Many government agencies have inspectors general who are *supposed* to fill that very role. But the problem is that they're rarely independent in any meaningful way, making it highly unlikely that they'll perform any other role than making it *look like* someone is there to do fair investigations. Even at the executive level (in the U.S.) the Attorney General is theoretically supposed to handle such investigations. But who is going to conduct any investigation of the President or his party when he is the very man who appoints (and can fire) them?
It was a very smart move of him to involve big names like the New York Times. That will give him a degree of protection. But that only goes so far. If the powers-that-be are determined enough to get you, they'll either find some way to discredit you (the Scientologists are the Jedi masters of that one), or if they're REALLY pissed you'll just be the victim of an unfortunate car or plane crash (the CIA and KGB were best known for that trick).
I admire whistleblowers. But there is sometimes a fine line between heroism and stupidity. And whistleblowers almost always pay a hefty price for what they do. Best case scenario they either lose their job outright or are shuffled off into a corner somewhere, never to be trusted or promoted again. Worst case scenario, they end up in jail or dead. The "thanks" are usually short-lived, the stain of being an employee/contractor/soldier who can't be trusted lasts forever.
I hope this guy and his whistleblowers continue to keep fighting and that Wikileaks is around for a long time. But, make no mistake about it, the powers-that-be will fight it. And the more Wikileaks releases, the farther those powers will be willing to go to silence the site.
I was looking into courses recently and almost everyone I met warned me about the "University" of Phoenix. The consensus was that it's much better (and cheaper) to go to a reputable local community college (if you have one nearby). The thing that REALLY turned me off about Phoenix was the emphasis on group work. I *hate* group projects. "Group project" is just a euphemism for "I do all the work, the other lazy-ass students get to do nothing and ride my coattails for a free A."
This isn't some Mac-basher's blog post, it's an article in Wired that cites a real study. And it's relevant to techies (Wired certainly thought so too).
The documentary Macheads sums this up pretty well. There was a hipster in that doc that refused to date men who owned a PC. If that's not drinking the Kool-aid by the gallon, I'm not sure what is.
The sad thing is that a lot of Mac fans think they're being rebellious and independent by using Macs. In reality, nothing makes you *MORE* of a conformist than using those overpriced, locked-down status symbols. It's the old "I'll show how rebellious and unique I am by dressing, acting, and talking like all the other rebels."
the carrier owns part of your phone until your contract is over.
No, they don't. The contract says you have to pay them X amount of money a month for two years (or, alternately, pay a penalty if you wish to leave the plan early). This doesn't have anything to do with the phone itself (or what you do with it).
How about they judge you both on your work skills and experience, and not whether or not you went to parties in college? Even if you accepted "he/she went to parties in HS/college" as a consideration, it would be a wash anyway. Do you look at it as "He didn't go to parties, therefore he's more serious and responsible" or "He didn't go to parties, which means he's anti-social and probably wouldn't be a good team player with other employees."? You can look at it either way.
There wasn't hardly anything in the way of special effects in "Memento," and not much in "The Prestige." Yet those were his two best films and much better than this. "Inception" isn't *bad*, mind you. But the fact that people are concentrating so much on its visual effects is probably a good sign that the script isn't strong enough to carry the movie by itself. Everyone walked out of "Memento" way more blown away than they were from this movie, and no one was saying it was because of the cool FX. The farther away Nolan gets from Batcycles and FX, the more he has to concentrate on the script. And that's a good thing.
The main problem is that the pro-business argument here (mostly Republican, but plenty of Dems too) tries to predicate this on "free market" principles. But there is no real free market in the ISP sector, because there is no real competition. You have a handful of large broadband ISP's (AT&T, Verizon, Time-Warner, and Comcast alone probably represent about 80%+ of the entire market). And most consumers have all of two (three if they're lucky) choices for ISP. In my area, you can choose between Comcast (cable) and AT&T (DSL) and that's it. If both those companies degrade or block a particular website, that's it. There is nowhere else to go for decent performance (and even AT&T's DSL is inferior to Comcast, so there is really only ONE place to go for anything above 3Mbps).
It's funny, but my first realization that there was a serious conflict between science and the Biblical literalism came in Sunday School. I was listening to my Sunday School teacher talk about Adam and Eve and suddenly it hit me. I asked her "What about the dinosaurs?" and she nervously answered something like "Well, if it's not in the Bible, it didn't happen." That was the day I realized that religion was a crock. Even a little kid can smell bullshit when it's piled *that* high.
It's a Louisiana public school district, they don't have philosophy classes either. You can choose between "Gym," "Shop," and a class called "Fishin'" [sic].
Slashdot Mirror
If you do, be prepared to give up tea first.
Many government agencies have inspectors general who are *supposed* to fill that very role. But the problem is that they're rarely independent in any meaningful way, making it highly unlikely that they'll perform any other role than making it *look like* someone is there to do fair investigations. Even at the executive level (in the U.S.) the Attorney General is theoretically supposed to handle such investigations. But who is going to conduct any investigation of the President or his party when he is the very man who appoints (and can fire) them?
It was a very smart move of him to involve big names like the New York Times. That will give him a degree of protection. But that only goes so far. If the powers-that-be are determined enough to get you, they'll either find some way to discredit you (the Scientologists are the Jedi masters of that one), or if they're REALLY pissed you'll just be the victim of an unfortunate car or plane crash (the CIA and KGB were best known for that trick).
I actually knew a sex columnist once. She was all hat and no cattle.
I admire whistleblowers. But there is sometimes a fine line between heroism and stupidity. And whistleblowers almost always pay a hefty price for what they do. Best case scenario they either lose their job outright or are shuffled off into a corner somewhere, never to be trusted or promoted again. Worst case scenario, they end up in jail or dead. The "thanks" are usually short-lived, the stain of being an employee/contractor/soldier who can't be trusted lasts forever.
I hope this guy and his whistleblowers continue to keep fighting and that Wikileaks is around for a long time. But, make no mistake about it, the powers-that-be will fight it. And the more Wikileaks releases, the farther those powers will be willing to go to silence the site.
I was looking into courses recently and almost everyone I met warned me about the "University" of Phoenix. The consensus was that it's much better (and cheaper) to go to a reputable local community college (if you have one nearby). The thing that REALLY turned me off about Phoenix was the emphasis on group work. I *hate* group projects. "Group project" is just a euphemism for "I do all the work, the other lazy-ass students get to do nothing and ride my coattails for a free A."
Well, at least now I can explore a whole new continent of girls who won't go out with me.
Maybe if there were a lot *less* guys flashing their dicks, there would be a lot *more* women on the service.
Kool-aid comes in many flavors.
This isn't some Mac-basher's blog post, it's an article in Wired that cites a real study. And it's relevant to techies (Wired certainly thought so too).
The documentary Macheads sums this up pretty well. There was a hipster in that doc that refused to date men who owned a PC. If that's not drinking the Kool-aid by the gallon, I'm not sure what is.
The sad thing is that a lot of Mac fans think they're being rebellious and independent by using Macs. In reality, nothing makes you *MORE* of a conformist than using those overpriced, locked-down status symbols. It's the old "I'll show how rebellious and unique I am by dressing, acting, and talking like all the other rebels."
Hello, you must be new here. Perhaps you missed the image of Bill Gates as a borg?
They retroactively decided that's what they meant after it started getting bad press.
Ha, you're gonna need him.
sigh...I'll go gas up the airboat.
No, they don't. The contract says you have to pay them X amount of money a month for two years (or, alternately, pay a penalty if you wish to leave the plan early). This doesn't have anything to do with the phone itself (or what you do with it).
Don't worry, Steve will just "lobby" his pals in Congress to pass a law making it illegal.
How about they judge you both on your work skills and experience, and not whether or not you went to parties in college? Even if you accepted "he/she went to parties in HS/college" as a consideration, it would be a wash anyway. Do you look at it as "He didn't go to parties, therefore he's more serious and responsible" or "He didn't go to parties, which means he's anti-social and probably wouldn't be a good team player with other employees."? You can look at it either way.
Tea Party launches Antichrist investigation against BHO.
There wasn't hardly anything in the way of special effects in "Memento," and not much in "The Prestige." Yet those were his two best films and much better than this. "Inception" isn't *bad*, mind you. But the fact that people are concentrating so much on its visual effects is probably a good sign that the script isn't strong enough to carry the movie by itself. Everyone walked out of "Memento" way more blown away than they were from this movie, and no one was saying it was because of the cool FX. The farther away Nolan gets from Batcycles and FX, the more he has to concentrate on the script. And that's a good thing.
The main problem is that the pro-business argument here (mostly Republican, but plenty of Dems too) tries to predicate this on "free market" principles. But there is no real free market in the ISP sector, because there is no real competition. You have a handful of large broadband ISP's (AT&T, Verizon, Time-Warner, and Comcast alone probably represent about 80%+ of the entire market). And most consumers have all of two (three if they're lucky) choices for ISP. In my area, you can choose between Comcast (cable) and AT&T (DSL) and that's it. If both those companies degrade or block a particular website, that's it. There is nowhere else to go for decent performance (and even AT&T's DSL is inferior to Comcast, so there is really only ONE place to go for anything above 3Mbps).
It's funny, but my first realization that there was a serious conflict between science and the Biblical literalism came in Sunday School. I was listening to my Sunday School teacher talk about Adam and Eve and suddenly it hit me. I asked her "What about the dinosaurs?" and she nervously answered something like "Well, if it's not in the Bible, it didn't happen." That was the day I realized that religion was a crock. Even a little kid can smell bullshit when it's piled *that* high.
It's a Louisiana public school district, they don't have philosophy classes either. You can choose between "Gym," "Shop," and a class called "Fishin'" [sic].
We already paid good money to relocate a good chunk of their population to Houston. Now we're paying to scrub their damned pelicans.
What more do you want?
Science classes in Louisiana? You seriously thought we'd buy that?