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Ferremit posted:Hahahaha. You should try what we have here. Lovely thing called Medicare, and theres an annual levy on EVERYONE who earns more than $26,000 a year (20-26K its part payment, 20K or less its nill payment) thats 2% of your taxable income We have this lovely group of health insurance things here - Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, and ACA/Obamacare market "subsidies" - that accounts for 24% of our national budget every year. Since our income taxes are progressive, the % of your income you pay into it increases as you have higher taxable income. I pay about 6.7% of my yearly income into them. There's a fine if you make any amount of money and don't have healthcare insurance, either through the marketplace or your employer, of 2% of your yearly income OR $325/mo/person, whichever amount is higher - although the $325/mo/person is capped at under $1000. So I cannot choose not to pay in excess of $6700 a year into those programs. If I was to buy insurance comparable to what I have through my employer through the marketplace, I'd be paying about $280/month over what I pay now. That's a total cost of $8700/year if I have no insurance, over $11,300/year if I purchase insurance through the marketplace, or $7950/year if I get insurance through my employer. PLUS I still have copays and OOP expenses for some procedures, if insured. HOWEVER It means that ANYONE in the USA can stagger into an ER and be treated, for however long and for whatever disease or illness, and have the hospital come after them for every penny they earn for the next 7 years. There are reasons people don't like ACA, and it's not all because "The GUBBMENT is gonna send Gramma to a death camp" or "Don't Tread On Me, It's my RIGHT to spend my dollars on what I want, and it's against my religion to pay for abortions!". The Prong Song fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 15:56
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Wow guys, I live in Canada.  We don't have enough doctors because our licensing is really strict so there are a bunch of guys who come from India and are like "well let me work on people" but we don't, at least not until they update their credentials. You have to wait a long time to get a family doctor (what the Brits call a "GP") and once they retire or die you have to wait again. Emergency room lines are very long sometimes. I have waited a few hours to be seen for non-life-threatening emergencies while constantly being bumped to the back of the line while people with life threatening emergencies come in and are seen immediately. This irritates some people, especially parents of small children, who assume that a kid who feels bad and is sick is a life-threatening emergency. Occasionally this fucks up sometimes and the person handling triage doesn't process a person thoroughly enough to determine that something is life-threatening; people have died because they complained about a stomach ache that was actually substantial internal bleeding. I assume this happens everywhere and won't get fixed until we get handheld Tricorders, which we should immediately start work on. Throughout my childhood, youth and early adulthood, right wingers were constantly trying to either demolish/defund the public system or go to a two-tiered system where private health care firms would poach all the best doctors away from the public system. There's been an odd pause on this rhetoric for awhile, possibly because we watch a lot of American media and the Obamacare transition has made Canadians aware of what alternatives look like. In my province we used to have a flat tax health care contribution levy ($528/yr individuals, $1056/yr families), but we got rid of it in 2009 because employers had grandfathered HR policies forcing them to cover it, and we always do what is best for our employers. Then this year, the Tories here threatened to put it back in because had to Get Serious About Bad Oil Prices (along with a series of other new taxes and user fees, some of which have stuck) so we turfed them for the first provincial government change in 44 years. Our new guys are a populist-centre-left party that is turning up accounting nightmare after accounting nightmare and failed privatization project after failed privatization project while at the same time trying to produce a budget that works in view of the oil prices. Sadly because of the nature of Canadian government almost none of our thief politicians see prison or the rope, and go to rejoin the single-geared right-wing think tanks they were spawned in (regardless of what party they served in). There are some services that are vastly oversubscribed (the Tories kept promising and cancelling the promise of a new cancer centre when they needed votes, it is now actually going in) and other services that are poorly administered (small town doctors are hard to find so we keep trying to import them from abroad and covering part of the bill to bring them up to Canadian spec, but they just move to a big city as soon as they can). Overall I think it is an OK system, but I know that the Swedes and probably other Scandinavian countries have much better management of things like mental health, addictions, family counselling, elder care and other "soft" medical things that help make your society more harmonious. Those kind of conversations aren't even on the table in modern Canada because we just look at the price tag instead of fixing our earning potential. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 16:10
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All politicians deserve a good burning.BrokenKnucklez posted:My biggest beef with the trailblazer is the economy isn't much better than a full size Tahoe. That's an interesting auto-correct...
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Sep 12, 2015 16:12
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Guys i'm sitting here drinking Surge for the first time in years and it's just as good as I remember 
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Sep 12, 2015 16:30
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Is it from that Amazon order or did they already start stocking it in stores again? I used to drink that poo poo buy the 2 liter when I was a little kid.
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Sep 12, 2015 16:32
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Is it from that Amazon order or did they already start stocking it in stores again? I used to drink that poo poo buy the 2 liter when I was a little kid. Stocking it in stores, apparently. Roomie grabbed a couple 16oz cans from one of the local gas stations and gave me one this morning.
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Sep 12, 2015 16:36
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Wow, time to make some mother loving Surge mix drinks tonight.
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Sep 12, 2015 16:39
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Ferremit posted:Hahahaha. You should try what we have here. Lovely thing called Medicare, and theres an annual levy on EVERYONE who earns more than $26,000 a year (20-26K its part payment, 20K or less its nill payment) thats 2% of your taxable income Haha $1200 a year, family coverage for me in America is $800 per month with my company kicking in too. And it's terrible coverage with Aetna on top of that. I would kill for that kind of health care in the U.S. Yes, my company's benefits suck.
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Sep 12, 2015 17:32
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I bought a case of surge last year. It's not as good as I remember.
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Sep 12, 2015 17:34
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Terrible Robot posted:All politicians deserve a good burning. guys? 
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Sep 12, 2015 17:46
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Aww Surge is not here in MA yet. Guess I'll just drink Guiness all day instead.
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Sep 12, 2015 17:54
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Ferremit posted:...Lovely thing called Medicare...Australia... For some reason I find it really interesting/weird that the universal healthcare in Australia is called Medicare. Looks like it was changed to that in '84 and came after the US Medicare, which is our coverage for old people (and some disabled/exceptions). I don't have a lot to add to this crazy misc chat thread other than I really love Killz primer in a spray can. It goes down on bare wood so good, it's so easy and everything comes out looking good. Also, I loaded 3,000lbs of dirt and rotten wood into the back of a truck and out of the back of a truck last weekend (~*~flexes at u~*~ :bigtran: ) and ugh homeownership can suck, but I must be a little sick in the head because I've been feeling really accomplished about my yard and fence finally coming together.
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Sep 12, 2015 17:58
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Emergency room lines are very long sometimes. I have waited a few hours to be seen for non-life-threatening emergencies while constantly being bumped to the back of the line while people with life threatening emergencies come in and are seen immediately. This irritates some people, especially parents of small children, who assume that a kid who feels bad and is sick is a life-threatening emergency. Occasionally this fucks up sometimes and the person handling triage doesn't process a person thoroughly enough to determine that something is life-threatening; people have died because they complained about a stomach ache that was actually substantial internal bleeding. You've just described pretty much every ER in the United States, at least if we're talking about hospitals that are open to the general public and not some super-exclusive clinic that costs six figures to walk through the door. Sigma X posted:It means that ANYONE in the USA can stagger into an ER and be treated, for however long and for whatever disease or illness, and have the hospital come after them for every penny they earn for the next 7 years. Actually most US hospitals have a stabilize and release policy for people without insurance or ability to pay out of pocket. Show up at the ER with a 2x4 running through your chest, they legally can't refuse to treat you regardless of your ability to pay. Show up at the ER in the early stages of cancer or other long term illness and they'll just shrug, maybe give you a prescription for painkillers or antibiotics and a referral to a specialist and send you on your way. I fully agree the ACA is an imperfect law, but I'm of the opinion that it didn't go far enough. They really should have started from "Medicare for all" and compromised on a government-run option instead of starting there and compromising on admittedly necessary reforms but largely leaving the broken for profit insurance system intact. Geoj fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 18:07
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Wow guys, I live in Canada. This. Our entire system is hosed and it likely won't change because the average Canadian gives a sweet gently caress all about politics so there is no interest is finding the corrupt politicians (it's all of them) and fixing accounting loophole after accounting loophole. Even though it leaves us with a system like in Vancouver where the only mental health asylum in the province was shut down because "lack of funding*" and so they dumped 3000 mentally ill people out on the street to live in our already massive homeless population. *into the Premier's pocket. MustardFacial fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 18:36
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I'd advise everyone to avoid engaging a Brit in a discussion about politics for the next few days.
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Sep 12, 2015 18:52
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InitialDave posted:I'd advise everyone to avoid engaging a Brit in a discussion about politics for the next few days. I heard that the British were replaced by godless commies.
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Sep 12, 2015 19:01
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EVERYWHERE 
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meatpimp posted:I heard that the British were replaced by godless commies. Implying they weren't already commies in the first place. The Queen is just a figurehead for the shadowy Stalinist movement if you ask me 
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Sep 12, 2015 19:12
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meatpimp posted:I heard that the British were replaced by godless commies. For anyone who hasn't felt the desire to punch their monitor today: http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13713677.Joys_of_pootling_along_in_the_car/?ref=mr&lp=4
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Sep 12, 2015 19:44
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InitialDave posted:Yes. Aston Martin V8 Vanquish lol
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Sep 12, 2015 20:00
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Holy poo poo I forgot how funny Friday is.
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Sep 12, 2015 20:56
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Just sat on my sofa and was surprised to sit on a cat (I don't have a cat!) I keep finding this cat in my house if i leave the door or window open, and everytime i'm outside she comes round and is very friendly, and we always chill for a bit. I like her (I think its a her). I leave my kitchen window open most of the day and some nights and I keep walking downstairs and find the cat leaving through the window. Should I feel bad that I might be stealing someone else's cat? I don't know where she lives, and I assume shes not homeless, but i don't know? - I've only been home at weekends for the past 8 weeks and 2 new people have moved in down the street in that time. She wasn't around before then. Should I go and knock on their doors and ask if she is their cat? If not then i think i'm going to start feeding her and attempt to steal her!
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Sep 12, 2015 21:05
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Do they microchip cats in the UK? That might be another option to see if there is an owner. Knocking on doors is also probably a good idea. I'm of the opinion that an outdoor cat is an abandoned cat but a lot of cat owners disagree with that (and then wonder why their cat never returns one day).
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Sep 12, 2015 21:17
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Yeah you should take the cat to a vet and see if it boops out to be someone else's cat. If not, I would say if you're paying for vaccines and food and stuff, it's "your" cat, as much as can be said about cats..
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Sep 12, 2015 21:19
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I just spent fifteen minutes trying to drill an exploded-10-years-ago cell out of my very first maglite, even though it's wrecked, too big and heavy and a £3 led torch will kick it's arse. Basically being able to dick around in my own garage is ace.
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Sep 12, 2015 21:47
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Whomever said politicans should be burned - too good for them. Especially politicans that suck on Murdoch cock. Send the lot to ISIS so they can have fun with them, they are doing more damage to democracythn any terrorist ever could. Mat_Drinks posted:For some reason I find it really interesting/weird that the universal healthcare in Australia is called Medicare. Looks like it was changed to that in '84 and came after the US Medicare, which is our coverage for old people (and some disabled/exceptions). It goes back a bit further. The Whitlam govt in the early 70's was without a doubt true socialist and bought in a huge swath of public programs (free education, free hospitals etc) - the medical one was called Medibank. In 1976 the Fraser Govt (Right wing cunts) spun off a private health cover company called Medibank Private and then in 1981 closed the public scheme. The less socialist and more market based Hawke Govt very quickly returned a public scheme but this time called Medicare in 1984, but also continued to run an own Medibank Private to help keep the private insurers in line. Medicare doesnt cover a few things like dental and queue jumping for elective surgery in private hospitals but if you have a horrible accident you basically get cared without charge. Pretty much in general tho, you need health services, free with your Medicare card. We now also have rolling out a National Disability Insurance Scheme where disabled persons are now completely covered for literally any service that traditional health cover public or private will not cover. The other thing that can be a issue is emergency transport. This isnt covered well by either private or public - A helicopter ride to ER for instance could give you a nasty bill shock. I think this was always a deliberate hole in coverage by the Hawke Govt to give some value to private health cover, that and dental. Thence it's not perfect (no system is) but it's still quite good, especially the emerging NDIS and the PBS (Pharmasudical Benefits Scheme, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_Benefits_Scheme ). So good that much like Canada, if a right wing oval office tried to gently caress with it the voters WILL come after them with cricket bats. We know what the USA has and gently caress that.
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Sep 12, 2015 21:55
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Galler posted:Do they microchip cats in the UK? That might be another option to see if there is an owner. Knocking on doors is also probably a good idea. I'm of the opinion that an outdoor cat is an abandoned cat but a lot of cat owners disagree with that (and then wonder why their cat never returns one day). We do microchip animals but I would have to pay a vet to read it. I will knock on first. I'm a fan of outdoor cats - but also think that they should have a collar with a name and number on so that everybody can tell they have a home and where it is. There are loads of other cats here but none of them want to come in my house or be my friend like this one. I really want my own cat but have been holding off because I work away so much. I really hope it is someone's as I can then find out its name and just tell them I'm gonna talk to it when I'm home, and let it in the house/garage/land rover to sleep as it fancies and then just kick it back out in their direction when I go out. A part time cat would suit me perfectly!
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Sep 12, 2015 22:45
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Enourmo posted:
So why don't they make V4's anymore? The one that Saab used in the 60's/70's sounded awesome and sizewise would pretty good for a small modern car.
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Sep 12, 2015 23:02
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Balancing issues I assume, NVH is a bitch
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Sep 12, 2015 23:06
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Tomarse posted:So why don't they make V4's anymore? The one that Saab used in the 60's/70's sounded awesome and sizewise would pretty good for a small modern car. Cylinder heads cost a lot of money to both design and build; the more cylinders you have under a head, the cheaper it becomes proportionally. Also there's the increased friction loads of a second valvetrain, the fact that in a front-wheel drive car they offer no packaging advantage and that they are inherently more imbalanced than an inline-4, to name but a few of the issues with a V4 engine. E: I would also hazard a guess that because the block is larger (it won't be much shorter than an I4 but certainly much wider) and with two cylinder heads, a V4 is heavier than an I4, and carries most of its weight up high (another disadvantage). E2: VVVVV There are a handful of V4 bikes out there, but there are a shitton of I4 bikes as well. MrChips fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 23:08
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The Fulvia V4 is a mind boggler to comprehend, and it managed to do a V4 with only one head casting. How, you ask? It only has two cams. How, you ask? Each cam has a "reach around" to the other bank's intake or exhaust valves with a giant rocker. Pop some Advil and take a look: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-classic-lancia-fulvia-last-chance-to-try-something-really-new/  GAZE UPON YOUR RUINED WORLD Aren't there still a lot of V4 bikes out there, or have they pretty much all been replaced by big-titty V-twins and thumpers? Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 23:11
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Seat Safety Switch posted:
And now you know where VW got the idea for the VR6. Phone chat: New N6 showed up, used the Nexus Root Toolkit and it worked great. I'm unlocked, rooted and later will be backed up. Thanks again for the program tip, mariooncrack!
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Sep 12, 2015 23:22
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I think hondas top end superbikes/GP bikes are V4 still right? I know the RC45 was hot poo poo in the 90s and early 2000s, although its been a long time since I paid attention to motorcycle racing.
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Sep 13, 2015 01:12
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PaintVagrant posted:I think hondas top end superbikes/GP bikes are V4 still right? I know the RC45 was hot poo poo in the 90s and early 2000s, although its been a long time since I paid attention to motorcycle racing. Hell, they had a V5 for a while making 240+ hp.
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Sep 13, 2015 01:19
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Speaking of phones, I just got a new iPhone 6S Plus.
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Sep 13, 2015 01:24
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Sinestro posted:Speaking of phones, I just got a new iPhone 6S Plus. NIce. I'll be sticking with my 6, but would be interested in trying the Force Touch stuff
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Sep 13, 2015 01:41
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You Am I posted:NIce. I'll be sticking with my 6, but would be interested in trying the Force Touch stuff Unless it chokes people that name is horse poo poo. Like most Apple products.
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Sep 13, 2015 01:48
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meatpimp posted:And now you know where VW got the idea for the VR6. No problem! I'm glad everything worked out for you this time. Doing all of that by hand can be a pain.
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Sep 13, 2015 02:09
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You Am I posted:NIce. I'll be sticking with my 6, but would be interested in trying the Force Touch stuff I've loved it on my Apple® Macbook Pro® with 13 inch Retina Display®. edit: Adiabatic posted:Not huge on apple products. I gave it the ol college try with an iphone 4s for a couple years, but between itunes and the restrictive apps, I went and got a Galaxy S6 a couple weeks ago. Haven't looked back. The restrictiveness is the one thing that I don't like. I'd be happy if I could shoot in RAW just because I'm too broke to buy a real camera right now and I miss photography Sinestro fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Sep 13, 2015 |
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Sep 13, 2015 02:10
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I like the concept of the vr6 in anything other than a VAG product.
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Sep 13, 2015 02:19
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Not huge on apple products. I gave it the ol college try with an iphone 4s for a couple years, but between itunes and the restrictive apps, I went and got a Galaxy S6 a couple weeks ago. Haven't looked back.
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