I love Japan. Ignoring any cultural stereotyping that may occur, they just do so much cool shit. *swoon*

Edit : oops, hit post too soon...

Out of curiousity, does anyone know the arguments the USA holds for wanting to send someone to Mars? The moon I can understand, maybe for resources\science\power (microwave power plants from sim city anyone? :)) but Mars... is it sheerly as a challenge of engineering and to explore?

I'm pretty sure it's just to meet the challenge. Not a bad thing though, most new technology comes out of either the military or NASA, so even if it's not really usefull to walk on Mars getting there will do alot of good.

I think it has something to do with being a lesbian art teacher. Apparently the gym teachers have that all sewn up in their contracts and are filing a grievance. I need to double check that first.

The plan is to terraform Mars so that it is inhabitable by humans just before Earth can no longer sustain us. :cool:

God forbid we improve the quality of life for our own citizens.:mad:

Hmmmm, lets take a closer look at that. "our own citizens". Are you refering to my citizens or yours, because the last time I looked that was not my job. I'm not being nitpicky when I rephrase it to "my fellow citizens" because *dum da dum!!* I'm not resposible for anyone else's life, and I'll decline the invitation for the guilt trip. Every US citizen has power over their own lives, the people who flush themselves down lifes crapper did so under their own power.

If they want a handout they can sing me a song.

p.s. read my post on educational reform before flamming me (#34 Implementing Democracy 1.01 in Iran)

I wasn't refering to handouts, per se. It's funny, though, how you immediately jump to that conclusion. You really have a thing about conserving *your* wealth and power, huh?

I said quality of life for our own citizens. From your perspective, that would mean that instead of spending money in Iraq, we could round up all the homeless and execute them. It could mean sending a man to Mars, more police to keep the lazy welfare frauds away from you, or whatever. I know that improving roads would improve my quality of life.

I thought that was what you meant because of the quote in your post.

It's not so much an effort to conserve my wealth and power because right now I don't have any, well only to the extent of choosing my own pizza toppings and study music. I work hard, earned my 3.87 GPA and lived (am living) like a monk all through highschool and freshman year because that is what leads to wealth and power. What I earn is mine, no one else's. You want the reward then you do the work, and different work has different rewards. As an extention of that I plan to go where ever the contracts are, but you can bet I won't sign a contract that pays me the same amount as someone with half my expertise and education.

What if that's the only offer you get? You have the choice of being paid the same as someone with half your expertise and education, or zip. What do you do, then? Remember - your expertise and education don't determine your income, the market and The MAN do.

And what if you had a brain damaged brother, or your father has a stroke. Would your outlook on life change?

That's not as true in my field, in medicine there is a very predictable level of income for different specialities. If I go into biotech research (I have a facination with neural interfaces and augmentation) then I'm pretty well going to go to the highest bidder, as long as the work is interesting. I'm going for a dual M.D.-Ph.D degree, so at that point I'll have broken through The MAN.
(Working abroad doesn't bother me in the least, in fact it usually is the better job now)

Clarify a bit before I answer.

Two part question.
1 - If your brother was brain damaged or your father had a stroke, would they be condemned to only have theirs be what they earn, at a handicapped (so to speak) level of earning power?
2 - Would you expect them to have enough income to support themselves, considering that you and your ilk won't kick in anything?