utemia

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

More inconvenient than useful - it probably is to someone who is used to be able to come and go as they please without worrying about bus- and trainschedules. If you had a good public transportation system you'd see the benefits quickly. No need for parking spaces, you can do something else while notdriving and sitting in a train like homework or reading or sleeping. Trust me, good public transportation is a blessing, even if it had nothing to do with environmental issues.

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

Your words in gods ear. Right now there is quite a frenzy going on in Germany because a reactor here is constantly having trouble and little accidents. But its all a super nonrisk business, of course! hah. It is only NOT a healthhazard as long as nothng happens, which you can only guarantee 99%. This wouldn't really be a problem but the remaining 1% could have a pretty huge consequence. I know that the example of Chernobyl has been overused and usually it is argued "well THAT was in b

Reply to Gutach in Misc Stardock Forums

The pics make me feel right at home, houses in the blackforest look like that even today, the style hasn't changed much. [quote]the uniforms that peasants were required to wear (it IS Germany, after all!)[/quote] haha yes well.. that had more to do with the feudal society than being German. Some of the laws during the middle ages concerning clothing are pretty hilarious, and they weren't just for peasants. Artisans were required to wear a certain outfit depending on their craft, and non-noble

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Cities generally do have public transportation. It also generally sucks. Were I to use the bus system in my city to commute to my university, it would take me nearly two hours to get there, one way. Driving my car, it takes me 10-12 minutes.[/quote] Public transportation is very good in certain parts of the US and horrible in others. The bay area in California has a solid system (Bart I think), I went from Sacramento to the Airport in San Francisco with the train - very euro

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]1) Scientist comes up with fucked up, abstract concept[/quote] You could add inventor/tinkerer to that. Some great inventions were made because people tried to defy the odds. Take for example Hugo Junkers who dreamt of building an airplane made of metal (1915 everybody thought he was nuts, but he dreamt of civilian air traffic and just built his plane). 1919 he built the first civilian passenger plane made out of metal. His <span sty

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]How is it prejudice to argue that both types of research should be counted as "scientists"?[/quote] It isn't, that was supposed to be my argument as well, I did seemingly get it backwards [e digicons]:annoyed:[/e] I don't disagree with you here. I didn't understand the statement the same way you did.. I tried to remember the name of the senator (Bob Dole? I think it was in the 80ies) that pushed a bill on how universities have to patent their research findings or the

Reply to The Infidelity Train Rolls ON in Politics JoeUser Forums

Well, it IS entertaining.. and people love to watch how the mighty fall.

Reply to The Infidelity Train Rolls ON in Politics JoeUser Forums

I don't vote for someone because I trust his character, I vote for someone because that person convinced me with his or her political goals and policies. Whatever happens in private life does not really mix with whatever proposals there are for the economy, foreign policy etc. I guess there is a mentality difference here, a leader in the US is foremost a moral example and then a politician, whereas here (in Germany) people are only politicians and nothing is known about their pr

Reply to The Infidelity Train Rolls ON in Politics JoeUser Forums

why is the private life of anybody in politics used as a measurement on how well he or she can do his job? Someone cheating on his wife does not disqualify him as a competent politician in his resort or means that he would automatically also cheat on those that elected him. That is absurd. You mix morals and politics in a unhealthy way and only get dissapointed, so just relax and try to be more french and let private life be private. Those who criticize such behaviour loudly and

Reply to Various political observations recently in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Strangely, the left-wingers who have commented on it don’t seem to be that concerned as to how the survey identified who a “scientist” was. Is a scientist someone who works at a university doing pure scientific research on the breeding patterns of fruit flies? Does it count someone who works at say a software company researching new ways to simulate different uses of carbon nanotubes? Something tells me the survey identified the former as a scientist and the latter

Reply to Unexploded Ordenance from World War 2 in World War II Stardock Forums

Yes it does, quite regularly. Depending on where they are found and how huge the damage and danger could be, thousands of people have to be evacauated sometimes. in June, they evacuated over 18 000 people in Hannover to difuse 5 bombs. They don't look that dangerous to me, but looks can be decieving. There are probably still hundreds of tons of undiscovered unexploded bombs and other things like mines, handgranades, ammunition, barr

Reply to Why are you a democrat? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I heard it a litttttle more complicated, but for me the whole finance world is a book with 7 seals. My brother tried to explain it.. he works at large bank in the legal department, and according to him the US does not have alot of banks that do everything, like most banks do in Germany. (You call the Universal banks?) You can invest money, get a credit, get a mortgage on your house etc all from the same bank. The big credit banks (Lehman brothers et al) were not only banks, they were th

Unexploded Ordenance from World War 2 in World War II JoeUser Forums

I just read that they defused a 1000 pound aircraft bomb in Freiburg (where I live) on the 2nd of July, last week. A digger operator on a construction site next to the university hospital complex discovered it suddenly in his bucket. There are special police EOD units for unexploded american and british demolition and fire bombs in Germany and nothing happened, but that is no guarantee. Most duds are discovered by perusing allied aerial pictures from WW2, and by accident on construction sites

Reply to Kicking the elderly to the curb in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]supporting terrorists and rogue regeimes as they try to subjugate the world[/quote] As far as I can tell, morals and ethics have never really been the motivating force behind foreign policy, it is always power or some other national interest. If it serves their ends to support a regime that terrorizes its population or has a really strange view on what law and justice is, they will always do so. There is no exception to that rule. (Like USA having business relationships with Saudi Arab

Reply to Blinded with science...and idiocracy in Entertainment Stardock Forums

Society is changing. I read (from egyptologist and cultural theorist Jan Assmann) that the internet has resulted in a huge cultural revolution akin to the invention of bookprint by Jo Gutenberg in the 16th century. It changed the way we access and deal with information, how much we try to remember of it. If you're always able to look any information up with a few keystrokes, why remember at all? Maybe, if you want to have better students and schools, they should not be allowed to use computer

Reply to Why are you a democrat? in Politics JoeUser Forums

The companies might go under and new ones rise, that is the way of the world. But (and I am not an economist but that is not hard to grasp) You really really need banks no matter what or everything would have crashed. Companies need money, don't they - and if there aren't credit banks around to give them money, it creates sort of a problem for everything. So, the government, any government really (had it been McCain, he would have had to do something about the banks as well) had to be saved a

Reply to Why are you a democrat? in Politics JoeUser Forums

What I find interesting is the assumption that being a Democrat or Republican somehow decides on wehther you are an American or not. From the outside, both look pretty much the same. The ones I know personally are always proud of their country, love BBQ, are proud of their military, friendly, helpful, love big cars, are passionate about what they believe and some try to sell you anything (yankee stereotype a la PT Barnum). Really, the stereotypical american is apolitical, loves McDonald

Reply to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Right-Wing Extremism in Republican JoeUser Forums

[quote]Well, it's the same with other jobs.[/quote] sure is, but working with people all day long is more demanding. That is true for any profession that has this characteristic. My argument wasn't that it was unique to do extra studying and preparing lessons outside schooltime - that is part of the job, but the demands in educating students in becoming citizens and upstanding members of society. Alot of teachers admittedly don't do it, but nevertheless, it is becoming more and

Reply to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Right-Wing Extremism in Republican JoeUser Forums

I don't know your friend, sorry. Freiburg as more than one school. [quote]Well, isn't that true? What do teachers do during the school holidays? Here in Ireland they are not getting paid during that time.[/quote] Ok, first of all, it depends on how you define "working". If you just go by clocking in and out of the school building, then you would have a point if a teacher only taught till 1pm and then left. BUT that is not all what a teacher does, teaching

Reply to Summer Cold in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Oh my brain just conjured several really bad oneliner pickup sayings with knitting - which I'll refrain from uttering lol primarily because they weren't in english and I don't have knitspeak down in english. Maybe ill translate them sometime and then you can tell me how successful they were. But if they use the needle to poke your eye out, don't sue me! [e digicons]:P[/e]

Reply to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Right-Wing Extremism in Republican JoeUser Forums

I get the joke about teachers.. everybody but one of my siblings, and I got 5, is one. The odd one out is a banker with a phd in law in Munich and thinks that teachers only work half a day, have 3 months+ holidays a year and are generally just lazy. pffffffffff (and he also knows everything better lol) Ill check this website out... yeahh and I sorta noticed your hackles getting raised whenever your see something irritating about Isreal or Judaism in a post. But it is very educational,

Facebook issues with hotmail in Off-Topic JoeUser Forums

I hope somebody can help me here, I can only logg into my hotmail account if I am logged in facebook at the same time. Otherwise hotmail will just not work, fails to find the server. I tried everything, deleting all the cookies and the cache - and it's annoying. Maybe my internet is haunted lol

Reply to Homesick for dictatorship in Misc JoeUser Forums

[quote]I wonder, given their comparison to "robots" how musically gifted some of the students are. Technical ability is but one aspect of talent. Giving the music depth, flavor, texture and soul is another thing altogether.[/quote] erm. There are really gifted Korean musicians, but that is different from individual to individual as it is everywhere. I didn't want to imply that all they can do is be brilliant technicalwise. They just have a different attitude towards practicing and stu

Reply to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Right-Wing Extremism in Republican JoeUser Forums

Thanks for the comparison. [quote]"they have lots of holidays and don't work much"[/quote] derogativly describing teachers in Germany lol who are all mostly SPDler. (my profession as well) I don't think I have a strict political habitat, and I understand you in regards to the abuse of the welfare system. My own petpeeve in taxes is the Ökotax, beh.

Reply to Homesick for dictatorship in Misc JoeUser Forums

[quote]pave the roads, defend the nation, and keep me and mine safe in my home; other than that, it should stay out of the way.[/quote] cool, so the government has to collect taxes (to pave the road), either conscript recruits (to defend the nation) and collect taxes (to pay for the military); to collect taxes you need to chose who decides how much taxes should be collected. To make everything official, you need laws, and decide who should make those laws. You also have to define what "safe"