Or groped. Have I missed something, and are Methodists from Ohio a terrorist threat to civilization? Why not hire real detectives to work security checks, who can decide to pass through embarrassingly innocent folks through with no irradiation and groping? If the detective has the slightest of doubts, sorry, you're off to the irradiation and groping line.
In the country where I live, millions of folks take trains to work every day. Some friendly neighborhood terrorist put a suitcase with a bomb on a train, which luckily did not go off. How did the authorities respond? Pat down all passengers? No, police armed with HK MP5s patrolled the train stations, and talked to anyone that looked suspicious. Not grandmas and their grandchildren. No other terrorist attempted attacks have occurred.
This "let's just irradiate and grope everyone" policy is just an indication that the folks who work for the TSA are such dumb-asses that they could not tell the difference between Osama bin Laden and Mother Theresa in the security line. Hiring real detectives would obviate this problem, and save money and time for most travelers.
I don't think anyone knows how much state sponsored cyber attacks are currently going around, but I would imagine quite a bit.
Well, maybe we should try the polite approach and just ask every country, about their state-sponsored CyberAttacks? I'm sure almost every country would be willing to oblige. If not, the U.N. Security Council could pass a resolution requiring states to divulge their CyberHankyPanky. That would have them all quaking in their boots!
Until then, buy more CyberSecurity products! It's good, clean, wholesome fun!
"Now because of the infractions of recruit Zsfgseg, all 67 million Verizon users will have to run up Currahee... three miles up, three miles down. All weekend Internet passes are hereby revoked."
Verizon user: "Lieutenant, permission to speak, sir."
Lieutenant: "Permission granted."
Verizon user: "Why can't I edit Wikipedia pages?"
Lieutenant: "Because one of youse 67 million recruits is a royal fucking dickhead. Any questions?"
Verizon user: "Why does Wikipedia hate us?"
Lieutenant: "Wikipedia doesn't hate us. They just hate you, Verizon user."
... Or are they paid in GoogleQuatloos, Google's own currency, which can be spent at GoogleStores? If Google did launch their own currency, I would expect that it would be accepted for all debts, public and private everywhere anyway. The local McDonald's where I live used to have a sign up posting their exchange rate for dollars to the local currency, because a lot of US servicemen would come in with nothing else in their pockets. The McDonald's dropped this, because servicemen tend to stay on base these days, because of terrorist threats. It's rare now to see someone in uniform in the city; this used to be a common sight before 9/11. At any rate, US military bases with housing areas could be a model for Googleville: the servicemen can spend months their, working and shopping, with no need to leave the base.
Is there a law in the US that requires employers to pay wages in dollars? Or can they pay in any form that they want: bales of hay, pork bellies, or teenage virgins? I know that some mining companies in the 1800's paid employees in company vouchers, that could only be redeemed at company stores.
This is not for identifying prints at crime scenes. Rather, for IDing all those gazillions of terrorist folks who waltz into the US as tourists every day. So add pictures of your ears to the thumbprints and facial photos that are taken when you go through customs.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we cannot take a picture of your ears in this condition. Here's a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a box of Q-tips. Please clean them up, before we can let you into the "Land of the Free" . . . of ear wax.
"Um, sorry to bother you, chief, but this foreign chick is wearing Groucho Glasses and fake plastic ears. Should I just take a picture of her like that, or should she remove the stuff first? I was concerned that if she committed a terrorist crime, she would probably be wearing the Groucho Glasses . . . and the ears."
identified people with 99.6 per cent accuracy
It must kinda sorta suck being in that 00.4 per cent:
"Mom! You said that grandma and grandpa came from Scotland. But the TSA says that my ears indicate heritage from folks from the Fertile Crescent . . . "
The next phase will be fractal analysis of pictures of dicks and labia . . . they're always just a wee bit different on every person.
... was the article written by a human, or a computer? Can you tell the difference? I remember when robots starting being deployed in factories, that there were concerns about workers sabotaging the robots which were destined to steal their jobs. Will this happen in the sports newsroom?
"The RoboSportReporter is broken again. It looks and smells like someone poured a beer into him."
I think lawyers suing other lawyers is a great idea. Their cases could burn up 100% of the court capacity. Then they would be so busy suing themselves, that they would leave the rest of us alone in peace.
The Interior Department inspector general has released a report stating that the White House edited a drilling safety report...
So now we're getting a report about a report. That's just grand. I personally am waiting for the report about the report about the report. Add a few more levels of abstraction, and we will all forget what the original issue was anyway.
OK, so using an Air China / US Airways flight codeshare agreement, passengers are being whisked from Honolulu to Phoenix on Chinese solid fuel rockets. To avoid airport congestion at Honolulu International, the flights are launched from submarines. China provides the submarines and rocket technology; US Airways supplies the passengers, and little packets of peanuts and pretzels.
So it's win-win all around.
I knew there was a simple explanation for the Mystery Missile.
Anytime the US military assaults a populated area the first thing to disappear is the power grid.
From TFA, this was requested by special operations critters. They and other secret squirrels are in, snooping around, way before the power grid is taken out by air strikes. This thingie is meant for them, not regular troops.
Once they hold an area, they could just step into any building and get all the power they need.
. . . if they hadn't destroyed the power grid as mentioned above. Oops. "Unpack the diesel generator, Scotty."
Plus with private insurance you have no choice what you can send or not - you have to send exactly what the insurance company requires of you.
Be careful there! An insurance company may request information, implying that it is required, that they are not, by law, entitled to. This happened to me. I showed the written request for information to my doctor, and he was angry at the insurance company, and said, "They have no right to that information, and they know it. Just ignore the letter!" So if your insurance company sends you a dubious request for information, ask your doctor before sending anything. For example, if my doctor does a blood test on me, I receive a bill from him stating that he performed a blood test, and a diagnosis (if any). I submit that to the insurance company and they must pay for that. However, if the insurance company requests the full report of all the individual things that were measured . . . they have no right for that.
I only have to submit bills for which I want to be reimbursed. If I had a doctor visit that I don't want the insurance company to know about, I just don't submit it, and sit on the costs myself.
Sure, if you are married with two kids, public insurance is a better deal. But if you are single, you pay the same amount as someone with a wife and two kids. So singles subsidize families. I compared my insurance bill with that of a single colleague who was insured with the TKK. His bill was four times the amount of mine.
I guess we're really straying off topic here, but I find the thread informative and refreshing.
Funnily enough this law applies to foreigners in Germany as well, meaning you have to carry around your passport or some other identification, eg. drivers licence.
In 20+ years of living in Germany, only once have the police requested an ID from me. I was walking near an area with bars and nightclubs, where there is often trouble. My drivers license and my accent were enough to convince them that I was not the person they were looking for. The police in Germany are always quite polite . . . and like any German, they really appreciate the fact that you have learned their language.
But choosing insurance purely based on some ideological 'private must be better' basis in Germany would probably just end up getting you a bad deal - the system is very complex.
It's not ideological, rather empirical. My girlfriend (state insured) had an allergy problem, and had to first go to her General Praticioner (Hausartz) to get a referral to an allergy specialist, who did a set of allergy tests. Since they all came up negative, the doctor needed to do another set of tests. Oh, but the state insurance only allows one set of tests per calender quarter. "Sorry, come back in two months." As a private insured patient, the doctor can do whatever is necessary, whenever it is necessary. Recently there was something in the news about how dentists had used up all their allotment for treatments, so they were telling people to come back in January. No, thanks.
The same 'tracking data', and possibly more, is stored and sent off for a private patient - if it wasn't your private insurance would have nothing to evaluate the claim on and simply wouldn't pay you or the doctor/hospital.
My doctor/hospital has no contact whatsoever with my health insurance company. The bills get sent directly to me. I pay the bills myself directly. It is my responsibility to do the paperwork, and submit that to the insurance company. They reimburse me then directly. So to reiterate, no 'tracking data' is sent from my doctor to the health insurance company; they only get what I choose to send them.
Getting back on topic, what is the chip on the new ID card supposed to be good for anyway?
Foreigners like me who live here can't get a German ID card and everybody will still have to have a health insurance card.
I'd replace can't with are not required to. I'm happy that I don't have a German ID card; I don't like carrying around government issued cards with chips. German citizens are required to carry their ID card at all times. The police can request to see your ID card at any time for no reason, and can fine you if you do not have it with you. But the police usually only do this to people who are causing trouble. "Papers, please!"
I don't have a health insurance card either, since I an insured through a private health insurance company. Private insurance is a lot cheaper than the state affiliated insurance companies, it has better service, it's more flexible, etc. Gee, something in the private sector is better than what is offered by the government? Go figure.
At any rate, the publicly insured folks' cards get read with every visit to the doctor. Who knows where all this tracking data is stored, and what it is used for? Again, something I don't want.
it's a free supply of crap you give to people where you have to give a gift but don't want to buy one
The family of my in-laws are senior expert practitioners of this art. However, they are so efficient at gift recycling, that after a few hops, the crap finds its way back to the original sender. It's like some kind of Internet worm. Some of that crap will be in gift circulation forever, because nobody wants it, and nobody needs it.
Person B does not care about Person A, and instead selfishly only wants the gifts that they want and as such ignores the feelings/beliefs of person A - in which case again, why are gifts being sent?
Speaking as a Person B, who was gifted a fundamentalist Christian book denouncing evolution from a Person A (a relative), I would say that Person A can ignore the feelings/beliefs of Person B as well. My position on religion was well known to Person A. It was, however, meant well. After all, I am going to rot in Hell for believing in "The Devil's Works of Charles Darwin." (Although, sometimes I think I'm already there).
Anyway, I did have a few drinks, and flipped through the book a bit. It was so ridiculous, that it was hilarious. But then I thought that people actually believe that crap, and that left me feeling saddened and sick.
On the bright side, the folks who are really close to me are incredibly successful and creative with coming up with gifts for me. Relatives on another continent usually ask, "Look, we really would like to send something to you. Is there anything we can send you from here, that you can't get over there?"
It's amazing how a simple, polite question would remove the need for the "bad gift protector."
A Heckler & Koch UMP, a Benelli M4 and knuckle dusters, on the side.
The stuff in TFA is a bunch of toys, FTFA:
Laser Wand: a toy Harry Potter wand, retrofitted with a 95mW green laser module – useful for pointing things out to the police, or letting troublemakers know they’re being watched
Knock the troublemaker down with a round from the Benelli, and follow it up with a spray from the H&K . . . the troublemaker will now know that he is being watched. Approach the troublemaker with caution, and apply the knuckle dusters liberally . . .
What a cool weapon to use against enemy invading forces' ships: knock out their engines and power, and leave their troops adrift. The troops on the ship riot when the hot buffet doesn't get refilled.
Slashdot Mirror
Or groped. Have I missed something, and are Methodists from Ohio a terrorist threat to civilization? Why not hire real detectives to work security checks, who can decide to pass through embarrassingly innocent folks through with no irradiation and groping? If the detective has the slightest of doubts, sorry, you're off to the irradiation and groping line.
In the country where I live, millions of folks take trains to work every day. Some friendly neighborhood terrorist put a suitcase with a bomb on a train, which luckily did not go off. How did the authorities respond? Pat down all passengers? No, police armed with HK MP5s patrolled the train stations, and talked to anyone that looked suspicious. Not grandmas and their grandchildren. No other terrorist attempted attacks have occurred.
This "let's just irradiate and grope everyone" policy is just an indication that the folks who work for the TSA are such dumb-asses that they could not tell the difference between Osama bin Laden and Mother Theresa in the security line. Hiring real detectives would obviate this problem, and save money and time for most travelers.
Wasn't Oracle going to kill all good stuff from Sun according to the slashdot hivemind?
The good stuff (TM)(Oracle) is not quite dead yet. It's feeling much better. It thinks it might go for a walk.
It doesn't want to go on the cart.
It shouldn't be such a baby!
How come when an Oracle story gets posted these days, I think of Karl Popper's work . . . ?
I don't think anyone knows how much state sponsored cyber attacks are currently going around, but I would imagine quite a bit.
Well, maybe we should try the polite approach and just ask every country, about their state-sponsored CyberAttacks? I'm sure almost every country would be willing to oblige. If not, the U.N. Security Council could pass a resolution requiring states to divulge their CyberHankyPanky. That would have them all quaking in their boots!
Until then, buy more CyberSecurity products! It's good, clean, wholesome fun!
"Now because of the infractions of recruit Zsfgseg, all 67 million Verizon users will have to run up Currahee ... three miles up, three miles down. All weekend Internet passes are hereby revoked."
Verizon user: "Lieutenant, permission to speak, sir."
Lieutenant: "Permission granted."
Verizon user: "Why can't I edit Wikipedia pages?"
Lieutenant: "Because one of youse 67 million recruits is a royal fucking dickhead. Any questions?"
Verizon user: "Why does Wikipedia hate us?"
Lieutenant: "Wikipedia doesn't hate us. They just hate you, Verizon user."
... Or are they paid in GoogleQuatloos, Google's own currency, which can be spent at GoogleStores? If Google did launch their own currency, I would expect that it would be accepted for all debts, public and private everywhere anyway. The local McDonald's where I live used to have a sign up posting their exchange rate for dollars to the local currency, because a lot of US servicemen would come in with nothing else in their pockets. The McDonald's dropped this, because servicemen tend to stay on base these days, because of terrorist threats. It's rare now to see someone in uniform in the city; this used to be a common sight before 9/11. At any rate, US military bases with housing areas could be a model for Googleville: the servicemen can spend months their, working and shopping, with no need to leave the base.
Is there a law in the US that requires employers to pay wages in dollars? Or can they pay in any form that they want: bales of hay, pork bellies, or teenage virgins? I know that some mining companies in the 1800's paid employees in company vouchers, that could only be redeemed at company stores.
You could try this: http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
Although, if you've had bad experience with Oracle, maybe you've had bad experience with IBM, as well.
This is not for identifying prints at crime scenes. Rather, for IDing all those gazillions of terrorist folks who waltz into the US as tourists every day. So add pictures of your ears to the thumbprints and facial photos that are taken when you go through customs.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we cannot take a picture of your ears in this condition. Here's a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a box of Q-tips. Please clean them up, before we can let you into the "Land of the Free" . . . of ear wax.
"Um, sorry to bother you, chief, but this foreign chick is wearing Groucho Glasses and fake plastic ears. Should I just take a picture of her like that, or should she remove the stuff first? I was concerned that if she committed a terrorist crime, she would probably be wearing the Groucho Glasses . . . and the ears."
identified people with 99.6 per cent accuracy
It must kinda sorta suck being in that 00.4 per cent:
"Mom! You said that grandma and grandpa came from Scotland. But the TSA says that my ears indicate heritage from folks from the Fertile Crescent . . . "
The next phase will be fractal analysis of pictures of dicks and labia . . . they're always just a wee bit different on every person.
... was the article written by a human, or a computer? Can you tell the difference? I remember when robots starting being deployed in factories, that there were concerns about workers sabotaging the robots which were destined to steal their jobs. Will this happen in the sports newsroom?
"The RoboSportReporter is broken again. It looks and smells like someone poured a beer into him."
The problem is, you tried to sue a lawyer.
I think lawyers suing other lawyers is a great idea. Their cases could burn up 100% of the court capacity. Then they would be so busy suing themselves, that they would leave the rest of us alone in peace.
The Interior Department inspector general has released a report stating that the White House edited a drilling safety report ...
So now we're getting a report about a report. That's just grand. I personally am waiting for the report about the report about the report. Add a few more levels of abstraction, and we will all forget what the original issue was anyway.
Therefore, it was a missile. Chinese.
OK, so using an Air China / US Airways flight codeshare agreement, passengers are being whisked from Honolulu to Phoenix on Chinese solid fuel rockets. To avoid airport congestion at Honolulu International, the flights are launched from submarines. China provides the submarines and rocket technology; US Airways supplies the passengers, and little packets of peanuts and pretzels.
So it's win-win all around.
I knew there was a simple explanation for the Mystery Missile.
"Be there. Aloha."
Anytime the US military assaults a populated area the first thing to disappear is the power grid.
From TFA, this was requested by special operations critters. They and other secret squirrels are in, snooping around, way before the power grid is taken out by air strikes. This thingie is meant for them, not regular troops.
Once they hold an area, they could just step into any building and get all the power they need.
. . . if they hadn't destroyed the power grid as mentioned above. Oops. "Unpack the diesel generator, Scotty."
He sings, "Everybody must get stoned!"
Inciting violence! Against everybody!
Show her your meat!
Keep a copy of TFA for when the cops show up.
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone."
Seller: "Sure! What are you looking for?"
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone from a company that is neither suing nor being sued by other cell phone cell companies.
Seller: "Sorry, all serious cell phone manufacturers are either suing, or being sued by other serious cell phone manufacturers."
Plus with private insurance you have no choice what you can send or not - you have to send exactly what the insurance company requires of you.
Be careful there! An insurance company may request information, implying that it is required, that they are not, by law, entitled to. This happened to me. I showed the written request for information to my doctor, and he was angry at the insurance company, and said, "They have no right to that information, and they know it. Just ignore the letter!" So if your insurance company sends you a dubious request for information, ask your doctor before sending anything. For example, if my doctor does a blood test on me, I receive a bill from him stating that he performed a blood test, and a diagnosis (if any). I submit that to the insurance company and they must pay for that. However, if the insurance company requests the full report of all the individual things that were measured . . . they have no right for that.
I only have to submit bills for which I want to be reimbursed. If I had a doctor visit that I don't want the insurance company to know about, I just don't submit it, and sit on the costs myself.
Sure, if you are married with two kids, public insurance is a better deal. But if you are single, you pay the same amount as someone with a wife and two kids. So singles subsidize families. I compared my insurance bill with that of a single colleague who was insured with the TKK. His bill was four times the amount of mine.
I guess we're really straying off topic here, but I find the thread informative and refreshing.
Funnily enough this law applies to foreigners in Germany as well, meaning you have to carry around your passport or some other identification, eg. drivers licence.
In 20+ years of living in Germany, only once have the police requested an ID from me. I was walking near an area with bars and nightclubs, where there is often trouble. My drivers license and my accent were enough to convince them that I was not the person they were looking for. The police in Germany are always quite polite . . . and like any German, they really appreciate the fact that you have learned their language.
But choosing insurance purely based on some ideological 'private must be better' basis in Germany would probably just end up getting you a bad deal - the system is very complex.
It's not ideological, rather empirical. My girlfriend (state insured) had an allergy problem, and had to first go to her General Praticioner (Hausartz) to get a referral to an allergy specialist, who did a set of allergy tests. Since they all came up negative, the doctor needed to do another set of tests. Oh, but the state insurance only allows one set of tests per calender quarter. "Sorry, come back in two months." As a private insured patient, the doctor can do whatever is necessary, whenever it is necessary. Recently there was something in the news about how dentists had used up all their allotment for treatments, so they were telling people to come back in January. No, thanks.
The same 'tracking data', and possibly more, is stored and sent off for a private patient - if it wasn't your private insurance would have nothing to evaluate the claim on and simply wouldn't pay you or the doctor/hospital.
My doctor/hospital has no contact whatsoever with my health insurance company. The bills get sent directly to me. I pay the bills myself directly. It is my responsibility to do the paperwork, and submit that to the insurance company. They reimburse me then directly. So to reiterate, no 'tracking data' is sent from my doctor to the health insurance company; they only get what I choose to send them.
Getting back on topic, what is the chip on the new ID card supposed to be good for anyway?
Foreigners like me who live here can't get a German ID card and everybody will still have to have a health insurance card.
I'd replace can't with are not required to. I'm happy that I don't have a German ID card; I don't like carrying around government issued cards with chips. German citizens are required to carry their ID card at all times. The police can request to see your ID card at any time for no reason, and can fine you if you do not have it with you. But the police usually only do this to people who are causing trouble. "Papers, please!"
I don't have a health insurance card either, since I an insured through a private health insurance company. Private insurance is a lot cheaper than the state affiliated insurance companies, it has better service, it's more flexible, etc. Gee, something in the private sector is better than what is offered by the government? Go figure.
At any rate, the publicly insured folks' cards get read with every visit to the doctor. Who knows where all this tracking data is stored, and what it is used for? Again, something I don't want.
it's a free supply of crap you give to people where you have to give a gift but don't want to buy one
The family of my in-laws are senior expert practitioners of this art. However, they are so efficient at gift recycling, that after a few hops, the crap finds its way back to the original sender. It's like some kind of Internet worm. Some of that crap will be in gift circulation forever, because nobody wants it, and nobody needs it.
Person B does not care about Person A, and instead selfishly only wants the gifts that they want and as such ignores the feelings/beliefs of person A - in which case again, why are gifts being sent?
Speaking as a Person B, who was gifted a fundamentalist Christian book denouncing evolution from a Person A (a relative), I would say that Person A can ignore the feelings/beliefs of Person B as well. My position on religion was well known to Person A. It was, however, meant well. After all, I am going to rot in Hell for believing in "The Devil's Works of Charles Darwin." (Although, sometimes I think I'm already there).
Anyway, I did have a few drinks, and flipped through the book a bit. It was so ridiculous, that it was hilarious. But then I thought that people actually believe that crap, and that left me feeling saddened and sick.
On the bright side, the folks who are really close to me are incredibly successful and creative with coming up with gifts for me. Relatives on another continent usually ask, "Look, we really would like to send something to you. Is there anything we can send you from here, that you can't get over there?"
It's amazing how a simple, polite question would remove the need for the "bad gift protector."
Back in my day we just did drugs
Back in my day, the drugs did us.
A Heckler & Koch UMP, a Benelli M4 and knuckle dusters, on the side.
The stuff in TFA is a bunch of toys, FTFA:
Laser Wand: a toy Harry Potter wand, retrofitted with a 95mW green laser module – useful for pointing things out to the police, or letting troublemakers know they’re being watched
Knock the troublemaker down with a round from the Benelli, and follow it up with a spray from the H&K . . . the troublemaker will now know that he is being watched. Approach the troublemaker with caution, and apply the knuckle dusters liberally . . .
It took out a cruise ship nearby in the pacific: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/carnival-splendor-cruise-ship-rescue/story?id=12095096
What a cool weapon to use against enemy invading forces' ships: knock out their engines and power, and leave their troops adrift. The troops on the ship riot when the hot buffet doesn't get refilled.
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
"Jack Frost nipping at your knob."
Anyone creative enough to continue . . . ?