As standing with The Register's excellent reputation these days, the article is short on details and what exactly "restoring their good name" means. Here's something that might make more sense:
What the Templars want is the lifting of the ban on the order itself by the catholic church. Follow the money on this one. The templars appear to be a charitable organization now, but even 700 years later, c'mon, if you said you were a templar, the first two stupid questions you'd expect from an ignorant person are "weren't they all burned at the stake for crimes a long time ago", and "so where's the grail?"
Obviously the Templars want some legitimacy, and this is the first step. If the church basically lifts the ban, they can also probably get financial and political support from the Vatican, which is huge. By getting legitimacy, they stop having to answer the same stupid questions and can go back to doing good works "in the name of God and with the pope's blessing," if that's the type of thing that floats your boat, and people will start taking them more seriously. Right now I bet no one in the world takes them seriously, but if they win this, since this will be a pretty visible thing if the Pope does what he asks, it will catapult the group into the world spotlight.
No, they should not be able to say that. Because if they say that, every ISP can and will say that, then they start preventing you from downloading competitor's material, then they start censoring, and then the internet begins a slow death spiral in the US.
ISPs should be covered under common carrier laws. That means they are not responsible for the content of the information they transmit, but that they can also not give preferential treatment to a specific type of information or deprecate another type of information. They key here is the content of information. Downloading one 5 MB file should not be any different than downloading another 5 MB file, no matter what's within the file or what program you use to download it.
Content providers are putting more and more pressure on ISPs because they can. The ISPs in turn put pressure on the consumer and start setting standards which they should not be setting. Content providers should not have this much control!
IANAL, neither in the US or in the UK, but from purely a logical perspective, the statement "is there material information affecting the comapany's prospects that a director or director(s) are aware of?" is open to interpretation. If a CEO's medical records are a matter of public record, then why wouldn't the average peon's be? That's a huge deal in the US. Hey if 10% of the workforce has medical conditions that have a dramatic impact on the company's medical insurance premiums, isn't that material information that affects the company's prospects?
In the US, I've not heard of any CEO outting their personal health at any given time. In the UK do they have to have you heard of anyone doing that?
And Steve Jobs is one man of thousands. We place too much importance on CEOs as it is now, so now we must enhance that by outing the CEOs health information? Steve surrounds himself with good people. He's a smart man, but he does not do this all by himself. Just because the CEO is sick doesn't mean the entire company will tank tomorrow.
Someone in the NY times has a stake, or has links to someone who has a stake, in Apple. That's the only reason for wanting Steve's health info. On Wall Street, Steve is a cult of personality because most of the populace believes Steve is responsible for everything good at Apple. The stock market abhor uncertainty, and because of that uncertainty, they want the rumors quashed or verified. Until then, the stock will teeter a bit, and traders will worry endlessly if the rumors are true or not.
Well, because privacy should be an overriding concern in all societies, this is one line I'm not willing to cross. Wall Street and the NY times have every right to ask if Steve Jobs has a successor lined up if something happens to him. That's not personal info, that's business info. But they can't ask for his medical records and should not have a right to them. No way.
What about the expert skills in chemistry? Forensics? Psychology? Research? His business skills? Batman is also a consumate detective, so given his expert skill in these areas how long would it take to get those levels of ability?
You would think a Scientific magazine might also be interested in the mental aspect?
Nostalga is okay but in this case who gives a flying fuck? AOL is irrelevant. They are a internet portal and dialup provider. I'm with the posts that say "hey i didn't know AOL still had users!" but I take it a step further in that I don't want to know either. Back when they had a huge market share they were relevant and their pricing practices deserved scrutiny, even if 99.9% of slashdotters thought it's service was foul. Now they have to compete for the scraps of dialup users who don't want to upgrade to broadband, and that market is neither vibrant nor growing. We don't post pricing practices of Juno or netzero, do we?
when I said "This means a change in price does affect demand significantly" I meant to say "This means a lowering in price does NOT affect demand significantly."
You started the economics discussion, so here comes ECON 102.
There are only a small number of wireless carriers. Therefore an oligopoly exists. The demand curve for oligopolies is "kinked." This means above a certain point customers will rapidly stop buying, but below this point buyers will not start purchasing in drastically greater numbers. This means that the oligopoly will set a price point right at the kink in the graph.
What does this mean?
1) A section of the populace feels txts are necessary, and demand is inelastic. This is the lower half of the demand curve. This means a change in price does affect demand significantly. 2) An increase in population of that subset of people changes the demand curve, and moves the kink in the graph higher on the price axis. A price increase ensues. The oligopolies charge exactly the price they can get away with because market dominance allows them all to effectively charge the same prices easily. One carrier changes, the rest change to follow. 3) To stop this pattern, you don't have users reduce demand, you have to break the oligopoly, because lack of competition means that prices don't follow standard supply and demand.
See this is the problem with bills like this. The mainstream media isn't covering this! I hear about this on NPR, BBC, and here, but no where on the four majors.
98% of the people reading this have made up their minds about who they are going to vote for, and switching votes is something inconceivable considering "well, the other guy will only do a worse job." At worse, many here will simply not vote, and Democracy doesn't work at all when you don't vote.
The US public doesn't know much about this bill, and most of them don't care. If Barack keeps his vote to yes, he won't take a major hit in the polls unless the story gets out there and people start caring, and the story won't get out there because people won't care and it won't rake in eyeballs on money grubbing TV stations.
However, if he's getting a major campaign contribution, or political favors, or some other capital he can use to win something else in the future, he'll use it.
I'm a Barack supporter, and I'm only praying that this is some kind of political tactic where he's lulling the Republicans into a false sense of victory and he'll sweep it way from them in some Aaron Sorkin kind of way. But if it's not, I'll still be voting for him "because the other guy will only do a worse job." See how that works?
my youngest's IQ is 131 and she wound up dropping out (later getting her GED and now manages a GameStop store at age 21) while the oldest graduated high school an got her diploma but lives on SSI disability.
This is getting further off topic, and this isn't a flame, but I'm genuinely curious. I have an IQ of 131, finished high school, finished college, and have a decent job. Those with an IQ of 131 are not typically candidates for dropping out of high school. I've always looked at schools currently as failing to prepare US kids to go to college or get a job, and I might be unusual in that I'm not only very emotionally stable and strong, but I'm an aggressive "go getter", but a kid with IQ of 131 and no major emotional or psychological issues should be able to graduate high school and get a diploma. I.E. if she's smart, she can plod thru stupid classes and get a diploma, which looks better than a GED. Also, if she can get a diploma with an IQ of 131 she can usually attend community college. You also seem to be implying that she's smart but could not get thru high school for some reason or another. Also, the one living on SSI disability. It sounds like she hurt herself or has a physical impairment which makes it difficult to work, is that true? Are you in an economically depressed area? Do your daughters have special needs? Are they so bored with classes that their average is a D?
We're getting off base here, and I agree the education system needs some serious overhaul, but I've never heard of a smart kid with no other major obstacles drop out of high school rather than finish. I geniunely ask in the hopes I get a bit of an education on the topic myself:)
Why are bus and train routes on time more often than planes?
Why are so many flights cancelled?
Why are there so many frequent flyer mileage packages which give perks to people who are clearly NOT the everyman?
I fly occassionally, twice a year if I'm lucky, round trip, with connections. 5 out of 8 plans I've flown on were delayed. One of them was the first leg in my last trip home, and it was delayed taking off due to some maintenance screwup and I missed my connection. More than anything, I do NOT want to be stuck overnight in an airport terminal trying to get home.
If they have to raise their prices, so be it. But you aren't treated like the everyman on an airline, you are treated like crap.
First, just let me say are you absolutely sure you need 100GB of media of your kid after only 1 year? That's more than the average perv has in porn on his hard drive, sheesh!:)
Treat it like a server. You need at least one 1 TB hard drive for long term growth. Then either get a blu-ray DVD drive, or a tape backup system and make redundant backups. Keep one backup copy in at a reliable friend or relative's house, a safe deposit box, at work, or some other place away from your house, keep the other copy in your house. Anything smaller than Blu-ray or tape backup will simply be too inefficient to work with given so many files. The hard drive gives you portability for the future and serve as your main file locations, and really it's the best method to store the files since you have so many, and I anticipate you'll probably have a lot more in the future. The backups are just there in case your hard drive goes on the fritz.
Even when we try not to focus on scores, we focus on scores... WTF?
We are concerned that the dumber kids aren't getting the scores they should, so we spend more time with them. So that means less time with the smart kids, so they don't get as high scores as they should. Something seems oddly... right... about that.
If scores don't matter, and your a smart kid, you're smart, who cares if you got an A or a B. You have more opportunities open to you than the dumb kids. The social safety net is all about trying to help those who don't have the mental, physical, or monetary means to help themselves. That doesn't mean you ignore the smart kids, but that doesn't mean you have to spend time with the smart kids to make sure their grades are all A+.
I was a straight B student. I didn't ask for much help, and I even tutored to help others. However, I probably didn't apply myself as strongly as I could because of my personal comfort level. Now, 33, at work I'm one of the most valuable people in my company. I don't say that to my peers, but they all say that to me. I can consistently prove my high level of performance to anyone on demand. I'm not perfect, but who is. On the opposite side of the coin I know straight A students who were only straight A students because they were time in voluntary study groups or something like that? I'm just providing another angle here to think about.
I think the problem with no child left behind is that it's not focused on quality, standardized scores don't prove kids are any more valuable to society, and that it requires more work out of everyone without additional money or people. I know a few teachers who stopped teaching because No Child left behind tied their hands and made teaching miserable. Lets stop focusing on scores so much on both ends of the spectrum.
I like how you cleverly wrapped your political troll in a pro-nuclear candy coating.
If we want to start slamming people, we can talk about how the Republicans want to drill in the national wildlife preserve when scientists say that there isn't that much oil there to begin with and nowhere near enough to make a dent in oil prices. Also how McCain wants to have a "gas tax holiday" this summer which is the stupidest idea ever and will only make gas prices worse.
I'm pro-nuclear power. I'm also anti politics and anti bullshit. Both of the candidates are for renewable sources of energy and are looking on reducing the US carbon footprint. It's wonderful that McCain came out in support of nuclear power, but lets not start acting like Republicans' shit doesn't stink and slamming Democrats with political hyperbole just because McCain proposed 45 new reactors. Republicans had 6 years of total government control to fund construction of new nuclear reactors, where are these new sites?
1) Give Tiger Woods a cadillac made of gold in order to, after his surgery, play in a major and make it close so that it goes to a playoff. Ask him to keep the tie breaker going for as long as he can. 2) Advertise how the internet can't handle the bandwidth, scream fire and brimstone, exclaim that you may not be able to see Tiger again in a playoff if this isn't fixed and sell network upgrades. 3) Profit!
The great Flying Spaghetti Monster feels the "sauce" on the planet is getting a little too hot, and reached out with his noodly appendage has lowered the heat for us all. All hail his Al Dente-ness!.
You are thinking about health records in the sense that someone smokes a pack a day and shouldn't get the same paybacks on their care as other people. I applaud that, in terms of smoking, but in terms of everything else, you are dead wrong.
Some people are overweight because they eat too much and don't exercise enough. Others are overweight because they (truthfully) have a glandular problem. Some, like my sister, are the result of the epileptic drugs she takes which lower her metabolism. Should these later classes be penalized?
Also, penalties don't often work in situations like this. Make something look like an incentive, however, and it will work.
A federal law should be passed that information in these records and records like them cannot be used to create laws regulating state or federal health care systems.
Why is it a disease? I like bananas. Why should I not eat bananas? I understand that you want everyone to live according to your standards and morality, but really, why should I not eat bananas?
At the end of the 19th century, with the help of the US government, food companies like Dole and Chiquita helped create and prop up "banana republics" in latin america, which were in fact figurehead dictatorships geared towards producing raw materials and crops for US consumption, like bananas. In fact, before that time, the #1 most popular fruit in the US was the apple, but thanks to these companies, they turned that part of our culture on it's head and created a massive campaign to make the banana #1, using the pricing power of cheap bananas and government influence to steamroll a fruit that was, and still is, produced locally by US farmers.
The reason why they did this is not because bananas are better tasting or better for you, but because they were cheaper than local produce when you factor in highly cheap labor of the impoverished populace and favorable political conditions gained by less than ethical means.
And to be honest, Apples taste better than bananas. An apple is more durable, and can be made into more things, and supports your local economy .
This is absolutely bonkers. My wife's family lives in Wisconsin. You want them to survive on local produce over the winter? You want them to hoard dry goods so they can eat 6 months out of the year? Not to mention the exciting selection of nutritional deficits that most of the world suffered from before cheap year round fresh food selections. Really, this type of judgmental viewpoint bothers me so much. I really see your "EAT THIS WAY OR YOU HAVE A DISEASE!" moralism as no different from right wingers who think homosexuality is a disease.
You'd be surprised the number of vegatables that can be grown late into the fall season. In wisconsin, you don't exactly have to grow the vegetables near Madison, but there are tons of places within the continental US where you can get produce shipped north. You can cross the US from top to bottom by train or 18 wheeler in two days without trying very hard, And we ship things more fragile than fruit by truck these days.
You are taking the metaphor the GP is making way too far. Those who say "homosexuality is a disease" come from an illogical and bigoted stance about the inequality of "races" when in fact there's nothing biological to suggest one "race" is inferior to the other. On the other hand, to play devils advocate, not all fruits are created equal. Also, see my entry above about how the banana became popular by government and big business influence. There's some good reasons why you can be negative about this fruit.
Are you just making this up as you go along? Watching people "line up" for bananas in a supermarket? Food scarcity hasn't exactly been a problem in America in a number of years, I would be very interested in where you've seen people "line up" to get bananas, while bypassing all other fruits.
Food scarcity isn't a problem, but living in the middle and not on the more populated coasts, perhaps you simply don't see that sometimes the bananas on the shelves get sold out and they haven't restocked the shelves yet. I've seen that plenty of times. Then some people have to wait. It particularly happens in less affluent areas with high population density. Doesn't happen every day, but it's simply a matter of shelf space not food scarcity.
Good for you! We should all be more like you, thanks for holding yourself out there as an example of the Right Way to live!
You're welcome. Perhaps I can show you how to live better by trying to reduce your carbon footprint. After all, buying product locally as well as reducing my carbon footprint has positive impacts on my fellow human beings that I should be concerned with. Or would you rather just let your fellow man slip on a banana peel, break his neck, lose his job and his life savings and say "tough shit I don't care about you"?
We need stupid things like this to happen once in a while. We need to be reminded of the outer limits of fucktardom so that we know where not to stray. Someone is going to try to buy this and get it installed, thinking it's neat, and we all get to stop and say "You, sir, are a fucktard, do you honestly think I need to be entertained for the 20 seconds it takes for me to pee? You just got robbed." And the maker of this will be laughing to the bank until the fucktards are properly put in their place and stop buying stupid shit like this... and then society moves on.
I'm looking over the postings and I see the usual "throw the book at the defendant!" or "the girl needs to grow some skin." These types of stories bring out the worst in this crowd and sight a severe flaw in thinking... we aren't thinking about the middle ground.
This woman Drew needs to be punished. She started this thing up as a joke. A very stupid and sick joke. However I don't think she should do 80 years for the crime. She should do time as an example to people who think they can just find a random person online, take advantage of them, and cause severe harm. Then they should be let out after some time and allowed to move on. The intent was not to kill the girl but they were very reckless.
At the same time, the other side has a great point. This girl needed to grow some skin, and where were the parents? This wasn't murder, and shouldn't be treated as such. The parents deserve some satisfaction, but they need to own some blame too.
It's a short article, FP isn't all it's cracked up to be:
"What we're celebrating is that the wind farm in Rock Port can produce more energy each year than what this community uses, and that has never been done before," Chamberlain said.
And that's why everyone showed up. From the celebration and speeches downtown to the city's power plant, the guy who made it all happen explained what it is all about.
"What we're showing here is the city is producing 2 megawatts more than they need, so in essence, this meter is running backwards," Chamberlain said.
I'm not knowledgeable to answer this, but I know there has to be a good "in your face, Microsoft" reason why this doesn't hit servers like Apache? They point the finger at the websites and say "UR DOIN IT RONG!" and blame them. And yet, apache users don't have to worry about this. Why? That's the argument I want to have.
On what grounds? Psystar is installing a retail boxed product of MacOS X on Psystar hardware.
Correct.
There's no copyright violation so none of the extreme remedies in the Copyright Act apply.
Any legal restriction Apple seeks to impose that their software can only be run on their hardware runs afoul of "tying" restrictions in antitrust law. Apple would have to win an antitrust case before they could get a cease and desist order.
WRONG WRONG WRONG. Apple is not considered a monopoly, (remember them climbing to a whopping 5.6% marketshare in computers this past month?) and for anti-trust to apply, you have to be a monopoly. A case might be made for the MP3 player market, but not for the computer or OS market. They are clearly in the minority there. Tying is legal for a non-monopoly, because they do it to try to provide value and if they don't, the competitive market will provide better alternatives. It's illegal for a monopoly because instead of trying to tie value, they use their market dominance in a non competitive market to muscle in on new turf. That's illegal. If Apple wanted to go after these guys, the government cannot stop them on those grounds.
While it sucks, they might have a DCMA fight here, or have something one of those "look and feel" lawsuits. The Apple Lawyers are very crafty and aggressive. I'm surprised they haven't pounced yet, maybe they are just making sure their ducks are in a row, but I believe they will attack soon.
What we'll probably see is heavily restrictive DRM in future Macs to prevent this.
Correct.
Or an end to retail sales of MacOS.
Hardly, at least not in the foresable future. This is a small outfit hacking Dells and putting the Mac OS on it. The guy has to have an automated factory data cloning hard drives with data before he puts a dent in Apple sales, and even then he has to prove that they can provide all the normal functions. Note the software update doesn't work. So, what else doesn't work? If I had a spare dell I'd hack it myself to learn but no way am I buying one for my mother. I'd be on the hook to fix it or explain everything that didn't work to her and listen to her whine about it.
I got hacked shortly after the hainan island incident in 2001. that is when the us spy satellite was bumped a chinese fighter, and was forced to land on hainan island (china).
Is that the fighter plane with warp drive and photon torpedos?
Sorry to pick on ya dude... it was a US spy plane, not a spy satellite:)
It's a shame that Lou Dobbs or some other "crusader" type TV pundit hasn't jumped on this saga yet.
You realize there are only 4 major media companies in the world right now. Lou's bosses reports to a producer who works for a company that is owned by one of these media conglomerates, who also owns several major recording labels. The moment Lou reports that the RIAA is doing something evil, Lou and his producer immediately get fired for casting the company in a bad light and Lou gets blacklisted.
Now... I am surprised that the BBC and NPR haven't picked up on this yet. Maybe they have, but can't devote a 2 minute segment to it each and every day so I may have missed one of their special reports, but considering there are, seriously, more important stories to run such as olympic protests, government upheavals, elections here and abroad, etc, I'm not entirely surprised. It sucks, but put into perspective of US National and world news, is it as important?
Slashdot Mirror
As standing with The Register's excellent reputation these days, the article is short on details and what exactly "restoring their good name" means. Here's something that might make more sense:
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=8360
What the Templars want is the lifting of the ban on the order itself by the catholic church. Follow the money on this one. The templars appear to be a charitable organization now, but even 700 years later, c'mon, if you said you were a templar, the first two stupid questions you'd expect from an ignorant person are "weren't they all burned at the stake for crimes a long time ago", and "so where's the grail?"
Obviously the Templars want some legitimacy, and this is the first step. If the church basically lifts the ban, they can also probably get financial and political support from the Vatican, which is huge. By getting legitimacy, they stop having to answer the same stupid questions and can go back to doing good works "in the name of God and with the pope's blessing," if that's the type of thing that floats your boat, and people will start taking them more seriously. Right now I bet no one in the world takes them seriously, but if they win this, since this will be a pretty visible thing if the Pope does what he asks, it will catapult the group into the world spotlight.
No, they should not be able to say that. Because if they say that, every ISP can and will say that, then they start preventing you from downloading competitor's material, then they start censoring, and then the internet begins a slow death spiral in the US.
ISPs should be covered under common carrier laws. That means they are not responsible for the content of the information they transmit, but that they can also not give preferential treatment to a specific type of information or deprecate another type of information. They key here is the content of information. Downloading one 5 MB file should not be any different than downloading another 5 MB file, no matter what's within the file or what program you use to download it.
Content providers are putting more and more pressure on ISPs because they can. The ISPs in turn put pressure on the consumer and start setting standards which they should not be setting. Content providers should not have this much control!
IANAL, neither in the US or in the UK, but from purely a logical perspective, the statement "is there material information affecting the comapany's prospects that a director or director(s) are aware of?" is open to interpretation. If a CEO's medical records are a matter of public record, then why wouldn't the average peon's be? That's a huge deal in the US. Hey if 10% of the workforce has medical conditions that have a dramatic impact on the company's medical insurance premiums, isn't that material information that affects the company's prospects?
In the US, I've not heard of any CEO outting their personal health at any given time. In the UK do they have to have you heard of anyone doing that?
And Steve Jobs is one man of thousands. We place too much importance on CEOs as it is now, so now we must enhance that by outing the CEOs health information? Steve surrounds himself with good people. He's a smart man, but he does not do this all by himself. Just because the CEO is sick doesn't mean the entire company will tank tomorrow.
Someone in the NY times has a stake, or has links to someone who has a stake, in Apple. That's the only reason for wanting Steve's health info. On Wall Street, Steve is a cult of personality because most of the populace believes Steve is responsible for everything good at Apple. The stock market abhor uncertainty, and because of that uncertainty, they want the rumors quashed or verified. Until then, the stock will teeter a bit, and traders will worry endlessly if the rumors are true or not.
Well, because privacy should be an overriding concern in all societies, this is one line I'm not willing to cross. Wall Street and the NY times have every right to ask if Steve Jobs has a successor lined up if something happens to him. That's not personal info, that's business info. But they can't ask for his medical records and should not have a right to them. No way.
What about the expert skills in chemistry? Forensics? Psychology? Research? His business skills? Batman is also a consumate detective, so given his expert skill in these areas how long would it take to get those levels of ability?
You would think a Scientific magazine might also be interested in the mental aspect?
Nostalga is okay but in this case who gives a flying fuck? AOL is irrelevant. They are a internet portal and dialup provider. I'm with the posts that say "hey i didn't know AOL still had users!" but I take it a step further in that I don't want to know either. Back when they had a huge market share they were relevant and their pricing practices deserved scrutiny, even if 99.9% of slashdotters thought it's service was foul. Now they have to compete for the scraps of dialup users who don't want to upgrade to broadband, and that market is neither vibrant nor growing. We don't post pricing practices of Juno or netzero, do we?
C'mon it can't be that slow a news day can it?
when I said "This means a change in price does affect demand significantly" I meant to say "This means a lowering in price does NOT affect demand significantly."
You started the economics discussion, so here comes ECON 102.
There are only a small number of wireless carriers. Therefore an oligopoly exists. The demand curve for oligopolies is "kinked." This means above a certain point customers will rapidly stop buying, but below this point buyers will not start purchasing in drastically greater numbers. This means that the oligopoly will set a price point right at the kink in the graph.
What does this mean?
1) A section of the populace feels txts are necessary, and demand is inelastic. This is the lower half of the demand curve. This means a change in price does affect demand significantly.
2) An increase in population of that subset of people changes the demand curve, and moves the kink in the graph higher on the price axis. A price increase ensues. The oligopolies charge exactly the price they can get away with because market dominance allows them all to effectively charge the same prices easily. One carrier changes, the rest change to follow.
3) To stop this pattern, you don't have users reduce demand, you have to break the oligopoly, because lack of competition means that prices don't follow standard supply and demand.
See this is the problem with bills like this. The mainstream media isn't covering this! I hear about this on NPR, BBC, and here, but no where on the four majors.
98% of the people reading this have made up their minds about who they are going to vote for, and switching votes is something inconceivable considering "well, the other guy will only do a worse job." At worse, many here will simply not vote, and Democracy doesn't work at all when you don't vote.
The US public doesn't know much about this bill, and most of them don't care. If Barack keeps his vote to yes, he won't take a major hit in the polls unless the story gets out there and people start caring, and the story won't get out there because people won't care and it won't rake in eyeballs on money grubbing TV stations.
However, if he's getting a major campaign contribution, or political favors, or some other capital he can use to win something else in the future, he'll use it.
I'm a Barack supporter, and I'm only praying that this is some kind of political tactic where he's lulling the Republicans into a false sense of victory and he'll sweep it way from them in some Aaron Sorkin kind of way. But if it's not, I'll still be voting for him "because the other guy will only do a worse job." See how that works?
my youngest's IQ is 131 and she wound up dropping out (later getting her GED and now manages a GameStop store at age 21) while the oldest graduated high school an got her diploma but lives on SSI disability.
This is getting further off topic, and this isn't a flame, but I'm genuinely curious. I have an IQ of 131, finished high school, finished college, and have a decent job. Those with an IQ of 131 are not typically candidates for dropping out of high school. I've always looked at schools currently as failing to prepare US kids to go to college or get a job, and I might be unusual in that I'm not only very emotionally stable and strong, but I'm an aggressive "go getter", but a kid with IQ of 131 and no major emotional or psychological issues should be able to graduate high school and get a diploma. I.E. if she's smart, she can plod thru stupid classes and get a diploma, which looks better than a GED. Also, if she can get a diploma with an IQ of 131 she can usually attend community college. You also seem to be implying that she's smart but could not get thru high school for some reason or another. Also, the one living on SSI disability. It sounds like she hurt herself or has a physical impairment which makes it difficult to work, is that true? Are you in an economically depressed area? Do your daughters have special needs? Are they so bored with classes that their average is a D?
We're getting off base here, and I agree the education system needs some serious overhaul, but I've never heard of a smart kid with no other major obstacles drop out of high school rather than finish. I geniunely ask in the hopes I get a bit of an education on the topic myself :)
I for one welcome our new prediction toting cynical overlords.
If only I had a beowulf cluster of those...
Why are bus and train routes on time more often than planes?
Why are so many flights cancelled?
Why are there so many frequent flyer mileage packages which give perks to people who are clearly NOT the everyman?
I fly occassionally, twice a year if I'm lucky, round trip, with connections. 5 out of 8 plans I've flown on were delayed. One of them was the first leg in my last trip home, and it was delayed taking off due to some maintenance screwup and I missed my connection. More than anything, I do NOT want to be stuck overnight in an airport terminal trying to get home.
If they have to raise their prices, so be it. But you aren't treated like the everyman on an airline, you are treated like crap.
First, just let me say are you absolutely sure you need 100GB of media of your kid after only 1 year? That's more than the average perv has in porn on his hard drive, sheesh! :)
Treat it like a server. You need at least one 1 TB hard drive for long term growth. Then either get a blu-ray DVD drive, or a tape backup system and make redundant backups. Keep one backup copy in at a reliable friend or relative's house, a safe deposit box, at work, or some other place away from your house, keep the other copy in your house. Anything smaller than Blu-ray or tape backup will simply be too inefficient to work with given so many files. The hard drive gives you portability for the future and serve as your main file locations, and really it's the best method to store the files since you have so many, and I anticipate you'll probably have a lot more in the future. The backups are just there in case your hard drive goes on the fritz.
Even when we try not to focus on scores, we focus on scores... WTF?
We are concerned that the dumber kids aren't getting the scores they should, so we spend more time with them. So that means less time with the smart kids, so they don't get as high scores as they should. Something seems oddly... right... about that.
If scores don't matter, and your a smart kid, you're smart, who cares if you got an A or a B. You have more opportunities open to you than the dumb kids. The social safety net is all about trying to help those who don't have the mental, physical, or monetary means to help themselves. That doesn't mean you ignore the smart kids, but that doesn't mean you have to spend time with the smart kids to make sure their grades are all A+.
I was a straight B student. I didn't ask for much help, and I even tutored to help others. However, I probably didn't apply myself as strongly as I could because of my personal comfort level. Now, 33, at work I'm one of the most valuable people in my company. I don't say that to my peers, but they all say that to me. I can consistently prove my high level of performance to anyone on demand. I'm not perfect, but who is. On the opposite side of the coin I know straight A students who were only straight A students because they were time in voluntary study groups or something like that? I'm just providing another angle here to think about.
I think the problem with no child left behind is that it's not focused on quality, standardized scores don't prove kids are any more valuable to society, and that it requires more work out of everyone without additional money or people. I know a few teachers who stopped teaching because No Child left behind tied their hands and made teaching miserable. Lets stop focusing on scores so much on both ends of the spectrum.
I like how you cleverly wrapped your political troll in a pro-nuclear candy coating.
If we want to start slamming people, we can talk about how the Republicans want to drill in the national wildlife preserve when scientists say that there isn't that much oil there to begin with and nowhere near enough to make a dent in oil prices. Also how McCain wants to have a "gas tax holiday" this summer which is the stupidest idea ever and will only make gas prices worse.
I'm pro-nuclear power. I'm also anti politics and anti bullshit. Both of the candidates are for renewable sources of energy and are looking on reducing the US carbon footprint. It's wonderful that McCain came out in support of nuclear power, but lets not start acting like Republicans' shit doesn't stink and slamming Democrats with political hyperbole just because McCain proposed 45 new reactors. Republicans had 6 years of total government control to fund construction of new nuclear reactors, where are these new sites?
1) Give Tiger Woods a cadillac made of gold in order to, after his surgery, play in a major and make it close so that it goes to a playoff. Ask him to keep the tie breaker going for as long as he can.
2) Advertise how the internet can't handle the bandwidth, scream fire and brimstone, exclaim that you may not be able to see Tiger again in a playoff if this isn't fixed and sell network upgrades.
3) Profit!
The great Flying Spaghetti Monster feels the "sauce" on the planet is getting a little too hot, and reached out with his noodly appendage has lowered the heat for us all. All hail his Al Dente-ness!.
You are thinking about health records in the sense that someone smokes a pack a day and shouldn't get the same paybacks on their care as other people. I applaud that, in terms of smoking, but in terms of everything else, you are dead wrong.
Some people are overweight because they eat too much and don't exercise enough. Others are overweight because they (truthfully) have a glandular problem. Some, like my sister, are the result of the epileptic drugs she takes which lower her metabolism. Should these later classes be penalized?
Also, penalties don't often work in situations like this. Make something look like an incentive, however, and it will work.
A federal law should be passed that information in these records and records like them cannot be used to create laws regulating state or federal health care systems.
Why is it a disease? I like bananas. Why should I not eat bananas? I understand that you want everyone to live according to your standards and morality, but really, why should I not eat bananas?
At the end of the 19th century, with the help of the US government, food companies like Dole and Chiquita helped create and prop up "banana republics" in latin america, which were in fact figurehead dictatorships geared towards producing raw materials and crops for US consumption, like bananas. In fact, before that time, the #1 most popular fruit in the US was the apple, but thanks to these companies, they turned that part of our culture on it's head and created a massive campaign to make the banana #1, using the pricing power of cheap bananas and government influence to steamroll a fruit that was, and still is, produced locally by US farmers.
The reason why they did this is not because bananas are better tasting or better for you, but because they were cheaper than local produce when you factor in highly cheap labor of the impoverished populace and favorable political conditions gained by less than ethical means.
And to be honest, Apples taste better than bananas. An apple is more durable, and can be made into more things, and supports your local economy .
This is absolutely bonkers. My wife's family lives in Wisconsin. You want them to survive on local produce over the winter? You want them to hoard dry goods so they can eat 6 months out of the year? Not to mention the exciting selection of nutritional deficits that most of the world suffered from before cheap year round fresh food selections. Really, this type of judgmental viewpoint bothers me so much. I really see your "EAT THIS WAY OR YOU HAVE A DISEASE!" moralism as no different from right wingers who think homosexuality is a disease.
You'd be surprised the number of vegatables that can be grown late into the fall season. In wisconsin, you don't exactly have to grow the vegetables near Madison, but there are tons of places within the continental US where you can get produce shipped north. You can cross the US from top to bottom by train or 18 wheeler in two days without trying very hard, And we ship things more fragile than fruit by truck these days.
You are taking the metaphor the GP is making way too far. Those who say "homosexuality is a disease" come from an illogical and bigoted stance about the inequality of "races" when in fact there's nothing biological to suggest one "race" is inferior to the other. On the other hand, to play devils advocate, not all fruits are created equal. Also, see my entry above about how the banana became popular by government and big business influence. There's some good reasons why you can be negative about this fruit.
Are you just making this up as you go along? Watching people "line up" for bananas in a supermarket? Food scarcity hasn't exactly been a problem in America in a number of years, I would be very interested in where you've seen people "line up" to get bananas, while bypassing all other fruits.
Food scarcity isn't a problem, but living in the middle and not on the more populated coasts, perhaps you simply don't see that sometimes the bananas on the shelves get sold out and they haven't restocked the shelves yet. I've seen that plenty of times. Then some people have to wait. It particularly happens in less affluent areas with high population density. Doesn't happen every day, but it's simply a matter of shelf space not food scarcity.
Good for you! We should all be more like you, thanks for holding yourself out there as an example of the Right Way to live!
You're welcome. Perhaps I can show you how to live better by trying to reduce your carbon footprint. After all, buying product locally as well as reducing my carbon footprint has positive impacts on my fellow human beings that I should be concerned with. Or would you rather just let your fellow man slip on a banana peel, break his neck, lose his job and his life savings and say "tough shit I don't care about you"?
We need stupid things like this to happen once in a while. We need to be reminded of the outer limits of fucktardom so that we know where not to stray. Someone is going to try to buy this and get it installed, thinking it's neat, and we all get to stop and say "You, sir, are a fucktard, do you honestly think I need to be entertained for the 20 seconds it takes for me to pee? You just got robbed." And the maker of this will be laughing to the bank until the fucktards are properly put in their place and stop buying stupid shit like this... and then society moves on.
I'm looking over the postings and I see the usual "throw the book at the defendant!" or "the girl needs to grow some skin." These types of stories bring out the worst in this crowd and sight a severe flaw in thinking... we aren't thinking about the middle ground.
This woman Drew needs to be punished. She started this thing up as a joke. A very stupid and sick joke. However I don't think she should do 80 years for the crime. She should do time as an example to people who think they can just find a random person online, take advantage of them, and cause severe harm. Then they should be let out after some time and allowed to move on. The intent was not to kill the girl but they were very reckless.
At the same time, the other side has a great point. This girl needed to grow some skin, and where were the parents? This wasn't murder, and shouldn't be treated as such. The parents deserve some satisfaction, but they need to own some blame too.
It's a short article, FP isn't all it's cracked up to be:
"What we're celebrating is that the wind farm in Rock Port can produce more energy each year than what this community uses, and that has never been done before," Chamberlain said.
And that's why everyone showed up. From the celebration and speeches downtown to the city's power plant, the guy who made it all happen explained what it is all about.
"What we're showing here is the city is producing 2 megawatts more than they need, so in essence, this meter is running backwards," Chamberlain said.
I'm not knowledgeable to answer this, but I know there has to be a good "in your face, Microsoft" reason why this doesn't hit servers like Apache? They point the finger at the websites and say "UR DOIN IT RONG!" and blame them. And yet, apache users don't have to worry about this. Why? That's the argument I want to have.
On what grounds? Psystar is installing a retail boxed product of MacOS X on Psystar hardware.
Correct.
There's no copyright violation so none of the extreme remedies in the Copyright Act apply.
Any legal restriction Apple seeks to impose that their software can only be run on their hardware runs afoul of "tying" restrictions in antitrust law. Apple would have to win an antitrust case before they could get a cease and desist order.
WRONG WRONG WRONG. Apple is not considered a monopoly, (remember them climbing to a whopping 5.6% marketshare in computers this past month?) and for anti-trust to apply, you have to be a monopoly. A case might be made for the MP3 player market, but not for the computer or OS market. They are clearly in the minority there. Tying is legal for a non-monopoly, because they do it to try to provide value and if they don't, the competitive market will provide better alternatives. It's illegal for a monopoly because instead of trying to tie value, they use their market dominance in a non competitive market to muscle in on new turf. That's illegal. If Apple wanted to go after these guys, the government cannot stop them on those grounds.
While it sucks, they might have a DCMA fight here, or have something one of those "look and feel" lawsuits. The Apple Lawyers are very crafty and aggressive. I'm surprised they haven't pounced yet, maybe they are just making sure their ducks are in a row, but I believe they will attack soon.
What we'll probably see is heavily restrictive DRM in future Macs to prevent this.
Correct.
Or an end to retail sales of MacOS.
Hardly, at least not in the foresable future. This is a small outfit hacking Dells and putting the Mac OS on it. The guy has to have an automated factory data cloning hard drives with data before he puts a dent in Apple sales, and even then he has to prove that they can provide all the normal functions. Note the software update doesn't work. So, what else doesn't work? If I had a spare dell I'd hack it myself to learn but no way am I buying one for my mother. I'd be on the hook to fix it or explain everything that didn't work to her and listen to her whine about it.
I got hacked shortly after the hainan island incident in 2001. that is when the us spy satellite was bumped a chinese fighter, and was forced to land on hainan island (china).
:)
Is that the fighter plane with warp drive and photon torpedos?
Sorry to pick on ya dude... it was a US spy plane, not a spy satellite
It's a shame that Lou Dobbs or some other "crusader" type TV pundit hasn't jumped on this saga yet.
You realize there are only 4 major media companies in the world right now. Lou's bosses reports to a producer who works for a company that is owned by one of these media conglomerates, who also owns several major recording labels. The moment Lou reports that the RIAA is doing something evil, Lou and his producer immediately get fired for casting the company in a bad light and Lou gets blacklisted.
Now... I am surprised that the BBC and NPR haven't picked up on this yet. Maybe they have, but can't devote a 2 minute segment to it each and every day so I may have missed one of their special reports, but considering there are, seriously, more important stories to run such as olympic protests, government upheavals, elections here and abroad, etc, I'm not entirely surprised. It sucks, but put into perspective of US National and world news, is it as important?