I'm 24 and I generally recieved poor marks in penmanship in grade school, we were graded on it up until the 6th grade or so. However, I use cursive quite frequently. When taking notes or an exam it is simply faster and keeps my hand from cramping up. With that being said, I do use regular print regularly in some instances, often for letters like X,S,H, etc.
Granted, as a PhD student I am a bit of a statistical outlyer, but I doubt cursive will die. If anything, it will become something quaint and exotic. We wouldn't expect a lay person to be able to read COBOL; perhaps in 20 years cursive will be the domain of academics and other quirky groups.
When I was a kid.... (I finished high school in 2004) quite a few of my friends were paid for good grades, I was not. My mom's logic was simple- school is something you have to do, one should strive for good grades for the sake of good grades and the eventual payoff down the line when you get into college and land a good job.
Paying kids for grades changes everything into a zero-sum game about money and nothing but. These kids aren't learning any concepts, I doubt they can remember much of what they learned even a month later; they cram for the cash, and then promptly forget.
For the record, most of those friends who got paid for grades have either dropped out of college or changed their majors 20 times over and are now cruising by with a 2.0 on their way to a degree in business. Me? I'm working on my PhD.
As a Supreme Court nerd.... she is nominated for Associate Justice. John Roberts is the Chief Justice and will likely remain so for the next 30 years or so.
Actually, by virtue of the Interstate commerce clause- and it applies to MS as well, Microsoft or your diner would be in violation of federal law for refusing service based on race.
As far as Xbox and the gay population though- sexual orientation is not a protected status- yet. So, MS is completely within their rights to ban this girl. If she were however banned for being black or Asian or whatever, then they would be breaking the law.
I'm actually a community organizer who, until very recently, actually worked on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Having talked to literally thousands of average people day in and day out for 18, the vast majority of people given the chance would join a union (studies have backed this up- a full 86% of people would join a union given a chance).
Granted, as an organizer I was actually in management and sometimes the union contract got in the way of removing a problematic employee; but at the same time it serves as a deterent to unfair practices by management.
I'm seeing a lot of opposition to the removal of the secret ballot. Let me clarify. Under the present system people need to sign union cards- until you hit 50%+1 to say 'We'd like to vote on the issue of whether or not we have a union.' The company then knows exactly who has expressed interest in a union and usually target those folks with intimidation/firing/coersion up until the election... which is held on the employer's home turf.
Furthermore, EFCA also greatly increases the fines for union busting activities. Right now, someone is fired in America every few minutes for union activity; Wal-Mart has a whole corporate department dedicated to union busting. Violations usually cost a company about 5,000 bucks- and when you're Wal-Mart that's nothing; but under EFCA- those penalties rise to as much as $250,000 per incident. Something tells me Wal-Mart might actually play by the law now.
As for me, my dad was a union guy, I'm a professional, couple of advanced degrees, yet I worked in organizing and did management there. I've seen how a union paycheck allows people to live at a decent level (we weren't rich- but we didn't have to choose between getting the car fixed and only buying the store brand cookies rather than Chips Ahoy. And for me its a little personal. My dad worked at UPS- when I was in high school I developed a very severe case of scoliosis- without a major surgery I wouldn't be able to walk today. Because the union fought for better health benefits during the 1997 labor dispute with UPS I had the surgery (keeping track of the bills that came home during a 4 month recovery the sticker price is a little more than $300,000) and I can still walk.
Of course there is always that free market arguement. If any of the free-market apologetics have ever actually read Adam Smith- they'd notice he calls for a self-imposed limit to the hours and excesses of large business- that clearly hasn't happened. Also, he was writing in a time where labor relations played out in a small shop- sure it was easy to go to the cobbler across the street if the one you were working for was treating you poorly. These days (and especially with what has been going down lately) that is no longer possible. Companies have all the leverage to make the average employees life a living hell.
Also, while unions do protect crappy and lazy employees, studies have suggested the quality of work from union employees is much higher in union made products than in non-union ones. If anyone would like the stats and citations... I'll be happy to get them for you- just not in front of me right now.
Although I will probably be back in academia by the time EFCA passes (which I have little doubt it will) I am proud to have worked on this campaign- it is high time workers are treated as humans and not tools of excessive corporate profit.
I'm reminded of a T-shirt I saw once for one of the local unions, "United we bargain- alone we beg."
Full disclosure: I served as the Assistant Canvass Director of Working America, AFL-CIO, Cleveland from June 07- November 08.
Incorrect-
Actually the classical liberal values that which brings community together and conserves the present way of life. The modern conservative who places all his eggs on the free market is actually a bit of a historical oddball.
The whole idea of e-books makes me a little hesitant. I'm an academic and I underline like none other in my books (at least the academic ones). So if an e-book reader had a stylus or something I could "write" with I might be receptive to the idea. Would also help if the academic publishers (Oxford, Harvard, Illonois, CQ etc.) were to jump on board. Does anyone know of either occuring?
Call it a labor of love.... the guys that go for it are not so much interested in making it rich but in contributing to the next space landing...... Super Geeks... with a capital S
This is, in most other circumstances harmless. I used to do photography a lot- I worked with what I knew. I worked with my cat, I worked with the local National Park, I worked, yes, with my high school. I took hundreds of shots of the angles off the hallways, because I thought it looked cool. I took an absolute ton of the clock tower on campus. Nothing ever came of it. I wasn't doing recon for a terrorist strike, or looking for hiding places to shoot the place up. Now I suspect the kid was doing the same, he knows the school so wanted to build it. Last time I checked doing art (which a level design clearly is) is still legal.
I can top that. I work as a theater critic, and one of our local theaters requires Windows to access their ticket page. Since I get my tickets through my media contact (requiring little more than an e-mail) it's still a pain in the ass when I want to check ticket prices so I can publish them in my review. I can sort of understand a browser check- but an operating system check?
Those rights you listed only apply to the government- ie the government can not deprive you of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. (See 5th Amendment for the federal government or the 14th for the states). Circuit City's actions- under the present case law, does not represent such a violation- although I join you in asserting it should be.
When I was a kid I was totally hooked on video games, I'm talking about 40 hours a week of Madden 2000 and Final Fantasy. We used some games in the curriculum at my grade school, however we tended to blow the games off- they were forcing us to learn, we didn't care, they weren't fun. I preferred textbook learning to video game learning by far, but then again I am looking to go to graduate school now, so I don't know how representative I am of the broader population.
I don't know.... I've worked retail for 6 years (2 as a cashier, 3 as a supervisor, and 1 in a pharmacy). You my friend give people too much credit.... Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.
When I was at Xavier University Wikipedia was blocked. I called to report this issue, explaining I often read Wikipedia for fun. The IT people dragged their feet, questioning if I was sure the site existed. In short, they did nothing. I found a work around with Google Web Accellerator- but this was my last day on campus while I waited for my mom to come and pick me up:-/
XU also blocked accessing a website via its IP address- which kept me from accessing proxies to work around this issue.
Having done historical research I can say that 200 year old newspapers are rarely on anything but microfilm- while I think charging like this is quite shady- it would be nice to finally be able to do research from home rather than having to go to the relevent library or historical society.
"Our federal union must endure"
~President Andrew Jackson, 1837
Actually- you picked the wrong person to spout your racist and hateful rhetoric at- I'm working on a PhD in Political Theory- I've done considerable work in terrorism. And I would argue al Quida is to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity. Terrorism, in its modern form first appeared in the late 19th century in Russia when the Tsar's carriage was bombed by radicals from the Black Earth Party. Terrorism has since shown its hateful face in every culture. A previous poster refered to FARC- a Columbian paramilitary organization which engages in far more terror than al Quida does. There is of course- the IRA- which I have studied, which had been active in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom for nearly 3 decades before laying down their arms- after being approached as humans by a joint coalition of the British, Americans, and Irish. The list goes on- there are terrorist organizations in every civilization- we have the Ku Klux Klan, some would argue the Black Panthers as well, neo-Nazi's are terrorists, as was the Unabomber and Tim McVeigh, for Christ's sake his book was entitled 'American Terrorist.'
Having studyed the rule of law and the fall of civilizations it is when security takes precedence over the rights of minorities that civilizations decline the most. The majority does not need protections guarenteed in the Constitution, it is the minorities that truly need them. Your words are hateful and despicable- but you have a right to spout your rhetoric. That is what makes America great.
Would you argue that a mall security guard may stop a black simply because they might just so happen to be more prone to shoplifting 'no two ways about it'? Think about what you advocate for a second. I welcome you to talk to an Arabic person for a change. I interviewed one about emigrating to the United States shortly before 9-11. When I asked him about 9-11 he was litteraly in tears- he felt so bad for what he saw as a bastardization of his faith. Remember- the Crusades were fought because 'god ordered them' (disclaimer: I'm a Deist). Pick up the Quran- its very similar to the Bible in its condemnation of violence.
You, my friend, are a racist toward Arabs. A terrorist can be anyone, it could be me, it could be you- treating a class of people as less than humans or citizens because of a particularly active terrorist organization would be to betray the principles that made America happen and merely feed fuel to the al-Quida fire.
I'm aiming for my PhD in Political Science... after reading this I feel less embarassed for wanting to design a course called 'The Politics of Star Wars'
Bonus points if your final makes significant mention of the Wookiees.
IANAL- but I am a Constitutional Law scholar and I think poster may have a case for his rights being violated, namely with the laptop. Assuming of course this flight was aboard an American carrier and that customs official digging through his laptop was also an American. Poster was informed he would be released before the customs official went through his laptop looking for contraband. It is somewhat hazy but generally computers fall under the 4th Amendment's guarantee against undue search and seizure. If the guy wants to look- he damn well better have a search warrant from a judge. Seeing as he is to be released for lack of evidence- there is no basis for the search.
Now, if the customs official was Canadian, or an agent of the Canadian government it gets a lot more murky. True- what I am assuming are American and Canadian authorities have decided to let him go, but poster is passing through the customs of another country. However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also guarantees against undue search (Article 8) and puts forth the right to consul (U.S. Escobedo and Miranda) (Canada: CoRaF Article 10). Poster was clearly not given those.
Surely, the argument I have just made can be reconstructed by the other side of the argument- in the name of national security or some other erosion of rights. Allow me to quote Ben Franklin, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". On that note- I encourage poster to contact the ACLU or its Canadian equivalent and bring suit (the ACLU will do all the work for you on a pro bono basis). Such a case has the possibility to clarify rights in the paranoid stripping of rights that is the War on Terror.
The university I go to has Firefox installed on all the computers, but I can count on one hand the number of people that actualy use it. Most people use Internet Explorer because the big blue E has not been removed. A good follow up study would be to see how many students at that 68% of UK universities actualy use Firefox.
Compared to some of the stuff people in tech support see this is absolutely nothing. Check out http://techcomedy.com/ to get a taste of just how stupid some people can be. Knowing computers is a bit of a curse, everyone that knows you assumes you are their own personal computer bitch.
The summary is mistaken. TFA is quite clear that this is for a British version of the game and that it is merely one of the 10,000 variations of Monopoly. I mean- we have Star Wars Monopoly, 'Cleveland in a Box' Monopoly, and my personal favorite Ghettopoly (which you can;t get in the U.S. now, google it sometime for the Department of Justice freaking out over it). This is simply Visa Monopoly. Nothing to see here- move along.
The Founding Fathers never intended for the executive to be popular, Machivelli makes it abundantly clear a popular prince (executive) is a serious danger to the populace. A popular vote for president, or what this guy is proposing is a majorly dumb idea.
Over 50% of the U.S. population lives in 6 major urban areas. If the presidency were based on only a popular vote then canidates would only hit those 6 urban centers- people in the middle of Montana would never get a campaign visit from the president, nor would the executive ever find it nessasary to reach out to what they value.
One proposal from Dr. Larry Keller (Cleveland State University) calls for non-partisan elections for electors, with stringent regulations on their political backgrounds, who would create a criteria of what the state is looking for in a president. Canidates could then apply to the various states as they see fit, or not (AKA Bush would not even bother in Minnesota). The canidates would fill out an application and then the state could call the best applicants for publically broadcast interviews. At the conclusion of this process the electors would vote for who they see as the best canidate and award the votes accordingly, in a non-winner-take-all manner.
This of course has the effect of removing the threat of a popular vote and allows for non-major party canidates, or even political ones, from monopolizing the election. I, coming from an academic background in Political Science fully support this proposal. I'll go one step further.... I'll give you Dr. Larry's e-mail address- he loves a good discussion: larry@urban.csuohio.edu
Why would anyone really want to use this? I made an account just to see what there is to see and sure it looks nice, but the applications are all in house- you need to register seperate to use gOffice. Their site touts it as an easy way to access your own desktop and store files- well geez I think most of us here are capable of setting up a server of our own to do just that, a server that is not accessable by whoever is running YouOS
Slashdot Mirror
I'm 24 and I generally recieved poor marks in penmanship in grade school, we were graded on it up until the 6th grade or so. However, I use cursive quite frequently. When taking notes or an exam it is simply faster and keeps my hand from cramping up. With that being said, I do use regular print regularly in some instances, often for letters like X,S,H, etc.
Granted, as a PhD student I am a bit of a statistical outlyer, but I doubt cursive will die. If anything, it will become something quaint and exotic. We wouldn't expect a lay person to be able to read COBOL; perhaps in 20 years cursive will be the domain of academics and other quirky groups.
When I was a kid.... (I finished high school in 2004) quite a few of my friends were paid for good grades, I was not. My mom's logic was simple- school is something you have to do, one should strive for good grades for the sake of good grades and the eventual payoff down the line when you get into college and land a good job.
Paying kids for grades changes everything into a zero-sum game about money and nothing but. These kids aren't learning any concepts, I doubt they can remember much of what they learned even a month later; they cram for the cash, and then promptly forget.
For the record, most of those friends who got paid for grades have either dropped out of college or changed their majors 20 times over and are now cruising by with a 2.0 on their way to a degree in business. Me? I'm working on my PhD.
As a Supreme Court nerd.... she is nominated for Associate Justice. John Roberts is the Chief Justice and will likely remain so for the next 30 years or so.
Actually, by virtue of the Interstate commerce clause- and it applies to MS as well, Microsoft or your diner would be in violation of federal law for refusing service based on race. As far as Xbox and the gay population though- sexual orientation is not a protected status- yet. So, MS is completely within their rights to ban this girl. If she were however banned for being black or Asian or whatever, then they would be breaking the law.
I'm actually a community organizer who, until very recently, actually worked on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Having talked to literally thousands of average people day in and day out for 18, the vast majority of people given the chance would join a union (studies have backed this up- a full 86% of people would join a union given a chance).
Granted, as an organizer I was actually in management and sometimes the union contract got in the way of removing a problematic employee; but at the same time it serves as a deterent to unfair practices by management.
I'm seeing a lot of opposition to the removal of the secret ballot. Let me clarify. Under the present system people need to sign union cards- until you hit 50%+1 to say 'We'd like to vote on the issue of whether or not we have a union.' The company then knows exactly who has expressed interest in a union and usually target those folks with intimidation/firing/coersion up until the election... which is held on the employer's home turf.
Furthermore, EFCA also greatly increases the fines for union busting activities. Right now, someone is fired in America every few minutes for union activity; Wal-Mart has a whole corporate department dedicated to union busting. Violations usually cost a company about 5,000 bucks- and when you're Wal-Mart that's nothing; but under EFCA- those penalties rise to as much as $250,000 per incident. Something tells me Wal-Mart might actually play by the law now.
As for me, my dad was a union guy, I'm a professional, couple of advanced degrees, yet I worked in organizing and did management there. I've seen how a union paycheck allows people to live at a decent level (we weren't rich- but we didn't have to choose between getting the car fixed and only buying the store brand cookies rather than Chips Ahoy. And for me its a little personal. My dad worked at UPS- when I was in high school I developed a very severe case of scoliosis- without a major surgery I wouldn't be able to walk today. Because the union fought for better health benefits during the 1997 labor dispute with UPS I had the surgery (keeping track of the bills that came home during a 4 month recovery the sticker price is a little more than $300,000) and I can still walk.
Of course there is always that free market arguement. If any of the free-market apologetics have ever actually read Adam Smith- they'd notice he calls for a self-imposed limit to the hours and excesses of large business- that clearly hasn't happened. Also, he was writing in a time where labor relations played out in a small shop- sure it was easy to go to the cobbler across the street if the one you were working for was treating you poorly. These days (and especially with what has been going down lately) that is no longer possible. Companies have all the leverage to make the average employees life a living hell.
Also, while unions do protect crappy and lazy employees, studies have suggested the quality of work from union employees is much higher in union made products than in non-union ones. If anyone would like the stats and citations... I'll be happy to get them for you- just not in front of me right now.
Although I will probably be back in academia by the time EFCA passes (which I have little doubt it will) I am proud to have worked on this campaign- it is high time workers are treated as humans and not tools of excessive corporate profit.
I'm reminded of a T-shirt I saw once for one of the local unions, "United we bargain- alone we beg."
Full disclosure: I served as the Assistant Canvass Director of Working America, AFL-CIO, Cleveland from June 07- November 08.
Incorrect- Actually the classical liberal values that which brings community together and conserves the present way of life. The modern conservative who places all his eggs on the free market is actually a bit of a historical oddball.
The whole idea of e-books makes me a little hesitant. I'm an academic and I underline like none other in my books (at least the academic ones). So if an e-book reader had a stylus or something I could "write" with I might be receptive to the idea. Would also help if the academic publishers (Oxford, Harvard, Illonois, CQ etc.) were to jump on board. Does anyone know of either occuring?
Call it a labor of love.... the guys that go for it are not so much interested in making it rich but in contributing to the next space landing...... Super Geeks... with a capital S
This is, in most other circumstances harmless. I used to do photography a lot- I worked with what I knew. I worked with my cat, I worked with the local National Park, I worked, yes, with my high school. I took hundreds of shots of the angles off the hallways, because I thought it looked cool. I took an absolute ton of the clock tower on campus. Nothing ever came of it. I wasn't doing recon for a terrorist strike, or looking for hiding places to shoot the place up. Now I suspect the kid was doing the same, he knows the school so wanted to build it. Last time I checked doing art (which a level design clearly is) is still legal.
In Soviet Russia levels design you
I can top that. I work as a theater critic, and one of our local theaters requires Windows to access their ticket page. Since I get my tickets through my media contact (requiring little more than an e-mail) it's still a pain in the ass when I want to check ticket prices so I can publish them in my review. I can sort of understand a browser check- but an operating system check?
Those rights you listed only apply to the government- ie the government can not deprive you of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. (See 5th Amendment for the federal government or the 14th for the states). Circuit City's actions- under the present case law, does not represent such a violation- although I join you in asserting it should be.
When I was a kid I was totally hooked on video games, I'm talking about 40 hours a week of Madden 2000 and Final Fantasy. We used some games in the curriculum at my grade school, however we tended to blow the games off- they were forcing us to learn, we didn't care, they weren't fun. I preferred textbook learning to video game learning by far, but then again I am looking to go to graduate school now, so I don't know how representative I am of the broader population.
I don't know.... I've worked retail for 6 years (2 as a cashier, 3 as a supervisor, and 1 in a pharmacy). You my friend give people too much credit.... Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.
XU also blocked accessing a website via its IP address- which kept me from accessing proxies to work around this issue.
In my experience- panics come at you mostly from bad RAM and bad power supplies- might want to look into those.
Having done historical research I can say that 200 year old newspapers are rarely on anything but microfilm- while I think charging like this is quite shady- it would be nice to finally be able to do research from home rather than having to go to the relevent library or historical society.
"Our federal union must endure" ~President Andrew Jackson, 1837 Actually- you picked the wrong person to spout your racist and hateful rhetoric at- I'm working on a PhD in Political Theory- I've done considerable work in terrorism. And I would argue al Quida is to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity. Terrorism, in its modern form first appeared in the late 19th century in Russia when the Tsar's carriage was bombed by radicals from the Black Earth Party. Terrorism has since shown its hateful face in every culture. A previous poster refered to FARC- a Columbian paramilitary organization which engages in far more terror than al Quida does. There is of course- the IRA- which I have studied, which had been active in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom for nearly 3 decades before laying down their arms- after being approached as humans by a joint coalition of the British, Americans, and Irish. The list goes on- there are terrorist organizations in every civilization- we have the Ku Klux Klan, some would argue the Black Panthers as well, neo-Nazi's are terrorists, as was the Unabomber and Tim McVeigh, for Christ's sake his book was entitled 'American Terrorist.' Having studyed the rule of law and the fall of civilizations it is when security takes precedence over the rights of minorities that civilizations decline the most. The majority does not need protections guarenteed in the Constitution, it is the minorities that truly need them. Your words are hateful and despicable- but you have a right to spout your rhetoric. That is what makes America great. Would you argue that a mall security guard may stop a black simply because they might just so happen to be more prone to shoplifting 'no two ways about it'? Think about what you advocate for a second. I welcome you to talk to an Arabic person for a change. I interviewed one about emigrating to the United States shortly before 9-11. When I asked him about 9-11 he was litteraly in tears- he felt so bad for what he saw as a bastardization of his faith. Remember- the Crusades were fought because 'god ordered them' (disclaimer: I'm a Deist). Pick up the Quran- its very similar to the Bible in its condemnation of violence. You, my friend, are a racist toward Arabs. A terrorist can be anyone, it could be me, it could be you- treating a class of people as less than humans or citizens because of a particularly active terrorist organization would be to betray the principles that made America happen and merely feed fuel to the al-Quida fire.
What you said just goes to show this country is going to hell in a handbasket-
"Those who would sacrifice their liberties for a measure of security deserve neither"
~Ben Franklin
I'm aiming for my PhD in Political Science... after reading this I feel less embarassed for wanting to design a course called 'The Politics of Star Wars' Bonus points if your final makes significant mention of the Wookiees.
IANAL- but I am a Constitutional Law scholar and I think poster may have a case for his rights being violated, namely with the laptop. Assuming of course this flight was aboard an American carrier and that customs official digging through his laptop was also an American. Poster was informed he would be released before the customs official went through his laptop looking for contraband. It is somewhat hazy but generally computers fall under the 4th Amendment's guarantee against undue search and seizure. If the guy wants to look- he damn well better have a search warrant from a judge. Seeing as he is to be released for lack of evidence- there is no basis for the search.
Now, if the customs official was Canadian, or an agent of the Canadian government it gets a lot more murky. True- what I am assuming are American and Canadian authorities have decided to let him go, but poster is passing through the customs of another country. However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also guarantees against undue search (Article 8) and puts forth the right to consul (U.S. Escobedo and Miranda) (Canada: CoRaF Article 10). Poster was clearly not given those.
Surely, the argument I have just made can be reconstructed by the other side of the argument- in the name of national security or some other erosion of rights. Allow me to quote Ben Franklin, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". On that note- I encourage poster to contact the ACLU or its Canadian equivalent and bring suit (the ACLU will do all the work for you on a pro bono basis). Such a case has the possibility to clarify rights in the paranoid stripping of rights that is the War on Terror.
The university I go to has Firefox installed on all the computers, but I can count on one hand the number of people that actualy use it. Most people use Internet Explorer because the big blue E has not been removed. A good follow up study would be to see how many students at that 68% of UK universities actualy use Firefox.
Compared to some of the stuff people in tech support see this is absolutely nothing. Check out http://techcomedy.com/ to get a taste of just how stupid some people can be. Knowing computers is a bit of a curse, everyone that knows you assumes you are their own personal computer bitch.
The summary is mistaken. TFA is quite clear that this is for a British version of the game and that it is merely one of the 10,000 variations of Monopoly. I mean- we have Star Wars Monopoly, 'Cleveland in a Box' Monopoly, and my personal favorite Ghettopoly (which you can;t get in the U.S. now, google it sometime for the Department of Justice freaking out over it). This is simply Visa Monopoly. Nothing to see here- move along.
The Founding Fathers never intended for the executive to be popular, Machivelli makes it abundantly clear a popular prince (executive) is a serious danger to the populace. A popular vote for president, or what this guy is proposing is a majorly dumb idea.
Over 50% of the U.S. population lives in 6 major urban areas. If the presidency were based on only a popular vote then canidates would only hit those 6 urban centers- people in the middle of Montana would never get a campaign visit from the president, nor would the executive ever find it nessasary to reach out to what they value.
One proposal from Dr. Larry Keller (Cleveland State University) calls for non-partisan elections for electors, with stringent regulations on their political backgrounds, who would create a criteria of what the state is looking for in a president. Canidates could then apply to the various states as they see fit, or not (AKA Bush would not even bother in Minnesota). The canidates would fill out an application and then the state could call the best applicants for publically broadcast interviews. At the conclusion of this process the electors would vote for who they see as the best canidate and award the votes accordingly, in a non-winner-take-all manner.
This of course has the effect of removing the threat of a popular vote and allows for non-major party canidates, or even political ones, from monopolizing the election. I, coming from an academic background in Political Science fully support this proposal. I'll go one step further.... I'll give you Dr. Larry's e-mail address- he loves a good discussion: larry@urban.csuohio.edu
Why would anyone really want to use this? I made an account just to see what there is to see and sure it looks nice, but the applications are all in house- you need to register seperate to use gOffice. Their site touts it as an easy way to access your own desktop and store files- well geez I think most of us here are capable of setting up a server of our own to do just that, a server that is not accessable by whoever is running YouOS