Slashdot Mirror

Houston has no less than 9 congressional districts, of which only 5 are entirely within the city. Look at this map and see if looks logical:

https://www.chron.com/news/pol...

Grocery store payroll is not 35%. The cost of line-workers is a large fraction of that ~17%.

You need to go back and recalculate.

You are correct about the 30-second rule. That seems to be a myth.

> Start throwing cops in jail when they shoot someone...

Or maybe try training them before making them cops. Like they do in other countries.

21 weeks vs 2-3 years. What could possibly be wrong with that...

The health affects of caffeine aren't fully known, but Nicotine does reduce your body's defenses against cancer.

You're right that vaping is definitely less unhealthy than cigarettes though.

I have some bad news for you about nitrates in vegetables. https://livehealthy.chron.com/... But bacon is bad!

Life is invariably fatal. SO if you aren't doing harm, chillaxe, bro. And while you are at it, check out the effects of phytoestrogens, which are heavy in foods that are considered the most healthy things you can eat these days. It takes a suspension of logic to think that vaping is any worse than that.

I have an iPhone 6 that I use as a test device and an mp3 player. The thing that annoys me about it is that it will continue to nag me about upgrades; like literally every time I unlock it I have to say no don't upgrade. It also nags me about registering an Apple account (no I don't want to attach my account, shut up!). Since I have iTunes set up to talk to this iPhone I can't help my mother in law with hers on my system lest iTunes get hopelessly confused and try to morph her phone into mine. It seems terribly designed.

Boy you are one stupid motherfucker!

Here's how you handle multiple iPhones/iPads on one computer without crossing the streams:

https://www.imore.com/how-use-...

And here is the same information for both Mac or Windows:

https://smallbusiness.chron.co...

So, that took approximately 500 nanoseconds to find on Google. What's YOUR problem?

Before computers became widespread enough to replace physical ledgers, different colors of ink were used in accounting. I'm old enough to remember financial documents with a green ink signature because the accountant was a new hire. So the metaphor is true, young grasshopper.

Different people have different lines for what is too much "political correctness".

Most Americans would agree that the "n-word" shouldn't be used in everyday conversation. That's why we even created the euphemism "the n-word". I certainly wouldn't want it banned though (either by rewriting Mark Twain or attempting to expunge it from history).

But we'll argue about whether saying electing the black candidate would "monkey this up" is a racist dog-whistle or just an innocent expression. It seems incredibly tone-deaf of him if he didn't mean it as the dog-whistle. In fact, IMO, it stretches credibility.

DeSantis says Florida shouldn’t ‘monkey this up’ by electing Andrew Gillum

Moving towards more questionable "PC" arguments, there's this FB post that a school district's police department deleted and apologized for.

(To save people the click, it's a picture of an overloaded bus (presumably in India) with people on top and hanging on to the back with the caption "Don't forget! It's National Bus Safety Week" and it seems obvious (to me anyway) the point was bus safety, not "look at all the Indians!")

Katy ISD apologizes after parents express outrage over what they call a racist Facebook post

And then we have cases of people not wanting children to play Cowboys and Indians or dressing up for Halloween as a Disney character from a different culture.

And should I really feel guilty that I enjoyed The Party starring Peter Sellers in "brownface"? Or Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

On the day that minimum wage went up 15%, all of the fast food restaurants increased prices by 25%.

This makes no sense, and I think you just made it up. The cost of labor went up less than 15%, since not all workers were below the threshold. Other costs, such as COGS, rent, utilities, did not go up at all.

At fast food restaurants labor is about 25% of revenue. So a 15% rise in wages is less than a 4% rise in total cost.

So maybe they just used the wage increase as an excuse to raise prices? No, that makes no sense either. Businesses can change their prices anytime they want, and they do it all the time. They don't need an "excuse". If the market would bear a 25% increase, they would have raised prices long ago.

Your entire scenario sounds like made up bullcrap.

The real employer is the EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

That is not true. Not generally and not specifically. President Trump does not sign the checks of his senior officials. Since the Carter Administration, White House senior officials, including cabinet secretaries are paid under a system separate from the GS system, because the pay of a GS-15 was considered insufficient for someone of the stature of a cabinet secretary who had been a CEO. And later, the "Senior Executive Staff" designation was also considered insufficient, so exemptions were created. But the pay structure and the way they get paid is the same, as is their employer, the United States Government. And their pay is set by the same civil service laws and under the same US code as senate staffers and Supreme Court Justices and postal employees.

And by the way, no cabinet secretary or head of an armed or intelligence agency can make more than the Vice-President, by law.

In case your interested, here are the salaries of non-cabinet staff from 2017. It is amazing how few of these people are still there.

https://www.washingtonexaminer...

And here are salaries of cabinet secretaries on down.

https://work.chron.com/much-mo...

the difference is that those R&D profs actually bring in far more money to the university than they costs. At CSU, we had multiple buildings buily bu professors that got funding not only for their own work, but for the extensions to buildings. So, no, these profs are not the issues with universities.
Not sure why you think that American universities operate like your Chinese ones. The fact is, that in America, it is the teaching profs that costs universities loads of money. They are the ones that rarely bring in enough students and no real research money, to pay for their massive salaries.

Pre-flight is about a 30-minute process, most flight planning is already done for them, and maybe an international pilot would spend about 3 hours combined going from cockpit to hotel room and hotel room back to airport. If a pilot is spending 150 hours in a simulator they are getting a type rating or qualifying on a new aircraft which can take over a month.

So the average pilot is obtaining a type rating or qualifying on new aircraft 12 times per year? Because, and let's process this carefully, the average pilot works an additional 150 hours per month performing other duties. So sayeth them, them, them, and them, for example. These guys definitely disagree with your expressed sentiment that '150 non-flying duty hours is exceptional.'

Wind power in Texas is often some of the cheapest electricity you can get. It's picking up momentum, and the incentive to keep it going is pretty high. I smell a slant in this article, likely from someone with money to lose from this trend. Say, coal industries.

https://www.chron.com/business...

In the marketing and Decision support industries especially, Liberal Arts dominate. Because, you know, English.

While I can't vouch for the numbers of employees, the pay certainly stinks

https://www.shrm.org/Resources...

http://work.chron.com/median-s...

Wind/solar/battery technology will progress until it solves all our problems; all we need is faith, a bit of time, and mountains of money. Maybe. That physical reality and math impose limitations is not something that most people are equipped to understand.

Wind is so much cheaper than coal that a bunch of conservative republicans in texas have converted to wind. They're doing it because of the math. Solar progresses rapidly, and battery, with it's slow progress, is being proven already today, so it's not going anywhere.

Here's a thought: at least try to follow the math of people who have taken the time to lay it out simply. Sure it is easier to remain an ignorant tool, comfortably ensconced within the green herd, but if you aren't headed in the right direction, you will never reach your destination. Reality has the final say, and you will pay the price for your foolishness.

Doh, you're right. I hereby give up my good wind turbine job, and will immediately look for the first coal mine to dive into. Follow the money!

Ok, seriously, nobody is saying tech will solve all the problems. But greens are saying you can make money with green tech, and doing so helps with the problem. Why not do that a lot more? Sell our tech to the rest of the world. Germany did it in the 90's, and made tons of money, sparked a run on their stock market, boom in real estate, and generally worked great until China started undercutting them. What happened to the US? We invented solar. Why in the world didn't we make some money on it? I'm not talking about manufacturing, I'm talking about innovation. What's the next thing? Let's not give up the money after we invent it just because of coal and oil lobyists.

She wasn't as wealthy as lots of other CEOs who went to jail for fraud. Of course, most of them were middle-aged white guys in fields dominated by middle-aged white guys.

That list seems mostly useless (hand surgeons, guys in jail for DUI-manslaughter, Martha Stewart, etc.) and I stopped looking at it half way through. But the first guy, the Enron one, was the CEO of a company with twenty thousand employees and claimed 100 billion in revenue. It's very different from being the CEO of a fairly small start-up, don't you think? So why would they be as wealthy?

She wasn't as wealthy as lots of other CEOs who went to jail for fraud. Of course, most of them were middle-aged white guys in fields dominated by middle-aged white guys. They weren't a young, brash woman heralded for "breaking the glass ceiling" in the tech industry.

Bullshit. Mega, epic bullshit. Texas is the #1 State with guns stolen from owners.

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/stolen-guns-lost-firearms-by-state-data.html

http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/12/23/agents-seek-guns-stolen-harvey-100-weapons-taken-houston-stores-storm

http://www.kxan.com/news/crime/more-than-2-dozen-guns-stolen-from-copperas-cove-pawn-shop/994805063

https://www.chron.com/news/item/Stolen-Guns-Database-11252.php

I personally like to ride my bike.

I've had four jobs where I could do that, three of them in a small town before I actually graduated high-school.

I'm working on number five right now, I'll have to get the job then move before it becomes an option, but I've got someone with inside strings trying to help make it happen. Showers are a must in Texas if you plan on doing an office job while biking.

I honestly thing the automotive industry and the energy industry have a lot to do with our poor design. The movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit addressed it rather well, the Trolley systems really were bought up and put out of service by auto manufacturers. In my city real-estate moguls put forth bribes to keep public transit crappy. There are seven major business districts in Houston, most of the property in each district is owned by a different set of conglomerates/moguls. They actually have a motive to trap people in their individual districts, making it too easy to move around hurts their bottom line. This isn't exactly new in Houston, old timers will tell you the reason that system got removed - with prejudice - had to do with the money spent to keep it from taking off.

To the energy companies credit they're doing an about-face. They know that we know and they're pretending that they don't know that we know. They're actually contributing to some of the bike lane expansions and bayou-bicycle express ways in the city. Too little too late, but I do like the fact they're doing it.

If you're a conspiracy theorist you can even claim W let the WTC attacks happen

I don't need to be a conspiracy theorist.
I have 43's own word on that.

" criticing tech companies which 'continue to deny services to Iranians'" Do your research. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries US companies are forbidden from having business dealings with. If you're unhappy with tech companies not being able to service Iranians, you might want to talk to your representative. Here's a handy list: http://smallbusiness.chron.com...

?
http://work.chron.com/long-tra...
It states itâ(TM)s 19 weeks...

Statistics:

50 shots fired one innocent, unarmed man in the US compared to 100 shots fired in a whole year in Germany.

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

That was one (!) incident.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

About 2 years of training for most low profile policeman in Germany vs. 6 months in the US.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://work.chron.com/long-tra...

Yay statistics.

Could international slashdotters from other civilized countries find statistics for their police?

The first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one.

We have problems in Germany, I won‘t deny it. But a trigger happy, undertrained police force is not one of them.

One can only hope that the average person is not as willfully ignorant as you are.

Paternity tests don't protect men from paying child support for children that aren't theirs, you ignorant fool. Your unfounded and frankly stupid assertions notwithstanding, the facts are the facts.

It is hard to discuss anything with you due to your inability to deal with what I wrote with out changing what I wrote to mean something it doesn't. You have some talking points you have to shout to get paid for your post, I understand. I would recommend doing it more subtly.

So, lets review, you say that men are lying, that courts do paternity tests, and that will get them off the hook for paying child support for children that aren't theirs. Here are some instantly googled headlines for you to read. I am spoon feeding you. Read up. Go look for more. It's not hard.

https://www.abc15.com/news/nat...

http://www.chron.com/news/hous...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new...

There are thousands of headlines like this. You want to tell me all of these men are lying, along with the newspapers who report it, the lawyers, and the judges who say its a travesty? You tell me that the courts are using paternity tests to make sure men aren't paying child support for kids that aren't theirs, and the truth is easily seen to be anything but that. Your ignorance is stunning, in that it is willfully protected. Are you so dedicated to your principles that you don't care if they are predicated on falsehoods and deceit?

Most importantly, you are men that they should be out there spending their spare time canvassing and garnering support for better parental leave? Your argument is that since some men have kids they should all want better leave. You also argue that men's rights groups should fall in line with feminist organizations to make sure that fathers get better leave time. My assertion is that feminist organizations, and many other organizations as well, have that part handled, and criticizing men's rights groups for not spending their time on that is arrogant and wrong.

Why? Because what is falling through the cracks, not being addressed, and not even acknowledged (as you so beautifully illustrate by being incredibly ignorant AND unimaginably offensive in your ignorance) are the men who are paying child support for children that aren't theirs. It's a fact that it happens, and with frequency. Yet, you deny it happens and that men's rights organizations should be doing something else with their very limited time, energy, support, and money.

Don't you see the problem with that?

from the /. summary:

Amazon is giving Whole Foods shoppers an early gift for the holidays.

Malarkey. Discounts are a pricing strategy to maximize profits.

"What is Discount Pricing Strategy"

Good thing we already have laws again that. Illegal immigrants don't get welfare and

Legal permanent residents (LPRs) must pay into the Social Security and Medicare systems for approximately 10 years before they are eligible to receive benefits when they retire. In most cases, LPRs can not receive SSI, which is available only to U.S. citizens, and are not eligible for means-tested public benefits until 5 years after receiving their green cards.

You're ignoring a lot of details. The anchor babies do qualify for benefits immediately as well as the mother and they have no issue paying those benefits to illegal mothers. The US hates fathers so they are out. The anchor babies can eventually also sponsor their parents, siblings, and other family members. The majority of immigration over the past 50+ years has been family members that all start from a single anchor. The anchor babies also get free schooling and a variety of other benefits. It's really not hard, if you want the US to look like a 3rd world country, and it does more every year, then just allow a majority of 3rd world people in and you'll have it.

Nowadays, there's a massive, EXPENSIVE social infrastructure. And that infrastructure simply CANNOT withstand uncontrolled immigration.

Good thing we already have laws again that. Illegal immigrants don't get welfare and

Legal permanent residents (LPRs) must pay into the Social Security and Medicare systems for approximately 10 years before they are eligible to receive benefits when they retire. In most cases, LPRs can not receive SSI, which is available only to U.S. citizens, and are not eligible for means-tested public benefits until 5 years after receiving their green cards.

When I took typing way back in school (more years ago than I care to admit), WPM was measured in 5 character increments. I'm not by any means claiming that the average word is 5 characters.

See also http://smallbusiness.chron.com/good-typing-speed-per-minute-71789.html

And here's how it plans out for ICE owners: http://www.chron.com/news/hous...

Oh it gets better too. These guys idled all their gas out of their exhaust only to find they couldn't fill up at any pump. https://www.dallasnews.com/new...

The problem with Uber is a corporation who's revenue model is built by taking pay and benefits way from the lowest link (the driver) and burdening them with expenses (their own car) and all liability

Many taxi companies are built around the same general employment relationship and compensation model. Some excepts:

Determining a taxi driver's pay varies based on several factors. If you own your own taxi, you get to keep the entire fare, minus expenses . If you lease, you must pay a daily rate out of your incoming fares, plus the cost of gas. Some companies take a percentage of your fare instead of a flat-rate lease payment.

Fare Percentage

When you work for a taxi company who charges you a percentage of your fares for the right to drive the cab, that rate is typically one-third of your overall gross fare income , according to "Forbes."

Additional Fees

In addition to paying a daily rental fee or return a portion of the fares to the cab company, many companies require you to pay additional fees for the right to drive a cab. Most require you to refuel the vehicle before returning it, and some charge you up to 10 percent for customers' credit card transactions. Because many cabbies are independent contractors, cab companies might require you to carry insurance, such as general liability. The cab owners typically take care of insuring the vehicle and maintenance costs. As an independent contractor, you might discover other costs involved, such as the need to purchase your own health insurance and pay your own taxes .

What are you suggesting is fundamentally different?

It's a sham and a parasite

These are interesting words to lob at Uber when the incumbent taxicab business model is the one based on protectionism and artificial scarcity.

Fidel Castro said "Communism doesn't work". Boris Yeltsin "Our system is not working for the people. It's a good thing they did brain wash us or we'd be in some pit today. But I suspect that is your wish.

Mostly when oil collapsed from $100/bbl to $35/bbl countries like Venezuela and, to some extent, Russia who were dependent on that income to prop-up social services suddenly had problems.

As far as OilPro shutting down - The price of oil has nothing to do with it. The CEO was corrupt and stole data from a company he started and sold to NY bankers. See http://www.chron.com/business/...

-T

In the US this could easily be possible, but this is a British company so that probably isn't true. Link. Typical CEO pay ratio in the UK is 22 times the salary of the median employee.

Study...
http://interactives.ap.org/201...

(numbers for specific metros pulled out here)
http://www.chron.com/news/nati...

And this was also interesting...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/5...

You overstate your point about refineries.

Refineries are confined to a highly specific area (mostly the ship channel area).

If you drive an hour north or east, you are in hot muggy forested areas.
If you drive an hour west, you are in dry but wooded farm and ranch land
If you drive an hour northwest, you are in hill country with lots of 30' trees and tons of wildflowers in the spring.
If you drive an hour southwest, you are at the beach. (it's not nearly as pretty as other beaches due to silt from the mississippi and the waves are tepid but it's a beach and even uncrowded (almost desolate) only 15 miles further out.

Let me try to state your point better.

The area around houston is flat for 100 miles in all directions. Other than day tripping for antiques there's not a lot of tourist activity. While there are several state parts that are very nice in the spring and fall, they are pretty hot and miserable during the summer. The gulf is silty and not pretty blue and transparent to the bottom (about 1' transparent on average and 2' on a good day) and has small waves. But it has good fishing.

The areas along almost all the major freeways are unpleasant and fairly ugly with business sprawl and too many billboards.

The city center and is vibrant, well serviced by public transportation, has a vibrant night life, and expensive. Areas just east of the city center are undeveloped and old 1930's shacks.

The lack of zoning allows the city to constantly renew itself. There are no empty, unusable buildings "trapped" by zoning. There are no fat cat developers getting zoning exceptions to put up ugly buildings in residential areas (that has to piss people in zoned cities off to coronary levels).

Houston is unbounded geographically and it has a problem with urban sprawl but that is reflected in lower housing prices. Houston has a problem with flooding. But it has no tornadoes of note and no earthquakes. Roughly every 2 decades it gets wallopped by a hurricane which messes it up for a week( or two for a bad one (longer for a direct hit by a bad one which is about every 50 years)). Smart people get out of the way of hurricanes.

If there is ONE point I would like to make is that people who bring outdoor concerts to houston in the summer are idiots. They could come here in april/may/early october and it would be very pleasant. Even June wouldn't be ridiculous. But July and August- it's an oven. It's still hot at 11pm at night and the high humidity means swamp coolers/misting water won't work well.

Not quite.

http://work.chron.com/attorney...

http://blog.chron.com/thetexic...

That dude was tops in the communist party. He left that store dumbfounded that he was completely wrong. Food lines were common and LONG in the USSR. If you asked them what they were practicing? The would have in a heartbeat said communism.

Communism like pure market inevitably lead to the same thing. 1 group controlling everyone and then getting it spectacularly wrong. Without a good blend people *will* abuse the system. That same group will make mistakes because they assume the know it all. They dont. Communisim/socialism has been shown over and over to lead to a dictatorship faster than free market. But do not think free market will fix everything. Both systems have the same flaw. They have imperfect people trying to manage scarce resources.

Right about communism, wrong about Free Market. The Government in Capitalism has a primary function of preventing monopoly. The Governments in the West have failed at their task so we now have a form of crony capitalism in almost ever Western Democracy. The issue at this point in the West is how to clear the corruption before a catastrophe, and it may not happen.

If you would have said Communism fails for the same reason the US became corrupt, I would have agreed. A Government as an employer attracts the wrong type of people. In a Free market like the US, even with the current corruption, the smartest and best will make more money in the free market than they can in Government. The lower ends of work ability and ethics tend to go into Government. Once in government those same people can legislate themselves job security and retirement benefits far exceeding the average, but not as good as the best (the public will only approve so much). This is what we have today, with life time appointments and Unions which make it nearly impossible to terminate bad employees.

If you want the real failure in Capitalism it's that there at some point need to be caps on the amount of wealth any individual can control. (Plato's Republic and Smith's Wealth of Nations for references) No offense to the novice, but the Philosophical concepts for this are a bit more than the average person can handle.

Communism fails because there is no possible way to have the "people" own and manage everything without some form of central management of every single thing in the country and economy which means that the various classes of bourgeoisie only exist if the Central Management allows it. China gives some space for bourgeoisie but takes power as soon as the bourgeoisie gets large or efficient enough to be a threat. The output to the people must be controlled and equal. This means that ambition dies because increased production provides no personal benefit. The slowest and worst receive as much from the system as the best and brightest. Look at the intellectual growth rates of the US and China, or the UK and Russia under their different Governments. China innovates little and has to buy and steal innovations from others. Russia did the same since the Revolution.

http://blog.chron.com/thetexic...

That dude was tops in the communist party. He left that store dumbfounded that he was completely wrong. Food lines were common and LONG in the USSR. If you asked them what they were practicing? The would have in a heartbeat said communism.

Communism like pure market inevitably lead to the same thing. 1 group controlling everyone and then getting it spectacularly wrong. Without a good blend people *will* abuse the system. That same group will make mistakes because they assume the know it all. They dont. Communisim/socialism has been shown over and over to lead to a dictatorship faster than free market. But do not think free market will fix everything. Both systems have the same flaw. They have imperfect people trying to manage scarce resources.

It's been done before.

Around Houston, we know geeks.
http://www.chron.com/news/arti...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Not to mention livestreaming of the explosive diarrhea and vomiting competitions

http://www.chron.com/olympics/...

Speaking as a certified accountant

Really?

http://smallbusiness.chron.com...

The rule for reporting inventory is that it must be valued at acquisition cost or market value, whichever is the lower amount. In general, inventories should be valued at acquisition costs. [...] Valuing at the price you could sell at retail is not allowed because retail prices are inflated to cover selling costs. Selling costs are not allowed in the market value calculation.

And you do know ISIS has taken credit for this already right?

According to the Lt. Governor of Texas, so has God.

http://www.chron.com/news/arti...

I think you mean 2003, but in all other ways yes. 2003 was the last version before they decided to ditch the menu bar for their precious "ribbon". I think it's because OpenOffice was reaching a point of being a reasonable replacement, almost indistinguishable on the surface, so Microsoft felt like they had to make Office... different.

The sad thing is they took away some really useful advanced features from 2003... like being able to create your own custom buttons with a little pixel editor and assign them to macros you write for automating repetitive tasks. Gone with the coming of the wretched, unbidden ribbon, the solution for a problem that didn't exist. There are some improvements and bug-fixes that come along with 2007 and 2010, but at the cost of having to train employees on a custom ribbon with the collection of buttons they used to rely on on a toolbar (because with the ribbon, you only get one toolbar... just because). If this included a custom button, you're out of luck.

I just can't think of how dumb this is, because all the customization capability of 2003 was effective product lock-in for Microsoft, making OpenOffice a less-than-ideal alternative for shops with a lot of time-saving macros (no, not the kind of macros that travel with documents as malware). Microsoft traded this for a fucking ribbon, because... I don't know, pick one:

1. unless it looks different, nobody will buy it
2. all the pre-ribbon developers were either retired or promoted to management, and new-hire young developers didn't want to read old code
3. some VP wanted to make her mark, droning: out with the old, in with the new, change is good, you see that? I did that! Promote me!
4. some focus group mistook OpenOffice for Microsoft Office, and that's got to stop
5. copyright/trademark the ribbon, thereby put a stop to free software coming up with same-looking turnkey replacements

None of the above have anything to do with creating a better, more useful or productive product for the customer, but with proper focus groups Microsoft can astro-turf their way into promoting the ribbon as an improvement. If there weren't a stack of less-visible but important features in Microsoft Office that Open/LibreOffice still haven't replicated (here's an incomplete list), my organization would have shimmied out of Microsoft's shackles long ago.

A satanist would resent that

They did.

http://blog.chron.com//techblo...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotoma...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotoma...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotoma...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotoma...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotoma...