As a fiction writer, I've learned that Word's "grammar" corrections are useless. As anyone who has a reasonably good grasp of language knows, applying the grammar rules with no understanding of context is useless. If you want your writing to come out stilted and very "Dick and Jane", by all means use those pathetic grammar checkers. I get the feeling from working with this tool that it tends to steer you towards dumbing down your writing.
That's what we get when we use multiple choice, SAT type tests to gauge 'literacy'. There are thousands of students in school who are not really learning the language and how to use it. Expect more reliance on grammar and spell checkers in the future, as people lose their ability to write worth a damn.
There's English English, Scottish English (replace 'yes' with 'aye'), Welsh English, Northern Irish English, outside the UK, there's Irish English, Caribbean English, Australian English, New Zealand English, East African English, South African English... There are many variants of English, each with their own words, usages, idiomatic expressions, etc. Even in the US, you have differences. Alabamans have different usages as compared to Oregonians, who are different than New Englanders.
Interesting that you might mention that. Congress has not, and definitely will not give a declaration of war. Instead, they handed over all their war making or breaking powers to the President. Now, we couldn't stop this war even if the majority of Americans wanted to. The war will go on at the pleasure of the President.
It's funny, most people seem to have no problem with this whatsoever, but it frightens me.
Compare that example to the 9-5 anonymous Microsoftian developer
Hmmm... That's not the impression that I get about the developers and engineers at Microsoft. To their credit, they have some immensely talented people working there, who genuinely care about the products they are building, and try to make quality products.
It's not the developers and engineers at Microsoft that make their products so deficient and buggy. Microsoft's marketing department, like the marketing departments at many software makers, often promise much, much more than can actually be delivered in the time frame specified. When you combine that with Bill Gate's insistence that every single product they make be some kind of world-changing paradigm smashing revolutionary piece of wonderful, let's just say I'm glad I'm not a developer there. It must really be disheartening to see something you worked really hard on to make work well get pushed out the door without proper QA so that the stock price won't suffer because the marketing droids can't be bothered to find out exactly how long it will really take to get all the whizbang features they promised everybody.
I said it before up top, but Wired is really nothing more than a lifestyle magazine nowadays, and it has actually been this way for quite some time. I haven't read an issue of wired since 1996
I see their point. Their office has a nutty, jerkoff sysadmin like that guy on Saturday Night Live and so therefore Linux is crap. Man, that is some elegant logic right there.
* The area in question is only the size of Texas (good-sized, but a quarter-million square miles isn't THAT big)
That is, if the whole shooting war is confined to that area. The Taliban and their ilk are also very active in Pakistan, and the President of Uzbekistan has been dying to take a shot at them as well because they have been making incursions into their territory. While the action in Afghanistan may be over relatively shortly, other action may continue elsewhere, perhaps in places like the Philippines, or the Arabian Peninsula or Africa. That's where the high-tech really pays off: fast, flexible and effective for tracking data as it moves across the earth.
That would most likely be the FBI, although depending on what you were doing, it could also be the Treasury, DEA, county sherriff, etc. Note that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are not law enforcement agencies, and don't have the kind of powers that the good ol' FBI has.
Use the remote to unblock the station, or ask your mom to do it.
Re:Think about things from the EXECUTIVE perspecti
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Morals and Layoffs
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Don't forget to get "The Baffler" which is produced quarterly. Their latest issue is called "The God that Sucked". It's full of great articles, written by "Gen Xers", who don't quite agree with the way things work. It's a great read, if you can get it, I recommend it. You can also go to The Baffler.
The CIA has several partnerships with private companies, and in some cases is an investor in some private companies. The point is to attract the best people via all the perks that working in the private sector provides, and in return the CIA gets the latest tech. The companies can even release 'civilian' versions of some of the products they develop.
IANAIA (I am not an intelligence analyst), but I think one thing that will be different is that it might be difficult for us to establish air superiority over Afghanistan; at least it might take longer and be riskier for pilots.
Afghanistan has virtually no air force, but I keep on thinking about all the shoulder-launched SAMs and anti-tank missiles that we gave to the Mujaheddin during the Soviet invasion. We gave them a lot of those things, and they are of pretty recent design. The SAMs were lethal against Soviet Hind helicopters, and the Afghanis are experts in how to use them. They may not be useful for hitting high-altitude aircraft, but helicopters, and the venerable F-117s and A-10s fly at low altitudes, and the missiles have IR seekers, so even the stealth aircraft are vulnerable. The Iraqis have 1970s era radar guided SAMs, but the Afghanis have US-made anti-aircraft equipment that they obtained as recently as 1989.
Anyone out there have more relevant data regarding this issue?
I don't know how you get "Imagine" as an inspiration to violence, but whatever.
"Killing an Arab" has gotten criticized a lot as being anti-Arab, but if anyone bothered to read the lyrics, it's pretty obvious that it's a reference to "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. The Cure was heavily into existentialist stuff, and they use literary references all the time.
That would be acceptable if we just called a spade a spade and admitted to what we were doing. We don't do that, though. We try and claim all this "light of the world" and justice and democracy crap, and it wears thin, because that's the core of the hypocrisy. We don't do these things and say "Well, hey, we're just advancing our interests here." We do these things and say "We just want democracy and justice." So we are, in fact, being hypocritical, because we claim we do these things for all these noble purposes, when in reality it's just self-interest.
The ironic thing is, we say these things to make it palatable to ourselves, because if we actually came clean with our own people and told them why we do these things, they'd be pissed.
Hey, great idea. Let's also have checkpoints throughout the cities, and curfews, too. In fact, let's all get in to a time machine and go back to Johannesburg circa 1985.
If they implement some crap like this, I'm outta here.
They learned on Boeings because most of the US airlines either fly Boeings or MDs. Any time Airbus tries to break in to the US market, Boeing pitches a hissyfit and they lose the potential contract. I don't think I've ever ridden in an Airbus, although I have flown in BAe planes with smaller regional airlines like Southwest and Alaska.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what we get when we use multiple choice, SAT type tests to gauge 'literacy'. There are thousands of students in school who are not really learning the language and how to use it. Expect more reliance on grammar and spell checkers in the future, as people lose their ability to write worth a damn.
There's English English, Scottish English (replace 'yes' with 'aye'), Welsh English, Northern Irish English, outside the UK, there's Irish English, Caribbean English, Australian English, New Zealand English, East African English, South African English... There are many variants of English, each with their own words, usages, idiomatic expressions, etc. Even in the US, you have differences. Alabamans have different usages as compared to Oregonians, who are different than New Englanders.
It's funny, most people seem to have no problem with this whatsoever, but it frightens me.
Hmmm... That's not the impression that I get about the developers and engineers at Microsoft. To their credit, they have some immensely talented people working there, who genuinely care about the products they are building, and try to make quality products.
It's not the developers and engineers at Microsoft that make their products so deficient and buggy. Microsoft's marketing department, like the marketing departments at many software makers, often promise much, much more than can actually be delivered in the time frame specified. When you combine that with Bill Gate's insistence that every single product they make be some kind of world-changing paradigm smashing revolutionary piece of wonderful, let's just say I'm glad I'm not a developer there. It must really be disheartening to see something you worked really hard on to make work well get pushed out the door without proper QA so that the stock price won't suffer because the marketing droids can't be bothered to find out exactly how long it will really take to get all the whizbang features they promised everybody.
I've seen it happen, it sucks.
I said it before up top, but Wired is really nothing more than a lifestyle magazine nowadays, and it has actually been this way for quite some time. I haven't read an issue of wired since 1996
I see their point. Their office has a nutty, jerkoff sysadmin like that guy on Saturday Night Live and so therefore Linux is crap. Man, that is some elegant logic right there.
And run the risk of being painted as an unpatriotic anti-American? I think not. It's been made pretty clear: "Dissent at your own peril."
That is, if the whole shooting war is confined to that area. The Taliban and their ilk are also very active in Pakistan, and the President of Uzbekistan has been dying to take a shot at them as well because they have been making incursions into their territory. While the action in Afghanistan may be over relatively shortly, other action may continue elsewhere, perhaps in places like the Philippines, or the Arabian Peninsula or Africa. That's where the high-tech really pays off: fast, flexible and effective for tracking data as it moves across the earth.
The shotgun wasn't painted over, it's just a stainless steel OU shotgun.
Screw You, Buffy is awesome, and as every true geek knows, Willow isn't really a lesbian. She's just experimental right now.
That would most likely be the FBI, although depending on what you were doing, it could also be the Treasury, DEA, county sherriff, etc. Note that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are not law enforcement agencies, and don't have the kind of powers that the good ol' FBI has.
Use the remote to unblock the station, or ask your mom to do it.
Don't forget to get "The Baffler" which is produced quarterly. Their latest issue is called "The God that Sucked". It's full of great articles, written by "Gen Xers", who don't quite agree with the way things work. It's a great read, if you can get it, I recommend it. You can also go to The Baffler.
Oh yeah, Thomas Frank is the editor.
Hey lamer...
I didn't John Ashcroft was a Democrat...
The CIA has several partnerships with private companies, and in some cases is an investor in some private companies. The point is to attract the best people via all the perks that working in the private sector provides, and in return the CIA gets the latest tech. The companies can even release 'civilian' versions of some of the products they develop.
What?
Afghanistan has virtually no air force, but I keep on thinking about all the shoulder-launched SAMs and anti-tank missiles that we gave to the Mujaheddin during the Soviet invasion. We gave them a lot of those things, and they are of pretty recent design. The SAMs were lethal against Soviet Hind helicopters, and the Afghanis are experts in how to use them. They may not be useful for hitting high-altitude aircraft, but helicopters, and the venerable F-117s and A-10s fly at low altitudes, and the missiles have IR seekers, so even the stealth aircraft are vulnerable. The Iraqis have 1970s era radar guided SAMs, but the Afghanis have US-made anti-aircraft equipment that they obtained as recently as 1989.
Anyone out there have more relevant data regarding this issue?
"Killing an Arab" has gotten criticized a lot as being anti-Arab, but if anyone bothered to read the lyrics, it's pretty obvious that it's a reference to "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. The Cure was heavily into existentialist stuff, and they use literary references all the time.
Perhaps it's because of the meant to be ironic scene from "Good Morning Vietnam", where the song plays as fighters lay napalm....
Oh yeah, newsmax. "Fair and balanced". What 'liberal' media are you watching? CNN? Yeah, raving leftists over there. Sheesh.
No, they were drafted in a hurry, and passed before hardly anyone had a chance to actually read them.
The ironic thing is, we say these things to make it palatable to ourselves, because if we actually came clean with our own people and told them why we do these things, they'd be pissed.
If they implement some crap like this, I'm outta here.
Do any US carriers fly Airbus?
Interesting to note that while CNN did play the clips many times, Fox News(hah!) plays it all the time, 'cause they love jingoism....