Luckily for anarchists, alleged terrorists and people who take pictures of cops thugging out on citizens, today's basic digital camera costs nearly as much as dinner for two at the local fast food joint. "Disposability" is your friend.
This couldn't have come at a better time, from my point of view. I'm in the market for a new car. My current car is a Toyota (2000 Celica). My last car was a Toyota. So was the one before that (an '83 Tercel hatchback, as a matter of fact). While still under warranty, the top half of the Celica's engine had to be replaced. It hasn't given me any trouble since (beyond having an appetite for headlights I find a bit disturbing), but somehow it's never enjoyed the same place in my heart as the others.
For the first time in more than 20 years, I've thought about looking for a new car somewhere besides a Toyota lot. Competitors (even North American ones) have come a long way in the last few years. They now offer the kind of quality and reliability I expect in a car, so there's a lot less reason to pay premium bucks to Toyota. And Toyota parts, when you need them, cost a LOT.
This incident has made up my mind. Toyota is off my list, and won't receive further consideration. It's exactly the kind of crap I hate: a corporate bully with deep pockets slaps average people across the face, not because there's any compelling reason to do so, but just because it can.
For once, in a small way, I'm in a position to slap back. My next car won't be one of theirs, nor the one after that...and so on. I'll also have a word with family and friends who may be leaning toward their product: buy elsewhere, help starve a corporate thug.
By the way, if you reach a similar decision, please feel free to pass this little note on to your local Toyota dealer. I certainly intend to, probably the next time the dealership sends me one of those irritating, "we value your business" letters.
Perhaps the FBI were forced to this extreme because after 8 years of the Bush administration's arrogance, stupidity and flat-out rudeness, an extradition request for anything less than murder would get a resounding "I got yer job interview right here!" from the Europeans.
So some silver-tongued geezer persuades a bunch of nubile young lovelies that they'll suffer eternal damnation unless they polish his wood. After he finally croaks in the middle of his ninth threesome of the week, a bunch of less-talented pick-up artists find that no amount of funeral preparation can wipe the grin off the old goat's face. They assume this is proof that he's still getting his wand waxed in the afterlife, and build a monument to a god they now regard as eminently worthy of worship.
And it all goes from there. I gotta write me a prayer book.
...I saw I microscope with LCD screen that was pretty neat. I got a small microscope for Christmas when I was about eight years old, and I used if for years. This thing was a lot smaller and more portable, and looked like it would be perfect for a hike.
So if AIDS is a curse from God on all those nasty, sinful homosexuals (as alleged by so many fundamentalist preachers you can't count them all), how is it that some German guy came up with a cure?
Has God downgraded the sentence for being gay from Death to Painful Operation?
It's 'way past time the service providers grew a set and sent a resounding "Fuck you!" to these fascist pricks. And it's also 'way past time those of us who live alleged democracies to start demanding some privacy protection. I'm a lot more frightened of Big Brother than some whack-job terrorist. The terrorist might manage to kill a few of us. Big Brother will sit down hard on ALL of us and never, get off.
The best I ever heard it put was by an English commentator. He said we need to recall that the freedom we're so thoughtlessly flushing down the toilet isn't even ours to give away. It was bought and paid for with the blood of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.
All that oil and only a few bears, seals and Inuit to complain. It looks like sooner, rather than later, we'll hear Mother Nature squealing "Oh my God! Nobody's ever put it THERE before!"
You really should check your facts. The dialysis situation is this: Canadian and American not-for-profit clinics allow, on average, 30 minutes more on the machine than their American for-profit counterparts. The results are entirely predictable: their patients have better outcomes than those who visit for-profit clinics. Your allegation that Canadian hospitals "give up" on patients sooner is ridiculous.
As for the premature vs foetus point: didn't you read what I said? The definitions are pretty much standard no matter where you go. Minor differences aren't sufficient to account for the large variation in mortality figures.
"Given two people with the same state of health in the two systems, which one lives longer?"
Life expectancy if you were born in 1996 rated like this:
Canada: Men 76, Women 83
United States: Men 73, Women 79
Britain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, all of which have public health care, also have higher life expectancy than Americans.
"As I understand it, in the US more pregnancies are considered births..."
Nonsense. I think I can puzzle out what you're trying to say, but your statement as written is meaningless. A pregnancy is a birth? Give me a break.
Basically, the only way the United States suffers in infant mortality comparisons is when it's matched up against Third World countries, where there is virtually no neonatal care. There are, however, generally-accepted standards for infant care in Canada, the United States, the EU, etc. Some of the highest-risk neonatal cases in the world are dealt with in Canada. A friend of mine at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto is one of the "go-to" health care professionals for such situations. Those are exactly the kind of cases that can boost infant mortality stats. The real reason the United States has a level of infant mortality more akin to a Third World nation is that its health care system works best if you're a rich old white male. If you aren't, it isn't so great.
If you'd like, we could compare rates of mortality/morbidity in US and Canadian dialysis clinics. I think you can guess what that outcome is, and would probably try to find more excuses. Don't worry. There's lots more valid comparisons that prove US health care is far worse than Canada's. And then, of course, there's the real killer. Canada covers everybody. The US doesn't even come close.
This is unmitigated bullshit. I've spent a good part of my life in Northern Ontario in a tiny town far from any major population centre. I had some health challenges, including experimental reconstructive surgery. I received superb care every time and have no complaints. Similarly, my friends and family have had much better luck than yours. One friend was released, in the opinion of his family, too soon. Providing a sufficient level of care for him at home for a couple of weeks cost his son and daughter some holidays. A longer-term disability would have qualified for home care.
Anecdotal evidence, both mine and yours, count for very little in the overall scheme of things. The numbers prove, time after time, that the Canadian system works. Among other things, it puts about twice the amount of constant dollars (US or Canadian) that go into the system into doctors, nurses, equipment and facilities as the American system. In other words, it uses a lot less of the money in administration and paperwork.
If you'd like to get some idea of how it works, check out infant mortality in Canada and the United States. That's a good, objective statistic that it's hard to manipulate.
You misunderstand. The argument isn't which of them is an able jurist. It's which of them is prepared to put their obligation to the law above personal politics and religious belief. I see no evidence of such commitment in Bush's appointees. Of course, they were selected more for lack of a paper trail than anything else, so it's difficult to refer to any of their earlier decisions to get a sense of their capabilities as triers of fact.
You've already received a lot of good advice on how to handle this situation. No matter the outcome, though, I'd be looking around for a transfer or another job.
Your boss has given you a pretty good idea of where his moral compass points...which means that if this particular attempt at douchebaggery falls through, you can rest assured he'll come up with another one, probably sooner rather than later. You can also be confident that if there are consequences, he'll have a sacrificial lamb ready for butchering. Can you guess who that might be?
Yet another reason to make bloody sure the Republicans get thrown out and stay thrown out: to ensure that the Supreme Court is securely staffed with justices who aren't Jesus addicted fascists who list "blowing Corporate America" as their all-time favorite job. There's already quite a few like that on the court, and they're young and healthy.
One problem is that you could almost never prove conclusively that Gift X bought Vote Y. That's why just accepting a favour (or, in some cases, offering one) is illegal.
As a long-time retard and occasional fucktard, I deeply resent your unfounded allegation that many American judges are retards. They're far less intelligent than that, and certainly less honest.
If you're going to make insulting comparisons, I suggest you consider flatworms, amoebae or perhaps Congressmen as potential models of your basic judge's corrupt, brainless behaviour.
...they'd spend their entire existence sucking fat salaries and occasionally managing to bust one or two half-wit script kiddies with barely enough knowledge to download the tools from a warez site and sneer at people who ask questions on Linux sites.
The assessment of the Conservative gain is 100% wrong, and conclusions proceeding from it may also be flawed. The Conservatives were facing a grossly underfunded Liberal Party in historic disarray, and led by a man widely perceived to be utterly unfit to be Prime Minister. The time was so ripe to grab a majority that the Conservatives broke their own platform promise to stick with a scheduled election (the "It was a minority and we couldn't help it" dodge is a complete red herring). The New Democratic Party, which would be regarded in the US as raving loony communists, also picked up seats.
The Tories have now been told twice to cool their jets, and they won't be going back to the public any time soon unless they want their asses thoroughly kicked. Seven out of 10 Canadians either voted against them or didn't vote at all (a historic low turn-out, by the way).
I won't bore you with further details (except to note that of all the parties, the only one that actually got more total votes was the Green Party), but the bottom line is that this result is a repudiation of the Conservative Party's attempt to steal candy from a baby. If they choose to introduce legislation like this, which has historically been unpopular with Canadians, they'll be playing with fire. Most likely, they'll either let it slide under the guise of building inter-party amity, or they'll allow the legislation to be brought forward, but not make voting a matter of confidence.
I just got busted by the guys on my hockey team for wearing panties. When one of them asked how long I'd been doing that, I had to tell him, "Since my girlfriend found them in my glove box."
Slashdot Mirror
Luckily for anarchists, alleged terrorists and people who take pictures of cops thugging out on citizens, today's basic digital camera costs nearly as much as dinner for two at the local fast food joint. "Disposability" is your friend.
They should have included Zima and Baby Duck. The astronauts would have been begging for unprocessed urine as an alternative.
Time saved. Money saved. Mars, here we come!
This couldn't have come at a better time, from my point of view. I'm in the market for a new car. My current car is a Toyota (2000 Celica). My last car was a Toyota. So was the one before that (an '83 Tercel hatchback, as a matter of fact). While still under warranty, the top half of the Celica's engine had to be replaced. It hasn't given me any trouble since (beyond having an appetite for headlights I find a bit disturbing), but somehow it's never enjoyed the same place in my heart as the others.
For the first time in more than 20 years, I've thought about looking for a new car somewhere besides a Toyota lot. Competitors (even North American ones) have come a long way in the last few years. They now offer the kind of quality and reliability I expect in a car, so there's a lot less reason to pay premium bucks to Toyota. And Toyota parts, when you need them, cost a LOT.
This incident has made up my mind. Toyota is off my list, and won't receive further consideration. It's exactly the kind of crap I hate: a corporate bully with deep pockets slaps average people across the face, not because there's any compelling reason to do so, but just because it can.
For once, in a small way, I'm in a position to slap back. My next car won't be one of theirs, nor the one after that...and so on. I'll also have a word with family and friends who may be leaning toward their product: buy elsewhere, help starve a corporate thug.
By the way, if you reach a similar decision, please feel free to pass this little note on to your local Toyota dealer. I certainly intend to, probably the next time the dealership sends me one of those irritating, "we value your business" letters.
Thanks for my Friday laugh of the day. Literally LOL!
Perhaps the FBI were forced to this extreme because after 8 years of the Bush administration's arrogance, stupidity and flat-out rudeness, an extradition request for anything less than murder would get a resounding "I got yer job interview right here!" from the Europeans.
So some silver-tongued geezer persuades a bunch of nubile young lovelies that they'll suffer eternal damnation unless they polish his wood. After he finally croaks in the middle of his ninth threesome of the week, a bunch of less-talented pick-up artists find that no amount of funeral preparation can wipe the grin off the old goat's face. They assume this is proof that he's still getting his wand waxed in the afterlife, and build a monument to a god they now regard as eminently worthy of worship.
And it all goes from there. I gotta write me a prayer book.
So if AIDS is a curse from God on all those nasty, sinful homosexuals (as alleged by so many fundamentalist preachers you can't count them all), how is it that some German guy came up with a cure?
Has God downgraded the sentence for being gay from Death to Painful Operation?
It's 'way past time the service providers grew a set and sent a resounding "Fuck you!" to these fascist pricks. And it's also 'way past time those of us who live alleged democracies to start demanding some privacy protection. I'm a lot more frightened of Big Brother than some whack-job terrorist. The terrorist might manage to kill a few of us. Big Brother will sit down hard on ALL of us and never, get off.
The best I ever heard it put was by an English commentator. He said we need to recall that the freedom we're so thoughtlessly flushing down the toilet isn't even ours to give away. It was bought and paid for with the blood of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.
All that oil and only a few bears, seals and Inuit to complain. It looks like sooner, rather than later, we'll hear Mother Nature squealing "Oh my God! Nobody's ever put it THERE before!"
So many offensive television sets in inappropriate places...so little time.
"These are Saturnian farts. Much stronger than your average SBD."
This strength is a matter of concentration as a result of proximity to the source. Saturn, after all, is right next to Uranus.
You really should check your facts. The dialysis situation is this: Canadian and American not-for-profit clinics allow, on average, 30 minutes more on the machine than their American for-profit counterparts. The results are entirely predictable: their patients have better outcomes than those who visit for-profit clinics. Your allegation that Canadian hospitals "give up" on patients sooner is ridiculous.
As for the premature vs foetus point: didn't you read what I said? The definitions are pretty much standard no matter where you go. Minor differences aren't sufficient to account for the large variation in mortality figures.
"Given two people with the same state of health in the two systems, which one lives longer?"
Life expectancy if you were born in 1996 rated like this:
Canada: Men 76, Women 83
United States: Men 73, Women 79
Britain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, all of which have public health care, also have higher life expectancy than Americans.
"As I understand it, in the US more pregnancies are considered births..."
Nonsense. I think I can puzzle out what you're trying to say, but your statement as written is meaningless. A pregnancy is a birth? Give me a break.
Basically, the only way the United States suffers in infant mortality comparisons is when it's matched up against Third World countries, where there is virtually no neonatal care. There are, however, generally-accepted standards for infant care in Canada, the United States, the EU, etc. Some of the highest-risk neonatal cases in the world are dealt with in Canada. A friend of mine at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto is one of the "go-to" health care professionals for such situations. Those are exactly the kind of cases that can boost infant mortality stats. The real reason the United States has a level of infant mortality more akin to a Third World nation is that its health care system works best if you're a rich old white male. If you aren't, it isn't so great.
If you'd like, we could compare rates of mortality/morbidity in US and Canadian dialysis clinics. I think you can guess what that outcome is, and would probably try to find more excuses. Don't worry. There's lots more valid comparisons that prove US health care is far worse than Canada's. And then, of course, there's the real killer. Canada covers everybody. The US doesn't even come close.
This is unmitigated bullshit. I've spent a good part of my life in Northern Ontario in a tiny town far from any major population centre. I had some health challenges, including experimental reconstructive surgery. I received superb care every time and have no complaints. Similarly, my friends and family have had much better luck than yours. One friend was released, in the opinion of his family, too soon. Providing a sufficient level of care for him at home for a couple of weeks cost his son and daughter some holidays. A longer-term disability would have qualified for home care.
Anecdotal evidence, both mine and yours, count for very little in the overall scheme of things. The numbers prove, time after time, that the Canadian system works. Among other things, it puts about twice the amount of constant dollars (US or Canadian) that go into the system into doctors, nurses, equipment and facilities as the American system. In other words, it uses a lot less of the money in administration and paperwork.
If you'd like to get some idea of how it works, check out infant mortality in Canada and the United States. That's a good, objective statistic that it's hard to manipulate.
You misunderstand. The argument isn't which of them is an able jurist. It's which of them is prepared to put their obligation to the law above personal politics and religious belief. I see no evidence of such commitment in Bush's appointees. Of course, they were selected more for lack of a paper trail than anything else, so it's difficult to refer to any of their earlier decisions to get a sense of their capabilities as triers of fact.
You've already received a lot of good advice on how to handle this situation. No matter the outcome, though, I'd be looking around for a transfer or another job.
Your boss has given you a pretty good idea of where his moral compass points...which means that if this particular attempt at douchebaggery falls through, you can rest assured he'll come up with another one, probably sooner rather than later. You can also be confident that if there are consequences, he'll have a sacrificial lamb ready for butchering. Can you guess who that might be?
Yet another reason to make bloody sure the Republicans get thrown out and stay thrown out: to ensure that the Supreme Court is securely staffed with justices who aren't Jesus addicted fascists who list "blowing Corporate America" as their all-time favorite job. There's already quite a few like that on the court, and they're young and healthy.
One problem is that you could almost never prove conclusively that Gift X bought Vote Y. That's why just accepting a favour (or, in some cases, offering one) is illegal.
As a long-time retard and occasional fucktard, I deeply resent your unfounded allegation that many American judges are retards. They're far less intelligent than that, and certainly less honest.
If you're going to make insulting comparisons, I suggest you consider flatworms, amoebae or perhaps Congressmen as potential models of your basic judge's corrupt, brainless behaviour.
Thank you for your consideration.
...they'd spend their entire existence sucking fat salaries and occasionally managing to bust one or two half-wit script kiddies with barely enough knowledge to download the tools from a warez site and sneer at people who ask questions on Linux sites.
The assessment of the Conservative gain is 100% wrong, and conclusions proceeding from it may also be flawed. The Conservatives were facing a grossly underfunded Liberal Party in historic disarray, and led by a man widely perceived to be utterly unfit to be Prime Minister. The time was so ripe to grab a majority that the Conservatives broke their own platform promise to stick with a scheduled election (the "It was a minority and we couldn't help it" dodge is a complete red herring). The New Democratic Party, which would be regarded in the US as raving loony communists, also picked up seats.
The Tories have now been told twice to cool their jets, and they won't be going back to the public any time soon unless they want their asses thoroughly kicked. Seven out of 10 Canadians either voted against them or didn't vote at all (a historic low turn-out, by the way).
I won't bore you with further details (except to note that of all the parties, the only one that actually got more total votes was the Green Party), but the bottom line is that this result is a repudiation of the Conservative Party's attempt to steal candy from a baby. If they choose to introduce legislation like this, which has historically been unpopular with Canadians, they'll be playing with fire. Most likely, they'll either let it slide under the guise of building inter-party amity, or they'll allow the legislation to be brought forward, but not make voting a matter of confidence.
"What's that glow?"
"Um...did I mention that I have a bit of a yeast infection?"
CRAP! Why didn't I think of that!
I just got busted by the guys on my hockey team for wearing panties. When one of them asked how long I'd been doing that, I had to tell him, "Since my girlfriend found them in my glove box."
I guess by now a number of people would bet that the robot will soon be starring in a sci-fi/horror movie, called something like, "Breast Fest '78".