Yes, and that is why we need to pass laws, and engage in regulatory actions, so that self interested companies cannot act against the well being of the general economy.
Without government pork, most likely never. If you live in a rural area that makes certain types of infrastructure profitable, move. Don't ask me to subsidize your choices.
"How many people have to die at the hands of terrorists before you care?"
11 million. That is the number of innocent German citizens who were killed by the German Government as a result of the Enabling Act. The act that was pushed through after "Communists" burned down the parliament building, and killed a number of innocent civilians.
Instrusive airport security undermines the very principles and rights that seperate us from Nazi Germany. Even if our current government has no ill intensions, these laws are slowly building the legal infrastructure nessisary for murder on a mass scale.
So unless these laws are going to save the lives of 11 million people, get bent.
"which makes me uncomfortable, reading it at our favorite Nepalese restaurant because I like the owner and I'm not sure if she's Muslim or not"
If she is actually from Nepal, then she is most likely either Hindu or Buddhist, with a surprisingly strong chance of atheism. But immigrant groups are usually skewed, so beware.
"Bear in mind that the reason the Fed dropped interest rates so low in the first place from 2002-2005 was to shake the Yuan off the dollar (China used to have it sell at a fixed value relative to the dollar, instead of traded on the open market). A significant portion of the dollar's drop during that time period was due to this. The two were decoupled (in a fashion) in 2005. In theory the dollar should've recovered some afterwards, but Katrina, things going badly in Iraq, and now the credit crunch (which traces its roots to the Yuan being tied to the dollar) have all kept it heading down."
And here I thought that they dropped rates so low in order to decrease unemployment and shake off a recession. Silly me.
Maybe in simplistic econ 101 classes, otherwise no. Price is a function of demand and supply, but the relationship tends to be empirically complicated.
So? Manufacturing is a rather insignificant sector of our economy, though the falling dollar should give it a boost.
"The continued shrinking value of the greenback - probably to 2 to the Euro within 10 years;"
You are assuming the Europeans would allow such an appreciation. They, and Germany in particular, would not want to kill their manufacturing sector, and would do something behind the scenes to reverse the trend.
"The "made in the USA" recession/borderline depression;"
huh?
"# The baby boomer bust and the inability of SocSec to meet expectations because the fund has been pretty much raided;"
So we will decrease benifits and possibly increase taxes, Your point on how this effects the overall economy?
"# Population pressure as the US becomes the ONLY economy unable to cap their population growth, and runs into Malthusian limits;"
US population growth is very low, as is our population density.
Iraq war spending is rather low when compared to the Vietnam War, at least in comparison to the size of the economy. We still have a large deficit without the Iraq war anyway; our deficit is mostly due to Medicare and Medicaid.
As for your stagflation fears, there has never been much evidence that small deficits (as a percentage of GDP) have a large effect on inflation (though I admit, these kind of things are very hard to test empirically). Moreover, unemployment has been persistently low for the last decade; I do not see how that will change in the near term without a rather severe supply shock. Of course, I am assuming that we have a rational Fed, something the last couple of days has shaken my faith in.
The real reason Canada's currency has achieved parity is the same reason as 1976; Canada produces a massive amount of commodities. In 76 Canada rode a speculative run on copper, and oil prices were still very high. Today, oil is at an all-time high, and commodities have surged.
I've taken AP English, and received good marks in two writing classes in my university, I even received decent grades when I was in high school. Sorry for failing to proofread the post. I am not sure if more writing experience will be helpful for grad school, but please reply if it is.
Actually I was referring to a practice in my county instituted by the superintendent. Every gifted class had to assign an hours worth of homework every day, and this was enforced by making sure that the grade book contained a very large number of homework assignments. With 6 classes, this became very cumbersome, and I decided that it was not a very effective use of my time.
On a happy note, that individual policy was reversed this year after a teacher threatened to sue.
"For any one year, of course. But if everyone got an A, then the school would make next year's classes more difficult. They would keep doing that until the perfect balance of {"smart", "acceptable", "failures"} was achieved.
In the long run, grading must be a relative system."
I am so glad someone else understands this, thank you for explaining that particular point more articulately than I could.
"Anyone who supports the idea that SCHOOL COMES FIRST is alright in my book."
The idea that school comes first is laughable. Good grades in school are the most effective path to economic prosperity and happiness, but it is not the only path. School is not the goal in and of itself, having a happy and fulfilling life is. For some, school is not the most effective means of reaching this goal.
"Yes, not everyone graduates high school, but such people are generally LOSERS, destined to crappy jobs, and doomed to a life of ignorance and pushing French Fries."
I dropped out when I was 14, now I'm a math major in my senior year of college. I realize that I am atypical, but we should not deprive rights based on probability, it is a rather slippery slope.
"The idea that a certain percentage of kids will get bad grades, as part of the structure of the system, is bogus. If every kid gets 100% on every test, then they will get good grades. If a kid is not doing well on tests, they have far more important things to be doing than playing video games."
If every kid gets a 100% on a test, the test is meaningless. The relevant authorities will then renormalize the standards so that more capable kids will receive higher scores. Academic ability is normally distributed, so in any system where students with higher academic ability get higher scores, a certain percentage of kids will have lower scores than the average.
Sure they can renormalize it so that everyone receives a 90 %( and many schools do so), but this is irrelevant, employers and society will quickly adjust their expectation so that these higher grades will once again be considered "failing".
Yeah, you nailed it. I did very badly in high-school, and dropped out when I was 14. Though video games had very little to do with it, unless you count Slashdot and Wikipedia as games.
Anyway, I studied for some AP tests and audited college classes until I could get into a university as a math major. I'm 16 now, in my senior year in college as a math major.
So let me get to the root of my anger. If someone had tried to make me "get off my ass and get responsible" when I was a 14 year old based on my grades, they would have not known that I skipped my Algebra class to sneak into Calculus lectures at a nearby university, or that I poured over Physics and Economics textbooks at home instead of performing pointless county mandated busy work at home.
I invested a lot of thought into my choices, and if he has any advice I will be happy to take it into consideration. But I highly resent any attempt to actively discriminate against me and make my life more difficult solely on the basis of something that does not affect anyone else but me.
The grades of his customers are not the business of this Manager, and I'm glad he was suspended.
"No, grades are set based on achievement against a standard. Most schools don't grade on a curve. I used to have university profs say "everyone starts with an A, it's yours to lose"."
Think about it for a second, a certain percentage of kids have to fail every year, otherwise the grading system is pointless. The level of performance necessary to obtain a passing grade changes over time, for the explicit purpose of renormalizing so that the average gets a grade of X(in some schools its a C, though inflation shifts that around a bit).
"By the time you're 20, if you haven't graduated high school or gotten a GED, you're as far outside the norm of "everyone" as someone whose parents were filthy stinking rich."
No, many people drop out to go to technical schools, or to get a job. I have a friend who dropped out of school to run an independent music distribution business; he was very successful and invested the proceeds he made from it. He now has a very nice nest egg, and is continuing the business as a hobby. Not everyone needs the traditional path to success.
"Nope. Grades are based on absolute achievement -- otherwise they're meaningless. What backwards school did you go to?"
That was a bit of a personal insult, but I'll let it slide. I went to a normal public school (Michael Krop, it has a wiki article if you are interested). While grades are based on absolute achievement, the benchmark of achievement necessary to receive a certain grade is set so that a certain percentage of kids fail. Not only that, but certain courses (AP in particular) are explicitly norm based (the top 25% get 5's, and so on).
This is not what I meant, when they actually set the absolute standards, they do so such that a certain percent of kids will be below average. I know my own state, Florida, changes their "acceptable" raw score on their state standardized test(a score of 3) every year, so that 25% of kids are below it. Most other states do the same thing.
But if you want to be a dick about it, the organization behind AP tests(ETS), changes the absolute raw score requirement to obtain a 3 every year precisely so that a certain percentage of kids fail.
Norm referencing is actually very common, at least at university level. But this is not what I meant, when they actually set the absolute standards, they do so such that a certain percent of kids will be below average. I know my own state, Florida, changes their "acceptable" raw score on their state standardized test(a score of 3) every year, so that 25% of kids are below it. Most other states do the same thing.
Fuck you, who the fuck are you to say that kids who get bad grades lose the right to play video games? Not everyone graduates highschool, and since grades are set based on relative achievement, a certain percentage of kids will always get bad grades.
Canada is an exception, their currency went up because they are a very large producer of metals, oil , and natural gas. Prices for these goods skyrocketed on the global market, causing their currency to appreciate.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but Apple could have reprogrammed visual voice mail so that it did not require a specific carrier, and still kept it just as user-friendly.
How stupid do you think people are? People used Internet enabled phones before the iphone, and had a perfect understanding of data plans.
Yes, and that is why we need to pass laws, and engage in regulatory actions, so that self interested companies cannot act against the well being of the general economy.
Does anyone?
No, Google cannot be expected to keep track of millions of accounts.
Without government pork, most likely never. If you live in a rural area that makes certain types of infrastructure profitable, move. Don't ask me to subsidize your choices.
11 million. That is the number of innocent German citizens who were killed by the German Government as a result of the Enabling Act. The act that was pushed through after "Communists" burned down the parliament building, and killed a number of innocent civilians.
Instrusive airport security undermines the very principles and rights that seperate us from Nazi Germany. Even if our current government has no ill intensions, these laws are slowly building the legal infrastructure nessisary for murder on a mass scale.
So unless these laws are going to save the lives of 11 million people, get bent.
The entire point of this discussion is that studies have now shown that these cameras do not decrease crime, at all.
Show me a single suicide bomber who was sighted with external electronics. A single one.
"Unresponsive to initial questions about her device by airport authorities"
Define unresponsive, they didn't.
"We ARE at war"
With whom? Last I checked, we have no declaration of war against anyone.
"Thousands have been murdered by people wearing this category of attire in the last year alone"
see line 2
If she is actually from Nepal, then she is most likely either Hindu or Buddhist, with a surprisingly strong chance of atheism. But immigrant groups are usually skewed, so beware.
And here I thought that they dropped rates so low in order to decrease unemployment and shake off a recession. Silly me.
Maybe in simplistic econ 101 classes, otherwise no. Price is a function of demand and supply, but the relationship tends to be empirically complicated.
So? Manufacturing is a rather insignificant sector of our economy, though the falling dollar should give it a boost.
"The continued shrinking value of the greenback - probably to 2 to the Euro within 10 years;"
You are assuming the Europeans would allow such an appreciation. They, and Germany in particular, would not want to kill their manufacturing sector, and would do something behind the scenes to reverse the trend.
"The "made in the USA" recession/borderline depression;"
huh?
"# The baby boomer bust and the inability of SocSec to meet expectations because the fund has been pretty much raided;"
So we will decrease benifits and possibly increase taxes, Your point on how this effects the overall economy?
"# Population pressure as the US becomes the ONLY economy unable to cap their population growth, and runs into Malthusian limits;"
US population growth is very low, as is our population density.
As for your stagflation fears, there has never been much evidence that small deficits (as a percentage of GDP) have a large effect on inflation (though I admit, these kind of things are very hard to test empirically). Moreover, unemployment has been persistently low for the last decade; I do not see how that will change in the near term without a rather severe supply shock. Of course, I am assuming that we have a rational Fed, something the last couple of days has shaken my faith in.
The real reason Canada's currency has achieved parity is the same reason as 1976; Canada produces a massive amount of commodities. In 76 Canada rode a speculative run on copper, and oil prices were still very high. Today, oil is at an all-time high, and commodities have surged.
Wake me up when we achieve parity with the Yen.
Actually I was referring to a practice in my county instituted by the superintendent. Every gifted class had to assign an hours worth of homework every day, and this was enforced by making sure that the grade book contained a very large number of homework assignments. With 6 classes, this became very cumbersome, and I decided that it was not a very effective use of my time.
On a happy note, that individual policy was reversed this year after a teacher threatened to sue.
I am so glad someone else understands this, thank you for explaining that particular point more articulately than I could.
The idea that school comes first is laughable. Good grades in school are the most effective path to economic prosperity and happiness, but it is not the only path. School is not the goal in and of itself, having a happy and fulfilling life is. For some, school is not the most effective means of reaching this goal.
"Yes, not everyone graduates high school, but such people are generally LOSERS, destined to crappy jobs, and doomed to a life of ignorance and pushing French Fries."
I dropped out when I was 14, now I'm a math major in my senior year of college. I realize that I am atypical, but we should not deprive rights based on probability, it is a rather slippery slope.
"The idea that a certain percentage of kids will get bad grades, as part of the structure of the system, is bogus. If every kid gets 100% on every test, then they will get good grades. If a kid is not doing well on tests, they have far more important things to be doing than playing video games."
If every kid gets a 100% on a test, the test is meaningless. The relevant authorities will then renormalize the standards so that more capable kids will receive higher scores. Academic ability is normally distributed, so in any system where students with higher academic ability get higher scores, a certain percentage of kids will have lower scores than the average.
Sure they can renormalize it so that everyone receives a 90 %( and many schools do so), but this is irrelevant, employers and society will quickly adjust their expectation so that these higher grades will once again be considered "failing".
Anyway, I studied for some AP tests and audited college classes until I could get into a university as a math major. I'm 16 now, in my senior year in college as a math major.
So let me get to the root of my anger. If someone had tried to make me "get off my ass and get responsible" when I was a 14 year old based on my grades, they would have not known that I skipped my Algebra class to sneak into Calculus lectures at a nearby university, or that I poured over Physics and Economics textbooks at home instead of performing pointless county mandated busy work at home.
I invested a lot of thought into my choices, and if he has any advice I will be happy to take it into consideration. But I highly resent any attempt to actively discriminate against me and make my life more difficult solely on the basis of something that does not affect anyone else but me.
The grades of his customers are not the business of this Manager, and I'm glad he was suspended.
Think about it for a second, a certain percentage of kids have to fail every year, otherwise the grading system is pointless. The level of performance necessary to obtain a passing grade changes over time, for the explicit purpose of renormalizing so that the average gets a grade of X(in some schools its a C, though inflation shifts that around a bit).
No, many people drop out to go to technical schools, or to get a job. I have a friend who dropped out of school to run an independent music distribution business; he was very successful and invested the proceeds he made from it. He now has a very nice nest egg, and is continuing the business as a hobby. Not everyone needs the traditional path to success.
"Nope. Grades are based on absolute achievement -- otherwise they're meaningless. What backwards school did you go to?"
That was a bit of a personal insult, but I'll let it slide. I went to a normal public school (Michael Krop, it has a wiki article if you are interested). While grades are based on absolute achievement, the benchmark of achievement necessary to receive a certain grade is set so that a certain percentage of kids fail. Not only that, but certain courses (AP in particular) are explicitly norm based (the top 25% get 5's, and so on).
But if you want to be a dick about it, the organization behind AP tests(ETS), changes the absolute raw score requirement to obtain a 3 every year precisely so that a certain percentage of kids fail.
Norm referencing is actually very common, at least at university level. But this is not what I meant, when they actually set the absolute standards, they do so such that a certain percent of kids will be below average. I know my own state, Florida, changes their "acceptable" raw score on their state standardized test(a score of 3) every year, so that 25% of kids are below it. Most other states do the same thing.
Fuck you, who the fuck are you to say that kids who get bad grades lose the right to play video games? Not everyone graduates highschool, and since grades are set based on relative achievement, a certain percentage of kids will always get bad grades.
No, he would not. The idea is that intel can temporarily undercut the price, until OLPC folds. Then, they stop.
Canada is an exception, their currency went up because they are a very large producer of metals, oil , and natural gas. Prices for these goods skyrocketed on the global market, causing their currency to appreciate.