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Smug Git
Arrogance Personified
Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 36297
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quote: Originally posted by mozilla
High Net Worth (more than $1 million, in 2006)
Region Number Percentage of regional population
Global 9,500,000 0.15%
North America 3,200,000 0.62%
Europe 2,900,000 0.41%
Asia-Pacific 2,600,000 0.06%
Latin America 400,000 0.07%
Middle East 300,000 N/A
Africa 100,000 0.01%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millio...s_in_the_world
1, 2, or 3 ever year except 1980
http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-...y-country.html
most inventions since 1900
http://www.krysstal.com/inventions_14.html
yep a bunch of underachievers
I live in the US and I'm as concerned as anyone might be about the future of the US (being as mine is within it). The US education system, though, really is pretty poor; everyone's a winner, achieved by the method of lowering standards. It's bad enough in the UK, but if you put the US academic achievement standards even to UK schools, you'd get laughed at.
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12-24-2007 07:41 PM |
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Smug Git
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Also, that inventions link is somewhat bizarre. You might want to look at it with a neutral eye.
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12-24-2007 07:44 PM |
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dogcow
brucoš
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the list clearly sucks as there is no bosnia on it.
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12-24-2007 08:07 PM |
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Hawley Griffin
.308 winchester
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no one cares about bosnia or any of the other slave repositories
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12-24-2007 08:15 PM |
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lucidnightmare
Pro Snowflake
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: North Myrtle Beach SC
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quote: Originally posted by Smug Git
I live in the US and I'm as concerned as anyone might be about the future of the US (being as mine is within it). The US education system, though, really is pretty poor; everyone's a winner, achieved by the method of lowering standards. It's bad enough in the UK, but if you put the US academic achievement standards even to UK schools, you'd get laughed at.
Those problems aren't due to under funding ( we were talking about socialism). Those problems are a result of the fluffy PC ethics that are treated like holy law by the American left. Avoid offense at all cost, even reality.
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I hope you run out of butter too, Dane.
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12-24-2007 08:58 PM |
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Smug Git
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The flaws in the US education system aren't just PC nonsense, though, although it's a part of it. For that matter, it's hardly as if elements of the conservative coalition haven't been fucking about with education curricula and practice (creationism/ID being the most heinous examples, but the No Child Left Behind farrago is classic big-government conservatism).
The problems are broad -- there appears to be a genuine acceptance of poor standards, and a resulting disconnect between how good Americans think their educational achievement is with how good it actually is. That's a national psychosis, I think, rather than an ideological one.
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12-24-2007 09:05 PM |
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Smug Git
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Also, funds are spent on the wrong stuff, I think. The vast majority of funding should go on teacher salaries, but it often doesn't. If you want good teachers, which are the most important element within the control of the school district, you need to be able to pay good money for them, otherwise many potential teachers, who would be good teachers, will go into different lines of work.
The tenure system is unnecessary, in my opinion, for teachers (I can see the point for University researchers, but not for teachers at K12 level); I think that the ills of the tenure system are often massively overstated, however, because the bigger problem is with the supply of good teachers (rather than inabililty to fire bad ones) and that's not going to be improved by removing one of the prime perks of the job.
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12-24-2007 09:10 PM |
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SocialParasite
wallet.dat is where it at
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: fuck you daaaaaaaaad
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quote: Originally posted by Smug Git
Also, funds are spent on the wrong stuff, I think. The vast majority of funding should go on teacher salaries, but it often doesn't. If you want good teachers, which are the most important element within the control of the school district, you need to be able to pay good money for them, otherwise many potential teachers, who would be good teachers, will go into different lines of work.
The tenure system is unnecessary, in my opinion, for teachers (I can see the point for University researchers, but not for teachers at K12 level); I think that the ills of the tenure system are often massively overstated, however, because the bigger problem is with the supply of good teachers (rather than inabililty to fire bad ones) and that's not going to be improved by removing one of the prime perks of the job.
Part of the problem with teacher salaries is that it's funded by taxes, and heaven forbid somebody pay an extra 1% on their property taxes so that teacher salaries could get a bump.
We couldn't even get a bond issue passed to build a new high school so that we could do away with the old junior high building (which was falling apart in some pretty spectacular ways) until a tornado did a number on the old high school and junior high buildings and we were going to get a new one with or without voter approval.
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12-24-2007 09:42 PM |
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Smug Git
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I can see why an destroyed building needs replacing. Otherwise, though, I'd sure as hell take higher-paid teachers in a shitty old building, than less well-paid teachers in a new one (because attracting good teachers is important; sure, they'll want to be in a nice building, but they'd rather earn 20-30 grand more, I reckon; certainly I would have, when I was a teacher, and I taught in both shitty old and nice new buildings).
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12-24-2007 10:20 PM |
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SocialParasite
wallet.dat is where it at
Registered: Jul 2000
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quote: Originally posted by Smug Git
I can see why an destroyed building needs replacing. Otherwise, though, I'd sure as hell take higher-paid teachers in a shitty old building, than less well-paid teachers in a new one (because attracting good teachers is important; sure, they'll want to be in a nice building, but they'd rather earn 20-30 grand more, I reckon; certainly I would have, when I was a teacher, and I taught in both shitty old and nice new buildings).
The average salary for a teacher in Nebraska is around $38.4k which I guess ranked us at #42 in the last little survey of salaries. The average starting salary is somewhere around $24k. That means that from 2004 until 2006 I made more than a new teacher in Nebraska. One of my teachers in high school painted houses and did roofs during the summer to pad his wallet.
We'll likely never see any meaningful increases in teacher salary here until their union grows a pair and decides to compare salaries with similar schools in the nation and use that as leverage to get a small raise. But that brings up the fact that our state employee union is a toothless creature that will cave in on just about any position nine times out of ten.
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12-24-2007 10:31 PM |
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Talarohk
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I would say the buildings have to be above a certain standrad (unlikely to have students or staff injured by falling ceiling tiles or contracting fungal infections from wall mold, say), but otherwise I'd agree with Smug that higher salary and more recognition of the profession as such would be more important.
My dream is to have a college craduate, when asked what he or she wants to do for a career, to say "Well, I was thinking of trying for third-grade teacher."
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12-24-2007 10:33 PM |
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SocialParasite
wallet.dat is where it at
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quote: Originally posted by Talarohk
I would say the buildings have to be above a certain standrad (unlikely to have students or staff injured by falling ceiling tiles or contracting fungal infections from wall mold, say), but otherwise I'd agree with Smug that higher salary and more recognition of the profession as such would be more important.
My dream is to have a college craduate, when asked what he or she wants to do for a career, to say "Well, I was thinking of trying for third-grade teacher."
The old junior high building was getting pretty close. It was roach infested, moldy, the ceilings were sagging in a lot of rooms, the walls were cracking, and it wasn't big enough to handle the number of students (they tried to remedy this at one point by adding on to the building, but it still wasn't enough by the time I went through). The only reason it was replaced was because the tornado shifted the roof and the inside suffered a lot of water damage and its already failing structural integrity was further compromised.
We need to pay our teachers more, but we're notoriously stingy with tax money (unless it goes to UNL and the FOOTBAAAAAL program).
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12-24-2007 10:38 PM |
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mmmtravis
stealthy ninja
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You can't teach an old man to fish, but you can certainly lead him to a well.
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picture unrelated
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12-27-2007 09:06 AM |
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Smug Git
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It's an old man that blows nobody any good.
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12-27-2007 02:00 PM |
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wonderaz
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quote: Originally posted by CHiPsJr
It isn't about anonymity. It's about the fact that I don't ever read PDM anymore, and therefore can't be a particularly good mod here.
Return the secret decoder ring.
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12-27-2007 05:53 PM |
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Hawley Griffin
.308 winchester
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i should be a mod in PDM
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12-27-2007 05:56 PM |
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wonderaz
Sarky Bastard
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Posts: 21761
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quote: Originally posted by Hawley Griffin
i should be a mod in PDM
no
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12-28-2007 12:47 PM |
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PNG
you'd eat it
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quote:
PDM
do mods paid?
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12-28-2007 01:06 PM |
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SimpleSimon
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quote: Originally posted by PNG
do mods (get) paid?
No. Only administrators reap the largesse generated by that cash-cow, Aslumnation Enterprises, Inc.
How do you think wonderaz can afford to build himself a palace on a walled estate in one of the most expensive communities in this country, all whilst puttering about in a tiny basket suspended from an enormous scrotum substitute?
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12-28-2007 05:25 PM |
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Smug Git
Arrogance Personified
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By moving into a trailer and lying about building a house.
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12-28-2007 06:51 PM |
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wonderaz
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quote: Originally posted by Smug Git
By moving into a trailer and lying about building a house.
No, I am putting the stemwalls in right now.
Actually I'm taking a little break but I am working on the house.
I so need a camera that I can work.
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12-28-2007 08:52 PM |
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skalie
Locksmith of Lurve
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Location: World Citizen
Posts: 18915
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They have those nowadays, they're called "point and click", try going to a camera shop.
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12-28-2007 09:19 PM |
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Trenchant_Troll
ad hominid
Registered: Mar 2004
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He can't. He is too busy not building his house.
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12-28-2007 09:21 PM |
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J E B Stuart
Administrator
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beyond Mason-Dixon Line
Posts: 33284
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Re: I resign
quote: Originally posted by CHiPsJr
I kinda forgot I was a moderator here.
I resign. I nominate thimbles as my replacement.
All my best to Asylum. I had a lot of fun here.
Happy Birthday, Junior. Just think. You’re nearly old enough to join AARP.
Amen.
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