My ancestors are from Norway - the Vikings used to write in Runes, a language of symbols not all together different than Kanji in that each character had a unique shape.
Guess what? No one, aside from a few historic scholars, reads or writes Runes anymore. Is it the end of the world? Nope. Has Norway fallen into the sea? No. Has Norway undergone a total disruption of their cultural identity? No.
Runes fell into disuse, because the alphabet is superior. It's just that simple. Kanji script and other writing forms will likely follow suit, as a re-useable alphabet is not only easier to learn and teach, a person who has never heard a word can use phonics to sound out the word. In the end, the superior format usually wins.
One of the primary differences is the backing material of the touch screen. The cheaper phones utilize a plastic backing on the touchscreen, this plastic will bend, warp and cause 'typos' even if your finge is precisely where it's supposed to be. Glass does not flex, or warp - but is more expensive. This is why the iPhone gives such a superior performance on the virtual keyboard, as they have a glass backing.
I think many of the problems with virtual keyboards is due to the cheaper touchscreens utilize the flexible plastic backing behind the flexible membrane - thus adding distortion to the pressure point matrix - resulting in typo's that are indeed the "phone's fault".
It would be interesting to see this sort of study conducted with external keyboards, virtual (glass) and virtual (plastic) keyboards.
I'm switching to the Droid for the option of not only abandoning my cheap plastic backing on my touchscreen LG Dare; but also because I'll have the option of the slide out keyboard.
You can't patent ice, snow or slush - why? Because these are naturally occuring items. You cannot patent a mathematical function (1+1=2), an obvious extension of a patent (make an iPod entirely chrome plated), naturally occuring item (wood), or something that has been in the public domain.
No one invented the genes in our bodies, so how can anyone own a patent on them? If I patent the gene that turns Breast Cancer 'off' - then can I sue men and women who possess that gene without my permission? If someone has breast cancer, and it goes into remission - can I chose to 'gather my property' by imprisoning that person and extacting the gene that I own rights too?
Crighton's book, "Next" was an excellent novel based on this entire theory. No one should have the 'rights' to any gene.
You hated X-men 3, while I and many others loved it.
Yes, it was violent. Yes, Wolverine killed many 'bad guys'. So what? Did Wolverine have gratuitous sex scenes? Was the language so filled with profanity that a Sailor would blush? No, the movie was made to appeal to a large audience; and it was tremendously successful ($459 Million Internationally). So, I think you are quite alone in your 'offended' status.
At the end of the day, the money a film makes is an indicator as to how well received a film was appreciated by the audience. Now, would you like to defend the under-whelming success of 'Watchmen'?
Want to see a Star-Trek movie fail? Make it 'R' rated; and it will bomb.
You don't need gore to sell a movie, unless your movie is based on gore. You don't need sex to sell a movie, unless your movies is based on sex.
Superhero movies are based on the concept of a 'superhero'. The most profitable movies of all time, have been geared to be watchable by 'families'. Now, family-friends does not mean that Mom and Dad and their 2.3 kids are all going to the theater, it also means that parents will permit thier young daughter, Barbie, go out with 'Ken' to see a movie that they feel comfortable sending young adults on a date to go and see.
There are plenty of movies that fulfill the 'R' rated audience demands. These seldom are huge cash machines, in fact one could argue that as a percentage of all movies made, the 'R' rated movies make less money than the 'G' rated movies.
As a movie executive, the goal is to make money from your movie. You can do like Pixar and make a fortune on your movie, then make double that in after-market toys, pajamas, T-shirts and lunch boxes. Why? Because their movies appeal to young and old alike. Parents buy the DVD, and they know that when the grandkids, cousins, neighborhood kids come to visit; they can watch those movies without any parent being offended.
A superhero movie's demographic is going to be minors to young adults. The older classics (Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman) are going to appeal to a wider age range than the 'Watchmen', simply because of the age of those people who read the comics. Simply stated, when you make an 'R' rated movie, you immediately remove the family and young adult (12-18) group from the customer list. Those 18-90 yr olds are going to be more mature, those who are 'adults' will want a compelling story, and there had better be a good reason why the story required them to find babysitters. Boobs, graphic violence jsut doesn't cut it. Now, movies that tell a historic event fall into a category that is unique. The 'R' rating is justified, in fact 'defended' in movies like "Saving Private Benjamin", "The Passion", "The Patriot" and "Schlinder's List" for the fact that the movie depicts actual events.
Having a big blue guy with full frontal nudity for 3 hours isn't defendable. There is no reason, other than the Director's wish to shock his audience. Guess what? Most 18-24 yr olds weren't shocked, and those 25-90 didn't find the rationale for having to include the scenes that gave it an 'R' rating defendable. Hence, the movie didn't make money.
"Secondly what is up with this, Ibuprofen, are u kidding me, that's for headaches, its not crack..."
Exactly, you are exhibiting an unusual amount of common sense- something that the educational industry finds both unnecessary and undesireable.
You see, 'Zero-tolerance' means they don't have to think about it, they do not need to use any brain cells, exercise critical thinking or rationale behavior. It's simply an excuse to exercise some authority over kids who cannot fight back.
Pesonally, I'd like to see the courts take an aggressiver approach on this one. If the kid has drugs on school grounds, treat it as a felony; if it's a case of a 'stupid' teacher on a craze to exercise authority - take his teaching license. If an engineer, medical doctor or lawyer was found to be behaving in this manner at work, they would find themselves fired, and tried for mal-practice. If teachers want to be respected as professionals, lets treat then like professionals.
Motherboard vendors typically use some form of protection, to prevent the 'normal' user from hacking into the BIOS Memory. In the old days, BIOS was in the 512K range, however many BIOS chips now sport 1 or 2 MB of space. This additional space is usually reserved for the nice big splash-screen image re-sellers throw up instead of having the PC sit and display the DOS boot messages (Memory test, speed, processor, Hard Drives, CD Drives, ect).
So, there is 'plenty' of memory space that is non-violatile, that lives on your motherboard that could be used to hide either multiple compressed malware programs, or a host of viri. The only way you would know if you were infected would be the obvious crash, or if you were wise enough to compare the sum-check of the BIOS that you loaded against the sum-check of what is in your BIOS memory chip.
But, the part they didn't tell you is that the BIOS memory chip may live in a variety of different places, it could be on the root PCI bus, or off the SPI bus, or hanging off the SMA bus. The virus loader would need to be smart enough to know 'where to look' and also have both Phoenix and Award BIOS passcodes/proceedures for this to be effective.
Once hit, the only way to get rid of it would be to re-flash your BIOS (assuming the new BIOS doesn't have a self-preservation routine built-in - Like disabline the ability to write the BIOS again).
The only thing worse than not having a parachute, is having one that doesn't open.
If we 'teach' people to ignore warnings that their car is losing tractions, such as wheel vibration, we are taking an active role killing people. There are reasons we have traffic laws, policemen with laser and radar, and traffic courts.
All we can, or should do, is punish stupid behavior. Teaching people to ignore danger signals, will simply lead to people ignore a very serious warning. I'd much rather see someone in traffic court paying a hefty fine, having their insurance fees jacked up and possibly lose driving priviledges - than see them dead. This is especially true, because we all know that when a traffic accident occurs, the people killed are often innocent passengers, and/or another totally innocent vehicle who simply got in the way.
Assuming you are telling the truth - what does one expect?
Consider, you create a storyline. Let's use FireFly and the travesty that this potential money-generator had. Any good story requires that the audience feel sympathy and develop a connection with the primary characters. Like any good story teller (Pixar, for example) you develop your characters for a period of time. After a short while, the audience knows what a character will, and will NEVER do.
For example, Han Solo would do things without thinking twice, that Luke Skywalker would never even consider. This is character development. Pretty basic stuff, right?
Then why, pray tell - do executives pitch a series, then run the series in multiple time periods without warning? FireFly, which had serious potential to make major $$$, premiered on Fox, but had it's air time changed 3x in the first season. How do you expect to get a following when you move the air time, and don't run commercials telling the fan base where/when the next air time will run?
Then the Boy-Genius's at the Sci-Fi channel not only managed to run the series at different times, they also managed to run the series out of order. Despite this, somehow - there was a fan-base. Then Serenity came about, and the fan-base exploded. Without fanfare, without teaser trailers, Serenity became one of the best Sci-Fi movies to hit the market. It is STILL one of the best selling series on Amazon.com.
The executives were given a diamond, but they thought it was coal. It was fished from the discard pile, it was polished and certified genuine - and it was disgarded again. It made money as a major film release, yet still the message managed to escape the executives. It still, to this day, remains one of Amazon's top TV series - this leads one to conclude that either the executives are selected for having an IQ lower than room temperature, or a severe allergy to money.
People want good Sci-Fi. It just seems that the executives are simply to arrogant, or stupid, or to impressed with their own opinions - to allow good Sci-Fi to hit the market.
Science Fiction is perhaps the biggest money maker that Hollywood has going. And from what I can tell, ever since Star Trek first aired, people just can't get enough of 'good' science fiction. The problem is that most of the crap on the Sci-Fi channel isn't Science Fiction, it's fantasy somehow involving some science in it.
Consider Star Trek (and the spin-offs), Star Wars, Terminator, ET, Fantastic Voyage, and even Firefly. There is an insatiable appetite for GOOD Science Fiction. As soon as someone comes up with a great idea, and if the industry is smart enough to recognize the good idea - money is made. Sci-Fi includes classics like Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-man, Fantastic Four and many others have made gazillions, and entertained us for decades. Other stories, dealing with the simple topic of (if only the techology existed....then....) all encompass the realm of Sci-Fiction.
The problem is that there are too few imaginations who care to write Sci-Fi. You don't need major bucks to tell a good story. Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and Star Wars managed to tell a compelling set of stories all on a tight budget. It just requires a talented and imaginative set of writers.
Unfortunately, today Sci-Fi writers have been dumbed down into telling inane stories with little or no character development, original thinking or any real motivation. Such a pity. There are so many good Sci-Fi books that could be done on a budget and tell a compelling story.
They also neglected to mention what times these phone calls were made. Chances are more than fair that those calls were made between the hours of 8am and 5pm, on a weekday. Thus, those few adults who were sampled were either stay-at-home parents, or unemployed adults.
A stay-at-home parent wouldn't have the time to answer mundane questions, as watching kids is a full-time job in and of itself. Thus, the unemployed likely make up a substancial percentage of the population. Given this likely sub-set; is it any wonder that they scored so poorly?
We had a friend who ran a small hardware store. He insisted he wanted to only be open 9-5 and Monday - Friday; so he could have his evenings and weekends free. Then he complained that the only people who came in to his store were contractors and the unemployed who couldn't pay the accounts they had set up. I told him "What did you expect? You set your store hours to coincide with those of the working class, so they have no choice but to go to Home Depot or Lowes". I think this 'survey' suffers from the same problem. They may have inadvertently removed the adults who would make the survey 'meaningful' by taking the survey during the times when 'educated' adults were at work.
"How could I be oppressed by Islam? In fact, how could any man EVER be oppressed by Islam?"
If you are being sarcastic, you need to state so explictly.
If not, you need to educate yourself. This is simple, just Google the words "Jizya" and "Dhimmi". It will only take a few seconds, from there you should figure out pretty quickly - why we need to fight these people.
They declared war on us, we did nothing to provoke them. Ever wonder which modern religion still practices slavery?
When you P2P, you not only take the data for yourself, you also help spread the data around.
So, my accessment is that I was freely 'given' the Album directly from Lars. Therefore, as I was freely given the album anonymously by one of the original artists- I didn't steal it either. That is assuming, of course, that I would bother to download his 'music'.
So, exactly how many attacks did the US have after 9/11? In the 8 yrs under the 'terrible' reign of Pres. Bush; how many times did we have our Navy attacked? How many aircraft were hijacked? How many of our embassies were bombed? How many times did Terrorists succeed in bombing buildings on US soil?
Um, that would be ZERO, Jack.
Now, let us contrast this to the 8 yrs under the 'wise and benevolent' Pres. Clinton.
Good God, man; do you ever bother to read a newspaper and learn; or do you mindlessly spout talking points that someone else gave you, not based on any observable facts - but golly, they sure make you 'feel good'.
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other assorted characters are well past their expiration date; yet they continue to be protected by copyright laws. It would seem that the playfield protects those with money and the rest of us are left to our own devices. How old is Mickey Mouse?
So, if Disney desires to perpetuate their characters indefinitely; then why to they release movies based upon characters made from the work of other artists who's copyright protection has lapsed? Such books like: 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea Works of Mark Twain (specifically Tom Sawyer movies) League of Extraodinary Gentlement (every character in this movie is from copyrighted material that has had it's time lapse).
So, what the courts have allowed is for Copyright protection to apply to some artists indefinitely, and other artists are not protected forever and are now in the public domain.
I never questioned pulling the weight, nor did I question the distance.
I question the "Swim in total darkness for 2 hours" statement. Sorry, but no human is going to swim in artic waters for 2 hours and live to tell the tale. Your muscles will lock, and you will drown long before 15 minutes has lapsed, let alone 2 hours. Hence my Power Rangers ring comment - only a fool will believe that a person will carry the weight described, then go for a nice artic swim for 2 hours, and then continue on the trek as if he were at the beach.
As far as 'accurate data' goes... sure, you will have really good data for a single path that is 1 -20 ft wide going north to the pole. Now just repeat this trek the full 360 degrees around the north pole, all within a short period of time and we'll have some really good data. However, we know that the ice moves (the North Pole is effectively an island of ice) and that currents below reduce the thickness of the ice, as blizzards above add more mass above.
At the end of the day; all we have is some accurate 'trivia' that is essentailly meaningless. Your trek north will hit both minima and maxima - and you'll have no clue as to what you hit. Is the ice 6 inches deep for a width of 12 ft, then shoot to 20 ft? No way to know. Was the ice 20 ft thick at your sample point just a month ago?
Other than feeling 'really important' and feeling 'really great about getting some accurate and fresh data' ; this is a pointless venture. It's like taking the temperature on a line between Fargo, North Dakota and heading south to Houston, TX - measuring the temperature (or water table depth) every day you walk - and then proclaiming that there is a meaningful trend you can extend to the North American continent.
All you really managed to do is get some exercise.
So, they are going to 'swim' in artic water for 2 hours in darkness, while towing their camping gear, food and measurement equipment with them. From the article, they will be carrying 2x their body weight. So, while they are swimming they will be carrying ~300 of dead weight, good thing they are all in great shape and from the planet Krypton. And you don't smell fresh BS?
What does it take for you to know you are being lied to? How about "after making their measurements, they will then band their Power Ranger Rings together and fly home."
We pay a substancial amount of our taxdollars for education. The sole purpose for schools is to prepare the students for the workforce - and based upon available testing scores, the schools are doing a lousy job.
Part of the reason for the school's failure is that parents refuse to get involved, they would rather be their childs "friend" than a parent. Then little Jr. is shocked when he goes into the workforce, and some low level manager fires his behind for not doing what he was told to do.
This student thought that as "mommy's pet" she was above the rules that applied to everyone else. So, she disregarded the teacher, then she tried to lie her way out of it. I'm glad she got caught, maybe going to an alternative school where she has less freedom and more discipline is exactly what she needs.
Then people wonder why the incoming workforce is lazy, disrespectful and demands that they get their way on every issue - it's because they have been taught that their poor 'self-image' might be hurt if any form of discipline was used. It's way beyond time for them to face reality.
Or, we could wait until she has a family and pulls this type of stunt at work and gets fired. Then she'll be uneducated, undisciplined and unemployed.
Tell that to your boss when you make a 'satire cartoon' of him available on the internet. I'm almost certain he'll consider 'your' rights as he exercises 'his' rights to re-evaluate your employment.
A doubt a High School Principle can be considered a 'public figure' as he is not a celebrity, he does not hold press conferences, appear as a public spokesman, present himself as a public figure, nor is he employing any public relations agencies. He's merely filling a required managment position. He is in a position of authority, over a group of immature children/teenagers.
Now, as to the punishment; that was absolutely out of bounds. A stern talking to, maybe a day or two detention and an apology were all that was warranted, IMHO. If the child refused to apologize, I can grant that the Principle would be within his rights to tell the student that he is not welcome to return, and must go elsewhere to further his educational goals. This would set the tone that the school has rules, and other students would learn a lesson vicariously. Learn to respect those in positions of authority while you are in school; and when you join the workforce the chances are that you'll not be fired for talking back to a supervisor. (You wouldn't believe the attitudes we see coming into the workforce!)
While I agree with your accessment on the judge (we can measurably determine how much time he sent 5000 teenagers to jail, we can measurabley access the fiscal kick-back), he should have his day in court. And if he is indeed found guilty, and we are relatively sure this will happen, he should be held accountable.
For the reasons you gave - I agree that a capital punishment should be pushed for. How many lives is a man placed in a position of authority allowed to destroy? He took an oath of office, and he raped pretty much every principle of office he swore to uphold. There are consequences to actions, he knew this and chose to abuse his authority for personal gain - so his life should be forfeit.
Same things with Bernie Madoff. Give him his day in court, treat him like any other robber or con-artist, scaling the magnitude of the crime to what a candy-bar thief would get. If stealing a $1.50 snickers means 1 day in jail, then $10 Billion should be a lifetime.
What has Dick Cheney been charged with? Exactly, what did he do wrong? This seems more of a political stab at someone, rather than one based on an actual charge. If you can produce a charge, then give him his day in court like everyone else.
There is no slave labor - that is illegal (unfortunately), the inmates are not forced to do anything but serve their time.
The state pays $x/inmate that is sentenced to prison. This cost includes the cost of the prison, food, medical care, guards and administrative costs. If a commercial interest comes forward and says that they can provide a facility that meets state requirements with regard to living space, food, access to medical care and guards - but can do it for some cost less than what the state pays for a state owned and managed institution, then the state can opt to send inmates to the commercial entity. Given the established effectiveness of a commercial entity compared to a state managed entity - it's not uncommon to find commercial enterprises that can run a profit, and provide better care than the state.
That said, the commercial entity found it in their fiscal best interests to pay the judges over $2.6 Million to send them juveniles (innocent or guilty.... the pay is the same) from their court dockets. So, how many kids who committed very minor crimes, or committed no crime at all - were sent to prision so the judges could make an extra $2.6 Million?
I think a judge should spend the rest of his life in jail for this atrocity; and everything he owns should be confiscated and sold, with the proceeds given to the victims of his corrupton. I would personally jump at the opportuntiy to spend 17 months in jail for a $2.6 Million payoff. I could comfortably retire on $2.6 Million! Consider, just living off the 7% interest rate would be a cool $182,000 a year for life - without ever touching the principle. Heck yeah! Where do I sign up? Throw me in the slammer for 18 months, say nasty things about my mommy, make me watch cable TV and lift weights. That would be the easiest money I've ever made!!
Back in the days of the Apple clone start-up "Power Computing", Apple discovered that not only did they have the task of supporting their software on non-Apple hardware, that the Apple clone-makers made BETTER Mac's than Apple did. By this, I mean that Power Computing produced memory bus speeds of 66 MHz, when the best that Apple could muster was 33 MHz. So, how did Apple compete against superior engineering?
Yup, Apple allowed Power Computing to only make memory buses half the width of Apple's offerings. At the eng of the day, Apple killed off the clone industry; because Apple realized that they were NOT gaining marketshare, but rather the clones were cannibalizing their hardware sales. Why buy a Mac for $3000, when you can get a faster, more feature laden offering that runs the same software for $2000?
If Pystar ultimately wins, it may not increase the Mac marketshare, but may mean that Apple is now forced to support hardware that is 'compliant' to various specifications instead of 'compatible' with those same specifications. Those two words, compliant and compatible, do not mean the same thing. This means that instead of supporting a thin set of hardware products, Apple will be forced to support a wide range of 3rd party hardware - while maintaining thier OS and software prices static.
Sometimes a step forward means you are stepping on a landmine.
I hate to throw some logic and common sense into your delusion - but consider a few things.
- there is no 'magic' weather forecasting software. The same weather forecast system that cannot predict the weekend's weather is used to predict 5, 10, 50, 100 and 1000 years out. Any errors made are carried over and compound the overall error.
- The Sun's output is not a constant, nor has it ever been, nor is it likely to stabilize anytime soon. In fact, we have seen near record setting declines in Sunspot activity. Sunspots generate a LOT of energy, look it up.
- Mars has lot it's polar ice cap. Is this our fault too?
- Who gains from spreading this myth? A similar myth produced the EPA, a group of unelected people, who answer to no one, who can declare your house an environmental impact zone and have it condemned without trial, jury nor a right to appeal.
- The cooling period we say in 2008 more than made up the difference for over 20 years worth of the increase that Global Warming fanatics have been prancing about.
- We constantly move through climatic change, we always have, we always will. There is nothing you can do about the weather, other than to talk about it.
You are making a false assumption. H1B workers are NOT Americans, they do not live here, they have no vested interest in the success of this country. They are simply hired guns.
As such, neither they, nor their employer pay FICA or Social Security taxes.
Think about that for a second.
Both H1B employees and you earn the exact same paycheck; but your employer does not have to pay Social Security nor FICA taxes on the H1B employee. So, the cost to the employer is several tens of thousands dollars LESS than hiring an American. At the same time, this employer is getting tax abatements and tax cuts for his investment in helping and doing business with these same countries.
So, when layoff time comes - guess who takes it in the rear? You cost the employer more to have around than a foreign national who pays no taxes. Then take a good look around your company, and ask yourself again "Gee, why are 20-50% of the engineers at my company from outside America?"
When layoffs hit, the H1B employee has a contractual obligation to be relocated to his country of origon should his employment end. This means that in terms of laying off a H1B employee, that not only is he cheaper to have hanging around the company, he's also more expensive to lay off.
Think about this as you get your pink slip- then look around at your next job and you may see a trend. Are H1B employees simply 'better' in that they don't get laid off - or is the system rigged against Americans?
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My ancestors are from Norway - the Vikings used to write in Runes, a language of symbols not all together different than Kanji in that each character had a unique shape.
Guess what? No one, aside from a few historic scholars, reads or writes Runes anymore. Is it the end of the world? Nope. Has Norway fallen into the sea? No. Has Norway undergone a total disruption of their cultural identity? No.
Runes fell into disuse, because the alphabet is superior. It's just that simple. Kanji script and other writing forms will likely follow suit, as a re-useable alphabet is not only easier to learn and teach, a person who has never heard a word can use phonics to sound out the word. In the end, the superior format usually wins.
All virtual keyboards are NOT created equal.
One of the primary differences is the backing material of the touch screen. The cheaper phones utilize a plastic backing on the touchscreen, this plastic will bend, warp and cause 'typos' even if your finge is precisely where it's supposed to be. Glass does not flex, or warp - but is more expensive. This is why the iPhone gives such a superior performance on the virtual keyboard, as they have a glass backing.
I think many of the problems with virtual keyboards is due to the cheaper touchscreens utilize the flexible plastic backing behind the flexible membrane - thus adding distortion to the pressure point matrix - resulting in typo's that are indeed the "phone's fault".
It would be interesting to see this sort of study conducted with external keyboards, virtual (glass) and virtual (plastic) keyboards.
I'm switching to the Droid for the option of not only abandoning my cheap plastic backing on my touchscreen LG Dare; but also because I'll have the option of the slide out keyboard.
You can't patent ice, snow or slush - why? Because these are naturally occuring items. You cannot patent a mathematical function (1+1=2), an obvious extension of a patent (make an iPod entirely chrome plated), naturally occuring item (wood), or something that has been in the public domain.
No one invented the genes in our bodies, so how can anyone own a patent on them? If I patent the gene that turns Breast Cancer 'off' - then can I sue men and women who possess that gene without my permission? If someone has breast cancer, and it goes into remission - can I chose to 'gather my property' by imprisoning that person and extacting the gene that I own rights too?
Crighton's book, "Next" was an excellent novel based on this entire theory. No one should have the 'rights' to any gene.
You hated X-men 3, while I and many others loved it.
Yes, it was violent. Yes, Wolverine killed many 'bad guys'. So what? Did Wolverine have gratuitous sex scenes? Was the language so filled with profanity that a Sailor would blush? No, the movie was made to appeal to a large audience; and it was tremendously successful ($459 Million Internationally). So, I think you are quite alone in your 'offended' status.
At the end of the day, the money a film makes is an indicator as to how well received a film was appreciated by the audience. Now, would you like to defend the under-whelming success of 'Watchmen'?
Want to see a Star-Trek movie fail? Make it 'R' rated; and it will bomb.
You don't need gore to sell a movie, unless your movie is based on gore.
You don't need sex to sell a movie, unless your movies is based on sex.
Superhero movies are based on the concept of a 'superhero'. The most profitable movies of all time, have been geared to be watchable by 'families'. Now, family-friends does not mean that Mom and Dad and their 2.3 kids are all going to the theater, it also means that parents will permit thier young daughter, Barbie, go out with 'Ken' to see a movie that they feel comfortable sending young adults on a date to go and see.
There are plenty of movies that fulfill the 'R' rated audience demands. These seldom are huge cash machines, in fact one could argue that as a percentage of all movies made, the 'R' rated movies make less money than the 'G' rated movies.
As a movie executive, the goal is to make money from your movie. You can do like Pixar and make a fortune on your movie, then make double that in after-market toys, pajamas, T-shirts and lunch boxes. Why? Because their movies appeal to young and old alike. Parents buy the DVD, and they know that when the grandkids, cousins, neighborhood kids come to visit; they can watch those movies without any parent being offended.
A superhero movie's demographic is going to be minors to young adults. The older classics (Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman) are going to appeal to a wider age range than the 'Watchmen', simply because of the age of those people who read the comics. Simply stated, when you make an 'R' rated movie, you immediately remove the family and young adult (12-18) group from the customer list. Those 18-90 yr olds are going to be more mature, those who are 'adults' will want a compelling story, and there had better be a good reason why the story required them to find babysitters. Boobs, graphic violence jsut doesn't cut it. Now, movies that tell a historic event fall into a category that is unique. The 'R' rating is justified, in fact 'defended' in movies like "Saving Private Benjamin", "The Passion", "The Patriot" and "Schlinder's List" for the fact that the movie depicts actual events.
Having a big blue guy with full frontal nudity for 3 hours isn't defendable. There is no reason, other than the Director's wish to shock his audience. Guess what? Most 18-24 yr olds weren't shocked, and those 25-90 didn't find the rationale for having to include the scenes that gave it an 'R' rating defendable. Hence, the movie didn't make money.
"Secondly what is up with this, Ibuprofen, are u kidding me, that's for headaches, its not crack..."
Exactly, you are exhibiting an unusual amount of common sense- something that the educational industry finds both unnecessary and undesireable.
You see, 'Zero-tolerance' means they don't have to think about it, they do not need to use any brain cells, exercise critical thinking or rationale behavior. It's simply an excuse to exercise some authority over kids who cannot fight back.
Pesonally, I'd like to see the courts take an aggressiver approach on this one. If the kid has drugs on school grounds, treat it as a felony; if it's a case of a 'stupid' teacher on a craze to exercise authority - take his teaching license. If an engineer, medical doctor or lawyer was found to be behaving in this manner at work, they would find themselves fired, and tried for mal-practice. If teachers want to be respected as professionals, lets treat then like professionals.
Motherboard vendors typically use some form of protection, to prevent the 'normal' user from hacking into the BIOS Memory. In the old days, BIOS was in the 512K range, however many BIOS chips now sport 1 or 2 MB of space. This additional space is usually reserved for the nice big splash-screen image re-sellers throw up instead of having the PC sit and display the DOS boot messages (Memory test, speed, processor, Hard Drives, CD Drives, ect).
So, there is 'plenty' of memory space that is non-violatile, that lives on your motherboard that could be used to hide either multiple compressed malware programs, or a host of viri. The only way you would know if you were infected would be the obvious crash, or if you were wise enough to compare the sum-check of the BIOS that you loaded against the sum-check of what is in your BIOS memory chip.
But, the part they didn't tell you is that the BIOS memory chip may live in a variety of different places, it could be on the root PCI bus, or off the SPI bus, or hanging off the SMA bus. The virus loader would need to be smart enough to know 'where to look' and also have both Phoenix and Award BIOS passcodes/proceedures for this to be effective.
Once hit, the only way to get rid of it would be to re-flash your BIOS (assuming the new BIOS doesn't have a self-preservation routine built-in - Like disabline the ability to write the BIOS again).
The only thing worse than not having a parachute, is having one that doesn't open.
If we 'teach' people to ignore warnings that their car is losing tractions, such as wheel vibration, we are taking an active role killing people. There are reasons we have traffic laws, policemen with laser and radar, and traffic courts.
All we can, or should do, is punish stupid behavior. Teaching people to ignore danger signals, will simply lead to people ignore a very serious warning. I'd much rather see someone in traffic court paying a hefty fine, having their insurance fees jacked up and possibly lose driving priviledges - than see them dead. This is especially true, because we all know that when a traffic accident occurs, the people killed are often innocent passengers, and/or another totally innocent vehicle who simply got in the way.
Now I have serious Shuffleboard skillz.
Assuming you are telling the truth - what does one expect?
Consider, you create a storyline. Let's use FireFly and the travesty that this potential money-generator had. Any good story requires that the audience feel sympathy and develop a connection with the primary characters. Like any good story teller (Pixar, for example) you develop your characters for a period of time. After a short while, the audience knows what a character will, and will NEVER do.
For example, Han Solo would do things without thinking twice, that Luke Skywalker would never even consider. This is character development. Pretty basic stuff, right?
Then why, pray tell - do executives pitch a series, then run the series in multiple time periods without warning? FireFly, which had serious potential to make major $$$, premiered on Fox, but had it's air time changed 3x in the first season. How do you expect to get a following when you move the air time, and don't run commercials telling the fan base where/when the next air time will run?
Then the Boy-Genius's at the Sci-Fi channel not only managed to run the series at different times, they also managed to run the series out of order. Despite this, somehow - there was a fan-base. Then Serenity came about, and the fan-base exploded. Without fanfare, without teaser trailers, Serenity became one of the best Sci-Fi movies to hit the market. It is STILL one of the best selling series on Amazon.com.
The executives were given a diamond, but they thought it was coal. It was fished from the discard pile, it was polished and certified genuine - and it was disgarded again. It made money as a major film release, yet still the message managed to escape the executives. It still, to this day, remains one of Amazon's top TV series - this leads one to conclude that either the executives are selected for having an IQ lower than room temperature, or a severe allergy to money.
People want good Sci-Fi. It just seems that the executives are simply to arrogant, or stupid, or to impressed with their own opinions - to allow good Sci-Fi to hit the market.
Science Fiction is perhaps the biggest money maker that Hollywood has going. And from what I can tell, ever since Star Trek first aired, people just can't get enough of 'good' science fiction. The problem is that most of the crap on the Sci-Fi channel isn't Science Fiction, it's fantasy somehow involving some science in it.
Consider Star Trek (and the spin-offs), Star Wars, Terminator, ET, Fantastic Voyage, and even Firefly. There is an insatiable appetite for GOOD Science Fiction. As soon as someone comes up with a great idea, and if the industry is smart enough to recognize the good idea - money is made. Sci-Fi includes classics like Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-man, Fantastic Four and many others have made gazillions, and entertained us for decades. Other stories, dealing with the simple topic of (if only the techology existed ... .then ....) all encompass the realm of Sci-Fiction.
The problem is that there are too few imaginations who care to write Sci-Fi. You don't need major bucks to tell a good story. Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and Star Wars managed to tell a compelling set of stories all on a tight budget. It just requires a talented and imaginative set of writers.
Unfortunately, today Sci-Fi writers have been dumbed down into telling inane stories with little or no character development, original thinking or any real motivation. Such a pity. There are so many good Sci-Fi books that could be done on a budget and tell a compelling story.
They also neglected to mention what times these phone calls were made. Chances are more than fair that those calls were made between the hours of 8am and 5pm, on a weekday. Thus, those few adults who were sampled were either stay-at-home parents, or unemployed adults.
A stay-at-home parent wouldn't have the time to answer mundane questions, as watching kids is a full-time job in and of itself. Thus, the unemployed likely make up a substancial percentage of the population. Given this likely sub-set; is it any wonder that they scored so poorly?
We had a friend who ran a small hardware store. He insisted he wanted to only be open 9-5 and Monday - Friday; so he could have his evenings and weekends free. Then he complained that the only people who came in to his store were contractors and the unemployed who couldn't pay the accounts they had set up. I told him "What did you expect? You set your store hours to coincide with those of the working class, so they have no choice but to go to Home Depot or Lowes". I think this 'survey' suffers from the same problem. They may have inadvertently removed the adults who would make the survey 'meaningful' by taking the survey during the times when 'educated' adults were at work.
"How could I be oppressed by Islam? In fact, how could any man EVER be oppressed by Islam?"
If you are being sarcastic, you need to state so explictly.
If not, you need to educate yourself. This is simple, just Google the words "Jizya" and "Dhimmi". It will only take a few seconds, from there you should figure out pretty quickly - why we need to fight these people.
They declared war on us, we did nothing to provoke them. Ever wonder which modern religion still practices slavery?
When you P2P, you not only take the data for yourself, you also help spread the data around.
So, my accessment is that I was freely 'given' the Album directly from Lars. Therefore, as I was freely given the album anonymously by one of the original artists- I didn't steal it either. That is assuming, of course, that I would bother to download his 'music'.
So, exactly how many attacks did the US have after 9/11? In the 8 yrs under the 'terrible' reign of Pres. Bush; how many times did we have our Navy attacked? How many aircraft were hijacked? How many of our embassies were bombed? How many times did Terrorists succeed in bombing buildings on US soil?
Um, that would be ZERO, Jack.
Now, let us contrast this to the 8 yrs under the 'wise and benevolent' Pres. Clinton.
Good God, man; do you ever bother to read a newspaper and learn; or do you mindlessly spout talking points that someone else gave you, not based on any observable facts - but golly, they sure make you 'feel good'.
Nevermind .... we both know the answer.
Consider the Walt Disney Corporation.
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other assorted characters are well past their expiration date; yet they continue to be protected by copyright laws. It would seem that the playfield protects those with money and the rest of us are left to our own devices. How old is Mickey Mouse?
So, if Disney desires to perpetuate their characters indefinitely; then why to they release movies based upon characters made from the work of other artists who's copyright protection has lapsed? Such books like:
20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea
Works of Mark Twain (specifically Tom Sawyer movies)
League of Extraodinary Gentlement (every character in this movie is from copyrighted material that has had it's time lapse).
So, what the courts have allowed is for Copyright protection to apply to some artists indefinitely, and other artists are not protected forever and are now in the public domain.
I never questioned pulling the weight, nor did I question the distance.
I question the "Swim in total darkness for 2 hours" statement. Sorry, but no human is going to swim in artic waters for 2 hours and live to tell the tale. Your muscles will lock, and you will drown long before 15 minutes has lapsed, let alone 2 hours. Hence my Power Rangers ring comment - only a fool will believe that a person will carry the weight described, then go for a nice artic swim for 2 hours, and then continue on the trek as if he were at the beach.
As far as 'accurate data' goes ... sure, you will have really good data for a single path that is 1 -20 ft wide going north to the pole. Now just repeat this trek the full 360 degrees around the north pole, all within a short period of time and we'll have some really good data. However, we know that the ice moves (the North Pole is effectively an island of ice) and that currents below reduce the thickness of the ice, as blizzards above add more mass above.
At the end of the day; all we have is some accurate 'trivia' that is essentailly meaningless. Your trek north will hit both minima and maxima - and you'll have no clue as to what you hit. Is the ice 6 inches deep for a width of 12 ft, then shoot to 20 ft? No way to know. Was the ice 20 ft thick at your sample point just a month ago?
Other than feeling 'really important' and feeling 'really great about getting some accurate and fresh data' ; this is a pointless venture. It's like taking the temperature on a line between Fargo, North Dakota and heading south to Houston, TX - measuring the temperature (or water table depth) every day you walk - and then proclaiming that there is a meaningful trend you can extend to the North American continent.
All you really managed to do is get some exercise.
So, they are going to 'swim' in artic water for 2 hours in darkness, while towing their camping gear, food and measurement equipment with them. From the article, they will be carrying 2x their body weight. So, while they are swimming they will be carrying ~300 of dead weight, good thing they are all in great shape and from the planet Krypton. And you don't smell fresh BS?
What does it take for you to know you are being lied to? How about "after making their measurements, they will then band their Power Ranger Rings together and fly home."
We pay a substancial amount of our taxdollars for education. The sole purpose for schools is to prepare the students for the workforce - and based upon available testing scores, the schools are doing a lousy job.
Part of the reason for the school's failure is that parents refuse to get involved, they would rather be their childs "friend" than a parent. Then little Jr. is shocked when he goes into the workforce, and some low level manager fires his behind for not doing what he was told to do.
This student thought that as "mommy's pet" she was above the rules that applied to everyone else. So, she disregarded the teacher, then she tried to lie her way out of it. I'm glad she got caught, maybe going to an alternative school where she has less freedom and more discipline is exactly what she needs.
Then people wonder why the incoming workforce is lazy, disrespectful and demands that they get their way on every issue - it's because they have been taught that their poor 'self-image' might be hurt if any form of discipline was used. It's way beyond time for them to face reality.
Or, we could wait until she has a family and pulls this type of stunt at work and gets fired. Then she'll be uneducated, undisciplined and unemployed.
"Satire is not harassment"
Tell that to your boss when you make a 'satire cartoon' of him available on the internet. I'm almost certain he'll consider 'your' rights as he exercises 'his' rights to re-evaluate your employment.
A doubt a High School Principle can be considered a 'public figure' as he is not a celebrity, he does not hold press conferences, appear as a public spokesman, present himself as a public figure, nor is he employing any public relations agencies. He's merely filling a required managment position. He is in a position of authority, over a group of immature children/teenagers.
Now, as to the punishment; that was absolutely out of bounds. A stern talking to, maybe a day or two detention and an apology were all that was warranted, IMHO. If the child refused to apologize, I can grant that the Principle would be within his rights to tell the student that he is not welcome to return, and must go elsewhere to further his educational goals. This would set the tone that the school has rules, and other students would learn a lesson vicariously. Learn to respect those in positions of authority while you are in school; and when you join the workforce the chances are that you'll not be fired for talking back to a supervisor. (You wouldn't believe the attitudes we see coming into the workforce!)
While I agree with your accessment on the judge (we can measurably determine how much time he sent 5000 teenagers to jail, we can measurabley access the fiscal kick-back), he should have his day in court. And if he is indeed found guilty, and we are relatively sure this will happen, he should be held accountable.
For the reasons you gave - I agree that a capital punishment should be pushed for. How many lives is a man placed in a position of authority allowed to destroy? He took an oath of office, and he raped pretty much every principle of office he swore to uphold. There are consequences to actions, he knew this and chose to abuse his authority for personal gain - so his life should be forfeit.
Same things with Bernie Madoff. Give him his day in court, treat him like any other robber or con-artist, scaling the magnitude of the crime to what a candy-bar thief would get. If stealing a $1.50 snickers means 1 day in jail, then $10 Billion should be a lifetime.
What has Dick Cheney been charged with? Exactly, what did he do wrong? This seems more of a political stab at someone, rather than one based on an actual charge. If you can produce a charge, then give him his day in court like everyone else.
There is no slave labor - that is illegal (unfortunately), the inmates are not forced to do anything but serve their time.
The state pays $x/inmate that is sentenced to prison. This cost includes the cost of the prison, food, medical care, guards and administrative costs. If a commercial interest comes forward and says that they can provide a facility that meets state requirements with regard to living space, food, access to medical care and guards - but can do it for some cost less than what the state pays for a state owned and managed institution, then the state can opt to send inmates to the commercial entity. Given the established effectiveness of a commercial entity compared to a state managed entity - it's not uncommon to find commercial enterprises that can run a profit, and provide better care than the state.
That said, the commercial entity found it in their fiscal best interests to pay the judges over $2.6 Million to send them juveniles (innocent or guilty .... the pay is the same) from their court dockets. So, how many kids who committed very minor crimes, or committed no crime at all - were sent to prision so the judges could make an extra $2.6 Million?
I think a judge should spend the rest of his life in jail for this atrocity; and everything he owns should be confiscated and sold, with the proceeds given to the victims of his corrupton. I would personally jump at the opportuntiy to spend 17 months in jail for a $2.6 Million payoff. I could comfortably retire on $2.6 Million! Consider, just living off the 7% interest rate would be a cool $182,000 a year for life - without ever touching the principle. Heck yeah! Where do I sign up? Throw me in the slammer for 18 months, say nasty things about my mommy, make me watch cable TV and lift weights. That would be the easiest money I've ever made!!
Back in the days of the Apple clone start-up "Power Computing", Apple discovered that not only did they have the task of supporting their software on non-Apple hardware, that the Apple clone-makers made BETTER Mac's than Apple did. By this, I mean that Power Computing produced memory bus speeds of 66 MHz, when the best that Apple could muster was 33 MHz. So, how did Apple compete against superior engineering?
Yup, Apple allowed Power Computing to only make memory buses half the width of Apple's offerings. At the eng of the day, Apple killed off the clone industry; because Apple realized that they were NOT gaining marketshare, but rather the clones were cannibalizing their hardware sales. Why buy a Mac for $3000, when you can get a faster, more feature laden offering that runs the same software for $2000?
If Pystar ultimately wins, it may not increase the Mac marketshare, but may mean that Apple is now forced to support hardware that is 'compliant' to various specifications instead of 'compatible' with those same specifications. Those two words, compliant and compatible, do not mean the same thing. This means that instead of supporting a thin set of hardware products, Apple will be forced to support a wide range of 3rd party hardware - while maintaining thier OS and software prices static.
Sometimes a step forward means you are stepping on a landmine.
I hate to throw some logic and common sense into your delusion - but consider a few things.
- there is no 'magic' weather forecasting software. The same weather forecast system that cannot predict the weekend's weather is used to predict 5, 10, 50, 100 and 1000 years out. Any errors made are carried over and compound the overall error.
- The Sun's output is not a constant, nor has it ever been, nor is it likely to stabilize anytime soon. In fact, we have seen near record setting declines in Sunspot activity. Sunspots generate a LOT of energy, look it up.
- Mars has lot it's polar ice cap. Is this our fault too?
- Who gains from spreading this myth? A similar myth produced the EPA, a group of unelected people, who answer to no one, who can declare your house an environmental impact zone and have it condemned without trial, jury nor a right to appeal.
- The cooling period we say in 2008 more than made up the difference for over 20 years worth of the increase that Global Warming fanatics have been prancing about.
- We constantly move through climatic change, we always have, we always will. There is nothing you can do about the weather, other than to talk about it.
You are making a false assumption. H1B workers are NOT Americans, they do not live here, they have no vested interest in the success of this country. They are simply hired guns.
As such, neither they, nor their employer pay FICA or Social Security taxes.
Think about that for a second.
Both H1B employees and you earn the exact same paycheck; but your employer does not have to pay Social Security nor FICA taxes on the H1B employee. So, the cost to the employer is several tens of thousands dollars LESS than hiring an American. At the same time, this employer is getting tax abatements and tax cuts for his investment in helping and doing business with these same countries.
So, when layoff time comes - guess who takes it in the rear? You cost the employer more to have around than a foreign national who pays no taxes. Then take a good look around your company, and ask yourself again "Gee, why are 20-50% of the engineers at my company from outside America?"
When layoffs hit, the H1B employee has a contractual obligation to be relocated to his country of origon should his employment end. This means that in terms of laying off a H1B employee, that not only is he cheaper to have hanging around the company, he's also more expensive to lay off.
Think about this as you get your pink slip- then look around at your next job and you may see a trend. Are H1B employees simply 'better' in that they don't get laid off - or is the system rigged against Americans?