Pennsylvania has had a tax on alcohol which is supposed to be used to help Johnstown recover from their flood of 1936. This article gives a good rundown of the tax, how much it is and why it's not going away soon.
If this 'temporary' tax ever gets repealed I would hope our esteemed elected officials would also look into repealing the permanent Pittsburgh and Philadelphia taxes. I realize that with our current governor being from Philly and a competitor being from Pittsburgh the likelihood of a repeal of this tax is highly unlikely but then again, who would have thought that the top two members of the Republican-controlled state senate would be voted out of office?
Currently it's a simple message saying I'm not available and to leave a message. Now I'll have to add:
Be aware that the National Security Agency may be recording this call and anything you say may be used against you. I have no control over this situation as my phone provider is turning over this information on all its customers to the NSA.
Can't wait to hear the questions about this when people start calling.
if there is no sign saying no trespassing they have to show that you where trespassing with bad intent.
No you do not. As I stated in my first post, merely walking across someones yard can be considered trespassing. You don't have to be doing anything else. You are trespassing. There does not have to be a sign.
if you hear someone screaming for help and the door is open and you enter trying to help you can not be arested because you where trying to help.
Obviously.
now if the house is empty and there is no sign and the door is open and you enter.. they have to prove that you entered with bad intent..
No they don't. All they need prove is that you entered their property without authority and without invitation by them. You don't have to do anything. Merely being on their property is enough.
well if you enter a house in the US and the door is open and there is not a sign saing that you shouldn't be there.. all you have to do is leave when asked to and they can not press charges..
Bullfeathers. You can still be charged with trespassing even if you leave. You entered someones home without their permission and without authority to do so. Walking across someones yard can be considered trespass. One does not have to put out a sign saying "Don't enter my house when the door is open". It should be common sense that it is someone elses property and you shouldn't be there.
if there is no sign then it is not trespassing as long as you leave when first asked.
See above.
and if the door is open it can not be considered breaking and entering.
What? Leave the wonderful Keystone State? The one with almost the worst roads in the nation (I think we're 49th) yet PennDOT insists the roads aren't that bad?
Just wait and see if Swanny gets in. All that sponging off of the rest of the Commonwealth that Pittsburgh and Philadelphia do will skyrocket! He'll be funneling so much money to the two southern corners that that 3% city tax will be mandatory for the rest of us just to pay for all the swag you'll be getting.
*Sigh* Sorry if I sound a bit cynical. I've lived in PA all my life and the more I dig the deeper it gets. Maybe, just maybe, if the voters can get their act together this time after the pay raises, general corruption and other related matters the House and Senate will have a bunch of new folks who will make an honest effort at getting things in order.
Maybe I should just hold my breath like David Blaine did and hope for the best.
The only advice I can offer is to avoid box stores like WalMart and Target and go instead for more offbeat ones. I found a set of measuring spoons (not cups) at a Black & Decker outlet store of all places. As far as measuring cups, I was at a Crate & Barrel and while looking through their selection I found an identical set of cups which were made in Korea compared to all the others which were made in China. The designation was stamped into the metal so it wasn't like a sticker had been transferred from something else.
I needed a vegetable peeler. I like the Oxo ones because of their big handles but they're all made in China. Well, almost all. I found one that was made in Korea instead.
I had to buy a new vcr (yes, I still use them) last year and found that only the Panasonic ones were not made in China.
Looking for bedding for your dog or cat? I was in New York last weekend and while waiting for the M4 bus at the stop between 34th & 35th streets at Madison Ave there was a pet store which had bedding made in Montana. Don't know the prices but the appearance of the items seemed nice and fluffy and well made.
It can be done but you have to be willing to make some sacrifices and spend a bit more time. And time is the issue. Unless you need something absolutely right now, put off making the purchase and keep your eyes peeled whenever you go out. See some funky store while walking about? Stop in and see if they have what you're looking for.
You make excellent points and ones that I point out when people talk about how bad the Chineses are to their people yet these same people insist on going to WalMart to buy their stuff. Um folks, where do you think WalMart gets 98% of their stuff from? Duh! The same thing applies when I see someone with a "I'm Union and I vote" bumper sticker parked in WalMarts lot.
I make it a point to never buy products made in China (and a few other countries). It can be difficult but not impossible. The only exception so far is I can't find sunglasses not made in China which don't cost an arm and a few fingers. I don't mind paying a bit extra but not just for a designer name. Especially since the first time I drop them the lenses will scratch just as easily as the chinese made ones.
Another item is a simple pair of black heels (not for me so you can stop your train of thought). Unless one goes to a higher end store where the shoes are made in Italy you can pretty much forget about getting a pair not made in China.
I do my best to not contribute to the chinese economy and their continued repression of human rights. Whenever I take my parents to New York and we happen to walk by Falun Gong members having a silent protest somewhere my mom invariably brings up the subject of how to counter what China is doing to those people and others. I tell her, loud enough for those around me to hear, "Don't buy products made in China. That way you're not financing their actions."
Kida explained that people infected with H5N1 have a carbohydrate receptor on cells lining their throats. The receptor -- called alpha 2,3 -- is predominantly found in birds. Avian influenza viruses like to bind to this class of receptors to replicate and cause disease.
. . . . .
Human influenza viruses, however, prefer to bind to another receptor called alpha 2,6, which is dominant in humans.
Kida is now trying to look for H5N1 survivors in Vietnam and Thailand to verify his theory, and if it proves to be true, it could mean that most people simply cannot catch H5N1 easily -- unless the virus mutates.
First we say the UN is irrelevant and we won't send any of our people to the UN International Court of Justice because the UN has no authority over us.
But, then we say that the UN gave us the ok to invade another country.
However, then we say that the head of UN is corrupt and the whole system needs to be replaced.
But now we're asking this corrupt body who has no authority over us to impose rules on other countries and how they transmit items over the net and elsewhere.
I'm so glad you said the same thing I've been saying for a long time re: someone wanting to do harm not waiting to get on the plane. The line of people waiting to get screened is just as viable a target as an entire plane.
Want to really cause panic in the air traffic system and probably get it shut down? Get you and four of your friends to do the same thing at five different airports at the same time on the same day. Say 12 noon eastern time the day before Thansksgiving.
If anyone from any three letter agency is going through an apoplectic fit because I just said this, get a clue. If this isn't in your contingency plans then what the hell are you doing with my money?
I dont like all the pointless security either but some of it is defintely neccessary, and that wasn't the case on US internal airlines pre-September 2001.
Could you please elaborate on which parts are necessary and which parts aren't if, as you claim, the security is pointless. If the security is pointless then by definition there are no necessary parts of it.
And anyway people need to see security at airports/on planes, in order to allievate fear of flying, which many people had after 9/11 and which would of course impact on the number of passengers.
Except security has always been visible at airports. I remember flying out of BWI in July of 2001 and having to have my bag x-rayed and my camera case wiped* before I was allowed to enter the plane.
Besides, visible security didn't stop Atta et al from getting on the planes even when the metal detector when off twice at Dulles yet the guard on duty didn't bother to find out why the detector went off. The folks who boarded the Dulles plane were pulled aside and checked but were allowed to proceed.
So despite visible security, despite two warnings from the metal detector, despite secondary checks of the people themselves, the hijackers still got on the plane and went about their business.
So tell me again why visible security is so great?
*I never put my camera equipment and film through the x-ray machines despite assurances that nothing would happen. I voluntarily request a hand check of my equipment. They ran a cotton cloth over my bags and put it in the sniffer to check for explosives. Only one time of the few times I have flown did anyone physically examine my lenses and equipment to be sure they were real. Everyone else simply looked around in the case and/or wiped the outside.
let just say I think your world outlook is probably simplistic (at best).
No, yours is the simplistic one. You apparently believe that an artist should voluntarily give up work that they created to satisfy your desire to get something for nothing.
While I am no fan of the nonsensical extensions of trademarks, patents, copyright and related matters, the fact of the matter is that Lucas created the work, Lucas produced the work and in most of the cases, Lucas distributed the work. He's the one who put in the effort to do all this so he should be rewarded for it. If you think 30 years is long enough then you create some cinematic masterpiece, make your billions for 30 years then you release it into the wild for the public. You have that right. Just as Lucas has the right to not release it.
As far as the gas analogy, it is perfectly valid. You are depriving Lucas, and everyone else who gets a cut, of money. It doesn't matter that the work is in digitial form, which is nebulous, compared to oil, which is physical, the fact remains you are still taking something which isn't yours to begin with and not compensating the person who produced the work. Therefore, you are stealing.
And yes, showing one example does validate the study. It only takes one. Your statement proves what the study, no matter how biased it may be, says is happening. Piracy is causing the loss of revenue to studios because people like you think it's acceptable to not compensate someone for their work.
Just because you think Lucas has made enough money doesn't justify stealing his works. I'm presuming you feel it's acceptable to fill your tank with gas and drive off without paying because the oil companies have made enough money.
And while it's easy to diss credit without it most people would never afford a house at all.
Agreed. I'm not saying credit or debt is bad (ok, debt is bad) but rather peoples concept of debt and how they manage it. About every other week you can hear/read a news story about how much the average persons personal debt is. It's something like $5,000. But that's the average. People like me are way under that number which means there are people out there with $10,000 or more of credit card debt. That doesn't even account for any other loans they may have outstanding including mortgages.
The micro-crdit agencies you speak of are great. I've seen several stories over the years about how these agencies will give small loans ($100 or so) to villagers somewhere in the third world so they can get better equipment which allows them to produce more goods which then allows them to have more money to expand their production and so on and so forth. The key though is the education process that these people have to go through to understand that they will have to pay this money back over time and how that process works.
Compare that to the usual process here in the U.S. where any collage student can get a credit card (which is how I got my first one) and run up huge bills because, for whatever reason, the basic concept of managing debt was never explained to them. Then, when they have to pay off thousands of dollars of student loans AND the thousands of dollars in credit card debt, they whine and complain about how they have to work so hard to pay off their debts. What, did they think the credit card company would let them not pay off their bills?
We can blame whomever we want (lack of parental responsibility, lack of schooling, etc) but in the end this concept that we should put every outlay on a credit card (.65 cents for a candy bar in some cases) and not grasp that the interest that will eventually be paid on the purchase can be larger than the actual purchase itself if not paid off quickly needs to be broken. It's a mindset of this country that "Buy now, pay later!" is our friend.
Debt is evil. A necessary evil but evil nonetheless. Once I stopped putting loads of money on my credit card and started paying off my bill every month or paying cash whenever possible I was able to accumulate the money I now have to purchase a house (high house prices are making it difficult though) with 20% down so I avoid the PMI tax (er, fee).
If more people would pay off their debts, stop using check cashing services (15% of the total to cash a check!) and would pay in cash you'd see a huge improvement in living conditions including more money put away for retirement purposes.
Bingo. I feel the same way. I don't need all those things. I just need enough to make me comfortable. I go for the 'Quality over Quantity' motto.
I went mortgage shopping two weeks ago and in talking to one of the loan officers I met with I told her how after I put the 20% down on the house I would be doing the 1/12 extra payment per month to speed up paying off my loan. I told her I hate debt. She remarked I probably had no credit card debt and paid it off every month to which I replied, "I think I have $70 on it right now."
She chuckled and said she wished she had that kind of discipline.
I've always hated owing people money and have always paid off my loans early or put off buying large items until I had the cash to cover it. Going into debt up to ones eyeballs has never made sense to me. But I guess people are taking cues from the way the country is run.
How can people spend money on multiple pcs? Or getting the newest video card every 6 months. Or buying the latest fashion item, wearing it 3 times then repeating the process. How about buying 20 different jewel-encrusted watches?
While I understand what you're getting at the fact remains that people will spend their money as they see fit regardless of what you or I believe might be a better way. Put another way: People will do what they do because that's what people do.
This talk about tracking people and determining the amount of visitors to a site is somewhat dated. Here is an article from October of 2005 in which, astonishingly, it is revealed that people are deleting their browser cookies so when they go back to a site they are counted as a unique visitor even though they may have visited the site yesterday.
What the author is pointing out is merely the obvious: when a site says they have X visitors they're making a guess. In fact, this link from April 30th both explains and shows why web site statistics are not accurate.
This need to say how many visitors a site has is nothing more than marketers trying to justify their costs. The trend to shove commercials down our throats using every conceivable idea including the possibility of preventing you from switching channels when a commercial comes on serves only the marketers since they're the ones who are reaping the most from inflated statistics.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering I have accumulated almost 45 days of annual leave and 2 days of personal leave (out of a possible 4), I have no idea what a vacation is.
Oh, you mean time off from dealing with the people who annoy me with their problems. In that case my vacation is when I leave work.
If this 'temporary' tax ever gets repealed I would hope our esteemed elected officials would also look into repealing the permanent Pittsburgh and Philadelphia taxes. I realize that with our current governor being from Philly and a competitor being from Pittsburgh the likelihood of a repeal of this tax is highly unlikely but then again, who would have thought that the top two members of the Republican-controlled state senate would be voted out of office?
At least it's not 2 days.
Be careful what you wish for.
I'm at work at the moment so I can't do a proper search for images but think about it: would you want to see Margaret Thatcher walking around naked?
And yes, I had the box checked so it would be considered for posting.
It's a curse being ahead of the curve.
I don't think it will be thumbs that will be up.
Come on folks. It's either:
IBM to Adopt ODF for Lotus Notes OR
IBM Adopts ODF for Lotus Notes
But not both. Please choose one.
Because as we all know those dangerous predators are only on the interweb.
Go for it. In fact, anyone who wants to use what I wrote is free to do so. The more the merrier.
Currently it's a simple message saying I'm not available and to leave a message. Now I'll have to add:
Be aware that the National Security Agency may be recording this call and anything you say may be used against you. I have no control over this situation as my phone provider is turning over this information on all its customers to the NSA.
Can't wait to hear the questions about this when people start calling.
No you do not. As I stated in my first post, merely walking across someones yard can be considered trespassing. You don't have to be doing anything else. You are trespassing. There does not have to be a sign.
if you hear someone screaming for help and the door is open and you enter trying to help you can not be arested because you where trying to help.
Obviously.
now if the house is empty and there is no sign and the door is open and you enter.. they have to prove that you entered with bad intent..
No they don't. All they need prove is that you entered their property without authority and without invitation by them. You don't have to do anything. Merely being on their property is enough.
Bullfeathers. You can still be charged with trespassing even if you leave. You entered someones home without their permission and without authority to do so. Walking across someones yard can be considered trespass. One does not have to put out a sign saying "Don't enter my house when the door is open". It should be common sense that it is someone elses property and you shouldn't be there.
if there is no sign then it is not trespassing as long as you leave when first asked.
See above.
and if the door is open it can not be considered breaking and entering.
But there is always trespassing.
What? Leave the wonderful Keystone State? The one with almost the worst roads in the nation (I think we're 49th) yet PennDOT insists the roads aren't that bad?
Just wait and see if Swanny gets in. All that sponging off of the rest of the Commonwealth that Pittsburgh and Philadelphia do will skyrocket! He'll be funneling so much money to the two southern corners that that 3% city tax will be mandatory for the rest of us just to pay for all the swag you'll be getting.
*Sigh* Sorry if I sound a bit cynical. I've lived in PA all my life and the more I dig the deeper it gets. Maybe, just maybe, if the voters can get their act together this time after the pay raises, general corruption and other related matters the House and Senate will have a bunch of new folks who will make an honest effort at getting things in order.
Maybe I should just hold my breath like David Blaine did and hope for the best.
The only advice I can offer is to avoid box stores like WalMart and Target and go instead for more offbeat ones. I found a set of measuring spoons (not cups) at a Black & Decker outlet store of all places. As far as measuring cups, I was at a Crate & Barrel and while looking through their selection I found an identical set of cups which were made in Korea compared to all the others which were made in China. The designation was stamped into the metal so it wasn't like a sticker had been transferred from something else.
I needed a vegetable peeler. I like the Oxo ones because of their big handles but they're all made in China. Well, almost all. I found one that was made in Korea instead.
I had to buy a new vcr (yes, I still use them) last year and found that only the Panasonic ones were not made in China.
Looking for bedding for your dog or cat? I was in New York last weekend and while waiting for the M4 bus at the stop between 34th & 35th streets at Madison Ave there was a pet store which had bedding made in Montana. Don't know the prices but the appearance of the items seemed nice and fluffy and well made.
It can be done but you have to be willing to make some sacrifices and spend a bit more time. And time is the issue. Unless you need something absolutely right now, put off making the purchase and keep your eyes peeled whenever you go out. See some funky store while walking about? Stop in and see if they have what you're looking for.
You make excellent points and ones that I point out when people talk about how bad the Chineses are to their people yet these same people insist on going to WalMart to buy their stuff. Um folks, where do you think WalMart gets 98% of their stuff from? Duh! The same thing applies when I see someone with a "I'm Union and I vote" bumper sticker parked in WalMarts lot.
I make it a point to never buy products made in China (and a few other countries). It can be difficult but not impossible. The only exception so far is I can't find sunglasses not made in China which don't cost an arm and a few fingers. I don't mind paying a bit extra but not just for a designer name. Especially since the first time I drop them the lenses will scratch just as easily as the chinese made ones.
Another item is a simple pair of black heels (not for me so you can stop your train of thought). Unless one goes to a higher end store where the shoes are made in Italy you can pretty much forget about getting a pair not made in China.
I do my best to not contribute to the chinese economy and their continued repression of human rights. Whenever I take my parents to New York and we happen to walk by Falun Gong members having a silent protest somewhere my mom invariably brings up the subject of how to counter what China is doing to those people and others. I tell her, loud enough for those around me to hear, "Don't buy products made in China. That way you're not financing their actions."
Kida explained that people infected with H5N1 have a carbohydrate receptor on cells lining their throats. The receptor -- called alpha 2,3 -- is predominantly found in birds. Avian influenza viruses like to bind to this class of receptors to replicate and cause disease.
. . . . .
Human influenza viruses, however, prefer to bind to another receptor called alpha 2,6, which is dominant in humans.
Kida is now trying to look for H5N1 survivors in Vietnam and Thailand to verify his theory, and if it proves to be true, it could mean that most people simply cannot catch H5N1 easily -- unless the virus mutates.
First we say the UN is irrelevant and we won't send any of our people to the UN International Court of Justice because the UN has no authority over us.
But, then we say that the UN gave us the ok to invade another country.
However, then we say that the head of UN is corrupt and the whole system needs to be replaced.
But now we're asking this corrupt body who has no authority over us to impose rules on other countries and how they transmit items over the net and elsewhere.
Someone stop the spinning! I'm gonna throw up!
I'm so glad you said the same thing I've been saying for a long time re: someone wanting to do harm not waiting to get on the plane. The line of people waiting to get screened is just as viable a target as an entire plane.
Want to really cause panic in the air traffic system and probably get it shut down? Get you and four of your friends to do the same thing at five different airports at the same time on the same day. Say 12 noon eastern time the day before Thansksgiving.
If anyone from any three letter agency is going through an apoplectic fit because I just said this, get a clue. If this isn't in your contingency plans then what the hell are you doing with my money?
Could you please elaborate on which parts are necessary and which parts aren't if, as you claim, the security is pointless. If the security is pointless then by definition there are no necessary parts of it.
And anyway people need to see security at airports/on planes, in order to allievate fear of flying, which many people had after 9/11 and which would of course impact on the number of passengers.
Except security has always been visible at airports. I remember flying out of BWI in July of 2001 and having to have my bag x-rayed and my camera case wiped* before I was allowed to enter the plane.
Besides, visible security didn't stop Atta et al from getting on the planes even when the metal detector when off twice at Dulles yet the guard on duty didn't bother to find out why the detector went off. The folks who boarded the Dulles plane were pulled aside and checked but were allowed to proceed.
So despite visible security, despite two warnings from the metal detector, despite secondary checks of the people themselves, the hijackers still got on the plane and went about their business.
So tell me again why visible security is so great?
*I never put my camera equipment and film through the x-ray machines despite assurances that nothing would happen. I voluntarily request a hand check of my equipment. They ran a cotton cloth over my bags and put it in the sniffer to check for explosives. Only one time of the few times I have flown did anyone physically examine my lenses and equipment to be sure they were real. Everyone else simply looked around in the case and/or wiped the outside.
No, yours is the simplistic one. You apparently believe that an artist should voluntarily give up work that they created to satisfy your desire to get something for nothing.
While I am no fan of the nonsensical extensions of trademarks, patents, copyright and related matters, the fact of the matter is that Lucas created the work, Lucas produced the work and in most of the cases, Lucas distributed the work. He's the one who put in the effort to do all this so he should be rewarded for it. If you think 30 years is long enough then you create some cinematic masterpiece, make your billions for 30 years then you release it into the wild for the public. You have that right. Just as Lucas has the right to not release it.
As far as the gas analogy, it is perfectly valid. You are depriving Lucas, and everyone else who gets a cut, of money. It doesn't matter that the work is in digitial form, which is nebulous, compared to oil, which is physical, the fact remains you are still taking something which isn't yours to begin with and not compensating the person who produced the work. Therefore, you are stealing.
And yes, showing one example does validate the study. It only takes one. Your statement proves what the study, no matter how biased it may be, says is happening. Piracy is causing the loss of revenue to studios because people like you think it's acceptable to not compensate someone for their work.
Thus proving the validity of this story.
Just because you think Lucas has made enough money doesn't justify stealing his works. I'm presuming you feel it's acceptable to fill your tank with gas and drive off without paying because the oil companies have made enough money.
Agreed. I'm not saying credit or debt is bad (ok, debt is bad) but rather peoples concept of debt and how they manage it. About every other week you can hear/read a news story about how much the average persons personal debt is. It's something like $5,000. But that's the average. People like me are way under that number which means there are people out there with $10,000 or more of credit card debt. That doesn't even account for any other loans they may have outstanding including mortgages.
The micro-crdit agencies you speak of are great. I've seen several stories over the years about how these agencies will give small loans ($100 or so) to villagers somewhere in the third world so they can get better equipment which allows them to produce more goods which then allows them to have more money to expand their production and so on and so forth. The key though is the education process that these people have to go through to understand that they will have to pay this money back over time and how that process works.
Compare that to the usual process here in the U.S. where any collage student can get a credit card (which is how I got my first one) and run up huge bills because, for whatever reason, the basic concept of managing debt was never explained to them. Then, when they have to pay off thousands of dollars of student loans AND the thousands of dollars in credit card debt, they whine and complain about how they have to work so hard to pay off their debts. What, did they think the credit card company would let them not pay off their bills?
We can blame whomever we want (lack of parental responsibility, lack of schooling, etc) but in the end this concept that we should put every outlay on a credit card (.65 cents for a candy bar in some cases) and not grasp that the interest that will eventually be paid on the purchase can be larger than the actual purchase itself if not paid off quickly needs to be broken. It's a mindset of this country that "Buy now, pay later!" is our friend.
Debt is evil. A necessary evil but evil nonetheless. Once I stopped putting loads of money on my credit card and started paying off my bill every month or paying cash whenever possible I was able to accumulate the money I now have to purchase a house (high house prices are making it difficult though) with 20% down so I avoid the PMI tax (er, fee).
If more people would pay off their debts, stop using check cashing services (15% of the total to cash a check!) and would pay in cash you'd see a huge improvement in living conditions including more money put away for retirement purposes.
Bingo. I feel the same way. I don't need all those things. I just need enough to make me comfortable. I go for the 'Quality over Quantity' motto.
I went mortgage shopping two weeks ago and in talking to one of the loan officers I met with I told her how after I put the 20% down on the house I would be doing the 1/12 extra payment per month to speed up paying off my loan. I told her I hate debt. She remarked I probably had no credit card debt and paid it off every month to which I replied, "I think I have $70 on it right now."
She chuckled and said she wished she had that kind of discipline.
I've always hated owing people money and have always paid off my loans early or put off buying large items until I had the cash to cover it. Going into debt up to ones eyeballs has never made sense to me. But I guess people are taking cues from the way the country is run.
How can people spend money on multiple pcs? Or getting the newest video card every 6 months. Or buying the latest fashion item, wearing it 3 times then repeating the process. How about buying 20 different jewel-encrusted watches?
While I understand what you're getting at the fact remains that people will spend their money as they see fit regardless of what you or I believe might be a better way. Put another way: People will do what they do because that's what people do.
What the author is pointing out is merely the obvious: when a site says they have X visitors they're making a guess. In fact, this link from April 30th both explains and shows why web site statistics are not accurate.
This need to say how many visitors a site has is nothing more than marketers trying to justify their costs. The trend to shove commercials down our throats using every conceivable idea including the possibility of preventing you from switching channels when a commercial comes on serves only the marketers since they're the ones who are reaping the most from inflated statistics.