Everything posted by Texsox
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Sox officially sign Rodon
QUOTE (beautox @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 11:48 AM) hes ambidextrous I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous
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Orphans at our door
QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 07:27 PM) That is much, much higher than I'd have intuited. And it is a key reason why I always objected to the "fry the employer" approach. Detecting an illegal worker isn't as easy as it sounds. Plus. many have been here for decades. It is also a reason why the government loves illegals from a budget standpoint. Despite what most people believe they are less likely to apply for any benefits. All the input, non of the output.
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Technology catch-all thread
QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 07:21 PM) I like it a lot, despite big brother now owning and mining my data from it, but do know that Honeywell has a really good competing product out for it now. But all in all I'm happy with it. Easy to use, collects usage data for me so I know how much I used my heat or ac on any given day (and why, such as an extremely hot day), and remote usage, too. I often shut off my ac or heat when I'm on vacation and I can kick it on via my phone before I get home so I walk into a comfortable house. I'd recommend it or the new Honeywell that does much of the same. Does it do the day to day stuff well? We turn off our AC when we leave and turn it back on when we get home.
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Orphans at our door
QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 08:05 AM) Can you back up the claim "Most"? Because I would have guessed it was actually a very small fraction of them. Oh, and our immigration system hates $75k workers too. I was speaking based on "people talk, you hear things" but here are a couple links that may be proof. http://cis.org/IdentityTheft 75% or so according to this source. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/world/am...ed=all&_r=0 Dated I know An article on how this actually helps SS http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0090202673.html
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Technology catch-all thread
QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 04:19 PM) Me. Is it worth it?
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Technology catch-all thread
Anyone have a Nest thermostat?
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Abreu 1 of 2 players considered for final HR derby spot
On another Sox note, the Sox bullpen has been selected to pitch the homerun derby!
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Job Hunt Thread
QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 01:18 PM) You drive slow. I'm on the far west side of SA. 85 miles to 6th Street. So yeah, just over an hour. Plus. I have to stop at Buc-ees
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Job Hunt Thread
QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 10:33 AM) Had a phone interview with Baxter labs yesterday and they scheduled a face to face interview for next Tuesday. The problem, it's in f***ing Round Lake, IL. straight. f***ing. boonies. I plotted a metra course but it only gets me 3.0 miles away from the lab. Anyone live out or near this area that could give me tips? I grew up out that way. Not at "boonies" as you might imagine. But it is "need a car land".
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Job Hunt Thread
QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 10:18 PM) I'm late to the party, but congrats! I just happened to notice that on the first page of this entire thread, you mentioned that you wanted to end up closer to Austin. Glad you were able to make it happen. San Antonio is only about an hour from Austin, isn't it? Longer than that but not too bad.
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30% of Black Men Without College Educations
Whites 12% And 30% is about the lowest estimate I read. How can we be supporting that many people in prison?
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30% of Black Men Without College Educations
Today's selection -- from On the Run by Alice Goffman. The high rates of imprisonment in the United States. "The number of people imprisoned in the United States remained fairly stable for most of the twentieth century, at about one person for every thousand in the population. In the 1970s this rate began to rise, and continued a steep upward climb for the next thirty years. By the 2000s, the number of people behind bars stood at a rate never before seen in US history: about 1 for every 107 people in the adult population.' The United States currently imprisons five to nine times more people than western European nations, and significantly more than China and Russia. Roughly 3 percent of adults in the nation are now under correctional supervision: 2.2 million people in prisons and jails, and an additional 4.8 million on probation or parole. In modern history, only the forced labor camps of the former USSR under Stalin approached these levels of penal confinement. "The fivefold increase in the number of people sitting in US jails and prisons over the last forty years has prompted little public outcry. In fact, many people scarcely notice this shift, because the growing numbers of prisoners are drawn disproportionately from poor and segregated Black communities. Black people make up 13 percent of the US population, but account for 37 percent of the prison population. Among Black young men, one in nine are in prison, compared with less than 2 percent of white young men. These racial differences are reinforced by class differences. It is poor Black young men who are being sent to prison at truly astounding rates: approximately 60 percent of those who did not finish high school will go to prison by their mid thirties. ... "The tough-on-crime era ushered in a profound change in how the United States manages ghettoized areas of its cities. For most of the twentieth century, the police ignored poor and segregated Black neighborhoods such as [Philadelphia's] 6th Street. Between the 1930s and the 1980s, an era which saw the Great Migration, restrictive racial housing covenants, the Civil Rights Movement, growing unemployment, the erosion of social services, an expanding drug trade, and the departure of much of the Black middle class from the poor and segregated areas of major cities, reports from firsthand observers paint the police in segregated Black neighborhoods as uninterested, absent, and corrupt. "This began to change in the 1960s, when riots in major cities and a surge in violence and drug use spurred national concern about crime, particularly in urban areas. The number of police officers per capita increased dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century in cities nationwide. In Philadelphia between 1960 and 2000, the number of police officers increased by 69 percent, from 2.76 officers for every 1,000 citizens to 4.66 officers. The 1980s brought stronger drug laws and steeper sentences. In the 1990s, the tough-on-crime movement continued, with urban police departments across the nation adopting what became known as zero-tolerance policing, and then CompStat to track their progress. "For many decades, the Philadelphia police had turned a fairly blind eye to the prostitution, drug dealing, and gambling that went on in poor Black communities. But in the late 1980s, they and members of other urban police forces began to refuse bribes and payoffs. In fact, corruption seems to have been largely eliminated as a general practice, at least in the sense of people working at the lower levels of the drug trade paying the police to leave them in peace. Also during this period, large numbers of people were arrested for using or possessing drugs, and sent to jails and prisons. "The crackdown on the drug economy in poor Black neighborhoods came at the same time that welfare reform cut the assistance that poor families received and the length of time they could receive it. As welfare support evaporated, the War on Drugs arrested those seeking work in the drug trade on a grand scale. "By 2000, the US prison population swelled to five times what it had been in the early 1970s. An overwhelming majority of men going to prison are poor, and a disproportionate number are Black. Today, 30 percent of Black men without college educations have been to prison by their midthirties. One in four Black children born in 1990 had an imprisoned father by the time he or she turned fourteen." On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries) Author: Alice Goffman Publisher: University Of Chicago Press Copyright 2014 by The University of Chicago Pages: xi, 2-3 If you wish to read further: Buy Now If you use the above link to purchase a book, delanceyplace proceeds from your purchase will benefit a children's literacy project. All delanceyplace profits are donated to charity.
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Weird Cold War Stuff
From an email list I subscribe to http://NowIKnow.com
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High School Parents Trying to Ban Book
Huge bump, but I've thought about this thread several times in the past five years. I've wondered how my opinion may have changed since I've been teaching English literature for several years now. It hasn't, in fact I could probably build an even stronger case now. There are certain requirements or concepts that are required to be taught and those never mention a specif work. At most there are genre requirements. Teachers use materials to teach that requirement. So substituting a different novel would not be a problem. I've had parents contact me about class novels, particularly Homeboyz with all the profanity (f***, b****, etc) that I've been using in 8th grade. So far each parent has been cool with it after we have had an opportunity to discuss why it is being used. Today I would substitute another novel in a heartbeat *and* get the parent involved in discussing the alternate novel with their child. Then I am certain one kid actually reads the material. I will be teaching concurrent enrollment classes in 2015/16 so I will be in the exact same position as this. I wonder how LCR is doing as a teacher.
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Latest Atrocity; Guy in Georgia
QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) If this guy did it, I hope they have more evidence on him than Google searches. If so, he deserves a special kind of hell and everything the system can throw at him, but as damningly circumstantial as that is, I'd be uncomfortable finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on only that. And that sums up our legal system. I agree totally. I couldn't image being falsely accused of this crime on top of losing my child.
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Technology catch-all thread
QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) Yes! I use Frontpoint and couldnt be happier. Thanks Rock, I'll check it out.
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Technology catch-all thread
The house I am buying is not wired for a security system which we will be installing as one of the first projects. I've been researching wireless systems and thinking about integrating with other home technology both current and what seems to be coming over the next 3-5 years. Thoughts? Experiences?
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Technology catch-all thread
My personal account is with DropBox, my work account uses Google Drive, I had signed up for an Evernote account years ago, HP included some Cloud storage offer with my then new computer. So now I have crap all over the place. I use Dropbox the most and it has become my default. I rarely store anything on my computer anymore it all goes to Dropbox.
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Latest Atrocity; Guy in Georgia
If this was indeed premeditated, the parents knew exactly what the child was experiencing hour by hour that day. That level of depravity is beyond my comprehension.
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Bought a House
Home inspection in a couple hours.
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Latest Atrocity; Guy in Georgia
The circumstantial evidence keep mounting against the guy and possibly his wife. I'd rather be the prosecutor than the defense attorney on this one.
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Bought a House
The last time I financed a home purchase the interest rate was above 10%. I like seeing sub 3.5%
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Bought a House
We're deciding between a canoe or kayaks
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Bought a House
QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) You're gonna miss the ocean more than anything. A dirty river is a poor substitute. The gain is being much closer to Big Bend National Park. But, yes, the surfing really sucks on the river lol
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Bought a House
We're moving to San Antonio and spent the past couple weekends looking at homes. We fell in love with a slightly smaller 3/2.5 that had an amazing city lot. We will be in a gated area on a cul de sac. The lot is pie shaped with the house pushed way to the front leaving almost no front yard but a very large back yard. The original owners had planted an awesome garden. As I was walking through the garden I saw an engraved stone that read Willie and Bills Garden (the missing apostrophe was annoying). It went on the market Saturday and at 2:00 pm we were the sixth showing. We went back Sunday and by then close to twenty people had toured the home. We were told they would be taking offers until 5 pm Monday. My wife is very practical and wasn't going to get in a bidding war. We offered close to the asking price which was in line with the comps for the area. We did make one demand of the seller; we asked for a history of the garden, planting guide, and any other information that would be important to maintaining the garden. That got us the house over the high bidder. Their Realtor mentioned to our Realtor that when they were reviewing the offers our request and interest in the garden moved us to the top even though another person offered more money. Another factor in the decision while so many people were viewing the house, Bill passed away. They were an older couple and they were only moving because Bill was dying. My wife loves to garden and I love stories, so this house works great for us.