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Diego Mamani
Participant[quote=desmond]Diego,
You are a complete stranger and you took more time writing than my friend did. Oh well I know sometimes I put more emotional effort into things than I should, but, hey I am learning.[/quote]
LOL! Just the day before I had read some web comments on gifts’ etiquette, so I just copied and pasted. Some people feel offended if they don’t get a thank you card, others will hate the card because of the dead trees… you can’t please everybody. You are OK with a phone call, but others will see a call as a cheap/lazy substitute for a proper thank you note, etc.Participant[quote=CA renter]We were blown away by the price of tires, too. Four tires for our minivan cost $723.72 after all was said and done. For a freaking minivan! :([/quote]
Oops, I forgot to add… the $360 included taxes and shipping, but I still had to pay another $50 or so for mounting and disposal of old tires. The good news was a Hankook rebate of $40 or so, so my net cost wasn’t too bad. I know, Hankook is no Michelin though.ParticipantI wonder whether your friend posted a similar OT message last year at some blog he usually reads:
Give a B-Day Present and get back a phone call?
Submitted by friend
“I have a long time friend, let’s call him Desmond who is close to me so I felt like sending him a gift on his birthday. I was expecting a thank you card, but all I got was a quick phone call. I feel like Charlie Brown…”He probably got a reply like this:
“You give not expecting to receive, so you shouldn’t expect a thank you card or note. It is more work for already busy people and they end in the trash killing millions of trees. I strongly suggest you save the environment and send email instead.”
ParticipantThat’s a great solution FLU. For me it’s very important that all 4 tires be identical and have the same wear, which should be true of the ones you’re buying.
My last purchase was from DiscountTireDirect.com ($360.00 all-inclusive for a set of 4 Hankook Optimo H727 P215/65R-16), and the prior two from Tirerack.com. You can read users reviews, sometimes 100s of people write reviews, so it works like Amazon.com…
You got a sweet deal (wheels and tires) for $450. What’s the mileage?
ParticipantKinda far from here…
May 17, 2012 at 10:57 AM in reply to: WSJ article – first time in U.S. history white newborns less than 50% of total #743963Participant[quote=ctr70]Ethnic make up of U.S. is on the move big time.[/quote]
Yes, big time again. There was a lot of concern about the influx of eastern and southern Europeans at the beginning of the 20th century. Some pseudo-scientists even conducted “studies” measuring cranial circumference, etc., among immigrant children, and found some statistically significant differences compared with the US-born “white” children (BTW back then, Italians, Polish, etc. were not called “white”). Of course, it was later found that such differences disappeared over time (they were probably due to malnutrition in their countries of origin).Three remarks:
1. It amazes me how we still speak of “races” and white, black, etc., as if those concepts had any scientific validity. They don’t.2. Just yesterday a gal at work was telling us how she graduated from a large “all white” high school in a medium/large Midwestern city in the 70s. They were not segregated by color, it was just that no non-white families lived in all the surrounding zip codes. That would be highly unusual today.
3. Newsweek or Time had a recent photo of an Apple store inside NYC’s Grand Central train station. Of the dozens of people pictured there (clients, store clerks, and looky-loos), absolutely all were Hispanic, Asian, or Black. So what? It’s just different levels of melanin in the skin, which is hereditary, just like big noses or baldness.
Participant[quote=jstoesz]again, on a school by school basis, but I am very much in favor of segregated (by sex obvipusly) classes. Especially in jr high and high school, that and uniforms.[/quote]
I read that, on average, boys do better in co-ed schools, while girls do better in all-girls schools. But I’m not sure how strong the evidence is.ParticipantI went to a Catholic school in South America where class size was 40-42, both boys and girls, discipline was tight, and academic standards and quality of teaching were very high. Class size is only one of many, many factors affecting quality of education. And I think it’s far from being the most important one.
ParticipantI had Lasik done in Feb 2001. The results have been below optimal, but overall, I’m glad I had the procedure done.
1. Background: I had myopia (shortsightedness), 5+ diopters in each eye, and I’ve always had one dominant eye.
2. I decided to have Lasik done on my non-dominant eye first, as a test. Since I don’t use both eyes at the same time (something unusual, I know), I wouldn’t get headaches from having only one eye corrected.
3. I had the surgery done by the head of the ophtalmology dept at UC Irvine; a guy in his 50s and a big shot in his field.
4. Post op: I couldn’t see my computer screen very well. I panicked! When I see black letters on a white background, the white appears too bright, and the black not black enough.
5. My distance eyesight is great! I can drive without glasses, I can walk around, etc. BUT, when I work with a computer, I use glasses, so that my dominant (non operated) eye does the work. When driving or walking, the operated eye works. No problems so far (11 years).
6. The doc offered to do a touch-up procedure back then, but I declined. The less you mess with your cornea, the better, IMO.
7. To sum up, I use glasses for computer work, but otherwise I don’t need them. I’m happy with the procedure b/c I’m free of glasses and contacts. It’s been 11 years, and I haven’t noticed any deterioration in my eyesight.
YMMV
May 11, 2012 at 1:25 PM in reply to: OT: So much for paying their fair share of taxes…. Facebook co-founder gives up U.S. citizenship… #743600Participant[quote=briansd1]Americans are so neurotic about their identity that then can’t fathom anyone not wanting to be American.[/quote] The issue is not about Eduardo not wanting to be an American. The issue here is not wanting to pay taxes on worldwide income. But I would have done the exact same thing in his place.
May 11, 2012 at 12:50 PM in reply to: OT: So much for paying their fair share of taxes…. Facebook co-founder gives up U.S. citizenship… #743590ParticipantThe title may lead many to believe the article is about Zuckerberg, who is “the” founder that comes to mind, and who is also US born.
Saverin is Brazilian, so he’s just giving back his US citizenship, which many people apply for mostly for convenience. It would be a real scandal if he were US born.
Participant[quote=treehugger]Also no home warrenty [sic] from bank owned. I kinda hinted to realtor that he was making both sides of the deal and he should kick in for the waranty (less than $400) he didn’t seem to want to. So we want the house and are proceeding, but don’t think I would ever recommend this realtor to anyone else.[/quote]Wait, you are buying an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars but you make an issue of less than $400? I guess that realtor won’t be recommending you to his colleagues either!
Participant[quote=harvey]Thanks for the clarification. I’ll be sure to avoid the authoritarian regimes of Sweden and Norway on my next trip to Europe.
So was Germany an authoritarian regime all the way up till the year 2002? Interesting, I thought they got rid of the authoritarian stuff back in 1945…[/quote]
Not so fast buddy! I never said that all countries that prohibit this business are authoritarian. In fact this is my text that you called “ridiculous”:
[quote=Diego Mamani]What this graph shows is that other than the US, South Africa, and some Scandinavian countries, this business is outlawed wherever there are authoritarian regimes.[/quote]
So, clearly, if the meaning of “other than” is understood, I was never referring to Sweden or Norway as authoritarian. (These countries are interesting in that they don’t criminalize prostitutes, but johns instead, which is a superior approach in my opinion.)
If you read my text carefully, you’ll see that my argument was that authoritarian regimes almost always prohibit this business. But somehow you interpreted that to mean that “only authoritarian regimes make prostitution illegal,” which is obviously nonsense.
Participant[quote=harvey]BTW, the “authoritarian regimes” conclusion is ridiculous.[/quote]
It’s not a conclusion because it’s a mere restatement of factual evidence, and hence can’t be ridiculous.Let’s see-
Countries where it’s legal: France, Brazil, UK, India, Canada, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and their peers
Countries where it’s illegal: Saudi Arabia, China, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Russia, and their peersSo, what list has more authoritarian regimes? Or better put, what list doesn’t have any authoritarian regimes? It looks to me like the US would do better shifting to the first list of countries.
[quote=harvey]Anyway, I’m not arguing that prostitution should not be legal, I’m just pointing out that it is not “just another business” and there is really bad stuff that simply cannot be disassociated with it.[/quote]
We largely agree then. The same could be said of cars… it’s no just another business b/c people can easily be killed. Cars are legal, but it’s not a free-for-all, do-what-you-want system. Cars are manufactured according to strict standards set by the gov’t, drivers need to be licensed, rules of the road are heavily enforced, etc. Cars could kill people if poorly manufactured or clumsily driven, or they could be used to commit serious crimes. But still, we choose to keep cars legal, although with heavy regulation.The same could be done with prostitution.
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