I mean, do we really think that Nissan is approving scripts for Heroes and other NBC shows that have the new Rogue in them?
No, but I guarantee you that NBC won't let a Nissan spontaneously explode on their show. NBC got sued for showing someone get injured by a garbage disposal last season, and part of the settlement had NBC agreeing to not show the disposal in a negative light again, and that disposal wasn't even a sponsor! In fact, Emerson is a competitor of the owner of NBC, General Electric.
If you buy the DVDs or HDDVDs, you're watching a version of the show censored by a non-sponsor, and you don't think sponsorship also plays a role in the creative process?
If 4chan was the origin of lolcats, who did the ripping off?
I'd imagine a combination of Something Awful goons and 4chan/b/tards who have blogs. Then Boing Boing went apeshit over it and posted links every day for two weeks.
I'd like to point out that Wikipedia (can't find sources though) makes the assertion that Ike, Carter, Clinton and Bush have all used the word "nucular." Also, I'm sure that Bush says it that way either to appear Bubba-esque, as one blog put it, or as some Pentagon lingo he picked up. I haven't heard a speech where he uses the phrase "nuclear family," but that would answer the question for me.
If I recall correctly, to remove/delete/rename anything in the system32 or I386 folders, you have to boot Windows into safe mode. Otherwise, whichever file you change will be replaced by a backup from the other of the two directories.
How can I, as a customer, even guess that I have to pay all those other people with my tip.
It's pretty much standard practice in the US to do this.
Cope, the work of a waiter isn't worth more and I'm not going to pay the equivalent of a doctor in my country for getting served.
Well, if I recall correctly, you are operating under the assumption that meals in the US cost EUR 80. That's where you got your "doctor's salary" argument. However, that's simply not true. An EUR 80 meal in the US is almost unheard of (only the most elite of restaurants cost that much, as I said in a prior post). It just doesn't. fucking. exist. Thus, your argument is flawed. Even a crappy doctor makes five times the amount waitstaff do in the US, so obviously your argument fails by empirical evidence.
A good meal in the US can be had for four people (if two are children) for less than half that. Then the server should get 15% if they're above average, less if they're not decent, and more if they're great.
If you're paying EUR 80 anywhere in the US for a meal, and you tip 10 percent, you're a tightwad. Mister Burns tips more than that.
Why don't you pay tips at the local Burger King, eh?
Because there is no waitstaff there. You don't tip cooks in Europe, do you?
That's what you suggest.... 25% of 80 = 20
Yes, waiters at that caliber of restaurant do get paid that much. But there are very, very few restaurants in the US that cost that much.
Also, most places have what is called "tipshare" -- the waiter doesn't get the full percentage. For example, at the restaurant I used to work at, 3% of the bill was taken out of my pocket to pay the busboys and the greeters. Thus, at a mid-level restaurant where the best steaks cost 20 bucks and the typical party is two adults, we have a 40 dollar dicket (50 with drinks) that takes up one of my three tables for an hour. Supposing that I get 3 tables, and a turnover of a table an hour. Let's assume your 10% tip. 3% comes off that to go to other staff. I'm left with 7%.
If I work 40 hours a week (fulltime, and no one gets to work that much), my earnings (assuming 50 weeks a year of work) would be:
And that's an upper limit on what waitstaff would make in a year. You'll never work a full 8 hour shift with your tables never empty. Inevitably, people will spend more than an hour there and you'll have empty tables at off-hours. So that's EUR 15K per year. Do you understand now why I'm suggesting that a 10% tip is a cultural faux pas? This is only sustainable in the long run if you want poor people (who typically have poorer health and hygiene because they cannot afford anything better on these earnings) and teenagers (who have a tendency to spit in food as a joke and also to act rude) to be your waitstaff, clearly tipping higher is important in the US.
Well, you should inform the people that write travel guides. Every travel guide I've seen said 10% on meals, 1$ per night for the maid.
I can't speak for maids (I don't stay in hotels so I wouldn't know), but 10% on meals is, for a nice restaurant, unheard of. 10% is for low-class restaurants (just barely above fast food). It also shows the caliber of people who write travel guides--that is to say, people who obviously don't eat at nice restaurants. I'm actually shocked that travel guides would suggest such an absolutely shitty tip (unless the guide is assuming you're going to eat at low-class restaurants).
15% is considered standard, and you should go up or down from that depending on the quality of service. I've been known to tip nothing when I got really bad service, and I've gone up to 40% once or twice for outstanding service (usually accompanied by specifically asking for that waiter the next time I go to the restaurant). Hell, if you eat at a restaurant with more than 6 people or so, the tip is a mandatory 18%, typically (as in: added to your bill automatically). It's called "gratuity," and is done to protect waiters against really shitty tippers in big parties. And all my numbers I'm spitting out are numbers in Texas, where the cost of living is much lower than most of the US!
The fact that you consider the kind of restaurants [i.e., ones where meals are 40EUR=60USD] "high class" only speaks about your country. I couldn't get quality meals below those amounts.
No duh, those are high class. I've only been to a restaurant at that price once in my entire life! The fact that you cannot get quality meals below that amount speaks to the quality of your country's food (it seems to me that if you can't get a quality meal for 15 EUR, your country's restaurants are fucking you in the ass). I can get a great meal for that price. 40 EUR for a meal is the price lawyers spend on occasional meals (I've been interviewing for jobs at law firms as a lawyer, and not even I have been taken to a place like that yet), and the price some men pay to take their wives on anniversary dinners. Hell, I don't even think my hometown of 60,000 people even has a restaurant that costs that much (except for our local country club, which isn't really a restaurant per se).
That even ignores that the waiters probably don't have to pay income taxes on their tips.
Waiters in the US do have to pay income tax on tips.
Going to a restaurant that serves me the same quality of food I'm used to is going to cost me around 40 per person. I've been to the US, and I couldn't stand anything below that price point.
Wow, at the kind of restaurant you go to, 20% is standard in the US. 10% is just insulting. And come on! If you're paying EIGHTY BUCKS for a meal, surely you can afford 20% tip.
As an American, it's actually disgusting to me that you would suggest that a 20% tip is a ripoff at a good restaurant. It's kinda like me going to France and complaining that people won't speak English with me. I understand many Americans expect this, and they are rightly criticized.
It's a cultural thing that you should respect in the same way that everyone should take their shoes off when they enter a Japanese person's house in Japan. It's just rude any other way, and saying, "I can't help it if your country has dumbfuck cultural practices," doesn't give you a winning argument.
Agreed. I didn't even know there was a rule governing that/which usage until law school (when it matters re:contract drafting). My girlfriend, who is from Venezuela, was shocked to learn that I didn't know.
And I still can't properly conjugate lay (to place one's body prone) and lie (to set an object down) into their various tenses and moods. But my foreigner girlfriend can. She's also the one constantly correcting my "my brother and me"-"no, no: 'my brother and I'" grammar. Just like my friggin mother. Sheesh.
I do the same in the US... (Well, there I always tip because I know they don't get a salary), but I still max out at a certain amount because 10% gets insane once you go out and eat with four.
And this is why waitstaff hate having foreigners at their tables. Just to let you non-Americans in on a secret: 10% is an absolutely shitty amount to tip, especially if you're claiming that is your maximum tip. As in: the-person-I-just-waited-on-is-trailer-trash.
The waitstaff at a typical restaurant in the US makes 1.5/hr ($2.13/hr), plus tips.
Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five (IMHO one of the greatest albums to ever be made) was recorded in Folds's rented house. Weird Al's breakthrough music was recorded in a fucking bathroom. The list goes on and on, and as the new generation gets used to lossy MP3s, the loss of quality resulting from recording your album in your mom's Station Wagon will not matter at all.
If the US decides to show it can liquidate the US bonds held by another state who else is going to want to hold US bonds? Ever?
Well, seeing as how "going to war with the US" was a prerequisite for "bonds being liquidated," I'd suppose that only countries with machinations of war against the US would worry about that sort of thing, n'est pas?
Technically speaking the UDHR is a non-binding document and therefore doesn't really mean much. But I'm of the mind that the UDHR is one of the most important documents that mankind has ever produced. Now if we could only get countries to follow it (my own included).
Recipes cannot be copyrighted or patented. You cannot own the rights to a recipe. Now, you can keep it a secret and sue someone who finds out under contract law. But I guarantee you that KFC doesn't own the rights to any recipe.
There is NO clause in the DMCA that mentions MAKING AVAILABLE. The DMCA specifically states DISTRIBUTING. The two are different things entirely.
It doesn't matter what the DMCA says. The DMCA defines (among other things) things for which you can be taken to court. It doesn't enumerate tactics the opposition must employ to win a case.
In the common law of the US, there is a doctrine which states that the courts may assume that the actor intended the likely consequences of his actions. For example, if you point a gun at someone's head and pull the trigger, then the courts may impute intention to kill the person. The courts don't actually have to get in your head and see the firing neurons that say, "Gee whiz, I sure want to kill this person!"
Similarly, the likely consequence of sharing a file is the desire to distribute it. The only natural consequence of "making available" is distribution. In any case, in copyright law, no mental state is necessary to win a case for copyright infringement. For example, if I (wrongly) think a song is in the public domain and thusly distribute it, I can be sued for copyright infringement. Now, if it was willful, I can be sued for treble damages, but without even a guilty thought, I can still be sued.
Listen, I'm against P2P lawsuits as much (actually, probably more so) than the average Slashdotter, but there's just no use arguing your position when a great number of centuries of case law goes the other way. Here's an explanation in criminal law in Wikipedia's mens rea article.
Clearly you've missed all the times he's taken the piss out of the Dems ever since they regained Congress. He attacks those in power, who for the past 7 years have been Republicans.
Clearly the editors on Wikipedia (and splatter) are not clued in to the fact that Andy's death was merely one more joke he played on the American public.
Oh, wait. The Wikipedia editors are clued in as well.
Here are reasons why: the Eastern District of Texas (in which Marshall is situated) has firm and clear rules on patent litigation matters, a judge who fast-tracks patent cases, and an aging jury pool interested in protecting "property" rights. The EDTX is called the "Rocket Docket." (It works on multiple levels!)
Agreed. Canadians call us Americans. Venezuelans (and, according to my Venezuelan girlfriend, the rest of Latin America) call us Americanos. Japanese people call us Amerika-jin (America-person). I can't speak about other countries, but we are speaking English here, so I think the only authoritative opinions on what "American" means come from native English speakers; perhaps we should include every people that lives in the Americas, since they may or may not be affected. Thus, we pretty much need a consensus from Canadians, People From The U S, Scots, Welsh, Irish, English, Aussies, Kiwis, Indians, and the countries of Latin America. Of course there are a few other countries with English as an official language (Singapore? Malaysia?), but I think their populations are negligible as a source of "authoritative" English meaning.
The people from the UK that I know use "American" to mean "person living in the US." I asked this specific question to someone from London, Edinburgh, and Newcastle Upon Tyne. As far as Aussies go, I've asked this question to a couple: same answer. The Canadians I've asked say the same thing. Of course people in the US say this, too (perhaps a few superliberal people, out of misguided attempts at international friendship, disagree). Indians agree with me. Brazilians, Venezuelans, and Mexicans agree.
This leaves a few more countries, but I've yet to find a non-negligible affected party who uses a term other than "American." Scientific evidence wins?
Stop excessively glamorizing sports and music stars. Fewer people make it big in these arenas than win the lottery (mostly just a guess, but I suspect it is true).
Let's ignore the fact that there are foreigners in our pro leagues (I think it's statistically insignificant for what I'm doing).
Suppose there are 20 teams in a league and 20 people on a team. That's 400 athletes in the league. There is the NBA, MLB, and NFL for the big three. That's 1200 pro athletes (conservative estimate). Now let's say there are 100 A- or B-list actors and 100 major players in the music market. That's 1400 moneymakers. Now, they all necessarily come from the US (per my assumption), so that means an American has a.046% chance of making it big. Compare this with (assuming you pick 6 numbers from 1 to 50--I don't do lottery, so I don't know) 1/15890700 (or 6.29E-6%) chance of winning the lottery.
So no, your assertion is false. Also, the odds are probably higher, as I made the assumption that everyone in the US is competing for the pro jobs (and assumed for simplicity's sake that women were competing for the pro sports jobs as well) on an equal footing.
Who hasn't spent 30 minutes skimming a book trying to find THAT ONE PAGE!?
That's precisely why I've got pirated copies of the Harry Potter series on my laptop (JK Rowling is against ebook versions of her books, so there aren't legit ebook editions). There's a Meetup group in my area, and we often want to refer back to a specific page. Sometimes a few of my fellow nuts are able to find it in their meatspace versions faster than I can look in finder on my Mac, but it sure is convenient.
The same goes for Lord of the Rings. Do yourself a favor and check that link out.
Slashdot Mirror
If you buy the DVDs or HDDVDs, you're watching a version of the show censored by a non-sponsor, and you don't think sponsorship also plays a role in the creative process?
How appropriate that you posted as Anonymous ;)
I'd like to point out that Wikipedia (can't find sources though) makes the assertion that Ike, Carter, Clinton and Bush have all used the word "nucular." Also, I'm sure that Bush says it that way either to appear Bubba-esque, as one blog put it, or as some Pentagon lingo he picked up. I haven't heard a speech where he uses the phrase "nuclear family," but that would answer the question for me.
If I recall correctly, to remove/delete/rename anything in the system32 or I386 folders, you have to boot Windows into safe mode. Otherwise, whichever file you change will be replaced by a backup from the other of the two directories.
A good meal in the US can be had for four people (if two are children) for less than half that. Then the server should get 15% if they're above average, less if they're not decent, and more if they're great.
If you're paying EUR 80 anywhere in the US for a meal, and you tip 10 percent, you're a tightwad. Mister Burns tips more than that.
Also, most places have what is called "tipshare" -- the waiter doesn't get the full percentage. For example, at the restaurant I used to work at, 3% of the bill was taken out of my pocket to pay the busboys and the greeters. Thus, at a mid-level restaurant where the best steaks cost 20 bucks and the typical party is two adults, we have a 40 dollar dicket (50 with drinks) that takes up one of my three tables for an hour. Supposing that I get 3 tables, and a turnover of a table an hour. Let's assume your 10% tip. 3% comes off that to go to other staff. I'm left with 7%.
If I work 40 hours a week (fulltime, and no one gets to work that much), my earnings (assuming 50 weeks a year of work) would be:
50 bucks/table * 3 tables/hr * 40 hours/wk * 50 wk/yr = $300K/yr.
Now to see what my tip on that would be: $21K.
And that's an upper limit on what waitstaff would make in a year. You'll never work a full 8 hour shift with your tables never empty. Inevitably, people will spend more than an hour there and you'll have empty tables at off-hours. So that's EUR 15K per year. Do you understand now why I'm suggesting that a 10% tip is a cultural faux pas? This is only sustainable in the long run if you want poor people (who typically have poorer health and hygiene because they cannot afford anything better on these earnings) and teenagers (who have a tendency to spit in food as a joke and also to act rude) to be your waitstaff, clearly tipping higher is important in the US.
15% is considered standard, and you should go up or down from that depending on the quality of service. I've been known to tip nothing when I got really bad service, and I've gone up to 40% once or twice for outstanding service (usually accompanied by specifically asking for that waiter the next time I go to the restaurant). Hell, if you eat at a restaurant with more than 6 people or so, the tip is a mandatory 18%, typically (as in: added to your bill automatically). It's called "gratuity," and is done to protect waiters against really shitty tippers in big parties. And all my numbers I'm spitting out are numbers in Texas, where the cost of living is much lower than most of the US!No duh, those are high class. I've only been to a restaurant at that price once in my entire life! The fact that you cannot get quality meals below that amount speaks to the quality of your country's food (it seems to me that if you can't get a quality meal for 15 EUR, your country's restaurants are fucking you in the ass). I can get a great meal for that price. 40 EUR for a meal is the price lawyers spend on occasional meals (I've been interviewing for jobs at law firms as a lawyer, and not even I have been taken to a place like that yet), and the price some men pay to take their wives on anniversary dinners. Hell, I don't even think my hometown of 60,000 people even has a restaurant that costs that much (except for our local country club, which isn't really a restaurant per se).Waiters in the US do have to pay income tax on tips.
As an American, it's actually disgusting to me that you would suggest that a 20% tip is a ripoff at a good restaurant. It's kinda like me going to France and complaining that people won't speak English with me. I understand many Americans expect this, and they are rightly criticized.
It's a cultural thing that you should respect in the same way that everyone should take their shoes off when they enter a Japanese person's house in Japan. It's just rude any other way, and saying, "I can't help it if your country has dumbfuck cultural practices," doesn't give you a winning argument.
Agreed. I didn't even know there was a rule governing that/which usage until law school (when it matters re:contract drafting). My girlfriend, who is from Venezuela, was shocked to learn that I didn't know.
And I still can't properly conjugate lay (to place one's body prone) and lie (to set an object down) into their various tenses and moods. But my foreigner girlfriend can. She's also the one constantly correcting my "my brother and me"-"no, no: 'my brother and I'" grammar. Just like my friggin mother. Sheesh.
Sorry. Slashdot apparently doesn't allow the EUR symbol. That 1.5/hr should be 1.5 EUR/hr.
The waitstaff at a typical restaurant in the US makes 1.5/hr ($2.13/hr), plus tips.
Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five (IMHO one of the greatest albums to ever be made) was recorded in Folds's rented house. Weird Al's breakthrough music was recorded in a fucking bathroom. The list goes on and on, and as the new generation gets used to lossy MP3s, the loss of quality resulting from recording your album in your mom's Station Wagon will not matter at all.
Technically speaking the UDHR is a non-binding document and therefore doesn't really mean much. But I'm of the mind that the UDHR is one of the most important documents that mankind has ever produced. Now if we could only get countries to follow it (my own included).
Recipes cannot be copyrighted or patented. You cannot own the rights to a recipe. Now, you can keep it a secret and sue someone who finds out under contract law. But I guarantee you that KFC doesn't own the rights to any recipe.
In the common law of the US, there is a doctrine which states that the courts may assume that the actor intended the likely consequences of his actions. For example, if you point a gun at someone's head and pull the trigger, then the courts may impute intention to kill the person. The courts don't actually have to get in your head and see the firing neurons that say, "Gee whiz, I sure want to kill this person!"
Similarly, the likely consequence of sharing a file is the desire to distribute it. The only natural consequence of "making available" is distribution. In any case, in copyright law, no mental state is necessary to win a case for copyright infringement. For example, if I (wrongly) think a song is in the public domain and thusly distribute it, I can be sued for copyright infringement. Now, if it was willful, I can be sued for treble damages, but without even a guilty thought, I can still be sued.
Listen, I'm against P2P lawsuits as much (actually, probably more so) than the average Slashdotter, but there's just no use arguing your position when a great number of centuries of case law goes the other way. Here's an explanation in criminal law in Wikipedia's mens rea article.
Clearly you've missed all the times he's taken the piss out of the Dems ever since they regained Congress. He attacks those in power, who for the past 7 years have been Republicans.
I feel like I just talked to my Science Advisor in Sid Meier's Civilization.
Clearly the editors on Wikipedia (and splatter) are not clued in to the fact that Andy's death was merely one more joke he played on the American public.
Oh, wait. The Wikipedia editors are clued in as well.
Here are reasons why: the Eastern District of Texas (in which Marshall is situated) has firm and clear rules on patent litigation matters, a judge who fast-tracks patent cases, and an aging jury pool interested in protecting "property" rights. The EDTX is called the "Rocket Docket." (It works on multiple levels!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Eastern_District_of_Texas
Agreed. Canadians call us Americans. Venezuelans (and, according to my Venezuelan girlfriend, the rest of Latin America) call us Americanos. Japanese people call us Amerika-jin (America-person). I can't speak about other countries, but we are speaking English here, so I think the only authoritative opinions on what "American" means come from native English speakers; perhaps we should include every people that lives in the Americas, since they may or may not be affected. Thus, we pretty much need a consensus from Canadians, People From The U S, Scots, Welsh, Irish, English, Aussies, Kiwis, Indians, and the countries of Latin America. Of course there are a few other countries with English as an official language (Singapore? Malaysia?), but I think their populations are negligible as a source of "authoritative" English meaning.
The people from the UK that I know use "American" to mean "person living in the US." I asked this specific question to someone from London, Edinburgh, and Newcastle Upon Tyne. As far as Aussies go, I've asked this question to a couple: same answer. The Canadians I've asked say the same thing. Of course people in the US say this, too (perhaps a few superliberal people, out of misguided attempts at international friendship, disagree). Indians agree with me. Brazilians, Venezuelans, and Mexicans agree.
This leaves a few more countries, but I've yet to find a non-negligible affected party who uses a term other than "American." Scientific evidence wins?
Let's ignore the fact that there are foreigners in our pro leagues (I think it's statistically insignificant for what I'm doing).
Suppose there are 20 teams in a league and 20 people on a team. That's 400 athletes in the league. There is the NBA, MLB, and NFL for the big three. That's 1200 pro athletes (conservative estimate). Now let's say there are 100 A- or B-list actors and 100 major players in the music market. That's 1400 moneymakers. Now, they all necessarily come from the US (per my assumption), so that means an American has a
So no, your assertion is false. Also, the odds are probably higher, as I made the assumption that everyone in the US is competing for the pro jobs (and assumed for simplicity's sake that women were competing for the pro sports jobs as well) on an equal footing.
The same goes for Lord of the Rings. Do yourself a favor and check that link out.