kapkomet

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 04:10 PM) There's also this in Hillary's closet: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309796,00.html This is Teflon to her. No one will call her out on it, because no one dares. Not kidding, either.

*rimshot*

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 02:25 PM) There are tens of thousands of books that could be chosen. Is there a difference between a High School teacher that looks at the above, or similar works, and elects to use a different work and the public that asks that the same action be taken? We can look at this list and obviously agree that they are classics and great readings for adults. I would state they are clearly not appropriate to use in fifth grade, but maybe that too would be a point of disagreement. Perhaps they are appropriate for High School. Bottom line, teachers should not be omnipotent, nor should one parent. I cannot take the leap from learning A&P by dissecting a pig and teaching students about anal sex in English. I can see some value in seeing internal structures of the body. I could see covering anal sex in a health class, but it seems unnecessary in English. Bottom line I support parental involvement in their children's education, beyond selling candy for the senior trip. I know that is so threatening to teachers in their ivory towers. UMMMMMkay.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 02:21 PM) If I recall, that decrease is partly due to the dollar's fall in value, isn't it? Yes, which is exactly what they are trying to accomplish, BTW. I personally have a little disagreement with this policy, but they are trying to make our goods cheaper overseas to alleviate some of the trade imbalances.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 02:09 PM) Yeah, I'm not saying kid leashes should be outlawed, just that they rub me the wrong way. As do mostof the parents that use them. I don't expect everybody to share the opinion. . . that's what a pet peeve is, right? My daughter's 18 months old tomorrow... and we just decided to get her one because at that age, you can't keep them from darting out, and they are not old enough to understand to not go into the street. I DO think that if you use them in a mall, etc, that's a little excessive, but outside when walking, I now understand the need. I used to think like Flaxx... but I get it now.

Back to the Africa thing before I have to delve into a cesspool of a hellish Friday (my direct boss is in the hospital... so I get all his work on top of all of mine on top of still quasi filling the role I was in previously - I like being three people, honest)... Europe has been trying since the Industrial Age to pull Africa into the mix as far as trying to outsource and use the labor pool. In our classes we had some documentaries from various sources that talked about the struggles of trying to get that going there - the top one was the tribal issues and the backstabbing to try to get the business itself. Where there has been inroads made, the bribery and power struggles are damn near impossible to get around. It's not like a caste system in India where they can push people into certain roles (although that's disapating to a certain extent now) and China who just makes people do what they want to by brainwashing them since birth). There are warlords and tribal disputes all over that really leads to so much instability it's hard to harness the labor pool there. The conversations we had in our class was to say that if it could be done, we would have done it already. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's very difficult to get things done there from a business standpoint.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 08:12 AM) Good post spiderman, can't argue with you. But like somebody said, the calendar says November and a lot can change. Let's hope. ^^^ I'm not saying this about anyone in partciular but it was said somewhere recently that the White Sox fans are becoming like Yankmee fans, and I hate to say, it's true. Think about it. At least the comparison is not Red Cub fans, at least not yet.

Which is exactly why he's very "touchable". Kind of scary, isn't it?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 10:42 PM) Actually, its sounded like your previous company was a Dilbert cartoon. Did you have a pointy-haired boss? Um, something like that. SHE was pretty pointy-haired.

What can I say? I'm a walking Dilbert cartoon.

That was good.

Ooops.

Sino-Chino relations have been bad for a long, long time.

I personally like India contracting all of the CPA work and doing it over there. With some of the complexity of the stuff I'm dealing with here, good luck with that.

Has anyone here seriously looked into this as an option for energy use?

We talked about that quite a bit in one of my strategic management classes. You're right, it will happen, but there's a lot more issues in going into Africa then Asia. Europe has tried, and to this point, it really hasn't worked. I'll share more of the issues we came up with later.

My father-in-law has a chemical engineeing background and has picked up a wealth of information over the years. We sat down when looking into a radiant barrier roof, and he calced what that would save me in electricity costs and basically figured out that it wasn't worth the foil it takes to make that stuff. Having said this, we ought to sit down sometime and go over the solar stuff. I wonder what all that costs? I'll have to do some searching.

For me, as we continue to rape (yes, I mean that) "cheap labor" - which then escalates into out of control inflation whereever that cheap labor came from (Vietnam, China, Central America, Mexico, Brazil, etc.) - we put ourselves to the point where prices across the board MUST come up. The Walmarts of the world continue to drive prices down, and it works, but only for so long. Eventually, the pool of cheap labor will run out, rampant global inflation will run its course, and in the US, it will hit particularly hard. One of the reasons is because as you put it earlier today, Americans are spoiled rotten. There's some things fighting against that (service based economy vs. much more manufacturing of old, lower dollar to push down foreign good prices, etc) but at some point, something has to give way. I understand that there will be less money available because of "credit tightening", but IMO the Fed wants to put inflation back out there. I have my own "conspiracy" reasons for that, but I digress.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 07:26 PM) Thus, as I pointed out, corn derivatives. Milk is up mostly because of the rise in price of feed corn. That rise in price is at least partially due to the ethanol trend. We are again back to the fact that ethanol might be a nice bridge, but its not a viable long term solution. Soft drinks and eggs, same thing. Corn-driven. Maybe it's just where I am, but it seems like everything is going up in price, save electronics.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 07:07 PM) Fed Fund futures are pricing a 94% chance of a rate cut to 4.25% at the next meeting. And yes, inflation is coming. I would say MAJOR inflation is coming. The worst thing to happen since the late 70's is when the fed just cut those rates in a period where prices are dramatically rising across the board for all goods, commodities, services, etc. Now, the counter argument is that all these cheap goods is what is offseting this - but it can't last forever. The time machine is about to stop. I'm not a typical doomer and gloomer when it comes to our economy, but the actions of the last 3-6 months have been a really, really bad sign.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 06:00 PM) He is a good clubhouse leader, but that worries me as its been said Konerko doesnt like to have his leadership threatened in the locker room. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 06:15 PM) On a 70 win team...someone better be threatening the leadership/ Exactly. I've heard this before about PK, and my opinion on that is, thanks for 2005, but get the ef out of town if you're in this to be the "clubhouse leader".

Oh, I agree - I think our whole government (poltical shennanigans in reality) is a sham. Who can out-do the other one to keep power? It's pathetic. But of course, Dems are better then Re-pube-licans and Re-pube-licans are better then Dems.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 04:46 PM) Typical ... the Dems have been screaming about Cheney for 6 years and one them finally has the gonads to bring it up and the rest of them cower from the issue. They are all in this together, Dems and Reps, and all this bitterness between the parties is just a smokescreen to keep that American people polarized so we don't realize that they are screwing us all royally. Best post in the Filibuster ever. I'm not kidding, either.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 04:59 PM) IF big oil is able to crossover to big energy, then maybe. But at $100 a barrel, big oil is going to continue the status quo as long as possible. It's interesting to note that as oil has gotten to $80, $90, and now near $100, "big oil" is starting to lose money on the actual costs of refining, etc. These prices are too high even for them.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 03:27 PM) I read an article several months back. It described a process for cleaning sulfer out of the emissions from using high sulfer coal. The way it worked was that the smoke from the coal would be filtered through algea before being released into the atmosphere. The algea supposedly thrived under these conditions and and therefore replicated like yeast does. Then the algea was to be used to produce biofuel. I guess it made too much sense for it to get consideration as a possible alternative energy source, because I haven't heard anything about it since. Ain't that the truth.