Among the highest per capita in emissions. There's very little data out there on net emissions, and I would like to see this. There was a recent study on CO2 production in old landfills with forests sitting on top of them, and for whatever reason, the study didn't look at net CO2, only at CO2 coming out of the ground. I'm pretty sure there's a major variable involving carbon sequestration via tree growth that isn't getting accounted for. Is the US with its massive tree planting (significantly more forests than in the early 20th century) and urban gardening campaigns really one of the top five worst polluters? I've never been in a city in the US (in the last couple of decades) where a mask was needed for lung health. This isn't true in some other countries. It used to be that Orange County's pollution (in Cali) had killed off most of its orange trees, and this isn't true anymore (though there's apparently a virus that's trying to do the job now if the interwebs are to be believed).

I am a bit confused why you don't think it applies on a public bus. Looking at the relevant code (thank you for the link), it looks like not only would c3 apply (noted by someone below), but section c.7.1 would also appear to apply--as long as a FoIA request were allowed for the recordings, it would be legal ("publicly accessible" recordings) even if there isn't prior notice to the riders on the bus.

Noting the description of the purpose of each of the parts of the brain connected (I clicked through to the journal article abstract), is this possibly part of how trained reflex action develops (not knee-jerk, but the reaction people have in martial arts after learning a movement, etc.)?

Recognizing that you are intentionally trying to poke fun at different texts without looking at the context, I figured I comment on the first two.

That's certainly one way of looking at a poem about love between a man and a wife, but it certainly isn't the only way of looking at it (and I'd argue, not the best). We can see allusions to pretty much anything we want in some types of poetry, but that doesn't mean we ought to--the passage in question that usually is tied to this is:

• With all the trees of frankincense,
  Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices.
  You are a garden spring,
  A well of fresh water,
  And streams flowing from Lebanon."
  Awake, O north wind,
  And come, wind of the south;
  Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
  Let its spices be wafted abroad.
  May my beloved come into his garden
  And eat its choice fruits!

Is some kind of sexual/romantic setting in view? Almost certainly, but any particular variety of sex shouldn't be directly drawn from the passage.

The passage in Matthew 25 to which you refer is looking at the bride's attendants and specifically at the fourth stage of a traditional Ancient Near East wedding, equivalent to an extended modern reception/final consecration of the marriage like the wedding feasts that go on for days in Asia now. Some Western weddings have a large number of bride's maids even today. In case you are wondering about the second part, where some don't get to join in, would you want half your wedding party to come to the reception if it was a time where leaving a young unmarried woman alone or with a small number of attendants could cause her to be assaulted by those outside the community?

...unless you live in Philly, anyway. The US government left the loopholes in place in December for using 3D printing to make plastic guns (you just have to have a metal strip so it meets the requirements of current law).

It could be that I am missing part of your point, but isn't the indirect stimulation of DARPA projects, green energy investment, etc. a part of the US government's way of responding to the potential threat of a foreign unified macro-economy?

I think the statement that everyone but the USA seeks peace is far too simplistic an assessment (particularly your parenthetical, which ignores a lot of the modern international dynamic in favor of tongue-in-cheek name-calling). There are problems with violence throughout the fabric of humanity. In China, violence tends to be focused on dissidents, the occasional border tiff with India, and the proxy wars in the Middle East and Africa. In Europe, there is a tendency to suggest peace, but right now there is a real push in a number of European countries to fix the Syrian and Egyptian problems (not that there is a real solution for Syria--both "sides" are problematic, and in Egypt it was under the military dictatorship that women could walk alone at dusk in the streets without fear of rape, the Christians and Muslims didn't kill each other, and a return to that government might help restore that peace). Europe is divided on the question, though, and throwing in war hawks from Iran and Russia doesn't help. The USA has its own share of stirring the ants nests of the world, but it is by no means alone. A number of the powers that be see it as beneficial for the individual country to shift problems outside its borders--proxy wars, aiding in "police actions", etc. Should we seek peace where possible? Yes--and that is certainly the goal of many. Should we fail to be realistic about general human self-interest? I hope not.

Documentation helps everything (unfortunately it is also part of the problem). Those I fail, fail, regardless of class percentage--it is usually low but there are occasions when it is above the magic "15%" I've heard is the unwritten rule.

At my university job, all assignments are turned in electronically, plagiarism checked automatically and then left for me to grade... cuts out waiting around for a student who "left the paper in his car, please please please wait for a few minutes". This of course, even with a plagiarism check, allows for a careful student to cheat--but then, that's always been possible provided someone is motivated enough to look for the "easy" (often more work or at least more money than doing the assignment) way out.

As far as the diploma'd guy getting a job with your company over the experienced guy, I hope they are also looking at internship experience because I wouldn't hire more than about 1 in 10 of the students I see for anything other than McDonald's. I say this not because they aren't capable but because they aren't motivated and perhaps more importantly haven't really decided what they want to do in life.

Teaching at a private university myself and having done public and private both, everything is tied to a money game. Money is tied to successful alumni (either through direct giving or from foundations that consider what happens to graduates) and having alumni, of course, requires graduation. Higher graduation rates depend on high individual class success. Class success is viewed as tied to grades. The value of the bachelor's degree in the US has dropped substantially in the last 20 years and it is no wonder that there is a push for online education. It is cheaper than physical teaching, it provides a readier supply of students and income and since an internship is the only way to be sure that a student is learning anything related to their chosen field anyway (in many cases), why not?

Professors/teachers do. Our society has moved from a culture that values individual initiative to one that demands everything put on a silver platter and hand delivered. There are various web comics drawn to describe the tendency of our culture from the 50s forward to put more and more burden on the teacher rather than the student. If I teach a lesson with a reading, listening, writing, speaking, building, and acting component, anyone who participates should be able to catch at least part of what I am instructing (I've used nearly every general category of learning reinforcement). Yet I still find many students who do not participate. These students come from good homes, I have positive relationships with their parents and with them and a healthy class environment, AND yet I still have students who have "good days" and "bad days".

Learning is a choice and it does not have to happen even in the best class (and I while I am certainly not perfect, I have one of the best classes I've had in years).

I used to work at a school that provided lunch for teachers so that we would be willing to eat with the kids rather than follow the typical (and legally required in my state) route that gave us a duty free lunch. I am guessing that lunch is necessary at Google as well if the expectation is that you work during what would normally be non-billable time.

That's the problem, he was on the same ship as the telephone sanitizers... they populated earth. What was needed is that such people be left behind as "valuable" members of society...

The Catholic Church recognizes that evolution may be one correct way of understanding how life works on earth. Unless something has come out in recent years making a more dogmatic stance, it does not explicitly uphold evolution. Whatever the case may be, there are a number of Christians (Catholic or otherwise) who hold to some form of gradual development (be it through theistic evolution [including some forms of intelligent design] or a gradual development followed by disaster followed by the traditional six day creation as recreation). In both of these cases, "creationism" could still be held to apply to their belief system and yet not fall under the critique of Bill Nye's statement (this statement at least).

You are equating faith with belief. Faith in most Christian settings incorporates belief with fiducia (trust).

Essentially, yes. It is an event that even if you are uninterested in the event itself, you often find yourself at a watching party (many go just to watch the advertisements during breaks). In some areas, local churches either close for the afternoon/evening or arrange for public viewing licenses to serve the community. Restaurants that might not normally be considered sports bars suddenly have televisions and local electronics stores tend to make adjustments to their returns policies for large tv sets at this time of year. The winning team usually gets a parade in its own city (a more official holiday).