This took place in the olden days, before there were laptops. For our basic circuits class (the one that separated the EEs from the wannabes) a group of us hired a stenographer to take notes. We talked the prof into giving permission, on the sensible basis that if we weren't copying notes just as fast we could to keep up, then we could actually pay attention to the lecture. I think he got a copy of the notes as well. Cost us all about a dollar a lecture and the stenographer made about $40 an hour, which was a pile of money in those days.

Well played Sir!

I have a 3 year old kindle paperwhite. Cost a 100 $. It holds more books than I can read in 6 months. The e-ink is easy on my eyes, I can read in bright sunshine or pitch blackness. The battery lasts about a week with moderate backlight use. It's thin and light enough. I'm really not sure what this new kindle could do better. Maybe get rid of the bezel, leave the screen the same size and it would be a little more pocket friendly. I honestly can't see anything that would compel me to buy a new kindle anytime soon.

Euphemism Treadmill. - I like that. A teacher sent a letter to our local newspaper with a copy of some recent instructions from the school board "Please refrain from using words such as retarded or mentally retarded as some people find these offensive. Instead use cognitive impairment or developmentally delayed." The best part, she included similar instructions she had received 25 years ago "Please refrain from using words such as slow or simple as some people find these offensive. Instead use retarded or mentally retarded."

I visit the USA several times a year. I come from a place where obesity is much less common, and much less extreme. These are my observations of the USA. I don't want this to sound like I'm hating on Americans, because some of you are super nice. This is just what I've seen.
 
The obesity axis runs diagonally, northwest to south east. People in Seattle are not much bigger then people around here. People in Mobile were appallingly huge. My theory is this correlates with biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast.
 
It also correlates with escalators. In Seattle most people were walking up the escalators, In Mobile nobody walked up escalators.
 
A much bigger percentage of black people are overweight compared to white people. (Is this poverty related?).
 
You all drink way too much coke cola. I met people who drank 2 or three cans of soda per day at work and then drank it with every lunch and dinner.
 
Food servings in some restaurants are stupid big. Plates of spaghetti that two of us couldn't finish. 24 ounce prime rib. (really)
 
Most appalling thing I saw was whole families of fat people which is super rare here. Like mom and dad both 250 lbs plus and then 2 or 3 huge fat kids. Around here if your ten year old was 150 lbs the child welfare people would be all over you.

I don't know why, but news organizations everywhere do this and it makes me want to stab them over and over with a fondue fork. Somebody said it had a range of about 100 m. Somebody else converted it to feet, without any thought that this was an approximate measurement. About 100 m is about 300 feet, or maybe about 350 feet, but it is not 328 feet.

AutoCAD?

I fucking love coffee. Once a week I hit 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters for a small 4 shot Americano. Wicked strong, intense flavor and aroma, unhallowed levels of caffeine stimulation. Pure coffee bliss. I don't need it, but I sure enjoy the hell out of it.

What sort of evil hold do they have on you that they can force you to drink Miller-Coors.

:...traditional worker protections that require people to be paid for work done" - Are talking about an hourly wage? Because around here the taxi drivers sure as hell don't get one.

So tell us, O wise Chas, what do you use instead of Outlook/Exchange/Lync?

No. The little bastards have abnormally large heads.
 
Signed
 
Mothers Everywhere

Um. No. You're doing it wrong. The only thing my employer gets to keep control of is the company email on my phone. He can remotely delete it at any time. The rest of the phone and my own email and all the apps, data, and media on it belong to me and my employer has no way to access it. He pays half the monthly bill and any work related extra costs like roaming when I travel for work. Seems fair.

"Weed directly leads to situations where a persons safety is compromised" - Weed directly leads to my couch, Star Trek re-runs and cool ranch Doritos. Not sure my safety is all that compromised.

A couple of points - Back in the late 70's we used to get really good quality red-hair sensimillia which had very high THC content, probably as high as today's favorites. The old hippies that grew the stuff on Lasqueti Island had already been growing since the mid 60s and they knew exactly what they were doing. One joint of sens might get shared with three guys; if we were smoking regular stuff we'd smoke 2 or 3 joints. The THC dose was the same.
 
In any case the hysteria over "today's super strong pot" is a bit like saying whiskey is worse than wine because it has more alcohol. If the weed is stronger you smoke less. And, hey, smoking less is good, right?