No private company should ever receive special tax breaks or subsidies for any reason. Instead, just lower business taxes so everyone has a chance to profit equally. Then these sorts of things wouldn't happen. It would also radically reduce the cope for corruption.
(The only necessary exception I can see to this rule is for National Security-specific products and research, since protection the citizenry is the primary function of government, and in many cases (nuclear weapons development comes to mind) that nature of the product produce precludes recoupment if R&D costs in the private sector.)
You won't get money out of politics until you get politics out of money.
As someone who has bought and sold science fiction first editions on eBay for nigh on a decade now, and who currently has eBay feedback over 1000, I hope that this finally spurs Google to launch an eBay auction competitor to eat eBay's lunch. (Or, as you newfangled kids say these days when you're not getting the hell off my lawn, I hope Google drinks eBay's milkshake.)
The reason is that eBay has gone from being bringing buyers and sellers together to treating them like pinatas to be beaten with a stick to extract the maximum amount of money from them. Fees have only gone up, the changes made to feedback have been asinine, and eBay has let their core auction business language while they've been trying to turn themselves into an inferior clone of Amazon.
It's gotten so bad that I've reduced my listings by 98% since the new fee structure was announced (and most of the remaining 2% are books another writer asked me to sell on eBay on consignment)> It's simply insufficiently profitable for me to deal there anymore.
Since Google already has the infrastructure in place, I hope they come out with a Google Auctions, radically undercut eBay's fee structure (free for the first two years might do it), and either make eBay's repent or else drive them under entirely.
Why not? Certainly Google has enough computing infrastructure to run an auction business as big as eBay's without even noticing the loading, and I know they're smart enough to create an auction system from scratch.
While this a is a clear case of trial lawyers using our broken tort system discourage free speech, at least it's not being carried out by a government trying to silence someone with the full weight of the law. Unlike Mark Steyn's persecution before the Canadian Human Rights Commission for the charge of "hate crimes." That commission explicitly stated that there's no right to free speech in Canada:
Wrong on all counts, but the 1st Amendment does provide protections for free speech not available in many other countries, so I hope we see this particular instance of tort abuse smacked down hard.
The European Union and United States embargo on weapons sales to the PRC, put in place as a result of the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, still remains in place. The PRC has been calling for a lifting of the ban for many years and has had a varying amount of support from members of the Council of the European Union. In early 2004, France spearheaded a movement within the EU to lift the ban. Former German Chancellor Gerhard SchrÃder publicly added his voice to that of former French President Jacques Chirac to have the embargo lifted.
The arms embargo was discussed at a PRC-EU summit in the Netherlands between December 7 and 9, 2004. In the run-up to the summit, the PRC had attempted to increase pressure on the EU Council to lift the ban by warning that the ban could hurt PRC-EU relations. PRC Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had called the ban "outdated", and he told reporters, "If the ban is maintained, bilateral relations will definitely be affected." In the end, the EU Council did not lift the ban. EU spokeswoman FranÃoise le Bail said there were still concerns about the PRC's commitment to human rights. But at the time, the EU did state a commitment to work towards lifting the ban.
The PRC continued to press for the embargo to be lifted, and some member states began to drop their opposition. Jacques Chirac pledged to have the ban lifted by mid-2005. However, the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China passing in March 2005 increased cross-strait tensions, damaging attempts to lift the ban, and several EU Council members changed their minds. Members of the U.S. Congress had also proposed restrictions on the transfer of military technology to the EU if they lifted the ban. Thus the EU Council failed to reach a consensus, and although France and Germany pushed to have the embargo lifted, the embargo was maintained.
Political will also changed in countries that had previously been more in favor of lifting the embargo. SchrÃder lost the 2005 German federal election to Angela Merkel, who became chancellor on November 22, 2005 - Merkel made her position clear that she was strongly against lifting the ban. Jacques Chirac declared he would not stand again as a candidate for the French Presidency in 2007. His successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, is more pro-American and less in favour of lifting the embargo compared to Chirac.
In addition, the European Parliament has consistently opposed the lifting of the arms embargo to the PRC. Though its agreement is not necessary for lifting the ban, many argue it reflects the will of the European people better as it is the only directly elected European bodyâ"the EU Council is appointed by member states. The European Parliament has repeatedly opposed any lifting of the arms embargo on the PRC:
* The resolution of April 28, 2005, on the Annual Report on Human Rights in the World 2004 and the EU's policy on the matter,
* The resolution of October 23, 2003, on the annual report from the Council to the European Parl
Since you said they were banned (Slashdot's editing system keeps choking on this; let's see if pulling the ideograms out and splitting it into two helps...)
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Unknown Rebel - This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester who tried to stop the PLA's advancing tanks. Literal meaning: June Fourth Incident [show]Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Liù-Sì Shìjiàn Literal meaning: Tiananmen Incident [show]Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Tin'nmén Shìjiàn
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and called the June Fourth Incident in China to avoid confusion with the two other Tiananmen Square protests, were a series of demonstrations led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between April 15 and June 4, 1989. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the authoritarianism and economic policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced calls for democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The reported tolls ranged from 200-300 (PRC government figures), to 400-800 (The New York Times), and to 2,000-3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross).
Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protestors and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.[1] Contents [hide]
* 1 Naming of incident
* 2 Background
* 3 Protests begin
* 4 Protests escalate
o 4.1 Nationwide and outside mainland China
* 5 Government crackdown on the protests
* 6 Number of deaths
* 7 Aftermath
o 7.1 Arrests and purges
o 7.2 Media coverage
o 7.3 Impact on domestic political trends
o 7.4 Economic impact
* 8 Issues concerning the Tiananmen protests today
o 8.1 Forbidden topic in mainland China
o 8.2 History deleted inside mainland China
o 8.3 EU-US arms embargo
o 8.4 Compensation
* 9 References in culture
o 9.1 Censored books, films and TV shows in mainland China
A friend of mine had one of these in college. We were running around zapping each other in a restaurant parking lot when a cop pulled up, lights flashing, and informed my friend he was about two second away from being shot before the cop realized it was a water gun. He was Not Amused.
Nerf should be fine as long as it's obvious that it IS a Nerf weapon. If not, or if it's taking place at night. be sure you play in a place where everyone knows you're in a game, or be prepared for some Very Bad Consequences if you're not careful.
More government control of the economy = more corruption. The more opportunity congress has to pick winners and losers, the more money businessmen are willing to spend to rig the outcome. The more powerful and less accountable a bureaucracy is to voters, the less checks their are to curb corruption. This is why the scandals in the previous French government and the UN oil-for-food scandal dwarf anything that's ever gone on in America. And the trend is to makle those bureaucracies even less accountable to votes (think of the EU's centralizing drive, and how the latest UK Labour government decided it didn't need to let its citizens vote on surrendering sovereignty to the EU after all. The more centralized power, the fewer chances for checks and balances to prevent corruption. And of course the communist bureaucracies of the old Soviet Union were the most corrupt of all, with millions killed while the Nomenklatura lived in luxury.
As Lord Acton noted, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The larger and more centralized government becomes, the more opportunities for corruption.
I did over $6,000 worth of book business in December and January, and I haven't listed anything since the rate hike and changes were announced. The new Final Value Fees hike takes too deep a cut in profitability for new small press books, and the "no negative feedback for buyers" is a non-starter, especially since everyone knows eBay's promise to crack down harder on deadbeat bidders is a lie. If it means spending more time and effort, you can always be sure that eBay is going to blow it off.
Since my feedback just recently went over 1,000, eBay keeps sending me e-mail to jon the PowerSeller program. I told them what they could do with it...
I'd be more inclined to lend a sympathetic ear if they hadn't removed the "click-and-hold to bring up the Save-As Menu" from the most recent builds of Firefox, which has made it a notably less user-friendly browser.
I'd also be a lot more inclined to sympathy if the "Restore Previous Session" function weren't broken so badly that it tries to restart every download I've ever cancelled in the Download manager (including those from months ago).
And I'm a mac user who still uses Firefox because I've got the vast majority of my website passwords saved in it...
Declare over and over again that there's no debate at all and that your side is absolutely right. Whenever they bring up objections, merely inform them that "the debate is over. Anthropogenic Global Warming is a scientific fact."
Paint all of your opponents as shills for your favorite bogeyman (Big Business/Republicans/The Jews/Etc.) "Everyone who opposes immediate action on global warming is an oil company shill."
Remember to hype the danger to the maximum possible extent unless people adopt your preferred "scientific" policies. "Unless we ban the automobile, the ice caps will melt."
No matter what evidence is presented, spin it as supporting your theory. "Hurricane Katrina? Global Warming. Record snowfalls? Weather disruption due to global warming."
Follow these steps and you're sure to have people believe your "correct" science.
Just wait until we get nationalized health care under Hillary or Obama. I'm sure DNA testing will eventually be made mandatory under such a regime. If the person responsible for your health care is the State, then "privacy" in such a realm no longer exits.
...rather than an endless Bush-bashing, liberal circle-jerk where any anti-Bush conspiracy theory, no matter how ridiculous, gets modded up and any dissenting opinion gets modded down. There's just no way to avoid the fact that Slashdot is now the latter, which is a very sad development for long time Slashdotters like myself.
Really, all this has been covered on Ultra-Slashdot in much greater detail.
Oh, and those of you who don't have Ultra-Slashdot, just send me your e-mail address, your Slashdot password, and your credit card number (just for verification), and I'll be sure to enable it for you...
"Oh my God, your tank just blew up my house! Why? In the name of Heaven, why???"
"Well, Mrs. Peterson, I'm afraid your little Johnny was spawn camping in America's Army III. We in the Army Office of Video Games take a might dim view of spawn camping, n00b-baiting, and all-around asshatery, and suppress such crimes by any means necessary..."
Steve Jobs has supposedly been pitching the idea
Steve Jobs apparently
I know this might be a radical departure for Slashdot editors, but have you ever considered only linking to articles that have, I don't know, actual facts? Instead of rumor and innuendo to drive Apple bashing for Page Hits.
Also, did you hear that rumor about ScuttleMonkey? Supposedly he likes to have sex with washing machines. Apparently it's something he does quite a lot...
There can be no funding for frivolities like the human exploration of space when so many of the needs of the Permanent Bipartisan State of Porkistan remain unmet...
So, the cars would be used as "a system of shared cars with kiosks at locations around a city" and the TFA says the program would be like a "bike-share program". In other words, it sounds like a lot like the "Yellow Bike" program. Anyone remember that? Place a bunch of bikes out where anyone could take them, believing they would return them when done. Yeah, that worked out exactly as well as you would expect: a colossal failure where the bikes were quickly stolen and sold for drug money. Guess what? Communism doesn't work. See also: The Tragedy of the Commons.
People like owning private property. In fact, they like it so much that given a chance to "borrow" a vehicle, they'll never return it. But if someone follows through on this idea, thefts will probably go down for a week or so when the same people who stole yellow bikes to support their drug habit do the same with the cars, at a much higher profit.
The Google Master said to the Apprentice: "To truly learn the Google Way, you must first learn not to think of Windows Vista."
The Apprentice nodded and went back to his cubicle. For three days and nights he tried his best not to think of Windows Vista, but every time he tried, he couldn't help but think of it. Finally, he gave up, went home, and played with his Nintendo Wii.
When Monday came, the Google Apprentice excitedly burst into the Google Master's office. "Master, I did it! I finally succeeded in not thinking about Windows Vista!"
Google Master: "And what were you thinking of when you weren't thinking of Windows Vista?"
The apprentice paused. "I don't know," he said. At that, the Google Master snatched an old S100 Bus he had hanging on his wall, and smacked the Apprentice upside the head.
And thus the Apprentice was enlightened.
The enlightenment lasted for a full three days, right up until the Apprentice was transfered to marketing.
(And if anyone from Google is reading this, and has an opening in the Austin area...drop me a line.;-) )
...except he didn't make any. His rhetoric boils down to "Environmentalism is good. Looking at the Earth from the Moon helped kickstart environmentalism. Therefore we shouldn't mine the moon." It's a non-sequitur on the order of the Chewbacca Defense. He expects that yelling "Environmentalism!" will cause enough knees to jerk to sway opinion without actually making any arguments. (The sad thing is he may be right, given as how many people treat environmentalism as the new religion. )
Are we to avoid mining the moon because it will harm the native lifeforms? Oh yeah, there aren't any.
Slashdot Mirror
No private company should ever receive special tax breaks or subsidies for any reason. Instead, just lower business taxes so everyone has a chance to profit equally. Then these sorts of things wouldn't happen. It would also radically reduce the cope for corruption.
(The only necessary exception I can see to this rule is for National Security-specific products and research, since protection the citizenry is the primary function of government, and in many cases (nuclear weapons development comes to mind) that nature of the product produce precludes recoupment if R&D costs in the private sector.)
You won't get money out of politics until you get politics out of money.
As someone who has bought and sold science fiction first editions on eBay for nigh on a decade now, and who currently has eBay feedback over 1000, I hope that this finally spurs Google to launch an eBay auction competitor to eat eBay's lunch. (Or, as you newfangled kids say these days when you're not getting the hell off my lawn, I hope Google drinks eBay's milkshake.)
The reason is that eBay has gone from being bringing buyers and sellers together to treating them like pinatas to be beaten with a stick to extract the maximum amount of money from them. Fees have only gone up, the changes made to feedback have been asinine, and eBay has let their core auction business language while they've been trying to turn themselves into an inferior clone of Amazon.
It's gotten so bad that I've reduced my listings by 98% since the new fee structure was announced (and most of the remaining 2% are books another writer asked me to sell on eBay on consignment)> It's simply insufficiently profitable for me to deal there anymore.
Since Google already has the infrastructure in place, I hope they come out with a Google Auctions, radically undercut eBay's fee structure (free for the first two years might do it), and either make eBay's repent or else drive them under entirely.
Why not? Certainly Google has enough computing infrastructure to run an auction business as big as eBay's without even noticing the loading, and I know they're smart enough to create an auction system from scratch.
Lawrence Person
Lame Excuse Books
http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html
"Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value.
Wrong on all counts, but the 1st Amendment does provide protections for free speech not available in many other countries, so I hope we see this particular instance of tort abuse smacked down hard.
[edit] EU-US arms embargo
The European Union and United States embargo on weapons sales to the PRC, put in place as a result of the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, still remains in place. The PRC has been calling for a lifting of the ban for many years and has had a varying amount of support from members of the Council of the European Union. In early 2004, France spearheaded a movement within the EU to lift the ban. Former German Chancellor Gerhard SchrÃder publicly added his voice to that of former French President Jacques Chirac to have the embargo lifted.
The arms embargo was discussed at a PRC-EU summit in the Netherlands between December 7 and 9, 2004. In the run-up to the summit, the PRC had attempted to increase pressure on the EU Council to lift the ban by warning that the ban could hurt PRC-EU relations. PRC Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had called the ban "outdated", and he told reporters, "If the ban is maintained, bilateral relations will definitely be affected." In the end, the EU Council did not lift the ban. EU spokeswoman FranÃoise le Bail said there were still concerns about the PRC's commitment to human rights. But at the time, the EU did state a commitment to work towards lifting the ban.
The PRC continued to press for the embargo to be lifted, and some member states began to drop their opposition. Jacques Chirac pledged to have the ban lifted by mid-2005. However, the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China passing in March 2005 increased cross-strait tensions, damaging attempts to lift the ban, and several EU Council members changed their minds. Members of the U.S. Congress had also proposed restrictions on the transfer of military technology to the EU if they lifted the ban. Thus the EU Council failed to reach a consensus, and although France and Germany pushed to have the embargo lifted, the embargo was maintained.
Britain took charge of the EU Presidency in July 2005, making the lifting of the embargo all but impossible for the duration of that period. Britain had always had some reservations on lifting the ban and wished to put it to the side, rather than sour EU-US relations further. Other issues such as the failure of the European Constitution and the ensuing disagreement over the European Budget and Common Agricultural Policy superseded the matter of the embargo in importance. Britain wanted to use its presidency to push for wholesale reform of the EU, so the lifting of the ban became even more unlikely. The election of José Manuel Barroso as European Commission President also made a lifting of the ban more difficult. At a meeting with Chinese leaders in mid-July 2005, he said that China's poor record on human rights would slow any changes to the EU's ban on arms sales to China.[30]
Political will also changed in countries that had previously been more in favor of lifting the embargo. SchrÃder lost the 2005 German federal election to Angela Merkel, who became chancellor on November 22, 2005 - Merkel made her position clear that she was strongly against lifting the ban. Jacques Chirac declared he would not stand again as a candidate for the French Presidency in 2007. His successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, is more pro-American and less in favour of lifting the embargo compared to Chirac.
In addition, the European Parliament has consistently opposed the lifting of the arms embargo to the PRC. Though its agreement is not necessary for lifting the ban, many argue it reflects the will of the European people better as it is the only directly elected European bodyâ"the EU Council is appointed by member states. The European Parliament has repeatedly opposed any lifting of the arms embargo on the PRC:
* The resolution of April 28, 2005, on the Annual Report on Human Rights in the World 2004 and the EU's policy on the matter,
* The resolution of October 23, 2003, on the annual report from the Council to the European Parl
Since you said they were banned (Slashdot's editing system keeps choking on this; let's see if pulling the ideograms out and splitting it into two helps...)
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Unknown Rebel - This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester who tried to stop the PLA's advancing tanks.
Literal meaning: June Fourth Incident
[show]Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin: Liù-Sì Shìjiàn
Literal meaning: Tiananmen Incident
[show]Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin: Tin'nmén Shìjiàn
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and called the June Fourth Incident in China to avoid confusion with the two other Tiananmen Square protests, were a series of demonstrations led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between April 15 and June 4, 1989. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the authoritarianism and economic policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced calls for democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The reported tolls ranged from 200-300 (PRC government figures), to 400-800 (The New York Times), and to 2,000-3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross).
Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protestors and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.[1]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Naming of incident
* 2 Background
* 3 Protests begin
* 4 Protests escalate
o 4.1 Nationwide and outside mainland China
* 5 Government crackdown on the protests
* 6 Number of deaths
* 7 Aftermath
o 7.1 Arrests and purges
o 7.2 Media coverage
o 7.3 Impact on domestic political trends
o 7.4 Economic impact
* 8 Issues concerning the Tiananmen protests today
o 8.1 Forbidden topic in mainland China
o 8.2 History deleted inside mainland China
o 8.3 EU-US arms embargo
o 8.4 Compensation
* 9 References in culture
o 9.1 Censored books, films and TV shows in mainland China
Nerf should be fine as long as it's obvious that it IS a Nerf weapon. If not, or if it's taking place at night. be sure you play in a place where everyone knows you're in a game, or be prepared for some Very Bad Consequences if you're not careful.
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!
More government control of the economy = more corruption. The more opportunity congress has to pick winners and losers, the more money businessmen are willing to spend to rig the outcome. The more powerful and less accountable a bureaucracy is to voters, the less checks their are to curb corruption. This is why the scandals in the previous French government and the UN oil-for-food scandal dwarf anything that's ever gone on in America. And the trend is to makle those bureaucracies even less accountable to votes (think of the EU's centralizing drive, and how the latest UK Labour government decided it didn't need to let its citizens vote on surrendering sovereignty to the EU after all. The more centralized power, the fewer chances for checks and balances to prevent corruption. And of course the communist bureaucracies of the old Soviet Union were the most corrupt of all, with millions killed while the Nomenklatura lived in luxury.
As Lord Acton noted, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The larger and more centralized government becomes, the more opportunities for corruption.
Since my feedback just recently went over 1,000, eBay keeps sending me e-mail to jon the PowerSeller program. I told them what they could do with it...
Lawrence Person
Lame Excuse Books
http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html
I'd also be a lot more inclined to sympathy if the "Restore Previous Session" function weren't broken so badly that it tries to restart every download I've ever cancelled in the Download manager (including those from months ago).
And I'm a mac user who still uses Firefox because I've got the vast majority of my website passwords saved in it...
So be sure to break out those "the debate is over/you're a shill/denier" nostrums to stiffle debate, boys. You're going to need them...
Follow these steps and you're sure to have people believe your "correct" science.
Of course, testing is only the first step. Expect to see those with expensive, insurable genetic conditions simply denied care, much as those over 70 are denied health care for many ailments in the UK because it's not "cost effective."
Nationalized health care is, by definition, rationed health care. DNA testing will just be another way to make it more "fair" and "rational.'
(Do I really need to add the
tag?)You may now commence modding me down...
Oh, and those of you who don't have Ultra-Slashdot, just send me your e-mail address, your Slashdot password, and your credit card number (just for verification), and I'll be sure to enable it for you...
"Oh my God, your tank just blew up my house! Why? In the name of Heaven, why???"
"Well, Mrs. Peterson, I'm afraid your little Johnny was spawn camping in America's Army III. We in the Army Office of Video Games take a might dim view of spawn camping, n00b-baiting, and all-around asshatery, and suppress such crimes by any means necessary..."
I know this might be a radical departure for Slashdot editors, but have you ever considered only linking to articles that have, I don't know, actual facts? Instead of rumor and innuendo to drive Apple bashing for Page Hits.
Also, did you hear that rumor about ScuttleMonkey? Supposedly he likes to have sex with washing machines. Apparently it's something he does quite a lot...
Or defense contracts for companies owned by Nancy Pelosi's husband..
Or billions in subsidies to Fortune 500 agribusiness companies.
There can be no funding for frivolities like the human exploration of space when so many of the needs of the Permanent Bipartisan State of Porkistan remain unmet...
People like owning private property. In fact, they like it so much that given a chance to "borrow" a vehicle, they'll never return it. But if someone follows through on this idea, thefts will probably go down for a week or so when the same people who stole yellow bikes to support their drug habit do the same with the cars, at a much higher profit.
The Apprentice nodded and went back to his cubicle. For three days and nights he tried his best not to think of Windows Vista, but every time he tried, he couldn't help but think of it. Finally, he gave up, went home, and played with his Nintendo Wii.
When Monday came, the Google Apprentice excitedly burst into the Google Master's office. "Master, I did it! I finally succeeded in not thinking about Windows Vista!"
Google Master: "And what were you thinking of when you weren't thinking of Windows Vista?"
The apprentice paused. "I don't know," he said. At that, the Google Master snatched an old S100 Bus he had hanging on his wall, and smacked the Apprentice upside the head.
And thus the Apprentice was enlightened.
The enlightenment lasted for a full three days, right up until the Apprentice was transfered to marketing.
(And if anyone from Google is reading this, and has an opening in the Austin area...drop me a line. ;-) )
Are we to avoid mining the moon because it will harm the native lifeforms? Oh yeah, there aren't any.
Do we need to invent the word "rock-hugger"?