As a teacher in New York state, I can tell you that the Union does not a cut at all. I pay my union dues myself. What European schools do not do is provide a fraction of the special education services that American Schools provide. If you take out Special education costs the per student dollar amount drops precipitously. They also do not provide free lunch and breakfast or in many countries subsidies meals AT ALL. Thirdly, and in my district this is huge, the cost of transportation is ridiculous. We are a rural district with approximately 110 kids per grade but over 300 square miles from which to bus them. New York state just passed a 2% property tax cap which prevents school budgets from going up regardless of whether diesel or gas prices (bus fuel) or heating oil goes up. Moryath is right. If people want a first rate education for their kids they need to be willing to pay for it.
There are a couple of things. First of all you need to get in to MIT. The hard part is admissions. I am not trying to be all critical but there are a lot of C programmers in High School (I teach High School) or kids who are learning how to do all kinds of other cool stuff, but you also have to have grades and SAT scores. If you get in most private colleges of that calibre are going to work with you to get you there.
Secondly, there are some companies who will hire you because you have a degree at MIT and others that don't care. But venture capitalists will look at the MIT degree and a good idea and write you a blank check. . .
just food for thought
When I was in elementary school we had these weird calculator things that would print a math problem on a strip of pape tape and then we needed to punch in the answer. My dad brought home an IBM 5100 and I learned BASIC and APL on that. When i got to Jr. High School My friends and I started Hacking the PDP8 by writing scripts that mimicked the logon screen so that when the computer teacher logged on it would send his name and password to another machine then fake a crash. My friend Glen got an Apple II and I was introduced to the wonderful world of BBSing and the rest is just my life. My kids (11 and 13) are into writing Flash animations and are now learning JAVA. I am an old guy so they are smarter than me. I am hoping they will throw me a bone and teach me how to use this stuff. . . Oh well, It sucks getting old.
Lets keep in mind how excelent service was on the Cunard line and it explains why they were so agressively SPAMMING:
1. Columbia, wrecked near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, 7 Feb. 1843;
2. Balbec, beached after hitting submerged wreckage off Cornwall, 28 March 1884, and declared a total loss;
3. Karnak, wrecked off Bermuda, 1862;
4. Melita, burned at sea, 5 Sep. 1868;
5. Stromboli, lost off the Lizard, 1878;
6. Sidon, wrecked near Malpica, Spain, 27 Oct. 1885;
7. Malta, wrecked near Lands End, 15 Oct. 1889;
8. Demerara, went missing en route from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Dec. 1887;
9. Oregon, sank off Fire Island after collision, 14 Mar. 1886;
10. Lucania, burned and sank while in lay-up at Liverpool, 14 Aug. 1909;
11. Slavonia, grounded at Flores, Azores, 11 June 1909
12. Lusitania, Sunk by U-Boats, off southern Ireland, May 7, 1915
The sinking of the Lusitania did not directly bring the US into the war but there are some that theorize that the First Lord of the Admiralty, a youngster with the name Winston Churchill, may have deliberately sent the Lusitania into harms way in the hope that the loss of American lives (128 American Dead) would drag the US into the war. It did however take another 2 years to happen so. . .
Actually fabric dying has been done for thousands of years. But synthetic dyes had begun to be invented in the late 18th century. Unfortunately since many of the dyes were nitrated compounds they made explosive fabric. In 1856 a Brit named William Perkins invented a colorfast purple dye called Mauvine which resulted in the color mauve. There were several Swiss, French and German companies that were also producing synthetic chemical dyes. By the end of the 19th century a large group of English and French dye manufacturers had gone out of business due to patent disputes leaving the field to the big three German companies; Bayer, B.A.S.F, and Hoechst. After WWI these three companies merged to form IG Farben, makers of Zyklon B poison gas as well as a host of expolosives and other chemicals for the war effort. and yes that is Bayer of aspirin fame. Anyway my point is that the Brits did not just give it up. . . there was a complex series of events that resulted ina superior German chemical industry and an inferior British one. . .
Well it is hard to ignore the effeminate pseudo asian trade federation which mirrors asian stereotypes of the 1930s through 50s in serial and B hollywood films. and if you don't see the step-and-fetch it in Jar-Jar then you need to have your movie goggles adjusted.
I am not going to be a Star Trek appologist as the 60's era trek was all about American Imperialism and spreading the values of the Federation except when the "prime directive" was going to be violated (unavoidable). At least the more current Star trek while including these stereotypical behaviors actually make them plot elements. People are, after all, imperfect. It would be boring to watch perfect characters intereact, there would be no conflict. . . Besides The past two Star wars movies just plain sucked. . .
Well, despite DOE regulations security sucks at privately owned Nuke Plants. Take for example the missing fuel rods from Vermont Yankee
( http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/04/21/nuclear.fuel.missing.ap/ )
I don't somehow think that a government facility will be any safer. . .
I think the whole lot of them are completely incompetent. . .
But is there an issue with intent? I mean it isn't as though we entered the nuclear age because there were a group of scientists who were neutrally exploring the atom; they were building a bomb. It wasn't as if we entered the space age because there were a group of scientists who were neutrally questing for space, we were looking for superiority in a cold war and looking for the ability to deliver a bomb. It seems to me that we end up with a great deal of technology that is "beneficial" because there is money to be made in war but the technology would not necessarily exist if war was not the goal. Frankly I would rather have peace and no velcro or GPS. . .
Well, There were a few songs that I had downloaded from the iTunes store. I guess I felt like I would pay for it because it is the right thing to do. But hell with that if I have to pay buck and a quarter for a poorly encoded song that i can get for free elsewhere.
Well we could re-apropriate the word Pirate. In the 17th century when Pirates were raiding ships on the high seas who were they raiding? The equivalent of large corporations, ie. Ships owned by large Nation-States or by companies with charters by same such as East India co. So pirate ships, which were often organized around democratic principles and populated by liberated slaves and indentured servants is maybe an analogy that would be apropriate for people who are exercising their democratic right to free speech.
Who are these people that are "getting their kicks" broadcasting over another station? How much fun would that be? Oh I am going to make some noise over another frequency so that I get hassled by the FCC. . . I have lived in some of the largest broadcast markets in this country and have never been bothered by "Vandals" of this sort. I do know, however, that when radio was first discussed by this country's government, it was decided that the airwaves were a public trust. We the people own them. They have, however, been co-opted by big business and now it is impossible to hear good music or even non-corporate bad music in a city as large as New York. Sure there are a few stations like WFMU (http://www.wfmu.org/) or WBAI (http://www.wbai.org/) that are struggling to remain independant but it is getting harder and harder for them. Besides, with the de-regulation of the media we have fewer and fewer companies controling the whole shebang which also limits access for a huge population to news that is not corporately owned (Please don't tell me that NPR is not corporate because it is. it just has a left bias). I think that you don't need to throw out the baby with the bathwater to make it illegal to jam cell phones or WiFi. Anyway. . .
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As a teacher in New York state, I can tell you that the Union does not a cut at all. I pay my union dues myself. What European schools do not do is provide a fraction of the special education services that American Schools provide. If you take out Special education costs the per student dollar amount drops precipitously. They also do not provide free lunch and breakfast or in many countries subsidies meals AT ALL. Thirdly, and in my district this is huge, the cost of transportation is ridiculous. We are a rural district with approximately 110 kids per grade but over 300 square miles from which to bus them. New York state just passed a 2% property tax cap which prevents school budgets from going up regardless of whether diesel or gas prices (bus fuel) or heating oil goes up. Moryath is right. If people want a first rate education for their kids they need to be willing to pay for it.
There are a couple of things. First of all you need to get in to MIT. The hard part is admissions. I am not trying to be all critical but there are a lot of C programmers in High School (I teach High School) or kids who are learning how to do all kinds of other cool stuff, but you also have to have grades and SAT scores. If you get in most private colleges of that calibre are going to work with you to get you there. Secondly, there are some companies who will hire you because you have a degree at MIT and others that don't care. But venture capitalists will look at the MIT degree and a good idea and write you a blank check. . . just food for thought
When I was in elementary school we had these weird calculator things that would print a math problem on a strip of pape tape and then we needed to punch in the answer. My dad brought home an IBM 5100 and I learned BASIC and APL on that. When i got to Jr. High School My friends and I started Hacking the PDP8 by writing scripts that mimicked the logon screen so that when the computer teacher logged on it would send his name and password to another machine then fake a crash. My friend Glen got an Apple II and I was introduced to the wonderful world of BBSing and the rest is just my life. My kids (11 and 13) are into writing Flash animations and are now learning JAVA. I am an old guy so they are smarter than me. I am hoping they will throw me a bone and teach me how to use this stuff. . . Oh well, It sucks getting old.
Lets keep in mind how excelent service was on the Cunard line and it explains why they were so agressively SPAMMING:
1. Columbia, wrecked near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, 7 Feb. 1843;
2. Balbec, beached after hitting submerged wreckage off Cornwall, 28 March 1884, and declared a total loss;
3. Karnak, wrecked off Bermuda, 1862;
4. Melita, burned at sea, 5 Sep. 1868;
5. Stromboli, lost off the Lizard, 1878;
6. Sidon, wrecked near Malpica, Spain, 27 Oct. 1885;
7. Malta, wrecked near Lands End, 15 Oct. 1889;
8. Demerara, went missing en route from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Dec. 1887;
9. Oregon, sank off Fire Island after collision, 14 Mar. 1886;
10. Lucania, burned and sank while in lay-up at Liverpool, 14 Aug. 1909;
11. Slavonia, grounded at Flores, Azores, 11 June 1909
12. Lusitania, Sunk by U-Boats, off southern Ireland, May 7, 1915
The sinking of the Lusitania did not directly bring the US into the war but there are some that theorize that the First Lord of the Admiralty, a youngster with the name Winston Churchill, may have deliberately sent the Lusitania into harms way in the hope that the loss of American lives (128 American Dead) would drag the US into the war. It did however take another 2 years to happen so. . .
Actually fabric dying has been done for thousands of years. But synthetic dyes had begun to be invented in the late 18th century. Unfortunately since many of the dyes were nitrated compounds they made explosive fabric. In 1856 a Brit named William Perkins invented a colorfast purple dye called Mauvine which resulted in the color mauve. There were several Swiss, French and German companies that were also producing synthetic chemical dyes. By the end of the 19th century a large group of English and French dye manufacturers had gone out of business due to patent disputes leaving the field to the big three German companies; Bayer, B.A.S.F, and Hoechst. After WWI these three companies merged to form IG Farben, makers of Zyklon B poison gas as well as a host of expolosives and other chemicals for the war effort. and yes that is Bayer of aspirin fame. Anyway my point is that the Brits did not just give it up. . . there was a complex series of events that resulted ina superior German chemical industry and an inferior British one. . .
Well I guess that is why it is called a racial sterotype and not reality. . .
Well it is hard to ignore the effeminate pseudo asian trade federation which mirrors asian stereotypes of the 1930s through 50s in serial and B hollywood films. and if you don't see the step-and-fetch it in Jar-Jar then you need to have your movie goggles adjusted. I am not going to be a Star Trek appologist as the 60's era trek was all about American Imperialism and spreading the values of the Federation except when the "prime directive" was going to be violated (unavoidable). At least the more current Star trek while including these stereotypical behaviors actually make them plot elements. People are, after all, imperfect. It would be boring to watch perfect characters intereact, there would be no conflict. . . Besides The past two Star wars movies just plain sucked. . .
Well, despite DOE regulations security sucks at privately owned Nuke Plants. Take for example the missing fuel rods from Vermont Yankee ( http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/04/21/nuclear .fuel.missing.ap/ )
I don't somehow think that a government facility will be any safer. . .
I think the whole lot of them are completely incompetent. . .
But is there an issue with intent? I mean it isn't as though we entered the nuclear age because there were a group of scientists who were neutrally exploring the atom; they were building a bomb. It wasn't as if we entered the space age because there were a group of scientists who were neutrally questing for space, we were looking for superiority in a cold war and looking for the ability to deliver a bomb. It seems to me that we end up with a great deal of technology that is "beneficial" because there is money to be made in war but the technology would not necessarily exist if war was not the goal. Frankly I would rather have peace and no velcro or GPS. . .
Well, There were a few songs that I had downloaded from the iTunes store. I guess I felt like I would pay for it because it is the right thing to do. But hell with that if I have to pay buck and a quarter for a poorly encoded song that i can get for free elsewhere.
Well we could re-apropriate the word Pirate. In the 17th century when Pirates were raiding ships on the high seas who were they raiding? The equivalent of large corporations, ie. Ships owned by large Nation-States or by companies with charters by same such as East India co. So pirate ships, which were often organized around democratic principles and populated by liberated slaves and indentured servants is maybe an analogy that would be apropriate for people who are exercising their democratic right to free speech.
Who are these people that are "getting their kicks" broadcasting over another station? How much fun would that be? Oh I am going to make some noise over another frequency so that I get hassled by the FCC. . . I have lived in some of the largest broadcast markets in this country and have never been bothered by "Vandals" of this sort. I do know, however, that when radio was first discussed by this country's government, it was decided that the airwaves were a public trust. We the people own them. They have, however, been co-opted by big business and now it is impossible to hear good music or even non-corporate bad music in a city as large as New York. Sure there are a few stations like WFMU (http://www.wfmu.org/) or WBAI (http://www.wbai.org/) that are struggling to remain independant but it is getting harder and harder for them. Besides, with the de-regulation of the media we have fewer and fewer companies controling the whole shebang which also limits access for a huge population to news that is not corporately owned (Please don't tell me that NPR is not corporate because it is. it just has a left bias). I think that you don't need to throw out the baby with the bathwater to make it illegal to jam cell phones or WiFi. Anyway. . .