I think those judgements are things that appear on TV -- you know, like the commercials for Big Energy, Big Banking and Big War -- all three industries that Jimmy Carter actually had the cojones to work against.
He started MINTING the Silver Dollar -- through the US Mint. That is not a trifle -- because initially "only Congress may mint coin" -- and so they do; Quarters, Dimes, Nickles and things like that. The Federal Reserve, which is really a group of well positioned bankers, gets to RENT US, our own money -- which guarantees that we can never, ever pay them back. Money is put into reality via debt instruments.
The Oil Embargo, the high rate of inflation, and other issues Carter had to deal with -- was due to the manipulations of the very industries his practices were hurting.
Popularity, by the Corporations that benefit, seems to me a dubious way to decide "who governed the best."
>> Jimmy Carter managed to NOT start a lot of wars. The ACTUAL buying power of the Middle Class in this country, was pretty sound -- you have to remember how manipulations of oil prices and "money" instruments, were hurting the economy. When Reagan came into office, he sold out to Big Oil, Big War, and Big Banking -- and they called off their little war.
So what you're saying is; The Microsoft "Fan" technology, and Amazon.com's patent on "single-click purchases", was this HUGE investment in time and labor, and if they couldn't patent these things, we would not be creating an incentive for such geniuses to spend the 5 minutes on the toilet coming up with them?
I think perhaps, we should ACTUALLY have patents that require at least three trips to the toilet in Labor before we allow a patent -- otherwise we lower the bar, so to speak.
>> Facts destroy so many good opinions, and you know, some of those facts get destroyed because they are based on theories -- so then we get new facts to destroy new opinions. In Fact, all our scientific Facts started out as opinions -- it's kind of like how the adult fish all eat the baby fish if you leave them in the same tank.
Well, I'm going to Patent the "Fan Restraining Order" -- so Microsoft will have to go before a judge and pay a fine due to Contempt of Court every time their Fan technology "pokes" my "FRO" technology.
They will have to give their Fan patent to some patent free organization, just to remove the billion and one FRO fines I could generate in a day! It also negates any "Stalker Patents" as you know, they have to be about 500 feet away from any FRO location, and of course, the neighborhood Day Car -- damn creeps.
Look, you can keep your low-tech and working game gadget....... me, I want a sex toy in case I'm attacked by a Dalek. The Infrared contraption on a WII or Sony just isn't going to stop the Universe's deadliest exterminator.
Offering sex to a Dalek might at least distract it for a moment.
Just ask the natives who were harmed by the Exxon Valdez -- most of them have died without receiving what the COURT DEMANDED -- and even after Exxon got new politicians to put a cap on penalties.
The TRUTH of the Exxon Valdez disaster was that Exxon only got rights to be in pristine waters and the only harbor they could use for hundreds of miles for a song because they promised the Indians who owned those lands that they would get the most advanced radar and avoid hitting ground.
Well, they didn't put in all the radars and they left them turned off. The Oil spill had nothing to do with one drunk captain -- it had to do with cutting corners and saving money on an AGREED ON safety measure.
There is a lot of pining about "lawsuits hurting business" but it's the ONLY way to right wrongs. If it didn't cost companies to screw up -- they would cut more corners. How afraid of lawsuits are companies like BP when they have a few thousand security notices on substandard or missing equipment? The battery was dead in the sensors on the Deep Water Horizon and they didn't have a $250,000 blow-out preventer -- THIS, after drilling to the extent of human ingenuity, and having invested very little in clean-up procedures -- they used the SAME TECHNIQUES that were tried and barely worked 25 years ago. In fact, all 4 major oil companies drilling in the Gulf submitted almost exactly the same "contingency plan" that was likely xeroxed from the same ones for the North Atlantic because it spoke of "Fur Seals" and the like.
The ACTUAL damage to OTHER BUSINESSES in the Gulf Coast is predicted to be around $1.4 Trillion. BP won't be paying that because it's a LOT cheaper to spend a few million on TV commercials so the news doesn't cover the truth, and a couple million on judges and campaigns. The investment in our government returns about a 1000 to 1 in benefits.
2) Carried out to the logical conclusion, if everyone shunned BP, our own govt (aka all of us) will have to pay the full costs of cleanup. I'd much rather voluntarily pay my tiny fraction of the costs and in return get a tank of gas in my car, than have the govt forcibly take everyone's money to pay for the full cost of cleanup and we get nothing but a larger national debt...
If all these ideas of limiting out of control corporations were carried out to their "logical conclusions" -- then you know, we'd have to have a new form of LOGIC.
The ONLY way to control out of control companies in the "Libertarian LOGICAL World View" is to boycott. You find out that your children have been absorbing lead from McDonald's happy meals toys shipped from China? Go to Burger King.
NOW, there is this market theory, that ALL PENALTIES on a company, are inevitably a new fee to the consumer. That would mean, the company doesn't make PROFIT or the market demand doesn't set costs. That would also mean that CEO's couldn't possibly be paid millions of dollars, because all those tax breaks and LACK of lawsuits is going right into the consumers pocket.
Last I checked is that IN REALITY, companies charge as much as they can get away with, and without competition, they charge a bit more than that. An ideal market system needs scarcity where SOME PEOPLE have to go without -- you know, like Food Distribution.
If a large group Needs your product (inflexible demand), then a good Futures Contract speculation, can cause prices to rise, and you can make more money selling less product at a DEAR price than you can all your product at a fair price.
>> BP isn't paying the full cost of cleanup. That $20 Billion will be parceled out over YEARS -- maybe decades, and it will all be written off on taxes. They are making more money on their "clean-up crews" than they actually cost. They get a 40% discount on payments to workers (for cleanup), and they get $2,400 a head for just hiring them. Couple that with the fact that most of it is prison labor without protective gear and they make from $.40 an hour to NOTHING -- it's actually a tax profit for BP.
I love how they can dictate the "fairness" of their punishment and can tell everyone "only this much damage was created and this much oil spilt" without a non-interested party having access to verify the claims.
We are NOT getting justice -- this company was recklessly endangering all life in the gulf for a few more bucks because -- what are the risks for them, right? They should have been forced into receivership and liens against all their assets should have turned Gulf Coast fisherman into instant millionaires IN CASE they would be harmed. Wouldn't al THOSE millionaires create more jobs? Damn straight. Nationalize a few of these damn companies and take profit out of oil and see how quickly we can move to solar power.
But some people whine about "hurting gas stations with BP's logo on them." Crap. I can't tell people like you from the PR agent at BP. A whole lot of sympathy for this Potential Harm to a company that did harm but some people are going to die young and poor in the Gulf -- many more are affected than EVEN WORK in the entire oil drilling industry.
The "concept" of a marketplace that self-corrects is clearly laid bare for what it really is; Economic Royalists who think their poop doesn't stink and that commoners should have no place criticizing them. BP and ENRON and AIG and Goldman Sacks and all the rest, need to be paid everything, and there should be no accountability to them; so sayeth all the think tanks like Heritage and Kato who make a living because they spout the nonsense that rich people like to hear.
>> This planet is falling apart. We have been coasting for 40 years by NOT paying for the infrastructure that was PAID FOR by taxing wealth and corporations and we've shifted all the burdens on the common worker. With all the tax breaks, INVESTMENT from 2000 to 2008 went from $1.2 Trillion to $3.4 Trillion for "
It's probably the ENVIRONMENTALISTS and ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS who are traipsing in the woods using hunting rifles just to make the HUNTERS look bad.
>> I mean, who else would be miles from nowhere, in perfect deer hunting country shooting at wires in the air out of boredom?
Yes, Vandals are the ones who Vandalize. Terrorists terrorize. And Hunters shoot at deer. As soon as a Hunter vandalizes, they are no longer the responsible adults we all know and love and instantly become "those damn hippies."
I blame free sex, drugs and rock and roll in the '60s for these horrible acts of vandalism!
I worked with some Engineers at this company once; let's face it, they were MEAN. Devoid of social skills and any desire to attain them. And don't ever correct their drawings -- it could quickly become a fist fight.
Then, as others have pointed out; people who don't get laid are much easier to convince to blow themselves up.
I'm still afraid of this growing menace, and I think we need a Public Works project of spreading tanning lotion on college girls somewhere, just to keep them occupied. Give the girls all an ipod with some music so that it isn't a total fiasco.
Penn & Teller's show is entertaining and all -- but the name "Bullshit" fits the show. They just find the most ridiculous people on any issue, show one side of it, and prove what they already believed to be true one way or the other.
It's convincing stuff if you are not appreciative of the Scientific Method.
Here's an idea that MIGHT have merit; maybe SOME vaccines are good --- and maybe some, like flu vaccines, don't work at all and have no proof of merit. You don't stick something in an egg and then in the human body and proclaim "this always works" -- that's what the Pro-Vaccine, all good all the time crowd is suggesting. Maybe there are economic incentives to selling Tamiflu, and that people THINK it might help because they are halfway through with their cold when they take it.
There is another side-effect of IMMUNIZATION that doesn't seem to be considered; when the body REACTS to the vaccine -- how do we know it doesn't add more benign things on the "immune response" list? Along with the antibodies in a vaccine, there are things called "adjutants" -- monkey blood, semi-toxic stew, and whatever might get a response from your body. Once the alarm is triggered, the anti-bodies to Flu or whatever is in the vaccine, get on the "naughty list."
Is there any way the body knows the difference between what is in the syringe and what might be a NEW FOOD ITEM? Especially with young children -- their first experience with many harmless things might also be when they get a vaccine. When the age goes down and the vaccines go up, the chance of Collateral Damage goes up. Add in the huge financial incentive for profits and reducing liability, and the FDA working for their consulting job and paycheck by being so helpful to the industry they are supposed to regulate, and you've got a very complicated problem that doesn't show a distinct pattern coupled with a corrupt system that would never bring up a problem if it can possibly be avoided.
We have a broken system of checks and balances, and the issue is too complicated for bumper-sticker slogans.
He's basically worried that if he tried to pull the same shit he gets away with in China, he would be shut down. This is undoubtedly a valid concern, but it does cast a depressing light on outsourcing. Basically the US is losing manufacturing jobs because we don't let business completely stomp all over the rights of the workers anymore.
Hey, are you reading the Wall Street Journal 6 months in the future too? That's when they suggest that for America to stay competitive, we've got to "buckle down" and "quit whining".
Any Senator who suggests "tariffs" because that's how America raised its funds and stopped England from doing THE SAME THING a few hundred years ago, well, I suspect them to unexpectedly attempt to fly out of some tall building.
Actually, that's kind of a myth. Henry Ford was just like so many other Capitalists of the day -- he was forced into it by a lawsuit and Chevrolet's competition.
If he had had his way, they'd bar the doors and pay people in food and the US would have joined Germany in WW II. But, like any good public relations; if you are forced to do good, you smile and embrace it and make sure the newspapers spell your name right.
>> Just wanted to set the record straight. Henry Ford actually got his idea of "assembly line method" from the Meat Packing industry. He was merely implementing the process of stripping down a cow into a series of packaged cuts in reverse to BUILD an automobile. Lot's of repetitive jobs of working drones -- but it is efficient for building the same thing many times.
I'm almost Psychic -- I was predicting that they'd find Kiddy Pr-0n on his computer -- that was all the rage when the Bush crime family was in office.
Now they are content to just make someone look like he's "one of those conspiracy theorists." It doesn't matter that it's about REAL documentation, about things that affect your life, NOT "accusations" about a man's personal behavior that REALLY, doesn't have that much to do with is professional credibility -- the public is too ADD to read beyond the headline.
OK, the FALSE assumption here is that this is about geeky code -- the ONE space vs. TWO space battle after a period is about Typesetting. If we are talking about programming -- it's 4 spaces = 1 tab and anyone using 8 spaces loves COBOL.
Of course, this could be intentional Obtuseness on the part of SlashDot denizens -- but in case it isn't, the war is already settled; ONE SPACE. It's up to the FONT vendors to come out with new typefaces that offer a PERIOD with extra space at the end of a sentence and a different dot for abbreviations -- which of course means HUGE PROFITS! More profits for people coming up with keyboard apps that do it auto-magically./you can of course, sense there is some mischief in my comments.
I've read a lot of detailed analysis, and some nonsense "usually in favor of the practice" --- and I think that it all comes back to the concise brevity of the OP;
the "market" is an EPIC fucking scam.
And YES, it was that hard -- Slashdot cannot come to some simple hyperbolic generalization without lots of handwringing, gestalt therapy, and gnashing of virtual teeth in search of the glimmering silver lining of an exposed rectum.
>> I do however believe that the MOST LIKELY use for the outlier transactions is to "poison the data" of firms trying to generate trend analysis -- but the net effect to you and I trying to use the market as a place to save for retirement or as venture capital -- well, "see above" -- it comes right after the word 'EPIC'.
The charging rate issue has been addressed with concepts for interim transitions for Gas Stations: They would have batteries you can go by and pick up -- swap out with the ones you have. The one at your house could do likewise.
What an electric car infrastructure really needs -- as much as the next better battery, is a standard interface to plug in any battery and a "good enough" plugin battery that can handle lots of rough handling. Much like the Propane gas tank is only bought once and then swaps out an empty for a full one.
I think the important bit is that he admits to clubbing baby seals. You see, he's admitting that the only way to deal with too much Liberalism, is to destroy Nature a little bit more -- for balance.
Why don't these Free-Market anti-tree-hugger types ever say; "I'm going to make a business 20% bigger to hire more people -- just to wash away the Liberal inefficiency"? The opposite of a Tree-Hugger is DEATH. So, you know, this dude is pro-death, and he's sick of all your anti-death bias.
I just wonder about all the people parroting the "Natural oil leaks in the ocean" meme that seemed to be accepted without at least the peer review of 500 Weathermen and a Hedge fund from Russia. Let's wait until we get all the data before we support the "Natural Oil Leak" theory -- unless of course, it results in the deaths of baby seals, then of course we can rubber stamp it.
This might also be called the "Pakistani Dunkin' Donuts Phenomenon" as well.
But I think the BETTER answer is this; We often get very smart Indian's and Asians in the US, because those two countries represent about 2 Billion people. The people who can come to the US, are the entrepreneurs and over-represented by College educated immigrants. Those going to University are already the cream of the crop.
Couple that with India's many languages, and English language education, and you've also got a boost on the development of the language centers in young brains.
It's like the Obnoxious American stereotype -- the ignorant, midwestern, overweight person who goes to Paris and says; "If it weren't for America, you guys would be speaking German." And of course, that over-represented clod doesn't get the obvious rebuttal; "If it weren't for the French, you Americans would be speaking English." That works on about two different levels.
Since Sarah Palin can see the moon from her house...... AND, since she can possibly see herself from the moon from her house with a strong enough Telescope....
It's obvious now that she can be an expert on herself and the moon. I know what you are thinking, and I'm not sure if a mirror in her house would suffice for the "Expert" conveyance, it has been shown to require a horizon and a distance "more than a stone's throw." If there is an upper limit to the "expert vision" phenomena, then that will require further study.
I've been corrupted by blogging on Digg so I speak "ID10T" quite fluently.
Of course I KNOW what "Hypothesis" and "Theory" are -- but it's pretty ridiculous in normal every day speech to say; "My Hypothesis." It's kind of a given if someone is saying "My Theory is" it is a caveat, and this is not considered a publicly accepted theory. I have some Proof only for myself.
And you understood as much -- but I didn't guess that was the issue with some others, because they knew enough to NOT say; "What is this 'My Theory' you speak of?"
I'll try the grammar checkers and convert to geek speak whenever possible -- but I can't promise anything.
>> By the way, is; We also plow vast piles of cash at planck scale potentialities something to do with my mentioning Planck-lengths or is that a common slogan you use because it's one of the smaller things you can try and squeeze hundred dollar bills into?
If I merely inspired someone to waste the time to pull out THINGS IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
Meh.
I could try explaining something I see visually better -- but would anyone bother holding out that long? So I keep it brief hoping that there is enough interest to see more.
I really am NOT trying to push an idea of an "Electric Universe." Einstein was elegant and didn't pull ideas out of rabbit-holes. Relativity is sublime but it also stops at explaining how objects aren't constantly gaining mass as they accelerate in one vector or another.
Again, this sounds like nonsense until you really stop and think; from the background radiation -- we ASSUME what is our general motion relative to the Universe -- because there are no fixed points. Acceleration, is the same thing to mass "relatively" as is a large gravity field. However -- is it the NET motion in the system -- or only acceleration RELATIVE to other objects?
Einstein crushed the concept of the "Aether" but then again -- by NOT having particles exchanging relative velocities or two particle moving apart having more acceleration that two objects moving in parallel -- it kind of begs for an "Aether" or a substrate to be RELATIVE to. What is moving, in a gravity field, to ACT like acceleration? And why is there still MASS increase, if you accelerate INTO a Gravity Field?
There seems to be a clue in "critical velocity." In Earth's gravity field, it;s something like 9.8 M/S/S (long time since College physics I'm afraid). Above that speed -- an object does NOT increase it's speed. If you added rocket power to that object, it would have acceleration and increase mass. When I imagine the distortion the gravity makes on space/time it is NOT just in that two-dimensional sheet, it's better to imagine it as "water pressure." The trap of our well-known physics models is that we keep treading over the same ground.
So, the THEORY I propose, is that Acceleration is irrespective of the system the object is moving in -- it is intrinsically, a force created by the object being accelerated with it's own internal sub-space. Mass, in a gravity field, is the SYSTEM surrounding an object, causing PRESSURE, on the forces of sub-space emanating from the object it is acting upon. You can compute each separately, and then the vectors.
For instance, our galaxy is moving at something like 640,000 Miles per second -- something astronomical - I forget the exact rate, against the Background standard. Under General Relativity, it SHOULD mean, that a rocket heading from dead space (without a close gravity field) is going to use more fuel going a the same distance in one direction (with the galactic vector) as going the opposite direction due to the effects of relativity (approaching the SPEED LIMIT of light). Even though that influence is going to be small -- as the object approaches the speed of light, the very small difference between.99999 the speed of light and 1.0 the speed of light becomes increasingly larger.
My theory, also would support, Mass-less acceleration, if you could redirect the sub-space pressure or stop it from interacting with other masses. Anyway, that's a longer conversation and I have to get going.
Slashdot Mirror
"Everybody knew Jimmy Carter was incompetent."
I think those judgements are things that appear on TV -- you know, like the commercials for Big Energy, Big Banking and Big War -- all three industries that Jimmy Carter actually had the cojones to work against.
He started MINTING the Silver Dollar -- through the US Mint. That is not a trifle -- because initially "only Congress may mint coin" -- and so they do; Quarters, Dimes, Nickles and things like that. The Federal Reserve, which is really a group of well positioned bankers, gets to RENT US, our own money -- which guarantees that we can never, ever pay them back. Money is put into reality via debt instruments.
The Oil Embargo, the high rate of inflation, and other issues Carter had to deal with -- was due to the manipulations of the very industries his practices were hurting.
Popularity, by the Corporations that benefit, seems to me a dubious way to decide "who governed the best."
>> Jimmy Carter managed to NOT start a lot of wars. The ACTUAL buying power of the Middle Class in this country, was pretty sound -- you have to remember how manipulations of oil prices and "money" instruments, were hurting the economy. When Reagan came into office, he sold out to Big Oil, Big War, and Big Banking -- and they called off their little war.
So what you're saying is;
The Microsoft "Fan" technology,
and Amazon.com's patent on "single-click purchases", was this HUGE investment in time and labor, and if they couldn't patent these things, we would not be creating an incentive for such geniuses to spend the 5 minutes on the toilet coming up with them?
I think perhaps, we should ACTUALLY have patents that require at least three trips to the toilet in Labor before we allow a patent -- otherwise we lower the bar, so to speak.
>> Facts destroy so many good opinions, and you know, some of those facts get destroyed because they are based on theories -- so then we get new facts to destroy new opinions. In Fact, all our scientific Facts started out as opinions -- it's kind of like how the adult fish all eat the baby fish if you leave them in the same tank.
Well, I'm going to Patent the "Fan Restraining Order" -- so Microsoft will have to go before a judge and pay a fine due to Contempt of Court every time their Fan technology "pokes" my "FRO" technology.
They will have to give their Fan patent to some patent free organization, just to remove the billion and one FRO fines I could generate in a day!
It also negates any "Stalker Patents" as you know, they have to be about 500 feet away from any FRO location, and of course, the neighborhood Day Car -- damn creeps.
This means only those in the government, or who have PAID their dues, can commit crimes.
It won't mean less crime, it will just mean less abuse of people will be CALLED crimes. But fighting back will of course, be illegal.
This should work out really well for the Economic Royalists.
Terrorists don't hate our FREEDOMS, they hate our BOMBING.
Government hates our FREEDOMS, but really like BOMBING.
-- It seems to be a "win/win" for both agendas to bomb something and reduce freedom while we go off and bomb countries NOT attacking us.
Look, you can keep your low-tech and working game gadget.... ... me, I want a sex toy in case I'm attacked by a Dalek. The Infrared contraption on a WII or Sony just isn't going to stop the Universe's deadliest exterminator.
Offering sex to a Dalek might at least distract it for a moment.
Just ask the natives who were harmed by the Exxon Valdez -- most of them have died without receiving what the COURT DEMANDED -- and even after Exxon got new politicians to put a cap on penalties.
The TRUTH of the Exxon Valdez disaster was that Exxon only got rights to be in pristine waters and the only harbor they could use for hundreds of miles for a song because they promised the Indians who owned those lands that they would get the most advanced radar and avoid hitting ground.
Well, they didn't put in all the radars and they left them turned off. The Oil spill had nothing to do with one drunk captain -- it had to do with cutting corners and saving money on an AGREED ON safety measure.
There is a lot of pining about "lawsuits hurting business" but it's the ONLY way to right wrongs. If it didn't cost companies to screw up -- they would cut more corners. How afraid of lawsuits are companies like BP when they have a few thousand security notices on substandard or missing equipment? The battery was dead in the sensors on the Deep Water Horizon and they didn't have a $250,000 blow-out preventer -- THIS, after drilling to the extent of human ingenuity, and having invested very little in clean-up procedures -- they used the SAME TECHNIQUES that were tried and barely worked 25 years ago. In fact, all 4 major oil companies drilling in the Gulf submitted almost exactly the same "contingency plan" that was likely xeroxed from the same ones for the North Atlantic because it spoke of "Fur Seals" and the like.
The ACTUAL damage to OTHER BUSINESSES in the Gulf Coast is predicted to be around $1.4 Trillion. BP won't be paying that because it's a LOT cheaper to spend a few million on TV commercials so the news doesn't cover the truth, and a couple million on judges and campaigns. The investment in our government returns about a 1000 to 1 in benefits.
2) Carried out to the logical conclusion, if everyone shunned BP, our own govt (aka all of us) will have to pay the full costs of cleanup. I'd much rather voluntarily pay my tiny fraction of the costs and in return get a tank of gas in my car, than have the govt forcibly take everyone's money to pay for the full cost of cleanup and we get nothing but a larger national debt...
If all these ideas of limiting out of control corporations were carried out to their "logical conclusions" -- then you know, we'd have to have a new form of LOGIC.
The ONLY way to control out of control companies in the "Libertarian LOGICAL World View" is to boycott. You find out that your children have been absorbing lead from McDonald's happy meals toys shipped from China? Go to Burger King.
NOW, there is this market theory, that ALL PENALTIES on a company, are inevitably a new fee to the consumer. That would mean, the company doesn't make PROFIT or the market demand doesn't set costs. That would also mean that CEO's couldn't possibly be paid millions of dollars, because all those tax breaks and LACK of lawsuits is going right into the consumers pocket.
Last I checked is that IN REALITY, companies charge as much as they can get away with, and without competition, they charge a bit more than that. An ideal market system needs scarcity where SOME PEOPLE have to go without -- you know, like Food Distribution.
If a large group Needs your product (inflexible demand), then a good Futures Contract speculation, can cause prices to rise, and you can make more money selling less product at a DEAR price than you can all your product at a fair price.
>> BP isn't paying the full cost of cleanup. That $20 Billion will be parceled out over YEARS -- maybe decades, and it will all be written off on taxes. They are making more money on their "clean-up crews" than they actually cost. They get a 40% discount on payments to workers (for cleanup), and they get $2,400 a head for just hiring them. Couple that with the fact that most of it is prison labor without protective gear and they make from $.40 an hour to NOTHING -- it's actually a tax profit for BP.
I love how they can dictate the "fairness" of their punishment and can tell everyone "only this much damage was created and this much oil spilt" without a non-interested party having access to verify the claims.
We are NOT getting justice -- this company was recklessly endangering all life in the gulf for a few more bucks because -- what are the risks for them, right? They should have been forced into receivership and liens against all their assets should have turned Gulf Coast fisherman into instant millionaires IN CASE they would be harmed. Wouldn't al THOSE millionaires create more jobs? Damn straight. Nationalize a few of these damn companies and take profit out of oil and see how quickly we can move to solar power.
But some people whine about "hurting gas stations with BP's logo on them." Crap. I can't tell people like you from the PR agent at BP. A whole lot of sympathy for this Potential Harm to a company that did harm but some people are going to die young and poor in the Gulf -- many more are affected than EVEN WORK in the entire oil drilling industry.
The "concept" of a marketplace that self-corrects is clearly laid bare for what it really is; Economic Royalists who think their poop doesn't stink and that commoners should have no place criticizing them. BP and ENRON and AIG and Goldman Sacks and all the rest, need to be paid everything, and there should be no accountability to them; so sayeth all the think tanks like Heritage and Kato who make a living because they spout the nonsense that rich people like to hear.
>> This planet is falling apart. We have been coasting for 40 years by NOT paying for the infrastructure that was PAID FOR by taxing wealth and corporations and we've shifted all the burdens on the common worker. With all the tax breaks, INVESTMENT from 2000 to 2008 went from $1.2 Trillion to $3.4 Trillion for "
It's probably the ENVIRONMENTALISTS and ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS who are traipsing in the woods using hunting rifles just to make the HUNTERS look bad.
>> I mean, who else would be miles from nowhere, in perfect deer hunting country shooting at wires in the air out of boredom?
Yes, Vandals are the ones who Vandalize. Terrorists terrorize. And Hunters shoot at deer. As soon as a Hunter vandalizes, they are no longer the responsible adults we all know and love and instantly become "those damn hippies."
I blame free sex, drugs and rock and roll in the '60s for these horrible acts of vandalism!
I worked with some Engineers at this company once; let's face it, they were MEAN. Devoid of social skills and any desire to attain them. And don't ever correct their drawings -- it could quickly become a fist fight.
Then, as others have pointed out; people who don't get laid are much easier to convince to blow themselves up.
I'm still afraid of this growing menace, and I think we need a Public Works project of spreading tanning lotion on college girls somewhere, just to keep them occupied. Give the girls all an ipod with some music so that it isn't a total fiasco.
Penn & Teller's show is entertaining and all -- but the name "Bullshit" fits the show. They just find the most ridiculous people on any issue, show one side of it, and prove what they already believed to be true one way or the other.
It's convincing stuff if you are not appreciative of the Scientific Method.
Here's an idea that MIGHT have merit; maybe SOME vaccines are good --- and maybe some, like flu vaccines, don't work at all and have no proof of merit. You don't stick something in an egg and then in the human body and proclaim "this always works" -- that's what the Pro-Vaccine, all good all the time crowd is suggesting. Maybe there are economic incentives to selling Tamiflu, and that people THINK it might help because they are halfway through with their cold when they take it.
There is another side-effect of IMMUNIZATION that doesn't seem to be considered; when the body REACTS to the vaccine -- how do we know it doesn't add more benign things on the "immune response" list? Along with the antibodies in a vaccine, there are things called "adjutants" -- monkey blood, semi-toxic stew, and whatever might get a response from your body. Once the alarm is triggered, the anti-bodies to Flu or whatever is in the vaccine, get on the "naughty list."
Is there any way the body knows the difference between what is in the syringe and what might be a NEW FOOD ITEM? Especially with young children -- their first experience with many harmless things might also be when they get a vaccine. When the age goes down and the vaccines go up, the chance of Collateral Damage goes up. Add in the huge financial incentive for profits and reducing liability, and the FDA working for their consulting job and paycheck by being so helpful to the industry they are supposed to regulate, and you've got a very complicated problem that doesn't show a distinct pattern coupled with a corrupt system that would never bring up a problem if it can possibly be avoided.
We have a broken system of checks and balances, and the issue is too complicated for bumper-sticker slogans.
Oh sorry, I forgot to shut down that Multi-terminal Mosaic Screensaver on the California University System's VAX machine.
[CLICK]
Yahoo shares plummet!
He's basically worried that if he tried to pull the same shit he gets away with in China, he would be shut down. This is undoubtedly a valid concern, but it does cast a depressing light on outsourcing. Basically the US is losing manufacturing jobs because we don't let business completely stomp all over the rights of the workers anymore.
Hey, are you reading the Wall Street Journal 6 months in the future too? That's when they suggest that for America to stay competitive, we've got to "buckle down" and "quit whining".
Any Senator who suggests "tariffs" because that's how America raised its funds and stopped England from doing THE SAME THING a few hundred years ago, well, I suspect them to unexpectedly attempt to fly out of some tall building.
Actually, that's kind of a myth. Henry Ford was just like so many other Capitalists of the day -- he was forced into it by a lawsuit and Chevrolet's competition.
If he had had his way, they'd bar the doors and pay people in food and the US would have joined Germany in WW II. But, like any good public relations; if you are forced to do good, you smile and embrace it and make sure the newspapers spell your name right.
>> Just wanted to set the record straight. Henry Ford actually got his idea of "assembly line method" from the Meat Packing industry. He was merely implementing the process of stripping down a cow into a series of packaged cuts in reverse to BUILD an automobile. Lot's of repetitive jobs of working drones -- but it is efficient for building the same thing many times.
I'm almost Psychic -- I was predicting that they'd find Kiddy Pr-0n on his computer -- that was all the rage when the Bush crime family was in office.
Now they are content to just make someone look like he's "one of those conspiracy theorists." It doesn't matter that it's about REAL documentation, about things that affect your life, NOT "accusations" about a man's personal behavior that REALLY, doesn't have that much to do with is professional credibility -- the public is too ADD to read beyond the headline.
Which makes perfect sense that we installed the millimeter radar scanner in the first place...
Officer: We found something in your pocket!
You: OK, I have a confession to make. [pulls out pocket]
Officer: Just as the scanner showed -- Your pockets are empty -- what's your confession then?
You: Yes, but did you notice the clever HOLE in my pocket? Reach right in here and you'll find it...
OK, the FALSE assumption here is that this is about geeky code -- the ONE space vs. TWO space battle after a period is about Typesetting. If we are talking about programming -- it's 4 spaces = 1 tab and anyone using 8 spaces loves COBOL.
Of course, this could be intentional Obtuseness on the part of SlashDot denizens -- but in case it isn't, the war is already settled; ONE SPACE. It's up to the FONT vendors to come out with new typefaces that offer a PERIOD with extra space at the end of a sentence and a different dot for abbreviations -- which of course means HUGE PROFITS! More profits for people coming up with keyboard apps that do it auto-magically. /you can of course, sense there is some mischief in my comments.
I've read a lot of detailed analysis, and some nonsense "usually in favor of the practice" --- and I think that it all comes back to the concise brevity of the OP;
the "market" is an EPIC fucking scam.
And YES, it was that hard -- Slashdot cannot come to some simple hyperbolic generalization without lots of handwringing, gestalt therapy, and gnashing of virtual teeth in search of the glimmering silver lining of an exposed rectum.
>> I do however believe that the MOST LIKELY use for the outlier transactions is to "poison the data" of firms trying to generate trend analysis -- but the net effect to you and I trying to use the market as a place to save for retirement or as venture capital -- well, "see above" -- it comes right after the word 'EPIC'.
The charging rate issue has been addressed with concepts for interim transitions for Gas Stations: They would have batteries you can go by and pick up -- swap out with the ones you have. The one at your house could do likewise.
What an electric car infrastructure really needs -- as much as the next better battery, is a standard interface to plug in any battery and a "good enough" plugin battery that can handle lots of rough handling. Much like the Propane gas tank is only bought once and then swaps out an empty for a full one.
I think the important bit is that he admits to clubbing baby seals. You see, he's admitting that the only way to deal with too much Liberalism, is to destroy Nature a little bit more -- for balance.
Why don't these Free-Market anti-tree-hugger types ever say; "I'm going to make a business 20% bigger to hire more people -- just to wash away the Liberal inefficiency"? The opposite of a Tree-Hugger is DEATH. So, you know, this dude is pro-death, and he's sick of all your anti-death bias.
I just wonder about all the people parroting the "Natural oil leaks in the ocean" meme that seemed to be accepted without at least the peer review of 500 Weathermen and a Hedge fund from Russia. Let's wait until we get all the data before we support the "Natural Oil Leak" theory -- unless of course, it results in the deaths of baby seals, then of course we can rubber stamp it.
This might also be called the "Pakistani Dunkin' Donuts Phenomenon" as well.
But I think the BETTER answer is this; We often get very smart Indian's and Asians in the US, because those two countries represent about 2 Billion people. The people who can come to the US, are the entrepreneurs and over-represented by College educated immigrants. Those going to University are already the cream of the crop.
Couple that with India's many languages, and English language education, and you've also got a boost on the development of the language centers in young brains.
It's like the Obnoxious American stereotype -- the ignorant, midwestern, overweight person who goes to Paris and says; "If it weren't for America, you guys would be speaking German." And of course, that over-represented clod doesn't get the obvious rebuttal; "If it weren't for the French, you Americans would be speaking English." That works on about two different levels.
Since Sarah Palin can see the moon from her house... ... AND, since she can possibly see herself from the moon from her house with a strong enough Telescope....
It's obvious now that she can be an expert on herself and the moon. I know what you are thinking, and I'm not sure if a mirror in her house would suffice for the "Expert" conveyance, it has been shown to require a horizon and a distance "more than a stone's throw." If there is an upper limit to the "expert vision" phenomena, then that will require further study.
Forgive me,
I've been corrupted by blogging on Digg so I speak "ID10T" quite fluently.
Of course I KNOW what "Hypothesis" and "Theory" are -- but it's pretty ridiculous in normal every day speech to say; "My Hypothesis." It's kind of a given if someone is saying "My Theory is" it is a caveat, and this is not considered a publicly accepted theory. I have some Proof only for myself.
And you understood as much -- but I didn't guess that was the issue with some others, because they knew enough to NOT say; "What is this 'My Theory' you speak of?"
I'll try the grammar checkers and convert to geek speak whenever possible -- but I can't promise anything.
>> By the way, is; We also plow vast piles of cash at planck scale potentialities something to do with my mentioning Planck-lengths or is that a common slogan you use because it's one of the smaller things you can try and squeeze hundred dollar bills into?
-- thanks for the conversation,
Mark
If I merely inspired someone to waste the time to pull out THINGS IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
Meh.
I could try explaining something I see visually better -- but would anyone bother holding out that long? So I keep it brief hoping that there is enough interest to see more.
I really am NOT trying to push an idea of an "Electric Universe." Einstein was elegant and didn't pull ideas out of rabbit-holes. Relativity is sublime but it also stops at explaining how objects aren't constantly gaining mass as they accelerate in one vector or another.
Again, this sounds like nonsense until you really stop and think; from the background radiation -- we ASSUME what is our general motion relative to the Universe -- because there are no fixed points. Acceleration, is the same thing to mass "relatively" as is a large gravity field. However -- is it the NET motion in the system -- or only acceleration RELATIVE to other objects?
Einstein crushed the concept of the "Aether" but then again -- by NOT having particles exchanging relative velocities or two particle moving apart having more acceleration that two objects moving in parallel -- it kind of begs for an "Aether" or a substrate to be RELATIVE to. What is moving, in a gravity field, to ACT like acceleration? And why is there still MASS increase, if you accelerate INTO a Gravity Field?
There seems to be a clue in "critical velocity." In Earth's gravity field, it;s something like 9.8 M/S/S (long time since College physics I'm afraid). Above that speed -- an object does NOT increase it's speed. If you added rocket power to that object, it would have acceleration and increase mass. When I imagine the distortion the gravity makes on space/time it is NOT just in that two-dimensional sheet, it's better to imagine it as "water pressure." The trap of our well-known physics models is that we keep treading over the same ground.
So, the THEORY I propose, is that Acceleration is irrespective of the system the object is moving in -- it is intrinsically, a force created by the object being accelerated with it's own internal sub-space. Mass, in a gravity field, is the SYSTEM surrounding an object, causing PRESSURE, on the forces of sub-space emanating from the object it is acting upon. You can compute each separately, and then the vectors.
For instance, our galaxy is moving at something like 640,000 Miles per second -- something astronomical - I forget the exact rate, against the Background standard. Under General Relativity, it SHOULD mean, that a rocket heading from dead space (without a close gravity field) is going to use more fuel going a the same distance in one direction (with the galactic vector) as going the opposite direction due to the effects of relativity (approaching the SPEED LIMIT of light). Even though that influence is going to be small -- as the object approaches the speed of light, the very small difference between .99999 the speed of light and 1.0 the speed of light becomes increasingly larger.
My theory, also would support, Mass-less acceleration, if you could redirect the sub-space pressure or stop it from interacting with other masses. Anyway, that's a longer conversation and I have to get going.
That is the most pleasant way to say "bullshit" I've yet come across. Thanks, I suppose, for at least being gentle.