I'm sure as an unbeliever you think it is purely coincidental that founding this country on Christian principles led to it being the greatest country in history within 200 years.

I'm sure that you also think that its a coincidence that since they started taking God out of our schools and public life in the 60's, violent crime has gone up 500 percent, murder rates have tripled, divorce rates have doubled, STD rates are up 200 percent, fatherless households increased from 6 to 40 percent, unwed birth rates of 10-14 year olds up 500 percent etc

This isn't how it ought to be, or how the founders intended. We have a society that accepts all of these diverse views because of the Christian principles of personal freedom and liberty. Atheists, using these great freedoms afforded to them by our judeo-christian heritage, want to use them to dismantle the very foundation of what gave them those freedoms in the first place. What in the world do you think is going to happen when you tamper with the foundation? It is all going to fall apart, as we see it happening today.

This country was founded on a covenant with God, and much like israel, when we reject our Creator, judgement isn't far behind. The secularization of this society is basically suicide.


>> ^rebuilder:
>> ^shinyblurry:
If you don't believe that America is founded on judeo-christian beliefs then you don't know anything about American history.
There's little point in debating the way things used to be, when you should be debating how they ought to be.

@blankfist

Research that purporting that teaching is a difficult job based on 6 criteria. I suggest the whole document but here's the jest of it.
______________________________________________
---------->Societal Attitude:
The participants in this study believed that the attitude of society toward the teaching profession was unfair and detrimental to their overall functioning. They did not believe that they were valued, despite their advanced levels of education. In a recent nationwide survey of over 11,000 teachers and teacher candidates, Henke, Chen, Geis, and Knepper (2000) found that only 14.6% of the teachers surveyed were satisfied with the esteem in which society held the teaching profession.

--->Denise, a high school English teacher addressed the issue of respect:

"There is a lack of respect for teachers. It's not just the money, but also the attitude I get from administrators and politicians that teachers are trying to get away with something. We have taken these cushy jobs where all we have to do is stand up in front of a bunch of kids and BS for a few hours, and only work ten months of the year, at that teachers have it easy! Every time we ask for something (like, in my county, that the county pay our contribution to the state retirement system, for example), they make us out to look like whiners - give 'em an inch; they'll take a mile. The truth is, though, that teachers care so deeply and work SO much beyond our "contract hours." I can't tell you how many come in for weeks during the summer, as I do, and take on clubs after school (for which we are not compensated), and work during vacations. This lack of respect for teachers gets me down."
______________________________________________
---------->Financial Issues:
On top of the perception that they are not being valued by society, teachers are notoriously underpaid in our country. Four years after their graduation, Henke et al. (2000) surveyed a large sample of college graduates between 1992-1993. They found that the teachers were tied with clerical staff and service workers for the lowest salaries. A recent report from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT, 2000) found the following to be the case for the 2000-2001 school year:

For new teachers, the $28,986 average beginning salary lagged far behind starting salary offers in other fields for new college graduates. For example, accounting graduates were offered an average $37,143; sales/marketing, $40,033; math/statistics, $49,548; computer science, $49,749; and engineering, $50,033.
The $43,250 average teacher salary fell short of average wages of other white-collar occupations, the report found. For example, mid-level accountants earned an average $52,664, computer system analysts, $71,155; engineers, $74,920; and attorneys, $82,712.
The majority of the participants in this study related that they were simply not paid enough to live comfortably. They drove old cars and lived in inexpensive apartments. Others struggled to save enough money to buy a home.

--->Calvin, a high school science teacher, talked about his pay:

"I love teaching, but I don't know if I love it enough to deprive my family and myself of necessities. I have a baby and another on the way. I can't see how I can ever save enough to make a down payment on a house, even with a second job in the summer."
______________________________________________
---------->Time Scarcity:
Many new teachers were physically and emotionally fatigued to the point of exhaustion. They reported that they worked long days at school, and then took home lesson plans to create, papers to grade, and parents to call. They also worked nights and weekends on school-related work.

--->Jessica, a high school math teacher:

"I work 70 hours a week, and after 3 years it's not getting any better. When Friday night rolls around, all I want to do is fall asleep at 8 p.m.! Obviously that doesn't lead to a very exciting social life, or much of a "life" at all, if I can hardly stay awake long enough to go out to dinner with my friends and family. Even at holidays there are always papers to grade."

--->Fred, a high school English teacher also had difficulty with the amount of time required to do his job, pointing to the effect the time constraints had on family relationships:

The time commitment is the worst. During my first two years of teaching I worked 70-80 hour weeks, including time worked during the school day, in the evenings and over the weekend. Time commitment varies with the subject taught and with experience, but this aspect of the job nearly ran me out of teaching on several occasions and I witnessed one great new teacher leave teaching for this very reason. "It's my job or my marriage," she explained. "I never see my husband, and we're living under the same roof."

______________________________________________
---------->Workload:
The data reveal that it is nearly impossible for a conscientious teacher to complete all that is expected of them in one school day. At the high school level, teachers were teaching five or more classes in a traditional school, and three in a block schedule school. For each class this meant that the teacher's task was to design a complete lesson lasting at least one hour. This lesson had to follow the state curriculum, be engaging and interesting to students, and include various components as required by the school district, such as a warm-up, class activities, and homework. The teachers wanted to use outside resources such as the Internet to connect the material to real world applications. Additionally, they reported that there were often several special needs students in the class, and each of them needed some special accommodation. They found that planning was not a trivial task; it took several hours to design one effective instructional plan.

According to the teachers in this study, class sizes were another difficult feature of the teacher's day. In public high schools, most class sizes ranged from 25 to 35 students for a total of 125-175 students in a traditional school, and 75-105 in a four period block school. Henke et al. (2000) reported that the average number of students taught by secondary teachers each day is 115.8.

--->Abby, a high school history teacher explained the effect of large class sizes:

"Imagine any other professional trying to deal with the needs of this many "customers" at one time. If a physician were seeing patients, and grouped this many together, it is readily apparent how ridiculous it would be to expect her or him to address the needs of each person. The same is true for teachers.
Each student is an individual, with needs and issues that must be addressed. In a class period, the teachers expressed frustration because they could not address the needs of 25 or more students. "

--->Gina, a former high school science teacher described the variety in her workload as well as in her students' abilities:

"What I least expected was the amount of paperwork I had to do. Grading papers, progress reports, parent conferences, English-as-a-Second Language, exceptional students, ADD paperwork, and even work for absent students seem to take more time than "teaching."

To compound the issue, teachers also related many learning issues, where students had questions or misunderstandings that could easily have been cleared up with a few minutes of one-on-one time. They also reported discipline issues that got more serious when they were not addressed. Some students were bored. Some lacked basic skills and could not perform without help. In general, the teachers expressed being frustrated because they are educated professionals who could address these issues, if there were time to get to everyone. There was simply not enough time to address the variety of issues that simultaneously too place. Farkas et al. (2000) reported that 86% of new teachers report that the change most likely to improve teaching is reducing class size.

--->Eva, a high school English teacher summed up her frustration with large class sizes.

"This was not a matter of poor time management; it was a matter of too many students with too many needs and one harried teacher trying to be superhuman. There were times that I had a great lesson plan, only to have it totally derailed because of one or two students who needed individual attention and could not get it."

The total number of students that this professional was expected to evaluate, plan, and care for each day was as many as 150.
______________________________________________
---------->Working Conditions:
School administrators varied in their support of young teachers, and many teachers reported that this support was inadequate. The new teachers felt that they were evaluated and judged, but they would have preferred real feedback and suggestions for improvement of their teaching. They felt that they were often not supported in discipline issues or in conflicts with parents.

--->Carol, a former high school math teacher:

"I was very frustrated with the lack of support from my principal/administration in that after three observations I never got any feedback either in written or verbal form. I never really knew how I was doing. I felt I was doing a good job, but did not think the administration cared one way or the other."

--->Fran, a high school mathematics teacher expressed a need for more funds:

"Teachers should be given all the supplies that they need - $25 is not enough! At all other jobs that I have worked at, whatever you need to do your job is provided."
______________________________________________
---------->Relationships with Students and Parents:
A common problem reported by beginning teachers was student apathy. Many of the novice teachers reported that students had no interest in learning. In addition to attendance problems, a number of students often came to class without pencil, paper, and textbook. It was difficult to force or entice them to participate in classwork, and virtually impossible to get them to do homework.

--->Owen, a former high school mathematics teacher, was frustrated by his students' apathy:

"The vast majority of my students had no interest in learning math and I quickly tired of trying to force them (or entice them). They refused to bring paper or pencil to class, refused to do homework or classwork, and frequently came to class late or not at all. Most of them, to my great surprise, were not at all belligerent or confrontational about their refusal to do anything in class; they just had no intention of working at anything."

--->Mattie, a former high school history teacher, could not deal with the frustration:

"I just became very frustrated teaching to a class of 20 students and about 5 were interested or at least concerned with their grades. I decided not to return, because I was so exhausted and depressed at the end of the year. I just couldn't see "wasting" my time in a classroom where the kids don't care about themselves or what you're trying to accomplish."

--->Eugene, a former high school math teacher, also reported problems with apathy:

"I was frustrated with the apathy of the students. Many days I felt as though I was standing up there talking to myself. It was the longest year of my life. I was an emotional wreck because I felt as if the kids/parents didn't care enough to try or participate."

@visionep I come from a farm family in Kansas, so I'm a bit biased, but I tend to disagree with you on a few things. So upvote for your comment starting the discussion but here's my rebuttal --

1. "Not much" has the potential to be pretty good, considering that sources of ethanol are much more renewable than oil. Plus, a lot of the energy balance reviews of ethanol that I've seen or heard of talk about the input cost to produce the first gallon of fuel, ie. they include construction, fermentation tanks, etc. etc. That is fair, but it is worth noting that over the long term those startup input costs become less and less of a factor because the infrastructure already exists. The cost to refine the first gallon of crude oil into gasoline was higher than the bazillionth, also.

2. Some of the food production competition will remain long-term, and some is temporary. Right now in the US, we mostly use corn (field corn) to produce ethanol. Field corn can be ground into corn flour, but at least where I come from the majority of it went to feed lots to be used as food for beef cows prior to introduction of ethanol plants. Now, the produced corn is split between going to beef production or into ethanol.

Competition between beef vs. ethanol industries raised the price of corn some (both industries want that corn) which makes farmers happy. That in turn raised the price of beef a bit, but it didn't do much to prices for human-consumption food other than that, because field corn isn't used for that very much.

The reason that we use corn for ethanol now is that corn is plentiful; it is the major crop in my neck of the woods with wheat being the second but lagging far behind. Ethanol producers need something that ferments, corn fits the bill and is available. Minor crops like milo work basically just as well as corn, so if some weather event damages a corn field and it can be replanted with milo later in the season that is great for farmers because they now have a buyer that is willing to take milo.

In the future, we could use non-food cellulose crops like switchgrass for ethanol production, and the processing will only be slightly different. Switchgrass could be grown and harvested on land that is unsuitable for corn (corn does best with a lot of water), but there isn't a large supply of it right now because there hasn't been any demand for it historically.

So yes, there will always be some competition between what crop people decide to produce on a given piece of farmland, and that can affect food prices. But I think that over the long term, ethanol production could provide useful fuel that has positive benefits that outweigh impacts from potentially slightly higher food prices. Maybe. But then again, I am a biased source!

The American flag waving the back is pretty cool. Also I remember ACDCs singer saying that after the wall fell one of the first things they asked for was ACDC...I'll be Metallica wasn't far behind on the request list.

EDIT: Sorry further research revealed ACDC was headlining this Monsters of Rock concert, along with Pantera, EST, The Black Crowes, and Metallica. Also there have been estimations of 1.6 million people, it was held at Tushino Airfield, Moscow.

Popular stuff in this country is sooooo far behind the times. This music reminds me of the mid to late 1990s.

>> ^gwiz665:

This is all true. Islam is worse than most major religions around right now. It actively promotes war and terrorism, like Christianity did 500 years ago, and parts of Christianity still does. Islam is the worst, but Christianity isn't far behind.
Religion in general is still a blight on mankind. Getting rid of it is like getting rid of cancer - hard!


I know arguing on the Internet is pointless in most cases, but most people here on the Sift seem at least willing to consider other ideas, so here goes:

Don't you think it's possible that it's not Islam that is promoting war and terrorism but particular political groups (Taliban, Hamas, Al-Querida, Sunni/Shiite militant groups struggling for power in Iraq, etc.) that have decided on an interpretation of Islam that most suits their aims?

Isn't it at all possible that the reason violence in some Islamic countries is similar to that perpetrated by not just Christians but all peoples 500+ years ago has something to do with the fact that the majority of people in those countries live in socioeconomic conditions and with educations comparable to people from 500+ years ago?

Aren't these things in fact more plausible than Islam causing violence considering that the overwhelming majority of Muslim people never engage in jihad or terrorism or stone their daughters or any of the other things that Islam is often blamed for?

This is all true. Islam is worse than most major religions around right now. It actively promotes war and terrorism, like Christianity did 500 years ago, and parts of Christianity still does. Islam is the worst, but Christianity isn't far behind.

Religion in general is still a blight on mankind. Getting rid of it is like getting rid of cancer - hard!

@gwiz665 well, again, your argument against Christianity sounds awfully similar to your defense of libertarianism. Sure, if you follow all the tenets of libertarianism, massive evil results, but that's why people should be more picky and choosy about it and focus on the good stuff. But if Christians do the same with their beliefs, it somehow makes them illegitimate.

I guess my real problem with what you're saying is that you're unfairly singling out Christianity. It's not really any better or worse than any other imperfect moral doctrine. To me, I see a lot of problems "caused" by Christianity are really problems caused by conservatism (libertarianism's abusive father).

For example, I'd say most Christians don't take the bible literally, they don't believe in hell, they don't think Jesus would want nutrition programs for children cut so the rich can get a tax cut, they don't think we should be trying to bomb Muslims into worshiping Jesus, they don't even oppose letting gay people marry each other.

It's true that the conservative Christians you hear about a lot on TV are stupid fucks who believe in one or more of those, but IMO they've already left Christianity far behind, and started worshiping at the altar of conservatism. Lots of Christians don't buy into the hate.

I think in terms of the broader sweep of history, there's a lot of suffering you can lay at the feet of Christianity and religion more generally, but I'm not really sure how much bearing that really has on the role of Christianity in the here and now. Political and economic ideology seem to have largely supplanted religion in terms of rallying people to the cause of inflicting human suffering on a large scale.

I guess what I'm really saying is that Christianity per se isn't really the problem. It's the general tendency of people to take rigid deontological moral frameworks and use them as a justification to inflict suffering on people they deem unworthy. There are Christians who do that, but most don't anymore. In fact, a lot of modern Christianity explicitly argues against that.

Conservatism and libertarianism, on the other hand, seem to be philosophies entirely crafted for the purpose of justifying doing harm to the people they deem unworthy. Still, you do occasionally find conservatives and libertarians for whom the infliction of suffering is something they feel some regret about, though of course they still believe it must be done. After all, it's for their own good...

I get those kinds of anxiety dreams too. Either I'm enrolled in some school and far behind in my class work or I'm really, really late to a gig, setting up equipment while the band has already started performing. I hate those dreams.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

The worst thing about the PS3 is the frequent, eternal patch updates. Unlike the xbox, which quickly installs updates in the background, the PS3 forces you to wait sometimes up to a half hour or more to install medium sized patch updates. Some call it the progress bar station. I'm not sure why Sony is so far behind the other consoles in this respect. It's annoying.


Microsoft has a hard limit on patches, something like 20 Meg and patches cost the developer an increasing amount per patch released. Sony does not limit patch sizes nor how many are released. Sony isn't behind, it is just that they don't have any limits.

The worst thing about the PS3 is the frequent, eternal patch updates. Unlike the xbox, which quickly installs updates in the background, the PS3 forces you to wait sometimes up to a half hour or more to install medium sized patch updates. Some call it the progress bar station. I'm not sure why Sony is so far behind the other consoles in this respect. It's annoying.

I found exactly one hit for a lyric snippet from the first song the boys are singing in the mess, sung to the tune of "Lili Marleen" (http://videosift.com/video/Hanna-Schygulla-Lili-Marleen). I suppose it's dubbed "The Lancs of 75 [Squadron]".

The Lancs of Mepal, they're on their way,
Off to bomb the Jerries, they bomb them every day,
And when they wish to show their might,
They bomb the sods by day and night,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Off we go from Briefing and leap into our kite,
Open up the throttles and roar into the night,
We've left the flarepath far behind,
It's bloody dark but we don't mind,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

There's the bloody searchlights waving round the sky,
Not much ruddy power and not too bloody high,
I hope they don't start shooting til we're through,
They might get me and they might get you,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Now we're through the target setting course for home,
Soon we'll see the Sandra's waving o'er the 'drome,
That's if we don't go off the track,
And stop a crafty burst of flak,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the lancs of 75.

Junkers off to starboard, Focke-Wulf off to port,
Gunner calls to Skipper, the range is getting short,
Prepare to corkscrew starboard, go,
We know our stuff and we're not slow,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Now we're in the circuit with a turn to land,
No intruders round us, ain't it bloody grand,
We fooled the Hun once more tonight,
Dropped a load right on the Reich,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

When the war is over and there's no more ops to do,
We'll think of all our pals,
The ones who did not get through,
The pals who were with us through thick and thin,
That we one day the War would win,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/general/8985-wwii-dittys.html

Man whoever made this video sure put a bunch of fake science together to sell some BS. Plus there is a lot of hate towards Ryan Hall. The man is literally the best marathoner in the US, so he is clearly doing something right. Right now he isn't that far behind other non US eliete runners. He's been a top three finisher in the Boston marathon and a top ten in the Olympics. The man bounces a little more simply because of his foot strike, something that isn't even mentioned.

I'm having a hard time believing this, particularly the math scores where religious schools are usually quite far behind everyone else.

weird its as if he didn't bother to play the game for any length of time and just judged it on face value.

also this sort of driving game is far more about multilayer than single player.

the point is with the environmental explosion is that you can learn what happens that way when sum-one blows one up on you you have a 70% ability that you can avoid it using skill.

the game has detonater rounds that are basically the level with everything blowing up this effectively helps the player learn where everything is so that they can more skilfully avoid explosion.

there is an actual skill in when you set things off as well to make it harder for the person in front to avoid.

I think you all so have to think of split second like poker , skilled players over time will win more games but what explosion mechanics allow is for less skilled players to enjoy winning every now and again. ( the whole single player cambagne is quite easy and I think evan non gamers enjoy it , my GF realy enjoys playing it although some of the later rounds are to hard for her , and the game is a bit less forgiving for ultra casual players such as my gf but she did play it a good 5 hours straight one night so it cant be that bad.

This game is infinitely better than blur, and game play is analogous to Mario cart but with a realistic context and more interesting tracks.

The biggest issues with the game are

1) sound track, its a 14 min or so loop of music that plays sections at random , it gets annoying after 6 or so hours of game play

2) although there are different routes on the maps , I think they could have been more creative with them having said that they were probably limited in options by the number of set piece explosion they could put on each track

3) one of the specials is change route this aloes people will full power charge to totally change the lay out of 1/3rd of the track and is really good for people far back to catch up with people in-front, however not all the layouts have this , i think every track should have had a minimum of 2 change route options evan if they wernt particulay spectacular , as it allows people that are far behind the ablity to catch up.