One thing that cheers me up is that I wrote a single author paper once in my own time about a subject that was not directly related to my "day job". I got to present at a conference and it was selected for journal publication.
You would not believe the amount of grief I got for doing this and the department effectively ignored this publication and I was told not to do that kind of thing again.
The interesting thing is that looking back the contents of that paper were almost certainly patentable and could have (in a Eolas like manner) probably have been a way of screwing a lot of money out of Sun/Microsoft etc. Given that I don't approve of software patents I was rather glad it wasn't patented and, in my own bitter way, rather glad that they probably missed out on a pile of money.
I'd rather not consider academia, thank you very much. I'm amazed I managed to stick it for so long - I've never, even in rather ruthless commercial environments, encountered an area where everyone was so blatantly out for themselves and didn't give a sh*t about anyone else. All the horse trading over whether someone would help you only if they got their name on your paper etc. Towards the end of my time there I was even playing the game myself - asking (and getting) my name on papers that I contributed very little to. At least these days I occasionally do something that is actually of benefit to others, not something I think I ever achieved in academia.
Yes, I know I'm quite bitter about it. Probably because I'm now appreciating how good their pension plan is.
Of course Russians who live in the European part of Russia are European - what else would they be? Slav is an ethnic grouping from Eastern and Central Europe.
Indeed, the "established" Church of England is generally pretty liberal. Politicians rarely mention religous beliefs - the only PM who seemed to regularly mention the subject was President Not-Elect Tony Blair.
Care to expand on the relevance of that quote to the point in question? Are you saying that I don't have the right to pay for my own cameras and record my surroundings and keep the results in my own private archive?
I was really arguing with the "All British people are terrified of guns for some reason" point. Note the *all* part. Probably would have helped if I quoted the right bit though.
What makes you think they are "uncommon for decades" - I walk past a gun shop ever day to work. They sell sporting shotguns and rifles. I know plenty people who have guns - but then again I grew up knowing farmers and people who are into hunting. People who use guns for sensible things (hunting, shooting pests) can have them - what we don't have is a culture of using guns for personal protection.
I think that is being a bit harsh on the X Files and Fox News. It's just a propaganda outlet to keep a particular range of conservatives in a constant state of foaming at the mouth frenzy about immigrants, terrorists and the unemployed (probably the same people as far as Daily Mail readers are concerned) . Truly a publication that the Ministry of Truth would approve of.
Microsoft almost certainly has wholly owned subsidiaries incorporated in most countries. For example there is a "Microsoft UK Ltd". Microsoft has large teams in Dublin and various other places in Europe (e.g. aren't some of Dynamics packages written in Denmark?).
Thanks for mentioning His Dark Materials - these really are some of the best fantasy books. The underlying themes might be a *bit* unpopular though - especially in the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass.
To be fair, quite a lot of us Brits forget that there are many quite different native languages, let alone accents, on these fair and drizzly isles. English is arguaby the language of some fairly recent immigrants who were invited in to do a job and then didn't want to go home again afterwards.
"U.S. government is the biggest originator of violence"
While I don't spend a lot of time defening the USA - that comment is pretty dubious. Consider the amount of harm inflicted on the people of the world by the Nazis, Soviets or the Chinese Communist party against what the USA has done.
Also note that we have a fair amount of single track roads with passing places in Scotland - the speed limit on those is still 60mph. Having said that, the only real danger on these roads is caused by failure to observe proper etiquette.
Re:How is this less important?
on
Carl Sagan Sings
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Yet there is a chain on cafe bars in the UK called "Cafe Mao" and yes, it does appear to be *that* Mao. I've always thought that was a bit odd - a "Bar Stalin" would be unlikely and a "Bar Hitler" would be impossible but Mao was responsible for more deaths than the other two.
With the likes of LeMay and Power in charge of SAC the Soviets weren't being paranoid - there really were people out to get them. These guys actually wanted to start WW3 which they estimated would kill at least 400 million people - with modern estimates being much higher, probably over one billion killed.
Thank God the USA had sane and strong political leaders at that time.
WW2 was won by poor long suffering soldiers, sailors and airmen - just like all wars. And the folks who suffered most and fought the hardest in WW2 were the Soviets - we not have liked their system of government but what the Soviet people went through in WW2 should never be forgotten.
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Stop being sensible about this kind of thing, it upsets a lot of the "Security Experts" out there.
Indeed, I've even had the chance to vote for a real Socialist party (OK it was a protest vote and I'm not going to do it again).
You would not believe the amount of grief I got for doing this and the department effectively ignored this publication and I was told not to do that kind of thing again.
The interesting thing is that looking back the contents of that paper were almost certainly patentable and could have (in a Eolas like manner) probably have been a way of screwing a lot of money out of Sun/Microsoft etc. Given that I don't approve of software patents I was rather glad it wasn't patented and, in my own bitter way, rather glad that they probably missed out on a pile of money.
I'd rather not consider academia, thank you very much. I'm amazed I managed to stick it for so long - I've never, even in rather ruthless commercial environments, encountered an area where everyone was so blatantly out for themselves and didn't give a sh*t about anyone else. All the horse trading over whether someone would help you only if they got their name on your paper etc. Towards the end of my time there I was even playing the game myself - asking (and getting) my name on papers that I contributed very little to. At least these days I occasionally do something that is actually of benefit to others, not something I think I ever achieved in academia. Yes, I know I'm quite bitter about it. Probably because I'm now appreciating how good their pension plan is.
Of course Russians who live in the European part of Russia are European - what else would they be? Slav is an ethnic grouping from Eastern and Central Europe.
What is even more bizarre is thinking that New Labour had anything to do with socialism.
Indeed, the "established" Church of England is generally pretty liberal. Politicians rarely mention religous beliefs - the only PM who seemed to regularly mention the subject was President Not-Elect Tony Blair.
I think provoking Daily Mail readers to explode could be pretty interesting competitive sport - do you think we could get it in the Olympics?
Care to expand on the relevance of that quote to the point in question? Are you saying that I don't have the right to pay for my own cameras and record my surroundings and keep the results in my own private archive?
I was really arguing with the "All British people are terrified of guns for some reason" point. Note the *all* part. Probably would have helped if I quoted the right bit though.
What makes you think they are "uncommon for decades" - I walk past a gun shop ever day to work. They sell sporting shotguns and rifles. I know plenty people who have guns - but then again I grew up knowing farmers and people who are into hunting. People who use guns for sensible things (hunting, shooting pests) can have them - what we don't have is a culture of using guns for personal protection.
I think that is being a bit harsh on the X Files and Fox News. It's just a propaganda outlet to keep a particular range of conservatives in a constant state of foaming at the mouth frenzy about immigrants, terrorists and the unemployed (probably the same people as far as Daily Mail readers are concerned) . Truly a publication that the Ministry of Truth would approve of.
Microsoft almost certainly has wholly owned subsidiaries incorporated in most countries. For example there is a "Microsoft UK Ltd". Microsoft has large teams in Dublin and various other places in Europe (e.g. aren't some of Dynamics packages written in Denmark?).
Indeed, clearly a "Check here if you are illiterate" checkbox would be on the user preferences page. :-)
That would make an interesting checkbox on the submit form.
Thanks for mentioning His Dark Materials - these really are some of the best fantasy books. The underlying themes might be a *bit* unpopular though - especially in the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass.
Drug-taking sex-changing socialists in hyper powerful ships-with-silly-names FTW!
To be fair, quite a lot of us Brits forget that there are many quite different native languages, let alone accents, on these fair and drizzly isles. English is arguaby the language of some fairly recent immigrants who were invited in to do a job and then didn't want to go home again afterwards.
"U.S. government is the biggest originator of violence" While I don't spend a lot of time defening the USA - that comment is pretty dubious. Consider the amount of harm inflicted on the people of the world by the Nazis, Soviets or the Chinese Communist party against what the USA has done.
Also note that we have a fair amount of single track roads with passing places in Scotland - the speed limit on those is still 60mph. Having said that, the only real danger on these roads is caused by failure to observe proper etiquette.
That's interesting - reading Demon-Haunted World also made me consider what the "must read" books for people leaving school should be. I'd certainly have that and include "Why People Believe Weird Things" http://www.amazon.com/People-Believe-Weird-Things-Pseudoscience/dp/0716733870 and a "A Short History of Nearly Everything" http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254133445&sr=1-2.
Yet there is a chain on cafe bars in the UK called "Cafe Mao" and yes, it does appear to be *that* Mao. I've always thought that was a bit odd - a "Bar Stalin" would be unlikely and a "Bar Hitler" would be impossible but Mao was responsible for more deaths than the other two.
Thank God the USA had sane and strong political leaders at that time.
WW2 was won by poor long suffering soldiers, sailors and airmen - just like all wars. And the folks who suffered most and fought the hardest in WW2 were the Soviets - we not have liked their system of government but what the Soviet people went through in WW2 should never be forgotten.
Since when was Scotland a colony or a conquest of England's?? ;-)