As an aussie, my advice is to change to a different super fund with options, or, more likely, read your super funds documentation and realise you are full of shit (probably). My fund allows me to choose how my super is invested, I can go with their "managed" options, or direct into cash securities, bonds or various forms of shares. I can divide it up and put parts into different options if I so choose.

Last year I got ~9% return and the year before that a shade under 21%. 2009 was a shocker of course, with -15% but overall I'm well ahead. You have the option to change to a super fund that offers investment choice, so drop the crap and take charge of your own destiny, or play dumb and whine. your choice. At least your current way allows you to blame someone else if you make the wrong choices.

Self managed super is for rich people who can afford to have an accountant/ financial adviser on retainer (is that the right word?) You would be very dumb to really self-manage without the advice of someone who actually understands how to invest money.

where can I find out about this prize? I can't find a reference to it on the net... I have some ideas to enter. grow some imagination

Maybe the difference is that in australia (here), it is the rural dwellers that make the country money. They pay tax and see monuments go up in the cities, but city dwellers are mostly parasitic "service" providers. They contribute nothing to the international trade balance, only consume each others wealth.

Why should california get a share of profits not made in california? Apple already supllies a large number of high earning employees that pay a high income tax rate, and if california has waived any other sort of taxes in order to have them headquarter there, then california has already worked out they will be better off with all that income tax minus the land and property taxes they waive, than without any of it at all. But why should california get to tax the profits earned in nevada? This is why states having corporate taxes is dumb, there should be a federal tax that is distributed to the states, in a fair and equitable way.

Not like it is done here in Australia. Here the government takes the taxes paid by some states and gives it to others. There might be a justification to give a better share to poorer states, but here it is taken from the big earning states that don't have great infrastructure and given to the ones that are the most developed! apparently they can't pay for the upkeep of all the nice stuff they have bought.

If you don't pirate games, it is.
At least was. Thanks to consoles being good enough, the pace of pointless graphics improvements has slowed. You no longer need to buy a new graphics card that is more expensive than an entire console, every two years and replace the entire pc every three to four in order to keep up.

I was there before i got my xbox in '05. Never had to buy a graphics card since. Onboard is good enough because I don't play games and "desktop effects" are fucking pointless. I (and the majority of people, see console popularity for evidence) don't care about buying a game so we can pull ourselves off while pointing out how detailed the foliage in a game world is. It doesn't matter. We play for fun and entertainment. If I want to see highly realistic scenery I can go outside. I want story, challenge, involvement, better interaction with other people in a multiplayer game, content!

The graphics have been good enough for years, the biggest thing missing from games is due to moral censorship. I do blame the console makers for this, of course, their family friendly policies are largely to blame, but the various world governments are obviously just as much to blame.

Think of the children! Fuck them, they aren't the ones paying!

Don't worry those guys then convince themselves they have a better visual perception than normal people so they don't feel stupid that they paid said 1000's. Much like the audiophile who buys a massively expensive sound system. Anyone asks them the hell why, they subtly (or not so much) imply that they have a hearing range that is far in excess of your standard human, and of course a better appreciation for music anyways :)

for fucks sake, why do people think linux should work with hardware that is fucked? not just old but plain fucking broken? they never complain that windows doesnt work right when their optical drive is fucked, but when it linux, its linuxs' fault. If your dvd drive don't work no more get a fucking new one ya brokeass mf. A new internal drive is like $25 ffs! if you cant afford that go fucking dumpster diving.

Sewing shops usually have two sided velcro in big rolls, sold by the meter.