Foreign students go home because a student visa does not allow them to work here They have about 6 months after graduation to find a job, get a green card, and become a permanent resident. I have personally known a great many people graduating with advanced degrees in engineering and science who were sent home because they didn't have their whole life in order within 6 months of graduating. A lot of those did not really want to leave. We make it unnecesarily hard.

As a side note, a great deal of those students get their education paid for by NSF or NIH grant money from professors that hire them. Or some other AMERICAN agency, such as the AHA, ACS, etc, etc. Your charitable contribuitons and tax dollars educate them, and then policy tells them they aren't welcome here and they should really go home. As the GP said, "YAY".

Not every person on Aderall is a 2nd grader. I am an adult with ADHD, and I wasn't diagnosed until my second year toward getting a Ph.D. Aderall is a powerful drug, and I hope someday there will be a treatment that doesn't require me to take amphetamines. I always think about 100 years ago when cough syrup had opium in it. I'm sure it's a hell of a cough suppresant, but damn if it isn't overkill. Maybe with more research there will someday be something better for us ADDers.

I don't disagree that ADHD is probably over-diagnosed. The symptoms can easily mistaken for laziness or general immaturity, and with kids it can be particularly difficult to get it right. There is a stunning lack of counseling ADHD children on how to deal with their symptoms. I wish someone had talked to me candidly about why I didn't fit in, why I literally couldn't sit still, always got in trouble, etc. Might not have helped my behavior much but it may have saved me some years of anguish wondering why I couldn't get it together. I got bad grades in Middle School, but I was smart, and grasped the material just fine. I just didn't do any homework. I know. All kids hate homework and blow it off now and then. Not me. I just didn't do it. Period. Couldn't, and I didn't understand how anybody else did. It was not normal. The only reason I passed most classes was that I would cheat in middle school. We'd often "exchange papers" to grade each other in 6-7th grade or so. I would keep my own, had a red pen filled with black ink, and just filedl in the answers when they were called out. I did this in one class or another almost every day. That's right. I cheated my way through 6th grade. Like I said, not normal.

I do sympathize with your perspective. In most cases, I think medication should wait until kids are a little older and their grades actually matter. Make sure kids who have strong symptoms early on know what is happenning and why, and let the teachers know too. Then, maybe in high school start medication if it is necessary. The logistics alone are awful for dosing a kid properly with a highly psychoactive chemical. A kid's metabolism changes monthly, and their mass may double in three years. And I think it's important to let a kid explore their own native psyche, regardless of whether it is a "normal" psyche.

To work as a professional, I rely on Aderall. Some might call me a junkie, based on my steep performance drop-off when I go unmedicated. I assure you, this isn't withdrawal and addiction. I don't even want to take the pills. I won't take them on weekends, vacations, or holidays, and I don't suffer any physical ill-effects for it. What happens when I don't is a return of my normal everyday symptoms. The shortages in supply, whatever the cause, are very real, and it is REALLY frustrating to call about 5-6 pharmacies to see if they can fill my prescription every month. Sometimes I just have to wait, and I quite frankly have better htings to do than call pharmacies all afternoon and drive halfway across the county to get my prescription only mostly filled, because they were down to their last 40 pills at the pharmacy

Hope I don't come off as obtuse or anything. I encounter a lot of people that think ADHD is a made-up disorder and there's no legitimate reason to take medication. I don't think you fall into this category, but I am sure there are some reading who do. Just trying to spread the word.

Came in here to say this as well. I am typing this on a system 76 machine right now. Everything "worked" out of box, no complaints.

On that I think we are in 100% agreement. Well put.

I beg to differ. I bet Steve Jobs had passion and wanted to build a nice, affordable, and usable computer. He made a nice product, and the money came naturally. Too many people try to make money, with product as an afterthought, or without passion. This is what separates great companies from mediocre/crappy ones.

I'm not the poster you responded to, but just fyi: The hellhole I've been in WAS a privately rented apartment in a shiatty neighborhood. Stabbings, muggings, prostitution, etc. It's not just for the projects! In fact, not even all cities or states HAVE projects, and yet these things happen everywhere... funny how that works!

As someone who has been quite poor, let me tell you: It sucks. It really sucks. And you think the state is so helpful, and is just so willing to give you everything you need to survive, and then some. They're not. It's a demoralizing process to get on food stamps. And try getting sick! Jesus, that's fun not getting to go to a normal doctor! You're blaming the poor saying that this country is going broke because we begrudgingly don't let our weakest members starve to death. The poor might have a bare-bones crappy apartment with a shared twin bed for the kids, but hey! They have an xbox! Let's string them up and kick them off the dole! They can sell that for 200 bucks, and then what? A few weeks of groceries (or less if we're talking about a family) and that's it. Back to square one. An xbox is not a large asset. A not-so-wise investment from someone with limited funds, but who are you to judge? Your opinion is that someone isn't really poor, or in need of any assistance until they have absolutely NO assets? NO means of diversion from the unholy hell they live in day-to-day? You need a reality check. You need to see someone get stabbed in your front yard. You need to get propositioned by a prostitute in front of your house. You need to be reliably woken up by sirens and noisy neighbors doing god-knows-what several times a week. Then tell me a diversion like an xbox isn't a reasonable investment. It sure beats drugs.

Mod up as Truth! I wanted to add that I also think there are lots of places we can cut the budget in enormous ways, but taking money from grandma and teachers isn't really the go-to solution. The fact that we can supposedly tax the wealthy at 100% and not make up the difference in the deficit is very telling, and dramatic restructuring is necessary. But that's not a reason for them not to help in a time of crisis, to a country that has allowed them to reap great reward. And that's exactly what the last couple of years have been. A slow-motion national crisis that, unsolved, threatens everyone's financial security, even the rich. I am in the bottom tax bracket, and can barely scrape by as it is. If they raise my taxes, it will hurt, but at least I'll know why. As long as I think they are working in good faith to restore sanity, I'll be okay with it. But I'll be goddamned if they raise them and continue to increase spending on petty wars and ballooning fraudulent medicare claims. Just insanity.

Interesting ideas. You haven't totally won me over, but I appreciate your point of view. Thanks for sharing. And someone beat me to it, but we are definitely "graded" on our slashdot posts! :)

I actually agree with a fair number of your points, and don't believe that grades tell the whole story of what someone got out of a class. I think it can be arbitrary, and at it's worst can instill hostilities amongst the students rather than a sense of camaraderie. Case in point: Once I had a solid A going into a final exam. The final was cumulative, and although I had studied well, I had a fever and could hardly focus on anything. I failed the final miserably. It was weighted as 50% of our grade, so I ended up with a C in the class. That wasn't really a fair or accurate picture of my understanding of the material, but it also isn't fair to the other students if I get to take it at a separate time. That's just the way it goes sometimes. But do you really think that there should be NO judgement by the teacher/instructor that conveys how well you understand the material?

I think most people have experienced an issue with biased professors, unfair grading schemes, or just bad luck when it comes to grades. Just read the above comments and you'll see many examples of it. I also think that most people have a general understanding that grades aren't the whole story, and use them only loosely when making hiring decisions/admissions decisions, etc. Personal recommendations from instructors, however, are worth their weight in gold. If you are a hiring manager, and a young applicant has excellent recommendations from their college professors, and generally made good grades on their transcript, don't you think that conveys a sense that this person probably has a handle on the material he/she was studying in college? Even if they got a C in an important class or two? I suppose what I am saying is that while all of the above points you make can be true, it's often the students themselves who make it out to be like that. Grades aren't supposed to be a 100% reliable analysis of how someone understands a class, it's a general guide that only makes sense when taken with many other factors. If students take them too seriously, then all hell breaks loose. But the solution isn't to stop evaluating.

Not looking to be contrarian, I'm actually interested in what you think.

I took my one year old nephew to a playground in my neighborhood, and as soon as I set him down he crawled up to the very top of the biggest slide and flung himself down it headfirst. Nobody was there to catch him and he did a nice faceplant in the sand at the bottom. He was fine. Cried for a minute, had a bunch of sand in his nose, but then calmed down and crawled back up and did it again (with me waiting to catch him this time). From then on, he was a little bit more cautious and wouldn't go down unless I was there waiting.

Do not follow link. NSFW. NSF anyone or anything.... Mod parent down as troll.

I'm also interested in an invite if you have a moment. @gmail, of course.

Hell, Boise City, Oklahoma has one in it's downtown area, and the town hall is in the center of it. It's pretty cool, and probably at least 100 years old. Not sure where they got their 1990 number from...

I've always thought this whole issue of "just world" notion is moot in FPS anyways. Doom and Wolfenstein enhance the issues by presenting you with an enemy that is hardly human anyways, but in every FPS I've ever played, and also in the Grand Theft series, you get over it really quickly because the enemy will fight you once he sees you, and in a predictable way. It's literally kill or be killed, with no room for any other tactic, thus justifying the brutality.

I think it would be a really interesting concept for a game to allow for more options. I guess it doesn't fit well with games that are more of total war simulators, but perhaps for games more like Godfather, GTA, or Bully, you could start conversations with opposing gang members rather than have them immediately fight you. You could potentially bribe them, befriend them, etc, even if your groups are at war. Obviously walking into a crowded room of them would have to be pre-programmed fighting, but even then it might have a different dynamic if say, you have a friend in the room. He might quietly leave instead of fight, and take another guy with him, thus making your mission a little easier.