Trump clearly has no trust of his own departments, and spends far too much time watching television
Maybe now he'll stop watching that much TV?
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. One of the most eye-catching programs detailed in the documents is "Weeping Angel." That allows intelligence agencies to install special software that allows TVs to be turned into listening devices -- so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on.
Naaaaah... He'll probably just get a blanket to throw it over the TV or he'll start playing music from his phone to "jam the TV" or something equally retarded and unhinged. Like he'll start forcing everyone around him into the bathroom where he'll keep flushing the toilet while whispering about spies who are out to get him.
Tritium is what makes the big kaboom. Without it, it's basically just the fuse going off, not the bomb. Which is why nukes from the '60s, '70s and the '80s must be refurbished periodically at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.
And while tritium deteriorates... so do other elements on the periodic table in the presence of radiation. Nukes are an ongoing chemistry experiment even just sitting there. Which is why they must be refurbished periodically at the cost of tens of billions of dollars to make sure that their wiring or their proppelent didn't transmute into cheese.
Besides, good dam sites are either already being used, or are not used for environmental reasons (such as migrating fish). We have plenty of ocean.
Plus, if it's gonna break you don't have to worry about what happens downstream.
Not to mention that there are no issues with droughts when you keep slowly losing water OR rainy seasons when you're running out of storage capacity for pumped hydro. I.e. Either slowly or suddenly running out of capacity for storing excess electricity.
You can't compare a piece of tin with a sensitive electronic device.
Even a fully ruggedized military-grade camera is still susceptible to various forms of damage or malfunction. FFS, a drop of paint (or blood, or ketchup, or mud...) can make it completely useless as a video recording device. Hell, turn it ever so slightly in a wrong direction and the recording is a useless shot of the sky or of the ground. Expose its sensor to a strong light and it's equally useless. Even mounted on the head, so it records from police officer's angle of view, it can be knocked off. Particularly when the "perp" wants to knock it off on purpose.
Just because you can strap a camera on something doesn't mean it will work in 100% of cases. Much more likely, most of them won't work properly.
A DNAinfo Chicago review of city records revealed the extended warranty on the city's original $12.5 million contract for COBAN dashcams (a contract that guaranteed keeping the in-car video systems in working order) expired in September 2012.
It's unclear whether the expired warranty contributed to what police called a "high number" of malfunctioning cameras, including many that fail to record audio.
Public records show Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed a new $1 million deal with COBAN to fix broken in-car systems on Dec. 3, 2014. That was more than two years after the warranty expired and about six weeks after Laquan was killed.
In that case, even "holding people accountable" and "hitting some officers and supervisors with formal reprimands and up-to-three-day suspensions" still only increased the number of end-of-shift uploads by 70%. Not the quality of video (and sound) or the condition the cameras were in.
The falls are due in large part to new government policies that force 17-year-olds who got a D or lower in English or maths last year to resit those exams, meaning more students overall were sitting the tests.
While stats do vary on passing grades from year to year - it's not 100% of students.
2016 %gaining grades, A*-C: English 60.2 English Literature 75.1
I'm saying that one can be a born and raised UK adult without actually speaking something that resembles English one would need to speak/read/write in order to pass a test.
Currently, that's about 40% of UK citizens who've been training for that test nearly every day of their lives, ever since they learned their ABCs. And if you think they'll retain that level of knowledge once they finish with school, you clearly never had to watch adults struggle with multiplication of 2-digit numbers without a calculator. God forbid asking someone to calculate a square root.
It used to be that in the US there were no such things as police sergeants, lieutenants, captains, etc. The quasi-military rank structure came into being IIRC in Los Angeles California(?).
1807: The Richmond Police Department officially was established as one of the first formally organized law enforcement agencies in the United States. ... 1861: Virginia seceded from the Union. The president of the newly formed Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, established Richmond as the capital of the CSA Officers began wearing badges and were considered members of the militia. 1863: With the city's population swollen to almost 100,000 by the Civil War, the Richmond Police Department was overwhelmed. As a result, the Department was reorganized with 13 day officers, one of whom was designated the Chief of Police. The night watch was given one captain, three lieutenants and 40 privates.
As the oldest police department in the country, the Boston Police Department (BPD) has a rich history and a well-established presence in the Boston community. The initiation of a formal department began in 1838, when the General Court passed a bill allowing the city of Boston to appoint police officers. The department was structured after the model developed by Sir Robert Peele for the London Police force. ... The first police force consisted of 260 officers and a chief. Each division had a captain and two lieutenants; sergeants were not appointed until 1857. In these early days, an officer on duty carried a six-foot pole, painted blue and white to protect himself, and a "police rattle" to call for assistance.
Ranks were there back in the day when police officers were armed with RATTLES.
Ranks are NOT militarization. Police all around the world have ranks. Fire brigades have ranks.
Militarization is when regular police starts employing military weapons,tactics and equipment on daily basis. I.e. When police thinks that it actually needs those "5,638 bayonets ($307,769) and 36 swords and scabbards", or when campus police thinks it really needs those M16s there is something terribly wrong both with their internal philosophy AND their purchasing program.
Could it possibly be that the USA has been staging these huge military operations around the globe since... oh... the Desert Storm? And could it be that such huge military operations overseas create an increase in surplus of military equipment - while at the same time draining the budget of money that could be spent on local law enforcement, among other things? Could it also be that unloading all those hundreds of millions of dollars of military equipment onto law enforcement agencies is hiding actual holes in the law enforcement budgets? And is there a chance that, besides all that surplus military gear, police has also been getting
I'm saying that one can be a born and raised UK adult without actually speaking something that resembles English one would need to speak/read/write in order to pass a test.
From the article: "Drivers must have B1 level English, or the equivalent of a GCSE in the subject".
FYI This is nowhere near A level.
I provided a link with comparison of equivalencies, which lists B1 as "British general qualifications: GCE AS level / lower grade A-level".
It is so cause B1 is not a grade one gets on a test NOR is it a kind of a test one does. It's a descriptor of a group of tests and minimum scores which one would need to take and pass in order to qualify for a visa. Most equivalent tests are not a pass-fail test, so there is some overlap between grades and equivalency between the tests as well as the range of scores which fall under the B1 group. BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, these tests were intended for people who are COMING INTO UK.
Someone taking an IELTS test, which is one of the approved tests for a B1 level qualification, would be tested either for an academic or a general training grade. I.e. For the purpose of enrollment into a university OR or into some other school - or to immigrate into UK. It's the same test in both cases. The scoring and grading is the same. It's just that the "content, context and purpose of the tasks" are different. I.e. Academic version uses bigger words.
Thus the situation is that the only people with a ready B1 (or higher) qualification are - LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. There is no equivalence for a UK-born citizen, as B1 is a level intended for approximate equalization and naturalization of foreigners to UK, not the other way around. They might as well be asking for a non-UK birth certificate.
ONLY point where both groups intersect in qualification being the enrollment into university. Which for Brits means taking their GCE A-levels - and for immigrants taking the same IELTS test, only the "bigger words" version. Which they already did to get in. UK and the university. And while immigrants who DO take that test are ALL coming with an intent to enroll into a university - 55% of UK highschoolers decide not to.
Thus, a B1 level requirement becomes equivalent of an "university enrollment" for UK-born citizens of UK - and either an immigration visa or a study visa for immigrants. Which doesn't sound as counter-intuitive when you consider Uber's standards.
Uber's driver-partners are highly educated. Nearly half of Uber's driver-partners (48 percent) have a college degree or higher, considerably higher than the corresponding percentage for taxi drivers and chauffeurs (18 percent), and above that for the workforce as a whole as well (41 percent). Only 12 percent of Uber's driver-partners have a high school degree or less, whereas over half (52 percent) of taxi drivers and chauffeurs have a high school degree or less. Seven percent of Uber's driver-partners are currently enrolled in school, mostly taking classes toward a four-year college degree or higher.
Hey... That's their workforce in the US. People who took their college entry tes
It's not really about English language skills. It's about reducing immigration. Discourage people from coming to the UK to do these kinds of job by setting a high bar for them.
If anything, B1 being a level of the same tests one takes whether one is coming to UK to study or work (university enrollment has a slightly higher minimal grade), this requirement practically guarantees that only immigrants will be driving for Uber. They had to get that qualification in order to enter the country. All some UK citizens have is a driver's license.
Both groups still need a Private Hire Vehicle license, a valid credit/debit card and a proof of residence. And while these can be... worked around... driving without a valid driver's license would be inviting disaster for a potentially illegal immigrant. Cops routinely stop people. Even people born in UK.
Meaning that 55% of UK citizens, raised and educated in UK, don't qualify. Or that they would have to fork up 200 pounds to take (and pass) an "expected for university admission" level of knowledge of English.
Sam, 40, lives with his wife and three kids in San Jose, earning around $120,000 a year at a multinational software company. "I get paid a very good wage, but I have three kids, childcare is ridiculously expensive so my wife mostly takes care of them," he said.
He feels pressure being the sole breadwinner. "I've got no safety net,: he said. "I have credit cards, but this is not sustainable. If something bad happened I'd be out of the house in a month."
Article covers several cases. Couples who "make over $1m between us, but we can't afford a house", people with health issues, people living a 20-something coder's life paying 2k for a room in a house they are renting with roommates, people cramming in ""studio-like closets" in a basement", people who can't move out of San Francisco for fear that a Lunatic in Chief might send national guard to round them up and deport them when they set a foot outside a "sanctuary city"...
It helps to read the articles... and linked articles too... Like "'Tech tax': San Francisco mulls plan for taxing the rich to house the poor" San Francisco is suffering from its own form of "resource curse". It brought in tech companies by giving them tax breaks, which brought in money, which skyrocketed the cost of living, which created a whole set of problems for whole sets of people - homelessness being one of them.
Meaning that those "monthly gigs" represent 0.039 - 0.052% of jobs in China. While "20 million active users", would represent 2.61% of workers - if there actually were 20 million gigs too. Instead of there only being enough "gigs" for about 1.5 - 2% of "workers".
Some of whom are significant enough percent of the whole to be singled out in the article as ""beautiful women"...between the ages of 18 and 28...working as live-streaming models to keep mostly-male viewers entertained" - for 70$ per day + tips.
I.e. The company offers either "sorting crates of milk at a supermarket or hand out pamphlets on frozen sidewalks" kind of "gigs" - or "gigs" which are not so cleverly disguised online prostitution. Considering that regular prostitution can employ some 300000 in a single city those 80$ million look more and more like they are being made on the backs of prostitutes.
You clearly didn't RTFA. She has extensive email and chat records to back up her claims. Yes, I am taking her word for it.
Considering that in Trumperican Kingdom, current first "lady" is suing a foreign tabloid for calling her a prostitute and thus preventing her from a "unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to cash in on her position of a first "lady" - you betcha you should take her word for it.
Only a complete idiot wouldn't keep a paper/electronic trail while making public accusations in the Land of Litigation. Which goes double for someone working for a company involved in so many lawsuits.
You just keep banging them red herrings kiddo, pushing them irrelevant conclusions... None of those are arguments. Nor are they addressing the facts I stated. You know... Facts. As in reality.
But you just keep on keeping on! Enjoy! Trump won! Don't be such a loser son! Go on! Run naked through the streets yelling "WE WON! WE WON! WE WAAHAHAAAHAAN!!!" Instead of being such a pathetic, sad, little loser that you have to keep resorting to fallacies. At least you could LIE... It IS in vogue for your kind. But no... you probably suck at that too. Sad. Such a loser.
The FBI in late December reviewed intercepts of communications between the Russian ambassador to the United States and retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn - national security adviser to then-President-elect Trump - but has not found any evidence of wrongdoing or illicit ties to the Russian government, U.S. officials said.
That last bit is the source of the claim. "U.S. officials" - NOT FBI. Not even "senior officials". Just "officials".
2 - It gets better. Or worse... depending how you look at it. By the end of the article, it's not even "officials". It's "some guy(s)". It's "individuals".
Both Flynn, a former head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency, and Kislyak, a seasoned diplomat, are probably aware that Kislyak's phone calls and texts are being monitored, current and former officials said. That would make it highly unlikely, the individuals said, that the men would allow their calls to be conduits of illegal coordination.
That's not reporting. That's pure CYA and imputing unsubstantiated OPINIONS to sources without actual information - while throwing around buzzwords which telegraph credibility.
Which is why you've read that and though you read "according to the FBI nothing Flynn did was illegal". When it's actually "according to some guys, FBI won't find anything, cause Flynn and Kislyak aren't that stupid".
3 - You know how they remake and reboot old movies? So it is still a story about same things... but it is different now? Well... that is an OLD article. Which doesn't match the findings in the new article, from the same paper. As in, opinions presented in it have turned out to be, based on incomplete and FALSE information. So false in fact, that claims of "the individuals" in that article are basically - LIES.
From claims about FBI "not finding any evidence", while the investigation is actually still ongoing...
Officials said this week that the FBI is continuing to examine Flynn's communications with Kislyak.
To "former and current U.S. officials" outright calling out Trump administration for lying about "not" making deals with a foreign power. Foreign power which is under sanctions BECAUSE OF CYBER ATTACKS ON THE USA. Cyber attacks, made during the election which got said administration into the White House.
National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country's ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
U.S. intelligence agencies were then concluding that Russia had waged a cyber campaign designed in part to help elect Trump; his senior adviser on national security matters was discussing the potential consequences for Moscow, officials said.
Feel free to connect those dots. Particularly in the light of Flynn getting canned mere days after that article got published. Cover your ass is a very popular game among those who practice "pants on fire" lying.
Neither of those assertions is consistent with the fuller account of Flynn's contacts with Kislyak provided by officials who ha
Is there a ban on being muslim? I know of none. I suspect you are talking about the suspension of immigration from seven specific countries, using the incorrect language the mass media has attached to it.
NOPE! Comrade. I am talking about Trump and his cohorts trying to blame Obama for their own unconstitutional actions - for which they just got their asses handed to them the federal appeals court. Sad. CONGRATULATIONS COMRADE! TRUMP WON! ENJOY!
But do feel free to put up any strawman you like. After all... there's already a strawhead puppet put up in the White House.
Or a tu quoque fallacy.
Trump is not unique in something like this.
Which, AGAIN, manages to also be a false equivalence fallacy. Cause not since King George the Third ruled in today's US parts have military raids been decided over a dinner, with only The Supreme Lunatic in Charge, his court astrologist, his son in law, a lunatic general and a single person from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Out of SEVEN. Trump the situation room! Who needs them generals and admirals anyway when there are Kushner, Bannon and the Mad Dog there to give their council?
Remember when Carter took foreign policy advice from his beer swillin, public urinatin, Libyan agent brother Billy? No? Would you like to know why you can't remember that? CAUSE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Carter didn't order military raids on advice of his family, eschewing advice from the military chiefs, while listening to conspiracy theorists.
Here. Read up on why oranges are NOT like apples. This shit might blow your mind. Well... a man can hope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I'm not sure what disaster has resulted from those calls. Is either country busy importing Russian nuclear missiles to try to make us behave? Was there a plague of locusts, or what?
RIIIIIGHT! OK... So that's the new standard? Wait until they start importing Russian nuclear missiles? That's where the goalposts are nowadays? What century do you live in kiddo? IT ain't 1960's bro. Nobody's putting up missiles. Better come back to the real world. Maybe then you'd realize that when the President of a country makes an ass of himself in front of the foreign leaders and the whole world - it kinda matters. And it matters A LOT when he comes off as a pathetic, babylike, tantrum-throwing demented lunatic. Even King George got "regented" when his lunacy got THAT bad. He did manage to lose a big chunk of the empire before that happened though.
If this removal was a demand made of the last two "admin", then it surely wasn't caused by Trump. Who was giving the "option" of removing this material to the USDA? And if there was no demand, what was there to refuse -- in the name of "transparency"?
What? ANOTHER strawman?
The issue is NOT in determining the blame on who gave the Strawpuppet in Chief and his gang of incompetent lunatics the ability to order removal of the material. IT IS ABOUT THEM LYING ABOUT WHO ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF SAID MATERIAL!!! Get it, comrade?
In case you missed that one from your parents - LYING IS BAAAAAD! Lying in such a STUPID way is WORSE!!! Not only are you a liar - YOU'RE A STUPID LIAR TOO! Or a lunatic with no relation to reality.
Nuclear could become (with magic and prayers) cheap and renewable as farts - it will still be a security risk. "Yeah but this new reactor design..." doesn't matter either. You still have to build nuclear reactors in places where there will most likely be social upheavals resulting in wars in the next 50 years.
Cause those are the places where most people are being born, which means more energy needs, which means more powerplants - built in future Syrias. Did someone say ISIS dirty bombs? Anyone? Anyone? NSA?
"The review of APHIS' website has been ongoing, and the agency is striving to balance the need for transparency with rules protecting individual privacy. In 2016, well before the change of Administration, APHIS decided to make adjustments to the posting of regulatory records. In addition, APHIS is currently involved in litigation concerning, among other issues, information posted on the agency's website. While the agency is vigorously defending against this litigation, in an abundance of caution, the agency is taking additional measures to protect individual privacy. These decisions are not final. Adjustments may be made regarding information appropriate for release and posting."
A blatant and stupid lie. Trump administration forgets that people from the Obama administration are still alive and around.
Matt Herrick, director of Communications of USDA under Obama, tweeted this regarding the disappearing of animal abuse reports:
Decision by @usda 2 remove animal abuse reports not required. Totally subjective. Same option given 2 past admin. We refused. #transparency
And it's not the first (and probably not the last) time that Trump administration, once caught doing something they shouldn't be doing, tries to blame it on Obama. Like the Muslim ban, Yemen raid fiasco (BTW, that was "winning"), Trump's disastrous calls to Mexican and Australian heads of state... and now this. More here.
Slashdot Mirror
Trump clearly has no trust of his own departments, and spends far too much time watching television
Maybe now he'll stop watching that much TV?
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. One of the most eye-catching programs detailed in the documents is "Weeping Angel." That allows intelligence agencies to install special software that allows TVs to be turned into listening devices -- so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on.
Naaaaah... He'll probably just get a blanket to throw it over the TV or he'll start playing music from his phone to "jam the TV" or something equally retarded and unhinged.
Like he'll start forcing everyone around him into the bathroom where he'll keep flushing the toilet while whispering about spies who are out to get him.
Tritium is what makes the big kaboom. Without it, it's basically just the fuse going off, not the bomb.
Which is why nukes from the '60s, '70s and the '80s must be refurbished periodically at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.
And while tritium deteriorates... so do other elements on the periodic table in the presence of radiation.
Nukes are an ongoing chemistry experiment even just sitting there.
Which is why they must be refurbished periodically at the cost of tens of billions of dollars to make sure that their wiring or their proppelent didn't transmute into cheese.
90% of rocks, bigger than 1 kilometer in diameter and floating around Earth, should be enough for everyone.
MoWing down of flying dinosaurs...
Things are going to change - special interest groups that make these dinosaurs will get mowed down eventually.
Wait... I thought that the moving down of flying dinosaurs WAS the problem with windmills?
Something-something golf course something-something Scotland.
Won't someone please think of the birds!
Besides, good dam sites are either already being used, or are not used for environmental reasons (such as migrating fish). We have plenty of ocean.
Plus, if it's gonna break you don't have to worry about what happens downstream.
Not to mention that there are no issues with droughts when you keep slowly losing water OR rainy seasons when you're running out of storage capacity for pumped hydro.
I.e. Either slowly or suddenly running out of capacity for storing excess electricity.
...is a really good five-cent radio frequency jammer.
You can't compare a piece of tin with a sensitive electronic device.
Even a fully ruggedized military-grade camera is still susceptible to various forms of damage or malfunction.
FFS, a drop of paint (or blood, or ketchup, or mud...) can make it completely useless as a video recording device.
Hell, turn it ever so slightly in a wrong direction and the recording is a useless shot of the sky or of the ground. Expose its sensor to a strong light and it's equally useless.
Even mounted on the head, so it records from police officer's angle of view, it can be knocked off. Particularly when the "perp" wants to knock it off on purpose.
Just because you can strap a camera on something doesn't mean it will work in 100% of cases.
Much more likely, most of them won't work properly.
A DNAinfo Chicago review of city records revealed the extended warranty on the city's original $12.5 million contract for COBAN dashcams (a contract that guaranteed keeping the in-car video systems in working order) expired in September 2012.
It's unclear whether the expired warranty contributed to what police called a "high number" of malfunctioning cameras, including many that fail to record audio.
Public records show Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed a new $1 million deal with COBAN to fix broken in-car systems on Dec. 3, 2014.
That was more than two years after the warranty expired and about six weeks after Laquan was killed.
Regardless of the reason why the camera was malfunctioning in the first place.
In that case, even "holding people accountable" and "hitting some officers and supervisors with formal reprimands and up-to-three-day suspensions" still only increased the number of end-of-shift uploads by 70%.
Not the quality of video (and sound) or the condition the cameras were in.
So everyone just passes English? Why give out grades at all then?
https://www.theguardian.com/ed...
The falls are due in large part to new government policies that force 17-year-olds who got a D or lower in English or maths last year to resit those exams, meaning more students overall were sitting the tests.
While stats do vary on passing grades from year to year - it's not 100% of students.
2016 %gaining grades, A*-C:
English 60.2
English Literature 75.1
I'm saying that one can be a born and raised UK adult without actually speaking something that resembles English one would need to speak/read/write in order to pass a test.
Currently, that's about 40% of UK citizens who've been training for that test nearly every day of their lives, ever since they learned their ABCs.
And if you think they'll retain that level of knowledge once they finish with school, you clearly never had to watch adults struggle with multiplication of 2-digit numbers without a calculator.
God forbid asking someone to calculate a square root.
Nor are ranks from California.
It used to be that in the US there were no such things as police sergeants, lieutenants, captains, etc. The quasi-military rank structure came into being IIRC in Los Angeles California(?).
http://www.ci.richmond.va.us/P...
1807: The Richmond Police Department officially was established as one of the first formally organized law enforcement agencies in the United States.
...
1861: Virginia seceded from the Union. The president of the newly formed Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, established Richmond as the capital of the CSA Officers began wearing badges and were considered members of the militia.
1863: With the city's population swollen to almost 100,000 by the Civil War, the Richmond Police Department was overwhelmed. As a result, the Department was reorganized with 13 day officers, one of whom was designated the Chief of Police. The night watch was given one captain, three lieutenants and 40 privates.
https://web.archive.org/web/20...
As the oldest police department in the country, the Boston Police Department (BPD) has a rich history and a well-established presence in the Boston community. The initiation of a formal department began in 1838, when the General Court passed a bill allowing the city of Boston to appoint police officers. The department was structured after the model developed by Sir Robert Peele for the London Police force.
...
The first police force consisted of 260 officers and a chief. Each division had a captain and two lieutenants; sergeants were not appointed until 1857. In these early days, an officer on duty carried a six-foot pole, painted blue and white to protect himself, and a "police rattle" to call for assistance.
Ranks were there back in the day when police officers were armed with RATTLES.
Ranks are NOT militarization. Police all around the world have ranks. Fire brigades have ranks.
Militarization is when regular police starts employing military weapons, tactics and equipment on daily basis.
I.e. When police thinks that it actually needs those "5,638 bayonets ($307,769) and 36 swords and scabbards", or when campus police thinks it really needs those M16s there is something terribly wrong both with their internal philosophy AND their purchasing program.
Could it possibly be that the USA has been staging these huge military operations around the globe since... oh... the Desert Storm?
And could it be that such huge military operations overseas create an increase in surplus of military equipment - while at the same time draining the budget of money that could be spent on local law enforcement, among other things?
Could it also be that unloading all those hundreds of millions of dollars of military equipment onto law enforcement agencies is hiding actual holes in the law enforcement budgets?
And is there a chance that, besides all that surplus military gear, police has also been getting
I'm saying that one can be a born and raised UK adult without actually speaking something that resembles English one would need to speak/read/write in order to pass a test.
From the article:
"Drivers must have B1 level English, or the equivalent of a GCSE in the subject".
FYI This is nowhere near A level.
I provided a link with comparison of equivalencies, which lists B1 as "British general qualifications: GCE AS level / lower grade A-level".
It is so cause B1 is not a grade one gets on a test NOR is it a kind of a test one does.
It's a descriptor of a group of tests and minimum scores which one would need to take and pass in order to qualify for a visa.
Most equivalent tests are not a pass-fail test, so there is some overlap between grades and equivalency between the tests as well as the range of scores which fall under the B1 group.
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, these tests were intended for people who are COMING INTO UK.
Someone taking an IELTS test, which is one of the approved tests for a B1 level qualification, would be tested either for an academic or a general training grade.
I.e. For the purpose of enrollment into a university OR or into some other school - or to immigrate into UK.
It's the same test in both cases. The scoring and grading is the same. It's just that the "content, context and purpose of the tasks" are different.
I.e. Academic version uses bigger words.
The only difference being that one needs a slightly higher minimum grade to enroll into a university than one needs to immigrate into UK.
5.5 vs. 4.0, which are REALLY REALLY CLOSE due to rounding up of the raw scores as they are recalculated to a band scale.
Thus the situation is that the only people with a ready B1 (or higher) qualification are - LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
There is no equivalence for a UK-born citizen, as B1 is a level intended for approximate equalization and naturalization of foreigners to UK, not the other way around.
They might as well be asking for a non-UK birth certificate.
ONLY point where both groups intersect in qualification being the enrollment into university.
Which for Brits means taking their GCE A-levels - and for immigrants taking the same IELTS test, only the "bigger words" version.
Which they already did to get in. UK and the university.
And while immigrants who DO take that test are ALL coming with an intent to enroll into a university - 55% of UK highschoolers decide not to.
Thus, a B1 level requirement becomes equivalent of an "university enrollment" for UK-born citizens of UK - and either an immigration visa or a study visa for immigrants.
Which doesn't sound as counter-intuitive when you consider Uber's standards.
Uber's driver-partners are highly educated. Nearly half of Uber's driver-partners (48 percent)
have a college degree or higher, considerably higher than the corresponding percentage for taxi
drivers and chauffeurs (18 percent), and above that for the workforce as a whole as well (41
percent). Only 12 percent of Uber's driver-partners have a high school degree or less, whereas
over half (52 percent) of taxi drivers and chauffeurs have a high school degree or less. Seven
percent of Uber's driver-partners are currently enrolled in school, mostly taking classes toward a
four-year college degree or higher.
Hey... That's their workforce in the US. People who took their college entry tes
It's not really about English language skills. It's about reducing immigration. Discourage people from coming to the UK to do these kinds of job by setting a high bar for them.
B1 level English is already a prerequisite for immigration.
If anything, B1 being a level of the same tests one takes whether one is coming to UK to study or work (university enrollment has a slightly higher minimal grade), this requirement practically guarantees that only immigrants will be driving for Uber.
They had to get that qualification in order to enter the country.
All some UK citizens have is a driver's license.
Both groups still need a Private Hire Vehicle license, a valid credit/debit card and a proof of residence.
And while these can be... worked around... driving without a valid driver's license would be inviting disaster for a potentially illegal immigrant.
Cops routinely stop people. Even people born in UK.
...still need subtitles and a dictionary to fully understand a Guy Ritchie movie.
On the other hand... the B1 level which is required is the equivalent of "GCE AS level / lower grade A-level" which is the equivalent of a 13th-grade exam.
Which about 55% of UK students don't take.
Meaning that 55% of UK citizens, raised and educated in UK, don't qualify.
Or that they would have to fork up 200 pounds to take (and pass) an "expected for university admission" level of knowledge of English.
And sometimes kids just happen... It'd be nice if you could return them to the store and get your money back but...
From TFA:
Sam, 40, lives with his wife and three kids in San Jose, earning around $120,000 a year at a multinational software company. "I get paid a very good wage, but I have three kids, childcare is ridiculously expensive so my wife mostly takes care of them," he said.
He feels pressure being the sole breadwinner. "I've got no safety net,: he said. "I have credit cards, but this is not sustainable. If something bad happened I'd be out of the house in a month."
Article covers several cases.
Couples who "make over $1m between us, but we can't afford a house", people with health issues, people living a 20-something coder's life paying 2k for a room in a house they are renting with roommates, people cramming in ""studio-like closets" in a basement", people who can't move out of San Francisco for fear that a Lunatic in Chief might send national guard to round them up and deport them when they set a foot outside a "sanctuary city"...
It helps to read the articles... and linked articles too...
Like "'Tech tax': San Francisco mulls plan for taxing the rich to house the poor"
San Francisco is suffering from its own form of "resource curse".
It brought in tech companies by giving them tax breaks, which brought in money, which skyrocketed the cost of living, which created a whole set of problems for whole sets of people - homelessness being one of them.
...Serbia, along with the rest of the Balkans, would be much higher on that graph. Way above the USA. Not just below it.
Promaya kills.
Like when accounting for "20 million active users" monthly to "between 300000 and 400000 jobs" every month.
Population of China: 1.357 Billion.
Out of which 359.14 million were employed in urban and 405 million in rural China, in 2011.
Meaning that those "monthly gigs" represent 0.039 - 0.052% of jobs in China.
While "20 million active users", would represent 2.61% of workers - if there actually were 20 million gigs too.
Instead of there only being enough "gigs" for about 1.5 - 2% of "workers".
Some of whom are significant enough percent of the whole to be singled out in the article as ""beautiful women"...between the ages of 18 and 28...working as live-streaming models to keep mostly-male viewers entertained" - for 70$ per day + tips.
I.e. The company offers either "sorting crates of milk at a supermarket or hand out pamphlets on frozen sidewalks" kind of "gigs" - or "gigs" which are not so cleverly disguised online prostitution.
Considering that regular prostitution can employ some 300000 in a single city those 80$ million look more and more like they are being made on the backs of prostitutes.
You clearly didn't RTFA. She has extensive email and chat records to back up her claims. Yes, I am taking her word for it.
Considering that in Trumperican Kingdom, current first "lady" is suing a foreign tabloid for calling her a prostitute and thus preventing her from a "unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to cash in on her position of a first "lady" - you betcha you should take her word for it.
Only a complete idiot wouldn't keep a paper/electronic trail while making public accusations in the Land of Litigation.
Which goes double for someone working for a company involved in so many lawsuits.
Truly... Pathetic. Such a loser. Sad.
You just keep banging them red herrings kiddo, pushing them irrelevant conclusions...
None of those are arguments. Nor are they addressing the facts I stated. You know... Facts. As in reality.
But you just keep on keeping on! Enjoy! Trump won! Don't be such a loser son! Go on!
Run naked through the streets yelling "WE WON! WE WON! WE WAAHAHAAAHAAN!!!"
Instead of being such a pathetic, sad, little loser that you have to keep resorting to fallacies.
At least you could LIE... It IS in vogue for your kind. But no... you probably suck at that too.
Sad. Such a loser.
Except according to the FBI nothing Flynn did was illegal.
Umm... NO.
1 - There is no such claim in that article.
The FBI in late December reviewed intercepts of communications between the Russian ambassador to the United States and retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn - national security adviser to then-President-elect Trump - but has not found any evidence of wrongdoing or illicit ties to the Russian government, U.S. officials said.
That last bit is the source of the claim. "U.S. officials" - NOT FBI. Not even "senior officials". Just "officials".
2 - It gets better. Or worse... depending how you look at it.
By the end of the article, it's not even "officials". It's "some guy(s)".
It's "individuals".
Both Flynn, a former head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency, and Kislyak, a seasoned diplomat, are probably aware that Kislyak's phone calls and texts are being monitored, current and former officials said.
That would make it highly unlikely, the individuals said, that the men would allow their calls to be conduits of illegal coordination.
That's not reporting.
That's pure CYA and imputing unsubstantiated OPINIONS to sources without actual information - while throwing around buzzwords which telegraph credibility.
Which is why you've read that and though you read "according to the FBI nothing Flynn did was illegal".
When it's actually "according to some guys, FBI won't find anything, cause Flynn and Kislyak aren't that stupid".
3 - You know how they remake and reboot old movies? So it is still a story about same things... but it is different now?
Well... that is an OLD article.
Which doesn't match the findings in the new article, from the same paper.
As in, opinions presented in it have turned out to be, based on incomplete and FALSE information.
So false in fact, that claims of "the individuals" in that article are basically - LIES.
From claims about FBI "not finding any evidence", while the investigation is actually still ongoing...
Officials said this week that the FBI is continuing to examine Flynn's communications with Kislyak.
To "former and current U.S. officials" outright calling out Trump administration for lying about "not" making deals with a foreign power.
Foreign power which is under sanctions BECAUSE OF CYBER ATTACKS ON THE USA.
Cyber attacks, made during the election which got said administration into the White House.
National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country's ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
U.S. intelligence agencies were then concluding that Russia had waged a cyber campaign designed in part to help elect Trump; his senior adviser on national security matters was discussing the potential consequences for Moscow, officials said.
Feel free to connect those dots.
Particularly in the light of Flynn getting canned mere days after that article got published.
Cover your ass is a very popular game among those who practice "pants on fire" lying.
Neither of those assertions is consistent with the fuller account of Flynn's contacts with Kislyak provided by officials who ha
Is there a ban on being muslim? I know of none. I suspect you are talking about the suspension of immigration from seven specific countries, using the incorrect language the mass media has attached to it.
NOPE! Comrade.
I am talking about Trump and his cohorts trying to blame Obama for their own unconstitutional actions - for which they just got their asses handed to them the federal appeals court. Sad.
CONGRATULATIONS COMRADE! TRUMP WON! ENJOY!
But do feel free to put up any strawman you like. After all... there's already a strawhead puppet put up in the White House.
Or a tu quoque fallacy.
Trump is not unique in something like this.
Which, AGAIN, manages to also be a false equivalence fallacy.
Cause not since King George the Third ruled in today's US parts have military raids been decided over a dinner, with only The Supreme Lunatic in Charge, his court astrologist, his son in law, a lunatic general and a single person from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Out of SEVEN.
Trump the situation room! Who needs them generals and admirals anyway when there are Kushner, Bannon and the Mad Dog there to give their council?
Remember when Carter took foreign policy advice from his beer swillin, public urinatin, Libyan agent brother Billy? No?
Would you like to know why you can't remember that? CAUSE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!
Carter didn't order military raids on advice of his family, eschewing advice from the military chiefs, while listening to conspiracy theorists.
Here. Read up on why oranges are NOT like apples. This shit might blow your mind. Well... a man can hope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I'm not sure what disaster has resulted from those calls. Is either country busy importing Russian nuclear missiles to try to make us behave? Was there a plague of locusts, or what?
RIIIIIGHT! OK... So that's the new standard? Wait until they start importing Russian nuclear missiles? That's where the goalposts are nowadays?
What century do you live in kiddo? IT ain't 1960's bro. Nobody's putting up missiles. Better come back to the real world.
Maybe then you'd realize that when the President of a country makes an ass of himself in front of the foreign leaders and the whole world - it kinda matters.
And it matters A LOT when he comes off as a pathetic, babylike, tantrum-throwing demented lunatic.
Even King George got "regented" when his lunacy got THAT bad. He did manage to lose a big chunk of the empire before that happened though.
If this removal was a demand made of the last two "admin", then it surely wasn't caused by Trump. Who was giving the "option" of removing this material to the USDA? And if there was no demand, what was there to refuse -- in the name of "transparency"?
What? ANOTHER strawman?
The issue is NOT in determining the blame on who gave the Strawpuppet in Chief and his gang of incompetent lunatics the ability to order removal of the material.
IT IS ABOUT THEM LYING ABOUT WHO ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF SAID MATERIAL!!!
Get it, comrade?
In case you missed that one from your parents - LYING IS BAAAAAD!
Lying in such a STUPID way is WORSE!!! Not only are you a liar - YOU'RE A STUPID LIAR TOO!
Or a lunatic with no relation to reality.
But trump that. Trump won bro! Enjoy!
Nuclear could become (with magic and prayers) cheap and renewable as farts - it will still be a security risk.
"Yeah but this new reactor design..." doesn't matter either.
You still have to build nuclear reactors in places where there will most likely be social upheavals resulting in wars in the next 50 years.
Cause those are the places where most people are being born, which means more energy needs, which means more powerplants - built in future Syrias.
Did someone say ISIS dirty bombs? Anyone? Anyone? NSA?
"The review of APHIS' website has been ongoing, and the agency is striving to balance the need for transparency with rules protecting individual privacy.
In 2016, well before the change of Administration, APHIS decided to make adjustments to the posting of regulatory records.
In addition, APHIS is currently involved in litigation concerning, among other issues, information posted on the agency's website.
While the agency is vigorously defending against this litigation, in an abundance of caution, the agency is taking additional measures to protect individual privacy.
These decisions are not final. Adjustments may be made regarding information appropriate for release and posting."
A blatant and stupid lie.
Trump administration forgets that people from the Obama administration are still alive and around.
Matt Herrick, director of Communications of USDA under Obama, tweeted this regarding the disappearing of animal abuse reports:
Decision by @usda 2 remove animal abuse reports not required.
Totally subjective. Same option given 2 past admin. We refused. #transparency
And it's not the first (and probably not the last) time that Trump administration, once caught doing something they shouldn't be doing, tries to blame it on Obama.
Like the Muslim ban, Yemen raid fiasco (BTW, that was "winning"), Trump's disastrous calls to Mexican and Australian heads of state... and now this.
More here.