Translated literally, I agree that something said/written by the Plato of ancient Greek fame would not be so erudite in English.

I once could read ancient Latin, which was heavily influenced by ancient Greek. To anyone who had not learned to read ancient Latin, a literal translation of stories (and other documents) written in the Latin of that era would be difficult to read. An easily readable "translation" is often actually a kind of collaboration between the original author and the translator (even when the original author is not involved in the translation, as would be the case when said author is dead).

So, if the ancient Plato actually said/wrote a phrase like that, the often quoted English version would have gotten its English erudicity from the translator.

It's not that reversing charges on explicitly authorized transmissions require that, but rather that some one who has your account number can withdrawn from your account without authorization.

Was not my experience, nor of friends of mine, but I haven't tried recently, nor have asked my friends.

Target's Red Card program has an option for tieing the card to the customer's bank account. From what I've heard, many customers do take that option. Perhaps they didn't/don't understand the liability part?

Many retailers offer "loyalty" cards, so are already gathering all purchase data on those customers. No different for Red Card.

Where Target's Red Card program differs from CurrentC, at checkout, it works just like a credit/debit card and doesn't require an app.

In the US, Target has an option for customers to link the store issued "Red Card" to their bank account. From what I've heard, a lot of customers do this - even after the data breach.

If CurrentC is what merchants want, I'd be surprised if they don't get it. And from the banks' side, they can respond to fraud complaints with "Unless you can prove that you PIN was stolen, there is nothing we can do." And they will just figure out a way to make up for the transaction fees.

US banks still have very thick, bulletproof glass. They also have armed security guards. Very few have more than one entrance/exit for customers (Last one I saw with multiple customer entries/exits was 5 years ago. Not even customer accessible emergency exits.)

Last I knew, US merchants are not allowed to accept credit (or debit) cards issued by non-US banks. One workaround is to buy (US bank issued) prepaid debit cards. Of course, the price is based on the current exchange rate plus a large markup. And even when the customer has a US bank account, there are other fees involved.

Another effect of No Child Left Behind was that schools near/at the top were penalized for "inadequate improvement."

The public school I might have gone to and the one my daughter might have gone certainly only truly recognized rote memorization.

Was not the case with the school I went to, my girlfriend went to nor my daughter went to. In many ways, it was like being turned loose in a library. We were given assignments, some individual, some group (usually assigned groups, but not always), then expected to get them done. There were also demonstrations and organized lab activities. And we were expected to do well in the arts as well as in math, science and social studies. Also, we were expected to participate in various social activities of our choice.

We learned a lot. And we had a lot of fun.

Sounds like a lot of my clients.

One of my more creative clients summarizes their employment requirements like this:

Junior Engineer

At least 5 years experience in product development with involvement in all phases from requirements analysis through hand-off to manufacturing.

Associate Engineer

Jedi Knight

Engineer

Jedi Master

Senior Engineer

Jedi Elder

Lead Engineer

Yoda

Sounds like a lot of conservatives I know.

The tests I always did best on were the ones like a "reading comprehension test." Each section would start with a paragraph or 2 describing some problem. Then several questions about solving the problem. They required real thinking, not regurgitating piles of stuff you memorized. If you were actually learning from the lectures, demos, lab work and homework, answering the questions was easy.

which focus on behavior modification

All education is a form of behavior modification. Either we are taught to actually learn, or we are taught to do tricks.

have the purpose of challenging the studentÃ(TM)s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority

I am reasonably sure none of my teachers purposefully challenged my "fixed beliefs" or undermined my parents' authority. Their purpose was to help me to enhance my ability to think for myself and investigate the world around me.

I did my own challenging and undermining.

A former coworker of mine, who is an immigrant from India, used to work for an India-base company. They assigned her to one of their US offices under an 'L' visa, paying her what she would have been paid in India. This was very common practice by her (now former) employer and many others she knew about. I suspect it still is.

FWIW, while in the US, she met and married a US citizen. She asked to have her assignment be permanent. but the company declined. She quit and quickly found a job offering 5x what her previous employer paid. Maybe should could have sued her previous employer for back pay, but didn't think about that at the time.