Slashdot Mirror
Stephen Hawking Going To Canada
thepacketmaster writes "A previous Slashdot article I posted mentioned the possibility of Stephen Hawking coming to Canada. The Toronto Star now reports that he has accepted the position. Hawking will hold the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics."
He's actually starting to have trouble communicating, as the movements he used for it back then (blinking I think?) are starting to become harder. He's still productive, but not as much as he used to, and probably not for very long.
The tax rate is way higher in California than in Canada. Sure, when you look at percentages alone it seems to be the other way around, but for a few measly more points Canadians get free health care, decent and safe free public schools, much higher welfare and unemployment insurance benefits, lower tuition fees at the University level and public infrastructure that isn't crumbling.
The way I see it, Californians are getting royally screwed.
That is very true. You have to move away for a while to hear it. I moved to the mid-west for close to eight years and was teased about the 'aboot' until the local accent wore it away. When I moved back to Canada I realized what I was being teased about when I could hear it all around me. I also thought the 'yaw yaw' (yes yes) in the movie 'Fargo' was an over the top caricature of the accent in northern Minnesota until I visited southern Manitoba again a while ago and heard two waitresses in my hotel talking and saying "yaw yaw, I know wot chya mean." Having lived there for a while too, I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't left. I do have to say that the thing that kind of pissed me off is when Americans found out I'm from Canada they would insist on saying, "so you're from Canada AY!" No-one could say "eh" at the end of the sentence correctly [big grin]. Come on guys, you force it too hard... it has to just roll off at the end matter of factly... you can't force it. Now, if you get to Missouri take a drive down highway Farty Far. ha!
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Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries_by_gun_ownership. Per 100 people, the United States has 90 guns. Canada has 31.5. All I can say to that is, "weak." France and Finland are beating you (which I wouldn't have expected). Switzerland up there doesn't surprise me though.
Not sure why the U.S. is so ridiculously high. I guess a better statistic would be the percentage of people who own guns. I'm pretty sure a lot of people who buys guns buy a lot of them.
Now check out fire-arm related deaths at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate. Man, the U.S. is awesome. I've never felt more proud to be an American.
The taxes may be higher in Canada, and it is true that healthcare and education costs are lower. However, as an American who goes to university (McGill) in Canada, I can tell you that its far from being a socialist paradise.
You say that infrastructure is crumbling in California, and I think you are probably right (I've only been to California a couple of times). But on the other hand, it is too in Quebec, which has had a spate of lethal collapses in the last couple of years (this being the most recent). Last year a bridge collapsed and killed a person on a busy highway, and the same thing happened several years before that. This spring, a major elevated concrete highway interchange in Montreal (the Turcot Interchange) was closed after the authorities discovered a 1m (!!) deep pothole IN THE BRIDGE. Canadians like to blame the weather, but having grown up in New England, where we get all the same weather, I can assure you that our bridges are not collapsing.
Sure the healthcare is free, and everyone has access, but I'll tell you, having to wait 4 hours to see a doctor (as I have done many times) really sucks.
The public high schools are sufficient, but are not by any means greatly superior to americans. 50% dropout rates are commonplace in many places and years of price freezes on tuition has greatly hindered the ability of universities to fund their students (everything from research to maintenance of buildings has been cut for the last 5 years at my university). Many of the cuts would be unheard of at an American university. My first year undergrad chemistry class was 1500 students.
To be fair, Canada does a lot of things better than the United States. And we do things better than Canada, although I think we could both learn from each other, and I don't mean to repudiate social democracy or universal healthcare. These are certainly things we could use in the US. But to say that Californians are "royally screwed" is uninformed - Canadians are plenty screwed in other ways (that you take for granted in the states).
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, but idle minds are much worse
There is a HUGE difference between a hunting rifle and an automatic pistol. Try to conceal one.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.