[The Duke]

they also care about their education, unlike most fruits of our public school system

*That* I can agree with. I have both onshore and offshore employees. Amazingly, the offshore ones who speak Spanish as their primary language have a better command of English than those educated in the US public school system (FL). I see this regularly.

[SwankyC]

the offshore ones ... have a better command of English than those educated in the US

That's interesting. I'm a pretty experienced developer myself (11 years) and under no circumstance has this ever been true for me. I doubt I could refer to it as a "command of English" really.

[Hunble]

I live across the street from my local high school. This week, I asked their biology teacher if he could help me out.

If you filter some buttermilk, you will get a solution of lactic acid and water. The lactic acid is what makes the milk sour.

I needed a very small amount of lactic acid to clarify microscopic organisms for study under my microscope.

So, I asked if the chemistry or biology departments of the school could spare 1 ml of this chemical. They could supervise their students using a pipette, as they introduced 0.3 ml of lactic acid into my prepared vials.

I got a lecture about illegal drugs and how they could never supply chemicals to anyone.