HA HA HA HA!!!! those silly Slugs...

http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,6760977,00.html

They wish, they just want a good cricket team :P

yuo have to be bloody joking :?

Hmm good points, he fails to mention that if governed by America, Australia would loose private health cover, meaning a lot of Life saving operations just could not be afforded by a normal person.. Fuck that for a joke

http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/2003_07.php

Scroll down to "Academic has Opinion".

Tim Blair rocks - and we might be getting him up for the Paul Everingham Lecture.

Quote:
Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions.

omfg i guess this mean we have to do it. LOL what a bloody joke. Also since when was America's education system the best in the world?

Wtf and we have a weak sense of nationhood. And even though he said we have no national fire or flood plans i think we have been doing ok in preventing/stopping them.

and the yanks still can't understand why the rest of the world hates em.... bah fuckit - if we become a state of the US i'm leaving to hawaii as a US CITIZEN, and i will drink coconuts and shag luscious hawaiian babes for the rest of my life. every cloud has its silver lining right :)

thats bloody stupid.... as if that would ever happen, and if it did.... hmm i would probably move to america!! there is disneyland there at least.... none of this 'australias wonderland' crap :P

best education system my arse. the average amercian IQ is 97. 100 is suspose to be the norm.

I reliese the irony is my grammer.

statistics BAH!!!!

and minorci, it is public health we would lose as over there they call private health cover "insurance" mate. ahhh bring it on then we can all be happy and kill the evil arabs. :roll:

i reckon there is a 0% chance of it happening as NOONE would vote for it

ROFL

Be an American state? HAHAHAHAHHAHAA

sif.

lets look at his mentallity.
Lets insult the Country, then try to tell them they want to be part of the US.

Pfffft.

They just jealous we VOTED for an independant nation, as opposed to having to go to war for it.

Bring on American Football!!! Kill afl and rugby league.

Ice Hockey is the greatest sport on Earth though. Nothing, absoluntly nothing compares to how awesome that sport is.

Cricket is better than baseball but I like them both...played cricket most of my life so I would choose it over baseball. They can keep basketball.

I would also take thier currency and that would be about it.

Quote from SoulBlade:
Bring on American Football!!! Kill afl and rugby league.

Ice Hockey is the greatest sport on Earth though. Nothing, absoluntly nothing compares to how awesome that sport is.

Cricket is better than baseball but I like them both...played cricket most of my life so I would choose it over baseball. They can keep basketball.

I would also take thier currency and that would be about it.

gridiron would be wicked if it actually flowed like rugby and afl, but stopping for a scrum every 30 seconds loses its appeal. rugby is far superior imo. yes ice hockey does kick arse tho :). pity there's no skating rink up here, but then it's too hot. the cost of maintaining the temperature would run too high and our population wouldn't be able to support it :(. as for basketball - 'tis the alpha and the omega, challenged only by soccer. ;)

and this only proves that yanks are arrogant assholes. they look inwards to satisfy their own vanity instead of looking outwards. there is more to the world than the USA.

Quote from KILLER:
Also since when was America's education system the best in the world?

He said "best tertiary education system". If you look at the world's top fifty Universities, the list is heavily dominated by American universities. Harvard tends to come in at #1 every other year or so.

And gee, most of the top universities are private institutions, not publicly funded. Public money != a good education.

actually i tend to disagree about the public money thing. i feel that some private schools are too caught up in turning a profit, and as a result of that their education suffers. that's my opinion anyway.

Quote from Illusions:
actually i tend to disagree about the public money thing. i feel that some private schools are too caught up in turning a profit, and as a result of that their education suffers. that's my opinion anyway.

But neither does public money magically make a place run any better. It's all money, afterall.

However! - Instead of whoring themselves to students, universities whore themselves to politicians and bureaucrats.

All other things being held even, which do you think would work better?

public schools get money to teach. private schools get money for profit. there's a distinct difference in focus. it all comes down to who it's for and how it's being spent, and when it comes to the crunch i'd rather the focus be on me as a student, not the coffers of the church or some other organisation. as i said before though, that's my opinion, and i doubt you're going to tell me that my opinion is 'wrong'...

I agree went to Kormilda for years 8 to 10 and it was SH#T. I had teachers that weren't even qualified in the subject they were asked to do and all the labs had crap all. Went to CSC and actually learnt something :shock:

As a note if any of you have kids don't send them to Kormilda its bad.

Um what a lot of you niave nationalistic people fail to realise is we are already a defacto state of the good old US of A.

George says jump and little Johnny says yes sir !!

Pine Gap, Wheat, Beef, Coke, Maccers ......

We are about 2 to 3 years behind the US in social, finanical and industrial trends and are dictated to by the US ....

So get real and accept what is already happening and has been happening for the last 30 years ....

Why do you think the Prime Minister took a long swim and never came back ? .... three letters .....

C

I

A

So wake up and smell the coffee ....

shhh top gun! let us live our denile riddled lives in peace and quiet :P

Quote from Illusions:
public schools get money to teach. private schools get money for profit.

I seem to remember warning you about talking out of your arse. The majority of private universities and schools are non-profit institutions. Harvard, Yale, Oxford etc - these are all private non-profit groups.

Quote from Illusions:
there's a distinct difference in focus.

You're right, there is. In the public institution, it's about begging for more money, back-stabbing your colleagues to get more money, and knowing that your funding has nothing to do with how good an institution you are and everything to do with who you know.

In the private institution, the back-stabbing is still there, but it matters more that you are a good teacher and researcher. If you compare Sydney University to Harvard, you will find that the latter is far more of a collegial nature than the former. Funnily enough, Sydney is public, and Harvard is private.

Quote from Illusions:
it all comes down to who it's for and how it's being spent, and when it comes to the crunch i'd rather the focus be on me as a student, not the coffers of the church or some other organisation.

The point is this: in a public funding system, you are a number, a bounty, a scalp or fur to be turned in for money. It doesn't matter which university you go to, because they will all get paid the same amount. There is no way , and no incentive, for universities to compete on courses or specialisations or god forbid prices, because they all feed from the same trough.

In a private system, you're still a number, and a bounty, but there is no one payer. You pay, or a scholarship or - as is the case in many of the world's best universities - the university pays. And to get the good students, universities need to compete: on price, on quality, and on specialisations. Simply creating as many courses as possible won't cut it when there are thousands of competitors.

Quote:
as i said before though, that's my opinion, and i doubt you're going to tell me that my opinion is 'wrong'...

Hey, guess what? Your opinion is wrong.

Quote from Lilu:
shhh top gun! let us live our denile riddled lives in peace and quiet :P

OK - sorry to burst ya bubble .......

apologies to the thread creator in advance:

Quote:
I seem to remember warning you about talking out of your arse. The majority of private universities and schools are non-profit institutions. Harvard, Yale, Oxford etc - these are all private non-profit groups.

yet you make no distinction when it's your turn to shoot the breeze? i smell hypocrisy. from the harvard website:

University income
$2.4 billion

University expenses
$2.3 billion

Endowment
"7.5 billion

shit, looks to me like there's more money coming in than leaving. most of us call that a profit. if you think about it that actually makes sense. would you be dumb enough to run such an expensive enterprise at a loss? considering this, would you actually compete if you were a non profit organisation? there's no incentive. at last look the salvation army wasn't advertising to grab a greater market share from st vinnies. they weren't attempting any takeovers either. that's because they are truly non-profit.

Quote:
You're right, there is. In the public institution, it's about begging for more money, back-stabbing your colleagues to get more money, and knowing that your funding has nothing to do with how good an institution you are and everything to do with who you know.

and of course private schools never receive government funding, they rely entirely on how good the quality of their education is :roll:, or rather the line up of moron presidents that once attended their school.

Quote:
In the private institution, the back-stabbing is still there, but it matters more that you are a good teacher and researcher. If you compare Sydney University to Harvard, you will find that the latter is far more of a collegial nature than the former. Funnily enough, Sydney is public, and Harvard is private.

no i think it relies just as much on reputation spread by rich, famous, white people. and funnily enough harvard is coming close to 400 years of age. Oxford and Cambridge are both in a similar position. you'd think they'd have it right by now.

Quote:
The point is this: in a public funding system, you are a number, a bounty, a scalp or fur to be turned in for money. It doesn't matter which university you go to, because they will all get paid the same amount. There is no way , and no incentive, for universities to compete on courses or specialisations or god forbid prices, because they all feed from the same trough.

In a private system, you're still a number, and a bounty, but there is no one payer. You pay, or a scholarship or - as is the case in many of the world's best universities - the university pays. And to get the good students, universities need to compete: on price, on quality, and on specialisations. Simply creating as many courses as possible won't cut it when there are thousands of competitors.

as i previously mentioned: why compete for no profit?
secondly, notice that it'll cost a LOT more to go to a private institution. so much for competitive pricing - one would almost think that the quality of education was better. if you're rich, and can afford the best it may be, but alas it's not always the case. you refer to the upper echelon of universities, when there are plenty of lower end institutions that will take your money and run. and if you were paying $40,000 a year for your degree you'd want to hope you're getting better quality teachers. or maybe they're just hiring backpackers and tucking the cash under the belt?

Quote:
Hey, guess what? Your opinion is wrong.

hey guess what: you need look up the definition of opinion. we can argue all day, but at the end of it i'm not going to be a dry liberal and you're not going to be straight. must i remind you that you aren't the fountain of knowledge, and neither am i. good thing for that too; i like a bit of uncertainty and excitement in my life.

also, i wasn't actually looking for an argument. i offered my opinion in a completely neutral, non hostile manner, and in your arrogance you begin to lecture me on why my opinion is wrong. the next time you feel the need to dribble your shit, swallow it down and remember it was always meant to be excreted from the 'out' hole - namely your arse. if you can't tell the difference kindly ask someone to point both ends out for you and label them in big texter.
i will leave it at that considering i can't possibly match the full clout of your ego, and unlike some i know when to call it quits. i apologise fully to the creator of the thread for hijacking, and any poor souls who have had to read through all of this. and hopefully pres, you leave your ego at the door the next time you feel the need to make a point, because apart from the extreme political bias and know-it-all attitude you generally make good posts. just remember that there are no winners - it's all a matter of opinion. i've at least learned that much.

Very well said Illusion 8)

Not jumping to any sides but - When moving down to Adelaide a couple of years ago, I was enrolled into Scotch College. This is one of the most expensive schools in Adelaide. They have a proud tradition of apparently being a really good school but when I got there and settled in I realised the culture of the place created an atmosphere of ego masturbation. It had huge pride in it's traditions and apparent successes (which they constantly were spouting down our throats through numerous means) but for all it's supposed glory, I found noone at which I could look up to or any inspiration for my learning. Their teaching method is orientated purely to pass SACE and year 12. You're given all the information you need but only the information you need and so there is no room for expansion. The quality of teaching was the same as any other school I've ever been to which means it's geared to the common denominator only concerned with getting people through school with high enough grades. Not necessarily giving them the inspiration, skills and encouragement to reach beyond their education.

Due to the suppressive atmosphere of the school I became rather depressed and saw other people falling into a route. So I decided to move schools. Quite a few of my 'friends' there also either moved the same year as I did or are now thinking about it or regretting it's too late as they felt the same problems I did.

This may not be a good example but I decided to take a chance and apply for a new public school that was opening up. The Australian Science and Maths School. Funded by the government, the school is designed to incorporate all the latest thinking and techniques in teaching and learning. Being here I've found the learning to be inextricably more interesting and more flexible, allowing me to go off on branches of my own choice, and still be able to get credit for it. The atmosphere is also much more open and humble where I feel much more comfortable to express my ideas and develope into something greater.

Of course this example isn't for everyone as Scotch College does provide good extra curricula activities (providing you've got the money, even though they've got soo much money they're fkn stingey) but it is an example where extra money does not provide a better education for everyone.

if this really needs to be discussed it deserves its own thread. but as i said before this is mainly about opinions and experiences, not hard facts. it's also political, meaning that there are strong emotions pent up on either side.

Quote from El Presidente:

I seem to remember warning you about talking out of your arse.

you just have to love the way some people spout their disagreement with another persons opinion.

Lol at kormilda, it is a shit school

First of all America is very very different from state to state. The basic American philosophy with education that has resulted in so many dumb asses is they don’t care about the average student. They only really care about the elite students, who if publicly funded will go to magnet schools, which are hyper funded. The rest of the students can go join the military, pump gas ect….

For yr 10-12 I went to Cranbrook, well this should give you and idea about it:
~%50 of students got UAI\TER >90 so an average student still did well
And one person dropped out in year 10, that’s it.