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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

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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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the list clearly sucks as there is no bosnia on it.

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no one cares about bosnia or any of the other slave repositories

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quote:

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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.

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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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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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quote:

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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.

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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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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).

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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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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."

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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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It's an old man that blows nobody any good.

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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.

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i should be a mod in PDM

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quote:

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Originally posted by Hawley Griffin
i should be a mod in PDM

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quote:

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PDM

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quote:

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Originally posted by PNG
do mods (get) paid?

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By moving into a trailer and lying about building a house.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
By moving into a trailer and lying about building a house.

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They have those nowadays, they're called "point and click", try going to a camera shop.

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He can't. He is too busy not building his house.

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yeah

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quote:

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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.

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