spectastic

that's why you move south son ye ye ye yeauh

we want to think we live in a world where people aren't presumptuous, but that's not true. that's why I think it's better to just get to know everyone better first before getting into something personal like this. and I wouldn't say engineering is very similar to chemistry in this regard. there's a traditional perception that the men in engineering all have wives at home and bring home the bacon. I'm sure there are gay people where I work, but I wouldn't know them if they were talking to me face to face. Maybe part of that has to do with being in a conservative and slightly redneck region of Texas... But generally, I see engineering as a less homo friendly field.

^seconded... two wheel drive and snow... not a happy marriage.

imo, safest thing to do is wait and get to know everyone better

i've ridden around 5 bikes, and 4 of them were sv650s, so I'm well aware of their low end torque. I think I'll be able to handle it with practice. but you're right, this one has new tires, along with new oil, the whole deal. I actually found another bike (gs500) that's almost $1000 cheaper than the sv650, in relatively new condition. It's not the bike I think I will eventually get - sv650 is (or a ninja). but with that price, I can probably ride it through winter, and sell it for a profit in the spring, while buying a sv650 during winter at a good price. shitty thing is the guy stopped responding to my txts, after telling he'd hold the bike for me. ...... I don't think I will ever venture into the supersports though. the gsx and gsxr are pretty much the same right? why not just go for an r6?

private schools charge way more than public schools, but what's the real difference? prestige? student/faculty ratio? better facilities? exclusivity? they're all public perceptions, but really, your hard earned money basically goes into a black box, and in return, you get a diploma that's worth just about as much as any other tier 1 college diploma (speaking in general). nobody in the real world gives a crap if someone went to an ivy league, or got a 4.0, they can get a gold star, I'll take a promotion. I just think it's insane how people think it's ok for these universities to arbitrarily declare the value of an education. It's clearly getting worse, as it becomes a bigger topic in the news. These universities are taking in more money, but they're not investing it, they're downsizing. the only other place for it to go is down someone's pockets, or might as well be an incinerator as far as I'm concerned. I'm not an economist, but this is a bubble, and a serious freaking problem. /rant

I agree with this. As a graduate student working overtime and earning practically minimum wage, if the opportunity cost of staying in school isn't enough motivation to haul ass, how much more will a 6 year deadline help? Maybe it will, but it's a good point that handing off the PhD isn't up to the student, but the professor, and grad student abuse is pretty common. this will help stop that. Although graduate students can be considered cheap labor, I think the bigger driver to keeping grad students around longer is the time and resources required to train new grad students. I mean they all cost the same, but those who've been with the program longer a much lower maintenance, (not to make grad students sound like a commodity or anything..) like a post doc, who's technically a graduate student (ok then cheap labor)

to clarify, that article only refers to liberal arts studies, not hard sciences. imo, the article is right in that this is intended to attract more quality grad students to boost their program prestige, but really, they're just trying to increase their budget. the graduate vs undergrad enrollment chart is a perfect illustration of what's going on. undergrad enrollment is increasing, the school is getting more financial support all around, and yet LA graduate program fundings are getting cut across the board by this policy... I think because the school sees little return from investing in LA, even though the values the students create can't be quantified by a monetary value. I'm not surprised. We see this all the time. universities are no longer services like they were decades ago, it's now a business. my alma mater used low waged undergrads to load shed some of the TA positions in basic science courses. tuitions are rising faster than they should everywhere. students are getting tricked into taking out risky loans. this is just another way the university system is screwing the students.

l've been tirelessly searching craigslist for a good bike, and I think I finally found one. 2003 sv650, fully modded for $2.1k. only thing is it's got 24k miles on it. maybe I can use that as leverage to talk it down to $2000 or 1900, after having sitting on it or test riding it first of course. But the dealer guy said the bike runs perfectly, and I believe him. it's been dropped a couple of times, but I don't really care about a cracked fairing. what do you think? not to mention fuel injection with low 50s mpg. road trip this year for sure

I was referring more to bikes with salvage titles, not wrecked bikes. I will never have time to restore a bike unless it's for hobby. I already have enough tools from dicking around with my car, and I don't like to pile it up even more. I will never buy a bike with a bad engine, because that likely means the frame was damaged. The salvage bikes that I've seen all had to have their forks replaced. The frame was supposedly not damaged, but I'm not going to risk it. I test rode a bike yesterday. the guy said the title was lost, but I'm 80% positive he wrecked it without telling me. it handled like shit. I was scared to take my hand off the handlebars to check the front suspension stability because I felt like I was going to crash if I did. yea... not putting my life at risk save a few hundred bucks.

exactomundo. with one caveat of a higher probability of death lol. But i'm inclined to believe that as long as you keep an eye open, it should be fine. big city traffic is something to be weary of though, with so many cars that a motorcycle can seem invisible. but to follow up on using an bike pump to inflate a car tire, I did 180 reps, and brought the pressure from around 20 to ~35 (need to replace that tire)... overshot it because my crappy walmart pump has a bad gauge. it took about 3 minutes, so there you go..

I grew up in Iowa, and we seldom had that problem, even in small towns - from what I remember anyway. But the damage is caused by oscillation between freezing and thawing temperatures, so I guess it would occur more frequently in the not-so-freezing-cold states. it's kind of funny because I worked on a research project in college on a polymer in the asphalt additives that basically acts as a plasticizer to make it able to stretch more. still waiting on the peer review... these roads are getting old, so it's about time to let the technologies catch up.

that's the first time I've heard of polar vortex causing potholes. I guess another good reason to stay out of the north. I'm not sure what you were doing to be getting punctures on the sidewalls, but it's a good idea to toss it out instead of repairing it. using a tire with a compromised sidewall is asking for trouble. no, I take that back. if it's a small puncture, I would consider patching it, provided the patch is really good - it's only 35 psi. if it's a big puncture, probably not

how the hell does a guy get 2 blowouts in one trip? was he driving through a minefield? by the way, as a money saving tip, for the amount of money they charge for changing out tires, you might as well buy a couple of levers and do it yourself. for me, tires cost around $60 each, but at least $100 fully serviced. just use a proprietary tire lever, not a crowbar or something that'll chip the rim, like one of those jackasses on youtube. also, you can probably pump it back up with a regular bike tire pump, although it's probably going to take around 500 reps. (I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried this)... heck it might even save you time to pump it up in the driveway than to look for air service at a gas station.

I'm only going to keep a couple of books relevant to my field. the rest of that shit can be found on google.

wow.. I was just browsing some craigslist ads in houston, and a lot of the cars they're selling are cheaper than the motorcycle listings... but I bet a lot of these listings are also scams. personally, I'd go to craigslist, and buy one of those cheap 10 year old cars (maybe not one of the $500 ones that require a shit ton of work to restore), and pay a mechanic $60-70/hr or whatever they charge to inspect the vehicle. I would avoid dealerships and financing. pay with cash and everybody wins.

some of us have different definitions for "emergencies" I thought you meant crashing a car into a curb and needing a whole new suspension, in which case emergency fund makes sense. batteries need to be replaced about once every blue moon, spark plugs cost ilke $20. most other car problems are due to negligence more than anything else. But I agree having a backup is a good idea. that's partially why I want a motorcycle, so that if one doesn't work, the other one can take its place.

house of cards is that show where a senator or something arranges to have a bunch of people murdered right? I only saw 1 episode of that I wish they can have halt and catch fire on hulu or netflix or something. I like that show

like what?

honestly, having a tire blowout on you is not inevitable. tires are perishable parts... I try to check my pressure and threads every month or every other month

I have a 02 honda civic. It's nice.. but I'm the opposite . i've been driving cars and commuting on my bike, but now i want to get a motorcycle as my primary mode of transportation, and only use my car for moving, grocery shopping or something that can't be done on a motorcycle. I figure if I limit the use of my car, I can justify getting a high deductible insurance, or even go off of a bare minimum with liability and collision. I would care a lot less if my motorcycle gets damaged or dropped, because I'm only going to spend like 2-3000 on a used 650cc twin. why come you no ride motorcycles anymore? also what's your opinion on salvage bikes, my main concerns are their reliability and coincidentally implication on insurance coverage options

ghana played really well, putting a lot of pressure and forcing a lot of errors from what i saw. germany's passing game just wasnt that good today

yes I was being facetious, probably not the most appropriate response. but honestly how much more usefulness do you expect to generate from this discussion

to be fair, it was never established if Person A was really mentally ill, or just a pain in the rear who got knocked off the high horse.

yea, that was good on Brazilians to have the protests and recognize the issue, ironically... when their country is the biggest soccer nation in the world and should be proud of this opportunity. how were the other host countries ripped off?