The Current Events Thread

[Dire]

I'm starting to see why people home school.

[Syobon]

ACTA is dead after European Parliament vote
Great news, everyone.

Also, one of France's new president's promises during the presidential election was to make same-sex marriage as well as adoption for LGBT couples legal. Yesterday, the prime minister announced that this would become a reality during the first semester of 2013. pop flyin' news.

Yay, cool beans.

[SaintCrazy]

Texas Education

I just wanna add that as an aspiring teacher, I've been taught in my education classes that the state standards (the TEKS) are supposed to be used as a bare minimum of what is taught, kind of like an outline of concepts to cover and expand upon. Unfortunately, we have decent amount of teachers who either think that they only need to teach the TEKS, or due to extenuating circumstances (such as students who can't be motivated to even do the bare minimum, for whatever reason) are forced to teach to the test instead of teaching critical thinking skills or more advanced material. As a result there's always this tug of war over what content should be covered in the standards and on the tests, because while it SHOULD be a bare minimum, there's no system in place to encourage teachers to go beyond the state standards.

But yeah changing the curriculum so often has gotten to be a huge problem, because those in training to be teachers (such as myself) have to learn whatever standards are in place at the time, and when they change we have to go through a whole new process of learning those standards. In addition it places a huge strain on students who aren't getting a consistent education or set of expectations.

I'm eager to see how this stuff unfolds, but it worries me a lot. Last year there were lots of rallies and protests by teachers, students, parents, and others about the massive budget cuts the Texas government put on education matters, and it hit a lot of schools very close to home, especially when it came to extracurricular activities and the like (my former assistant band director got fired, after teaching there for longer than I've been alive). Despite the clear and visible protests and countless letters to government offices, it seems that little has changed. It worries me that the politicians involved are so far removed from the public that they can't seem to understand the terrible state of our education programs.

[Sammich Monster]

The Higgs Boson has been found.

This changes everything.

[Exeres]

I wonder how they knew what to call it before they actually found it.

[BeatBoxingBoo]

Apparently Obama's birth certificate might have been faked.

I just saw this magazine at the store and thought I would bring it up, don't know if it's true or not but eh. The actual article went into much more detail than bodaciously one paragraph though. Wonder why they don't post the full thing on the website.

EDIT: Just to be clear I don't believe this bullshit, I just thought it would be something to bring up.

[Madican]

>Globe

How are you not able to recognize tabloids?

[Scoot]

Wonder why they don't post the full thing on the website.

EDIT: Just to be clear I don't believe this bullshit

Because it's a supermarket tabloid and they just want to sell copies and oh hey when did that edit get there.

[BeatBoxingBoo]

Seconds before Madican asked me how I don't recognize a tabloid, which is because I don't fucking know how to do that, I just looked at the only magazine they had at the check-out counter.

[Madican]

If it's square with shitty paper that stains your hands when you touch it and the front page is all about outlandish claims then it's a tabloid.

[Syobon]

I wonder how they knew what to call it before they actually found it.

Because we have genius's like Einstein who can theorize how the universe works without experimenting. The fact that the prediction was so spot on is an indication for me that we're getting ever closer to a Grand Unified Theory, that is an absolute explanation for how the entire universe works.

[Lambeth]

Does anyone on this forum actually do drugs frequently

I smoked marijuana for the first time like a week ago. My mother gave it to me and she got it from my aunt.

Apparently Obama's birth certificate might have been faked.

I just saw this magazine at the store and thought I would bring it up, don't know if it's true or not but eh. The actual article went into much more detail than bodaciously one paragraph though. Wonder why they don't post the full thing on the website.

EDIT: Just to be clear I don't believe this bullshit, I just thought it would be something to bring up.

Man I wouldn't believe that even under the influence of drugs.

I wonder how they knew what to call it before they actually found it.

Because people guessed it existed before they found actual proof.

[Exeres]

Guys please, please tell me you didn't think I was asking a serious question.

[Lambeth]

Sorry I am legally obliged to answer all dumb questions serious or not.

[Syobon]

I didn't even think it was a dumb question, it's pretty incredible that we can predict the existence of particles without direct evidence.