Balancing the checkbook is good, but there are times when it might be a good idea to grit your teeth and take out a loan. Imagine waking up one Monday morning in a muddy ditch with a missing front tooth and a vague recollection of your wife clearing out your joint accounts and running off with some musclebound thug, in your car. You painfully make your way home to realize that she's burned down the house. What are you going to do? Not balance the checkbook. Not get all high and mighty and track them down in South America either. (OT, ever read Dog of the South? Great book.) No, you're going to say good riddance and get on with your life. You're going to find a phone, call in sick, get your damn tooth fixed, buy a cheap suit, rent a car, get a hotel room, and get back to work as soon as possible. And you're going to do it all on credit. If you're not willing to go into debt here, you'll be severely impacting your future earning potential, ie, you'll be a filthy toothless bum forever.
This is a pretty good metaphor for the shape the country was in when Obama took over, btw. It's even got a car in it. I'm not about to go blaming it all on Bush, either; there's plenty of blame to go around. Anyway: We're in an emergency. Balancing the budget through spending cuts, as righteous as some of those cuts may sound, is likely to decrease economic activity and make things worse. It's important for us to realize that deficit spending should be a last resort, and the goal should be to stop it ASAP. But it's not time yet.
For perspective, the tax breaks given to oil companies amounts to about $2.4 billion/year (in the form tax breaks which are similar to the same tax breaks that every other industry gets for investing in expansion). Loan guarantees like the one A123 got totalled $90 billion in the "stimulus" bill passed in 2009.
Actually, I think it was the private race organizers that had the generators.
Yes it was, until they were shamed by the New York Post. They suggested that they be donated or at least lent to the recovery effort in some way. Even though the race was cancelled, the generators still just sat there in the park. Bloomberg, as a mayor and billionaire, is the kind of person who probably could have arranged for the generators to be commandeered, but he didn't, and neither did anyone else. (I'm not judging, especially because there's probably more to the story.)
Do you just let residents run extension cords out their windows?
Sure, why not? They would also be handy for running elevators, powering the pumps for the plumbing in buildings big enough that higher floors have no water pressure, lighting and heating for the lobby at least...
And because there's real-life lively competition among technologies here, with a lot of attention to R&D, all the numbers will hopefully keep going down as better models are developed. The real story here is how the entire industry is changing; the race to be the best at the moment is a fun and fascinating sideshow.
Because instead of a drawer full of obsolete chargers for lost/broken/outdated devices, people will have a drawer full of spare chargers that can be used for any device (along with a small somewhat-less-wasteful pile of current and obsolete adapters from companies that refused to play ball.)
According to this fascinating PDF, kat is very much on the radar, along with Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Btjunkie, torrentz, Rutracker, zamunda, warez-bb and others, including, of course, Demonoid. I don't doubt that it's someone's job to scour the net for this stuff of course... but I do doubt that they get many scoops here at/.
The penal system is not suitable turf for free-market competition. The market forces push in the direction of maximizing the numbers of incarcerated through lobbying for "tougher" laws with mandatory minimum sentences, and prison conditions that maximize recidivism. Pushing back in the other direction are compassion, basic human decency, and the 8th amendment -- all of which will cut into profits, so anyone who runs a prison decently will be underbid by the more ruthless. And when they cut corners and people suffer and die, heck, that's prison life, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Futilely attempt to ban all drugs for everyone while wasting countless amounts of taxpayer dollars in the process!
Oh, those dollars aren't being wasted... they're being very meticulously transferred by the dumpsterfull into the private prison and homeland security industries.
I hate being called a consumer. The article is about modern day debt-serfs anyway, not consumers. I want to be a citizen, you know, with like rights and stuff.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deals with consumer financial services, as opposed to services aimed at, say, governments or corporations. Whether or not you're a citizen isn't their concern. Their mission is to protect the end-users of consumer credit from pervasive illegal bullshit. If the word "consumer" offends you, eh, too bad.
complain and everyone on the net can hear about it, but all of your personal data will be on a torrent site within hours, so you better not complain in public after all, serf.
Admittedly, this (Apple IIc with optional LCD screen)looks a lot like a laptop... However: 1) It needs AC power (though third-party manufacturers did create battery packs for it) and 2) The GRID (which ran on batteries by design) was 2 years earlier.
I quite agree. I don't think there's any inherent flaw in character of the German people. I find it a little queer that the question can even be asked with a straight face, much less answered affirmatively three-to-one.
Let me go way out on an idealistic limb here, though: I'd like to think that reflection on the horrors of the past can help lessen horrors of the present and future. Even if the conclusions reached by those reflecting are often little nonsensical. At any rate, it certainly better than whitewashing atrocities, or sweeping them under the rug.
Germans have been held to task for WWII's military aggression, xenophobia, and genocide. Other nations, even those with atrocities of similar scale (though talking about the "scale" of genocide seems petty), have not. There are still plenty of war-waging bullys in the world, but Germany's not among them. I'm not trying to say that Germany's all rainbows and butterflies, we know better -- plenty of racial problems, etc. But the general disinclination towards war and violence is real, and if it takes a guilt complex, so be it.
(Oh, and I can second the recommendation for Die Welle!)
I visited the Holocaust Museum in Berlin about 5 years ago. This is a fascinating place, and even though some bits seemed a little silly to me (some weird "what is a Jew?" infographics that looked like they'd be more at home in an intergalactic zoo), I'd recommend a visit.
The vast majority of those in attendance were German. There were about a half-dozen little interactive polling kiosks scattered around, and the one that struck me most asked "Do you believe that the Holocaust was a result of an inherent character flaw in the German people?" It was tallying at around 75% Ja, 25% Nein.
So yeah, I believe what you say about an enormous guilt complex. But IMO it's better than constant denial, excuses, and back-blaming -- that's what most prevalent in other nations, including my own, when their various collusions and atrocities are discussed.
Very true, it will probably be round 4 in 2014 before the outrage fatigue sets in and the MPAA gets about 60% of what it's asking for. By round 6 it'll be up to 135%. By 2025 your children will be required to name their children after an Oscar winner, and pay monthly license fees accordingly.
Slashdot Mirror
if there ever was a time that we needed the detective...
Fun fact: In Massachusetts, the Joker is known as "the Chowderhead."
But I like to slow things down sometimes.
America can, and hopefully will again.
Balancing the checkbook is good, but there are times when it might be a good idea to grit your teeth and take out a loan. Imagine waking up one Monday morning in a muddy ditch with a missing front tooth and a vague recollection of your wife clearing out your joint accounts and running off with some musclebound thug, in your car. You painfully make your way home to realize that she's burned down the house. What are you going to do? Not balance the checkbook. Not get all high and mighty and track them down in South America either. (OT, ever read Dog of the South? Great book.) No, you're going to say good riddance and get on with your life. You're going to find a phone, call in sick, get your damn tooth fixed, buy a cheap suit, rent a car, get a hotel room, and get back to work as soon as possible. And you're going to do it all on credit. If you're not willing to go into debt here, you'll be severely impacting your future earning potential, ie, you'll be a filthy toothless bum forever.
This is a pretty good metaphor for the shape the country was in when Obama took over, btw. It's even got a car in it. I'm not about to go blaming it all on Bush, either; there's plenty of blame to go around. Anyway: We're in an emergency. Balancing the budget through spending cuts, as righteous as some of those cuts may sound, is likely to decrease economic activity and make things worse. It's important for us to realize that deficit spending should be a last resort, and the goal should be to stop it ASAP. But it's not time yet.
For perspective, the tax breaks given to oil companies amounts to about $2.4 billion/year (in the form tax breaks which are similar to the same tax breaks that every other industry gets for investing in expansion). Loan guarantees like the one A123 got totalled $90 billion in the "stimulus" bill passed in 2009.
Where's this $90 billion number from? $88 billion over ten years was the total for titles II, IV, V, and VIII of the ARRA bill. Loan guarantees are only part of this.
Wikipedia puts the total green-energy loan guarantees at $6 billion. There might be some other loan guarantees hiding in other categories, but your total is suspect, and comparing an annual number to a ten-year number is deceptive regardless.
Actually, I think it was the private race organizers that had the generators.
Yes it was, until they were shamed by the New York Post. They suggested that they be donated or at least lent to the recovery effort in some way. Even though the race was cancelled, the generators still just sat there in the park. Bloomberg, as a mayor and billionaire, is the kind of person who probably could have arranged for the generators to be commandeered, but he didn't, and neither did anyone else. (I'm not judging, especially because there's probably more to the story.)
Do you just let residents run extension cords out their windows?
Sure, why not? They would also be handy for running elevators, powering the pumps for the plumbing in buildings big enough that higher floors have no water pressure, lighting and heating for the lobby at least...
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree...
Sounds pretty much correct. And Jill is kinda hot, in a I'd-love-to-meet-your-daughter sort of way.
Google knows I like hookers (that's all I ever use Google Voice for) but I never get ads for hookers. You can't explain that.
Wait, so now Neil Young has his own lossless audio format *and* an electric car company? Wow.
And because there's real-life lively competition among technologies here, with a lot of attention to R&D, all the numbers will hopefully keep going down as better models are developed. The real story here is how the entire industry is changing; the race to be the best at the moment is a fun and fascinating sideshow.
Is that you, Steve?
I wouldn't try it around Cheyenne Mountain...
Because instead of a drawer full of obsolete chargers for lost/broken/outdated devices, people will have a drawer full of spare chargers that can be used for any device (along with a small somewhat-less-wasteful pile of current and obsolete adapters from companies that refused to play ball.)
Me too, except for the stupid jumping bit. The levels and puzzles didn't make much sense plotwise, but I loved the design. Very Louise Bourgeois.
According to this fascinating PDF, kat is very much on the radar, along with Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Btjunkie, torrentz, Rutracker, zamunda, warez-bb and others, including, of course, Demonoid. I don't doubt that it's someone's job to scour the net for this stuff of course... but I do doubt that they get many scoops here at /.
The penal system is not suitable turf for free-market competition. The market forces push in the direction of maximizing the numbers of incarcerated through lobbying for "tougher" laws with mandatory minimum sentences, and prison conditions that maximize recidivism. Pushing back in the other direction are compassion, basic human decency, and the 8th amendment -- all of which will cut into profits, so anyone who runs a prison decently will be underbid by the more ruthless. And when they cut corners and people suffer and die, heck, that's prison life, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Futilely attempt to ban all drugs for everyone while wasting countless amounts of taxpayer dollars in the process!
Oh, those dollars aren't being wasted... they're being very meticulously transferred by the dumpsterfull into the private prison and homeland security industries.
I hate being called a consumer. The article is about modern day debt-serfs anyway, not consumers. I want to be a citizen, you know, with like rights and stuff.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deals with consumer financial services, as opposed to services aimed at, say, governments or corporations. Whether or not you're a citizen isn't their concern. Their mission is to protect the end-users of consumer credit from pervasive illegal bullshit. If the word "consumer" offends you, eh, too bad.
complain and everyone on the net can hear about it, but all of your personal data will be on a torrent site within hours, so you better not complain in public after all, serf.
Oh for the love of ... nevermind ...
Admittedly, this (Apple IIc with optional LCD screen) looks a lot like a laptop... However: 1) It needs AC power (though third-party manufacturers did create battery packs for it) and 2) The GRID (which ran on batteries by design) was 2 years earlier.
He's building a Lego mistress.
I quite agree. I don't think there's any inherent flaw in character of the German people. I find it a little queer that the question can even be asked with a straight face, much less answered affirmatively three-to-one.
Let me go way out on an idealistic limb here, though: I'd like to think that reflection on the horrors of the past can help lessen horrors of the present and future. Even if the conclusions reached by those reflecting are often little nonsensical. At any rate, it certainly better than whitewashing atrocities, or sweeping them under the rug.
Germans have been held to task for WWII's military aggression, xenophobia, and genocide. Other nations, even those with atrocities of similar scale (though talking about the "scale" of genocide seems petty), have not. There are still plenty of war-waging bullys in the world, but Germany's not among them. I'm not trying to say that Germany's all rainbows and butterflies, we know better -- plenty of racial problems, etc. But the general disinclination towards war and violence is real, and if it takes a guilt complex, so be it.
(Oh, and I can second the recommendation for Die Welle!)
I visited the Holocaust Museum in Berlin about 5 years ago. This is a fascinating place, and even though some bits seemed a little silly to me (some weird "what is a Jew?" infographics that looked like they'd be more at home in an intergalactic zoo), I'd recommend a visit.
The vast majority of those in attendance were German. There were about a half-dozen little interactive polling kiosks scattered around, and the one that struck me most asked "Do you believe that the Holocaust was a result of an inherent character flaw in the German people?" It was tallying at around 75% Ja, 25% Nein.
So yeah, I believe what you say about an enormous guilt complex. But IMO it's better than constant denial, excuses, and back-blaming -- that's what most prevalent in other nations, including my own, when their various collusions and atrocities are discussed.
Sounds like the makings of a good DEVO song!
Very true, it will probably be round 4 in 2014 before the outrage fatigue sets in and the MPAA gets about 60% of what it's asking for. By round 6 it'll be up to 135%. By 2025 your children will be required to name their children after an Oscar winner, and pay monthly license fees accordingly.
Suddenly I'm picturing a Deep Blue Big Dog. It will probably return in my dreams tonight.