* Lois McMaster Bujold.
Go on. I dare you, dismiss it as space opera. Okay, it is space opera, but all her books are great, widely read, Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning,...
Have to second LMB. The Vorkosigan series is witty, intelligent, occasionally wrenching, and always thoroughly clever.
I notice Connie Willis hasn't been mentioned in the higher-ranking posts. She's a multiple Nebula winner, with awards in every prose category (multiples in most). Also a multiple Hugo winner. The Doomsday Book (unbelieveable), To Say Nothing Of The Dog (same "universe", fab), Bellwether (hilarious), Passage (wrenching), Remake (clever), Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (excellent year-round), Firewatch (more great shorts), Impossible Things (still more, including "Even the Queen"), Lincoln's Dreams, etc...
Willis will definitely stand the test of time.
Douglas Adams is a given. (Since we're talking somewhat recently deceased, add Anthony Burgess to the list.)
Other possibles: Sherri S. Tepper (some brilliant post-apocalyptic books, and a very different take on fairy tales in Beauty); J.K. Rowling (I think the Harry Potter books will likely become children's classics, at the very least); Terry Pratchet (will "silly" stand the test of time?); Neal Stephenson (probable, but not guaranteed); Piers Anthony (again the silly, including the Incarnations of Immortality, but also the serious, such as the Geodyssey series).
In the "some of their stuff will stand the test of time, most won't" category, Stephen King and Anne Rice are contenders. Some of their early novels will last, but they'll have huge OOP lists.
In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, it IS pretty bad. Doesn't matter if you have "hard" or "soft" skills.
I got laid off three months ago from a non-dotcom. I've been diligent about sending out the resumes, going to job fairs, making calls, checking the job boards every single day, working with about a dozen headhunters/consulting firms- and so far I've had one 2-week contract and a few interviews.
Due to the way my former employer worked it, I'm not eligible for unemployment, and my savings are nearly shot. Had I known I'd still be looking three months later, I'd have gone for that part-time job at the coffee shop down the road just to slow the financial slide!
(They were a good place to work, not a high-paying job; most of the people in the tech departments there were getting paid 30-80% below the local average for those positions. People worked there for the low wages because it was a big-name ad agency, and you got to work on amazing projects you couldn't find anywhere else.)
The week before I "left" my old job, I was still getting 1-2 calls from headhunters each week, without my resume even being out. About the time I "left", those headhunters stopped getting positions to fill as the market started to take a nosedive.
I'm damn good at what I do. There just aren't many openings here right now, and far too many people to fill each one. The place I used to work just laid off a dozen more people from my old department- so now I'm competing against even more people for the same few jobs.
If you look at many of the job postings out there, you'll find many want the 5-in-one kind of person- someone who can set up their servers, do graphic design work and build the site, as well as handling the databases and the C++ programming and doing end-user support. I don't think there are many people like that out there; at least not if you want high-class work at _every_ step of the way.
The other biggie right now is the "we're not hiring at the moment, just collecting resumes" in small print at the bottom of the ad.
Yes, the market is bad. Even with almost 6 years of experience and solid skills (ie, not one of those "I've seen the catchphrase so I'm an expert" types) I'm having a hard time finding a new job.
It's not just me, either. people I know who are top-notch dbas, those who can program in just about any language under the sun, some excellent QA people- they're all out here looking, too. With little or no luck.
that famous meteorite that fell in Siberia thousands of years ago?
Er, you don't by chance mean the famous meteorite that exploded above the Stony Tunguska (river) in Siberia on June 30, 1908? (For scientific details and photos, see http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/ )
Oops, less than 100 years. Certainly not "thousands". So much for that theory.
That had the same power of an atomic bomd. They migh have genetically mutated.
Having power equivalent to and BEING atomic (and thus radioactive and causing possible genetic mutation) are two vastly different things.
It never fails to surprise me how many otherwise intelligent people can't manage even the slightest grasp of history or physics.
Hrm.... as far as I can see, the site contents can pretty well be summed up as: This is a list of horrible baby slaughterers who are spitting in God's face and should pay for the evil things they do! Here's exactly how to find them and their families, and when they'll be there. Here are some examples of the "meaningful conversations" we have with them by mail (because they keep getting unlisted phone numbers, darn it!) calling them killers and murderers, and showing them the kind of files we've put together on other baby butchers they know, so they know we're always watching and filming and invading their privacy something awful- and even hinting that we'll go after their kids! But we're not trying to incite violence, oh no, we'd never suggest that anyone harm these nice baby murderers, and we don't celebrate it when those blood-laden baby butchers die. (hallelujah! a dead abortionist means babies have been saved!)
Actually, they have many of the original files back online now, so you can go see how gosh durn NICE all their language is for yourself. You know, all those references to "baby butchers" and "pew-sitting baby butchers", "abortion mills", "baby slaughtering", "murderers", "blood-laden people", and the like. Clinic owners and workers (like receptionists and janitors) are labeled "weapons providers and bearers".
Besides their (hit) lists of doctors, clinic owners, and workers, they have lists of judges (including Supreme Court justices), pro-choice politicians, law enforcement personnel (some of whom are crossed out), as well as a list of "miscellaneous spouses & other blood flunkies" in the same sction. John Walsh of America's Most Wanted is included with the "blood flunkies"- I guess AMW must have done a show about one of the nuts who murdered doctors and others. (Hrm... if they don't support the killers, why is someone who's trying to help FIND a killer a "blood flunky"?)
They even have a section showing how "many people are having meaningful conversations with baby butchers"- letters like the following:
Dear Dr. Ravi,
We noticed that you just started working at Aware Woman (abortion) Clinic
in Melbourne. As a public service, we publish a free Web Page on the
INTERNET for each killer who works at Aware Woman. Enclosed for your
reference is a printout of the page for Dr. Egherman at
http://www.forerunner.com/killer.html
Please send us any data or maybe a favorite picture that you would like
for us to put on your page. We want to make sure that we get everything
exactly right since the INTERNET goes over the entire world. Again, I
want to emphasize that there is no cost to you for this public service.
Sincerely,
Meredith Raney
I wonder if they consider anthrax threats to be "meaningful conversation, too... the gods know I've had some scary times after hearing about some of those letters, as I know people who work in women's clinics, and who have received some of those threats. (Ironically, many of those threats go to clinics that don't even perform abortions.)
So, let's see what kinds of information they have on some of the doctors in their files...
Photos of the doctor, some retouched to look like mug shots
Name, home and work addresses, home and work phone & fax numbers
(note in one phone number blank: "Help! She's trying to hide. We need her
latest number. Thanks for helping people understand there really is a
payday someday.")
Social Security number and date (and sometimes location) of birth
Surveillance photos/tapes showing the doctor and their home, workplace, car(s), etc.
License plate and driver's licence numbers
Property owned, including vehicles owned- with valuations
Spouse's name, SS#, DOB, DL and license plate numbers, property owned and valuation
Children's names, birthdates, SS#s; one names the child's (elementary) school.
The name, address, phone, and photos of the [church] they go to, and the name and contact information for the [pastor]. (change "church" and "pastor" as appropriate for the demnomination)
They also have pictures up asking "who is this man?"- claiming that he's an "abortionist" in a particular area and they need information on him- like his name. Which makes me wonder- how do they know he's a doctor who performs abortions, anyway?
The site exists simply to incite hatred- and they sure don't seem to mind if all their rhetoric (and deliberate falsehoods, in some cases) incite violence, and they celebrate when people are injured or killed. These are threats, plain and simple. Threats and repeated, persistent harrassment are NOT protected speech.
It would help to know what exactly the student had on his web page that the school found so objectionable. I can't help but think that their refusal to say what it was is an indication that the content was something the majority of people would not find bothersome. Let me guess- it had something to do with sex, probably birth control or homosexuality? (The usual panics for the Catholic Church.)
From the article, it sounds like this was not an issue of threatened violence. It was not even a matter of the student saying rude or inappropriate things about teachers, students, or school employees.
It was a matter of the student posting things on a web page that did not agree with "Catholic values". We of course were not told whether the student in question is Catholic, simply that he attends (attended) a private Catholic school. If he's not Catholic, do they have any reason at all for insisting he must share their thoughts and beliefs?
Schools exit to teach thinking skills. Reading, writing, mathematics, logic. There are rules to be followed- be courteous, no violence, perhaps a dress code. That list of rules should not include "you must either believe in or never speak against X."
Especially off-campus. What a student does outside of school hours and off school property, unless illegal, should have no bearing on that person's status as a student.
Heaven forbid someone have an opinion different from "The Church"... My god, the world could end if that happened! Individual thought is evil and must be stomped out!
You've heard horror stories- and that's all the majority of them are- stories. Fiction.
I used to work for a landlord, and most of his tenants were low income/on welfare. Of those, only ONE was not actively trying to get off of welfare- and she had a ton of other issues.
I particularly remember one tenant- she had a degree in psychology and social work, had a great job- then was diagnosed with MS and ended up losing her job because the illness hit her so hard. The former welfare worker was now on welfare herself.
The rest- well, the rest were trying to get jobs that paid a living wage (what you earn is deducted from your welfare check, it's NOT in addition to it- you start a job, BOOM, the welfare is gone) and had reasonable insurance. (Go off welfare, you used to be booted off Medicaid- I knew many people whose children got sick, and mom had to quit her job and go back on welfare to get Medicaid so her child could get needed medical care.)
I know far too many people who kept falling back onto welfare because of that lack of affordable health care.
Did you know that most tuition scholarships can make you ineligible for welfare- even food stamps? Get a scholarship that pays for your textbooks- it's deducted from your welfare check even though you never see a penny of it. Those people who are trying to go back and take a few classes to get some useful work skills get penalized for doing so. Unless you're one of the lucky ones, and manage to get onto some pilot program that helps you go get affordable housing and child care while you're going to school.
Current welfare checks leave a family well below the poverty line. NOBODY is getting rich off of it.
Recent changes to the system are helping people to reach their goal of getting off welfare- more training programs are being implemented, the concept of "affordable childcare" is FINALLY being dealt with, and in some states, medical assistance continues for 6 months to 2 years after a person leaves welfare- giving them a real chance to make it without getting kicked in the teeth whenever they or their children get sick.
I think that you have NO concept of what people on welfare deal with. One example seen time and again: women are put down if they ask for child care so they can get a job because they're "neglecting" their children- but if they don't get a job, then they're welfare bums.
One of the greatest contributors to the need for welfare is actually unpaid child support- NOT laziness or drug addiction. Until something is done about enforcing child support orders, we'll be seeing a lot of people on welfare.
As for the "having more children to increase the checks" theory you mention, it's bullshit. The difference in the check from 2 children to 3 is so low it makes you wonder which family member will be going hungry so the others eat.
Ever since Reagan started the "welfare queen" story, the ignorance about welfare rules and restrictions has increased by leaps and bounds. Hey, fiction usually IS more interesting than non-fiction.
Try taking a look at how the system REALLY works, rather than just railing against some nebulous "big government".
Oh, and before I forget- subsidies, tax breaks, and other forms of "corporate welfare" nationwide add up to more in a month than social welfare programs get in a year.
I'm a little more concerned about multi-millionaires getting tax breaks at my expense than I am about some poor people getting a roof over their heads and food on the table at my expense.
Slashdot Mirror
* Lois McMaster Bujold. Go on. I dare you, dismiss it as space opera. Okay, it is space opera, but all her books are great, widely read, Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning, ...
Have to second LMB. The Vorkosigan series is witty, intelligent, occasionally wrenching, and always thoroughly clever.
I notice Connie Willis hasn't been mentioned in the higher-ranking posts. She's a multiple Nebula winner, with awards in every prose category (multiples in most). Also a multiple Hugo winner. The Doomsday Book (unbelieveable), To Say Nothing Of The Dog (same "universe", fab), Bellwether (hilarious), Passage (wrenching), Remake (clever), Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (excellent year-round), Firewatch (more great shorts), Impossible Things (still more, including "Even the Queen"), Lincoln's Dreams, etc...
Willis will definitely stand the test of time.
Douglas Adams is a given. (Since we're talking somewhat recently deceased, add Anthony Burgess to the list.)
Other possibles: Sherri S. Tepper (some brilliant post-apocalyptic books, and a very different take on fairy tales in Beauty); J.K. Rowling (I think the Harry Potter books will likely become children's classics, at the very least); Terry Pratchet (will "silly" stand the test of time?); Neal Stephenson (probable, but not guaranteed); Piers Anthony (again the silly, including the Incarnations of Immortality, but also the serious, such as the Geodyssey series).
In the "some of their stuff will stand the test of time, most won't" category, Stephen King and Anne Rice are contenders. Some of their early novels will last, but they'll have huge OOP lists.
The funniest joke happened to the USA on election day.
THAT was the worst joke I've ever heard.
Racing plowhorses, serials, and the Purple Wombat have nothing on Shrub getting into the White House.
I got laid off three months ago from a non-dotcom. I've been diligent about sending out the resumes, going to job fairs, making calls, checking the job boards every single day, working with about a dozen headhunters/consulting firms- and so far I've had one 2-week contract and a few interviews.
Due to the way my former employer worked it, I'm not eligible for unemployment, and my savings are nearly shot. Had I known I'd still be looking three months later, I'd have gone for that part-time job at the coffee shop down the road just to slow the financial slide!
(They were a good place to work, not a high-paying job; most of the people in the tech departments there were getting paid 30-80% below the local average for those positions. People worked there for the low wages because it was a big-name ad agency, and you got to work on amazing projects you couldn't find anywhere else.)
The week before I "left" my old job, I was still getting 1-2 calls from headhunters each week, without my resume even being out. About the time I "left", those headhunters stopped getting positions to fill as the market started to take a nosedive.
I'm damn good at what I do. There just aren't many openings here right now, and far too many people to fill each one. The place I used to work just laid off a dozen more people from my old department- so now I'm competing against even more people for the same few jobs.
If you look at many of the job postings out there, you'll find many want the 5-in-one kind of person- someone who can set up their servers, do graphic design work and build the site, as well as handling the databases and the C++ programming and doing end-user support. I don't think there are many people like that out there; at least not if you want high-class work at _every_ step of the way.
The other biggie right now is the "we're not hiring at the moment, just collecting resumes" in small print at the bottom of the ad.
Yes, the market is bad. Even with almost 6 years of experience and solid skills (ie, not one of those "I've seen the catchphrase so I'm an expert" types) I'm having a hard time finding a new job.
It's not just me, either. people I know who are top-notch dbas, those who can program in just about any language under the sun, some excellent QA people- they're all out here looking, too. With little or no luck.
It IS bad out there.
These days they don't even need Dad's (or Mom's) plastic. Mom (or Dad) already supplied them with a parent-funded "Visa BUX Card" or whatever.
Oops, so much for that method of blocking. Guess Mom (and/or Dad) will have to go back to actually paying attention to what their kids are doing.
Horrors!
Oops, less than 100 years. Certainly not "thousands". So much for that theory.
Having power equivalent to and BEING atomic (and thus radioactive and causing possible genetic mutation) are two vastly different things.
It never fails to surprise me how many otherwise intelligent people can't manage even the slightest grasp of history or physics.
Hrm.... as far as I can see, the site contents can pretty well be summed up as: This is a list of horrible baby slaughterers who are spitting in God's face and should pay for the evil things they do! Here's exactly how to find them and their families, and when they'll be there. Here are some examples of the "meaningful conversations" we have with them by mail (because they keep getting unlisted phone numbers, darn it!) calling them killers and murderers, and showing them the kind of files we've put together on other baby butchers they know, so they know we're always watching and filming and invading their privacy something awful- and even hinting that we'll go after their kids! But we're not trying to incite violence, oh no, we'd never suggest that anyone harm these nice baby murderers, and we don't celebrate it when those blood-laden baby butchers die. (hallelujah! a dead abortionist means babies have been saved!)
Actually, they have many of the original files back online now, so you can go see how gosh durn NICE all their language is for yourself. You know, all those references to "baby butchers" and "pew-sitting baby butchers", "abortion mills", "baby slaughtering", "murderers", "blood-laden people", and the like. Clinic owners and workers (like receptionists and janitors) are labeled "weapons providers and bearers".
Besides their (hit) lists of doctors, clinic owners, and workers, they have lists of judges (including Supreme Court justices), pro-choice politicians, law enforcement personnel (some of whom are crossed out), as well as a list of "miscellaneous spouses & other blood flunkies" in the same sction. John Walsh of America's Most Wanted is included with the "blood flunkies"- I guess AMW must have done a show about one of the nuts who murdered doctors and others. (Hrm... if they don't support the killers, why is someone who's trying to help FIND a killer a "blood flunky"?)
They even have a section showing how "many people are having meaningful conversations with baby butchers"- letters like the following:
I wonder if they consider anthrax threats to be "meaningful conversation, too... the gods know I've had some scary times after hearing about some of those letters, as I know people who work in women's clinics, and who have received some of those threats. (Ironically, many of those threats go to clinics that don't even perform abortions.)
So, let's see what kinds of information they have on some of the doctors in their files...
They also have pictures up asking "who is this man?"- claiming that he's an "abortionist" in a particular area and they need information on him- like his name. Which makes me wonder- how do they know he's a doctor who performs abortions, anyway?
The site exists simply to incite hatred- and they sure don't seem to mind if all their rhetoric (and deliberate falsehoods, in some cases) incite violence, and they celebrate when people are injured or killed. These are threats, plain and simple. Threats and repeated, persistent harrassment are NOT protected speech.
From the article, it sounds like this was not an issue of threatened violence. It was not even a matter of the student saying rude or inappropriate things about teachers, students, or school employees.
It was a matter of the student posting things on a web page that did not agree with "Catholic values". We of course were not told whether the student in question is Catholic, simply that he attends (attended) a private Catholic school. If he's not Catholic, do they have any reason at all for insisting he must share their thoughts and beliefs?
Schools exit to teach thinking skills. Reading, writing, mathematics, logic. There are rules to be followed- be courteous, no violence, perhaps a dress code. That list of rules should not include "you must either believe in or never speak against X."
Especially off-campus. What a student does outside of school hours and off school property, unless illegal, should have no bearing on that person's status as a student.
Heaven forbid someone have an opinion different from "The Church"... My god, the world could end if that happened! Individual thought is evil and must be stomped out!
*snort*
I used to work for a landlord, and most of his tenants were low income/on welfare. Of those, only ONE was not actively trying to get off of welfare- and she had a ton of other issues.
I particularly remember one tenant- she had a degree in psychology and social work, had a great job- then was diagnosed with MS and ended up losing her job because the illness hit her so hard. The former welfare worker was now on welfare herself.
The rest- well, the rest were trying to get jobs that paid a living wage (what you earn is deducted from your welfare check, it's NOT in addition to it- you start a job, BOOM, the welfare is gone) and had reasonable insurance. (Go off welfare, you used to be booted off Medicaid- I knew many people whose children got sick, and mom had to quit her job and go back on welfare to get Medicaid so her child could get needed medical care.)
I know far too many people who kept falling back onto welfare because of that lack of affordable health care.
Did you know that most tuition scholarships can make you ineligible for welfare- even food stamps? Get a scholarship that pays for your textbooks- it's deducted from your welfare check even though you never see a penny of it. Those people who are trying to go back and take a few classes to get some useful work skills get penalized for doing so. Unless you're one of the lucky ones, and manage to get onto some pilot program that helps you go get affordable housing and child care while you're going to school.
Current welfare checks leave a family well below the poverty line. NOBODY is getting rich off of it.
Recent changes to the system are helping people to reach their goal of getting off welfare- more training programs are being implemented, the concept of "affordable childcare" is FINALLY being dealt with, and in some states, medical assistance continues for 6 months to 2 years after a person leaves welfare- giving them a real chance to make it without getting kicked in the teeth whenever they or their children get sick.
I think that you have NO concept of what people on welfare deal with. One example seen time and again: women are put down if they ask for child care so they can get a job because they're "neglecting" their children- but if they don't get a job, then they're welfare bums.
One of the greatest contributors to the need for welfare is actually unpaid child support- NOT laziness or drug addiction. Until something is done about enforcing child support orders, we'll be seeing a lot of people on welfare.
As for the "having more children to increase the checks" theory you mention, it's bullshit. The difference in the check from 2 children to 3 is so low it makes you wonder which family member will be going hungry so the others eat.
Ever since Reagan started the "welfare queen" story, the ignorance about welfare rules and restrictions has increased by leaps and bounds. Hey, fiction usually IS more interesting than non-fiction.
Try taking a look at how the system REALLY works, rather than just railing against some nebulous "big government".
Oh, and before I forget- subsidies, tax breaks, and other forms of "corporate welfare" nationwide add up to more in a month than social welfare programs get in a year.
I'm a little more concerned about multi-millionaires getting tax breaks at my expense than I am about some poor people getting a roof over their heads and food on the table at my expense.