"Someone else's airport? Hahaha! Most airports are paid for and owned by local governments. They are mine."
No, they're not. Just because you contribute through taxation to a public venue, that does not meant said public venue is your own personal property. There is management in place to deal with the day-to-day runnings of the airports (sometimes public and sometimes private). You can annoy them if you like but they still have the leverage to eject you from the premises. I don't think they can charge you with anything for turning off TVs but neither can a private business owner.
"But goddamn it, when I'm in a bar chatting with friends, everywhere around is also buzzing with laughs and good times, why does the barman decide to pump his crappy music up to 110 decibels?"
Because you're in the wrong bar. Bars do exist that provide a good atmosphere for conversation. I always make it a point to seek those bars out. In the US, most places that claim to be an English pub have reasonable volume levels but that's far from universal. I also look for bars that focus on drinks like wine or cocktails. I'm a beer drinker myself but the atmosphere is usually better in those places and they do usually have some sort of decent beer handy.
"go to any bar and I will almost guarantee that the sound is way too loud and NO ONE is watching/listening."
I'm not a big bar patron but I do go to watch the occasional sporting event. I can guarantee you that the vast majority of the bar is watching and listening during that time.
"I like TV, but not all the time. Don't *I* have a right to some f*cking peace and quiet?"
I'm a big fan of Spearhead from Space (first 3rd Doctor story) and I have seen the War Games (last 2nd Doctor story) quite a few times. While the Timelords never officially called it a regeneration in the War Games, in Spearhead the Doctor faces the same physical problems he always does post-regeneration. (When I say "always," I don't include 1st to 2nd as I've never seen that regeneration.) I think it's very safe to assume that what happened to the Doctor is indeed a regeneration.
"Or, and I think this is also perfectly valid Dr. Who canon, they could just have the magic blue Regeneration fairy show up and tap him with her interspacial quantum time energy wand (otherwise known as the magic Regeneration reset wand)."
No, they'll just use the Time War as an excuse. That's the standard method of dodging continuity issues with the previous series. Besides, any real Doctor Who fan will point out that there is no official Doctor Who canon. I personally don't think he really needs one. He goes about time and space changing things all the time. There are bound to be parts that don't add up when viewed linearly from the Doctor's perspective.
Yeah, kids these days like things modern and from their era... like Aerosmith and Pat Benatar and Cream and the Sex Pistols. Guitar Hero III is chock full of older music and that Aerosmith Guitar Hero package sold very well. I can't imagine the Beatles doing any worse. I would agree with your assessment except that your original assumption: "The original target markets are the youth." is waaay off. The appeal might not skew as high as 53 year olds who already know how to play an instrument, but there are plenty of 20 and 30-somethings out there who are attracted to these games.
"it sure does nullify any idea that Republican presidents spend less than Obama. "
No, it nullifies the idea that Republican Presidents to date spend less than Democratic Presidents to date. That has absolutely nothing to do with McCain or Obama. Unlike most Republicans, McCain actually has a somewhat decent track record of fiscal responsibility in the Senate. I'm not voting for him but if you're really concerned about spending, McCain looks to be your man. You'll still pay for the military but he'll chop off any other form of government spending he can get away with.
By the way, I like your link's Figure 4 graph that tries to make some sort of false correlation by transposing two unrelated graphs on top of each other so that an arbitrary intersection occurs at "George W Bush enters office." You might be able to convince more people that your very valid correlation should be treated as a causation if you used a tad less biased source.
It won't be night and day though. About 4 months down the line they'll throw in the occasional episode of Remote Control. That will entice us to want more. They'll also tone down our appreciation for the music videos by playing MTV Jams for a month or two. That's when they'll throw the bag of crap in our face and give us nothing but the Real World, Road Rules, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, the Real Road Rules World Rules, and Road Rules Real World Rules Road World Challenge 6.
Who owns the rights to a television show has little to do with who aired it originally. The "CBS" in question here is the distribution arm of CBS Paramount. In Star Trek's case, CBS handles both Desilu (old Trek) and Paramount (new Trek). I'm pretty sure MacGuyver was also Paramount. I'm guessing if 90210 is listed, they handle distribution for Spelling. I have no idea who produces Y&R but I'd wager it's a production company wholly owned by CBS. Older production companies have merged to the point that many are under a network's umbrella now but the new ownerships don't line up very much with the network on which the show was originally aired.
"When US workers must seek jobs outside of their country, something is fundamentally and woefully wrong."
US workers taking employment opportunities overseas in no way implies that they "must seek jobs outside of their country." I've looked into taking jobs overseas and as a general rule if you're having a hard time finding employment here, you're sure not getting a sponsor over there. But you are right about how the "bean counters" see IT. We're usually seen more as a necessary evil than anything else.
"He was actually a teacher that did his job and wrote his own lessons instead of copypasting from goverment cheat sheets and showing up to collect a paycheck."
These days there is a big push for unified curriculum and part of that is going to be copy and pasting preexisting curriculum maps while modifying them for the specific class' needs. That doesn't make someone less of a teacher any more than using printf or cout instead of writing your own print function makes you less of a programmer.
"This is a whole branch of our tax code that doesn't cope well with the modern, internetworked world."
Modern? Ever heard of a Sears, Montgomery Ward, or Best Catalog? Buying goods from an out of state vendor predates the modern income tax system and even the IRS in this country. Heck, buying from catalog predates indoor plumbing in a lot of places. The Sears catalog was commonly used as toilet paper in outhouses. This was a big deal back then when it was hard to enforce use taxes but now that the technology exists to squeeze more money from the taxpayer, governments are jumping at the opportunity.
A better scam that's similar to #1 is one of the work from home scams. You sign up for a work from home service and they set up direct deposit for you. Before you even start working, you notice they already deposited $3500. They tell you it's a mistake and have you wire $3000 of it back out but let you keep $500 as your first paycheck. Your work from home profession? A money launderer. The bank will take all $3500 back out and you can explain to law enforcement why money illegally wired from another account ended up in your account and then went overseas. If you paid attention, you'd notice that the account sending in money was not the same one as the account you wired money to.
Winning Olympic events that involve fastest finish have nothing to do with accurate timing. Getting a world record might but everything about getting a medal is relative to your performance against your peers. Consistency is all that matters. And given that most of these events are run in qualifying heats, consistency between separate races is often not a factor. Even in race Phelps won by 0.01 seconds, the photo finish was just as telling as the actual clock results.
"The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer."
Afforable but uses an Inkjet Printer? You almost fooled me there. With the cost of ink being what it is, it'll be cheaper to just go out and buy a solar cell.
Well, in my case I had to get the updated copy of my Calculus book because my Differential Calculus professor was the one who wrote it. You'll not see him advocating free text books any time soon. It didn't help that it wasn't even a particularly good textbook on the subject. My Integral Calculus professor even formed a committee to find alternative textbook. He was not invited back the next year.
Maybe it's regional but I've never heard of the term "beer bong" to describe that device. I've always heard it referred to simply as a funnel. The context gives away it being a beer-specific funnel. I do like the ultra-classy funnel made from a 2-liter bottle in the last pic. Too cheap to go to the auto parts store?
Because they're the cheapest option we have and for phone at least they have far better coverage in my area. Also, the Radio Shack in our town is our AT&T store and they have excellent customer service. A few years ago I lost my phone right before I had to drive from Georgia to Texas to attend a funeral. AT&T (Cingular at the time) was going to overnight me a phone (they only ship phones to replace lost or stolen phones) to replace my lost one but I needed to leave that day and wanted a phone for any trip emergencies. The Radio Shack guy set me up with a brand new loaner phone and car charger and just told me to bring it back when I had my new phone. He also somehow set it up so that I didn't have to pay the $50 fee for a lost phone (and did it without extending my contract). There was another time I lost my phone (yeah, I do that a lot) and replaced it with my wife's phone (she was due for an upgrade) without paying the reconnection fee if you report your phone lost or stolen to AT&T. They've also been very helpful any time I have phone or billing issues and are very honest about their phones' pros and cons. I know that's not your typical AT&T store (or your typical Radio Shack these days) but as long as those guys are running that operation and their prices remain similar to the competition, I'll be an AT&T customer.
"Radio isn't just music. MP3 players can't give you live sports or talk yet (outside of local FM)."
Interesting you should make this point because the talk aspect is what kept me from even considering satellite radio. There's no such thing as local sports talk on satellite radio. National sports shows are ok but they generally talk far too often about college football teams I don't care about and sports leagues like the NBA that just aren't popular around here. You also can't pick up Clark Howard. At the time I let my free trial expire, there was also no local weather or traffic but I think they've done something about that. Back when I had the free trial, I spent maybe 10 minutes of my daily commute of 60-70 minutes listening to the satellite. The rest of the time was spent listening to AM. To be fair, I didn't touch the FM dial while I had satellite.
"Realistic" in the sense that it's closer to how the world would react to super heroes/villains and how those super heroes/villains would probably react to the real world. In the real world, we're not going to be ok with some masked vigilantes running around enforcing justice. And the world's problems aren't going to be solved by someone just because they can fly or are super strong.
But there is no massively oversimplifying Eastern philosophy in the guise of a kung-fu movie so it's not really that similar to a Matrix sequel even if it might look that way to someone.
Maybe they see no reason to. I upgraded to Firefox 3 because of the smaller memory footprint. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have bothered. I upgraded to IE7 for tabbed browsing. I'm not going to update a stable system just for the heck of it. I've been burned too many times before from "updates" to just update everything for the sake of updating. I can see why someone who is not at all interested in the obvious things IE7 brings to the table might still be on IE6. Same for Firefox.
Slashdot Mirror
"Someone else's airport? Hahaha! Most airports are paid for and owned by local governments. They are mine."
No, they're not. Just because you contribute through taxation to a public venue, that does not meant said public venue is your own personal property. There is management in place to deal with the day-to-day runnings of the airports (sometimes public and sometimes private). You can annoy them if you like but they still have the leverage to eject you from the premises. I don't think they can charge you with anything for turning off TVs but neither can a private business owner.
"But goddamn it, when I'm in a bar chatting with friends, everywhere around is also buzzing with laughs and good times, why does the barman decide to pump his crappy music up to 110 decibels?"
Because you're in the wrong bar. Bars do exist that provide a good atmosphere for conversation. I always make it a point to seek those bars out. In the US, most places that claim to be an English pub have reasonable volume levels but that's far from universal. I also look for bars that focus on drinks like wine or cocktails. I'm a beer drinker myself but the atmosphere is usually better in those places and they do usually have some sort of decent beer handy.
"go to any bar and I will almost guarantee that the sound is way too loud and NO ONE is watching/listening."
I'm not a big bar patron but I do go to watch the occasional sporting event. I can guarantee you that the vast majority of the bar is watching and listening during that time.
"I like TV, but not all the time. Don't *I* have a right to some f*cking peace and quiet?"
In someone else's bar or airport? No, you don't.
I'm a big fan of Spearhead from Space (first 3rd Doctor story) and I have seen the War Games (last 2nd Doctor story) quite a few times. While the Timelords never officially called it a regeneration in the War Games, in Spearhead the Doctor faces the same physical problems he always does post-regeneration. (When I say "always," I don't include 1st to 2nd as I've never seen that regeneration.) I think it's very safe to assume that what happened to the Doctor is indeed a regeneration.
"Or, and I think this is also perfectly valid Dr. Who canon, they could just have the magic blue Regeneration fairy show up and tap him with her interspacial quantum time energy wand (otherwise known as the magic Regeneration reset wand)."
No, they'll just use the Time War as an excuse. That's the standard method of dodging continuity issues with the previous series. Besides, any real Doctor Who fan will point out that there is no official Doctor Who canon. I personally don't think he really needs one. He goes about time and space changing things all the time. There are bound to be parts that don't add up when viewed linearly from the Doctor's perspective.
For those of you confused by the joke...
I don't think Laurie could pull off the British accent. Zach Braff's was waaay better.
Yeah, kids these days like things modern and from their era... like Aerosmith and Pat Benatar and Cream and the Sex Pistols. Guitar Hero III is chock full of older music and that Aerosmith Guitar Hero package sold very well. I can't imagine the Beatles doing any worse. I would agree with your assessment except that your original assumption: "The original target markets are the youth." is waaay off. The appeal might not skew as high as 53 year olds who already know how to play an instrument, but there are plenty of 20 and 30-somethings out there who are attracted to these games.
"it sure does nullify any idea that Republican presidents spend less than Obama. "
No, it nullifies the idea that Republican Presidents to date spend less than Democratic Presidents to date. That has absolutely nothing to do with McCain or Obama. Unlike most Republicans, McCain actually has a somewhat decent track record of fiscal responsibility in the Senate. I'm not voting for him but if you're really concerned about spending, McCain looks to be your man. You'll still pay for the military but he'll chop off any other form of government spending he can get away with.
By the way, I like your link's Figure 4 graph that tries to make some sort of false correlation by transposing two unrelated graphs on top of each other so that an arbitrary intersection occurs at "George W Bush enters office." You might be able to convince more people that your very valid correlation should be treated as a causation if you used a tad less biased source.
It won't be night and day though. About 4 months down the line they'll throw in the occasional episode of Remote Control. That will entice us to want more. They'll also tone down our appreciation for the music videos by playing MTV Jams for a month or two. That's when they'll throw the bag of crap in our face and give us nothing but the Real World, Road Rules, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, the Real Road Rules World Rules, and Road Rules Real World Rules Road World Challenge 6.
Who owns the rights to a television show has little to do with who aired it originally. The "CBS" in question here is the distribution arm of CBS Paramount. In Star Trek's case, CBS handles both Desilu (old Trek) and Paramount (new Trek). I'm pretty sure MacGuyver was also Paramount. I'm guessing if 90210 is listed, they handle distribution for Spelling. I have no idea who produces Y&R but I'd wager it's a production company wholly owned by CBS. Older production companies have merged to the point that many are under a network's umbrella now but the new ownerships don't line up very much with the network on which the show was originally aired.
"When US workers must seek jobs outside of their country, something is fundamentally and woefully wrong."
US workers taking employment opportunities overseas in no way implies that they "must seek jobs outside of their country." I've looked into taking jobs overseas and as a general rule if you're having a hard time finding employment here, you're sure not getting a sponsor over there. But you are right about how the "bean counters" see IT. We're usually seen more as a necessary evil than anything else.
"No 'funny' mod points please, I'm being serious."
But that's exactly why you're being modded as Funny.
"Guess what, those working only 40 hours a day won't get anywhere."
Crap, I only work about 9 hours per day. I need to step it up.
Windows would have been fine if dickless here hadn't shut off the main power grid.
"He was actually a teacher that did his job and wrote his own lessons instead of copypasting from goverment cheat sheets and showing up to collect a paycheck."
These days there is a big push for unified curriculum and part of that is going to be copy and pasting preexisting curriculum maps while modifying them for the specific class' needs. That doesn't make someone less of a teacher any more than using printf or cout instead of writing your own print function makes you less of a programmer.
"This is a whole branch of our tax code that doesn't cope well with the modern, internetworked world."
Modern? Ever heard of a Sears, Montgomery Ward, or Best Catalog? Buying goods from an out of state vendor predates the modern income tax system and even the IRS in this country. Heck, buying from catalog predates indoor plumbing in a lot of places. The Sears catalog was commonly used as toilet paper in outhouses. This was a big deal back then when it was hard to enforce use taxes but now that the technology exists to squeeze more money from the taxpayer, governments are jumping at the opportunity.
A better scam that's similar to #1 is one of the work from home scams. You sign up for a work from home service and they set up direct deposit for you. Before you even start working, you notice they already deposited $3500. They tell you it's a mistake and have you wire $3000 of it back out but let you keep $500 as your first paycheck. Your work from home profession? A money launderer. The bank will take all $3500 back out and you can explain to law enforcement why money illegally wired from another account ended up in your account and then went overseas. If you paid attention, you'd notice that the account sending in money was not the same one as the account you wired money to.
Winning Olympic events that involve fastest finish have nothing to do with accurate timing. Getting a world record might but everything about getting a medal is relative to your performance against your peers. Consistency is all that matters. And given that most of these events are run in qualifying heats, consistency between separate races is often not a factor. Even in race Phelps won by 0.01 seconds, the photo finish was just as telling as the actual clock results.
"The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer."
Afforable but uses an Inkjet Printer? You almost fooled me there. With the cost of ink being what it is, it'll be cheaper to just go out and buy a solar cell.
Well, in my case I had to get the updated copy of my Calculus book because my Differential Calculus professor was the one who wrote it. You'll not see him advocating free text books any time soon. It didn't help that it wasn't even a particularly good textbook on the subject. My Integral Calculus professor even formed a committee to find alternative textbook. He was not invited back the next year.
Maybe it's regional but I've never heard of the term "beer bong" to describe that device. I've always heard it referred to simply as a funnel. The context gives away it being a beer-specific funnel. I do like the ultra-classy funnel made from a 2-liter bottle in the last pic. Too cheap to go to the auto parts store?
Because they're the cheapest option we have and for phone at least they have far better coverage in my area. Also, the Radio Shack in our town is our AT&T store and they have excellent customer service. A few years ago I lost my phone right before I had to drive from Georgia to Texas to attend a funeral. AT&T (Cingular at the time) was going to overnight me a phone (they only ship phones to replace lost or stolen phones) to replace my lost one but I needed to leave that day and wanted a phone for any trip emergencies. The Radio Shack guy set me up with a brand new loaner phone and car charger and just told me to bring it back when I had my new phone. He also somehow set it up so that I didn't have to pay the $50 fee for a lost phone (and did it without extending my contract). There was another time I lost my phone (yeah, I do that a lot) and replaced it with my wife's phone (she was due for an upgrade) without paying the reconnection fee if you report your phone lost or stolen to AT&T. They've also been very helpful any time I have phone or billing issues and are very honest about their phones' pros and cons. I know that's not your typical AT&T store (or your typical Radio Shack these days) but as long as those guys are running that operation and their prices remain similar to the competition, I'll be an AT&T customer.
"Radio isn't just music. MP3 players can't give you live sports or talk yet (outside of local FM)."
Interesting you should make this point because the talk aspect is what kept me from even considering satellite radio. There's no such thing as local sports talk on satellite radio. National sports shows are ok but they generally talk far too often about college football teams I don't care about and sports leagues like the NBA that just aren't popular around here. You also can't pick up Clark Howard. At the time I let my free trial expire, there was also no local weather or traffic but I think they've done something about that. Back when I had the free trial, I spent maybe 10 minutes of my daily commute of 60-70 minutes listening to the satellite. The rest of the time was spent listening to AM. To be fair, I didn't touch the FM dial while I had satellite.
"Realistic" in the sense that it's closer to how the world would react to super heroes/villains and how those super heroes/villains would probably react to the real world. In the real world, we're not going to be ok with some masked vigilantes running around enforcing justice. And the world's problems aren't going to be solved by someone just because they can fly or are super strong.
But there is no massively oversimplifying Eastern philosophy in the guise of a kung-fu movie so it's not really that similar to a Matrix sequel even if it might look that way to someone.
"I can't understand why people don't update."
Maybe they see no reason to. I upgraded to Firefox 3 because of the smaller memory footprint. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have bothered. I upgraded to IE7 for tabbed browsing. I'm not going to update a stable system just for the heck of it. I've been burned too many times before from "updates" to just update everything for the sake of updating. I can see why someone who is not at all interested in the obvious things IE7 brings to the table might still be on IE6. Same for Firefox.