America - The Official Thread

[Shaun]

However with these being so new...not sure

Yep definitely 👍, as technology improves these things become harder and harder.
I had heard of the projectile theory as I caught a very quick glimpse of it on the news the other night. Interesting theory.

We're starting to go way off topic here.

 

[Johnnypenso]

So in three state in the US the leading cause of death is being shot by the cops:

https://www.yahoo.com/health/death-in-your-state-whats-the-most-distinctive-119022157667.html

I'm a bit suspicious of this claim, but there it is.

It's not the leading cause of death, it's the most distinctive cause of death, meaning the rate of deaths per capita in the state/rate of deaths per capita for the nation. It's a ratio, not an absolute number.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The Grand Jury in the Baltimore case have returned charges largely similar to Mosby's. The officers' defence naturally continue to say they did nothing wrong.

 

[Johnnypenso]

The Grand Jury in the Baltimore case have returned charges largely similar to Mosby's. The officers' defence naturally continue to say they did nothing wrong.

These two differences could be important:

All six officers were also indicted for reckless endangerment, which was not on the original charge sheet.

The big change: None of the officers was indicted for false imprisonment. That’s notable, because Mosby emphasized during her initial statement that Gray’s very arrest was illegal, saying officers had no basis for detaining him.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/05/a-grand-jury-backs-marilyn-mosby/393914/

 

[Garage13]

I agree with what you're saying, but I can imagine poor Emo sitting somewhere shedding a tear.

well as i said Emerson Fittipaldi was indeed a great driver as was Senna,but If you weren't into say open wheel and just into say Drag Racing or NASCAR Emo or Senna wouldn't spring to mind unless they were attempting to race in that series

 

[catamount39]

well as i said Emerson Fittipaldi was indeed a great driver as was Senna,but If you weren't into say open wheel and just into say Drag Racing or NASCAR Emo or Senna wouldn't spring to mind unless they were attempting to race in that series

Excuse me but I remember watching a FOX pre-race one time and quite a few drivers looked up to Ayrton Senna...

I think more people than you think know about Senna.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Meet Edward Mezvinsky, born January 17th, 1937.
You might then ask, "So who is he?"​

Well, he is a former Democrat congressman who represented Iowa's 1st district in the US House from 1973 to 1977.

He sat on the Judiciary committee that ultimately decided the fate of President Richard Nixon, saying that he was a crook and a disgrace and should be impeached.

He had an affair with NBC News reporter Marjorie Sue Margolies, and married her when his wife divorced him. In 1993, Marjorie Mezvinsky, then a freshman Democrat in Congress, cast the deciding vote that got President Bill Clinton's tax package though the House.

In March 2001, Mr. Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud for embezzling more than $10 million from people by way of both a Ponzi scheme and through the notorious Nigerian e-mail scams.

He was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison, and after serving less than five years, he was released in April of 2008 and remains on federal probation. To this day, he still owes $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.

Now you might be saying, "So what?"​

Well, this is Marc and Chelsea Mezvinsky.

That's right, Ed Mezvinsky is Chelsea Clinton's father-in-law.

Now Marc and Chelsea are in their early 30's and bought a $10.5 million NYC apartment (after being married in George Soros' mansion).

Did you see any media coverage on the connection?

 

[Draggon]

That just blows my mind. Wonder if Ol' Soros is one of their godparents?

Nevermind, its just me, I know they can totally relate to the little people such as myself.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Did you see any media coverage on the connection?

Yes. Their marriage was/is covered regularly by the press (at least in the UK, the Daily Mail were particular fans) and there's nothing to bar a US politician if a relative (or they themselves) have a criminal conviction or have claimed immunity from one. The father's crimes were also covered at the time, part of his claim was that his close connection to the Clintons would help investments. That was newsworthy in itself when it happened 15-ish years ago.

The father is person non grata with the family now, at least according to the news over here. I don't claim to peruse magazines at any length but if I recall correctly Margolies walked her son down the aisle, not his father.

To be honest I'm not sure what difference you expect it to make, are you saying that Clinton is an unsuitable candidate on the basis of this?

And any chance that this is old news?

 

[Sanji Himura]

Yes. Their marriage was/is covered regularly by the press (at least in the UK, the Daily Mail were particular fans) and there's nothing to bar a US politician if a relative (or they themselves) have a criminal conviction or have claimed immunity from one. The father's crimes were also covered at the time, part of his claim was that his close connection to the Clintons would help investments. That was newsworthy in itself when it happened 15-ish years ago.

The father is person non grata with the family now, at least according to the news over here. I don't claim to peruse magazines at any length but if I recall correctly Margolies walked her son down the aisle, not his father.

To be honest I'm not sure what difference you expect it to make, are you saying that Clinton is an unsuitable candidate on the basis of this?

And any chance that this is old news?

I was speaking about American media, sir. I think that Chelsea got married at the same time diva Kim K. got married to Kanye, and the media in America got all over the latter's marriage.

As far as what my point was, if I had intended to discredit Hillary, I would post it in the Presidential Election thread. As things stand now, I am trying to be non-partisan in any form of coverage that I have been doing/will do in that thread.

Regardless though, I had not known about the connection, and I was just simply sharing.

 

[Johnnypenso]

delete

 

[mustafur]

America will never escape the clearly Corrupt lobbying that dictates who will be put in power and what they will support.

The Clinton foundation is clearly a Front for Lobbyists to pay into and they get the money by giving themselves Vast salaries.

This is even worse then regular lobbying.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

The issue there is that people don't move to where they think they can fix a school. They move to where the school is already good.

I think the issue has more to do with student outcomes than public perception of individual schools. You're always going to have schools that are under-privileged; it's really a by-product of socio-economic trends.

But if it's a disparity between public and private schooling, it sounds like a curricular issue. We had a similar problem here, where private schools have been heavily subsidiaries by government funding to make it affordable, but if you look at the top schools in our state by educational outcomes, the list is dominated by public schools. Even the Greater Public Schools - the big "name" institutions; think the Harvard and Yale of high schools - struggle to place in the top twenty.

I question the idea that school culture can change because of a new cohort. As much as I have seen junior students pick up the bad habits of the seniors - and pass them on to subsequent year groups - I also know that change has to come from within.

 

[mustafur]

I think the issue has more to do with student outcomes than public perception of individual schools. You're always going to have schools that are under-privileged; it's really a by-product of socio-economic trends.

But if it's a disparity between public and private schooling, it sounds like a curricular issue. We had a similar problem here, where private schools have been heavily subsidiaries by government funding to make it affordable, but if you look at the top schools in our state by educational outcomes, the list is dominated by public schools. Even the Greater Public Schools - the big "name" institutions; think the Harvard and Yale of high schools - struggle to place in the top twenty.

I question the idea that school culture can change because of a new cohort. As much as I have seen junior students pick up the bad habits of the seniors - and pass them on to subsequent year groups - I also know that change has to come from within.

To be fair though the top Public High schools in NSW are Selective Schools such as James Ruse and Baulkam Hills High School.

But the Private schools Average are not that much better then the Average Public school.

 

[Johnnypenso]

To be fair though the top Public High schools in NSW are Selective Schools such as James Ruse and Baulkam Hills High School.

But the Private schools Average are not that much better then the Average Public school.

There is more to a good education than grades. I'd guess most people choose to send their kids to private school for a wide variety of reasons, like smaller classes, more structure, more specialty focused learning, less bureaucracy, closer contact with educators, accountability etc.

 

[mustafur]

There is more to a good education than grades. I'd guess most people choose to send their kids to private school for a wide variety of reasons, like smaller classes, more structure, more specialty focused learning, less bureaucracy, closer contact with educators, accountability etc.

Well there is obviously a case for private schooling most of which would be Social reasons.

But grades wise there is little difference, not to say grades are everything.

As someone who has done both the biggest difference by far is the Social differences.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There is more to a good education than grades. I'd guess most people choose to send their kids to private school for a wide variety of reasons, like smaller classes, more structure, more specialty focused learning, less bureaucracy, closer contact with educators, accountability etc.

I can only speak from my experience, but having taught in both the private and public systems, I can honestly say that I have never found any discernible difference in class size. Private or public, it averages out at about thirty students.

I am not sure what you mean by "more structure", since all classes are equally structured, except for learning support.

As for specialty learning, all schools are bound to follow the curriculum. If anything, it's actually much harder for private schools to offer extra subjects since it needs to be sustainable over the long term. It's not an issue for public schools because the system can always find a job for teachers elsewhere if their school shuts down a subject.

Maybe I am just a line animal, but I have never had a problem with bureaucracy. That's for the head teacher to deal with.

As for parents having closer contact with educators, I am not sure how parents can have any closer contact, since all teachers have a dedicated phone line, and we have regular parent-teacher sessions.

And with regards to accountability, everything we do is documented.

To be fair though the top Public High schools in NSW are Selective Schools such as James Ruse and Baulkam Hills High School.

It's cute that you think I don't know that considering that I have taught in both selective and comprehensive schools.

 

[Garage13]

Excuse me but I remember watching a FOX pre-race one time and quite a few drivers looked up to Ayrton Senna...

I think more people than you think know about Senna.

what i'm saying is that if you ask most people on the street that if they even are remotely a fan of racing more often or not the names that spring to mind "ANDRETTI,FOYT,UNSER,Petty,Earnhart,Jeff Gordon,Tony Stewart".That goes for a good chunk of people in america,but not all

I can only speak from my experience, but having taught in both the private and public systems, I can honestly say that I have never found any discernible difference in class size. Private or public, it averages out at about thirty students.

I am not sure what you mean by "more structure", since all classes are equally structured, except for learning support.

As for specialty learning, all schools are bound to follow the curriculum. If anything, it's actually much harder for private schools to offer extra subjects since it needs to be sustainable over the long term. It's not an issue for public schools because the system can always find a job for teachers elsewhere if their school shuts down a subject.

Maybe I am just a line animal, but I have never had a problem with bureaucracy. That's for the head teacher to deal with.

As for parents having closer contact with educators, I am not sure how parents can have any closer contact, since all teachers have a dedicated phone line, and we have regular parent-teacher sessions.

And with regards to accountability, everything we do is documented.

wouldn't it stand to reason that the most effective way to teach is to give 1 on 1 teaching due to the fact that human beings are not average.The teacher would be able to allow the student to grow at his or her own pace which is heavily hampered in public school.I'm not certain about private schools since i've never attended one.The main problem I have with bureaucracy is that 99.9% of the time they have a tendency over time of thinking they can throw money at a problem or over regulate or simply they know better than students or parents.Kids like CJ Pearson come to mind confirming that there are kids who know more about what's going on and what needs to be done than the educators and or the parents.
Truth is every student has strengths and weaknesses,if the educational system is designed to punish the ones who excell at something quickly like say for instance say Mike is very good at math but isn't so good at reading and on a test he is presented with a word problem.For Mike it's a reading problem first then a math problem.It's like you're given a Dodge Viper ACR,you know how to drive an automatic but don't know how to drive manual and you're expected to do sub 7'30's around the Nordschilefe.That isn't going to happen.

This brings me to an issue like common core,which if you take any real length of time to see how everything is set up you'll realize that teaching to a test is not in the student's best interest and a prime example of bureaucracy destroying a good educational system.Also i not only blame common core for making kids who will eventually become voting members of society more dumbed down but also a democratic socialist named John Dewey.

 

[Crash]

Parts of The Patriot Act has expired after no deal was completed in the Senate before the deadline.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

wouldn't it stand to reason that the most effective way to teach is to give 1 on 1 teaching due to the fact that human beings are not average.

Not necessarily - when it is implemented properly, group learning can actually be an extremely effective teaching and learning tool.

The teacher would be able to allow the student to grow at his or her own pace which is heavily hampered in public school.

Only if you assume that students develop at a fixed, linear rate. But there are a dozen or more different styles of learning, and what we ultimately want to develop a student's skills across the board - and that is very difficult to do in a one-to-one environment.

The main problem I have with bureaucracy is that 99.9% of the time they have a tendency over time of thinking they can throw money at a problem or over regulate or simply they know better than students or parents.

Which is why we work with them, rather than against them.

Truth is every student has strengths and weaknesses,if the educational system is designed to punish the ones who excell at something quickly like say for instance say Mike is very good at math but isn't so good at reading and on a test he is presented with a word problem.For Mike it's a reading problem first then a math problem.It's like you're given a Dodge Viper ACR,you know how to drive an automatic but don't know how to drive manual and you're expected to do sub 7'30's around the Nordschilefe.That isn't going to happen.

At no point are we trying to punish students. We distinguish between assessment of learning and assessment for learning. The first is really designed as a diagnostic tool - we're not looking to punish, we're looking to gauge where a student is at, and we can gather data from it.

This brings me to an issue like common core,which if you take any real length of time to see how everything is set up you'll realize that teaching to a test is not in the student's best interest and a prime example of bureaucracy destroying a good educational system.

Which is why I don't teach to the test.

 

[FoolKiller]

Parts of The Patriot Act has expired after no deal was completed in the Senate before the deadline.

This is a good thing, however I feel that without a deadline to be missed due to parliamentary procedures they will find a way to reinstate these provisions.


I just wish that every politician, including the president, who harps on about how important this is for our security (unproven) and acts like people who support the end of blanket surveillance are crazy would realize that they are a far bigger threat than any number of terrorists groups.

I would rather fight men with guns on the ground than a government with unfettered spying powers.

 

[DK]

Custody goes in, custody goes out - you can't explain that!

 

[catamount39]

Custody goes in, custody goes out - you can't explain that!

Not surprised...never liked O'Reilly...still a bit shocking though.

 

[mustafur]

This is a good thing, however I feel that without a deadline to be missed due to parliamentary procedures they will find a way to reinstate these provisions.


I just wish that every politician, including the president, who harps on about how important this is for our security (unproven) and acts like people who support the end of blanket surveillance are crazy would realize that they are a far bigger threat than any number of terrorists groups.

I would rather fight men with guns on the ground than a government with unfettered spying powers.

You can pretty much thank Rand Paul for that.


http://thehill.com/policy/national-...pires-as-paul-blocks-final-vote-on-NSA-reform

So here we thought he was going to play GOP Nominee but now he has gone full libertarian on them all lol.

 

[FoolKiller]

You can pretty much thank Rand Paul for that.


http://thehill.com/policy/national-...pires-as-paul-blocks-final-vote-on-NSA-reform

So here we thought he was going to play GOP Nominee but now he has gone full libertarian on them all lol.

It's not his first run at them over Patriot Act and Homeland Security issues. He previously did a filibuster on a new Homeland Security nomination to protest the use of drones against American citizens.

This is along the lines of what he has been doing. Will the media allow him to successfully get away with it is another question. I have no doubt that he will be called an isolationist and weak on security simply because he doesn't want to spy on and bomb everything that moves.

He's already being attacked by people like McCain because it without this program 9/11 happened and this program could have prevented it. That is false of course. The 9/11 Commission Report shows that our intelligence people had the information, but they failed to pass it on to the proper people. No one is trying to get rid of provisions that allow law enforcement to share information, just the methods being used to gather that information.


I hate when people lose their jobs, but the fact that a number of NSA employees can't do anything today does not make me sad.

 

[Liquid]

Mildly interesting. Ties in rather well with a similar, previous photo I put up here about Federal Land ownership.

 

[Brett]

Mildly interesting. Ties in rather well with a similar, previous photo I put up here about Federal Land ownership.

Nice depiction, even being the third most populated country, how large the United States is.

 

[Danoff]

Nice depiction, even being the third most populated country, how large the United States is.

Kindof hard to view it in the right context. If there's 1 person in the census report the whole area is white. There has to be not a single person living there to be green. It's hard not to think of the white as being highly populous, but actually a lot of that is empty too.

 

[Sanji Himura]

He's already being attacked by people like McCain because it without this program 9/11 happened and this program could have prevented it.

9/11 did still happen... 9/11/12. You are not going to stop mad men from attacking Americans just because our government decided to monitor phone calls. There are other ways to deliver a message, and it doesn't involve a phone line..

 

[Sanji Himura]

White House Press Room was evacuated today due to a "bomb scare". The only problem was that the President was in the building and wasn't evacuated per procedure. As a result, the Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, got a grilling from the reporters during the daily press briefing. Apparently, while the press was out, the entire press corps. cameras were covered.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...room-who-covered-up-the-cameras-in-this-room/