Boards of directors of major corporations are comprised of privileged people, and are therefore more or less above the law. Credit card companies most definitely enjoy such protection in our society.
The legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government are so intertwined with corporate interests that they function as one criminal entity. Libertarians call it "crony capitalism," and the leftist Ralph Nader calls it "corporate socialism." Both labels describe the phenomenon admirably.
My suggestions for beleaguered credit cardholders, which comprises the majority of Americans, is:
1. Demand stricter accountability of the issuing banks and credit card companies on pain of boycott. Tell Visa or Discover that you are going to reduce or eliminate your credit card expenditures until they produce tangible evidence that incidents of this kind will never happen again. They have the incentive to comply.
2. Use cash, for heaven's sake. We are being socially engineered to conduct financial transactions by easily-monitored and insecure electronic methods. It doesn't help that our own lust for convenience is spurring us toward the abandonment of cash transactions, which Uncle Sam can't get his hooks into. We do not want a "cashless society," which is the wet dream of social engineers and institutional counterfeiters.
And don't forget that most people want extra ketchup packets. I hate it when I order fries and they put two dinky ketchup packets in the bag. It makes me wonder just what is going on in our colleges these days.
Home Theater: You don't have to spend $9.50 on a ticket to watch 20 minutes of TV ads and commercials.
Absolutely. Those fucking ads have driven me out of the multiplexes, probably for good. Last time I went, the commercials were making me want to defecate on the floor in protest, but I didn't have any toilet paper, so I went home.
Too bad the codec's creators shot themselves in the foot by assigning it such a ridiculous name. It's not like it takes a lot of marketing savvy to come up with a slick name for their codec.
Think about it:
DivX (pr. "div-ex") It rolls off the tongue.
Mp3 (pr. "em-pee three") Same deal. That, among other reasons, is why everybody either uses that codec or uses the word to decribe any digital music file.
I'm sure ffdshow, which I've never heard of, has technical merit, but the name will prevent it from ever being widely adopted.
Ok, let's all join hands around the campfire and sing Kumbaya.
I'm all for singing Kumbaya around the campfire, believe me, but I fail to see how giving money to the government enhances the experience.
Frankly, my bile rises with the notion of some glorious global uber-government that skims ten percent off my paycheck in exchange for vague promises of global peace and freedom. It sounds suspiciously like the national governments that have failed to make life better for us for all these centuries.
the area right off of the coach is very susceptible to huge earthquakes (8.0+)--one happens every 200 or so years on average. The last one happened around 1700, so another one is fairly likely in the near future.
The fault line in question is the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of Oregon, which produces large tsunamis on a fairly regular basis--geologically speaking, that is. And there's the problem. Nobody on this side of the Pacific Rim remembers the last damaging Cascadia quake. The Japanese do, however. The 1700 quake produced a 10-foot wave there, though the damage was exceedingly mild compared to the recent catastrophe in the Indian Ocean.
Nevertheless, the Cascadia fault is a major threat that coastal communities have failed to factor into their planning while building all of those low-lying structures. Geological evidence, as well as seismologists' own calculations, suggest surges of as much as 60 feet in height for the coastal areas closest to the Cascadia zone.
You're right. Shitty tags notwithstanding, I have seen some exquisitely well-done, even epic pieces done by anonymous artists on the sides of rusty boxcars. Quite to their credit, the freight companies rarely paint them over.
I think the operators should make the whole freight car painting scene an official part of their business--hold graffiti contests that award publicity to the participants (which is what they want) and prizes to the winners. Legitimize the scene. It wouldn't have to be an expensive undertaking for the rail companies.
What kind of 'Murican are you, talking like that? 'Murica is the greatest country in the world! That's the thing about being the greatest country in the world: we don't have to change anything because it's already perfect!
And in some categories, the products are better than their Japanese counterparts. Take a look at compact shortwave radios sometime. The best under-$100 models are from Chinese companies. The ones from Sony and Grundig compete neither on features or build quality.
Also, Staples office supply stores have a big bin for old ink and laser cartridges, no human interaction required, just drop your junk in their box.
And I wonder just how those discarded cartridges are handled. Are they sent off to one of those brownfield towns in China where peasants scrape them out by hand and then burn the remains? Or, are they actually recycled in a consciencious manner?
Wait a minute. Let's be a little more specific. "The USA" doesn't systematically work toward destructive ends, unscrupulous transnational groups (certain corporations) do. It is a mistake to treat nations as monoliths, as they consist of multitudes of different people with widely diverging agendas and ethics.
Individually, Americans are about as nice as anybody else. It's true. However, we are also neurotic, decadent, and brainwashed.
Third, it is undated, and unnamed, from an unknown source. Not worth even reading.
Not worth reading, yes, but for the weak minded, it will suffice. Am I the only foil-hatted one to suspect this piece of yellow journalism was timed to sow some additional fear/causus belli over the Iranian bomb program?
When I heard the soundbite over ABC Radio, there was absolutely no question by the news people as to its veracity, only a verbatim repeat of whatever the original source was. Thanks for nothing, press.
And to reiterate, the Nazi bomb program never got past a quite preliminary phase before more pressing matters, such as Germany's deteriorating strategic situation, as well as their own misallocation of resources among hundreds of competing defense programs, caused them to abandon the atom bomb.
Re:LCDs are still inferior to CRTs
on
Are CRTs History?
·
· Score: 1
75Hz seems to be the minimum tolerable CRT refresh for me, as in, "no headaches with prolonged use."
Man, I used to have this cheapo AST "multimedia" computer with a cheapo video card and shoddy 14" monitor, and goddamn, that thing hurt my eyes so bad that I thought I had contracted conjuctivitis after pulling an all-nighter.
Don't miss those days...okay, well I miss the drugs.
Slashdot Mirror
Phwew. I thought it was some random "word salad" from a pschizophrenic Slashdotter.
The legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government are so intertwined with corporate interests that they function as one criminal entity. Libertarians call it "crony capitalism," and the leftist Ralph Nader calls it "corporate socialism." Both labels describe the phenomenon admirably.
My suggestions for beleaguered credit cardholders, which comprises the majority of Americans, is:
1. Demand stricter accountability of the issuing banks and credit card companies on pain of boycott. Tell Visa or Discover that you are going to reduce or eliminate your credit card expenditures until they produce tangible evidence that incidents of this kind will never happen again. They have the incentive to comply.
2. Use cash, for heaven's sake. We are being socially engineered to conduct financial transactions by easily-monitored and insecure electronic methods. It doesn't help that our own lust for convenience is spurring us toward the abandonment of cash transactions, which Uncle Sam can't get his hooks into. We do not want a "cashless society," which is the wet dream of social engineers and institutional counterfeiters.
And don't forget that most people want extra ketchup packets. I hate it when I order fries and they put two dinky ketchup packets in the bag. It makes me wonder just what is going on in our colleges these days.
Hey, this article may interest you. Good luck.
Absolutely. Those fucking ads have driven me out of the multiplexes, probably for good. Last time I went, the commercials were making me want to defecate on the floor in protest, but I didn't have any toilet paper, so I went home.
Oh.
Yup, you can't get much more inept than that.
Think about it:
DivX (pr. "div-ex") It rolls off the tongue.
Mp3 (pr. "em-pee three") Same deal. That, among other reasons, is why everybody either uses that codec or uses the word to decribe any digital music file.
I'm sure ffdshow, which I've never heard of, has technical merit, but the name will prevent it from ever being widely adopted.
I'm all for singing Kumbaya around the campfire, believe me, but I fail to see how giving money to the government enhances the experience.
Frankly, my bile rises with the notion of some glorious global uber-government that skims ten percent off my paycheck in exchange for vague promises of global peace and freedom. It sounds suspiciously like the national governments that have failed to make life better for us for all these centuries.
I agree. Those Great Plains thunderstorms are fucking scary.
The fault line in question is the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of Oregon, which produces large tsunamis on a fairly regular basis--geologically speaking, that is. And there's the problem. Nobody on this side of the Pacific Rim remembers the last damaging Cascadia quake. The Japanese do, however. The 1700 quake produced a 10-foot wave there, though the damage was exceedingly mild compared to the recent catastrophe in the Indian Ocean.
Nevertheless, the Cascadia fault is a major threat that coastal communities have failed to factor into their planning while building all of those low-lying structures. Geological evidence, as well as seismologists' own calculations, suggest surges of as much as 60 feet in height for the coastal areas closest to the Cascadia zone.
I think the operators should make the whole freight car painting scene an official part of their business--hold graffiti contests that award publicity to the participants (which is what they want) and prizes to the winners. Legitimize the scene. It wouldn't have to be an expensive undertaking for the rail companies.
Tearing people down for no good reason is lame, but you have to admit that "deranged, goose-stepping lemmings" is pretty damned funny.
*baddaboomting*
Perfect solution? I don't understand what any of that shit means. I doubt the people who wrote it did either.
What kind of 'Murican are you, talking like that? 'Murica is the greatest country in the world! That's the thing about being the greatest country in the world: we don't have to change anything because it's already perfect!
And in some categories, the products are better than their Japanese counterparts. Take a look at compact shortwave radios sometime. The best under-$100 models are from Chinese companies. The ones from Sony and Grundig compete neither on features or build quality.
Damn, I didn't realize the batteries were recyclable. Ore smelting is incredibly energy-intensive.
Nah, Budo. It's Japan, remember?
And I wonder just how those discarded cartridges are handled. Are they sent off to one of those brownfield towns in China where peasants scrape them out by hand and then burn the remains? Or, are they actually recycled in a consciencious manner?
Individually, Americans are about as nice as anybody else. It's true. However, we are also neurotic, decadent, and brainwashed.
That's right. An appropriately-equipped recycling facility can handle electronics without any danger to workers.
*shudders*
Not worth reading, yes, but for the weak minded, it will suffice. Am I the only foil-hatted one to suspect this piece of yellow journalism was timed to sow some additional fear/causus belli over the Iranian bomb program?
When I heard the soundbite over ABC Radio, there was absolutely no question by the news people as to its veracity, only a verbatim repeat of whatever the original source was. Thanks for nothing, press.
And to reiterate, the Nazi bomb program never got past a quite preliminary phase before more pressing matters, such as Germany's deteriorating strategic situation, as well as their own misallocation of resources among hundreds of competing defense programs, caused them to abandon the atom bomb.
Man, I used to have this cheapo AST "multimedia" computer with a cheapo video card and shoddy 14" monitor, and goddamn, that thing hurt my eyes so bad that I thought I had contracted conjuctivitis after pulling an all-nighter.
Don't miss those days...okay, well I miss the drugs.