seandhi

Ah yes, the vast, undeveloped wilderness of I-35 between Austin and San Antonio. Totally just unoccupied desert.

The air was “smoggy” driving through Texas? Uh huh... I’m going to go ahead and put that on the same level as your claim about Texas being lax on litter penalties.

By the way, Texas has more acres of forest land than every state you mentioned as being nature-y and forest-y and having more incentive to care about the environment. The only state with more forest than Texas is Alaska.

Like someone else said, Texas is too big to make generalizations.

It's the same way in chemical plants that handle H2S or other dangerous chemicals. I've always had a beard, but I'd have to shave it when installing or servicing our equipment in those plants.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration set the drug schedules, and the Surgeon General is under the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Lyft and traditional taxi service are a couple that come to mind... not that Lyft is necessarily lower quality.

It’s insulting to Colombians.

It’s extremely insulting to refer to Escobar as the Colombian Steve Jobs, if that is the connection you are making.

Or maybe they genuinely believe that their products are safer than cigarettes and believe that they are helping people by giving them an alternative.

I don’t see that quote in the article at all, and it doesn’t appear that the author claims any kind of trickery or sneakiness to trick his team into using Racket. It seems like the team built the tool together.

Wow. I had the same thing happen in back in '08, but our insurance company pulled record of lightning strikes in the area to determine if lightning could actually have been the cause. Luckily, they determined that it was the likely cause - all in all, I had almost $20,000 in damages.

It’s definitely not unique to you. Something that helped me was to not try quiet the voice but to counter all of its automatic negativity with realistic, positive counter-thoughts. It took about six months of intense practice, but now the voice is mostly supportive.

For what it's worth, you'll find people in San Francisco who like to shoot guns and, presumably, go off-roading. I was surprised to be invited to a gun range last time I was there for work.

I speak Spanish fluently as a second language.

> Listen to the language, even if you don’t have a clue what’s being said – and you’re not even paying close attention

I totally agree that this is helpful. Playing Spanish music while I work was one of the things I credited helping me learn so quickly.

> Don’t try too hard with the grammar

This, too. When I first started learning, I tried to remember all of the rules that I was taught in high school, but it was easier to just remember how the words are used in different contexts. Asking native speakers the whys behind the languages usually just results in frustration.

> Have a drink…

My verbal fluidity increases significantly when drinking. This probably has to do with letting go of the worry about sounding "dumb" while conversing in a different language. Most people are very forgiving towards people speaking in their non-native tongue, but it's still hard not being self-conscious. Alcohol helps.

I don't know about the other points, as I learned in an immersive environment by the seat of my pants.

People in Vietnam and other SE Asian countries might disagree with this wholeheartedly. They have certainly felt the oppression from China.