I am German myself and I am disgusted how the German media and politicians are only blaming Greece. Some conservative papers (like welt.de) are ticking out completely and are turning to phrases that are very close to our Nazi history and are not allowing overly critical comments.

How Germans could chop down wages so quickly and without much opposition from the people and other parties?
The main reason is Hartz IV. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept
Its a reform for the unemployed people, which at first sight doesnt have much to do with wages of the working people. But it does have everything to do with it. Let me explain:
Before Hartz IV unemployed people didnt have much to fear from the state. They got their unemployment (Sozialhilfe) money every month which was enough to live without much fear of anything. It didnt mean much to be unemployed. But people found a job if they wanted to. Of course, like every country, it was exploited by a tiny minority. People were happy with it and many countries were envious of that system because it provided so much social security that people got very peaceful and crime rates were pretty much non-existent.

Hartz IV was planned to cut the massive costs of that social system. The left wing government (which turned out to be massive hypocrites), a coalition of a socialist party and a green party, claimed it would decrease unemployment rates massively and save lots of tax money and they would force those lazy useless unemployed people to get jobs. They emphasized on "the hard earning people whos tax money is stolen by lazy unemployed" and used the tiny minority of exploiters to get Hartz IV under way. Hartz IV was basically a cut for unemployed people where they would barely have enough money to live from or pay the rent from it. It also allowed the government to use many tricks to adjust the unemployment rate. They for example excluded people who were unemployed at a certain age or people who were send on useless trainings (like how you write a job application or how you use a PC), which were forced on them from the government. If they didnt attend, they would get cuts on the already not enough Hartz IV money.

They got it through the parliament (since there was no oppositon of mention thank to their "democratic" coalition) and it went all downhill from there. Unemployed people were suddenly massively discriminated, even by the politicians, because they had created so much hate against unemployed and built many stereotypes in the process, supported by stupid fake shows in the media, just to push Hartz IV through. As I said before, they only used the minority that exploited the system before in their arguments, and didnt care about the majority. That also lead to companies falling for the created stereotype and not employing people who had been using Hartz IV at one time and even going as far as them looking at older employees as inferior. They got rid of them in a massive purge, which also led to the trick of excluding old people near pension-age from the unemployment statistics. Pensions dropped because those old fired people didnt get a job anymore and had to use Hartz IV. That meant that they had to use up their savings before they get Hartz IV money (that rule is part of Hartz IV), which drained old people of their money and also caused them to get caught in an even worse trap:
After a few years of getting Hartz IV money, they dropped to the lowest pension rate, which was barely above Hartz IV. It didnt matter if they worked 40 years of their life in a well paid job. Now they were poor and would never get a pension that was appropriate to their former job. That lead to a massive shift in wealth away from the normal people (middle class and poor), to the rich people. The buying power of Germans was destroyed, and it became even worse after the socialist/conservative government (yes, a stupid coalition like that is possible here) increased the sales tax by 3% to a whopping 19%. As result of this living costs exploded and black labor skyrocketed. Cost of energy of any kind, taxes, food prices, gas, rents, every day stuff you need increased massively. The Euro was to blame too, because prices of many things (especially food) were just exchanged 1-1 to the Euro. So for example if there was cheese before that cost 1 Deutsche Mark, it would now cost 1 Euro, even though 1 Euro was worth 2 Deutsche Mark. Wages collapsed, while everything got much more pricy. Hartz IV made all that worse.
Now for the main reason how Hatz IV pushed wages down:
The fear of dropping into Hartz IV (for the reasons I mentioned) was massive. Nobody ever wanted to drop into Hartz IV because they knew then everything was over. So they accepted extremely low wage jobs, even if that meant they would get less money than they would from Hartz IV, which already was barely enough to live a crappy live from. They took 2, 3, 4 shitty paid jobs instead, and the companies loved it, because they saved a lot of money with that. The problem with that was that even well educated people had fear of Hartz IV and accepted lower wages because of it. Wages didnt rise for 20 years (and they dont rise much now either). Yet living costs, as I said, increased massively. It all came together.
Germanys economy was very low at one point, yet they still tried to tell us that the unemployment rate dropped again (even 2007/08 and every year after that). People started to learn how they manipulated us and now we are here. Companies making revenue records after revenue records, yet nothing is arriving at the people. The media claims everything is well, the statistics still lie to us that the unemployment rate is low, but its not.
And now they are trying to blame the Greeks for our problems. Just like the unemployed Germans before, and the stupid masses fall for it again.
Yet they still wonder why Germans are a dying breed (population has been dropping for years now), and dont get that having children is very expensive in Germany and only few people still have money or time for that (since both women and men have multiple jobs to be able to live) because of these developments.

God, full throttle all the way through that corner. Almost 4 years and they still don't know the racing line. Good thing traction control comes as standard on this breed.

This isn't a real stormchaser. This is an amateur thrillseeker, looking to get a youtube video posted to garner attention and feel special. Real stormchasers, 1) have partners and plans to avoid this precise experience, and 2) have actual research reasons for wanting to get close to storms.

Sooner or later, this type of idiot will win a Darwin award, and help improve the breed.

To be fair, my friends and I are extremely racist to each other in our text messages, but we are a hodge podge mix of white, black, Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Iranian, and really who cares about trying to include them all.

See, smart people gravitate towards each other regardless of race or sexual orientation because they were in honors and AP classes together, competing in academic decathlon, speech and debate, and went to the same tutoring place, hanging out not because they were cool and looked the same, but because they are intellectual gladiators; only idiots revolve their lives around a group of mammals simply because they look alike. It's truer than you think. You end up living up to other people's expectations and fail to experience the joys of your unique mind if you don't diversify your experiences. We are all prototypes for a future society anyway. White people are a conglomerate of interracial breeding. Also, it's simply genetically irresponsible NOT to mix genes with people of differing racial traits.

Why? Because all humans are niggers. It's just not common courtesy to call people niggers in public, and certainly you wouldn't call someone you don't know a nigger. Say what you will, I feel like there's an overriding logic that makes criticism of that pretty clearly crybaby bullshit. Black people have a reason to cry, and then there's white people lol; but, we are all just people so how does that not override your logic on BOTH sides of the argument? I'm above and below everything and nothing. I am the all singing, all dancing crap of the world. You might not agree but life is transitory and we'll all die and fertilize the ground.

So, in retrospect, let's continue to call friends and family niggers as we see fit, but let's not so hastily call someone we don't know a nigger; likewise, let us continue to judge ourselves as unworthy, but not judge others as such. I feel like that should make everyone do alright.

Aw shucks, I guess I'm the only Sifter to not hate Sizzler and America. And, I just ate at Sizzler's last week. Steak and all you can eat shrimp. At the very least, don't hate on the cheesy bread!!!!!

Do I get an America badge or a Sizzler badge or both? Because I deserve it.

If it wasn't for old people and meth addicts, I would not have had the pleasure of visiting this dying breed of restaurant. (At least it's dying over in socal.) And, yes, I am the reigning Duke of Sizzler on Yelp. 5 stars.

Also, I'm pretty sure every company in America had a video like this.

(Whispers: Sizzler)

That comment is a reflection on what I hear on a daily basis.
Perhaps my wordage is off, but the stuff coming at us 24-7 is created by studios, not musicians. So much of what I hear is produced by guys sitting at mixer boards and computers.
My comment isn't aimed at every person out there making music, in fact I know there are lots of musicians out there with talent and skill..., but we never get to hear them over all the crap being dealt out by the industry which is breeding Egos as musicians. (I'd choose Beck over Beyonce any day of the week.)

Sure, I know, it may seem like I'm digging a hole and jumping in but the system is broken and the good music is being squelched. Maybe not 100% of the time, but listen to the music. The electronic age is filtering everything out of the music, no more drummer, no guitar, auto tune, synthetic voice. where is all the character? Where are all the happy accidents that real music serves us. How many of today's artistes (on the charts) can serve us music without a guy mixing it to make them sound good, double tracking, and keeping their voices in tune? I know these tricks have been used for years but never to the extent they are being used today.

I remember a quote by Niel Young, way back when he was recording. The guys at the board keep telling him he wasn't hitting the note, and his answer was "Hey, that's my style man!" So they had to leave it in, and the result was great. Pure Niel Young.

So, I guess it's not so much the musicians out there, so much as it is the recording studios, and the system of pump out the next clone hit...

It was Tony James that initiated this era, back when he created Sigue Sigue Sputnik. He had a dream, a vision of what the band looked and sounded like. He hired people that looked like what he wanted, none could play music, he taught them three chords and they they became the number one, unrecorded, unsigned band in history, and EMI finally Won (relative term) by offering them the most money. From that point all the music was produces electronically in the studio. It sounded like crap, but I loved it. It was new and sounded different. And people ate it up. The studios caught on, and realized they didn't need musicians any more, they always wanted money. It made more sense to hire nobodies, they were a dime a dozon and they could be made to sound any way they wanted them too. Just like the Boy Bands and Girl Bands (Spice girls, Pussy Cat Dolls)

Okay... so I'm rambling now..., it's been a long day...
The industry feeds us synthetic garbage because it's cheep, makes money and is easily replaced by the next song/artist.

Meanwhile the real artists are doing everything they can to get recognized and struggle to make a living giving us their soul served in a song and doing everything they can to be heard over the sounds of the industry.

I used to have six baby piranha. As they got bigger, they started eating the weaker ones. Probably wasn't feeding them enough or something. I eventually ended up with a breeding pair.

Their teeth are freaky as hell. Imagine falling in that water. That's gotta be one of the shittiest ways to die. I'd imagine people disappear there all the time under "mysterious" circumstances. Better than dropping someone in a lake with lead weights.

What breed of dog is that?

I'd say they should be worried about the mercury vapour from the flouro tubes, but I don't think they'll be breeding or live long enough for it to be a problem...

Yeah, and now assholes are going to make a specific breed out of this. It'll he a thing and puppy mills will spit em out. It sure is screwed up.

If only we could shake the idea of dog breeds, non-inbred mutts like these would be more common!

Hopefully, he won't breed before he cuts his head (either one) off.

This is one extremely well made machine. I cannot even believe how extremely well this held together, even after the crash (it was practically still in one piece). I find this carbon-fiber/single piece engineering breed of helicopter fascinating. It is far better in a number of fields--and then on top of EVERYTHING to see it go through this absolutely catastrophic situation and remain in one piece (as they said, many helicopters would start breaking apart mid-air due to the absolute savagery of the forces involved and at play here; yet this thing holds together the whole time, even though it is a test design and not even an "improved" or possibly it's "final" design).

I really think that this type of design and make will eventually start to make it's way through the industry. It is just too obvious that the bonuses out-way the negatives to me--then add in the fact that while still in it's testing phase they successfully handled a "worst case" scenario breakdown for a helicopter and then crashed it, then once again showing that the helicopter was VERY good at sending all the forces across the design and holding together (showing that it did a good job during TWO events really)... I really don't know how you couldn't be a bit hyped for this type of design moving forward if you were a helicopter engineer, pilot, mechanic, and especially the manufacturers.

To me, my first thought was, this could end up being the "jeep" of helicopters...

Link to the PBS doc on the dog/human relationship and breeding domesticated foxes for the few who have not seen it.
http://videosift.com/video/Dogs-Decoded