As soon as I figure out how this whole PayPal thing works (I have never done it before ) I'll send 10 Euro from Germany your way. I'm excited how much that'll be in USD.
I'm a MPE student and I'm currently writing my tests - I absolutly NEED VS to get me through the day and keep me from learning!!!

This site really rocks - it'll be the first time I donate anything.

I pay 105.798 USD for a 2MB connection in Kuwait. That's actually cheap compared to the 250 USD I used to pay.

Right now it's all fucked up because they did a huge promotional event and signed on a billion more users without expanding their available bandwidth, so I can't play MMOs and I can't download my filthy Cambodian por... artsy foreign films ignored by the Oscars.

>> ^Farhad2000:
It is a brilliant and ridiculously expensive camera.


Yes the D5 is a bit steep at 3200 USD. The Nikon D90 that I use is far more reasonable at 900 for the body only or 1200 for the "kit" with a good starter lens.

Haven't people heard of cleats....

http://www.vtarmynavy.com/stabilicers-lite.htm

$19 USD

Not that the lack of them doesn't provide a good show but it could have saved that poor bastard about 10 mins.

Worse comes to worse, he would have got further crawling..

You went to USD? That's awesomeness.

Oh and your beard is sexy...nice connectors

In reply to this comment by dag:
We probably were. I went to University of San Diego - the big blue dome on the hill. I lived on Mission Beach though with roommates. Rubios was almost every weekend - unless it was three rolled tacos with guac down at the beach. - Or I knew this place that made the BEST carnitas burrito.

Oh man, I'm so hungry now - but not for what's in the fridge.

>> ^chilaxe:
Waiting in line to buy lunch is a bit much. His time is still worth maybe ~1 million USD a year in terms of the productivity he brings to the economy, even if he declines the paycheck.



Nah. He's one man who could be replaced by another, and he knows it. There are no "super geniuses" running our corporations. They're mostly über-greedy MBA's, silver-spooners or worse, who think they "deserve" all the riches they can get their greedy mitts on.

I want to send this video to Waxman. They should play it in their meetings with all these fucked CEO's who've basically destroyed our productivity.

>> ^chilaxe:
Waiting in line to buy lunch is a bit much. His time is still worth maybe ~1 million USD a year in terms of the productivity he brings to the economy, even if he declines the paycheck.

Obviously he disagrees. His behavior says that he knows he's no more valuable than his other employees, that without them his company couldn't function, but without him, it'd probably get on just fine. And that is something that US CEO's refuse to accept.

>> ^NordlichReiter:
Good leaders lead from the front, and bleed with their troops. Only natural that they should also eat with them. Not this officer enlisted men split that the US has.
Historical Anecdote:
The reason they split officers from Enlisted men is that the officers do not grow attached to those men, because they may have to order them to their deaths.

Some might say that that detachment allows command to make poor decisions about the lives of their men. I mean who would want to start wars and invade nations if they actually valued the lives of the people they were condemning to death.

Good leaders lead from the front, and bleed with their troops. Only natural that they should also eat with them. Not this officer enlisted men split that the US has.

Historical Anecdote:
The reason they split officers from Enlisted men is that the officers do not grow attached to those men, because they may have to order them to their deaths.

>> ^chilaxe:
Waiting in line to buy lunch is a bit much. His time is still worth maybe ~1 million USD a year in terms of the productivity he brings to the economy, even if he declines the paycheck.

Waiting in line to buy lunch is a bit much. His time is still worth maybe ~1 million USD a year in terms of the productivity he brings to the economy, even if he declines the paycheck.

things aren't always what they seem... and while i'm all for a *good* national healthcare system in the us, i think this piece is deliberately trying to compare disparate aspects of us and non-us healthcare systems... to prove a preconceived point (that mccain is *completely* wrong)

for example, i'm an american who has lived in taiwan for over 10 years now -- i am covered by taiwan's national healthcare system here (through employment and taxation), and i must say that it sucks

when this piece interviews a taiwanese doctor and asks how many taiwanese suffer medical bankruptcy in a year, to which the doctor answers, 'none' i believe that the point is completely misleading...

taiwanese don't go bankrupt over medical bills because if they can't afford the secondary care or an expensive life-saving procedure... well, they die -- the attitude here is different, and sadly, many asian countries put a much lower value on life -- heart bypass, organ transplant, chemo, etc, are *not* covered by the national healthcare system -- non-affluent taiwanese just get the word from the doctor on how much such procedures will cost them, nod, and never return... literally

national healthcare visits are provided by swiping your medical id card at any doctor's office or hospital and paying the minimum nt$150 fee (about usd$5) plus any overage on the alloted prescription value per visit -- waiting times aren't much more than a few hours, but the concept of bedside manner is missing completely - a doctor will spend an average of 5-10 minutes per patient, and i've even had them never look up at me from their note-taking (just tell me the symptoms, quickly)

it gets worse, doctors and hospitals are reimbursed through the goverment plan *per card swipe* ... so in virtually every case the healthcare provider will only do so much before telling you to return the next day for another swipe, err examination (you can only swipe once per day), even if this means leaving you in pain or allowing your condition to worsen -- imho, this has to be in contravention of the hippocratic oath (do no harm... even if through inaction)

so why not just return every day for a new swipe and follow-up visit? well, people have to work, and it's extremely unlikely that a person will take a week's worth of half-days just to get something fully checked out (in the work-ethic environment here, it would be tantamount to resigning from your job)

a recent dental checkup of mine went like this...

*swipe*
-wait 1.5 hours
-sit in the chair
-dentist uses a vibrating water-pick to knock some tartar off the back of my teeth
-rinse
-i ask for a flouride treatment (standard in the us) and am told to return the next day
(all of this in less than 10 minutes)
-i return the following day and swipe again to get the flouride, and am told by the dentist that he thinks i may have a cavity
-i'm told to return for another swipe the next day for an x-ray and treatment of the cavity
-i can't ask for another half-day from my employer, so i wait till the weekend and return for the remainder of the treatment
*postscript - the filling fell out while eating sushi two weeks later

for these reasons, most taiwanese with a bit of money buy *private* health insurance plans so that they have a *second* swipecard to whip out and save themselves some hassle and/or a more serious problem due to the mindboggling indifference and inconvenience

keep in mind that my personal experience happened in the capital city, taipei, where many doctors are western-trained and speak english -- i can only shudder to think what healthcare is like in the more rural parts of the island

so again, think twice before accepting any of the glib avowals/disavowals of these international healthcare professionals - imho, it's often a case of comparing one's *good* apple to america's *poor* orange

JD:
Yen -> USD is easy keeping in mind they don't have any cents, and convert straight to US cents.

i.e.: 18900 Yen = 18900 cents = 189.00

Just imagine the decimal before the last 2 zeros.
It's roughly that in the exchange market (yesterday: 0.01050)

In reply to this comment by joedirt:
How much is 18,900 yen?

^dgandhi
Property = third party coercion. Q.E.D.


How can a statement be simultaneously an assertion and a proof? Coercion is a verb (a conscious action), property is a noun (a thing). How can a verb = a noun?

>> ^imstellar28:the only difference between a market and a free market is that coercion from third-parties is illegal.

Property = third party coercion. Q.E.D.

>> ^dgandhibut can you guys help me create a list of specific problems you have?
"real" free markets depend on pre-existant non-opt-outable contracts, such as stipulations about currency, and fraud. A completely free market would not have currency, property(physical or intellectual),or contract, as these are all arbitrary constraints on market activity.

^the printing of money, and contractual enforcement are roles of the government.

a market is trade between two people. thats it. nothing else. the only difference between a market and a free market is that coercion from third-parties is illegal.

you are having problems with the free market because you are trying to mix political and economic systems. if two people are trading, how are is their trade impeded or forced by a third party (the government) printing money? if two people enter a contract, and one person violates the terms that is fraud. as I said, fraud is illegal, and it is the role of the government to enforce laws.

>> ^imstellar28:but can you guys help me create a list of specific problems you have?

"real" free markets depend on pre-existant non-opt-outable contracts, such as stipulations about currency, and fraud. A completely free market would not have currency, property(physical or intellectual),or contract, as these are all arbitrary constraints on market activity.

The "Free for me" sort of libertarian economy, to the point that anything like it has existed, has always historically expanded to wider regulation, because it is at its core based on arbitrary social contract which the powerful in the market attempt to, and due to lack of constraints do, modify according to their interests.

It's cheaper/easier to modify the social contract then to build a better product. The less regulation you have, the more true that is.