Apparently you know very little about Japan. When you wrote that they "never" kill each other I know that you meant "almost never" (I too, when arguing a point, often make these simple and obvious exagerrations), but you might be very surprised at what's going on in that country.
For example, just google/google-news "japanese high school knife murder" to see what the big social issue for young Japanese are today. In fact, just last year a middle school girl cut another's throat after the victim had bad-mouthed her fashion-sense on her blog.
I don't disagree strongly with your argument, though. I think that the case of Japan in ways bolsters what you have to say: the "questionable parenting" and "culture of violence" have led to children in that country using the weapons at their disposal to murder. The way children (in general) are raised in Japan makes American parents look like the most capable and loving group of people in the free world. In fact, I wouldn't argue with that sentiment -- the parenting in third-world countries (to which I have also visited) outshines all of us.
There are no good Republicans and bad Republicans. There are only good people out there. Why this innane simplification? That if you disagree with someone, and you don't understand their vote, people begin to accuse them of being "bad" or "stupid?" It's not that simple. The US media did an awful job of covering this race, and the parties don't even try to understand what motivates the people who vote...
I am a Republican from Ohio, and so is my whole family. We were split down the middle as to whether to vote for Kerry or not -- though we all agred we didn't want to vote for Bush. In the end we cancelled each other's votes (because my older brother, who would have voted for Kerry, was too lazy to get an absentee ballot). Our county was one of the lonell red counties up in the north east of the state.
However, according to the media (here in DC, where I go to school, and which went 90% for Kerry) no one understands "why" people would vote for Bush. It is incomprehensible. They make pathetic jokes about rednecks and trucks and secession. You, being in Europe, have even less access to unbiased coverage, and in that respect are so out of the loop that I doubt your letter even made real political sense to the people you sent it to.
Here's the point of what I am trying to say: you don't understand what motivated people to vote for Bush. Therefore, your arguments are usually of little value to the people of Clark County. Republicans are all good people, as are Democrats, as are the French and the Iraqis. Statistically, bad people don't even exist -- just selfish people, and those who have been influenced by selfish or self-serving institutions.
Haha!!
Interestingly enough, the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland was also designed by Frank Gehry (sp?). Two years ago a man with a gun went inside and took a bunch of kids hostage, and then the police teams who went in to stop him were completely flabbergasted about what to do -- the building had no corners! The inside of the building is without corners, and thus the SWAT tatics they had been taught were pretty useless. It delayed and almost ended the attempt to disarm the deranged gunman.
Alos, my father works installing heat tracing. Apparently the building design Gehry became famous for in Bilbao, Spain, is dangerous in snowy climates because huge drifts break apart and fall off of the building. There is no way around this, heat tracing or not. So, throughout the winter (8 months of the year in Cleveland) most of the entrances are shut for safety and you can't walk near the bulding.
What a dangerous piece of shit!
Does anyone remember that Happy Days where the Fonz helps Richie and Potsie study for a Biology test by turning it into a rock song that they play in class? Was that just a weird dream I had? I swear it actually happenned. Well, ever since then I turn things into songs in my head to remember them -- and it works really well. I mean, I added a tune to the Constitution and remembered the entire first two articles. It's kinda scary.
I work at Philips (not quite GE, I know), and in my department of maybe 35 people there are 4 of us, including me, who have Linux running on our desktops -- I have mine dual-boot with Win2K b/c I need to work with Access sometimes and the corporate email system is run by Lotus Notes.
A co-worker burned me a copy of RedHat 9, and when I was having some troubles the IT guy came down to help me bypass the proxy and get on the Internet.
A few years ago a band called "The Barenaked Ladies" came out with a funny song sung in a mock rap style. My older brother promptly went out and bought the CD.
Afterwards, when I saw he had a Barenaked Ladies CD, I almost fainted.
"Why the hell do you have this Hank?"
"The song on the radio was funny. I didn't know that they were the worst band to ever make a record. How did you know they sucked?"
"Because my friend downloaded some of their songs from Napster."
My brother promptly had me download and install Napster on his computer. Never again should anyone be duped into buying a Barenaked Ladies CD, ever. I'm all for P2P.
WHY IS EVERYONE SO SURPRISED AT THIS? Just look at the percentages of people who violate speed limits whn nobody's looking versus the number of people who violate speed limits WHEN COPS ARE SPEED TRAPPING, and you'll see similar numbers.
The reason that people "speed" when there are no cops around is because there is no good reason NOT to go over the damn speed limit. The limits on interstates and turnpikes in this country are ludicrous, and they are that way because certain special interest groups argued for it over the weight of reason and the silent majority.
The reason people "steal" songs on P2P networks is because the rules and frameworks in place for the industrialization/commoditazation of culture in our country are similarly ludicrous. Just because an act saps money from an entrenched, needless bureaucracy and therefore out of the wallets of those peoples who live off of it does not make that act wrong. It's tantamount to arguing that the customers who switched from MCI to AT&T owe something to the Worldcom stockholders who are broke. Artists shouldn't be attacking file sharers but the people whose job it was to make selling records a viable option as a career!
Dammit I've spent thousands of dollars in my life on CDs and concerts, and I continue to do so. But now I don't waste my money basically gambling on new songs/records -- thanks to P2P. And I am in the majority of those I know, a group that cuts a broad swath across the social spectrum.
In a somewhat different vein, why are the RecCo's blaming file sharing on profit slumps instead of things like the economy, homogenization of radio stations by conglomerates, etc? I mean, how about Adobe, Microsoft, NBC, Sun? Their products are being traded just as rapidly on P2P networks, however they are proactively trying to grapple with the realities of a stagnant market and poor performance. They know the real culprits aren't their consumers but themselves.
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Apparently you know very little about Japan. When you wrote that they "never" kill each other I know that you meant "almost never" (I too, when arguing a point, often make these simple and obvious exagerrations), but you might be very surprised at what's going on in that country. For example, just google/google-news "japanese high school knife murder" to see what the big social issue for young Japanese are today. In fact, just last year a middle school girl cut another's throat after the victim had bad-mouthed her fashion-sense on her blog. I don't disagree strongly with your argument, though. I think that the case of Japan in ways bolsters what you have to say: the "questionable parenting" and "culture of violence" have led to children in that country using the weapons at their disposal to murder. The way children (in general) are raised in Japan makes American parents look like the most capable and loving group of people in the free world. In fact, I wouldn't argue with that sentiment -- the parenting in third-world countries (to which I have also visited) outshines all of us.
RTFA: he didn't have a gun. He took it from the police officer.
There are no good Republicans and bad Republicans. There are only good people out there. Why this innane simplification? That if you disagree with someone, and you don't understand their vote, people begin to accuse them of being "bad" or "stupid?" It's not that simple. The US media did an awful job of covering this race, and the parties don't even try to understand what motivates the people who vote... I am a Republican from Ohio, and so is my whole family. We were split down the middle as to whether to vote for Kerry or not -- though we all agred we didn't want to vote for Bush. In the end we cancelled each other's votes (because my older brother, who would have voted for Kerry, was too lazy to get an absentee ballot). Our county was one of the lonell red counties up in the north east of the state. However, according to the media (here in DC, where I go to school, and which went 90% for Kerry) no one understands "why" people would vote for Bush. It is incomprehensible. They make pathetic jokes about rednecks and trucks and secession. You, being in Europe, have even less access to unbiased coverage, and in that respect are so out of the loop that I doubt your letter even made real political sense to the people you sent it to. Here's the point of what I am trying to say: you don't understand what motivated people to vote for Bush. Therefore, your arguments are usually of little value to the people of Clark County. Republicans are all good people, as are Democrats, as are the French and the Iraqis. Statistically, bad people don't even exist -- just selfish people, and those who have been influenced by selfish or self-serving institutions.
Haha!! Interestingly enough, the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland was also designed by Frank Gehry (sp?). Two years ago a man with a gun went inside and took a bunch of kids hostage, and then the police teams who went in to stop him were completely flabbergasted about what to do -- the building had no corners! The inside of the building is without corners, and thus the SWAT tatics they had been taught were pretty useless. It delayed and almost ended the attempt to disarm the deranged gunman. Alos, my father works installing heat tracing. Apparently the building design Gehry became famous for in Bilbao, Spain, is dangerous in snowy climates because huge drifts break apart and fall off of the building. There is no way around this, heat tracing or not. So, throughout the winter (8 months of the year in Cleveland) most of the entrances are shut for safety and you can't walk near the bulding. What a dangerous piece of shit!
Does anyone remember that Happy Days where the Fonz helps Richie and Potsie study for a Biology test by turning it into a rock song that they play in class? Was that just a weird dream I had? I swear it actually happenned. Well, ever since then I turn things into songs in my head to remember them -- and it works really well. I mean, I added a tune to the Constitution and remembered the entire first two articles. It's kinda scary.
haha -- finally a reference to something other than sci-fi and computers. thanks for making my day.
I work at Philips (not quite GE, I know), and in my department of maybe 35 people there are 4 of us, including me, who have Linux running on our desktops -- I have mine dual-boot with Win2K b/c I need to work with Access sometimes and the corporate email system is run by Lotus Notes.
A co-worker burned me a copy of RedHat 9, and when I was having some troubles the IT guy came down to help me bypass the proxy and get on the Internet.
Didn't seem like too much of a biggie to me...
A few years ago a band called "The Barenaked Ladies" came out with a funny song sung in a mock rap style. My older brother promptly went out and bought the CD.
Afterwards, when I saw he had a Barenaked Ladies CD, I almost fainted.
"Why the hell do you have this Hank?"
"The song on the radio was funny. I didn't know that they were the worst band to ever make a record. How did you know they sucked?"
"Because my friend downloaded some of their songs from Napster."
My brother promptly had me download and install Napster on his computer. Never again should anyone be duped into buying a Barenaked Ladies CD, ever. I'm all for P2P.
WHY IS EVERYONE SO SURPRISED AT THIS? Just look at the percentages of people who violate speed limits whn nobody's looking versus the number of people who violate speed limits WHEN COPS ARE SPEED TRAPPING, and you'll see similar numbers.
The reason that people "speed" when there are no cops around is because there is no good reason NOT to go over the damn speed limit. The limits on interstates and turnpikes in this country are ludicrous, and they are that way because certain special interest groups argued for it over the weight of reason and the silent majority.
The reason people "steal" songs on P2P networks is because the rules and frameworks in place for the industrialization/commoditazation of culture in our country are similarly ludicrous. Just because an act saps money from an entrenched, needless bureaucracy and therefore out of the wallets of those peoples who live off of it does not make that act wrong. It's tantamount to arguing that the customers who switched from MCI to AT&T owe something to the Worldcom stockholders who are broke. Artists shouldn't be attacking file sharers but the people whose job it was to make selling records a viable option as a career!
Dammit I've spent thousands of dollars in my life on CDs and concerts, and I continue to do so. But now I don't waste my money basically gambling on new songs/records -- thanks to P2P. And I am in the majority of those I know, a group that cuts a broad swath across the social spectrum. In a somewhat different vein, why are the RecCo's blaming file sharing on profit slumps instead of things like the economy, homogenization of radio stations by conglomerates, etc? I mean, how about Adobe, Microsoft, NBC, Sun? Their products are being traded just as rapidly on P2P networks, however they are proactively trying to grapple with the realities of a stagnant market and poor performance. They know the real culprits aren't their consumers but themselves.
You might be just as rooted in your ways as those you mock are in theirs...
.mp3 .mp3
:)
1. open the window to the directory
2. click on the (sort by) Type bar
3. click on the first
4. shift+click on the final
5. drag to a:
It's faster than the command prompt if you're using a mouse.
PS --> how many mp3's are you planning on fitting in that floppy?