Which is exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago here in Europe: German tax offices bought (with the help of the BND, Germany's service for foreign intelligence) records from a leaker of a bank in Lichtenstein with information about who had foundations there - foundations that are almost always used in order to commit tax fraud. They bought it for 3 million Euro, but claimed to get much more than that back. The CEO of the German Post fell over that scandal.
According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, many other countries, including the US, also bought that information. Naturally, Liechtenstein got quite a fit about this and accused the German goverment of "Hehlerei im großen Stil" (legal expression, to receive stolen goods as a criminal act).
Others already clarified that there is no tax, but rather a church membership fee collected through the state's tax system, whether this is a good thing or not - you don't have to tell the state your religion but only the membership in one of the officially accepted religions.
As for telling the government when you move, please note that it's the communities you are moving into that you've got to tell - not the national goverment. There is no central database where all Germans are listed.
This is not too different from other countries (where you usually at least pay taxes or community bills that show where you live), except that you get benefits yourself. If, for example, your wallet gets stolen while you're away from home, you can visit the police for help: They will indeed provide you with enough money to sort out your problem (eg buy a ticket to get home) as they can verify your identity; a copy of your image is stored in your community and can be faxed over on request.
I currently live in the UK; for everything for which in Germany I would have used my ID card, I have to use a gas bill or a bank statement, which is very easily forged. I'd rather use an ID card.
So no, I don't find any of the statements above "crazy". I'm not happy with the absence of a clean separation between the state and the churches, but in practice that hardly matters (as the Germans aren't very faithful anyway and being in a church doesn't mean much). By and large, the critizised points reflect German attitudes that make most things work much better in Germany than they do in other countries.
And besides, the be honest, "European" is more and more starting to become "Citizen of the EU". Not so much in Europe, but in the rest of the world. Especially not in the UK.
It's not a link. It's a reference to an external DTD subset. It's there so that generic SGML software can properly parse the document without any special knowledge of HTML. They can't, as html isn't sgml.
see here
It's just close enough to satisfy validators and browsers at the same time (though they interpret it differently). And the guy you quoted is right in that as matters are in practise, the doctype is irrelevant. That's why the html 5 working draft recommends it to be empty.
Unfortunately, the world has been corrupted by Microsoft's bizarre definition of an "Operating System." The following are applications, not part of the OS: [...] From www.ubuntu.com:
Ubuntu is a free, Debian derived Linux-based operating system, Also MacOS, OS/2, BeOS, etc. (note the "OS")
It's hardly only Microsoft's view.
make people addicted to their music to radio and TV, then letting people pay to get a private copy
do so with children as well by music especially produced for that target group, of course the parents not consenting despite them having pay the bills
fund the MAFIAAs of this world to sue and intimidate innocent citizens
tell girls how good they have to look in their videos clips
In Germany there was a music-industry funded ad implying it is just that some criminals get raped in prison - namely pirates.
Yes, it's their right to do all that - I'm not the one trying to criminalise someone else. But moral?
It comes down to the following question: Do we want the music industry and all what's associated with it? I don't.
And don't tell me now: You don't have to listen to this music: I have to, on most radio and TV, on any party I go to. All children do listen to music and they demand private copies from their parents which they can't deny to any degree. I won't fund a system I can live without, but as long as it's there I won't alienate myself from others by keeping up an ideological abstinence.
In Germany there used to be ads aired in cinemas where in one of them you would see two people being imprisoned and two other prisoners looking at them, chatting: "a pirate", "yet another pirate", "yeah, but mine has the hotter ass".
I sent a complaint letter to the company that made the ads and they told me they had a moral commission set up to assert that it's actually moral.
"I work 24 hours a day 7 days a week at no official sallary at all, but I'm a good mother." may get increasingly unpopular, but there are still more of them around that IT-geeks I would have thought.
In both cases, one should appreciate their efforts.
That number is written down on the credit card itself. Also, it's transmitted along with the credit card number itself, even if it's not stored. Why not using one-time passwords? You get a list of numbers and are asked for one if you want to do a transaction. The list is issued by post and then you didn't even need ssl for security.
The merchants can do little to enforce such a system, that's up to the banks and credit card companies; so it's their fault that most parts of the world are left with pretty insecure payment systems.
That's plausible. How many people know about or want to learn more about the three admittedly obscure things you mentioned? And how, in comparison, do so for a specific (presumably American) highschool?
Would you also rule out articles about, say, fictional myths by Homer? Wikipedia, as any decent encyclopedia, is there to suit what people care about. It shouldn't make any judgement about how justified that interest is.
There is a picture of any German adult in some office at where he's registered. If the police needs to confirm your identity they can do so - and that's a great merit.
I'm currently living in the UK, where no ID cards exists. There are quite a few people around telling stories about that they need money and are willing to give it back to you later once they managed to travel back home / to their friends, etc. In Germany, you can tell them: Go to the police. Even if they lost their ID, the police can contact the city where they are registered and have them fax over a picture to prove peoples identity. The police will then be willing to provide the necessary help, even with money.
In they UK (and the US will be worse), there is simply no way at all to tell apart liars from people in need. I really hate this - if someone has a problem and asks for help, it needs to be sorted. This has nothing to do with Nazis, but with responsibility.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago here in Europe: German tax offices bought (with the help of the BND, Germany's service for foreign intelligence) records from a leaker of a bank in Lichtenstein with information about who had foundations there - foundations that are almost always used in order to commit tax fraud. They bought it for 3 million Euro, but claimed to get much more than that back. The CEO of the German Post fell over that scandal. According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, many other countries, including the US, also bought that information. Naturally, Liechtenstein got quite a fit about this and accused the German goverment of "Hehlerei im großen Stil" (legal expression, to receive stolen goods as a criminal act).
Others already clarified that there is no tax, but rather a church membership fee collected through the state's tax system, whether this is a good thing or not - you don't have to tell the state your religion but only the membership in one of the officially accepted religions. As for telling the government when you move, please note that it's the communities you are moving into that you've got to tell - not the national goverment. There is no central database where all Germans are listed. This is not too different from other countries (where you usually at least pay taxes or community bills that show where you live), except that you get benefits yourself. If, for example, your wallet gets stolen while you're away from home, you can visit the police for help: They will indeed provide you with enough money to sort out your problem (eg buy a ticket to get home) as they can verify your identity; a copy of your image is stored in your community and can be faxed over on request. I currently live in the UK; for everything for which in Germany I would have used my ID card, I have to use a gas bill or a bank statement, which is very easily forged. I'd rather use an ID card. So no, I don't find any of the statements above "crazy". I'm not happy with the absence of a clean separation between the state and the churches, but in practice that hardly matters (as the Germans aren't very faithful anyway and being in a church doesn't mean much). By and large, the critizised points reflect German attitudes that make most things work much better in Germany than they do in other countries.
It's just close enough to satisfy validators and browsers at the same time (though they interpret it differently). And the guy you quoted is right in that as matters are in practise, the doctype is irrelevant. That's why the html 5 working draft recommends it to be empty.
It's hardly only Microsoft's view.
Yes, they were all dissolved in acid.
If you have insider information, can you then hack the site and insert the CEO of the company?
("...convicted to paying $9,99 for eating his neighbours children" should make sure that only the worst of the worst believe it)
In Germany there was a music-industry funded ad implying it is just that some criminals get raped in prison - namely pirates.
Yes, it's their right to do all that - I'm not the one trying to criminalise someone else. But moral?
It comes down to the following question: Do we want the music industry and all what's associated with it? I don't.
And don't tell me now: You don't have to listen to this music: I have to, on most radio and TV, on any party I go to. All children do listen to music and they demand private copies from their parents which they can't deny to any degree. I won't fund a system I can live without, but as long as it's there I won't alienate myself from others by keeping up an ideological abstinence.
I sent a complaint letter to the company that made the ads and they told me they had a moral commission set up to assert that it's actually moral.
Indeed, but the more important point for being natural is that there actually are nuclear chain-reactions on earth without human intervention, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fissi on_reactor.
Could you please post links to all traffic accidents as well, just for comparison?
"I work 24 hours a day 7 days a week at no official sallary at all, but I'm a good mother." may get increasingly unpopular, but there are still more of them around that IT-geeks I would have thought.
In both cases, one should appreciate their efforts.
That number is written down on the credit card itself. Also, it's transmitted along with the credit card number itself, even if it's not stored. Why not using one-time passwords? You get a list of numbers and are asked for one if you want to do a transaction. The list is issued by post and then you didn't even need ssl for security.
The merchants can do little to enforce such a system, that's up to the banks and credit card companies; so it's their fault that most parts of the world are left with pretty insecure payment systems.
If you make things up you shouldn't link content which proves you wrong.
That's plausible. How many people know about or want to learn more about the three admittedly obscure things you mentioned? And how, in comparison, do so for a specific (presumably American) highschool?
Would you also rule out articles about, say, fictional myths by Homer? Wikipedia, as any decent encyclopedia, is there to suit what people care about. It shouldn't make any judgement about how justified that interest is.
There is a picture of any German adult in some office at where he's registered. If the police needs to confirm your identity they can do so - and that's a great merit.
I'm currently living in the UK, where no ID cards exists. There are quite a few people around telling stories about that they need money and are willing to give it back to you later once they managed to travel back home / to their friends, etc. In Germany, you can tell them: Go to the police. Even if they lost their ID, the police can contact the city where they are registered and have them fax over a picture to prove peoples identity. The police will then be willing to provide the necessary help, even with money.
In they UK (and the US will be worse), there is simply no way at all to tell apart liars from people in need. I really hate this - if someone has a problem and asks for help, it needs to be sorted. This has nothing to do with Nazis, but with responsibility.
`When Bashir and O'Brien ask Worf why 23rd Century Klingons look so different he will only tell them "we do not discuss it with outsiders"'
(taken from wikipedia)
Or a deterministic turing machine and a non-deterministic turing machine.
If someone in the know could answer this question this would be greatly appreciated.