Here in Detroit many (if not a majority) of the abandoned houses get their copper plumbing (among other things) stripped out by scrappers. It's a major problem, especially with all the home foreclosures lately, because once a house is stripped of all its plumbing it's very difficult to sell (obviously.)
When I get bored I like to melt the older zinc pennies into big hunks of zinc with a propane torch. Maybe I should hold onto that zinc for a while and then sell when the price goes way up...I could be rich!:)
I'd be glad to let the telecoms go, as long as the people in the government who told them to do it go to jail Except THAT will never happen. We can't even get Bush or Cheney impeached for blatantly lying about the reasons for starting a war.
You've got it exactly right. It's pretty obvious too, because when you think back to 2001, one of the reasons the CIA and FBI gave for not finding out about the attacks before they happened was that they were simply overloaded with intel and didn't have the resources to sift through it all. And yet, the White House keeps saying they need more, more, more information, even we have to break the law to get it.
I really wish people would think about these things a little more, because much of this deceit relies on people not bothering to put 2 and 2 together to get 4. They just think "OMG TERRORISTS" and then roll over and do whatever they're told.
Ah yes, so with this bill they claim we can bring in about $10 billion over ten years (presumbably by finding people avoiding their taxes), instead of tens of billions by closing loopholes that allow US companies to set up their HQ in overseas tax havens. Brilliant.
Of course, all those little people don't contribute to Mr. Dodd's campaign funds like those big companies do.
The media also has a big part to play in this, because they simply don't bother to report much of anything really important any more, so a lot of people don't even know what's going on. Case in point: I just checked cnn.com, and this story is NOWHERE on the front page, despite the fact that it has an effect on every single person in this country. I did however find a link to a story about Jamie Lynn Spears' baby. Sad, sad, sad.
I suspect that the turning point with the media came when news outlets started being treated as just another profit center instead of news sources. So now they only tell people what they want to hear, because that's what generates the revenue they need to avoid getting downsized. Who cares about the news? We need to make MONEY!
I'd rather see us not invade anyone again unless there is a direct, confirmed threat to the US. But at least Pakistan, like Afghanistan, would be a sensible target to invade if your goal is to get terrorists and control the spread of nukes. Unlike Iraq or Iran we're 100% certain Pakistan has nuclear weapons, because they've detonated them.
Let's be fair about this though; the Republicans controlled Congress from the second Clinton term until last fall, and have successfully stonewalled pretty much any progress since then beacause the Dems have only a narrow majority. I do blame the Democrats for constantly backing down under even slight threat, but even if they did refuse to buckle it still wouldn't get anything done, because they don't have a large enough majority to override any vetos, and Bush has pretty much vetoed or threatened to veto every bill that doesn't follow his twisted agenda.
On the plus side I do give them kudos for managing to (so far) stall telecom immunity.
There are a lot of folks being hit hard by this who are NOT simply greedy people who thought they could get that 2nd or 3rd home. Here in Detroit a lot of families are now losing their FIRST homes. These aren't people who wanted a big house they couldn't afford; these are people who just wanted a place to live. Banks were handing out mortgages around here like candy to anyone with a job, and not clearly explaining how subprime works. Fast forward two years and all of a sudden their mortgage payment doubles and now they're out on the street.
There are also an increasing number of cases now across the nation where people who were renting houses wake up to find an eviction notice because their landlord is now overextended on these mortgages. Many of these people are going to lose their security deposits AND get kicked out of their houses, and they did nothing wrong. They had no way of knowing their landlord is an idiot. What's worse is there are very few laws to protect people in such situations so a lot of them are just SOL.
Except that between the two, at least Obama is saying we should try SOMETHING different, and McCain is basically spouting more of the same. It's possible Obama's ideas won't work, but we're pretty damned sure at this point that McCain's aren't working now and won't work in the future.
And why exactly is a rigid timetable unacceptable? It's becoming more and more obvious that we simply aren't wanted there, and these people have been fighting each other over religious differences for a thousand years, with no signs of resolving anything anytime soon. Are you saying we should help them fight it out for the next thousand? Yes, I know, "we broke it, we should fix it." Except we aren't fixing it; it's just getting worse, and meanwhile we're losing lives and our country is falling apart economically. I for one simply cannot endorse blowing billions more dollars trying to help people who quite frankly just don't want to be helped.
It isn't always even a matter of being uninformed. Speaking from personal experience from a few years ago the banks are very good at harassing you and eventually breaking you, at which point you'll pretty much do what they say. In my case what they told me to do was mortgage the house through one of their convenient mortgage "partners."
If you're like me and have stress and anxiety issues the breaking doesn't even take all that long. In my case I actually ended up losing a job because of the stress.
Couldn't have put it better myself (I was about to post pretty much the same thing, until I saw your post.)
WoW is the first MMO I have ever played to the endgame (or played for more than a few months, really.) I think what makes WoW so popular is that it's very easy to solo your way to 70, especially since version 2.3. This means I can play at my leisure, and not have to worry that my friends are going to pass me and leave me unable to finish. I've got a couple level 70 chars, but mostly I spend my time slowly levelling up alts, so that I can try every class in the game at least once. I don't even have my chars in active guilds right now, because I have yet to find a guild that does not make me feel like I MUST play the game....and when I start feeling like that it becomes more of a chore than a game and the fun completely goes away. That's when I take a break for a month or two or six.
Never could understand the people who go insane about the game trying to be the absolute best. It seems (from my POV) like it just takes the fun out and turns the game into another job, except you don't get a paycheck. Unless you're a gold farmer, of course.:)
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks these completely flat keyboards are silly. For those of us who were actually trained to touch type (I took it in high school in 1986) it's very cumbersome to use a keyboard that does not provide tactile feedback and some way of feeling the position of the home row. Ever wonder what the little ridges are for on the F and J keys? It's finger placement assistance for touch typists.
Best keyboard I ever had was a Lexmark PS/2 keyboard from circa 1995. It was a $105 keyboard at the time that I got while I was working for an IBM reseller. It was full size and had nice firm keys that made a good audible CLICK when you hit them. It was a lot like typing on a typewriter. Unfortunately it died many years ago, and I have never had a keyboard anywhere near that good since then.
Well in order to have collisions you need at least two transmitters on the same medium, and this is a point-to-point full duplex fiber connection; there can't be a collision because the two ends transmit on opposite fibers. It undoubtedly required some serious TCP/IP tweaking through to take advantage of that throughput.
Slashdot Mirror
Here in Detroit many (if not a majority) of the abandoned houses get their copper plumbing (among other things) stripped out by scrappers. It's a major problem, especially with all the home foreclosures lately, because once a house is stripped of all its plumbing it's very difficult to sell (obviously.)
When I get bored I like to melt the older zinc pennies into big hunks of zinc with a propane torch. Maybe I should hold onto that zinc for a while and then sell when the price goes way up...I could be rich! :)
Indium is a rare spawn mining node, like silver. ;-)
You've got it exactly right. It's pretty obvious too, because when you think back to 2001, one of the reasons the CIA and FBI gave for not finding out about the attacks before they happened was that they were simply overloaded with intel and didn't have the resources to sift through it all. And yet, the White House keeps saying they need more, more, more information, even we have to break the law to get it.
I really wish people would think about these things a little more, because much of this deceit relies on people not bothering to put 2 and 2 together to get 4. They just think "OMG TERRORISTS" and then roll over and do whatever they're told.
I CAN HAZ RULE OF LAW?
Ah yes, so with this bill they claim we can bring in about $10 billion over ten years (presumbably by finding people avoiding their taxes), instead of tens of billions by closing loopholes that allow US companies to set up their HQ in overseas tax havens. Brilliant.
Of course, all those little people don't contribute to Mr. Dodd's campaign funds like those big companies do.
The media also has a big part to play in this, because they simply don't bother to report much of anything really important any more, so a lot of people don't even know what's going on. Case in point: I just checked cnn.com, and this story is NOWHERE on the front page, despite the fact that it has an effect on every single person in this country. I did however find a link to a story about Jamie Lynn Spears' baby. Sad, sad, sad.
I suspect that the turning point with the media came when news outlets started being treated as just another profit center instead of news sources. So now they only tell people what they want to hear, because that's what generates the revenue they need to avoid getting downsized. Who cares about the news? We need to make MONEY!
Well I'm glad I could help. Sorry to hear about the blood test though.:/
A simpler solution is, when putting your coffee maker on the Internet, to make sure JavaScript is turned off.
:)
Yes, I made a horrible pun.
Wow I did not know I could do that. Thanks. :) I was always going into history and deleting stuff from there.
I'd rather see us not invade anyone again unless there is a direct, confirmed threat to the US. But at least Pakistan, like Afghanistan, would be a sensible target to invade if your goal is to get terrorists and control the spread of nukes. Unlike Iraq or Iran we're 100% certain Pakistan has nuclear weapons, because they've detonated them.
Let's be fair about this though; the Republicans controlled Congress from the second Clinton term until last fall, and have successfully stonewalled pretty much any progress since then beacause the Dems have only a narrow majority. I do blame the Democrats for constantly backing down under even slight threat, but even if they did refuse to buckle it still wouldn't get anything done, because they don't have a large enough majority to override any vetos, and Bush has pretty much vetoed or threatened to veto every bill that doesn't follow his twisted agenda.
On the plus side I do give them kudos for managing to (so far) stall telecom immunity.
There are a lot of folks being hit hard by this who are NOT simply greedy people who thought they could get that 2nd or 3rd home. Here in Detroit a lot of families are now losing their FIRST homes. These aren't people who wanted a big house they couldn't afford; these are people who just wanted a place to live. Banks were handing out mortgages around here like candy to anyone with a job, and not clearly explaining how subprime works. Fast forward two years and all of a sudden their mortgage payment doubles and now they're out on the street.
There are also an increasing number of cases now across the nation where people who were renting houses wake up to find an eviction notice because their landlord is now overextended on these mortgages. Many of these people are going to lose their security deposits AND get kicked out of their houses, and they did nothing wrong. They had no way of knowing their landlord is an idiot. What's worse is there are very few laws to protect people in such situations so a lot of them are just SOL.
Except that between the two, at least Obama is saying we should try SOMETHING different, and McCain is basically spouting more of the same. It's possible Obama's ideas won't work, but we're pretty damned sure at this point that McCain's aren't working now and won't work in the future.
And why exactly is a rigid timetable unacceptable? It's becoming more and more obvious that we simply aren't wanted there, and these people have been fighting each other over religious differences for a thousand years, with no signs of resolving anything anytime soon. Are you saying we should help them fight it out for the next thousand? Yes, I know, "we broke it, we should fix it." Except we aren't fixing it; it's just getting worse, and meanwhile we're losing lives and our country is falling apart economically. I for one simply cannot endorse blowing billions more dollars trying to help people who quite frankly just don't want to be helped.
It isn't always even a matter of being uninformed. Speaking from personal experience from a few years ago the banks are very good at harassing you and eventually breaking you, at which point you'll pretty much do what they say. In my case what they told me to do was mortgage the house through one of their convenient mortgage "partners."
If you're like me and have stress and anxiety issues the breaking doesn't even take all that long. In my case I actually ended up losing a job because of the stress.
I didn't see an arc reactor powering that arm though.
At least one would have to be an air hose, so you can reinflate her when she loses pressure.
The world's first rickroll-by-fax?
Couldn't have put it better myself (I was about to post pretty much the same thing, until I saw your post.)
:)
WoW is the first MMO I have ever played to the endgame (or played for more than a few months, really.) I think what makes WoW so popular is that it's very easy to solo your way to 70, especially since version 2.3. This means I can play at my leisure, and not have to worry that my friends are going to pass me and leave me unable to finish. I've got a couple level 70 chars, but mostly I spend my time slowly levelling up alts, so that I can try every class in the game at least once. I don't even have my chars in active guilds right now, because I have yet to find a guild that does not make me feel like I MUST play the game....and when I start feeling like that it becomes more of a chore than a game and the fun completely goes away. That's when I take a break for a month or two or six.
Never could understand the people who go insane about the game trying to be the absolute best. It seems (from my POV) like it just takes the fun out and turns the game into another job, except you don't get a paycheck. Unless you're a gold farmer, of course.
Well I know what I'm ordering when I get my big paycheck at the end of the month. :-) Thanks for the link!
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks these completely flat keyboards are silly. For those of us who were actually trained to touch type (I took it in high school in 1986) it's very cumbersome to use a keyboard that does not provide tactile feedback and some way of feeling the position of the home row. Ever wonder what the little ridges are for on the F and J keys? It's finger placement assistance for touch typists.
Best keyboard I ever had was a Lexmark PS/2 keyboard from circa 1995. It was a $105 keyboard at the time that I got while I was working for an IBM reseller. It was full size and had nice firm keys that made a good audible CLICK when you hit them. It was a lot like typing on a typewriter. Unfortunately it died many years ago, and I have never had a keyboard anywhere near that good since then.
At least RoR doesn't believe arrays start with 1 instead of 0 *sigh*
Man you need to lay off the 'shrooms. ;-)
Well in order to have collisions you need at least two transmitters on the same medium, and this is a point-to-point full duplex fiber connection; there can't be a collision because the two ends transmit on opposite fibers. It undoubtedly required some serious TCP/IP tweaking through to take advantage of that throughput.