Bah. If MOOCs are a failure, that's because they're doing it wrong. There's a lot of good research saying that humans learn best through experimentation and projects, and in groups... MOOCs can't do that.

I'm still waiting for our hidebound education system to do "homework" in class with other students and where the teacher can help and do "lecture" via a recording that students can watch while they're at home. My wouldn't THAT be nice? There's something MOOCs would be good at...

Throwing lectures via a recording at people doesn't work really any better than doing it in person.

There's going to be a LOT of posts about politics here. Mine will be no different. oh look, the first post is about global warming. "Just link your thesis to Global Warming, and you won't have a problem."

Except that's the complete opposite of what the article is saying...

We need good science. I'm very annoyed that we are subsidizing profitable industries while NOT funding important science work. You all should be too. What happened to us? What happened to America? When did we become so.... Stupid? When did we change from people that valued knowledge and learning to a people that put quotes around "scientists" all the time?

I'm guessing it happened right around the time that the messages that educated people were telling us became harmful to the messages that industry wanted us to hear. Why can people not see that?

I am frequently found wondering about the pace of tech and the abilities it gives us being up against the speed of government, a large organization not known for speed. Designer drugs, fracking, UAVs, etc etc etc... It seems like it you move fast enough you can get away with a lot before anyone notices what you're up to. :D

This is not always a good thing, but... it is interesting.

Ahem. I'm forced to point out that neoliberal is not liberal... I'm afraid many people don't know that neoliberal is a technical term in economics. From Wikipedia: "support for great economic liberalization, privatization, free trade, open markets, deregulation, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy."

Or basically "capitalism with the gloves off"

woh! I see I got modded down into oblivion. I had never heard "scotch" being used as " Decisively put an end to". It seemed rather derisive. I'm still a little curious about the origins of the word. Looking up the Etymology of the word, it seems it might be from an old old word, and is not derogatory towards the Scots as I thought that it might be.

I'm not sure why curiosity or a sense of Not Assholism deserved to be modded down, but OK... Sorry Internet. Sheesh.

You know the parties switched. Old republicans are not New republicans. You know that. That's stated above, go read if you don't know that.

Do they? so, the ACLU and EFF are republicans? Ha! Name me the conservative ACLU and EFF.... I'll wait.

I see what you did all over the place. Lefties do indeed push for gun control, but there's been NO serious push for that from the feds. Despite this lack of a push, righties seem to think Obama is going to creep into their house and steal their guns.

Yes, I know Frederick Douglas was republican. See above.

Can you provide some evidence of that? That would be neat to know. Although, even if true, the Feds have been paying for upkeep for a LONG time.

Aaahhh.... I didn't read the amendments. I only read the original.

How in the hell do the Feds do ANYTHING then? You'd have no interstate highways, no... anything. Sheesh.

Look up Wolf-PAC. I'm a member, and I'm sad to say that most of us are left leaning. There's a fair bit of libertarians in there with us. I'm not a Tea Partier. So, you're wrong again.

Ahem. I'm not just a member, I'm a volunteer coordinator for my state. I've met with my reps.

Lefties love this country too. I'd say we love it more. We're always the ones complaining when it does bad things. I see the EFF and the ACLU fighting the government's overreach in the courts. I see Lefties in the streets, for specific causes. I don't see a lot of Tea Party folks doing much of anything really. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I really don't see them. Who is against the stupid wars we fight? Who complains when we topple democratically elected leaders? Where's the Right's Noam Chomsky? Who was against slavery? Who actually fights in the courts against government overreach? Lefties....

Who rants about guns when there hasn't been a serious push to take away guns at all? Righties. Tea Partiers.

So don't give me any shit about the Tea Party Libertarians being the only ones fighting. Lefties have a long and far better history of fighting against government overreach than anyone else.

Unless you want to call The Government Actually Helping People as overreach. Then, yes, Righties fight against government overreach all the time. damn social security! Damn welfare! Damn the VA. Damn government health insurance! Damn interstate highways! Damn FDR and paying people to build infrastructure we're still using today and that benefited the nation greatly!

"The constitution specifically states that anything not in the document is NOT permissible by the federal government."

Where does it specifically state that? I think you WANT it to specifically state that, but I don't think it does..... Articles 1-3 set up the congress, president, and supreme court. Article 4 sets up the states. Article 5 allows for amendments. Article 6 is debts and treaties. Article 7 is definitions and signatures. I just skimmed it. It's not that long. It doesn't specifically say that anywhere. Did I miss it?

It DOES say in article 4 "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States".

So, it looks really like it's the exact opposite of what you're saying. It looks like you're specifically stating something that's not quite true. You WANT it to be true, but it's not. The text is right there for anyone to read.

If I'm wrong, please point out the relevant section.

I'm going to map my drive to work, by driving it a few dozen times. Then the car can take over. I don't care if it's no good in parking garages or my own driveway. I'll spend 3 minutes driving from my house, let the car take over, let the car do the boring freeway driving, and it can alert me when I'm 3 minutes from work. Then I'll take over and get into the parking garage and park my car.

Are we really whining because a brand new technology can't do EVERYTHING for us? Because it only takes care of MOST of the drudgery?

You're accusing other people of being brainwashed, but you sound even more brainwashed. Evil Hamas uses children to dig Tunnels of Terror! Let's face it, it takes two to tango and Israel is just as guilty of violence as Hamas. As long as they keep pointing fingers and taking retribution for the last attack, there will never be peace between Palestine and Hamas. Frankly, I don't think Israel WANTS peace. I think they want the Palestinian land. There's also the fat stacks of defense cash flowing through Israel. It's hard to blame Palestinians for fighting back when they're blockaded and can't get medicine or even building materials to fix up their buildings. It's hard to look at the situation with Palestinians throwing rocks, Hamas firing shitty homemade rockets that immediately get shot down by Israel's Iron Dome system... and then look at the disproportionate Israeli response, the 10:1 Palestinian:Isreali death ratio, and the facts of life under blockade, and see anything but Israel being the aggressor.

The Palestinian demands are to end the blockade and recognize them as a state. How is that unreasonable?