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Comment Re:Duh - Who else would have done it? (Score 1) 382

No, they don't. Most Chinese live in poverty, only dreaming of the luxury of higher education.

China is also home to the largest middle class population of any nation, already exceeding 300 million people and growing rapidly. Most Chinese by percentage of China as a whole may still live in poverty, but in absolute terms, the Chinese middle class is the size of the ENTIRE POPULATION of the United States. Considering a larger middle class, and a greater societal emphasis on academic excellence, it's not far fetched to think that China may have a larger population (in absolute terms) of well educated young adults than the US.

Comment Re:Enjoy yourself, forget about school (Score 1) 335

Even better than this, get a job working at a local bar or restaurant. You'll learn everything any other unskilled hourly job will teach you, with the added bonus that many of your coworkers will probably be attractive, slutty girls. And if you're shy/socially awkward, waiting tables is probably a good start to breaking through that barrier.

Comment Re:If Poor Acquire Capital, If Not ... (Score 1) 335

Do executive level recruiters fill entry-level positions? It seems that in more senior positions, nobody gives a shit about GPA because you have a experience and performance history that is more important. However, it was my experience looking for my first job out of college that GPA is VERY important when it comes to entry level engineering positions. Many places won't even touch your resume unless your GPA is over a 3.0. The big companies compete very hard for new graduates with GPAs of 3.7 or higher. This is all reflected in your starting salary. My evidence is merely anecdotal, but my peers with 3.7+ GPAs got offers with significantly higher starting salaries than those with the same degree, but lower GPAs.

Comment What about state budget cuts? (Score 5, Insightful) 433

Increased availability of aid and loans may very well create some tuition inflation, but I seriously doubt it is the major driving factor at public universities. It took me a while to graduate since I got called up to active duty for a while, but the tuition at the in-state public land grant university I attended nearly doubled between when I entered as a freshman and when I graduated. In 2003, tuition and fees was about 2200 USD/semester, but had ballooned to just over 4000 USD/Semester in Spring 2011. As far as I am aware, there hasn't been massive increases in the availability of aid or loans in that span (in fact, I'd argue generous private loans have become LESS available since 2008). What HAS happened is massive state budget short-falls due to economic downturns and short-sighted tax cuts. When the state is short on cash, higher education funding seems to always take the brunt of the damage in budget cuts, so public universities make up the difference by hiking tuition and/or recruiting out-of-state students.

Comment Re:Not only that... (Score 2) 569

The V-22 isn't in use anywhere? That's odd because I deployed with CV-22s to Afghanistan in 2010, and we lost 4 men and an aircraft to a crash during combat operations.

I'm not necessarily defending the airframe, but it very much is in use in Afghanistan. The Marines have been using it in theater even longer than the Air Force.

Comment Re:Bad Press or Bad Behavior? (Score 1) 119

In fact I'm reaching the point where I think NO central government would be a good plan, except to provide a navy and army for defense, and build roads for internal transport, and that's about it.

Yeah, because that whole Articles of Confederation thing and 13 different currencies worked out real well, didn't it?

Comment Re:Maemo/Harmattan/MeeGo even better (Score 2) 439

I have not used the N9, but I share your sentiments on the issue of multitasking. Last year I transitioned from Maemo on my n900 to an android handset after my charging connector went on the fritz (for the second time, though this time out of warranty). While it was nice to finally have a mature ecosystem full of applications, I immediately found android's task switching to be infuriating. I had no idea what was running and what wasn't. It seemed like whether an application was merely hidden or killed outright seemed like a matter of sheer chance at first.

Maemo handled it much better, and it's interface was cleaner, more intuitive, and far more powerful. All it needed to be perfect was a small bit of polish and for developer support to reach critical mass. I miss my N900, and I wish Nokia would have stuck to its guns and doubled down on Meego/QT :(

Comment Re:Few to admit it, but a lot of parents teach thi (Score 1) 1208

(standing, applauding)

Picture the following situation: a black neighborhood watch volunteer kills an unarmed white kid. Two white preachers jump into the fray and make loud declarations about the racial nature of the killing.

In your situation, the black man is likely arrested on sight, charged with voluntary manslaughter or worse in a matter of days, and held without bail. Nobody outside of the local media would even notice; It's a tragic death, but nobody is outraged since a black man is in jail for murder and that's not news in this country.

Comment Re:Say what????? (Score 1) 714

*Woooooosh*

Man, that aircraft is flying low over us!

GP was being facetious/sarcastic by pointing out that strong regulation of job markets doesn't necessarily result in jobs disappearing. GP's whole point was that the German economy is holding up just fine despite labor regulations that many assert "kills jobs."

Comment Ask Slashdot Trolls? (Score 1) 671

Is this really a fucking serious question? I have to wonder whether a submitted trolled the editors, or the editors are trolling the users.

I am not the kind of person who can just 'not browse the internet.' If I ever have to travel with this laptop, I may want to read an ebook or watch a movie or maybe even play a game.

Seriously, you simply cannot browse the internet? Will you go into diabetic shock without it? Your employer won't let you read an e-book or watch a movie waiting in the airport? If your work machine is so locked down or corporate use policies so strict that you can't use it for any personal use while traveling, why don't you BUY YOUR OWN FUCKING LAPTOP AND TAKE THAT WITH YOU TWO? Or are you too frail to carry an extra 5 lbs of laptop?

Seriously, WTF Slashdot? I figured everything would go to shit when Malda left, but I didn't think it would happen this fast.

Comment Re:I understand (Score 1) 652

I'm not wholly against federal safety mandates, but in this case they're looking in all the wrong places for things to mandate. If we're going to be mandating safety equipment, why don't we start with anti-lock braking systems? It's standard equipment on many vehicles these days, so many people don't realize it, but ABS is NOT a federally mandated requirement. Yet electronic stability control (which is of limited benefit on the low-powered, front wheel drive vehicles most americans drive) is mandated for 2012 and beyond, and now they want to mandate backup cameras? If you've got ESC hardware anyway, ABS is trivial to implement, yet we still lack a federal mandate to do so.

This is just a bunch of "think of the children!" overreaction, in my opinion. Most people backing over a kid probably would ignore a back-up camera anyway. There's a selection bias in the statistics, I suspect, as buyers voluntary choosing back up camera-equipped vehicles are likely more risk averse and more responsible drivers to begin with.

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