Dear Random Facebook Users,
I hate you.
Why? You think university/college tuition is slavery.
You have the audacity to compare being kidnapped, being stripped of all rights, and then forced to work against your will for some slaver owner to freely entering into a contractual agreement to pay professors for their time.
I cannot even fathom how you can possibly dare to compare those two things. One: a horrible act of violence against another. The second: a generally well accepted idea that you pay someone for their goods and services.
It's like when PeTA compared eating chicken to the holocaust.
I... I... I honestly cannot think of anything else to say, please, just grow up.
Warm regards,
Greg.
P.S. I know what you're trying to accomplish: getting the government to pay for the tuition for you. But don't get me wrong, I still hate you.
Its really a bad idea, but, since you all seem to be against a little thing called "research" I'll provide some relevant facts:
First, there is no free lunch, or free breakfast, or in this case no free tuition. Money has to come from somewhere and it will either come through inflation (like with Healthcare) or through new taxes. Either way, you'll end up paying for the professors, classroom resources, and a boatload of government bureaucrats.
Second, the rise in tuition costs are largely due to the increase in people going to school. Figure classrooms, dorms, and the surrounding communities can only support a limited amount of students. As more students converge on a given campus prices rise due. It's simple economics.
Third, government subsidized loans are a huge reason for the increase in tuition costs. As the cost of money for students is cheap, students typically can safely borrow more money and be able to pay it back. The obvious benefit: students can pay higher and higher tuition costs. The drawback is with students being so flush with cash universities have no reason to control costs. Instead, the university can charge ever higher premiums and know students will just borrow the money.
Fourth, you have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt a college or university education makes anyone smarter. Tuition as slavery? I know, I made a huge deal about it before, but, still. Maybe we should just abandon universities and actually make stuff in factories (which, by the way, pays more than you might think), instead of whining the "problems" we do or do not face.
Like I said before: I hate you.
Z-Exit Fire Escape Design
In response to the article "Introduction of Frictional and Turning Function for Pedestrian Outflow with an Obstacle" I have designed an alternative to the standard "double doors" emergency exit found in most locations.
What was interesting in that article is how building occupants vacate a building faster with an obstacle (in this case, polls) directly in the path of the fire exit rather than just having the fire exit unencumbered. Unfortunately, there are rather large issues with having objects in the path of emergency exits; would people see them? Could individuals be trapped trying to avoid the obstacle? Would people still be able to see the exit? Plus, having any object in front of an emergency point of egress is in violation of building codes (NYS Fire Code [ICC Based] 1014.2).
The possible solution?
As you can see, there isn't a drastic change to the emergency exit, however, there is a wall separating the two paths of traffic flow - increasing exit speed. Obviously, this is a variation on the idea of having an object in the path of human traffic, but this appears to be complaint with the current code implementation.
You may also notice a complete lack of dimensions on this drawing - that was intentional. Everything was code compliant (read: the doors are at least 32" wide, etc) however, I don't know how a variation of the width of the hallway, doors, or the wall separating the two paths would affect the flow of traffic outside. This is because that wasn't part of the study which this is based on and further research is necessary.
I’m 21!
Not much to say here, but I can now legally buy alcoholic drinks; which of course my friends now how often I don't do that. I'm still a little too young to rent a car though. Life is strange sometimes.
One thing that is totally awesome about my birthday is the meteor shower that happens every year. Its like God wants to give me fireworks to celebrate - or something like that but less blasphemous.
I Almost Got Coupon Scammed…
And here is how it happened:
Around 6:20 She (who I will refer to as "Ana", the first name on the 2009 hurricane name list) entered queue and proceeded to put her items on the conveyer.
When it was her turn to be rung up, she preemptively apologized for being "my worst nightmare" - which didn't seem out of the ordinary considering she had a few dozen items, most of which were air fresheners or pet treats. Considering these items were on clearance and relatively complimentary, that aspect didn't seem to out of the ordinary either.
Before I was able to start processing her transaction, Ana requested $400 in gift cards, which is a lot, but she said she was doing this as a fund raiser, which seemed to make sense considering gift cards make good raffle prizes. Once these were put in the register, she immediately put the cards in her purse.
Here's the scam: It adds $400 to the total, which is important in this situation as you will see later. Additionally, she may have thought if she was caught and had the transaction canceled (which is what happened) she could quickly exit the store and have the gift cards still work, though they do not.
While I was ringing up her items, Ana was more talkative than the average customer; which isn't bad. She asked questions about where I lived, where I was going to school, what major I was in, how busy we were, and how long I have been working at the store. It was actually sort of nice, considering how long her transaction was.
Here's the scam: A few things are happening here.
First the small talk forces the brain to focus on the conversation and the guest - rather than the prices of the products being rung up or the $400 worth of gift cards which are no longer in sight.
Second, she's sizing up her competition: me and store security. Knowing how long I've been working allows her to have a better guess of my ability to catch a coupon scam. Knowing how busy we are gives her a better guess of whether or not we would just "let it slide." The other questions and small talk are simply there to act as filler to hide her hidden motives.
Once all of her items were bagged and in her cart, Ana once again apologized about her transaction and presented a stack of coupons. I don't have an exact number of coupons, but there was at least 2 dozen. Her coupons were a mix of "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" for both the pet treats and air fresheners, which was a really good deal considering how many she had purchased.
She said every single one would work, and sure enough they all did - our registers reject coupons where the required items are not present. After her coupons had been entered into the register, I turned on the "Help" light at my register to get clarification of the coupon policy.
Val, the acting front end manager at the time, verified the policy but with one caveat: the air freshener coupons were for singles, rather than two packs.
Though, technically, Ana could use all of her coupons since she was purchasing the required products, the shear number of coupons concerned Val to the point where she called for Craig, the store manager, to the register to make sure everything was ok.
At this point, Ana stated she "was in a hurry and [she] didn't have time for this", requested her coupons and left the store taking only her coupons.
Here's the scam: Remember the gift cards which "added to the total" and the that the items where on clearance? Each coupon was subtracting close to $10 from the total - when they should have subtracting around $1.50. This resulted in the bill being $16.52 - when at the very least it should have been $400. Had Ana not had those gift cards, I would have owed her money - increasing the chances I would have known something was wrong. Since I forgot about the gift cards - due to the small talk - the result seemed normal.
Now, in a typical scam operation the guest would simply return the products for cash or store credit, since the registers do not factor in coupons during returns. However, there is something rather odd about this instance: most "buy X get X free" coupons require me to enter the amount of the coupon into the register and may even require a manager to sign off on the coupon. This time, these coupons subtracted an incorrect amount automatically. I have to believe that Ana somehow knew this would happen, because scamming $1.50 clearance items simply does not pay off well. It is, therefore, my opinion this was an inside job as only someone who works with the company would know about this coupon error.
For those who are worried about this post helping "the bad guys", I wrote this on the basis that full disclosure can result in fewer successful scam payoffs in the future. Understandably, this post may help the amateur scammers, but this information is already out there and well known to professionals. But the information here can help "the good guys" close security holes and prevent scams.
Update
I was informed that coupons can have a value of up to $10.00 embedded in the bar code. It is very possible these coupons were "pre-programmed" or even altered to talk off the specific amount.
Why I Skipped The Tea Parties
No, it has nothing to do with Maddow's et al "tea bagging" joke.
I definitely didn't skip because I somehow support the ridiculous tax and spend plan of Obama - or worse - the don't tax and but spend plans of the previous administrations.
What I noticed, as the Tea Party movement grew, is that rather than protesting taxes, economic fascism (supply/demand manipulation through regulation), and an unstable currency the Tea Party Protesters only seemed to be concerned about Obama. Just Obama.
A contact from Austria asked the question: would the protesters care if it was McCain & Palin on the spending spree? Would Maddow still be piddling adult humor at her viewers? Both; the protesters wouldn't care but Maddow, being the pillar of morals she is, would still be treating her viewers like hormone-enraged middle schoolers.
It seems to me that most of everyone who attended these rallies where spurred on by the talking heads at Fox screaming "Socialism!" when the tax dollars went from funding wars over seas to "saving jobs" in the U.S. itself.
Don't get me wrong, I don't support public funds going into private bank accounts. Nor do I support fighting a war on emotions in countries on the other side of a globe. In both of those situations, I am a debt slave; a slave to China or the IMF or whomever my "representatives" are willing to sell me to.
To me, that's not the worst part. What is really frightening - and truly saddening - is that the generations of Americans after me share the same fate. My kids and their kids - whom have yet to even know life and the ideas of freedom - will be born into slavery.
So, to align these two tangents: I skipped the Tea Parties because those organizing the events missed the point. If we're in a war in Iraq or bailing out GM it doesn't much make a difference: we're still selling ourselves into bondage and worse: we're selling our children into slavery without giving them a fair chance.
We must fix the real issues; end the Federal Reserve system, stop printing money, and, most importantly, stop whining about who's in the White House when the person we want in would do the same thing!
A Southern Ellis Island
Inscribed within the Statue of Liberty are the famous words of Emma Lazarus's famous poem 'The New Colossus:'
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
For the almost 100 years while Ellis Island was in operation, those words welcomed hundreds of thousands of immigrants entering the United States. Even during the Great Depression, the hardest economic problem this country has ever faced, we as a nation welcomed all those who yearned to be free. There were a few restrictions, but those are beyond the point.
Even though official U.S. policy was to welcome immigrants, the new Americans were not always greeted with open arms by their immediate neighbors. The Irish, though the most memorable, where not the only ethnicity hated by the current Americans. The Russians, Germans, Italians, Chinese, and pretty much everyone else who who wasn't Anglo-Saxon faced a certain level of disapproval upon their entering.
Though, at first, these groups were looked at with disgracing eyes, eventually they all learned our language, our laws, and gave up portions of their cultural history by adapting to our, sometimes repulsive, cultural habits and norms.
I apologize for that history lesson, but it is imperative to realize what we're facing in terms of the 'immigration crisis' is nothing new - just a different group of people entering from a different land. We have nothing to fear from Hispanics immigrating to the US - which I'll explain later.
The solution I propose is neither of Republican or Democrat design but is formed strictly out of my own brand of libertarianism. What I propose is an "immigration center" along the Southern border to welcome this new wave of immigrants into our great country. We should cherish the idea of individuals coming here to celebrate freedom; liberty, after all, is at the very center of Americana.
Of course I also welcome border security too. Though I don't necessarily support a wall, simply due to it's impracticality, keeping those individuals which seek to cause harm to others out of the United States is practical and for the common good.
Just as previous ethnicities have faced problems in the past, the Latinos face political hardships caused by "misunderstandings" spread by liberals and conservatives to further their respective platforms.
Part of this animosity towards Latino immigrants is their ability and willingness to take low paying jobs. Though this sounds terrible, in reality the Hispanic presence simply forces others to take hire-paying, more skilled oriented jobs instead. The market is still responding to the dramatic increase in migrant labor, the readjustments will be painful but will eventually lead to a smarter, more efficient and specialized, workforce.
Furthermore, Illegal Immigrants (which are predominately Latino) who cannot afford health care receive plenty of social welfare assistance from the, legal, tax payers. This I do have a problem with! My money is taken from me against my will to pay for someone else's healthcare. I don't really care wether the person be of Mexican or British (like me) decent, but rather that my money is forced into the pockets of someone else, when I can barely pay my tuition bills as it is. By removing the socialist aspects from the U.S. healthcare system the market will react with lower costs and increase in charitable healthcare alternatives (but that's another post).
As I close this post, one should consider the numerous other side-effects a southern Ellis Island would create. With this facility the terrible crime of human smuggling would all but cease overnight. Quite frankly, there is no real way of tracking where the money generated from bringing people into the United States goes. It is all too likely this money ends up into the hands of drug lords causing violence along the Mexican border.
This facility would also decrease U.S. taxpayer burdens considerably. Instead of using valuable resources tracking families seeking a peaceful and prosperous life those resources could be diverted to stopping career criminals which actually pose a significant risk to society.
Major Domain Acquisition
Woohoo! More website news.
The first domain is http://www.d-ua.com. I don't really have a use for it, but it was free so I'm not complaining.
Second are http://www.howtosavegasoline.org & howtosavegasoline.net.
I'm going to put a free eBook, which was part of the takeover, and some ads.
Also, Lots-of Info got a whole ton of new content, check it out!
Thats all! Regularly scheduled programming will resume now!
The Financial Sector
Hey everyone!
I have started a new web site: The Financial Sector!
It is a news site about... the financial sector in the United States and around the world.
Visit it today!
Nuclear Power, because why not?
Well actually because you're building a series of autonomous lighthouses across the North Coast of the Soviet Union, that's why.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaders of the Communist Party had a problem to solve: how to guide ships through the arctic ocean along its unpopulated northern coast - where polar night envelopes the region for 100 days of the year. Obviously, Solar energy wasn't an option so the Soviets developed an RTG system to power the lights for years at a time - without the need for human interaction!
In an engineering feet, the Soviets building well over 100 of these nuclear lighthouses to safely guide the ships - and their cargo - safely to their destination. Not only would they provide a visual warning to cargo ships but they would also (and this is the cool part) transmit a radio warning of the impending danger captains faced.
After the collapse of the USSR these engineering marvels fell into disrepair, leaking radioactive material into the surrounding areas. Brave (or rather moronic) raiders have also looted the lighthouses for precious metals; apparently unaware of the meaning of "Radioactive Danger."
