Each language has different ways of representing sounds like a baby's cry, or a splash, or the sounds animals make. Many languages have several regional variants to represent the same sounds. Some differences might be trivial "hehehe" vs. "hahaha," but they generally follow the pronunciation rules of the language in question. I studied German for four years, but never learned what a baby's cry would be written as. My guess would be something like "Uah," but that is probably wrong.
What!? I'd be really interested to see a link to any evidence of this. Most Japanese who don't read much old literature don't even know how to write the hiragana for "wi," I don't someone would be crazy enough to name their kid something that starts with a sound no longer used. (Note, I am not Japanese, but I live in Japan, have for several years, and speak the language)
Of course, perhaps there is a name that uses a kanji that was once pronounced that way, but unless you've been to Edo-era Japan recently, I call bullshit on girls named Wiku. Maybe you got confused with Miku?
Wii is written "uii," not "wii," in Japanese kana (just check the Nintendo Japan website if you don't believe me), though they will probably usually write the English letters in ads etc..
So what are the 'core beliefs' of the right?
I think "opposition to hatemongering" is a good core belief to start with.
It's a fine core principle (I wouldn't call it belief), but it's certainly not one of the most important parts of the right-wing in any country I've been to, espcially my home (the US). Perhaps you meant "Opposition to any attempts to increase equality" which DOES seem to be one of the core tenets of the right (as many believe that capitalism=meritocracy, and government intervention to increase equality is always 'reverse discrimination').
Well, there's something to be said for Apple's decision here. Not many companies (that I have had dealings with) would offer a $200 rebate to everyone who bought a product just because the product was not up to par. Firing the team responsible, plus this rebate, is the kind of mea culpa companies, especially computer-related companies, hardly ever provide. (Granted, the rebate as an Apple coupon is a little unfortunate, but I wouldn't complain about that too much.)
It's hard not to compare this to MS (M$ if you prefer), considering how many times there have been calls for the heads of various decision-makers/teams/ec., and how unrepentant Microsoft has been when their products suck. Not to say they always suck, by any means, but they are the biggest target out their, and a juicy one on this topic.
"Last time I checked, you don't get 'dumped' because your code was amazing."
Of course, no one here is praising the team that got dumped. They are praising the way Apple handled this problem, and bashing MS because many think (rightly, it seems to me) that Microsoft would not have responded at all like this.
The point I was making was that there is discrimination, PLUS OTHER FACTORS, and I then went on to talk about the OTHER FACTORS. I am sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was not trying to prove that there is discrimination, which I think it obvious to any rational observer (of American society, anyway), but rather discuss some other factors that contribute to the dichotomy of male/female jobs etc.
There IS systematic discrimination against women, as well as several other factors that contribute to the way some of these careers work out. For instance, nurses. Many women become/became nurses rather than doctors because: a) they are not expected to support a family alone, but are more likely to spend several years at home, so such an investment of time and money is less worthwhile b) it is extremely difficult to take maternity leave for a year or whatever in the middle of med school or residency, whereas men are rarely expected to take time off for the birth of their child, and have no physical limitations during pregnancy, obviously c) women are (to a much lower degree now) encouraged to take over caretaker roles rather than the "in charge" role of doctor.
Jobs like garbagemen, construction work, etc. are dominated by men for the same reason they are crappy jobs. They require a great deal of physical labor, something that men are genetically predisposed (through stronger upper bodies, more muscle mass in general, etc.) to be more fit for.
As far as men making up a greater number of criminals, that is mostly because men commit most crimes. Furthermore, there is a sexist tendency to not give women the death penalty (in barbarous places that still have it, like my homeland) which is commensurate to the racist tendency to give it more often to black defendants and explains a little bit the skewed demographics of death row.
Of course, the greatest inequality in society is between the rich and poor, but it seems naive to pretend that sexism is dead.
Don't apologize for using language that is part of the public discourse and vocabulary for all adults who speak English. Such apologies merely reinforce the notion that it's ok to arrest someone for wearing a "Fuck the Draft" or "Fuck Dick Cheney" or whatever T-shirt.
My original post was merely intended to point out that in many countries, people aren't driven to move to America the way the parent had implied, and that many people are quite happy moving to other countries that offer other opportunities. Since you have no numbers, apparently, and I have none to offer on inter-First-World immigration, all we have is anecdotes. Living outside the US, I naturally know many more people that have left the country for various reasons than the average Joe does, and apparently you have worked with a number of well-educated foreigners who came to America for more money or whatnot. Without statistics, this is just anecdotes, so oh well.
But regardless, most of those people are a different class of immigrants. That is, not people fleeing their country out of desperation, but rather well-off people coming to America because of the even greater opportunities for the well-off, created by the larger socio-economic inequalities. I don't think many poor people would want to move from somewhere where they could get health care, even if unemployed, to America, where they could get 3 jobs and still have no health care and live in poverty.
I would be very interested in seeing statistics, though, which I haven't found. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that people don't tend to leave other First World countries out of NEED for a job. An added factor is that most people in those countries actually learn English, while the average American knows only English (with increasing numbers knowing Spanish natively as well), and thus is less likely to go abroad.
Yes, I do seem to recall reading about the huge numbers of Germans, French, and Japanese that were begging to be allowed into America because it's such a wonderful place to work and raise a family etc./sarcasm
People try to come to America, generally, because their countries are shit-poor, and often they have contacts in the country. It's also much easier for people from Latin America to get to the USA than to Europe or Japan (exception being those with Japanese ancestry in Peru/Brazil, but they don't tend to be as poor). It's the same reason that Turks and other Muslims are flooding western Europe. It has nothing to do with whether they would rather go to the US, it's just about how much easier it is to get to other First World countries.
As an ex-pat, the biggest drawback for me, living outside the country, is just that I am not close to my friends and family from back home. This would also be true in Hawaii, which is by all accounts a wonderful place to live, and part of the US. If you have a First World lifestyle, moving out of the country is difficult enough that most people don't think it's worth it, even if they believe strongly that the French, German, Japanese, or whatever system is much better.
While 'censor,' the noun, is used to refer to officials responsible for institutional (usually governmental) censorship, the verb has a much broader meaning. Your argument from this noun (especially the ridiculous claim that there's a significant difference in the value of information from Oxford to M-W) to the meaning of a verb is facile and insulting.
I assume you went to another dictionary, maybe your favorite, looked for the meaning of the word, and realized that you were indeed wrong about the meaning of the verb. Being unsatisfied, you decided to use the noun to prove a false point about the verb. Hopefully no one here will fall for such a silly trick.
Here's a nice, parallel example to show how off-base your argument was:
Judge, the noun, refers to individuals empowered by the state (or in some cases, as in 'line judges' in tennis, other organizations) to make rulings on the application of various laws or regulations.
This does NOT imply that to 'judge' something implies an official position. I can judge the value of a TV program, the flavor of some ice cream, or anything else I want, merely through the use of my own rational faculties.
For fuck's sake. I try not to be a grammar nazi, but I can't even conceive of trying to read something like that. Here's a tip: If your name isn't James Joyce (yes I said yes I will yes) or e e cummings (anyone lived in a pretty how town), try to follow some basic conventions of style and usage.
There are 1945 general-use kanji, known as the "Jouyou" kanji. These are the ones that appear in books or newspapers without 'furigana,' which is the phonetic reading of it in super- or sub-script.
Of course, this isn't that relevant to LEARNING the language. I highly recommend finding a way to get to Japan for a while, it's by far the best way to learn a foreign language. Of course, you can learn to read without traveling or being around native speakers, just with a book like Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji' plus some textbooks. If you watch anime, or can find some news videos, repeating exactly what you hear right as you hear it is good practice for listening and speaking at natural speeds.
For just vocab-building, I recommend getting a flashcard program, like iFlash (sorry, I'm a Mac user, there are sure to be plenty for Windows and 'nix as well). It's hard work, though, much harder than a European language for English-speakers.
Christian heritage or not, Christmas is every bit as much of a commercial holiday in Japan as it is in other developed countries, if not moreso. So yeah, it is a pretty important time as far as retail goes. I think, however, that *the* most important time in Japan is Golden Week, an entire week of holidays.
Do NOT trust this AC. Christmas is a much smaller holiday here in Japan than it is back in the States (can't speak for the rest of the West). It's primarily a date holiday, and most of the gift-giving that goes on is of the flowers/chocolates/jewels variety. He was correct, however, that Golden Week is a good time to release things (especially movies, as everyone can go to the theater). FYI, Golden Week is at the beginning of May, and not likely to have any relevance to the Revolution's launch. Lost of kids get money for new year's, here, but it's different from Christmas.
Of course, seeing as you have an 'existing Xbox library,' I'm guessing you have an existing Xbox, meaning the benefit you'd get from the 360 would only be two fun games plus whatever you sell your Xbox for, plus the warm fuzzy feeling all/.ers get when they give MS large chunks of cash (and really, if it makes you feel good, then what else matters?).
Well, in my Vodafone cell here, I think about half of the numbers are Vodafone. However, and this is something I must stress, this half is comprised exclusively of foreigners. Down here, anyway (in the outer edges of Kansai), Vodafone does great business with foreigners, and can't come close to DoCoMo or even au when it comes to the Japanese.
And of course it's a personal preference, but I find the functionality of the free or nearly-free phones I've gotten here to far exceed that of the phones my relatives in the States have paid a hundred or two hundred dollars for. A lot of that is due to the high quality cameras included (my very cheap phone has a 2 Megapixel camera and TV and video functionality), versus comparable things in the states.
On a personal note, I think this will be a great chance to change to DoCoMo, the company I really should have been with since the beginning.
Lastly, does anyone have any good info on the state J-phone was in and if Vodaphone's really to blame?
It's a lot cheaper than getting a staff of multilingual doctors, and while it would have to be quickly available in emergency situations, it could be very useful in rural applications.
If it's expense is a drawback, then several rural hospitals could get one together, and then when someone made an appointment and requested translation services, they could make sure it was at the right hospital on the right day.
This is a good practical application of translation software in a situation with clear context and limited, specialized vocabulary.
Where I live now, in rural Japan, there are people who speak little Japanese but still need medical services in English, Korean, Portuguese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese, to name a few. This kind of device could be tremendously useful around here (though English isn't a problematic language, the others would be for many hospitals).
You seem to have a very skewed view of the diversity of medical staffs around the world, if you assume that every hospital will always have a doctor who can speak any necessary language available when he/she's needed.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed! I think the problem is that some people don't know the difference between fear and respect. Power earns one, virtue the other.
Each language has different ways of representing sounds like a baby's cry, or a splash, or the sounds animals make. Many languages have several regional variants to represent the same sounds. Some differences might be trivial "hehehe" vs. "hahaha," but they generally follow the pronunciation rules of the language in question. I studied German for four years, but never learned what a baby's cry would be written as. My guess would be something like "Uah," but that is probably wrong.
"Wiku is still a girl's name"
What!? I'd be really interested to see a link to any evidence of this. Most Japanese who don't read much old literature don't even know how to write the hiragana for "wi," I don't someone would be crazy enough to name their kid something that starts with a sound no longer used. (Note, I am not Japanese, but I live in Japan, have for several years, and speak the language)
Of course, perhaps there is a name that uses a kanji that was once pronounced that way, but unless you've been to Edo-era Japan recently, I call bullshit on girls named Wiku. Maybe you got confused with Miku?
Wii is written "uii," not "wii," in Japanese kana (just check the Nintendo Japan website if you don't believe me), though they will probably usually write the English letters in ads etc..
Well, there's something to be said for Apple's decision here. Not many companies (that I have had dealings with) would offer a $200 rebate to everyone who bought a product just because the product was not up to par. Firing the team responsible, plus this rebate, is the kind of mea culpa companies, especially computer-related companies, hardly ever provide. (Granted, the rebate as an Apple coupon is a little unfortunate, but I wouldn't complain about that too much.)
It's hard not to compare this to MS (M$ if you prefer), considering how many times there have been calls for the heads of various decision-makers/teams/ec., and how unrepentant Microsoft has been when their products suck. Not to say they always suck, by any means, but they are the biggest target out their, and a juicy one on this topic.
"Last time I checked, you don't get 'dumped' because your code was amazing."
Of course, no one here is praising the team that got dumped. They are praising the way Apple handled this problem, and bashing MS because many think (rightly, it seems to me) that Microsoft would not have responded at all like this.
The point I was making was that there is discrimination, PLUS OTHER FACTORS, and I then went on to talk about the OTHER FACTORS. I am sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was not trying to prove that there is discrimination, which I think it obvious to any rational observer (of American society, anyway), but rather discuss some other factors that contribute to the dichotomy of male/female jobs etc.
There IS systematic discrimination against women, as well as several other factors that contribute to the way some of these careers work out. For instance, nurses. Many women become/became nurses rather than doctors because:
a) they are not expected to support a family alone, but are more likely to spend several years at home, so such an investment of time and money is less worthwhile
b) it is extremely difficult to take maternity leave for a year or whatever in the middle of med school or residency, whereas men are rarely expected to take time off for the birth of their child, and have no physical limitations during pregnancy, obviously
c) women are (to a much lower degree now) encouraged to take over caretaker roles rather than the "in charge" role of doctor.
Jobs like garbagemen, construction work, etc. are dominated by men for the same reason they are crappy jobs. They require a great deal of physical labor, something that men are genetically predisposed (through stronger upper bodies, more muscle mass in general, etc.) to be more fit for.
As far as men making up a greater number of criminals, that is mostly because men commit most crimes. Furthermore, there is a sexist tendency to not give women the death penalty (in barbarous places that still have it, like my homeland) which is commensurate to the racist tendency to give it more often to black defendants and explains a little bit the skewed demographics of death row.
Of course, the greatest inequality in society is between the rich and poor, but it seems naive to pretend that sexism is dead.
Don't apologize for using language that is part of the public discourse and vocabulary for all adults who speak English. Such apologies merely reinforce the notion that it's ok to arrest someone for wearing a "Fuck the Draft" or "Fuck Dick Cheney" or whatever T-shirt.
My original post was merely intended to point out that in many countries, people aren't driven to move to America the way the parent had implied, and that many people are quite happy moving to other countries that offer other opportunities. Since you have no numbers, apparently, and I have none to offer on inter-First-World immigration, all we have is anecdotes. Living outside the US, I naturally know many more people that have left the country for various reasons than the average Joe does, and apparently you have worked with a number of well-educated foreigners who came to America for more money or whatnot. Without statistics, this is just anecdotes, so oh well.
But regardless, most of those people are a different class of immigrants. That is, not people fleeing their country out of desperation, but rather well-off people coming to America because of the even greater opportunities for the well-off, created by the larger socio-economic inequalities. I don't think many poor people would want to move from somewhere where they could get health care, even if unemployed, to America, where they could get 3 jobs and still have no health care and live in poverty.
I would be very interested in seeing statistics, though, which I haven't found. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that people don't tend to leave other First World countries out of NEED for a job. An added factor is that most people in those countries actually learn English, while the average American knows only English (with increasing numbers knowing Spanish natively as well), and thus is less likely to go abroad.
A game for rich people continues to be dominated by rich people!
Yes, I do seem to recall reading about the huge numbers of Germans, French, and Japanese that were begging to be allowed into America because it's such a wonderful place to work and raise a family etc. /sarcasm
People try to come to America, generally, because their countries are shit-poor, and often they have contacts in the country. It's also much easier for people from Latin America to get to the USA than to Europe or Japan (exception being those with Japanese ancestry in Peru/Brazil, but they don't tend to be as poor). It's the same reason that Turks and other Muslims are flooding western Europe. It has nothing to do with whether they would rather go to the US, it's just about how much easier it is to get to other First World countries.
As an ex-pat, the biggest drawback for me, living outside the country, is just that I am not close to my friends and family from back home. This would also be true in Hawaii, which is by all accounts a wonderful place to live, and part of the US. If you have a First World lifestyle, moving out of the country is difficult enough that most people don't think it's worth it, even if they believe strongly that the French, German, Japanese, or whatever system is much better.
While 'censor,' the noun, is used to refer to officials responsible for institutional (usually governmental) censorship, the verb has a much broader meaning. Your argument from this noun (especially the ridiculous claim that there's a significant difference in the value of information from Oxford to M-W) to the meaning of a verb is facile and insulting.
I assume you went to another dictionary, maybe your favorite, looked for the meaning of the word, and realized that you were indeed wrong about the meaning of the verb. Being unsatisfied, you decided to use the noun to prove a false point about the verb. Hopefully no one here will fall for such a silly trick.
Here's a nice, parallel example to show how off-base your argument was:
Judge, the noun, refers to individuals empowered by the state (or in some cases, as in 'line judges' in tennis, other organizations) to make rulings on the application of various laws or regulations.
This does NOT imply that to 'judge' something implies an official position. I can judge the value of a TV program, the flavor of some ice cream, or anything else I want, merely through the use of my own rational faculties.
And YOU are just jealous because I got to fist Proust.
(there's nothing like a night of absinthe decades and decades ago with a crazy Frenchman)
For fuck's sake. I try not to be a grammar nazi, but I can't even conceive of trying to read something like that. Here's a tip: If your name isn't James Joyce (yes I said yes I will yes) or e e cummings (anyone lived in a pretty how town), try to follow some basic conventions of style and usage.
There are 1945 general-use kanji, known as the "Jouyou" kanji. These are the ones that appear in books or newspapers without 'furigana,' which is the phonetic reading of it in super- or sub-script.
Of course, this isn't that relevant to LEARNING the language. I highly recommend finding a way to get to Japan for a while, it's by far the best way to learn a foreign language. Of course, you can learn to read without traveling or being around native speakers, just with a book like Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji' plus some textbooks. If you watch anime, or can find some news videos, repeating exactly what you hear right as you hear it is good practice for listening and speaking at natural speeds.
For just vocab-building, I recommend getting a flashcard program, like iFlash (sorry, I'm a Mac user, there are sure to be plenty for Windows and 'nix as well). It's hard work, though, much harder than a European language for English-speakers.
There's a key difference: UMD is failing globally, but MiniDisc is very successful in Japan, though it might get killed by iPod & family.
...or when sounding like 'a' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh.' Perhaps you haven't heard the whole saying? Of course, there are exceptions, like 'weird.'
Of course, seeing as you have an 'existing Xbox library,' I'm guessing you have an existing Xbox, meaning the benefit you'd get from the 360 would only be two fun games plus whatever you sell your Xbox for, plus the warm fuzzy feeling all /.ers get when they give MS large chunks of cash (and really, if it makes you feel good, then what else matters?).
Did you read that that's actually where the name came from? Because if not, I bow to your Disneyfied mind.
A week from this morning (here in Japan).
I hadn't heard, thanks for the heads up.
Well, in my Vodafone cell here, I think about half of the numbers are Vodafone. However, and this is something I must stress, this half is comprised exclusively of foreigners. Down here, anyway (in the outer edges of Kansai), Vodafone does great business with foreigners, and can't come close to DoCoMo or even au when it comes to the Japanese.
And of course it's a personal preference, but I find the functionality of the free or nearly-free phones I've gotten here to far exceed that of the phones my relatives in the States have paid a hundred or two hundred dollars for. A lot of that is due to the high quality cameras included (my very cheap phone has a 2 Megapixel camera and TV and video functionality), versus comparable things in the states.
On a personal note, I think this will be a great chance to change to DoCoMo, the company I really should have been with since the beginning.
Lastly, does anyone have any good info on the state J-phone was in and if Vodaphone's really to blame?
It's a lot cheaper than getting a staff of multilingual doctors, and while it would have to be quickly available in emergency situations, it could be very useful in rural applications.
If it's expense is a drawback, then several rural hospitals could get one together, and then when someone made an appointment and requested translation services, they could make sure it was at the right hospital on the right day.
This is a good practical application of translation software in a situation with clear context and limited, specialized vocabulary.
Where I live now, in rural Japan, there are people who speak little Japanese but still need medical services in English, Korean, Portuguese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese, to name a few. This kind of device could be tremendously useful around here (though English isn't a problematic language, the others would be for many hospitals).
You seem to have a very skewed view of the diversity of medical staffs around the world, if you assume that every hospital will always have a doctor who can speak any necessary language available when he/she's needed.