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Finding a million examples of folks misusing any common phrase is not difficult. It doesn't make them right, either.

The top results from a quick Google search back up the description of drinking the kool-aid as an act of self-destructive or blind faith:

http://www.wordspy.com/words/drinktheKool-Aid.asp
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/92/debunk.html
http://www.wordorigins.org/Words/LetterD/drinkkool aid.html
Also, see the "Hacker Slang" section of the page at http://www.answers.com/topic/kool-aid

The only dissenting explanation is far more pithy, and evidences less research:
http://www.clichesite.com/content.asp?which=tip+19 48

The specifics of the law are not important. It's the fact that there's plenty of legal definition in the law to protect an individual from harm from other people, but not employers.

I think you're misusing "harm". An employer, aside from OSHA issues, does not inflict "physical injury or damage" upon you. Nor is it inherently "wrong or evil" for them to dismiss you, unless they dismiss an employee in violation of a prior promise. The only meaning of "harm" that may be applicable is "psychological injury", but even then, it's hard to say how much of that is due to their actions and how much is due to the employee having "thin skin". I'm making absolutely no judgements about you or your situation, but we all know people that play the victim card at every opportunity. These people certainly suffer psychological injury on a regular basis, but most of the time, it's self-inflicted.

NYS law provides 17 pages dealing with contract labor law. How contracted employees are to be treated, how they're to be dealt with and negotiated with, etc. It's pretty much a copy of what exists in the "contract law" section already. It's a useless addition that provides no value, but someone took the time to write it to protect the contracted employees.

I know nothing of these laws, but based on your description, I would advocate their repeal. I firmly believe that "the government which governs least, governs best."

Hell, something as simple as "These are the valid cause reasons for immediate termination: XXX, XXX and XXX. Anything else requires at least some documentation that you've put in a reasonable attempt to work with the employee to correct the behavior" would save a lot of people a lot of pain.

I think this illustrates the core of our philosophical differences. I believe that the government's sole job is to set the boundaries on what we can't do to one another. I think we currently do that by forbidding discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability. Your proposal, which I realize was just an illustration, reverses the logic by saying "You can do XXX, but not YYY. If you want to do YYY, you have to do ZZZ first." This is inherently more intrusive. As a small business owner, I have a hard enough time keeping myself in business, let alone staying aware of, and in compliance of the millions of government regulations.

I sympathize with your situation. It sounds like you got a pretty raw deal. My problem is that every time you create a government mandated protection for one person/entity, you're reducing the freedom of another person/entity. There are just reasons for doing so, but it should not be done lightly.

By the way, I read your recent article. If you handed that agreement to me, I, as an employer, would sign it with only a few modifications. They are as follows:

Company understands that employee relies on the pay and benefits provided by company, and therefore company will not change any part of those benefits or pay (either up or down) without acceptance of the employee. Failure of employee to accept a change in benefits cannot be considered in disciplinary actions.

Sorry, can't do it. If I overestimate my ability to compensate you, I need to have recourse. If I can't reduce your compensation, you'll slowly drag me into bankruptcy and then we're both screwed. I would agree to give you 60 days notice before the changes took effect. I would also agree not to hold it against you if you decided you needed to seek employment elsewhere. Hell, I'd probably even give ya a couple paid days off to go to interviews, but I do need to retain the right to adjust your compensation.

Company also understands that if its employees consistently need to work over 40 hours/week, that there aren't sufficient employees to cover the work t

That particular innovation started under the Clinton Administration (does that make it good now?) although protestors have been kept away from main events for far longer than that.

I think you've just demonstrated the typical depth behind many of the outlandish charges and "parades of horribles" against the Bush administration.

From Answers.com (via Wikipedia)

However, Gore did not purchase the shares and did not have control over the estate with which to sell them. Defenders of Gore dismissed this as a claim of 'guilt by inheritance'.

Actually, a B-movie is just a movie produced on a low budget. I lot of people fail to understand that, thinking that the "B" has something to do with a grading system. I have friends who insist on calling crappy movies they don't like "B-movies", even if these movies are very expensive Hollywood productions (they are often right about the quality of the story and the acting, however). The same thing obviously goes for games: the cost of production does not necesarely relate to the quality of the gaming experience.

A plausible story that could be full of shit.

A plausible story that could be full of shit.

ReactOS is such a good copy, it even BSODs correctly!

-ade -- Suffix that can be used to form collectives. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ade

collectives [def] -- Of, relating to, characteristic of, or made by a number of people acting as a group: a collective decision. http://www.answers.com/collectives

of course, it's just a guess....

Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.

Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.

Why would it be "irresponsible"?

And no, it's not illegal, but there are some exchange rules on it - depends on the exchange. See here: Program Trading

Doesn't everybody know by now?

Evander Holyfield from Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing

Now of course he'll need more moves than just "punch". I was thinking Mike Tyson could jump in and bite a piece of his ear off spraying blood all over the surrounding enemies. Then maybe use some training equipment from the game as melee weapons (Jump ropes, weights, etc.)

I'm amazed that this dang FBI system didn't catch a clue the second time around and actual do the tried and tested iterative development process!

Regarding 'equivalent' I did just what you suggest, and got this. Look at 1b. "Having similar or identical effects."

Where we have two words, their is normally such a subtle difference in their meaning. Yes, there's a lot of overlap, but it's not normally exact. Wrong, for instance, is more emphatic than incorrect, and can carry moral judgements, which incorrect does not. Anyhow...

No two acts are ever equivelant in the exact sense you are using. But all acts of murder are essentially equivelant, in the meaning I am using.

As for Roosevelt, amazingly enough, John T. Flynn basically saw through the game even at the time. See The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor, written in 1945. But it was the massive declassification of archives in the 90s that allowed Robert Stinnet, a decorated veteran of the Pacific War himself, to progress beyond the informed guess-work of Flynn and really document what happened. It's really quite shocking, and nefarious above even what Flynn could bring himself to believe. Here is a short article he wrote on it, and I highly recommend his book, which sadly is not available online, but is very worth ordering.

A further interesting tidbit is that the term mob itself is a shortened form of another word: mobility, or mobile vulgas going back to the Latin. It's empowering the common person, in multiples, with the ability to move without hinderance, frequently with malicious intent or action. Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy draws on this strongly.

Oddly enough, the Internet is a wonderful facilitator of mobility, at least so far as words, ideas, images, etc., go, and the fact that it generates such flash mobs isn't particularly surprising.

Gotta second this one. Black scientist in the deep South trying to convince farmers to grow peanuts and sweet potatoes to renew the soil...

http://www.answers.com/topic/george-washington-car ver

I'm no bigot

bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

Perhaps I misunderstood then when you said, 'stick your fake "respect for learning" up your blind, stupid ass.' But it does seem to fit the definition of 'bigot' as I quoted. If you're not intolerent of creationists, then I'd love to know what intolerence is. Woe to anyone on slashdot who disagrees with Darwinism...

As for missing your points, you're the one missing the points of testing. Maybe you accept the Big Bang on faith, but that's only because you can't understand the science. Your limited intellect doesn't reduce science to the primitive weakness of religion.

This is fresh. You make the mistake, and then try to make it sound like I'm the one making the mistake. You are the one who claimed I rejected the big bang. That was your mistake and your assumption. Now you're assuming that I accept the big bang on faith. You're assuming I don't understand the science for it. Did you read my innermost thoughts? Perhaps you've heard me say that to someone else? Maybe you hold an irrational belief that those who reject Darwinism can't understand science. No, I accept the big bang because of the tests and studies that point towards its occurance. So I have no idea what you're saying here. You must be confusing me with someone else.

Can't wait to see what embarrassing assumption you make next.

Any answer for why it's not blind faith to believe something comes from nothing?

"Freedom and knowledge" my ass - "Christian theism" is based on training children before they're old enough to question adult authority. Just like the rest of the world's religions. You've apparently fooled yourself easily enough. Find your own values somewhere they don't try to insult my intelligence.

And what of those adults who become theists? This is just a plain stupid argument. A lot of people probably do become theists because they were raised to be. That doesn't mean that:
a. theism is wrong
b. the sole reason anyone ever becomes a theist is because of upbringing
Ever studied logic?

My title is Sr. IC Mask Layout Designer / CAD Engineer, I'm sorry what was yours again??
http://www.answers.com/topic/tape-out
tape-out
[ ... ]
The term refers to the writing of the magnetic tape with the final data file describing the circuit layout and other details. The term is still used even though magnetic tapes are now rarely used for this process.

Thanks.

There were LiIon batteries in laptops before 1995. Dell had an exclusive with Sony in 92 or 93.

http://www.answers.com/topic/lithium-ion-battery

That article claims that Toshiba was the first in 1993 but Dell predated Toshiba as I recall. Apple was nowhere near first.

Nothing beat my Mattel Aquarius and my catridge of Utopia, aka Civ 5.

"Bill O'Reilly jokingly called for a boycott of The Colbert Report during an interview on The Daily Show, because he assumed, as others have, that the name Colbert was French, "proving" that his satirical clone was a Frenchman. [11]. Colbert is in fact an Irish-American; his surname is Irish (of Norman origin)"
http://www.answers.com/topic/stephen-colbert

[[Sterotype]]
Can you blame Colbert for making the mistake?? I mean he is Irish, so he was probably drunk when he said it...
[[/Stereotype]]

Link?

http://www.answers.com/sarcasm&r=67

The question is, do the creators deliberately make them addictive?

In college one of my Java assignments was to make a game, I chose Mastermind I was addicted to it in a matter of days, in fact I never fully completed the assignment, I was happy so as long as I could play it.

As far as I can remember, I have been addicted to the Worms series (especially the one on my Pocket PC), Duke Nukem 3D, Football Manager and even tetris. The addiction usually goes away when I have done everything and I'm completely through with the game. I stop because I'm bored.

In other news, I am also a chain smoker, was a gambler (with non-geek friends and I usually win cuz they all suck ass). I generally don't drink because I know for a fact that I would get addicted to alcohol as well.

with WoW it is almost impossible to "do everything" and be completely through with it. To me, that would make it as addictive as all hell. I'm sure the the makers thought about it as well - there is no "last-king-monster" to slay and finish the game. The game is itself endless, and when there is no end in the road people dont usually see a reason to stop.

I may be wrong about this, but it was Edison who accused DC power of being more dangerous ("Westinghoused") only to have AC adopted for the pleasant US custom of humanely frying criminals. From: http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/even t.php?id=3456872&lid=1 Edison was less than thrilled with the emergence of Westinghouse's technology, which threatened his own dominance in a field he virtually created. He also had genuine concerns about the safety of AC. The two men engaged in a public relations battle to determine which system would become the dominant technology. I think you meant to say that "Edison who accused AC power of being more dangerous", but hey whats a letter or two among fiends? ;) http://www.answers.com/topic/fiend

Im not sure what your definition is, but here are a few definitions to keep you occipied.

FWIW this man is a journalist and by the most technical means ANYONE holding a camera recording footage to be reported to the general public is a journalist. Not just someone who gets a paycheck from a major news media company.

This is what is sad about our country these days, people assume that to do things, even simple things you must be registered and have some form of permission from some higher power. This is supposed to be a free country not free so long as its ok with mommy Administrative branch and daddy Judicial branch. Sadly thats what we are coming to.

By God's providence he was catch'd,
With a dark lantern and burning match
..
A penny loaf* to feed ol'Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,'
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

*a penny loaf was the food of prisoners at that time

Aside from an incorrect spelling, what was wrong with his use of "inconceivable"? The dictionary defines it as "So unlikely or surprising as to have been thought impossible" and the thesaurus lists "unimaginable" and "unthinkable" as synonyms. We also have the antonyms "fathomable" and "likely", which means pretty much exactly the opposite of the grand-parents intended meaning.

So, do you have anything to say for yourself, or do you just enjoy being mean on /.?

6) Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective - It came with the system, so you are stuck with it.
7) Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch - It was like falling into Hell!

Backfired? Quite the opposite. This proves his point. If it's left open you can end up with any facts people choose to insert. The other option is to limit edit rights, which goes against the basic idea behind the site.

I'm sure he didn't go to bed crying because he's been blocked from editing wikipedia.

Now, the definition of republic is "representative democracy" but the definition of democracy is "one citizen, one vote" - so the definition of republic is pure bullshit. It's not a democracy, period.

Er, if you really want to argue definitions, you're wrong. I quote:

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

The rest of the definitions provided by other sources are similar, such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica's, which states:

Form of government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections. In a direct democracy, the public participates in government directly (as in some ancient Greek city-states, some New England town meetings, and some cantons in modern Switzerland). Most democracies today are representative.

It's exactly the other way around. CGI looks too good.

Actually, Jar Jar is quite convincing, simply because it's not human and doesn't try to be.

To "beg the question" means something very specific and something very different than as used in "Design News discusses Boston's Big Dig and begs the question - is it one of engineering's greatest failures?" I know this is off-topic but it's one of my pet peeves and surely /. types know better.

Read this and be wiser:

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=begging+the+ question/

Germany was broken up, half to be helped by the Soviet Union, the other half by the United States and Great Brittain

I don't think I ever heard the term "help" in regards to the Soviet-led regime in former East Germany. "Rape" would be a more apt word.

I think it's only been in the last 20 years or so (and especially with expatriate Germans born in the 20s/30s) that the true behaviour of the allied forces after their victory has come to the fore.

Overall, as a European, I'm glad I'm not speaking German, and overall it was better for the world that Hitler lost after the pain he inflicted, but people forget that the Russians (or really Stalin) weren't angels, and that the British/French/American troops weren't exactly gentlemen towards the people of the conquered lands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_ after_World_War_II
http://www.answers.com/topic/effects-of-world-war- ii

Nope, I'm sure that this is just an accident by a company that spends its off hours petting little baby chickens and bunnies.

Just announced, Microsoft, a known petter of baby chickens and bunnies has just announced the signing if Larry Flint. Said a Microsoft spokesperson, as a lover of chickens, we thought Larry might be a good, errr, fit.

This is just like stealing a penny is wrong and still stealing

Actually, stealing an ordinary penny is NOT de facto illegal, under the principle of "de minimus non curat lex" - the law doesn't concern itself with trifles http://www.answers.com/topic/de-minimis-non-curat- lex

So, since the law chooses to ignore it, it may be argued that, by society's standards, it isn't "wrong", just a nuisance.

free lunch
n. Slang.

Something acquired without due effort or without cost.
---

free lunch

Something acquired without due effort or cost. For example, In politics there is no free lunch; every favor calls for repayment. This expression alludes to the custom of taverns offering food free of charge to induce customers to buy drinks. It was soon extended to other kinds of gift but is often used in a negative way, as in the example. [First half of 1800s]

http://www.answers.com/free+lunch&r=67

Gas takes significantly more energy for production and distribution vs coal, and electric cars can also use regenerative braking, but using some raw numbers...

"Subcritical fossil fuel power plants can achieve 36-38% efficiency. Super critical designs have efficiencies in the low to mid 40% range, with new "ultra critical" designs using pressures of 30 MPa and dual stage reheat reaching about 48% efficiency."

~.45 / ~.25 (your number) = 1.8 times as efficient at generating energy... AKA a lot of wiggle room.

Transmission and distribution losses in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995. (Note: Night time charging is more efficient because cool lines are more efficient. Adding local power generation would also increase efficiency, but I will still use 7.2%)

"Electric motors often achieve 90% conversion efficiency over the full range of speeds and power output and can be precisely controlled."

Thus it comes down to battery efficiency... .25(your number) / (~.45 *.928 (line loss) * .9 (motor)) = .665
So around 66.5% is the break even. Ignoring regenerative breaking etc.

Which means electric cars can be more efficient in terms of CO2 production vs normal gas cars. Hybrids are closer but production and distribution of gas produces a lot of CO2. (I don't have good numbers for this.)

Lithium ion battery:
"Current generation cells can be fully charged in 45 minutes or less; some reach 90% in as little as 10 minutes."

http://www.answers.com/topic/lithium-ion-battery

Self-discharge rate 5%/month (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery)

PS: Lithium ion battery's do better in colder areas.
40% Charge
At 25 C (77 F)= 4% loss after 1 year
At 0 C (32 F) = 2% loss after 1 year

100% Charge
At 25 C (77 F) 6% loss after 1 year
4% loss after 1 year 20% loss after 1 year

Note: You can recycle Lithium ion's as the raw materials are not damaged over time, so this is not a huge deal after significant adoption of electric cars.

The definition of "witch hunt" in this case is far more accurate than you might think.

From Answers.com (emphasis mine):

witch-hunt also witch hunt (wch'hnt') n.

An investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.

witchhunter witch'-hunt'er n.
witchhunting witch'-hunt'ing adj. & n.

Mind telling again me how this is not an accurate term?

T-Mobile is GSM. T-Mobile will unlock your T-Mobile phone for you after you have used their system for 3 months, even if you only have a pre-paid plan.

Be sure you get a Quad-Band GSM phone like the Motorola RAZR V3 (now V3i). There are only 4 GSM bands, and a phone with all 4 bands allows use in Europe, Asia, and any place there are GSM providers, which is becoming everywhere. (Apparently there are some areas that use a 5th band, called GSM400, but that is not used in modern systems. See this GSM frequency chart. You can also look at the Wikipedia GSM frequency chart.)

I certainly don't want to recommend the Motorola RAZR phone. When I look at some of the features, I'm amazed at how poorly implemented they are. Maybe Motorola deliberately makes quirky phones so the company can sell better ones later.

TDMA and CDMA are older systems with much poor sound quality. They can sometimes, but only sometimes, be unlocked, too. But it is better to throw away an old phone and get a GSM phone.

This GSM band usage shows which countries use which GSM bands.

To get your carrier to unlock your GSM phone, display your IMEI by dialing *#06# on your phone. Then ask the carrier to provide the unlock code.

This GSM Coverage Chart shows all providers in all countries.

Find info about each model of phone using the Softpedia phone chart. Note that there are many models of Motorola V3. Older models take photos with fewer pixels, for example.

To change mobile phone provider company, just change the SIM card in your phone. GSM phones are made so that you can do this yourself.

--
U.S. Government violence encourages other violence. You pay.

http://www.answers.com/hummus
If you never made hummus with your food processor, it's really easy. Replacing the lemon juice with lime juice or grapefruit/orange juice makes for really tangy or sweet hummus suitable for breakfasts.

Cheers

http://www.answers.com/defiantly

...was starting the debate "who looks more like Mario, Lou Albano, or Ron Jeremy?"

It's a Non-Disclosure Agreement dressed up by marketing. Calling 'shared' source or anything else for that matter won't change that.

...although the license doesn't allow developing a non-MS platform using the emulator, or porting the emulator to a non-MS platform.

You cannot use the emulator on/with/for any non-MS operating systems at all:

3.Conditions and Limitations
. . .
(B)Platform Limitation- The licenses granted in sections 2(A) & 2(B) extend only to the software or derivative works that you create that run on a Microsoft Windows operating system product.Further, you may only use the software to emulate running Windows operating system products.

So the point of emulating Windows on Windows is what? The restrictions on the emulator seem to prevent any real use. Perhaps it's just to get some code out there so that MS can later go after Samba or other competition. SCO, round II, or something like that.

A strong case has be made elsewhere that the NDAs governing 'shared' source exists mostly to prevent developers from working on any non-MS platforms at all, not just Linux. Even viewing MS' code can taint a developer so that later work can be attacked, not necessarily successfully, in court claiming violation of the NDA.

Yes, but there are more definitions:
Google.com, Answers.com, Wiktionary.

Particularly "Any one of various liquids for drinking, usually excluding water"/"A liquid to be consumed, usually excluding water; a drink".

For thoses who aren't native english speakers (I am not, btw)
since:
2 == Duplicate (Dupe!)
3 == triplicate (Tripe)
4 == Quadraplicate (Quad!)
X == Make-up-your-own-plicate (Enough Already!)

For thoses who aren't native english speakers (I am not, btw)
since:
2 == Duplicate (Dupe!)
3 == triplicate (Tripe)
4 == Quadraplicate (Quad!)
X == Make-up-your-own-plicate (Enough Already!)

For thoses who aren't native english speakers (I am not, btw)
since:
2 == Duplicate (Dupe!)
3 == triplicate (Tripe)
4 == Quadraplicate (Quad!)
X == Make-up-your-own-plicate (Enough Already!)