"For all you know, he could end up in Guantanamo Bay. "
I was assuming the original poster didn't have brown skin. If it turns out that the original poster has brown skin, or even prays to the wrong god, then all bets are off and -- I'll retract my original statement.
If you have brown skin, it's a given you shouldn't be sharing your wireless connection with anyone. This fact is so obvious, I didn't even think it needed to be mentioned.
"Cool. Can I use your connection to download kiddie porn and discuss the planning of, um, an "event" with my friend Osama? Sure, you'll be legally responsible and a prime suspect, but it's all about sharing, right? "
In the case of kiddie porn and homeland security, the authorities would come knocking on his door at 5 am -- they'd image his hard drive(s), they'd mess up his place, and they may even put him in hand cuffs, but that'd be the end of it. It's really the RIAA he would have to worry about, but then again -- if he downloads movies and music himself -- that may be his best defense.
On a side-note, my DSL provider Speakeasy.net, allows for me to share my wireless internet connection with my neighbors -- so I do not know what you guys are talking about.
Because they don't have any successful tech companies of their own to boss around?
That's arguable. Europe funded DARPA, in other words, it's as responsible for the Internet as much as the United States is.
Europe virtually ignored the tech industry for decades...
On the contrary, I don't know what happened in the other European countries, but in France for instance -- they spent huge amounts of money on research, education, and IT infrastructure. In 1986 for example, it was already achieving a 95% penetration rate of households by giving away free network computers (the Minitel) to anyone who asked. In 1987, ecommerce was already very developed in France, you could already buy pretty much anything on it, and the government was at the forefront of this.
Sadly, this is probably why France still has a dismal showing on the internet. It spent so much money on its national infrastructure, that it kept a stranglehold on its telecommunication monopoly -- so it could recoup its losses. Also, all the innovations that happened were done by (or through) the French government -- which later turned out to be a bad idea. The Minitel network was controlled and regulated by one company, the French telecom. It was a smart network. All its innovations were made at the center of its network, or with the explicit permission of that company. Most people at the nodes were forbidden to mess with it. So in that sense, the French government didn't understand the power of the dumb network and prevented the innovation of the masses.
Jardine, that's the family that is rumored to be the Noble House (led by the Tai Pan). I couldn't remember their name. Yes, it's interesting that a family empire built on Opium has stood the test of time and is still owned and controlled by the same people.
And I wonder if any famous Columbian drug cartel will become as successful and as legit as the Noble House has been after 150 years?
"Wake up and face the fact that fair use is dying, and if you want to save it, you've got to stop the tide before you can reverse it. [...] If you continually indicate that you're not willing to work with content providers at all, then don't expect content providers to have any consideration for your interests. "
On the contrary, fair use is actually getting better and better every day, and that's mostly because of our actions (and not the kindness of content providers).
Translating the bible for instance used to be a crime punishable by death. Now it's not. There used to be a time when the photocopy machine came out, that content providers fought to make photocopying a page a crime. Now it's not. There used to be a time when MP3 players were going to be made a crime. Now they're not. There used to be a time when the indexing and the caching of content done by search engines was going to be made a crime. Now it's not. And there used to be a time when Tivo was being attacked as well. Now it's not.
Now we didn't win those rights because publishers were being kind to us, and we didn't win those rights because we held back, on the contrary. We won those rights because the technology arrived, we were early adopters, *and* most importantly we helped those technologies achieve critical mass. In the case of TiVo for example, the congressmen made it very clear to content providers during their hearings that they were already using a TiVo themselves, and that there was no way in hell that they would let anyone take their TiVo away. So you can say we're "rabid slashdotters", I'm fine with that label, but I can tell you that in this particular case at least -- the congressmen were just as rabid as us slashdotters.
And the truly "absurd" part, it's not our position -- it's the position of content providers. Every time they've tried to ban a particular technology, it was because this technology was being disruptive to their business model and they feared it was going to make their entire industry die. And the truly absurd part is that the complete opposite usually happened. Ultimately, those technologies benefited the content providers as much as they benefited us, imagine the photocopy machine for instance, can you imagine a world without photocopy machines (or a world with DRM'd and watermarking photocopy machines? Personally, I can not. I can not even imagine a world like that.
Yes, it's also good to read them in chronological order, for instance -- I believe a descendant from the stranded captain in Shogun makes a short appearance in the Tai Pan.
The bank's story is actually not central to "Tai Pan", but it serves as a backdrop to the story. I believe there were three banks mentioned in the book, and that the Tai Pan owned a 10% or 20% stake in at least one of those banks (if not more) -- with the rest of the Scottish characters owning the rest. I'm sort of hazy on the details too, I've read the James Clavell's books a long time ago, but at least -- I can confirm that the Board Members were still all Scottish four years ago -- when I asked a friend of mine who's bank had just been acquired by them.
I think this has to do with the SAs. Shops running mostly windows servers will have windows-saavy SAs. I say if you have a good linux SA, the TCO will be less for linux. If you have windows SAs doing linux, then of course TCO for windows will be less.
I completely agree. In the case of HSBC also, HSBC is an holding conglomerate that keeps on acquiring other banks. This means they probably have a hodge podge of technologies they have to deal with, and that the IT staff of the head company rarely has the time to get used to new technologies -- although it's the IT staff of the acquiring company that usually ends up making all the final choices about what to standardize on.
Just to clarify, since its published group history doesn't make it clear, the bank was founded in Hong Kong 140 years ago by Scottish white men. To this day, most of the Board members are white men of Scottish ancestry. For some interesting close to the truth fiction regarding the original creation of that bank, and the kind of Scottish men we're talking about -- read "The Noble House" by James Clavell (it's a very good novel -- that you won't want to put down once started).
but isn't it possible that the girl lied about her weight to protect her self-image?
Or isn't it possible that she made an error reading a nutritional label (which is easy since some are deliberately misleading), or isn't it possibe that she miscalculated her daily intake?
Speaking as a computer programmer who misreads and miscalculates things all too frequently, I can't even begin to understand how we should take this second hand anonymous information seriously. This girl (or woman) is a human being. As a human being, her psychological and emotive state can certainly affect the measurements she takes of herself.
"If you have a decent vocabulary you get "You think you're so smart!" but no one ever confronts the sprinting champion with "You think you're so fast!" "
It depends. If you're the type of guy to say "Hey, look at me! Look at me! I'm so fast. I'm so strong." Then, that's going to get you in trouble.
Hopefully, that wasn't the case with your vocabulary.
"If we're getting rid of sports that encourage competition, then we should also get rid of all academic competition. No more spelling bees, no more science fairs, no more grades. "
No, you can keep the grades and keep the science fairs.
It's the graded curves and the first place ribbons that you can get rid of.
Having been educated both in France and in the United States, I can actually confirm some of what the original poster was saying.
France has actually a very tough Physical Education program with tough benchmarks to achieve, but those benchmarks are actually for everyone to achieve -- not the top few. There are no bench warmers in France. Your graduation to the next grade, and your graduation out of high school, depends on it. In France, one out of four students will repeat an entire grade, some will repeat a year more than once. I've repeated a year. And although Physical Education doesn't have a very high weighted coefficient compared to the other types of classes, it's enough for students to take Physical Education seriously enough.
Also, this model of benchmarks and this model of minimum proficiency mimics the working world more closely in my opinion. In the real world, it's your final qualifications that matter, not the number of tries it actually took you to get there.
That being said, I am only praising the Physical Education system in France, not the other subjects. The other subjects are taught pretty competitively. For instance, only a few of the students are meant to get to the top of the Math and Science pyramid. And everyone else who doesn't get to the top of that particular Math and Science pyramid in high school is basically doomed to study/work at the bottom of the French pyramid for the rest of his/her life (that is, unless he moves out of the country like I did).
"I've often thought of generating some kind of unique e-mail address for each of my friends, to detect if my e-mail address has been compromised by them (or their PC). e.g:
asdf2344ks@gmail.com for my emails to Tom
oieo116i2k@gmail.com for my emails to Liz"
This service already exists. It's been around for a while. It's free. You only need to remember a chunk of your username, and make up the rest (instead of making up the rest of the name, I use the name of the actual site I leave my information with). I use it for every web site I'm forced to register with. It has a number of other domain names in case you don't like the spamgourmet name. Plus, it has a number of other cool features -- if you desire to delve more into it. And it's also open source, so you can easily install it on your own server and modify its functionality to your hearts content.
I usually wear my light Timberland walking boots. Sometimes I'll take my Vans with me too. I also carry flip-flops 'cause I have a thing about the floors of public showers.
That reminds me. Night clubs in Europe will require you to wear dress shoes (although I've always been able to get in by showing my American passport and explain how much of a dumb ass/bad dresser I really was). Churches, mosques, temples, castles, and any caves opened to the public may also require you to wear real shoes (instead of sandals) and pants (or even a dress instead of pants if you're a girl).
Now if you go to the tropics and stay in out of the way places, my top recommendation would be that you pack some anti-biotic cream. As a backpacker traveling on the cheap, a foot infection in tropical weather can ruin the entire trip for you (that's what happened to my travel mates and I).
1) He lied when he claimed he was sent to Africa under the direction of VP Cheney's office. That's the whole reason reporters started digging into this in the first place because it didn't make sense that Cheney would send a war critic to verify WMD claims. It turned out that it was his wife, not Cheney, who sent him.
Did you even read the original Wilson article? Look at the paragraph in question, Wilson is pretty careful in saying how this came about.
"In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake -- a form of lightly processed ore -- by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office. "
It's basically Cheney who completely misconstrues what he wrote, so he can avoid addressing the real issue. "I never met the man." Of course, you never met the man Mr Vice President. "I never sent him." Of course, you never sent the man Mr Vice President. Wilson never said otherwise, please read the actual paragraph.
It turned out that it was his wife, not Cheney, who sent him.
Yes, she threw his name in the ring, and yes she even recommended him again when she got an email about it. But she wasn't in charge of this operation. She wasn't the actual person that led this operation. She didn't "send him". And without Dick Cheney's repeated visits to the CIA headquarters, there would never have been the impetus to send the man in the first place. You guys are just grasping at straws. And again, Wilson is not a known political whack job that used to work for Clinton. He got to be Ambassador because of Bush Senior, and he was actually demoted during the Clinton years. That's another reason why this story of yours doesn't fit.
Halliburton was founded in 1919.
By 1982, it had 115,000 employees. A company with over 100,000 people is very much "something", not "nothing".
Cheney was Secretary of Defense in 1989.
So you, stephanruby, are either a frickin liar or just plain ignorant.
You're right. I'm a complete dumb ass. I tried, but couldn't substantiate the details of what I asserted.
Also, my claim that Dick Cheney knew about the asbestos liability time-bomb before he got into asbestos seems to be contradicted by this otherwise very insightful anti-Cheney article.
Also, my claim that Dick Cheney's first job in the private sector was as CEO of Halliburton was false. He had worked in the Private Sector once before. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/6450422 /the_curse_of_dick_cheney
All in all, I got outraged and I got lazy, that's why I wrote so much unsubstantiated gibberish in my previous post.
I'd challenge you to remember, under oath, the exact date and content of a handful of conversations you had several years ago. Apparently if you get some dates mixed up, it's only criminal if you are a Republican.
The dates were not the only things that got mixed-up. Apparently, he also had trouble telling the difference between Dick Cheney and his reporter friend. May be the next time around, he should just ask Dick Cheney and his friend to wear name tags or something.
...a critic that was spreading open lies about them that the NY Times was lapping up.
Oh pray tell, what did Wilson lie about? That he should have known that his wife had recommended him for the job, I'll give you that one -- but that's about it (and good luck proving it by the way). Joseph Wilson is not the anti-war liberal hack know-nothing that the republicans are trying to make him out to be. And the extreme-right bloggers that make him out to be a former Clinton aid who was against the war are just as guilty as the Bill O'Reilly's show which tried to imply that Mark Folley was a democrat -- instead of a republican.
In fact, if you look at Joe Wilson's resume, you'll find that every time the republicans were in power, he had a promotion, and during the time Clinton was in office -- he was demoted to a lesser rank. So if he was the lapdog of anyone in particular, he was the lapdog of Bush Senior. Furthermore, he wasn't just against the war in Iraq as I've read a hundred times already, he was against the *second* War in Iraq -- the first War -- he was for it -- just like George Bush Senior. I believe this is a distinction that's too often omitted in these discussions. Not to mention, that when his credentials come up, his lack of experience in the country of Niger is cited, but his experience in Iraq or his experience with another Uranium rich country like the Gabon are seldom even mentioned.
And I'm barely even scratching the surface here, I've heard many half-truthes and deliberate omissions regarding Joe Wilson. So if you have anything to say about him, please go on -- I'll be happy to verify whatever you've heard about him.
3. Nobody reacted when he gazed Kurds in the 80's.
The entire World reacted when he gassed the Kurds, including France. It's just that most Americans do not know that. The gassing of the Kurds made the *front page* of Le Monde, and probably the front page of every major newspaper in the World (except the US).
At the time, the US even defended Iraq casting doubts on Iraq's culpability, promising a veto in the Security Council against any sanction against Iraq, and even after the scandal broke out worldwide -- the US (Donald Rumsfeld) still loaned Saddam one billion dollars in aid which was never paid back (at the time, Donald Rumsfeld was Reagan's special envoy to Saddam Hussein).
The US had a "grand vision" of the middle east (getting rid of dictators, bringing democracy and western values, securing this major oil source). the French government didn't share it and they wanted to protect their own interests. Both failed miserably.
Nice summary, but you're still basically repeating what you've heard on American television. The French people still had a bad taste in its mouth from the War in Algeria. If anything, this was the big stumbling block in France, France had already been attacked on its home soil by Algerian terrorists. France had already tried shock and awe, it had already tried monetary rewards, kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of suspects and random people in Algeria -- just to try to get a little bit of information on those terrorist networks. And that didn't work -- none of it worked. Instead, France just gave up, repatriated all the Algerians that had collaborated with France, otherwise they would have all been killed if they had staid, and voila. France was humiliated, but at least it came out a little wiser for the next time around.
Fluorescent bulbs use a narrower band of the light spectrum. For example, they don't emit infra-red light, which also means the bulbs are cooler and much more energy-efficient.
However this could have unintended consequences. We're just beginning to understand the effects of natural light on humans. And for now at least, incandescent lamps (or preferably halogen lamps) are the healthiest sources of artificial light we can buy.
I would hate to see these kinds of lights being taken off the market, and then sold back to us through costly hospital care as light therapy -- or rented back to us through yuppie coffee shops such as Starbucks. Currently, Starbucks and many upper-scale shops still uses halogena bulbs as their primary source of artificial light, I can easily see them being exempt for any consumer laws banning those light bulbs, and I would just hate to have to go into a Starbucks (or have my future kids/grandkids have to go into a Starbucks) in order to get my/their daily light fix.
"[Dick Cheney] earned that money in years before 1999 due to performance incentives in his contract..."
I completely agree. And I wish someone would mod you up, because your post brings us much closer to the truth.
Dick Cheney got the job as CEO of Halliburton (his first job in the private sector) as a result of being Secretary of Defense. Before Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense, Halliburton was nothing -- his decisions as Defense Secretary made Halliburton wealthy. So if Cheney is getting paid now, it's because of the wealth he created Halliburton during his reign as Secretary of Defense -- not as CEO. As CEO, he implemented a very aggressive take over strategy of asbestos companies (after the scandal had already broken out) which basically got Halliburton to pick up many bargains -- but eventually led it to declare bankruptcy (i.e. Corporate Welfare).
Now Hilary Clinton may be as corrupt as Cheney, may be, but compared to Dick Cheney -- Hillary Clinton is a freaking genius where it comes to business. Hell, even George W. Bush's failed business record is not as bad as Cheney's.
You're welcome. Yes, it's an awesome book. It's one of those books that actually continues to make an impact on my life every single day (even three or four years after having read it).
"This means that chances are highest, than with any other cell provider, that when you call someone's cell they will be on network which doesn't eat minutes since on network minutes are free. "
Minutes? That reminds me of the AOL days when they still charged by the minute. I got hit with huge $300 bills a couple of times.
Now I use Sprint which gives me unlimited EV-DO mobile broadband for $60 a month (unlimited time -- with a two year contract -- which works 98% of the time). And I use MetroPCS for normal cell phone service which gives me unlimited time - unlimited texting (7 days a week, 24 hours a day, with no contract) for something like $52 a month (including taxes).
I believe the low cost local carriers like MetroPCS are the wave of the future. They're local so they give excellent local coverage (better than my friends on Verizon for example) -- without trying to nickel and dime you. The only drawback is that again -- they're only local, geographically I mean (you can make long distance calls just fine), but if you go on an extended vacation or take a business trip -- you're pretty much SOL.
"People ALWAYS say this and it's crap. That's not how the real world works."
I agree. I'm not the original poster, but I'll try to amend some of what he said:
I don't see why paying people based on merit (versus seniority) is unacceptable. That's how most of the real world *is supposed to* work. I basically agree with your correction Pork3Ways, but the fact that your private sector boss gives preference to his incompetent golf buddy shouldn't negate the idea of fighting against seniority-based systems. I'll try to fight crony-ism when confronted with it. And I'll also try to fight seniority-based systems when confronted with those as well. Right now, it just seems that unfair seniority-based systems are the easier target, after all they're institutionalized and probably even written down. Take racism for example, racism was much easier to fight when it was institutionalized and written down somewhere, then now when most of this stuff isn't written down anymore -- but racism still occurs.
"I don't see how the hell a web developer/designer is supposed to find work in a city for a year..."
He's not, that's why you ask for full time income for one year (in addition to the standard severance package) to compensate for the time he won't be employable. You can tell your friend this is the "standard" response for this "standard" clause. Either that, or you can tell your friend to strike out the clause, initial it, and ask the employer to initial it as well. Crossing out clauses, or modifying clauses to make them more reasonable, is another very "standard" practice.
Whatever happens, tell your friend to not let this clause slip by untouched (even if he does live in a State where it's not really enforced). If his boss is going to be uncompromising, your friend needs to find this out now *before* he accepts a job from him. For some good reading on this topic, I recommend he takes a look at http://asktheheadhunter.com. I would also suggest "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty" by Manuel J. Smith -- which is the best book I've read on assertiveness.
Slashdot Mirror
"For all you know, he could end up in Guantanamo Bay. "
I was assuming the original poster didn't have brown skin. If it turns out that the original poster has brown skin, or even prays to the wrong god, then all bets are off and -- I'll retract my original statement. If you have brown skin, it's a given you shouldn't be sharing your wireless connection with anyone. This fact is so obvious, I didn't even think it needed to be mentioned.
"Cool. Can I use your connection to download kiddie porn and discuss the planning of, um, an "event" with my friend Osama? Sure, you'll be legally responsible and a prime suspect, but it's all about sharing, right? "
In the case of kiddie porn and homeland security, the authorities would come knocking on his door at 5 am -- they'd image his hard drive(s), they'd mess up his place, and they may even put him in hand cuffs, but that'd be the end of it. It's really the RIAA he would have to worry about, but then again -- if he downloads movies and music himself -- that may be his best defense.
On a side-note, my DSL provider Speakeasy.net, allows for me to share my wireless internet connection with my neighbors -- so I do not know what you guys are talking about.
Because they don't have any successful tech companies of their own to boss around?
That's arguable. Europe funded DARPA, in other words, it's as responsible for the Internet as much as the United States is.
Europe virtually ignored the tech industry for decades...
On the contrary, I don't know what happened in the other European countries, but in France for instance -- they spent huge amounts of money on research, education, and IT infrastructure. In 1986 for example, it was already achieving a 95% penetration rate of households by giving away free network computers (the Minitel) to anyone who asked. In 1987, ecommerce was already very developed in France, you could already buy pretty much anything on it, and the government was at the forefront of this.
Sadly, this is probably why France still has a dismal showing on the internet. It spent so much money on its national infrastructure, that it kept a stranglehold on its telecommunication monopoly -- so it could recoup its losses. Also, all the innovations that happened were done by (or through) the French government -- which later turned out to be a bad idea. The Minitel network was controlled and regulated by one company, the French telecom. It was a smart network. All its innovations were made at the center of its network, or with the explicit permission of that company. Most people at the nodes were forbidden to mess with it. So in that sense, the French government didn't understand the power of the dumb network and prevented the innovation of the masses.
Jardine, that's the family that is rumored to be the Noble House (led by the Tai Pan). I couldn't remember their name. Yes, it's interesting that a family empire built on Opium has stood the test of time and is still owned and controlled by the same people.
And I wonder if any famous Columbian drug cartel will become as successful and as legit as the Noble House has been after 150 years?
"Wake up and face the fact that fair use is dying, and if you want to save it, you've got to stop the tide before you can reverse it. [...] If you continually indicate that you're not willing to work with content providers at all, then don't expect content providers to have any consideration for your interests. "
On the contrary, fair use is actually getting better and better every day, and that's mostly because of our actions (and not the kindness of content providers).
Translating the bible for instance used to be a crime punishable by death. Now it's not. There used to be a time when the photocopy machine came out, that content providers fought to make photocopying a page a crime. Now it's not. There used to be a time when MP3 players were going to be made a crime. Now they're not. There used to be a time when the indexing and the caching of content done by search engines was going to be made a crime. Now it's not. And there used to be a time when Tivo was being attacked as well. Now it's not.
Now we didn't win those rights because publishers were being kind to us, and we didn't win those rights because we held back, on the contrary. We won those rights because the technology arrived, we were early adopters, *and* most importantly we helped those technologies achieve critical mass. In the case of TiVo for example, the congressmen made it very clear to content providers during their hearings that they were already using a TiVo themselves, and that there was no way in hell that they would let anyone take their TiVo away. So you can say we're "rabid slashdotters", I'm fine with that label, but I can tell you that in this particular case at least -- the congressmen were just as rabid as us slashdotters.
And the truly "absurd" part, it's not our position -- it's the position of content providers. Every time they've tried to ban a particular technology, it was because this technology was being disruptive to their business model and they feared it was going to make their entire industry die. And the truly absurd part is that the complete opposite usually happened. Ultimately, those technologies benefited the content providers as much as they benefited us, imagine the photocopy machine for instance, can you imagine a world without photocopy machines (or a world with DRM'd and watermarking photocopy machines? Personally, I can not. I can not even imagine a world like that.
Yes, it's also good to read them in chronological order, for instance -- I believe a descendant from the stranded captain in Shogun makes a short appearance in the Tai Pan.
Yes, "Tai Pan", that's the one.
The bank's story is actually not central to "Tai Pan", but it serves as a backdrop to the story. I believe there were three banks mentioned in the book, and that the Tai Pan owned a 10% or 20% stake in at least one of those banks (if not more) -- with the rest of the Scottish characters owning the rest. I'm sort of hazy on the details too, I've read the James Clavell's books a long time ago, but at least -- I can confirm that the Board Members were still all Scottish four years ago -- when I asked a friend of mine who's bank had just been acquired by them.
I think this has to do with the SAs. Shops running mostly windows servers will have windows-saavy SAs. I say if you have a good linux SA, the TCO will be less for linux. If you have windows SAs doing linux, then of course TCO for windows will be less.
I completely agree. In the case of HSBC also, HSBC is an holding conglomerate that keeps on acquiring other banks. This means they probably have a hodge podge of technologies they have to deal with, and that the IT staff of the head company rarely has the time to get used to new technologies -- although it's the IT staff of the acquiring company that usually ends up making all the final choices about what to standardize on.
Just to clarify, since its published group history doesn't make it clear, the bank was founded in Hong Kong 140 years ago by Scottish white men. To this day, most of the Board members are white men of Scottish ancestry. For some interesting close to the truth fiction regarding the original creation of that bank, and the kind of Scottish men we're talking about -- read "The Noble House" by James Clavell (it's a very good novel -- that you won't want to put down once started).
I'm not a physicist...
but isn't it possible that the girl lied about her weight to protect her self-image?
Or isn't it possible that she made an error reading a nutritional label (which is easy since some are deliberately misleading), or isn't it possibe that she miscalculated her daily intake?
Speaking as a computer programmer who misreads and miscalculates things all too frequently, I can't even begin to understand how we should take this second hand anonymous information seriously. This girl (or woman) is a human being. As a human being, her psychological and emotive state can certainly affect the measurements she takes of herself.
"If you have a decent vocabulary you get "You think you're so smart!" but no one ever confronts the sprinting champion with "You think you're so fast!" "
It depends. If you're the type of guy to say "Hey, look at me! Look at me! I'm so fast. I'm so strong." Then, that's going to get you in trouble.
Hopefully, that wasn't the case with your vocabulary.
"If we're getting rid of sports that encourage competition, then we should also get rid of all academic competition. No more spelling bees, no more science fairs, no more grades. "
No, you can keep the grades and keep the science fairs. It's the graded curves and the first place ribbons that you can get rid of.
Having been educated both in France and in the United States, I can actually confirm some of what the original poster was saying. France has actually a very tough Physical Education program with tough benchmarks to achieve, but those benchmarks are actually for everyone to achieve -- not the top few. There are no bench warmers in France. Your graduation to the next grade, and your graduation out of high school, depends on it. In France, one out of four students will repeat an entire grade, some will repeat a year more than once. I've repeated a year. And although Physical Education doesn't have a very high weighted coefficient compared to the other types of classes, it's enough for students to take Physical Education seriously enough. Also, this model of benchmarks and this model of minimum proficiency mimics the working world more closely in my opinion. In the real world, it's your final qualifications that matter, not the number of tries it actually took you to get there.
That being said, I am only praising the Physical Education system in France, not the other subjects. The other subjects are taught pretty competitively. For instance, only a few of the students are meant to get to the top of the Math and Science pyramid. And everyone else who doesn't get to the top of that particular Math and Science pyramid in high school is basically doomed to study/work at the bottom of the French pyramid for the rest of his/her life (that is, unless he moves out of the country like I did).
"I've often thought of generating some kind of unique e-mail address for each of my friends, to detect if my e-mail address has been compromised by them (or their PC). e.g:
asdf2344ks@gmail.com for my emails to Tom oieo116i2k@gmail.com for my emails to Liz"
This service already exists. It's been around for a while. It's free. You only need to remember a chunk of your username, and make up the rest (instead of making up the rest of the name, I use the name of the actual site I leave my information with). I use it for every web site I'm forced to register with. It has a number of other domain names in case you don't like the spamgourmet name. Plus, it has a number of other cool features -- if you desire to delve more into it. And it's also open source, so you can easily install it on your own server and modify its functionality to your hearts content.
http://www.spamgourmet.com/
I usually wear my light Timberland walking boots. Sometimes I'll take my Vans with me too. I also carry flip-flops 'cause I have a thing about the floors of public showers.
That reminds me. Night clubs in Europe will require you to wear dress shoes (although I've always been able to get in by showing my American passport and explain how much of a dumb ass/bad dresser I really was). Churches, mosques, temples, castles, and any caves opened to the public may also require you to wear real shoes (instead of sandals) and pants (or even a dress instead of pants if you're a girl).
Now if you go to the tropics and stay in out of the way places, my top recommendation would be that you pack some anti-biotic cream. As a backpacker traveling on the cheap, a foot infection in tropical weather can ruin the entire trip for you (that's what happened to my travel mates and I).
1) He lied when he claimed he was sent to Africa under the direction of VP Cheney's office. That's the whole reason reporters started digging into this in the first place because it didn't make sense that Cheney would send a war critic to verify WMD claims. It turned out that it was his wife, not Cheney, who sent him.
Did you even read the original Wilson article? Look at the paragraph in question, Wilson is pretty careful in saying how this came about.
"In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake -- a form of lightly processed ore -- by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office. "
It's basically Cheney who completely misconstrues what he wrote, so he can avoid addressing the real issue. "I never met the man." Of course, you never met the man Mr Vice President. "I never sent him." Of course, you never sent the man Mr Vice President. Wilson never said otherwise, please read the actual paragraph.
It turned out that it was his wife, not Cheney, who sent him.
Yes, she threw his name in the ring, and yes she even recommended him again when she got an email about it. But she wasn't in charge of this operation. She wasn't the actual person that led this operation. She didn't "send him". And without Dick Cheney's repeated visits to the CIA headquarters, there would never have been the impetus to send the man in the first place. You guys are just grasping at straws. And again, Wilson is not a known political whack job that used to work for Clinton. He got to be Ambassador because of Bush Senior, and he was actually demoted during the Clinton years. That's another reason why this story of yours doesn't fit.
Halliburton was founded in 1919.
& q=l&c=
2 /the_curse_of_dick_cheney
By 1982, it had 115,000 employees. A company with over 100,000 people is very much "something", not "nothing".
Cheney was Secretary of Defense in 1989.
So you, stephanruby, are either a frickin liar or just plain ignorant.
You're right. I'm a complete dumb ass. I tried, but couldn't substantiate the details of what I asserted.
The Halliburton stock did almost hit rock bottom, but that was when Cheney was the Minority Whip -- a couple of years before he became Secretary of Defense.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=HAL&t=my&l=on&z=l
Also, my claim that Dick Cheney knew about the asbestos liability time-bomb before he got into asbestos seems to be contradicted by this otherwise very insightful anti-Cheney article.
Also, my claim that Dick Cheney's first job in the private sector was as CEO of Halliburton was false. He had worked in the Private Sector once before.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/645042
All in all, I got outraged and I got lazy, that's why I wrote so much unsubstantiated gibberish in my previous post.
I'd challenge you to remember, under oath, the exact date and content of a handful of conversations you had several years ago. Apparently if you get some dates mixed up, it's only criminal if you are a Republican.
The dates were not the only things that got mixed-up. Apparently, he also had trouble telling the difference between Dick Cheney and his reporter friend. May be the next time around, he should just ask Dick Cheney and his friend to wear name tags or something.
...a critic that was spreading open lies about them that the NY Times was lapping up.
Oh pray tell, what did Wilson lie about? That he should have known that his wife had recommended him for the job, I'll give you that one -- but that's about it (and good luck proving it by the way). Joseph Wilson is not the anti-war liberal hack know-nothing that the republicans are trying to make him out to be. And the extreme-right bloggers that make him out to be a former Clinton aid who was against the war are just as guilty as the Bill O'Reilly's show which tried to imply that Mark Folley was a democrat -- instead of a republican.
In fact, if you look at Joe Wilson's resume, you'll find that every time the republicans were in power, he had a promotion, and during the time Clinton was in office -- he was demoted to a lesser rank. So if he was the lapdog of anyone in particular, he was the lapdog of Bush Senior. Furthermore, he wasn't just against the war in Iraq as I've read a hundred times already, he was against the *second* War in Iraq -- the first War -- he was for it -- just like George Bush Senior. I believe this is a distinction that's too often omitted in these discussions. Not to mention, that when his credentials come up, his lack of experience in the country of Niger is cited, but his experience in Iraq or his experience with another Uranium rich country like the Gabon are seldom even mentioned.
And I'm barely even scratching the surface here, I've heard many half-truthes and deliberate omissions regarding Joe Wilson. So if you have anything to say about him, please go on -- I'll be happy to verify whatever you've heard about him.
3. Nobody reacted when he gazed Kurds in the 80's.
The entire World reacted when he gassed the Kurds, including France. It's just that most Americans do not know that. The gassing of the Kurds made the *front page* of Le Monde, and probably the front page of every major newspaper in the World (except the US).
At the time, the US even defended Iraq casting doubts on Iraq's culpability, promising a veto in the Security Council against any sanction against Iraq, and even after the scandal broke out worldwide -- the US (Donald Rumsfeld) still loaned Saddam one billion dollars in aid which was never paid back (at the time, Donald Rumsfeld was Reagan's special envoy to Saddam Hussein).
The US had a "grand vision" of the middle east (getting rid of dictators, bringing democracy and western values, securing this major oil source). the French government didn't share it and they wanted to protect their own interests. Both failed miserably.
Nice summary, but you're still basically repeating what you've heard on American television. The French people still had a bad taste in its mouth from the War in Algeria. If anything, this was the big stumbling block in France, France had already been attacked on its home soil by Algerian terrorists. France had already tried shock and awe, it had already tried monetary rewards, kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of suspects and random people in Algeria -- just to try to get a little bit of information on those terrorist networks. And that didn't work -- none of it worked. Instead, France just gave up, repatriated all the Algerians that had collaborated with France, otherwise they would have all been killed if they had staid, and voila. France was humiliated, but at least it came out a little wiser for the next time around.
Fluorescent bulbs use a narrower band of the light spectrum. For example, they don't emit infra-red light, which also means the bulbs are cooler and much more energy-efficient.
However this could have unintended consequences. We're just beginning to understand the effects of natural light on humans. And for now at least, incandescent lamps (or preferably halogen lamps) are the healthiest sources of artificial light we can buy.
I would hate to see these kinds of lights being taken off the market, and then sold back to us through costly hospital care as light therapy -- or rented back to us through yuppie coffee shops such as Starbucks. Currently, Starbucks and many upper-scale shops still uses halogena bulbs as their primary source of artificial light, I can easily see them being exempt for any consumer laws banning those light bulbs, and I would just hate to have to go into a Starbucks (or have my future kids/grandkids have to go into a Starbucks) in order to get my/their daily light fix.
"[Dick Cheney] earned that money in years before 1999 due to performance incentives in his contract..."
I completely agree. And I wish someone would mod you up, because your post brings us much closer to the truth.
Dick Cheney got the job as CEO of Halliburton (his first job in the private sector) as a result of being Secretary of Defense. Before Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense, Halliburton was nothing -- his decisions as Defense Secretary made Halliburton wealthy. So if Cheney is getting paid now, it's because of the wealth he created Halliburton during his reign as Secretary of Defense -- not as CEO. As CEO, he implemented a very aggressive take over strategy of asbestos companies (after the scandal had already broken out) which basically got Halliburton to pick up many bargains -- but eventually led it to declare bankruptcy (i.e. Corporate Welfare).
Now Hilary Clinton may be as corrupt as Cheney, may be, but compared to Dick Cheney -- Hillary Clinton is a freaking genius where it comes to business. Hell, even George W. Bush's failed business record is not as bad as Cheney's.
You're welcome. Yes, it's an awesome book. It's one of those books that actually continues to make an impact on my life every single day (even three or four years after having read it).
"This means that chances are highest, than with any other cell provider, that when you call someone's cell they will be on network which doesn't eat minutes since on network minutes are free. "
Minutes? That reminds me of the AOL days when they still charged by the minute. I got hit with huge $300 bills a couple of times.
Now I use Sprint which gives me unlimited EV-DO mobile broadband for $60 a month (unlimited time -- with a two year contract -- which works 98% of the time). And I use MetroPCS for normal cell phone service which gives me unlimited time - unlimited texting (7 days a week, 24 hours a day, with no contract) for something like $52 a month (including taxes).
I believe the low cost local carriers like MetroPCS are the wave of the future. They're local so they give excellent local coverage (better than my friends on Verizon for example) -- without trying to nickel and dime you. The only drawback is that again -- they're only local, geographically I mean (you can make long distance calls just fine), but if you go on an extended vacation or take a business trip -- you're pretty much SOL.
"People ALWAYS say this and it's crap. That's not how the real world works."
I agree. I'm not the original poster, but I'll try to amend some of what he said:
I don't see why paying people based on merit (versus seniority) is unacceptable. That's how most of the real world *is supposed to* work. I basically agree with your correction Pork3Ways, but the fact that your private sector boss gives preference to his incompetent golf buddy shouldn't negate the idea of fighting against seniority-based systems. I'll try to fight crony-ism when confronted with it. And I'll also try to fight seniority-based systems when confronted with those as well. Right now, it just seems that unfair seniority-based systems are the easier target, after all they're institutionalized and probably even written down. Take racism for example, racism was much easier to fight when it was institutionalized and written down somewhere, then now when most of this stuff isn't written down anymore -- but racism still occurs.
"I don't see how the hell a web developer/designer is supposed to find work in a city for a year..."
He's not, that's why you ask for full time income for one year (in addition to the standard severance package) to compensate for the time he won't be employable. You can tell your friend this is the "standard" response for this "standard" clause. Either that, or you can tell your friend to strike out the clause, initial it, and ask the employer to initial it as well. Crossing out clauses, or modifying clauses to make them more reasonable, is another very "standard" practice.
Whatever happens, tell your friend to not let this clause slip by untouched (even if he does live in a State where it's not really enforced). If his boss is going to be uncompromising, your friend needs to find this out now *before* he accepts a job from him. For some good reading on this topic, I recommend he takes a look at http://asktheheadhunter.com. I would also suggest "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty" by Manuel J. Smith -- which is the best book I've read on assertiveness.