So you never change the station on the radio?? Or glance down to see what your fuel level is?? Or how fast you were going?? Or read billboards or road signs?? Or even glance in your mirrors to check traffic behind you??? Or look beside you to see if you can change lanes? Or glance in your rear view mirror to see what your kids are doing?? Or at your passenger because they said something funny?? You never sneeze, because that means taking your eyes off the road. You just sit there with your hands at 10 and 2, sitting up straight, eyes looking ahead and watching the road only in front of you. You don't talk with anyone, not even asking directions because trying to find that next street would be too distracting. You don't use a GPS, because that would mean looking away from the road. Or the voice would be too distracting.
Give me a break, you take your eyes off the road all the time and do other things that distract you. When you judge it is safe to do so because you have decided that you can look away at something and look back before anything happens in front of you. Because the closest car is 100 feet away and you have decided that you can look at your fuel gauge because even if they jam on their brakes the moment you look away, by the time you look up and see it you will still have time to stop. Yet someone could change lanes in front of you and jam on their brakes while you plow into them because you wanted to check how much fuel you had. How thoughtless and insensitive of you.
I've turned off the radio because I was looking for something and it was distracting. I did it because I have this ability to judge what I have the ability to do, and when it's impaired. Maybe you think other people don't have that ability, but they do. Conditions change, and just because some people don't have the ability to talk on the phone safely, doesn't mean everyone doesn't. Nor does it mean that it's safe to do it anytime I want to. I spend as little time on the phone as I can, and only when traffic conditions allow for it. And I've put the phone down while talking with my wife because conditions changed and I needed to spend more time focused on driving.
My wife and I only go once a week, when it's convenient, and usually in the car on our way home from work, so I really don't care. I have this ability to plan ahead and I rarely get anything in the mail that requires immediate attention. As you said, it's mostly ads, if they had a trash can next to the mail box it would probably overflow every day. And I'll bet a very high percentage of people who currently use clusters do the same thing. I haven't had door delivery since I moved out of my mom's house in the 80s. It's either been PO boxes, clustered mail boxes, apartment boxes, or rural mail boxes down the end of a long driveway.
I see many elderly people walking around our subdivision with their dogs, so that excuse doesn't fly. It's really only a very small portion of people that are either too lazy, too OCD, or disabled that this impacts.
Since you are so concerned, why don't you seek out an elderly person in your neighborhood and offer to pick up their mail for them, since you have to get yours anyway???
.. he should be stuck in a US prison, but I guess an airport is the next best thing. Blackmailing treasonous cowards shouldn't be able to do what they want.
Memory and spatial ability, and how quickly things a learned in each area. I have a very high degree of spatial ability, and became very good at tech. My guidance councilor insisted that I go to college when all I wanted to do was fix TVs, went one semester and dropped out because I discovered computers and that I didn't need someone to teach it to me. I could fit the pieces of a computer program in my head and spill it out from my fingertips. 35 years later, I'm making over 6 figures without a college education. Today I manipulate entire systems in my head to find the best way to make them fit, or what has them broken. If only college was structured better to deal with people who learn quickly and could have kept me engaged, I probably could have learned a heck of a lot more.
However, my memory sucks the big one. Names, places, dates... I can't remember any of them. Sometimes things stick, but I can't figure out the rhyme or reason. My ex-wife, on the other hand, had an almost eidetic memory. She became an RN and could rattle off drug interactions like it was written on a page in front of her. She could remember the name of someone she had met years ago, once. But she had little to no spatial ability. I don't know how many times I tried to teach her how to program a VCR, she just couldn't get it. Driving directions for her required landmarks that I didn't notice, not the compass directions that I used. Choosing either north or south I-95 was impossible, she wanted to know whether to turn left or right. (Yes.. I know.. it says it right on the sign. You try to convince her.. I gave up. That's one reason she became my 'ex-wife'... just not a good fit)
We are two very smart people that have done well, but in two very different ways. Our daughter, however, seems to have gotten both. She is taking bio-science classes and can rattle of biological processes, how they work, and the names of parts I didn't even know existed. I tell her she is 'scary-smart', she can go on and on when talking about the detail off genetic manipulation. She does what I do with cells instead of with programming languages.
I could never be a doctor or nurse or a genetic researcher, my ex-wife could never be a computer programmer or a genetic researcher. My daughter could do any of them. Sure, I probably could have tried to be a doctor, but it would have been a struggle with all of the memorization. My ex-wife could have learned computer language syntax and been able to recite it back, but probably couldn't have applied it.
While I applaud my councilor for trying to send me to college, I still ended up doing the same thing a TV repair guy does.. diagnosing and fixing things.If she had the tools to really determine my skills, maybe things would have turned out even better.
Your comment is wrong on so many levels. I ride motorcycles in Arizona, and many of my friends often carry, some on their hip, some concealed. I also carry from time to time. In the many years of riding I've done, NO ONE has ever pulled his sidearm or threatened anyone. I personally have been pulled over by police who didn't even ask me to remove my revolver from it's holster, and we had a very pleasant chat about how motorcycle police officers deal with the heat in Phoenix in the summer.
I'm reminded of an article in the London Times a few months ago about an increase in sales of miniature baseball bats recently in the UK because police were unable to protect citizens during riots. Maybe those people should just move because it seems to be a dangerous place. Or does it not count if the only weapon one has to protect themselves is a baseball bat.
Why do we carry a gun?? Not because the world is dangerous, but because individuals are. (i.e. your assumption that people carry just because it is a dangerous place is wrong) And we don't know when or where a dangerous individual will show up. Like maybe a movie theater, or shopping mall. Or a summer camp in Norway. I don't carry because those places are dangerous, I carry because of the very small percentage of people that are dangerous that might show up and I would like to at least have a chance. I hope I can go through life without ever pulling my gun. But every day, people in 'safe' places pull out their guns and defend themselves.
Maybe you should start reading those stories instead of the ones the media feed you. You might learn more about something you are obviously very ignorant about.
It is taught in gun self-defense classes that a person with a knife can be just as dangerous as someone with a gun. That distance is the only safe option, someone within 15 feet with a knife can kill you before you have time to react even if you do have a gun. Many of these classes concentrate on what to do at short distances, since it is very rare that someone will announce "I've got a knife and I'm going to kill you" ahead of time. Gru may announce his weapons, but that's a cartoon.
In the UK several years ago, a group of doctors wanted to make long bladed, pointed kitchen knives illegal because it seems that without guns, people had turned to using those when killing each other. Since the majority of gun deaths are one-on-one, it makes little difference if it's a knife, gun, or baseball bat. None of them take much effort or training to be deadly.
When you get a chance, please post the death rate of victims armed with guns v/s those without. BTW.. many gun death statistics are useless because they rarely separate people involved in criminal activities, i.e. a homeowner shooting a burglar, or a drug exchange gone bad are often included in gun death rates.
I do agree with your list on why people won't buy such things. Gun manufacturers were required to put internal locks on guns because of moronic California laws, and from my experience with people that like to target shoot, they are either removed or not used. I bought a gun with one and other than figuring out how it worked, never used it. Some buyers won't even buy a gun with an internal lock because of the perceived increase in the risk of failure. I say 'perceived' because I have yet to see any statistics that are trustworthy on the subject and not more than anecdotal.
Sometimes people do because they're angry, stupid and/or crazy. The problem when everyone is waving a gun around, how do you know which one to shoot?
There.. fixed that for you. You can change it back to often when more than a fourth of gun owners have done so.
Who do you know who to shoot?? Probably the guy that is doing the shooting and killing would be my guess. During the Tucson shooting, several people in the crowd had guns, but didn't shoot because they couldn't identify the shooter (this is Arizona, many people carry guns. I've even carried a gun on my hip into Chase bank without any incident.) The shooter was disarmed later by unarmed people, and a guy who had a gun mistakenly thought the person who took the gun was the shooter. However, he didn't shoot because the person with the gun WASN'T SHOOTING AT ANYONE.
Just because a few people are ignorant (mostly people who don't shoot guns) in how guns work doesn't mean everyone is.
All stories like this and the airplane crash do is to allow those that agree to add another notch to their belt of how bad things are and rant about for a bit. Those that disagree will continue to ignore them, and possibly rant about those that agree. Both sides will claim the other side is stupid or hypocrites or delusional, and nothing will change. Those that agree will continue to only read stories that prove their point, and those that disagree will continue to pooh-poh those same articles.
Yawn.. no news here. No one did anything illegal. Those that think Google is evil will continue to do so. Those that use Google will also continue to do so.
1. If someone is living somewhere without phone access, then the person calling them for the job also doesn't have a phone. If someone is living where there is phone service, the infrastructure already exists. If someone is living where there isn't phone access but the job isn't there, they will have to move. Not a valid reason.
2. Phones are not necessary in an area where there aren't any phones. Everyone is in the same boat. They didn't talk to anyone when they moved there, nothing has changed or needs to change.
3. I pay to protect ME, not someone else. When I pay for highway usage, I get a benefit from it. What benefit do I get from this so it's worth me paying for it?
4. I don't need to move, I have a phone. Why should I spend money to support someone if I don't get a benefit from it. I don't mind having the choice to do it, but I shouldn't have to do it if I don't get a benefit from it. And by 'I', that also means society improves because of it.
5. People lived and farmed for thousands of years without phones. Subsidizing farmer's phones decreases food costs, but increases other costs, so it's a net wash since everyone eats, and a large portion of the population have phones. I can choose what foods to buy based on what they cost. If costs rose, farmers would then be motivated to find appropriate communication methods to keep their costs down. Providing phones circumvents that process.
As we have seen in home and college subsidies, providing free money does not keep costs down. Instead, it interferes with the normal supply and demand process and increases prices. When insurance became prevalent and more people used health care, costs went up because the cost to the consumer was less and they could afford more, higher priced, procedures regardless of whether they were actually necessary or not. Such as putting a cast on a break v/s putting in a plate and paying for the accompanying physical therapy.
Government interference with markets usually has unforeseen consequences which are rarely beneficial. A valid exception is to prevent a monopoly from using it's ownership of a product to keep competitors out.
1. When having a phone became a 'right'
2. Why people have to have phone that requires 90% or more of the country to pay for it because of where they choose to live
3. Why I should pay more because someone wants to live in a rural area where they can't make any money and don't have phone service. And where storms can bring down phone lines causing thousands of dollars in repair costs for a phone they don't pay for.
4. Why they can't move
5. Why, after all of the above, if they don't have skills, can't live off the land, can't get a job, can't move, and are poor, we don't relocate them someplace else since they must already be living on the government dole. When you don't make your own way and don't contribute to society, you don't get to decide the rules that govern how you receive free money and other things.
A.. Snowden isn't a traitor, he is a cowardly traitor.
B.. I'm am very concerned about the increased amount of surveillance in the world, but feel there are less cowardly and traitorous ways to go about fighting it. A hero stays and fights instead of fleeing to countries that are even more abusive of the very thing he exposed. Sounds more like the actions of a hypocrite than a hero. So I'll agree there might be an overlap, but disagree on the 'substantial' just based on other conversations I've had with people who are quite capable of making up their own minds instead of listening to the propaganda being spread daily by Snowden now that he has some attention. (See how that works both ways???? Or is it only propaganda if you don't agree with it....)
C.. The app is no more 'wrong' than the app that lets people tag restaurants and other businesses that have 'no firearms allowed' signs up. Except that there are no measurable standards or other means of confirmation, so it will have the same degree of accuracy as internet hotel and restaurant reviews. At least someone can confirm the presence or absence of a sign. I'm free to use whichever one I want, as is anyone else.
I have an app that tells me what businesses are not gun-friendly and won't let me carry my legal firearm into them, so I either don't visit those businesses if there are other options, or make sure I leave my gun in my car and not have to walk back when I get to the door and see the sign. (Yes.. I carry all the time. Those around me don't know it. And in the last 15 years, I have shot no one. Get over your irrational fears, my ex-boss is just as deadly as I am and she doesn't need to carry a gun.)
But at least there is a measurable standard for the marking, a sign on the door that says 'no firearms allowed'. What measurable standard is the app going to use?? Someone's opinion? It's almost useless if there isn't a measurable standard.
Kind of like hotel and restaurant reviews on the internet.
All they need to make is two withdrawals a month for the amount of their paycheck..... that's what I did. I paid cash where I could, bought money orders for the bills I couldn't. It was a pain, but two years later was able to open a checking account.
I had forgotten, but I also get those fees if I transfer out of savings to checking too many times a month. So I do this thing called 'a budget' and plan for it. I would hazard a guess that 90% of the fees can be avoided with some basic planning. I probably only pay an ATM fee once or twice a year, and haven't paid a checking account fee for several years. All by understanding the rules and planning.
Personally, I get tired of people griping about how bad they have it. If someone can't get a checking account, it's usually their fault. I've always been able to get free checking accounts with direct deposit and even if fees were charged, figured out how to keep them to a minimum. The company found a local credit union for everyone that wanted to open a checking account so they wouldn't have fees, but I don't know how many took advantage of it. There were three people out of a company of 50 that had to use the pre-paid cards for some reason. Another 10 finally stepped into the 21st century and had direct deposit into their existing checking accounts. A couple of them didn't do it previously because they wanted to go to the store, cash their check, put some of it in their pocket, and give the rest to their spouse.
The other folly is web authors expecting people to just let code on some unknown server run on my box. If something requires javascript, the author should have the decency to detect it is disabled and either fail gracefully or send the user to a page saying javascript is required. A large part of javascript out there is simply 'pretty printing' or other 'kool' type of manipulation that isn't necessary at all. I'll gladly give up the automatic mouse over pop-ups, annoying text boxes that travel down screen, and pop-up/roll-over menus for standard HTML. Too many web page authors like to use things just because they are cool instead of things that actually add value. Sure, I like calendars that are clickable. But I don't have to have them, just let me enter the god damn date and accept several different formats instead of being lazy and forcing me to use a calendar because someone is too lazy to actually have to code something.
Sure.. Goggle requires javascript. But I'll be damned if I'll let doubleclick or a host of other servers run their javascript on my box whenever I visit a web page, even if I trust it. If NoScript stops working, I will be searching for alternatives. I browse with NoScript and often run into pages that fail miserable. But I can select the list of servers I trust and reload if I choose to.
Or not use their web site at all.
It's all anecdotal, but it seems that I get far fewer virus infections than many people that just blindly turn it on.
It only impacted people unwilling to get bank accounts they could use for direct deposit. Even people with very bad credit can usually get a passbook savings account, where they are free to draw money without charge. I know.. it happened to me about 20 years ago.
I think that the number of people this actually impacts is very small. The largest number is simply those that won't get bank accounts so they have control over whether or not to get a prepaid card. Those that can't get accounts are usually those that can't handle their money very well, which is why they can't get bank accounts, and why they have to pay fees on debit cards because they tend to overdraw them so often.
Yawn.. wake me up when Slashdot has a real story about social injustice instead of people just too ignorant to do what most of us do.
I'm 54 and haven't gotten a job without knowing someone at the company or being recommended by a friend for over 20 years, that's 5 jobs before my most recent one. My last search started down the monster.com road, even interviewed several times. Then went to one interview at a company where the VP was someone I used to work with and several people I know worked at, and had a job created specifically for my skill set. Best job I've ever had...and the highest paying.
Don't stop using traditional methods, but if you are any good your past associates are your best bet to getting you a job. They can get your resume to the person hiring.
If you still can't get a job, maybe you just aren't that good. Or your skills are too outdated. Figure out which one is the problem and fix it instead of whining.
Yes... yes I am. Morons for thinking that the right way to do something is to break federal laws and then run like a coward and not accept responsibility. People like Rosa Parks are heroes, they broke the rules and stood in place so they could further challenge it instead of running like a yellow dog with it's tail between it's leg.
A real hero would have stayed and further challenged the system. Let justice take it's course for his actions, and fight it like a man instead of cowering like a little scared boy.
I see nothing that makes him a hero. No more than robbing a bank and giving money to the poor does.
It's been known for over a DECADE (remember the patriot act???) that the NSA was monitoring foreign calls. There have been numerous news articles about it. Get real people, if you didn't know that then you are truly ignorant.
Hope this treasonous coward gets extradited and spends the rest of his miserable life in jail. I'm not a fan of the NSA doing all of this, but anyone who didn't know it's been going on is a moron.
He has a brand??? What does he think it's worth???
I guess that's what happens when you steal another person's intellectual property for your own. 'Around the World in 80 Days' is far outside copyright laws, anyone expecting any kind of ownership is a hypocrite.
Why make $200K if you can't enjoy it because you are working 18x7x52???
I make above $100K working 8x5x48. Been doing it since I was 40. Last two nights I worked 10 hours, but it really was needed. Rarely get called.
I'm smart, but not an expert in anything. I am a damn good trouble shooter and work on old software because new developers are too full of themselves to do it and I have a lot of experience working on code I know nothing about without finding excuses.
My salary gives me a very comfortable lifestyle. I drive a 2001 Blazer because I'm too cheap to trade in a truck that works. A truck I paid $12K for in 2003. I have a 1984 and 1989 Goldwing in the garage that get ridden over 15K miles a year because I see no reason to buy a new bike when I can get a used bike has less than 50K miles on it for $5K and will probably run over 200K miles instead buying an overpriced new bike because "it's cool". I have no debt except for the house, and pretty darn good 401K and savings accounts.
It's amazing how far a good $100K salary can go if you spend it on stuff you need instead of stuff you just want. I do buy things from time to time that I just 'want', I don't live like a pauper. But I've found that a $1000 audio system meets my needs, and 42" TV is actually big enough. So my wife and I spend our spare money enjoying life by traveling a few times a year on long weekend trips instead of stuff that just takes up space.
I have nothing against an extravagant lifestyle. If I could make $200K or more a year doing what I do now with the same level of stress, of course I'd do it. And I'd probably have a newer car and, nicer house. But not the bikes, I live my old Wings.
But I don't think I'm good enough make that much, and I don't think too many jobs like that exist. And I'm not willing to work harder to make it that far.
So I guess self-motivation is probably also a factor.....
I've worked in companies of all sizes in my 35 years in the workforce. I've seen 'old, stuffy, cigar-chomping, technology and change-fearing, pointy-haired bosses' in both small and large companies, worked for some medium-sized companies I loved, worked for some small companies where the innovator had no sense of IT at all even though he needed IT do run his ideas. Great idea saying that the 'little guy' like me should have more input, but when he pays my paycheck, he makes the rules.
I've worked for CEOs and CTOs that I thought the world of and while not innovative themselves, recognized talent and allowed the talent to do their job within boundaries. Because they knew what their job was.. to manage the company, not operate it.
I've worked with some truly egotistical moronic peers who had no concept of how bad their ideas were and were always upset they got shot down, by both management and their fellow workers. Who would want any of these people to have a say in anything??
If you don't like your company, and you are skilled enough... leave for one you do like. If you are stuck with bosses you don't like in a company that is going downhill, then it's only because you aren't good enough. Get over yourself, knuckle down, and do your job. Make sure it's not your fault the company fails.
And please.. stop whining about how you could do a better job. You can't.. if you could, someone would hire you to do it.
They are also great for practice. Load at home, not at the range where range time is costing money.
But don't tell the anti-gun group that target shooting is fun.. it would ruin all of their arguments about 'guns only designed to kill people'. Last time I checked, guns were designed to shoot bullets. Some bullets are designed specifically to kill people, others are designed to kill animals, and some are designed just for target shooting.
Only scientists care about the differences. And they are free to work in metric if they want. I can't measure 'one fluid ounce', I can only get close. And for most people, close is good enough. Only engineers need to worry about things less than 1/8th of an inch when building stuff. And working in fractions is pretty easy when you do it all the time. I worked at a factory that made corrugated containers (cardboard boxes to the ignorant), and everything was in fractions. I got really good at manipulating fractions down to the 16ths of an inch and adding/subtracting. Just because something is difficult for one person doesn't mean it's not difficult to learn, it could mean that they just haven't learned it. Like having to learn all of the centi, milli, micro, kilo, deci, etc. prefixes. Unless you use them often enough, they are difficult to remember. I have no problems remember inches/foot/yard/mile, ounces/pound/ton, secs/hour/day/week/year, months/quarter/year. None of those are decimal. And never had to convert inches to miles, so who cares. When I need to, I can calculate it long hand. And I've never been very good at remembering all of the metric prefixes. Never had to, don't really need to. But I'm sure if I worked somewhere that I was exposed to them, I could.
Imperial is very easy for cooking, most of the items are multiples of 2 (i.e. 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, 2 quarts in a half gallon, 2 half gallons in a gallon). Even the factions are multiples of two, often 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16. The odd man out is fluid ounces, but many recipes use fractions of a cup, not ounces. Ounces usually means weight, unless it specifically says 'fluid ounces'. But then again, a cup of water is different from a cup of sugar, dry cups are different sizes from 'wet' cups and most people who cook know the difference. It's only confusing to people who don't cook very often, or who weren't taught it. Just as the metric system is only confusing to people who don't use it or weren't taught it.
Just because someone isn't smart enough or willing to learn a measurement system doesn't make it a bad system. They both have advantages and I agree 100% with letting individuals decide which one they want to use. Teach both in school, and if one system offers a true advantage it will become more prevalent while the other fades away to it's niches.
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So you never change the station on the radio?? Or glance down to see what your fuel level is?? Or how fast you were going?? Or read billboards or road signs?? Or even glance in your mirrors to check traffic behind you??? Or look beside you to see if you can change lanes? Or glance in your rear view mirror to see what your kids are doing?? Or at your passenger because they said something funny?? You never sneeze, because that means taking your eyes off the road. You just sit there with your hands at 10 and 2, sitting up straight, eyes looking ahead and watching the road only in front of you. You don't talk with anyone, not even asking directions because trying to find that next street would be too distracting. You don't use a GPS, because that would mean looking away from the road. Or the voice would be too distracting.
Give me a break, you take your eyes off the road all the time and do other things that distract you. When you judge it is safe to do so because you have decided that you can look away at something and look back before anything happens in front of you. Because the closest car is 100 feet away and you have decided that you can look at your fuel gauge because even if they jam on their brakes the moment you look away, by the time you look up and see it you will still have time to stop. Yet someone could change lanes in front of you and jam on their brakes while you plow into them because you wanted to check how much fuel you had. How thoughtless and insensitive of you.
I've turned off the radio because I was looking for something and it was distracting. I did it because I have this ability to judge what I have the ability to do, and when it's impaired. Maybe you think other people don't have that ability, but they do. Conditions change, and just because some people don't have the ability to talk on the phone safely, doesn't mean everyone doesn't. Nor does it mean that it's safe to do it anytime I want to. I spend as little time on the phone as I can, and only when traffic conditions allow for it. And I've put the phone down while talking with my wife because conditions changed and I needed to spend more time focused on driving.
My wife and I only go once a week, when it's convenient, and usually in the car on our way home from work, so I really don't care. I have this ability to plan ahead and I rarely get anything in the mail that requires immediate attention. As you said, it's mostly ads, if they had a trash can next to the mail box it would probably overflow every day. And I'll bet a very high percentage of people who currently use clusters do the same thing. I haven't had door delivery since I moved out of my mom's house in the 80s. It's either been PO boxes, clustered mail boxes, apartment boxes, or rural mail boxes down the end of a long driveway.
I see many elderly people walking around our subdivision with their dogs, so that excuse doesn't fly. It's really only a very small portion of people that are either too lazy, too OCD, or disabled that this impacts.
Since you are so concerned, why don't you seek out an elderly person in your neighborhood and offer to pick up their mail for them, since you have to get yours anyway???
Ah yes .. Assange. The cowardly self-centered publicity whore. They make a good pair.
Memory and spatial ability, and how quickly things a learned in each area. I have a very high degree of spatial ability, and became very good at tech. My guidance councilor insisted that I go to college when all I wanted to do was fix TVs, went one semester and dropped out because I discovered computers and that I didn't need someone to teach it to me. I could fit the pieces of a computer program in my head and spill it out from my fingertips. 35 years later, I'm making over 6 figures without a college education. Today I manipulate entire systems in my head to find the best way to make them fit, or what has them broken. If only college was structured better to deal with people who learn quickly and could have kept me engaged, I probably could have learned a heck of a lot more.
... I can't remember any of them. Sometimes things stick, but I can't figure out the rhyme or reason. My ex-wife, on the other hand, had an almost eidetic memory. She became an RN and could rattle off drug interactions like it was written on a page in front of her. She could remember the name of someone she had met years ago, once. But she had little to no spatial ability. I don't know how many times I tried to teach her how to program a VCR, she just couldn't get it. Driving directions for her required landmarks that I didn't notice, not the compass directions that I used. Choosing either north or south I-95 was impossible, she wanted to know whether to turn left or right. (Yes .. I know .. it says it right on the sign. You try to convince her .. I gave up. That's one reason she became my 'ex-wife' ... just not a good fit)
.. diagnosing and fixing things.If she had the tools to really determine my skills, maybe things would have turned out even better.
However, my memory sucks the big one. Names, places, dates
We are two very smart people that have done well, but in two very different ways. Our daughter, however, seems to have gotten both. She is taking bio-science classes and can rattle of biological processes, how they work, and the names of parts I didn't even know existed. I tell her she is 'scary-smart', she can go on and on when talking about the detail off genetic manipulation. She does what I do with cells instead of with programming languages.
I could never be a doctor or nurse or a genetic researcher, my ex-wife could never be a computer programmer or a genetic researcher. My daughter could do any of them. Sure, I probably could have tried to be a doctor, but it would have been a struggle with all of the memorization. My ex-wife could have learned computer language syntax and been able to recite it back, but probably couldn't have applied it.
While I applaud my councilor for trying to send me to college, I still ended up doing the same thing a TV repair guy does
Your comment is wrong on so many levels. I ride motorcycles in Arizona, and many of my friends often carry, some on their hip, some concealed. I also carry from time to time. In the many years of riding I've done, NO ONE has ever pulled his sidearm or threatened anyone. I personally have been pulled over by police who didn't even ask me to remove my revolver from it's holster, and we had a very pleasant chat about how motorcycle police officers deal with the heat in Phoenix in the summer.
I'm reminded of an article in the London Times a few months ago about an increase in sales of miniature baseball bats recently in the UK because police were unable to protect citizens during riots. Maybe those people should just move because it seems to be a dangerous place. Or does it not count if the only weapon one has to protect themselves is a baseball bat.
Why do we carry a gun?? Not because the world is dangerous, but because individuals are. (i.e. your assumption that people carry just because it is a dangerous place is wrong) And we don't know when or where a dangerous individual will show up. Like maybe a movie theater, or shopping mall. Or a summer camp in Norway. I don't carry because those places are dangerous, I carry because of the very small percentage of people that are dangerous that might show up and I would like to at least have a chance. I hope I can go through life without ever pulling my gun. But every day, people in 'safe' places pull out their guns and defend themselves.
Maybe you should start reading those stories instead of the ones the media feed you. You might learn more about something you are obviously very ignorant about.
It is taught in gun self-defense classes that a person with a knife can be just as dangerous as someone with a gun. That distance is the only safe option, someone within 15 feet with a knife can kill you before you have time to react even if you do have a gun. Many of these classes concentrate on what to do at short distances, since it is very rare that someone will announce "I've got a knife and I'm going to kill you" ahead of time. Gru may announce his weapons, but that's a cartoon.
.. many gun death statistics are useless because they rarely separate people involved in criminal activities, i.e. a homeowner shooting a burglar, or a drug exchange gone bad are often included in gun death rates.
In the UK several years ago, a group of doctors wanted to make long bladed, pointed kitchen knives illegal because it seems that without guns, people had turned to using those when killing each other. Since the majority of gun deaths are one-on-one, it makes little difference if it's a knife, gun, or baseball bat. None of them take much effort or training to be deadly.
When you get a chance, please post the death rate of victims armed with guns v/s those without. BTW
I do agree with your list on why people won't buy such things. Gun manufacturers were required to put internal locks on guns because of moronic California laws, and from my experience with people that like to target shoot, they are either removed or not used. I bought a gun with one and other than figuring out how it worked, never used it. Some buyers won't even buy a gun with an internal lock because of the perceived increase in the risk of failure. I say 'perceived' because I have yet to see any statistics that are trustworthy on the subject and not more than anecdotal.
Sometimes people do because they're angry, stupid and/or crazy. The problem when everyone is waving a gun around, how do you know which one to shoot?
There .. fixed that for you. You can change it back to often when more than a fourth of gun owners have done so.
Who do you know who to shoot?? Probably the guy that is doing the shooting and killing would be my guess. During the Tucson shooting, several people in the crowd had guns, but didn't shoot because they couldn't identify the shooter (this is Arizona, many people carry guns. I've even carried a gun on my hip into Chase bank without any incident.) The shooter was disarmed later by unarmed people, and a guy who had a gun mistakenly thought the person who took the gun was the shooter. However, he didn't shoot because the person with the gun WASN'T SHOOTING AT ANYONE.
Just because a few people are ignorant (mostly people who don't shoot guns) in how guns work doesn't mean everyone is.
All stories like this and the airplane crash do is to allow those that agree to add another notch to their belt of how bad things are and rant about for a bit. Those that disagree will continue to ignore them, and possibly rant about those that agree. Both sides will claim the other side is stupid or hypocrites or delusional, and nothing will change. Those that agree will continue to only read stories that prove their point, and those that disagree will continue to pooh-poh those same articles.
.. no news here. No one did anything illegal. Those that think Google is evil will continue to do so. Those that use Google will also continue to do so.
Yawn
1. If someone is living somewhere without phone access, then the person calling them for the job also doesn't have a phone. If someone is living where there is phone service, the infrastructure already exists. If someone is living where there isn't phone access but the job isn't there, they will have to move. Not a valid reason.
2. Phones are not necessary in an area where there aren't any phones. Everyone is in the same boat. They didn't talk to anyone when they moved there, nothing has changed or needs to change.
3. I pay to protect ME, not someone else. When I pay for highway usage, I get a benefit from it. What benefit do I get from this so it's worth me paying for it?
4. I don't need to move, I have a phone. Why should I spend money to support someone if I don't get a benefit from it. I don't mind having the choice to do it, but I shouldn't have to do it if I don't get a benefit from it. And by 'I', that also means society improves because of it.
5. People lived and farmed for thousands of years without phones. Subsidizing farmer's phones decreases food costs, but increases other costs, so it's a net wash since everyone eats, and a large portion of the population have phones. I can choose what foods to buy based on what they cost. If costs rose, farmers would then be motivated to find appropriate communication methods to keep their costs down. Providing phones circumvents that process.
As we have seen in home and college subsidies, providing free money does not keep costs down. Instead, it interferes with the normal supply and demand process and increases prices. When insurance became prevalent and more people used health care, costs went up because the cost to the consumer was less and they could afford more, higher priced, procedures regardless of whether they were actually necessary or not. Such as putting a cast on a break v/s putting in a plate and paying for the accompanying physical therapy.
Government interference with markets usually has unforeseen consequences which are rarely beneficial. A valid exception is to prevent a monopoly from using it's ownership of a product to keep competitors out.
1. When having a phone became a 'right'
2. Why people have to have phone that requires 90% or more of the country to pay for it because of where they choose to live
3. Why I should pay more because someone wants to live in a rural area where they can't make any money and don't have phone service. And where storms can bring down phone lines causing thousands of dollars in repair costs for a phone they don't pay for.
4. Why they can't move
5. Why, after all of the above, if they don't have skills, can't live off the land, can't get a job, can't move, and are poor, we don't relocate them someplace else since they must already be living on the government dole. When you don't make your own way and don't contribute to society, you don't get to decide the rules that govern how you receive free money and other things.
A .. Snowden isn't a traitor, he is a cowardly traitor.
.. I'm am very concerned about the increased amount of surveillance in the world, but feel there are less cowardly and traitorous ways to go about fighting it. A hero stays and fights instead of fleeing to countries that are even more abusive of the very thing he exposed. Sounds more like the actions of a hypocrite than a hero. So I'll agree there might be an overlap, but disagree on the 'substantial' just based on other conversations I've had with people who are quite capable of making up their own minds instead of listening to the propaganda being spread daily by Snowden now that he has some attention. (See how that works both ways???? Or is it only propaganda if you don't agree with it....)
.. The app is no more 'wrong' than the app that lets people tag restaurants and other businesses that have 'no firearms allowed' signs up. Except that there are no measurable standards or other means of confirmation, so it will have the same degree of accuracy as internet hotel and restaurant reviews. At least someone can confirm the presence or absence of a sign. I'm free to use whichever one I want, as is anyone else.
B
C
I have an app that tells me what businesses are not gun-friendly and won't let me carry my legal firearm into them, so I either don't visit those businesses if there are other options, or make sure I leave my gun in my car and not have to walk back when I get to the door and see the sign. (Yes .. I carry all the time. Those around me don't know it. And in the last 15 years, I have shot no one. Get over your irrational fears, my ex-boss is just as deadly as I am and she doesn't need to carry a gun.)
But at least there is a measurable standard for the marking, a sign on the door that says 'no firearms allowed'. What measurable standard is the app going to use?? Someone's opinion? It's almost useless if there isn't a measurable standard.
Kind of like hotel and restaurant reviews on the internet.
I wish I could mod you up just for on that last sentence!
All they need to make is two withdrawals a month for the amount of their paycheck ..... that's what I did. I paid cash where I could, bought money orders for the bills I couldn't. It was a pain, but two years later was able to open a checking account.
I had forgotten, but I also get those fees if I transfer out of savings to checking too many times a month. So I do this thing called 'a budget' and plan for it. I would hazard a guess that 90% of the fees can be avoided with some basic planning. I probably only pay an ATM fee once or twice a year, and haven't paid a checking account fee for several years. All by understanding the rules and planning.
Personally, I get tired of people griping about how bad they have it. If someone can't get a checking account, it's usually their fault. I've always been able to get free checking accounts with direct deposit and even if fees were charged, figured out how to keep them to a minimum. The company found a local credit union for everyone that wanted to open a checking account so they wouldn't have fees, but I don't know how many took advantage of it. There were three people out of a company of 50 that had to use the pre-paid cards for some reason. Another 10 finally stepped into the 21st century and had direct deposit into their existing checking accounts. A couple of them didn't do it previously because they wanted to go to the store, cash their check, put some of it in their pocket, and give the rest to their spouse.
The other folly is web authors expecting people to just let code on some unknown server run on my box. If something requires javascript, the author should have the decency to detect it is disabled and either fail gracefully or send the user to a page saying javascript is required. A large part of javascript out there is simply 'pretty printing' or other 'kool' type of manipulation that isn't necessary at all. I'll gladly give up the automatic mouse over pop-ups, annoying text boxes that travel down screen, and pop-up/roll-over menus for standard HTML. Too many web page authors like to use things just because they are cool instead of things that actually add value. Sure, I like calendars that are clickable. But I don't have to have them, just let me enter the god damn date and accept several different formats instead of being lazy and forcing me to use a calendar because someone is too lazy to actually have to code something.
.. Goggle requires javascript. But I'll be damned if I'll let doubleclick or a host of other servers run their javascript on my box whenever I visit a web page, even if I trust it. If NoScript stops working, I will be searching for alternatives. I browse with NoScript and often run into pages that fail miserable. But I can select the list of servers I trust and reload if I choose to.
Sure
Or not use their web site at all.
It's all anecdotal, but it seems that I get far fewer virus infections than many people that just blindly turn it on.
It only impacted people unwilling to get bank accounts they could use for direct deposit. Even people with very bad credit can usually get a passbook savings account, where they are free to draw money without charge. I know .. it happened to me about 20 years ago.
.. wake me up when Slashdot has a real story about social injustice instead of people just too ignorant to do what most of us do.
I think that the number of people this actually impacts is very small. The largest number is simply those that won't get bank accounts so they have control over whether or not to get a prepaid card. Those that can't get accounts are usually those that can't handle their money very well, which is why they can't get bank accounts, and why they have to pay fees on debit cards because they tend to overdraw them so often.
Yawn
I'm 54 and haven't gotten a job without knowing someone at the company or being recommended by a friend for over 20 years, that's 5 jobs before my most recent one. My last search started down the monster.com road, even interviewed several times. Then went to one interview at a company where the VP was someone I used to work with and several people I know worked at, and had a job created specifically for my skill set. Best job I've ever had...and the highest paying.
Don't stop using traditional methods, but if you are any good your past associates are your best bet to getting you a job. They can get your resume to the person hiring.
If you still can't get a job, maybe you just aren't that good. Or your skills are too outdated. Figure out which one is the problem and fix it instead of whining.
Yes ... yes I am. Morons for thinking that the right way to do something is to break federal laws and then run like a coward and not accept responsibility. People like Rosa Parks are heroes, they broke the rules and stood in place so they could further challenge it instead of running like a yellow dog with it's tail between it's leg.
A real hero would have stayed and further challenged the system. Let justice take it's course for his actions, and fight it like a man instead of cowering like a little scared boy.
I see nothing that makes him a hero. No more than robbing a bank and giving money to the poor does.
It's been known for over a DECADE (remember the patriot act???) that the NSA was monitoring foreign calls. There have been numerous news articles about it. Get real people, if you didn't know that then you are truly ignorant.
Hope this treasonous coward gets extradited and spends the rest of his miserable life in jail. I'm not a fan of the NSA doing all of this, but anyone who didn't know it's been going on is a moron.
He has a brand??? What does he think it's worth???
I guess that's what happens when you steal another person's intellectual property for your own. 'Around the World in 80 Days' is far outside copyright laws, anyone expecting any kind of ownership is a hypocrite.
Why make $200K if you can't enjoy it because you are working 18x7x52???
I make above $100K working 8x5x48. Been doing it since I was 40. Last two nights I worked 10 hours, but it really was needed. Rarely get called.
I'm smart, but not an expert in anything. I am a damn good trouble shooter and work on old software because new developers are too full of themselves to do it and I have a lot of experience working on code I know nothing about without finding excuses.
My salary gives me a very comfortable lifestyle. I drive a 2001 Blazer because I'm too cheap to trade in a truck that works. A truck I paid $12K for in 2003. I have a 1984 and 1989 Goldwing in the garage that get ridden over 15K miles a year because I see no reason to buy a new bike when I can get a used bike has less than 50K miles on it for $5K and will probably run over 200K miles instead buying an overpriced new bike because "it's cool". I have no debt except for the house, and pretty darn good 401K and savings accounts.
It's amazing how far a good $100K salary can go if you spend it on stuff you need instead of stuff you just want. I do buy things from time to time that I just 'want', I don't live like a pauper. But I've found that a $1000 audio system meets my needs, and 42" TV is actually big enough. So my wife and I spend our spare money enjoying life by traveling a few times a year on long weekend trips instead of stuff that just takes up space.
I have nothing against an extravagant lifestyle. If I could make $200K or more a year doing what I do now with the same level of stress, of course I'd do it. And I'd probably have a newer car and, nicer house. But not the bikes, I live my old Wings.
But I don't think I'm good enough make that much, and I don't think too many jobs like that exist. And I'm not willing to work harder to make it that far.
So I guess self-motivation is probably also a factor.....
I've worked in companies of all sizes in my 35 years in the workforce. I've seen 'old, stuffy, cigar-chomping, technology and change-fearing, pointy-haired bosses' in both small and large companies, worked for some medium-sized companies I loved, worked for some small companies where the innovator had no sense of IT at all even though he needed IT do run his ideas. Great idea saying that the 'little guy' like me should have more input, but when he pays my paycheck, he makes the rules.
.. to manage the company, not operate it.
... leave for one you do like. If you are stuck with bosses you don't like in a company that is going downhill, then it's only because you aren't good enough. Get over yourself, knuckle down, and do your job. Make sure it's not your fault the company fails.
.. stop whining about how you could do a better job. You can't .. if you could, someone would hire you to do it.
I've worked for CEOs and CTOs that I thought the world of and while not innovative themselves, recognized talent and allowed the talent to do their job within boundaries. Because they knew what their job was
I've worked with some truly egotistical moronic peers who had no concept of how bad their ideas were and were always upset they got shot down, by both management and their fellow workers. Who would want any of these people to have a say in anything??
If you don't like your company, and you are skilled enough
And please
They are also great for practice. Load at home, not at the range where range time is costing money.
.. it would ruin all of their arguments about 'guns only designed to kill people'. Last time I checked, guns were designed to shoot bullets. Some bullets are designed specifically to kill people, others are designed to kill animals, and some are designed just for target shooting.
But don't tell the anti-gun group that target shooting is fun
Only scientists care about the differences. And they are free to work in metric if they want. I can't measure 'one fluid ounce', I can only get close. And for most people, close is good enough. Only engineers need to worry about things less than 1/8th of an inch when building stuff. And working in fractions is pretty easy when you do it all the time. I worked at a factory that made corrugated containers (cardboard boxes to the ignorant), and everything was in fractions. I got really good at manipulating fractions down to the 16ths of an inch and adding/subtracting. Just because something is difficult for one person doesn't mean it's not difficult to learn, it could mean that they just haven't learned it. Like having to learn all of the centi, milli, micro, kilo, deci, etc. prefixes. Unless you use them often enough, they are difficult to remember. I have no problems remember inches/foot/yard/mile, ounces/pound/ton, secs/hour/day/week/year, months/quarter/year. None of those are decimal. And never had to convert inches to miles, so who cares. When I need to, I can calculate it long hand. And I've never been very good at remembering all of the metric prefixes. Never had to, don't really need to. But I'm sure if I worked somewhere that I was exposed to them, I could.
Imperial is very easy for cooking, most of the items are multiples of 2 (i.e. 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, 2 quarts in a half gallon, 2 half gallons in a gallon). Even the factions are multiples of two, often 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16. The odd man out is fluid ounces, but many recipes use fractions of a cup, not ounces. Ounces usually means weight, unless it specifically says 'fluid ounces'. But then again, a cup of water is different from a cup of sugar, dry cups are different sizes from 'wet' cups and most people who cook know the difference. It's only confusing to people who don't cook very often, or who weren't taught it. Just as the metric system is only confusing to people who don't use it or weren't taught it.
Just because someone isn't smart enough or willing to learn a measurement system doesn't make it a bad system. They both have advantages and I agree 100% with letting individuals decide which one they want to use. Teach both in school, and if one system offers a true advantage it will become more prevalent while the other fades away to it's niches.