http://www.life.com/gallery/41492/image/3091072/the-einstein-you-never-knew#index/3
Yesterday on the radio they were interviewing a couple of people who have donated money to the Herman Cain campaign.
It blew my blind that these people said they have donated upwards of $1000, and were thinking of donating more. One person even said that if it turns out he IS guilty of sexual harassment, they would still consider donating to him.
Let me be clear. It’s not only ridiculous because it Herman Cain, but it’s ridiculous that any average American would give $1000 to ANY political candidate.
For the same reasons that we have surgeon general warnings on cigarette cartons, as a society striving for righteousness and equality, we need to some how educate people about the ridiculous choices they make.
I put this in the same category as people who took out mortgages they can’t afford. But at least for people who took out a bad mortgage, they got a roof to sleep under for a couple years. What does giving $1000 dollars to a talking head, lying sack of crap gets you?
When I went to Vietnam for three weeks, it made me realize how much I “love” America. We have it really really really really good here.
Clean environment, good public safety, ample education opportunities, and plenty of good paying jobs.
So when I read stories like this:
http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/edge-paradise-coachella-workers-live-grim-conditions-12877
http://www.latimes.com/health/lat-carenow-free-health-clinic-treats-thousands-20111020,0,1327960.premiumvideo
It makes me sad.
Also, one of my main complaints about Vietnam was all the litter on the floor. People threw garbage everywhere. Sad to say, I was naive to think that it was a third world problem.
The other day I was in one of San Francisco’s poorer neighborhood, much like the neighborhood I grew up in, and I was surprised that I did not remember how dirty it was.
Today on NPR they were talking about Prop H, a “where should kids go to school” initiative in SF.
It reminded me of the time when I was looking for a roommate in Davis on craigslist. An old Vietnamese man responded and came to visit my place. He told me he owns a house in Sacramento, but he wanted to rent a place here so he can have the address to send his daughter to school in Davis.
This is why Asians do so well. We go out of our way to make sure our kids have the best. (Not because of that Tiger mom stuff)
I think it is a crime against intelligence to prevent good students from going to good schools. As I hear it, and experienced, when you are in class with bad kids, it greatly affects you because the bad students create distractions that affects your learning.
Bad kids are usually a direct result of bad parenting. So unless we can some how make people better parents, we should not force good students to go to bad schools.
While I like the idea of making English the only language around the world, I find the comments in this NPR article despicable:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/12/141232534/immigrant-parents-rely-on-kids-for-help-online
I am extremely offended that so many commenters are implying that immigrants should learn “english” because not doing so makes you stupid, lazy, and illegitimate.
As an immigrant myself, and someone who deals with english as a second language speaker regularly, I find it horribly ridiculous to expect english learners to be fluent enough to use the english in every way possible, such as going online or filling out government forms.
In fact, I can almost guarantee that most native English speaker doesn’t understand any of the forms and legal documents we fill out and sign. That’s why they invented little arrow sticky notes and highlighters for where you are supposed to sign.
It is extremely arrogant to claim that learning english is easy, or learning any language is easy. Even I have trouble writing a coherent sentence sometime. Just look at this blog.
But anyways, back to what I was saying. I really hope that the reason their comments on this article are so ignorant is because its being trolled by some right-wing hate mob. It would break my heart to find out that the NPR audience is this naive.
Once again, this raises my earlier concern about NPR website comment not allowing down votes. I think it’s important for an educated community like NPR to be able to actively dismiss comments that are hateful and ignorant.
Another 2 hours wasted. Today I was trying to use the date_select helper, but I could not figure out why the fields kept showing up as hidden inputs instead of select boxes.
Poked around for a long long long time, before catching this tidbit
: order – Set to an array containing :day, :month and :year do customize the order in which the select fields are shown. If you leave out any of the symbols, the respective select will not be shown (like when you set :discard_xxx => true. Defaults to the order defined in the respective locale (e.g. [:year, :month, :day] in the en locale that ships with Rails).
For some god forsaken reason, the “order” on the date_select field in my app was not set, or is defaulted to something else. I have no idea where this happens, or how it happens. But adding and order param fixed my problem
f.datetime_select :start_time, :order => [:year, :month, :day]
As I watch X Factor “mansion week”, in the backdrop of all these Occupy Wall Street activities, it makes me laugh thinking about how wealth is such a perverse quality of our world.
The stunning X Factor mansion, with its crystal blue pool, precision trimmed grass blades, and elegantly designed landscaping, sits atop a hill overlooking the entire city. Like a King’s Castle, looking down on its subjects.
While a small number of us are living in tents to fight against the tyranny of wealth, the majority of us are more interested in watching wealth being parade around us. As John Steinbeck one said “the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires”.
I don’t want to sound all envious, and I am not trying to make the case that these people don’t deserve what they have. I am just making an observation about the wealth gap in the world. Not just the US, the world.
I just discovered that there is a difference between
or
and
||
work: variable = this || that
No work: variable = this or that
This is one of those things that when you overlook, it will drive you insane.
Has anyone else noticed that the word “vitriol” is being used EVERYWHERE? In newspapers, blogs, forums, videos, interviews, etc…
If there was such a thing as a “played out” word, “vitriol” would be it.
I am not sure exactly when “vitriol” became so popular, but I am pretty sure it started with Obama using it in this interview.
Then there was Sheriff Clarence Dupnik using this word when referring to the attack on Gabrielle Giffords.
Listen. I am not a linguist or anything. But for Godsake, add some variety to life. In fact, here is a list of synonyms for vitriol:
bitterness, acrimoniousness, contempt, disdain, hatefulness, hostility, malevolence, maliciousness, nastiness, venom
All the roofing companies around Davis, CA must be rolling in piles and piles of money, because I have called almost everyone I can find and they are all busy or will never return my call.
Even the ones that do pick up and schedule a time to come see my house, end up not showing up at all.
I am forced to conclude that they are all filthy rich and do not need my business.
I kid you not. I have called over 10 places, in the span of a month. I have even went as out as far as Woodland, Dixon, and Vacaville.