I have no problem with people getting rich if they've earned in a way that's equitable to all...
I'm sorry -- but that just doesn't make any sense to me. What is an "equitable" way to get rich? I haven't seen any overlords with whips beating the backs of workers to get them to perform. They work of their own accord. And if they want, they can leave.
Outsourcing isn't the fault of the CEOs and to blame them smacks to me of a witch-hunt. It's a nice way to mis-direct attention to the REAL problem: Globalization. In particular, Globalization where we don't insist foreign workers fall under the same EPA, OSHA, minimum wage, workman's comp, etc standards that we force on the employeers of our OWN workers.
If you want to REALLY solve the problem, either force outside workforces to comply with OUR standards, or lower OUR standards of employment to meet theirs. CEOs and corporations are not "boogie men". We've set up a system that basically lays money at their feet and we complain when the bend over to pick it up.
This is crazy, blocking an entire country because of spam
Spain is not "defacto" blocked/blackholed. Only those who have configured their email servers to use AHBL to block "blacklisted" email will be blocked. Those who use AHBL, but only MARK email as potential spam -- or add spamassassin-type modifiers will still receive email from the affected ISP(s). And for those who don't use AHBL, nothing has changed.
Nutshell: If you don't think blacklistnig spain is a good idea, don't use AHBL.
Significant correlation is usually very powerful tool for pointing out that there is a relationship. However, it's not proof and it's really bad at helping you to understand the relationship.
As was explained in the link I provided -- including a correlation between heat and ice-cream/crime.
However, if we have confidence in a weather model that shows how CO2 levels can cause an increase in the solar energy captured by a planetary system (we do), then a historical correlation between CO2 levels and temperature would strongly suggest (but not prove) that this model is significant in the weather system of the Earth.
Key word is "confidence". Weather models invlove a huge amount of variables and require far more data points than we have available to produce accurate models. The best we can do is say "if we assume XYZ are true, and we plot THESE datapoints..." Further, what about increased solar output (solar storms) on weather? Unfortunately, there may be no way to measure such activity prior to the industrial age (the age of "technology").
We need to take all this with a bit of salt and remember that just prior to when we started taking temperature readings, we came out of a "little ice age" (forgive the wiki). It would hardly be surprising that if a warming trend started just as industrial growth started that we might see an increase. You need to remember: H20 vapor is ALSO a greenhouse gas -- as are a number of other things.
...but a thing that would convince me of the human impact is climate archeology showing a tight correlation between co2 and average temperature.
Then it would be easy to convince you of such silly things as icecream causing crime (because it can and has been correlated that icecream sales increase with crime rates).
This is a completely bogus way do define ANSWERS. Correlcations are important, but they by no means equate to causation.
Great. Easy to draw up a plan to blow up a comet (in theory, plant bomb, run away, explode bomb). Get Bruce to change the weather on a global scale? I'm kinda not seeing that possibility...
...is that global warning is correlated to human activity above and beyond any natural cycles of the earth.
Buzzzt. Wrong answer, but thank you for playing!
The problem here is that all accurate data we have only dates back about 100 years -- and really, only in depth data for last last few decades. How old is the earth? Better, how much time would we need to measure weather and climate trends? We have only "hints" of past climate changes and suggestions as to what caused them. Is there any evidence of increased solar activity during past "warming" trends 600 million years ago? Good luck finding some...
It's easy to say "The last 100 years has been warming -- and we have increased industrial pollution over the past 100 years" and suggest causation. Problem: correlation does not equate to causation.
I've taken statistics and geology (upper divsion for one, lower for the other) and have considered the evidence for myself. I would suggest you do the same and not take for granted that reports that do NOT support your suggestions are biased and those that *DO* reflect your opinions are unbiased.
Also, your analogy is flawed. If it were accurate, humans would have to have MADE the comet as the argument generally presented by environmentalists is that HUMANS are causing global warming.
Penn and Teller had a great episode of Bullshit on Environmental Hysteria. Nothing new to anyone who's even take a SMALL amount of time to reseach such issues -- but it's nicely packaged and quite amusing.
Personally, I was happy with the punch-card voting system we've had in Los Angeles forever. "Chads" are only a problem if you don't follow instructions (which in CA are posted in pretty much every conceivable language -- at taxpayers expense).
"All electronic" to me means, "Not 100% safe". Unless the gizmo kicks out a paper "receipt" that the voter checks for accuracy then placed in a "lock box" for random audits, I will NEVER trust such a beast. Id rather be requesting absentee ballots.
Ok. Then I'll say it: "Global warming is 100% real". Just look at the geologic record -- there's PLEANTY of evidence that shows that the earth has gone through warming and cooling cycles and is generally taken as a "given".
The problems pop up when peaple try to show some type of "link" that a warming or cooling trend is a direct cause of anything done by humans. THAT is psuedo-science.
It was an unusually good deal. Of course, my skill sets (including data mining) have saved us a small fortune by allowing us to do a lot of stuff in-house rather than go through our software vendor for minor and not-so-minor changes to our LIS.
Also, I'm very experienced on the clinical lab side of the business, too -- including CLIA, CAP and HIPAA regulations and associated licenses for all aspects of clinical laboratories. In fact, I've been contracted out by my employeer to consult with a number of our clients on getting THEM HIPAA compliant.
I must admit, I consider the CEO at my lab to be a honorable fellow. I've worked for corporate and privately owened entities over the years. It's now my rule-of-thumb that corporate work is to be avoided on all conditions other than "pay the rent until something better comes along".
I still maintain a small clutch of 1099 clients from my "consultant" days with our CEOs 'ok'. It only brings me an extra $10k/year, but it aint bad. And the places I still support are privately owned and I like the owners (they treat their crew well) -- I do it mostly because I know they'd be "sharked" for more that 2x what I charge them for any support they need and it doesn't generally take more than 5-10 hours a month of my time.
This is true. I received overtime until last year when I got an "offer" to go salary. I cant complain, they took my previous years base pay + all the over time I made and added an additional $15k/year and asked if I would go salary for that. Thinking "Hell yes!", I said "Hmmm... sounds reasonable -- let me talk it over with my family". Took the offer, of course.
With a few exectpions, I can walk out on my job at the drop of a hat and pick up where I left off in the evening. Of course, there's the off 2am page/alert that has me up and at work -- or once I had to walk out of an amusement park and return to work -- but it's a fair trade, imho (and MINE is all that matters to me).
Pride is not a virtue. At least that's what Nate the Snake told me down in Magincia. Perhaps I should go to a shrine and meditate on this some... where did I put that rune?
In California, a state with one of the HIGHEST costs of living, the highest state tax rate STARTS around $30k and is around 9.6%, iirc. Sales tax is another 8.25%. Gasoline is taxed at around 35% per gallon. Add to that an approximate 6% payroll tax (FICA), 35%+income tax and assorted taxes on "services", taxes eat up over 50% of my income. This doesn't take in to account property tax, either.
Someone making $25k/year with 4 or 5 dependants probably pays next to nothing in income tax (state or federal) -- and in fact, probably MAKES money in the form of an EIC (earned income tax credit -- a "refund" on taxes that were NEVER paid).
I can tell you in California, $200k/year is NOT anything CLOSE to rich. With rent of a 3 bedroom apt running over $2k/month and over in many cities and houses in decent neighborhoods running about $500k and up, $200k/year is solidly middle-class in CA.
If one REALLY doesn't "want a burden", maybe they shouldn't be having 4 or 5 kids -- particularly at $25/year... Just an idea...
Using your analogy, wouldn't your statement that we don't have the right to "duct tape someone who's talking too loud in the mall" be similar to we not having the right to prevent some 'gizmo' from 'talking to loud in the mall' such that it "bothers" cell phones?
If so, you are right, since I do understand every part of "public", and using your analogy, I can blast what ever frequencies I like and disregard any "bothering" they do along the way...
I know what you "meant" to say. I may have been a bit obtuse, but I was suggesting that the ONLY "real" control on government spending is a "fuzzy" limit -- past which the plebs (us) start to squeal (as you suggested with your "unrest" comment).
From my point of view, just because we may be WILLING to tollerate the loss of around 50% of our income to taxes doesn't mean the government should TAKE or SPEND that much -- but that seems to be happening.
Many moons ago, I was leaving a job which still needed my skills. They weren't able to find someone to replace me and I agreed to stay on as "on-call" working 10-20 hours a week until a replacement was found. On my last "official" work-day as a full time employee, my final pay-check was supposed to be provided to me (arrangements had already been made). In stead, the payroll department insisted that I wasn't to get my final check until the last day of the month (as was the practice with all "on-call" personnel -- by the way, my last day happened to fall on the first of the month.
I spent two days argueing against the corporate buracracy. I gave up, filed an official "resignation letter" and demanded my final paycheck within 48 hours (as required by california law) and stated that failure would result in a complaint to the labor board and applicable fines.
I had my check the same day, I refuesed to work "on-call" and the company lost about 30% of their clients (averaging about $800k/month) due to their inflexability.
End result: my old employeer bacame more "employee friendly". It had been once, when privately owned -- during my time there, they were sold to Corning and became bottom-line-zombies. The loss of a few million in revenue tought them that happy employees == better bottom line.
This is exactly what I do. I've Kids ranging in age from 10 down to 2. Little hands have damaged many a CD/DVD. While "rules" saying "no touching" work somewhate -- media still gets destroyed.
Every CD/DVD accessable to my kids is a COPY of the original media. This includes PC-CDROMs -- although most of those are imaged and stored on the LAN rather than burned on to a CD.
The only thing I've used blockbuster for is to "try" a game to decide if it's something I'm willing to let my kids play -- or check and see if they like it.
I know I'm not the only one who does this, either. Several other friends/parents also do this -- and we share advice/suggestions.
I realize there's a large pirate problem, but the answer to that isn't to eliminate or hinder fair use.
Slashdot Mirror
Outsourcing isn't the fault of the CEOs and to blame them smacks to me of a witch-hunt. It's a nice way to mis-direct attention to the REAL problem: Globalization. In particular, Globalization where we don't insist foreign workers fall under the same EPA, OSHA, minimum wage, workman's comp, etc standards that we force on the employeers of our OWN workers.
If you want to REALLY solve the problem, either force outside workforces to comply with OUR standards, or lower OUR standards of employment to meet theirs. CEOs and corporations are not "boogie men". We've set up a system that basically lays money at their feet and we complain when the bend over to pick it up.
Now that's the first 'rational' explaination I've heard! And that should be hot semi-frequently partially nude vulcans are what sells.
Enterprise gets picked up for another season.
Isn't it obvious? GOOD SF doesn't sell. Cheap commercialized tripe does.
Nutshell: If you don't think blacklistnig spain is a good idea, don't use AHBL.
We need to take all this with a bit of salt and remember that just prior to when we started taking temperature readings, we came out of a "little ice age" (forgive the wiki). It would hardly be surprising that if a warming trend started just as industrial growth started that we might see an increase. You need to remember: H20 vapor is ALSO a greenhouse gas -- as are a number of other things.
This is a completely bogus way do define ANSWERS. Correlcations are important, but they by no means equate to causation.
Great. Easy to draw up a plan to blow up a comet (in theory, plant bomb, run away, explode bomb). Get Bruce to change the weather on a global scale? I'm kinda not seeing that possibility...
The problem here is that all accurate data we have only dates back about 100 years -- and really, only in depth data for last last few decades. How old is the earth? Better, how much time would we need to measure weather and climate trends? We have only "hints" of past climate changes and suggestions as to what caused them. Is there any evidence of increased solar activity during past "warming" trends 600 million years ago? Good luck finding some...
It's easy to say "The last 100 years has been warming -- and we have increased industrial pollution over the past 100 years" and suggest causation. Problem: correlation does not equate to causation.
I've taken statistics and geology (upper divsion for one, lower for the other) and have considered the evidence for myself. I would suggest you do the same and not take for granted that reports that do NOT support your suggestions are biased and those that *DO* reflect your opinions are unbiased.
I wish you luck in your efforts.
Also, your analogy is flawed. If it were accurate, humans would have to have MADE the comet as the argument generally presented by environmentalists is that HUMANS are causing global warming.
Penn and Teller had a great episode of Bullshit on Environmental Hysteria. Nothing new to anyone who's even take a SMALL amount of time to reseach such issues -- but it's nicely packaged and quite amusing.
Personally, I was happy with the punch-card voting system we've had in Los Angeles forever. "Chads" are only a problem if you don't follow instructions (which in CA are posted in pretty much every conceivable language -- at taxpayers expense).
"All electronic" to me means, "Not 100% safe". Unless the gizmo kicks out a paper "receipt" that the voter checks for accuracy then placed in a "lock box" for random audits, I will NEVER trust such a beast. Id rather be requesting absentee ballots.
The problems pop up when peaple try to show some type of "link" that a warming or cooling trend is a direct cause of anything done by humans. THAT is psuedo-science.
It was an unusually good deal. Of course, my skill sets (including data mining) have saved us a small fortune by allowing us to do a lot of stuff in-house rather than go through our software vendor for minor and not-so-minor changes to our LIS.
Also, I'm very experienced on the clinical lab side of the business, too -- including CLIA, CAP and HIPAA regulations and associated licenses for all aspects of clinical laboratories. In fact, I've been contracted out by my employeer to consult with a number of our clients on getting THEM HIPAA compliant.
The "good deal" was a win for both sides.
I must admit, I consider the CEO at my lab to be a honorable fellow. I've worked for corporate and privately owened entities over the years. It's now my rule-of-thumb that corporate work is to be avoided on all conditions other than "pay the rent until something better comes along".
I still maintain a small clutch of 1099 clients from my "consultant" days with our CEOs 'ok'. It only brings me an extra $10k/year, but it aint bad. And the places I still support are privately owned and I like the owners (they treat their crew well) -- I do it mostly because I know they'd be "sharked" for more that 2x what I charge them for any support they need and it doesn't generally take more than 5-10 hours a month of my time.
This is true. I received overtime until last year when I got an "offer" to go salary. I cant complain, they took my previous years base pay + all the over time I made and added an additional $15k/year and asked if I would go salary for that. Thinking "Hell yes!", I said "Hmmm... sounds reasonable -- let me talk it over with my family". Took the offer, of course.
With a few exectpions, I can walk out on my job at the drop of a hat and pick up where I left off in the evening. Of course, there's the off 2am page/alert that has me up and at work -- or once I had to walk out of an amusement park and return to work -- but it's a fair trade, imho (and MINE is all that matters to me).
-jhon
Pride is not a virtue. At least that's what Nate the Snake told me down in Magincia. Perhaps I should go to a shrine and meditate on this some... where did I put that rune?
In California, a state with one of the HIGHEST costs of living, the highest state tax rate STARTS around $30k and is around 9.6%, iirc. Sales tax is another 8.25%. Gasoline is taxed at around 35% per gallon. Add to that an approximate 6% payroll tax (FICA), 35%+income tax and assorted taxes on "services", taxes eat up over 50% of my income. This doesn't take in to account property tax, either.
Someone making $25k/year with 4 or 5 dependants probably pays next to nothing in income tax (state or federal) -- and in fact, probably MAKES money in the form of an EIC (earned income tax credit -- a "refund" on taxes that were NEVER paid).
I can tell you in California, $200k/year is NOT anything CLOSE to rich. With rent of a 3 bedroom apt running over $2k/month and over in many cities and houses in decent neighborhoods running about $500k and up, $200k/year is solidly middle-class in CA.
If one REALLY doesn't "want a burden", maybe they shouldn't be having 4 or 5 kids -- particularly at $25/year... Just an idea...
Using your analogy, wouldn't your statement that we don't have the right to "duct tape someone who's talking too loud in the mall" be similar to we not having the right to prevent some 'gizmo' from 'talking to loud in the mall' such that it "bothers" cell phones?
If so, you are right, since I do understand every part of "public", and using your analogy, I can blast what ever frequencies I like and disregard any "bothering" they do along the way...
Thanks, man. That needed clarification...
[Cheesey synthesized voice]
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
[/Cheesey syntheszed voice]
I know what you "meant" to say. I may have been a bit obtuse, but I was suggesting that the ONLY "real" control on government spending is a "fuzzy" limit -- past which the plebs (us) start to squeal (as you suggested with your "unrest" comment).
From my point of view, just because we may be WILLING to tollerate the loss of around 50% of our income to taxes doesn't mean the government should TAKE or SPEND that much -- but that seems to be happening.
OR
3. all of the above
I'm guessing you have no kids. Further, I'm guessing you've never heard the problems when you ASS-U-ME something.
Trust me, a damaged/destroyed item nets the child an appropriate punishment.
So, try to hold your tongue before jumping to conclusions.
I agree, some times burning bridges is necessary.
Many moons ago, I was leaving a job which still needed my skills. They weren't able to find someone to replace me and I agreed to stay on as "on-call" working 10-20 hours a week until a replacement was found. On my last "official" work-day as a full time employee, my final pay-check was supposed to be provided to me (arrangements had already been made). In stead, the payroll department insisted that I wasn't to get my final check until the last day of the month (as was the practice with all "on-call" personnel -- by the way, my last day happened to fall on the first of the month.
I spent two days argueing against the corporate buracracy. I gave up, filed an official "resignation letter" and demanded my final paycheck within 48 hours (as required by california law) and stated that failure would result in a complaint to the labor board and applicable fines.
I had my check the same day, I refuesed to work "on-call" and the company lost about 30% of their clients (averaging about $800k/month) due to their inflexability.
End result: my old employeer bacame more "employee friendly". It had been once, when privately owned -- during my time there, they were sold to Corning and became bottom-line-zombies. The loss of a few million in revenue tought them that happy employees == better bottom line.
This is exactly what I do. I've Kids ranging in age from 10 down to 2. Little hands have damaged many a CD/DVD. While "rules" saying "no touching" work somewhate -- media still gets destroyed.
Every CD/DVD accessable to my kids is a COPY of the original media. This includes PC-CDROMs -- although most of those are imaged and stored on the LAN rather than burned on to a CD.
The only thing I've used blockbuster for is to "try" a game to decide if it's something I'm willing to let my kids play -- or check and see if they like it.
I know I'm not the only one who does this, either. Several other friends/parents also do this -- and we share advice/suggestions.
I realize there's a large pirate problem, but the answer to that isn't to eliminate or hinder fair use.
God... am I going to need to say "colon" every time I want to browse? A contant reminder that I've a scheduled colonoscopy in the near future? Ug!