>> ^deedub81:
The fact that Obama has campaigned longer doesn't mean he has more experience.


Obama 1985-1988: Served as the director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.

Palin 1984-1988:In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest (playing the flute), then finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award. Palin attended Hawaii Pacific College — now known as Hawaii Pacific University — in Honolulu for a semester in 1982, majoring in Business Administration. She transferred in 1983 to North Idaho College. In 1987, Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science.

Obama 1988-1996:Attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1991. During that time he was also the editor of the Harvard Law Review. In his sophomore year he was elected president of the Law Review, supervising a staff of 80 editors. Between 1992 and 1996, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Palin 1988-1996:1988, she worked briefly as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. She also helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business. Ran for Wasilla city council in 1992, won and served two terms from 1992 to 1996. Ran for mayor of Wasilla (pop. ~8000) in 1996 and won.

*****

Quick outline. Source: Wikipedia.

I might continue on another post, Deedub, but I just wanted to make something clear here:

Do you consider the two outlines above to be equal in measure and weight?

If yes, why?

If no, which would you consider more qualified for a career in government?

jwray... i am with you .. i also think that there are many things that "the market" cannot solve, especially education.

Guess we'll have to add this to the list of "problems I'm not personally creative enough to solve, therefore i will declare impossible to solve". I will gladly sit here and type out a free market solution to EVERY SINGLE problem you can come up with (short of a national defense, police, or legal system).

Our department of education boasts a 65% high school graduation rate...read....35% fail rate. Last I checked that was an "F". Not to mention the system churns out people with no basic understanding of economics, biology, government, mathematics, rational thought (yes this is a subject), philosophy, etc. I know because I graduated high school and didn't know sh*t about any of these subjects. If our education system was worth half of what we put into it, we wouldn't need to be having this discussion right now. There ARE aleternatives. Heres one: how about offering online lectures, videos, class notes, compiled by some of the best teachers and professors on the entire planet? Heres a hint..this already exists. In fact you can get an MIT level education in a dozen disciplines for FREE: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm. How hard would this be to implement for the K-12 curriculum? Not hard, considering people have already successfully done it: http://www.google.com/search?q=k-12+education. How much would it cost for a internet connection, bandwidth, and a laptop? How many of these things are free at the public library? "But I wouldn't have a degree, just the information" Okay...valid point, but whats stopping a business startup which offers the services of rigorous curriculum testing--similar to the SAT or GRE? This way students study and learn on their own, and test through a private company when they are ready. So your total cost for K-college education becomes:

computer: $500
K-12 dvds: $100
Private tutors, 500 hours, $10/hr: $5000
High school accreditation: $300
MIT courseware: $0
General college accreditation: $400
Specialized college accreditation: $500
Total cost for education: $6800

Notice the bulk of the cost would be private tutors, whose role could be filled by parents. Also remember, that there would still be traditional, private schools and colleges for people to attend--if they so desire. The point is that a higher quality education can be sold at a much lower cost than is currently offered.

The reality is that the only essential tool you need in life, you were born with: your ability for rational thought. And you were already taught the only ability you need to develop it: reading--which you probably started to learn from you parents. Yet how many books have you read in the past year? The past decade? The average college student reads approximately 6 books/semester, or 48 books. The average person, reading a book a week, or approximately 30 pages per day, will read over 200 books in four years--an amount equal to four college degrees--and over 2600 books in their lifetime--an amount of knowledge equal to over 50 college degrees.

1) If he's only 4, he's not going to have homework of any kind, let alone math homework. See this article on national age for children entering kindergarten. Thirty-nine states will not allow your child into kindergarten unless they turn five less than a month and a half into the school year. The likelihood of math homework when the teacher is still trying to teach some kids how to count is slim to none. The Flagstaff school district suggests you teach your child to count to ten before s/he starts kindergarten. And that's only a suggestion. To most parents, reading and writing come before math, because math is easier to learn. That's why you'll see kids struggling to write their name before they know what 4+5 is. They certainly wouldn't be working with two-digit numbers like 16.

2) Even if everyone in this particular class knew how to count before the school year started, the units in kindergarten (at least the ones in my school) didn't have math specific homework. The closest thing I can think of is when we went through the money unit, and we had to make change with what we had. I think we had worksheets with little cutouts of coins and we had to glue or tape on the page the combination that equaled X amount as homework.

3) The concept of subtraction is taught long, long after addition has been mastered. The concept of adding negative numbers, or "take-aways" is usually a difficult one for kids to grasp. No four-year-old, unless they are in an advanced after-school tutoring program or homeschooled, is going to be doing subtraction homework.

4) A cell phone number would've been relatively useless in this case, as there is obviously someone else in the house. The dispatcher says something about "listen to your mom," and the kid on the phone doesn't correct him. If you've ever babysat a four-year-old, you know they love to correct the slightest mistakes. If it wasn't his mother, I'm sure he would've let everyone know.

And there's no need to be condescending just because you disagree. No one's miserable for calling "fake" on a video. Jeez. Calm down.

>> ^karkarlee:
I could count, add and subtract a bit ( simple things, like 4+5 and 19-1 ) and was grasping reading and writing when I was four. I did it alone most of the time, because I myself wanted to. I would watch TV shows and learned from that.. I also knew to call 911 if something bad happened or someone was hurt or needed help badly.
This could just as likely be real. If it is, it's not the kid's fault that his parents didn't tell him their cellphone number as well. ( I knew my home phone by the time I was five. )
The child's mind doesn't work like an adult one, kk? Children and adults alike are diverse in all ways: height, hair color, race, development, intelligence, maturity, on and on. Stop sticking everything in a box, you're just making yourself miserable.

Short answer - Canadian universities are WAY younger than those in the States, so we adopted the 'classic' European terminology. I mean, U of T was founded in 1827 (yeah, guess where I graduated from), and there may be some older universities in Canada (I don't know which), but probably not as old as, say, Harvard.

>> ^Sarzy:
I've got a question which is semi-related to the topic at hand: what's the deal with the terms college and university being seemingly interchangeable in the states? In Canada, college and university are two different things (college is generally a one or two year program in which you learn a trade, whereas university is a three or four year deal in which you learn something a bit more abstract (ie. political science, english, physics, etc.). Is this not the case in the U.S.?


Yeah, American terminology like that bothers me - where's the UNIVERSITY GRAD option???

Anyway, enough people were annoyed by this like us to make a small essay on the topic - the Canadian system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College#Canada

And here's the bit about Amerika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College#The_origin_of_the_U.S._usage

The founders of the first institutions of higher education in the United States were graduates of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The small institutions they founded would not have seemed to them like universities — they were tiny and did not offer the higher degrees in medicine and theology. Furthermore, they were not composed of several small colleges. Instead, the new institutions felt like the Oxford and Cambridge colleges they were used to — small communities, housing and feeding their students, with instruction from residential tutors (as in the United Kingdom, described above). When the first students came to be graduated, these "colleges" assumed the right to confer degrees upon them, usually with authority -- for example, the College of William and Mary has a Royal Charter from the British monarchy allowing it to confer degrees while Dartmouth College has a charter permitting it to award degrees "as are usually granted in either of the universities, or any other college in our realm of Great Britain."

Contrast this with Europe, where only universities could grant degrees. The leaders of Harvard College (which granted America's first degrees in 1642) might have thought of their college as the first of many residential colleges which would grow up into a New Cambridge university. However, over time, few new colleges were founded there, and Harvard grew and added higher faculties. Eventually, it changed its title to university, but the term "college" had stuck and "colleges" have arisen across the United States.

Eventually, several prominent colleges/universities were started to train Christian ministers. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown all started to train preachers in the subjects of Bible and theology. However, now these universities teach theology as a more academic than ministerial discipline.

With the rise of Christian education, renowned seminaries and Bible colleges have continued the original purpose of these universities. Criswell College and Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas; Southern Seminary in Louisville; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois; and Wheaton College and Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois are just a few of the institutions that have influenced higher education in Theology in Philosophy to this day.

In U.S. usage, the word "college" embodies not only a particular type of school, but has historically been used to refer to the general concept of higher education when it is not necessary to specify a school, as in "going to college" or "college savings accounts" offered by banks. "University" is sometimes used in such contexts by Americans who wish to avoid ambiguity, for example in the context of Internet message boards where the reader hail from a different English speaking country.

This is hilarious. The ADD of the mob rule!
The guy (MrFisK) sets out the whole context, him and his friend he tutored, signed-up, (and then has the vote-up-all-my videos...you'd love them" mentality, new to the social networking environment, sifting while drunk making amateur/beginner mistakes - typical of a definite member of the untapped demographic VideoSift may not be part of, and 'Sift make it something so much...

Edit: I typed this up after waking up for a few minutes...fell asleep, woke up, press enter, then thought I added the bit about how it's hilarious people are typing about Cheetos instead. Advice: Don't Sift while asleep...or drunk.

... I'd figure one would have to be brilliant to handle educating a child k-12. ...

Just focus your kid's homeschooling on SAT preparation, and have them take online courses with the cheap online tutors from India, and in-person courses at the local junior college.

Most of high school is a waste, and the curriculum can be decades behind the cutting edge.

good game.
and featuring none other than evil-incarnate character actor David Warner
as the voice of your cruel new tutor.

though you don't hear him in this clip.
his character is the last humanoid image you see here.

^ And what on earth is it about my love of philosophy that's supposed to result in my enabling your intellectual laziness, or your attacks on me and my fellow sifters?

You come here and insult our intelligence, and then expect us to help you do what you should be able to do on your own? I think not. We aren't going to turn a great internet community into a place where students think they can come to get bailed out when they've failed to do some actual research for their term papers. This site is not a tutoring service, and if you think my study of philosophy ought to have led me to a different conclusion, then you're shit out of luck.

I didn't realize how awful Tae-Pyung-So sounded... It's like a louder, obnoxious version of one of those Capt'n Crunch whistles.

If you're into authentic lifestyle experience and what not, what I would recommend is the temple stay or traditional Korean home stays. For some reason those programs are really well organized and even Koreans ourselves wouldn't mind signing up for these events.

Forget about all those tourist traps like Insa-Dong or Seoul Tower and whatnot. Staying in one of those temples really is a new experience in life, but make sure you goto a good one and not some bogus event. Also I would recommend Ahn-Dong, which is about 40 minutes north from Daegu in Gyongsang province.

If you're looking for more modern approach into Korea, then Seoul is your place. Ask for Hong-Dae and you'll find a vibrant night life equal to that of Japan and Spain. And don't forget Norae-bangs.

Other reasons why people come to Korea:

1. Cheap plastic surgery prices, yet very good surgeons. Japanese tourists often come over to get their nose done or a quick botox while in Korea because the prices are cheaper in Korea with no difference in quality of treatment.

2. English tutoring. You can earn a lot of buckaroos if you're a western born Caucasian who speaks English. Even if English is not your first language you are still favored over native English speakers who are non-Caucasian.

Hmm interesting, how insightful your reply was.
Any tutoring here, i'm sure needs to be given not received Unless you think there is something I know worth teaching... Wow, now that's a new one on me - whew! And as for updating my profile, ha ha ha
In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
Just to clarify, although i'm sure it makes no difference, i'm a woman myself ...

in that case, you ought to update your bio, as it is no longer accurate.

and although the comment probably wins me no favours, it's how I feel about this "type" of woman

well, i certainly wouldn't be the one to debate you, on that point. heh.

and yeah, you're definitely right, sticking jews in, totally ruins the joke hahaha. Duhhhh. I'll get it down in the end, I hope :F

if you ever do, get it down? tutor me!

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
Just to clarify, although i'm sure it makes no difference, i'm a woman myself ...

in that case, you ought to update your bio, as it is no longer accurate.

and although the comment probably wins me no favours, it's how I feel about this "type" of woman

well, i certainly wouldn't be the one to debate you, on that point. heh.

and yeah, you're definitely right, sticking jews in, totally ruins the joke hahaha. Duhhhh. I'll get it down in the end, I hope :F

if you ever do, get it down? tutor me!

Like I said, it's a reenactment of the next-to-last scene from the movie Kazoku Game (The Family Game). The guy that beats them all up is the tutor hired to get the younger son's grades up so he can get into the elite high school that his parents want him to go to. That sort of situation (the tutor, not the foodfight was and still is a common thing in Japan, with a huge amount of stress placed on children to not only succeed but to excel academically. It's a very neat movie, and I'd definitely recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

I just came back from studying the Japanese alphabet. Those words (the ones that weren't written with Chinese characters) don't show up in dictionaries, but get a good number of hits on Google. I'll check with my tutor.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Keep us posted on how it goes Arvana- I've considered it in the past as well.

Did you buy little letter stickers for all your keys? How hard is it to switch your PC over to Dvorak? Is there any good typing tutor software for it?

What about a chorded keyboard? It lets you type with one hand which has ... benefits.

Is this the thread, that we're supposed to be roasting, Choggie in?
I mean, I want to talk, to Choggie. I'd like to have him, tutor me in English.
You see, I'm not, very good with the use of commas. It's like, I'm just not sure when to use, them, where, to use them, or how often, to use them. Can anyone please, explain this to me?