I see it the other way. Studying a handful of Romance languages (in my case, Portuguese, French, and Spanish) gets you all the Latin-root vocabulary that is supposedly so useful in English, while you don't have to deal with the rest of Latin (i.e., the complex grammar) which of no practical use, and you get living languages that you can actually use to communicate with people.

Thank you so much, on behalf of myself and every geek here on Slashdot who could not bear the shame of not being able to answer those test problems, and at the same time had an unquenchable thirst to know the answers, wishing only that someone would reveal them to us so that one more crucial intellectual void might be filled.

Neither is Italian==Greek or Sanskrit or classical Arabic. Does the parent post imply in any way that Dante wrote in Latin?

Just make sure you do it at a soup kitchen in an area where you'll never go or be recognized again. Last thing you want is a bunch of winos hounding you down yelling "Give us more of those lotto tickets!"

Copying others' work without attribution, in a forum dedicated to the idea of reaping riches without working for it? I would have never imagined!

Also this podcast: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/06/blakely_on_fash.html

It's great that all you drivers are so concerned about being able to help out others in distress. Well then would it f**king kill you to pull over, stop the car, and get out to make the call?! I guarantee it won't be jammed.

I recently obtained a Brazilian tourist visa for a trip in January. Whereas the visa fee for most countries like EU members or Japan is $20, U.S. citizens are singled out for a $160 fee, which is classified as a "reciprocal fee" (and the clerk at the consulate made sure to emphasize that when I submitted the application). And when I go, I fully expect the full interrogation, fingerprints, etc., while my Japanese wife will be waved right through.

It's just a blatant tit-for-tat move to get back at U.S. immigration policies. I frankly don't see how it benefits Brazil in any way, but I can hardly blame them.

Interesting thing, though, is that while my wife's $20 visa is valid for a 90-day period, my $150 visa is good for ten years.

And how would this in any way affect search procedures for U.S. citizens on domestic flights, which constitute the vast majority of flights to/from U.S. airports? Pre-flight TSA security checks (keeping bombs off the plane) have nothing to do with immigration procedures on arrival (keeping undesirable people from entering the country).

And many countries are doing what you've described, singling out U.S. passport holders for higher visa fees and more extensive checks, fingerprinting, etc. It hasn't done a thing except piss off international travelers. It certainly isn't going to increase pressure on the U.S. to change policies, and ends up just hurting the countries doing this (as well as the U.S.). I don't think many U.S. citizens are going to complain to the government to please stop hassling Brazilian citizens, so that the Brazil will stop hassling U.S. citizens and make it easier to go there. They're just going to decide not to go to Brazil.

So did I, until I saw Jeremiah Cornelius' post. Wow.

Let me see.

On one hand we have a person who uses his ingenuity to exploit a market in a way that is completely legal yet socially unrespected, is completely open about how he does it and to what degree, describes this to millions of readers all over the world, and still admits to having moral reservations about it.

On the other hand we have someone who asserts that what the first person does is in itself "probably illegal" without presenting any supporting evidence, suggests in addition (also with no evidence) that the first person is evading taxes, and finally admits to be willing to destroy his own property just to spite the intentions of the first person.

I certainly have no trouble deciding which person I have more respect for.

No, it's this guy.

It's not just smearing; you're also pushing the pen "into" the paper with nearly every horizontal stroke, so it digs in. Especially with cursive, where every letter is connected by a horizontal ligature.

And if holding the pen above the line is incorrect, apparently the vast majority of teachers are doing it wrong.

...unless they get a lucky break.

I think I learned that in junior high.

So I'm not the only one who thought the interviewer's pronunciation was bizarre.

For all of you who haven't listened to the podcast, he pronounces the first 'a' the same as in "have", rather than "jar". I have never heard "Java" (the place or the language) pronounced that way.