chenGOD

Did you order from Pizzeria Autechre lately?I have it on the highest authority everything from that particular pizzeria smells lush.

No, they were just one off lectures.

What were the choices?? The choices were: "Institutionalizing Trust: Early Tokugawa Policy and Formation of Peasant Villages" or "Workers or Consumers? A Survey Experiment on the Duality of Citizens' Interests in the Politics of Trade" I chose the second one, fucking total waste of time. His speaking was awful and his methodology was crap.

I had to choose between two special lectures today related to Japan, totally chose the wrong one. Sad chen wasted time :(

Best part of the episode.

They've already got GOTG2 announced on imdb...

Or just avoid the sex? should be easy here...

Well, like I said, my insurance covered most of this cleaning, and I've heard too many horror stories about student dentists. I don't think we can get that ish for free here either - at least not at my school. And since I don't think people should do work for free, I'm not inclined to abuse that...(i'm trying to find paid internships for my program...lol).

Feel free to send me money to go to the dentist more often. :)

Yeah exactly - some bone loss, (which is irreversible given our current technology), but doc is hopeful that the gum can reattach itself. I don't want to have to see a specialist!! I suppose now is as good a time as any to quit smoking (which is only part-time anyways).

Went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning, as I'd put it off way too long. Now my gums are sore as fuck cause of all the plaque and tartar the hygienist had to take off. And she's only done 3/4 of the bottom set of teeth, must go back to finish the bastards off in a fortnight. Good news is my school insurance paid for most of it, and I only have one small cavity. So part FWS, but goddamn are my gums sore.

Trying to give an actual fuck about this brief literature review I'm writing.

Pretty much this. One fucking idiot I work with thought fucking 'arry would have been a good replacement to fergie. If anyone plays the wings more than fergie it would be old 'arry.

Fucking 2-2 at home to the bottom of the table Fulham. Can we please trade moyes for a CM?

Who says La Liga isn't physical. fucking lol, the superbowl is over guys.

I think i understand your point, however, there are many cases where people are not really actually surviving on minimum wage. And if you're someone who is at the top, you should be concerned with that. Relative poverty is a bitch to deal with psychologically. I don't really think it's a sense of entitlement to want to be able to save money and not live paycheck to paycheck, or to ask for benefits, especially when corporate management is making huge profit off the labour of others (note to delet: this is not slavery ;) ). It's also imperative to realize that while you certainly did work hard to get where you are, others who are working these menial jobs are working hard as well (seriously, flip burgers in a busy McDonalds and tell me its not hard work). Going a step beyond that, whose job provides more intrinsic value, that of the plumber or that of the accountant? While it's certainly possible to make a shit-ton of money doing manual labour (my brother made close to $400,000 as an electrician in 2013 - yes working in the oil-fields north of Fort Mac), it's not the norm. Now the idealist in me says that all members of our society should be accorded the same rights and privileges. While the realist in me says that will obviously never happen, it doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to lift everyone to live in relative comfort. After all, we are all humans, and should all be afforded dignity. edit: this article about relative wealth is a fantastic read: http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/02/03/how-sam-polk-former-wall-street-trader-and-wealth-addict-broke-free-of-his-golden-handcuffs/

^^FLOL

Krugman makes a pretty convincing argument for raising the minimum wage, and puts to rest the productivity issue as well (I'll give you a clue - Germany :) ) Sorry if I came off as snarky, just tying in HDI with the income inequality seems a little a disingenuous - there's little relationship there. HDI relates obviously to overall health of an economy, and I definitely agree that poor people in developed countries are very well off relative to people who live on under a dollar a day.

Stephen: yes of course we have choices, and many of us make choices that are detrimental to our immediate well-being. We fail to maximize our utility. I actually agree with pafr (I just tend not to assume they are all "fucktards"(is that the technical term?) and there are many factors at play), education about debt and how credit works is very important. The income inequality issue is something that is completely different from HDI (which has obviously not been trending upwards for hundreds of years, as the HDI was only created in 1990). And for developed (first world, global north, whatever term you want to use for the economically well off countries) nations, those sorts of indicators have actually plateaued in most cases, and in the US has gone down. The reason of course that it's gone down is because inequality is now factored into the HDI. Income inequality is a huge problem, like I stated earlier, it is my opinion that in developed nations it is the most important issue we face (although it has become an issue in China, which is still a developing nation). Raising the minimum wage would have a huge impact, and it should be raised by some amount right now (variable per country) and then tied to inflation thereafter.

What an awfully empathic view you have of people in lower income brackets. "fucktards" indeed.

Slavery in a modern context relates to the plight of slaves taken from their home lands against their will, their culture systematically destroyed, people beaten and raped, locked up at night so they couldn't run away, and not getting paid for doing backbreaking labour from which they saw no benefit. Regarding Roman slaves - lifted straight from wikipedia (as a basic source): Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), torture, and summary execution. Now you of course are referring to this part: A Roman slave could hold property which, despite the fact that it belonged to their master, they were allowed to use as if it were their own.[2] Skilled or educated slaves were allowed to earn their own money, and might hope to save enough to buy their freedom. [so note that the property belonged to their master, who could presumably legally seize it at any time, with no legal recourse for the slave] Compare that to flipping burgers in a McDonalds if you will (as that is the common depiction of a "wage slave"). Such a person gets the ability to go home at the end of the day, vote in elections, own property (without it being seized by a master), has legal protection regarding working hours and conditions, etc. etc. I find it ironic that you would refer to the co-opting of language and not realize the hypocrisy of your position. Now if you want to discuss income inequality, by all means - I'm all about it. It is the defining issue of our time, moreso than anything else, in my opinion. But using hyperbole is a childish, attention-seeking ploy that serves no good in terms of rational discussion. Furthermore, the comparison provides a great disservice to those who suffered under actual slavery. Finally, I'd thank you to kindly not make assumptions about what I think regarding a topic, because you generally end up looking like an ass. PAFR: "inability to manage your own spending and earning". Only one of those do you have an actual ability to manage on a mostly individual level - spending. The other, wages, is a complex series of negotiations that involves many actors.

People who compare wage inequality to slavery. Really?

Picture taken with Ron Jeremy today.

Nah, just straight up shabby. He was wearing green crocs that looked like they were from 2007 and had been worn every day since.

I said hello from a respectful distance. I don't want to catch anything from being in the same air space as him. He looks like a kind homeless person.