I've made several kinetic sculptures using a mixture of bicycle and motorcycle parts. The best heavy duty gearing I found was in printing presses. Nice pillow blocks, shafts, gears of all flavors.
If you're near SF there's a place in the East Bay (Hayward?) called Alco that has a huge pile of machinery that they're not supposed to let you climb around in, but if you're nice...Bring tools.
Washing machines and dryers have nice belt drives. Washing machine motors are usually dual speed (slow/fast). The slow speed is helpful for sculpture, often. Lots of pumps too if you want to move liquids around.
Shaft-drive motorcycle parts are nice, though these can be expensive even when junked.
I neglected to add that, as I understand it, if you graduate from a state med school you are required to work at least part time in a state hospital. Many doctors split their time between private practice and the public system.
That's a good question. You do pay for it in taxes, but taxes aren't noticeably higher than in the US. how can this be? I believe it's mainly for two reasons: (1) med school is very cheap, so md's don't gradudate in debt, and thus can charge much less, and (2) there's no tradition of malpractice suits or lawsuits to recover medical costs (since they are low or nil), so doctors don't have these costs to cover either.
Besides the govt health program, which is pretty good, you can also get private health insurance for about 70 euros (today that's US$100, in 2000 it was US$50, the exchange rate fluctuates so take your pick) a month per person. Under both systems doctors come to your house if you're sick (this is especially useful when you have kids), at no charge.
We have the private insurance, since it has a few perks, like a beautiful hospital nearby, choose any doctor, etc. It cost us a total of 5 euros for each childbirth, and the hospital gave me room and board, along with my wife, for 3 days and nights both times! When you have something really serious though, like a major car accident, you go with the public, because they have the most advanced equipment and trauma centers.
This is probably a gross oversimplification, but I have the feeling that the government here spends its money on things that actually help the citizens, like healthcare, garbage collection (that's free too), schools etc, with far less emphasis on defense and (currently) wars than the US does.
I came to Barcelona because I met a Catalan woman who was studying in the US. That was in 2000. As with anywhere, there are pros and cons. I've also picked up some different perspectives on the US living outside of it. To sum up:
living in Barcelona: pros
1. the flow of time is different, slower somehow. people have more time outside of work and seem to make spending it with each other a priority. It's not that the work hours are so different, it's more of a cultural thing- work is usually not the center of one's life, or something they use to define themselves. for instance, you can get to know someone over months and never find out what they do (this may be related to con #1, see below.) most people get a month of vacation each year, plus innumerable long (3 and 4 day weekends). there's a big emphasis on getting together for long, tasty meals and laughing and drinking good wine. we lived in new york for 6 months a few years ago (ending a 1-year stay 6 months early) and I felt like I was running all the time, never had time to be with my family.
2. it's easier to be middle class. healthcare is free, education is cheap, public transit is cheap and excellent (the latter is for barcelona, not necessarily the rest of the country.) we have two little kids (9mos and 5yrs) and no car and it's not an issue. on a salary of us$60k we live well, even with the dollar worth.79 euro cents.
3. the level of education and knowledge about the world of the average person on the street is pretty high, compared to the US. people have travelled, speak at least two languages (spanish and catalan and usually bad english, and french). the public schools start earlier here (3 yrs old) and are a lot more rigorous than the public schools I went to in washington DC.
3. you are close to a wide range of different cultures, should you like exploring. if you travel the same distance from say, new york to cleveland, you can be in much of north africa, most of western europe, a bunch of eastern europe. turkey is a stone's throw away. even within spain there are seven or so regional languages and cultures that are strikingly different. western europe is slowly mixing and homogenizing due to the european union effort, but it still seems like an adventure every time I get on a train or a plane. maybe this is just because I'm not from here.
cons:
1. the work opportunities and work culture suck. education being cheap or free, you have a lot of really well educated people and not enough jobs requiring their skills. thus employers are used to paying bad salaries, paying late, not treating employees too well, etc. maybe this is a holdover from the years of dictatorship that only ended in the 70s. higher-ups generally fuck with those under them and it's not pleasant. getting a job often has more to do with whom you know or are related to, rather than what you can do (this is a cliche, but it is _really_ true here.) these negatives may be changing slowly, I'm not sure. I came on with a US company and started telecommuting about a year ago and now work for spanish firms only as a consultant, which gives me a certain amount of freedom and leverage.
2. speaking spanish isn't really enough, to really integrate you have to learn some level of catalan (the regional language in which government and local business is conducted), which is sort of like learning portuguese- similar, but still another language (not a dialect). even if it were only spanish one had to learn, it's was a part-time job for a me for a few years to get good at a language. classes, etc. Some people learn can languages faster of course.
on living outside of the US:
one thing you realize is that the US is a good place for work and earning money (if you're educated and posess certain skillsets - if you aren't, it looks like wal-mart, doesn't it?) and that the fact that you can often be evaluated for what you are able to do, rather than your connections, is damn nice.
I had 7.5 diopters, now I'm 20/20. the halos at night you get used to, jeez life is a lot better being able to see the inside of a shower etc etc. I had this 4 years ago, lasik, so I imagine it's gotten better. if your eyes are bad, I recommend it.
we've gotten a bunch of jobs like this - turning handwritten documents into searchable pdfs - and had a lot of luck sending them to firms in india, either by sending the documents snailmail or scanning with a sheet feeder and ftp'ing. the firm we got the best results from was called suntec, suntecindia.com I believe. I know outsourcing is a touchy subject these days, but they were all set up for this, we weren't, and their prices were quite good.
jr high girls seem to be less given to battling. this site tells of a robotics course they pretty much designed- http://www.geocities.com/meighreaux/ -josh
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayite m. taf?itemnumber=36905
I bought one just cause it sounded like a cool thing to have. turns out, you could probably walk into that bar with this baby in your pocket (weighs about 6lbs) and that would take care of their card scanner...
the WTC was attacked by al Qaeda, a group of avowed terrorists, not the taliban, a "government" of afghanistan. am I wrong here, or do the differences between the two often go unnoticed? Links between the two don't make them the same. many taliban were/are bureacrats who saw which way the wind was blowing, i.e. wanted to keep their jobs, and joined. lots more were unemployed fighters needing jobs. I am not defending the taliban, which seems like it was a pretty horrible regime, just pointing out that attacking the US may not have been one of their central goals. it isn't such a practical thing for a government seeking international recognition to do, after all. is this going to get me in trouble?
who were the iranians who fled for their lives at the time of the revolution? the wealthy, many of whom were in bed with the shah, a cruel US-backed dictator who was giving away the store to multinationals while his people starved. many of these wealthy iranians, some of whom now live in LA, lost property in the revolution, and would like it back. meanwhile in Iran today khatami is a democratically elected leader who appears to be trying to modernize the country, walking a fine line between what his voters want and what is acceptable to the religious conservatives, who wield a lot of power in the society.
in another post someone pointed out that entertainment is the US' most potent export. the world is fascinated with what it believes are our lifestyles, those portrayed by movies and tv. especially in countries with state media controls, which usually lead to incredibly boring programming, anything from the US is hot stuff. farsi-language programming is going to be a hit.
perhaps one question in this case is, to what end?
aside from loving the idea of shoestring pirate satellite tv breaking through censorship, I wonder what else is going on here. thoughts, anyone?
anyone in the miami area up for this? if he in fact was willing, would probably require file conversion, some hand-holding, along with install. but he might get a column or two out of it, worldwide audience.
I worked alongside many americorps volunteers at a public charter school in brooklyn, helped set up their computer lab and taught kids in the day and parents at night. many of the parents, most of whom only spoke spanish, weren't aware, for instance, of the function of the space bar. it was a pretty interesting job, and speaks to the aforementioned thought that you don't necessarily need to leave the US to be of help. as for americorps, the value of the experience must depend on the organization you work for- this school was using americorps volunteers mostly to do clerical work. I don't recall how much choice the americorps applicant has in where s/he is stationed, but if you don't get to choose, beware- you could end up stapling stuff.
as for going to another country, I also worked for a year in guatemala for a newspaper there, not volunteer but for a guatemalan salary (damn close to volunteering, in USD terms), and that was a different kind of experience- getting out of the US, or the first world, can be eye opening, good for langauge skills, lonely, a time to learn a lot.
in the end I figured that as far as being of help, I was probably most useful in my own country, where I had a grip on the culture, was likely to stick around for a while, and had a shot at forming relationships that could last.
that said, if you haven't spent a chunk of time outside of the first world, I would recommend it, if you're lucky you'll find yourself someplace completely different from what you're used to, struggle with and learn from that, and help some folks set up networks (or whatever) in the process. you'll be a richer person for it, and if you decide that social-servicey type work is your thing, better equipped to do stuff at home in the longer term.
(*some* similarities)
I ran a bicycle design program in brooklyn for a couple years, working with kids who didn't have a lot going on. they weren't drug addicts, and I'm not religious, but I bet a lot of the challenges were the same. I put a page up about it at http://www.geocities.com/meighreaux - some of the experiences related there might be of use to anyone considering starting a program like the one the Economist describes.
what kind of./ reader would buy a 2 port kvm, limiting oneself to 2 boxes? was my thinking. folks have said almost everything about the belkin, which works great for me too. only little annoyance is that the keyboard shortcut (quick taps on scrlk + number 1-4 of computer you want to jump to) results in the number bring typed into whatever window is open on the linux box. so now an then an extra '1' throws a wrench into some code (once, an invoice, but it didn't get me any extra cash). there's probably a way to fix this but...laziness
Slashdot Mirror
I've made several kinetic sculptures using a mixture of bicycle and motorcycle parts. The best heavy duty gearing I found was in printing presses. Nice pillow blocks, shafts, gears of all flavors.
If you're near SF there's a place in the East Bay (Hayward?) called Alco that has a huge pile of machinery that they're not supposed to let you climb around in, but if you're nice...Bring tools.
Washing machines and dryers have nice belt drives. Washing machine motors are usually dual speed (slow/fast). The slow speed is helpful for sculpture, often. Lots of pumps too if you want to move liquids around.
Shaft-drive motorcycle parts are nice, though these can be expensive even when junked.
Good Luck!
Josh Merrow
http://jmerrowstudio.com
tell your friend if he wants to get a beer sometime, jjmerrow@yahoo.com
I neglected to add that, as I understand it, if you graduate from a state med school you are required to work at least part time in a state hospital. Many doctors split their time between private practice and the public system.
That's a good question. You do pay for it in taxes, but taxes aren't noticeably higher than in the US. how can this be? I believe it's mainly for two reasons: (1) med school is very cheap, so md's don't gradudate in debt, and thus can charge much less, and (2) there's no tradition of malpractice suits or lawsuits to recover medical costs (since they are low or nil), so doctors don't have these costs to cover either.
Besides the govt health program, which is pretty good, you can also get private health insurance for about 70 euros (today that's US$100, in 2000 it was US$50, the exchange rate fluctuates so take your pick) a month per person. Under both systems doctors come to your house if you're sick (this is especially useful when you have kids), at no charge.
We have the private insurance, since it has a few perks, like a beautiful hospital nearby, choose any doctor, etc. It cost us a total of 5 euros for each childbirth, and the hospital gave me room and board, along with my wife, for 3 days and nights both times! When you have something really serious though, like a major car accident, you go with the public, because they have the most advanced equipment and trauma centers.
This is probably a gross oversimplification, but I have the feeling that the government here spends its money on things that actually help the citizens, like healthcare, garbage collection (that's free too), schools etc, with far less emphasis on defense and (currently) wars than the US does.
I came to Barcelona because I met a Catalan woman who was studying in the US. That was in 2000. As with anywhere, there are pros and cons. I've also picked up some different perspectives on the US living outside of it. To sum up:
.79 euro cents.
living in Barcelona: pros
1. the flow of time is different, slower somehow. people have more time outside of work and seem to make spending it with each other a priority. It's not that the work hours are so different, it's more of a cultural thing- work is usually not the center of one's life, or something they use to define themselves. for instance, you can get to know someone over months and never find out what they do (this may be related to con #1, see below.) most people get a month of vacation each year, plus innumerable long (3 and 4 day weekends). there's a big emphasis on getting together for long, tasty meals and laughing and drinking good wine. we lived in new york for 6 months a few years ago (ending a 1-year stay 6 months early) and I felt like I was running all the time, never had time to be with my family.
2. it's easier to be middle class. healthcare is free, education is cheap, public transit is cheap and excellent (the latter is for barcelona, not necessarily the rest of the country.) we have two little kids (9mos and 5yrs) and no car and it's not an issue. on a salary of us$60k we live well, even with the dollar worth
3. the level of education and knowledge about the world of the average person on the street is pretty high, compared to the US. people have travelled, speak at least two languages (spanish and catalan and usually bad english, and french). the public schools start earlier here (3 yrs old) and are a lot more rigorous than the public schools I went to in washington DC.
3. you are close to a wide range of different cultures, should you like exploring. if you travel the same distance from say, new york to cleveland, you can be in much of north africa, most of western europe, a bunch of eastern europe. turkey is a stone's throw away. even within spain there are seven or so regional languages and cultures that are strikingly different. western europe is slowly mixing and homogenizing due to the european union effort, but it still seems like an adventure every time I get on a train or a plane. maybe this is just because I'm not from here.
cons:
1. the work opportunities and work culture suck. education being cheap or free, you have a lot of really well educated people and not enough jobs requiring their skills. thus employers are used to paying bad salaries, paying late, not treating employees too well, etc. maybe this is a holdover from the years of dictatorship that only ended in the 70s. higher-ups generally fuck with those under them and it's not pleasant. getting a job often has more to do with whom you know or are related to, rather than what you can do (this is a cliche, but it is _really_ true here.) these negatives may be changing slowly, I'm not sure. I came on with a US company and started telecommuting about a year ago and now work for spanish firms only as a consultant, which gives me a certain amount of freedom and leverage.
2. speaking spanish isn't really enough, to really integrate you have to learn some level of catalan (the regional language in which government and local business is conducted), which is sort of like learning portuguese- similar, but still another language (not a dialect). even if it were only spanish one had to learn, it's was a part-time job for a me for a few years to get good at a language. classes, etc. Some people learn can languages faster of course.
on living outside of the US:
one thing you realize is that the US is a good place for work and earning money (if you're educated and posess certain skillsets - if you aren't, it looks like wal-mart, doesn't it?) and that the fact that you can often be evaluated for what you are able to do, rather than your connections, is damn nice.
you also see a lot of things in press that
I had 7.5 diopters, now I'm 20/20. the halos at night you get used to, jeez life is a lot better being able to see the inside of a shower etc etc. I had this 4 years ago, lasik, so I imagine it's gotten better. if your eyes are bad, I recommend it.
for bicyle commuters (depending on climate). if you take all this advice, can I come work there?
we've gotten a bunch of jobs like this - turning handwritten documents into searchable pdfs - and had a lot of luck sending them to firms in india, either by sending the documents snailmail or scanning with a sheet feeder and ftp'ing. the firm we got the best results from was called suntec, suntecindia.com I believe. I know outsourcing is a touchy subject these days, but they were all set up for this, we weren't, and their prices were quite good.
jr high girls seem to be less given to battling. this site tells of a robotics course they pretty much designed- http://www.geocities.com/meighreaux/
-josh
magnet with 250lbs of pull - $17.95
e m. taf?itemnumber=36905
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayit
I bought one just cause it sounded like a cool thing to have. turns out, you could probably walk into that bar with this baby in your pocket (weighs about 6lbs) and that would take care of their card scanner...
the WTC was attacked by al Qaeda, a group of avowed terrorists, not the taliban, a "government" of afghanistan. am I wrong here, or do the differences between the two often go unnoticed? Links between the two don't make them the same. many taliban were/are bureacrats who saw which way the wind was blowing, i.e. wanted to keep their jobs, and joined. lots more were unemployed fighters needing jobs.
I am not defending the taliban, which seems like it was a pretty horrible regime, just pointing out that attacking the US may not have been one of their central goals. it isn't such a practical thing for a government seeking international recognition to do, after all.
is this going to get me in trouble?
to generalize and simplify a bit:
who were the iranians who fled for their lives at the time of the revolution? the wealthy, many of whom were in bed with the shah, a cruel US-backed dictator who was giving away the store to multinationals while his people starved. many of these wealthy iranians, some of whom now live in LA, lost property in the revolution, and would like it back. meanwhile in Iran today khatami is a democratically elected leader who appears to be trying to modernize the country, walking a fine line between what his voters want and what is acceptable to the religious conservatives, who wield a lot of power in the society.
in another post someone pointed out that entertainment is the US' most potent export. the world is fascinated with what it believes are our lifestyles, those portrayed by movies and tv. especially in countries with state media controls, which usually lead to incredibly boring programming, anything from the US is hot stuff. farsi-language programming is going to be a hit.
perhaps one question in this case is, to what end?
aside from loving the idea of shoestring pirate satellite tv breaking through censorship, I wonder what else is going on here. thoughts, anyone?
anyone in the miami area up for this? if he in fact was willing, would probably require file conversion, some hand-holding, along with install. but he might get a column or two out of it, worldwide audience.
I worked alongside many americorps volunteers at a public charter school in brooklyn, helped set up their computer lab and taught kids in the day and parents at night. many of the parents, most of whom only spoke spanish, weren't aware, for instance, of the function of the space bar. it was a pretty interesting job, and speaks to the aforementioned thought that you don't necessarily need to leave the US to be of help. as for americorps, the value of the experience must depend on the organization you work for- this school was using americorps volunteers mostly to do clerical work. I don't recall how much choice the americorps applicant has in where s/he is stationed, but if you don't get to choose, beware- you could end up stapling stuff.
as for going to another country, I also worked for a year in guatemala for a newspaper there, not volunteer but for a guatemalan salary (damn close to volunteering, in USD terms), and that was a different kind of experience- getting out of the US, or the first world, can be eye opening, good for langauge skills, lonely, a time to learn a lot.
in the end I figured that as far as being of help, I was probably most useful in my own country, where I had a grip on the culture, was likely to stick around for a while, and had a shot at forming relationships that could last.
that said, if you haven't spent a chunk of time outside of the first world, I would recommend it, if you're lucky you'll find yourself someplace completely different from what you're used to, struggle with and learn from that, and help some folks set up networks (or whatever) in the process. you'll be a richer person for it, and if you decide that social-servicey type work is your thing, better equipped to do stuff at home in the longer term.
(*some* similarities)
I ran a bicycle design program in brooklyn for a couple years, working with kids who didn't have a lot going on. they weren't drug addicts, and I'm not religious, but I bet a lot of the challenges were the same. I put a page up about it at http://www.geocities.com/meighreaux - some of the experiences related there might be of use to anyone considering starting a program like the one the Economist describes.
what kind of ./ reader would buy a 2 port kvm, limiting oneself to 2 boxes? was my thinking. folks have said almost everything about the belkin, which works great for me too. only little annoyance is that the keyboard shortcut (quick taps on scrlk + number 1-4 of computer you want to jump to) results in the number bring typed into whatever window is open on the linux box. so now an then an extra '1' throws a wrench into some code (once, an invoice, but it didn't get me any extra cash). there's probably a way to fix this but...laziness