I agree, I love the way RAII works with exceptions in C++. It's just a shame most people still learn C++ as "C with classes".

C#'s IDisposable and using statement are probably the best you're going to get in a nondeterministic garbage collected language though, so I wouldn't complain about that.

Java can go die in a fire.

You say "with short attention spans", I say "who must speak succinctly". And although you can just use it like a crippled RSS feed, it's also a little bit like a public chat room for people to discuss issues. There's a lot of political discussion going on over Twitter, and I do think this overlaps with educated trendy people with too much money.

What I mean by "socialising" is all about leaving your group and understanding and respecting alternative views. If you only accept news from a single source then you are only likely to become more bigoted, and so much easier to be manipulated by a politician/advertiser.

So much of American politics is driven by emotionally-charged ignorance. Information means nothing when people are unwilling to hear it.

-1

I wouldn't expect higher education to change people to vote more like the "educated" people. Do you hate how extreme christians vote? If you force them all into college they'll just make their own college which will amplify their prejudices.

If you want a more informed society, get them to socialise. BSc/BAs are completely unrelated to this.

If exercise alone is boring then you should try combining it with a mental activity (eg studying flashcards), or doing it in a social environment (martial arts groups, riding with friends, Wii gaming, etc). When you're distracted you'll be amazed how much physical 'work' you can do.

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

iTunes cards here is Aus (and I assume elsewhere) are regularly sold with a discount of 25%, suggesting that that is the retailer's markup. Add 5% costs, and it's easy to understand why Apple can't sell anything with less than a 30% cut. Anyone who doesn't use discounted iTunes cards is getting seriously ripped off.

In a country like China, it's likely the cheating students (or their parents) knew how to leverage relationships with the people in charge. The outcome would be different if the teacher had friends higher in power.

This is also why I come here. Except I only read the top funny comments.

It is definitely true that a large proportion of China is poorly educated, but things are rapidly changing. My girlfriend's parents are essentially illiterate (they speak Shanghainese, but know very little Mandarin), yet her generation is now university educated. Not that you need a university education to get a downloading program and click some links on a website. She has no idea what Bittorrent is, but I think that's what her (Chinese) downloader is using. Once kids gain access to the Internet, they'll work out what to do.

They already download movies by the bucketload, and they don't need to go outside the firewall. My Chinese girlfriend was quite perplexed about the number of DVDs being sold here.