Sign of a master is one who can play with an opponents timing and distance
When I fenced back in high school, playing with timing and distance was intermediate-level. Sure, we didn't expect freshman to have a good handle on it, but even our JV fencers were expected to fence intelligently using timing and distance manipulation as tools.
The difference between our run-of-the-mill varsity fencers and our champions was NOT stamina and explosive leg power. We all had that. What set our champions apart is that they had (1) consistently perfect or almost-perfect technique, (2) the ability to recognize and punish flaws in their opponent's technique, and (3) the ability to induce the opponent's observed flaws when desired.
Just my two cents, it's been a LONG time since I fenced competitively (saber, btw).
Do remember that he was the first (and so far only) Presidential candidate to forgo Federal matching funds for his campaign, since skipping those funds meant he didn't have to abide by the campaign finance limits.
Just to be clear, he's the only candidate who declined the funds for the general election. McCain also declined them for the Republican primary.
It doesn't really matter, though -- the offical spending by the campaigns is sure to be eclipsed by PACs who don't need to disclose their donors. It's the anonymity that pisses me off the most about the CU decision.
I don't think "Give me your tired, your poor..." was ever said out of the goodness of the nation's collective heart. It was said at a time where we had factories that needed workers.
Good point.
Now we have workers that need factories.
True. So let's bring in people who will eventually contribute to the consumer demand that will make building more factories (or service industry places of employment) here profitable.
Furthermore, don't make it short-term. If we limit them to a short period of time here, they will send all their money to their home country, and then go back. Instead, make a work visa here conditional on applying for citizenship. Sure, they may send a lot of cash back to their country of origin... but their kids probably won't.
all of Christainity worship the same savior and are supposed to follow the same rules.
That's not completely true. While they all have their roots in the same book, the actual religions can be very different.
Roman Catholics, for example, include the worship of demigods (they call them Saints) and obeisance to the Church hierarchy, as well as the rite of confession. Some Protestant religions base their religion on personal understanding of the New and Old Testaments, and the Good Book is the only set of rules to live by. Some Protestant religions include the rite of confession, some don't. Some have clergy, some don't.
To say that all Christian religions are the same except for trappings would be the same as saying that all Abrahamic faiths are the same except for trappings. I mean, sure, Christians have a set of extra books to follow (compared to Jews),and Muslims have another book on top of that. But really, it's the same God they worship, so they're all the same religion, right?
Most everyone else managed to express the central point clearly; the claim that AGW sceptics are comparatively ignorant is false.
But that's not the central point, not at all. That's what some sloppy writers (Janet Raloff @ Science News, in particular) chose to accentuate, but it's a side point at best. The central point is that AGW theory skepticism is a cultural product that intensifies with scientific education -- moreso than AGW theory adherence does (although it also intensifies with scientific education).
The US pollutes a lot, but we've offshored so much of our production that the vast amounts of pollutants are not coming from us anymore
Wait, what? That's simply not true. We are the #2 producer of CO2 in the world. We produce more than twice as much CO2 as the #2 country.
And what's more, it's US demand for goods produced in China that drives a lot of their CO2 production (China is the #1 CO2 producer). If you wiped the US off the face of the Earth, that demand would evaporate, just like a good portion of China's emissions.
How crazy do you have to be to file DMCA take-down notices with the website providers over your blog photo as your FIRST option?
You don't have to be crazy at all. That's what the DMCA allows for, so you don't have to get bogged down in a bunch of back-and-forth with multiple infringers. That's the very intent of the take-down notice portion of the DMCA.
If you don't want your site pulled down due to a DMCA notice, then don't use other people's content without permission. It's that simple.
Sorry Wiseguy, but my state (Texas) is a net exporter of taxes.
I guessed as much... we might have discussed it previously.
And don't look too close, but you have a lot of folks aligned wit the Tea Party in New Jersey.
I know. I've been to Tea Party events in NJ. There was potential in the beginning, but by early last year it was clear that religious conservatives, even in NJ, were getting too powerful in the Tea Party. One meeting I went to in Hunterdon County opened with a prayer, and the entire focus of the meeting was abortion, one guest speaker being an official at a local church.
As I said, legitimate use of Tax dollars is ok.
The problem is that people have differing views of what is legitimate. And I think the Tea Party, while comprised mostly of people who are well-intentioned, misses the mark. We'll never agree on that, I guess.
Taking care of lazy mother fuckers is not.
This statement of yours illustrates what I think to be a big problem in the Tea Party -- blaming lack of success on laziness. Sure, it plays a defining role, but success, despite hard work, is often not possible for those who start out poor. We are no longer the land of opportunity, and in my opinion, it is some of the very policies espoused by the Tea Party that make it so.
The Tea Party has been captured by the religious right and by the extremely wealthy. It's sad.
1. The government takes too much of OUR money.
2. It spends it on stupid stuff and stupid people.
That's what I would say about the transfer of wealth from my state to red states. That's what I would say about the transfer of wealth, via taxation and spending, from my state to states where the Tea Party is strongest.
Except I believe it is just, moral, and required for the wealthy to subsidize the poor, and the government is the most efficient way to make it so.
Taxes to support your community...Police, Fire and other essential services are not theft.
Taxes to pay off crooked bankers, cronies of local politicians, corrupt unions, etc. are theft.
So you're not really talking about taxes, you're talking about spending -- it's the use of the funds that determines whether or not the acquisition of them is theft.
Here's the thing, though -- that's not a distinction made by those in the Tea Party that I'm acquainted with. That's not a distinction I see made on signs I've seen at Tea Party rallies.
I've got a few more spending categories that the Tea Party seems to agree with, but I personally would put in the "theft" column: taxes to enrich defense contractors; taxes to enforce drug laws and incarcerate huge numbers of nonviolent offenders; taxes to give subsidies to established industries, like industrial agriculture.
What are the criteria by which the Tea Party determines what spending items represent a theft from taxpayers?
I've yet to have any Tea Party member enumerate a set of criteria that is not contradicted by Tea Party positions on specific issues... can you do so?
Since "baby planet" is not a proper IAU category, I think this means either A) it's a dwarf planet, like Pluto or Ceres, or B) the question is still open, but we've learned something new about its origin--a completely separate matter.
It's not a baby planet, it's not a dwarf planet. It's a proto-planet stuck in proto- state due to Jupiter.
I like to think of it as an aborted planet.
Obviously we need to outlaw Jupiter to prevent further proto-planet abortions.. Furthermore, we need full funding of a federal agency to ensure Jupiter isn't available to all wanton sinners who would otherwise bring a planet to full term.
Well, folks, seems to me like we finally figured out how to ensure NASA's budget isn't axed.
Well, first, he probably didn't look very hard. There are plenty of people who will do things like that, the best way to find them in my experience is to call you local junkyards -- if they don't have someone, they'll know someone who'd be willing to do it.
The other issue is that our labor costs are very high. This is what really drives the throw-it-away culture here. We buy things that are made with cheap overseas labor... which is why repairing them using costly local labor is not price-competitive, usually.
He loses the election without women, so he make sure that the right wingers end up on the wrong side of every women's issue.
He doesn't need to do that... they're doing that all by themselves.
Obama and his team are very competent at political wrangling... but you can't lay the missteps of the Republicans at his feet. They screw up enough all by themselves, by needing to appeal to their ever-more-rabid base.
And 8% isn't a high interest rate, other than relative to recent obscenely low rates.
I get what you're saying, I think you're looking at it a little wrong, though.
You shouldn't be comparing the interest rate to historic interest rates... you should be comparing it to the rate of return on investments in the same time period. 8% is a high interest rate because it represents a huge premium over what the lender would be forced to offer on the open market. Yes, we need to allow the lenders to cover their costs; yes, we need to allow them to make a profit on their capital. However, such a huge premium would normally only be seen when it is due to risk -- when actuarial studies show that a high portion of the borrowers would default.
Here's the catch: these loans are guaranteed. So there should be NO risk premium on the interest rate.
Allowing rates that high on a guaranteed loan is just a cash handover to the lending companies.
Why are the sums of money "vast"? College tuition and fee rates have gone up much faster than the rate of inflation. Why do you think that is? Other things have increased at this rate as well. Health care, for example has also increased at this rate. What do these things have in common? Well, one this is that someone else is paying for them. See, with health care, insurance companies and government will pay a set minimum for procedures. When there is a minimum that payers will pay, what do you think the minimum price will be? The laws of supply and demand no longer applies.
That's simply not the case. Medical insurance is a special case, but for education (just like housing), government aid has shifted the demand curve, but supply and demand still apply. Besides which, you imply causation where it is not proven. It could just as easily be true that the rising prices of education and medical care (as well as housing) has led to increased usage of credit and increased pressure on government for assistance in paying for things whose price has outstripped wage inflation.
When I went to school in the early 90's, my tuition at a state funded college was about $500 a semester. Books cost me another $200 or so.
Anecdotal, and not applicable to most students, even in the early 90s. contra-anecdote: My state university charged $3400 per semester for in-state tuition in 1994, exclusive of lab fees, books, mandatory student fees, etc. Minimum, assuming zero cost of living (mooching off parents or something), you're talking $8000 per year. Working summers and part time during school wasn't enough to afford college without government assistance.
It used to be that parents saved for their kids education, just like they put back for routine medical expenses, mortgages, etc.
It's funny you mention those specific items.
The costs of education, medical expenses, and housing have increased far faster than earning power. THAT's why most people can no longer afford to do so, not because of some misguided priorities.
Just the rising costs of housing have evaporated most families' ability to save for eduction, medical expenses, etc.
Sure, you can make the argument that easily-available credit has driven some of the demand, and thus bears some responsibility for the price of these things... but the trend of prices outpacing inflation in medical care, housing, and education started before the credit boom of the 80s. You can just as easily say the rise in personal credit is a response to prices going up faster than inflation... it's hard to sort out cause-and-effect.
Regardless, the situation your parents were in several decades ago is nothing like the situation parents like myself are in.
What about those of us that are nowhere near a Costco?
Walgreen's offers the same service as Costco, as do a few other chains. Here is the link for the Sam's Club service: Sam's Club photo prints; all Sam's Clubs do photos.
Unless you want to drop a few thousand (at least) dollars on equipment, you're not going to get the quality or durability of commercial prints.
But the NJ MV inspection stations are ridiculously better run than they used to be when they were run by the state.
I think the state could have made the same improvements, but lacked the agility to do so (cutting jobs state jobs was a political no-no; doing it via privatization was palatable in the 90s).
You are comparing relatively small systems to something so vastly different in size, that you NEED to think in ways other than linear.
Who said anything about linear?
So if that is faith, then you are practicing just as much, if not more than, I am.
No. You openly state that you will disregard any data that conflicts with your beliefs. That alone denotes the size of the gap between my beliefs and your faith.
Given that most major industrialized countries (excluding China and some others) have cut WAY back on what pollutants were being output even 20 years ago
That is a false "fact". Output of greenhouse gases has increased in almost every country in the world over the past 20 years, even with the reduction in emissions due to the current economic situation.
Enjoy your cool spring weather... but please remember your extremely warm winter (not that either of them are more than statistical noise wrt Anthropogenic Climate Change at this point).
Slashdot Mirror
If they are ordinary dead people, why do Catholics pray to them for divine intervention?
When I fenced back in high school, playing with timing and distance was intermediate-level. Sure, we didn't expect freshman to have a good handle on it, but even our JV fencers were expected to fence intelligently using timing and distance manipulation as tools.
The difference between our run-of-the-mill varsity fencers and our champions was NOT stamina and explosive leg power. We all had that. What set our champions apart is that they had (1) consistently perfect or almost-perfect technique, (2) the ability to recognize and punish flaws in their opponent's technique, and (3) the ability to induce the opponent's observed flaws when desired.
Just my two cents, it's been a LONG time since I fenced competitively (saber, btw).
Just to be clear, he's the only candidate who declined the funds for the general election. McCain also declined them for the Republican primary.
It doesn't really matter, though -- the offical spending by the campaigns is sure to be eclipsed by PACs who don't need to disclose their donors. It's the anonymity that pisses me off the most about the CU decision.
Good point.
True. So let's bring in people who will eventually contribute to the consumer demand that will make building more factories (or service industry places of employment) here profitable.
Furthermore, don't make it short-term. If we limit them to a short period of time here, they will send all their money to their home country, and then go back. Instead, make a work visa here conditional on applying for citizenship. Sure, they may send a lot of cash back to their country of origin... but their kids probably won't.
I was born a Roman Catholic. I am married to one.
Roman Catholics pray to their Saints for divine favors. They have special days of services and rituals for specific Saints.
I don't know what to call that other than worship.
That's not completely true. While they all have their roots in the same book, the actual religions can be very different.
Roman Catholics, for example, include the worship of demigods (they call them Saints) and obeisance to the Church hierarchy, as well as the rite of confession. Some Protestant religions base their religion on personal understanding of the New and Old Testaments, and the Good Book is the only set of rules to live by. Some Protestant religions include the rite of confession, some don't. Some have clergy, some don't.
To say that all Christian religions are the same except for trappings would be the same as saying that all Abrahamic faiths are the same except for trappings. I mean, sure, Christians have a set of extra books to follow (compared to Jews),and Muslims have another book on top of that. But really, it's the same God they worship, so they're all the same religion, right?
But that's not the central point, not at all. That's what some sloppy writers (Janet Raloff @ Science News, in particular) chose to accentuate, but it's a side point at best. The central point is that AGW theory skepticism is a cultural product that intensifies with scientific education -- moreso than AGW theory adherence does (although it also intensifies with scientific education).
s/b "...as much CO2 as the #3 country"
Wait, what? That's simply not true. We are the #2 producer of CO2 in the world. We produce more than twice as much CO2 as the #2 country.
And what's more, it's US demand for goods produced in China that drives a lot of their CO2 production (China is the #1 CO2 producer). If you wiped the US off the face of the Earth, that demand would evaporate, just like a good portion of China's emissions.
You don't have to be crazy at all. That's what the DMCA allows for, so you don't have to get bogged down in a bunch of back-and-forth with multiple infringers. That's the very intent of the take-down notice portion of the DMCA.
If you don't want your site pulled down due to a DMCA notice, then don't use other people's content without permission. It's that simple.
But they have no right to an answer to any of their questions.
And they have no right to withhold the form or arrest someone for not answering their questions.
I guessed as much... we might have discussed it previously.
I know. I've been to Tea Party events in NJ. There was potential in the beginning, but by early last year it was clear that religious conservatives, even in NJ, were getting too powerful in the Tea Party. One meeting I went to in Hunterdon County opened with a prayer, and the entire focus of the meeting was abortion, one guest speaker being an official at a local church.
The problem is that people have differing views of what is legitimate. And I think the Tea Party, while comprised mostly of people who are well-intentioned, misses the mark. We'll never agree on that, I guess.
This statement of yours illustrates what I think to be a big problem in the Tea Party -- blaming lack of success on laziness. Sure, it plays a defining role, but success, despite hard work, is often not possible for those who start out poor. We are no longer the land of opportunity, and in my opinion, it is some of the very policies espoused by the Tea Party that make it so.
The Tea Party has been captured by the religious right and by the extremely wealthy. It's sad.
That's what I would say about the transfer of wealth from my state to red states. That's what I would say about the transfer of wealth, via taxation and spending, from my state to states where the Tea Party is strongest.
Except I believe it is just, moral, and required for the wealthy to subsidize the poor, and the government is the most efficient way to make it so.
So you're not really talking about taxes, you're talking about spending -- it's the use of the funds that determines whether or not the acquisition of them is theft.
Here's the thing, though -- that's not a distinction made by those in the Tea Party that I'm acquainted with. That's not a distinction I see made on signs I've seen at Tea Party rallies.
I've got a few more spending categories that the Tea Party seems to agree with, but I personally would put in the "theft" column: taxes to enrich defense contractors; taxes to enforce drug laws and incarcerate huge numbers of nonviolent offenders; taxes to give subsidies to established industries, like industrial agriculture.
What are the criteria by which the Tea Party determines what spending items represent a theft from taxpayers?
I've yet to have any Tea Party member enumerate a set of criteria that is not contradicted by Tea Party positions on specific issues... can you do so?
It's not a baby planet, it's not a dwarf planet. It's a proto-planet stuck in proto- state due to Jupiter.
I like to think of it as an aborted planet.
Obviously we need to outlaw Jupiter to prevent further proto-planet abortions.. Furthermore, we need full funding of a federal agency to ensure Jupiter isn't available to all wanton sinners who would otherwise bring a planet to full term.
Well, folks, seems to me like we finally figured out how to ensure NASA's budget isn't axed.
Well, first, he probably didn't look very hard. There are plenty of people who will do things like that, the best way to find them in my experience is to call you local junkyards -- if they don't have someone, they'll know someone who'd be willing to do it.
The other issue is that our labor costs are very high. This is what really drives the throw-it-away culture here. We buy things that are made with cheap overseas labor... which is why repairing them using costly local labor is not price-competitive, usually.
Then you're clearly not aware of what is going on in DC wrt the student loan issue.
He doesn't need to do that... they're doing that all by themselves.
Obama and his team are very competent at political wrangling... but you can't lay the missteps of the Republicans at his feet. They screw up enough all by themselves, by needing to appeal to their ever-more-rabid base.
Shocker... some people actually own apartments!! In the US!! They pay cash, or they finance it through a mortgage.
Sometimes I wonder just how sheltered you are, and how much that sheltered life factors into your belief system.
I get what you're saying, I think you're looking at it a little wrong, though.
You shouldn't be comparing the interest rate to historic interest rates... you should be comparing it to the rate of return on investments in the same time period. 8% is a high interest rate because it represents a huge premium over what the lender would be forced to offer on the open market. Yes, we need to allow the lenders to cover their costs; yes, we need to allow them to make a profit on their capital. However, such a huge premium would normally only be seen when it is due to risk -- when actuarial studies show that a high portion of the borrowers would default.
Here's the catch: these loans are guaranteed. So there should be NO risk premium on the interest rate.
Allowing rates that high on a guaranteed loan is just a cash handover to the lending companies.
That's simply not the case. Medical insurance is a special case, but for education (just like housing), government aid has shifted the demand curve, but supply and demand still apply. Besides which, you imply causation where it is not proven. It could just as easily be true that the rising prices of education and medical care (as well as housing) has led to increased usage of credit and increased pressure on government for assistance in paying for things whose price has outstripped wage inflation.
Anecdotal, and not applicable to most students, even in the early 90s. contra-anecdote: My state university charged $3400 per semester for in-state tuition in 1994, exclusive of lab fees, books, mandatory student fees, etc. Minimum, assuming zero cost of living (mooching off parents or something), you're talking $8000 per year. Working summers and part time during school wasn't enough to afford college without government assistance.
It's funny you mention those specific items.
The costs of education, medical expenses, and housing have increased far faster than earning power. THAT's why most people can no longer afford to do so, not because of some misguided priorities.
Just the rising costs of housing have evaporated most families' ability to save for eduction, medical expenses, etc.
Sure, you can make the argument that easily-available credit has driven some of the demand, and thus bears some responsibility for the price of these things... but the trend of prices outpacing inflation in medical care, housing, and education started before the credit boom of the 80s. You can just as easily say the rise in personal credit is a response to prices going up faster than inflation... it's hard to sort out cause-and-effect.
Regardless, the situation your parents were in several decades ago is nothing like the situation parents like myself are in.
Walgreen's offers the same service as Costco, as do a few other chains. Here is the link for the Sam's Club service: Sam's Club photo prints; all Sam's Clubs do photos.
Unless you want to drop a few thousand (at least) dollars on equipment, you're not going to get the quality or durability of commercial prints.
The NJ Motor Vehicle Inspections.
I'm against privatization on a lot of things.
But the NJ MV inspection stations are ridiculously better run than they used to be when they were run by the state.
I think the state could have made the same improvements, but lacked the agility to do so (cutting jobs state jobs was a political no-no; doing it via privatization was palatable in the 90s).
Who said anything about linear?
No. You openly state that you will disregard any data that conflicts with your beliefs. That alone denotes the size of the gap between my beliefs and your faith.
That is a false "fact". Output of greenhouse gases has increased in almost every country in the world over the past 20 years, even with the reduction in emissions due to the current economic situation.
Enjoy your cool spring weather... but please remember your extremely warm winter (not that either of them are more than statistical noise wrt Anthropogenic Climate Change at this point).