The TSA allows you the option of a pat down. It takes 700 - 1000 times longer. Literally. I don't like being touched by a strange man, especially right up against my junk. Guess what? He does not really want to do it either.
Just returned from US (European here) vacation - thanks to all you great people I met and I have to say I had a great time and I will most certainly return but...for us (about 250 people on a 777 from Amsterdam) the pat down was not an option. I came from Schengen country (Europen free-travel zone) to Amsterdam (requires the normal airport security) and in addition to that at Schipol, Amsterdam I had to go through additional security at the gate. 2 passport controls. Then metal detector and a backscatter scan. And after that a pat-down (and not the light kind of one receives if the metal detector beeps on inter-european flight but the "touching-your-balls" kind). And after that an hour in confined waiting room (no restrooms, no water). And this was done to american citizens boarding the same flight as well.
Hilary Clinton vs Sarah Palin at the next election would be hilarious and an unbeatable demonstration that America has totally jumped the shark.
I think the Porn Valley has made at least 2 Palin parodies so far, so making a Clinton-Palin should not come as surprise if they are against each other, I just don't know if there is enough demand for lesbian porn or should they include men also... Not that I've seen any of that stuff, just heard the big boys talking;)
The point I'm trying to make is that the US has responded to a terrorist act of death and destruction by indiscriminately raining down death and destruction a hundred or thousand-fold on innocent Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Yemenis, and now - or soon - Libyans. It's far, far more death and destruction than can be attributed to al Qaeda on 9/11, or since, or even "the enemy" if you want to include "militants" or "insurgents" - which are basically people who want us to stop killing them and leave their countries. If the US is justified in that, what are those countries, and their allies, justified in doing to the US?
If they bombed the US with drones would it be okay because it isn't "hostile"?
I agree with you on everything else on but this - when Afghanis mutilate their women or in Libya rape is used as punishment I tend to say get those who are in charge out. It doesn't change the fact that it should be done lawfully without bending the terms, and "the good guys" are always not so good either, sometimes by mistake, sometimes by simply because lack of proper oversight and happy trigger finger / sadistic people.
Hate the game - not the player, is a poor excuse in Obama's case. Obama has not compromised- he has instead performed an about-turn on the principles for which many people elected him to uphold. It's asinine to justify the sorry state of the administration by overplaying the need to compromise.
Well, looking from outside the USA relying on different media outlets it seems he has merely chosen his battles. The healtcare reform was met with furious opposition from republicans and was debated and amended for what seemed like eternity. And as I mentioned in my parent post to yours, I think that Obama has failed in civil rights and foreign policy compared to what he promised in his campaign and as a foreigner I'm disappointed. But the truth is you can't have it all. And in US politics for the president to ignore domestic politics in favor for foreign politics is a suicide (with the exception of starting a seemingly succesfull war at the right time before your re-election...) My point is that this is how it works when there is no rule-em-all dictator. You cannot just hammer your fist to the table and tell that this is how it's going to be from now on. As I said earlier - there is a significant portion of US voting people with representation in congress and state policy makers who do not agree with Obama on about anything, and he has to deal with that. Even if the opposition plays dirty and only tries to undermine him no matter what he does.
"But we can't just agree to ignore the law for presidents we like."
I voted for Obama because he said he would end the presidential lawlessness, end the wars, end the abuse of "state secrets" to block justice through the courts, close Guantanamo Bay and end the 4th and 5th Amendment violations that it represented, and protect whistleblowers. But since he was elected he has done the exact opposite, attempting to assassinate US citizens simply by declaring them enemies of the state with no process whatsoever, escalating the wars and even claiming the power to start more wars without consulting Congress, increased the abuse of state secrets to even prevent cases from being heard, refused to do anything about Guantanamo Bay and even opened up the greater black hole at Bagram, prosecuting whistleblowers to a far greater extent than any previous president ever did, and trying to prosecute Wikileaks under the Espionage Act. All of this is the exact opposite of what he said he would do when we elected him.
Hi, non-USA citizen here so I did not vote for Obama because I can't. But I think given the options you had I would have if I had the chance. And yes, you are right, I think Obama fooled about everyone including the Nobel price committee who gave him the peace prize purely based on election promises - but nothing really changed (well, actually USA is pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the vote is still on if this is a good idea or not and if Obama made that happen...). But I kind of understand him, the US voting system guarantees that there is almost always half republican-half democrat representation in different parts of the governement. And if Obama did everything he promised he would have been called a coward and pussy by every political enemy he has. Now he maybe can have a second term, by turning 180 degrees to Bush policy overnight - no way.
And this is the problem and partly why we in the western world call things politics and not ruling the people - you have to make compromices. Even in 2-party countries like the USA and GB. And while this is a problem (we the voting people are bought with promises the elected can't keep) it is also a solution, it is a mix of things people want. Nearly half of Americans did not want Obama in the office, very many very deeply almost hate him and/or his ideas. So that is what you get unless we all agree that dictatorship is the best way to go - and history has shown that there is no such thing as a lasting good dictator, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Well, I have the DVD which doesn't install on Windows7 64bit - it is so bad that it once messed totally up my DVD drive and I had to dig through forums to find uninstall for the DRM driver. So not very funny because there is chicken-egg problem here. But if I get adventurous I'll try if I can manage to get the 1.5 patch installed without ruining my access to DVD's.
Right now the GOG version of 2 does it for me (it was expensive compared to retail but DRM-free from day 1 so I bought it despite my lack of confidence to CD Projekt) and hey, it has uncensored rendered boobies, lot's of them and they have done a pretty good job on that part;)
About time - maybe they learned something from customer feedback about the first game which is a pile of drm-facepalms. The DVD version has protection that won't work on 64bit Windows7 machines properly. It also has server-authentication. And good luck with their customer support, I think they try their best but English is not in my experience the language you will get serviced the best.
Nice that you bring Finland in discussion - but in totally wrong way. The waste collection went wrong and there was abuse of the system, but those examples you cite are not problems with broadband when done right. And in Finland municipal broadband has been done right in many communities were there was no interest from commercial entities to build the infrastructure (and old phone companies went even so far that they teared town the old phone cables and installed GSM voicemail systems instead so that offering DSL wasn't even possible if someone would have wanted to take the risk; we have "must lease" clause in the law so that the last mile must be leased to competitor for "fair compensation" is the competitor wants to start operating DSL POP at the area). Communities (not necessarily even owned or operated by tows) build the infrastructure and offer ISPs to come to POPs with same terms for everyone and the end-user can choose which ISP to buy the actual service from. This solves the problem that ISPs don't have interes in areas where they might have just few customers at one POP and they still had to invest in everything.
Sweden went even further and built masses of fiber network for operators to lease - everyone with same terms. And last time I checked they were doing very well regarding broadband even in rural areas.
The idea is not to regulate anything but instead offer chance for businesses to enter the market (all with same terms) where they are not "naturally" interested because of the initial investment and risk of losing that investment (or some other bullshit/business reason).
I wouldn't be sure about the going down part. Many telco-executives have talked about instituting data caps because people use too much (which is quite absurd because 1-2 years ago they pushed really hard to market usb sticks and 3G data as a replacement for cable/dsl and best offers where in the range of 7.99 / month with usb modem (unlimited) if you signed up for 24 months. Now they are slowly starting to whine. Want to buy an iPad on contract with unlimited data? Can't do that - they all have caps (except one carrier which offers an "iPad" SIM but incidentally they are not on the "works with" list at apple.com). Of course nothing stops you from buing your iPad retail without 3G SIM and just order a generic data card and ask for micro-sim.
Yes, data is cheap here. I currently have a Galaxy S which I bought on contract which I usually don't do. 24 months term, eur 26,90/month. Phone, plan with unlimited data (speed and amount) (I pay for my minutes and texts per usage (0,069e min or per sms), my usage on those is so low that no point of taking fixed package), and a second data-only sim (also unlimited) and a complimentary 3g usb modem. And the phone is unlocked from day 1 so as long as I pay the monthly bills I can switch carriers or use a different SIM when travelling.
But the point is: The operators do want to get rid of unlimited data, that is their wet dream. But nobody dares to do it first for all their users, but they are turning up the heat slowly with iPad.
Well, to be frank Google Voice is crappy in the Voice & Video department. It is kind-of usable, and I have used it succesfully to call Amazon customer support from my country for free when the alternative is to use cell phone with gigantic prices to call international numbers. But, the voice quality really sucks compared to Skype (which I use on daily basis as an IM client and at least weekly to participate in a conference voice/video call),
So I think the technology is solid, and MS has much to get from there but yes, the customer base is propably what counts. And man, I have to give props to Skype founders, they made really nice money on their company - twice!
F1 hasn't been a technology leader for a long time - the rules to make cars cheaper severily limit the technology - no turbocharging, the most efficient consumer cars today are turbocharged, no "too advanced" electronics, tires are sub-par quality to make the races more interesting, I could continue the list forever. Yes, there are reasons for these rules and they are mainly a) to keep costs down and b) make the series more interesting for the viewer. Bringing elecronic cars to F1 could maybe advance the technology for first few years in consumer cars, but after that they would have to limit research for the same reasons they do now.
Yes, the headline is misleading in that the patients are also to blame. They demand things that are not even in their best intrerests but hey, they know that things are available from tv-shows and internet forums and if you deny them the testing or treatment you are suddenly at fault - and some other doctor will do everything the insurance covers and more if the patient just brings up the money.
However, the problem is not just that. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies are in fact "creating patients" - cholestorl is one example, but it can be argued that treating high cholestrol (while the definition of "high" is being shifted) may bring better life to people in the long term. But when you bring in drugs to treat baldness or premature ejaculation (and fund that with insurance money, I have even seen insurances which cover breast enlargement surgery) and how good business those treatments are compared to basic healthcare...that it is sometimes frightening. And no, I'm not innocent either, I have been to laser eye surgery (thought I paid it fully myself, not covered by insurance or state) and sometimes I wonder if those resources should be used better.
Actually, no they don't. In most countries the age is lower than in the most part of the us (generally 18, somewhere lower) but even parents are not allowed to provide alcohol to their kids and being minor and drinking publicly gets the teen a fine. We agree on that european system (gerally not hysteric attitude to alcohol) is better and although you often see teenagers drinking wine on family dinner with their parents consent it is technically illegal in many countries (like in mine). And the reasons are the ones I presented (if parents don't know / care minors can be protected).
I agree with you 100% - the disgusting part is the abuse which often for some reason begins when girls are at their (early) teens.
My point was just that - from a lawmakers point of view if you agree that you must protect these women you have to draw some lines to be able to enforce efficiently - otherwise the law is a dead letter. And so far the line has been drawn in quite a lot places to that you can't be legally married and enjoy the privileges and the recognition of the society to married couples with more than one partner because it is reasonably easy to enforce to achive the desired result (protect women from being forced into something they do not want to do).
I have zero problems with anyone marrying anyone - even multiple partners on a moral side. That's their business. Some might disagree that this is not good from the point of how the society develops but I'll leave that discussion to those who knoe about that better...
>The reason it is banned is not because of some religion Citation needed
Yes, churches calling them christian are mostly against polygamy, but there are counter-examples. I really do hope that the reasons of society banning polygamy do lie elsewhere.
> it is because polygamy can and historically has put > women in a "bad contract" By "polygamy" you refer to "polygyny" - one man, multiple wives. There is another form called "polyandry" where one woman marries multiple men (often brothers, "fraternal polyandry").
So in polyandry, would you say that one woman has more power than her husbands? Or could perhaps the dynamic wind up being that she is a lonely servant to a household of men?
Being outnumbered is not the same as being empowered.
I would not say yes based on history, but I do know that counter-examples exists. My point was that banning polygamy (and yes, that means mainly polygny, sorry that I don't know the exact varieties in English because this is not my first language) is based not on religion, but in (at least I hope...) to the fact that it often enough to warrant legistlation leads to abuse of women.
It is not that easy, yes. But, wealth has correlation to finding a mate. Sorry, I don't have a link in English available but social studies have shown that women tend to marry above "their level" (counting both social status and wealth) and men do the opposite - even in societies which are highly rated on man-woman equality. This leads to the fact that there are more single wealthy females than males and more single poor males than females. There of course are other factors in the play - it is not clear-cut but it is proven that women tend to "marry up" and this is amplified in polygamous societies where it is more than common that the man with the most social and financial power has the most number of wives.
Laws are written to protect the supposedly weaker one and can't be fine-tuned to accomolate every situation but the line must be drawn somewhere if we accept the notion that the law should protect the weaker ones from ignorance/abuse from somehow more powerfull part. On the marijuana case it can be argued that it protects the "state monopoly" to alcohol and cigarettes more than the user from dangers of marijuana, but blocking teen drinking (even if they had permission from their parents) is there to protect the teen from irresponsible parents who don't know/care. Same goes with polygamy, yeah, it can work and when done right it can be good and happy for everyone and blocking it seems to be limitation of persons freedoms.
The reason it is banned is not because of some religion, it is because polygamy can and historically has put women in a "bad contract" where the situation is not an expression of free will, but abuse of the weaker bargainer. Yes, this can also happen in monogamoys marriages but it is not a reason to allow polygamy.
(Posting again, accidently did the last one as AC, apperantly I was not logged in and didn't notice that because comments still appeared according to my sort settings)
Metoo here, I haven't dug deeper but it sounds like they are familiar to dotcomboom-varieties of the same kind, the most famous in Europe being letsbuyit.com which crashed and burned brightly (google for it's investor relations, that's a part of the story). Equivelant services also exist, but I can't even name the ones operating in my country, just that sometimes friends send a link to a "2 lunches for a price of one" offer from such a site. Never used them thought (because they require registrations and that results in lots of junk mail). What are they doing so brilliantly they are worth this much?
Posting to 4chan about erectile dysfunction is a very, very bad idea unless you have a really thick skin. Yes, you might get usefull anonymous advice. But more than likely you also get a metric ton of crap from people who just make cheap fun of you, because anonymity enables it easily.
Anonymity has it's place. It enables people to share things that are not just personal but even dangerous to them or their family. So it is needed, in ideal world I thinks even should be the default so that the merits of it like "things arguing, not people" could be seen but its place is not (on todays internet where there are people who are basicly schoolyard bullies getting their kicks on mocking the one in weak state) on 4chan about erectional dysfunction or being gay, those subjects require more than anonymity and the most important thing is understanding peer group (friends/family/doctor/group of people in the same situation etc.) - anonymously if needed. Anonymity sadly tends to attract the jackasses who either troll for fun or are just mean to have a few lols.
Yes, we have very strict requirements about security and safety, and now ongoing nuclear project at Olkiluoto is late and over budget and there is a legal battle going on about who is responsible for the costs of the delay. But as a citizen of Finland I'm quite pleased that we have very strict standards about nuclear power (the Finnish experts have been very reasonable and rational on interviews regarding last days events) and our expertise is highly respected (the IAEA has many Finnish nuclear experts on board). If this means highers costs - yes, that's bad but according to Finnish experts I have seen the desing this accident reactor had would not have been authorized to run here.
And by the way, we have a political decision to allow 2 additional nuclear plants to be built (now 4 running, 1 in construction) but I think there will be significant opposition now, and the insurance costs are definitely not going down. The now-being-built OL3 facility is dirt cheap by todays standards because when the decision was made to built it there was virtually no projets going on and each and every manufacturer wanted the project - as I said now it is over budget and the customer (TVO), manucaturer (Areva) and partly the Finnish nuclear safety authority (STUK) are in debate who should be responsible for the costs.
Those sub-$300 Chinese knock-offs are becoming more attractive.
Have you tried using one? At best they are mildly funny or sad depending on the point of view but even the amusement factor of how bad gadget you can make wears off quickly when you realize that somebody had to actually make those pieces of crap and they contain at least a battery which could have been put to much better use elsewhere.
No doubt the sub-$300 tablets will improve (and I reckon there even are some semi-usable ones in the $300 price point, the cheapest ones are $99 now...), but we are not just there yet.
For me my "persona" skin transferred from 3.6 to 4.0 beta. Few plugins reported to be broken, mainly the Firefox Sync (it is now built-in, installer should notify about this) and some obscure plugins which some websites I use (Ovi Maps from Nokia...) - the really used ones (Web developer, Adblock) do work just fine.
LH is one of my favorites, they still offer free soft drinks, beer & wine and that crappy food (quality also depends on what flight you are on, because catering is outsourced at some destinations and sometimes they just travel with supply to service the round-trip both ways).
And I'd like to thank LH also for being very nice in customer service - this far they have had me booked to flight in Munich when I was late due to trafic and check-in was closed - an agent offered help without asking and got me in on time. And they have quite nice interior in coach witout cramming it full and skipping cleaning like the cheapo-airlines.
Regarding to weight, I'm putting on my asbestos suit and a wizard hat and say that those 1 or 2kg overweight charges are laughable. Yes, I understand that there has to be some rules or else everyone would be bringing along their whole wardrobe and it's all about averages but come on - I weight 65 kilos, why the next guy in line who weights 120 kilos and I have the same 20kg limit on package (25kg was abandomed and lowered to 20kg on most airlines a while ago and on holiday charter flights the limit can be 18kg) and *I* have to pay extra (big) fee for 1 or 2 kg of overweight?
It's pretty much a given that these sorts of discrepancies are due to taxes and fees on the local arm of the business.
It is taxes and fees yes, but also marketing. Some airlines actually sell cheaper tickets to their neighbouring countries including a connecting flight to a hub than what it costs to take a direct flight from the hub. Airline ticket pricing is not about the actual costs but how much you can get - the average flight you fly in coach has usually more than 10 different prices, all depending on when you bought the ticket, from where and what was the booking situation at the time of purchase.
Froyo has been out for Galaxy S for over a month (yes, the first version was pulled back because of problems but new one is now available).
If your carrier doesn't offer it, bitch to the carrier. For unlocked phones just use the Kies updater, it's there.
Galaxy S has it's flaws (GPS had bugs with release firmware, Froyo mostly fixes these, the custom filesystem is not very good, camera is average compared to what for an example Sony Ericsson and Nokia offers) but it is a solid Android phone for the price (I'm talking unlocked prices here) - the dimensions are good (some even complain that it feels cheap because it is so light) and the screen is nice to look at and as long as you don't use the official Facebook app but the Samsungs version battery life is pretty good.
It would be all nice and shiny if every configuration was supported immediately (how many different names the Galaxy S has depending on carrier? 4?) but as long as you a) have multiple devices and b) multiple carriers selling locked devices with different requirements this is going to be costly, and everyone and everything will not be supported at the same time. This has bitten Nokia and they now have announced a strategy of incremental updates to Symbian^3 instead of new releases just for new devices and I hope they manage to pull that off. The alternative is of course to buy from manufacturer which has only 1 device on market at a given time;)
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The TSA allows you the option of a pat down. It takes 700 - 1000 times longer. Literally. I don't like being touched by a strange man, especially right up against my junk. Guess what? He does not really want to do it either.
Just returned from US (European here) vacation - thanks to all you great people I met and I have to say I had a great time and I will most certainly return but...for us (about 250 people on a 777 from Amsterdam) the pat down was not an option. I came from Schengen country (Europen free-travel zone) to Amsterdam (requires the normal airport security) and in addition to that at Schipol, Amsterdam I had to go through additional security at the gate. 2 passport controls. Then metal detector and a backscatter scan. And after that a pat-down (and not the light kind of one receives if the metal detector beeps on inter-european flight but the "touching-your-balls" kind). And after that an hour in confined waiting room (no restrooms, no water). And this was done to american citizens boarding the same flight as well.
Getting away from US was painless, though...
Hilary Clinton vs Sarah Palin at the next election would be hilarious and an unbeatable demonstration that America has totally jumped the shark.
I think the Porn Valley has made at least 2 Palin parodies so far, so making a Clinton-Palin should not come as surprise if they are against each other, I just don't know if there is enough demand for lesbian porn or should they include men also... Not that I've seen any of that stuff, just heard the big boys talking ;)
The point I'm trying to make is that the US has responded to a terrorist act of death and destruction by indiscriminately raining down death and destruction a hundred or thousand-fold on innocent Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Yemenis, and now - or soon - Libyans. It's far, far more death and destruction than can be attributed to al Qaeda on 9/11, or since, or even "the enemy" if you want to include "militants" or "insurgents" - which are basically people who want us to stop killing them and leave their countries. If the US is justified in that, what are those countries, and their allies, justified in doing to the US?
If they bombed the US with drones would it be okay because it isn't "hostile"?
I agree with you on everything else on but this - when Afghanis mutilate their women or in Libya rape is used as punishment I tend to say get those who are in charge out. It doesn't change the fact that it should be done lawfully without bending the terms, and "the good guys" are always not so good either, sometimes by mistake, sometimes by simply because lack of proper oversight and happy trigger finger / sadistic people.
Hate the game - not the player, is a poor excuse in Obama's case. Obama has not compromised- he has instead performed an about-turn on the principles for which many people elected him to uphold. It's asinine to justify the sorry state of the administration by overplaying the need to compromise.
Well, looking from outside the USA relying on different media outlets it seems he has merely chosen his battles. The healtcare reform was met with furious opposition from republicans and was debated and amended for what seemed like eternity. And as I mentioned in my parent post to yours, I think that Obama has failed in civil rights and foreign policy compared to what he promised in his campaign and as a foreigner I'm disappointed. But the truth is you can't have it all. And in US politics for the president to ignore domestic politics in favor for foreign politics is a suicide (with the exception of starting a seemingly succesfull war at the right time before your re-election...) My point is that this is how it works when there is no rule-em-all dictator. You cannot just hammer your fist to the table and tell that this is how it's going to be from now on. As I said earlier - there is a significant portion of US voting people with representation in congress and state policy makers who do not agree with Obama on about anything, and he has to deal with that. Even if the opposition plays dirty and only tries to undermine him no matter what he does.
"But we can't just agree to ignore the law for presidents we like."
I voted for Obama because he said he would end the presidential lawlessness, end the wars, end the abuse of "state secrets" to block justice through the courts, close Guantanamo Bay and end the 4th and 5th Amendment violations that it represented, and protect whistleblowers. But since he was elected he has done the exact opposite, attempting to assassinate US citizens simply by declaring them enemies of the state with no process whatsoever, escalating the wars and even claiming the power to start more wars without consulting Congress, increased the abuse of state secrets to even prevent cases from being heard, refused to do anything about Guantanamo Bay and even opened up the greater black hole at Bagram, prosecuting whistleblowers to a far greater extent than any previous president ever did, and trying to prosecute Wikileaks under the Espionage Act. All of this is the exact opposite of what he said he would do when we elected him.
Hi, non-USA citizen here so I did not vote for Obama because I can't. But I think given the options you had I would have if I had the chance. And yes, you are right, I think Obama fooled about everyone including the Nobel price committee who gave him the peace prize purely based on election promises - but nothing really changed (well, actually USA is pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the vote is still on if this is a good idea or not and if Obama made that happen...). But I kind of understand him, the US voting system guarantees that there is almost always half republican-half democrat representation in different parts of the governement. And if Obama did everything he promised he would have been called a coward and pussy by every political enemy he has. Now he maybe can have a second term, by turning 180 degrees to Bush policy overnight - no way.
And this is the problem and partly why we in the western world call things politics and not ruling the people - you have to make compromices. Even in 2-party countries like the USA and GB. And while this is a problem (we the voting people are bought with promises the elected can't keep) it is also a solution, it is a mix of things people want. Nearly half of Americans did not want Obama in the office, very many very deeply almost hate him and/or his ideas. So that is what you get unless we all agree that dictatorship is the best way to go - and history has shown that there is no such thing as a lasting good dictator, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Well, I have the DVD which doesn't install on Windows7 64bit - it is so bad that it once messed totally up my DVD drive and I had to dig through forums to find uninstall for the DRM driver. So not very funny because there is chicken-egg problem here. But if I get adventurous I'll try if I can manage to get the 1.5 patch installed without ruining my access to DVD's.
Right now the GOG version of 2 does it for me (it was expensive compared to retail but DRM-free from day 1 so I bought it despite my lack of confidence to CD Projekt) and hey, it has uncensored rendered boobies, lot's of them and they have done a pretty good job on that part ;)
About time - maybe they learned something from customer feedback about the first game which is a pile of drm-facepalms. The DVD version has protection that won't work on 64bit Windows7 machines properly. It also has server-authentication. And good luck with their customer support, I think they try their best but English is not in my experience the language you will get serviced the best.
Nice that you bring Finland in discussion - but in totally wrong way. The waste collection went wrong and there was abuse of the system, but those examples you cite are not problems with broadband when done right. And in Finland municipal broadband has been done right in many communities were there was no interest from commercial entities to build the infrastructure (and old phone companies went even so far that they teared town the old phone cables and installed GSM voicemail systems instead so that offering DSL wasn't even possible if someone would have wanted to take the risk; we have "must lease" clause in the law so that the last mile must be leased to competitor for "fair compensation" is the competitor wants to start operating DSL POP at the area). Communities (not necessarily even owned or operated by tows) build the infrastructure and offer ISPs to come to POPs with same terms for everyone and the end-user can choose which ISP to buy the actual service from. This solves the problem that ISPs don't have interes in areas where they might have just few customers at one POP and they still had to invest in everything.
Sweden went even further and built masses of fiber network for operators to lease - everyone with same terms. And last time I checked they were doing very well regarding broadband even in rural areas.
The idea is not to regulate anything but instead offer chance for businesses to enter the market (all with same terms) where they are not "naturally" interested because of the initial investment and risk of losing that investment (or some other bullshit/business reason).
I wouldn't be sure about the going down part. Many telco-executives have talked about instituting data caps because people use too much (which is quite absurd because 1-2 years ago they pushed really hard to market usb sticks and 3G data as a replacement for cable/dsl and best offers where in the range of 7.99 / month with usb modem (unlimited) if you signed up for 24 months. Now they are slowly starting to whine. Want to buy an iPad on contract with unlimited data? Can't do that - they all have caps (except one carrier which offers an "iPad" SIM but incidentally they are not on the "works with" list at apple.com). Of course nothing stops you from buing your iPad retail without 3G SIM and just order a generic data card and ask for micro-sim.
Yes, data is cheap here. I currently have a Galaxy S which I bought on contract which I usually don't do. 24 months term, eur 26,90 /month. Phone, plan with unlimited data (speed and amount) (I pay for my minutes and texts per usage (0,069e min or per sms), my usage on those is so low that no point of taking fixed package), and a second data-only sim (also unlimited) and a complimentary 3g usb modem. And the phone is unlocked from day 1 so as long as I pay the monthly bills I can switch carriers or use a different SIM when travelling.
But the point is: The operators do want to get rid of unlimited data, that is their wet dream. But nobody dares to do it first for all their users, but they are turning up the heat slowly with iPad.
Well, to be frank Google Voice is crappy in the Voice & Video department. It is kind-of usable, and I have used it succesfully to call Amazon customer support from my country for free when the alternative is to use cell phone with gigantic prices to call international numbers. But, the voice quality really sucks compared to Skype (which I use on daily basis as an IM client and at least weekly to participate in a conference voice/video call),
So I think the technology is solid, and MS has much to get from there but yes, the customer base is propably what counts. And man, I have to give props to Skype founders, they made really nice money on their company - twice!
F1 hasn't been a technology leader for a long time - the rules to make cars cheaper severily limit the technology - no turbocharging, the most efficient consumer cars today are turbocharged, no "too advanced" electronics, tires are sub-par quality to make the races more interesting, I could continue the list forever. Yes, there are reasons for these rules and they are mainly a) to keep costs down and b) make the series more interesting for the viewer. Bringing elecronic cars to F1 could maybe advance the technology for first few years in consumer cars, but after that they would have to limit research for the same reasons they do now.
Yes, the headline is misleading in that the patients are also to blame. They demand things that are not even in their best intrerests but hey, they know that things are available from tv-shows and internet forums and if you deny them the testing or treatment you are suddenly at fault - and some other doctor will do everything the insurance covers and more if the patient just brings up the money.
However, the problem is not just that. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies are in fact "creating patients" - cholestorl is one example, but it can be argued that treating high cholestrol (while the definition of "high" is being shifted) may bring better life to people in the long term. But when you bring in drugs to treat baldness or premature ejaculation (and fund that with insurance money, I have even seen insurances which cover breast enlargement surgery) and how good business those treatments are compared to basic healthcare...that it is sometimes frightening. And no, I'm not innocent either, I have been to laser eye surgery (thought I paid it fully myself, not covered by insurance or state) and sometimes I wonder if those resources should be used better.
Actually, no they don't. In most countries the age is lower than in the most part of the us (generally 18, somewhere lower) but even parents are not allowed to provide alcohol to their kids and being minor and drinking publicly gets the teen a fine. We agree on that european system (gerally not hysteric attitude to alcohol) is better and although you often see teenagers drinking wine on family dinner with their parents consent it is technically illegal in many countries (like in mine). And the reasons are the ones I presented (if parents don't know / care minors can be protected).
I agree with you 100% - the disgusting part is the abuse which often for some reason begins when girls are at their (early) teens.
My point was just that - from a lawmakers point of view if you agree that you must protect these women you have to draw some lines to be able to enforce efficiently - otherwise the law is a dead letter. And so far the line has been drawn in quite a lot places to that you can't be legally married and enjoy the privileges and the recognition of the society to married couples with more than one partner because it is reasonably easy to enforce to achive the desired result (protect women from being forced into something they do not want to do).
I have zero problems with anyone marrying anyone - even multiple partners on a moral side. That's their business. Some might disagree that this is not good from the point of how the society develops but I'll leave that discussion to those who knoe about that better...
>The reason it is banned is not because of some religion
Citation needed
Yes, churches calling them christian are mostly against polygamy, but there are counter-examples. I really do hope that the reasons of society banning polygamy do lie elsewhere.
> it is because polygamy can and historically has put
> women in a "bad contract"
By "polygamy" you refer to "polygyny" - one man, multiple wives. There is another form called "polyandry" where one woman marries multiple men (often brothers, "fraternal polyandry").
So in polyandry, would you say that one woman has more power than her husbands? Or could perhaps the dynamic wind up being that she is a lonely servant to a household of men?
Being outnumbered is not the same as being empowered.
I would not say yes based on history, but I do know that counter-examples exists. My point was that banning polygamy (and yes, that means mainly polygny, sorry that I don't know the exact varieties in English because this is not my first language) is based not on religion, but in (at least I hope...) to the fact that it often enough to warrant legistlation leads to abuse of women.
It is not that easy, yes. But, wealth has correlation to finding a mate. Sorry, I don't have a link in English available but social studies have shown that women tend to marry above "their level" (counting both social status and wealth) and men do the opposite - even in societies which are highly rated on man-woman equality. This leads to the fact that there are more single wealthy females than males and more single poor males than females. There of course are other factors in the play - it is not clear-cut but it is proven that women tend to "marry up" and this is amplified in polygamous societies where it is more than common that the man with the most social and financial power has the most number of wives.
Laws are written to protect the supposedly weaker one and can't be fine-tuned to accomolate every situation but the line must be drawn somewhere if we accept the notion that the law should protect the weaker ones from ignorance/abuse from somehow more powerfull part. On the marijuana case it can be argued that it protects the "state monopoly" to alcohol and cigarettes more than the user from dangers of marijuana, but blocking teen drinking (even if they had permission from their parents) is there to protect the teen from irresponsible parents who don't know/care. Same goes with polygamy, yeah, it can work and when done right it can be good and happy for everyone and blocking it seems to be limitation of persons freedoms.
The reason it is banned is not because of some religion, it is because polygamy can and historically has put women in a "bad contract" where the situation is not an expression of free will, but abuse of the weaker bargainer. Yes, this can also happen in monogamoys marriages but it is not a reason to allow polygamy.
(Posting again, accidently did the last one as AC, apperantly I was not logged in and didn't notice that because comments still appeared according to my sort settings)
Metoo here, I haven't dug deeper but it sounds like they are familiar to dotcomboom-varieties of the same kind, the most famous in Europe being letsbuyit.com which crashed and burned brightly (google for it's investor relations, that's a part of the story). Equivelant services also exist, but I can't even name the ones operating in my country, just that sometimes friends send a link to a "2 lunches for a price of one" offer from such a site. Never used them thought (because they require registrations and that results in lots of junk mail). What are they doing so brilliantly they are worth this much?
Posting to 4chan about erectile dysfunction is a very, very bad idea unless you have a really thick skin. Yes, you might get usefull anonymous advice. But more than likely you also get a metric ton of crap from people who just make cheap fun of you, because anonymity enables it easily.
Anonymity has it's place. It enables people to share things that are not just personal but even dangerous to them or their family. So it is needed, in ideal world I thinks even should be the default so that the merits of it like "things arguing, not people" could be seen but its place is not (on todays internet where there are people who are basicly schoolyard bullies getting their kicks on mocking the one in weak state) on 4chan about erectional dysfunction or being gay, those subjects require more than anonymity and the most important thing is understanding peer group (friends/family/doctor/group of people in the same situation etc.) - anonymously if needed. Anonymity sadly tends to attract the jackasses who either troll for fun or are just mean to have a few lols.
Regarding Finnish rules about nuclear power:
Yes, we have very strict requirements about security and safety, and now ongoing nuclear project at Olkiluoto is late and over budget and there is a legal battle going on about who is responsible for the costs of the delay. But as a citizen of Finland I'm quite pleased that we have very strict standards about nuclear power (the Finnish experts have been very reasonable and rational on interviews regarding last days events) and our expertise is highly respected (the IAEA has many Finnish nuclear experts on board). If this means highers costs - yes, that's bad but according to Finnish experts I have seen the desing this accident reactor had would not have been authorized to run here.
And by the way, we have a political decision to allow 2 additional nuclear plants to be built (now 4 running, 1 in construction) but I think there will be significant opposition now, and the insurance costs are definitely not going down. The now-being-built OL3 facility is dirt cheap by todays standards because when the decision was made to built it there was virtually no projets going on and each and every manufacturer wanted the project - as I said now it is over budget and the customer (TVO), manucaturer (Areva) and partly the Finnish nuclear safety authority (STUK) are in debate who should be responsible for the costs.
Those sub-$300 Chinese knock-offs are becoming more attractive.
Have you tried using one? At best they are mildly funny or sad depending on the point of view but even the amusement factor of how bad gadget you can make wears off quickly when you realize that somebody had to actually make those pieces of crap and they contain at least a battery which could have been put to much better use elsewhere.
No doubt the sub-$300 tablets will improve (and I reckon there even are some semi-usable ones in the $300 price point, the cheapest ones are $99 now...), but we are not just there yet.
For me my "persona" skin transferred from 3.6 to 4.0 beta. Few plugins reported to be broken, mainly the Firefox Sync (it is now built-in, installer should notify about this) and some obscure plugins which some websites I use (Ovi Maps from Nokia...) - the really used ones (Web developer, Adblock) do work just fine.
LH is one of my favorites, they still offer free soft drinks, beer & wine and that crappy food (quality also depends on what flight you are on, because catering is outsourced at some destinations and sometimes they just travel with supply to service the round-trip both ways).
And I'd like to thank LH also for being very nice in customer service - this far they have had me booked to flight in Munich when I was late due to trafic and check-in was closed - an agent offered help without asking and got me in on time. And they have quite nice interior in coach witout cramming it full and skipping cleaning like the cheapo-airlines.
Regarding to weight, I'm putting on my asbestos suit and a wizard hat and say that those 1 or 2kg overweight charges are laughable. Yes, I understand that there has to be some rules or else everyone would be bringing along their whole wardrobe and it's all about averages but come on - I weight 65 kilos, why the next guy in line who weights 120 kilos and I have the same 20kg limit on package (25kg was abandomed and lowered to 20kg on most airlines a while ago and on holiday charter flights the limit can be 18kg) and *I* have to pay extra (big) fee for 1 or 2 kg of overweight?
It's pretty much a given that these sorts of discrepancies are due to taxes and fees on the local arm of the business.
It is taxes and fees yes, but also marketing. Some airlines actually sell cheaper tickets to their neighbouring countries including a connecting flight to a hub than what it costs to take a direct flight from the hub. Airline ticket pricing is not about the actual costs but how much you can get - the average flight you fly in coach has usually more than 10 different prices, all depending on when you bought the ticket, from where and what was the booking situation at the time of purchase.
Froyo has been out for Galaxy S for over a month (yes, the first version was pulled back because of problems but new one is now available).
If your carrier doesn't offer it, bitch to the carrier. For unlocked phones just use the Kies updater, it's there.
Galaxy S has it's flaws (GPS had bugs with release firmware, Froyo mostly fixes these, the custom filesystem is not very good, camera is average compared to what for an example Sony Ericsson and Nokia offers) but it is a solid Android phone for the price (I'm talking unlocked prices here) - the dimensions are good (some even complain that it feels cheap because it is so light) and the screen is nice to look at and as long as you don't use the official Facebook app but the Samsungs version battery life is pretty good.
It would be all nice and shiny if every configuration was supported immediately (how many different names the Galaxy S has depending on carrier? 4?) but as long as you a) have multiple devices and b) multiple carriers selling locked devices with different requirements this is going to be costly, and everyone and everything will not be supported at the same time. This has bitten Nokia and they now have announced a strategy of incremental updates to Symbian^3 instead of new releases just for new devices and I hope they manage to pull that off. The alternative is of course to buy from manufacturer which has only 1 device on market at a given time ;)