Our current congress (at least the House) would probably vote to allow teaching creationism, so Congress should NOT get hands-on with standards.

Learn object oriented programming, using Java or C++. That will give you a strong basis for almost anything else you want to do (I used to be a C++ programmer, and was hired as a Java programmer in spite of having no Java experience, on the strength of the C++).

if you want to do web stuff, learn a little HTML and CSS - you don't need to become an expert because most companies have people who specialize in HTML and CSS. You just need the basics so you can understand and modify pages. Also get familiar with HTTP.

Then Javascript, followed by some back-end language(s). Start with Java and/or PHP.

Most professional-grade sites are built on CMS's. Drupal is quite popular. Learn that with PHP and you should have a leg up.

Be prepared to keep learning new technologies constantly. Things are changing quickly, and even if you establish yourself as a PHP or Java programmer, new libraries are always popping up that you'll need to learn.

I just replaced a 5+ year old Apple Mighty Mouse - the first Apple mouse I've ever worn out (bluetooth was getting flakey). On the other hand, the mice that I get with my work PC laptops have generally lasted months, not years. Dell mice are utter crap.

My internist saved my life. Found a tumor that was asymptomatic and would have killed me in a few years.

And if they don't understand fractions?

>We haven't seen a true libertarian society yet.

Somalia.

The difference between the corporations who want to control us and the government is that we elect the government and have some say in its operations. Of course, if we're idiots and vote for power-hungry psychopaths based on political advertising and propaganda (Fox) paid for by wealthy individuals and corporations, the government we get isn't going to do a lot of good. Hence the need for controls on campaign financing, etc.

I've occasionally compared the prices Amazon charges for grocery items to what I pay locally, and the local stores, even Whole Foods, have always beaten Amazon on price. Amazon has good pricing on everything else, why not on groceries, Bezos?

There will be two kinds of people in a true libertarian society: the super-rich and the minions. That's why so many rich people want to shrink the govt. - so the people have no recourse against their power.

No, because if you exercise regularly your resting heart rate will be lower, which presumably will compensate for the higher rate during exercise (I exercise a lot, and my resting heart rate is 49 bpm - a real athlete's rate will be even lower).

And reciting Emily Dickinson poems!

Mine did.

My mother was a teacher and based on her experience, I'd say you are a conservative blowhard. The teachers unions can screw up, but for the most part they have been defending not just teachers, but their students against idiot administrators, bureaucrats, and, worst of all, politicians. Right wingers have succeeded in demonizing the unions as part of their efforts to demonize the teachers themselves in furtherance of their goal to undermine public education.

Years ago my wife bought a VHS tape that was intended to entertain cats. It was all videos of squirrels, birds, and other prey moving around and making sounds. One of our two cats ignored it, but the other was fascinated. He could watch the entire one-hour tape without getting bored. He would occasionally try to move around behind the TV to get a better vantage point. At first he would often swat at the images on the screen, but he learned fairly quickly that he couldn't catch them that way.

You can't call yourself educated unless you have at least some background in both science and the humanities. I would extend the author's argument to go both ways - science majors need humanities courses so they have some idea of the human environment in which science is conducted and which it influences, and humanities majors need science and math courses so they have some of the logical discipline that those courses provide.

I was a humanities major, but I had a strong interest in science. Until I was in college I didn't do much with this interest due to bad math anxiety, but as a soph I decided to extend myself and take some courses in the "science track". We were on the block system, in which we took one course per month. So I spent one intense month learning calculus, and then one very intense month learning classical physics. I was fortunate to have good teachers or this could have been a disaster, but I aced calc and got a B+ in physics. The experience showed me that I wasn't really cut out for the sciences (although I ended up as a software engineer). But it was a good experience that strengthened my ability to think logically, and that increased my appreciation for math and science. Seeing physics laws derived step-by-step on the blackboard (that dates me!) was an incredible thrill, and gave me insight into how the mathematician's and scientist's brains work, and what drives scientists in their work.

I also took, in both college and grad school, some logic, philosophy of science, and statistics courses. All of them led me to a greater understanding of how science works as opposed to how most people think it works.

Getting a mix of science and humanities made me a better person, a person more able to understand issues that affect my life and the life of the community. I encourage students to study both.