I'm not going to automatically dismiss that story out of hand, but right now the only source I see for this story is Think Progress. A search brings up a bunch of similarly minded websites running the same exact story and all linking back to the same source.
What I found telling was that there's mention of using union labor and the leadership then backing out and going with Chinese labor. It sounds to me like people are upset that they didn't go with union labor and threw in the term "unpaid" to get people riled up. Given what I know of China, I find it very hard to believe that anyone would get away with not paying workers, especially for something like this which requires skill.
That said, I think it's outrageous that an American sculpture couldn't be found. The selection almost seems political. But it's especially outrageous that they couldn't have found American workers to help with this. Given what the statue is supposed to represent and the state of our economy I see this as a slap in the face to Americans, and especially African Americans. I'm not sure why this aspect hasn't been given more attention.
Around here the only way you're going to be able to avoid red lights is by speeding excessively; it's like traffic lights have been set up to penalize anyone driving at or near the speed limit. It seems like American traffic engineers solve every problem by adding more traffic lights, stop signs and slowing drivers every chance they get.
Roundabouts are great, but they're far from being a panacea and Americans are going to have to change their driving habits too. Americans are too self-righteous and too comfortable with violating the rules of the road.
There was an sometimes amusing, usually frustrating, that seems to be somewhat unique to Chinese politicians. They'll publicly make baldfaced lies. There will be overwhelming evidence and they'll still blatantly deny it. Our politicians lie like hell, but they're more tactful about it. Once the secret is out they'll do a little tap dance to avoid actually addressing the issue. But not there, they'll just keep lying about it until everyone forgets about it, they're forced to resign or they end up in jail.
So it's not surprising in the least that they're denying this video. And the best part is that they'll deny these attacks and then gloat about it all behind our backs.
That's the same thing my friends who have family there tell me. And it's generally the same thing I've seen with typhoons in Asia. Most destruction comes from landslides and biblical amounts of rainfall that result in flooding. But otherwise the vast majority of buildings weather the storm unscathed.
I don't understand how the hell it is that states like Florida permit people to build homes out of lumber or live in trailers. Then there's the whole thing of people building homes along the water, having them destroyed in a hurricane, then being able to rebuild them again on the same spot. It's not like hurricanes in Florida are a rare occurrence.
Is this really any different than people throwing hundreds of dollars at the latest device from Apple? Look at the people who replace a perfectly good device with one that's newer but offers little additional functionality.
I'd argue that the motivation driving people to buy the latest gadget is identical to the motivation behind someone buying a piece of virtual property. It's pure emotion; the happiness of unwrapping and enjoying something new.
There are a lot of people in the real world making a ton of money on stuff people don't actually need. And I'm not just talking about electronics. Alcohol, drugs, fancy clothing, luxury cars, junk food... We can get into debates about paying for something intangible, but the motivation is the same: pleasure.
A 5.9 earthquake is nothing to scoff at, but the media is already seriously blowing this out of proportion.
I've been in two comparably strong earthquake in Asia. Everyone looks at each other for a second, the shaking gets more violent and we all bolt for the doors going outside. The ground stops moving, but stuff like lightpoles keep swaying for a bit longer. Fairly quickly everyone is assured that it's not a big one and everyone goes back to their normal routine. Anyone who was stuck inside doesn't even bother going outside.
It's comical the way people in DC are streaming into the streets. Don't panic!
Amongst everyone I've ever known I can't point to a single person who ever took the religion story literally. Maybe it's a factor of the part of the country where I live. Even in Sunday school we were told it was metaphorical; that each of the seven days, for example, stood for dramatically longer period of time. If I recall correctly, even the Vatican has long stated this and sees no dispute between Christianity and things like evolution, the big bang or anything else. So I'm not sure who exactly is debating all this.
And yet, over the last couple of decades I've seen this rise in these odd denominations taking the bible literally. I've come to believe there are two things happening here:
1)Ssome religious leaders, particularly in America, are seeing a decrease in relevance and a rise of secularism and are trying to keep themselves relevant. One of the more effective ways to do that is to affect education, to push their beliefs as fact. They don't need to convince everyone, just enough idiots to establish themselves.
2) Many on the other side of this are seriously overstating how many of these kinds of people are actually are out there. The way some talk you'd think most of the country believes in the literal interpretation of the creation story. If that were the case why haven't I met anyone who believes that by now? Most of the people I know are closer to being agnostic than anything else, like myself, but I know a few people who are very religious and they completely embrace science. For them there's no question that evolution is real and that the world is billions of years old.
I'd be curious to know how that poll was conducted, how far they probed. Did they what aspect of the Adam and Eve story people believe? Literal or figurative. The number of people who believe might be high, I would expect that the people who believe it literally is a lot lower. Or maybe people have somehow mashed together ideas so that humans evolved from apes into Adam and Even and then went on from there? Who knows? But the picture certainly isn't clear.
The funny thing is that you have people on one side of the fence who want to demonstrate that people are still religious, and on the other you've got those who want to show how stupid people can be. So it's possible loaded questions will get asked that lead, interestingly enough, to the same results.
Do you realize how stupid what you're suggesting is?
How do you propose a "fat-ass" bike or walk 10, or more, miles in rain or snow? How do you force people to move closer to work when rent and home prices are significantly higher and thus not affordable?
I'll tell you what will change. Nothing, except that now citizens will be paying even more in taxes. And that's exactly what the politicians want. They love to institute these kinds of taxes that supposedly encourage changes in behavior all the while hoping that people don't actually change their habits because if they did that revenue would be lost. And if that scenario does come to pass they'll just raise taxes some other way to make up for it.
And let's not forget that this sort of thing screws most people who work and do business.
I've heard of this sort of thing happening in Taiwan, but specifically with truck drivers. For whatever reason they tend to be a seedy bunch and it's worse in China. My understanding is that the laws pertaining to this sort of thing have been changed. But it all could have been a myth or based on a single incident.
We can talk about rights all we want, but the fact here is that what we're experiencing here is the criminal element stripping our rights away. Being unable to safely walk somewhere late at night constitutes a loss of freedom. The problem is that Americans are so used to this sort of garbage that they don't even see the problem. But I lived overseas where I could walk the streets at 3am without a care in the world. It wasn't that crime was non-existent but it didn't factor into normal routine. Sketchy neighborhoods were rare.
But the problem here is that American law enforcement is reactive, not proactive. The approach taken to crime is similar to how oppressive regimes keep sectarian conflict in check: oppression. I don't mean that Americans practice anything nearly that severe. What I mean is that they address problems with aggressive tactics; increased police presence, more arrests, etc. That only addresses the symptoms and once they're gone the problems return. And making matters worse is that this approach dehumanizes police offices, it turns them into this faceless force. They don't interact nearly enough with communities. They should patrol on foot, not in police cars.
However, the real problem are parents. Too many parents have abrogated their responsibilities. They don't care what their kids are doing, because if they did that kid wouldn't be out on the streets in the middle of the night. So, the responsibility ends up being foisted on the government. And what the government decides isn't always in the best interests of the citizens, especially when they're looking for quick results. Those quick results are effective over the current election cycle, but they never address the long term problems.
But the fact is the United States is suffering from serious cultural issues that perpetuates things like crime. Those need to be addressed properly, but honestly, I don't know see who could disagree with the benefits of enjoying safer streets, less vandalism, etc. But I suppose it's the tendency for Americans to want to stick it to the man, to the point of being irrational about it.
Wow... That article has left me aghast, but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised.
What really surprises me is that anyone can remain loyal to either party. But I know what the mindset is for most people; "my guy might be bad, but at least he's not as bad as the other guy." So while people continue to delude themselves politicians keep screwing everyone.
By reveling in their own ignorance Americans have abrogated their responsibility to politicians, sometimes intentionally sometimes not. And when that happens the government starts making decisions for us, and inevitably they're going to do what's in their own best interests. So we get stuck with crap.
And the sad thing is that patent reform should be a no-brainer for anyone, regardless of political ideology. I mean, even a staunch believer in the free market should fully support the revocation of most patents. If a corporation can't remain competitive without the government stepping in to protect every little idea they come up with then they deserve to fail.
Every time I read a good sci-fi novel I think to myself, "why is Hollywood incapable, at least nowadays, of making a movie even half this good?"
These movies offer nothing but hackneyed concepts, idiotic premises and gaping plot holes. And a significant part of the problem is that these movies all need to be turned into blockbusters. That means that any sci-fi movie is turned into an action movie with epic undertones. Hollywood lacks both creativity and subtlety and Cowboys & Aliens is a perfect example of this.
They could have taken the concept and turned it into something truly wacky, embracing the whole absurdity of the idea. Or they could have gone in the other direction and done something intimate and character driven; I'm reminded of a few episodes of Star Trek which fall under a similar premise. Instead they went for the mundane. They took the standard for a sci-fi action movie and injected the cowboy theme into it. But then, it shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that Hollywood is not much more than a movie factory.
While I agree with you there are other reasons why Somalians are starving. They've been suffering from civil war and militants blocking or stealing everything being sent their way. The droughts aren't helping, but then they don't have the freedom to move either.
The video and music are far from the worst thing I've ever seen. I mean, compared to the current state of American pop music this is high art. That said, this feels like pop music for people who like to pretend they don't like pop music.
And what happened with HTML5 being an open, cross-platform standard? I thought we had seen the last of browser-specific websites. Either the developers were too lazy to ensure this worked in all browsers or, far more likely, they were pushed into making this Chrome only. Either way, it doesn't bode well for HTML5 at all especially if companies are going to start offering proprietary variations.
It's probably not good for the future of Chrome either. Microsoft could get away with it because they already had massive market share by the time this sort of thing started happening. And at the time it happened mostly because developers couldn't be bothered to support other browsers.
Of all the modes of transport available to humans, air travel would be hit hardest by a true fuel shortage. If we were to run out of oil in the next few years the we'd just transition to electric cars. Many, if not most, trains already run on electricity. There are alternatives for shipborne travel, coal, wind, nuclear and possibly even electric. There is, however, no viable alternative for air travel except for dirigibles. Unless, I suppose, someone were willing to give nuclear-powered aircraft a shot. Needless to say, intercontinental travel would get significantly slower for quite a while.
The problem isn't project management per se. It's the project managers myself. The majority of project managers I've dealt with over the years are dolts who barely understand what they're managing and don't care to learn. But even worse than that, the majority of them had flexible schedules. This means either working odd hours or enjoying a couple of days off every week. So what inevitably happens is that when the manager is in the office their time is occupied just trying to catch up. By the time they're aware of everything that's going on it's time to leave. They're not available on demand to address needs, both from staff or clients. So no decisions are rarely made and the team is never responsive like it needs to be. And too often bad decisions get the rubber stamp.
These project managers in effect, render themselves as irrelevant. I'm not sure why companies continue wasting good money on these people. Either expect more of them, or just fire them.
You're absolutely right. But these asian kids are getting exposed to just that in American schools. That's my point about the problems with schools in Asia. It's a given kids will be exposed to independent thought in American schools. But it's nonexistent in Asian schools, and the culture there is so oppressive that it's difficult to instill that sort of thinking in schools here.
But at the end of the day curiosity isn't going to ensure a kid does well. Make as much of it exciting as you can, but it's misguided to make a kid expect that everything should be fun. School work is sometimes boring and dull. That's a fact of life. A kid needs to understand that sometimes you just have to buckle down and work, the good stuff will come from that.
How many suicides are there in northern Europe? If the Japanese work ethic leads to suicide then why is the suicide rate so high in northern Europe where the cultural mindset is far more laid back? There are other factors in play here.
And, the funny thing is that Americans work, on average, a lot more than Japanese do.
The tiger mom takes things way too far. But she's got the right mindset. You can criticize it all you want but they're the ones raising kids who grow into successful adults.
Online streaming, DVD and Blu-ray rentals and purchases need to be taken into account to get the whole picture. When all that is considered movies and television are probably more profitable than they've ever been. That may be offset by rising production costs and competition from other media, but I don't know enough about the industry to know if that's the case.
I think the real shift here is that the average consumer has been trained to be a lot less discerning. There was a time when summer blockbusters were incidental, now they're expected. People want entertainment, quality is secondary.
All these remakes are intended to get suckers like us watching movies. We know some new movie might trample all over our childhood memories, but we still watch these movies on the odd chance they've actually done a good job. Of course, the movie industry keeps making these movies because people watch them. When sales of remakes finally decline we'll start seeing more original content.
The problem with the United States is that people are deluded by the belief that throwing money at a problem will fix it. The thing is that the US already spends way more per student than any other developed nation. Teachers and school administrators are certainly part of the equation, but the true source of the problem are the parents and popular culture. American culture glorifies the celebrity and the athlete. It creates the expectation that a person can get rich overnight and that everyone will be fabulously wealthy. When isn't there some celebrity dipshit on television flaunting their wealth? There's no idolization of the hard working individual, of the person who studies hard in school. American parents care more about having a child who is popular than they are having one who's studious. The mindset that is endlessly perpetuated is that you should do something you love, because it's fun.
Look at Asian kids going through the same exact school system. They consistently excel. Not because they're innately smarter than anyone else. Live in Asia any length of time and you'll be cured of that misconception. Asians excel because from birth their parents are pushing them to work hard and do well in school. As a friend explained to me, your average American parent is happy with a child getting B's in school whereas an Asian parent will tolerate nothing less than straight A's. So from the start a child is learning that good enough is all they need to do to satisfy people.
Every single thing they do is aimed at ensuring their kids not only do well but can get into a good university. This means everything from no computers or televisions in the bedroom to no socializing during the school year. And the parents are always aware of what their kids are doing. Too many American parents are too concerned with giving their kids freedom, with being their buddies.
And this has nothing to do with the academic system in Asia because most of these Asians kids were born in the States and are growing up here. For a while I considered moving back to Asia and for a variety of reasons stayed here. One of those reasons was the school system here versus in Asia. The thing with the American system is that it's problems can be easily countered with parental involvement. In Asia, on the other hand, there is little that can be done to address the problems there. Asian schools still suffer the problem of focusing on rote memorization, parroting the teacher, and a fixation on taking tests. Study schools are still huge there. After school kids go to these cram schools in the evening with the purpose of studying to pass tests more effectively. School there is a lot more oppressive. I suppose the upside to all that is that at least they're still very focused on academics.
And of course, the final piece here is that when Asians choose careers they consistently choose those which will ensure the greatest success. They're much less likely to choose a career that merely feels good. So this means that they get into finance, technology or healthcare. But even those who don't go that route, when they've had such a strong work ethic instilled in them ultimately find another path to success, even if they've started off in construction. Where your average individual will remain stuck working for someone else indefinitely, they'll find a way to grow to the point that they've got their own thriving business, as is the case with a good friend of mine. And the funny thing is that I've known Asians who've been fully Americanized, and they pretty much end up in the same situation as the average American; they've lost the formula for success.
The thing here is that these techniques are especially important for a child growing up in lower to middle-class environments. These are the kids who are less likely to be exposed to successful role models. A kid growing up in an upper-class neighborhood has little to worry about. The success of everyone around them will rub off on them, and if it doesn't, well, they're connected enough that they wi
Of course, the problem is that your average consumer has been trained to like garbage.
Have you ever gotten into a rental car and taken a look at the audio settings? Invariably bass and treble are turned way up. And what's the first thing people in stores do when trying out a sound system? They turn the volume way up. If it's loud it's good, even if the speakers are clipping.
And how much dynamic range does your average pop song have anyway? Not much, it's just a wall of noise. And then if you're listening to stuff like hip hop then you're also dealing with low quality samples.
Wasn't there are article here on Slashdot several months ago about some survey about audio? Researchers found that the majority actually preferred the inferior sound of compressed audio?
So there's no incentive to improve audio quality. The problem is when this sort of crap spills over to good music.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not going to automatically dismiss that story out of hand, but right now the only source I see for this story is Think Progress. A search brings up a bunch of similarly minded websites running the same exact story and all linking back to the same source.
What I found telling was that there's mention of using union labor and the leadership then backing out and going with Chinese labor. It sounds to me like people are upset that they didn't go with union labor and threw in the term "unpaid" to get people riled up. Given what I know of China, I find it very hard to believe that anyone would get away with not paying workers, especially for something like this which requires skill.
That said, I think it's outrageous that an American sculpture couldn't be found. The selection almost seems political. But it's especially outrageous that they couldn't have found American workers to help with this. Given what the statue is supposed to represent and the state of our economy I see this as a slap in the face to Americans, and especially African Americans. I'm not sure why this aspect hasn't been given more attention.
Around here the only way you're going to be able to avoid red lights is by speeding excessively; it's like traffic lights have been set up to penalize anyone driving at or near the speed limit. It seems like American traffic engineers solve every problem by adding more traffic lights, stop signs and slowing drivers every chance they get.
Roundabouts are great, but they're far from being a panacea and Americans are going to have to change their driving habits too. Americans are too self-righteous and too comfortable with violating the rules of the road.
There was an sometimes amusing, usually frustrating, that seems to be somewhat unique to Chinese politicians. They'll publicly make baldfaced lies. There will be overwhelming evidence and they'll still blatantly deny it. Our politicians lie like hell, but they're more tactful about it. Once the secret is out they'll do a little tap dance to avoid actually addressing the issue. But not there, they'll just keep lying about it until everyone forgets about it, they're forced to resign or they end up in jail.
So it's not surprising in the least that they're denying this video. And the best part is that they'll deny these attacks and then gloat about it all behind our backs.
That's the same thing my friends who have family there tell me. And it's generally the same thing I've seen with typhoons in Asia. Most destruction comes from landslides and biblical amounts of rainfall that result in flooding. But otherwise the vast majority of buildings weather the storm unscathed.
I don't understand how the hell it is that states like Florida permit people to build homes out of lumber or live in trailers. Then there's the whole thing of people building homes along the water, having them destroyed in a hurricane, then being able to rebuild them again on the same spot. It's not like hurricanes in Florida are a rare occurrence.
Is this really any different than people throwing hundreds of dollars at the latest device from Apple? Look at the people who replace a perfectly good device with one that's newer but offers little additional functionality.
I'd argue that the motivation driving people to buy the latest gadget is identical to the motivation behind someone buying a piece of virtual property. It's pure emotion; the happiness of unwrapping and enjoying something new.
There are a lot of people in the real world making a ton of money on stuff people don't actually need. And I'm not just talking about electronics. Alcohol, drugs, fancy clothing, luxury cars, junk food... We can get into debates about paying for something intangible, but the motivation is the same: pleasure.
A 5.9 earthquake is nothing to scoff at, but the media is already seriously blowing this out of proportion.
I've been in two comparably strong earthquake in Asia. Everyone looks at each other for a second, the shaking gets more violent and we all bolt for the doors going outside. The ground stops moving, but stuff like lightpoles keep swaying for a bit longer. Fairly quickly everyone is assured that it's not a big one and everyone goes back to their normal routine. Anyone who was stuck inside doesn't even bother going outside.
It's comical the way people in DC are streaming into the streets. Don't panic!
Amongst everyone I've ever known I can't point to a single person who ever took the religion story literally. Maybe it's a factor of the part of the country where I live. Even in Sunday school we were told it was metaphorical; that each of the seven days, for example, stood for dramatically longer period of time. If I recall correctly, even the Vatican has long stated this and sees no dispute between Christianity and things like evolution, the big bang or anything else. So I'm not sure who exactly is debating all this.
And yet, over the last couple of decades I've seen this rise in these odd denominations taking the bible literally. I've come to believe there are two things happening here:
1)Ssome religious leaders, particularly in America, are seeing a decrease in relevance and a rise of secularism and are trying to keep themselves relevant. One of the more effective ways to do that is to affect education, to push their beliefs as fact. They don't need to convince everyone, just enough idiots to establish themselves.
2) Many on the other side of this are seriously overstating how many of these kinds of people are actually are out there. The way some talk you'd think most of the country believes in the literal interpretation of the creation story. If that were the case why haven't I met anyone who believes that by now? Most of the people I know are closer to being agnostic than anything else, like myself, but I know a few people who are very religious and they completely embrace science. For them there's no question that evolution is real and that the world is billions of years old.
I'd be curious to know how that poll was conducted, how far they probed. Did they what aspect of the Adam and Eve story people believe? Literal or figurative. The number of people who believe might be high, I would expect that the people who believe it literally is a lot lower. Or maybe people have somehow mashed together ideas so that humans evolved from apes into Adam and Even and then went on from there? Who knows? But the picture certainly isn't clear.
The funny thing is that you have people on one side of the fence who want to demonstrate that people are still religious, and on the other you've got those who want to show how stupid people can be. So it's possible loaded questions will get asked that lead, interestingly enough, to the same results.
Why weren't they examining actual devices? What am I missing here?
Do you realize how stupid what you're suggesting is?
How do you propose a "fat-ass" bike or walk 10, or more, miles in rain or snow?
How do you force people to move closer to work when rent and home prices are significantly higher and thus not affordable?
I'll tell you what will change. Nothing, except that now citizens will be paying even more in taxes. And that's exactly what the politicians want. They love to institute these kinds of taxes that supposedly encourage changes in behavior all the while hoping that people don't actually change their habits because if they did that revenue would be lost. And if that scenario does come to pass they'll just raise taxes some other way to make up for it.
And let's not forget that this sort of thing screws most people who work and do business.
I've heard of this sort of thing happening in Taiwan, but specifically with truck drivers. For whatever reason they tend to be a seedy bunch and it's worse in China. My understanding is that the laws pertaining to this sort of thing have been changed. But it all could have been a myth or based on a single incident.
The fact that they're too cool to call themselves National Geographic anymore is evidence of that.
I don't get the American fetish with chopping up words into little bite-sized chunks.
I remember people saying the same thing about Apple in the era before Steve Jobs returned.
We can talk about rights all we want, but the fact here is that what we're experiencing here is the criminal element stripping our rights away. Being unable to safely walk somewhere late at night constitutes a loss of freedom. The problem is that Americans are so used to this sort of garbage that they don't even see the problem. But I lived overseas where I could walk the streets at 3am without a care in the world. It wasn't that crime was non-existent but it didn't factor into normal routine. Sketchy neighborhoods were rare.
But the problem here is that American law enforcement is reactive, not proactive. The approach taken to crime is similar to how oppressive regimes keep sectarian conflict in check: oppression. I don't mean that Americans practice anything nearly that severe. What I mean is that they address problems with aggressive tactics; increased police presence, more arrests, etc. That only addresses the symptoms and once they're gone the problems return. And making matters worse is that this approach dehumanizes police offices, it turns them into this faceless force. They don't interact nearly enough with communities. They should patrol on foot, not in police cars.
However, the real problem are parents. Too many parents have abrogated their responsibilities. They don't care what their kids are doing, because if they did that kid wouldn't be out on the streets in the middle of the night. So, the responsibility ends up being foisted on the government. And what the government decides isn't always in the best interests of the citizens, especially when they're looking for quick results. Those quick results are effective over the current election cycle, but they never address the long term problems.
But the fact is the United States is suffering from serious cultural issues that perpetuates things like crime. Those need to be addressed properly, but honestly, I don't know see who could disagree with the benefits of enjoying safer streets, less vandalism, etc. But I suppose it's the tendency for Americans to want to stick it to the man, to the point of being irrational about it.
Wow... That article has left me aghast, but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised.
What really surprises me is that anyone can remain loyal to either party. But I know what the mindset is for most people; "my guy might be bad, but at least he's not as bad as the other guy." So while people continue to delude themselves politicians keep screwing everyone.
By reveling in their own ignorance Americans have abrogated their responsibility to politicians, sometimes intentionally sometimes not. And when that happens the government starts making decisions for us, and inevitably they're going to do what's in their own best interests. So we get stuck with crap.
And the sad thing is that patent reform should be a no-brainer for anyone, regardless of political ideology. I mean, even a staunch believer in the free market should fully support the revocation of most patents. If a corporation can't remain competitive without the government stepping in to protect every little idea they come up with then they deserve to fail.
Every time I read a good sci-fi novel I think to myself, "why is Hollywood incapable, at least nowadays, of making a movie even half this good?"
These movies offer nothing but hackneyed concepts, idiotic premises and gaping plot holes. And a significant part of the problem is that these movies all need to be turned into blockbusters. That means that any sci-fi movie is turned into an action movie with epic undertones. Hollywood lacks both creativity and subtlety and Cowboys & Aliens is a perfect example of this.
They could have taken the concept and turned it into something truly wacky, embracing the whole absurdity of the idea. Or they could have gone in the other direction and done something intimate and character driven; I'm reminded of a few episodes of Star Trek which fall under a similar premise. Instead they went for the mundane. They took the standard for a sci-fi action movie and injected the cowboy theme into it. But then, it shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that Hollywood is not much more than a movie factory.
While I agree with you there are other reasons why Somalians are starving. They've been suffering from civil war and militants blocking or stealing everything being sent their way. The droughts aren't helping, but then they don't have the freedom to move either.
The video and music are far from the worst thing I've ever seen. I mean, compared to the current state of American pop music this is high art. That said, this feels like pop music for people who like to pretend they don't like pop music.
And what happened with HTML5 being an open, cross-platform standard? I thought we had seen the last of browser-specific websites. Either the developers were too lazy to ensure this worked in all browsers or, far more likely, they were pushed into making this Chrome only. Either way, it doesn't bode well for HTML5 at all especially if companies are going to start offering proprietary variations.
It's probably not good for the future of Chrome either. Microsoft could get away with it because they already had massive market share by the time this sort of thing started happening. And at the time it happened mostly because developers couldn't be bothered to support other browsers.
Of all the modes of transport available to humans, air travel would be hit hardest by a true fuel shortage. If we were to run out of oil in the next few years the we'd just transition to electric cars. Many, if not most, trains already run on electricity. There are alternatives for shipborne travel, coal, wind, nuclear and possibly even electric. There is, however, no viable alternative for air travel except for dirigibles. Unless, I suppose, someone were willing to give nuclear-powered aircraft a shot. Needless to say, intercontinental travel would get significantly slower for quite a while.
The problem isn't project management per se. It's the project managers myself. The majority of project managers I've dealt with over the years are dolts who barely understand what they're managing and don't care to learn. But even worse than that, the majority of them had flexible schedules. This means either working odd hours or enjoying a couple of days off every week. So what inevitably happens is that when the manager is in the office their time is occupied just trying to catch up. By the time they're aware of everything that's going on it's time to leave. They're not available on demand to address needs, both from staff or clients. So no decisions are rarely made and the team is never responsive like it needs to be. And too often bad decisions get the rubber stamp.
These project managers in effect, render themselves as irrelevant. I'm not sure why companies continue wasting good money on these people. Either expect more of them, or just fire them.
You're absolutely right. But these asian kids are getting exposed to just that in American schools. That's my point about the problems with schools in Asia. It's a given kids will be exposed to independent thought in American schools. But it's nonexistent in Asian schools, and the culture there is so oppressive that it's difficult to instill that sort of thinking in schools here.
But at the end of the day curiosity isn't going to ensure a kid does well. Make as much of it exciting as you can, but it's misguided to make a kid expect that everything should be fun. School work is sometimes boring and dull. That's a fact of life. A kid needs to understand that sometimes you just have to buckle down and work, the good stuff will come from that.
How many suicides are there in northern Europe? If the Japanese work ethic leads to suicide then why is the suicide rate so high in northern Europe where the cultural mindset is far more laid back? There are other factors in play here.
And, the funny thing is that Americans work, on average, a lot more than Japanese do.
The tiger mom takes things way too far. But she's got the right mindset. You can criticize it all you want but they're the ones raising kids who grow into successful adults.
Online streaming, DVD and Blu-ray rentals and purchases need to be taken into account to get the whole picture. When all that is considered movies and television are probably more profitable than they've ever been. That may be offset by rising production costs and competition from other media, but I don't know enough about the industry to know if that's the case.
I think the real shift here is that the average consumer has been trained to be a lot less discerning. There was a time when summer blockbusters were incidental, now they're expected. People want entertainment, quality is secondary.
All these remakes are intended to get suckers like us watching movies. We know some new movie might trample all over our childhood memories, but we still watch these movies on the odd chance they've actually done a good job. Of course, the movie industry keeps making these movies because people watch them. When sales of remakes finally decline we'll start seeing more original content.
The problem with the United States is that people are deluded by the belief that throwing money at a problem will fix it. The thing is that the US already spends way more per student than any other developed nation. Teachers and school administrators are certainly part of the equation, but the true source of the problem are the parents and popular culture. American culture glorifies the celebrity and the athlete. It creates the expectation that a person can get rich overnight and that everyone will be fabulously wealthy. When isn't there some celebrity dipshit on television flaunting their wealth? There's no idolization of the hard working individual, of the person who studies hard in school. American parents care more about having a child who is popular than they are having one who's studious. The mindset that is endlessly perpetuated is that you should do something you love, because it's fun.
Look at Asian kids going through the same exact school system. They consistently excel. Not because they're innately smarter than anyone else. Live in Asia any length of time and you'll be cured of that misconception. Asians excel because from birth their parents are pushing them to work hard and do well in school. As a friend explained to me, your average American parent is happy with a child getting B's in school whereas an Asian parent will tolerate nothing less than straight A's. So from the start a child is learning that good enough is all they need to do to satisfy people.
Every single thing they do is aimed at ensuring their kids not only do well but can get into a good university. This means everything from no computers or televisions in the bedroom to no socializing during the school year. And the parents are always aware of what their kids are doing. Too many American parents are too concerned with giving their kids freedom, with being their buddies.
And this has nothing to do with the academic system in Asia because most of these Asians kids were born in the States and are growing up here. For a while I considered moving back to Asia and for a variety of reasons stayed here. One of those reasons was the school system here versus in Asia. The thing with the American system is that it's problems can be easily countered with parental involvement. In Asia, on the other hand, there is little that can be done to address the problems there. Asian schools still suffer the problem of focusing on rote memorization, parroting the teacher, and a fixation on taking tests. Study schools are still huge there. After school kids go to these cram schools in the evening with the purpose of studying to pass tests more effectively. School there is a lot more oppressive. I suppose the upside to all that is that at least they're still very focused on academics.
And of course, the final piece here is that when Asians choose careers they consistently choose those which will ensure the greatest success. They're much less likely to choose a career that merely feels good. So this means that they get into finance, technology or healthcare. But even those who don't go that route, when they've had such a strong work ethic instilled in them ultimately find another path to success, even if they've started off in construction. Where your average individual will remain stuck working for someone else indefinitely, they'll find a way to grow to the point that they've got their own thriving business, as is the case with a good friend of mine. And the funny thing is that I've known Asians who've been fully Americanized, and they pretty much end up in the same situation as the average American; they've lost the formula for success.
The thing here is that these techniques are especially important for a child growing up in lower to middle-class environments. These are the kids who are less likely to be exposed to successful role models. A kid growing up in an upper-class neighborhood has little to worry about. The success of everyone around them will rub off on them, and if it doesn't, well, they're connected enough that they wi
Of course, the problem is that your average consumer has been trained to like garbage.
Have you ever gotten into a rental car and taken a look at the audio settings? Invariably bass and treble are turned way up. And what's the first thing people in stores do when trying out a sound system? They turn the volume way up. If it's loud it's good, even if the speakers are clipping.
And how much dynamic range does your average pop song have anyway? Not much, it's just a wall of noise. And then if you're listening to stuff like hip hop then you're also dealing with low quality samples.
Wasn't there are article here on Slashdot several months ago about some survey about audio? Researchers found that the majority actually preferred the inferior sound of compressed audio?
So there's no incentive to improve audio quality. The problem is when this sort of crap spills over to good music.