Some of these still exist! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Park_Railway
Children's Railways of the Former USSR
51–60 of 102 posts
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#52> Then, why is it "Children's?", you might ask. Because it is operated by the schoolchildren, 9-15 years old. This blew my mind, and immediately made me think of John Taylor-Gatto [1] who won numerous teaching awards trying, but ultimately failing, to convince American teachers to show children the same respect. My 30 year old masters students are not even allowed to run their own WiFi network never mind an actual RA…
These children were mostly railway workers' kids. Whole purpose of it was to teach them railway jobs were cool to make them follow their parents' steps. In the Soviet Union, and to a great extent in Russia till now, railway system is very independent from the State. It's frequently called a state within a state. It has it's own power stations, construction departments that build among other things, housing for worker…
You’d be surprised but Deutsche Bahn fit the description as well.
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#53> Then, why is it "Children's?", you might ask. Because it is operated by the schoolchildren, 9-15 years old. This blew my mind, and immediately made me think of John Taylor-Gatto [1] who won numerous teaching awards trying, but ultimately failing, to convince American teachers to show children the same respect. My 30 year old masters students are not even allowed to run their own WiFi network never mind an actual RA…
These children were mostly railway workers' kids. Whole purpose of it was to teach them railway jobs were cool to make them follow their parents' steps. In the Soviet Union, and to a great extent in Russia till now, railway system is very independent from the State. It's frequently called a state within a state. It has it's own power stations, construction departments that build among other things, housing for worker…
Railroad police certainly is fairly common https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_police. I think that’s because their operation stretches over all kinds of political boundaries.
(Highway police (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_patrol) can have the same role for roads(
Some countries also have special electricity networks for rail, “generally […] only if the railway in question uses alternating current (AC) with a frequency lower than that of the national grid” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction_power_network)
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Man, if you think schools under capitalism churn out "obedient wage slaves who lack critical thinking abilities", you'd be completely lost for words at what happens when lack of critical thinking is overtly baked into the system, like in the commie states. I only caught the very tail end of the abysmal, soul crushing Soviet primary school education, and by the late 80s most adults were openly contemptuous of the tota…
China seems to be doing pretty well with education
Critical thinking and overall quality of education are not the same thing. You can be very good at teaching math, physics, geography, chemistry, biology while completely sux at "critical thinking" stuff. And vice versa.
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My 30 year old masters students are not even allowed to run their own WiFi network Because they're students, or because IT doesn't want random people running their own networks that are halfway part of the school's systems but independently administered?
> because IT doesn't want random people running their own networks that are halfway part of the school's systems but independently administered? IT people have nothing to do with it. They just peck at webmin interfaces and pretend to understand what Microsoft tell them to do. If it were up to IT they'd just grunt and shrug, and the students would get on with it. Decisions to directly counter to the core mission of th…
Why would you consider the management of an academic institution "shadow" power? It seems pretty clear they are the "actual" power, nothing hidden about it.
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#56Some of these still exist! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Park_Railway
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thomas the Tank Engine is virtually unknown in Russia, so I doubt it
Way more plausible is that Thomas the Tank Engine was drawn based on how real world trained looked like.
Yes - he's drawn based on a specific kind of tank engine from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (E2 class). There's not a huge similarity with the engine in the photo except that they're both small and painted in a similar shade of blue.
Thomas's prototype causes problems for preserved railway lines in the UK, incidentally. 'Day Out With Thomas' events (where an engine 'dresses' as Thomas to run trains) are very popular, but there are actually zero preserved E2s, so they all look a bit wrong. If Rev Awdry had picked something more common (like a Jinty[0], say) to base Thomas on, there would be loads of nearly exact copies to go around...
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#58In "Ender's Game", Scott Card uses his smart children to echo the same sentiment: treat children as if they were miniature human beings!
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
These children were mostly railway workers' kids. Whole purpose of it was to teach them railway jobs were cool to make them follow their parents' steps. In the Soviet Union, and to a great extent in Russia till now, railway system is very independent from the State. It's frequently called a state within a state. It has it's own power stations, construction departments that build among other things, housing for worker…
You’d be surprised but Deutsche Bahn fit the description as well.
Can we find similar ideas in the way Samsung is run ?
Re: Children's Railways of the Former USSR
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thomas Aquinas (just to name one) was a scholar of the highest order and was absolutely not just pretending to be a Christian. It’s a strange worldview to imagine that Christianity provided no academic contributions to the world. To some extent, it invented academics. This is more or less z I am not a Christian and was for a long time a fairly militant atheist - but this point is historical fact.
I don't think that this fact some how dismisses the likelihood that many people throughout history merely pretended to be Christian simply to avoid being burned at the stake. That's what organized religions did/do to non-believers. They burned them at the stake. Or stoned them to death, Or drowned them, or exiled them. If your goal is to make contributions to society, in that context you're damn well going to say wha…
Isaac Newton clearly defies this theory. He dedicated a significant portion of his time to exploring religious ideas that practically made him a heretic. He would have had a lot less conflict with the church if we was just an atheist going through the motions, rather than a true believer with his own unique interpretation of the scriptures.