
Foolish is not strong enough of a word to cover it.
GM foods in the EU are possibly worse than other high-money organized propaganda because not only is it like big oil and big tobacco but as Wikileaks has shown the USA government is heavily pressuring them on behalf of their corporate masters (Monsanto) to force monopoly FOOD backed by stupid "I.P." laws which already have been used to crush legitimate natural farmers and seed suppliers out of business or over to GM crops. Science has little to do with the issue; its BIG POWER politics and that reality distortion field at work.
Yes. I do know that. But to state vaguely is just asking for trolls.
I've used many layouts. For high school I am not sure. Depends on usage.
The silly typing courses many high schools have-- if that is all it is for, then old terminals are plenty good + make it more office like with typical office chairs etc since posture is part of that topic. Adjustable screens, keyboards etc should be part of it-- as the parent post suggests. possibly even have a couple styles to choose from (learning to type is a waste of time, but learning to save your hands and back is so important later...) no desk needed for such a class... Classic typewriters would outlast any computer and work just as well to build that skill. keyboards are cheap; typing programs run just fine on Apple ][s. I might have a WORKING one in the basement, probably still runs typing tutor...
The worst "lab" I've had is a normal room with a parameter of computers desks. This makes it easy to see what people are doing and stand in the center area; its horrible for college lectures because they can't use the computer and see what you are showing; on the plus side, they can't use the computer... Our newer "labs" decided upon this kind of layout to make a clean break between lecture and computer lab time physically; I hate this while others like it. For high school this may work out; despite it requiring more floor space than a normal room - its not all that disruptive to make them move during class; they are kids and likely need some moving around...and some discipline in doing so maturely. Without locked down machines you know they'll goof off and if you lock it down, a kid like myself will be distracted by that challenge... You can easily see what is going on with a parameter layout (plus equip the room far cheaper.)
The coolest lab I've seen was one with individual desks that had monitors IN THE DESK; it was odd to look downward but also really cool. takes a little getting used to-- I've not got that lab, the math dept has it. probably good for their needs.
Daylight is nice; however, a brightly lit room is more important than windows; full spectrum bulbs are enough. When I was in school it was dim all the time; now they seem to have double the lights! A board student or easily distracted student LOVES WINDOWS. I shut the blinds. Skylights waste energy in heating or cooling in most places.
Every computer lab I've used which was full became stuffy after a while; I figured it was the extra heat in the room that caused it to feel that way; except in rooms designed as labs where they had extra venting planned... Those would often seem too cold and dry (I should complain someday.) I would STRONGLY recommend some of the NASA plants... actually, a ton of them would be needed-- hang them around the parameter of the room up high and SOLID. The feeling of the room is greatly improved by this; plus the humidity will be more natural and the oxygen level will be higher. (see snake plant, I think its the best one on the list. I don't have a room of my own or I would do this.) Peppermint. Its a smell, not a taste and its a mental stimulant like ginko (it works, ginko doesn't do jack for me.) Two proven impacts: 1) mental subconscious connection to the room and past situation upon entering the room. 2) it wakes you up mentally although it has to be rather strong for that. There is no official allergy, but I sprinkle the oil around the room secretly before class. The plant doesn't smell as much but you could grow that... (I suggest putting a few drops on the keyboards, haven't busted one yet!)
Metalic PAINT... I hate cell phones... the kids these days (girls) can text amazingly fast... if you could only get them to properly type gossip to each other under their desks...
ANY kind of development work can use LARGE monitors! actually, 2 cheaper ones makes a lot of sense... since most people are going to laptops and will hook up a 2nd display... If you do any graphic work, get nice monitors; if its just typing any crap will do. DO NOT get all-in-one computers. that is just stupid. Also if you do developm