Croyez moi, les Anglais ont tout faux. Avez-vous idee du type de boulots qui efface les gens des statistiques du chomage ? Ca vous amuserait de toucher MOINS qu'une alloc chomage en France pour travailler 40 heures d'un boulot de merde pour lequel vous etes hyper-surqualifie et que vous n'avez pas choisi ? Quant a leurs services publics, ils sont merdiques aussi bien parce qu'ils sont prives (transports en commun) que parce qu'ils sont encore plus socialises qu'en France (sante).
J'habite depuis un an aux US, et j'ai appris a cette occasion la naivete des diverses especes d'anglo-saxinophiles qui pullulent en France. Au fait, j'organise activement mon retour.
I've moved from Europe to the US, and my impression is that if you add up federal taxes, state taxes, and the extra you have to spend for you or your family to get what in Europe we consider for granted for almost free, like health and education, you end up with a similar amount of "mandatory spending".
Of course you can CHOOSE not to go to college and that your kids and spouse don't need any medical assistance. I guess that's what they call freedom.
It's "l'OS" for quick talk between techies. If a MS rep. is asked in an interview what she sells, she would say "le systeme d'exploitation". Otherwise, "l'os" originally means "the bone".
If they want autonomy from the US federal government, they can move to another country. There are several countries out there, especially in Europe, that are still independant and irresponsive to US pressure on most issues, in a variety of styles. Places like Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France come to my mind. Of English-speaking places, Ireland is probably the only one not to be a de-facto US colony.
which "privately operated train companies" can raise the $5bn to $10bn that it would cost ? How would they obtain to preempt all the land they need to build the rails and stations ? Private funding of modern, major infrastructure has resulted in financial disasters far too often in history, from the Panama Canal to the Chunnel, for any bank to back such an initiative without gov involvement. Why would the states and federal government put billions on highways and nothing on rail ?
Re:Umm, have we invented electricity yet?
on
Jet Turbine Locomotives
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Yeah, Amercia big and scarcely populated is always the argument for having shitty train, shitty cellphone, shitty powergrid, basically shitty everything that needs a massive and coherent investment in a networked infrastructure. Wouldn't it rather be the over-decentralization and lack of public funding for anything that is not a weapon that is to blame ? A high speed train from San Diego to Seattle would be profitable within a decade and instantaneously take half the market from airlines (not for going all the way from San Diego to Seattle, but from LA to SF, from SF to Seattle, etc). Scarce population in the rest of the country or not.
Because of Japanese expertise in this area, other countries (other asian states, some european) either licence the technology outright or tap the experts to develop their own technology
AFAIK France has not licensed any ShinKanSen technology nor hired any Japanese expert to develop the TGV, which also goes much faster than its Japanese counterpart. Actually it's the French tehcnology that Bombardier licenses to build the Amtrak's Acela. The Germans have developped their own bullet train also, and are currently looking into maglev. The Italians also have their own, the Pendolino, which is based on active tilting for being able to take tight curves instead of building new routes.
What you're describing pretty much looks like continental Europe's Authors' Rights (droits d'auteurs) system. In this system, an author (writer, composer or director of a movie) owns a non-transferable right to its creation. This includes a right of getting royalties for its performance, but more importantly a 'moral right' to control what is done with the work. A writer or her heirs can prevent someone from writing a sequel to her novel. A producer cannot impose cuts in a movie against the director's will (hence only 'director's cut versions of European directors are shown. The only exception is that software production is exempt. Your code belongs to your employer.
I'm not positive, but I guess if you kind of "officially publish" the thing, for example in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, then nobody can come after you and patent it. True ?
In real democracies with sensible, printed paper-based voting systems, those who cast the votes are precisely the same as those who count. Where I live, volunteer counters are recruited out of people who come to vote in a given voting station (there is usually a lack of volunteer, so when you come to vote early you usually are begged to do it). And in anycase anyone can come and see what's going on. Voting stations are under the responsibility of the municipality under the monitoring of representatives from all the parties. The counting usually takes 2 or 3 hours in the evening after the poll closed.
Please be more specific about the relation between Pakistan and the US using a sensible voting system. I was talking about countries and constituencies with reasonable democratic traditions. Now maybe one can wonder whether the US, at the federal level, is gradually forgetting what democracy actually is. Maybe corporate campaign financing, parent presidents, dubious electoral systems, and a historical defiance and lost of touch between the people and the federal gov. can explain low expectations of legitimity for the nation's leaders.
I just fail to understand why they choose aong little papers printed with the name of the candidate, sip the little paper in little enveloppe, and slip the enveloppe into a transparent box. I mean THIS has been working for more than a century. What's the problem with it ?
You're completely free after graduation from Centrale and les Mines. Only ~1/4 of Polytechnique graduates join government service. I believe recent changes in the curriculum have made everyone free after graduation, but even back in my day almost everyone could have their debt canceled by completing another degree in a selection made by the school (including some US universities M.S.). The few left (a dozen in a class of 450) often had their debt paid off by the private company that was hiring them as a signing bonus.
I am actually a graduate from Polytechnique and have neither maid nor chauffeur. So far;) (I'm in my late 20s).
Yes, a prestigious college education is a free lunch in France. That's just how it is.
In France schools like Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale or Ecole des Mines have been doing that for 200 years, with a total output of around 1000 "renaissance engineers" (ingenieur generaliste) per year. In French companies these diplomas usually make you start your career as a supervisor/manager in the industry, in consulting firms or financial services.
France has moral rights (droit d'auteurs), which always belong to the director in case of a movie. So there is never a "director's cut" of a French movie since the director always has the final cut for ALL forms of releases. This right cannot be transfered, except to the author's heirs during 70 years after her death. This applies to writers, songwriters, composers. One notable exception is software writers, who surrender their author's rights to the organization that pays them.
A few things about ESA: first, it is NOT an EU agency. It is an independent intergovernment organization that includes non-EU members, most notably Switzerland. I say 'most notably', because the inclusion of this neutral country means that the ESA CANNOT be used for developping military programs such as spy satellites. There are efforts under way of course, most notably from France, to make ESA more in line with an EU driven research and technology policy.
Then, I don't know if your opinion is typical from the British. I've always been stunned at the lack of space ambition they've always had. They basically don't have a space program at all.
The European space program is also commercial. One of the most important programs is the Galileo GPS that will be launched in 2006 to be commissionned in 2008. Since all civilian air traffic and road traffic will depend on GPS systems by then, not having another GPS system than the US NavStar would mean that thre would effectivly be a button on the white house desk that stops all economic activity in selcted parts of the world. YOu wouldn't espect the British to gt in the way of Washington's plans, but thank god the French have heavily lobbied and managed to tilt the Dutch and the German in favor of the program.
This is not true. Space exploration has effectively stopped when the cold war ended. Rivalry actually is the only thing tat fuel space ambitions. Actualy the race to space has been, in the history of mankind, the only time when competition has created science and technology developpement in a pacific fashion. It is a shame that it has ended. The more unchallenged the US feels, the more they cut NASA budget.
Airbus: Europe (on par with Boeing for commercial airliners) Dassault Aviation: France (the Falcon line of high-end business jets: especially successful in the US market) Embraer: Brazil (shares with Bombardier the world market for regional jets) Bombardier: Canada (shares with Embraer the world market for business jets) ATR: Europe (turboprop regional transportation planes) Tupolev: Russia (still makes commercial aircraft)
These are just for the commercial airliners. The list of non-US manufacturers of general aviation planes if much longer.
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Croyez moi, les Anglais ont tout faux. Avez-vous idee du type de boulots qui efface les gens des statistiques du chomage ? Ca vous amuserait de toucher MOINS qu'une alloc chomage en France pour travailler 40 heures d'un boulot de merde pour lequel vous etes hyper-surqualifie et que vous n'avez pas choisi ? Quant a leurs services publics, ils sont merdiques aussi bien parce qu'ils sont prives (transports en commun) que parce qu'ils sont encore plus socialises qu'en France (sante).
J'habite depuis un an aux US, et j'ai appris a cette occasion la naivete des diverses especes d'anglo-saxinophiles qui pullulent en France. Au fait, j'organise activement mon retour.
I've moved from Europe to the US, and my impression is that if you add up federal taxes, state taxes, and the extra you have to spend for you or your family to get what in Europe we consider for granted for almost free, like health and education, you end up with a similar amount of "mandatory spending".
Of course you can CHOOSE not to go to college and that your kids and spouse don't need any medical assistance. I guess that's what they call freedom.
It's "l'OS" for quick talk between techies. If a MS rep. is asked in an interview what she sells, she would say "le systeme d'exploitation". Otherwise, "l'os" originally means "the bone".
Congratulations, you just gave a three-lines summary of the general economic foundations of open-source.
This is what should be replied to the usual "if we don't sell software, how do programmers get paid ? " whinning.
If they want autonomy from the US federal government, they can move to another country. There are several countries out there, especially in Europe, that are still independant and irresponsive to US pressure on most issues, in a variety of styles. Places like Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France come to my mind. Of English-speaking places, Ireland is probably the only one not to be a de-facto US colony.
which "privately operated train companies" can raise the $5bn to $10bn that it would cost ? How would they obtain to preempt all the land they need to build the rails and stations ? Private funding of modern, major infrastructure has resulted in financial disasters far too often in history, from the Panama Canal to the Chunnel, for any bank to back such an initiative without gov involvement. Why would the states and federal government put billions on highways and nothing on rail ?
Yeah, Amercia big and scarcely populated is always the argument for having shitty train, shitty cellphone, shitty powergrid, basically shitty everything that needs a massive and coherent investment in a networked infrastructure. Wouldn't it rather be the over-decentralization and lack of public funding for anything that is not a weapon that is to blame ? A high speed train from San Diego to Seattle would be profitable within a decade and instantaneously take half the market from airlines (not for going all the way from San Diego to Seattle, but from LA to SF, from SF to Seattle, etc). Scarce population in the rest of the country or not.
Note that the last time that anyone has looked at Britain as a role model for rail travel, the reign of Queen Victoria was yet to come.
Because of Japanese expertise in this area, other countries (other asian states, some european) either licence the technology outright or tap the experts to develop their own technology AFAIK France has not licensed any ShinKanSen technology nor hired any Japanese expert to develop the TGV, which also goes much faster than its Japanese counterpart. Actually it's the French tehcnology that Bombardier licenses to build the Amtrak's Acela. The Germans have developped their own bullet train also, and are currently looking into maglev. The Italians also have their own, the Pendolino, which is based on active tilting for being able to take tight curves instead of building new routes.
What you're describing pretty much looks like continental Europe's Authors' Rights (droits d'auteurs) system. In this system, an author (writer, composer or director of a movie) owns a non-transferable right to its creation. This includes a right of getting royalties for its performance, but more importantly a 'moral right' to control what is done with the work. A writer or her heirs can prevent someone from writing a sequel to her novel. A producer cannot impose cuts in a movie against the director's will (hence only 'director's cut versions of European directors are shown. The only exception is that software production is exempt. Your code belongs to your employer.
Maybe they want to check if Osama is not there by any chance.
I'm not positive, but I guess if you kind of "officially publish" the thing, for example in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, then nobody can come after you and patent it. True ?
In real democracies with sensible, printed paper-based voting systems, those who cast the votes are precisely the same as those who count. Where I live, volunteer counters are recruited out of people who come to vote in a given voting station (there is usually a lack of volunteer, so when you come to vote early you usually are begged to do it). And in anycase anyone can come and see what's going on. Voting stations are under the responsibility of the municipality under the monitoring of representatives from all the parties. The counting usually takes 2 or 3 hours in the evening after the poll closed.
Please be more specific about the relation between Pakistan and the US using a sensible voting system. I was talking about countries and constituencies with reasonable democratic traditions. Now maybe one can wonder whether the US, at the federal level, is gradually forgetting what democracy actually is. Maybe corporate campaign financing, parent presidents, dubious electoral systems, and a historical defiance and lost of touch between the people and the federal gov. can explain low expectations of legitimity for the nation's leaders.
Do you have any facts, any precise examples of that ?
I just fail to understand why they choose aong little papers printed with the name of the candidate, sip the little paper in little enveloppe, and slip the enveloppe into a transparent box. I mean THIS has been working for more than a century. What's the problem with it ?
Norwegians are oil-fed brats, much like Saudis.
You're completely free after graduation from Centrale and les Mines. Only ~1/4 of Polytechnique graduates join government service. I believe recent changes in the curriculum have made everyone free after graduation, but even back in my day almost everyone could have their debt canceled by completing another degree in a selection made by the school (including some US universities M.S.). The few left (a dozen in a class of 450) often had their debt paid off by the private company that was hiring them as a signing bonus.
;) (I'm in my late 20s).
I am actually a graduate from Polytechnique and have neither maid nor chauffeur. So far
Yes, a prestigious college education is a free lunch in France. That's just how it is.
a power grid with no rolling blackouts.
In France schools like Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale or Ecole des Mines have been doing that for 200 years, with a total output of around 1000 "renaissance engineers" (ingenieur generaliste) per year. In French companies these diplomas usually make you start your career as a supervisor/manager in the industry, in consulting firms or financial services.
Well technically, blockbuster isn't censoring videos, they're just refusing to carry NC-17 rated films
This post should have been modded as funny.
France has moral rights (droit d'auteurs), which always belong to the director in case of a movie. So there is never a "director's cut" of a French movie since the director always has the final cut for ALL forms of releases. This right cannot be transfered, except to the author's heirs during 70 years after her death. This applies to writers, songwriters, composers. One notable exception is software writers, who surrender their author's rights to the organization that pays them.
A few things about ESA: first, it is NOT an EU agency. It is an independent intergovernment organization that includes non-EU members, most notably Switzerland. I say 'most notably', because the inclusion of this neutral country means that the ESA CANNOT be used for developping military programs such as spy satellites. There are efforts under way of course, most notably from France, to make ESA more in line with an EU driven research and technology policy.
Then, I don't know if your opinion is typical from the British. I've always been stunned at the lack of space ambition they've always had. They basically don't have a space program at all.
The European space program is also commercial. One of the most important programs is the Galileo GPS that will be launched in 2006 to be commissionned in 2008. Since all civilian air traffic and road traffic will depend on GPS systems by then, not having another GPS system than the US NavStar would mean that thre would effectivly be a button on the white house desk that stops all economic activity in selcted parts of the world. YOu wouldn't espect the British to gt in the way of Washington's plans, but thank god the French have heavily lobbied and managed to tilt the Dutch and the German in favor of the program.
This is not true. Space exploration has effectively stopped when the cold war ended. Rivalry actually is the only thing tat fuel space ambitions. Actualy the race to space has been, in the history of mankind, the only time when competition has created science and technology developpement in a pacific fashion. It is a shame that it has ended. The more unchallenged the US feels, the more they cut NASA budget.
Airbus: Europe (on par with Boeing for commercial airliners)
Dassault Aviation: France (the Falcon line of high-end business jets: especially successful in the US market)
Embraer: Brazil (shares with Bombardier the world market for regional jets)
Bombardier: Canada (shares with Embraer the world market for business jets)
ATR: Europe (turboprop regional transportation planes)
Tupolev: Russia (still makes commercial aircraft)
These are just for the commercial airliners. The list of non-US manufacturers of general aviation planes if much longer.