Oh hell, back in the '70s I got stopped and my car searched for drugs, the justification being that it was raining and one of my rear windows was open. They determined that this meant I was venting pot smoke.
The actual reason was that the damned window didn't work and I had to get to work, I was 17 years old and my car was a POS. But even after proving that the window didn't work, they searched both inside and in the trunk, including console, glove box, etc.
This didn't just start last year, it's been going on for a long time. Just ask any grown man who was once a teenaged male driver.
I grew up in the hills of southern California in the 60s. That was before much had been done to improve air quality. We had the most beautifully colored sunsets back then. Of course, some fool had to go and ruin it all for me by explaining the fact that all those amazing colors were sinister poisonous gases and not some awesome gift of nature.
Then one day I flew into LA and down through a cloud of nasty brownish gray smog that made me want to hold my breath until we landed.
So much for the magic of childhood.
I have always hated interviews because all you are doing in most is trying to make instant friend-like connections with the interviewer, who more often than not will judge the interviewees on things that have no effect on competency to perform a given job description. Many of them even create little lists of "deal breaker" mistakes that have not a damn thing to do with how effective someone will be on the job...like were their shoes shined as well as they could be? Was their tie annoying? Were they wearing a cheap watch, even!
If I am looking for a good technician, I don't care about his or her handwriting for instance - they are going to use an automated reporting system. I don't care about the particulars of what colors they wore to the interview - we are going to provide a standard dress code for field technicians. But in the company I used to work for, the HR people were definitely NOT persons with a technical background, they were geared towards sales and they all hoped to transfer over to sales or customer training positions. As a result, a good many of the candidates that I, as Systems Division Manager, finally got to interview were very nice, polite, cordial, and mostly incompetent for the job they would have to perform.Don't get me wrong, people skills are important for this job, but mostly in the area of keeping your cool and just being patient with stressed-out customers. It took me months of arguing to finally convince the owners of the company to let me do the initial screening prior to our little HR department, once I got the changes I wanted, the HR people could simply not believe that I had chosen the candidates that I did. But, finally, I got people who could actually perform the job requirements.
I would have given up part of my paycheck to have had an automated simulation in place that could effectively test people for the aptitude and skills they possess!
@artor3: thanks...I have no problem with cynicism for a reason, but I am sick of cynicism for it's own sake.
And for the record, I didn't vote for Obama...I voted for republicans or independents in the past several elections, because I keep hoping for constitutional conservatives. Instead, I keep getting gut-punched with crap like the Patriot Act.
Or leaving it up to the IRA to decide whether more restrictions should be imposed on the sale of shotguns in the US.
I assume you mean the NRA. The Irish likely don't give a rat's ass.
So, everyone on slashdot: don't buy any CD's for one year. Tell your friends. Share your illegal music stash with them, or use allofmp3.com (that really pisses em off).
After a year of minimal sales, they won't have the money to buy handfuls of techno-dunce politicians, hence they won't matter, and they won't be playahs anymore.
Just quit giving em money!
Good point. There are so many gods out there, you can't just generalize, can you? So confusing.
Speaking of "annoying and counterproductive", every time science does what science does, as in throw out a theory that no longer holds water, you can bet your ass that members of the superstitious faction who believe the world is 8-10K years old will be right there, demonstrating yet again their failure to comprehend that the nature of empirical science is to develop theories based on a body of evidence, knowing full well that the theory will be abandoned upon the discovery of evidence or proof to the contrary.
It just irks me that they put forth the notion that every time that healthy method is brought into play, it somehow automatically validates their silly assed explanation.
But if you are religious, yet do not subscribe to the "theory" of creation, my apologies.
The caps were an attention getter meant to convey my exasperation at the same old same old. I'm actually pretty quiet and reasonable in person, unlike most zealots I have met.
My trusty steed politely declines your kind offer (says you are "too small"), I am still considering, and I know how to spell asshole, asshole.
Wow...I'm crushed by your overwhelming intellect combined with your mastery of the written language. Leave me bruised and broken on the rocks of mental majesty, why don't ya?
NOTICE TO DIETY BELIEVERS:
No degree of error on the part of science in explaining the origins of life and matter, whether in whole or in part, shall be misconstrued as proof or evidence of the validity of any other theory or belief structure.
I.E. EVEN IF SCIENCE IS COMPLETELY WRONG, THAT IN AND OF ITSELF DOES NOT PROVE RELIGION CORRECT IN ANY WAY!
-Why just not use that pool of very smart people to upgrade/improve the shuttle? Are they just sitting around with nothing to do?-
Good point, and I wish I had the answer. Could be that they don't want to compete directly with the newly emerging private space enterprises, could be any number of things that I am not aware of. Please understand, I am not trying to defend the actions or position of NASA as it exists, just looking for a possible explanation like many of us for such a great expenditure in national resources with relatively little apparent ROI in modern times.
Yeah, war is usually a very bad thing. Yeah, the military-industrial complex profits, in essence, from death.
Yeah, the US propaganda machine is working pretty well (but beginning to falter a bit). But the line about having no enemies? That's just wrong. We do have enemies, very real and very capable ones that will exploit any chink in our armor. We may have brought ourselves to this point through an imperialistic world attitude, but whatever the case, it is unrealistic to assume that we do not need a strong armed force at this juncture. Iraq, I agree (as in IMHO), was a bad idea, but I really don't know all the inside reasons for it, do you? (although Michael Moore seems to think he does...) And in the US' defense, we generally use our overwhelming military might pretty damned carefully and with a pretty good deal of reservation compared to the historical military powers that have existed. We seem, for the most part, to want to do the right global thing as a world power, but we are certainly not perfect and the world is a very, very complex place these days.
Simply put, it provides a means for the gov't to avoid a brain-drain of aerospace engineers into the private sector or foreign interests, in the event that the nation (military) should ever require them en masse.
Much of the nation's military and scientific budget is spent on keeping key scientists and engineers employed in order to maintain a quickly accessible stable of high level technical expertise.
So, you wind up with an obsolete, lingering shuttle program, with little to remind us of the glory days of the great space race.
But then, can we afford to lose that potential scientific edge? I don't know. I like the sound of privatization in space, but maybe the big picture is not space per se, its national defense readiness and preparedness?
And then the automatic signal when your pilot with the overhang smacks the tarmac anyway: "I fell in to a burning ring of fire...HELP...I went down,down,down...SOS...and the flames went higher...MAYDAY..."
Selected quotes from http://www.cptr.ua.edu/kudzu/
"Kudzu was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control. Hundreds of young men were given work planting kudzu through the Civilian Conservation Corps. Farmers were paid as much as eight dollars an acre as incentive to plant fields of the vines in the 1940s.
The problem is that it just grows too well! The climate of the Southeastern U.S. is perfect for kudzu. The vines grow as much as a foot per day during summer months, climbing trees, power poles, and anything else they contact. Under ideal conditions kudzu vines can grow sixty feet each year.
While they help prevent erosion, the vines can also destroy valuable forests by preventing trees from getting sunlight. This problem led Dr. James H. Miller of the U.S. Forest Service in Auburn, Alabama to research methods for killing kudzu. In eighteen years of research, he has found that one herbicide actually makes kudzu grow better while many have little effect. Miller recommends repeated herbicide treatments for at least four years, but some kudzu plants may take as long as ten years to kill, even with the most effective herbicides."
Great job security move, guys...introduce a solution that will require yet another solution that will require...
How much harder is it to eliminate giant prehistoric elephant herds that grow out of control, and how is this going to effect the ecosystem of the North American continent.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh hell, back in the '70s I got stopped and my car searched for drugs, the justification being that it was raining and one of my rear windows was open. They determined that this meant I was venting pot smoke. The actual reason was that the damned window didn't work and I had to get to work, I was 17 years old and my car was a POS. But even after proving that the window didn't work, they searched both inside and in the trunk, including console, glove box, etc. This didn't just start last year, it's been going on for a long time. Just ask any grown man who was once a teenaged male driver.
Sounds like a lot of hot air.
Downloaded as ebook to my Kindle Fire in less than 2 minutes after reading the post. Man, automation is awesome!
Oh, wait...
I grew up in the hills of southern California in the 60s. That was before much had been done to improve air quality. We had the most beautifully colored sunsets back then. Of course, some fool had to go and ruin it all for me by explaining the fact that all those amazing colors were sinister poisonous gases and not some awesome gift of nature. Then one day I flew into LA and down through a cloud of nasty brownish gray smog that made me want to hold my breath until we landed. So much for the magic of childhood.
I have always hated interviews because all you are doing in most is trying to make instant friend-like connections with the interviewer, who more often than not will judge the interviewees on things that have no effect on competency to perform a given job description. Many of them even create little lists of "deal breaker" mistakes that have not a damn thing to do with how effective someone will be on the job...like were their shoes shined as well as they could be? Was their tie annoying? Were they wearing a cheap watch, even!
If I am looking for a good technician, I don't care about his or her handwriting for instance - they are going to use an automated reporting system. I don't care about the particulars of what colors they wore to the interview - we are going to provide a standard dress code for field technicians. But in the company I used to work for, the HR people were definitely NOT persons with a technical background, they were geared towards sales and they all hoped to transfer over to sales or customer training positions. As a result, a good many of the candidates that I, as Systems Division Manager, finally got to interview were very nice, polite, cordial, and mostly incompetent for the job they would have to perform.Don't get me wrong, people skills are important for this job, but mostly in the area of keeping your cool and just being patient with stressed-out customers. It took me months of arguing to finally convince the owners of the company to let me do the initial screening prior to our little HR department, once I got the changes I wanted, the HR people could simply not believe that I had chosen the candidates that I did. But, finally, I got people who could actually perform the job requirements.
I would have given up part of my paycheck to have had an automated simulation in place that could effectively test people for the aptitude and skills they possess!
I got outed reading your post
FTFY
@artor3: thanks...I have no problem with cynicism for a reason, but I am sick of cynicism for it's own sake. And for the record, I didn't vote for Obama...I voted for republicans or independents in the past several elections, because I keep hoping for constitutional conservatives. Instead, I keep getting gut-punched with crap like the Patriot Act.
Good one!
Or leaving it up to the IRA to decide whether more restrictions should be imposed on the sale of shotguns in the US. I assume you mean the NRA. The Irish likely don't give a rat's ass.
So, everyone on slashdot: don't buy any CD's for one year. Tell your friends. Share your illegal music stash with them, or use allofmp3.com (that really pisses em off). After a year of minimal sales, they won't have the money to buy handfuls of techno-dunce politicians, hence they won't matter, and they won't be playahs anymore. Just quit giving em money!
I thought it was the video games that were supposed to rot my brain, so I took up .NET - Just can't win!
And that, sir, is an excellent sig.
Kiss me, you fool. You know you want it.
Good point. There are so many gods out there, you can't just generalize, can you? So confusing. Speaking of "annoying and counterproductive", every time science does what science does, as in throw out a theory that no longer holds water, you can bet your ass that members of the superstitious faction who believe the world is 8-10K years old will be right there, demonstrating yet again their failure to comprehend that the nature of empirical science is to develop theories based on a body of evidence, knowing full well that the theory will be abandoned upon the discovery of evidence or proof to the contrary. It just irks me that they put forth the notion that every time that healthy method is brought into play, it somehow automatically validates their silly assed explanation. But if you are religious, yet do not subscribe to the "theory" of creation, my apologies. The caps were an attention getter meant to convey my exasperation at the same old same old. I'm actually pretty quiet and reasonable in person, unlike most zealots I have met.
My trusty steed politely declines your kind offer (says you are "too small"), I am still considering, and I know how to spell asshole, asshole. Wow...I'm crushed by your overwhelming intellect combined with your mastery of the written language. Leave me bruised and broken on the rocks of mental majesty, why don't ya?
NOTICE TO DIETY BELIEVERS: No degree of error on the part of science in explaining the origins of life and matter, whether in whole or in part, shall be misconstrued as proof or evidence of the validity of any other theory or belief structure. I.E. EVEN IF SCIENCE IS COMPLETELY WRONG, THAT IN AND OF ITSELF DOES NOT PROVE RELIGION CORRECT IN ANY WAY!
-Why just not use that pool of very smart people to upgrade/improve the shuttle? Are they just sitting around with nothing to do?-
Good point, and I wish I had the answer. Could be that they don't want to compete directly with the newly emerging private space enterprises, could be any number of things that I am not aware of.
Please understand, I am not trying to defend the actions or position of NASA as it exists, just looking for a possible explanation like many of us for such a great expenditure in national resources with relatively little apparent ROI in modern times.
Yeah, war is usually a very bad thing.
Yeah, the military-industrial complex profits, in essence, from death.
Yeah, the US propaganda machine is working pretty well (but beginning to falter a bit).
But the line about having no enemies? That's just wrong. We do have enemies, very real and very capable ones that will exploit any chink in our armor.
We may have brought ourselves to this point through an imperialistic world attitude, but whatever the case, it is unrealistic to assume that we do not need a strong armed force at this juncture.
Iraq, I agree (as in IMHO), was a bad idea, but I really don't know all the inside reasons for it, do you? (although Michael Moore seems to think he does...)
And in the US' defense, we generally use our overwhelming military might pretty damned carefully and with a pretty good deal of reservation compared to the historical military powers that have existed. We seem, for the most part, to want to do the right global thing as a world power, but we are certainly not perfect and the world is a very, very complex place these days.
Simply put, it provides a means for the gov't to avoid a brain-drain of aerospace engineers into the private sector or foreign interests, in the event that the nation (military) should ever require them en masse. Much of the nation's military and scientific budget is spent on keeping key scientists and engineers employed in order to maintain a quickly accessible stable of high level technical expertise. So, you wind up with an obsolete, lingering shuttle program, with little to remind us of the glory days of the great space race. But then, can we afford to lose that potential scientific edge? I don't know. I like the sound of privatization in space, but maybe the big picture is not space per se, its national defense readiness and preparedness?
And then the automatic signal when your pilot with the overhang smacks the tarmac anyway: "I fell in to a burning ring of fire...HELP...I went down,down,down...SOS...and the flames went higher...MAYDAY..."
Selected quotes from http://www.cptr.ua.edu/kudzu/ "Kudzu was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control. Hundreds of young men were given work planting kudzu through the Civilian Conservation Corps. Farmers were paid as much as eight dollars an acre as incentive to plant fields of the vines in the 1940s. The problem is that it just grows too well! The climate of the Southeastern U.S. is perfect for kudzu. The vines grow as much as a foot per day during summer months, climbing trees, power poles, and anything else they contact. Under ideal conditions kudzu vines can grow sixty feet each year. While they help prevent erosion, the vines can also destroy valuable forests by preventing trees from getting sunlight. This problem led Dr. James H. Miller of the U.S. Forest Service in Auburn, Alabama to research methods for killing kudzu. In eighteen years of research, he has found that one herbicide actually makes kudzu grow better while many have little effect. Miller recommends repeated herbicide treatments for at least four years, but some kudzu plants may take as long as ten years to kill, even with the most effective herbicides." Great job security move, guys...introduce a solution that will require yet another solution that will require... How much harder is it to eliminate giant prehistoric elephant herds that grow out of control, and how is this going to effect the ecosystem of the North American continent.