1) Companies are getting more and more wary of saying anything bad about any former employee--including the really big transgressions like theft or lying on one's resume. The reason for that is their fear of getting sued--by you, the aggrieved ex-employee. Many will just be willing to give the dates of employment and job description. So I don't know how real a concern this is.
2) This sort of disaster happens to many people eventually. If you sense the writing on the wall, begin to feel creepy/hinky, or even sense a subtle change in the atmosphere, here is one thing you can do: Cultivate someone in the organization who knows you, admires your work, and would be willing to give you a good personal recommendation. It could be another manager, a team leader, somebody in a different department. It's a good idea to do this anyway, but if things look like they're going south, it'll give you a good reference you can count on. Be certain to get in touch with that person just before you're ready to fill in your new application. Use them as your ace in the hole.
Bad jobs happen to good people all the time, but a preliminary step or two can really help with damage control.
Of course your post is very insightful. But there's a very good reason to involve Spock: It's fun. Where I am it's Friday. You might want to consider opening one of your favorite beverages and just observing the Friday-ness of it all.
I haven't bought a CD in four years, and I'm older than God. If I'm not buying them, I can't imagine who is. Actually the last one that came into the house was a DVD from my son, given as a birthday gift in November '05, and I wanted every single track that was on it plus the extras. It was a special exception. The only CD's I can envision buying now would be classical or rare, old jazz--but with the arrival on the scene of new turntables, the vinyl may yet emerge from the cellar.
My first question, anyway, is this: What is the difference between secondhand CD's and secondhand books? Should we be looking forward to having our reading controlled in the same way they want to control our music selections? Is it time to spend a paycheck at Thriftbooks just in case?
My second question is more technical: What does one need to know to intelligently purchase an "analog" tunes system these days? (I assume that would be turntable and some associated accoutrements. In the dark ages it would've involved pre-amps, amplifiers, speakers, etc.) If you have one, are there suggestions or references for ripping tracks off that treasured old vinyl to be played on something more portable like an ipod?
Taking the long view, this is just a symptom of how desperate the music mafia has become. It's another nail in their coffin. I'm not surprised that Utah is one of the states. You can apparently gull their legislature into enacting just about anything by playing on their paranoia.
You're probably not going to have to bother providing them with your SSN and credit card because it'll unpack and install a rootkit that checks around for all that great personal stuff and sends it back to the mothership. That should save you a lot of trouble.
I dunno. Kids generally get out of school a bit earlier than adults get out of work. Why not set up the appointment for 3:30 or 4 pm if they feel they need an appointment.
A wise person told me years ago that anything that said, "Best when viewed in [insert browser here] at [insert screen resolution here] was a very visible sign of laziness, incompetence, arrogance, and lack of interest in the ultimate "customer," the end-user. That advice was given when the browsers of the moment were IE and Netscape. It was good advice then, and with a modification or two, it's good advice now. So I'd have to say they are some combination of (a) lazy; (b) incompetent; (c) arrogant; and (d) not interested in their visitors. I always view such shenanigans as a sort of badge of shame, and it occasionally causes me to mistrust the content of such sites.
I think you'll find that the RIAA has that covered:
1) If you live in an apartment building or townhouse, or if your house is sitting on less than a half-acre of land; or if you share your domicile with roomates who are not part of your immediate family;
OR
2) If you are showering in a locker room, dormitory, or other public washroom facility;
THEN your bathroom is deemed to be public and you are subject to prosecution. If your house is situated on more than a half-acre and is shared by members of your immediate family (defined as your spouse, parents, siblings, or children under the age of 21), your bathroom is deemed to be private. HOWEVER, you are advised to make provisions by not singing in the event you are entertaining houseguests.
I understand they're working on sensing devices for shower heads. You should check with your local Home Depot to arrange to purchase your retrofit kit. New shower heads will be sold with the device already installed.
I think he may have been on the whacky-weed. The drill was always the same--everybody out, last one out the door hits the big red button for the Halon. It was just by the door and was protected under a plastic shield so you couldn't just bump into it by accident. Of course those were data centers constructed as the Earth was still cooling and before the dinosaurs became extinct. We were also entrusted with (or encumbered by) massive tape reels--one per drone--and expected to keep them safe until everybody could assemble and regroup. Just grand carrying one of those down five flights of steps from a computer room that was unaccountably located on the top floor of a building.
Please, please, please tell me you understand the difference between a liberal arts college and an art college. Hint: It's not an institution of higher learning where non-conservatives go to learn to paint and sculpt--digitally or otherwise.
Well, I'm older than God, but I have to say that when I was eight years old (here in the U.S.) my typical school day was also five hours long (not including lunch and 15 minute recess intervals--one in the morning and one in the afternoon). I attended a public grammar school. Our day in Grade Three included reading, arithmetic and English, social studies or geography (which nobody studies any more), general science (not differentiated until Grade 9), spelling, and penmanship. (Yep, penmanship...) We spent a half-hour daily at some sort of organized athletic effort. We had special teachers for art and music, each coming in once a week. I recall that social studies/geography was omitted on those days. We also had the opportunity to stay after for small group music lessons if we showed interest or aptitude. We visited the library once each week and were encouraged to check out works of fiction or whatever pleased us. A foreign language was introduced beginning in Grade 7. Algebra began for most of us in Grade 8. Specific science courses (biology first, then chemistry, then physics) began in Grade 9, which was the beginning of secondary school.
I don't recall being terribly burdened by any of this. Homework at that young age consisted of memorizing vocabulary for the weekly spelling test and multiplication tables and such for the weekly arithmetic test, both of which occurred on Fridays. I practiced my music each day under the watchful eye of my mom. Aside from that I had plenty of time to tear around the neighborhood with my friends, play games, or play with dolls (being a girl), and there was also time to read books or to do absolutely nothing. I'm appreciative of my education. There were defects (specifically the math, which fluctuated between "new math" and "traditional math" in ways confusing to a child). But I feel I generally got a pretty good education.
Ouch! I'm trying to think of a group of 30 eight-year-olds being fed a steady diet of arithmetic (which is what they are learning at that age) and reading for approximately five hours each day. How long do you suppose an eight year old can sit still? I'm certain the No Child Left Behind freaks would be ecstatic, but you really can't expect this of a child that age.
They need to learn their math and then begin applying it in settings that expose them to the realities of their world. Science studies are one way to do that for them. They need to learn to read and then begin to apply it to reading that will expose them to the realities of their world. Social studies is one way to do that. So are geography, literature, history, government, and yes, science. Most third-graders read quite well, having already mastered the basic mechanics. They're working on their vocabularies, on language arts (how to communicate verbally and in writing), and on practice of what they've already learned. The secret to this is an appropriate diversity of subjects that let them absorb the vocabulary and mechanics along with the subject matter.
Incidentally, they also need to spend some time every day exercising their bodies--in the U.S. we're already producing more than our fair share of obese little pre-diabetics.
Most teachers don't do an effective job of teaching math because most of them weren't effectively taught it when they were in school. The math curriculum in the U.S. has been an unholy mess for nearly fifty years now--that's two full generations. The alarm bells actually first sounded when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. The lucky few who actually *get* math in spite of the mess, and can do it, go on to jobs that pay much better and involve much less bullshit than what the teachers have to put up with.
It's important to point out that not everybody who has HPV is going to get cancer. I suspect these people want their male children to abstain from sex also but probably don't regard it as quite as important. Of course the spectre of rape has already been raised here. I don't even want to speculate on what these folks think about rape.
My noodle is already twisted by the idea that we seem to have a simple, effective prevention for a terrible cancer and that people who purport to love their daughters don't want to protect them from it as a sort of depraved scare tactic. As for rubella, I dunno. The vaccine was not available during my childhood, and so I've seen children born with those birth defects. They didn't live long, most of them, and it was pretty grim all the way around. As long as the vaccine is safe, I'll probably remain in favor of it. You could almost (but not quite) make the same point about the pertussis vaccine. Whooping cough is unpleasant but survivable by most healthy children. Infants are at grave risk from it. A whole bunch of us parents (myself included) got the shock of our lives about fifteen years ago when our healthy, supposedly-protected adolescent children contracted whooping cough. Seems there had been a weak batch given out when they were infants. We had a similar scare with a dog when her rabies vaccine was recalled. Nothing's going to protect everyone all the time.
I can't help imagining the scenario if this shot protected against melanoma, say, or lung cancer. All this fuss is over the location of the cancer.
I'm encouraged by the tone of this discussion. There seem to be a lot of people here who will see that their daughters are vaccinated if/when they have daughters. It hasn't been that long ago that the PAP test itself wasn't covered by most insurance plans because cervical cancer was limited to only one sex. Yes, that was the reason commonly given. Public outcry and the obvious benefits of the test caused insurance companies to re-think that one.
The problem here is that the religious right is being its usual shrill self and is drowning out any potentially legitimate reasons there might be for parents not to get the immunization for their daughters. One such reason might be a desire to wait and be certain the vaccine is actually safe and effective. We've seen a lot of drugs taken off the market recently because of unforeseen dangers and side effects. (Anti-arthritic drugs come to mind.) However there are enough lunatics around who equate the HPV vaccine with enabling their teenage daughters to have sex without fear. I can imagine that conversation: Don't have sex, you can get cancer from it. It's to be hoped that these idiots don't drown out the voices of reason. It's interesting that they either (a) haven't succeeded in convincing their daughters of their message, or (b) want to control the morals of other peoples' daughters.
At this point, mandatory immunizations for school seem to cover what used to be thought of as infectious "childhood diseases" such as measles, mumps, diphtheria, polio, and all the others. Those caused massive epidemics in the past. The difference here is that cervical cancer won't run through the schools like wildfire endangering everyone who breathes the common air.
On balance, I suppose I'd rather see the vaccine made mandatory than to see it become a privilege of those who can afford it.
Harley was bought out in the early Seventies by AMF, the sporting goods company. It was AMF that decided they could bring certain efficiencies and cost-cutting measures to bear on the manufacture of the motorcycles. Unfortunately one of those was that the walls of the fuel tanks were flimsy and given to blowing out or exploding. Given the location of the fuel tank on the bike (the rider sits on it), the result was some horrific accidents. Those that weren't fatal left the rider hideously maimed. The bikes were flimsy in any number of other ways; it's just that the gas tank thing was so memorable. AMF changed the name of the company for a few short years to AMF Harley. It didn't take long for "AMF" to acquire its new meaning--"adios, motherfucker..." I believe (but am not sure) that Harley Davidson was bought out by its then-employees after sales fell through the floor. If that's not accurate, then whoever bought it dedicated considerable effort to bringing the bikes up to their former high quality.
It's somewhat interesting that the same era saw the exploding Ford Pinto gas tanks. The story making the rounds was that Ford knew about the problem but deemed the fix too expensive until people started being immolated by the dozens. The other spectacularly shoddy vehicle of the era was the infamous Chevy Vega with its warping aluminum engine block.
Shoddy workmanship isn't new, but the modern tradition of shoddy workmanship seems to have had its genesis in the early Seventies.
Did they make even the slightest effort to figure out that there are people with common medical problems who are adversely affected by fluourescents? I can just visualize (by the light of my CF bulb) an underground market like the one for medical marijuana.
The developmental tasks of a five year old are tough enough. They need to develop the attention span, visual discrimination, and other pre-reading skills necessary to begin reading. They need to work on the fine muscle control that will assist them with writing. They need to continue figuring out how to get along with the other kids. They need to be able to sit still for longer periods of time. They need to work out the kind of abstract reasoning that will help them when they start doing arithmetic. At home, they're hard at work with a variety of difficult jobs such as telling time, doing up their buttons correctly, and tying their shoes. Physically, they're developing enough balance and coordination to ride bicycles, skate or rollerblade, and play organized sports. Fortunately, most five year olds are up to these tasks, and it's a genuine pleasure to watch them enjoying their many accomplishments. But that's a pretty full plate. Don't rush them. Work with them on these truly important skills, and they'll be ready for the technology when it comes along. Children need to build platforms for themselves so that they can make progress, and it's not good to add more to their work than what they already have. It's the job of the educator to assist them.
And not enough emphasis on the biodiversity aspects.
We're really shooting ourselves in our collective foot by the "efficiencies" being implemented in modern farming. Where before there might have been numerous different and diverse varieties of a plant--potatoes, say, or tomatoes, beans, peas, or apples--now farmers concentrate on just a few that are high-yielding or easy to control or that are otherwise "efficient." The same holds true of animals used for food. Many formerly robust breeds of pigs or chickens or beef cattle are now verging on extinction because it's cheaper to focus on raising one or two breeds.
What happens if a blight or pest shows up that devastates our few varieties of corn or wheat? Suppose the more popular breed of swine or chicken develops some sort of genetic anomaly or other disease? I believe (but am not sure) that there's already been a scare regarding corn. It could happen with any other food plant.
Interested hobbyist gardeners have been forming "seed savers" groups for years to perpetuate what they call "heirloom" vegetables. (They do it for ornamental plants, too.) More recently, small-scale farmers and hobbyists have begun doing the same thing with "heritage" livestock animals such as turkeys, chickens, and swine.
There's an interest in these products among food lovers (fancy restaurants, famous chefs, or what-have you). Heirloom tomatoes and heritage pork are deemed to be a lot tastier than the everyday supermarket varieties, and I suspect that may be true. But more attention needs to be paid to preserving all these breeds and varieties so that our food plants and animals retain the robustness that comes from diversity.
It's sad to watch the ruin and downfall of a perfectly good company. The one I worked for back in 2000 tore itself apart due to (how can I put it politely)...a mutual circle of self-gratification on the part of its senior management. They were totally blinded to the industry trends at that time by their own egos, and they reacted to the external threats and forces in a way I can only characterize as sick. Their loud self-praises utterly drowned out the realities of what was going on, and it was scary to watch. Even the annual planning meeting, attended by a cast of thousands, degenerated in fall of 2000 into a venue for them to strut onstage to ear-splitting music to the wild applause of their captive audience of hired help. Folks were a bit put off by that speech session, and the response was to forbid us from leaving the hotel on pain of being fired. That ensured that we'd be captive for the evening sessions.
By spring of 2001 these same VP's were screaming at us during massive company-wide phone conferences; the gist was that we, the people, were responsible for the alarming nosedive the company was taking. The layoffs began shortly thereafter, and by August I had taken my rather-nice severance and moved on, having decided to work for myself. (I still do.) By December of that year it was mostly all over, though the company limps on today in a pitifully truncated form.
I remember thinking a lot in those days about Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but the proverb I remember considering most was, "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
Of course you are right, but my thoughts are in a different place at the moment. As you might infer from my username, I use a lot of beads. The glassmakers of Venice have been making beads since the time of Ancient Rome, and their guild was one of the most powerful during the Middle Ages. There were times when you could get onto the island of Murano, but you couldn't get off again--if you knew the beadmakers' trade secrets.
Now, virtually all beads of any kind are manufactured in China. In the case of Venetian glass, the fakery is especially sorry-looking. In places where gold and silver might have been applied, we now have gold-colored and silver-colored foil, or even paper. The Chinese don't have kilns to anneal their glass. They just hold it near the furnaces for a few minutes and hope that will do. The result is articles that look good and are oh, so cheap. The long-term result is that not only will those cheap goods break and fall apart, but the artisans who made the real stuff will have gone out of business or starved. It's actually not only Venetian glass; it affects tradespeople in places as far-flung as the Czech Republic, Austria, even Africa, India, and parts of Southeast Asia. I refer to that as the "walmartization" of the items, and sure enough, we now have several "big box marts" of beads here in the U.S., dumping the cheap stuff on us and controlling the prices.
The Venetian glassmakers should probably have done in the visiting Chinese...
I don't see how this has much bearing on what's happening now. The guilds in Europe were a powerful force for centuries, from the dawn of the Middle Ages on. They covered just about every facet of life from fine arts (painters) to crafts and trades (weavers, plumbers, carpenters, silversmiths) to the food chain (butchers, fishmongers). They served any number of useful purposes including protecting their members (basically the middle class) from the abuses of the nobility and the church; setting up standards and best practices; and developing formalized methods for training (the system of apprentice/journeyman/master craftsman). As someone here has pointed out, that system survives today in the training and certification of certain trades such as plumbers and electricians.
One good way to appreciate the power and function of the guilds is to read about the long history of the city of London; it has evolved to the present day on the basis of the actions of the guilds and their interactions with other parts of society.
The article is shallow and superficial. When I read it, part of my mind sided with the French buttonmakers. They saw their tradecraft being walmartized, and they protested.
Well, it is and it isn't. The cost of filing as a limited liability corporation (LLC) isn't all that bad. Our lawyer (who has handled wills and other family matters) will do it for somewhere between $300 and $500. He actually dissuaded me from setting this up a couple of years ago because, as he points out, there aren't any real advantages for a small retail business. The true cost at this point lies in the price of the EV certificate, which is a real shocker. Verisign, for example wants $1299 for a one-year period. That's a lot of money, and there's really no way to establish how much credence online buyers are going to put into this new validation. It's also a "special introductory offer" with the regular price being $1499.
What's irritating to me is that I've been a sole proprietorship for almost six years now. I can furnish bank and credit references and tax records to that effect. Seems as though there ought to be a way to verify through those records.
I already ante up extra $$$ for a cert from a well recognized authority. But $1299?
Slashdot Mirror
1) Companies are getting more and more wary of saying anything bad about any former employee--including the really big transgressions like theft or lying on one's resume. The reason for that is their fear of getting sued--by you, the aggrieved ex-employee. Many will just be willing to give the dates of employment and job description. So I don't know how real a concern this is.
2) This sort of disaster happens to many people eventually. If you sense the writing on the wall, begin to feel creepy/hinky, or even sense a subtle change in the atmosphere, here is one thing you can do: Cultivate someone in the organization who knows you, admires your work, and would be willing to give you a good personal recommendation. It could be another manager, a team leader, somebody in a different department. It's a good idea to do this anyway, but if things look like they're going south, it'll give you a good reference you can count on. Be certain to get in touch with that person just before you're ready to fill in your new application. Use them as your ace in the hole.
Bad jobs happen to good people all the time, but a preliminary step or two can really help with damage control.
Of course your post is very insightful. But there's a very good reason to involve Spock: It's fun. Where I am it's Friday. You might want to consider opening one of your favorite beverages and just observing the Friday-ness of it all.
I haven't bought a CD in four years, and I'm older than God. If I'm not buying them, I can't imagine who is. Actually the last one that came into the house was a DVD from my son, given as a birthday gift in November '05, and I wanted every single track that was on it plus the extras. It was a special exception. The only CD's I can envision buying now would be classical or rare, old jazz--but with the arrival on the scene of new turntables, the vinyl may yet emerge from the cellar.
My first question, anyway, is this: What is the difference between secondhand CD's and secondhand books? Should we be looking forward to having our reading controlled in the same way they want to control our music selections? Is it time to spend a paycheck at Thriftbooks just in case?
My second question is more technical: What does one need to know to intelligently purchase an "analog" tunes system these days? (I assume that would be turntable and some associated accoutrements. In the dark ages it would've involved pre-amps, amplifiers, speakers, etc.) If you have one, are there suggestions or references for ripping tracks off that treasured old vinyl to be played on something more portable like an ipod?
Taking the long view, this is just a symptom of how desperate the music mafia has become. It's another nail in their coffin. I'm not surprised that Utah is one of the states. You can apparently gull their legislature into enacting just about anything by playing on their paranoia.
I don't think you're offtopic at all--so now whoever it was can mod me down as well.
You're probably not going to have to bother providing them with your SSN and credit card because it'll unpack and install a rootkit that checks around for all that great personal stuff and sends it back to the mothership. That should save you a lot of trouble.
Oh. And it's going to be battery operated . . .
Just kindly send me your mother's maiden name.
Everybody knows Superman's arch-nemesis is Lex Luthor--not Lex Luther.
Yahoo picked up the mistake from Reuters, people on Slashdot are typing it wrong, and now even the BBC has screwed it up.
What kind of poor excuse for an arch-nemesis would spell his name "Lex Luther?" Sounds like some kind of religious observance.
I dunno. Kids generally get out of school a bit earlier than adults get out of work. Why not set up the appointment for 3:30 or 4 pm if they feel they need an appointment.
A wise person told me years ago that anything that said, "Best when viewed in [insert browser here] at [insert screen resolution here] was a very visible sign of laziness, incompetence, arrogance, and lack of interest in the ultimate "customer," the end-user. That advice was given when the browsers of the moment were IE and Netscape. It was good advice then, and with a modification or two, it's good advice now. So I'd have to say they are some combination of (a) lazy; (b) incompetent; (c) arrogant; and (d) not interested in their visitors. I always view such shenanigans as a sort of badge of shame, and it occasionally causes me to mistrust the content of such sites.
What's the fifth main area? Dog poisoning technology.
I think you'll find that the RIAA has that covered:
1) If you live in an apartment building or townhouse, or if your house is sitting on less than a half-acre of land; or if you share your domicile with roomates who are not part of your immediate family;
OR
2) If you are showering in a locker room, dormitory, or other public washroom facility;
THEN your bathroom is deemed to be public and you are subject to prosecution. If your house is situated on more than a half-acre and is shared by members of your immediate family (defined as your spouse, parents, siblings, or children under the age of 21), your bathroom is deemed to be private. HOWEVER, you are advised to make provisions by not singing in the event you are entertaining houseguests.
I understand they're working on sensing devices for shower heads. You should check with your local Home Depot to arrange to purchase your retrofit kit. New shower heads will be sold with the device already installed.
I think he may have been on the whacky-weed. The drill was always the same--everybody out, last one out the door hits the big red button for the Halon. It was just by the door and was protected under a plastic shield so you couldn't just bump into it by accident. Of course those were data centers constructed as the Earth was still cooling and before the dinosaurs became extinct. We were also entrusted with (or encumbered by) massive tape reels--one per drone--and expected to keep them safe until everybody could assemble and regroup. Just grand carrying one of those down five flights of steps from a computer room that was unaccountably located on the top floor of a building.
Please, please, please tell me you understand the difference between a liberal arts college and an art college. Hint: It's not an institution of higher learning where non-conservatives go to learn to paint and sculpt--digitally or otherwise.
AAUGH!
Well, I'm older than God, but I have to say that when I was eight years old (here in the U.S.) my typical school day was also five hours long (not including lunch and 15 minute recess intervals--one in the morning and one in the afternoon). I attended a public grammar school. Our day in Grade Three included reading, arithmetic and English, social studies or geography (which nobody studies any more), general science (not differentiated until Grade 9), spelling, and penmanship. (Yep, penmanship...) We spent a half-hour daily at some sort of organized athletic effort. We had special teachers for art and music, each coming in once a week. I recall that social studies/geography was omitted on those days. We also had the opportunity to stay after for small group music lessons if we showed interest or aptitude. We visited the library once each week and were encouraged to check out works of fiction or whatever pleased us. A foreign language was introduced beginning in Grade 7. Algebra began for most of us in Grade 8. Specific science courses (biology first, then chemistry, then physics) began in Grade 9, which was the beginning of secondary school.
I don't recall being terribly burdened by any of this. Homework at that young age consisted of memorizing vocabulary for the weekly spelling test and multiplication tables and such for the weekly arithmetic test, both of which occurred on Fridays. I practiced my music each day under the watchful eye of my mom. Aside from that I had plenty of time to tear around the neighborhood with my friends, play games, or play with dolls (being a girl), and there was also time to read books or to do absolutely nothing. I'm appreciative of my education. There were defects (specifically the math, which fluctuated between "new math" and "traditional math" in ways confusing to a child). But I feel I generally got a pretty good education.
Ouch! I'm trying to think of a group of 30 eight-year-olds being fed a steady diet of arithmetic (which is what they are learning at that age) and reading for approximately five hours each day. How long do you suppose an eight year old can sit still? I'm certain the No Child Left Behind freaks would be ecstatic, but you really can't expect this of a child that age.
They need to learn their math and then begin applying it in settings that expose them to the realities of their world. Science studies are one way to do that for them. They need to learn to read and then begin to apply it to reading that will expose them to the realities of their world. Social studies is one way to do that. So are geography, literature, history, government, and yes, science. Most third-graders read quite well, having already mastered the basic mechanics. They're working on their vocabularies, on language arts (how to communicate verbally and in writing), and on practice of what they've already learned. The secret to this is an appropriate diversity of subjects that let them absorb the vocabulary and mechanics along with the subject matter.
Incidentally, they also need to spend some time every day exercising their bodies--in the U.S. we're already producing more than our fair share of obese little pre-diabetics.
Most teachers don't do an effective job of teaching math because most of them weren't effectively taught it when they were in school. The math curriculum in the U.S. has been an unholy mess for nearly fifty years now--that's two full generations. The alarm bells actually first sounded when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. The lucky few who actually *get* math in spite of the mess, and can do it, go on to jobs that pay much better and involve much less bullshit than what the teachers have to put up with.
It's important to point out that not everybody who has HPV is going to get cancer. I suspect these people want their male children to abstain from sex also but probably don't regard it as quite as important. Of course the spectre of rape has already been raised here. I don't even want to speculate on what these folks think about rape.
My noodle is already twisted by the idea that we seem to have a simple, effective prevention for a terrible cancer and that people who purport to love their daughters don't want to protect them from it as a sort of depraved scare tactic. As for rubella, I dunno. The vaccine was not available during my childhood, and so I've seen children born with those birth defects. They didn't live long, most of them, and it was pretty grim all the way around. As long as the vaccine is safe, I'll probably remain in favor of it. You could almost (but not quite) make the same point about the pertussis vaccine. Whooping cough is unpleasant but survivable by most healthy children. Infants are at grave risk from it. A whole bunch of us parents (myself included) got the shock of our lives about fifteen years ago when our healthy, supposedly-protected adolescent children contracted whooping cough. Seems there had been a weak batch given out when they were infants. We had a similar scare with a dog when her rabies vaccine was recalled. Nothing's going to protect everyone all the time.
I can't help imagining the scenario if this shot protected against melanoma, say, or lung cancer. All this fuss is over the location of the cancer.
I'm encouraged by the tone of this discussion. There seem to be a lot of people here who will see that their daughters are vaccinated if/when they have daughters. It hasn't been that long ago that the PAP test itself wasn't covered by most insurance plans because cervical cancer was limited to only one sex. Yes, that was the reason commonly given. Public outcry and the obvious benefits of the test caused insurance companies to re-think that one.
The problem here is that the religious right is being its usual shrill self and is drowning out any potentially legitimate reasons there might be for parents not to get the immunization for their daughters. One such reason might be a desire to wait and be certain the vaccine is actually safe and effective. We've seen a lot of drugs taken off the market recently because of unforeseen dangers and side effects. (Anti-arthritic drugs come to mind.) However there are enough lunatics around who equate the HPV vaccine with enabling their teenage daughters to have sex without fear. I can imagine that conversation: Don't have sex, you can get cancer from it. It's to be hoped that these idiots don't drown out the voices of reason. It's interesting that they either (a) haven't succeeded in convincing their daughters of their message, or (b) want to control the morals of other peoples' daughters.
At this point, mandatory immunizations for school seem to cover what used to be thought of as infectious "childhood diseases" such as measles, mumps, diphtheria, polio, and all the others. Those caused massive epidemics in the past. The difference here is that cervical cancer won't run through the schools like wildfire endangering everyone who breathes the common air.
On balance, I suppose I'd rather see the vaccine made mandatory than to see it become a privilege of those who can afford it.
Harley was bought out in the early Seventies by AMF, the sporting goods company. It was AMF that decided they could bring certain efficiencies and cost-cutting measures to bear on the manufacture of the motorcycles. Unfortunately one of those was that the walls of the fuel tanks were flimsy and given to blowing out or exploding. Given the location of the fuel tank on the bike (the rider sits on it), the result was some horrific accidents. Those that weren't fatal left the rider hideously maimed. The bikes were flimsy in any number of other ways; it's just that the gas tank thing was so memorable. AMF changed the name of the company for a few short years to AMF Harley. It didn't take long for "AMF" to acquire its new meaning--"adios, motherfucker..." I believe (but am not sure) that Harley Davidson was bought out by its then-employees after sales fell through the floor. If that's not accurate, then whoever bought it dedicated considerable effort to bringing the bikes up to their former high quality.
It's somewhat interesting that the same era saw the exploding Ford Pinto gas tanks. The story making the rounds was that Ford knew about the problem but deemed the fix too expensive until people started being immolated by the dozens. The other spectacularly shoddy vehicle of the era was the infamous Chevy Vega with its warping aluminum engine block.
Shoddy workmanship isn't new, but the modern tradition of shoddy workmanship seems to have had its genesis in the early Seventies.
Did they make even the slightest effort to figure out that there are people with common medical problems who are adversely affected by fluourescents? I can just visualize (by the light of my CF bulb) an underground market like the one for medical marijuana.
The developmental tasks of a five year old are tough enough. They need to develop the attention span, visual discrimination, and other pre-reading skills necessary to begin reading. They need to work on the fine muscle control that will assist them with writing. They need to continue figuring out how to get along with the other kids. They need to be able to sit still for longer periods of time. They need to work out the kind of abstract reasoning that will help them when they start doing arithmetic. At home, they're hard at work with a variety of difficult jobs such as telling time, doing up their buttons correctly, and tying their shoes. Physically, they're developing enough balance and coordination to ride bicycles, skate or rollerblade, and play organized sports. Fortunately, most five year olds are up to these tasks, and it's a genuine pleasure to watch them enjoying their many accomplishments. But that's a pretty full plate. Don't rush them. Work with them on these truly important skills, and they'll be ready for the technology when it comes along. Children need to build platforms for themselves so that they can make progress, and it's not good to add more to their work than what they already have. It's the job of the educator to assist them.
And not enough emphasis on the biodiversity aspects.
We're really shooting ourselves in our collective foot by the "efficiencies" being implemented in modern farming. Where before there might have been numerous different and diverse varieties of a plant--potatoes, say, or tomatoes, beans, peas, or apples--now farmers concentrate on just a few that are high-yielding or easy to control or that are otherwise "efficient." The same holds true of animals used for food. Many formerly robust breeds of pigs or chickens or beef cattle are now verging on extinction because it's cheaper to focus on raising one or two breeds.
What happens if a blight or pest shows up that devastates our few varieties of corn or wheat? Suppose the more popular breed of swine or chicken develops some sort of genetic anomaly or other disease? I believe (but am not sure) that there's already been a scare regarding corn. It could happen with any other food plant.
Interested hobbyist gardeners have been forming "seed savers" groups for years to perpetuate what they call "heirloom" vegetables. (They do it for ornamental plants, too.) More recently, small-scale farmers and hobbyists have begun doing the same thing with "heritage" livestock animals such as turkeys, chickens, and swine.
There's an interest in these products among food lovers (fancy restaurants, famous chefs, or what-have you). Heirloom tomatoes and heritage pork are deemed to be a lot tastier than the everyday supermarket varieties, and I suspect that may be true. But more attention needs to be paid to preserving all these breeds and varieties so that our food plants and animals retain the robustness that comes from diversity.
Nope, sorry. This organization was quite a bit smaller than Lucent. I guess our management were Lucent wannabes.
It's sad to watch the ruin and downfall of a perfectly good company. The one I worked for back in 2000 tore itself apart due to (how can I put it politely)...a mutual circle of self-gratification on the part of its senior management. They were totally blinded to the industry trends at that time by their own egos, and they reacted to the external threats and forces in a way I can only characterize as sick. Their loud self-praises utterly drowned out the realities of what was going on, and it was scary to watch. Even the annual planning meeting, attended by a cast of thousands, degenerated in fall of 2000 into a venue for them to strut onstage to ear-splitting music to the wild applause of their captive audience of hired help. Folks were a bit put off by that speech session, and the response was to forbid us from leaving the hotel on pain of being fired. That ensured that we'd be captive for the evening sessions.
By spring of 2001 these same VP's were screaming at us during massive company-wide phone conferences; the gist was that we, the people, were responsible for the alarming nosedive the company was taking. The layoffs began shortly thereafter, and by August I had taken my rather-nice severance and moved on, having decided to work for myself. (I still do.) By December of that year it was mostly all over, though the company limps on today in a pitifully truncated form.
I remember thinking a lot in those days about Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but the proverb I remember considering most was, "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
Of course you are right, but my thoughts are in a different place at the moment. As you might infer from my username, I use a lot of beads. The glassmakers of Venice have been making beads since the time of Ancient Rome, and their guild was one of the most powerful during the Middle Ages. There were times when you could get onto the island of Murano, but you couldn't get off again--if you knew the beadmakers' trade secrets.
Now, virtually all beads of any kind are manufactured in China. In the case of Venetian glass, the fakery is especially sorry-looking. In places where gold and silver might have been applied, we now have gold-colored and silver-colored foil, or even paper. The Chinese don't have kilns to anneal their glass. They just hold it near the furnaces for a few minutes and hope that will do. The result is articles that look good and are oh, so cheap. The long-term result is that not only will those cheap goods break and fall apart, but the artisans who made the real stuff will have gone out of business or starved. It's actually not only Venetian glass; it affects tradespeople in places as far-flung as the Czech Republic, Austria, even Africa, India, and parts of Southeast Asia. I refer to that as the "walmartization" of the items, and sure enough, we now have several "big box marts" of beads here in the U.S., dumping the cheap stuff on us and controlling the prices.
The Venetian glassmakers should probably have done in the visiting Chinese...
I don't see how this has much bearing on what's happening now. The guilds in Europe were a powerful force for centuries, from the dawn of the Middle Ages on. They covered just about every facet of life from fine arts (painters) to crafts and trades (weavers, plumbers, carpenters, silversmiths) to the food chain (butchers, fishmongers). They served any number of useful purposes including protecting their members (basically the middle class) from the abuses of the nobility and the church; setting up standards and best practices; and developing formalized methods for training (the system of apprentice/journeyman/master craftsman). As someone here has pointed out, that system survives today in the training and certification of certain trades such as plumbers and electricians.
One good way to appreciate the power and function of the guilds is to read about the long history of the city of London; it has evolved to the present day on the basis of the actions of the guilds and their interactions with other parts of society.
The article is shallow and superficial. When I read it, part of my mind sided with the French buttonmakers. They saw their tradecraft being walmartized, and they protested.
Well, it is and it isn't. The cost of filing as a limited liability corporation (LLC) isn't all that bad. Our lawyer (who has handled wills and other family matters) will do it for somewhere between $300 and $500. He actually dissuaded me from setting this up a couple of years ago because, as he points out, there aren't any real advantages for a small retail business. The true cost at this point lies in the price of the EV certificate, which is a real shocker. Verisign, for example wants $1299 for a one-year period. That's a lot of money, and there's really no way to establish how much credence online buyers are going to put into this new validation. It's also a "special introductory offer" with the regular price being $1499.
What's irritating to me is that I've been a sole proprietorship for almost six years now. I can furnish bank and credit references and tax records to that effect. Seems as though there ought to be a way to verify through those records.
I already ante up extra $$$ for a cert from a well recognized authority. But $1299?