Getting old, well it ensures you become inflexible and set in your ways.
Too bad you missed the lessons on life and respect. Congrats on getting 100% in a course, but that is not an indicator that you're going to do well in the workplace, or anywhere else...it's just one data point. Just remember that all us old foggies have been there and done that, and you're standing on the shoulders of giants.
I believe a lot of it has to do with Hollywood, since that's where most of us non-Americans get the largest part of our image of America.
Please, please, please...do not associate anything you see from Hollywood with reality in America. I'm 51 years old, have been to 49 states, and lived in about a dozen of them. There's nothing about "reality TV", or in the movies that comes close to reality.
Trouble is... most schools still haven't learned this lesson and every day nerds, geeks and misfits are still being bullied by jocks in particular, and the schools allows this most of the time. Usually because they might lose a star-something if they try to stop it.
While I'll agree with the first part of your comment, I'm doubtful regarding your conclusion as to the reason behind it. Schools below the college level gain nothing more than bragging rights, and trophies for having top jocks.
I think they learned something you clearly missed - That you can avoid violence through deterrence. I've used this technique to avoid conflict. If you can scare your opponent out of his will to fight then you've won. If you can talk them out of it then do it; But you need to somehow dissuade them.
Yeah, I suppose I could have rode my bike a couple miles the long way home to avoid going directly from school to home, and avoiding the neighborhood bullies that lived in the path. I might have been able to deal with one of them, but they frequently were togeather, and I got my ass whipped by them more than once. As an immature 14-15 year old, I was completely underequipped to deal with that situation, and needed help. Having no role models didn't help (only child, living with single mom parent). If my mom hadn't figured out what was happening (I never told her), I would have continued getting my ass kicked. Fortunately, she reached out and got help through my school, and the problem was solved.
You can't expect teenagers to figure out how to handle bullies by themselves. They at least need some guidance.
Excellent write up on Aikido and it's lack of usefulness for school age encounters.
I'll pile on to that and say the same for TKD, which I practiced through my second degree belt...many years ago. Great exercise, but not useful unless you manage to connect in the first couple of seconds.
What was useful to me as a kid (and I was bullied up into my sophamore year...we're talking 35 years ago ), was when my team coach heard about the problem. He sent me home with a couple of senior teammates, who asked me about the predators. I don't know what they did, but I never was bothered by them again. While they didn't mind picking on a scrawny 14 yr old, they weren't willing to stand up to the senior jocks.
For those of you recommending self-defense, I can say that it simply would not have worked in my case, as it was rarely a one-on-one situation, and at that level of maturity, I was completely unequipped to deal with it.
Maybe there are none in NE, but there are plenty of northern states with concrete highways. I'd be interested to see some stats on the difference in potholes between those with and without.
The DOE table you linked to runs from 2003-2007, as shown below. Not sure where you got the '08 number. One surprise for me at least, is that from '06 to '07, the percentage actually decreased. Looking at the chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USRenewableElectricity.jpg) that you provided, shows a continued downward swing in that percentage, which is likely due to our constantly increasing demand. One other thing that needs to be made clear is that hydroelectric currently makes up 5.74% of all the renewable energy in the U.S...and I suspect that won't be increasing since there's so much opposition to dams. So, if you take out hydro, the amount of energy that renewables are producing is much smaller.
Energy Source 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Renewable Energy 6.150 6.261 6.424 6.909 6.813
Excellent post Stewbacca! I also lived in Germany for six years, and wholeheartedly agree that the biggest impediment to increasing our speeds is the lack of decent drivers ed in the U.S...not withstanding municipalities using limits for added revenue. Back in the 80's, I was told that it cost a German roughly the equivalent of $1500 before they could drive. Germans keep to the right, and pass only on the left. When someone is coming up behind, they get their asses over to the right, and they use those funny blinking lights that are just decorations for most American vehicles. I'll differ on one minor point. I think there are plenty of U.S. highways that could easily handle similar high speeds...mostly outside urban areas.
It has cost the US 4 or 5 years of development while the rest of the world got to work on cleaner technology. In the UK we export electric vehicles to the US.
I'll agree with you that farmers aren't stupid...I spent my youth on a dairy farm. It would take all of a couple minutes to do all the calculations necessary to convert everything you would ever do...one time. How many CC's are those "daily shots"...I know they haven't been giving injections in ounces. So many measurement devices have had both systems on them for ages...yard sticks, speedometers, measuring cups, etc. We're going to convert, it's simply a matter of time, and how stubborn we are...hell, my first new car (78 Trans Am), came with a 6.6 liter engine.
Most of the US is laid out in a fairly rigid grid system. We have mile markers (and still use miles) because that's how far apart intersections are. Going to metric would be stupid, making many things complicated. Most people would have to then convert to standard units.
You've picked out one item, and given no reason why it would be a problem to change. If we switched to metric, how would it affect anything? Your navigation systems, etc. would work just fine in metric. The simple fact is that most of us Americans are too mentally lazy (or afraid it will be hard) to make the switch that would in fact help us. I learned metric back in the 60s in elementary school. I was fortunate enough to live overseas for a while, and it became second nature very quickly. L/km is not stupid...being unwilling to learn something that works on the simplicity of base 10, and would align us with the entire rest of the world is stupid.
Well those hard working people apparently weren't smart enough to sail through highschool physics/calculus, since they apparently had to work at it.
And there's little that's truely fair in the college application process these days. So much of it is up to random individuals, quotas, and how you felt on the day you took your boards.
It's a real kick in the pants, but some people are quick, clever, and sharp enough to achieve in a few minutes what it takes you hours to do. Life isn't fair, deal with it.
I deal with it every day when interview new prospects. I'd gladly take a hard worker that gets along as a team player than some wiseass wizkid.
So in some ways, generic drugs still make a lot of profit because there is virtually no risk or overhead in the process.
While the generic doesn't require the initial testing that the original did, they still do some. Overhead is usually from the cost of doing business, paying for the building, utilities, etc., so I think you're off a bit there. Certainly, they don't have the marketing costs incurred by the developing company. Obviously, the fact that generics cost much less affects their margins.
Ok, you asked when it was tried before, and I did the homework for you. I made no arguement regarding the effectivness.
I've personally travelled to over 40 countries in my life, and lived overseas for more than a dozen years. I can assure you that while there are many people who hate us, there are multitudes that would love to live here. America is still viewed as the land of opportunity in most of the world.
I'm not in any way asking for the gates to be closed, but do believe there needs to be some limits.
Protectionism (dealing with foreign origin good/services...that I'd argue are frequently state supported) and immigration/border control are two different topics.
So, it sounds like you're in favor of an amnesty. I would argue that that's completely unfair to those who took the effort to attain their citizenship legally. I spent over a year (along with a shitload of time (had to get an immigration attorney...long story), and money) doing that for my ex-wife.
Yes, and no one has ever been stopped for Driving While Black either.
I giggle every time I hear that phrase. Not that I don't believe it happens, but it's not just a black thing. When I was a WASPy 19 yr old, my parents bought me a nice shiny expensive sports car. During the following year, I was pulled over no less than seven times, never once having broken the law. Young kid, expensive car...profiled.
What limits, if any, would you put on immigration? If none, who pays for all the immigrants education, healthcare, etc.? Won't that fall upon the already overburdened system? I understand that there are plenty of people around the world that would love to come here (I sponsored one, and had to prove that I could afford it), but I don't believe that dropping all the rules is the right way to go, and would simply overwelm our system, and drag us further into resession/depression.
Broadcast "news" consumes some extraordinarily valuable spectrum, a resource fairly tightly limited by the laws of physics. We have historically suffered it to do so because of its perceived value to our democratic society. If, however, it cannot demonstrate that value, there are much better things we could be doing with that scarce and valuable spectrum...
While I'm not a fan of the current network "news", I can't believe you think there's not enough spectrum space for them, unless you want to pull the home shopping network, cartoon network, etc., all at once. What's in such dire need of bandwidth, that can't fit in?
When things go wrong, journos are quick to point out that they only report what is happening. That's the academic theory they've been taught, in any case.
If it were only true. Too bad they all seem to feel the need to put their own personal bias (left or right, they all seem to) on most stories.
We have CNN in our cafeteria at work, and it sickens me to see nothing but "entertainment news". I really don't give a shit what Paris, Lindsey, Madonna, Brad, J-Lo, and the rest of them had for breakfast.
Until one of these "news" organizations gets it, I'll be reading mine online.
Off-topic, but excellent. So, for my 15 mile commute, over 28 yrs., I've saved roughly 430 hours, or 17.94 days. (I took 5 day work weeks over 50 weeks per year to compensate for vacation). I'm going to start saving more immediately.
This is one of my favorite arguments:... When you get to university, an assumption must be made that you are responsible for your own time.
Mine too.
I know this isn't about parenting, but it does relate to responsibility, and monitoring.
I have a kid who just ended her freshman year, and it's running me about $33k/year for out of state tuition, room, board, etc.. Yes, she's legally an adult, and I trust her to a certain degree, but as a parent, I believe that I should still have the right to see some feedback on her progress. Legally, I can't get any w/o her permission, but since I hold the pursestrings, I've asked her for, and have access to her account, where I can see grades, etc. Parenting doesn't end with a high school diploma. If you're paying your own way (as I did), that's great, and you should be able to do as you see fit. If it's on someone else's dime, then they have rights as well.
You must have had a seriously full load. I have my kid's sophmore schedule in front of me, and her 15 credit hours adds up to 14.5 classroom hours (including lab) per week.
I think you're spot on regarding the reasons for not attending though.
Slashdot Mirror
Getting old, well it ensures you become inflexible and set in your ways.
Too bad you missed the lessons on life and respect. Congrats on getting 100% in a course, but that is not an indicator that you're going to do well in the workplace, or anywhere else...it's just one data point. Just remember that all us old foggies have been there and done that, and you're standing on the shoulders of giants.
I believe a lot of it has to do with Hollywood, since that's where most of us non-Americans get the largest part of our image of America.
Please, please, please...do not associate anything you see from Hollywood with reality in America. I'm 51 years old, have been to 49 states, and lived in about a dozen of them. There's nothing about "reality TV", or in the movies that comes close to reality.
Trouble is... most schools still haven't learned this lesson and every day nerds, geeks and misfits are still being bullied by jocks in particular, and the schools allows this most of the time. Usually because they might lose a star-something if they try to stop it.
While I'll agree with the first part of your comment, I'm doubtful regarding your conclusion as to the reason behind it. Schools below the college level gain nothing more than bragging rights, and trophies for having top jocks.
I think they learned something you clearly missed - That you can avoid violence through deterrence. I've used this technique to avoid conflict. If you can scare your opponent out of his will to fight then you've won. If you can talk them out of it then do it; But you need to somehow dissuade them.
Yeah, I suppose I could have rode my bike a couple miles the long way home to avoid going directly from school to home, and avoiding the neighborhood bullies that lived in the path. I might have been able to deal with one of them, but they frequently were togeather, and I got my ass whipped by them more than once. As an immature 14-15 year old, I was completely underequipped to deal with that situation, and needed help. Having no role models didn't help (only child, living with single mom parent). If my mom hadn't figured out what was happening (I never told her), I would have continued getting my ass kicked. Fortunately, she reached out and got help through my school, and the problem was solved.
You can't expect teenagers to figure out how to handle bullies by themselves. They at least need some guidance.
Excellent write up on Aikido and it's lack of usefulness for school age encounters.
I'll pile on to that and say the same for TKD, which I practiced through my second degree belt...many years ago. Great exercise, but not useful unless you manage to connect in the first couple of seconds.
What was useful to me as a kid (and I was bullied up into my sophamore year...we're talking 35 years ago ), was when my team coach heard about the problem. He sent me home with a couple of senior teammates, who asked me about the predators. I don't know what they did, but I never was bothered by them again. While they didn't mind picking on a scrawny 14 yr old, they weren't willing to stand up to the senior jocks.
For those of you recommending self-defense, I can say that it simply would not have worked in my case, as it was rarely a one-on-one situation, and at that level of maturity, I was completely unequipped to deal with it.
Maybe there are none in NE, but there are plenty of northern states with concrete highways. I'd be interested to see some stats on the difference in potholes between those with and without.
The DOE table you linked to runs from 2003-2007, as shown below. Not sure where you got the '08 number. One surprise for me at least, is that from '06 to '07, the percentage actually decreased. Looking at the chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USRenewableElectricity.jpg) that you provided, shows a continued downward swing in that percentage, which is likely due to our constantly increasing demand. One other thing that needs to be made clear is that hydroelectric currently makes up 5.74% of all the renewable energy in the U.S...and I suspect that won't be increasing since there's so much opposition to dams. So, if you take out hydro, the amount of energy that renewables are producing is much smaller.
Energy Source 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Renewable Energy 6.150 6.261 6.424 6.909 6.813
I attempted to look further into the comments about CA, but some of the references on Wikipedia didn't work. http://www.eesi.org/publications/Fact%20Sheets/EC_Fact_Sheets/Factoid20.pdf for example.
Excellent post Stewbacca! I also lived in Germany for six years, and wholeheartedly agree that the biggest impediment to increasing our speeds is the lack of decent drivers ed in the U.S...not withstanding municipalities using limits for added revenue. Back in the 80's, I was told that it cost a German roughly the equivalent of $1500 before they could drive. Germans keep to the right, and pass only on the left. When someone is coming up behind, they get their asses over to the right, and they use those funny blinking lights that are just decorations for most American vehicles. I'll differ on one minor point. I think there are plenty of U.S. highways that could easily handle similar high speeds...mostly outside urban areas.
It has cost the US 4 or 5 years of development while the rest of the world got to work on cleaner technology. In the UK we export electric vehicles to the US.
What companies do that? I tried googling, but only came across http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Electric_Vehicles That company, while owned by Tanfield Plc, has received major investment from the US govt.
I'll agree with you that farmers aren't stupid...I spent my youth on a dairy farm. It would take all of a couple minutes to do all the calculations necessary to convert everything you would ever do...one time. How many CC's are those "daily shots"...I know they haven't been giving injections in ounces. So many measurement devices have had both systems on them for ages...yard sticks, speedometers, measuring cups, etc. We're going to convert, it's simply a matter of time, and how stubborn we are...hell, my first new car (78 Trans Am), came with a 6.6 liter engine.
Most of the US is laid out in a fairly rigid grid system. We have mile markers (and still use miles) because that's how far apart intersections are. Going to metric would be stupid, making many things complicated. Most people would have to then convert to standard units.
You've picked out one item, and given no reason why it would be a problem to change. If we switched to metric, how would it affect anything? Your navigation systems, etc. would work just fine in metric. The simple fact is that most of us Americans are too mentally lazy (or afraid it will be hard) to make the switch that would in fact help us. I learned metric back in the 60s in elementary school. I was fortunate enough to live overseas for a while, and it became second nature very quickly. L/km is not stupid...being unwilling to learn something that works on the simplicity of base 10, and would align us with the entire rest of the world is stupid.
Well those hard working people apparently weren't smart enough to sail through highschool physics/calculus, since they apparently had to work at it.
And there's little that's truely fair in the college application process these days. So much of it is up to random individuals, quotas, and how you felt on the day you took your boards.
It's a real kick in the pants, but some people are quick, clever, and sharp enough to achieve in a few minutes what it takes you hours to do. Life isn't fair, deal with it.
I deal with it every day when interview new prospects. I'd gladly take a hard worker that gets along as a team player than some wiseass wizkid.
Not much different than when we were bored with a lecture and played hangman on our HP41C calculators back in the 80's.
You insensitive clod! I had to use a sliderule...seriously.
So in some ways, generic drugs still make a lot of profit because there is virtually no risk or overhead in the process.
While the generic doesn't require the initial testing that the original did, they still do some. Overhead is usually from the cost of doing business, paying for the building, utilities, etc., so I think you're off a bit there. Certainly, they don't have the marketing costs incurred by the developing company. Obviously, the fact that generics cost much less affects their margins.
Ok, you asked when it was tried before, and I did the homework for you. I made no arguement regarding the effectivness.
I've personally travelled to over 40 countries in my life, and lived overseas for more than a dozen years. I can assure you that while there are many people who hate us, there are multitudes that would love to live here. America is still viewed as the land of opportunity in most of the world.
I'm not in any way asking for the gates to be closed, but do believe there needs to be some limits.
Protectionism (dealing with foreign origin good/services...that I'd argue are frequently state supported) and immigration/border control are two different topics.
So, it sounds like you're in favor of an amnesty. I would argue that that's completely unfair to those who took the effort to attain their citizenship legally. I spent over a year (along with a shitload of time (had to get an immigration attorney...long story), and money) doing that for my ex-wife.
Yes, and no one has ever been stopped for Driving While Black either.
I giggle every time I hear that phrase. Not that I don't believe it happens, but it's not just a black thing. When I was a WASPy 19 yr old, my parents bought me a nice shiny expensive sports car. During the following year, I was pulled over no less than seven times, never once having broken the law. Young kid, expensive car...profiled.
It doesn't make any sense, you say amnesty hasn't worked, to that I say, when was amnesty ever attempted?
1986.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986
What limits, if any, would you put on immigration? If none, who pays for all the immigrants education, healthcare, etc.? Won't that fall upon the already overburdened system? I understand that there are plenty of people around the world that would love to come here (I sponsored one, and had to prove that I could afford it), but I don't believe that dropping all the rules is the right way to go, and would simply overwelm our system, and drag us further into resession/depression.
Do we just pull the plug?
Broadcast "news" consumes some extraordinarily valuable spectrum, a resource fairly tightly limited by the laws of physics. We have historically suffered it to do so because of its perceived value to our democratic society. If, however, it cannot demonstrate that value, there are much better things we could be doing with that scarce and valuable spectrum...
While I'm not a fan of the current network "news", I can't believe you think there's not enough spectrum space for them, unless you want to pull the home shopping network, cartoon network, etc., all at once. What's in such dire need of bandwidth, that can't fit in?
When things go wrong, journos are quick to point out that they only report what is happening. That's the academic theory they've been taught, in any case.
If it were only true. Too bad they all seem to feel the need to put their own personal bias (left or right, they all seem to) on most stories.
Or, maybe we could get Joey Senat, an associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University to tell us how it's supposed to work. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/1929208/RFID-Checks-Student-Attendance-in-Arizona
We already do. The only major TV news source that doesn't share a parent company with a U.S. movie studio is the Public Broadcasting Service.
Ah, maybe that explains why we have to hear about the American Idol "news".
Mod Parent/GP UP!
We have CNN in our cafeteria at work, and it sickens me to see nothing but "entertainment news". I really don't give a shit what Paris, Lindsey, Madonna, Brad, J-Lo, and the rest of them had for breakfast.
Until one of these "news" organizations gets it, I'll be reading mine online.
Off-topic, but excellent. So, for my 15 mile commute, over 28 yrs., I've saved roughly 430 hours, or 17.94 days. (I took 5 day work weeks over 50 weeks per year to compensate for vacation). I'm going to start saving more immediately.
What's in here? University of Michigan!!!
What, another Buckeye crying? Just kidding.
On a serious note, I've had several family members attend U of M. Top notch school. If you think they're misplaced, show some evidence why.
This is one of my favorite arguments: ...
When you get to university, an assumption must be made that you are responsible for your own time.
Mine too.
I know this isn't about parenting, but it does relate to responsibility, and monitoring.
I have a kid who just ended her freshman year, and it's running me about $33k/year for out of state tuition, room, board, etc.. Yes, she's legally an adult, and I trust her to a certain degree, but as a parent, I believe that I should still have the right to see some feedback on her progress. Legally, I can't get any w/o her permission, but since I hold the pursestrings, I've asked her for, and have access to her account, where I can see grades, etc. Parenting doesn't end with a high school diploma. If you're paying your own way (as I did), that's great, and you should be able to do as you see fit. If it's on someone else's dime, then they have rights as well.
Actual classroom time was usually ~30 hours/week.
You must have had a seriously full load. I have my kid's sophmore schedule in front of me, and her 15 credit hours adds up to 14.5 classroom hours (including lab) per week.
I think you're spot on regarding the reasons for not attending though.