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).

I think that stating that humans are unequivocally responsible for current climate change is a bit far reaching. We should be promoting healthy stewardship of resources (including the air we breath) for everyone. At the same time, we should be walking around with our eyes open to the presence of significant environmental change over time (from the warm spell under the Romans to the little Ice Age to today, we have significant change going on).

It might be related to human activity and it might not be related to human activity (maybe it's smokestacks and smelting but it might be equally caused by solar activity and methane depletion in the oceans)--but we should be responsible with our resources regardless. I for one am glad to have grey whales make a come back in the Atlantic. At the same time, I think we need to be careful where we put our people if we are going to continue to have severe weather, excessive flooding, etc.

And yet, the EU wouldn't want to do that anyway because a company like Saab (jet engines, not cars) should be able to hide behind the relevant EU governments' state departments when the US wants something from them--the government should be there to protect its people (even when "people" refers to a corporation based within a nation's borders). Just like tariffs, governments are going to try and avoid an escalation that will cause their companies (which pay taxes to keep the government around) to lose out.

Except that at the end of the day, MS will take its $219 Billion market cap and its rather large political influence in the US and hide behind the US State Dep't. (which, despite the antagonism from the anti-MS, pro-EU guy above, is precisely what any company should do when it is confronted by a situation putting the laws which govern it in conflict with the laws of another entity in which it desires to do business, whether that is a US-based company or one based in Europe or Fiji or wherever).

An analogy can only express so many aspects of its original, but I might be able to tie this in to the current one... If the child were to go over to a friend's house out the front door (again without permission), knowing the rule about torches and staying inside, went into the other kids' garage because that kid's parents were not even home (Christianity claims that other gods are either created beings resisting the true God--demons--or not real in any fashion), and then took out the torch in said garage, his death would be (1) tragic, and (2) on some level his fault for leaving the house without permission.

The analogy does break down at the following points, (1) the Christian understanding is that God knows everything. (2) There is, among most Christians, an understanding of "an age of accountability" (varying by child) which would determine when the child, as it were, could be entrusted with staying out of the garage or not leaving the house, etc. To make the analogy somewhat more accurate, it would be as if the child were suddenly an 18-year old honors student in particle physics and mechanics, and knew everything there was to know about the torch... and ran towards it anyway. God steps in front of the torch but the fully cognizant individual can choose to try and sidestep God and hit the torch anyway, reject that the torch is really that bad, believe that the torch is a means of salvation in itself or that God is not who He says He is... Again, the analogy can only cover so much.