China? How about Banana Republic of East Texas (from TFA)? I wonder if placing "offer not valid in Texas" as part of UELA (or equivalent in web terms) would make one's work/publications protected from Spanish... err.... Texasish Inquisition. Corruption and/or cluelessness seems to be too thick over there to allow for such a tragic micromanagement of national economy.
The topic at hand here is GLOBAL population, not the British immigration policy. I can't figure out if if you are a British or an American troll, you seem to fit both categories well. Let's assume you could be either...
Are the midwestern youngsters moving to NYC seeking career opportunities otherwise unavailable in their hometowns part of your evil immigration problem, or is it only the Mexicans? Or is it the Canadians moving to London vs. all the Polish people who moved there in the last few years?
...I really wanted to write counterpoints to everything you said, but it's a total waste of breath.
You threw in a "liberal" or socialist or whatever cheap-shot crap at the end of your post, and since the discussion at hand is about uncertainty of future population estimates, I have one question for you: what is the "liberal" stand on abortion?
To be more crass, go fuck yourself because no-one else will, (thus not contributing to the solution of overpopulation cause).
Also fuck everyone who moded the parent insightful. It's hate speech at best...
To paraphrase my cultural history professor: "Experience is bullshit. There is nothing preventing one from repeating the same mistakes the world over. The positive adjective we should be looking for in our peers (and ourselves) is credibility: consistence, critical thinking. This manifests through a lifetime of work, and is not easily quantifiable. Nothing you could gage by reading someone's resume."
He had a thick jewish-german accent and looked like a James Bond villain. Re-read the above in appropriate accent (while rubbing your palms together),
Touche my friend. It's almost the classical chicken and egg argument. Who came first, misinformed masses feeding the fire behind a pathetic media, or pathetic media turning the otherwise upstanding citizens into uninformed morons?
The answer is probably a lot less interesting, and it has to do with gradual slipping of intellectual standards; both personal and collective.
But to play devil's advocate here, what's wrong about Nielsen Ratings? After all, it tells us (to a fair degree of accuracy) what people are willing to watch and what they aren't. Turns out local news that start the program with weather alerts, sports analysis, and a human interest story, are doing a lot better than the ones that will be discussing the most recent UN resolution on global poverty or the likes. Give people what they want, and if it's celebrity death matches that they want, so be it. Internet has more than filled the information niche that was unavailable to us 10 years ago. I have never felt more informed than today.
The heartbreak comes from the fact that our common citizens are willing to settle for so much less. Have you seen the voting turnout percentages? It fits appropriately with the quality of television media as a source of any relevant information. This country is so big (population and geography wise) that we are largely detached from each other on certain levels. To be trivial for a second, all stats point to this country having a religious majority, yet I don't think I know a single person that has gone to a church since childhood, if ever. At the same time, any brand or product that wants national recognition will have to be equally appealing to my type and to those whom I may not have anything in common with. I can't blame the media for trying to do the same: appeal to as many people without alienating anyone. Thus we have reality TV shows about ex-football players who have to dance with dead celebrities in order to save us from a zombie attack!
And stay tuned to find out which popular breakfast cereal could probably give you anal leakage, and kill your mother. After the weather report, with Al.
I wouldn't make any direct links between the two except for a legitimate question that can apply to both: "Do we really need this? And at who's benefit for?"
No.1 hack for 2008 will be the new electronic passports as discussed in the previous Slashdot discussion.
No.2 will be the the voting machines, but that only gets a second place because it's a dupe from 4 years ago.
No.3 will be the poor truckers again. We should really revert back from robotic drivers.
and No.4 will be slashdot's grammar and spelling checking engine, although this will be done in a fairly low-tech manner. The ten submission monkeys will be poisoned and their typewriters tinkered with...
What if Microsoft made passports? I'm sure it would come with a wi-fi, so you can just squirt your information at whomever. But wait! It's not just a passport. No sir! It's also an mp3 player, a radio, all in one shopping card, a resume and a portfolio. Medical id and a credit rating report. Criminal history and a pda/gps. Our records indicate that you actually were at that political rally that turned sour... Almost every US adult carries a driver's license as a primary form of ID. Perhaps this new wireless Zune passport can also be that...
I tend to stay away from nightclubs and bars that scan your driver's license. Too much information for them. They don't need to know my name, let alone my place of residence. CCTV bugs me less (if the point of the whole privacy invasion is JUST for security)... If I ever have to go to such an establishment (friend's birthday, or something else that's not worth being a paranoid dick over) I'll just bring my passport instead. They still have to let me in, but can't as easily place me on a list of patrons for whatever purposes. With passports becoming even more revealing than your DL, I would seriously have to consider never going to such places ever again.
I see this proposal as incredibly expensive, with trivial benefits, and a whole lot of potential for abuse. Perhaps one could establish a VIP system with this where DTRM (digital travel rights management) gives you an easier TC (trusted commuting) pass based on your previous patterns of moving about. Which brings us back to the old discussion on profiling. blah... The only saving grace to the whole proposal is that a lot of americans don't have, never had, and have no plans of ever owning a passport.
Makes me feel less paranoid that this could be just a sneaky way of introducing a national ID card. It's just a 'convenience' passport at this time. Perhaps more than that tomorrow. I understand benefits of technological advances, but this world will still continue using cash and paper ballots, regardless of alternates. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer my passport covered in stamps from other countries. It's like collecting concert tickets!
it's already happening. In case of recording artists, a new standard contract by the RIAA member publishing companies is an all encompassing one. It is not a simple record deal anymore, but rather an all inclusive managerial deal where the record company also plays the part of full band management including promotion of merchandise and live performances. They, of course, get a cut from both, which has not been the case previously. I'm too lazy to dig up links to testimonials of truly happy bands that find this kind of relationship more than mutually beneficial.
The concept of DIY has existed in the music scene since the late 70's. It has become even more easy to self record and self promote than ever before. This is not to say that record companies are going to go away because of that. As long as they don't play it too dumb... You see, (speaking as a shitty musician myself) most musicians are complete dorks, not unlike computer ones. It takes a lot of painful, antisocial solitude to master a musical instrument. Except musicians are the worst of all dorks when it comes to selfishness. I know too many... They all dream of 'making it'. The easiest way of 'making it' is when someone hands you a large cheque and tell you they will invest into your image. Self promoting route is ultimately extremely frustrating, at best.
What you will eventually see is a large divide between major leagues and the minors (baseball analogy FTW!). But besides bona-fide music superstars you will also see a large group that will perennially hover between the two leagues constantly being sent down and recalled.
To quote Celine (the french author, not the french-canadian recording bitch) people love heroes with their chopped off dicks in their mouths. Who's in rehab this week? And unless they had one of their songs used as a soundtrack in a commercial, noone will care.
You have post-high-school education? Where did you go?
Because it matters a whole bunch. Everyone if referring to these company executives as if they were some kind of borg aliens, as opposed to regular human beings that need to take daily shits. Which they are.
All tin foil hats tossed aside, we are talking about a very inclusive (secret handshake type) groups here. Speaking as an Architect, you could be the biggest drooling moron ever born, but if you have an M Arch degree from Harvard or MIT or Columbia any job you want is yours. That's how strong alumni and reputations are. Doesn't matter that the formal education is only a stepping stone, and 99% of your knowledge will be of practical nature. You're Ivy league, man! Unfortunately for architects, there is not much money to be made in the field, so the worst you will ever see is a whole lot of fluffed up feathers. You chose the wrong field to make your millions, junior.
But architecture being what it is (you are often dealing with billions of dollars worth of construction), I have had my share of meeting the developer businessmen. All ivy league. They make ten times as much, know half as much, they talk in naive lingoes. It doesn't matter. I'm not in it for the money, so it's a good laugh at least. Modern architecture is shit. Just look around. But please don't blame the designers. We tried...
Back to the topic. T H E R E A S O N for such efficient corporate swindling can be traced back to a very organized source. The inclusive (private) educational institutions. Do you have $200.000 sitting in a penny jar? Perhaps your child can become part of this corporate price-is-right.
I mean, it's true. The first million IS the hardest one. After that it's salami and cheese time, baby.
Yes, each check-mark has a further link. A lack of a check-mark only indicates that popular mechanics couldn't be bothered to do any further research... most of these politicians have been around for a while. A link from any check-mark leads to a half assed paragraph on what each candidate is saying AS PART OF THEIR CURRENT RUNNING PLATFORM.
For example, Giuliani vs. guns: the blurb say that he is pro gun, but wants stiff penalties on the offenders. Who cares? Any New Yorker could write a long opinion piece on Giuliani's stand on gun control (for better or worse). It's next to impossible to legally own a gun in NYC. This is a result of his PREVIOUS ACTIONS.
I wish each summary spoke of candidate's previous track record on the issue. That would have been a lot more informative. The only space cadet here turns out to be Hillary. blah..blah.. about what she plans to do when elected. What about a summary of how she's voted on the issue until now?
Politics for Dummies. Noone should be embarrassed to own a "_____ for dummies" book. Except for this one. It's like reading a review of Windows Vista, as written by Bill Gates himself.
This is the dumbest chart I have ever seen. A check-mark? What does that mean? The candidate is aware/unaware of the issue? Is pro/con with the issue? Just dumb. And where is Kusinich? He'd probably have the most checks (whatever they may stand for).
Or am I not geek enough to just scan over the chart and go: "Aha! Now it all makes sense." Typical dumbed down politics. Everything is so black and white at this point that a fucking check-mark is all you need to see in order to make up your own simplistic black or white opinion on any subject.
Free abortions for all!!!...err...No abortions for anybody!.....er..... Abortions for some and bestbuy vouchers for others.
As a Canadian citizen who was not born in Canada, I have one thing to say to you: go make me a sandwich, with plenty of green peppers.
Also, very Canadian of you to complain under a cloak of anonymity. And what's this babble in your last paragraph? Canada will accept anyone... Blah. I hope noone steals your pretty TV, and I hope you curb down on the racist undertones.
One great thing I can say about Canada (I live in states now), is that it really integrates second generations of immigrants well. Of all of my Canadian friends who were born to non Canadian parents, I can't think of a single one that has not been of great benefit to the country as a whole.
Integration in the US is hard at best. Generations have passed for some ethnic minorities without much improvement. Be proud of your Canadian heritage, and understand that every single person ever born did not speak English at some point, and had to learn it out of personal need and/or benefit. Have compassion, sandwich boy.
IBM has spent 70 years developing a sqeaky (sic) clean reputation.
2007-70=1937 I am not sure if you are familiar with IBM's dealings in late 30's early 40's, but I would put IBM's squeaky clean rating at a bit less than 70.
...heads on pikes...
Yes, heads on pikes. Or gas chambers. Go IBM!!
Anyone comparing this to RIAA is a clueless moron.
Oh be nice! You can belittle someone without resorting to name-calling.
Speaking of recording industry (and related to the facebook invasion of privacy), facebook now offers band web pages (sim. to myspace). Little nicer layout than myspace. You can have a discography page with song listings etc... You can upload as many songs as you chose to...
I tried creating the page. Two 'features' really popped out at me. First, they have the promotion tool. It's a paid (per click or per view) banner thingy that once AGAIN USES OTHER PEOPLE'S PROFILE NAMES AND PICTURES to promote the band. Whatever retraction facebook has made seems to be completely irrelevant in this case. I was checking this feature out this morning. In fact, the page is set up in such a way that the only way one could ever stumble upon my band profile is if they saw it in a banner, or searched for it by name. Advertise or die! Great.
Second oddity, in order for me to upload any mp3s to the site I HAVE TO UPLOAD A SCAN OF MY DRIVER'S LICENSE OR A VALID ID CARD. Whatthefuckdoyouthink you are doing? I have never, ever seen this much invasion of privacy from any site EVER.
It'll be fun watching Babylon burn itself down. They deserve it.
I'm being serious here... In the case that I ever end up in a public space where it becomes obvious that a nerve gas has been released, (and there is no clear way of getting out ie. subway system, sports venue...) I would take off one of my socks and piss on it.
???????
This was commonly done in WWI during nerve gas attacks. With lack of gas masks, the best way to protect yourself was to breathe through a cloth soaked in ammonia. Piss being the easiest source of it.
The modern gases may be way more advanced than what was used in early 20th century, so my approach may come across as dumb, but if they find my dead body sucking on a piss stained sock, I won't care much. I'll be dead.
Sure, Google is currently losing the scanning wars, but they'll catch up. Someone else may join the race, and eventually there will be a single collection containing 1 BILLION books. Sure, I like to read. I also suspect other people like to read too, but who has the fucking time to read 1 BILLION books? As an average, educated male, I hate being in a discussion with someone who name-drops a book I never heard of before, as a proof that my point is invalid because I am not well read enough. It's the ultimate bitch-slap of the intellectual boxing. Wouldn't it be great to excuse yourself to the bathroom, where you would use your smart phone/mp3 player to download such book in a sound format, and within five minutes be able to get the gist of the text, and then come back to the round two of the discussion where you can even drop quotes from the previously name-dropped text?
No, no, no, I'm not talking about classic 'books on tape' as read by William Shatner or Olsen Twins. I'm talking about a sound file ripping off the Googlebooks (or whomever) summaries as read by cattle auctioneers!
Noone can prove that you used other company's scanned work to create these book-casts. You will not be copyright infringing as long as the original scanned source isn't copyright infringing. We are all tight on time. Have you had the time to read entire Dostoyevski? Imagine each one of these files being no longer than 5 minutes... Now Imagine reading the entire Hemingway in the time it takes to cut your front lawn... Can you? I can! Imagine!
I'm not joking here. I definitively see this race going that way eventually. Why not be the first one there? We just need a dozen cattle-fair hosts, gallons and gallons of Mountain Dew and we are set. As an ultimate FU to Google, we can even have the whole operation partially funded by ad-sense.
So, kind millionaire, won't you lend me a blank cheque or two?:-)
Maybe they like drama like Sony does... When the ashes of a molten portable devices stop burning, no publicity is bad publicity. This is a great PR move by IBM on many levels. Court and attorney costs in this case would probably be a lot less than a major advertising campaign. A crusade IN THE NAME of public safety. Plus, they could even make some money out of the whole deal.
Is IBM's primary goal in this case user safety? It may be a top ten, but not reason enough to do anything about it. If the exploding batteries were not branded IBM, I doubt much action would take place.
Man I really wish I didn't use up all my mod points for hunting down trolls, because you have really elegantly pointed out the root of the problem.
Just to be fair, I wouldn't pinpoint this as an American capitalist problem only. It's in human nature. We are evolved gatherers through 6000 years of intelligent design. A better deal is a better deal, and the fine line where the better deal becomes unrealistic is subjective. So you bought a VCR recorder on the streets of (insert random name of a bustling city) for almost nothing, and you got a brick instead! So a new IBM battery costs $200. But you found one for only $29.99! Who do you ultimately blame? Me thinks the answer is x>1.
I have 50 cellphones myself. Now before you hang up hear me out... 49 of those are prepaid phones, and only one is on a plan.
I only give out the number to one of the prepaid phones.
That phone is set to auto-forward to the next prepaid phone.
The next prepaid phone is set the same way, and so on...
At the end of the chain is my phone that has a plan and is on my persons at all times.
All the 49 forwarding phones are also set up to give out a brief sound and to flash when forwarding a call
I have the 49 cellphones hung up like coo coo clocks all around my living room...
When the lights are dim, if someone ever calls me, my pad becomes the coolest disco dance floor you've ever seen!!!
What I'm getting at........ disposable prepaid cards... think organized crime... a five dollar card will get you at least a guaranteed 3 month service. Some of the highest profile mobsters are notorious for disposing the phone after one single call...
This, and this alone is the reason for such skewed numbers. And they look blatantly skewed.
Makes you wonder what happened to all the recalled Sony batteries... Environmentally responsible recycling can be costly. I can see Sony paying a third party to make the problem go away. Or resurface as someone else's responsibility.
Ever wonder what happened to all the Yugos? That's right! Chinese Space Program!
If a world war broke out that was only fought by carpetbombing citizentry instead of bombs, US would clearly win. We have some heavy loads...er.... big bombs. High Fructose Corn Syrup FTW!
Also, thank you for the correction. A quick google on the topic informs me that it's "matryoshka" in fact. We were both wrong. Them fighting words. Let's have a war!
... upon hearing the news, the Russians have taken the concept to the next, logical extreme. Code named "Mamushka" the first supersonic plane will fire a smaller plane traveling twice as fast, which will fire yet another smaller plane traveling 4 times faster than the first one, and so on until the very last, smallest plane (traveling an nearly the speed of light) will fire a potato that will hit the original big plane in the back, thus demonstrating that like many other US expenditures, they are at least good for HUMOR.
Next up, basketballs that bounce 10 times as high. Is gonna change the game!
Slashdot Mirror
China? How about Banana Republic of East Texas (from TFA)? I wonder if placing "offer not valid in Texas" as part of UELA (or equivalent in web terms) would make one's work/publications protected from Spanish... err.... Texasish Inquisition. Corruption and/or cluelessness seems to be too thick over there to allow for such a tragic micromanagement of national economy.
Eliot Spitzer? Is that you?
...I really wanted to write counterpoints to everything you said, but it's a total waste of breath.
The topic at hand here is GLOBAL population, not the British immigration policy. I can't figure out if if you are a British or an American troll, you seem to fit both categories well. Let's assume you could be either...
Are the midwestern youngsters moving to NYC seeking career opportunities otherwise unavailable in their hometowns part of your evil immigration problem, or is it only the Mexicans? Or is it the Canadians moving to London vs. all the Polish people who moved there in the last few years?
You threw in a "liberal" or socialist or whatever cheap-shot crap at the end of your post, and since the discussion at hand is about uncertainty of future population estimates, I have one question for you: what is the "liberal" stand on abortion?
To be more crass, go fuck yourself because no-one else will, (thus not contributing to the solution of overpopulation cause).
Also fuck everyone who moded the parent insightful. It's hate speech at best...
To paraphrase my cultural history professor: "Experience is bullshit. There is nothing preventing one from repeating the same mistakes the world over. The positive adjective we should be looking for in our peers (and ourselves) is credibility: consistence, critical thinking. This manifests through a lifetime of work, and is not easily quantifiable. Nothing you could gage by reading someone's resume."
He had a thick jewish-german accent and looked like a James Bond villain. Re-read the above in appropriate accent (while rubbing your palms together),
Touche my friend. It's almost the classical chicken and egg argument. Who came first, misinformed masses feeding the fire behind a pathetic media, or pathetic media turning the otherwise upstanding citizens into uninformed morons?
The answer is probably a lot less interesting, and it has to do with gradual slipping of intellectual standards; both personal and collective.
But to play devil's advocate here, what's wrong about Nielsen Ratings? After all, it tells us (to a fair degree of accuracy) what people are willing to watch and what they aren't. Turns out local news that start the program with weather alerts, sports analysis, and a human interest story, are doing a lot better than the ones that will be discussing the most recent UN resolution on global poverty or the likes. Give people what they want, and if it's celebrity death matches that they want, so be it. Internet has more than filled the information niche that was unavailable to us 10 years ago. I have never felt more informed than today.
The heartbreak comes from the fact that our common citizens are willing to settle for so much less. Have you seen the voting turnout percentages? It fits appropriately with the quality of television media as a source of any relevant information. This country is so big (population and geography wise) that we are largely detached from each other on certain levels. To be trivial for a second, all stats point to this country having a religious majority, yet I don't think I know a single person that has gone to a church since childhood, if ever. At the same time, any brand or product that wants national recognition will have to be equally appealing to my type and to those whom I may not have anything in common with. I can't blame the media for trying to do the same: appeal to as many people without alienating anyone. Thus we have reality TV shows about ex-football players who have to dance with dead celebrities in order to save us from a zombie attack!
And stay tuned to find out which popular breakfast cereal could probably give you anal leakage, and kill your mother. After the weather report, with Al.
I wouldn't make any direct links between the two except for a legitimate question that can apply to both: "Do we really need this? And at who's benefit for?"
No.1 hack for 2008 will be the new electronic passports as discussed in the previous Slashdot discussion.
No.2 will be the the voting machines, but that only gets a second place because it's a dupe from 4 years ago.
No.3 will be the poor truckers again. We should really revert back from robotic drivers.
and No.4 will be slashdot's grammar and spelling checking engine, although this will be done in a fairly low-tech manner. The ten submission monkeys will be poisoned and their typewriters tinkered with...
What if Microsoft made passports? I'm sure it would come with a wi-fi, so you can just squirt your information at whomever. But wait! It's not just a passport. No sir! It's also an mp3 player, a radio, all in one shopping card, a resume and a portfolio. Medical id and a credit rating report. Criminal history and a pda/gps. Our records indicate that you actually were at that political rally that turned sour... Almost every US adult carries a driver's license as a primary form of ID. Perhaps this new wireless Zune passport can also be that...
I tend to stay away from nightclubs and bars that scan your driver's license. Too much information for them. They don't need to know my name, let alone my place of residence. CCTV bugs me less (if the point of the whole privacy invasion is JUST for security)... If I ever have to go to such an establishment (friend's birthday, or something else that's not worth being a paranoid dick over) I'll just bring my passport instead. They still have to let me in, but can't as easily place me on a list of patrons for whatever purposes. With passports becoming even more revealing than your DL, I would seriously have to consider never going to such places ever again.
I see this proposal as incredibly expensive, with trivial benefits, and a whole lot of potential for abuse. Perhaps one could establish a VIP system with this where DTRM (digital travel rights management) gives you an easier TC (trusted commuting) pass based on your previous patterns of moving about. Which brings us back to the old discussion on profiling. blah... The only saving grace to the whole proposal is that a lot of americans don't have, never had, and have no plans of ever owning a passport.
Makes me feel less paranoid that this could be just a sneaky way of introducing a national ID card. It's just a 'convenience' passport at this time. Perhaps more than that tomorrow. I understand benefits of technological advances, but this world will still continue using cash and paper ballots, regardless of alternates. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer my passport covered in stamps from other countries. It's like collecting concert tickets!
it's already happening. In case of recording artists, a new standard contract by the RIAA member publishing companies is an all encompassing one. It is not a simple record deal anymore, but rather an all inclusive managerial deal where the record company also plays the part of full band management including promotion of merchandise and live performances. They, of course, get a cut from both, which has not been the case previously. I'm too lazy to dig up links to testimonials of truly happy bands that find this kind of relationship more than mutually beneficial.
The concept of DIY has existed in the music scene since the late 70's. It has become even more easy to self record and self promote than ever before. This is not to say that record companies are going to go away because of that. As long as they don't play it too dumb... You see, (speaking as a shitty musician myself) most musicians are complete dorks, not unlike computer ones. It takes a lot of painful, antisocial solitude to master a musical instrument. Except musicians are the worst of all dorks when it comes to selfishness. I know too many... They all dream of 'making it'. The easiest way of 'making it' is when someone hands you a large cheque and tell you they will invest into your image. Self promoting route is ultimately extremely frustrating, at best.
What you will eventually see is a large divide between major leagues and the minors (baseball analogy FTW!). But besides bona-fide music superstars you will also see a large group that will perennially hover between the two leagues constantly being sent down and recalled.
To quote Celine (the french author, not the french-canadian recording bitch) people love heroes with their chopped off dicks in their mouths. Who's in rehab this week? And unless they had one of their songs used as a soundtrack in a commercial, noone will care.
Marry christmas to everyone!
You have post-high-school education? Where did you go?
Because it matters a whole bunch. Everyone if referring to these company executives as if they were some kind of borg aliens, as opposed to regular human beings that need to take daily shits. Which they are.
All tin foil hats tossed aside, we are talking about a very inclusive (secret handshake type) groups here. Speaking as an Architect, you could be the biggest drooling moron ever born, but if you have an M Arch degree from Harvard or MIT or Columbia any job you want is yours. That's how strong alumni and reputations are. Doesn't matter that the formal education is only a stepping stone, and 99% of your knowledge will be of practical nature. You're Ivy league, man! Unfortunately for architects, there is not much money to be made in the field, so the worst you will ever see is a whole lot of fluffed up feathers. You chose the wrong field to make your millions, junior.
But architecture being what it is (you are often dealing with billions of dollars worth of construction), I have had my share of meeting the developer businessmen. All ivy league. They make ten times as much, know half as much, they talk in naive lingoes. It doesn't matter. I'm not in it for the money, so it's a good laugh at least. Modern architecture is shit. Just look around. But please don't blame the designers. We tried...
Back to the topic. T H E R E A S O N for such efficient corporate swindling can be traced back to a very organized source. The inclusive (private) educational institutions. Do you have $200.000 sitting in a penny jar? Perhaps your child can become part of this corporate price-is-right.
I mean, it's true. The first million IS the hardest one. After that it's salami and cheese time, baby.
Yes, each check-mark has a further link. A lack of a check-mark only indicates that popular mechanics couldn't be bothered to do any further research... most of these politicians have been around for a while. A link from any check-mark leads to a half assed paragraph on what each candidate is saying AS PART OF THEIR CURRENT RUNNING PLATFORM.
For example, Giuliani vs. guns: the blurb say that he is pro gun, but wants stiff penalties on the offenders. Who cares? Any New Yorker could write a long opinion piece on Giuliani's stand on gun control (for better or worse). It's next to impossible to legally own a gun in NYC. This is a result of his PREVIOUS ACTIONS.
I wish each summary spoke of candidate's previous track record on the issue. That would have been a lot more informative. The only space cadet here turns out to be Hillary. blah..blah.. about what she plans to do when elected. What about a summary of how she's voted on the issue until now?
Politics for Dummies. Noone should be embarrassed to own a "_____ for dummies" book. Except for this one. It's like reading a review of Windows Vista, as written by Bill Gates himself.
This is the dumbest chart I have ever seen. A check-mark? What does that mean? The candidate is aware/unaware of the issue? Is pro/con with the issue? Just dumb. And where is Kusinich? He'd probably have the most checks (whatever they may stand for).
Or am I not geek enough to just scan over the chart and go: "Aha! Now it all makes sense." Typical dumbed down politics. Everything is so black and white at this point that a fucking check-mark is all you need to see in order to make up your own simplistic black or white opinion on any subject.
Free abortions for all!!!...err...No abortions for anybody!.....er..... Abortions for some and bestbuy vouchers for others.
As a Canadian citizen who was not born in Canada, I have one thing to say to you: go make me a sandwich, with plenty of green peppers.
Also, very Canadian of you to complain under a cloak of anonymity. And what's this babble in your last paragraph? Canada will accept anyone... Blah. I hope noone steals your pretty TV, and I hope you curb down on the racist undertones.
One great thing I can say about Canada (I live in states now), is that it really integrates second generations of immigrants well. Of all of my Canadian friends who were born to non Canadian parents, I can't think of a single one that has not been of great benefit to the country as a whole.
Integration in the US is hard at best. Generations have passed for some ethnic minorities without much improvement. Be proud of your Canadian heritage, and understand that every single person ever born did not speak English at some point, and had to learn it out of personal need and/or benefit. Have compassion, sandwich boy.
IBM has spent 70 years developing a sqeaky (sic) clean reputation.
...heads on pikes...
2007-70=1937 I am not sure if you are familiar with IBM's dealings in late 30's early 40's, but I would put IBM's squeaky clean rating at a bit less than 70.
Yes, heads on pikes. Or gas chambers. Go IBM!!
Anyone comparing this to RIAA is a clueless moron.
Oh be nice! You can belittle someone without resorting to name-calling.
replying to myself... I said I was being serious. I lied. It was supposed to be a joke. I'm appalled by my informative mod.
:)
On the other hand, it has sparked a good discussion where people have shown clearly why such an approach would not work. Thanks to all
Speaking of recording industry (and related to the facebook invasion of privacy), facebook now offers band web pages (sim. to myspace). Little nicer layout than myspace. You can have a discography page with song listings etc... You can upload as many songs as you chose to...
I tried creating the page. Two 'features' really popped out at me. First, they have the promotion tool. It's a paid (per click or per view) banner thingy that once AGAIN USES OTHER PEOPLE'S PROFILE NAMES AND PICTURES to promote the band. Whatever retraction facebook has made seems to be completely irrelevant in this case. I was checking this feature out this morning. In fact, the page is set up in such a way that the only way one could ever stumble upon my band profile is if they saw it in a banner, or searched for it by name. Advertise or die! Great.
Second oddity, in order for me to upload any mp3s to the site I HAVE TO UPLOAD A SCAN OF MY DRIVER'S LICENSE OR A VALID ID CARD. Whatthefuckdoyouthink you are doing? I have never, ever seen this much invasion of privacy from any site EVER.
It'll be fun watching Babylon burn itself down. They deserve it.
I'm being serious here... In the case that I ever end up in a public space where it becomes obvious that a nerve gas has been released, (and there is no clear way of getting out ie. subway system, sports venue...) I would take off one of my socks and piss on it.
???????
This was commonly done in WWI during nerve gas attacks. With lack of gas masks, the best way to protect yourself was to breathe through a cloth soaked in ammonia. Piss being the easiest source of it.
The modern gases may be way more advanced than what was used in early 20th century, so my approach may come across as dumb, but if they find my dead body sucking on a piss stained sock, I won't care much. I'll be dead.
I have an idea. Hear me out...
:-)
Sure, Google is currently losing the scanning wars, but they'll catch up. Someone else may join the race, and eventually there will be a single collection containing 1 BILLION books. Sure, I like to read. I also suspect other people like to read too, but who has the fucking time to read 1 BILLION books? As an average, educated male, I hate being in a discussion with someone who name-drops a book I never heard of before, as a proof that my point is invalid because I am not well read enough. It's the ultimate bitch-slap of the intellectual boxing. Wouldn't it be great to excuse yourself to the bathroom, where you would use your smart phone/mp3 player to download such book in a sound format, and within five minutes be able to get the gist of the text, and then come back to the round two of the discussion where you can even drop quotes from the previously name-dropped text?
No, no, no, I'm not talking about classic 'books on tape' as read by William Shatner or Olsen Twins. I'm talking about a sound file ripping off the Googlebooks (or whomever) summaries as read by cattle auctioneers!
Noone can prove that you used other company's scanned work to create these book-casts. You will not be copyright infringing as long as the original scanned source isn't copyright infringing. We are all tight on time. Have you had the time to read entire Dostoyevski? Imagine each one of these files being no longer than 5 minutes... Now Imagine reading the entire Hemingway in the time it takes to cut your front lawn... Can you? I can! Imagine!
I'm not joking here. I definitively see this race going that way eventually. Why not be the first one there? We just need a dozen cattle-fair hosts, gallons and gallons of Mountain Dew and we are set. As an ultimate FU to Google, we can even have the whole operation partially funded by ad-sense.
So, kind millionaire, won't you lend me a blank cheque or two?
Maybe they like drama like Sony does... When the ashes of a molten portable devices stop burning, no publicity is bad publicity. This is a great PR move by IBM on many levels. Court and attorney costs in this case would probably be a lot less than a major advertising campaign. A crusade IN THE NAME of public safety. Plus, they could even make some money out of the whole deal.
Is IBM's primary goal in this case user safety? It may be a top ten, but not reason enough to do anything about it. If the exploding batteries were not branded IBM, I doubt much action would take place.
Man I really wish I didn't use up all my mod points for hunting down trolls, because you have really elegantly pointed out the root of the problem.
Just to be fair, I wouldn't pinpoint this as an American capitalist problem only. It's in human nature. We are evolved gatherers through 6000 years of intelligent design. A better deal is a better deal, and the fine line where the better deal becomes unrealistic is subjective. So you bought a VCR recorder on the streets of (insert random name of a bustling city) for almost nothing, and you got a brick instead! So a new IBM battery costs $200. But you found one for only $29.99! Who do you ultimately blame? Me thinks the answer is x>1.
I have 50 cellphones myself. Now before you hang up hear me out... 49 of those are prepaid phones, and only one is on a plan.
I only give out the number to one of the prepaid phones.
That phone is set to auto-forward to the next prepaid phone.
The next prepaid phone is set the same way, and so on...
At the end of the chain is my phone that has a plan and is on my persons at all times.
All the 49 forwarding phones are also set up to give out a brief sound and to flash when forwarding a call
I have the 49 cellphones hung up like coo coo clocks all around my living room...
When the lights are dim, if someone ever calls me, my pad becomes the coolest disco dance floor you've ever seen!!!
What I'm getting at........ disposable prepaid cards... think organized crime... a five dollar card will get you at least a guaranteed 3 month service. Some of the highest profile mobsters are notorious for disposing the phone after one single call...
This, and this alone is the reason for such skewed numbers. And they look blatantly skewed.
Makes you wonder what happened to all the recalled Sony batteries... Environmentally responsible recycling can be costly. I can see Sony paying a third party to make the problem go away. Or resurface as someone else's responsibility.
Ever wonder what happened to all the Yugos? That's right! Chinese Space Program!
If a world war broke out that was only fought by carpetbombing citizentry instead of bombs, US would clearly win. We have some heavy loads...er.... big bombs. High Fructose Corn Syrup FTW!
Also, thank you for the correction. A quick google on the topic informs me that it's "matryoshka" in fact. We were both wrong. Them fighting words. Let's have a war!
shhhh... don't let the Russians find out.
... upon hearing the news, the Russians have taken the concept to the next, logical extreme. Code named "Mamushka" the first supersonic plane will fire a smaller plane traveling twice as fast, which will fire yet another smaller plane traveling 4 times faster than the first one, and so on until the very last, smallest plane (traveling an nearly the speed of light) will fire a potato that will hit the original big plane in the back, thus demonstrating that like many other US expenditures, they are at least good for HUMOR.
Next up, basketballs that bounce 10 times as high. Is gonna change the game!