As for minimum wage, it (along with paper money) causes inflation, which is why we now have a significant price difference between us and the people performing our outsourced jobs in China and India, or what somebody in Mexico makes. If wages were set at a level comparable to the same job in China, Mexico or India (with comparably priced costs which would follow wages), we wouldn't have millions of Mexicans here illegally, or every item on a Walmart shelf having another country as the location of manufacture, or call center's and software shops run out of India.
Stuff at Walmart is cheap because Chinese/Indian/Mexican workers are treated like shit. I.e., part of the true cost of the good is being externalized onto the worker. The production company doesn't have to spend any money on their workers (or very little), and they pass the savings on to you! Which is bad.
As I don't want American workers to be similarly treated like shit (a race to the bottom isn't fun for anyone), I suggest GREAT BIG import tariffs on super-cheap, slave-labor-produced goods. Hell, take the money collected in tariffs and use it to start workers' rights movements in India and China. But make those goods more expensive.
PS - Same goes for gas. I fully support $10/gallon gas, so long as all that money goes to nuclear/fusion/solar/wind/whatever research and infrastructure. We can't suck on that oily teat forever.
Frankly, I would like to see payroll taxes like Social Security, unemployment, and medicare become optional. I think others would to a better job of recognizing they need to save their own money to cover situations those insurance programs cover if they realized they didn't have a safety net, and they could do a much better job of taking care of their own future needs than the government will. Since people would have more incentive to save, prices of thing I might want to buy now would probably drop, either leaving me more money to spend or save, and leaving all shoppers in a better position.
No effing way. Just like the The Ant and the Grasshopper, just about everyone is a grasshopper. Most people have giant blind-spots in very important areas and make LOTS of mistakes, so there MUST be a safety net.
No, actually, the funny thing is how in the USA (maybe also Canada?) you so ridiculously obsess about being popular, being with the "in" people. Is being yourself so scary, over there?
Wow, I haven't read a Lone Wolf book since 1994 or so. Good times!
I got inspired by Lone Wolf and created a Hypercard program (1992, I was 12 at the time) that served as a framework for creating (and then playing) those types of books.
For creating the books, it had a nice branching builder that let you input text/images/sounds for each page, then you could indicate which branch went where, input more text/images/sounds, insert battles and encounters, etc. It also supported a "plug-in" structure where you could get a new "book" (a Hypercard stack, of course) and install it into your existing Hypercard stack that served as the main program. I was very into Hypercard extensions and cross-stack communication, so it was a great way to test out all that stuff. And the whole time I was trying to fit it all onto a 1.4MB floppy since that's how it would have been distributed (in 1992, anyway).
For playing the books, it kept track of all the stats, battles, item upgrades, skills, etc. Really cool screens when you died, won, had battles, etc.
That thing was awesome; I'll have to dig it up from my archives (Dad backed up everything I ever made on a computer when I was a kid) and see if I can play it on an OS 7 emulator or something (Mac). I only ever wrote 2 "books" for it (mostly in 6th or 7th grade English class).
This is why successful, industrialized nations need IMPORT TARIFFS on those types of cheap plastic crap goods!
If you're making a good cheaper by externalizing the cost onto foreign workers who don't have the labor protection laws USians do, I cry foul. Make those goods more expensive and we can stop the race to the bottom.
A friend on mine got a DUI (first time, blew a.083, or.003 over the limit, argh) and has an interlock as a condition of his probation (6 months) here's how HIS works:
At random intervals while driving (every 5 to 15 minutes), the device will beep. He has to pick it up and blow into it within a certain amount of time after it beeps (like 15 seconds or something). I think you can "miss" this once and it'll beep again within the next minute. If you ignore it, or have been drinking and fail the test, the car will begin to **honk its horn and flash its head and tail lights**, at which point you need to pull over, take another test or 2 to prove you're OK to drive, and then it resets itself. I have no idea what kind of reporting/black mark it makes when this happens.
But the point is this: It absolutely DOES NOT shut off the car, and during "normal" operation it does not require you to pull over, ever.
And for the record, I'm pro-responsible-leaking. I don't like that wikileaks rushed to publish this information and did a shitty job of redacting information that puts people at risk
I agree IF that's the case, but do we actually know that wikileaks put people at risk? I keep hearing over and over and over that there are all these Afgani sympathizers that have been outed but...where's the list? Who are these people?
The redacted docs are public for the whole world to see, yet I still haven't seen any list. It's just "US government officials say it's possible that...blah blah blah".
Can anyone find this info? Seriously, not trolling.
Um, from a 2nd amendment standpoint, the need for militias is merely the justification for guaranteeing that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. One absolutely does not need to be part of a militia to have and exercise that right.
"Merely the justification"? No offense, but when the justification for something ceases to exist, that thing is no longer justifiable.
Our "self awareness" is not something that can be explained away with current science.
My emphasis.
Just because current science can't explain it doesn't mean we start making up answers that fly in the face of every single objective observation made by man since the dawn of time.
1>> Well, one should expect this when one is within shouting distance of one of the most secure buildings in the world. The same thing sometimes occurs near other buildings in the DC region. But Fort Meade? You're lucky you get stuff on your car radio.
Why do they need to do active jamming? If the entire building is essentially a SCIF, what the risk? Nothing can leak out.
The story of Planetes follows the crew of the DS-12 "Toy Box" of the Space Debris Section, a unit of Technora Corporation. Debris Section's purpose is to prevent the damage or destruction of satellites, space stations and spacecraft from collision with debris in Earth's and the Moon's orbits. They use a number of methods to dispose of the debris (mainly by burning it via atmospheric reentry or through salvage), accomplished through the use of EVA suits.
The episodes sometimes revolve around debris collection itself, but more often the concept of collecting "trash" in space is merely a storytelling method for building character development. The members of the Debris Section are looked down upon as the lowest members of the company and they must work hard to prove their worth to others and accomplish their dreams.
One of the top planners of the US war in Iraq gave President George Bush secret intelligence briefs headlined with biblical quotations, in a bid to boost his standing with the deeply religious president but one that risked sparking a conflagration in the Muslim world if the papers leaked.
Slashdot Mirror
Think about it, has the average person under 20 ever used a CLI? For anything?
The average person under 100 hasn't ever used a CLI. But I think it's just as important to programmers now as it was 25 years ago.
Well yeah, shitty steno programs will leave traces of themselves. Not all will.
Shit, I bet Sarah Palin could see that from her house. :)
As for minimum wage, it (along with paper money) causes inflation, which is why we now have a significant price difference between us and the people performing our outsourced jobs in China and India, or what somebody in Mexico makes. If wages were set at a level comparable to the same job in China, Mexico or India (with comparably priced costs which would follow wages), we wouldn't have millions of Mexicans here illegally, or every item on a Walmart shelf having another country as the location of manufacture, or call center's and software shops run out of India.
Stuff at Walmart is cheap because Chinese/Indian/Mexican workers are treated like shit. I.e., part of the true cost of the good is being externalized onto the worker. The production company doesn't have to spend any money on their workers (or very little), and they pass the savings on to you! Which is bad.
As I don't want American workers to be similarly treated like shit (a race to the bottom isn't fun for anyone), I suggest GREAT BIG import tariffs on super-cheap, slave-labor-produced goods. Hell, take the money collected in tariffs and use it to start workers' rights movements in India and China. But make those goods more expensive.
PS - Same goes for gas. I fully support $10/gallon gas, so long as all that money goes to nuclear/fusion/solar/wind/whatever research and infrastructure. We can't suck on that oily teat forever.
Frankly, I would like to see payroll taxes like Social Security, unemployment, and medicare become optional. I think others would to a better job of recognizing they need to save their own money to cover situations those insurance programs cover if they realized they didn't have a safety net, and they could do a much better job of taking care of their own future needs than the government will. Since people would have more incentive to save, prices of thing I might want to buy now would probably drop, either leaving me more money to spend or save, and leaving all shoppers in a better position.
No effing way. Just like the The Ant and the Grasshopper, just about everyone is a grasshopper. Most people have giant blind-spots in very important areas and make LOTS of mistakes, so there MUST be a safety net.
The crappy sci-fi version of the Book of Mormon?
some song from the 60s or 70s.
That only covers 20 years worth of music. Can you be more specific?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_(instrumental)
He's got to be talking about Dark Castle. That was THE Macintosh game to have back in the day.
No, actually, the funny thing is how in the USA (maybe also Canada?) you so ridiculously obsess about being popular, being with the "in" people. Is being yourself so scary, over there?
When you're 13? Well, yes.
Import tariffs on foreign foodstuffs. Problem solved.
PS - We should be doing exactly the same thing with all the cheap Chinese shit that Walmart sells.
Wow, I haven't read a Lone Wolf book since 1994 or so. Good times!
I got inspired by Lone Wolf and created a Hypercard program (1992, I was 12 at the time) that served as a framework for creating (and then playing) those types of books.
For creating the books, it had a nice branching builder that let you input text/images/sounds for each page, then you could indicate which branch went where, input more text/images/sounds, insert battles and encounters, etc. It also supported a "plug-in" structure where you could get a new "book" (a Hypercard stack, of course) and install it into your existing Hypercard stack that served as the main program. I was very into Hypercard extensions and cross-stack communication, so it was a great way to test out all that stuff. And the whole time I was trying to fit it all onto a 1.4MB floppy since that's how it would have been distributed (in 1992, anyway).
For playing the books, it kept track of all the stats, battles, item upgrades, skills, etc. Really cool screens when you died, won, had battles, etc.
That thing was awesome; I'll have to dig it up from my archives (Dad backed up everything I ever made on a computer when I was a kid) and see if I can play it on an OS 7 emulator or something (Mac). I only ever wrote 2 "books" for it (mostly in 6th or 7th grade English class).
Man, the memories.
This is why successful, industrialized nations need IMPORT TARIFFS on those types of cheap plastic crap goods!
If you're making a good cheaper by externalizing the cost onto foreign workers who don't have the labor protection laws USians do, I cry foul. Make those goods more expensive and we can stop the race to the bottom.
A friend on mine got a DUI (first time, blew a .083, or .003 over the limit, argh) and has an interlock as a condition of his probation (6 months) here's how HIS works:
At random intervals while driving (every 5 to 15 minutes), the device will beep. He has to pick it up and blow into it within a certain amount of time after it beeps (like 15 seconds or something). I think you can "miss" this once and it'll beep again within the next minute. If you ignore it, or have been drinking and fail the test, the car will begin to **honk its horn and flash its head and tail lights**, at which point you need to pull over, take another test or 2 to prove you're OK to drive, and then it resets itself. I have no idea what kind of reporting/black mark it makes when this happens.
But the point is this: It absolutely DOES NOT shut off the car, and during "normal" operation it does not require you to pull over, ever.
Yes, because everyone who was ever arrested for a DUI was guilty. Thanks for clearing that up.
Moron.
Fact: There are names of informants in these documents. Nobody, not even wikileaks, has disputed this.
3 names. One of whom was already dead, another of whom was a double-agent for the Taliban. The third I haven't seen any info on.
And for the record, I'm pro-responsible-leaking. I don't like that wikileaks rushed to publish this information and did a shitty job of redacting information that puts people at risk
I agree IF that's the case, but do we actually know that wikileaks put people at risk? I keep hearing over and over and over that there are all these Afgani sympathizers that have been outed but...where's the list? Who are these people?
The redacted docs are public for the whole world to see, yet I still haven't seen any list. It's just "US government officials say it's possible that...blah blah blah".
Can anyone find this info? Seriously, not trolling.
Um, from a 2nd amendment standpoint, the need for militias is merely the justification for guaranteeing that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. One absolutely does not need to be part of a militia to have and exercise that right.
"Merely the justification"? No offense, but when the justification for something ceases to exist, that thing is no longer justifiable.
My wife got t-boned by a little old lady last week. It happens.
Our "self awareness" is not something that can be explained away with current science.
My emphasis.
Just because current science can't explain it doesn't mean we start making up answers that fly in the face of every single objective observation made by man since the dawn of time.
1>> Well, one should expect this when one is within shouting distance of one of the most secure buildings in the world. The same thing sometimes occurs near other buildings in the DC region. But Fort Meade? You're lucky you get stuff on your car radio.
Why do they need to do active jamming? If the entire building is essentially a SCIF, what the risk? Nothing can leak out.
Crappy movies like this? Saw it as my local "arthouse" cinema when it came out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_(film)
I have a Masters in Comp Sci and I make $50k as a web programmer (php/javascript) and project manager (banking software). fuck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
The story of Planetes follows the crew of the DS-12 "Toy Box" of the Space Debris Section, a unit of Technora Corporation. Debris Section's purpose is to prevent the damage or destruction of satellites, space stations and spacecraft from collision with debris in Earth's and the Moon's orbits. They use a number of methods to dispose of the debris (mainly by burning it via atmospheric reentry or through salvage), accomplished through the use of EVA suits.
The episodes sometimes revolve around debris collection itself, but more often the concept of collecting "trash" in space is merely a storytelling method for building character development. The members of the Debris Section are looked down upon as the lowest members of the company and they must work hard to prove their worth to others and accomplish their dreams.
Well, you have the latter part correct:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/rumsfeld-gq-iraq-bible-quotes-bush
One of the top planners of the US war in Iraq gave President George Bush secret intelligence briefs headlined with biblical quotations, in a bid to boost his standing with the deeply religious president but one that risked sparking a conflagration in the Muslim world if the papers leaked.
Nah, way too human-mind-centric. What if they're a hive like ants or bees?
Having intelligence doesn't necessarily mean they have the same selfish tendencies we do.