For a bunch of engineers, it is odd that so many of you think engineering school needs so little improvement. Or, heck--that the world needs little improvement, since the idea here would seem to be that if more people were interested in engineering, more engineers would be out there improving things.
I'm not sure that the constant stream of c**ks**k**r ever becomes less startling even when used as punctuation. Of course, maybe the life of a cube vole isn't quite as death-defying as that of a miner, bull driver, or pimp.
The reason so many people think this is a moral gray area is because they don't trust banks. Or other businesses, but especially banks--and in quite a few instances there is reason for this distrust to exist. Informing the entity that is supposed to be responsible does not always work, because sometimes those entities take advantage or mess things up in some other way.
An example, albeit a simplistic one, is a situation I was in some years ago. While conducting a transaction at a semi-shady business (I was buying new hubcaps for my car at a used parts/junkyard-type of operation), I was carrying with me some twenties and a hundred-dollar bill. I paid for my hubcap with what I thought was a twenty, but the owner/cashier gave me back change for a hundred. Now, although I was confused, I knew better than to say, "Hey wait a minute, I gave you a $20", because I knew the possibility existed that he was giving me the correct change. My confusion, even if I could have quickly alleviated it, might have given the purveyor an opportunity to take advantage of me. "Oh, you're right, you only gave me a $20." (The change was correct, as a more thorough inventory of my wallet later verified.)
Now, obviously, this is not the same as someone who knows he is doing something wrong, but the point here is that sometimes it is better just to walk out, and keep your mouth shut, and wait for things to sort out. How many tellers/bank managers/corporate trons have we all encountered where if you tried to tell them the ATM gave you too much money would either a) stare at you blankly, b) demand all the money back, even though you would be responsible for what you withdrew anyway, or c) make such a rigmarole about it that you would be detained from your own affairs for half the day or more?
Most everyone agrees that it isn't right to steal, for a variety of reasons (whether one cares is another thing), from insurance to morality to societal protection. But if the general opinion is that we are dealing with a pack of thieves, the impetus to tread a narrow line in order to protect one's own interests (and I don't mean in a purely selfish sense either) supersedes the threat against theft. The people who fall off that line, who knowingly do wrong to an unsavory extreme--well, lawyers need to eat cerviche too, the wretched things.
Re:Aliens won't probe anymore
on
New X-Files Movie
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· Score: 1, Informative
At the risk of espousing an opinion that has nothing to do with Gillian Anderson's hotness (but since it seems to be a prereq for the thread, I think she is still both hotter and more genuine than approximately 84% of the actresses in the biz), maybe--despite some of the crap of the later seasons--Chris Carter has earned enough trust for X-Files fans to give a new movie the benefit of the doubt, at least.
And Lost? Eh. Never got me watching. The X-files did, even if those days were long ago and far away. Maybe the aliens won't probe, but it sure would be fun if they would.
I guess this points out how any subject can be endlessly convoluted: the Canadian softwood lumber industry is subsidized by the government, as well as by loggers poaching lumber from the US. Gives the American lumber industry fits. Or so I hear from up in Maine.
An organization that makes unenforceable rulings is a justification for complaint and nothing more. If the short-term pursuit of money in Antigua threatens entrenched interests elsewhere, no amount of squawking will make a difference.
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For a bunch of engineers, it is odd that so many of you think engineering school needs so little improvement. Or, heck--that the world needs little improvement, since the idea here would seem to be that if more people were interested in engineering, more engineers would be out there improving things.
I'm not sure that the constant stream of c**ks**k**r ever becomes less startling even when used as punctuation. Of course, maybe the life of a cube vole isn't quite as death-defying as that of a miner, bull driver, or pimp.
An example, albeit a simplistic one, is a situation I was in some years ago. While conducting a transaction at a semi-shady business (I was buying new hubcaps for my car at a used parts/junkyard-type of operation), I was carrying with me some twenties and a hundred-dollar bill. I paid for my hubcap with what I thought was a twenty, but the owner/cashier gave me back change for a hundred. Now, although I was confused, I knew better than to say, "Hey wait a minute, I gave you a $20", because I knew the possibility existed that he was giving me the correct change. My confusion, even if I could have quickly alleviated it, might have given the purveyor an opportunity to take advantage of me. "Oh, you're right, you only gave me a $20." (The change was correct, as a more thorough inventory of my wallet later verified.)
Now, obviously, this is not the same as someone who knows he is doing something wrong, but the point here is that sometimes it is better just to walk out, and keep your mouth shut, and wait for things to sort out. How many tellers/bank managers/corporate trons have we all encountered where if you tried to tell them the ATM gave you too much money would either a) stare at you blankly, b) demand all the money back, even though you would be responsible for what you withdrew anyway, or c) make such a rigmarole about it that you would be detained from your own affairs for half the day or more?
Most everyone agrees that it isn't right to steal, for a variety of reasons (whether one cares is another thing), from insurance to morality to societal protection. But if the general opinion is that we are dealing with a pack of thieves, the impetus to tread a narrow line in order to protect one's own interests (and I don't mean in a purely selfish sense either) supersedes the threat against theft. The people who fall off that line, who knowingly do wrong to an unsavory extreme--well, lawyers need to eat cerviche too, the wretched things.
And Lost? Eh. Never got me watching. The X-files did, even if those days were long ago and far away. Maybe the aliens won't probe, but it sure would be fun if they would.
I guess this points out how any subject can be endlessly convoluted: the Canadian softwood lumber industry is subsidized by the government, as well as by loggers poaching lumber from the US. Gives the American lumber industry fits. Or so I hear from up in Maine.
An organization that makes unenforceable rulings is a justification for complaint and nothing more. If the short-term pursuit of money in Antigua threatens entrenched interests elsewhere, no amount of squawking will make a difference.