'Just a kid' Zuck's word is his bond ... but NOT in his backyard, lawsuit claims A lawsuit brought against Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg by a would-be neighbour has turned decidedly ugly, after court papers claimed that the billionaire had been described as "just a kid" by his own real estate broker. In May last year, property developer Mircea Voskerician accused Zuck of reneging on an alleged deal to …
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We're already doomed. The handwriting (or computer printout) is on the wall. We're continuing the trend of dumbing down kids here in the States. With this trend, we'll have millions of Farcebookers buying everything in sight and no one who understands about being the product. Much less doing the work required in order to flourish. The rest of the world just has to be patient and we'll be out of the picture as a world power.
Citations (there's tons more but these were first...)
http://www.ibtimes.com/millennials-job-skills-americans-score-low-literacy-basic-math-problem-solving-1845984
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-millennials-well-educated-but-unskilled/
"Parents need to take some responsibility too."
Yes but no. The whole point of having a socialized education system is to allow every children the opportunity to realize their full potential. Even the children whose parents don't have the time, knowledge, will or motivation to help with the children's education.
A good education system provides social mobility, a level playing field (sort of) for the unprivileged, and creates lots and lots of wealth by helping the talented to reach higher skills levels. A society that allows only the children of the wealthy to become engineers or scientists is a society with too few scientists and engineers.
The ones that support 'fwd.us' and similar initiatives -usually big quangos and their owners and managers- just are proving IMO that they don't give a flying shit about children, education and their own country. Because, as fellow commentards have pointed out already, this kind of initiatives and the lack of support/funding for the education system will make any country that follows them totally irrelevant in a few generations at most.
>>> "Parents need to take some responsibility too.". Yes but no. The whole point of having a socialized education system is to allow every children the opportunity to realize their full potential. Even the children whose parents don't have the time, knowledge, will or motivation to help with the children's education.
Wow, does it really work that way? Do kids in state schools really all reach their full potential? Or is it more like the kids of parents who can't be arsed teaching their kids basic reading / writing / maths / standards of behaviour just drag down the education of the rest?
I've got four kids (for my sins), and talking to them, reading, and explaining how to behave doesn't take that much time or knowledge
People who think parents should take no responsibility are part of the problem.
"Do kids in state schools really all reach their full potential?"
Perhaps I should have highlighted certain parts of my comment, e.g. "to allow every children the opportunity". Which, FYI, is not the same as "... really all reach their full potential?"
Same thing regarding "People who think parents should take no responsibility are part of the problem". Are you sure I'm part of that group of people? Hints:"Yes but no" and "...whose parents don't have the time, knowledge, will or motivation..."
Yep, low scores in reading comprehension, indeed. 0_o
>>> Yep, low scores in reading comprehension, indeed. 0_o
Don’t worry, you get a low score in common sense.
Parents allowed to take no responsibility - which you advocate ("Parents need to take some responsibility too. Yes but no.") - and every child reaching their full potential are mutually exclusive. Because unless we’re going to immediately put the disruptive kid in special school it’s not just the individual child’s education and future that suffers, it’s the whole class.
Here’s a very recent example. A friend of mine is a teacher and, along with pupils, was getting kicked and hit by a disruptive kid in the class. The parents didn’t care, the school useless after their polite chat to the parents failed, and the education of the whole class suffered - and other kids started to copy the behaviour. What fixed it? The teacher got the union involved, who came down on the situation like a ton of bricks, informed the parents in no uncertain terms that the child would not remain in the class if this carried on, forced the morons get some guidance, and now the parents are being most helpful as they suddenly have something to loose. Responsibility… works wonders. And now the rest of the class has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
- Parents need to take some responsibility too
- Yes but no. The whole point of having a socialized education system is to allow every children the opportunity to realize their full potential. Even the children whose parents don't have the time, knowledge, will or motivation to help with the children's education.
That's the intent, but it's an ideal, not reality. If the parents don't have the motivation themselves then it's unlikely they've instilled the child with any respect or motivation to achieve a decent education, and are just setting up another early drop-out.
"Yes but no. The whole point of having a socialized education system is to allow every children the opportunity to realize their full potential. Even the children whose parents don't have the time, knowledge, will or motivation to help with the children's education."
Ok. But how is poor education the fault of the Federal Reserve, Facebook, immigration and Mark Zuckerberg? Those are just scapegoats. If you want good education, you need to pay for it. And if its socialized, that means taxes. Who here wants the US govt to spend more on education? Because no one is voting for that.
Immigration is particularly distracting to the education debate. Because if immigrants can take US jobs, where did their education come from? If they received that education elsewhere, why do they want jobs in the US because can't get just create jobs where ever they are now? If they received that education in the US, doesn't it prove the US education system is good, or at least good enough? And therefore any US citizen should be able to get the same?
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Ha! Who says we'd appreciate anyone with skills living here? Although they might be able to get a low skill clerical job filling out some forms. Those 457 visas don't write themselves you know.
For those not in the know, according to big business over here, Australia suffers from a tragic shortage of skilled workers in just about every discipline among the local population. Of course, what they mean is "No matter haw hard we look, we can't find anyone local who's willing to do a $100,000 job for a dollar a day."
457 visas are what our government issues to make sure there is a readily available pool of cheap overseas labour to keep the wages down.
We're already doomed. The handwriting (or computer printout) is on the wall. We're continuing the trend of dumbing down kids here in the States. With this trend, we'll have millions of Farcebookers buying everything in sight and no one who understands about being the product. Much less doing the work required in order to flourish. The rest of the world just has to be patient and we'll be out of the picture as a world power.
Look up "plutocracy" and dig up the 3 Citigroup memos, and add to that the fact that the Fed isn't government at all. I'm not quite sure where this is all heading, but "up" isn't included in the range of possibilities IMHO.
20 year ago we had remedial english and maths courses for students in the first year at university! Nothing has improved since then it has got progressively worse. Try failing a student for poor work and then be prepared to lose your tenure, because the real thickos with wealthy parents are under the misapprehension that their overindulged spoiled brat is a genius and they call the shots.The fact that their offspring can't communicate in their mother tongue and requires a calculator to do simple addition is not even considered a problem. The real problem comes later when these same village idiots are given responsibility way above their intelligence level because of their parents "connections" and financial clout.
I despair of the West stopping the educational rot, it is given lip service with emphasis on wealth however obtained legally or illegally. Service to the community and the country has become a dirty word.
"...because the real thickos with wealthy parents are under the misapprehension that their overindulged spoiled brat is a genius and they call the shots.The fact that their offspring can't communicate in their mother tongue and requires a calculator to do simple addition is not even considered a problem. The real problem comes later when these same village idiots are given responsibility way above their intelligence level because of their parents "connections" and financial clout."
Sounds like the Conservative front bench.
Zuck didn't create our libertarian wanabe society. That was the republicans. They just didn't clue you in that such a society looks more like Somalia than a modern state.
The equilibrium state of markets and governments is winner-take-all. No good for even the winners. What we want is to use both to, as our forefathers wanted, achieve a balance of powers. So we need good government, but not too much, good markets but not too much. Some ability to get extremely wealthy but also some building of the common good. The problem is, a billionaire will not buy 1000 cars. They just can't aborb them, but 1000 millionares will buy 1000 cars, probably 3000. Balance.
Indeed. California law requires all contracts for real property to be in writing. This is Business Law 101 kind of stuff. If "introductions" were part of the consideration for the exchange, that should have been in the contract. (Verbal contracts for many other things are okay, even if not a very good idea.)
Not getting it in writing is an amateur mistake; one he's going to regret. I just can't imagine him having the proverbial ice cube's chance.
Sure, but then again, you get it for free, and you agreed to his terms.
You want privacy? Don't post on Facebook. You don't want him to have your info, don't give it to him.
The only thing he's got of mine is my name and email address; those aren't secrets. If you gave him more, that's your fault.
Laugh all you want, but 'tis true. I personally am not on and have no intention of getting on Facebook, but there is an unrelenting pressure from several different sides I have to constantly push back against in order to keep things that way... Everyone is free to make their own choice, but if you choose to resist, be prepared to pay for it.
The bad news for Zuck...is that oral agreements are allowed in CA courts. Ooops ...Zuck's attorney forgot to tell Zuck before he opened his big mouth and make promisses in front of a few people including this Mr. James...It does not have to be on paper, that is why he cannot shake this law suit..
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