The only thing I can think to question is the 30% less than the states figure…The exchange rate covers that, unless they used another method (percent of GDP per student or some other method)…

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

It’s finally cooled off. I guess the summer wasn’t really that bad…There was only about 1 week or horribly hot weather. It’s still warm, but not stiflingly so…

OK…I can already tell that this is going to be one of those posts that demonstrates my incomplete thought process. Someone has got a PhD paper on this topic… 😉 These thoughts have been with me for a long time, but today seem the right time to attempt a type-out.

So…the TV/cable company here recently did an upgrade and now I occasionally get channels and shows in english. This is quite cool and i’m happy about that.
Today I watched the non-hurricane coverage for a while, and my question is “should a socialist cheer natural disasters?”.

So it seems to me that insurance companies will take a hit after any natural disaster. Reducing profits via wealth redistribution (from the insurance company/shareholders to the victims – victims being homeowners, businesses and dead people who had life insurance policies). Since insurance companies don’t really produce anything I’m not sure this is actually a bad thing…So their profits and stock price go down…bah! Who are they going to fire? People who run papers? Typists? sales jerks?
I’m not bothered…power to the people and all that.
Anyways, so a natural disaster basically has the same effect as a terrorist attack right?

i.e. tea partiers (and whiskey rebellioners..rebellionists?) steal and dump tea to hurt a corporation, OR a terrorist threatens to blow up a plane, and the airlines/airports have to buy new scanning machines, hire more security etc…airlines pass that price onto consumers…less money to spend elsewhere etc etc etc…Economic growth is depressed. Less tax money to spend on wars and stuff.

conclusion…god/mother nature (pick your preference – if you happen to believe in either) is a terrorist!!!

I’m a genius…now that I’m old I really wish I had gone to university.

Wow…I really connected the dots on that one 🙂
I quit!!!

So tomorrow Septemberfest starts…it’s like a really bad Oktoberfest…make that really really bad!!! I’ll be there right after work in case anyone can join.
To quote a friend “…last year didn’t end well”. Nuff said 😀

it’s cooled off. I have nothing more to day. I’m happy!

My phone told me it was still 30° at 11PM last night. I didn’t sleep very well. It was HOT!!! It’s still HOT!!!

I think all went well at the Questura today (with the work permit). 2 more years of uncertainty and immigrant life! I can’t really ever settle until or unless I have a permanent status…I’ll just keep enjoying it (cept when it’s hot…then I’ll just be complaining).

Apparently Hendrix and Bruce Lee are buried in Seattle…
Apparently I’ll be going…
http://www.seattle.gov/html/visitor/graves.htm

OK…the puter says it’s going to be 33° today. Who am I supposed to talk to about this? On the hot days I barely leave my flat until the evening (lots of reading to be had). I do love that evenings on the hot days tho. I guess that almost makes it worth it…almost…

There’s a music “festival” down at the beach. Everynight live music. This is quite nice, and it’s easy enough to chat up girls by talking about music. That’s a laugh at least 🙂

Tomorrow back to the questura to get the residency stuff done…Did I mention the paperwork problem last time?
There was a paperwork problem…so this is the replacement appointment. Ah well, it’s not busy at work, so taking half a day to get fingerprints done and such is a nice reprieve.

it might be a 3 shower day…

It seems that it’s the hottest week of the year now…what’s left but the complaining? I killed a mosquito yesterday with much malice…I blame my 12 bites on the heat as it’s not been a problem until this week.

A was chatting with someone I barely know and we were talking about books…she has read Bukowski, Murakami, and Shakespeare…I was impressed enough to mention it here…a thousand bonus points to her for having the best reading list in Tuscany (besides me of course)…

2 more couchsurfers last night. Lu-Lu and Kuang-Kuang. Lots of fun. Went to the hunter Sagra later where I promptly lost my wallet that had about 700€ in it…Uh yeah. I figured it out when I got home and we dinked around and then just went to sleep…after getting up at 6am to take the girls to the train station (followed by more sleep) I bothered Leo to go with me to the Sagra grounds late morning. We found the a cleaning up. He sees me and says “Joseph James”. Super nice guy, spoke a bit of english, and I gave him 40€ for not stealing from me!

Cheers Leo for the help, and cheers to the nice cleaning dude!