How many times do you suppose Amazon has "accidentally" overcharged people and contacted them to issue a refund? They wouldn't have to because if they accidentally priced an item at 100% over the usual retail price they wouldn't sell any.
Also, there is a difference between overcharging someone and overpricing an item.
Strange, I can't seem to find where I stated his answer was clear and concise... You said his answer to question one was compatible with his answer to question two:
The American people should expect clear and direct answers to their questions.
If that doesn't mean that you think his answer was clear and concise (OK, he didn't say concise, but you did) then WTF was your point? That we should expect them, but not actually get them?
Yes, I realize that. And other than the home schooling groups, I am willing to bet that many of those types of private schools expend significantly more per student than the public schools do.
So, for parents of average or above performing students, taking their share of tax funding from the schools and going private could result in a net improvement. For parents of special needs kids, the picture might not be so great.
Regardless, I always wonder where all these great teachers who are willing to work for current public school salaries or less would magically appear from if everybody switched from public to private.
1: He basically stated that by discontinuing our subsidization of other countries through military aid, they will quickly find they have a lot less money to blow on costly, competitive space plans. Beyond that, it's not our business to try to interfere with other countries' efforts to build a space infrastructure. We ought to try to improve our own, of course. Now I interpreted his statement as meaning once we waste less money on defending other nations we will have more money to waste on our space programs. I don't know to what extent India relies on us militarily, but China sure as heck doesn't, so his answer as you interpret it doesn't make a lick of sense.
If his answer was clear and concise, your post would be unnecessary not insightful. To me it reads like the usual "stick to the message" politician speak.
I agree, however, if education were left to the free market, we would end up having to decide between schools that are so expensive only those rich enough could afford them or the Walmart version of education. I'm a fan of Capitalism, but there are some things that just shouldn't be privatised. And god forbid that your child have a learning disability. A lot of the reason that private schools are able to do more with less is they don't have to provide any special services (which are usually the most highly paid faculty in the school second to the principal), they can pick and choose who goes to their school (dummies and miscreants need not apply, except for the $$$$ specialty schools), and they have the benefit of having students whose parents care enough about their education to pay out of their own pockets.
> There's also an unprecedented level of malicious potential if such developments fall into the wrong hands.
such as...?
WHAT is it that could possibly go wrong? To paraphrase Rumsfeld, there are known knowns, and known unknowns, then there are the unknown unknowns. The last are the most dangerous.
In the history of science, there are plenty of examples of unintended consequences, especially when mucking around with biological systems. Not saying that we should completely avoid mucking around, but the question "What could possibly go wrong?" is a question worth asking.
I think the cash transfer scams tend to offer pretty hefty commissions in the 10% range. That is a nice cut for so little effort and most people would be wary of giving that up on an ongoing basis for a one-time score. Plus for those that even question the legality of what they are doing, it crosses the line into definite criminal behavior and if you got caught it would be much harder to claim to be an innocent co-victim of the scam. Knowing how these scams work, you would be just as big of a slimeball for keeping the money/goods.
Since when does EBay get to decide who is responsible for fraud? They can't in the legal sense, but they can tell Monroe that she needs to pay back the money or they will take her to court to collect. For all we know Monroe sought legal advice and was told she would be found liable to repay the money.
Why would they see the shareholders as their customers? They don't actually get anything if the stock price goes up unless they issue more stock. Because CEOs and board members tend to get fired when they screw the shareholders.
Technology is ALL about bringing us closer. Most no one's invented or created anything that brings us further away from each other. How close we used to be to people at 5mi can now be replicated at 10mi, making the people 5mi away that much closer. Humans crave contact - nothing will ever replace hanging out and joking around with some friends - and things like email, Facebook, IM, and SMS make it easier. It's the old argument of making the world smaller. I find that although technology is bringing us closer to the people far away from us, it is making us more distant to the people around us. So many people are so busy on their cellphones, etc, that they hardly notice what is going on right around them.
Like those damn Bluetooth ear dongles that you see people walking around with like they are going to conduct some important business in the grocery store or something. Recently my wife and I met a friend, her husband, and kids for dinner. On the way out of the restaurant she had to pop in her ear candy for the 20 minute ride home. What, was she expecting the President to call??
But apparently level 4 is just a large scale level 3. It doesn't put my mind at ease that the filter that keeps the Ebola Virus from escaping the CDC is the same kind that's on my vacuum cleaner. HEPA is a type of filter that removes least 99.97% of airborne particles 0.3 microns in diameter. Particles approximately 0.3 microns are typically the hardest to capture and the efficiency for larger and smaller particles is even greater than 99.97%. While these filters and your vacuum cleaner filter are classed the same way, they are likely world's apart in terms of capacity and durability.
Regardless of what type of education rich conservatives (I am not either one) choose to give their kids, the fact remains that religion has less of a role in people's daily lives and their kid's education than it did, say, 40 years ago. Far from advocating prayer in schools, I prefer that religion stay out of government and education. I am disputing the notion that religion is behind any supposed rise in anti-intellectualism or somehow directly interferes with sound math and science education in the classroom.
School budgets are certainly an issue, but you will have to do a little more to convince me that declining local tax support for public schools is a conspiracy by the religious right to wipe out secular education. People don't like higher taxes in general and the local/school budgets are pretty much the only ones that they have the opportunity to vote directly on.
Personally, I'm not sure I accept/understand the underlying premise - why would we want to 'sprawl' and have less interaction anyway? Living in a city for me and many people I know has nothing to do with compulsion, it's because it's fun, interesting, and a centre for culture, entertainment, and humans generally. Most people actually WANT more human interaction, not the Unabomber life. As such, I'm not sure how this (supposed) effect is "paradoxical". Exactly, I think the author is looking for something that isn't there. Single/young people preferred the active lifestyle of a big city before the internet and (OMG) they still do! Obviously this implies that the internet must have major implications in how they choose to live their lives - or not.
The only implications I see from his examples are that people still prefer to meet face-to-face over virtual meetings or email, etc. How he turned that into implying that virtual communication fosters greater face-to-face time beats me.
I think it is time to stop comparisons like "the US is the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world pumping some $340 billion into future-related technologies", because they give a distorted view of reality. The main reason the USA comes out on top so often with this kind of statistic is simply because it is sound a large populous county.
So? The statement in your first sentence is still true. The U.S. is the largest.
For example, the USA wins the most gold medals at the Olympics. But does that mean the USA is the best at sports? No. If we look at gold medals per capita, then Australia easily beats the USA. If we add countries together so we have equivalent populations, then we get another picture - Europe would often beat the USA if it entered as a single country, for instance.
But I doubt the U.S. had as many athletes competing as all of Europe combined (especially in team sports where only one is allowed) or 15 times as many as Australia.
If you looked at R&D per capita, or R&D as a % of GDP, or any other more reasonable metric that just comparing countries of different sizes, I expect you would get a very different picture than the summary suggests.
True, but there are probably a million different ways you can spin the numbers. For example, I bet that a larger portion of the U.S. GDP is agriculturally based than say Finland. Does the U.S. get "dinged" on % GDP calculation for having ample farmland? All these numbers are ultimately meaningless anyways for anything other than a global pissing contest.
This is what happens when a culture has a profound anti-intellectual streak, and when those who epitomize dogma and religious faith start winning out in the court of public opinion over those who believe in science and empiricism. If anything the U.S. has gotten more and more secular as science and math education and achievement have declined. The religious have gotten more outspoken but really religion's influence over people's lives has gotten less and less. The current resurgence of religious sway probably has not helped, but the U.S. has been backsliding for a while now. I think that there are other cultural/socioeconomic factors at work here.
While this is interesting it isn't the kind of thing that is going to make those sleeping RPI students say, "Oh my God, why didn't I know about this sooner?" And don't worry published journal articles are more relevant to getting grants than university press releases.
Where is the panic though? It seems like any time that somebody raises any questions about the safety of GMO, nanotechnology, or nuclear whatever it is labeled as hysteria and dismissed.
Also, if the students are breaking the law outside of school hours, isn't that a matter for the police and not the school? I did not read the article, but the summary suggests that the students were suspended from sports teams and other extracurricular activities. I think in many schools students must sign agreements to remain drug and alcohol free to participate in these activities.
If these automated cars were significantly "crash-proof", there could be substantial savings in weight in reducing the bulk of the frame as well as removing some other safety components.
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Also, there is a difference between overcharging someone and overpricing an item.
The American people should expect clear and direct answers to their questions.
If that doesn't mean that you think his answer was clear and concise (OK, he didn't say concise, but you did) then WTF was your point? That we should expect them, but not actually get them?
Yes, I realize that. And other than the home schooling groups, I am willing to bet that many of those types of private schools expend significantly more per student than the public schools do.
So, for parents of average or above performing students, taking their share of tax funding from the schools and going private could result in a net improvement. For parents of special needs kids, the picture might not be so great.
Regardless, I always wonder where all these great teachers who are willing to work for current public school salaries or less would magically appear from if everybody switched from public to private.
If his answer was clear and concise, your post would be unnecessary not insightful. To me it reads like the usual "stick to the message" politician speak.
such as...?
WHAT is it that could possibly go wrong? To paraphrase Rumsfeld, there are known knowns, and known unknowns, then there are the unknown unknowns. The last are the most dangerous.
In the history of science, there are plenty of examples of unintended consequences, especially when mucking around with biological systems. Not saying that we should completely avoid mucking around, but the question "What could possibly go wrong?" is a question worth asking.
I think the cash transfer scams tend to offer pretty hefty commissions in the 10% range. That is a nice cut for so little effort and most people would be wary of giving that up on an ongoing basis for a one-time score. Plus for those that even question the legality of what they are doing, it crosses the line into definite criminal behavior and if you got caught it would be much harder to claim to be an innocent co-victim of the scam. Knowing how these scams work, you would be just as big of a slimeball for keeping the money/goods.
Like those damn Bluetooth ear dongles that you see people walking around with like they are going to conduct some important business in the grocery store or something. Recently my wife and I met a friend, her husband, and kids for dinner. On the way out of the restaurant she had to pop in her ear candy for the 20 minute ride home. What, was she expecting the President to call??
Regardless of what type of education rich conservatives (I am not either one) choose to give their kids, the fact remains that religion has less of a role in people's daily lives and their kid's education than it did, say, 40 years ago. Far from advocating prayer in schools, I prefer that religion stay out of government and education. I am disputing the notion that religion is behind any supposed rise in anti-intellectualism or somehow directly interferes with sound math and science education in the classroom.
School budgets are certainly an issue, but you will have to do a little more to convince me that declining local tax support for public schools is a conspiracy by the religious right to wipe out secular education. People don't like higher taxes in general and the local/school budgets are pretty much the only ones that they have the opportunity to vote directly on.
The only implications I see from his examples are that people still prefer to meet face-to-face over virtual meetings or email, etc. How he turned that into implying that virtual communication fosters greater face-to-face time beats me.
I think it is time to stop comparisons like "the US is the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world pumping some $340 billion into future-related technologies", because they give a distorted view of reality. The main reason the USA comes out on top so often with this kind of statistic is simply because it is sound a large populous county.
So? The statement in your first sentence is still true. The U.S. is the largest.
For example, the USA wins the most gold medals at the Olympics. But does that mean the USA is the best at sports? No. If we look at gold medals per capita, then Australia easily beats the USA. If we add countries together so we have equivalent populations, then we get another picture - Europe would often beat the USA if it entered as a single country, for instance.
But I doubt the U.S. had as many athletes competing as all of Europe combined (especially in team sports where only one is allowed) or 15 times as many as Australia.
If you looked at R&D per capita, or R&D as a % of GDP, or any other more reasonable metric that just comparing countries of different sizes, I expect you would get a very different picture than the summary suggests.
True, but there are probably a million different ways you can spin the numbers. For example, I bet that a larger portion of the U.S. GDP is agriculturally based than say Finland. Does the U.S. get "dinged" on % GDP calculation for having ample farmland? All these numbers are ultimately meaningless anyways for anything other than a global pissing contest.
While this is interesting it isn't the kind of thing that is going to make those sleeping RPI students say, "Oh my God, why didn't I know about this sooner?" And don't worry published journal articles are more relevant to getting grants than university press releases.
Where is the panic though? It seems like any time that somebody raises any questions about the safety of GMO, nanotechnology, or nuclear whatever it is labeled as hysteria and dismissed.
...not worth bothering with...
I would guess that for something disposable like mice that they are euthanized and then the testes are removed.
They should dock you some karma for that pun.
The CDC now recommends that children 6 months to 5 years of age get the flu vaccine.
If these automated cars were significantly "crash-proof", there could be substantial savings in weight in reducing the bulk of the frame as well as removing some other safety components.