It's true that the majority of Americans lack a passport, but it's also true that a majority will never leave the country in their lives. Many will proudly tell you they don't need to, because they already live in the greatest place on earth.
<conspiracy rant>And of course the current administration wants to encourage that attitude. God forbid we're exposed to foreign ideas. And if this passport thing doesn't discourage you, just take a look at current exchange rates.</conspiracy rant>
To be fair, it is a huge country. You could stay safely within our borders your whole life and still be very well travelled. In reality though, the type of people who brag about never having left the country have probably never left their home state.
Porn, warez, the weather channel, mainstream news sites, travel booking sites, pretty much any site other than Google and blogs that make most of their money from advertising.
People who forget or otherwise choose not to send in their rebate forms have no reason to be annoyed with anyone other than themselves. The big problem is when people uphold their end of the bargain and the company fails to uphold theirs.
Personally, I have yet to be stiffed, but two rebates I mailed in for my parents when they bought cell phones were rejected on the grounds that the second month's bill didn't show that the first month's balance was paid in full. Bullshit. There was a large number next to "previous month's balance" and a zero next to "current balance". I even circled it for them so they wouldn't miss it.
One angry email later, they promised to review my claim, and my parents did receive a rebate check for one phone. As for the second phone, they claimed not to have a rebate form in their system. Again, BS. How could they send me a rejection notice for a rebate form they never received? They either lost it or threw it out because they didn't feel like paying it.
Another angry email followed, and now they're asking me to fax my supporting documentation, which I plan on doing (always keep copies of rebate forms/receipts, etc, until you have the check). It almost seems like a game to see who will get tired of squabbling over a few measly bucks first. If it were my own money and not my parents, I'm not sure I'd still be fighting.
First off, so there's no confusion, I am not the AC you responded to. Moving on...
Are you suggesting that it might be illegal to type in a URL without the express, written consent of the domain owner? From what I've read, that's all this "hack" entailed. The only people who should be punished are the admins who made the letters accessible to begin with.
Not to put words into your mouth, but I'm guessing from your tone that you would find this comparable to a theif going door to door at night, jiggling doornobs to find an unlocked house. Some people might say the victims were asking for it by not locking their doors, but most would put the blame solely on the theif for his 'ethical lapse' in taking advantage of the situation.
The problem is that the Internet has created an ethical gray area in victimless, profitless "crimes" such as file trading (i'm stepping in a mine field there, i know), that are effortless enough to be committed almost as an afterthought. Society (okay... me and a bunch of other slashdotters) has a hard time condemning others for these acts.
Bottom line for me, there was no criminal intent. At worst, this was mischief on par with an 11 year old digging through the attic on December 23rd to find out what he's getting for Christmas. Now that the problem has been fixed and the Harvard applicants made an example of, I seriously doubt that MIT and the other affected schools will be so harsh.
in what looks like a huge coincidence, they all decided to cheat me. I'm the victim here.
Yeah, and if you ever go on a shooting spree, just say "in what looks like a huge coincidence, all these people decided to attack me. It was self defense. I'm the victim here."
Just to be clear, the people you need to convince of this are cops, not your mommy and daddy who love you unconditionally and don't believe the bad people who say mean things about you. Grow up.
I'm sure the TiVo apologists will emerge soon to defend their baby to the death.
Okay, I'll bite. TiVo collects anonymous statistics. The annual "most-replayed Super Bowl moment" press release is a marketing gimmick. It makes the handful of people who still don't know what TiVo is sit up and say "wow, I wish I could do that."
Sure, there's the potential for them to connect those statistics to customer names and sell it to advertisers, but TiVo has built a solid reputation for being a company, like Google, that "gets it". They earned our trust years ago when they turned a blind eye to hacking, and they've done an admirable job of walking the line between customer satisfaction and entertainment industry lawsuits.
Let's put this in context. Google issues a press release every year about their Zeitgeist site. Are you upset that they keep statistics on top queries? Does it worry you that every search you do can be traced back to your IP address? Are you outraged that this info may be used to build databases for Google Suggest?
If so, then put your tinfoil hat back on and let's agree to disagree.
That's the beauty! He actually lowered taxes while doing it! So think about it when the dollar collapses, making the Great Depression look like a party you weren't invited to, and Americans desperate for stability elect a REAL fascist who proceeds to invade Mexico for... lebensraum... or something.
Of course at that point you might as well hire an armed guard to sit by your machine 24/7 and ask would-be users for photo ID. Retinal scan? This guy'll scan your whole face! And if you're a woman, he'll check out your ass at no additional charge.
What the phrase means is simply that the motivation was political -- gee, go figure.
I am able to parse the literal meaning, thank you, but you also have to look at how it's actually used. More often than not, it's a way to make hard questions easy to ignore. In that regard, the accusation of political motivation is itself politically motivated.
What does "politically motivated" mean anymore? It's supposed to imply a weak, unsubstantiated allegation, but you admit she had "excellent arguments and ample evidence". If you consider that politically motivated, you've been watching too much FUD News Channel.
You just answered your own question. Solar energy feeds plant life. Plant life feeds herbivores. Herbivores feed carnivores. In sickness and in death, all of the above feed fungi and bacteria. It's called the food chain. Look it up.
With distributed computing catching on, this might not be such a bad idea. How many people own or otherwise use exercise equipment? (i know, wrong place to ask). It shouldnt be too hard to convert those machines into generators and have them dump their power into the grid. Individually, each person may generate an insignificant amount of electricity, but it all adds up.
I'm picturing a World War II style government propaganda blitz with "victory workouts" replacing victory gardens.
Email within a private company is not a matter of public record. One big exception is financial firms goverened by the Securities & Exchange Commission. They are required to archive business-related electronic communication for three years. This is a relatively new rule created in the wake of some high-profile accounting scandals a few years back.
By your interpretation, anyone who has ever deleted an email or failed to archive instant messages has some jail time in their future.
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
The fact is not all people are created with equal abilities, this is why Capitalism (Social Darwinism) thrives.
Communism doesn't assume all people are equally able. The central tenet of communism is "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". The trouble occurs when people of dubious ability decide they need private jets. Under capitalism, these people are CEOs and still get their jets, but at least it's with their own (or their investors') money instead of public funds.
You may not have noticed, but the US and Russia aren't getting along particularly well right now. Bush and Putin claim to be friends, but I can't reconcile that with Putin's repeated pessimistic forecast for Iraq (not that I disagree with him, but why would he go out of his way to undercut such a strong "ally"?). Add to that Russian suspiscion of US interference in the Ukrainian election (probably true, but even so: pot, kettle, black) and this move seems motivated more by spite than anything else.
"The Russian president accused the United States of trying to 'isolate' Russia by interfering in Moscow's relations with its neighbors -- not only Ukraine, but also the breakaway Republic of Chechnya."
"'As far as the Iraqi elections are concerned -- I have big doubts about whether democratic elections can be guaranteed under the full occupation of foreign troops,' Putin said."
"Still, Putin stressed the continued strong ties between Moscow and Washington, and said he was satisfied with the way bilateral relations are developing."
Of course we (New Yorkers) could just take an elevator up a few flights, unless this thing is expected to knock down skyscrapers. That would give the "domino theory" a whole new meaning. Not that we haven't come close before.
Slashdot Mirror
giving the American South someplace to point the finger and say "See! We're not the bottom after all" ... if they could find it on a map.
To be fair, it is a huge country. You could stay safely within our borders your whole life and still be very well travelled. In reality though, the type of people who brag about never having left the country have probably never left their home state.
Porn, warez, the weather channel, mainstream news sites, travel booking sites, pretty much any site other than Google and blogs that make most of their money from advertising.
People who forget or otherwise choose not to send in their rebate forms have no reason to be annoyed with anyone other than themselves. The big problem is when people uphold their end of the bargain and the company fails to uphold theirs.
Personally, I have yet to be stiffed, but two rebates I mailed in for my parents when they bought cell phones were rejected on the grounds that the second month's bill didn't show that the first month's balance was paid in full. Bullshit. There was a large number next to "previous month's balance" and a zero next to "current balance". I even circled it for them so they wouldn't miss it.
One angry email later, they promised to review my claim, and my parents did receive a rebate check for one phone. As for the second phone, they claimed not to have a rebate form in their system. Again, BS. How could they send me a rejection notice for a rebate form they never received? They either lost it or threw it out because they didn't feel like paying it.
Another angry email followed, and now they're asking me to fax my supporting documentation, which I plan on doing (always keep copies of rebate forms/receipts, etc, until you have the check). It almost seems like a game to see who will get tired of squabbling over a few measly bucks first. If it were my own money and not my parents, I'm not sure I'd still be fighting.
From what I understand, personal assistants in France were tactile long before they were digital, if you know what I mean.
First off, so there's no confusion, I am not the AC you responded to. Moving on...
Are you suggesting that it might be illegal to type in a URL without the express, written consent of the domain owner? From what I've read, that's all this "hack" entailed. The only people who should be punished are the admins who made the letters accessible to begin with.
Not to put words into your mouth, but I'm guessing from your tone that you would find this comparable to a theif going door to door at night, jiggling doornobs to find an unlocked house. Some people might say the victims were asking for it by not locking their doors, but most would put the blame solely on the theif for his 'ethical lapse' in taking advantage of the situation.
The problem is that the Internet has created an ethical gray area in victimless, profitless "crimes" such as file trading (i'm stepping in a mine field there, i know), that are effortless enough to be committed almost as an afterthought. Society (okay... me and a bunch of other slashdotters) has a hard time condemning others for these acts.
Bottom line for me, there was no criminal intent. At worst, this was mischief on par with an 11 year old digging through the attic on December 23rd to find out what he's getting for Christmas. Now that the problem has been fixed and the Harvard applicants made an example of, I seriously doubt that MIT and the other affected schools will be so harsh.
in what looks like a huge coincidence, they all decided to cheat me. I'm the victim here.
Yeah, and if you ever go on a shooting spree, just say "in what looks like a huge coincidence, all these people decided to attack me. It was self defense. I'm the victim here."
Just to be clear, the people you need to convince of this are cops, not your mommy and daddy who love you unconditionally and don't believe the bad people who say mean things about you. Grow up.
I'm sure the TiVo apologists will emerge soon to defend their baby to the death.
Okay, I'll bite. TiVo collects anonymous statistics. The annual "most-replayed Super Bowl moment" press release is a marketing gimmick. It makes the handful of people who still don't know what TiVo is sit up and say "wow, I wish I could do that."
Sure, there's the potential for them to connect those statistics to customer names and sell it to advertisers, but TiVo has built a solid reputation for being a company, like Google, that "gets it". They earned our trust years ago when they turned a blind eye to hacking, and they've done an admirable job of walking the line between customer satisfaction and entertainment industry lawsuits.
Let's put this in context. Google issues a press release every year about their Zeitgeist site. Are you upset that they keep statistics on top queries? Does it worry you that every search you do can be traced back to your IP address? Are you outraged that this info may be used to build databases for Google Suggest?
If so, then put your tinfoil hat back on and let's agree to disagree.
That's the beauty! He actually lowered taxes while doing it! So think about it when the dollar collapses, making the Great Depression look like a party you weren't invited to, and Americans desperate for stability elect a REAL fascist who proceeds to invade Mexico for ... lebensraum ... or something.
Of course at that point you might as well hire an armed guard to sit by your machine 24/7 and ask would-be users for photo ID. Retinal scan? This guy'll scan your whole face! And if you're a woman, he'll check out your ass at no additional charge.
A homosexual or heterosexual guilty of adultery will go to hell.
Ok, so once gay marriage is legalized, they're in the clear. Thanks for clearing that up!
Holy cow, we have a winner! Or maybe not, those articles are almost a year old.
Is there any way to filter out comments that reference "normal joe", "average joe", "joe sixpack", "little susie", et al.? It's really obnoxious.
What the phrase means is simply that the motivation was political -- gee, go figure.
I am able to parse the literal meaning, thank you, but you also have to look at how it's actually used. More often than not, it's a way to make hard questions easy to ignore. In that regard, the accusation of political motivation is itself politically motivated.
What does "politically motivated" mean anymore? It's supposed to imply a weak, unsubstantiated allegation, but you admit she had "excellent arguments and ample evidence". If you consider that politically motivated, you've been watching too much FUD News Channel.
You just answered your own question. Solar energy feeds plant life. Plant life feeds herbivores. Herbivores feed carnivores. In sickness and in death, all of the above feed fungi and bacteria. It's called the food chain. Look it up.
The fossil record.
Rat in a wheel?
With distributed computing catching on, this might not be such a bad idea. How many people own or otherwise use exercise equipment? (i know, wrong place to ask). It shouldnt be too hard to convert those machines into generators and have them dump their power into the grid. Individually, each person may generate an insignificant amount of electricity, but it all adds up.
I'm picturing a World War II style government propaganda blitz with "victory workouts" replacing victory gardens.
Each bus costs almost 2 million dollars and probably contains enough explosive hydrogen to send one of the passengers into orbit
As long as that seat is clearly marked, I see no problem with this.
Email within a private company is not a matter of public record. One big exception is financial firms goverened by the Securities & Exchange Commission. They are required to archive business-related electronic communication for three years. This is a relatively new rule created in the wake of some high-profile accounting scandals a few years back.
By your interpretation, anyone who has ever deleted an email or failed to archive instant messages has some jail time in their future.
The fact is not all people are created with equal abilities, this is why Capitalism (Social Darwinism) thrives.
Communism doesn't assume all people are equally able. The central tenet of communism is "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". The trouble occurs when people of dubious ability decide they need private jets. Under capitalism, these people are CEOs and still get their jets, but at least it's with their own (or their investors') money instead of public funds.
But don't take my word for it, take Putin's:That last quote just doesn't add up.
Of course we (New Yorkers) could just take an elevator up a few flights, unless this thing is expected to knock down skyscrapers. That would give the "domino theory" a whole new meaning. Not that we haven't come close before.