Besides, who wants to hear nothing but a bunch of boring pirate songs anyway. I mean how many times can you play "Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho, a pirate's life fer me..." without driving people absolutely nuts? oH, wait...
the terrorists took away more than just the lives of 4000 people. They managed to steal our liberties as well.
You spelled 'our government' wrong. The terrorists stole nothing except possibly our feeling of security. Our own once fine system of checks and balances is being systematically dismantled from within by the very same people we (allegedly) have put in office. This is the real disgrace in all of this. And most of us are content to just sit back and watch it happen. If/.ers can post that tired old Benjamin Franklin quote again and again in every YRO thread, I should be able to post this one:
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Why should the infrastructure upgrades have been paid for by the developer
I'll tell you why. If I own a piece of land, and it's way out in Bum F@sk Egypt with no lights or running water, I have to pay to have them put them in. It should be no different with a developer who is adding increased stress to our existing infrastructure.
If developers want to continue making obscene profits from properties sold in my town then they should be responsible (within reason) for contributing (not solely supporting) to the infrastructure upgrades necessary due to the people that they are bringing in. This is only fair. I don't expect a completely free ride and I do have the advantage (sometimes) of my property values going up because of them. But they should not get a free ride either. Often in my community, they not only get a free ride, they also get direct subsidies or tax incentives (read: even higher taxes for me). I'm just sick to death of seeing people squeezed to death by property taxes and insurance while people responsible for making the situation worse are not helping to pay at all. That was my point.
Curious that your machines dispense change. After reading TFA, I wondered, 'what kind of ATM dipenses 5 dollar bills'? The only ones I remember using dispense nothing smaller than 10's.
I mean, I can just picture Joe Sixpack wandering up and hitting the authorization to charge him $1 or $2 just to take out 5 bucks. Then again, I was at a strip club once before I was married and they charged like $7 for ATM withdrawals. Since you'd already paid the cover charge and burned all your beer money on lap dances, they kind of had a captive audience. To their credit though, on the bank statement it read something like "transaction fee by XYZ entertainment group" so a spouse or SO reviewing your statement didn't know it was an ATM fee for a strip club.:p Ah, technology.
I'd rather have intelligent people propose good designs
So would I. I don't know about where you live, but in my neck of the woods that rarely happens. What is more likely to happen is this:
1. Developer proposes project 2. Developer lines pockets of local authorities 3. Local authorities approve project 4. Developer builds project 5. $$ Profit! 6. Local authorities stick it to existing taxpayers to fund infrastructure upgrades that should have been paid for by developer
So yeah, getting ordinary citizens involved in the development process might be a good thing instead of just bending over for the developers. Problem is, the oridinary citizens are already to busy watching American Idol or whatever pap is on this week to ever do it.
For me, if I'm ever torn on a candidate for office or a ballot mandate and I don't know or have time to research all of the issues involved, I'll often look at who supports or opposes them. One can often make an informed decision based on this alone.
So, lets look at who supports Net Neutrality: Google, Yahoo, Vonage, Ebay, Skype, Amazon etc. Now take a gander at who is against it: Most (not all) politicians, major telcos such as Verizon, ATT, Comcast, Time Warner and now hardware manufacturers are coming out against it. Now is it so hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is spreading FUD? Who among those mentioned above has the best interests of the consumer and small businesses in mind, and who else is constantly trying to squeeze more and more and more profits from them?
I saw the episode that you're talking about last week. The idea seemed crazy at first, but after some research they were able to craft incredibly effective incindiary devices that were small and light enough for the bats to carry. They were so effective that when several experimental bats escaped, they promptly flew towards some of the buildings at the test facility (in Arizona or New Mexico, I belive) and wound up burning most of it down.
The idea was to outfit the bats with the devices, then induce hibernation by keeping them cool and dark so they could be transported. They also came up with this ingenious method of delivering them target which was essentially multiple layers of trays that would expand as it was parachuted near the earth allowing the bats time to warm and wake up and then wreak havoc on the target area. As another poster has said, although this idea held promise it was eventually scrubbed in favor of nuclear research.
(I think it was on NPR)...that Virgin Atlantic was banning travellers with Macs or Dells, regardless of the model, from using their laptop batteries while in flight and that they must safely stow batteries separately from the laptops. I wonder if the ban will now extend to Toshiba users? And I have to wonder if other airlines will be taking similar actions. My HP may weigh a ton, but at lease I don't think the battery was made by Sony.
BTW - Toshiba may not be very popular in the US, but I have friends and in-laws in Colombia and they all have Toshiba laptops. I've forwarded this along in case they haven't seen it yet.
healthcare isn't fundamentally 'productive' in any sense.
While I'll concede the fact that healthcare costs continue to increase at alarming rates, to state that as an industry it's not productive is shortsighted at best. What about lives that are saved and people who are healed and returned to the worforce to become productive citizens for a start? What about preventative medicine (yes it does exist) and the people who remain healthy contributing taxpayers as a result? What about the massive pharmaceutical industry and the products and profits that it creates? What about the people who work in the industry (a significant portion of the population) and all of the goods and services that they consume?
Another point - like it or not we nearly all have to have health care at some point in our lives. And like it or not, we all have to pay for it. Arguably, the problem is that we are paying way too much for it. Why the cost is so high another complex question that's probably beyond the scope of this thread (but I do have my own opinions on that).
Very well said Mr. Socialist and if you're looking for disagreement from me, I find little in your message that I would take issue with.
My political persuasions come mostly from my Father's strong influence who was a staunch conservative throughout his life. He often used to say that "Capitalism and Free Enterprise were my first loves, until the day that I discovered that my lovers were prostitutes". There is a world of truth in this statement and I've thought about it often since his passing.
I will point out one thing that you said that I believe is incorrect. My humble opinion is that the American Dream is not being scuttled by a bunch of incompetents. We may have incopentents holding office, but those who manipulate them should not be discounted so easily. The dream is dying indeed, but I feel strongly that its demise is being intentionally orchestrated by those who would excercise absolute control over us. To say that this is the result of incompetence is to vastly underestimate the real enemy. This is difficult to articulate without sounding like a conspiracy theorist nutcase, but I believe that there is ample evidence to support my viewpoint. The traditional middle class that is is backbone of the once great American Experiment is systematically being squeezed out of existance.
I also found your statement about Pat Buchanan amusing and feel that you can empathize with me when I find myself agreeing with Al Gore or Ted Kennedy. The bottom line is that I parted ways ideologically with this current administration and its party prior to our immoral and illegal invasion of Iraq. I find it quite alarming that most of the GOP and its media pundits continue to march in lockstep with the current adminstration while it continues to make one bad decision after another. When and if this ever changes, it is going to take years to recover from both foreign and domestic policies which have proved disastrous.
I for one will be supporting Democratic candidates almost without exception this fall. I sincerely hope that most Americans have enough courage to send a strong message to Washington as well as our state and local governments letting them know that we believe we are headed in the wrong direction. It's not too late yet, but it soon will be if we don't do something. Then again, we have Diebold voting machines in my state, so who can say if my vote will really count for anything?
"The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations"
There are so many things wrong with this quote, that that I'm having trouble even starting to comment. Except maybe to say that I sincerely hope that most US citizens remember remarks like these when they go to the polls this fall.
This is unbelievable, even in this administration where sadly, one has come to expect this type of mentality. BTW - Let me say that I am a registered Republican before I get flamed by all the NeoCons.
The only other reaction product, sodium metaborate (analogous to borax), is water-soluble and environmentally benign.
This is great. So what you're saying is that after my laptop battery is dead, I can toss it in the washing machine and finally get rid of those embarrasing pit stains and 'ring around the collar'?:p
If you click on the link in TFA you get some insight on what he did with his money: "He must also continue to sell all the assets he procured with his profits, which, according to the FBI, include a Lamborghini, a Hummer, two Corvettes, two Cessna planes, a helicopter, a motor boat and an ambulance."
An ambulance? WTF? I don't know about the rest of the/. crowd, but if I had that kind of cheese I can tell you that an ambulance would be waaaaay down on the list.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but just think about it for a secons. You've finally made the underpants gnome's business model make sense.
Besides, who wants to hear nothing but a bunch of boring pirate songs anyway. I mean how many times can you play "Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho, a pirate's life fer me..." without driving people absolutely nuts? oH, wait...
You spelled 'our government' wrong. The terrorists stole nothing except possibly our feeling of security. Our own once fine system of checks and balances is being systematically dismantled from within by the very same people we (allegedly) have put in office. This is the real disgrace in all of this. And most of us are content to just sit back and watch it happen. If
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
If developers want to continue making obscene profits from properties sold in my town then they should be responsible (within reason) for contributing (not solely supporting) to the infrastructure upgrades necessary due to the people that they are bringing in. This is only fair. I don't expect a completely free ride and I do have the advantage (sometimes) of my property values going up because of them. But they should not get a free ride either. Often in my community, they not only get a free ride, they also get direct subsidies or tax incentives (read: even higher taxes for me). I'm just sick to death of seeing people squeezed to death by property taxes and insurance while people responsible for making the situation worse are not helping to pay at all. That was my point.
Curious that your machines dispense change. After reading TFA, I wondered, 'what kind of ATM dipenses 5 dollar bills'? The only ones I remember using dispense nothing smaller than 10's.
:p Ah, technology.
I mean, I can just picture Joe Sixpack wandering up and hitting the authorization to charge him $1 or $2 just to take out 5 bucks. Then again, I was at a strip club once before I was married and they charged like $7 for ATM withdrawals. Since you'd already paid the cover charge and burned all your beer money on lap dances, they kind of had a captive audience. To their credit though, on the bank statement it read something like "transaction fee by XYZ entertainment group" so a spouse or SO reviewing your statement didn't know it was an ATM fee for a strip club.
Are the ATM's made by Diebold by any chance?
1. Developer proposes project
2. Developer lines pockets of local authorities
3. Local authorities approve project
4. Developer builds project
5. $$ Profit!
6. Local authorities stick it to existing taxpayers to fund infrastructure upgrades that should have been paid for by developer
So yeah, getting ordinary citizens involved in the development process might be a good thing instead of just bending over for the developers. Problem is, the oridinary citizens are already to busy watching American Idol or whatever pap is on this week to ever do it.
For me, if I'm ever torn on a candidate for office or a ballot mandate and I don't know or have time to research all of the issues involved, I'll often look at who supports or opposes them. One can often make an informed decision based on this alone.
So, lets look at who supports Net Neutrality: Google, Yahoo, Vonage, Ebay, Skype, Amazon etc. Now take a gander at who is against it: Most (not all) politicians, major telcos such as Verizon, ATT, Comcast, Time Warner and now hardware manufacturers are coming out against it. Now is it so hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is spreading FUD? Who among those mentioned above has the best interests of the consumer and small businesses in mind, and who else is constantly trying to squeeze more and more and more profits from them?
This is not an urban legend
I saw the episode that you're talking about last week. The idea seemed crazy at first, but after some research they were able to craft incredibly effective incindiary devices that were small and light enough for the bats to carry. They were so effective that when several experimental bats escaped, they promptly flew towards some of the buildings at the test facility (in Arizona or New Mexico, I belive) and wound up burning most of it down.
The idea was to outfit the bats with the devices, then induce hibernation by keeping them cool and dark so they could be transported. They also came up with this ingenious method of delivering them target which was essentially multiple layers of trays that would expand as it was parachuted near the earth allowing the bats time to warm and wake up and then wreak havoc on the target area. As another poster has said, although this idea held promise it was eventually scrubbed in favor of nuclear research.
(I think it was on NPR)...that Virgin Atlantic was banning travellers with Macs or Dells, regardless of the model, from using their laptop batteries while in flight and that they must safely stow batteries separately from the laptops. I wonder if the ban will now extend to Toshiba users? And I have to wonder if other airlines will be taking similar actions. My HP may weigh a ton, but at lease I don't think the battery was made by Sony.
BTW - Toshiba may not be very popular in the US, but I have friends and in-laws in Colombia and they all have Toshiba laptops. I've forwarded this along in case they haven't seen it yet.
It's a Pipeline Worm. It's a good thing the internet is made up of tubes instead of pipes or we'd all be screwed!
Another point - like it or not we nearly all have to have health care at some point in our lives. And like it or not, we all have to pay for it. Arguably, the problem is that we are paying way too much for it. Why the cost is so high another complex question that's probably beyond the scope of this thread (but I do have my own opinions on that).
As if the American People didn't have enough to worry about. There, fixed that for ya.
How long are we going to tolerate this?
Very well said Mr. Socialist and if you're looking for disagreement from me, I find little in your message that I would take issue with.
My political persuasions come mostly from my Father's strong influence who was a staunch conservative throughout his life. He often used to say that "Capitalism and Free Enterprise were my first loves, until the day that I discovered that my lovers were prostitutes". There is a world of truth in this statement and I've thought about it often since his passing.
I will point out one thing that you said that I believe is incorrect. My humble opinion is that the American Dream is not being scuttled by a bunch of incompetents. We may have incopentents holding office, but those who manipulate them should not be discounted so easily. The dream is dying indeed, but I feel strongly that its demise is being intentionally orchestrated by those who would excercise absolute control over us. To say that this is the result of incompetence is to vastly underestimate the real enemy. This is difficult to articulate without sounding like a conspiracy theorist nutcase, but I believe that there is ample evidence to support my viewpoint. The traditional middle class that is is backbone of the once great American Experiment is systematically being squeezed out of existance.
I also found your statement about Pat Buchanan amusing and feel that you can empathize with me when I find myself agreeing with Al Gore or Ted Kennedy. The bottom line is that I parted ways ideologically with this current administration and its party prior to our immoral and illegal invasion of Iraq. I find it quite alarming that most of the GOP and its media pundits continue to march in lockstep with the current adminstration while it continues to make one bad decision after another. When and if this ever changes, it is going to take years to recover from both foreign and domestic policies which have proved disastrous.
I for one will be supporting Democratic candidates almost without exception this fall. I sincerely hope that most Americans have enough courage to send a strong message to Washington as well as our state and local governments letting them know that we believe we are headed in the wrong direction. It's not too late yet, but it soon will be if we don't do something. Then again, we have Diebold voting machines in my state, so who can say if my vote will really count for anything?
This is unbelievable, even in this administration where sadly, one has come to expect this type of mentality. BTW - Let me say that I am a registered Republican before I get flamed by all the NeoCons.
VOLP - Voice Over Liquid Propane?
...as a Florida resident, we stand ready to annex^H^H^H^H^H assist you should the need arise.
OpenedFace?
Sounds like they should be dumping some of those recalled batteries into the file cabinets.
If you click on the link in TFA you get some insight on what he did with his money: "He must also continue to sell all the assets he procured with his profits, which, according to the FBI, include a Lamborghini, a Hummer, two Corvettes, two Cessna planes, a helicopter, a motor boat and an ambulance."
/. crowd, but if I had that kind of cheese I can tell you that an ambulance would be waaaaay down on the list.
An ambulance? WTF? I don't know about the rest of the
Best chuckle I've had all day. Someone with points please mod parent appropriately. Thanks!