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This was brought up in pm to me that maybe some of the members of the forum would like to know about the USA from a native's perspective. You never really know a culture unless you grow up in it. For instance, I and many of my fellow citizens have a hard time understanding some of China's ways. Of course we have to take into allowance that we may not be getting the real feel of culture from our media. But those who live in a country are the ones that best understand it.
I may not be the typical citizen as far as I don't live in the big city. I live in a small village or town, every small. I also live in an arid climate and this is our rainy season which won't last much longer. All of these environmental differences make huge disparities in how someone sees their world and what they do to adjust to it.
But if you have questions, ask away. Some I probably won't know the answer to, some may mean something different to me than to my peers.
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It is a very precious idea to have something like "Questions and answers about USA"! But I'll add some directions to the people, who may ask here:
- 1. Don't ask private questions like: 'What's your real name?', 'Where do you live?', 'What do you work?', etc. It's nothing to do with the US. Just ask about the states, the country, not about the personal things.
- 2. Avoid blaming 'questions' like why their government did something abroad (or didn't do). I suppose Mojo is not a part of the government and I'm pretty sure he or another one never will be 100% supporter of all the politics of the government, no matter what nationality/citizenship is he: US, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Mongolia...
(And the regular visitors and members know that we don't like to comment political issues here, because we think there are other much more positive, creative and useful topics to discuss, learn and explore. And none of us is a professional politologist, so I doubt a political debate may bring something precious around.) - Mojo already mentioned it -- he may answer from his point of views and his perspective. It's not necessary his answers to cover each and every point of view over there. We will appreciate his answers as such, so I hope we'll not have a case like: "Mojo, my brother lives in America and he said you're wrong!!!" :( Just respect the right of the unique own point of view and, if you want to add something, you're welcome, but add it POLITELY!
- If you have many questions, please ask one by one. :)
I have one first question. It's "Explain to me like I'm 5" style, i.e. simple answer: Is that true that the citizens in the US do not vote directly for the presidents? At first the parties make internal votes and then they nominate their candidates, and after this the citizens vote for a few nominated? I want to know it as a simple scheme -- what exactly are voting the ordinary people in the presidential elections? (I'm interested in the procedure from a politological point of view, not from a political, and that's all.)
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I suggested this thread and I'm glad to see that Mojo started it by himself!
A quick question, because today we have to work in another town and I'll be not so free this afternoon: How many policemen do you have in your town? Something like 1-2 or 5-10, 20-30 (approximately)? (And a subquestion: What is the attitude towards the police in your area? Is it more positive, more negative or mostly neutral? How do you feel about it?)
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Do you have some folk or traditional 'Northerners'-'Southerners' opposition there like the one in China? What's the difference between a 'typical Northerner' and a 'typical Southerner', if there is? And what about 'East side'-'West side'? Is it only in the culture (music) or there are some stereotypes like 'Easterners'-'Westerners'?
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We've got the same about China. Welcome there to ask about China when you want: http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/social-network-seo-social-network/questions-(and-answers-probably)-about-china/
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To start out with, if you ask out-of-bounds questions I would and will simply tell you that. You don't get private personal info as I am a highly private person and very concious of these things. An old saying is "No one will guard your privacy for you if you won't".
On the political aspects, I might answer for me, I can't answer for a nation of individuals.
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Is that true that the citizens in the US do not vote directly for the presidents?
Yes that is true. The system was originally set up back in the days of Washington to prevent landless people from taking over the government. It was the belief at the time if you owned land you had a self interest in the nation's well being.
So the process goes like this. A crowd of politicians all want to be president from both parties. So an election is held to single out 1 candidate from each party or if the votes are spilt two from a party. During this time the votes made don't actually count directly. You have electoric representatives that cast the vote according to the majority votes in their district. Superdelegates are not bound by this and can vote either as a party wish, their personal wish, or by some other guidelines but this is regulated by each state, whether superdelegates exist and what their limits are. (My personal feeling on this is I am pissed about it because it nullifies your vote.) It is my suspicion it was set up to prevent run-a-way voting from taking party power away.
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How many policemen do you have in your town?
I have no earthly idea. Crap I don't even know where the jail is. But it is rare to see the local cops unless something is going on. There's a state tropper substation in this town but you rarely see them present unless they are having some sort of work meeting, then all you'll see are the marked cars parked outside. Other than that, I've actually talked to a local cop maybe twice in 6 years. Both times concerned an incident with my neighbor but wasn't something I was involved in.
When bad weather was coming through one of the locals used my driveway to turn around and backed into the neighbors ditch and had to call a wrecker to get it out. I came out in the rain to offer him some coffee if he wished it. I'd nothing to gain from it nor was I in any sort of trouble but it was the right thing to do. I've never really had problems with the police. They've better things to do than be concerned with someone like me.
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Do you have some folk or traditional 'Northerners'-'Southerners' opposition there like the one in China? What's the difference between a 'typical Northerner' and a 'typical Southerner', if there is? And what about 'East side'-'West side'? Is it only in the culture (music) or there are some stereotypes like 'Easterners'-'Westerners'?
There's some of it but not what you would think if you were to see the mainstream media over it. Traditionally, the northern parts paid more for labor than the southern parts. There are different accents, slang, even attitudes, because the environment is different. But it's not a huge barrier. It's not like there are different languages, only the words used might mean slightly different.
One place I lived at called a hamburger a 'maderight'. If you ordered a hamburger they would know what you wanted and at the same time know you were from out of the region. It had to do with the local culture of the region. That's about the hardest part of the language in differences. Most of the northern/southern/eastern/western is not really about conflict. It's more about folks wanting to stand out and feel special about their particular area of the country. Of course there are the few odd balls and they are the ones that grab the news media's attention.
There are distinct differences in some of the regional cultures, such as New Orleans. But it's more the outside presentation than the anything else for the tourists. They never really get outside the area to see the real folk and what that would mean.
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Very, very good and full answers! :o I can learn so much new information reading them. I also like your way to separate the content with signs like
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It gives me personal feeling like I read a beautiful book. 8)
I think you are already one of our best ever contributors and if someday we have some big advertisement income, I'll lobby for you to get a fair part of it. It's not a friendly joke. I mean it. I can explain what is my view of "big advertisement income": we heard and we read online that, when a website is getting popular enough, then the rich companies are probably eager to connect with you and to offer you some good advertisement cooperation (simply like: "I will pay you $ 1000 for a banner in the headers or $ 800 for the banner in the footers of your website." and then I think nobody will be against our best contributors as you to get a reasonable part of the money.)
And this helps me to ask you my question now:
USD 100 is it a good cash right now in the US? Can you give me some examples what you can buy currently with USD 100 in your town? How many kilograms of potatoes or tomatoes equals it? Or how many hamburgers? (I read somewhere that the hamburger was something like an unit to measure the incomes around the world. :) ). Is it enough to have a romantic dinner in some of your local restaurants? How many beers for USD 100? I'm interested to compare the standards.
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Yes, of course. As one of the most fruitful contributors, he should deserve a part of the capital. The only problem is this capital is still a possibility, not a reality. :)
Which US company/institution are you most proud of? I know some people (including non-US citizens), who admire most NASA. For me -- it's Google. If you have to pick up one (or two), which one/ones you will?
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USD 100 is it a good cash right now in the US? Can you give me some examples what you can buy currently with USD 100 in your town? How many kilograms of potatoes or tomatoes equals it? Or how many hamburgers? (I read somewhere that the hamburger was something like an unit to measure the incomes around the world.
When I go to the bank, I always ask for $20's, not $100's. Why? Because all the merchants are now crazy about checking for counterfeit bills. If they find one you get to keep it. No one, not the merchant, not the bank, will own up to passing a counterfeit bill by accident. So you are stuck with it. Most of the time they are going to call the cops for attempted counterfeiting. Smaller bills aren't checked so much but big ones are almost always checked.
Fresh vegetables are cheap here. Much cheaper than processed foods, canned goods, butchered meats. There has been a perfect storm on the meat side, causing prices to sky rocket. Drought has brought about a lack of hay to feed livestock in the winter. Rather than see their stock starve to death, the ranchers sold in mass. Now all the herds are at low levels with little being sold. As a consequence, feed stores have had to put up fences around their hay storage places to keep thieves from taking it in the night. In a matter of a few months, hay became gold. It will take a few years before the herds are back up to normal sizes.
Pigs have been hit with some sort of virus, causing die offs. So pork has been in the higher prices too. Less on the market means more expensive.
Every one went to chicken. As a result of greater increases in chicken demand, guess what happened to chicken prices?
I think right now a 20# roll of hamburger is around $25-$30 depending on where you go to shop.
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I never came looking for money. Perhaps I've mentioned it before that I have a long history with forums going back to the 90's. So as far as how to post, how to lay out a post, that's sort of like breathing air. After this amount of time it comes naturally. For the now my problem is getting used to the forum software and how to make use of it's features. Given time that will be accomplished.
One of the things you folks here have going for you, is a simple thing that makes people feel they belong. It's so easy doing this that most never figure it out. If you want people to feel part of a place what you do is accept them as part of the group. Just being welcoming through acceptance is a forum binder for people. Most never really realize that. It's been a tool in my on-line tool box for many a year and it works well.
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Which US company/institution are you most proud of? I know some people (including non-US citizens), who admire most NASA. For me -- it's Google. If you have to pick up one (or two), which one/ones you will?
No brainer here for me. I'll give you a little of my history as to why. I was born in Florida and lived there until my adulthood. I saw many a truck on the highway with stuff headed to Cape Canaveral. Just my folks going some where and you'd see it on the road all the time. During my school years, when ever NASA shot astronauts up, we would be allowed to go out in the school yard and watch them go up. You could see the vapor trail from there. Saw every astronaut launch till around 1969 or so. Got a not so friendly letter from Uncle Sam saying how you doing? We're requesting your presence at the recruiting station. I was drafted into the military. You and I have had part of this discussion before. *smiles*
I've been to Cape Canaveral way back when. When on one of the tourism guide tours. Had an unlce that worked for them with computer maintenance. He was to later go to the Texas facility for the same. Didn't ever have much contact with him because he always lived somewhere too far away to visit very often. He died some years ago, I am sad to say. Old age comes to us all.
But NASA would be my choice.
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Every mojo's answer is very good indeed! I ask: Isn't it a bit complicated and sort of dangerous, when you are in another state, where the laws may be very different from what you used to in your state? How people know what are the laws in the different states? Is there some procedure everyone to be informed for the major laws?
This is interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state If you have a legal weapon and you travel around the country and... what if you arrive in a state, where your weapon is already illegal? Are there some informations between the states/borders like "Welcome to X state! Take a look at our major laws!"
I can't imagine how one can know, learn, remember and keep so many laws. :o :o
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I ask: Isn't it a bit complicated and sort of dangerous, when you are in another state, where the laws may be very different from what you used to in your state? How people know what are the laws in the different states? Is there some procedure everyone to be informed for the major laws?
Boy have you hit on one of the flaws of this nation. It's probably way more complicated than what hits you at first impression. Take for example Louisiana. Lousiana has some of our more historic places along with laws to match. Unlike the rest of the nation, Louisiana laws are based on what is termed Napoleonic, meaning that a lot of their basics for laws come from earlier French laws.
I lived once in Mississippi. One of their laws at the time was no weapon could be concealed. Now here is the tricky part. You lay a handgun down in the seat, you can't see the bottom side resting on the seat... in other words, it's concealed. This was the gotcha law when nothing else could be found against you to take you in for some reason or to justify searching your vehicle due to valid suspicion that would hold up in court. I once asked a highway patrol officer about this and his answer was to suspend it from the mirror by a string. At the time I had a sort of western 6 shooter style pistol with once of those long barrels that made it look more like a rifle than a pistol but you weren't going to hide it because of that. It was a small caliber 22 used for can plinking and not much else. It doesn't have stopping power to be used on anyone or any animal.
I have a shotgun now and it's the only weapon I have. I bought it one time as an impluse buy and probably haven't fired more than 6 shells out of it since I purchased it 20 years ago. It sits in the closet unloaded. It's no danger to anyone.
Often these state laws are used to trap the unwary. Even if you knew the local law, you can't practice it for a living, you have to be licensed as a lawyer to do so. But there are unscrupulous places that prey upon the traveler and passer through. I could tell you a story or two about those.
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Since I can't edit there is something I would like to add to my last reply. One would probably question why I had a weapon at all if it is used that little. I've made mention before that I don't live in the big city. During various times of the year, it is not uncommon for porcupines, skunks, wild hogs, deer, and other critters to wander into the yard at night. I have two outside dogs that discourage what was once a major theft area. Those dogs have convinced them to go to other easier places.
Skunks carry rabies and you are not going to get close to a rabid skunk without endangering your life. For wild hogs, my father carried for the rest of his life, the results of meeting one. He had a tusk cut on one of his legs about 10 inches long where the hog gored him. I have two apple trees in my yard I planted. One of them last year was visited by a group of hogs who stripped 1/2 the bark off the tree and I am not sure it will recover. It would not have been a welcome sight to be wandering in my own yard at night and come up on them. There would have been no where near by to run to for safety. It is not uncommon for me to find deer tracks in the yard. Hawks, owls, and the occasional bat are seen as well from my place, just looking around. Quail can be heard as well as doves come in for water from the dog water containers. Hummingbirds are hilarious to watch in the spring and late summer as they fight to protect their food supply from others coming to feed at the feeder as well as from all the wild flowers that grow here. Plus there are other birds that come in year after year to make a nest and raise their young here.
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I imagine it's almost like different countries. I remember some scary stories about it -- a foreign couple was arrested in a Muslim-Arab country, because they did the illegal kissing on the beach. I found it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267778/Couple-jailed-year-kissing-Dubai-beach--despite-male-defendant-claim-giving-friend-CPR-suffered-asthma-attack.html
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It's a very natural place -- so many animals! For comparison: here around me I, except the insects, I can notice only some birds, bats, rats and (rare) some cat, i.e. mostly urban fauna.
A question-idea: is it legal to set up an electric fence around your yard?
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a foreign couple was arrested in a Muslim-Arab country, because they did the illegal kissing on the beach.
You wouldn't have that trouble unless the kissing became intense along with a demonstrated desire to continue in public with the rest of the act it leads to. Just expressing affection in public will raise little in the line of interest.
One of the odd ball laws that have been being used by prosecutors is sexting. Where school kids encourage young ladies to take naked selfies and then send them to the requester. Often those get passed around between friends. But it violates child porn laws. Many have been arrested and charged with either making pedophilia materials or distributing them. This under current laws makes them a sexual predator by legal definition and gives them a life long mark on their records of being a pedophile. In many states once being found guilty, they are required to register with the state and keep the state updated on where they live. A public list is published of those. Those found guilty then have a difficult time the rest of their lives finding good jobs, housing, or any sort of security requiring job. It's plainly over reach by prosecutors to run up a successful career.
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is it legal to set up an electric fence around your yard?
I could do so without incident. The key here would be to hang signs stating it was electrified. Getting a package from UPS or FEDEX might be a problem then. I have a couple of pastures for horses and mules across the street from me.
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Thank you for your answering! When I read about the laws and I got a question about the illegal immigration to the United States. Do you think the Mexican immigrants are so many and is it a real problem or just some people freak out about the Mexicans? Is this immigration comparable with the current one in Europe?
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Do you think the Mexican immigrants are so many and is it a real problem or just some people freak out about the Mexicans? Is this immigration comparable with the current one in Europe?
This will be an opinion answer. My opinion may not fit with others. In ways, it is similar but not at the same volume that Europe is dealing with. Most of what I read they are seeing are juveniles coming in to get away from the gangs and drug ring influences. From what I read, there's not much future there for young people. Their choices being join a gang or join with a drug ring. Neither are considered healthy for long life.
The US is losing jobs and has been bleeding them away for the 20 years or so. Various trade treaties that favor the corporations do not favor the American worker but rather put their jobs in competition with other labor markets who can do so at lower wages. So you see lots of offshoring jobs, the cost of labor being seen as another cost the same as materials. Very carefully what is stated about unemployment fails to mention that the majority of the jobs created are low wage, limited hours, when they are available. Now throw into this mix, immigrants willing to work for lower wages that the average American worker can not afford to work at and maintain a family living expenses. It creates resentment. The working middle class has been gutted and then saddled with increasing taxes to make up for the decrease from a lack of jobs. This in part is what is driving the voter revolt in this cycle's elections. The public tends to call this part of the elections the 'silly season'. Meaning there is no telling what you will hear and it is often not grounded in reality or the reality is so thin as to be stretched completely out of proportion.
What it appears to be is that South American countries are sending their young for economical benefit, which isn't one of the recognized, allowable immigration acceptance policies. Some countries such as Cuba have a standing acceptance policy. If you make it to the US border and are from Cuba then there are set programs in place for them. Financial aid, education aid, housing benefits among them. With the warming of reactions with Cuba, there are reports that many are coming in from Mexico to be with families they have been separated from for a long time. The amount coming in has increased quite a bit from what I've read as the Cubans are afraid with the warming of diplomatic relations these aid programs will be cut.
The majority of Mexicans and Latinos don't have the same aid packages waiting. The issue now is the uncontrolled mass migrations coming in are also seeing a few of the Middle East attempting to come in through that way. Whether that is the truth or propaganda to stir people up over the lack of border controls is the question. The US is well known to use the media for it's own purposes to distribute such propaganda to push their own agendas. You often have to take what you hear in main stream media with a huge grain of salt and ask yourself who benefits. Chances are very good, only the government in some form of control. Americans have been lied to so long from their government that many don't totally trust what they hear anymore.
To quote Ronald Regan:
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
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The US is well known to use the media for it's own purposes to distribute such propaganda to push their own agendas. You often have to take what you hear in main stream media with a huge grain of salt and ask yourself who benefits. Chances are very good, only the government in some form of control. Americans have been lied to so long from their government that many don't totally trust what they hear anymore.
I think this is a common problem all around the world.
I want to know about the atmosphere in your town: is it something like in the serial "Twin Peaks" (like: a school, some restaurants, a hotel and beautiful nature), or asking in another more realistic way: is it something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Bend,_Washington ?
(I only want to have a common imagination. Please, everyone, notice that I don't ask WHICH or WHERE is his town. I even don't ask about the state. "Twin Peaks" is one of my favorite films/serials and I liked the warm atmosphere in that fiction, so now I want to know if Mojo's place is something like this. The link above is about North Bend -- one of the filming locations of the serial "Twin Peaks".)
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I think this is a common problem all around the world.
Actually there was a law that prevented this from being done in the media. (http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/06/first-time-since-1948-propaganda-is-now-legal-in-the-u-s/) Obama got that law changed to make it legal to put out the same sort of propaganda as what was used in the Radio America stations domestically.
The town you have linked to is used because it is photogenic for the movies. The town I live in was created during the railroad days of the wild west. It is neither photogenic nor particularly noteworthy. It's more a lazy town because the heat of the summer, no one really wants to get out in it if they don't have to. During the dog days of summer you can quite literally fry an egg on the sidewalk.
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(http://s14.radikal.ru/i187/1603/29/6b8484923930.jpg)
These temps are in F. This is a shot from my old weather station before it bit the dust. I not have a new one.
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Thank you for the answer and for this interesting photo! So, the good side is probably you haven't any mold problem there? If you want to imagine most of our apartments, houses, buildings around (during the period between winter and spring, especially) -- any of these pictures http://cn.bing.com/images/search?q=mold+walls&qpvt=mold+walls&qpvt=mold+walls&FORM=IGRE may give you a good representation of the problem. It's very humid here and we have to use bleach every year to make the walls back to normal.
And again about your place: is it that small that everyone knows you and you're sort of no 100% private life over there? I was born in a small town and there usually people know who are you, where you were, where do you live and even who do you like sometimes. ;D So, I feel this is sometimes sweet, but sometimes annoying.
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We have other problems that would probably make you prefer the mold.
Rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, scorpions, among them. Scorpions are particularly hard to deal with. They follow their food supply which are ants. Ants are everywhere. The ants come looking for food, for water, for coolness out of the sun. Scorpions follow. Scorpions can flatten themselves to come in through the smallest of cracks, such as through a light switch cover, a gap in the door seal, a small piece of ill fitting carpentry is enough. Once in, they are subject to be anywhere. I've found two here. One on the ceiling, one on curtains.They are beige in color and hide well. One trick to find them is a black light as they fluoresce under it.
If you get bit by a scorpion, you in nearly all cases won't die, you'll just be really, really, sick for some few days. You pick up nothing in the yard without expecting to see them.
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Maybe you mean this:
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
It's one of my favorite, because I like to review my posts, if while I type someone already answered or added something. I hope you can like it. :P
A reply to the one you posted right now (the scorpions and stuff): I feel you there are like in many places in Australia. According to my small experience, I think from all the developed countries (Britain, Canada, New Zealand, France, USA, France, Japan, Holland and others), only in Australia you can deal with so many wild+dangerous+scary animals. But now... you... makes me like the mold more. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Be careful and take good care! It's not a joke to live in so wild nature environment. You are a hero. (Admiring!)
I got a useful one and I'm sure all our Chinese and other non-native Eng. speakers here (including our dear lurkers, who are 10 or 20 times more than us in a current period of time according to our public data, which you also may use, when you want to) will appreciate it: What is your short list of some important contemporary slangs and idioms of the American English? You may write for us some of those you use or/and you like personally. No need to be very 'academic'. :) :) Just like between friends. Teach us something about it, pls! :)
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I really think that our amazing Mojo and his lady should be careful, because it's not a small problem. And I confirm with my experience: I had a comparatively good chance to be abroad, when I was 12. That time (1987) it wasn't very easy people to leave Bulgaria, because except visas from the foreign country, we needed the so called 'exit visa', i.e. your country had to agree you to leave it. So, probably only 5-10% of the people went abroad, but I don't mean to criticize that time, because we had many other real socialistic benefits, which now are only a dream not only in Bulgaria, but also in the present so called socialist countries like Laos, Vietnam, China, North Korean and Cuba. I may explain more about it, if someone wish and now I will skip it, because it's not the point.
The point is about the scorpions. So, I had the almost unique chance to visit Libya (from all my other classmates only one -- Mariya went to US and showed us some 'Star Wars' stickers and another one -- Nikolay went to Algeria. So I was the 3rd one able to go abroad). So, in Libya, there are many scorpions. And the lesson I learned was: Check your shoes, because they like to go in the shoes!
When it comes to the idioms -- it was my 50 cents about it. (He-he, I hope I remember it correctly! : ) )
When Mojo has some free time: How do you like New Orleans? Is it really something like a "Little France"; is it a popular tourist destination? (I ask about it, because my TOP 3 interesting places in the US are: Hawaii, Alaska and Net Orleans.)
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An off-topic: About the lurkers (I prefer when we call them 'readers' and 'visitors'; the software calls them 'guests'), I have no doubts at all: right now I see this:
54 Guests, 2 Users (16 Spiders)
. From these 54 guests (i.e. lurkers/readers/visitors), even only 50% are non-bots, i.e. real visitors, it means that some quantity like 27 persons probably are reading around. It's not much, but it deserves some special attention. And, I suppose so, we're giving them this attention and the necessary respect. :)
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What is your short list of some important contemporary slangs and idioms of the American English?
There are so many that it would easily fill a book. I'm from the south, so southernese is spoken...errr...fluently. The redneck dictionary well understood.
One of my aunts, now dead, had the saying of 'I'll Suwanee'. It meant 'I'll be danged' but it was very a very local, out of time past slang. You see the Suwanee river was not very far away, making it more acceptable regionally but not in use outside that area.
(http://s019.radikal.ru/i638/1603/92/9317bfd19294.png)
This is a picture of the Suwanee River I've taken.
Another favorite is the word 'hosepipe'. This comes from the Mississippi state area. Mainly meaning a garden hose but what it is called by the locals.
Sometimes for the variety of it, I'll throw in a ya'll in the text or something of similar nature. I know it to be bad English but to flavor the text some is the reason. Ya'll is just slang for 'you all' crammed together into a conjunction. It's not proper English.
I have tons of these and if you are observant you will see them pass by from time to time.
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How do you like New Orleans? Is it really something like a "Little France"; is it a popular tourist destination?
Funny you should ask about that. I lived in Naw Orleans as the natives pronounce it. You have a lot of small towns that have all grown into one city. The tourist place you speak of is the French Quarter. I will have to hunt around as I have some images from those times. It is much like old Europe in flavor. Vehicle traffic is not allowed in the area with the exception of delivery trucks during the day, cop cars, and emergency vehicles. The streets are narrow, most of the older buildings have balconies to look down on street level. There are parks around, the Mississippi River is close by and can be walked to in a few blocks, there is an old building that used to be a beer brewery there (the Ajax building), lots of tourist places from tee shirt shops to hot sauce shops, no glass allowed in the area due to the cobblestones making a hazard for foot traffic.
Free concerts are often given, especially during the 4th of July and New Years Eve. Street side musicians are often found in unexpected places. During the 4th of July one of the attractions is the fireworks. The tradition there is to shoot them from barges on the river. It's called the Dueling Barges. All ship traffic is halted during this time, the music is provided by a local broadcast and comes in to the Riverwalk by speakers permanently in place.
It gets sort of wild during Marti Gras. People on the balconies courage young ladies to show their tits for bead neckless thrown to them after the happening. The crowds are shoulder to shoulder often, people drinking in the streets from plastic cups. Mostly the crowd is nothing but a happy go lucky type atmosphere. It's often a mark of status to have a huge cluster of necklesses on your neck within the crowd so you can guess the prettier ladies do fairly good at that. It's probably the only place I know of in the US with that sort of public street party.
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About the lurkers...
My pardon. From a staff view point it was often how do you get the 'guests' to become involved. There's an old internet rule of thumb, the 90/9/1 rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29).
So in most places I've been they were always referred to as 'lurkers' and through time it has become my standard term for the 'guests'. I'd not much given it a thought because of the long familiarity with the term.
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About the lurkers...
My pardon. From a staff view point it was often how do you get the 'guests' to become involved. There's an old internet rule of thumb, the 90/9/1 rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29).
So in most places I've been they were always referred to as 'lurkers' and through time it has become my standard term for the 'guests'. I'd not much given it a thought because of the long familiarity with the term.
Of course this term is pretty popular and probably it's not rude in English nowadays. I just try to use the best possible respective terms for them and at the same time, I don't mind how others call them, if the words are similar and respectful or neutral enough. (I never saw you being rude and I think you're mostly positive, so I'm far away from thinking that you're able to put some negative meaning in so common word.)
We discussed that 90-9-1 rule before in that other place, you know, and it's good to bring it here, too. :)
About the river: at first, I thought it's a photo of a river next to the town I was born. I can't find some really similar photo, but the nature is almost the same. I'll show just another photo of that river named Yantra: (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/%D0%91%D1%8F%D0%BB%D0%B0_-_%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8A%D1%82_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BE_%D0%A4%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BE.jpg/800px-%D0%91%D1%8F%D0%BB%D0%B0_-_%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8A%D1%82_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BE_%D0%A4%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BE.jpg)By Златко Кръстев (Zlatko Krastev) - Собствена творба, GPL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=917365
And I'd like to ask about the Hawaii: a man said there many people have to work 2-3 jobs, because 1 salary is not enough? Is that so? What do you know about the standard in that beautiful place? (If you don't know, just share your opinion about that state and I'll be glad to read it.) :)
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I'll ramble through this post. The Suwanee originally had a bridge over it for the Model A car (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_A_%281903%E2%80%9304%29). This car is marked by being very narrow between the axles. So the bridges were narrow too. Not suitable for a car of today's make.
New Orleans also has a bridge made in the same era. I've been over it many times and it gave me the willies every time. There is not enough room for a delivery truck and a car to pass each other on the 4 lane bridge (two in each direction). There are a pair of newer modern bridges that serve for most of the traffic but the Huey P. Long bridge was still very narrow at the time I lived there. Both bridges were of the steel beam truss type.
(http://s017.radikal.ru/i418/1603/b9/4803c8ad66e4.png)
Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans
(http://s017.radikal.ru/i425/1603/e9/7e9d652d8937.png)
The bridge over the Suwanee was torn down and a newer twin span put in it's place.
On the Hawaii part, I've never been there. However I had a couple friends a long time ago, one stationed there, one lived there and have another on-line friend from there today. The first thing I can tell you is that the islands are very expensive. This due to everything in the line of supplies must be either flown in or shipped in. The other is that there has been a lot of foriegn money come in to 'invest' and that has resulted in two things. It's driven the prices up for property not to mention the tax increases and made it far more difficult for the native population to afford to live there.
Those who are not hurting so bad for finding a place to live are those who inherited their places through their families. For all the others, the east side of the island is too expensive to live. The east side receives all the rain fall. So it is lush with greenery and the high priced touristy side. For those who can not afford the high cost of living there is the west side. The west side is marked by hot and much drier climate. The rent is high enough that those living on the economy can't afford a place by themselves. So several go together as room mates to meet the bills. This presents other problems. That of transportation. There is a bus route through but it is not always convenient to your work schedules. You might have to go several hours ahead of work time and when you get off, the bus has already run. There is the problem of vehicles too. Getting one is a problem. You can't afford new but you can buy old and used. Only old and used often has problems meeting the safety requirements. So getting a ride over to the west side is not always easy.
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Interesting answers. :)
What are the rules for the pets there? For example, if you own a dog; vaccines, pet passport?...
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I enjoyed to read and learn from your answers! I'd like to ask a simple one, it's more like to help me about an American name. One of our responsibilities around is to choose English/American names for the kids, who learn English. I try to choose according to their Chinese names (similar sounds, not similar meaning) like one schoolboy named 'Yang' got the English name 'Young'. And now there is a schoolgirl. I need a female name that begins with the sound 'Ee-' or just 'E-' (like in words like 'eel', 'evening', etc.). Some good ideas, except 'Yvonne' and 'Ingrid'?
(By the way the most strange 'English' names I met in China were:
- 'Hitler' /A boy. I still can't understand who and why gave a boy this 'English' name/
- 'Nature' /A male ex-co-worker. Pretty English, but not a name, is it?/
- 'Fish' /A pretty young woman in Harbin that time. Also -- a real English word, but...
- 'Candy' /A female. Interesting 'name', isn't it?/
- 'Shadow' /A female ex-co-worker. Also very interesting English name choice./)
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What are the rules for pets there?
Depends on where you live. You live in a city then there are laws about vaccinations for rabies for dogs. If you live out of the city, no such law because you are beyond their jurisdiction. There are laws over animal cruelty, that are I believe national.
Here we have two dogs and a cat. The dogs were let out on the road as someone just dumped them. There were three at the time. A rattlesnake got one and he died. The remaining two brothers are doing fine.
(http://s020.radikal.ru/i706/1603/54/89e2438d2f26.jpg)
There are various animal organizations here who attempt to find new homes for those abandoned, lost, or their owners for some reason can no longer take care of them. We got a cat through this method, only we didn't have to go to the organization to do so. Through Reddit, we found someone who was moving and their new landlord would not allow pets. So we took the cat so it didn't have to go to the shelter. There's always the chance no one wants your pet. After a certain amount of time if no one takes them, they are put to sleep.
(http://s019.radikal.ru/i644/1603/c4/48df3f77af47.jpg)
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One of our responsibilities around is to choose English/American names for the kids, who learn English.
I would imagine this (http://www.randomnames.com/all-girls-names-beginning-with-E.asp) is exactly what you are looking for.
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Thanks. I saw some similar online, but this list was really helpful. We choose 'Ena'. :)
Maybe it's not easy to take care of 3 pets at the same time. I had before different: fish, turtles and even a chameleon :), but now I haven't, because sometimes we have to go to another towns and cities, and we can't leave irresponsibly the pet alone.
I have no more questions now, but wanted to express my thanks and to say something supportive about the animals. :)
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Aww, they're so cute! :-* And it's so kind of you to take care of them!
Aren't there some government or local government measures against the rattlesnakes? :(
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Aren't there some government or local government measures against the rattlesnakes?
Hmm, yes and no. We also have the copperhead snake, another poisonous snake.
(http://s017.radikal.ru/i413/1603/a9/d79319bc6381.jpg)
But they are rarer to find around this drier area. And one more vile little spider the Brown Recluse that is particularly nasty.
(http://s019.radikal.ru/i604/1603/ba/c44d9071a2db.jpg)
This one too, is rare in this dry climate but they do exist.
These snakes are wild. They are not pets. Over such a large country there are not enough people to catch them all if they could find them. The snakes hibernate over the winter, usually in holes in the ground. During the heat of the day they will find some rock or something to hide under. It is mainly at night they come out when it is cooler to hunt for prey.
There are some places that do rattlesnake roundups (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattlesnake_round-up) but even here, there are only a few gotten and those catching these snakes stand a high chance of getting bitten in the process.
> In Texas, up to 125,000 snakes could have been removed annually from the wild during the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
And yet there is no appreciable dent in the rattlesnake population in the wild. Oklahoma is another state that is big on these rattlesnake roundups.
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And the "captured wild rattlesnakes which are displayed and then returned to the wild." doesn't make any sense to me. (Except if they're very necessary for the ecological balance/balance of nature. Are they?)
I can't miss the chance to mention one kind of religious freaks (I don't mean to be rude, just can't find any better definition), who practice the snake handling (aka serpent handling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling :-[ :-X :-X ::)
Do you have some strange religious sects around there? What is the predominant religion over there?
What happened with those activities that had the goal to remove the Darwin and the evolution from the schools in some states? :-[
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I can't miss the chance to mention one kind of religious freaks
Yep, that's my view too. Some people tend to take things too far and excess is not always a good thing. These religions that use the serpent in their worship are too far out there for me. They tend to keep to themselves about such. Just as well, I want no part of it. Most of these religions that use some sort of worship that is not accepted by the majority tend to keep to themselves and be secretive. Think terrorists as another example of the same reaction of extremism.
If they exist in my area, I am not aware of them and if I did know of them, trust that I would not be part of them and would hold my distance. This is not something I believe in nor support.
The predominate religion is Christianity. It breaks out into different sub branches depending on the area of the country and what differing individuals believe. I myself, am not religious.
Creationism, which is what you mention in the idea of removing the topic of evolution from schools, is one of those subjects I have a few things to say about.
- One of the difficulties with religion is showing real effects on life and why you should support this particular branch over another. Every branch wants you to believe their's is the one true way.
- When valid proof fails to support belief, often groups will attempt to jimmy the results (the equivalent of putting a thumb on the weight scale).
- Texas is one of the largest states in the US. So large that often other states use what it has approved of as text books as their state text book so they don't have to spend the money developing their own text books for students from their own budget.
- Despite all you hear, Creationism is not accepted by a wide majority and can not stand up to the main credo of science, that of test and repeatability of an experiment to show it is not accident nor a one time thing. So instead of being accepted by the science community as a valid hypothesis, the only way to get it into the school system was by political means.
- Texas has a state committee that determines what should or should not be included in student text books and this committee was stacked with creationism supporters which got the topic into the education system through text books.
- When you want to change a societies belief system, you start out with the young in school and in a generation or so, it becomes the accepted knowledge.
- Creationism is still around but it isn't fairing as well as the religious groups had hoped and is being rejected by both the science community as well as much of the student bodies around the nation.
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To be frank, I still didn't have the chance to read all the answers of @mojo. I'll try my best to read them all this morning, soon. :D I'll add 1 question only right now: Is it easy to meet some of the American celebrities in your cities by accident or they aren't very public people?
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Oh, I wanted to ask something similar, but I forgot: Who is the most popular singer now in the US? (Because of my father, I became a fan of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Ray Charles and many others; later on I liked one band from my generation -- BSB (Backstreet Boys) and some others. But currently I'm a sort of 'far far away' from MTV and the nowadays' US music, which is a kind of little shame -- the only popular currently I know is Lady Gaga! So, Mojo, please tell me somebody else /except Lady Gaga/, who is currently popular there. (By 'popular' I mean -- well-known to every generation like Whitney Houston years ago and Tina Turner.))
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Is it easy to meet some of the American celebrities in your cities by accident or they aren't very public people?
Except for publicy sponsored 'Meet and Greets', it would be extremely rare to meet any celebrity. Experience has taught them to be wary of the public with good reason.
First there are the fantics. Either they want to somehow monopolize the celebrity's time or in some way be an intimate part of that celebrity's life. Very often unwelcome and unwholesome parts.
Then there are the Paparazzi, often independent photo takers who sell their photos to various magazines. Often for the independent there is little they will not do, including things illegal to get that or any private image. The children of the family are not out of bounds for them, even if it puts those children at risk.
To demonstrate another reason, I came upon an article today that speaks of this matter directly in what is considered another reason to be private. This article source is not mine but rather was posted at Skimur (https://skimur.com/s/offbeatnews/post/84dfdc16-abe3-e511-83d1-5404a632cbf7/pornstar_lisa_ann_nba_players_are_being)
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So, Mojo, please tell me somebody else /except Lady Gaga/, who is currently popular there.
You have probably asked one of the least knowledgeable about who might be favorite in the terms of current artists.
For one, I don't do TV. I long ago cut the cord (over a decade ago) and have little interest in what passes for entertainment over the air waves or through Pay For View. I no longer own a TV and to be quite frank about it, don't intend to let another in this household. I hate a commercial with what some would term a passion. I can not tell you how peaceful my household has become without them and it would totally shatter that peace to have them back.
For another, TV programming is aimed at the lowest common denominator. If you have to have canned laughter in a comedy to tell you where the punch line is, that's not much in the line of comedy. After looking at what I was paying then for cable and what I was looking forward to coming on in the next month, I found only one or two shows coming up that was interesting. The rest of the time it was being used as background noise. Why should I pay for background noise when a radio will do just as well for that purpose. If you chose wisely and selectivily you can find those stations without much in the line of commercials. Here the radio stays on 24/7 but only on stations that don't do much in the line of commercials.
I listen to an oldy channel coming out of a university where they are teaching the new DJs, electronic engineers, etc. So it's not really a commercial station in that sense. They are being paid to be on the air by their students. Tina is one of my favorites among the many. Keep in mind my tastes are not the more modern ones. I grew up with the likes of Woodstock being part of my music background and tastes. So I like folks like
Eric Clapton
America
Arlo Guthrie (who I saw live in New Orleans at a free concert)
Atlanta Rhythm Section
B.J. Thomas
The Association
B 52s
BTO
Bad Company
Bad Finger
Bangles
Beatles
Bee Gees
Black Oak Arkansas
Blackfoot
Blackmore's Night
Blondie
Blood Sweat & Tears
Blue Oyster Cult
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Bob Seger
Bon Jovi
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Tyler
Boston
Box Tops
Boz Scaggs
Bread
Brewer and Shipley
Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Springsteen
Bryan Adams
Buffalo Springfield
Camel
Canned Heat
Carly Simon
Cars
Carol King
Cheap Trick
Cheech and Chong
Chicago
Err... will that work or do I need to go through my music library to list them all? *chuckles*
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Yeah,... Bon Jovi is a legend for 3 or 4 generations already. :)
How about the Country music? Are there still popular those Texas-style/Cowboy-style pubs, which are only country-music oriented? I never been in something like that, but I like that kind of traditional old-style atmosphere and light, relaxing music. :)
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Are there still popular those Texas-style/Cowboy-style pubs, which are only country-music oriented? I never been in something like that, but I like that kind of traditional old-style atmosphere and light, relaxing music.
Not much into C&W (Country and Western). There are those who do like the music and it survives well out here. You can easily find such stations on the radio without much effort. About as close as I come to C&W bands would be The Charlie Daniels Band or The Pure Prairie League.
A song by The Charlie Daniels Band (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=952h-AJ3Bcg)
A song by The Pure Prairie League (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY)
Other than crossovers (a cross over is a song so popular it makes it on to the top billboards for both C&W as well as the Rock & Roll or any other two genres) I've not a lot of interest in C&W. There are bars who specialize in any major genre of music so that's not an issue if that's what you like. As with any type of bar some get rather rowdy or just down right hostile to outsiders.
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;D
I watched it in some films -- someone enters into some bikers bar (or something else like this) and all of the men inside are ready to beat him! I wondered is it often over there? Here I can't see something like this (I'm not a bar expert anyway, so I'm not completely sure), because the owners doesn't like to lose costumers, because the police may (and most probably will) come and because the society isn't parted so much in so different fan (let's call them 'subculture') groups. Seems like everyone is welcome, no matter what's the theme of the bar. Of course it doesn't mean that they're completely safe. From the news we know some cases like fights, hurts, drugs (all of the illegal here), thefts...
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Which American film shows your contemporary life in a most realistic way? If you must pick up one, which would you recommend me to watch? :D
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someone enters into some bikers bar (or something else like this) and all of the men inside are ready to beat him! I wondered is it often over there?
This depends on a lot of things. Keep in mind that movies for the most part aren't really accurate for what happens in life or the way it happens. That said, there are some places that are clannish or favor the locals with a better approval than an outsider.
Where my home is, there are a lot of little coastal towns. Many of them with one bridge in and the same for getting out. You come and leave by the same way. One of my brothers knowing this and the rivalry between local areas, invited one of his military buddies to go on a planned excursion to rile the locals. They went into the local bars, drank, and bad mouthed the locals. Nothing happened to them in the bars.
On the way home, when they got to that one bridge, there was a welcoming committee waiting on them. I mean to say they were really glad to see my bother and his friend show up. But what they had planned was not so friendly. They had in mind a fight to teach the outsiders better manners.
What I haven't told you in this story is the military friend was a hand to hand combat expert. The meeting on the bridge was expected before they came to town. So they baited the locals into sending their best into a fight rather than a gang. Then the friend promptly beat the crap out of the guy.
After that, everyone decided to call it a night and leave well enough alone. This is an exception to the rule as far as how things are in most places and my brother went in to purposely stir up crap. They came looking to make trouble and it found them.
On the other side of the coin, I'm not much of a trouble maker really. I've been in some seedy places without ever having any problems at all. One bar I went in while I was in the military, as a friend and I walked in to get a beer, two others were headed out the door to have a fight outside. A beer bottle sailed passed us to hit the door frame. Yet we had no problems at all as we were not looking for any trouble.
My point being it is what you make of it. If you are looking for trouble it will find you.
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Which American film shows your contemporary life in a most realistic way?
I don't know that there is one. Please keep in mind that they don't make movies about things that are just ordinary, everyday, life as those are rarely exciting enough to make a movie over.
Another is that I would be a very poor judge to pick such a film. I rarely watch movies and never watch TV. So my choices to give you aren't really much to pick from and those I know just don't seem to fit a laid back life style where exciting things rarely happen. I mean we talk about the dogs barked. That's not exciting. Mowing the grass isn't a deal to make something over. Sitting out grilling outside or setting up the smoker for a long smoke of meat instead of a grill is not really something that you'd normally talk about either.
Basically I live in a one horse town the horse got up and left. Not much excitement, not much unusual goes on. Certainly nothing like you see in the movies would remotely fit from those I know of.
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Wow, Mojo! According to what we learned about you, your family, your style, your interests and your educated mother, this brother you mentioned looks like the "black sheep of the family". I wish it's a story from his younghood and that nowadays he's already not doing this, because it's embarrassing for all of the family; something like "One of us is a 'street-fighter'." or "One of us is playing the 'knockout game'!" (For those, who miss the news about this 'game' -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knockout_game).
Well, it's nothing new for me -- I remember around 1984-1985 we had some hooligans in our class. Once they went to a school for mentally challenged kids not to support them or to do something good for them -- they went there to fight with them. Just a senseless fight! But that time they were 9-10 years old. Many years later I met one of them and I saw he become a comparatively intelligent, polite and normal policeman. :)
Around 2003-2004 another person -- a 17-years old schoolboy who practiced with me JKD (Jeet Kune Do, the Bruce Lee's martial art) surprised me in this way: we walked nearby a medical university in our city, when I saw a group of foreign (Indian) university students walking in front of us. And I told that boy that I know one of these Indian university students and he also practice a martial art. My meaning was: "Look, he is our foreign Martial art colleague." and that 17-years old guy reacted: "Yeah! Let's go and beat him now!" :o He was really excited of this 'idea' and I waste 2-3 minutes to stop him and to explain him that it's a good Indian student (because there were some bad Indians, but it's another topic), a kind of my friend, a person who never behaves aggressive, a 'cool guy', etc., and at last that boy understood that it's not good just to go to beat people, because he wants to fight!
Now, from time to time, we are teaching kindergarten level kids and it's a common situation every time in 1-2 classes to spot a boy (and sometimes -- a girl) to just hit/kick/grab/etc. others just 'for fun' and our normal reaction is to stop him/her and to teach how the senseless aggression is bad. If you don't educate a person from his/her early age, later (especially if he/she is under aggressive influence from the medias, neighbors, friends, etc.) it's too late to change his/her mind. (I know it sounds very simple for you and probably very obvious and useful, because you learned these so basic education and psychological facts. I type it for the youngsters, who think that fights are 'normal'.) And here comes my serious advice:
1. Fighting without reason is risky -- even you are 'the best', you can lose something valuable like an eye, ear... some people (like Bruce Lee) are dying of cerebral edema (if you take a look of the causes -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_edema#Causes -- you may see that it can result from brain trauma/, i.e. someone hit your head and later, some day you're dead (or you have serious health problems), because of that hit ago.
2. Fighting without reason is risky also, because many people don't only fight back -- they have weapons, they may shoot back! (Another case is when they collect many friends and/or relatives and they find you and beat you all together.)
3. Fighting without reason is risky for your future: if you are not lucky enough and you hurt somebody with a weaker body he/she may die and then you'll have to face police, court, jail... Then it's not easy to live well finding jobs in your area or abroad. For example I had to show many times abroad my conviction status certificate (it is an official document issued by a Bulgarian District court which contains information about the criminal record of an individual.http://www.wikiprocedure.com/index.php/Bulgaria_-_Obtain_a_Conviction_Status_Certificate). And if you didn't know what's a criminal record: "A criminal record or police record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
TAKE SOME TIME AND READ AT LEAST ABOUT THE "Traveling with a criminal history": https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Traveling_with_a_criminal_history
In a word: think more responsibly about your present and about your future!
Well, because it was mentioned already about work/jobs, I can ask a simple question: If in the real US life jobs like lawyer and surgeon are one of the most profitable and most desired? (Because I watched many films, where lawyer or surgeon/doctor is a label for a successful man and very good husband.) :)
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Ohhhh my... I read all the article (the one about traveling with a criminal history). I didn't realize how one's life really sucks, if there is some of those criminal histories. :o :( :o
Mojo, what do you think about WWE? Steve Austin ('Stone Cold') is maybe popular and well-known in your state and around? Are there many fans of the 'professional wrestling'? I think it's a great show. 8) (Yes, it's exactly a show and not real. I emphasize it, because some young people think it's all real. Ha-ha. ;D ;D)
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I much agree with your assessment on picking fights, MSL. No doubt the business with the bridge there were guns there but just not drug out into sight. Some of them, people actually do think and only if the other side drags out weapons do they show up.
The incident I spoke of, was when my bother was young. He's not like that today. We are all rather wild to some degree in our early adulthood, when we still believe we are 'bullet proof'.
Keep in mind that movies are entertainment. What is shown is sometimes close to real life but often not. In today's world here there are so many lawyers but not enough paying clients to make the education worth while. Just like in the entertainment world, for every group that got famous, there are 100 or a 1000 who never made the grade. For a while competition was so bad to just get a case to take to court that some personal injury lawyers got the name of 'ambulance chasers' trying to get business while the potential client is laying there injured. Not exactly the mark of a reputable business in dealing with their clients.
Much of the jobs in the US that haven't already been outsourced are now and in the near future being threatened. Among them, surgeons and doctors. Everything from Wall Street stock traders to truck drivers should be seeing the handwriting on the wall that this is the last years of making money at these jobs. Soon, within the next 5 to 10 years no one will be needing those types of employees because the job will no longer exist. We can see how that goes and what results are from that to the economy by looking back at factory labor work. Today, manufacturing in the US has been gutted and not much exists in comparison to yesteryear. When some one from a company that pays well, with good benefits, is hiring, you don't see 4 or 5 people show up to apply, you see thousands. That in itself is an indication of just how bad the economy is doing no matter how it is said to be by the government.
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Mojo, what do you think about WWE?
I used to follow the professional wrestling matches on tv as a sort of Sunday entertrainment with another family. We'd all get together on the day when the show came on to have a bit to eat, drink, and watch the evening's entertainment. But that was back when I was young.
Today, I pay no mind to it. I could not tell you the names of wrestlers, the wrestling organizations they belong to, or what the latest rassle dazzle moves are. Nor who are the good guys and who are the bad ones.
As you say it's entertainment (showtime) not what goes on in RL. Someone gets hit up side the head with a metal chair, isn't going to turn around like he got hit in the head with a paper clip. If you are sharp eyed and the camera man messes up, when one wrestler takes the other's head and runs it down the rope, you'll find he has a hand on the guy's forehead to protect it from burns. Very much, it's more fake than real. It's showmanship. They get paid well to put on a good show and to do that it has to look believable.
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As usual, I didn't expect it to be so complicated. :) But now I understand. I can compare this case with another one -- we had a teenager /mostly online/ student. A schoolboy, that time 13 or 14. And he was a clever one, but no any idea about the webmastering. And once he said: "Teach me how to make a website." (He imagined that it will be something like: 1. A, 2. B, 3. C and you're done! ;D) And when I told him to check out about the HyperText Markup Language (i.e. the HTML), which I think is the easiest way, he got it and decided not to ask me to teach him in 1 hour time how to make websites. :)
After I got the complexity of what you said, I only want to add: please, don't waste any time for this, because of me. I'm okay and glad, anyway, when you post your art here. :)
May I ask something else? What is the easiest object to create and what is the hardest? /I mean the objects from the reality, not dots, triangles and others. For example: "fried chicken is one of the hardest, and a sky is one of the easiest". In this sense is my question./ :)
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I post my answer and question in a wrong thread. It was as an answer + question about the art thread! ;D
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We can't move a single answer/reply from one thread to another thread. We can only move a thread from one board to another board or to split a thread. :P I hope this is not very big trouble for you dear guys. :-*
Are there some plans for re-industrialization? I read something online about it, but it was only a short opinion of some netizen and I was just interested to learn a bit more about it; How do you think?
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Not to worry about the clipping and moving when the software doesn't allow it. I simply took the question and added it to the answer without worrying about where it was. It's easy to open multiple tabs and refer to the original question and answer in another thread that way.
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Are there some plans for re-industrialization?
I am not 100% sure I grasp the fundamental essence of the question, so pardon if I miss the mark.
We are in the grips of a new age. Just like when the US went from being in the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. To give a little history on that and what that means to a society, I'll add a little fill in info here.
In the Agricultural Age, it took 20% of the working population to produce the food for the nation. For the rest of the nation to be able to buy food at the city market, 1/5th of the working population had to work at farming, ranching, and the like.
When the Industrial Age began to work it's way down to the farmer/rancher in changes with new equipment, such as the tractor, suddenly the farmer didn't need so many working hands anymore. His tractor allowed him to cover far more land without more people; rather he needed fewer. This upset the working conditions and requirements of farm labor. Within just a few short years, farmers only needed 2% of the working population to produce the same amount of food for the nation. With all the farmers going to the new method in order to keep the price down so they could sell their products, there was an upheaval in labor. No one was hiring farm laborers because they no longer needed them.
At the same time, laboring jobs moved to the city. Those without jobs on the farm were located in the rural areas out in the country and it often took them months of travel by foot to make it to the city where they heard jobs were. Those industrial jobs were no longer looking for a pair of hands to do labor. They needed people who understood how to work with machines and how to fix them. This resulted in masses of unemployed people, homeless, and without money to buy basic living supplies. (maybe at this point it is beginning to sound familiar with today's world)
As a result of so many people without jobs, the economy began to crater. The Great Depression was beginning. Without jobs, there was no money to buy things. Consumer buying is what powers the market.
This lesson has been forgotten or ignored in today's world. Wall Street's credo is 'What have you done for us today'? Every company/CEO/stock is determined by the quarter, not by its future potential to extend it's market (unless that brings in more profits). So companies are discouraged from investing in future expansion for a bigger market down the road. To do so is an expense, not a profit and Wall Street only wants to see profits.
Many of today's companies are now finding out they have sort of created a monster with off shoring jobs for cheaper labor. In this I mean that what was once a cheap labor market is undergoing changes. Those who are doing the labor have found out that working a job gives forth a better life than being without one and they would like more pay and more benefits than they have been getting. It evident to them they are being used on the cheap. They now want their part of the increased profitability due to their efforts in working.
Companies on the other hand see their cost of labor increasing; the same problem they had with US workers. So they are considering moving once again. Either to repeat the process of finding a cheap labor source in another country; resetting the clock for a while, or moving back to the countries they originated at with a new plan.
The new plan can be demonstrated with the Apple corporation that makes computers. They are planning on moving back to the US to make their computers. Only this time, workers won't be part of the picture. It will be mostly automated. For the first time in these advances of Ages, less workers will be required as new jobs won't be created to replace old ones. There's no need of the same amount of workers to repair the robots. So new processes now create less jobs over all than ever before, breaking the mold of previous Ages.
This in essence is why the great upset in the economy as well as jobs today and in the future. Within another generation, having a job will be a mark of social distinction, not a life goal.
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Thanks for that you manage it fast! :) Good to see you already used to the SMF 2.0 software! 8)
Maybe a good article about the re-industrialization: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/11/can-re-industrialization-save-the-middle-class/
And I have a question about the cactus food? Did you ate/cook something with cactus and what's the taste like? (If so -- is it a popular food over there. I know it's a Mexican dish and that's all I know about it.) Except pitaya (dragon fruit), I haven't any culinary experience about it. And I hope it'll be interesting for the most of the others around! :)
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Actually no, I've not had any experiences with cactus as a food supplement. I once knew of a gentleman who made cactus wine. His ingredients called for cactus flowers which happen only once a year.
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Which is the most popular sport now there? Baseball?
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A sort of political or geopolitical question, but I want to know the reactions of the common people, if you noticed some that time and recently: "General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned" (A source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023524967)
I ask this, because it's full of different conspiracy theories (and reactions), but when a famous person like a general with a solid history and experience states something like this, then I think the reactions deserve more attention and I'd like to know about them from a purely sociological interest, and as an objective observer; not to make a political and/or military debate, because as we can see this forum isn't created to make political propaganda or something like this.
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Which is the most popular sport now there?
Usually it's seasonal with what sport is presently going on. Football (as we American's know it) has ended with the Superbowl. This means that the Basketball playoffs will soon be taking place and will fill the title as most popular in it's turn. Right at the end of Basketball, Baseball will be starting up. Popular sport will then rotate for most to it. It's an annual cycle.
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"General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned"
Many of us are having a hard time with all this. It's like our country got stolen some where along the line. What we see government now doing is hiding and covering up stuff to prevent the public from knowing what it's doing.
Much the same occurred during the Nixon years. It ended with the impeachment of Nixon and a total distrust in those in power. Shortly after that, the party and it's Congress critters were pretty much voted out of office. We are now facing the same thing again. Sooner or later the nut will crack and enough will be learned by the public to demand legal answering in court over items such as you are talking of.
Lots of it will be unable to be taken to court due to the Statue of Limitations. But some charges have no time limit, ever.
During this election season, it's not good to be part of the status quo or what is known as a Washington insider. It is believed by much of the population that is where the problem is. Those in power are fearful of loosing that power with good reason. Not that there are better choices as far as candidates go but that the citizenry is fed up with how the government has been run and some heads are going to roll this election season.
It is things such as you mention that the government stonewalling on preventing the truth from being exposed. Everything that comes up in court can not be a National Security issue. At some point even the most foolish must come to the realization that we the public are being lied to.
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I had to debate (and almost quarrel) with 4-5 US citizens, who were 'big patriots' and for them USA is 100% perfect, best, super and so on. I think you're more true patriot, because you can see and admit the (political and non-political) problems and I think all the progressive people around the world will respect you more than those 'hooray-patriots'.
And this is why I can't argue at all with you, because you can see the obvious. I can only add that this is a common problem: as far as I know when the Cuban missile crises ends -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#Crisis_ends -- that Turkish part ("the Jupiter missiles in Turkey removed") was a secret and most of the people around the world didn't know about it (I'm sorry, if my information is wrong about it, but I'm sure we may have many other examples how the USSR hide some information and so on). So, I think that many of the thinking persons around the world have a similar or the same feeling -- they are not the real owners of their own countries. I disagree with theories that there is only one powerful center (like Aliens, Freemasonry, 'Jews', 'Satan', etc.), which controls everything and all the politics/geopolitics is just a 'theater'. But I tend to agree with a person online, who said something in this sense: "Only around 50-100 guys take the important decisions for the world's future nowadays: 10-15 in the USA, 10-15 in Russia, 10-15 in China and some more in some other countries." And this is just, because of the 'system bug' that allows too much power (and/or money) to be concentrated in too small percent of the people. I think some of the WikiLeaks (their slogan is "We open governments"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks) leaks showed that opinion makes some good sense.
So, let's ask something related: what is the predominate point of view currently over there about Edward Snowdenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden -- a hero, a coward, a traitor...?
(Again to say it: I'm interested only as a humanitarian -- I like to explore the human nature, the people, the societies. And I'm trying to stay as much as possible apolitical. A short good article about my current and recent attitude: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoliticism :) ).
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You've hit on a thorny issue with Snowden and I have no doubt you are aware of this. There are people on both sides of the fence who will defend their viewpoints almost to the death, type thorny.
To me Snowden is a hero. He did what he did, knowing what the results would be and had the courage to stand on his principals regardless. This comes out similar to the oath taken by all public officials as well as all military members. There is a part in there that states to "defend the nation against all enemies, both foreign and domestic". The question coming down to what or who is the enemy.
Our nation, the USA, is supposedly founded on Democratic principals. But if you look around, nearly every nation, no matter what it's political structure is, claims to be democratic. So the intent and meaning is not set in stone but rather seems to be set in how words can be manipulated into appearing to be misrepresented into that idea.
Take Snowden's case here as something that goes hand in hand with these supposed principals. According to various government officials there are ways to handle misuse of government power or illegal actions where the government is involved. A place to go to and make charges against various top officials, policies, or methods that are in use but are not legal. A place to whistle blow about wrongs within the system where the one revealing these actions are protected against reprisal by those in power. That's the official stance put out for public consumption and what's on the books as a method to deal with these instances. Yet in practice it didn't seem to work for Snowden nor for the other whistle blowers from within. It instead came out to be a way to identify those who would uphold the principals and put the thumbscrews to them while hiding the real problems.
This is why Snowden did what he did because the system in place failed him. Instead of the charges made being investigated, the ones in power used the reports to retaliate against those with the knowledge to know what was wrong and the integrity to say something about it.
Obama has used the system to prosecute more whistle blowers than all other presidents in the history of the US combined. It tells me that coverup and setting the example of what happens to a whistle blower is more important than rectifying wrongs in the system. This is a strong ear mark of corruption. The ability to hide wrong doing and punish those who would seek to correct it. In these actions, we the citizens of this nation see what is and is not important by demonstration and it leads us to believe this country is headed in the wrong direction.
Understand I love my country. The opinions I express are the results of frustration; the inability to alter the course of this nation by a single individual. I have no desire to do terrorism, no desire to start a civil war, no desire to do other than change the direction this nation is headed in by legal means.
But Snowden was a crack in the wall that gave the citizens proof of what they suspected.
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;) You see, you people, started some military, geopolitical topics (generals, presidents, enemies) and the forum got medals! This is what we call congenial. ;D I want to ask only one political question and now I want to tell you why only one, because it's something serious: we monitored closely a community, which made a "revolutionary" jump from a community without politics board to a community with political board. Believe it or not but in a short period of time this board became not only internal popular, but also external popular. It attracted not only the core members and the other already members of the community, but a number of new members, who registered in that originally not political oriented community only to join the political topics and to follow their political interests. This situation diluted them in one or another level, in my own opinion. Why I share this? Because I want to remind you that: "Want to hurt an online community? Problem solved: just bring the religion and the politics over there." 'More politics and religion" = "More reasons to find disagreements and hostility." I think we had some topic about it here or I read it in another place? Doesn't matter.
Excuse me for my loooooooooooooooooong, long intro. Here comes the question:
Can you (mojo) tell me is there some difference in the perceptions when it is about Julian Assange (this Julian Assange: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange) ? He is something like E. Snowden, but he is not an American (he is an Australian). What do you think about him? As a foreigner is he less 'hero' and more 'enemy' for those, who think Snowden is good? I'm eager to read your comment, I know you can express many intriguing thoughts. :)
Disclaimer: I and all my relatives, friends and neighbors have no ties with E. Snowden and no ties with J. Assange. We know them just from the news.
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On line sites often ban the topics of politics as well as religion. They ban them because there is no solution to be found within those topics but people have invested both their beliefs as well as their feelings in them and will often defend them against all comers. In it's way it's similar to a prejudice and brings in one of the signatures I've used already so I will quote it here before continuing.
Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument' not being founded in reason they can not be destroyed by logic. ~ Tryon Edwards
Assange has stepped on the political toes of the powers that be. I suspect he is correct in the reason he does not want to return to Sweden to answer questions regarding the charges against him. I suspect sealed orders are prepared to be issued should he demanding his extradition to the US. I have no proof of this beyond speculation. So it is purely my opinion with no actual facts to back it up.
I've pretty much followed the Assange saga as it has unfolded. I'm not so much a reader of his site, Wikileaks. For the majority, I've just not developed an interest in it.
What I do see when I look around, is the US is hell on wheels against anyone that airs the government's dirty laundry. When I see the likes of what has happened to Manning and Snowden to name only a couple of examples, it strengthens this opinion.
As an example of the lengths that this government is willing to go to, during the time Snowden was grounded in the Russian airport, the Bolivian ambassador's plane was diverted to Vienna. Other countries within range of a fuel stop refused air clearance to the plane. It was suspected that Snowden was on board and being smuggled out of Russia. That speaks of lots of political muscle being applied to France, Italy, and Spain, behind the scenes.
Keep in mind here that this is an ambassador, granted full diplomatic immunity, and that in this action the US violated that immunity. The ambassador would not be allowed to take off with out a search of the plane for Snowden, despite that full diplomatic immunity. Such a violation is cause for war.
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Can you help me to get better the meaning of rednecks and cowboys? Are all the cowboys (the Wild West time) rednecks or the rednecks are the grandsons of the original cowboys? Is that common to call someone 'redneck' as a synonym of a 'fool US citizen' or it's pejorative only abroad? I know there is Wikipedia and others online, but this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck is a bit confusing for me, because it has many definitions and I hoped I can read from you something more native as a point of view, understanding and trustful.
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I see that I got off on a rant and did not answer your question, Костов. My apologies. I will often find fault with my government that I disagree with but also wish to point out it is my opinion in this matter.
Again I wish to state that I love my country but dislike the direction it has taken. I've served in the military for this country to do what was necessary when drafted. That doesn't mean I won't find fault with what I disagree with as an individual.
I believe Assange had a different purpose in mind beyond those of someone altruistic. His purpose being more to gain fame from his publishing. That he is outside the jurisdiction of the US being one of the things he depended on for safety.
That is not to say I don't disagree with with airing what the public itself is blocked from learning of the actions the government takes in the people's name. I don't believe that everything should be aired. After all, all countries spy. All countries have spies in other countries and naming them would certainly put them in danger as an example of info that should not be aired.
I personally see Assange not so much a hero because of his motives. Assange seeks to gain from such for his personal fame, which is much different than Snowden's motivations.
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Can you help me to get better the meaning of rednecks and cowboys?
Yes, I can see where that would be confusing to someone outside the environment.
Cowboys are what one would think of as ranch hands. More important in yesteryear than today. Mainly because you don't need a horse to do ranch work anymore. But back in the western days where the term had real meaning, a cowboy was not a cowboy without a horse. Many of them considered that the requirement to do the job that needed done was demeaning if it required them to get off the horse, such as mending a fence. Look up the meaning of Vaquero (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaquero) the Spanish equivalent.
For Redneck it's something entirely different. Depending on where you go in the country, there is always some group to be the butt of a joke. Who is the butt varies depending on where it is you live. For the south, it's the Redneck. A supposedly uneducated, unable to talk correct english, dumb, and at times rude. This is a classic example of the butt of the joke. There are those who wear the redneck title with pride, believing this defines their origins and separates them from the rest of the country. Typically a pickup driving, chewing tobacco spitting, confederate flag flying, patriot.
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I have to go, but I'll ask one about abroad (from the US citizens' point of view 'abroad'):
- Is that true (or just a rumor): I read in a Bulgarian newspaper online, that many Americans (US) are going to move to Canada recently?
- In some US films the best travel or life for the Americans is: France, Italy, Greece? Which are the most popular countries for travel, work, living abroad in fact? What state/states people think is very good abroad?
That's it. Have a good time! See you later! :) :)
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We learn a lot of new knowledge from you! Thanks from me!
Let's talk about food products. What do you eat most there? What is the most expensive now? I think here the most expensive now is the beef and some of the imported fruit. This in an example. Horned melon (kiwano): (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Owoce_Kiwano.jpg/800px-Owoce_Kiwano.jpg)By Cucumis-metuliferus-halves.jpg: Forest & Kim StarrKiwano_unreif.jpg: SchlagiKiwano.JPG: Bgranderivative work: Nova (talk) - Cucumis-metuliferus-halves.jpgKiwano_unreif.jpgKiwano.JPGZdjęcie własne (own work), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6067286
::)
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I'm having mouse problems today. It's about worn out and a click and drag is a task more akin to frustration than accomplishment. This is the second time I've attempted to write this answer, just in getting started. I lost the first attempt after having it well on the way of being written so I will try the notepad route.
...many Americans (US) are going to move to Canada recently?
Those in the US are getting gouged price wise for goods and services. Nearly everyone seems to want to get rich off your single purchase. Medical is a shining example of this. From our viewpoint it seems the prices we are paying is to subsidize the rest of the world's availability to the same drugs at cheaper prices.
Any time the cost of a pill treatment starts running in the thousands of dollars, something is seriously wrong with the system. These inflated costs just keep growing and going up. We are finding that we can buy the same, identical, drug or product for much cheaper outside the borders of the country. An example of this I ran into online where a lady had asthma. To buy the inhaler she needed here in the states was $300 a month. She could buy the same identical inhaler, made by the same company, for $25 from Germany. Nor is it just medical, that's just one example. To protect their profits drug companies are making such outside the nation purchases illegal.
People are seeing where we are being put to a serious disadvantage and it's not getting better.
On the films I can't do much for you. I don't watch a lot of films nor tv. Nor do I have contact with a lot of people that travel everywhere out of country. It's hard to grasp for many in Europe the size of the US. I would imagine those in China will understand better. But some of our states that make up the nation are as big as some of Europe's entire countries if not bigger. My point being you don't have to travel outside the national borders for something different for a vacation. It's varied enough across it that there is much to find without leaving and many never do.
What do you most eat there?
Because this is an arid and hot climate, we eat a lot of cold salads, grill a good bit outside, and mostly eat at home. There's not a lot of choices in restaurants in a small town. If you want to eat it, you gotta make it yourself. I've never seen a horned melon in the grocery store. If they are here I would suspect it would take traveling to the big city to find it. That's around an hour's drive to get to the city. Meats are most expensive, especially those that have been prepared.
We have a grocery store chain here that is only found inside the state. But the people living in the state love to shop at it. Not because of price but because of choice in products. Isle after isle of food products within one huge store. You can buy all things that are popular in the nation at such grocery stores plus usually more. They will have small areas for ethic foods in various places but they are not big. Big in comparison to other stores but still not a lot of choice. The choice being that there is a section there at all.
Most of the vegetables offered are fairly cheap, the fruits offered not to bad in price either. But processed or meats are not so cheap.
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Your explanation of the USA debt? You know: 'US debt clock' and other popular stuff like that. Many say it's terrible, it's dangerous and so on. The truth is that the US debt is not unique, when we see it as a % of the countries' GDP:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Government_debt_gdp.jpg/1024px-Government_debt_gdp.jpg)
By Jirka.h23 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27378921
What's your simple explanation for guys, who are not well economics educated: who took the money, what for spent this money, what are the future plans for the money/debt?
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Is cancer a big problem there? (Of course it's a serious problem itself; I mean -- if often you see people get some kinds of cancer or/and the news report about cancer cases, etc.)
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Your explanation of the USA debt?
I could easily fill a page on the site just answering this question, giving examples, reasons, and events; yet still not adequately cover it all.
The short version comes down to money in politics and officials who wish to do things without the legal means to actually justify it. It results in spending outside the budget limits of the government. Unaccounted for in planning, it's jacked the debt owed. In other causes, called corporate welfare, where the corporation gets government contracts to do jobs that are again not planned for in the official budget. The immediate example that comes to mind is Bush's two wars at the same time, not budgeted and done by emergency spending renewed every 6 months by congress without Congressional approval to actually have a war, much less two. There are other causes that join with this but it's one prime example of excessive spending, where the responsibility to pay the debt is something to leave others in the future to solve. Its' not their worry to involve the country and then pay for it.
I do not believe personally that the US is capable of paying it's debt. If it does, it will be longer than a generation doing so. Remember that at present the US is under a monetary policy that is discouraging savings and holding the interest rates for borrowed money at a minimum. At some point the interest rate must go up, when it does, the expense to pay that interest on the debt will rise exponentially. It will rapidly reach a point beyond the ability of the government to actually pay it. That is my personal opinion and I am not an economist.
Is cancer a big problem there?
People die of cancer every day. The real question is, is this man made due to our altering natural foods and manufacturing processes or is this something that has always been with us but because it is so varied in how it shows up, was not identified as the killer until modern medical technology provided the link?
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Because of our conversation is about money... There is an 'old' question "Why is the US printing more dollars?" and I think it's obvious, so I don't want to ask it, but I want to ask how do you and the people around there think about this? Is it a good thing in the current situation or it's not good? (What is less worse, if there are two opposite options: 1. an 'endless' printing or 2. stop printing forever?) Is there another way? Any concerns for the future of the system?
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Is it a good thing in the current situation or it's not good?
It's a two edged sword, one which the government takes advantage of. For every one but the government, you have to live within your means. If your bills take all your money, there is none left over for buying a loaf of bread. Only the government can operate outside reality day in and day out.
For the government, it makes a debt, then later prints money to pay for it out of thin air. Doesn't work like that for any one else. All the rest have to invest some sort of value given to get money, be that hours of labor or some product others want to buy. It was how the TARP program was paid for to bail out the banks. Right at a trillion dollars.
Endless printing of money will eventually make the money value the same as the Zimbabwe money is today. Where you can actually see a one million dollar note.
There is a reason to print more money but it's not endless. In order to participate in the global market every country in the past has been required to hold dollars in reserve as the global currency, to pay their bills. That is everyone but the US, who can print more.
If you are a Saudi prince and want to buy a new yacht, then you must have that price in hand to pay the bill. In order to pay the bill there has to be enough money in circulation to be able to gather that much, globally by whoever wants to spend say millions. So some printing is necessary at all times.
But unrestrained printing, day in and day out, benefits no one but the government. Since it has been uncoupled from the gold standard, the price you pay for items has increased over the years as the value of money has plummeted.
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About the cancer -- I think it existed from the ancient times and it's not only a human disease. Animals (including sharks) can get it. Now it's more than before, because of more chemical products, more radiation, etc.
One of the reason that many people never heard about is the viral reason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncovirus).
Here I'll share something: most of the people I saw around the world are able to touch their face (including putting fingers in the nose and even -- in the mouth) immediately after they touch money (the coins and the banknotes are one of the dirtiest thing in the world). Worse cases: imagine this /I see it almost everyday/ -- a young woman, shopping. Touching (without gloves) carrots, celery, tomatoes, spinach and even raw meat (pork, fish...). Then touching money. In some cases the dirt on her fingers is already visible with naked eye (imagine what's there under a microscope!) and then, without any cleaning, she is touching her hair, her face, her eyes... And then many people wonder why the hospitals are full of people with skin diseases, eye problems, hepatitis, etc. Some of the cancer cases are caused exactly from this -- neglected hygiene!
My hygiene care is comparable with your online privacy care. If you're a 'privacy nut' (I use this slang just for rhetoric effect), then I'm a 'hygiene nut'. I don't mean 'germ freak' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysophobia). I don't need to wash my hands every 2-3 minutes, BUT see what I do and I hope this will help at least a few people, who read it now and in the future to avoid problems (I didn't get ill for years, since I keep this way of life):
- before I eat I wash not only my hands, but also my mouth. There is dust in the air. Some of the dust particles collect viruses, germs, etc. For sure there are some dust particles on my lips. So washing my mouth before eat (drink) is a must.
- probably from my home-made photographs, you mentioned that the products have got some water drops. Yes, they're wet. Why? Because I wash every single product I buy -- no matter apple, kiwi fruit, cucumber, onion OR bottle of beer, bottle of mineral water, package of chips, box of biscuits -- I wash them all, before I put them in our room or in the kitchen. Why I think it's necessary? It's simple: from the factory/field to our home there is a long way: well, it's obvious that a potato or a carrot isn't clean enough and it needs some water. But many people wonder why I wash the bottles, the chips' package, etc. As I said there is a long way: at first in the factory many robots and/or workers touch the bottles/packages/etc., then the transporters touch them, then the supermarket (shop) staff touch them and in the end I touch them usually after I had to touch money and many other things outside (like the bus handles). Sometimes these products drop on the ground (from the shelves to the ground, because some people aren't careful or because the staff didn't put them very well). At least from one of these contacts (hands, ground/floor), the bottle/package/etc. will get some viruses, germs, yeasts (pathogenic ones, that cause fungal infections) and why I have to risk to keep them dirty at home, when I can spend just 10-15 minutes to wash them and to have the products cleaner and prettier!
I'm sure, that if everyone keeps these 3 rules as me, the world will be healthier and the number of the cancer cases will decrease.
Now I haven't on-topic question, so I'll just use this post of mine to ask you do you think that my 3 simple hygiene rules (not to touch my face/nose/eyes/mouth with dirty hands + to wash my hands and mouth before every meal or drink + to wash all the things I buy) are good and REASONABLE rules? I ask you, because you're reading non-stop and you're very well educated man. (Some not that well educated can't understand how I can 'waste my time' to wash the beer bottles, for example. But these people are one of those, who are able to touch their dusty shoes and then immediately to put a finger in their nose or mouth; obviously they will think that I'm wrong. ;D)
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As far as it goes you have a point in your hygiene. You are doing what you can with what you have. Where this falls down at, is you can't wash the insides of veggies and other products, because you can't reach them to do so.
Traditionally cooking to X temperature is expected to take care of that. Many do not think of the cross contamination of utensils in say the cooking of raw meat. It's one of the aspects I watch meticulously when grilling outside. Once the utensils are used to move raw meat, they are sent inside for cleaning before use again.
You mention money as being a strong carrier of infection sources. That's true. Many a time has been that law enforcement has taken money to a lab to determine what's on the surface of it. Not just counting diseases it is often found to have been in association with drugs such as cocaine, just to name one.
In the same vein, one of the best places to catch something you didn't have before is hospitals. One would think they would be among the most sterilized places in the world but such is not the case. Because cleaning hasn't paid meticulous attention to detail, many of the bacteria and viri of opportunity are mutating to accept small amounts of bleach and survive. Same with the use of drugs such as penicillin. Both bacteria and viri are developing resistance to these antibacterials and they are no longer effective. The list of drugs that work is growing shorter and shorter as drug companies aren't developing new drugs at the pace that these drug resistant particles of life are replicating.
Or the fact there is now a new one that eats human flesh and is mostly found in hospitals as to where you get exposure to it.
So no matter what your level of care and prevention, you can't reach it all to shield yourself. I could carry this further with GMO and it's problems but I'll let the matter rest here.
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A good answer with good points. 8)
We know the US is a developed country and there the risks of getting seriously ill aren't so high as in the developing countries like China, Mongolia, Egypt, Bolivia and so on. For instance the hepatitis level isn't so high, is it? (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/HCV_prevalence_1999.png/1024px-HCV_prevalence_1999.png)By PhilippN - WHO-Guide: Hepatitis C, 2002map based on http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BlankMap-World.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2127175
So, I can understand that there people can't worry that much about getting ill, comparing with many places in the rest of the world (New Your is cleaner than Tripoli, for example). But we can't get one thing (and I read already something explaining it with the history of the nation and I'll ask you now about it). It's how and why so many US-Americans are staying with shoes at home?! :o I watch some US movies and usually there I notice a guy laying on his bed with shoes, couple sitting on the sofa with shoes... ??? I read some families had something like rule there 'no shoe house' (or something like that?), letting know their friends they have to take off their shoes. So my questions are: is it very common there, or it depends of the state? Is that 'typical American' to put your legs (with shoes) on the table in front of you? (Or it's just some old cliche like 'Chinese are very short'?)
I ask this partly, because I'd like to compare my movie and online knowledge about it with the reality (which you know best).
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Hehe, I really can't imagine what kind of logic is using one, who thinks the hospitals are safe. It's enough to see a queue of patients waiting for the doctor -- a queue of caughing, runny-nosing, etc. persons and to imagine what's the viral situation around. ;D ;D ;D One of the best places to catch a something bad is exactly the hospital/clinic and then the public places like cinemas, buses, metro, train, restaurants, etc. But, obviously, the clinics and the hospitals are number 1, and this is another reason I avoid to visit them. :)
Ohhh, I never thought about it -- yes, of course, if there are drugs around, for sure, something like cocaine can stick on some coins/banknotes together with all those germs and other microorganisms. I never lived in those areas and for me 'drugs' is something pretty exotic/pretty far away from the reality, but you made a good point as usual!
Back to the hospitals and doctors: a few years ago, a netizen from Bulgaria post something funny (in another forum). The sense was something as this: "What? Me visiting a hospital?! No way! Until I don't start to be seriously ill like to pee blue urine, no doctors!!!" ;D
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US-Americans are staying with shoes at home?!
This varies by local and custom. In the home where I grew up, shoes were never taken off until you went into the shower or laid on a bed. One of the reasons for that was livestock. You never knew what might be on the bottoms of your shoes, so you scraped them before coming in. That was my childhood reality.
Today, in my home, you take your shoes off because we all walk barefoot around inside. The only time this is ignored is if some work inside requires a repairman or the like. It's too much of a pain to be toting an arm full of replacement parts and try to untie your shoes. Doing this requires a lot of extra housework to ensure your floors are clean enough to eat off of, so to say. Many people just do not have the extra time to do this in today's working requirements. There are times when shoes of a nature are worn inside; they are called house slippers. Some times in the winter we do wear these but they never go outside as they are strictly inside wear.
As far as seeing shoes on the legs of some one propping up their legs, this again is a sort of by the region, by the individual as if this is just a rude reaction or if it is acceptable behavior. Mostly if it is rude, you will be told in no uncertain terms by the household head.
In movies much you see, is like my art; it's not real. It's done a certain way to give you an impression. Nothing you see in a movie is unplanned for, unless it works for the advantage of telling the tale. Once in a great while you find a movie set where things didn't go right, the actor was skilled enough to pull it off and make it look real, and the director/producer decided to keep it rather than scrap it. That's the rarity, not the norm.
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I really can't imagine what kind of logic is using one, who thinks the hospitals are safe.
I should have answered this in the same post as above. Somehow I forgot there was something to be addressed and proofread and then posted.
From personal experience, during my working years, if a school came down with the flu, the parents would inevitably catch what ever their kids brought home. They would in turn bring that to work as the big thing with many work environments is to be at work when you are supposed to be there if you want to keep the job. At one point your working commitment was used as a yardstick to determine who would be laid off and who would keep their jobs. This in turn meant people were coming to work with all sorts of communicable diseases which then get passed around the work crew. Every year, what ever was going through the school system would show up at work later.
Then came the day I no longer worked. I got laid off due to automation on the job site. As a result, I was no longer rubbing elbows with others who had kids in school. When shopping for things like groceries I tend to like to go late at night. Less crowds, less crap to put up with. I went from catching stuff seasonally to never getting a cold, the flu, or anything else. After 12 years, I recently last year came down with a cold. It's that lack of public exposure that is the reason for this, is my firm belief.
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Eh, of course slippers are not shoes. Slippers are only for home usage -- worn indoors (if people use them properly).
I read today the article you shared in another site (about the scientists identify a virus and 2 bacteria that could be causing Alzheimer's). Also (after I watched Ip Man 3 and understood that his wife had stomach cancer) I read that Helicobacter pylori infection is an essential risk factor in 65–80% of gastric cancers and 2% of people with Helicobacter infections develop stomach cancer. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach_cancer#Causes). So, all this information makes me feel that we (we, who pay good attention to hygiene) are doing the right thing. Some others think that the most important is to improve their immune systems. It IS important, but there is no immune system that can defeat each and every virus, bacteria, yeast, etc.
... scraped them before coming in.
This reminded me how muddy was sometimes in our yard during my childhood and we used a special П-shaped tool outside. Inside, instead of slippers, we had something that I don't know if there is an English word for it -- it's something like shoe-shaped sweater for the feet. And it's very convenient, because almost all of the homes used carpets (kilim style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilim) and when you have a 'sweater shoe' and walk on a carpet, it's a very soft and warm feeling. Here is a photograph of this: (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6d/f2/9d/6df29d03384457d5e71e0cc8f7814052.jpg)https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6d/f2/9d/6df29d03384457d5e71e0cc8f7814052.jpg.
Now, in China, I have no carpets (and most of the Chinese do not use carpets at home), except 2 rugs, so we use different slippers (summer and winter types).
Well, we still didn't have some American Indians' question: I know there are different Indian people and some of them haven't many in common with the other ones. (Like in Europe, if you compare the Albanians and the Icelanders. Or in Russia -- if you compare the Yakuts and the Chechens.) So, I'm not sure what Indians they meant, but a few times I read that 'they' like to get drunken and tend to have alcoholism problem. Is it some common problem there, or just some cases and then generalizations. If you wish, tell me/us something more about the native Americans, what you think is important, interesting or worth to read. :)
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I've never been intimately connected to native Americans. I've known a few as very causal and occasional acquaintances, as well as one Alaskan Indian lady who would always take offense if anyone called her an Eskimo. As much with folks that are of a different culture the common misconception with us was that Indians from Alaska were Eskimos. The lady would set you straight rather quickly that there were various tribes that had nothing to do with Eskimos.
Like you, I've heard that alcoholism is a bit of a problem on reservations. I don't have first hand knowledge of that, so it is all hear-say. So take that with a large grain of salt.
In the summer here, we just go barefoot inside. Other than stubbing your toe, there's not much in the line of danger to the feet. Other than a house cat that might think it a toy to be played with. One of the two scorpions we did find inside, the cat found first and got sick. We didn't really put it all together until the dead body of the scorpion showed up in the broom. Suddenly him not being as perky as usual made sense. That lasted about two days and he was back to his usual self.
As far as being susceptible to viruses and bacteria, you can't protect yourself, no mater what you do. For one there are just too many different types that have evolved with us and developed the abilities to be parasitic in some method and the other is even if you managed some how to eliminate all invasive cell types, it would not last. Take a look at the flu bug as a prime example. Every year it mutates, especially in the avian, swine, and others. Those flu vaccines are a guessing game and sometimes they get it wrong. They start preparing vaccines almost at the time the last one runs it's course to prepare for the next year, so that there are enough to inoculate the population that wants it. But once in a while they make a wrong guess and the vaccine is worthless.
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Yes, it's true, that Eskimos are not American Indians. The Eskimos are living in 3 continents: North America (Canada and USA), Asia Russia and Europe (if we count Greenland as European place, because it's a Danish territory; if it was up to me, I'll count it as another continent. I know it's not that big as it looks on most of the maps, but I think it's big enough -- for instance it's bigger than the country Mexico.)
The Eskimos are yellow, Asian people. Indians are also somehow related to Asia as origin, but they are earlier migrants, so their outlook, languages and cultures are not so obviously Asian. But, still, the ones in Alaska look more Asian than the ones around the Amazon (South America), for example.
It's 'natural' for the neighbors to have problems and even hatred. I often meet similar cases as yours The lady would set you straight rather quickly that...
A young man from Scotland was very against my conclusion that "You're almost an Englishman." :) /From outside Scotland, England... Great Britain looks something pretty 'equal' and united, but from their internal point of view, they're very different nations and even some of them want independence. Another case -- a Chinese was upset, that living in neighboring to the Koreas region (full of Korean minority), there are people, who ask him is he a Korean and that he looks Korean... There are even cases when some native Chinese, who live in Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao, Singapore and so on, prefer to refer to themselves as Taiwanese, Hongkongers/Hongkongese, etc., but not 'Chinese'./
I expressed before my point of view, that it's better, if people pay less attention to the nationality and the world become more cosmopolitan. Many people like to separate themselves: for example our nation against another nation. If there is no another nation, then it will be our province against another province or our sport team against your sport team. One of the most terrible forms is our religion against your religion or our race against your race (at least the history shows so).
Back to Alaska -- it's really a place with many minorities and it's bigger than what people usually imagine -- maybe you know this picture, so I'll show it for the others, who never imagined the real size of that state: (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg/1024px-Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg.png)By Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) - Own workData:NGDC World Coast Line (public domain)NGDC World Data Bank II (public domain), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5007438. It's very natural in so big territory to exist more than 1-2 minorities/nationalities, because there isn't so cold as in Antarctica.
Except the Eskimos there is another Asian (with Asian origin, look and culture) minority in the USA -- the Hawaiians. They're relatives of most of those in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. So, we can say that the most Asian native US citizens are the Eskimos and the Hawaiians (and after them -- the American Indians, which are an earlier Asian 'wave', something like 'proto-Asians'). There are similar ethnogeneses and minorities in Europe, too. For example the one and only 100% yellow, Asian and Mongol minority in Europe are the Kalmyks, living in the European part of Russia (more about this minority: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmyk_people). This is the only Mongol minority in Europe.
I'm sorry, if it was boring for some of the others, but I think Mojo likes to read, plus it's useful for the forum (from the 'more quality content' point of view).
About the diseases -- yes, some of them are inevitable (unavoidable), but washing reducing the hazards; for example some of the diseases are known as 'the disease of dirty hands'. I don't want to concretize which ones, because it may sounds 'racist' (which is not), but I know some minorities, who do not like to use water very much (for example they rare take a bath/take a shower) or they just haven't enough water around... and there the disease rate is much higher.
What I mean and what I want to say is that better hygiene isn't a panacea (it's not 100% effective), but makes sense, because can reduce the number of the ill people. And I think we all agree about it. :)
What we can call 'American national drink'? Is there something, except the Coca Cola/Pepsi Cola that's pretty popular or something that's not very popular abroad, but people like it (something like that cactus wine, for example)? Do you like to make home-made drinks?
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When I watch that map and I wonder about California and Florida. If we compare these 2 states what are the + and the - of them? If there is a dilemma where to live, which one do you think is better?
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My spring is getting weak in my mouse and will have to buy a new one today. I've lost three posts because of it. Two the day before yesterday. I go to drag something from one point to another or click on something I get double and triple clicks. So I reference something off page and suddenly the page I am typing a response disappears never to be gotten back. Those posts lost were of considerable length and it sort of tees me off to say the least. I'm writing this one on notepad so I don't lose it yet again.
There's an old joke from the Texans.
How do feel about it now that Texas is no longer the biggest state in the Union?
It still is, wait till the ice melts.
And if you couldn't guess from all that where I live I'll give you this image.
(http://veuwer.com/2lxv.png)
As a boy, a new family moved into the neighborhood. I became friends with the son. He once showed me a gold nugget that came from a stream in Alaska, that being where his family moved from. This was a different set of folks than the lady who was not an Eskimo. I sort of got an informal education on Alaska at the time from him without really realizing how much I was picking up. Not that I remember all that today.
On a standard drink, common to all the US, I don't know if there is one. Here at home we drink iced tea. Made at home and refilled whenever it is needed. If we go somewhere on the road, then two bottles of tap water, cooled in the fridge go with us. I no longer drink soft drinks unless there is no choice. I will drink them before I drink plain tap water from other places strange to me. It's not that our water has various bugs in it that would make you sick, it's that water tastes different from place to place. Outside the borders of the US then it would be the bugs in the water. Known as Montezuma's Revenge (Traveler's Diarrhea) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma%27s_revenge) is the reason.
I guess my point on how far to take hygiene is that there reaches a point of diminishing returns. Not only that but in order to keep from having the same ones return in your life you have to at some point be exposed to them so as to build antibodies against them.
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Well, usually when there is an error and I refresh the page the post is still here and I can repost it or it's already reposted, if I clicked 'Post', but if you close the window, then it's already lost. I know how discouraging, depressing it is and I know that it's causing someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm to post again, so I wish you to get rid of this problem asap. :)
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It was taken care of yesterday. I now have a new track ball type mouse. Thought I would try a new style trackball as I had one back in the day before 3 button mice became available on the market. That's also before lasers were used in mice. That one lasted for years before it broke, unlike many of the more modern and cheaper made mice.
I also could not find a wired mouse in a small town. The choices are limited to wireless only. Main reason I like wired is no batteries to deal with, ever. While this trackball claims long battery life, one must remember the games that corporations play to make their products sound better than your actual user experience comes out to be. This one uses one AA battery and claims 18 month battery life. Most likely they are measuring mouse usage on a hour or so a day, which is not realistic in terms of my computer usage.
Will just have to wait and see. I think I see rechargable batteries in my future again.
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I supposed that you're in Texas, after you mentioned the Tex-Mex food and then Cape Canaveral (it not far away from Texas), etc. I heard there are some specialists, who even can guess where are you from only by reading your posts (in your native language), because some of the words (for example dialectisms, slangs or idioms) are unique or semi-unique to some areas. Ones a person online guessed right that I lived long time in a certain BG city (this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleven), because I used a kind of slang word or an idiom (I don't remember exactly what), which is unique in that area. I post about it, because I know you like the privacy topics and maybe this is interesting for you (if you didn't know it already). :)
About the antibodies -- it's true. The pity is that our bodies are imperfect and incomplete (which is a sort of proof against the creationism) and we can't beat in this way hepatitis, hydatid disease and others around. Many thanks for the link about the traveler's diarrhea!
I also wonder about the states mentioned above: California and Florida. Why, for example, Florida's beaches are very famous and Californian aren't? California is in front of the Pacific ocean and it's a pretty warm place. Or maybe they are and I don't know? Any impressions from there?
Related link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beaches_in_California
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Actually, California beaches (http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/beaches/articles/top-10-southern-california-beaches) are more 'famous' than those in Florida. Huntington Beach, Malibu, Laguana, Coronado, Venice, to name only a few. Globally through the movies, many people have seen these beaches as background for a movie without ever knowing they were seeing them.
(http://s020.radikal.ru/i718/1603/1a/f94366ef6001.png)
Here is a photo I took of a relativity unknown beach in Florida near my home town.
Cape Canaveral is located in the state of Florida. After the Kennedy assassination it was renamed for a while as Cape Kennedy.
Houston, is the city nearest location for NASA's space efforts in Texas (Houston we have a problem).
You're in serious trouble if you go by my idioms without knowing it. I've picked up all sorts of slang, dialect, and idioms by living all over the Eastern US, from north to south and it's a huge jumble that most you have not heard yet. chuckles
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In this case, you're pretty language-tracking secured. :P
Very good photo! I never saw palms so near to the seawater! :o Amazing.
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I beg a pardon for what I will post here (because it's not a question about the USA, it's more like a political science point of view or a problem related to the political science/elections. I said yesterday, I don't want to feel sorry again, that I missed to say 1-st something like the chicken is a relative of the Rex, so I want to express my 'prediction' earlier now). I'll make it as a question form "Am I right that...?" and, if someone want, welcome to share some answer or own point of view. And here is the topic: My guess is that Donald Trump is not going to win. As far as I'm informed, he's a person with many great values, experience and if he is a president, it may change (probably) the things not only in the US, but also around the world. I, personally, like a lot of what he is and many of the things he's saying. And here is why I think he's not going to win (and, if I'm wrong about some details, I'd like to know):
- He'll not get enough support from the 'minorities' (in fact, they're not that minor) like: relatives of the immigrants, who may vote; homosexuals, transgenders, etc.; black people; Muslims (and some of the Christians); feminists and others.
My elections' experience shows this: if you're not enough rich /Trump IS rich, so it's okay/, if you're not enough populist and not enough showing pro-minorities politics, you're out.
(All my thoughts here are valid, if there is no some election fraud, of course! All I mean and think are 100% honest elections, not something like http://occupydemocrats.com/2015/04/21/jeb-bush-wants-us-to-forget-his-election-fraud-that-stole-the-white-house-for-george/).
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My personal opinion is the election will be rigged to be stolen. The votes the voters make won't matter.
The monied and the elite have over a period of time made the elections a joke. In order to raise the money needed for a national campaign, politicians must take hat in hand and go beg for money everywhere the money is at. To run for an election takes a LOT of it. That money always comes with strings. In the end, the candidates for election are bought long before they ever make it to the race. The voters choice always comes down to the lessor of two evils. No matter who you vote for at the end of the day, it's still an evil.
A good portion have given up on voting. It's gotten bad enough that those who do vote sort of hold their nose while doing so. Many don't bother anymore. This election is going to show why many have become disillusioned with voting. It's not the voters that will determine who becomes candidate; it's the convention delegates that will do that and 1/3rd of them called super delegates are not bound to what the voters want. They will vote however they wish and it will not be according to the wishes of the voters. This business was established when the elite nearly lost control of power. They are worried in this election because their favored candidates they put the money on have been pretty much rejected by a populace that is tired of being ignored. The voters are in revolt and want anything but politics as usual. To maintain power the elite will have to do pull sneaky tricks and that is why the superdelegates exist in the first place.
The voters have been voting for those already rich because they don't come with the same strings.
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As Mark Twain said: "If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it." ;D
What do you feel is expensive there recently? (I remember you said already about the rents and the property. I ask about some products. For example for us here one of the relatively expensive things is the cheese and one of its kinds, the feta cheese. Or some perfumes. Do you have something 'precious' there too, something you feel doesn't need to be so expensive, but it is.)
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What do you feel is expensive there recently?
Pretty much everything. The costs of everything have been going up for years. Wages however, have not. If anything they have went lower and lower. The worker is in competition with the rest of the world as to who has a job and gets paid. There are more have nots than haves.
Our government typically lies to us all the time as far as accuracy goes about how many jobs are created per month, about the state of the economy, and how well off the citizens actually are compared to the rest of the developed world. Much of it is done so the politicians don't look so bad.
Mergers have eliminated many jobs. One company buys out another, waits a little while it compares what it now has with the two companies, and then lays off people that are redundant. One company wouldn't make that much difference but we have went through 20 to 30 years of this merger mania, where every company saw merging as the way to grow. The end result has been massive job loss within the national borders. This is not to take into account, job offshoring, nor moving completely out of the national boundaries to escape taxes.
Inflation is another our government ignores. For those retired, the government no longer makes up the difference that inflation has taken away from purchasing power. This means that the elders are getting poorer on a fix income that buys less and less. A way to demonstrate this loss of purchase power is that in 1970 my mother bought a new economy car for a cost of $2,000. Today an equivalent car costs around $14,000 to $20,000. It matters not if you are talking buying a new car, food, power (energy), rents, or whatever money is used for.
Medical costs are a prime one to question the value of. It has literally soared out of reach of the average citizen to pay for out of pocket. Drugs are one reason. Some of the drugs programs where you take x amount of drugs daily over a period of time to get well are now in the thousands on up to the hundred thousands for medicine. Some have no hope of paying these outrageous prices. Yet drug prices continue to escalate. I feel often that because the same drugs can be had cheaper in other countries the US is being gouged to support the rest of the world in most items. When the elderly have to pick between food and medicine you know it's went much too far. At the rate medical costs are rising, it will consume 1/5th of the GDP within the next decade.
The same can be said for higher education. When I went to college, I didn't have the money to stay at the college. I bussed 50 miles every day there and back. I also worked every weekend and ever holiday to make enough money to pay for it. But the important thing here was it was doable. When I finished, I owed nothing. That's not possible today. The government has made arrangements with the bankers to make loans for education. As a result of there being more money available, all prices for education have shot through the roof. Universities are using the windfall to build newer buildings, hire rock star professors, and increase the benefits of the senior staff, which does not roll down hill to the average professor. What I could pay for with work isn't possible today because the costs have skyrocketed. Today a young person graduates with a debt the equivalent of what it costs to buy a house. When they get out they for the most part find that the jobs don't pay enough to pay the loans back.
The result of this has been the economy staggering along. It takes the consumer to power the economy through buying things. But when you have no money to spare, there is no discretionary income to spend. This has a direct result on the market and it is showing. No matter how you look at it, it is not sustainable over the long haul. The future does not look good from this aspect.
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Let me add the pork here. Right now I watched news. The live pigs are more expensive and then the processed pigs (pork) is more expensive too.
How do you travel to Mexico? Is it visa free or some similar way? I got an impression that every American is crossing the Mexico's border without any bother.
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I've never been into Mexico, so this isn't a question I can answer first hand. Given what I've been reading traveling in Mexico is not exactly safe for US citizens. The drug cartels are always looking for victims to kidnap and hold for ransom. Been reports of many mass graves on ranches and farms.
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If your information is all true, it's pity, because Acapulco (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acapulco) and some other places in Mexico are great and it's a shame the country to lose money from the tourism, just because they can't control those cartels.
Let's change the topic to something more optimistic: which are the best spots in the US for your internal tourism? I know it depends of the certain people: someone will choose New York, another one -- Las Vegas, but do you have something that all of you can't disagree it's a national touristic treasures like the Great Wall in China, for example?
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Being a young country has it's disadvantages as we don't have things that date back 5 to 6 hundred years, much less anything that goes back to BC. We do have natural formations such as the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore) which was carved by an individual out of a mountain top.
Things that are ancient rely on the American Indian who was not known to build long lasting structures. But things like the Pueblos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Bonito). Other than that unless it is only 2 or 3 hundred years old it doesn't exist farther back. Of those made during our history many didn't survive being made of wood rather than more durable materials. Wood is what they had, that's what they used.
There's lots of corporate parks, such as Disneyland or 6 Flags but my interest never laid in that direction. I went to the original Disneyland as a teen but never really cared all that much for it. I'd much rather be in a canoe going down a river on a campout or the like.
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Oh, OF COURSE the Mount Rushmore! These sculptures are so famous and we know them from some of the American movies, some books, etc. I forgot about them, but I knew them and I'm pretty sure there are millions of people around the world, who know the place.
About Pueblo Bonito, I'll admit I never heard about it and that's a place, worth to know. Thanks a million for sharing this!
Disneyland, Six Flags... Well, I do share your point of view. And I think it's for kids and for teens, not for us. :)
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Let me add this: the longest cave system known in the world is in the US (Mammoth Cave National Park, in central Kentucky). About: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park.
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I have a question about the human cloning. I ask here (Mojo), because 1/ he is into this subjects and he reads a lot about them and 2/ because I think the US is one of the leading countries in this field.
My question is: What are the recent main attitudes about it? Can we expect that in the future (the near one) we may have a newborn Einstein, Elvis and Bruce Lee (for example)? /In fact, if you clone somebody, it will be not exactly him or her, but his/her twin brother or twin sister. I know it. And my question is not about it, but about the 'moral' and the 'ethics'; some people think it's not moral to clone a human. And I think it's great, if it's possible. What's wrong, if we have a new great scientist, musician or martial artist and actor?!/
So, let's have some info, thoughts and, maybe, chat about it! :)
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I have a question about the human cloning. I ask here (Mojo), because 1/ he is into this subjects and he reads a lot about them and 2/ because I think the US is one of the leading countries in this field.
My question is: What are the recent main attitudes about it? Can we expect that in the future (the near one) we may have a newborn Einstein, Elvis and Bruce Lee (for example)? /In fact, if you clone somebody, it will be not exactly him or her, but his/her twin brother or twin sister. I know it. And my question is not about it, but about the 'moral' and the 'ethics'; some people think it's not moral to clone a human. And I think it's great, if it's possible. What's wrong, if we have a new great scientist, musician or martial artist and actor?!/
So, let's have some info, thoughts and, maybe, chat about it! :)
Mojo is the right man to explain it. I believe in him, when it comes to these problems! A karma + in advance for him! :)
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The ethics of this issue is a tricky one. Mainly because of the moral issues that religion has with monkeying with trying to be God. Much of genetic research here has been stunted by the religious influences dealing with this matter.
Will it be done? Certainly, the question is where, not if this will occur.
You hear a lot about stem cells and stem cell research and this is a direct result of influence in politics. It is why they are using stem cells and not the real cells that they are attempting to recreate. Because they are blocked with in this country of certain methods and federal funding needed to finance this research. It is only recently during the presidency of Obama that this restriction has been lifted.
I do not wish you to feel like I am judging here. I am merely stating facts and you are welcome to draw your own conclusions on the matter. Some of it I see and agree with on both sides, some of it I do not, and it's a mixed bag.
At present you will see no Elvis clone, nor of one of Einstein, from the US. Mainly because the research has been delayed through politics and is now trying to catch up with much of the rest of the genetic research world. The fact that it is possible to pick certain traits to be more likely to be present and of high influence in a fertilized egg by picking those characteristics prior, is still at this point a no-no. England had enough troubles over Dolly, the cloned sheep. It is Dolly that triggered the political jerk knee response from pressure from the religious communities that something had to be done.
I offer you this news report of years gone by to understand the issues and the results of these issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002496111/dolly-the-sheep.html
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This is one of the reasons why I think the best for the science and for the mankind is the atheism. The greater religious freedom = the greater obscurantism. (For those, who never knew about it -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscurantism)
When I read how because of the religion insanity the cloning is not developing as well as it may, I remember the words of a genius -- Lenin: "the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind" (and, of course, the famous Marx's "Religion is opium for the people.")
No need to describe how bad and angry I feel when read something like "President Obama pressed for greater religious freedom in China." What for? He didn't learn history or, the opposite, he knows very well that more religion equals less development (as we see now on this science topic) and he dislike to see a developed China? I avoid to waste time with politicians and politics, but in this case I feel very well, that Obama soon is not US president anymore. I just can't get rid of my antipathy to someone, who protects something so destructive, oppressing and stopping the scientific progress like religions, and who's trying to imply it all around the world! I'm very skeptic about the possibility Trump to win (and I said already why I think so), but I really hope he to win and to lead his country in a rational way.
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As you well know, I can talk 'politics'. Being sensitive at times to some of way the political winds blow, perhaps it is better not for me to do this here. Very often I find on the internet, such as is demonstrated here at this site, that individuals from various nations can get along; their governments can not.
Religion and politics often bring out the strong feelings that people have over topics, subjects, and events. I have no wish to create tempest in a teapot. For that reason in all likelihood beyond the occasional, I'll not deal with those two topics here. You'll also notice it is not often I participate in the NK thread for the same reason.
On the rare occasion the topic must cover these items which is why it is here in this thread as it is central to the topic at hand and the pressures put upon the genetic research from outside forces.
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Let's continue the interesting site: except the religion what else problems faces the science in the US? I guess money is one of them, but it's everywhere, it's nothing specific. Something else?
You described very well how NASA is making important inventions. Does the religious guys trying to influence NASA, too? I bet many of them are against space discoveries, because they may hurt some parts of their believes. :D
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The positioning behind the political scenes, is often over votes and catering to the various groups that support their party. There is a huge political storm that has been raging for a long time now over abortions. The religious aspect is the key driver in this, with many individuals influenced on which side they fall on, depending on their personal beliefs which the religious community takes full advantage of.
With NASA, much of it is of course controlled by it's budget. A budget whose amounts determine what it can and can not do. This is not helped by the political turmoil that is part of our system of changing leaders every or every other election cycle. NASA's missions are often on the decade or better time scale. Something that does not line up with the election cycles at all. So NASA spends 8 years, in preparation for a mission only in the last years before it is ready to have the funding cut out from under it. This has driven NASA to come up with what it calls faster, cheaper, smaller.
Much of the satellite gear, is specifically designed and hand made to preform the tasks assigned. There is no shelf of parts to reach up and grab to assemble this or that satellite or mission gear. This problem was amply demonstrated a couple of years ago.
Our weather satellites are a pair of them. Between the two of them, they cover the entire US. These particular satellites had reached the end of their useful life. NASA was prepping a pair of replacements when the budget got cut for them. They were near done. NASA informed congress of the problem they faced and it was more than just the satellites. The people who build this hardware are very specialized. You can't just run an ad in the newspaper under jobs available. It takes a few years at least to bring those capable up to speed on the requirements of what it takes to build a piece of mission hardware.
Congress in it's wisdom, killed the project. Within three months one of the weather satellites failed. The other started degrading shortly after. The people who worked these jobs were no longer there to do the mission hardware tasks as they were laid off. They went and found other jobs. Today they are now rushing to get two weather satellites prepared before the last one dies.
When religion gets influence in the political sway like the example above (which may not have had anything to do with religion at all) you never hear of it, not publicly. It is always hidden behind the scenes other than for moral issues.
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Mojo, don't hesitate to post in the North Korea News (http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/social-network-seo-social-network/north-korea-news/).
If you get some news and you like it, post it, please. News is not political debate or something... so, I think we can do it.
Example: "Kim Jong Il's Work Published in Mexico, source: http://www.kcna.kp/kcna.user.article.retrieveNewsViewInfoList.kcmsf#this"
(But I generally do agree that it's a harm for a forum to focus on politics and religions (except, if that's some very profitable forum and you know that it makes sense. Currently this one is bringing literally a few cents per 24 hours, which is approximately enough only to cover its inexpensive yearly domain-and-hosting plan.))
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In general -- I'm unhappy that in the most high-tech and high-science country in the world recently (USA) the science progress depends on religious reasons! It's a shame for the mankind. (And as often I mention -- most of the men around the world ARE stupid. But when it comes to SCIENCE to be DEPENDABLE of the myths, lies, stories, i.e. religions, it's already TOO MUCH and I can say emotionally, logically and in every level: HELL, NO!!!... May be there is a better expression about it, but I can't find it now. Maybe: "Damn this science, which is dependable of the least scientific levels as religions!")
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I think there is no question/no debate. Because... is really some sane person, who thinks that religion isn't a 'stop' for the science-tech progress everywhere around the world?
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Trends show that in the US, religion is losing it's foothold. I think the last thing I read about this was something like 50% religious and 49% not. The 49% is gaining while the 50% is losing ground. It won't be too much longer till religion will no longer be the majority.
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If it's true, then the future of all the world has more optimistic chances.
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I wonder about the 'El Niño'? Do you have problems with it in the US nowadays?
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El Nino changes the weather patterns. Normally California gets problems from the change while we benefit. California gets so much rain that it creates mud slides. We get an added and extended wet season.
Under normal conditions our wet season is just at the beginning of spring as the weather changes. From then on till next spring we get very little water. This is an arid climate. The only problem we usually see from this change of weather is flooding since the locale is flat land with no real drainage to speak of. Water always gathers at the lowest point and since it has no where else to go it then gets deeper. Often this happens on roadways and this is a hazard to people driving, especially in the country. You see water over the road, you don't go on. You can't tell how deep it really is. In many flood prone places the state puts up water level markers so that you can tell how deep it is.
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I read your another post about El Nino. It says it's raining now over there in Texas.
I'd like to ask about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_Civil_War
How do you like it? Some more opinions around you? Is it well accepted in the US? It was currently one of the best watched films around here, according to what I saw on a cinema TV yesterday or the day before yesterday!
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I'm waiting for the Mojo's answer, but during this waiting time, I'd like to say that I still didn't watch this new American film (the exact name is ‘Captain America: Civil War’ ). I watched a trailer and the most attractive was when the Spiderman took the Captain America's shield. :)
An example: http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/spiderman.jpg
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I read your another post about El Nino. It says it's raining now over there in Texas.
I'd like to ask about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_Civil_War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_Civil_War)
How do you like it? Some more opinions around you? Is it well accepted in the US? It was currently one of the best watched films around here, according to what I saw on a cinema TV yesterday or the day before yesterday!
I have not yet seen this newest film but did watch the Winter Soldier. One of the things that gives me a bit of amusement, is that this is entertainment. There is nothing really factual to it beyond having used authorities in their fields of expertise to set the stage for the tale. Yet often you find people on the internet that try to use the entertainment as some reference to defend their stance behind some question or discussion as being relevant. Thing is to accept the premise of the movie, one must always suspend what they know of the real world to engage in the entertainment. Otherwise it becomes total nonsense with no value.
Many people around the globe see these products of Hollywood and believe this is the US as they have seen it with their own eyes. What they do not realize is everything they see is very carefully staged to present the very opinion they believe. Only rarely is there ever something in a film that was not purposely planned, right down to the placement of the feet, the clothes, the background, and even the lighting and sound. You are presented with what looks to be a complete image. No one ever questions why someone of limited income as presented in such a frame of reference, would have the things they have access to. You see someone who is supposedly poor, who has all the modern conveniences of life in the background, has all the time in the world to do whatever the film takes you to, and the methods available to get them there, without consideration as to costs; as an example.
I say this so as to dispel the magic presented on the silver screen. By all means accept it as entertainment. But do not use films as background for factual. It is highly misleading.
Where I live there are no theaters. So I won't see the latest greatest when it first comes out. I will see it much later. Given that, I can't really comment on a movie I haven't seen yet.
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Mojo, we miss you. Hope you are doing well in Texas or in another place. 8)