My point was that no one actually read the books. For one thing, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is boring. It is heavily edited to fit on the amount of paper EB wants to afford, and that usually kills the interesting detail.
In actuality, traditional encyclopedias have always been extremely limited, and in some cases actually destructive.
I tried searching for Nobel Prize winning genetecist "Barbara McClintock" in Microsoft Encarta 2000 encyclopedia. There were four (4) sentences which do not at all give the impression that her work is extremely relevant to the very best science of today.
The Britannica article about Barbara McClintock is less antiseptic than the Microsoft article, but still doesn't give an accurate impression of her as a scientist or person. The online Britannica has, at least in the past, been limited to articles written and edited for printing on paper.
There is the thought among scientists today that when we fully understand the phenomena of the movement of genes which Barbara McClintock first discovered, we will understand the chemistry of evolution. Genetic mutations due to destructive forces such as X-rays are generally destructive mutations. But the movements or transpositions of genes which Barbara McClintock discovered "are more likely to improve the evolutionary fitness of a species", says the Microsoft encyclopedia.
There is a document on the web which discusses Barbara McClintock's work. It says at the top, "Papers, 1927-1991, 70.5 linear feet". Neither of the traditional encyclopedias gives the impression of such prodigious dedication.
In her Nobel acceptance speech, Barbara McClintock said that "rapid reorganizations of genomes may underlie some species formations". It is now 79 years after she began this work, and still the average person has been taught that evolution is caused by millions of accidental blind mutations, most of which kill the organism, but a few of which are improvements. Barbara McClintock's work indicates that evolution may be far more sophisticated than most people think. For an example of this sophistication, consider the following paragraph from her Nobel acceptance speech:
"The conclusion seems inescapable that cells are able to sense the presence in their nuclei of ruptured ends of chromosomes, and then to activate a mechanism that will bring together and then unite these ends, one with another. And this will occur regardless of the initial distance in a telophase nucleus that separated the ruptured ends. The ability of a cell to sense these broken ends, to direct them toward each other, and then to unite them so that the union of the two DNA strands is correctly oriented, is a particularly revealing example of the sensitivity of cells to all that is going on within them. They make wise decisions and act upon them."
Chromosomes which are so sophisticated that they almost seem to be intelligent? Her works require 70.5 feet of shelf space? These interesting facts are left out of the traditional encyclopedias.
The traditional encyclopedias are actually damaging, because their bland, boring presentation may convince the reader that the world is a bland, boring place.
And, another quote: "Where you would be wrong would be in failing to realize that the editor, like all the editors of the Guide has ever had, has no real grasp of the meanings of the words "scrupulous", "conscientious" or "diligent", and tends to get his nightmares through a straw."
One thing that should be said: Encyclopaedia Britannica has sold its print
version by sending extremely high-pressure salesmen into poor neighborhoods to
imply that if poor families didn't buy Britannica their children would always
be ignorant. Parents were often extremely intimidated.
Families who had no habit of reading books would buy the print version
of Britannica and pay for it in installments. My impression is that the books
were almost never read. I've seen bookcases of expensive books that have never
been opened. If children never see their parents reading, the children usually
won't read either.
From the Nature response:
"While we were quite willing to discuss the issues, the company
[Britannica] failed to provide specific details of its complaints when
we asked for them in order to be able to assess its allegations. We did not
receive any further correspondence until the publication of its open letter on
22 March 2006. It is regrettable that Britannica chose to make its objections
public without first informing us of them and giving us a chance to
respond."
This seems to me to be another abuse of the public's trust. Britannica
responded with a confident-sounding ad when actually the company wanted to
avoid discussion.
And that abuse got them into a Slashdot story once again.
I'd like to see a study of the sociology of arrogant company
executives with sink-the-company ideas.
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
Billions of dollars are being taken as profit...
on
Neutrino Mass Confirmed
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Billions of dollars are being taken as profit by U.S. companies for oilfield services in Iraq, even though there is no declared profit for Iraqis or U.S. taxpayers.
You said, "... the US military is directly subsidizing the oil income for those US companies at a cost of over 3000 US lives so far and over 60,000 Iraqi lives (including the roughly 30,000 of the invasion and the 30,000 since then)."
That's correct.
Your sig: "Still voting democrat? You're STUCK on STUPID!"
I've noticed that people who call other people stupid are often being stupid.
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Do you regard that as an improvement?
The Republican Party is often more of a crime syndicate than a party. A lot of money is borrowed, and the money somehow finds its way into the pockets of the rich.
Quote from the Slashdot story: "The set up established that fewer particles were being detected at the Soudan site than had been sent from Fermilab, which confirmed that some neutrinos changed their flavor on the way..."
Or, some of the neutrinos stopped along the way to have a beer.
Actually, it confirmed nothing except that fewer neutrinos were detected. It is utterly foolish to think that particle physics is enough understood that accurate guesses can be made.
Another topic, but still about this Slashdot story: How is this slashdot story about "[+] ponies, straight, gay, science, physics (tagging beta)".
How do Slashdot editors make connections between April Fool's Day and being gay? Is that an indication of poor social skills?
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
SysInternals' free program RootkitRevealer is the best way I know to reveal the presence of rootkits.
In general, any program SysInternals provides is the best in its field, I've found.
Try the just updated (March 7, 2006) version of Autoruns to find nasty stuff running under Windows.
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
Rebates: You get the right to argue for your money
on
Tech on the Cheap?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
What you can do to get your rebate (Warning, some of this exposes ugly behavior.):
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let rebate companies steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow yourself to become a known easy target.
Tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and your state's consumer fraud department and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing. See the links for filing below.
Apparently all or almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud either for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.
Typical experience with a rebate company:
I'm not the only one to have a huge amount of trouble with Parago; read this amazingly ugly April 22, 2005 story: Parago Rebate Gripes Keep on Coming. Here is Parago's Better Business Bureau information: Parago BBB info. My experience with Parago is that the company will try many, many tricks to get you to stop expecting a rebate. Other people have reported that Parago will ask a caller to fax some information, and then give an invalid fax number. Most people don't have a fax machine, and going to an office supply store and paying to fax something discourages them. Parago changes phone numbers frequently, apparently; on March 13, 2006, someone said that (888) 641-4109 is a good number at which to call Parago. (Parago operates Rebates HQ. )
This story by Jonathan Kamens at MIT about Parago contains many Parago tricks that are very familiar to me: My "Staples Easy Rebates" Horror Story. Here are the tricks Parago used to avoid paying:
First, Parago acknowledged that the company had received the correct rebate information. At this point, everything is fine.
After 23 days, on March 25, Parago said in an online notice that the check had been sent and had been cashed. It was not sent. Mr. Kamens had asked that the money be directly deposited electronically to his checking account, so a notice about a check was complete fiction. Obviously no one checked to see if their excuse was plausible.
Next, Mr. Kamen received a message saying that he had asked to receive a "bonus item" and a "Pinnacle Instant Album" instead of $10, and that these had already been shipped on March 16. The web page customers can use to check the status of their rebates still said that he had received and cashed a check. Again, Parago did not check to see if their statements were plausible.
You seem to feel very superior. You seem to be uninterested in the physics.
You said, "But the massive amounts of paper, office furniture and other combustibles that were present in the buildings continued to fuel an inferno, further weakening the already damaged structures."
Massive amounts of paper? Have you ever tried burning paper from a file cabinet? It doesn't burn easily.
You are saying that office chairs and file cabinets are fuel for a fire? That's disgusting.
The U.S. government is showing many signs that it is not a government BY and FOR the people.
Cheney's company is buildingprisons for the U.S. government.
World Trade Center building 7 fell in exactly the same exactly symmetrical way
as WTC 1 and 2, and it was NOT hit by an airplane. ALL the collapses looked
like controlled demolitions. See the news footage in the movie Loose
Change. It is a work in progress, but already very informative.
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
The "Social Security" plans are designed to get amateur stock investors into
the stock market, where the professionals, who back the plan, can take the
amateur's money. To make money in the stock market, it is necessary to find buyers at a higher
price than was paid. The social security plan would insure that there are
many new, inexperienced buyers.
A government that does some things in secret cannot be a democratic
government. Citizens cannot supervise what they don't know. Yet many actions
of the U.S. government are through secret agencies like the CIA and NSA, and
some whose names citizens are not allowed to know. But the citizens are expected
to pay.
You seem to realize that the article is an example of ignorance and/or fraud. Good.
This is the fourth time in the past two years approximately that Slashdot editors have posted an article like this. Slashdot editors show that they didn't study in their science classes.
Those who did study know that anything that is above a temperature of absolute zero releases electromagnetic energy. It's everywhere, all the time, and was there before people began making radio waves.
Maybe the article is an early April Fool's Day joke. It was written by Simon Hayter (Hater) about a man named Kevin Byrne (Burn).
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
There actually is no one at Microsoft named Allchin. That's just a
nickname for Jabba the Hutt, All Chin. Mr. J. the H. is in charge of
designing Microsoft's relationship with customers. To Mr. Hutt, customers
are just another kind of cute squeaky animal.
Ok, maybe that's not exactly a fact.
Seriously, it seems to me that what's happening at Microsoft is a
general social breakdown. The comments to Who da'Punk's blog seem to me to
show a widespread dislike of Microsoft, and a lack of positive feelings.
It's entirely predictable that any company that abuses customers like
Microsoft does (by releasing sloppy, unfinished code, and tricking customers
in other ways), will sooner or later suffer a social breakdown.
Microsoft's business model has largely depended on taking advantage of
the ignorance of customers. Now that the customers are becoming more
technically knowledgeable, Microsoft is finding it difficult to continue.
There are many other social breakdowns in the United States. They may
seem unrelated, but they are connected by a fundamental theme: Abusiveness
toward people.
The U.S. government is undergoing a social breakdown. Yes, killing Iraqis is abusing them. No, Iraqis are
not proud to be killed by such superior people as the leaders of the U.S.
government.
The bankruptcy of Enron was a social breakdown.
-- Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis.
Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill
Iraqis. Improvement?
If Amazon is doing a rebate rip-off with you, report it: Rebate Roulette.
If Amazon promised a rebate and is trying not to give it to you,
that's fraud and theft. Consider very carefully whether you should do business
with them in the future.
What you can do to get your rebate (Warning, some of this exposes
ugly behavior.):
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the
rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't
like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he
can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has
the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use
the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate
company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied
to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets
around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her
name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices
don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which
the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let them steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will
know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate
companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow
yourself to become a known easy target.
Apparently almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud, either
for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to
concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell
you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very
well.
Be sure to tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with
the Better Business Bureau, and with your state's consumer fraud department,
and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing, and do it.
Note that it is usually difficult to know the name of the rebate
company. I talked with one Parago
employee about the my experiences with the company for a long time before the
employee verified the name of the company for which he worked. Parago operates
Rebates
HQ. I'm not the only one to have trouble with Parago; read this amazingly
ugly story: Parago Rebate
Gripes Keep on Coming.
Stay away from stores that hate their customers. My experience with
Best Buy has been very negative.
Stay away from stores that offer big rebates on items that have
defects that aren't obvious.
It has been my experience that Netgear is by far the worst in failing
to send rebates. We have had bad experiences with Netgear equipment being
buggy, too. Maybe there are companies who can only stay in business because
they fail to sent rebates.
Always be kind and gentle with rebate company employees, but very
firm. Remember, the employee is not getting any of the stolen money.
Always keep copies of everything you sent when you apply for a rebate.
The rebate companies will exploit any weakness they find.
Remember, if you let them steal from you once, you will be in the
database as someone who accepts abuse.
I got a Sony laptop rebate 1 1/2 years after it was denied. I would
never buy anything from Sony again, of course, even though I eventually got
the rebate. Generally, companies that are abusive in one way are abusive in
others. Generally, abuse is part of the corporate culture.
In my opinion, this is part of a general social breakdown. The United
States government
"... they refuse (or are is unable) to explain that need further..."
Maybe they want complete control over your computers remotely at all times. If they decide to put you out of business, in favor of a competitor, they can change their EULA (which they usually say they can do at any time) and uninstall or corrupt their software.
The first step in considering any technically-oriented bill should be to post
it on Slashdot, and have everyone find the ways in which it is stupid.
I'm guessing that the Internet Gambling bill is like the Internet Porn
bill. After the Internet Porn bill passed, the only porn available in the U.S.
on the internet was on Playboy's web site and on the web sites of other
traditional porn sellers. It was not difficult to guess that porn magazines
paid congress people for the bill, which was soon overturned.
Now brick-and-mortar gambling companies and maybe the lotteries run by
states apparently want to restrict "gambling" to ways in which they can
profit.
There is no gambling in "gambling" or "gaming". If you play enough,
you will ALWAYS lose exactly the percentage they say you will lose. "Gambling"
is a tax on those who don't understand the mathematics of statistics.
Bills should be named by some other group than those who sponsor them.
Maybe the Internet Gambling bill should be named the "More Profit for Las
Vegas and Atlantic City Bill".
Slashdot Mirror
My point was that no one actually read the books. For one thing, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is boring. It is heavily edited to fit on the amount of paper EB wants to afford, and that usually kills the interesting detail. In actuality, traditional encyclopedias have always been extremely limited, and in some cases actually destructive.
I tried searching for Nobel Prize winning genetecist "Barbara McClintock" in Microsoft Encarta 2000 encyclopedia. There were four (4) sentences which do not at all give the impression that her work is extremely relevant to the very best science of today.
The Britannica article about Barbara McClintock is less antiseptic than the Microsoft article, but still doesn't give an accurate impression of her as a scientist or person. The online Britannica has, at least in the past, been limited to articles written and edited for printing on paper.
There is the thought among scientists today that when we fully understand the phenomena of the movement of genes which Barbara McClintock first discovered, we will understand the chemistry of evolution. Genetic mutations due to destructive forces such as X-rays are generally destructive mutations. But the movements or transpositions of genes which Barbara McClintock discovered "are more likely to improve the evolutionary fitness of a species", says the Microsoft encyclopedia.
There is a document on the web which discusses Barbara McClintock's work. It says at the top, "Papers, 1927-1991, 70.5 linear feet". Neither of the traditional encyclopedias gives the impression of such prodigious dedication.
In her Nobel acceptance speech, Barbara McClintock said that "rapid reorganizations of genomes may underlie some species formations". It is now 79 years after she began this work, and still the average person has been taught that evolution is caused by millions of accidental blind mutations, most of which kill the organism, but a few of which are improvements. Barbara McClintock's work indicates that evolution may be far more sophisticated than most people think. For an example of this sophistication, consider the following paragraph from her Nobel acceptance speech:
"The conclusion seems inescapable that cells are able to sense the presence in their nuclei of ruptured ends of chromosomes, and then to activate a mechanism that will bring together and then unite these ends, one with another. And this will occur regardless of the initial distance in a telophase nucleus that separated the ruptured ends. The ability of a cell to sense these broken ends, to direct them toward each other, and then to unite them so that the union of the two DNA strands is correctly oriented, is a particularly revealing example of the sensitivity of cells to all that is going on within them. They make wise decisions and act upon them."
Chromosomes which are so sophisticated that they almost seem to be intelligent? Her works require 70.5 feet of shelf space? These interesting facts are left out of the traditional encyclopedias.
The traditional encyclopedias are actually damaging, because their bland, boring presentation may convince the reader that the world is a bland, boring place.
LOL. That was an extremely academic response that made a point using a deeply authoritative source.
Here's a link to the entire article: Chapter 22 - Life, the Universe, and Everything.
And, another quote: "Where you would be wrong would be in failing to realize that the editor, like all the editors of the Guide has ever had, has no real grasp of the meanings of the words "scrupulous", "conscientious" or "diligent", and tends to get his nightmares through a straw."
One thing that should be said: Encyclopaedia Britannica has sold its print version by sending extremely high-pressure salesmen into poor neighborhoods to imply that if poor families didn't buy Britannica their children would always be ignorant. Parents were often extremely intimidated.
Families who had no habit of reading books would buy the print version of Britannica and pay for it in installments. My impression is that the books were almost never read. I've seen bookcases of expensive books that have never been opened. If children never see their parents reading, the children usually won't read either.
From the Nature response:
"While we were quite willing to discuss the issues, the company [Britannica] failed to provide specific details of its complaints when we asked for them in order to be able to assess its allegations. We did not receive any further correspondence until the publication of its open letter on 22 March 2006. It is regrettable that Britannica chose to make its objections public without first informing us of them and giving us a chance to respond."
This seems to me to be another abuse of the public's trust. Britannica responded with a confident-sounding ad when actually the company wanted to avoid discussion.
And that abuse got them into a Slashdot story once again.
I'd like to see a study of the sociology of arrogant company executives with sink-the-company ideas.
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
Billions of dollars are being taken as profit by U.S. companies for oilfield services in Iraq, even though there is no declared profit for Iraqis or U.S. taxpayers.
You said, "... the US military is directly subsidizing the oil income for those US companies at a cost of over 3000 US lives so far and over 60,000 Iraqi lives (including the roughly 30,000 of the invasion and the 30,000 since then)." That's correct.
Your sig: "Still voting democrat? You're STUCK on STUPID!"
I've noticed that people who call other people stupid are often being stupid.
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Do you regard that as an improvement?
The Republican Party is often more of a crime syndicate than a party. A lot of money is borrowed, and the money somehow finds its way into the pockets of the rich.
See this excellent comment from someone else: Understood' != 'the math works'. That's what I'm saying.
The investigations should continue. The over-interpreting of results should stop.
Quote from the Slashdot story: "The set up established that fewer particles were being detected at the Soudan site than had been sent from Fermilab, which confirmed that some neutrinos changed their flavor on the way ..."
Or, some of the neutrinos stopped along the way to have a beer.
Actually, it confirmed nothing except that fewer neutrinos were detected. It is utterly foolish to think that particle physics is enough understood that accurate guesses can be made.
Another topic, but still about this Slashdot story: How is this slashdot story about "[+] ponies, straight, gay, science, physics (tagging beta)".
How do Slashdot editors make connections between April Fool's Day and being gay? Is that an indication of poor social skills?
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
Unfortunately, all of this shows that the U.S. culture doesn't have a well-developed sense of humor.
SysInternals' free program RootkitRevealer is the best way I know to reveal the presence of rootkits.
In general, any program SysInternals provides is the best in its field, I've found.
Try the just updated (March 7, 2006) version of Autoruns to find nasty stuff running under Windows.
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
Relevant articles if you love the United States and want to understand how to reduce the corruption:
U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party
History surrounding the U.S. wars with Iraq: Four short stories
Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let rebate companies steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow yourself to become a known easy target.
Tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and your state's consumer fraud department and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing. See the links for filing below.
Apparently all or almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud either for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.
Typical experience with a rebate company:
I'm not the only one to have a huge amount of trouble with Parago; read this amazingly ugly April 22, 2005 story: Parago Rebate Gripes Keep on Coming. Here is Parago's Better Business Bureau information: Parago BBB info. My experience with Parago is that the company will try many, many tricks to get you to stop expecting a rebate. Other people have reported that Parago will ask a caller to fax some information, and then give an invalid fax number. Most people don't have a fax machine, and going to an office supply store and paying to fax something discourages them. Parago changes phone numbers frequently, apparently; on March 13, 2006, someone said that (888) 641-4109 is a good number at which to call Parago. (Parago operates Rebates HQ. )
This story by Jonathan Kamens at MIT about Parago contains many Parago tricks that are very familiar to me: My "Staples Easy Rebates" Horror Story. Here are the tricks Parago used to avoid paying:
You seem to feel very superior. You seem to be uninterested in the physics.
You said, "But the massive amounts of paper, office furniture and other combustibles that were present in the buildings continued to fuel an inferno, further weakening the already damaged structures."
Massive amounts of paper? Have you ever tried burning paper from a file cabinet? It doesn't burn easily.
You are saying that office chairs and file cabinets are fuel for a fire? That's disgusting.
In the entire history of the world, how many buildings have fallen because of extensive fires on their upper floors?
Answer: ONLY the World Trade Center buildings.
I can accept a loss of structural integrity. I cannot see the physics behind a completely symmetrical collapse of THREE buildings.
The U.S. government is showing many signs that it is not a government BY and FOR the people.
Cheney's company is building prisons for the U.S. government.
World Trade Center building 7 fell in exactly the same exactly symmetrical way as WTC 1 and 2, and it was NOT hit by an airplane. ALL the collapses looked like controlled demolitions. See the news footage in the movie Loose Change. It is a work in progress, but already very informative.
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
The "Social Security" plans are designed to get amateur stock investors into the stock market, where the professionals, who back the plan, can take the amateur's money. To make money in the stock market, it is necessary to find buyers at a higher price than was paid. The social security plan would insure that there are many new, inexperienced buyers.
A government that does some things in secret cannot be a democratic government. Citizens cannot supervise what they don't know. Yet many actions of the U.S. government are through secret agencies like the CIA and NSA, and some whose names citizens are not allowed to know. But the citizens are expected to pay.
For more info, see my comments on one of the earlier pseudo-science Slashdot articles: There is no need for speculation.
And: Adding to my parent comment:.
Slashdot editors: Please educate yourselves about this subject. This Slashdot story is perhaps the 4th in 2 years about this subject.
You seem to realize that the article is an example of ignorance and/or fraud. Good.
This is the fourth time in the past two years approximately that Slashdot editors have posted an article like this. Slashdot editors show that they didn't study in their science classes.
Those who did study know that anything that is above a temperature of absolute zero releases electromagnetic energy. It's everywhere, all the time, and was there before people began making radio waves.
Maybe the article is an early April Fool's Day joke. It was written by Simon Hayter (Hater) about a man named Kevin Byrne (Burn).
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
I suppose that you have become accustomed to thinking that you are God. If you can't find it on a map, it is none of your business.
More Iraqis die now that the U.S. is in charge than died when Saddam was in charge. Who is the greater destructive force?
Little known fact:
There actually is no one at Microsoft named Allchin. That's just a nickname for Jabba the Hutt, All Chin. Mr. J. the H. is in charge of designing Microsoft's relationship with customers. To Mr. Hutt, customers are just another kind of cute squeaky animal.
Ok, maybe that's not exactly a fact.
Seriously, it seems to me that what's happening at Microsoft is a general social breakdown. The comments to Who da'Punk's blog seem to me to show a widespread dislike of Microsoft, and a lack of positive feelings.
It's entirely predictable that any company that abuses customers like Microsoft does (by releasing sloppy, unfinished code, and tricking customers in other ways), will sooner or later suffer a social breakdown.
Microsoft's business model has largely depended on taking advantage of the ignorance of customers. Now that the customers are becoming more technically knowledgeable, Microsoft is finding it difficult to continue.
There are many other social breakdowns in the United States. They may seem unrelated, but they are connected by a fundamental theme: Abusiveness toward people.
The U.S. government is undergoing a social breakdown. Yes, killing Iraqis is abusing them. No, Iraqis are not proud to be killed by such superior people as the leaders of the U.S. government.
The bankruptcy of Enron was a social breakdown.
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Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
Microsoft makes a lot of its money selling to computer manufacturers. They want customers to be forced to buy new computers.
This has NOTHING to do with doing the right thing for customers, in my opinion.
Rebate companies use the mail to accomplish their fraud. Here's how to complain to the U.S. Post Office: Mail Fraud Complaint Form.
Here is Parago's Better Business Bureau information: Parago BBB info.
If Amazon is doing a rebate rip-off with you, report it: Rebate Roulette.
If Amazon promised a rebate and is trying not to give it to you, that's fraud and theft. Consider very carefully whether you should do business with them in the future.
What you can do to get your rebate (Warning, some of this exposes ugly behavior.):
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let them steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow yourself to become a known easy target.
Apparently almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud, either for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.
Be sure to tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and with your state's consumer fraud department, and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing, and do it.
Note that it is usually difficult to know the name of the rebate company. I talked with one Parago employee about the my experiences with the company for a long time before the employee verified the name of the company for which he worked. Parago operates Rebates HQ. I'm not the only one to have trouble with Parago; read this amazingly ugly story: Parago Rebate Gripes Keep on Coming.
Stay away from stores that hate their customers. My experience with Best Buy has been very negative.
Stay away from stores that offer big rebates on items that have defects that aren't obvious.
It has been my experience that Netgear is by far the worst in failing to send rebates. We have had bad experiences with Netgear equipment being buggy, too. Maybe there are companies who can only stay in business because they fail to sent rebates.
Always be kind and gentle with rebate company employees, but very firm. Remember, the employee is not getting any of the stolen money.
Always keep copies of everything you sent when you apply for a rebate. The rebate companies will exploit any weakness they find.
Remember, if you let them steal from you once, you will be in the database as someone who accepts abuse.
I got a Sony laptop rebate 1 1/2 years after it was denied. I would never buy anything from Sony again, of course, even though I eventually got the rebate. Generally, companies that are abusive in one way are abusive in others. Generally, abuse is part of the corporate culture.
In my opinion, this is part of a general social breakdown. The United States government
"... they refuse (or are is unable) to explain that need further..."
Maybe they want complete control over your computers remotely at all times. If they decide to put you out of business, in favor of a competitor, they can change their EULA (which they usually say they can do at any time) and uninstall or corrupt their software.
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The movie Loose Change, 2nd Edition explores 9/11 issues.
The first step in considering any technically-oriented bill should be to post it on Slashdot, and have everyone find the ways in which it is stupid.
I'm guessing that the Internet Gambling bill is like the Internet Porn bill. After the Internet Porn bill passed, the only porn available in the U.S. on the internet was on Playboy's web site and on the web sites of other traditional porn sellers. It was not difficult to guess that porn magazines paid congress people for the bill, which was soon overturned.
Now brick-and-mortar gambling companies and maybe the lotteries run by states apparently want to restrict "gambling" to ways in which they can profit.
There is no gambling in "gambling" or "gaming". If you play enough, you will ALWAYS lose exactly the percentage they say you will lose. "Gambling" is a tax on those who don't understand the mathematics of statistics.
Bills should be named by some other group than those who sponsor them. Maybe the Internet Gambling bill should be named the "More Profit for Las Vegas and Atlantic City Bill".
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The movie Loose Change, 2nd Edition claims, basically, that the U.S. government was overthrown.