Italy Votes on Nuke Planets

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit late, but I bring you this in honor of the release of Duke Nukem Forever. Which I won't actually play but was too good a reference not to make.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13732050
 

Italy is poised to vote on chucking their whole nuclear program the same way Germany did. With people freaked about nuclear power and the idea of spreading it attached to Italy's rather unpopular PM I'd say this has a good chance of happening.

Frankly, it's the irrational reaction people are having to nuclear power rather than the honest problems with it that bothers me. People the world over are GROSSLY uninformed about the way nuclear power works and risks associated with it. Hell, I live in Korea and and I got several frantic messages from people wanted to know if I was in any danger.

In another country with a sea and hell of a lot of mountains between me and the disaster site. I appreciated the concern but the lack of logic and basic sense just horrifed me.

Anyway, we can hope that cooler heads prevail in Italy but I don't see it happening. So Italians will likely get to enjoy high energy costs for a good while longer. 

I've been wanting a post like this for a while...

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

...and no one has written it, so I'm taking the initiative.

In a recent post by the_rukh there was a heated ensuing discussion about whether it's appropriate to give advice to women to help them prevent being raped. One of the things that came up repeatedly in the discussion was that whether or not the advice was appropriate (and that is NOT the focus of this post so please don't argue about that here...) it was far more important to take other measures to prevent rape, and also treat rape victims (something that wasn't focused on in the post but which surfaced a great deal in the discussion). I realized that was something that needed to be discussed, and as has been pointed out to me, this is a topic on which I know little, though I have strong opinions. So, what do you guys think?

1. What are the most important steps that should be taken to prevent rape and decrease its prevalence in our society?
2. What are the most important steps that should be taken to improve treatment for rape victims?
3. How about the justice system? What needs improvement there, and how do we make those improvements?

I want to hear from the people who know more about this and I'm hoping to learn something (or many things). I also would like to continue the effort of creating a dialogue that all people who hate rape can contribute to.

Oh, and in case I haven't emphasized this enough, LET'S AVOID TALKING ABOUT GIVING ADVICE and focus on the other parts of the equation.

Science month: the rediscovery of lost Eygpt

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Indiana Jones used the Sun to discover the lost Ark of the Covenant
New technologies and Science has made it much easier and less dangerous.

While Indiana Jones used the Sun in a Tanis map room to find long lost treasures, Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama in Birmingham has developed new techniques using satellite imagery and software that's completely opened a vast expanse of history that's been lost for centuries; and in the process has jump-started excavations in areas not even suspected of containing important finds. Dr. Parcak's goal is to use these new technologies to create a brand new map of ancient Egypt, steering researchers to unknown areas, saving them decades of time. Despite the find of King Tut's tomb in 1922, and several other large finds (including King's Valley), there are ENORMOUS gaps in Egypt's history. Zahi Hawass (Egypt's Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs) has stated several times, less than 1 percent of Egypt's artifacts has been recovered, with most of the Egyptian pharaonic tombs/pyramids undiscovered, and in a majority of instances, other than their names, we know absolutely nothing about them.

( Go deep into the Map room )

Private lessons for billions

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

First I would like to share some info on an issue about education in Europe, and then I have a question to you all...

Kids with wealthier parents receive more private lessons and this way create further divisions which could have long-term consequences, an EU report shows. Well, of course this is nothing new: the more money buys better education. But here is how it works in Europe these days.

Private lessons are a huge business in Europe. They serve as a useful supplement in the studies of elementary and secondary school pupils. Today, parents in France and Germany spend about 3 billion Euro every year to give their kids extra school training.

Throughout much of Europe, the tendency is the same - although the amounts are not the same in all countries, but there is a clear tendency of the parents dedicating more and more funds to delivering additional education to the one their kids are getting in public schools.

( Read more... )

 

And to make it more personal, here comes my question. For those of you who have kids, please share your experience about their education. What sort of schools do/did you send them to (public, private, home-schooling; specialist, etc), and what's your impression from the quality of education there? Do you view private supplementary lessons as a viable option, and in case you have done it, did it help?