Mmm... who'd eat haggis when you can eat the high quality cuisine that is US fast food "meat products"? And what do you think sausages come in? yup, sheep intestines...
Shock news. In a country where $100 a month is considered a reasonable salary and there's a lot of wealth inequality and corruption, some folk are tempted into crime when they see their friends earning $4000 a month...
I heard that on mainland USA criminals carry guns and shoot innocent people *even when there's no earthquakes* - should the army be sent in to patrol streets there?
Not sure what country you're from pal but I'd suggest it would be better to support the local infrastructure (e.g. support and fund local police forces) than send in your own army. Colonial attitudes like this are best left in the 19th century ("these poor savages, they can't look after themselves or behave like civilised people, we need to send our army in to keep order because they won't know how to do it themselves").
It's not the socialist "public authorities" you have to worry about. It's the "peer to peer lending" perpetrated by individuals with no state intervention or support!
You say the USA is not an empire but Israel is a client state of the USA? It seems to me that empires still do exist but the forms of power are a little more subtle than in the Roman or British Empire. People are not excluded from positions of power if they are not Roman citizens - though it could be argued that you'd be marginalised from positions of power if you don't speak English in 'client states'. The British flag is not run up flag poles right across the Empire - though there are preferential trading agreements and even pricing for 'client states' and promises of economic and other support.
I think geopolitics still exists but it has become a little more subtle. To be fair of course this doesn't just refer to the USA but many other countries. It strikes me that aid money - long term, not disaster support, can be used as a means of establishing and maintaining influence.
"Companies must tell you if a food they sell contains grapes, raisins or hemlock, but if a food contains corn, they're not forced to tell you if it's "natural" or GM."
I think they do in the UK and the rest of the EU. Would be interested if anybody can provide references. A lot of resistance to GM food here so you certainly notice ingredients lists on tins etc noting "modified" . Not sure if it's a legal requirement but wouldn't be surprised, there was quite a fuss here when GM corn started appearing, a lot of resistance against it. I think governments still have a slight edge over companies here in terms of power compared to the USA.
Wish I had mod points, mod parent up as insightful! I might be worried if a networking or web services company is using a generic freebie email address, but if you're judging how good a plumber will be in fixing your shower by how good their internet address is, you're looking at the wrong measurements of qualifications for the job.
Likewise, I like carpentry and if I was buying some new chisels or a plane on line from a specialist woodworking company, I wouldn't sweat if they had a generic email address or subdomain name. I'd be more interested in their knowledge of woodworking and tools and judge their value on that.
"Can you even consider it a tablet if it doesn't have a touchscreen or stylus? " Slim square or rectangular hand held computers I think will generally be called "tablets" because that's what the pundits and sellers have decided to call them. When you have more influence than Steve Jobs, the New York Times, or other influential voice in the world of computing, you can call them something different.
It was 1996, the boss was a guy who had previously worked in the computer graphics industry and worked his way up and had done his share of all nighters as a coder there. My impression was that he wanted our team to be long term sustainable and not burn out like he'd seen other people burn out.
I think the boss's approach was that he wanted to get a day's work out of us but wanted to keep us enthusiastic and pace us as well. He knew for us young and single types, that meant being in the office for 10 hours or so and having a mix of kicking back and working hard, whereas for the family man this meant a much more directed working day and knowing he could leave on the dot each day to see his kid. The boss could ask the family man to do the occasional conference or even an evening shift very occasionally, but he had to ask in advance.
This was in the UK. I now work in a different organisation which has managers with a similar approach, here in 2010. Maybe it's a UK / USA cultural thing, the better organisations here try to hold onto good people.
Maybe also you've had bad experiences, in 20 years of working I've not had managers who play those kind of power games.
None of us in the story had MBAs. Computer degrees and another qualification, generally.
I used to work in an IT research group in a university. All of us were single or in relaxed relationships where the other partner was also a professional, so there was no pressure to keep to 'school run' times, pick up kids, get home for set meal times etc. Which meant we worked erratic and long hours. Some days we'd kick back and mess around, other days we'd work late, weekends etc.
We got a new guy in who laid down the rules politely but firmly with the boss. He said "I've got a 3 year old son and he's the most important thing in my life. I'll come in early, and I'll work hard from 8.30 til 5.00 and if you need me to do more hours I'll even come in earlier. But I leave here at 5.30 to get home for his meal and I don't work weekends because I spend time with my family".
The guy got a lot of respect for his stance, and he was true to his word. He'd come in bang on time, work damn hard, not goof around when we were kicking back, and leave prompt on 5.30. We all knew if we needed his help on a project we couldn't leave it til 5.25, we had to get organised and get our questions to him for lunchtime.
I think you should do the same - tell the boss you'll work the hours and you'll work hard while you're in the office but you have other commitments and you'll not be able to pull all nighters. You'll be respected for it. And if they say that this isn't fair, and you should be prepared to sacrifice your life to the job, you should be looking out for other employment.
Don't take it personally. People might hate the US Government's policies but be perfectly friendly with individual Americans, they are intelligent enough to understand the difference.
You don't need trousers or pants if you wear a kilt!:-)
Can anybody explain why women love it when you wear a kilt? I mean the attention is really pleasant you know and there's always the obvious easy flirty line to be had in the conversation very early on, but slashdot girls, can you enlighten me?
"there shouldn't be one.... due to the false economy..."
Statements which look to be made from your world view. Unfortunately, those that have the power make the rules. If China has a strangehold on a limited resource, they make the rules (or at the very least have something to negotiate with in a bigger context).
I'm afraid your world view doesn't count for very much if you don't have the resources or influence to enforce it.
Could be just the engineering degree ones that are successful in blowing things up. Perhaps the ones who took degrees in fine art are busy in mountain retreats sculpting models of the end of world in matchsticks and bat guano, the ones who took degrees in drama are creating avant-garde absurdist plays and presenting these to goats in small rural farming communities, and the ones who took degrees in philosophy are arguing whether their enemies actually exist in complex latin tracts that nobody understands and the local printers won't publish for them because radishes are a poor currency.
The USA has declared for several years a "War on Terror". The USA (and many other nations to be fair) is a state that fears visitors bringing their own nail scissors to its shores. The USA is seriously thinking of asking people to keep their hands in view and not visit the toilet 60 minutes before arriving as this is seen as a real threat to its national security.
These actions don't seem rational to me. The country with a military spend ten times greater than the next largest country, probably with a military the size of most of the rest of the world is scared of individuals approaching its shores bearing nail scissors? These seem to be the action of a terrified, irrational people and nation. Therefore, if the USA (and others) have declared a War on Terror*, then the USA being terrified means the emotion Terror has won. What happens now?
*I would note that I have a problem with the concept "War on Terror" as I don't see how you can declare a war on a human emotion. Is it possible to have a "War on Joy" for example? Perhaps you could declare a "War on preventing terror in Americans" and find ways of stopping Americans being terrified but I think this would be a tricky task. A lot of people are quite frightened of spiders in their bath tubs after all.
I think "War on Terror" is short for "War on people who use non-conventional forms of warfare against us that do not declare war on us as a sovereign nation" but I fear that this is difficult to bound in any way so actually means "permanent warfare against any individual or group that we, by our definitions, define as guilty of violent action against us and/or a threat to us at any time in the future". If it is not against another sovereign state, can war be declared, and can it be agreed to be ceased? References really welcomed to any well written definitions on what a "War on Terror" means. I'd really love to find some well argued definitions.
cheers for the info! I will remember this if I need gas in the US! (Actually I'll probably be looking for the big happy logo which says "standard" rather than "premium" but thanks for the education:-) )
Until the 1950s, the majority of bananas consumed via expert markets were of the Gros Michel variety. However these were very susceptible to Panama disease. A substitute had to be found and we now mainly eat the Vietnamese Cavendish variety.
Banana monoculture is certainly capable of failing.
By crickey! mileage explains why we don't get these big engines in Europe. Just did a quick calculation, my local garage charges GBP1.09 / litre for standard (95 octane) petrol/gasoline, that's approx $6.62 a US gallon. Would explain why these engines are very cool and impressive but you don't see them round here.. What kind of capacity fuel tanks do vehicles with these engines have?
Because you are coming from a philosophical mindset of believing that people want to make money out of any resources that they have access to?
My experience with library associations is that they are motivated by finding ways of getting information to as many people as possible for as little money as they can and free where where ever possible. Their model is one of service, often funded by the public sector and having a lot of people in their organisation who philosophically tend towards social models of society. I have a suspicion more people work in libraries because they believe they can contribute towards a public good than because they believe can make a lot of money and get rich. Librarians get paid a monthly wage, are very unlikely to get financial end of year bonuses and are just keen to see their libraries full of people and breaking even.
Corporate information archives on the other hand... I think these are looking to make money out of their resources, probably are more likely to give financial bonuses to their staff for finding ways of maximising profits, and often have shareholders who are less interested in philosophical ideals than making money.
What's the benefit of having your mac made from a single slab of aluminium? Does it make it much stronger? is it cheaper to construct that way than by bolting or welding a few pieces together? Just curious.
"Machined from a single slab of aluminium" sounds like it might be a> stronger b> more wasteful c> higher show-off value.
Love to know if you or others can offer more info.
According to World Wide Words, "Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy."
Turns out he's a big PR agency guy - makes adverts for Pepsi and the like presumably for national prime time tv, for some sized budget. So it's not so much "young art school student and mates make $300 movie and gets lucky" more like "talented, experienced, well connected ad. movie maker in the media business makes fun film in spare time when he's not directing SFX heavy corporate videos and gets a step up to making feature films". More of a case of media people talking to each other than famous director's teenaged son asking his dad to watch something kewl him and his mates are all watching at school. Check his website showreel.
But fair play to the man. Still got a bit of a break. Go for it. I am really liking the fact that aliens are landing somewhere other than New York or LA for a change. (if you were aliens I wonder how you'd choose where to land? biggest cities? means Mexico and India have to be in with a shout!). District 9 had some nice African angles, I'd be interested to see how a Uruguayan angled sci-fi film might look.
Slashdot Mirror
Mmm... who'd eat haggis when you can eat the high quality cuisine that is US fast food "meat products"? And what do you think sausages come in? yup, sheep intestines...
Shock news. In a country where $100 a month is considered a reasonable salary and there's a lot of wealth inequality and corruption, some folk are tempted into crime when they see their friends earning $4000 a month...
So what's the solution?
For counter arguments, perhaps you could also consider China, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa...
I heard that on mainland USA criminals carry guns and shoot innocent people *even when there's no earthquakes* - should the army be sent in to patrol streets there?
Not sure what country you're from pal but I'd suggest it would be better to support the local infrastructure (e.g. support and fund local police forces) than send in your own army. Colonial attitudes like this are best left in the 19th century ("these poor savages, they can't look after themselves or behave like civilised people, we need to send our army in to keep order because they won't know how to do it themselves").
It's not the socialist "public authorities" you have to worry about. It's the "peer to peer lending" perpetrated by individuals with no state intervention or support!
You say the USA is not an empire but Israel is a client state of the USA? It seems to me that empires still do exist but the forms of power are a little more subtle than in the Roman or British Empire. People are not excluded from positions of power if they are not Roman citizens - though it could be argued that you'd be marginalised from positions of power if you don't speak English in 'client states'. The British flag is not run up flag poles right across the Empire - though there are preferential trading agreements and even pricing for 'client states' and promises of economic and other support.
I think geopolitics still exists but it has become a little more subtle. To be fair of course this doesn't just refer to the USA but many other countries. It strikes me that aid money - long term, not disaster support, can be used as a means of establishing and maintaining influence.
"Companies must tell you if a food they sell contains grapes, raisins or hemlock, but if a food contains corn, they're not forced to tell you if it's "natural" or GM."
I think they do in the UK and the rest of the EU. Would be interested if anybody can provide references. A lot of resistance to GM food here so you certainly notice ingredients lists on tins etc noting "modified" . Not sure if it's a legal requirement but wouldn't be surprised, there was quite a fuss here when GM corn started appearing, a lot of resistance against it. I think governments still have a slight edge over companies here in terms of power compared to the USA.
... no competition is allowed ;-)
Wish I had mod points, mod parent up as insightful! I might be worried if a networking or web services company is using a generic freebie email address, but if you're judging how good a plumber will be in fixing your shower by how good their internet address is, you're looking at the wrong measurements of qualifications for the job.
Likewise, I like carpentry and if I was buying some new chisels or a plane on line from a specialist woodworking company, I wouldn't sweat if they had a generic email address or subdomain name. I'd be more interested in their knowledge of woodworking and tools and judge their value on that.
"Can you even consider it a tablet if it doesn't have a touchscreen or stylus? "
Slim square or rectangular hand held computers I think will generally be called "tablets" because that's what the pundits and sellers have decided to call them. When you have more influence than Steve Jobs, the New York Times, or other influential voice in the world of computing, you can call them something different.
It was 1996, the boss was a guy who had previously worked in the computer graphics industry and worked his way up and had done his share of all nighters as a coder there. My impression was that he wanted our team to be long term sustainable and not burn out like he'd seen other people burn out.
I think the boss's approach was that he wanted to get a day's work out of us but wanted to keep us enthusiastic and pace us as well. He knew for us young and single types, that meant being in the office for 10 hours or so and having a mix of kicking back and working hard, whereas for the family man this meant a much more directed working day and knowing he could leave on the dot each day to see his kid. The boss could ask the family man to do the occasional conference or even an evening shift very occasionally, but he had to ask in advance.
This was in the UK. I now work in a different organisation which has managers with a similar approach, here in 2010. Maybe it's a UK / USA cultural thing, the better organisations here try to hold onto good people.
Maybe also you've had bad experiences, in 20 years of working I've not had managers who play those kind of power games.
None of us in the story had MBAs. Computer degrees and another qualification, generally.
I used to work in an IT research group in a university. All of us were single or in relaxed relationships where the other partner was also a professional, so there was no pressure to keep to 'school run' times, pick up kids, get home for set meal times etc. Which meant we worked erratic and long hours. Some days we'd kick back and mess around, other days we'd work late, weekends etc.
We got a new guy in who laid down the rules politely but firmly with the boss. He said "I've got a 3 year old son and he's the most important thing in my life. I'll come in early, and I'll work hard from 8.30 til 5.00 and if you need me to do more hours I'll even come in earlier. But I leave here at 5.30 to get home for his meal and I don't work weekends because I spend time with my family".
The guy got a lot of respect for his stance, and he was true to his word. He'd come in bang on time, work damn hard, not goof around when we were kicking back, and leave prompt on 5.30. We all knew if we needed his help on a project we couldn't leave it til 5.25, we had to get organised and get our questions to him for lunchtime.
I think you should do the same - tell the boss you'll work the hours and you'll work hard while you're in the office but you have other commitments and you'll not be able to pull all nighters. You'll be respected for it. And if they say that this isn't fair, and you should be prepared to sacrifice your life to the job, you should be looking out for other employment.
Don't take it personally. People might hate the US Government's policies but be perfectly friendly with individual Americans, they are intelligent enough to understand the difference.
You don't need trousers or pants if you wear a kilt! :-)
Can anybody explain why women love it when you wear a kilt? I mean the attention is really pleasant you know and there's always the obvious easy flirty line to be had in the conversation very early on, but slashdot girls, can you enlighten me?
"there shouldn't be one .... due to the false economy ..."
Statements which look to be made from your world view. Unfortunately, those that have the power make the rules. If China has a strangehold on a limited resource, they make the rules (or at the very least have something to negotiate with in a bigger context).
I'm afraid your world view doesn't count for very much if you don't have the resources or influence to enforce it.
Could be just the engineering degree ones that are successful in blowing things up. Perhaps the ones who took degrees in fine art are busy in mountain retreats sculpting models of the end of world in matchsticks and bat guano, the ones who took degrees in drama are creating avant-garde absurdist plays and presenting these to goats in small rural farming communities, and the ones who took degrees in philosophy are arguing whether their enemies actually exist in complex latin tracts that nobody understands and the local printers won't publish for them because radishes are a poor currency.
The USA has declared for several years a "War on Terror". The USA (and many other nations to be fair) is a state that fears visitors bringing their own nail scissors to its shores. The USA is seriously thinking of asking people to keep their hands in view and not visit the toilet 60 minutes before arriving as this is seen as a real threat to its national security.
These actions don't seem rational to me. The country with a military spend ten times greater than the next largest country, probably with a military the size of most of the rest of the world is scared of individuals approaching its shores bearing nail scissors? These seem to be the action of a terrified, irrational people and nation. Therefore, if the USA (and others) have declared a War on Terror*, then the USA being terrified means the emotion Terror has won. What happens now?
*I would note that I have a problem with the concept "War on Terror" as I don't see how you can declare a war on a human emotion. Is it possible to have a "War on Joy" for example? Perhaps you could declare a "War on preventing terror in Americans" and find ways of stopping Americans being terrified but I think this would be a tricky task. A lot of people are quite frightened of spiders in their bath tubs after all.
I think "War on Terror" is short for "War on people who use non-conventional forms of warfare against us that do not declare war on us as a sovereign nation" but I fear that this is difficult to bound in any way so actually means "permanent warfare against any individual or group that we, by our definitions, define as guilty of violent action against us and/or a threat to us at any time in the future". If it is not against another sovereign state, can war be declared, and can it be agreed to be ceased? References really welcomed to any well written definitions on what a "War on Terror" means. I'd really love to find some well argued definitions.
cheers for the info! I will remember this if I need gas in the US! (Actually I'll probably be looking for the big happy logo which says "standard" rather than "premium" but thanks for the education :-) )
Until the 1950s, the majority of bananas consumed via expert markets were of the Gros Michel variety. However these were very susceptible to Panama disease. A substitute had to be found and we now mainly eat the Vietnamese Cavendish variety.
Banana monoculture is certainly capable of failing.
"'almost three-quarters of the world's wild coffee species are threatened"
Finally, American politicians might take notice of climate change and seriously engage with the issue!
Oh wait, when their access to oil was threatened they just invaded an oil producing country. Err, watch out Cameroon.... ;-)
By crickey! mileage explains why we don't get these big engines in Europe. Just did a quick calculation, my local garage charges GBP1.09 / litre for standard (95 octane) petrol/gasoline, that's approx $6.62 a US gallon. Would explain why these engines are very cool and impressive but you don't see them round here .. What kind of capacity fuel tanks do vehicles with these engines have?
Because you are coming from a philosophical mindset of believing that people want to make money out of any resources that they have access to?
My experience with library associations is that they are motivated by finding ways of getting information to as many people as possible for as little money as they can and free where where ever possible. Their model is one of service, often funded by the public sector and having a lot of people in their organisation who philosophically tend towards social models of society. I have a suspicion more people work in libraries because they believe they can contribute towards a public good than because they believe can make a lot of money and get rich. Librarians get paid a monthly wage, are very unlikely to get financial end of year bonuses and are just keen to see their libraries full of people and breaking even.
Corporate information archives on the other hand... I think these are looking to make money out of their resources, probably are more likely to give financial bonuses to their staff for finding ways of maximising profits, and often have shareholders who are less interested in philosophical ideals than making money.
What's the benefit of having your mac made from a single slab of aluminium? Does it make it much stronger? is it cheaper to construct that way than by bolting or welding a few pieces together? Just curious.
"Machined from a single slab of aluminium" sounds like it might be a> stronger b> more wasteful c> higher show-off value.
Love to know if you or others can offer more info.
According to World Wide Words, "Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy."
Turns out he's a big PR agency guy - makes adverts for Pepsi and the like presumably for national prime time tv, for some sized budget. So it's not so much "young art school student and mates make $300 movie and gets lucky" more like "talented, experienced, well connected ad. movie maker in the media business makes fun film in spare time when he's not directing SFX heavy corporate videos and gets a step up to making feature films". More of a case of media people talking to each other than famous director's teenaged son asking his dad to watch something kewl him and his mates are all watching at school. Check his website showreel.
But fair play to the man. Still got a bit of a break. Go for it. I am really liking the fact that aliens are landing somewhere other than New York or LA for a change. (if you were aliens I wonder how you'd choose where to land? biggest cities? means Mexico and India have to be in with a shout!). District 9 had some nice African angles, I'd be interested to see how a Uruguayan angled sci-fi film might look.