It's possible that "education pays" will be as prescient as "real estate always goes up."

The power of Education + The power of Networking

"Anybody high up enough to have been a decision-maker on a higher level in WW2 is dead now, or close to it."

Likewise

Anybody high up enough to have been a decision-maker on a higher level in the 70s is dead now, or is pushed aside as a figure head (i.e. Volcker).

.......only in America can a person with a Masters still not count change while working at Taco Bell........

I wonder what percent of US population over 25yrs have less than high school diploma.

It's all here.

Went to the $3 matinee with my wife a few years ago, handed the ticket seller $21 and she broke out the calculator and handed us back $15 after pressing a few buttons.

Computers in retail checkout has made calculating change a lost art, especially in our innumerate society. How many folks even keep their checkbook current (those under 50 yrs)? How many could do even minor maintenance to their auto (those under 40 yrs)? How many could grow their own food? How many could construct their own clothing from bolts of cloth?

I used to wonder how the learning accumlated before the fall of Rome could have been lost during the dark/middle ages. I no longer wonder. A generation or two is all it takes for a key skill to be gone.

Another lost art: writing a legible letter with a pen or pencil. Most people don't even have a legible signature anymore. Our declaration of independence was signed by people who's signatures are still readable - today it would be signed by squiggly lines.

Education may pay someone but not me! I have a Ph.D. in a field saturated with them, I will make less than $6000 over 14 weeks this fall teaching two courses as an adjunct.

ok. I will repeat. Tony Bennett. 82 and still yummy.

"The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sejer is the best first-person, private-level account of the Ostfront. Some believe it is fiction only because a soldier at the crack "Gross Deutschland" division had a life expectancy of about 3 months, and he lived to tell what he saw.

Juvenal Delinquent, sometimes I find it uncanny some intellectual overlaps between us. I trully get the feeling I know you from another blog. In any case, it is always a pleasure reading you.

Another result of peak credit is a total lack of basic math skills....

And people complain that those defrauded by mortgage lenders were responsible for their fate. Ya, if you assume they knew anything about making a financial budget or could understand even the fundamental of interest on a loan.

A recording in honor of the veterans of the D-Day landings:

pavel.libsyn.com

[approx. 2 minutes]

Yeah, Dr. M. I guess they think the tip should be 100%. Several times people have asked me if I wanted change
back from a larger denomination bill. And I say, you were good, but you weren't THAT good. They usually have
the grace to laugh.

The title is Saved By Memory -

A recording in honor of the veterans of the D-Day landings:

pavel.libsyn.com

Why know math when the fed and treasury don't?

I wonder which group has the most home loans?

Liz, I don't know about 'yummy,' but a helluva singer and he did fit the description.

Try giving $2.12 for a $1.87 purchase. It's like a magic trick for some of these guys.

Ok, youse guys. You couldn't believe my lack of spreadsheet skills, and I can't believe you can't do simple
addition and subtraction in your head, not to speak of multiplication and division. And most important of
all the skill of estimating and rules of thumb and figuring out that you may not know why, but this math answer just
has to be wrong. If you can't set up and solve simple problems in your head, how can you, in a quick interaction with people, tell them they are wrong. If you lean on electronics too much you won't be able to figure out what to do when
you have a variation.

Of course, best to do both. Sometimes, this regard to simple business-y or retirement math, I will tell him (the hub) he is
wrong. He gets mad, because he works with truly advanced math all the time. So far I have been proven right.

My granddad went all the way thru 3rd grade, but he was really really good at adding up long columns of figures accurately. He could also literately read and write.

And speaking of math. Maybe the professional types make a lot more, but now especially, how much of that
are they paying in compound interested student loans? It ought to be subtracted.

And I think there is a certain amount of mandarin thinking here. People who could do a job, but don't have a degree
might not get the job, thus fulfilling a prophesy.

Alright, you old people reminiscing of today's lost skills, I can do anything you can do better. I hope that settles things.

Math skills make it perilous to pay in cash. Make sure you count your change! I'm not kidding! Although cash-register-math should just render it a handling problem.

Okay I'm < 40 and don't know how to do car maintenance. I did install an after-market MP3 player in it. Scary story related to said mp3 player install which does display my mechanical disabilities.

I was working on the car on an incline; due to the position of the gear switch I had to place the car out of Park. I placed it out of park and engaged the parking break. For some reason I assumed this would keep the parking break on... it seemed ilke it did. Then my 3-year old woke up from his nap and decided he wanted to come out and join me. I had the door open and he climbed up on my back. Somehow the parking brake became disengaged. It was a good thing that I was not doing anything critical as I was right on the brake to hit it. Scared the bejeesus out of me.

So honestly, car-repair safety seems like something I don't understand well enough and is not worth the risk. If I had some type of life I could use it might be worth learning about; but I don't have lift access. I'd rather leave it to the professionals. Hell I'm not even sure I can change my own tires... yes I'm a girlyman. I suppose it's family as well; I can't remember my dad touching cars with a 10-foot pole.

X & Y chrono zones always bag on us, it's nice to return the favor...

Umm, do you think you made up that song lyric?

You didn't.

I could even sing it for you. Luckily the internet is all visual.

I can cook. (The crepes were great.)

I can sew.

I can raise food a little.

My grandmother could bottle her own excellent root beer. She could can the food she grew.
She could crochet and we still have her handmade big tablecloths. She ironed the towels.
She kept everything organized and clean. She made home made candy. She lived in a mid middle
class neighborhood with the houses close together and lots of amenities, and the availablity of
people to talk to.

For all this ye goode housewife got contempt and scorn. So knowbody knows how to do it
anymore.

I can't do that stuff. Knowing how to make your own root beer, under certain circumstances, could
still be far more useful than knowing how to win at Civilization.

If College education means better long term employment and better pay then Student loans should not be allowed to BK. If Joe the mechanic can get his tools repoed then so should Joe college.

I could even sing it for you. Luckily the internet is all visual.

I can raise food a little.

Like I said, I can do anything you can do better. And I can sing.

You can't beat simple math into your head, other than painful beating it into your
head. Rote. Memorization. You have to do that before you can do some other things.

In defense of the innumerate, there are generally a number of things that they do know how to do.

Ok, RATM, what musical comedy was that song from?

And I think that the previous 7 'Eneries were named Henry too.

If Joe the mechanic can get his tools repoed then so should Joe college.

Almost every single state provides for a "tools of the trade" exemption for BK; after all, it's hard to pay your loans if you can't work.

Betcha can't make root beer like my grandma did!

I can make bread. I think I will make some today. With millet in it. And maybe blueberries.

I made butter once, by mistake, by whipping the whipping cream a bit too long.

The health food store sells homemade butter by the way. Very expensive and delish.

Were here, were austere, get used to it.

YLSP, the moral to your story is that you learn from those little mistakes. Next time, you don't work on the car on an incline if you have to take it out of gear. Or, you simply block the wheels. People learned the various skills by trial and error. Don't let the error stop you. It's part of the process.

Except if you are in danger of getting squashed. Or, worse, having the 3 year old
squashed. The hurricane center has never (never being since the 50s don't know about
previous to that) had loss of life in the air. Have had some injuries during rough ups and
downs in hurricanes. They did have someone killed when a generator squashed a guy
against a plane. Guy took the chocks out, which was semi customary, since I guess it
was hard to work and have the generator chocked in.

After hurricane Andrew, I borrowed some thick soled tennis shoes and we started hauling
things out. It took less than 10 minutes to get a nail rammed into my foot. We hired some
people to wheelbarrow the house insides to the swale after that. Some people are good
at somethings, but not others.

Why medians? They're hopelessly misrepresntive...

Mean makes much more sense...

On this issue, I always wonder about cause and effect. A smart, hardworking person is more employable and more capable of getting higher degrees of education.

Ok, he can still definitely sing better than almost anyone else around, but...eewwww!

'If Joe the mechanic can get his tools repoed then so should Joe college."

What if they were given them but failed to learn to use them? Ever met today's undergrads? I'd say maybe 20% would be better served in a vocational school.

Another fun dumb cashier trick: Ask for change for a $20. When they ask what kind, say "two tens and a five". This works surprisingly often. (No, I never take the money. I'm not that cruel!)

I have a Darwin fish.

Would i get a cheaper rate? I've been egged a couple of times for it.

The hub has a fat buddha-fish. Would he get charged more or less?

Wow Jane, you are 'way, 'way beyond me.

Sorry about the eggs Liz. Narrow mindedness is not a property of geography though at times we all wonder. I do give people extra points for having a flying spaggetti monster on their car >; )

. The economy, however, almost two years after the beginning of the crisis, continues to be overwhelmed by unredeemable debts. As long as households and firms continue to bear the brunt of excessive debt, they will try to reduce expenditures and increase savings. Until debt is reduced to levels which are perceived as reasonable, the private sector expenditure will be exceptionally low. After the Great Depression, in the early thirties, there was a lack of demand because there was no economic activity and no income. Today, the lack of demand is the result of the exceptionally high rate of savings required to bring back private debt to reasonable levels. These are very different situations.

The American economic condition of today has more similarity with the Japanese economy after the real estate and banking crisis of the nineties. In Japan, the government avoided the bankruptcy of the financial system. Monetary and fiscal policy became aggressively expansionist, interest rates approached zero and, nevertheless, the economy remained virtually stagnant for more than a decade. A faint economy, but with no debt, can be jump-started through an increase in public spending. Once reanimated, an exceptionally high percentage of the generated income is no longer saved in order to reduce debt, but spent in order to rebuild firms and households standards of living. It thus creates demand and gives rise to the virtuous circle of recovery. In an economy paralyzed by the excess of debt - as it is the case of Japan since the early nineties and as it is now the case of the US - neither monetary policy nor fiscal policy can reactivate the economy
FT.com | Willem Buiter's Maverecon |

Buddhaism as I see it is an ethical/moral/philosophical system with the pleasanter trappings of
religion. Tho I do think some versions are religion equivalents.

So, Takeaname, do we forgive say, half of all debts?

You feel like you HAVE TO have a fish?

Oh yes, LL. This is still a street-preacher, snakehandler culture, very much so. It's a fairly common occurrence for someone to walk up to you randomly and ask 'Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb?" If I argued, I'd be arguing all the time about a subject I'm not even interested in discussing.

.....does blue collar Ph.D. i.e. engineers and scientists make the same amount of money as that of non - science doctoral degree holder?

It's fairly accurate for Ph.D. chemists.

'As Mao pointed out:
"Religion is Poison"'

That's rich, coming from a mass murder.

"...interest rates approached zero and, nevertheless, the economy remained virtually stagnant for more than a decade."

.....they decreased int. rate after 8 years of the crisis.....they lost the opportunity .....that's the difference.....sueprficially two crisis look similiar , but inside is quite different.....

Last time Jehovah Witnesses were able to spot me @ home, I told em' I was a Zoroastrian and my cult was way older than their cult...

The miss fits had a fit, explaining that they weren't a cult! (as I had "All Along The Watchtower" turned up to 11, in the background)

"Zack McLambs Hemaglobin, dude where do you live?! "

some days, I'd swear that sounds like the central valley. Inner CA has more in common with the midwest then coastal CA.

js esq.: Inside tip. Send an application to the treasury department. They'll need a new "senior ethics counsel" soon. They don't advertise the position, but it's about to open up. No joke. They'll take anyone right out of law school. Also, no joke.

Japan also had an emerging China in which to invest into...

What exactly do we have on the horizon that is emerging aside from our sordid debts?

js esq., that's strange. Maybe you're not senior ethics counsel material.

It's the worst job ever, from what I've heard. My buddy applied for an unrelated job and got contacted by someone else at the dept. "How would you like senior ethics counsel... you know, so people can ask you questions about ethics..." "Sure!" he said. The job turns out to be looking at investment declaration on forms submitted by treasury dept officials... all day....

Good news is they're hungry to fill the seat.

Juv--

--as I had "All Along The Watchtower" turned up to 11
I had one of those experiences also. I was living in Mammoth Lakes (needed to ski a bit after that tough gig at UCSB, and finish a thesis, which never got finished in Mammoth as I had guests for the next 3 years).
It was one of those blizzard conditions, dark, where no one even a bit sane would be out, and I get a knock at the door--
Sure enough, a Witless coming to give the rap. The condition were so horrific, I let the guy in, fearing he would die in these conditions. "Jesus is Just All right With Me" was blaring from the stereo. Didn't even notice. We were so stoned, and the situation so absurd, everyone was laughing uncontrollably. I finally turned the poor fellow out into the night.

Pretty accurate for Psychology professors, but low for starting Psychology PhD's in industry (I/O., Bio, HF/Cog).

I think those stats are balanced by all of the poor English PhDs teaching 6 adjunct classes for $18k a year.

On another note: do professional degrees (Dentist, MD, lawyer) really make that little (relatively speaking)? I would have thought that their median income would have been higher than PhD's.

I bought the law (student loans)
But the law wan( (no jobs)

Jay.D.. (profile) wrote on Sat, 6/6/2009 - 1:06 pm reply Ignore user "...interest rates approached zero and, nevertheless, the economy remained virtually stagnant for more than a decade."

.....they decreased int. rate after 8 years of the crisis.....they lost the opportunity .....that's the difference.....sueprficially two crisis look similiar , but inside is quite different.....

Push on a string today or five years from now and the affect is the same. Refusing to raise rates was their mistake, as it is ours.
Japan Interest Rate

Education pays, after all, how much would I be able to enjoy "methodology called maximum entropy" (from last night's Rating Agency post) without it? I'm still laughing!

Watched a program last night on Jehovah Witness that changed my impression of them. Anti-war positions, refusing to fight in WW 2, wouldn't pay homage to the American flag got them beaten, murdered, castrated by angry mobs of patriots. In Germany, they refused to pay homage to Hitler, or go to war for Germany. They were sent to concentration camps along with the Jews.

PhD EEs in silicon valley are making $160K-$200K for analog design or digital design in select areas (wireless, fiber optics, etc). Cost of living is pretty high, though.

"Push on a string today or five years from now and the affect is the same. Refusing to raise rates was their mistake, as it will be ours."

....think about external factors , when they were in hard times, global rates were this low?.....no difference?....well , we'll see.....it's the same stupidity like comparing this "economic difficulty" to 1930's GD......

A neighbor and his wife down the road from us have been shunning us for a few years now. They refuse to acknowledge our existence along with about 6 others because of a lawsuit. When we see one-another in passing they avert their heads away from us, and no eye contact, heaven forbid!

When you are a Jehovah Witness and you leave the flock, this is what happens to you apparently. As if you never existed.

That's pretty creepy.

sm_landlord: I know a Psych professor who was interviewing a Computer Science master's student for a job. The student knew neither C++ nor Java, yet had a CS degree. That was typical of the CS grad students he and his colleagues had interviewed/interacted-with over the years. They were binary: 50% were worthless, the other 50% were great.

In the end he concluded that it was easier to teach Psychology grad students to program in C++ (for EEG/ERP, fMRI, and other experiments) than it is to hire a CS student.

So honestly, car-repair safety seems like something I don't understand well enough and is not worth the risk. If I had some type of life I could use it might be worth learning about; but I don't have lift access. I'd rather leave it to the professionals. Hell I'm not even sure I can change my own tires...
Replaced my wife's car water pump on Monday,...realized it's been at least fifteen years since I've worked on a car. Most of the time was spent looking for my various tools. It's just makes more sense to leave it to a mechanic you can trust; they've got the tools and the time. (Of course, finding that mechanic is a problem.) Didn't have a manual, used the internet to look for procedures.

All this talk of science degree holders being unsatisfied with their jobs makes me nervous about my decision to quit the law and become a science degree holder...

"Pavel, still on personal accounts of Eastern Front, I'd highly recommend "Kaputt" by Curzio Malaparte."

OK, thanks, haven't read it but will look for it.

The father of an acquaintance of mine in Moscow had served in an artillery unit west of Moscow, one of those who stopped the Germans. When I met him he was blind and living on an inadequate pension. This was during the early 90s, and his son would bring food, make the old man porridge, and guide his spoon to the bowl. There was also some donated tinned meat from Germany in the house - a bitter form of charity.

curious: (for example, law, medicine, dentistry and clergy).

Cripes, what retard thought of including clergy along with MDs and lawyers? The salary distribution has got to be radically bi-modal.

"curious: (for example, law, medicine, dentistry and clergy)."

Although there are perquisites, I doubt that many Catholic parish priests earn as much as 20 K per annum. There is free housing, medical care, and sometimes a car or shared car.

"They could spin their own cloth" - um, no.

The raw fiber is cleaned, carded, then spun into yarn. Sometimes it is dyed before spinning, sometimes after. It is then measured into balls, cones or skeins. From there it can be knit, crocheted or woven into actual cloth. Weaving is a complex process. Cloth then undergoes further processing to full it. - From the diary of a mad weaver (Sol)

@Jay.D..

It looks like EE's are doing fairly well. Do you think the data in this table are fudged?

@Hoops

I recommend studying analytical chemistry with an emphasis on applications in biology. There's a large demand for chemists with knowledge of both mass spectrometry and protein science. I'm happy with my job and most of my classmates are also happy. Also doing fine financially.

Marcy Kaptur is wonderful:

Marcy Kaptur of Ohio... 

yogi: i'll take you on your bet that the S.Ct. decides for the Indiana pensioners.

If you have a passion for law and some talent, I think you will do fine.

He had those two things, but he still hated his job. No job you hate is worth the money. He'll do fine because he's willing to sacrifice "security" for the pursuit of happiness.

Authorities remain cautious about the identification.

EE was fun but you're working for the man. Projects get canceled, ideas get, um, borrowed and not returned. Managers who are not qualified by any metric visible to carbon-based life forms get promoted.

Edit: sometimes (rarely to occasionally) you hit the jackpot with EE.

I have heard from industry people that many oil & gas people are about to retire, but get ready for a boom and bust ride if you harness those horsies.

Shyidiocracy if you're lurking, are you still under the bizarre impression that Geithner is Jewish?

Pavel:
I've been travelling 5 weeks and missed reading CR. But I just realized that one of the things I missed the most was (were?) your thoughts.

that should read "new legal" (my cursor had a hiccup).

On Chrysler

The Super Court will rule in favor of whatever is clean, and orderly. Then don't want that kind of responsibility esp the ciriticism for problems going forward with other bk's IMO.

Yogi, it is a self-evident fact that a Shylockracy often doubles as an Idiocracy given its inbred nepotism and tribalism.

About Geithner, no, I have never stated he is a Jew, nor do I think he is. In fact, it is entirely indifferent if he is ethnically or religiously jewish; what matters is the crimes he has committed against the Republic while head of the NY-Fed and later as treasury Sec.

It is plain his loyalty does not lie with the American public.

June 4, 2009

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill is now up to 186 cosponsors!

That means over 40% of the entire House of Representatives is currently signed onto HR 1207.

And thanks to your hard work, Representative Connie Mack is one of the 186 proud cosponsors.

Not only has over forty percent of the House cosponsored HR 1207, but Barney Frank has even promised Ron Paul that he will hold hearings in the House Financial Services Committee.

When these hearings occur in a few months, Ron wants to have a majority of House members on board . . . so there will be no stopping Audit the Fed.

It is amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish in the House on the back of tireless grassroots efforts.

But now it is time to start thinking about the next step.

Pretty soon we will be turning our attention to the Senate, where we are certain to face a more difficult fight.

There, corporate lobbyists and Beltway insiders wield even more powerful influence.

Many Senators are already bought and sold by Wall Street bankers and their Federal Reserve flunkies.

And the Banking Lobby is already pumping piles of cash into Senate campaign coffers in a preemptive stand against Federal Reserve transparency.

Fortunately, Campaign for Liberty has been developing a grassroots program and a massive marketing campaign to counter the banksters’ efforts.

And we’re almost ready to launch. But it won’t be cheap, and we can’t afford to run out of gas before the job is done and Audit the Fed is passed.

Can you chip in $25 to help counter the millions of Wall Street dollars and corporate contributions?

If you can afford more, every extra dollar will be poured into our campaign to pass Audit the Fed in the Senate.

As we close in on 50% support for Audit the Fed in the House of Representatives, the time is nearing to officially unleash the Ron Paul R3volution on the Senate.

If you can, please click here to make a contribution to help Campaign for Liberty launch our Audit the Fed program in the Senate.

In Liberty,

John Tate
President

P.S. Unlike the Federal Reserve, Campaign for Liberty cannot just print money out of thin air. Can you chip in $20 today to help us restore sound money by Auditing the Fed?

What could the Fed possibly have to hide? If they have nothing to hide what are they afraid of?

NoVAwatcher: I have a CS degree and have interviewed a lot of people over the years. It probably is easier to hire grad students to write C++ if you do not care about what is produced or how long it takes, but that is besides the point. Many people still go into the field because of the dotcom bubble, or they are IT nerds who cannot program out of a wet paper bag and would be better served with an IS degree. I have found the best determinants are: BS school (e.g. a top tier school is much hardier to graduate with a CS degree in, low tier you can do it probably without learning any programming at all), and why they got into the field. That is generally my first question, why did you decide to study CS in school? If their answer is along the lines of good career, blah blah blah, the interview is unlikely to go well. Its like getting an art degree, if you are not a good artist innately and interested the craft, all of the schooling in the world isn't going to make you great. And the difference between a median programmer and a great programmer is exponential, one great programmer could replace a team of 10 run of the mill guys easily.

Don't be defensive, Yogi, The Merchant of Venice is merely a symbol.

JimPortlandOR (profile) wrote on Sat, 6/6/2009 - 11:36 am

* reply
* Ignore user

Computers in retail checkout has made calculating change a lost art, especially in our innumerate society. How many folks even keep their checkbook current (those under 50 yrs)? How many could do even minor maintenance to their auto (those under 40 yrs)? How many could grow their own food? How many could construct their own clothing from bolts of cloth?

I used to wonder how the learning accumlated before the fall of Rome could have been lost during the dark/middle ages. I no longer wonder. A generation or two is all it takes for a key skill to be gone.

If you go to England within 50 yards you will find ruins of a Roman Villa with beautiful mosaics and an Anglo Saxon hovel - separated in time by about 75 years. When a specialized market economy collapses people regress many centuries. The anglo- saxon artifacts are more similar to artifacts from a 1000 years earlier. Progress is not linear.

A highly specialized system is also a very efficient system- but it is also a more vulnerable system.

I think Rabbis make a reasonable sum.

It is mostly Republicans because the party in power wants no upsetting of the power structure. If Republicans controlled the government, the bill would be sponsered almost entirely by Democrats.

Why not, Yogi?

"I have found the best determinants are: BS school (e.g. a top tier school is much hardier to graduate with a CS degree in, low tier you can do it probably without learning any programming at all), and why they got into the field."

University guys think coding is an art form when it is just welding one piece of shit commercial module to another hastily written piece of shit module. Customer usually do not know jackshit and projects are always late because some idiotic salesman promised X and Y by date Z. Yeah, we delivered X and Y and jumping rabbits screensaver but with no engine.

But is ok now, I switched to Ubuntu Linux and my computer is very Zen. Hypertension cured and no more anger management classes needed. Those Microsoft jokers spent BILLIONS of dollars developing Windows NT/XP/VISTA and still even VISTA is crap. And now US army is switching to use VISTA. Good luck with that.

I am able to write with my nice Linux much better killer drone in a week and kick your puny microsoft "what you mean blue screen again?!" drones. Bring them on.

I hear the jewish mohels make a paltry salary, but make it up in tips.

Perhaps Yancey but the left has enough votes to carry if they get fed up with the Fed, as Kaptur and Sherman are. I hope Ron Paul is ready to deal.

Is there a law against using the Social Security tax data for economic analysis? Seems like the govt could just use the collected SS taxes amount and the total number of unique SS#'s to produce a meaningful report, Total number of SS#'s reporting, total wages.... It would probably be more accurate than the crap they are publishing now... Would not capture the cash economy but it would be a more reliable number as long as it was just the actual numbers reported, not adjusted in any way... The politicians probably wouldnt like it - couldnt be manipulated for political gain...

"to a certain extent, parents are entrusting the future of the their kids to colleges, and yet these administrative idiots didn't even understand basic economic principles. did they believe that tuition could continue to rise 5-10% every year for two decades?"

They understand, especially in the public schools. I can't speak for everything; but here in California, in large part tuition is rising as state funding drops. It's not just about the efficiency of the higher education system (which could be made a LOT more efficient); it's about the gradual withdrawal of state support, especially in California. And especially in the UC System, where state funding is now down below 20 percent of budget. Gov. S's Armageddon budget cuts state funding to one of the UC law schools (UC Hastings) completely. No lawyer jokes, please.

Sorry Liz, still interested?

Why do I get the sneaking suspicion this guy comments here?

Daniel James Murray, Man Sought For Threatening Obama, Arrested

@Gary

He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous, known for strolling down a street wearing a cape while talking to himself.

I haven't worn my cape for years, but I still talk to myself

Money for nothing and the education should be free

DJ for governor!

If it was missed, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of this incredible bravery:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Tianasquare.jpg

Yeah, aside from the sex and the gender issues.

I wasn't thinking of gender issues. I was thinking of middled aged men with yamekas and beards, ' cause that's what
they looked like when I was a kid.

"We went on to a nice topic, like how much her house was worth. She pays 70% less taxes then her neighbors and then wonders why the state won't cough up to put her Blake through college. Where do these people come from?

Money for nothing and the education should be free. "

DJ, they've been living on the California credit card for 30 years -- a situation where taxation is severely limited but demand for services is not -- and no one will tell the public "no". Plus a proposition system that encourages voters to approve massive bond measures without thinking about paying for them, and further hamstringing the budgeting process. From where your acquaintance sits, it all looks like FREE MONEY to her.

It's worked for her all her adult life. It's about to stop doing that, one way or the other.

Talking about trade schools.... I ran into a form of higher education the other day that actually made sense to me. One of the problems with higher ed is that the customer pays you (the university) his money, then YOU tell him whether he got his money's worth or not. Anyway, a friend is learning welding at the local community college, night classes. He can take welding to the end of time, if he wants. But anytime he thinks he's ready, he can pay $100 to a rep from the welder's professional organization, and take a practical test for a particular type of certification (by welding a particular job to certain standards). And he passes, or he doesn't. If he doesn't, he can take more classes and come back later.

It occured to me that universities would shape up fast if we separately from them the power to certify competence. Wouldn't matter what grades you got over four years if you didn't pass the competency test given by an impartial third-party. Students would learn pretty fast which colleges deserved their money. Things..... would change quickly.

We had a survey a month or so back on furloughs for UC staffers. We got back a nice summary with all the comments included, 92 pg worth. If you want to know what the culture inside UC looks like, this was a very telling document. As far as I know it's not restricted material so if you want a 92 pg rant on faculty and admin making up their shortfalls on the backs of the lowest paid people in the UC system, let me know and I'll send you the pdf.

The professional fields in architecture, landscape architecture, and civil engineering are especially hard hit no matter what that graph depicts. Just as there are too many malls, big boxes and master planned communities to last us into the second half of the century, there are many people in these professions that thought that things would get awfull, but not like this, including myself.

The amount of building and development that will occur in the future, and that's a big if, will be a miniscule amount compared to the boom years.

These professions are filled with people rethinking the viabilty of keeping these careers. In this case a culling is occuring. The older, less computer adept (managerial types), in these fields are rapidly becoming relics and being laid off. The younger kids will find it difficult to get jobs, but will because the skill sets are for very computer literate workers.

I dunno, Broward, will it? Thought you had a sexy girlfriend.

I have two but I'd rather have five.
I need a better distribution of free room & board.

The Jews in my neighborhood pronounced it without an "r". We did not learn to spell the
word in Catholic School. Many of the older ones spoke Yiddish. My granddad who spoke
German could understand them and liked to listen in since they didn't know he could understand them.

Speak, Yogster speak!! Or, are you still composing?

"It occurred to me that universities would shape up fast if we separately from them the power to certify competence. Wouldn't matter what grades you got over four years if you didn't pass the competency test given by an impartial third-party. Students would learn pretty fast which colleges deserved their money. Things..... would change quickly."

Freaking brilliant!

Now I don't mind furloughs and I'll take mine and say thankyouverymuch. Just means I'll work from home as the work has to get done. But I came from the private sector and worked in tech, when you are told you have a deadline, then you find that miracle. But I'm also surrounded by people who will not clear a jam in a copier or distribute mail in a pinch because "it's not in their job description". I think working for the state secretly translates to "wanting to paddle the @ss of 55 yr old spoil brats on a daily basis" in ancient Babylonian.

Hahahahahahahahaha, Lobbyist!!!

It delegates responsibility for competence away from company recruiters.

I agree, cuz hindsight is 20/20. Better to have an Ivy League failure than a State U failure.

Broward, are you lucifer on a good day?

Foreclosures and the Home ATM 

Webster's online
"1.Judaism: a scholar and teacher of the Jewish law; now, specif., an ordained Jew, usually the spiritual head of a congregation, qualified to decide questions of law and ritual and to perform marriages, supervise religious education, etc."

Webster's is wrong. The only requirement for a valid Jewish marriage is a contract with two witnesses.

"Knowledgerush":

"In 19th century Germany and the United States, the duties of the rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian Minister. Sermons, pastoral counseling, representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance. Non-Orthodox rabbis, on a day-to-day business basis, now spend more time on these traditionally non-rabbinic functions than they do teaching, or answering questions on Jewish law and philosophy."

The second sentence is debatable. The Orthodox Jews, to their credit, never changed the traditional role or meaning of the rabbi. They were not concerned with resembling Christianity. (In Islam, the role of the Imam is even looser, as he isn't even required for "official conversion"). It's true that in Conservative (not the political meaning- ordains gay and women rabbis) and Reform Judaism, the Rabbi tends to lead services, but those Jews don't often attend and select their Rabbis mainly for their learning and teaching skills.

The glut of good lawyers is the problem today. People who graduated with honors from top tier law schools and practiced with prestigious firms but got laid off since December are dime a dozen. It wasn't my fault, or a reflection on my capabilities as a lawyer, that my now ex-firm jettisoned every associate in my practice area.

I've only ever gone to weddings and bar mitzvahs. The rabbi seemed to run the
show.

And read the Old Testament of course.

So a rabbi is a religious teacher in origin?

I'd hesitate to use "religious teacher" because religion encompasses different things in different religions. I consider myself Conservative. I would never look to a rabbi for advice on belief in god, prayer, afterlife, etc. I listen to his or her interpretation of texts (if he's good) and expect him to know a lot of history.