Sure they did - that was a modem init string, not a command to actually DIAL the modem. My 1200 baud external modem, and all 3 of my internal 2400 baud modems, used them (ran a bbs running grapevine, w. ascii art menus, etc. THOSE were the days)
recently replaced my old laptop. The owner of my company heard about this and offered to reimburse me for it, since he knows I have and will continue to do company work on my own hardware. I'd like the extra $1,250, but I think if I accept his offer that legally he has the right to any data on it (personal emails, files, blog posts, etc.)
If you total or wear out your personal car because of your work, and your employer offers to pay for the replacement, he doesn't magically get title to it. He *replaced* YOUR hardware which wore out due to company use.
Same as if the company replaces a customer's cell phone that gets broken due to, for example, it getting run over by the company's delivery truck. They don't suddenly p0wn the customer's cell.
When they reimburse you for on-the-road meals, do they suddenly have a right, like Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", to claim their pound of flesh? Nope. When they pay for your new pants because you ruined your old ones on a service call, do they suddenly have the right to say "only wear them while you're on the job?" Didn't think so. When they give you gas and mileage money, do they get a lease-hold or any further rights to your car? Nah.
When the laptop gets stolen, whose insurance is going to cover it, or who is going to eat the loss? You. Take the money, and make it clear that the laptop is YOUR responsibility, and your liabity. Worse comes to worse, get it in writing, get it in writing, and get it in writing.
To the extent I've been working in this field for the last 10 years, I've been mostly working on band-aids
"I am stuck on Band-aids, 'cause band-aids stuck on me,
I am stuck on Band-aids, 'cause band-aids stuck on me,
updating specs is a PITA now,
with dysfunctional ISPs,
We're all stuck on Band-aids now, 'cause of our sucky ISP!"
"
... because if we don't laugh, we'll cry...
IPV6? Do you really want to give each toaster an individual ip addresses? You know toasters have a plan!
If two people choose to step into a ring to fight for money or for fun (and there are people who do it just for fun, no money involved), it's their choice, and it's not wrong.
How does getting into a ring change it? If they did it outside the ring, even though it was completely voluntary, it would be illegal. Same as other completely voluntary crimes, such as dueling, or snuff films.
Because it's "a sport" when it's in the ring, and not when it's outside? Even though you have the same situation - spectators, bets, a winner and a loser?
That's fucked up. But back to the main thread - Caster Semenya was shown to have the same testosterone levels as a man. Either it's doping, or a cyst on the adrenals. One of Caster's former coaches was the same guy who doped the East German olympic teams with so much testosterone that one of them had to get a sex change.
If your testosterone levels are the same as a man, you have no right to compete as a woman, no matter what the cause. The precedent was set with transsexual male-to-female athletes. the criteria are 2 years post-op and on female hormones. Testosterone from the adrenals only, and at normal genetic female levels. So either way, Caster is not considered a woman for sport competition.
You talk about the national health insurance plan as if it is some clearly laid out plan. Why do you think they tried to rush it through Congress before anyone could have time to read it?
You mean like the PATRIOT Act?
... or anything else, for that matter. I've talked with federal politicians, and they admit to not having read stuff they were voting on - like NAFTA... if they were school kids, they would be given an "F" for their gross incompetence - but then they'd try to persuade voters that "F" means "Fine", and not "Fail". Asking them to do their jobs is too much work! "We don't have time to read all that stuff" was what one told me.
I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of being against a national health-care plan as "socialist" when the US already HAS a national health-care plan - Medicare. The people who claim that a national health-careplan would "take away choice" are so full of shit it's not funny (it would give them an additional choice). That their heads don't explode due to the contraditions shows that they can not focus on more than one aspect of the question at a time, never mind multitask, AND/OR that they have ulterior motives, such as racism ("blacks and latinos would benefit more, so why should I pay") and greed ("private for-profit plans can't compete, so my shares in Kaiser Permanente will go down - better convince people that universal health-care is BAD for their health, since it's bad for my financial health").
Stupidity, racism, and greed - but mostly the latter, which exploits the first two. You already have bureaucrat-managed care via the HMOs, who are answerable only to Wall Street. Do you really trust them to do what's right if it's going to affect the bottom line - and they already have a proven history of denying valid claims and killing people? google "cigna whistleblower wendell potter" and read congressional testimony on how the insurance companies are scamming you right now.
Here's the first few paragraphs - there's a lot more at the linky:
Last Temptation
An interview with Wendell Potter
The former mouthpiece for insurance giant Cigna divulges his role in misleading the public, the emotional day that led to his whistle-blowing, and what should really scare you.
n June 2007, Wendell Potter was head of corporate communications at Cigna, one of the largest health insurance companies in America, when he attended the U.S. premiere of Michael Moore's Sicko. Potter was part of the team charged with discrediting Moore's film, which advance word said was highly critical of the health insurance industry. Potter "sat quietly in the back and took notes," but soon realized he had a problem. "When I saw the movie, I'll be honest: I thought it was a real good documentary. I knew from my own studies of other healthcare systems that it was an accurate portrayal of those systems and how they are able to provide universal coverage." Yet he was being paid by Cigna to tell people the opposite, that the film was full of lies.
Just a few weeks later, Potter, who is from Tennessee, read in a local paper about a free healthcare expedition being held in Wise County, Virginia. He decided to check it out. Walking through the fairground gates, Potter saw hundreds of people waiting in the rain while physicians attended to patients in animal stalls or on gurneys lying on the rain-soaked pavement. Tents had been pitched across the fairground lawns, creating a scene "like something that could've been happening on a battlefield or in a war-torn country." Tears mixed with the rain to cloud Potter's vision. "What I thought was: 'Is this the United States?' It was so remote from my reality. It just seemed impossible."
In months and years prior, Potter had grown increasingly skeptical about his job as chief spokesman for Cigna. Though he insists he never intentionally lied to a reporter, he began to spout what he thought were either misleading or less than honest statements. Moreover, his job required him to hype new programs he felt were not in the best interest of patients or the U.S. healthcare system--particularly when it came to high-deductible, or "consumer driven" plans. He came to feel he was on the wrong side of the healthcare debate and would catch himself gazing into a mirror, wondering, "Who is this?
I was using Palin (and the birthers, deathers, etc) as obvious examples of people who the Dunning-Kruger effect is in full force. It's the explanation for their continued self-reinforcing ignorance. As to Obama, having a public health system doesn't mean a government program gets to approve your treatment - that's one of the lies that's being pushed right now.
Up here in Canada, when I go to a hospital, clinic, or doctor, there is not only no need to get government approval for treatment - it's against the law for a government bureaucrat to stick their nose in my file. Doctor-patient confidence is the law. A universal single-payer public system doesn't change that, just like it doesn't change that I get to pick my own doctors.
Contrast this to the US, where the latest figures show that 98% of all HMO policies mandate which hospital and doctor group you see, what treatments you'e eligible for, and whether they'll jack up your rates to get rid of you next year if your risk profile changes.
It's not a question of looking after yourself, but of having actual choices, including the choice of being able to opt into a single-payer public plan.
Funny how all the politicians (and their followers) who are barking against the public plan hold the contradictory position that [Medicare?Medicaid/whatever it's called in your state] should be continued for seniors. It's government-controlled. It's publicly subsidized. It's socialist. But no, they can't see the contradiction, because they can't look at more than one thing at a time - they can't multi-task.
For further info, just google "Sarah Palin" or "birthers".
Or a better example: You think you're funny, but you're not.
Wasn't trying to be funny. I'm dead serious - and this (the difference in the actual thought process between neo-cons and the rest of the world) has been covered on slashdot, and in the general media, before. That you can't see it for what it is - the truth - makes your post ironic.
Despite their "christian family values", neocons have higher rates of children born out of a relationship - looks like they couldn't multi-task enough to read the instructions on the condom (or they ate the banana during class). They have higher divorce rates - maybe they couldn't focus as well on all the variables when making that decision. They can see from experience that abstinence doesn't work, but they can't recognize it. Birthers are the real joke - they now want to see Obama's penis! What is it with republicans and their fixation on the penises of democrat presidents anyway?
Obviously people like Sarah Palin, because they can't multi-task and believe they can, also can't consider facts in their global context - everything is simple, because THEY are simple. Everything boils down to "aw shucks, that's easy. Just do (a, b, or c) - problem solved!" which is what got us into this mess in the first place - not being able to consider more than one thing at a time. It's also why Nixon liked the HMO idea in the first place - it solved HIS problem of what to do about health care and how best to take care of his buddy running Kaiser Permanente. It didn't solve the problem that the US already has crappy life expectancy, and it's now going to get worse if something isn't done.
Look at how the republicans are trying to frame the health-care issue in terms of "socialism." OMG SOCIALISM! THAT'S TEH D3V1L!!! This only works because their supporters can't think about more than a few things at a time - and one of those things is how the military, the police, firefighters, fcc, faa, cdc, noaa, public transit, social security, etc. are ALL "socialized" services. And now so are the banks, and GM, and Chrysler.
The republican party doesn't represent political conservatives any more - it's become a religion in its' own right (pardon the pun:-).
The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which "...people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it".[1] They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average. This leads to a perverse result where people with less competence will rate their ability more highly than people with relatively more competence. It also explains why competence may weaken the projection of confidence because competent individuals falsely assume others are of equivalent understanding. "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.
For further info, just google "Sarah Palin" or "birthers".
I would say that's a bit close-minded. Sure, the points of you participating in sports is to do something fun that is physical. The point of spectator sports is that some humans, not all, can achieve a level of performance that the majority of us can't (regardless of how much we were to train). It can be very enjoyable to watch a competition between the absolute best of our race in a particular event.
"Spectator sports" is STILL an oxymoron. the contradiction between people competing, and the fat slobs watching them, IS funny.
As for boxing, the goal isn't simply to beat the other person senseless. It's to avoid letting the other person beat you senseless.
You can't win by running away from your opponent - you HAVE to beat the other person up. If you don't lay a glove on them, you lose. The goal IS to beat the other person to the point where they simply can't defend themselves, and that's no more a sport than dog fighting. Both are stupid, and cater to the lowest of the low.
My math skills are fine. Many states have higher minimum wage than the federal one but in any case if I was making the minimum wage I would work more than 40 hours per week. In any case, this is a pointless conversation to start with. It's called a minimum wage for a reason. The point I was making is not that the life is great at the lowest level of society but that it is easily possible to get by and make a living with a bare minimum of sense and responsibility. With a bit more effort just about everybody in this country has opportunities, even during recession, that are greater than just about anywhere else in the world.
16% of the population works at the minimum wage - and a lot of them (and those who work for a bit more) can't even get 40 hours. That's why we have the term "under-employed." And no, it's not pointles - that's tens of millions of people. For you to call them pointless makes my point - your math skills suck, you're not informed on the issues, and you're just plain wrong on what you bloviate on. BTW - there are also millions who work for less than the minimum wage because of all the exceptions in the law.
Btw, I have a fairly comprehensive private insurance policy and I pay $125/month. Probably you get yours through your employer so you've no idea what it takes to get a private insurance. The problem for me was a prior condition (a fairly minor sports injury) but once I convinced them to insure me, the actual rate is pretty reasonable. The problem for insurance companies are people with serious conditions whose care can cost literally millions in the long run. Once you are insurable at all, the competition between the insurance companies kicks in and you can get a pretty affordable rate. Did you even look it up or you are just making things up as you go? For example you can compare policies at ehealthinsurance.com.
Fortunately, I live in a civilized country - one that doesn't have a 3rd-world attitude to public health care. And as you point out "he problem for insurance companies are people with serious conditions whose care can cost literally millions in the long run" means that, as I said, and as has been revealed in testimony before Congress, the insurers cherry-pick, and as you get older, it's harder to get a new insurance policy. People lose their jobs, what are they supposed to do? BTW, more than half of your insurance premium goes to overhead - advertising, lawyers, snoops to deny you coverage, lobbyists (there are 4 lobbyists for each member of congress), multi-million-dollar bonuses.
"Once you are insurable at all" - your words - is an admission that many people simply aren't insurable under the current system. Grow up, suck it up, admit you were wrong, that people with many pre-existing conditions are NOT going to get a policy for $125/month, and that the US system is a major FAIL, with too much overhead and not enough delivery of services.
BTW, your link sucks - they want $10k per year for a single female in the early 50s with no history of tobacco usage in the 12345 zip code. Add in a chronic condition like diabetes or asthma, and watch the actual premium soar!
I'll stay in Canada. I can choose my own doctor, there's no co-pay, and the last time I went to see a doctor, I waited less than an hour on a busy Sunday morning (busy because everyone who works during the week tries to see a doctor on the weekend, plus people bringing kids who need attention). The US system is barbaric. Uncivilized. Cruel and unusual among western nations.
My question is why you need a vacuum tube in a vacuum?
You're laboring under the idea that space is empty. But it's not, and throwing highly charged particles around (required for RF transmission) is going to attract the wrong kind of folk to the party. -_-
Won't make a difference whether the device is enclosed in a glass envelope or exposed.
A large chunk of people bang on about the US being a Christian nation. Well fucking act like it for once and quit acting like a bunch of extremist terrorist mouth breathers.
Read the bible sometime - it's full of god-ordered genocides, god-ordered rapes and pillaging, god-ordered hostility to other beliefs, god-ordered hatred of gays, lesbians, transexuals, transgendered, women who refuse to take their husbands' words as commandments, god-ordered assaults on infants (circumcision), god-ordered killing of your own offspring as a "test of faith", god-ordered stupidity in general. The bible is hate literature.
If you want to be a scientist, you study science.
If you want to be a doctor, you study medicine.
If you want to be a lawyer, you study law.
So what do you expect from people who spend so much time studying hate literature like the bible? They become haters. Xenophobes. Zealots. What bible-thumpers need is a good thumping with their bible.
Except our new government (Conservatives) have lost their minds and are pushing mandatory minimum sentences.
If they thnk that will work they should stop smoking so much dope...
Seriously... minimum mandatory sentences will:
make it more likely for people to refuse to cop a plea, raising prosecution costs, etc;
make it more likely that police themselves will look the other way (more than they do now - which, from what others have experienced, is "give us the pot and you can go");
make it more likely that jurors will refuse to return not guilty verdicts, since it's unlikely that you'll find a "clean" jury;
bring the administration of justice into disrepute;
raise constitutional issues, since all the above can be readily proven even today, making it more likely that defendants can show that they were selectively prosecuted, hence discriminated against;
Disclosure: I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and make pot, tobacco, etc., illegal, because I can't stand the smell of any of them - however, I also realize that illegal drug use is a social issue, and that the only way to get it mostly out of the hands of the biker gangs is to legalize it and tax the crap out of it. Also, we've been down this road before with prohibition in the US.
We're hypocrites because we allow tobacco sales, even though it's much more addictive AND a proven killer. Let someone eat their stupid mary jane brownies instead - I won't have to smell it, they'll be putting money into the tax coffers instead of the bikers' bank accounts, and we won't be giving criminal records to people who've only done what so many of our elected officials have admitted to doing, on both sides of the border. For example, your current president admits in his memoirs that he's a former pot and coke user, and your previous one was an out-of-control coke-head and alcoholic.
Expect Canada to fully legalize it within the next decade. We almost did under Chretien, but caved in because we already had enough hassles with Bush over other issues (like the BS about how "the 9/11 terr'ists entered the US through Canada" - when not one did, and Chretien (the then prime minister) not only refusing to support the US and publicly criticizing them over the Iraq invasion as stupid - "real friends will tell you what others won't"). We'll tax it, return to budget surpluses, and life will go on - Americans will come to Canada for their partying, same as they already do (drinking age is 18 here in Quebec, gay weddings of US citizens contribute to local tourism, etc), . As for the US reaction - BFD. We've been demonstrably right on so many issues that we've disagreed on (invading Iraq, banking regulations - did you know that Canada has the soundest banking system in the world?) that any nowadays any attempt to get us to change policy to kow-tow to the US on domestic policy would probably result in the fall of the government and a new election. Harper's not stupid - he knows it.
If we start going down the road of trying to regulate how a athletes body works, there is really no point to sports anymore.
News flash - these "sporting events" miss the entire point of sports - which is to get your obese butt off the couch and have some fun doing something more physical than popping the top off a King Can. Sports shouldn't be a "spectator sport". Just like boxing shouldn't be a sport, period - not when the goal is to beat the other person senseless. Then again, most people can't even be arsed to spend more than 15 minutes a day doing anything more strenuous than walking to the fridge.
However, the US has a smaller percentage of whites than any other country.
Really? There are countries where non-whites outnumber whites. Like, for example, China - largest population in the world.
However, splitting out life expectncy (sic) by race is not politically correct, so you have to blaim something else, such as insurance. Being able to take over an additional 1/6 of the economy is just a bonus.
Consider how it's being mis-managed by the health insurance industry:
the US spends more per capita on health care than any other country in the world;
despite this, 16% or 45 million Americans are uninsured at any one time;
The U.S. is one of only 2 OECD countries not to have some form of universal health coverage; the other one being Turkey;
currently, health-care decisions are being made by insurance company bureaucrats whose first obligation is to the stock-holders (Wall Street), and not to patients, who are an expense;
the government is already involved (veterans), and with Madicaid they cherry-pick the profitable clients, and the rest get dumped into Medicaid - which doesn't cover all of them, either:
Having a limited income is one of the primary requirements for Medicaid eligibility, but poverty alone does not qualify a person to receive Medicaid benefits unless they also fall into one of the defined eligibility categories.[2] According to the CMS website, "Medicaid does not provide medical assistance for all poor persons. Even under the broadest provisions of the Federal statute (except for emergency services for certain persons), the Medicaid program does not provide health care services, even for very poor persons, unless they are in one of the designated eligibility groups.
Don't laugh - check out the warnings on the next deep-fryer you buy. Depending on who made it, it might include a warning to wear clothes while using it, because someone - you guessed it - burned their pecker while making french fries (at lesst that was their story, and they're sticking to it, and I don't really want to know what they were REALLY doing. The late night bar scene is proof enough that some guys are willing | desperate enough to stick their dicks into ANYTHING).
Anyone ignorant enough to not know that a jar of peanuts contains peanuts needs a lifetime treatment at the local electrical shock therapy center.
Isn't that why we have the Darwin Awards?
Besides, no need to spend money on ECT - just tell them that they can get high licking an electrical socket if they do it right, or that they can have the most ultimate mind-blowing absolute killer orgasm by shoving a plugged-in extension cord up their anus while standing in the bathtub, then using a salt enema.
Throw in some links to toad-licking as a proven way for people to get high (for the electrical socket one), and that the drug companies are in a conspiracy to keep pushing viagra and don't want you to know that it cures erectile dysfunction (for the latter one), and problem solved.
After all, the REAL reason that there are so many idiots in the world is so we can laugh at them.
Firearms, not guns. Canada has more firearms, but far fewer handguns, and most of the shootings in the US are from handguns (which is where we get the term "Saturday Night Special" for a cheap, throwaway piece).
Note how the Reuters article is referring only to guns:
France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people,
Also:
Remember the Canadian system doesn't include medications, so there's no scamming pain meds or anything.
It's funny how the people in the US are screaming about "freedom" and "socialism" when it comes to healith care, but have no objection to socialized security (police and fire services, the military, etc.) It's all bogus, and if you follow the money, it's the insurance companies financing the misinformation. Insurance companies in the US withhold treatment and end up killing people - just search for "cigna whistleblower"
Wow. I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is "Freedom." Perhaps you've heard of him?
Of course I've heard of him - and since I don't live in the US, I'm actually freer than most Americans. No PATRIOT Act, no DMCA, no future tax constaints from government bail-out of the banking sector (since our banks didn't need a bail-out), no staying tied to an employer that sucks because of the health plan (universal health and drug coverage, so no portability issues), no sub-prime/ALT-A/ninja/no-doc lending crisis to worry abut (because our banks never got into zero-percent-down and all that other crap), no housing bubble so no housing bust, complete freedom of association, including the right to marry people of the sex of your choice, rather than have religious standards shoved down people's throats... yes, I know Ms. Freedom.
She took up residence north of the American border sometime towards the end of the last century. Complained about some guy named Shrub or Bush who said the Constitution was just a piece of paper...
Given that your math skills are demonstrably the worst I've seen in a while, why should anyone take anything you say as true? Example:
Not saying they shouldn't try to move up in life but even at minimum wage it is possible to afford health insurance. If their employer doesn't provide insurance (and many do), at a minimum wage we are talking about what, 2K/month. It's easy to find a decent policy for under $150/month.
US Federal minimum wage is $7.25. You claim this works out to about $2k a month. The actual amount is $7.25 * 40 hours/week * 52 weeks / 12, or $1,256.66 a month. That's only 60% of what you said - a HUGE difference.
Since you obviously can't do basic math, everything else you post is equally suspect.
It's easy to find a decent policy for under $150/month.
More bullshit. That's less than $35/week. What's it got, a $5,000 deductible, a 75% co-pay, and it only covers you if you get sat on by an elephant on the first Wednesday of the month? Or did you make another math error. Or is this only for certain age groups, in certain areas, and a ton of other restrictions that exclude the majority of the population?
Of course, those who were born into poverty who have some sort of religious belief are significantly less likely to stay in poverty.
that's as full of shit as the "people who have strong religious beliefs have better surgical outcomes." It was an article of faith until someone actually looked at the figures, and religion had zero predictive value.
Oh yeah, there have been studies that show that many teenagers who become pregnant had access to birth control.
"Many" is not "most", or even "a statistically significant number." Ask Sarah Palin. On second thought, don't - she has two sets of rules - one for her and her kids (and other "good religious white folk") and another for "the rest of those trash."
While conservatives fight to "defend" marriage from gays, they can't keep theirs together. According to the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract, states that went Republican in November accounted for eight of the 10 states with the highest divorce rates in 2006.
Conservatives touted abstinence-only education, which was a flop, when real sex education was needed, most desperately in red states. According to 2006 data from the Guttmacher Institute, those red states accounted for eight of the 10 states with the highest teenage birthrates.
And, a study titled "Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?" that was conducted by Benjamin Edelman, an assistant professor of business at Harvard Business School and published earlier this year in the Journal of Economic Perspectives found that subscriptions to online pornography sites were "more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality" and in states where "more people agree that 'I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage.' "
The correlation between right-wing religion (abstinance only, promise rings, etc), teenagers having kids, and stupidity in general is pretty apparent from the stats.
Guns are the leading cause of death for certain demographics in the US.
As for obesity, banning HFCS would be a HUGE help, as would mandatory lowering of the amount of salt in soft drinks (salt is the reason you STILL feel thirsty after drinking several cans of pop - it has the same effect as drinking seawater). The combo of HFCS and salt in soft drinks actually leaves people feeling hungry even after they've eaten (the HFCS interferes with the hormone that says "stop eating, you fat slob").
Slashdot Mirror
Ted Kennedy - immortalized for being so rude he wouldn't even open the car door for his date.
Dumped her like a cold fish.
Apparently, "Fat, stupid, and drunk" IS the way to get ahead in life.
Sure they did - that was a modem init string, not a command to actually DIAL the modem. My 1200 baud external modem, and all 3 of my internal 2400 baud modems, used them (ran a bbs running grapevine, w. ascii art menus, etc. THOSE were the days)
If you total or wear out your personal car because of your work, and your employer offers to pay for the replacement, he doesn't magically get title to it. He *replaced* YOUR hardware which wore out due to company use.
Same as if the company replaces a customer's cell phone that gets broken due to, for example, it getting run over by the company's delivery truck. They don't suddenly p0wn the customer's cell.
When they reimburse you for on-the-road meals, do they suddenly have a right, like Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", to claim their pound of flesh? Nope. When they pay for your new pants because you ruined your old ones on a service call, do they suddenly have the right to say "only wear them while you're on the job?" Didn't think so. When they give you gas and mileage money, do they get a lease-hold or any further rights to your car? Nah.
When the laptop gets stolen, whose insurance is going to cover it, or who is going to eat the loss? You. Take the money, and make it clear that the laptop is YOUR responsibility, and your liabity. Worse comes to worse, get it in writing, get it in writing, and get it in writing.
"I am stuck on Band-aids, 'cause band-aids stuck on me,
I am stuck on Band-aids, 'cause band-aids stuck on me,
updating specs is a PITA now,
with dysfunctional ISPs,
We're all stuck on Band-aids now, 'cause of our sucky ISP!" "
IPV6? Do you really want to give each toaster an individual ip addresses? You know toasters have a plan!
How does getting into a ring change it? If they did it outside the ring, even though it was completely voluntary, it would be illegal. Same as other completely voluntary crimes, such as dueling, or snuff films.
Because it's "a sport" when it's in the ring, and not when it's outside? Even though you have the same situation - spectators, bets, a winner and a loser?
That's fucked up. But back to the main thread - Caster Semenya was shown to have the same testosterone levels as a man. Either it's doping, or a cyst on the adrenals. One of Caster's former coaches was the same guy who doped the East German olympic teams with so much testosterone that one of them had to get a sex change.
If your testosterone levels are the same as a man, you have no right to compete as a woman, no matter what the cause. The precedent was set with transsexual male-to-female athletes. the criteria are 2 years post-op and on female hormones. Testosterone from the adrenals only, and at normal genetic female levels. So either way, Caster is not considered a woman for sport competition.
I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of being against a national health-care plan as "socialist" when the US already HAS a national health-care plan - Medicare. The people who claim that a national health-careplan would "take away choice" are so full of shit it's not funny (it would give them an additional choice). That their heads don't explode due to the contraditions shows that they can not focus on more than one aspect of the question at a time, never mind multitask, AND/OR that they have ulterior motives, such as racism ("blacks and latinos would benefit more, so why should I pay") and greed ("private for-profit plans can't compete, so my shares in Kaiser Permanente will go down - better convince people that universal health-care is BAD for their health, since it's bad for my financial health").
Stupidity, racism, and greed - but mostly the latter, which exploits the first two. You already have bureaucrat-managed care via the HMOs, who are answerable only to Wall Street. Do you really trust them to do what's right if it's going to affect the bottom line - and they already have a proven history of denying valid claims and killing people? google "cigna whistleblower wendell potter" and read congressional testimony on how the insurance companies are scamming you right now.
Here, I'll save you the trouble http://www.google.ca/search?q=cigna+whistleblower+wendell+potter
Or you can start with this interview http://www.guernicamag.com/spotlight/1207/the_last_temptation_of_wendell/
Here's the first few paragraphs - there's a lot more at the linky:
Last Temptation
An interview with Wendell Potter
The former mouthpiece for insurance giant Cigna divulges his role in misleading the public, the emotional day that led to his whistle-blowing, and what should really scare you.
n June 2007, Wendell Potter was head of corporate communications at Cigna, one of the largest health insurance companies in America, when he attended the U.S. premiere of Michael Moore's Sicko. Potter was part of the team charged with discrediting Moore's film, which advance word said was highly critical of the health insurance industry. Potter "sat quietly in the back and took notes," but soon realized he had a problem. "When I saw the movie, I'll be honest: I thought it was a real good documentary. I knew from my own studies of other healthcare systems that it was an accurate portrayal of those systems and how they are able to provide universal coverage." Yet he was being paid by Cigna to tell people the opposite, that the film was full of lies.
Just a few weeks later, Potter, who is from Tennessee, read in a local paper about a free healthcare expedition being held in Wise County, Virginia. He decided to check it out. Walking through the fairground gates, Potter saw hundreds of people waiting in the rain while physicians attended to patients in animal stalls or on gurneys lying on the rain-soaked pavement. Tents had been pitched across the fairground lawns, creating a scene "like something that could've been happening on a battlefield or in a war-torn country." Tears mixed with the rain to cloud Potter's vision. "What I thought was: 'Is this the United States?' It was so remote from my reality. It just seemed impossible."
In months and years prior, Potter had grown increasingly skeptical about his job as chief spokesman for Cigna. Though he insists he never intentionally lied to a reporter, he began to spout what he thought were either misleading or less than honest statements. Moreover, his job required him to hype new programs he felt were not in the best interest of patients or the U.S. healthcare system--particularly when it came to high-deductible, or "consumer driven" plans. He came to feel he was on the wrong side of the healthcare debate and would catch himself gazing into a mirror, wondering, "Who is this?
I was using Palin (and the birthers, deathers, etc) as obvious examples of people who the Dunning-Kruger effect is in full force. It's the explanation for their continued self-reinforcing ignorance. As to Obama, having a public health system doesn't mean a government program gets to approve your treatment - that's one of the lies that's being pushed right now.
Up here in Canada, when I go to a hospital, clinic, or doctor, there is not only no need to get government approval for treatment - it's against the law for a government bureaucrat to stick their nose in my file. Doctor-patient confidence is the law. A universal single-payer public system doesn't change that, just like it doesn't change that I get to pick my own doctors.
Contrast this to the US, where the latest figures show that 98% of all HMO policies mandate which hospital and doctor group you see, what treatments you'e eligible for, and whether they'll jack up your rates to get rid of you next year if your risk profile changes.
It's not a question of looking after yourself, but of having actual choices, including the choice of being able to opt into a single-payer public plan.
Funny how all the politicians (and their followers) who are barking against the public plan hold the contradictory position that [Medicare?Medicaid/whatever it's called in your state] should be continued for seniors. It's government-controlled. It's publicly subsidized. It's socialist. But no, they can't see the contradiction, because they can't look at more than one thing at a time - they can't multi-task.
Wasn't trying to be funny. I'm dead serious - and this (the difference in the actual thought process between neo-cons and the rest of the world) has been covered on slashdot, and in the general media, before. That you can't see it for what it is - the truth - makes your post ironic.
Despite their "christian family values", neocons have higher rates of children born out of a relationship - looks like they couldn't multi-task enough to read the instructions on the condom (or they ate the banana during class). They have higher divorce rates - maybe they couldn't focus as well on all the variables when making that decision. They can see from experience that abstinence doesn't work, but they can't recognize it. Birthers are the real joke - they now want to see Obama's penis! What is it with republicans and their fixation on the penises of democrat presidents anyway?
Obviously people like Sarah Palin, because they can't multi-task and believe they can, also can't consider facts in their global context - everything is simple, because THEY are simple. Everything boils down to "aw shucks, that's easy. Just do (a, b, or c) - problem solved!" which is what got us into this mess in the first place - not being able to consider more than one thing at a time. It's also why Nixon liked the HMO idea in the first place - it solved HIS problem of what to do about health care and how best to take care of his buddy running Kaiser Permanente. It didn't solve the problem that the US already has crappy life expectancy, and it's now going to get worse if something isn't done.
Look at how the republicans are trying to frame the health-care issue in terms of "socialism." OMG SOCIALISM! THAT'S TEH D3V1L!!! This only works because their supporters can't think about more than a few things at a time - and one of those things is how the military, the police, firefighters, fcc, faa, cdc, noaa, public transit, social security, etc. are ALL "socialized" services. And now so are the banks, and GM, and Chrysler.
The republican party doesn't represent political conservatives any more - it's become a religion in its' own right (pardon the pun :-).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger
For further info, just google "Sarah Palin" or "birthers".
"Spectator sports" is STILL an oxymoron. the contradiction between people competing, and the fat slobs watching them, IS funny.
You can't win by running away from your opponent - you HAVE to beat the other person up. If you don't lay a glove on them, you lose. The goal IS to beat the other person to the point where they simply can't defend themselves, and that's no more a sport than dog fighting. Both are stupid, and cater to the lowest of the low.
You're SO busted!
16% of the population works at the minimum wage - and a lot of them (and those who work for a bit more) can't even get 40 hours. That's why we have the term "under-employed." And no, it's not pointles - that's tens of millions of people. For you to call them pointless makes my point - your math skills suck, you're not informed on the issues, and you're just plain wrong on what you bloviate on. BTW - there are also millions who work for less than the minimum wage because of all the exceptions in the law.
Fortunately, I live in a civilized country - one that doesn't have a 3rd-world attitude to public health care. And as you point out "he problem for insurance companies are people with serious conditions whose care can cost literally millions in the long run" means that, as I said, and as has been revealed in testimony before Congress, the insurers cherry-pick, and as you get older, it's harder to get a new insurance policy. People lose their jobs, what are they supposed to do? BTW, more than half of your insurance premium goes to overhead - advertising, lawyers, snoops to deny you coverage, lobbyists (there are 4 lobbyists for each member of congress), multi-million-dollar bonuses.
"Once you are insurable at all" - your words - is an admission that many people simply aren't insurable under the current system. Grow up, suck it up, admit you were wrong, that people with many pre-existing conditions are NOT going to get a policy for $125/month, and that the US system is a major FAIL, with too much overhead and not enough delivery of services.
BTW, your link sucks - they want $10k per year for a single female in the early 50s with no history of tobacco usage in the 12345 zip code. Add in a chronic condition like diabetes or asthma, and watch the actual premium soar!
I'll stay in Canada. I can choose my own doctor, there's no co-pay, and the last time I went to see a doctor, I waited less than an hour on a busy Sunday morning (busy because everyone who works during the week tries to see a doctor on the weekend, plus people bringing kids who need attention). The US system is barbaric. Uncivilized. Cruel and unusual among western nations.
Won't make a difference whether the device is enclosed in a glass envelope or exposed.
Read the bible sometime - it's full of god-ordered genocides, god-ordered rapes and pillaging, god-ordered hostility to other beliefs, god-ordered hatred of gays, lesbians, transexuals, transgendered, women who refuse to take their husbands' words as commandments, god-ordered assaults on infants (circumcision), god-ordered killing of your own offspring as a "test of faith", god-ordered stupidity in general. The bible is hate literature.
If you want to be a scientist, you study science.
If you want to be a doctor, you study medicine.
If you want to be a lawyer, you study law.
So what do you expect from people who spend so much time studying hate literature like the bible? They become haters. Xenophobes. Zealots. What bible-thumpers need is a good thumping with their bible.
If they thnk that will work they should stop smoking so much dope ...
Seriously ... minimum mandatory sentences will:
Disclosure: I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and make pot, tobacco, etc., illegal, because I can't stand the smell of any of them - however, I also realize that illegal drug use is a social issue, and that the only way to get it mostly out of the hands of the biker gangs is to legalize it and tax the crap out of it. Also, we've been down this road before with prohibition in the US.
We're hypocrites because we allow tobacco sales, even though it's much more addictive AND a proven killer. Let someone eat their stupid mary jane brownies instead - I won't have to smell it, they'll be putting money into the tax coffers instead of the bikers' bank accounts, and we won't be giving criminal records to people who've only done what so many of our elected officials have admitted to doing, on both sides of the border. For example, your current president admits in his memoirs that he's a former pot and coke user, and your previous one was an out-of-control coke-head and alcoholic.
Expect Canada to fully legalize it within the next decade. We almost did under Chretien, but caved in because we already had enough hassles with Bush over other issues (like the BS about how "the 9/11 terr'ists entered the US through Canada" - when not one did, and Chretien (the then prime minister) not only refusing to support the US and publicly criticizing them over the Iraq invasion as stupid - "real friends will tell you what others won't"). We'll tax it, return to budget surpluses, and life will go on - Americans will come to Canada for their partying, same as they already do (drinking age is 18 here in Quebec, gay weddings of US citizens contribute to local tourism, etc), . As for the US reaction - BFD. We've been demonstrably right on so many issues that we've disagreed on (invading Iraq, banking regulations - did you know that Canada has the soundest banking system in the world?) that any nowadays any attempt to get us to change policy to kow-tow to the US on domestic policy would probably result in the fall of the government and a new election. Harper's not stupid - he knows it.
News flash - these "sporting events" miss the entire point of sports - which is to get your obese butt off the couch and have some fun doing something more physical than popping the top off a King Can. Sports shouldn't be a "spectator sport". Just like boxing shouldn't be a sport, period - not when the goal is to beat the other person senseless. Then again, most people can't even be arsed to spend more than 15 minutes a day doing anything more strenuous than walking to the fridge.
Really? There are countries where non-whites outnumber whites. Like, for example, China - largest population in the world.
Consider how it's being mis-managed by the health insurance industry:
So you can actually be too poor for Medicaid.
Don't laugh - check out the warnings on the next deep-fryer you buy. Depending on who made it, it might include a warning to wear clothes while using it, because someone - you guessed it - burned their pecker while making french fries (at lesst that was their story, and they're sticking to it, and I don't really want to know what they were REALLY doing. The late night bar scene is proof enough that some guys are willing | desperate enough to stick their dicks into ANYTHING).
Isn't that why we have the Darwin Awards?
Besides, no need to spend money on ECT - just tell them that they can get high licking an electrical socket if they do it right, or that they can have the most ultimate mind-blowing absolute killer orgasm by shoving a plugged-in extension cord up their anus while standing in the bathtub, then using a salt enema.
Throw in some links to toad-licking as a proven way for people to get high (for the electrical socket one), and that the drug companies are in a conspiracy to keep pushing viagra and don't want you to know that it cures erectile dysfunction (for the latter one), and problem solved.
After all, the REAL reason that there are so many idiots in the world is so we can laugh at them.
Firearms, not guns. Canada has more firearms, but far fewer handguns, and most of the shootings in the US are from handguns (which is where we get the term "Saturday Night Special" for a cheap, throwaway piece).
Note how the Reuters article is referring only to guns:
Also:
The Quebec system includes compulsory drug coverage, either through a private plan, or the public one.
It's funny how the people in the US are screaming about "freedom" and "socialism" when it comes to healith care, but have no objection to socialized security (police and fire services, the military, etc.) It's all bogus, and if you follow the money, it's the insurance companies financing the misinformation. Insurance companies in the US withhold treatment and end up killing people - just search for "cigna whistleblower"
Of course I've heard of him - and since I don't live in the US, I'm actually freer than most Americans. No PATRIOT Act, no DMCA, no future tax constaints from government bail-out of the banking sector (since our banks didn't need a bail-out), no staying tied to an employer that sucks because of the health plan (universal health and drug coverage, so no portability issues), no sub-prime/ALT-A/ninja/no-doc lending crisis to worry abut (because our banks never got into zero-percent-down and all that other crap), no housing bubble so no housing bust, complete freedom of association, including the right to marry people of the sex of your choice, rather than have religious standards shoved down people's throats ... yes, I know Ms. Freedom.
She took up residence north of the American border sometime towards the end of the last century. Complained about some guy named Shrub or Bush who said the Constitution was just a piece of paper ...
Given that your math skills are demonstrably the worst I've seen in a while, why should anyone take anything you say as true? Example:
US Federal minimum wage is $7.25. You claim this works out to about $2k a month. The actual amount is $7.25 * 40 hours/week * 52 weeks / 12, or $1,256.66 a month. That's only 60% of what you said - a HUGE difference.
Since you obviously can't do basic math, everything else you post is equally suspect.
More bullshit. That's less than $35/week. What's it got, a $5,000 deductible, a 75% co-pay, and it only covers you if you get sat on by an elephant on the first Wednesday of the month? Or did you make another math error. Or is this only for certain age groups, in certain areas, and a ton of other restrictions that exclude the majority of the population?
that's as full of shit as the "people who have strong religious beliefs have better surgical outcomes." It was an article of faith until someone actually looked at the figures, and religion had zero predictive value.
"Many" is not "most", or even "a statistically significant number." Ask Sarah Palin. On second thought, don't - she has two sets of rules - one for her and her kids (and other "good religious white folk") and another for "the rest of those trash."
Check out the stats - you'll see that the Repub states take up most of the top in teen birth rates, online porn use, divorce.rates, etc. http://lippard.blogspot.com/2009/06/republican-states-lead-in-divorce-teen.html. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/opinion/27blow.html?_r=1
From the NY Times:
The correlation between right-wing religion (abstinance only, promise rings, etc), teenagers having kids, and stupidity in general is pretty apparent from the stats.
Guns are the leading cause of death for certain demographics in the US.
As for obesity, banning HFCS would be a HUGE help, as would mandatory lowering of the amount of salt in soft drinks (salt is the reason you STILL feel thirsty after drinking several cans of pop - it has the same effect as drinking seawater). The combo of HFCS and salt in soft drinks actually leaves people feeling hungry even after they've eaten (the HFCS interferes with the hormone that says "stop eating, you fat slob").