If you live in a decent sized city, there are plenty of smaller venues where you can expect to spend more on beer than the ticket, and still see a great show. You also get to be much closer to the band.
Congratulations on graduating! I knew because I was CSE95. You will be happy to know that Penn SEAS is MUCH harder than real-life. Prepare to have all kinds of free time for drinking and carrying-on. If you can just steer clear of evil venture capitalists, it'll be smooth sailing from now on...
Also, you'll never need to use that CSE-260/261/262 shit in real-life.
Ultimately, the government protects your private property, so you don't have to. You can then spend that time creating wealth.
First of all, without the military, another country could invade and take all your stuff.
Secondly, the government also provides a structure of laws which allows you to focus on building a business without having to worry about other people stealing it or squatting on your land. Laws related to intellectual property were originally written for a similar reason. Civil laws ensure that disputes can be settled without violence.
Thirdly, your taxes fund the infrastructure of the country, which allow you to get to work and communicate. Some of these projects are too large for any commercial venture to tackle.
After that are some services of lesser importance and more subtle effects:
Government programs that help the poor reduce crime, which also allows you to focus on attaining success (instead of protecting yourself).
The FDA (for example) releases you from the burden of researching the conditions of every farm or dairy you might buy from.
The government also provides financial programs to reduce the risk of starting a business. Bankruptcy laws, subsidized loans, and FDIC are examples.
There are certainly many other examples.
I would certainly agree that the tax codes need work and that government can be wasteful. I can also agree that some of above examples may not currently be efficient. But, those are implementation issues. It is much more likely that the existing system can be refined, than a libertarian utopia created.
Any self-made businessman got where they are today (if done legally) with more help than hinderance from the government. Again, we all help pay for it, because it could be any of us next.
Some people believe that since the government provided services and protections that allows one to accumulate (or inherited) lots of money during their life, they owe more in return. In this sense, paying taxes is not so much like investing in a corporation, but more like paying for services provided. If we could predict who would be financially sucessful, we could charge them in advance. But, since the USA is the land of opportunity, they have to pay after the fact.
Regarding taxation without represention: American citizens in DC are not fully represented, even though they pay federal taxes. Just for comparison, DC's population exceeds that of Wyoming.
These must be MILSPEC X-Boxes. Sure they're more expensive, but you get more too: EMP hardened, NBC resistent (via overpressure and filtration in "buttoned up" mode), protected against impacts, water, and sand, man-portable, can run on either diesel or kerosene, incorporates lessons learned from previous conflicts, the usual. This assumes the procedures in the field manual are being followed, and regular depot-level maintenance is scheduled.
As I understand it, region lockout is primarily intended to enforce the wording of the licensing agreements of the game properties.
For example, SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) might pay a media company $X for the ability to use their IP (characters, setting, etc.) in a game, and the terms of this deal only apply to Region 1 territories. SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) might make a different deal. If SCEA sells the game in Europe, it would be violating the terms of their licensing agreement.
This also applies to film distribution rights, when it comes to DVDs.
ADD (et al) would not be in the human population unless it does (or at one time did) confer an evolutionary advantage. People with ADD tend to be easily distracted, but they also tend to be better than average at processing multiple input streams at once and multitasking. There may be other advantages to ADD, or it could be linked with genes that provide survival traits.
In much the same way, back when humans lived in small tribes, it was helpful to have a paranoid person (hypersensative to danger, able to rapidly draw intuitive conclusions).
We see the same things with other genetic problems like sickle cell anemia (confers maleria resistence if you only have one recessive gene), tay-sachs (may confer tuberculosis resistance to carriers), and many others.
The point is that genetic variation and adaptation in humans applies also to the structure of our brains, which can affect our personalities.
It is important that we be aware of these variations, and try to put ourselves in positions (jobs or academic programs) where our particular traits are advantages, and not liabilities.
If you are near-sighted, you *could* try to become a fighter pilot, because in America, you can do what you want. On the other hand, you could stop fighting your body, and attempt to find happiness as a doctor or engineer (for example).
If you are easily distracted, but capable of attending to many details, maybe you should consider becoming a dispatcher, or a cop, or a programmer for a fast-paced software startup.
These aren't the best examples, but my point is that instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, maybe you could take the time to investigate the world and see what you like to do, and what you are good at. Then you can spend your life doing something that you are "tuned" for.
But, until then, drugs and therapy can help you cope with situations like high school, that you have to make it through before you'll have the change to make these decisions yourself.
Properly supervised, Ritalin and related drugs are not crutches, any more than sun screen for fair skinned people is a crutch....and don't forget that while ADD might be over-diagnosed in rich white suburbs, it is under-diagnosed in other populations.
Crush, Crumble, Chomp was a giant monster game for the Apple ][ and TRS-80 (packaged together, on opposite sides of a single disk!). You could be any of several movie-based monsters, or create your own. The maps were based on actual cities. I would love to see that game re-made.
Bilestoad was another original concept I've never seen copied. It was a slow motion (but not turn-based) top-down fighting game, with weapons and shields. Very cool.
I don't think anybody seriously consideres Zion merely a "mythical" Jewish homeland.
Most people don't believe that all the events in the bible happened exactly as described, but I don't think anybody seriously disputes that the Old Testament is thousands of years old, and was writen by people who called themselves Jews and who were living in what is now the country of Israel.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny, but the proper regex for matching email addresses is 6598 characters long.
See "Mastering Regular Expressions", p316.
If you live in a decent sized city, there are plenty of smaller venues where you can expect to spend more on beer than the ticket, and still see a great show. You also get to be much closer to the band.
Keep in mind that most US states have more colleges than almost any country. Actually, even most big US cities do.
Congratulations on graduating! I knew because I was CSE95. You will be happy to know that Penn SEAS is MUCH harder than real-life. Prepare to have all kinds of free time for drinking and carrying-on. If you can just steer clear of evil venture capitalists, it'll be smooth sailing from now on...
Also, you'll never need to use that CSE-260/261/262 shit in real-life.
When I last checked (granted, it was 1995), MIT was not accredited in CS either. Neither was U. Penn, and they claim to have invented the computer.
Ultimately, the government protects your private property, so you don't have to. You can then spend that time creating wealth.
First of all, without the military, another country could invade and take all your stuff.
Secondly, the government also provides a structure of laws which allows you to focus on building a business without having to worry about other people stealing it or squatting on your land. Laws related to intellectual property were originally written for a similar reason. Civil laws ensure that disputes can be settled without violence.
Thirdly, your taxes fund the infrastructure of the country, which allow you to get to work and communicate. Some of these projects are too large for any commercial venture to tackle.
After that are some services of lesser importance and more subtle effects:
Government programs that help the poor reduce crime, which also allows you to focus on attaining success (instead of protecting yourself).
The FDA (for example) releases you from the burden of researching the conditions of every farm or dairy you might buy from.
The government also provides financial programs to reduce the risk of starting a business. Bankruptcy laws, subsidized loans, and FDIC are examples.
There are certainly many other examples.
I would certainly agree that the tax codes need work and that government can be wasteful. I can also agree that some of above examples may not currently be efficient. But, those are implementation issues. It is much more likely that the existing system can be refined, than a libertarian utopia created.
Any self-made businessman got where they are today (if done legally) with more help than hinderance from the government. Again, we all help pay for it, because it could be any of us next.
Some people believe that since the government provided services and protections that allows one to accumulate (or inherited) lots of money during their life, they owe more in return. In this sense, paying taxes is not so much like investing in a corporation, but more like paying for services provided. If we could predict who would be financially sucessful, we could charge them in advance. But, since the USA is the land of opportunity, they have to pay after the fact.
Regarding taxation without represention: American citizens in DC are not fully represented, even though they pay federal taxes. Just for comparison, DC's population exceeds that of Wyoming.
These must be MILSPEC X-Boxes. Sure they're more expensive, but you get more too: EMP hardened, NBC resistent (via overpressure and filtration in "buttoned up" mode), protected against impacts, water, and sand, man-portable, can run on either diesel or kerosene, incorporates lessons learned from previous conflicts, the usual. This assumes the procedures in the field manual are being followed, and regular depot-level maintenance is scheduled.
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven (Tenchu 3) has some two-player co-op missions.
As I understand it, region lockout is primarily intended to enforce the wording of the licensing agreements of the game properties.
For example, SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) might pay a media company $X for the ability to use their IP (characters, setting, etc.) in a game, and the terms of this deal only apply to Region 1 territories. SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) might make a different deal. If SCEA sells the game in Europe, it would be violating the terms of their licensing agreement.
This also applies to film distribution rights, when it comes to DVDs.
ADD (et al) would not be in the human population unless it does (or at one time did) confer an evolutionary advantage. People with ADD tend to be easily distracted, but they also tend to be better than average at processing multiple input streams at once and multitasking. There may be other advantages to ADD, or it could be linked with genes that provide survival traits.
...and don't forget that while ADD might be over-diagnosed in rich white suburbs, it is under-diagnosed in other populations.
In much the same way, back when humans lived in small tribes, it was helpful to have a paranoid person (hypersensative to danger, able to rapidly draw intuitive conclusions).
We see the same things with other genetic problems like sickle cell anemia (confers maleria resistence if you only have one recessive gene), tay-sachs (may confer tuberculosis resistance to carriers), and many others.
The point is that genetic variation and adaptation in humans applies also to the structure of our brains, which can affect our personalities.
It is important that we be aware of these variations, and try to put ourselves in positions (jobs or academic programs) where our particular traits are advantages, and not liabilities.
If you are near-sighted, you *could* try to become a fighter pilot, because in America, you can do what you want. On the other hand, you could stop fighting your body, and attempt to find happiness as a doctor or engineer (for example).
If you are easily distracted, but capable of attending to many details, maybe you should consider becoming a dispatcher, or a cop, or a programmer for a fast-paced software startup.
These aren't the best examples, but my point is that instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, maybe you could take the time to investigate the world and see what you like to do, and what you are good at. Then you can spend your life doing something that you are "tuned" for.
But, until then, drugs and therapy can help you cope with situations like high school, that you have to make it through before you'll have the change to make these decisions yourself.
Properly supervised, Ritalin and related drugs are not crutches, any more than sun screen for fair skinned people is a crutch.
Crush, Crumble, Chomp was a giant monster game for the Apple ][ and TRS-80 (packaged together, on opposite sides of a single disk!). You could be any of several movie-based monsters, or create your own. The maps were based on actual cities. I would love to see that game re-made.
Bilestoad was another original concept I've never seen copied. It was a slow motion (but not turn-based) top-down fighting game, with weapons and shields. Very cool.
Even more confusing is that .la.us can be pronounced "la-us", which sounds like "Laos".
I don't think anybody seriously consideres Zion merely a "mythical" Jewish homeland.
Most people don't believe that all the events in the bible happened exactly as described, but I don't think anybody seriously disputes that the Old Testament is thousands of years old, and was writen by people who called themselves Jews and who were living in what is now the country of Israel.