In this case, it happened because placating the fears of public officials regarding their own ineptitude turned out to be increadibly lucerative:
http://www.businessinsider.com...
It is not difficult to see how posting in a Sasha Shulgin thread might have repercussions for American citizens. For instance, Mr. Opportunist, since both you and I posted in the same comment thread, even though I have no idea who you are and never will, our names are linked in some NSA database. How this can bite you in the ass (albeit, currently at a low probability level) is already public knowledge:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Maybe it is the "stupid and reckless" get caught, but those who, for whatever reason, are inducted into the underground economy that supplies the "contributing members of society," that do the time.
I'd post a comment in this thread, but my NSA file is getting heavy enough as it is. How sad that Sasha did not live to see a bit more sanity in this world.
Must not get sucked into comments. Must stop wasting time on Slashdot.
OK, this comment does not count, and maybe I could read just one more story---it may expand my mind in unexpected ways, after all.
But I will get to work! I will close this tab and not post this comment.
Damn. Hey, I'm kind of hungry. Anyone up for going out to lunch?
I wish I had your problems, then, because mine not only never got solved quickly, but never got solved. As for my attitude being "dated," well, it's dated exactly two weeks ago, which was the last time I was foolish enough to try to get support from Microsoft.
Luckily, we have numerous texts and hundreds of years of scholarship. There is good consensus on what is and what is not authentic. This is not some sort of code like in an Enigma machine; you don't need a decoder ring. RTFA.
I would like to say that I was one of those who said that there must be something more there when reading Plato, but this news has me stunned. If this holds true, it will be an epochal discovery. Me, I can't remember the last time we had one of those in philosophy. Just hope it won't turn out to be cold fusion.
Sprint uses the very same CDMA towers as Verizon. Even if Verizon has more coverage, with Sprint's free roaming, I still have the exact same coverage as before I switched. Sprint, however, is cheaper, though arguably just as evil.
Elevate America has two main offerings, one available immediately and one that will be provided in partnership with state governments
Translation: MS will get money earmarked for retraining programs in order to flood the market with MS trained workers, depressing the wages of the latter and making their "TCO" so much more attractive.
You have to admire a company that is able to screw us coming and going.
But this is U of C.: the institution that pioneered and championed the Socratic method. I find the fact that they feel the need to baby-sit their law school students---theoretically people who graduated from college at the top of their classes---both hilarious and very, very sad.
In Soviet Russia, the lanthanoid and actinoid groups _were_ always included in what was known as "Mendeleev's Table." Sure it was wide, but then so was Soviet Russia.
This new table is propounded by some "ecologist." Mendeleev's doctoral thesis was on the combination of water an alcohol, and he was the man responsible for establishment of 40% as the optimal ABV of vodka.
The better man makes the better table (and the better hooch.)
Sorry, not an excuse either. There is a perficlty fine program called Sidetrack which replaces the iBook/Powerbook trackpad drivers and allows for a host of functionallity like using the edge as a scroll wheel. Also, a tap in the middle emulates button two just fine, and you can even set it to emulate buttons three through six.
In fact I am typing this on an iBook, with my Apple bluetooth mouse sitting beside me. Before getting the iBook, I only used Unix's for years (lucky me) and I always thought a real mouse had three buttons. But I have to say, now I am quite happy with my one-button mouse world. It sits so pretty beside me---the mouse is one big button, and if I peer really hard at it, I see white text on its white surface which reads "Don't Panic."
Yes, I know in common usage, "aggravation," has meant an "an exasperated feeling of annoyance" for a long time. However, that is because since at least the time of Dickens, the word has been mistaken for "irritation." Dickens used "aggrivation," for "irritation" to make his Cockney charecters sound funny, and now it makes an already spurious equtaion comical. Of course, that may have been the intent.
However, perhaps we are all a little quick to judge. After all, all we have is a news summary. We must wait for the full article to come out in a scientific journal. May I suggest Annals of Improbable Reaserch? Scorn it now, but perhaps we are seeing next year's recipients of the ig Noble Prize?
Well, it is a nice idea, but as can be seen from the current Wall Street scandals, as well as the United fiasco (an emploee owned company, as you may remeber)that widespread stock ownership is cure for very little. Remember, that the people that actually excersize the influence of the small shareholders are fund managers, many of whom are in bed with the executives they are supposed to be overseeing. There was a proposed rule that proxy votes could not be cast in secret---which might have remedied the grossest of conflicts of interest---but that was just shot down by the SEC.
I wish I could share your optimism, but the amount of this country's wealth has been gradualy more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. This is a constant trend since, I belive, the mid-sixties.
I could see how a young man in college today would be disenchanted with the alternative presented to him by the so called "left," if by the left is meant the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton's legacy in the White House seems to have been piles of regulations meant to protect ourselves from ourselves, while at the same time eroding basic social guarantees, and letting in Republicans by the back door for business as ususal. What I will remeber about the last Presidency is that is took Richard Nixon to create OSHA, but it took Bill Clinton to effectively castrate it.
You are probably not a bad guy, Levi, but I will give you two bits of advice:
1. Don't be so quick to dismiss someone as an idiot
2. Don't confuse real freedom with the freedom of some guy to make a buck.
Sorry, but you missed my point:
The post I was responding to called for coffee growers to "form a cartel like OPEC." I had difficulty in deciding where to begin to show just how ludicrous this statement is. My point, in fact is quite the opposite of what you made it out to be.
O.K., I know this is very subtle, so subtle it might even elude a genious such as yourself. What I said was "first described in detail by Karl Marx." Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations while a very important book, is primaraly concerned with refuting the Merchintalistic theories prevelant in its day. It therefore is not in any way a systemic description of capitalism, but rather a "founding text" of economics.
I am not sure which segments of our population are "closest... to achieving the Marxist dream." Do you mean former Enron emploees, tossed on the street, current Wall Mart employees who suffer illegal retribution for attempts to organize, or some other equally enfranchised group?
Perhaps---please, do not be offended if this idiot makes a suggestion to a person of such shining parts---but perhaps a quick walk to your own school's "UMass Labor Relations and Research Center" might help you to come up with an answer that astounds us all.
I am sorry, I did not make the point clearer. Under capitalism, factory owners not only own the factories, but they control them as well. One person or a small partnership have ownership rights to a resource, and the same person(s) manage it as well.
In the current system, ownership is diffused amoung tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of shareholders (people who own the company's stock) and controll is excersized by hired managers.
There are certainly exceptions: SAS, a huge statistical software company is owned and controlled entirely by its founder. But that is an exception that proves the rule---the age of the Rockafellers, Morgans and Fords is long gone. If that was somehow a better age, the age that was closer in resemblence to "true capitalism": is a question I will leave to you.
O.K., I know I am wasting my breath but here goes:
Capitalism: economic system, first described in detail by Karl Marx in Das Kapital in which capital goods, i. e. the means of production such as factories or tractors are owned by those who controll them, i. e. factory owners. This is not a post industrial idea, but actually one born in the heart of the idusrial revolution.
Communism: econimic system, first proposed by Karl Marx and Freidreich Engles in which the means of production are held in common, i. e., private ownership of capital goods has been abolished. It is fairly complex, but baisically means that you can own your toothbrush, television and house; but you can not own a factory, a mine, an oil well, or even a farm.
As you can see, neither is a political system. You can have democratic communist countries (in theory, at least), and you can have very oppresive Capitalist ones (Nazi Germany and Facist Italy.)
So where do we live? Well, most of our means of production are owned by large corporations. Those corporations are not owned by the people who controll them---the shareholders---but by executive officers appointed by large mutual and pention fund managers, and persons with usually less than 5% ownership of the company. Which means, there is not capitalism. It also means that persons who controll corporations are accountable niether to workers, nor to their customers, nor to the general pubic, but to people who can not see beyond the ticker at the NYSE.
So, the 5000 point bonus question: Is this the system which will result in a free society, or will sprout forth types like Ashcroft and his gang of freedom loving incarcirators?
O.K., only if you go to grad. school in economics where the first thing you will be told is to forget all the myths you were taught in Econ 101.
Yes, a product can sell when people desire it, but that is not the same thing as the product being any good, or anyone needing that product. Don't belive me? Well you may be shocked to hear that ghasp cigarettes sell quite well, though they are neither a good product nor particularly usefull.
Furthermore, you go to any local coffehouse outside of the Midwest U.S., and see if what they think of your Starbucks coffee. Sure, if all you know is Folgers, it may seem like nectar, but compared to the worst coffee house in say Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain et c. et c., Starbucks seems much like so much sewage.
I know, I know it is comfortable to hold on to those free market myths of yours. And you know what, if you actually found a free market, it might not be all complete bull. But find that free market, friend, but meanwhile try to get informed.
Slashdot Mirror
In this case, it happened because placating the fears of public officials regarding their own ineptitude turned out to be increadibly lucerative: http://www.businessinsider.com...
It is not difficult to see how posting in a Sasha Shulgin thread might have repercussions for American citizens. For instance, Mr. Opportunist, since both you and I posted in the same comment thread, even though I have no idea who you are and never will, our names are linked in some NSA database. How this can bite you in the ass (albeit, currently at a low probability level) is already public knowledge: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Maybe it is the "stupid and reckless" get caught, but those who, for whatever reason, are inducted into the underground economy that supplies the "contributing members of society," that do the time.
I'd post a comment in this thread, but my NSA file is getting heavy enough as it is. How sad that Sasha did not live to see a bit more sanity in this world.
Must not get sucked into comments. Must stop wasting time on Slashdot. OK, this comment does not count, and maybe I could read just one more story---it may expand my mind in unexpected ways, after all. But I will get to work! I will close this tab and not post this comment. Damn. Hey, I'm kind of hungry. Anyone up for going out to lunch?
I wish I had your problems, then, because mine not only never got solved quickly, but never got solved. As for my attitude being "dated," well, it's dated exactly two weeks ago, which was the last time I was foolish enough to try to get support from Microsoft.
"users shall soon be able to turn to Microsoft when asking questions of Skype's sometimes-spotty service.""
Because if there is one company that knows all about crappy service, it's Microsoft.
So long, Skype. You were good while you lasted.
Luckily, we have numerous texts and hundreds of years of scholarship. There is good consensus on what is and what is not authentic. This is not some sort of code like in an Enigma machine; you don't need a decoder ring. RTFA.
I would like to say that I was one of those who said that there must be something more there when reading Plato, but this news has me stunned. If this holds true, it will be an epochal discovery. Me, I can't remember the last time we had one of those in philosophy. Just hope it won't turn out to be cold fusion.
Sprint uses the very same CDMA towers as Verizon. Even if Verizon has more coverage, with Sprint's free roaming, I still have the exact same coverage as before I switched. Sprint, however, is cheaper, though arguably just as evil.
Elevate America has two main offerings, one available immediately and one that will be provided in partnership with state governments
Translation: MS will get money earmarked for retraining programs in order to flood the market with MS trained workers, depressing the wages of the latter and making their "TCO" so much more attractive.
You have to admire a company that is able to screw us coming and going.
is if I should write the auto-blog-comment script in Ruby or in Perl. I need a tire gauge, and that seems to be one of the prizes.
But this is U of C.: the institution that pioneered and championed the Socratic method. I find the fact that they feel the need to baby-sit their law school students---theoretically people who graduated from college at the top of their classes---both hilarious and very, very sad.
In Soviet Russia, the lanthanoid and actinoid groups _were_ always included in what was known as "Mendeleev's Table." Sure it was wide, but then so was Soviet Russia. This new table is propounded by some "ecologist." Mendeleev's doctoral thesis was on the combination of water an alcohol, and he was the man responsible for establishment of 40% as the optimal ABV of vodka. The better man makes the better table (and the better hooch.)
In fact I am typing this on an iBook, with my Apple bluetooth mouse sitting beside me. Before getting the iBook, I only used Unix's for years (lucky me) and I always thought a real mouse had three buttons. But I have to say, now I am quite happy with my one-button mouse world. It sits so pretty beside me---the mouse is one big button, and if I peer really hard at it, I see white text on its white surface which reads "Don't Panic."
However, perhaps we are all a little quick to judge. After all, all we have is a news summary. We must wait for the full article to come out in a scientific journal. May I suggest Annals of Improbable Reaserch ? Scorn it now, but perhaps we are seeing next year's recipients of the ig Noble Prize?
Yes, but that would mean getting rid of them, which would just be wrong.
O.K., O.K., you convinced me. Now, howzabout a job?
I wish I could share your optimism, but the amount of this country's wealth has been gradualy more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. This is a constant trend since, I belive, the mid-sixties.
I could see how a young man in college today would be disenchanted with the alternative presented to him by the so called "left," if by the left is meant the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton's legacy in the White House seems to have been piles of regulations meant to protect ourselves from ourselves, while at the same time eroding basic social guarantees, and letting in Republicans by the back door for business as ususal. What I will remeber about the last Presidency is that is took Richard Nixon to create OSHA, but it took Bill Clinton to effectively castrate it.
You are probably not a bad guy, Levi, but I will give you two bits of advice:
1. Don't be so quick to dismiss someone as an idiot
2. Don't confuse real freedom with the freedom of some guy to make a buck.
Sorry, but you missed my point: The post I was responding to called for coffee growers to "form a cartel like OPEC." I had difficulty in deciding where to begin to show just how ludicrous this statement is. My point, in fact is quite the opposite of what you made it out to be.
I am not sure which segments of our population are "closest ... to achieving the Marxist dream." Do you mean former Enron emploees, tossed on the street, current Wall Mart employees who suffer illegal retribution for attempts to organize, or some other equally enfranchised group?
Perhaps---please, do not be offended if this idiot makes a suggestion to a person of such shining parts---but perhaps a quick walk to your own school's "UMass Labor Relations and Research Center" might help you to come up with an answer that astounds us all.
In the current system, ownership is diffused amoung tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of shareholders (people who own the company's stock) and controll is excersized by hired managers.
There are certainly exceptions: SAS, a huge statistical software company is owned and controlled entirely by its founder. But that is an exception that proves the rule---the age of the Rockafellers, Morgans and Fords is long gone. If that was somehow a better age, the age that was closer in resemblence to "true capitalism": is a question I will leave to you.
thanks for noting the typo. Corporations are owned by their shareholders. They are controlled by the above mentioned social parasites.
Capitalism: economic system, first described in detail by Karl Marx in Das Kapital in which capital goods, i. e. the means of production such as factories or tractors are owned by those who controll them, i. e. factory owners. This is not a post industrial idea, but actually one born in the heart of the idusrial revolution.
Communism: econimic system, first proposed by Karl Marx and Freidreich Engles in which the means of production are held in common, i. e., private ownership of capital goods has been abolished. It is fairly complex, but baisically means that you can own your toothbrush, television and house; but you can not own a factory, a mine, an oil well, or even a farm.
As you can see, neither is a political system. You can have democratic communist countries (in theory, at least), and you can have very oppresive Capitalist ones (Nazi Germany and Facist Italy.)
So where do we live? Well, most of our means of production are owned by large corporations. Those corporations are not owned by the people who controll them---the shareholders---but by executive officers appointed by large mutual and pention fund managers, and persons with usually less than 5% ownership of the company. Which means, there is not capitalism. It also means that persons who controll corporations are accountable niether to workers, nor to their customers, nor to the general pubic, but to people who can not see beyond the ticker at the NYSE.
So, the 5000 point bonus question: Is this the system which will result in a free society, or will sprout forth types like Ashcroft and his gang of freedom loving incarcirators?
Yes, a product can sell when people desire it, but that is not the same thing as the product being any good, or anyone needing that product. Don't belive me? Well you may be shocked to hear that ghasp cigarettes sell quite well, though they are neither a good product nor particularly usefull.
Furthermore, you go to any local coffehouse outside of the Midwest U.S., and see if what they think of your Starbucks coffee. Sure, if all you know is Folgers, it may seem like nectar, but compared to the worst coffee house in say Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain et c. et c., Starbucks seems much like so much sewage.
I know, I know it is comfortable to hold on to those free market myths of yours. And you know what, if you actually found a free market, it might not be all complete bull. But find that free market, friend, but meanwhile try to get informed.