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For those of you in college or academia, how big is the MOOC craze there?
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Jun 30, 2013 18:43
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Armani posted:Fantastic music link aside - any reason to distrust Drew? Excuse all the crappy second rate Time links. I dont want to dig through the forest of folders to find my old effortpost material. quote:Pinsky reportedly accepted the six-figure sum over the course of two months in 1999 for extolling the virtues of the antidepressant “in settings where it did not appear that [he] was speaking for GSK,” according to the Justice Department. Also the typical "Here take this drug I make money pushing, sure it can cause anxiety and seizures, and sure it is no more effective than a placebo, but COME ON MAN DO IT $$$$$$". http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR600283/DSECTION=side-effects http://au.businessinsider.com/14-documents-from-glaxosmithklines-3-billion-drug-marketing-scandal-that-will-disgust-you-2012-7 quote:GlaxoSmithKline paid $3 billion to end an investigation by the Department of Justice into its illegal marketing of the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and the diabetes drug Avandia. The payment—the largest ever in drug marketing—is accompanied by criminal convictions for the company. http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/18/new-research-on-the-antidepressant-versus-placebo-debate/ quote:However, Krystal adds, just under a quarter of patients did not respond well to drug treatment and in fact did worse on antidepressants than did patients who were given a placebo. Big money if youre a pusher though. http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/16/report-whos-taking-mental-health-drugs-in-america/ quote:More than 1 in 5 American adults now takes at least one type of medication to treat a psychological disorder, a 22% rise since 2001, according to new statistics released by Medco Health Solutions, which monitors drug trends in insurance claims. The data don't necessarily mean that we are overmedicated. Indeed, the World Health Organization estimates that slightly more than a quarter of Americans suffer from mental illness in any given year. Keep redefining "normal" until the pills run out! Hire a hoard of Dr Drews to sell your poo poo... You know what is convenient about stress-inducing shows like Dr Drews Advice Hour?: http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/03/study-how-chronic-stress-can-lead-to-depression/ quote:Study: How Chronic Stress Can Lead to Depression Anyway, back to Drew - like most whitecoats on the pharma payroll he is an unremitting and unapologetic piece of poo poo: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/how-dr-drew-sold-his-cred-to-big-pharma/259473/ quote:How Dr. Drew Sold His Cred to Big Pharma quote:n Dr. Drew’s case, the Justice Department isn’t the first to point out that he’s been taking money from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. In January, while researching conflicts of interest caused by pharmaceutical payments, Slate.com discovered that Pinsky had taken $115,000 from Janssen Pharmaceuticals. When the news went public, Janssen was the first to defend Pinsky, stating that the money was for a program “aimed at educating teens, parents, and educators about the prevalence and serious risks of teen prescription drug abuse in the U.S. …” And Alison Rudnick, a spokesperson for CNN’s Headline News network, home of the show Dr. Drew, emailed Slate.com to confirm that, if appropriate, “Dr. Drew would provide an on-air disclaimer if he were to do a story involving Janssen Pharmaceuticals.” Be that as it may, there was no such disclaimer last week when the subject of the Dr. Drew show was gastric bypass surgery — even though the Los Angeles Times had an article in December questioning the propriety of Pinsky’s role as a spokesperson for 1-800-GET-THIN, a lap-band surgery marketing firm (a source at Headline News says that the lap-band deal had elapsed by the time the gastric bypass show aired, so no disclosure was necessary). Theres a bunch of really disturbing exposes on the ways pharma uses disgraced doctors to "educate" both the public and other doctors using a bunch of researched manipulation techniques to get their pills in your body. Report Details Drug Company’s Close Ties With Disgraced Doctor (Midei) http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/read-report-details-drug-companys-close-ties-with-disgraced-doctor Disgraced FDA Official Goes Back to Big Pharma (Gottlieb) http://www.alternet.org/story/72513/disgraced_fda_official_goes_back_to_big_pharma Big Pharma buys off the Senate http://www.salon.com/2013/01/25/big_pharma_buys_off_the_senate/ Back to Drew - plus all of his sex advice was: "Well I have daughters and ... I dont approve of what you are saying... " (e: wow today was typo day. must be time for my pills.) FRINGE fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 19:15
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The solution to overstuffed UCs has been to encourage students to attend community colleges for the first two years, then transfer. This led to the community colleges being stuffed, too, and with no extra budget to account for the extra students. This led to foundation courses for popular majors being overbooked for years. A bright chancellor at one of the SoCal community colleges (I forget which) proposed a solution: raise the prices on the most popular courses to cut down demand. No, seriously. 
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Jun 30, 2013 19:22
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A bright chancellor at one of the SoCal community colleges (I forget which) proposed a solution: raise the prices on the most popular courses to cut down demand. No, seriously. 
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Jun 30, 2013 19:23
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havalux posted:My tuition for a full-load semester at Long Beach City College in 1991: $82.50. My tuition for an overloaded semester at Orange Coast in 2011: $42.00 (Of course this is the dirty poors rate  )Considering that it's a beeline into a UC it feels kind of like a mousetrap. Hey look I can afford college this isn't so ha- OH GOD WHERE IS MY MONEY. WHERE HAS IT ALL GONE. 
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Jun 30, 2013 19:39
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Revener posted:My tuition for an overloaded semester at Orange Coast in 2011: $42.00 And then for even the Cal State schools trying to get a masters it's just stupid. It would have cost my wife $50,000 and an extra year because of prerequisites from not having a business degree to start with to get her MBA from Cal State Fullerton where it's only going to cost her $20,000 more to go to Chapman and be out a year earlier.
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Jun 30, 2013 19:52
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Zeitgueist posted:The first section is going to be built in central CA where nobody will want to ride it, because it's cheaper to build it there. Then because nobody is riding it, they will use that as an excuse to kill the project before it connects a major city, taking the money to go build more prisons. I admit I don't follow state politics too much (or any politics much, because there's so much bullshit and I like my blood pressure to stay low) and am a bit ignorant about how much of it works, but I do know plenty of politicians (mostly conservative I think?) want to kill CA high speed rail, and have thrown up some roadblocks (as are some whiny, wealthy NIMBY types who hate noisy trains or whatever). But...I feel there's gotta be a chance that it actually happens (beyond the first central valley segment to nowhere). First off, tons of residents actually do want it, and poo poo tons of money has already been spent planning and designing the system and all that. Second, every major city in CA really wants it. San Francisco is already building an underground high speed rail station in the middle of downtown, and I like to think such a massive and expensive project wouldn't be under way if the powers that be weren't reasonably sure that the HSR system will get built. Finally, a lot of people high up in CA's government are from those cities that want the high speed rail, and that's gotta count for something right? Governor Jerry Brown is a San Francisco native/Oakland resident, and former mayor of Oakland, Lt. Goveror Gavin Newsom is an SF native/Bay Area resident and former mayor of SF (and was mayor when the HSR terminal was designed/approved and when it broke ground, so he's obviously supportive of it), Attorney General Kamala Harris is an Oakland native/SF resident, and former DA of SF, etc. Rah! fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 20:15
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A Winner is Jew posted:And then for even the Cal State schools trying to get a masters it's just stupid. It would have cost my wife $50,000 and an extra year because of prerequisites from not having a business degree to start with to get her MBA from Cal State Fullerton where it's only going to cost her $20,000 more to go to Chapman and be out a year earlier. I got a MA at Cal Baptist....and it cost me about 20K for 6 semesters. Cal State Fullerton Undergrads were dirt cheap when I went (I was able to pay out of pocket) then the fee hikes happened and now it's all a bit out of control.
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Jun 30, 2013 20:54
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I can't help feeling like the prison industry in California is akin to the defense industry in America: lots of money spent on bullshit that's immune from budgetary pressure. I hate that we spend more money oppressing poors and minorities than we do on educating them.
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Jun 30, 2013 21:15
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Cam someone enlighten me on the benefits of this high speed rail line? I live in California and take the Metrolink trains about 2 hours a day but I'm unsure of who this high speed line is for? Are people going to commute from LA to SD or SF? Or is this more an alternative to flying with ticket prices to match? I can see a few segments being popular like the IE to LA lines but many of them don't seem like they will see much use. Also whatever happened with those crazy plans to dig a tunnel through the mountain next to the 91 freeway? I see they're expanding the 91 express toll lanes now but nothing on regular traffic.
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Jun 30, 2013 21:21
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Rah! posted:I admit I don't follow state politics too much (or any politics much, because there's so much bullshit and I like my blood pressure to stay low) and am a bit ignorant about how much of it works, but I do know plenty of politicians (mostly conservative I think?) want to kill CA high speed rail, and have thrown up some roadblocks (as are some whiny, wealthy NIMBY types who hate noisy trains or whatever). Don't listen to him, it'll happen one way or another. Hopefully we're still alive when it does!
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Jun 30, 2013 21:34
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San Francisco wants high-speed rail (and so do I) but holy cow is the San Francisco Peninsula NIMBY about it. A lot of businesses and people's backyards are at stake, to say nothing of noise issues. I still think high-speed rail is a very, very good idea, but the eminent domain costs (and the legal fees thereof) are going to be staggering. e: quote:Are people going to commute from LA to SD or SF? Or is this more an alternative to flying with ticket prices to match? High-speed rail is more energy efficient, more comfortable than air travel, less sensitive to weather, and connects city centers rather than outlying airports. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 21:35
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Mayor Dave posted:I can't help feeling like the prison industry in California is akin to the defense industry in America: lots of money spent on bullshit that's immune from budgetary pressure. I hate that we spend more money oppressing poors and minorities than we do on educating them. You also have a entity (Prison unions) actively shooting down attempts at prison reform because more warm bodies in jail means better pay and more job security for the union. It's also a union that actively opposed things such as prison guard searches/metal detectors despite guards being caught smuggling in cell phones and contraband for inside organized crime. Arsenic Lupin posted:San Francisco wants high-speed rail (and so do I) but holy cow is the San Francisco Peninsula NIMBY about it. A lot of businesses and people's backyards are at stake, to say nothing of noise issues. Plus ambitious projects on such a scale always go over budget by a significant amount due to all the unknowns and technical problems. etalian fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 21:38
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Mayor Dave posted:I can't help feeling like the prison industry in California is akin to the defense industry in America Its a long uphill battle too. http://www.vice.com/read/whos-getting-rich-off-the-prison-industrial-complex quote:The Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments are America’s top two 401(k) providers. They are also two of the private prison industry’s biggest investors. So people that are actually anti-prison-complex are (unknowingly) tricked into supporting it via their own retirement funds. Yet another strategic trick of the "privatize it" crowd regarding retirement. Which has helped (neo-slavery, same as the old slavery): http://www.globalresearch.ca/profit-driven-prison-industrial-complex-the-economics-of-incarceration-in-the-usa/29109 http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289 http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-and-slave-labor-in-u-s-prisons/25376 quote:The number of people imprisoned under state and federal custody increased 772% percent between 1970 and 2009, largely due to the incredible influence private corporations wield against the American legal system. quote:Prisoners earning 23 cents an hour in U.S. federal prisons are manufacturing high-tech electronic components for Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles, launchers for TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles, and other guided missile systems. And there is the Old Enemy (propaganda): http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/overview/herzing_pic.html quote:The media have played a pivotal role in cementing who and what we understand as "criminal," what suitable responses are to "criminal" acts, as well as creating and amplifying feelings of fear and vulnerability among their audiences.7 According to a 1996 ABC News poll, for instance, 76% of the public said they develop their opinions about crime as a result of news stories, while only 22% based their opinions on information gained through personal experience. quote:Despite the fact that prisons are incredibly detrimental both to the communities from which prisoners come and the communities in which prisons are located, they continue to be pawned off on poor communities as economic miracles. Public officials often portray prisons as "clean industries" and promise hundreds of good jobs to economically desperate towns. Sense? http://www.truth-out.org/progressive-picks/item/16003-the-prison-industrial-complex-the-pac-man-that-destroys-lives quote:Most people don't realize that it costs, let's say $25,000 a year, to pay for the imprisonment of one person for a year (and that figure varies of course) and a lot more for solitary confinement. Many people are in prison because they couldn't find jobs in their neighborhood except selling drugs. Why not just find them a job that pays at least $25,000 a year and help rebuild communities instead of perpetuating the selling of drugs to feed the prison-industrial complex?
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Jun 30, 2013 21:46
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Also - its going to get worse before/if it gets better. https://www.rutherford.org/publicat...ustrial_complex quote:Yet while providing security, housing, food, medical care, etc., for six million Americans is a hardship for cash-strapped states, to profit-hungry corporations such as Corrections Corp of America (CCA) and GEO Group, the leaders in the partnership corrections industry, it’s a $70 billion gold mine. Thus, with an eye toward increasing its bottom line, CCA has floated a proposal to prison officials in 48 states offering to buy and manage public prisons at a substantial cost savings to the states. In exchange, and here’s the kicker, the prisons would have to contain at least 1,000 beds and states would have agree to maintain a 90% occupancy rate in the privately run prisons for at least 20 years.
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Jun 30, 2013 21:48
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Yeah it's basically a negative feedback loop the encourages counter-productive behavior instead of reducing jail time or at least reducing recidivism. Besides having the worst overall prison population, CA also gets the dubious honor of having high recidivism rates. Then you have everyone from corporations to prison unions trying block genuine reform of the system since it would reduce their income.
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Jun 30, 2013 21:54
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FCKGW posted:Cam someone enlighten me on the benefits of this high speed rail line?
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Jun 30, 2013 22:24
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Miss-Bomarc posted:If you want to travel from a point in the tourist district of San Francisco to a point on the outskirts of LA, and you want to do something that takes twice as long as flying, then high-speed rail is a good choice for you. Twice as long is what, two hours? I'll trade that for much cheaper fare and no airport security lines.
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Jun 30, 2013 22:26
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computer parts posted:Twice as long is what, two hours? I'll trade that for much cheaper fare and no airport security lines. Yeah, while the actual time spent moving is longer, the total trip is likely to be close to comparable, because you don't have to deal with traveling to the departure airport, going through security, or traveling from the destination airport. (This is assuming that places aren't putting their train terminals in rear end-backwards stupid locations, which I'm not sure of.) raminasi fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 22:33
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Miss-Bomarc posted:If you want to travel from a point in the tourist district of San Francisco to a point on the outskirts of LA, and you want to do something that takes twice as long as flying, then high-speed rail is a good choice for you. The "tourist district" in SF also happens to be the financial district and the "outskirts of LA" happens to be about a quarter mile from downtown LA and the heart of the cities transit hub.
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Jun 30, 2013 23:12
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Miss-Bomarc posted:If you want to travel from a point in the tourist district of San Francisco to a point on the outskirts of LA, and you want to do something that takes twice as long as flying, then high-speed rail is a good choice for you. The transbay terminal in downtown SF is not a tourist district....it's an everything district. It's in the middle of a large business district, luxury highrise district, near a shopping and entertainment area, near the Bay Bridge off/on ramp, ferries, BART, near a low income residential district, etc, and yes, it's full of tourists too. And LA Union Station, where the main LA HSR rail terminal will be is not on the outskirts of LA, it's right next to downtown. Maybe you're thinking of the planned Palmdale/Sylmar/Burbank/Norwalk/Anaheim/Riverside/Industry/Ontario stations or something (drat that's a lot of stations in the LA area). And it will definitely be worth it to take a train from SF to LA that takes roughly as long as flying or maybe even less time (including getting to and from the airport and going through security), is cheaper than flying, and has much less or no bullshit security theater. You could take day trips between the two and actually have time to do lots of poo poo. edit: beaten 
Rah! fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 23:13
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I think that high speed rail is an absolutely wonderful idea but I'm not sure we can predict what prices and security will be like in 20 years. I think it's possible, unfortunately, that the prices and the security will be comparable to airports.
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Jul 1, 2013 00:09
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Muck and Mire posted:I think that high speed rail is an absolutely wonderful idea but I'm not sure we can predict what prices and security will be like in 20 years. I think it's possible, unfortunately, that the prices and the security will be comparable to airports. Yeah honestly all it's going to take is one knucklehead with a bomb glued to his junk for the TSA or whatever to make sure you never board a train without 90 minutes of lines in the way. Plus you can virtually guarantee that some no-bid contractor is going to end up millions over budget and months behind schedule after accidentally building 1/4 of the line out of plywood. I really want rail to work, but California.
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Jul 1, 2013 00:25
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Ah Pook posted:I really want rail to work, but California. I get your drift, but California actually has one of the two semi-functional Amtrak corridors in the entire country.
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Jul 1, 2013 00:33
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Arsenic Lupin posted:The solution to overstuffed UCs has been to encourage students to attend community colleges for the first two years, then transfer. This led to the community colleges being stuffed, too, and with no extra budget to account for the extra students. This led to foundation courses for popular majors being overbooked for years. It's weird that my cousin at CSUF says its common to have 100+ student sized General Ed classes. Whereas my its common to have 15-30 student sized classes at my CC for common courses. CC tuition is not even half the CSU tuition. e;The downside to small classes is if your new to the CC, your registry date is later than others. Therefore your're unlikely to get any classes you want.
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Jul 1, 2013 03:31
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Ah Pook posted:Yeah honestly all it's going to take is one knucklehead with a bomb glued to his junk for the TSA or whatever to make sure you never board a train without 90 minutes of lines in the way. Plus you can virtually guarantee that some no-bid contractor is going to end up millions over budget and months behind schedule after accidentally building 1/4 of the line out of plywood. I really want rail to work, but California. Plus in typical fashion the republicans in places such as Central Valley are trying to wreck the project and nationwide republicans in other states effectively killed the projects.
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Jul 1, 2013 03:47
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FRINGE posted:Its a long uphill battle too. The only good thing about the prison union in CA is that they have mostly keep out private prisons here.
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Jul 1, 2013 03:57
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Forgive me for sounding naive, but it seems to me like part of the solution would be to unionize the prison population. No way in hell to do that with guards encouraging ethnic violence, though. I did soft time in Santa Cruz county jail and everyone seemed to get along there (with a makeup of 40%white 40% latino, 20% black, and one Asian guy in my cellblock--designed for 40 men and containing 100, I should note), but that's likely an aberration resulting from me being in the low-risk block. I heard a couple of the gang blocks had weekly fights.
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Jul 1, 2013 05:56
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I always thought a UC for prisoners would be an amazing or terrible idea. It would probably cost less.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:16
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Bastard Tetris posted:I always thought a UC for prisoners would be an amazing or terrible idea. It would probably cost less. It's why San Quentin is by far the best prison to spend your time. It's cold, decrepit and full of gang violence but it has pretty fantastic prison educational and arts programs because it's in the Bay Area. There is also a program for inmates to study for university degrees while in prison and it's the only prison in the state that offers it.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:37
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Forgive me for sounding naive, but it seems to me like part of the solution would be to unionize the prison population. No way in hell to do that with guards encouraging ethnic violence, though. This is basically what happened in the 60s and 70s; the Attica Riot/Uprising was pretty similar to the big union strikes of the early 20th century in that it was a bunch of laborers using a marginal level of violence (one guard was fatally injured by the inmates, another nine would be shot by the military when they attacked) to protest for better conditions. It was held with solidarity between the races and it ended the same way as the big strikes: the national guard was sent in with guns. In order to stop that sort of thing from happening again it became an unofficial policy (hell maybe it was official at the time, but at least today it isn't in the DOM) to encourage racial division amongst inmate populations through selective enforcement and thus were born the modern prison gangs.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:42
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Shade2142 posted:Can someone explain to me the allure of living in a trailer out in the California desert? First, imagine you are crazy, addicted to meth and/or not allowed within 50,000 feet of a school or library.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:47
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UberJew posted:In order to stop that sort of thing from happening again it became an unofficial policy (hell maybe it was official at the time, but at least today it isn't in the DOM) to encourage racial division amongst inmate populations through selective enforcement and thus were born the modern prison gangs.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:52
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Arsenic Lupin posted:
This. The purpose of high-speed rail is to connect the huge population in the Valley to civilization. Fresno can't go on being Fresno forever.
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Jul 1, 2013 07:54
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All Of The Dicks posted:Fresno can't go on being Fresno forever. 
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Jul 1, 2013 07:58
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Looks like people who depend on BART will be in for a miserable commute over the next few days: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57591713/san-fran-bay-area-transit-workers-go-on-strike/
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Jul 1, 2013 13:52
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FRINGE posted:Also - its going to get worse before/if it gets better. Is it just me, but does something like this not sound like slavery? Don't prisoners also do some kind of work as well for no cost/low cost? Especially in areas with (I don't have a source, just anecdotal info) higher rates of incarceration or stricter sentencing for African Americans...I don't know how or why it's possible. EDIT: I guess I should have looked a little higher at Fringe's post.
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Jul 1, 2013 14:03
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Gatts posted:Is it just me, but does something like this not sound like slavery? Don't prisoners also do some kind of work as well for no cost/low cost? Especially in areas with (I don't have a source, just anecdotal info) higher rates of incarceration or stricter sentencing for African Americans...I don't know how or why it's possible. Pretty much also similar to slavery in that they often get exposed to hazardous work conditions such as story from a Nevada prison which had them recycling electronics without proper protection.
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Jul 1, 2013 14:17
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agarjogger posted:Aaaaand here's what they do with it. Holy poo poo...I've driven through Bakersfield a few times, it never LOOKED that dry. loving PHOENIX gets 1/3 more precipitation than Bakersfield, and it's one of the drier parts of Arizona. (And since it is full of horrible monsters, they do more or less the same thing with all their water and the water they steal.)
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Jul 1, 2013 14:36
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etalian posted:Looks like people who depend on BART will be in for a miserable commute over the next few days: Welp, looks like I'll have to have my parents drive me up to Berkeley and back for work 
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