Except... Essay is the antithesis of communicating. If you look at communication as a "two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas (energy) towards a mutually accepted goal or direction (information)."
Essay, is just fine and dandy for "expressing", ranting, giving speeches and eulogies and all other forms of monologues - where you expect NO REPLY from the reader/listener. Also, it being a "word wall", you will still probably get a huge number of applicants with zero communications skills - who just happen to know how better to express themselves using a slow, editable, one-way, written form. Instead of actually communicating with one or more persons and exchanging information and ideas in real time.
What it will MOST DEFINITELY give you though, is a base for subjective discrimination based NOT on applicants "communication skills" - but on his or her "way of thinking" instead. Essentially, if one gets in based on his/her essay - it is because they fit the "group-think" profile. Leave your "creativity" at home kids and fall in line. On the other hand, if they get rejected based on their essays, it is because they are guilty of committing that much loved slashdot staple - the thought crime.
All you have to do is become friends with this guy.
Apparently, he decides on who gets to be one and determines the global quota of "Cybersecurity Experts". You may have to hurry though, as he might just decide that 640 "cybersecurity experts" should be enough for everyone. And he already knows at least six.
Not a Brit, but a Bosnian here. Born, raised and all the other stuff that goes after that. During which time I've had me my share of British TV programmes though, particularly the ones of humorous nature.
Which is where I have picked up that particular expression - as uttered by Hugh Laurie in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, commenting on Rowan Atkinson's comparison of imperialistic and expansionist tendencies of British and German leaders during the World War I.
As an unexpected side effect of all that cultural indoctrination, whenever I start "thinking in British" the little voice in my head that does the thinking for me invariably turns either into John Cleese's, Rowan Atkinson's or Hugh Laurie's voice - with expected consequences. Sadly, what little there was of Doctor Who on local television was aired during the period of my youth when I was still unable to distinguish English from say.. Greek, so Tom Baker never did made it into that small but influential group of British voices in my head.
In Soviet Zippthornia you tax the government? Being that, the less government taxes you, the more money you have - which is again not taxed. So you and other untaxed citizens soon own all of the money in the country, means of production and resources.
Two more questions.
1. Where is that lovely communist utopia? 2. Karl Marx, is that you?
Governments will always tax its citizens. If not in form of money, then in the form of "voluntary service". As we do not yet posses the means to see the future - there will always be a calculated overhead in those taxes. As costs are really unpredictable it is usually spent, but when we do get to see it we call that a sufficit. Government will always take as much money it can from its citizens. That money will be spent.
Money (not)spent on projects such as Olympic games would not be left to the citizens. Instead of Olympics (or other cultural and infrastructural advances and projects), it would be spent on things like Acapulco seminars for government officials and nuclear submarines.
Simplest effect: All hotels filled with tourists? Great or not? Not. Reason? Business people can't find a place to stay. Next year, the tourists are gone and so are the business people.
Really? All businessmen stop coming to the town hosting the Olympics - FOREVER?! And so do tourists?!
HOLY SHIT! Quick! Someone inform the Brazilians before it's too late.
You can clean your streets without having the banner of five rings looming over them. Do you think that the olympic committee comes in and does the work?
Of course not. The regular city ordinances do that - only with extra pressure and support from other links in the chain. That is, new brooms for the city sweepers, new truncheons for the cops and full support in using both.
You can invest money in infrastructure without an international committee overseeing the work, too. Where do you think those "billions invested" come from? It's not the organization that runs the olympics.
Again... Government support. It is far easier to get a favorable credit and tax rate when the government of the entire land is your backer. And big projects like Olympics mean big money which call for big investors to get involved looking for big profit. Things that would take a decade are done in a year.
Instead of adding those billions to the "benefits", you should subtract them. And when figuring the boost, you have to recall six years of spending with no payoff until the end. What would that spending have gone towards if it hadn't been directed at grown men playing children's games? Growth, I'll bet.
Actually... it would just not get invested. Instead, a very small fraction of that money would be spent here and there and most of it to maintain the status quo.
And you are being silly with those six years. It is not as if all that will be built will be torn down come closing ceremony. These things are built to last decades, if not even centuries. Plan their use accordingly.
There is no economic reason for any city to host any sporting event. Let the event organizers pay for and reap the profits if it's so great.
Along that line of thought, there is no economic reason for any city to build roads either. Let drivers build the roads if they like to drive around so much.
That said, Chicago didn't lose. Rio won the decision. They weren't voting against chicago. Are we really so vain that we probably think the choice was about US?
From all those cities listed in the report linked above, only Athens seems to have failed to properly exploit the effect of hosting the Olympic Games. All other cites (Barcelona, Atlanta, Sidney, Beijing) reported nothing but growth.
London doesn't need it, and Chicago may well not have done either.
Nonsense. A global metropolis that can say "I'll pass" to billions invested in the infrastructure, millions of visitors and billions of pounds/dollars/euros spent by everyone? No such place on this planet. The effect on the crime and pollution alone (clean streets) is worth the trouble for the average Tom, Dick and Harry. Those must be some crazy conservative xenophobes you talked to. Not wanting money during a global economic crisis. Mad as bicycles that lot.
... Who can you trust? Some random guy out there, or some Anonymous Coward. I'm utterly perplexed and I don't know who to believe anymore as both sides have such strong arguments.
The fact that it covers a boob is a funny fact that everyone will forget once the gas bomb explodes.
I am quite confident they will. Forget it, that is. I am so confident that I propose we do the same with jockstraps that would be held together with Velcro so they could be pulled out quickly in the case of a emergency. Why not cover the other 50% of the population, right? Think of all those soldiers in the battlefield without a gas mask and not a boob in sight. Surely, they won't mind nor pay attention where it was just prior to the gas attack. Think of the lives this could save!
TANSTAAFL. If you take home cartridges purchased by the company that pays your paycheck, those losses will impact their ability to pay you and the other folks who do stuff like what you do... increasing your workload per dollar.
It is more like a free breakfast for you, that the company will pay at dinner time.
See... As any other production or management loss, cost for getting more office supplies due to employees pocketing said office supplies carries over to the final product. Which means, that if company is doing good and its accounting wizards are up to specs - you are actually benefiting the company cause you are creating money flow. Sure... you are increasing production costs, but they are going to dump them into the consumer's lap anyway.
On the other hand... if company is doing bad and its accounting staff is comprised of clowns instead of wizards - well... you will not earn your retirement there anyway. The cost of office supply you stole will end up in the hands of the poor jerk who ends up in your place after you (and maybe couple of your replacements) leave for greener pastures. Cause... if a lost box of toner or a pack of printing paper is what will bring the company to its knees - you better get your ass out of there ASAP.
Also... On a side note. If it is a kind of company that pays attention to every sheet of paper used - it is generally a case of being "Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish". Someone in mid/upper management has time to write such penny pinching strategies - he/she has nothing better to do, or is not doing what he/she should do. Ship is sailing to waters unknown with no one at the helm, while the captain and all the officers are debating what color should they paint the stairs to the engine room. Again - get out of there ASAP. And don't lose sleep thinking about the cost of the life boat you are taking.
The joke translates: find one with readily available cartridges.
No it does not. It translates: "Find one with FREE cartridges."
It is a common mistake. "FREE!!!" is the base of many words in Freeloaderian language, so the actual meaning often gets mangled when translated to English.
Huh? Aren't games based on pro sports among the most popular/best-selling video game categories? Would it not stand to reason that the more detailed and realistic these games become, the more interest they will hold for people who play the games in real life?
And come on, let's face it... what does it take, really, to "pass oneself off as a gamer"? Videogames -- and especially casual video games -- have become a multi-billion dollar industry. It's not like it's 1978 and you're meeting in your friend's basement to toss around 20-sided dice; entire Hollywood movie franchises are being built around videogame characters. Face it -- it ain't geekery anymore, it's mainstream... just like pro sports.
Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan." But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
Just have the app demand the Location Services to be on. How and why? Make that a necessary requirement for sending your "friends" "gifts", such as "teddybears", "kittens", "kisses", "pokes" etc. You know... like on Facebook.
When you pay $599 or $499 for something, and two months later the more expensive version is $100 cheaper than the originally cheaper version - that counts as a new model. See... it has this unique function that makes it COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the originally released model.
Now... just two months after the most loyal customers bought the original 8GB version - each box comes with TWO PHONES inside instead of just one. OK... Almost two. They would still have to fork over extra $100. Even with that iCoupon for $100 that they got for being loyal suck... I mean customers.
And I can just imagine how those who bought the 4GB version felt. They've ended up with a more expensive, yet suckier phone. I guess it can get worse... One might have his manhood snipped off for an iPhone - followed by the price being snipped off too about a month later.
I had karma to burn and I knew what I was getting into.
Hey... Being modded troll for speaking up against the hypocrisy of the article and summary and for being pro-socialism is nothing. Long time ago I've spent about a year in the "modded negative" land for speaking up against Apple. Now THAT was being modded down.:P
In a free, capitalist market, the government does not "loan" nor "give" corporations money, nor does it "bail them out".
Sure it does. Just like a bank would. Loan money for profit from the interest. Only government can afford to minimize the profit on account of getting money back through taxes on goods, workers' pay and product sales. Yes... that smacks of socialism, but here is the kicker - SOCIALISM IS GOOD. For the country AND its people. Honest.
If we forget for a moment that this is USA we are talking about, where socialism and communism was systematically demonized for over a century now, ONLY problems socialism has are susceptibility to corruption and mistreatment/misplacement of funds into wrong social projects. You know... like ANY OTHER democratic system (yes... you can have social democracy) where people give their representative their money to do what is best for them, the people. There is no change in political rights. Socialism is an ECONOMIC system, not political.
Who gets the "uncomfortable" end of the stick in socialism? Foreign and global corporations. Why? Because they can't compete with the government that both sets the rules to benefit country and the people AND can afford to dump money into projects for years without expecting a profit. Cause it is service based, not profit based. Corporations and monopolies HATE socialism because of that.
nor does it "bail them out"
The only reason the "bail-outs" are not an example of socialism is because they are an example of a corporatocracy at work. Had it been an act of socialism, for the "benefit of the people" - those companies would have been nationalized. Like GM. Granted, that would have been an "epic fail" as well... considering the current situation, but that (debt) IS what happens when you let people who are in it just for the cash control your commerce and currency. Sooner or later someone starts padding the bills, and if you don't fix it quick it explodes in your face.
There *isn't* an 8 billion dollar pile of money. Instead, there is a 10 *trillion* dollar public debt and growing all the time. "More recently the debt increased from $5,629 billion to $9,926 billion during the George W. Bush presidency from 2000 to 2008. The debt is now projected to double under the Obama presidency to a level close to 97% of GDP".
Oh... that is a WHOOOOOLE OTHER problem. That one might actually lead to forced socialism. Or bankruptcy. Or both. If the debt went to +90-95% of GDP.
Those are, naturally, worst case scenarios. It is much more likely that SOME socialism will be implemented (like that whole health-care deal), at least one war will be cut short, and hopefully taxes will be raised. I say hopefully, cause that is the only measure that actually fills the state coffers.
Luckily, US has chosen its president based on charm and image, not ability. So he will most likely stay in office for both terms (despite lack of almost any improvement so far) which should be long enough for his administration to fix SOME of the fuckups left over from Bush years. Then again... I am an optimist.
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was discontinued, and the 8 GB model price was cut by a third.[46] Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007 announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007 launch and the August 22, 2007 price protection kick-in date complained that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing.[47][48]
In response to customer complaints, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.[49] [edit] iPhone 3G pricing model changes
With the July 11, 2008 release of the iPhone 3G, Apple and AT&T changed the U.S. pricing model from the previous generation. Following the de facto model for mobile phone service in the United States, AT&T will subsidize a sizable portion of the upfront cost for the iPhone 3G followed by charging a moderately higher monthly fees over a minimum two year contract.[50]
Or did you mean that I am actually missing a couple?
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries, including the original six.[29] Apple has since released the iPhone 3G in upwards of eighty countries and territories.[30] Apple announced the iPhone 3GS on June 8, 2009, along with plans to release it later in June, July, and August, starting with the U.S., Canada and major European countries on June 19.[3] Many would-be users have objected to the iPhone's cost,[31] and 40% of users have annual incomes over 100,000 USD.[32] In an attempt to gain a wider market, Apple has retained the 8 GB iPhone 3G at a lower price point. This is the latest of several price reductions over the years; it now sells for one-sixth of the price of the original 8 GB iPhone when it first became available. In the U.S., it now costs $99, down from $599, although it includes a two-year contract and a SIM lock.
It sure does suck for all those that jumped on the 8GB model the first day... But hey... at least the two AT&T years are up now, right?
If you're being invaded and use nukes, wouldn't that mean you're nuking your own country?
You ARE talking about the country and leadership that sent thousands of THEIR OWN high-school kids charging through minefields in "human waves". Continuously. It was a strategy, not a one time thing.
"There is not a single school or town that is excluded from the happiness of "holy defence" of the nation, from drinking the exquisite elixir of martyrdom, or from the sweet death of the martyr, who dies in order to live forever in paradise."
Theocracies don't lose wars. How can they? You die, you go to heaven. It's a win-win situation.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an easy read to start with. Not that much about the details of the war, but it is quite insightful regarding life prior, during and after the war that lasted for nearly a decade and gave birth to today's Iran.
Slashdot Mirror
Communication skills are essential for that.
Except... Essay is the antithesis of communicating.
If you look at communication as a "two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas (energy) towards a mutually accepted goal or direction (information)."
Essay, is just fine and dandy for "expressing", ranting, giving speeches and eulogies and all other forms of monologues - where you expect NO REPLY from the reader/listener.
Also, it being a "word wall", you will still probably get a huge number of applicants with zero communications skills - who just happen to know how better to express themselves using a slow, editable, one-way, written form.
Instead of actually communicating with one or more persons and exchanging information and ideas in real time.
What it will MOST DEFINITELY give you though, is a base for subjective discrimination based NOT on applicants "communication skills" - but on his or her "way of thinking" instead.
Essentially, if one gets in based on his/her essay - it is because they fit the "group-think" profile. Leave your "creativity" at home kids and fall in line.
On the other hand, if they get rejected based on their essays, it is because they are guilty of committing that much loved slashdot staple - the thought crime.
Would that be like a government of hypos by the hypos for the hypos, or would hypos be more like a ruling class governing all the other classes?
EVERYTHING is better with a cyber- prefix.
All you have to do is become friends with this guy.
Apparently, he decides on who gets to be one and determines the global quota of "Cybersecurity Experts".
You may have to hurry though, as he might just decide that 640 "cybersecurity experts" should be enough for everyone.
And he already knows at least six.
Not a Brit, but a Bosnian here.
Born, raised and all the other stuff that goes after that.
During which time I've had me my share of British TV programmes though, particularly the ones of humorous nature.
Which is where I have picked up that particular expression - as uttered by Hugh Laurie in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, commenting on Rowan Atkinson's comparison of imperialistic and expansionist tendencies of British and German leaders during the World War I.
As an unexpected side effect of all that cultural indoctrination, whenever I start "thinking in British" the little voice in my head that does the thinking for me invariably turns either into John Cleese's, Rowan Atkinson's or Hugh Laurie's voice - with expected consequences.
Sadly, what little there was of Doctor Who on local television was aired during the period of my youth when I was still unable to distinguish English from say.. Greek, so Tom Baker never did made it into that small but influential group of British voices in my head.
In Soviet Zippthornia you tax the government?
Being that, the less government taxes you, the more money you have - which is again not taxed.
So you and other untaxed citizens soon own all of the money in the country, means of production and resources.
Two more questions.
1. Where is that lovely communist utopia?
2. Karl Marx, is that you?
Governments will always tax its citizens. If not in form of money, then in the form of "voluntary service".
As we do not yet posses the means to see the future - there will always be a calculated overhead in those taxes.
As costs are really unpredictable it is usually spent, but when we do get to see it we call that a sufficit.
Government will always take as much money it can from its citizens. That money will be spent.
Money (not)spent on projects such as Olympic games would not be left to the citizens.
Instead of Olympics (or other cultural and infrastructural advances and projects), it would be spent on things like Acapulco seminars for government officials and nuclear submarines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_nuclear_test#Yield_estimates_and_authenticity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_North_Korean_nuclear_test#Lack_of_radionuclide_confirmation
...You wanna see something really scary?
Simplest effect: All hotels filled with tourists? Great or not? Not. Reason? Business people can't find a place to stay. Next year, the tourists are gone and so are the business people.
Really? All businessmen stop coming to the town hosting the Olympics - FOREVER?! And so do tourists?!
HOLY SHIT!
Quick! Someone inform the Brazilians before it's too late.
Sorry 'bout that. Silly spell checker.
You can clean your streets without having the banner of five rings looming over them. Do you think that the olympic committee comes in and does the work?
Of course not. The regular city ordinances do that - only with extra pressure and support from other links in the chain.
That is, new brooms for the city sweepers, new truncheons for the cops and full support in using both.
You can invest money in infrastructure without an international committee overseeing the work, too. Where do you think those "billions invested" come from? It's not the organization that runs the olympics.
Again... Government support.
It is far easier to get a favorable credit and tax rate when the government of the entire land is your backer.
And big projects like Olympics mean big money which call for big investors to get involved looking for big profit. Things that would take a decade are done in a year.
Instead of adding those billions to the "benefits", you should subtract them. And when figuring the boost, you have to recall six years of spending with no payoff until the end. What would that spending have gone towards if it hadn't been directed at grown men playing children's games? Growth, I'll bet.
Actually... it would just not get invested.
Instead, a very small fraction of that money would be spent here and there and most of it to maintain the status quo.
And you are being silly with those six years.
It is not as if all that will be built will be torn down come closing ceremony.
These things are built to last decades, if not even centuries. Plan their use accordingly.
There is no economic reason for any city to host any sporting event. Let the event organizers pay for and reap the profits if it's so great.
Along that line of thought, there is no economic reason for any city to build roads either. Let drivers build the roads if they like to drive around so much.
That said, Chicago didn't lose. Rio won the decision. They weren't voting against chicago. Are we really so vain that we probably think the choice was about US?
Quite true that.
From all those cities listed in the report linked above, only Athens seems to have failed to properly exploit the effect of hosting the Olympic Games.
All other cites (Barcelona, Atlanta, Sidney, Beijing) reported nothing but growth.
London doesn't need it, and Chicago may well not have done either.
Nonsense.
A global metropolis that can say "I'll pass" to billions invested in the infrastructure, millions of visitors and billions of pounds/dollars/euros spent by everyone?
No such place on this planet.
The effect on the crime and pollution alone (clean streets) is worth the trouble for the average Tom, Dick and Harry.
Those must be some crazy conservative xenophobes you talked to.
Not wanting money during a global economic crisis. Mad as bicycles that lot.
... Who can you trust? Some random guy out there, or some Anonymous Coward.
I'm utterly perplexed and I don't know who to believe anymore as both sides have such strong arguments.
The fact that it covers a boob is a funny fact that everyone will forget once the gas bomb explodes.
I am quite confident they will. Forget it, that is.
I am so confident that I propose we do the same with jockstraps that would be held together with Velcro so they could be pulled out quickly in the case of a emergency.
Why not cover the other 50% of the population, right? Think of all those soldiers in the battlefield without a gas mask and not a boob in sight.
Surely, they won't mind nor pay attention where it was just prior to the gas attack.
Think of the lives this could save!
Free as in beer or free as in freedom?
There is nothing "free" about freedom. Freedom is nothing if not costly.
Beer on the other hand...
TANSTAAFL. If you take home cartridges purchased by the company that pays your paycheck, those losses will impact their ability to pay you and the other folks who do stuff like what you do... increasing your workload per dollar.
It is more like a free breakfast for you, that the company will pay at dinner time.
See... As any other production or management loss, cost for getting more office supplies due to employees pocketing said office supplies carries over to the final product.
Which means, that if company is doing good and its accounting wizards are up to specs - you are actually benefiting the company cause you are creating money flow.
Sure... you are increasing production costs, but they are going to dump them into the consumer's lap anyway.
On the other hand... if company is doing bad and its accounting staff is comprised of clowns instead of wizards - well... you will not earn your retirement there anyway.
The cost of office supply you stole will end up in the hands of the poor jerk who ends up in your place after you (and maybe couple of your replacements) leave for greener pastures.
Cause... if a lost box of toner or a pack of printing paper is what will bring the company to its knees - you better get your ass out of there ASAP.
Also... On a side note.
If it is a kind of company that pays attention to every sheet of paper used - it is generally a case of being "Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish".
Someone in mid/upper management has time to write such penny pinching strategies - he/she has nothing better to do, or is not doing what he/she should do.
Ship is sailing to waters unknown with no one at the helm, while the captain and all the officers are debating what color should they paint the stairs to the engine room.
Again - get out of there ASAP. And don't lose sleep thinking about the cost of the life boat you are taking.
The joke translates: find one with readily available cartridges.
No it does not. It translates: "Find one with FREE cartridges."
It is a common mistake.
"FREE!!!" is the base of many words in Freeloaderian language, so the actual meaning often gets mangled when translated to English.
Huh? Aren't games based on pro sports among the most popular/best-selling video game categories? Would it not stand to reason that the more detailed and realistic these games become, the more interest they will hold for people who play the games in real life?
And come on, let's face it... what does it take, really, to "pass oneself off as a gamer"? Videogames -- and especially casual video games -- have become a multi-billion dollar industry. It's not like it's 1978 and you're meeting in your friend's basement to toss around 20-sided dice; entire Hollywood movie franchises are being built around videogame characters. Face it -- it ain't geekery anymore, it's mainstream... just like pro sports.
I've got two words for you: VG and Cats.
Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying!
If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan."
But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
Just have the app demand the Location Services to be on.
How and why? Make that a necessary requirement for sending your "friends" "gifts", such as "teddybears", "kittens", "kisses", "pokes" etc.
You know... like on Facebook.
When you pay $599 or $499 for something, and two months later the more expensive version is $100 cheaper than the originally cheaper version - that counts as a new model.
See... it has this unique function that makes it COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the originally released model.
Now... just two months after the most loyal customers bought the original 8GB version - each box comes with TWO PHONES inside instead of just one.
OK... Almost two. They would still have to fork over extra $100.
Even with that iCoupon for $100 that they got for being loyal suck... I mean customers.
And I can just imagine how those who bought the 4GB version felt. They've ended up with a more expensive, yet suckier phone.
I guess it can get worse... One might have his manhood snipped off for an iPhone - followed by the price being snipped off too about a month later.
I had karma to burn and I knew what I was getting into.
Hey... Being modded troll for speaking up against the hypocrisy of the article and summary and for being pro-socialism is nothing. :P
Long time ago I've spent about a year in the "modded negative" land for speaking up against Apple.
Now THAT was being modded down.
In a free, capitalist market, the government does not "loan" nor "give" corporations money, nor does it "bail them out".
Sure it does. Just like a bank would. Loan money for profit from the interest.
Only government can afford to minimize the profit on account of getting money back through taxes on goods, workers' pay and product sales.
Yes... that smacks of socialism, but here is the kicker - SOCIALISM IS GOOD. For the country AND its people. Honest.
If we forget for a moment that this is USA we are talking about, where socialism and communism was systematically demonized for over a century now, ONLY problems socialism has are susceptibility to corruption and mistreatment/misplacement of funds into wrong social projects.
You know... like ANY OTHER democratic system (yes... you can have social democracy) where people give their representative their money to do what is best for them, the people.
There is no change in political rights. Socialism is an ECONOMIC system, not political.
Who gets the "uncomfortable" end of the stick in socialism? Foreign and global corporations. Why?
Because they can't compete with the government that both sets the rules to benefit country and the people AND can afford to dump money into projects for years without expecting a profit.
Cause it is service based, not profit based. Corporations and monopolies HATE socialism because of that.
nor does it "bail them out"
The only reason the "bail-outs" are not an example of socialism is because they are an example of a corporatocracy at work.
Had it been an act of socialism, for the "benefit of the people" - those companies would have been nationalized. Like GM.
Granted, that would have been an "epic fail" as well... considering the current situation, but that (debt) IS what happens when you let people who are in it just for the cash control your commerce and currency.
Sooner or later someone starts padding the bills, and if you don't fix it quick it explodes in your face.
There *isn't* an 8 billion dollar pile of money. Instead, there is a 10 *trillion* dollar public debt and growing all the time. "More recently the debt increased from $5,629 billion to $9,926 billion during the George W. Bush presidency from 2000 to 2008. The debt is now projected to double under the Obama presidency to a level close to 97% of GDP".
Oh... that is a WHOOOOOLE OTHER problem.
That one might actually lead to forced socialism. Or bankruptcy. Or both. If the debt went to +90-95% of GDP.
Those are, naturally, worst case scenarios.
It is much more likely that SOME socialism will be implemented (like that whole health-care deal), at least one war will be cut short, and hopefully taxes will be raised.
I say hopefully, cause that is the only measure that actually fills the state coffers.
Luckily, US has chosen its president based on charm and image, not ability.
So he will most likely stay in office for both terms (despite lack of almost any improvement so far) which should be long enough for his administration to fix SOME of the fuckups left over from Bush years.
Then again... I am an optimist.
Price drop outcry
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was discontinued, and the 8 GB model price was cut by a third.[46] Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007 announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007 launch and the August 22, 2007 price protection kick-in date complained that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing.[47][48]
In response to customer complaints, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.[49]
[edit] iPhone 3G pricing model changes
With the July 11, 2008 release of the iPhone 3G, Apple and AT&T changed the U.S. pricing model from the previous generation. Following the de facto model for mobile phone service in the United States, AT&T will subsidize a sizable portion of the upfront cost for the iPhone 3G followed by charging a moderately higher monthly fees over a minimum two year contract.[50]
Or did you mean that I am actually missing a couple?
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries, including the original six.[29] Apple has since released the iPhone 3G in upwards of eighty countries and territories.[30] Apple announced the iPhone 3GS on June 8, 2009, along with plans to release it later in June, July, and August, starting with the U.S., Canada and major European countries on June 19.[3] Many would-be users have objected to the iPhone's cost,[31] and 40% of users have annual incomes over 100,000 USD.[32] In an attempt to gain a wider market, Apple has retained the 8 GB iPhone 3G at a lower price point. This is the latest of several price reductions over the years; it now sells for one-sixth of the price of the original 8 GB iPhone when it first became available. In the U.S., it now costs $99, down from $599, although it includes a two-year contract and a SIM lock.
It sure does suck for all those that jumped on the 8GB model the first day...
But hey... at least the two AT&T years are up now, right?
If you're being invaded and use nukes, wouldn't that mean you're nuking your own country?
You ARE talking about the country and leadership that sent thousands of THEIR OWN high-school kids charging through minefields in "human waves".
Continuously. It was a strategy, not a one time thing.
"There is not a single school or town that is excluded from the happiness of "holy defence" of the nation, from drinking the exquisite elixir of martyrdom, or from the sweet death of the martyr, who dies in order to live forever in paradise."
Theocracies don't lose wars. How can they? You die, you go to heaven. It's a win-win situation.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an easy read to start with.
Not that much about the details of the war, but it is quite insightful regarding life prior, during and after the war that lasted for nearly a decade and gave birth to today's Iran.