Profile for Drew

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Wealth. in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #121
It all comes down to soft values. My best friend's brother, an astrophysicist, got to work with the Hubble as a part of a post-doc at the University of Chicago. I'm not a physicist myself, but how valuable an opportunity must that be for academics in that field?
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Some Games Have Too Many Sequels in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #28
I played Curse of the Azure Bonds on the Apple IIgs, foos. Don't front! :P

Word to the Ocarina of Time.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Pets? in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #35
quote:
Originally written by -X-:

*-X- nuzzles Harald to his face and dies*.
If you're young and hale, you probably won't die. I did salmonella once. Lord knows, it *sucked*, but I weathered it. :(
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Wealth. in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #98
Well hey there, Thracymachus Rand! Last I checked, life wasn't in black and white, but in a full spectrum of color. Power != money, and people who aren't so concerned with making money aren't necessarily weak. Consider just about every good teacher you may have had in your life. Do you think they were so concerned with making cash? Rest assured, if the focus of their lives were so narrow as to only value acquiring the almighty dollar, they wouldn't be there. Guess they're just unambitious weak suckers, what with finding fulfillment in something other than cash.

MBAs make money by touching other people's money. You want to make a lot of money? It's easy - just go become a broker. 50% of them are beating the Dow some the time, and if you invest just moderately better than a monkey picking stocks at random off of the business page, you could be in that top 50% too. There you go! Sounds like a great life, and a great way to be a big winner.

What your model fails to account for are soft values. The thrill of making a discovery could be priceless to the scientist, worth way more than any monetary compensation for it. Prestige has a certain value, as does being worthy of respect, or improving the lives of those around you. And really, what good does measuring the value of someone's life by the amount of money he made really get him in the end? You can't take it with you. It seems then to be a pretty silly thing to make the focus of your time on Earth - missing the forest for the trees.

[ Monday, October 30, 2006 23:50: Message edited by: Drew ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Ice cream... in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #2
Favorite Ice Cream flavor? Chocolate fudge
Length of Major Sleep? I had a bad, bad hangover when I was studying abroad in Rome one Saturday after having fallen asleep the night before at midnight, so I didn't get out of bed until 4:00 p.m. I guess that would be sixteen hours?
Favorite Arcade Game? Gauntlet Legends
Favorite movie made from a cartoon? The Transformers (Spiderman and X-Men were comic books long before they were cartoons, Marlenny.)
Favorite place to nap? Living room couch.
Favorite print cartoon? Pearls Before Swine
Do you eat ice-cream during a cold weather? Yes
Favorite hour of the DAY to sleep? 4:00 p.m.
Favorite Age? Meaning what was the year of your life that you enjoyed the most. When I was five.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Libertarianism - yay or nay? in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #50
China and Russia are hardly what I would call deregulated free markets. China remains one of the most tightly regulated nations in the world. As for Russia, most of its recent prosperity (which is concentrated in the hands of a few) stems from an increase in the price of oil; nothing more.

For a text-book case of the failure of deregulation, look to the California energy crisis of a few years ago.

Markets aren't always the most efficient solution - see Coase Theorem, part 2, the Tragedy of the Commons, etc. It's all well and good to say that anyone can make it if they try, just as it's easy to assert that no one should have sex before marriage or be gay. Reality dictates otherwise.

Finally, did you even read my post? The social safety nets in place are what in part keep prices down, and it's likely the case that if a nationwide healthcare program for all citizens were put into place, the overall cost to you or I would become even cheaper, because companies would no longer have to shoulder the substantive burden of providing expensive healthcare plans.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Libertarianism - yay or nay? in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #3
quote:
Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar:

All those socialist programs we have, welfare, medicaid, social security, they are for the weak. They should be scraped, and all that money (most of the government’s budget) should go back into the economy in the form of tax breaks for everyone.
Welcome back to the turn of the 20th century, replete with robber barons and child labor!

Medicare, medicaid, social security - without these social safety nets, employees at companies which provide vital services to our lives that we almost never pay attention to (think fast food workers, grocery store employees, other store clerks) would either suffer from crushing poverty in old age and chronic health problems, or those shops would have to pass the costs of providing these services for employees on to consumers.

This isn't necessarily a good thing, because when such federal programs are run efficiently, they overall can be much more cost-effective than every employer providing individual insurance coverage or a pension or retirement program for their unskilled labor. There is a strong case right now for establishing a national healthcare program in the US. Similar programs established in other nations have proven to be very effective and efficient; by contrast, the private healthcare system, predicated on a model of denying coverage in order to gross the most profits, is quite broken.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Uncle Sam Wants You? in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #3
The amendments aren't that long.

100%. The citizenship form was a wild stab for me.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Baccarat or Blackjack? in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #3
IMAGE(http://www.safelocks.co.uk/acatalog/masterlock_120_130_140.jpg)
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Harmonious Dischord in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #39
I've had "The General" by Dispatch in my head for the better part of two weeks. :(

"Go now, you are forgiven, go now, you are forgiven..."
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
The long awaited Census topic! in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #76
When was the last time that:
You showered? This morning
You lost your cell phone? Where? Never
You lost your keys? Locked them somewhere? Two years ago, in the apartment. :(
You cut your hair? Last Saturday
You overslept? Long, long ago.

Current:
Mode of transportation? Public transit, feet
Book you are reading? "Richest Man in Babylon"
Model of cell phone? Whatever the current base LG model is being used by Verizon.
Jewlery you are wearing? Wedding band
Game you are playing? NWN Wyvern Crown of Cormyr

Fav:
Cartoon? you can include cartoons that you used to like Robotech
Baseball team? Nats
Location? Louisville, KY
SW oldbie Thuryl
SW newbie? ...

Have you ever?
Stalked someone? No
Been in love? Yes
Missed TM? Yes
Gotten lost? Yes
Thrown a pie at someone? Yes

Random
First quote that pops into your head? "The buck stops here."
Name a red object in your room Table
Name a song that makes you sad "Please Do Not Go" by the Violent Femmes.
If you could remove a person from history, who would it be? The Apostle Paul.
If you could call someone a 'best friend', who would that be? My best friend, Ben Keeton

[ Wednesday, October 25, 2006 05:51: Message edited by: Drew ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Wii vs. Playstation 3 in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #17
Owing to being married to a "sensible" woman, I'm being weened off of console systems. I won't be purchasing a next gen, and the last game I'll purchase for my PS2 will be Final Fantasy XII, which comes out next week (though I won't play until after finals).
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Census Slartificus in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #45
Favorite adjective -- scrumtrellescent
Favorite city founded before 0 -- Rome!
Favorite computer or video game released before 1990 -- Final Fantasy
Favorite historical war -- Napoleonic Wars
Favorite method of execution -- Hemlock
Favorite philosopher other than Socrates -- Do political theorists count? If so, Hobbes.
Favorite poet -- Neruda
Favorite politican (living or dead) -- Augustus
Favorite scurrilous talk show host -- Colbert
Favorite young children's book (i.e., a picture book) -- The Little Red Caboose
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Emancipated! in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #7
Is parental notification/permission required for any other medical procedure?
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Plumbing the depths... in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #9
Worst movie I've ever seen in theater? Probably Wing Commander. Worst otherwise? The Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Mac Users: Post Your Dashboard in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #65
Unfortunately, I can't cut and paste my process list, but I reckon it would be pretty interesting to see what everyone had up. Unfortunately, my education in computer literacy stopped in 2000, so a lot of it is beyond me, but it bugs the crap out of me that I have 52 processes running, of which 5 are listed as "svchost.exe". It seems it would be real easy for someone to slip a virus or spyware in there without my knowledge. :(
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Mac Users: Post Your Dashboard in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #55
Task Manager. I've only ever used alt-F4 to get out of fullscreen programs that lock.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Mac Users: Post Your Dashboard in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #53
I've also found that I can almost never "force quit" anything in XP. Inevitably, I have to do a cold reboot, which kinda sucks. This regularly happens while using Microsoft Word, and sometimes with IE.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Mac Users: Post Your Dashboard in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #46
I managed to crash XP to blue screen for the first time a few weeks ago. I don't remember whether it resulted from playing NWN or not... may have had something to do with Norton Internet Security. That, in my experience, has affected XP performance more than any other application I've ever worked with.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Another death topic... in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #24
From what the news seemed to put together, it looks as though it was just a perfect storm of insufficient fuel, a poor flight path choice, and probably wacky winds that led to the calamity.

As for the Yankees, they can suck on it. Oh no, they didn't make the playoffs for the first time in forever. Welcome to the world of Washington Nationals fandom.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Pan lever in Richard White Games
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #2
And so they make all the difference.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Pan lever in Richard White Games
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #0
Pan lever?

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Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
high arts in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #16
quote:
Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar:

The South has artistic performances? That's news to me.
You are the reason liberals lose elections.

[ Thursday, October 12, 2006 14:34: Message edited by: Drew ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
high arts in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #10
It was a simple misspelling which otherwise doesn't carry any meaning, and certainly wasn't intended to mean the one you inferred, Alo. Phew!

"Turkish" is an objective designation of nationality. Categorizing the population of the State of Alabama as a bunch of religious zealots is rather more subjective.

EDIT: I also don't think the same could be said if such a performance was put on in Alabama. To my knowledge, there has been no Christian security threat within the US for any artistic performance or display they may find offensive. They may protest, and that's within their rights. Nevertheless, I would posit that a respect for free speech is strongly ingrained in most Americans, whatever their religion, and they know where to draw the line.

[ Thursday, October 12, 2006 05:51: Message edited by: Drew ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
high arts in General
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #4
Hey now - don't go denegrating the South just because of some wayward yokels. Every state has its wackos - sometimes you just have to go further afield to find them.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00

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