That's 'cause we can afford cars. No, seriously. We don't rely on mass transit - it's a cultural thing. Look at the percentages and socio-economic class of people who use the (limited) mass transit available.
Also, I have to wonder if you're stupid or just ignorant - and, if the latter, it is willfully so? Seriously. The US is a rather diverse and large place. I notice you compared the mass transit of the US to just cities in other countries - which demonstrates an even greater willingness to bias your statements.
I'd also wonder why you'd lie... You've absolutely, zero chance, not seen all of the public transit in the US. So, I doubt you were astonished by such a thing as you've not seen it.
Which leads me to this... You're almost certainly, by deduction, a liar - and you've probably not been to any of the places you seem to claim you've been and that includes the places you're contrasting with. It's telling, in some ways, that you used Moscow - I've been to Moscow and been on public transit there (you'll need to narrow down which transit(s) you speak of) and am inclined to think you've never actually been.
So, you're probably actually from the US. Your writing style, the grammar and verbiage used, indicate that you're really from the US. That means you probably don't own a passport and haven't been out of the US in your life. I'm not sure why you'd lie - except to troll. However, trolls are my source of amusement at times - more so when I'm bored, and it's fun to pick apart the idiocy they spout for their own amusement. Thank you for the fun game. I appreciated it and the folks who read the response may also be aware of the idiocies in your post.
I remember that article. I don't recall any "two people" who died in it except a ANG general and his wife. Odds are, unless you're strange luck and the news didn't mention it, those would be your family friends. Unless there were other groups of two in the total group of nine that were fatally injured and the news didn't mention them. I seem to recall he was in the DC ANG but have no idea what the name was. (By sheer happenstance, I was in the area at the time.)
I read both the article and the comments attached to it
No wonder you posted as an AC. I did that once... I found out the links actually went to someone's grocery shopping list, written in Swahili, and that they'd never actually meant for us to read 'em in the first place!
Anyhow, at first I thought that it'd be okay just to let some of the DC folks die in accidents, there's a lot of politicians there and many of them are straight up evil. But, then I thought more about it and, having been on the metro in DC, I know no politicians are going to be impacted by this at all. So, only some mostly-good people would be at risk and it's probably best to shut it down.
Mostly-good is, of course, in comparison to the above mentioned politicians.
I'm actually not surprised that the terrorists don't take out Congress. If they did, some of us might not mind that much and others would actively cheer. (See approval ratings for more accurate statistics.) It'd be one way to get rid of the incumbents who, oddly, get reelected even though they've often managed to acquire rather low approval ratings.
Note: Some of the above is meant as sarcasm and/or humor and should not be taken seriously. Which parts are which is an exercise best left to the reader.
Simp, in this usage, was short for simpleton. See, I told you that you'd not get it. It was a play on words, a pun - if you will, but not a very good one - one made even worse by having to explain it. It was also not the one I'd have originally gone with but that would have suffered the same fate.
Ah well... 2/3rds of "pun" is "P-U." (Best said allowed, of course. Just not in polite company, or folks you want to respect you the next morning.)
I scrolled back up just because I wanted to respond to this.
It got me thinking... You know, I'm unaware of any AUS legislation that would prevent such a merger/purchase. With MSFT wanting to move into the mobile sector more than they already are... The odds of that are low and the odds of success are probably lower - but it might make some sense.
However, if it were Elop *again* to do so, I'm thinking somebody, somewhere, somehow is going to start asking a few questions. That's REALLY going to result in some extreme investigations - it absolutely has to. Well, it would in any country that I'm reasonably familiar with laws regarding publicly traded companies. Not even the SEC would be able to pretend that was normal, and that's here in the US.
It might actually be a sound business choice for Microsoft to do something like that but I'm 100% positive, well - 99.9% positive, that doing it via Elop is an absolutely bad idea. We're talking someone's-probably-going-to-jail - type of bad idea. That's not gonna pass the sniff test, not even remotely. Have they had any other executive-level changes recently? I still, even if they were going to, can't imagine who the hell would think that bringing Elop into it (a second time) would be smart. That doesn't make any sense.
But, it might make an interesting bit of mental bubble gum. Maybe Microsoft could start something like Straight-Talk (I think that's the name) or TracPhone with their mobile phones? I'd almost say that the idea of that, or buying their way into the carrier market, would be a very, very interesting strategy and might be very profitable if done well.
Yes, yes I do use Linux as my OS but I do have a Windows phone. Believe it or not, there are plenty of apps available and I've been very happy with the phone. It does everything I need and lots of things I'm not actually wanting from a phone.
Speaking of phones, I'm still awaiting a return call. At that point, I'll go rent a satellite phone - assuming my request is approved. Missus KGIII and I are gonna go to Cuba for a few days. Well, we're hoping to.
To be fair, by most accounts, Nokia was already doing their damnedest to ruin their company before Elop was at the helm. If you look at what they had been doing and were doing when Elop moved in and want to think it was some sort of conspiracy than the conspiracy must have started about three years prior to the event.
That doesn't mean it's not possible, it just means that there were more people involved - thus making it less likely.
No, no super and no sub. There's a subset. Lemme see if I can get most of them (there's a couple of odd dashes that are in there with HTML entities but I'm too lazy to go find 'em and I don't have much time right now.)
That should be most of 'em except the < and the dashes. I don't know of any others.
Hopefully, in about a half hour, I start getting phone calls and making phone calls. I'm off to Cuba. I hope... No 'net but I've been before (twice now) and want to go again before they get too Americanized. The above was made with the Right Alt key and then Shift + Right Alt. Your keyboard layout might be different. I use US International AltGr with Deadkeys. Or something like that.
I've done some recent financial moves that are putting money into a few of those companies. I am not a short-term investor. I have every reason to believe the prices will skyrocket again - and I've got the patience to wait and no need for the money in the interim. They'll likely made huge, huge jumps and I expect it to be quite profitable.
It's akin to my rooting for VW's stock to tank even further. I'm hoping for the other foot to drop with VW and, when that happens, I'll buy a bunch of shares and hold them until they return to normal.
It's been a remarkably lucrative investment strategy. I've explained it in more detail in the past but it's made me a mint.
I don't know about all that... As the phrase in use here is general purpose then I can say that I am content to use Linux for my computing needs - all of them. I'm not a gamer so I don't care about that. However, the term is general purpose and not gaming purpose so I'm thinking it doesn't much matter.
Note: I did not say that it has or should have (or even will have) mainstream acceptance. I'm okay with that. I don't really care if there's a year of the Linux Desktop. Hell, I don't even actually care what operating system you (or anyone else) uses just so long as you made informed consent to use it and made the choice you wanted to make without duress.
You're not actually an engineer, are you? If so, is the "cheap" intentionally significant? 'Cause that's not how engineering and safety works. "Well, we've never done it so sure, go ahead and risk it until we have the data." That's not an acceptable answer where lives are on the line.
That said, the regulations are retarded. Seemingly, they're just as retarded as the responses to them.
By that logic, we shouldn't outlaw murder because people will still murder. Regulations aren't about prevention so much as formally stating that it's unacceptable behavior and setting aside a list of punishments for doing those undesired things. As such, drones should be regulated sensibly. By all accounts, that is not what is happening in my country.
Check your State's regulations. DSL is carried over the copper and, as such, it has different protection mechanisms built into the applicable laws. Contact your PUC for more information. For example, I can use any DSL service provider that is willing to service my area and there's not a damned thing the telephone company can do about it - at one point, I was getting my service from a company that doesn't even normally service anywhere near me but can - it's just that nobody seems to know about it. Fairpoint (owner of the lines and ISP) must provide access at just about break-even and must still maintain the lines with "best-effort" service.
Press reply, press copy parent post (no need to reply), and all should become clear.
I probably won't be here so the first row is inserted with the International Keyboard layout using AltGr method or you can do it with the International Keyboard(s) in Windows. It's also possible to use fcitx's search functionality - sometimes. Slashdot supports Unicode, some of it. It's missing a few that I'd like (like micro) but it's not that bad.
Hopefully you will figure it out. In about four hours, I should know if I'm able to go spend a few days in Cuba before the throngs of people get there. So, I won't be able to follow up if you don't figure it out. At least not with any quickness.
See my other response. Note: It is a novella. If you want to see where I'm coming from, read all of it. If you just wanna argue then the bolded sections or none of it at all are what I'd suggest. 'Tis up to you but I figured I'd try to explain my statement a bit more completely for you. Doing so is not easy and I'm not the most articulate. So, try to read it with that in mind. Or, if you prefer, just rant and rave and fight. I'm okay with either and don't have much of a preference where some folks are concerned. I'm also of an open mind and I could be wrong but I don't think I am.
I could probably pull out some numbers and demonstrate it a little better but compiling a bunch of unbiased numbers isn't easy. I've seen, for example, the number of cancer diagnoses and deaths given without any mention of the increases in detection. I've only seen those accounted for a few times. They're hardly ever adjusted for the increased recording, the margin of error on the older data, and the ease of actual number aggregation isn't usually accounted for either.
It's not all sunshine and roses but it's not that bad, not really. In fact, it's really damned good in many ways. They love pushing stats out like that but few people bother to ask where the data came from and what questions the data actually answered and why it was considered a complete answer. Crime, especially violent crime, has been trending down for decades. Poverty is trending downward. Access to everything from advanced health care to information has skyrocketed. Etc. etc. etc...
I wrote about it in detail in my other post. I am limited on posts so I'll respond to the other one if you want. I've hit the max threshold which is 50 posts/day - even if you max out your karma. (Which I have.) They claim they're going to get rid of that limitation but we'll see. They said that quite some time ago and I've been pretty patient. Then again, it really isn't all that pressing and they're likely rather busy. So, I'll be patient. To be honest, they don't have a very high bar to cross to be better than DICE. I guess I was hoping it'd be a bit speedier.
At any rate - I wanted to make sure that I'd covered it all in that post. I think I got the gist of it. I can go on, if you want. A lot of it is about choices and you're able to make choices, and regularly do, to access things you would have had a hard time accessing if you were a millionaire just 30 years ago.
I do recall liking one of his series but I don't, for the life of me, recollect which it was - nor do I have energy to look. I'm assuming that I have it somewhere still but I've no idea where - it may be on a shelf or it may still be packed in a box somewhere. I don't remember being impressed with it and I do remember being a bit surprised that it was turned into a series - the book I read didn't really feel like the start of a series.
I was reading another series at the time. My memory is terrible but the novel that I most recollect was Misnomers and Impervections. It was, indeed, about a Perv though it was not probably what most would assume a Perv was but actually a scaly lizard-like humanoid. Yeah, that was not a great era for fantasy but Pratchett was just around the corner. Some of the longer series were okay - like the One Gold Wielder (I think was the name - Donaldson maybe?) and a few others. Xanth was big but I'm not a preteen girl and Anthony had some almost good science-fiction before devolving to fantasy.
Thanks. I just wanted to make sure. Kinda, mostly, like Australia and the UK. That's what I'd understood but wasn't entirely sure. The verbiage is... odd to me. In my head they're the "majority power." Or, shall we say, close enough. Don't worry, I watch your politics and am probably as baffled as you are when you see US politics. Well, not quite that bad but you understand. I hope.
I did, technically, have the ability to regurgitate the generalities about the government but that was learned in a hurry and without much need to retain it. I've often mentioned this - I'm not smart. I seem like it but that's because I test well. I retain it long enough to test and then it gets dumped as new things fill my brain. It's actually not easy for me to retain some things unless I've had use for them and have kept at them - otherwise things flush out really quickly. However, I can read a book or two and appear to be fluent in a subject for a while afterwards, it varies per subject but I'd wager it's generally mostly gone within 6 months. I'd say my brain is broken but they tell me it isn't. Some things might stay a year if I keep using them - it wasn't too bad for schooling. However, actual comprehension is difficult for me - but recitation isn't. I can also write a mean essay on anything.
Ah well...
But that sums it up so thanks. That's how I think of it, at any rate. They're the ones who got the majority and they're kind of the bosses. I believe it's possible to oust them somehow but I do not know the name of the process - but I seem to recall they can be overruled and ousted if necessarily. I've no idea what that looks like.;-) Like I said, I do not vote in Canadian politics. It is not my right by my view - it is my legal right but I do not take advantage of that right. It's probably best that I do not. I do pay a bit of attention, it's on NPR at times and sometimes I read some online and hear from relatives of happen to talk to someone who is into it, but mostly I just remember names.
I left my house in Maine in late September and have been gone since. The last I knew Harper was on the way out and some guy whose name begins with a T replaced him. He's a liberal but I've been told he's a liar and a hypocrite. That's what the left has been saying, mostly. At least they seem to be left judging by the things they're saying he's reversing or not reversing. I have no idea how right that is.;-) Is that "good enough" in your view or should I know more? I was trying to figure out who the government was besides those guys, like maybe there was some board higher than they whom I'd forgotten - some group of people.
My house was a huge bargain and is huge. I'll show you some neat pictures when I get home in the spring, if you want. I spent a lot on it but I got a lot of house - and I've got gazillions of acres - at a steel and the house is largely made out of materials that came from the land. My house will still be here in 200 years. It's actually passive solar, I designed it myself. It's what's known as a box or envelope (sometimes double-envelope would be the preferred term) and is powered mostly by solar and wind.
You know, I started this and I am obligated to make sure I complete it well enough. This is going to be a novella. You have been warned. I'll bold a bit and you can skip to it or just read it all. It's probably a bit easier if you read it all. If not then, well... You did want to know why I said what I said. It is going to take a minute to explain that.
To make a short story long... More accurately, the house has a mains connection but that's the backup and not the primary. Under normal conditions it doesn't tick over and I push energy out into the grid - even in the winter. The house, while huge, was actually a bargain. I even have (legal) in-ground diesel tanks for a generator. The piping is black iron for some of it, some is technically copper, and the rest is PEX, the framing is post-and-beam. It's on the side of a small mountain about 24 miles outside of Rangeley, Maine. I've given some pretty close co-ordinates if you wanted to find it, it'd probably not be that hard to find if someone wanted to stalk me or something. Meh, I've communicated with you before. If you were going to hunt me down and kill me then you'd have done so already. But it's kind of nice and wasn't really all that expensive.
It may very well have been less expensive (house alone and a portion of the property or the property by acre) than you paid for your property and house. I paid about $200 an acre, all told. I've been buying chunks of old paper-mill property that's all either really hard to reach or was replanted back in 1978 or there abouts for the oldest replants and the newest sections are still being cut. The land pays for itself, now that it has been purchased. It even makes a profit. It's a long story, also written out in older posts, but I suppose I can type it again - if you really want. It'd probably be faster than me finding it in my old posts.
The point is, you discounted a lot of what I said and selected to consider only the choices you either made or, I guess you could say, had to make due to your particular desires outweighed with a need for immediate (or rapid) satisfaction. Me? I got damned lucky but much of what I have would have already been mine had I not sold - just on a smaller scale and it would have taken longer to achieve that. I have an obscene number of acres, really. Why not? It works for me and it pays for itself. On top of that, the public is welcome to use it. It's open to hunting, fishing, ATV use, etc. There are a few caveats and some of it is private but it's mostly open.
I'd already purchased some of the land before I sold my business. It's mildly embarrassing to give specific numbers but there's property at probably about 1/5 the floor space and (counting only 20 acres) was about 100k more expensive than my home (not counting electrical, utility installation, but counting everything that was needed to be habitable and comfortable) would have cost on the *outskirts* of San Fransisco proper. That's without a view but probably a rolling hill-side view, up above the street with the one-ways and everyone walking in front of you - that one, I'd have to look the name up and I'm lazy.
Anyhow, that's some caveats. There's another building on my property, since rehabbed, but was built in 1840. It's a traditional NE farm-house, colonial-plantation mix, with attached barn, summer-kitchen, and horse/carriage stable. I was going to have it torn down but it grew on me. It's a ridiculous money-pit but the guy who built it also built it off the same land, with rough-milled and
Slashdot Mirror
That's 'cause we can afford cars. No, seriously. We don't rely on mass transit - it's a cultural thing. Look at the percentages and socio-economic class of people who use the (limited) mass transit available.
Also, I have to wonder if you're stupid or just ignorant - and, if the latter, it is willfully so? Seriously. The US is a rather diverse and large place. I notice you compared the mass transit of the US to just cities in other countries - which demonstrates an even greater willingness to bias your statements.
I'd also wonder why you'd lie... You've absolutely, zero chance, not seen all of the public transit in the US. So, I doubt you were astonished by such a thing as you've not seen it.
Which leads me to this... You're almost certainly, by deduction, a liar - and you've probably not been to any of the places you seem to claim you've been and that includes the places you're contrasting with. It's telling, in some ways, that you used Moscow - I've been to Moscow and been on public transit there (you'll need to narrow down which transit(s) you speak of) and am inclined to think you've never actually been.
So, you're probably actually from the US. Your writing style, the grammar and verbiage used, indicate that you're really from the US. That means you probably don't own a passport and haven't been out of the US in your life. I'm not sure why you'd lie - except to troll. However, trolls are my source of amusement at times - more so when I'm bored, and it's fun to pick apart the idiocy they spout for their own amusement. Thank you for the fun game. I appreciated it and the folks who read the response may also be aware of the idiocies in your post.
They had a second fire in one week? I did not catch that one the news.
I remember that article. I don't recall any "two people" who died in it except a ANG general and his wife. Odds are, unless you're strange luck and the news didn't mention it, those would be your family friends. Unless there were other groups of two in the total group of nine that were fatally injured and the news didn't mention them. I seem to recall he was in the DC ANG but have no idea what the name was. (By sheer happenstance, I was in the area at the time.)
I read both the article and the comments attached to it
No wonder you posted as an AC. I did that once... I found out the links actually went to someone's grocery shopping list, written in Swahili, and that they'd never actually meant for us to read 'em in the first place!
Nautical miles. I assume...
Anyhow, at first I thought that it'd be okay just to let some of the DC folks die in accidents, there's a lot of politicians there and many of them are straight up evil. But, then I thought more about it and, having been on the metro in DC, I know no politicians are going to be impacted by this at all. So, only some mostly-good people would be at risk and it's probably best to shut it down.
Mostly-good is, of course, in comparison to the above mentioned politicians.
I'm actually not surprised that the terrorists don't take out Congress. If they did, some of us might not mind that much and others would actively cheer. (See approval ratings for more accurate statistics.) It'd be one way to get rid of the incumbents who, oddly, get reelected even though they've often managed to acquire rather low approval ratings.
Note: Some of the above is meant as sarcasm and/or humor and should not be taken seriously. Which parts are which is an exercise best left to the reader.
Simp, in this usage, was short for simpleton. See, I told you that you'd not get it. It was a play on words, a pun - if you will, but not a very good one - one made even worse by having to explain it. It was also not the one I'd have originally gone with but that would have suffered the same fate.
Ah well... 2/3rds of "pun" is "P-U." (Best said allowed, of course. Just not in polite company, or folks you want to respect you the next morning.)
I scrolled back up just because I wanted to respond to this.
It got me thinking... You know, I'm unaware of any AUS legislation that would prevent such a merger/purchase. With MSFT wanting to move into the mobile sector more than they already are... The odds of that are low and the odds of success are probably lower - but it might make some sense.
However, if it were Elop *again* to do so, I'm thinking somebody, somewhere, somehow is going to start asking a few questions. That's REALLY going to result in some extreme investigations - it absolutely has to. Well, it would in any country that I'm reasonably familiar with laws regarding publicly traded companies. Not even the SEC would be able to pretend that was normal, and that's here in the US.
It might actually be a sound business choice for Microsoft to do something like that but I'm 100% positive, well - 99.9% positive, that doing it via Elop is an absolutely bad idea. We're talking someone's-probably-going-to-jail - type of bad idea. That's not gonna pass the sniff test, not even remotely. Have they had any other executive-level changes recently? I still, even if they were going to, can't imagine who the hell would think that bringing Elop into it (a second time) would be smart. That doesn't make any sense.
But, it might make an interesting bit of mental bubble gum. Maybe Microsoft could start something like Straight-Talk (I think that's the name) or TracPhone with their mobile phones? I'd almost say that the idea of that, or buying their way into the carrier market, would be a very, very interesting strategy and might be very profitable if done well.
Yes, yes I do use Linux as my OS but I do have a Windows phone. Believe it or not, there are plenty of apps available and I've been very happy with the phone. It does everything I need and lots of things I'm not actually wanting from a phone.
Speaking of phones, I'm still awaiting a return call. At that point, I'll go rent a satellite phone - assuming my request is approved. Missus KGIII and I are gonna go to Cuba for a few days. Well, we're hoping to.
Why do you dislike Greenland?
To be fair, by most accounts, Nokia was already doing their damnedest to ruin their company before Elop was at the helm. If you look at what they had been doing and were doing when Elop moved in and want to think it was some sort of conspiracy than the conspiracy must have started about three years prior to the event.
That doesn't mean it's not possible, it just means that there were more people involved - thus making it less likely.
So, your new theory is that he's a simp?
> wimp factor
I'd make a joke about theoretical quantum physics but you'd probably not understand.
Then N = 1.
No, no super and no sub. There's a subset. Lemme see if I can get most of them (there's a couple of odd dashes that are in there with HTML entities but I'm too lazy to go find 'em and I don't have much time right now.)
€^‘’¥÷×½¼¾
öóíúüëéåäÄÅÉËÜÚÍÓÖ“”¦
øïhgfðßáÁÐFGHÏñb®©æ
ƮB
That should be most of 'em except the < and the dashes. I don't know of any others.
Hopefully, in about a half hour, I start getting phone calls and making phone calls. I'm off to Cuba. I hope... No 'net but I've been before (twice now) and want to go again before they get too Americanized. The above was made with the Right Alt key and then Shift + Right Alt. Your keyboard layout might be different. I use US International AltGr with Deadkeys. Or something like that.
Wait, the dashes are: — –
I've done some recent financial moves that are putting money into a few of those companies. I am not a short-term investor. I have every reason to believe the prices will skyrocket again - and I've got the patience to wait and no need for the money in the interim. They'll likely made huge, huge jumps and I expect it to be quite profitable.
It's akin to my rooting for VW's stock to tank even further. I'm hoping for the other foot to drop with VW and, when that happens, I'll buy a bunch of shares and hold them until they return to normal.
It's been a remarkably lucrative investment strategy. I've explained it in more detail in the past but it's made me a mint.
I don't know about all that... As the phrase in use here is general purpose then I can say that I am content to use Linux for my computing needs - all of them. I'm not a gamer so I don't care about that. However, the term is general purpose and not gaming purpose so I'm thinking it doesn't much matter.
Note: I did not say that it has or should have (or even will have) mainstream acceptance. I'm okay with that. I don't really care if there's a year of the Linux Desktop. Hell, I don't even actually care what operating system you (or anyone else) uses just so long as you made informed consent to use it and made the choice you wanted to make without duress.
You're not actually an engineer, are you? If so, is the "cheap" intentionally significant? 'Cause that's not how engineering and safety works. "Well, we've never done it so sure, go ahead and risk it until we have the data." That's not an acceptable answer where lives are on the line.
That said, the regulations are retarded. Seemingly, they're just as retarded as the responses to them.
By that logic, we shouldn't outlaw murder because people will still murder. Regulations aren't about prevention so much as formally stating that it's unacceptable behavior and setting aside a list of punishments for doing those undesired things. As such, drones should be regulated sensibly. By all accounts, that is not what is happening in my country.
Check your State's regulations. DSL is carried over the copper and, as such, it has different protection mechanisms built into the applicable laws. Contact your PUC for more information. For example, I can use any DSL service provider that is willing to service my area and there's not a damned thing the telephone company can do about it - at one point, I was getting my service from a company that doesn't even normally service anywhere near me but can - it's just that nobody seems to know about it. Fairpoint (owner of the lines and ISP) must provide access at just about break-even and must still maintain the lines with "best-effort" service.
*in my best impersonation* "Well, it looks like them Duke boys sure got themselves into a mess of trouble this time."
Like these?
£ € ¥ © ® ñ ú ü ¼ ½ ¾ × ÷?
There's also HTML entities: < > © &
Press reply, press copy parent post (no need to reply), and all should become clear.
I probably won't be here so the first row is inserted with the International Keyboard layout using AltGr method or you can do it with the International Keyboard(s) in Windows. It's also possible to use fcitx's search functionality - sometimes. Slashdot supports Unicode, some of it. It's missing a few that I'd like (like micro) but it's not that bad.
Hopefully you will figure it out. In about four hours, I should know if I'm able to go spend a few days in Cuba before the throngs of people get there. So, I won't be able to follow up if you don't figure it out. At least not with any quickness.
See my other response. Note: It is a novella. If you want to see where I'm coming from, read all of it. If you just wanna argue then the bolded sections or none of it at all are what I'd suggest. 'Tis up to you but I figured I'd try to explain my statement a bit more completely for you. Doing so is not easy and I'm not the most articulate. So, try to read it with that in mind. Or, if you prefer, just rant and rave and fight. I'm okay with either and don't have much of a preference where some folks are concerned. I'm also of an open mind and I could be wrong but I don't think I am.
I could probably pull out some numbers and demonstrate it a little better but compiling a bunch of unbiased numbers isn't easy. I've seen, for example, the number of cancer diagnoses and deaths given without any mention of the increases in detection. I've only seen those accounted for a few times. They're hardly ever adjusted for the increased recording, the margin of error on the older data, and the ease of actual number aggregation isn't usually accounted for either.
It's not all sunshine and roses but it's not that bad, not really. In fact, it's really damned good in many ways. They love pushing stats out like that but few people bother to ask where the data came from and what questions the data actually answered and why it was considered a complete answer. Crime, especially violent crime, has been trending down for decades. Poverty is trending downward. Access to everything from advanced health care to information has skyrocketed. Etc. etc. etc...
I wrote about it in detail in my other post. I am limited on posts so I'll respond to the other one if you want. I've hit the max threshold which is 50 posts/day - even if you max out your karma. (Which I have.) They claim they're going to get rid of that limitation but we'll see. They said that quite some time ago and I've been pretty patient. Then again, it really isn't all that pressing and they're likely rather busy. So, I'll be patient. To be honest, they don't have a very high bar to cross to be better than DICE. I guess I was hoping it'd be a bit speedier.
At any rate - I wanted to make sure that I'd covered it all in that post. I think I got the gist of it. I can go on, if you want. A lot of it is about choices and you're able to make choices, and regularly do, to access things you would have had a hard time accessing if you were a millionaire just 30 years ago.
I do recall liking one of his series but I don't, for the life of me, recollect which it was - nor do I have energy to look. I'm assuming that I have it somewhere still but I've no idea where - it may be on a shelf or it may still be packed in a box somewhere. I don't remember being impressed with it and I do remember being a bit surprised that it was turned into a series - the book I read didn't really feel like the start of a series.
I was reading another series at the time. My memory is terrible but the novel that I most recollect was Misnomers and Impervections. It was, indeed, about a Perv though it was not probably what most would assume a Perv was but actually a scaly lizard-like humanoid. Yeah, that was not a great era for fantasy but Pratchett was just around the corner. Some of the longer series were okay - like the One Gold Wielder (I think was the name - Donaldson maybe?) and a few others. Xanth was big but I'm not a preteen girl and Anthony had some almost good science-fiction before devolving to fantasy.
Thanks. I just wanted to make sure. Kinda, mostly, like Australia and the UK. That's what I'd understood but wasn't entirely sure. The verbiage is... odd to me. In my head they're the "majority power." Or, shall we say, close enough. Don't worry, I watch your politics and am probably as baffled as you are when you see US politics. Well, not quite that bad but you understand. I hope.
I did, technically, have the ability to regurgitate the generalities about the government but that was learned in a hurry and without much need to retain it. I've often mentioned this - I'm not smart. I seem like it but that's because I test well. I retain it long enough to test and then it gets dumped as new things fill my brain. It's actually not easy for me to retain some things unless I've had use for them and have kept at them - otherwise things flush out really quickly. However, I can read a book or two and appear to be fluent in a subject for a while afterwards, it varies per subject but I'd wager it's generally mostly gone within 6 months. I'd say my brain is broken but they tell me it isn't. Some things might stay a year if I keep using them - it wasn't too bad for schooling. However, actual comprehension is difficult for me - but recitation isn't. I can also write a mean essay on anything.
Ah well...
But that sums it up so thanks. That's how I think of it, at any rate. They're the ones who got the majority and they're kind of the bosses. I believe it's possible to oust them somehow but I do not know the name of the process - but I seem to recall they can be overruled and ousted if necessarily. I've no idea what that looks like. ;-) Like I said, I do not vote in Canadian politics. It is not my right by my view - it is my legal right but I do not take advantage of that right. It's probably best that I do not. I do pay a bit of attention, it's on NPR at times and sometimes I read some online and hear from relatives of happen to talk to someone who is into it, but mostly I just remember names.
I left my house in Maine in late September and have been gone since. The last I knew Harper was on the way out and some guy whose name begins with a T replaced him. He's a liberal but I've been told he's a liar and a hypocrite. That's what the left has been saying, mostly. At least they seem to be left judging by the things they're saying he's reversing or not reversing. I have no idea how right that is. ;-) Is that "good enough" in your view or should I know more? I was trying to figure out who the government was besides those guys, like maybe there was some board higher than they whom I'd forgotten - some group of people.
My house was a huge bargain and is huge. I'll show you some neat pictures when I get home in the spring, if you want. I spent a lot on it but I got a lot of house - and I've got gazillions of acres - at a steel and the house is largely made out of materials that came from the land. My house will still be here in 200 years. It's actually passive solar, I designed it myself. It's what's known as a box or envelope (sometimes double-envelope would be the preferred term) and is powered mostly by solar and wind.
You know, I started this and I am obligated to make sure I complete it well enough. This is going to be a novella. You have been warned. I'll bold a bit and you can skip to it or just read it all. It's probably a bit easier if you read it all. If not then, well... You did want to know why I said what I said. It is going to take a minute to explain that.
To make a short story long... More accurately, the house has a mains connection but that's the backup and not the primary. Under normal conditions it doesn't tick over and I push energy out into the grid - even in the winter. The house, while huge, was actually a bargain. I even have (legal) in-ground diesel tanks for a generator. The piping is black iron for some of it, some is technically copper, and the rest is PEX, the framing is post-and-beam. It's on the side of a small mountain about 24 miles outside of Rangeley, Maine. I've given some pretty close co-ordinates if you wanted to find it, it'd probably not be that hard to find if someone wanted to stalk me or something. Meh, I've communicated with you before. If you were going to hunt me down and kill me then you'd have done so already. But it's kind of nice and wasn't really all that expensive.
It may very well have been less expensive (house alone and a portion of the property or the property by acre) than you paid for your property and house. I paid about $200 an acre, all told. I've been buying chunks of old paper-mill property that's all either really hard to reach or was replanted back in 1978 or there abouts for the oldest replants and the newest sections are still being cut. The land pays for itself, now that it has been purchased. It even makes a profit. It's a long story, also written out in older posts, but I suppose I can type it again - if you really want. It'd probably be faster than me finding it in my old posts.
The point is, you discounted a lot of what I said and selected to consider only the choices you either made or, I guess you could say, had to make due to your particular desires outweighed with a need for immediate (or rapid) satisfaction. Me? I got damned lucky but much of what I have would have already been mine had I not sold - just on a smaller scale and it would have taken longer to achieve that. I have an obscene number of acres, really. Why not? It works for me and it pays for itself. On top of that, the public is welcome to use it. It's open to hunting, fishing, ATV use, etc. There are a few caveats and some of it is private but it's mostly open.
I'd already purchased some of the land before I sold my business. It's mildly embarrassing to give specific numbers but there's property at probably about 1/5 the floor space and (counting only 20 acres) was about 100k more expensive than my home (not counting electrical, utility installation, but counting everything that was needed to be habitable and comfortable) would have cost on the *outskirts* of San Fransisco proper. That's without a view but probably a rolling hill-side view, up above the street with the one-ways and everyone walking in front of you - that one, I'd have to look the name up and I'm lazy.
Anyhow, that's some caveats. There's another building on my property, since rehabbed, but was built in 1840. It's a traditional NE farm-house, colonial-plantation mix, with attached barn, summer-kitchen, and horse/carriage stable. I was going to have it torn down but it grew on me. It's a ridiculous money-pit but the guy who built it also built it off the same land, with rough-milled and
Good news, they don't appear impervious to being stepped on.