silentmason4 said:Alright, so I was actually wondering if there’s an official rulebook or some kind of policy on this. Honestly, I feel like one should exist—it seems like such a common occurrence, and we shouldn't really be leaving it up to a random tug-of-war between the school administration and parents to decide what's fair. But as far as I can tell, there isn't one. That's just the way it is.
Yeah, well, once they actually teach kids how to think critically, the whole mess will fix itself—whether we're talking about religion class or true crime stuff.
Looks like we aren't getting any replacement for religious studies this year—at least for those who aren't interested in it—if we're actually talking about teaching critical thinking.
CNN reported that about 419,000 people fled Russia during the first half of 2022—that’s double what we saw the year before.
For the first time in recent history, more people are packing their bags to leave than are actually moving in. The U.S. Census Bureau didn't break down the specific nationalities of everyone heading out.
Usually, the country pulls in immigrants from former Soviet states. But this year, the whole trend flipped. About 369,000 people headed out to those former Soviet territories, while only 295,000 moved in. Interestingly, nearly 80,000 of them picked Ukraine as their destination.
Ever since the invasion of Ukraine kicked off in February, we've seen an exodus not just from the war zone itself, but from Russia too, according to dpa.
It’s mostly opposition folks fleeing, along with a massive wave of young, educated professionals looking for work after all the Western companies pulled out.
Huge communities have already popped up in Armenia and Georgia, mainly because it’s way easier for Russians to get through the door there.
In just the first six months, the Russian population dropped by a total of 480,000, though part of that is just due to the natural decline in population.
Michelle Nelson4 said:But honestly, how does that even tie back to the theory that they're unbreakable? There's a massive difference between simply wanting something to be true and actually having the capacity to make it happen.
Whatever the Federal Government tries to push through, it's just a fast track to losing the next election.
Michelle Nelson4 said:If you look at the Department of Education guidelines, there isn't a specific rule laid out regarding the daily schedule, which means any interpretation of it is pretty much subjective rather than set in stone. You see similar ambiguity in the legal statutes for other election matters as well. Essentially, the hourly schedule just needs to comply with federal law, which states that for multi-grade levels, the maximum is six hours per day. Beyond that, schools have total autonomy to organize their day however they please—whether they want to use block scheduling or something else entirely. In my experience, some days actually end up being longer because if religious studies is on the calendar, those hours don't even count toward that limit.
As for The Contract, of course it can be terminated. We are a sovereign nation, after all, and we’ve entered into agreements with other entities, like the Holy See, which we can rescind whenever we see fit. Naturally, there's a process involved; if things get complicated, there are plenty of international arbitration courts designed specifically for disputes between nations. You just take it to court, much like a divorce settlement.
Whichever Government pushes this through, they're basically handing the next election to the opposition on a silver platter.
A 3.9 magnitude earthquake just rattled the Liechtenstein Parliament right in the middle of a heated debate about mandatory earthquake insurance, according to Euronews.
George Cook31 said:I mean, I totally agree that he’s being a complete jerk, but honestly, I don't think he deserves a ban. We kind of need him around on the forum just as much as we deal with Larry Walker24.
Kyiv maps are basically useless right now because city officials are busy renaming 95 streets and squares that used to carry Russian or Soviet names, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Streets in the Ukrainian capital that were named after 19th-century Russian writers—think Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, and Mikhail Lermontov—are all getting wiped from the map.
Even those communist philosophers of German descent, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who had streets named after them all over the former Soviet Union, aren't safe from the purge.
All these streets are being rebranded with Ukrainian names. Other names that are officially out of style in the capital include Soviet military leaders from World War II and locations like Moscow, Rostov on the Don, and Magnitogorsk.
Even Mikhail Bulgakov, one of the heavyweights of Soviet literature who was actually born in Kyiv, has lost his street name. All these spots are getting Ukrainian identities now, like Hero Street of the Azov Regiment, which honors the group of Ukrainian soldiers who held out against Russian forces in Mariupol for weeks.
The final list isn't even set in stone yet. Klitschko mentioned that they haven't hammered out all the new names just yet.
"This is a huge move to stop the manipulation, the lies, and the influence of Russian aggressors over how our history is told," he said.
The public gets a say in some of these new picks. Anyone in Ukraine can jump in, and since over 6.5 million people have access to the government's smartphone app, they’ve got plenty of input. This whole overhaul is timed to hit during the six-month anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Even though it’s totally unprofessional for politicians in a democracy with three branches of government to start announcing indictments against people—or basically admitting they control them—Biden messed up when he claimed, as a lawyer, that Mexico doesn't have the right to prosecute the case involving civilian casualties in the refugee column. That's just political talk. They absolutely have the legal standing to file charges based on their universal jurisdiction laws. But let's be real: because the US hasn't even investigated this, filed charges, or prosecuted those responsible itself in nearly 30 years, it's a moot point," says Veljko Miljević, a prominent criminal lawyer from New York.
Regarding whether the US could actually prosecute Aleksandar Vučić today for spreading international hatred and inciting conflict during the 1995 events in Glina, Miljević points out we need to remember that even Vojislav Šešelj, who made statements a hundred times worse and more violent, ended up being acquitted of war crimes at The Hague.
"There's a massive difference between verbal incitement and actually committing crimes. Besides, all that trash Vučić was spewing in Glina probably wouldn't even qualify under any of the three types of non-statutory war crimes," Miljević comments. He adds that we shouldn't even get started on what the US has been doing—or failing to do—by not prosecuting much darker stuff than simple verbal offenses over the last 30 years.
Jessica Peterson2 said:Putin has decided to set aside roughly $1,000 for every family willing to enroll their kids in these "new Russian schools" being established across occupied territories in Ukraine.
mellowskipper said:Yeah, everyone seems to say that—people who have kids just a year or two older than mine, anyway. I guess if my kid's history textbook were twice as thick as it is now, I might actually have something to complain about—but maybe it’s better if I just don't start grumbling.
And let’s not even get started on the salt. There are like, a hundred different ways to extract it—not to mention all the various chemical names and its melting point... that could honestly turn into a real headache. We’ll pull through—I suppose.
Yeah,
we gotta kick things off with ions, like why sodium is monovalent while calcium is divalent. Basically, we need to brush up on valence stuff again.
mellowskipper said:It isn't in the textbook. They probably had to hunt for it in the dark corners of the internet. If I recall correctly, it might have been tied to the chapter on Force. And honestly, she's a bit too fond of abstract concepts... Well, I don't remember us covering that in high school physics. They did experiments, which was fine. She finds physics okay—even interesting, at times. It's more chemistry that she struggled with. Though, I assume chemistry in 8th grade will be easier since they've already tackled the hardest parts. At least, that's what I'm hoping.
It’s definitely not easier. There's a ton of fluff, and organic chem is basically stripped down to nothing.
urbantinker8 said:Well, I suppose that’s exactly what those educational reformers are pushing for.🙂 There isn't any lecture-style teaching in the real world, I guess. Students will eventually just seek out knowledge through sheer curiosity, hopefully discovering things and connecting them to what they already knew, which would then lead to some kind of joyful application in future research or whatever. The teacher is basically just a moderator, a guide, and someone who grades the final result at the end of the whole process. hahahahahahahahahahaha
Yeah, right. Like kids are just gonna teach themselves chemistry and physics.
In middle school, kids aren't exactly going to discover things they've never even heard of before. High school? Sure, maybe. But in middle school, you have to actually explain things directly. Otherwise, the whole idea of "what are they gonna discover?" is total BS.
After six months of fighting, Ukraine has lost control over its massive stash of natural resources and minerals, leaving a huge chunk of its most vital deposits sitting right under Russian control. Everyone keeps obsessing over how Ukraine is basically the world's breadbasket, but they’re totally overlooking the fact that this place sits on some of the biggest titanium and iron ore reserves on the planet, plus untouched lithium fields and massive coal deposits. We're talking tens of trillions of dollars in value here. It’s pretty obvious that once the dust settles, the war profiteers are going to pivot hard toward mining and energy sectors.
Russia has made its biggest push in the far east, right in the Donbas region. This area is legendary for its mineral wealth, and you can see that history everywhere—cities like Donetsk and Luhansk were practically built by miners, which says everything you need to know about the soul of this territory.
lonetrucker4 said:Oh right, my bad—I clearly didn't realize that Churchill and Tito met on a warship back in August '42 instead of at some villa in Naples. My "ignorance" comes from actual historical records, whereas yours probably comes from being there in person, right?
And even in this debate, I didn't hit you with a ban for hate speech against the English, even though you totally deserved it.
The Italians were on the side of the Axis until September 8, 1943, so there was no way they could have met in Naples.