cangor

Haha that's a really cool idea. I wonder which turtle will be first?

Yeah, let's get one thing straight. The people being affected by the China earthquakes aren't the ones who hate Tibetans, most of them are just normal people like you and me with families and are just trying to make their way in the world, and the earthquakes are nothing more than a terrible and tragic disaster that have displaced and killed thousands of innocent people, not "karma" for what's going on between China and Tibet. I agree, that's a ridiculous idea.

Wow that's hilarious!!! :DNice to see that they actually make them safes safe nowadays.

Okay, well, I'm sorry if anyone finds this offensive, that's not my goal in writing this, I just think affirmative action is really unfair and personally puts me at a disadvantage...which...is probably why I hate it so much. Anyway... In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order stating that government contractors should This idea seems in all ways noble, however the policy of affirmative action, as it now exists, is entirely the opposite of what it was really meant to be and only perpetuates the inequity it purports to destroy. This issue is of especial importance for me because I will soon be applying to college, and affirmative action factors heavily into some colleges’ decisions. I have several friends at high school who will be greatly affected by affirmative action both positively and negatively in their college applications. One of my African-American friends is currently enrolled in two AP classes and has decent grades and test scores. Although he is not an outstanding student, he will likely get accepted to colleges that others with better test scores and grades will be rejected from simply because he was born with a different skin color. Another friend of mine is “just Hispanic enough to qualify for affirmative action.” Though intelligent, he has poor time-management and organizational skills, and this is reflected in his grades. However, he will have a strong college application despite his less-than-stellar grades simply because he is eligible to fill in a different oval than me. A third acquaintance is planning on majoring in science in college, and will have much higher chances than a man of getting into a selective technical school just because she is a woman. She is at best a mediocre science student who has survived most of her more difficult courses by copying off others, and her test scores reflect this. These three students characterize exactly what is wrong with the idea of affirmative action. The African-American student says that he does not feel encouraged to take harder classes and challenge himself because he knows he has an advantage over others already. Because of affirmative action, he is less motivated to succeed as a student and improve himself as a person. The second, despite being more Irish than Mexican, will put down Hispanic as his ethnicity on his college applications as an excuse for his poor academics. Not only does this reinforce negative racial stereotypes because once he is at college his academic weaknesses will inevitably show, but it is also morally questionable and deceptive. Furthermore, it is being discriminatory against non-minority students who may have better grades and organizational skills and be more suited to attend a selective college, because such students may be rejected to make room for the one-quarter Hispanic kid. The third student does not exhibit the academic potential to be a successful doctor or researcher. By accepting her, a college may well be turning away a more qualified student who would, in the future, be superior at their job. In short, while affirmative action endeavors to promote equality in college admissions, it ends up creating unfairness. It fails to evaluate individuals based on their actual virtues and shortcomings and is ultimately unsuccessful in destroying racial and sex-based stereotypes. Just look at the minority drop-out rates at colleges which factor affirmative action heavily into their admissions decisions. (What does this make you think about the races represented?) If what we really want is equality, then establish it through other means than creating discriminatory quotas and lowering standards for certain groups. For example, in Germany, there is a program called “Neue Wege für Jungs” or “New Paths for Boys.” The basis for this program is that boys have more problems with school and choosing jobs than girls, (something true in the United States and basically every other developed country as well... dang it another thing going against me) and should look at jobs that are both traditionally dominated by woman and those traditionally dominated by men. Programs like this encourage people to make college and career decisions they would not normally consider without offering them an unfair advantage as incentive to choose a certain career. Affirmative action is also grossly unfair to workers. We often hear of underrepresented groups (in either race or gender) suing companies because they feel the have been discriminated against. (not hired for a job, not offered a promotion, etc.) In order to defend against this negative press, companies tend to hire minority workers and set up quotas for the employment of minority groups. (Also, workers who were hired due to some sort of affirmative action are less likely to perform their job well because they know that they can sue their employer and/or create a huge “racist/sexist” outrage if they are fired.) The result of this is that skilled workers sometimes get turned down for other workers who are not as skilled. Not only does this hurt the company (though that’s their own issue) but it also shortchanges the person who would be a better worker—on a larger scale thousands of talented individuals cannot find work just because companies are worried about hiring certain demographics. Affirmative action hurts everyone involved. It discourages good performance at school and at work, cultivates negative racial stereotypes, and is discriminatory and unfair. If what we really want is a “colorblind” America then don’t inadvertently (and hypocritically) further racism by being partial to certain groups. Similarly, if we want complete equality for men and women then don’t be partial to one or the other. Individuals should be evaluated solely on their own merits and abilities. Thanks for hearing me out on this...

I've seen people get upset over the stupidest things just like that so many times before. It's like "okay, you ordered that rare and now you're telling me it's not cooked enough? That's what you wanted..." But unfortunately bad customers like that are still customers so you still have to treat them as "valued patrons..." which really pisses me off sometimes. I mean, in your story, asking for a number isn't something ridiculous to do in the case of a return... I mean, it would be if it was like asking for her social security number or something but it wasn't.I really don't know how to answer your question about what is wrong with consumers but... I guess it just has to do with the fact that people always want everything to be their way and want the world to revolve around them and when it doesn't they complain... e.g. "That's racist." I mean, I'm white, so I'm not traditionally the one who is discriminated against, but I still find it easier when I get rejected from a job or something to complain about how the company was racist and unfair rather than just accept that that's the way it is. Sometimes we just all need to learn to accept things and chill out about stuff.In any case, I hope (and I'm pretty sure) that the customer's complaints won't cause any problems at your job, she was just being ridiculous.

Wait what? That really sucks... why did you get punished for the accident when it wasn't even your fault? Did they like say it was our fault or something? How? The thing I hate is if you're driving behind someone and they slam on their brakes it's automatically assumed it's your fault, even if they were just doing it with a crappy car to collect on insurance money.Can you take this decision to court or anything? Good luck if you can, otherwise, I'm really sorry for you...

I kinda wish that was the reason, but a lot of liberals seriously want a draft of some sort... this isn't the first time I've seen this kind of thing. A lot of democrats want this sort of thing, and I don't even know why. There was some sort of mandatory service act a few years back which was equally disgusting and... wow, I dunno, I just think a draft is completely unconstitutional and ridiculous. I'm not going to fight a war I don't support.

I dunno... if he did something else serious then it should have come out, and it sounds like the school district didn't even tell him why he got fired... the whole article doesn't really describe what exactly happened. Maybe he was really creepy and trying to pretend to have magical powers... but think about it, say, if he seriously did have magic powers, would he not be allowed to teach? Hmmm... that's kind of weird to think of but, I mean, come on, it's something ridiculous to fire someone over something like that. I've seen teachers do stuff that could definitely get them in trouble, and nobody ever does anything about it, and that's fine with me but... when a teacher is fired over something so little it's ridiculous.Whatever, interesting, if not disturbing, story.

Here in the US we have it good - there's no way it costs $2000 a month for gas... $4 a gallon is cheap, especially with the continually weakening dollar. $4 a gallon is still cheaper than most bottled water too if you want to think of it that way. It's by no means an exorbitant price for gasoline. On the other hand, we are getting screwed by cell phone and internet companies who want to charge hundreds of dollars per month. If you want to complain about something that's it--I spend more per month on my internet and cell phone than I do on gas for my car.

I would definitely go see a doctor... You could have just been tired or got up too quickly or whatever, and the drug scenario is also possible, but your symptoms could also point to something as serious as a brain tumor, so just to make sure you're safe I would definitely go get yourself checked out. It's better to be safe, especially when something like what happened to you happens.

Wow, I never actually knew any of this stuff about forum sigs before... thanks for the very informative tutorial... I guess you always see someone with cool sigs and wonder how to do it, well, now I know how to add some cool stuff. Something I've been trying to figure out how to do is have a self-updating image in your forum signature... I've found a countdown generator [here.] but I bet you could put all other kinds of stuff in your signature, like the weather.... well, maybe not the weather, because people on the other side of the world don't need to know the weather here (hehe... whoops.), but maybe like a random image each time the page loads or something.

Wow... wow... that's so... wrong. I don't know why, it's just not meant to be, and plus that's bordering on animal cruelty at the same time. I mean, sure, scientifically, it would be interesting, but there are just things that shouldn't be done, and that's one of them. I mean, how disgusting would it be to have chimp sperm used to impregnate a human female? Do I need to say AWFUL? And besides, that's not even taking into account what freak of a child would come from such an experiment. I just think the whole thing is perverse and cruel...

I think girls will date shorter guys as long as they're good looking and/or have a good personality. However, girls definitely like the guy to be taller than them.I think tall guys generally look more athletic, which is part of why they're more attractive to girls, but some tall guys look really lanky and disgusting, whereas guys who are like 180 cm (about 5' 11"), usually don't look overly lanky.And any case, if you're 175 cm then I wouldn't worry, that's like the average height for a guy about, so that's definitely not short. Short for a guy is like less than 163 cm, and as long as the girl's shorter than you it doesn't matter.Plus, a guy's personality and looks otherwise seem much more important in my experience.

wow... I've had some crazy incidents with bad drivers... like the other day we were driving with an offramp to our left and this guy swerves like six lanes right in front of us to make the off ramp and missed us by like an inch.... moron... but I dunno... even though people are really crazy drivers sometimes I've never really had any incidents with drivers on bikes...seriously though, people really need to drive safer.

That's interesting... and strange... but in any case that's still not what I'd call a *good* solution to the problem of poor vision... just get contact lenses or glasses or if you really don't like those two options, then get laser surgery. Laser surgery is basically perfected right now and is really effective so it's not a bad way to go as opposed to... developing a folded retina??

Well, of course it matters what you eat too... like I think pretty much everyone can agree that MSG is bad for you, even in little quantities. I think most important is to eat a lot of raw, unprocessed foods, like fruits and veggies, and also have a balanced diet and exercise. Milk can be part of that balanced diet, but like heavensounds said, pushing it isn't good... like I know people who drink like 4 glasses of milk a day (basically with every meal), and I think at that point it starts having a lot of negative side effects and not very many positives.Every good thing in moderation, eh?

I definitely agree with you on this, I think pasteurization destroys A LOT of the nutrients in milk, and I think makes it a lot less healthier... and also, milk, especially milk that is not raw, is unhealthy a lot, especially for children. Now, this is kind of an "alternative" medical theory that nobody cares to investigate, but I believe that milk causes people to be a lot more susceptible to allergies and ear infections and stuff like that. I've seen evidence for this first hand... people I've known who used to have 10 or more ear infections a year and terrible allergies lose all their symptoms after stopping drinking milk. I mean, I think milk can be healthy, but I think pasteurization destroys a lot of the positive effects, and I don't think it's really even meant for anyone except babies... I mean, do wild adult animals ever drink milk? No... so why do we?

Wow... that's really dumb, and I can't believe they haven't fixed it. Everything I've ever bought from NVidia has been great, but... well, I guess at least I know to not buy this motherboard. Sorry you had so many problems with it though, I mean man that sucks.

Sounds cool! When can I get mine?

ditto baphometslayer, the government has taken away far too many rights, and certainly liberals want to as much as conservatives... It's ridiculous.We probably are all under video surveillance right now for saying this.

That's actually really good... and, I think I agree with what he's saying, it just seems kind to invite someone over who has nowhere to go on Christmas, because while it's a time of year full of joy, a lot of people are really sad and lonely around that time, and I guess being alone while everyone else is happy would just be really depressing...

Okay, well thanks for the advice everyone!As for the computer, it's running win 2k and is about as upgraded as it can handle (Pentium II 450 mhz, 384 MB Ram, 16MB video card, big HDD, etc), and it's well maintained, it's just not great for running a lot of modern software because since everyone nowadays has a super fast computer software makers have stopped caring about optimization, so everything junks up your computer. The computer itself has been running for 11 years I think with hardly an error which is pretty amazing, they just don't seem to make things as good these days.

Hello,I was wondering if anybody knew of a good free lightweight antivirus program, as I just got an internet connection on my slower computer. The computer itself can hardly be called internet-ready, it's over 10 years old, but it still works fine, the problem is I'm worried that an antivirus program would slow it down too much. (I have Norton Antivirus and Firewall on my other computer, which is much faster, and it slows down the computer a lot, especially booting. I kinda want this computer to be usable online.) I know that there are some great programs out there but most of them seem to be too taxing on a computer's resources, and the ones that are fast seem to be really bad at detecting threats... anyway, I want to find something that is both fast and good, so that's why I'm asking.Thanks a lot for your help!

Some people just seem naturally more resistant to getting sick. I think part of it has to do with eating a good healthy diet that maintains a strong immune system, like a friend of mine who started eating a lot more vegetables and raw foods, and now he says that he almost never gets sick. Also, while exercise is important, too much can also strain your immune system, but basically just remaining generally fit is also essential to keeping healthy. As long as you're not overweight or something then that really helps you not get sick as much... Finally, good genetics can probably play a part, though I'm not sure.

It depends on who you are, but playing a sport helps to relieve stress, and like everyone's said, music helps to relax. Also, just going to a quite place and closing your eyes helps... even if you don't sleep. Biggest thing though if, like you said, you have a lot going on, is probably that you're totally stressed out, and for me working out and running is a great stress reliever.