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| 2004/3/18 [Reference/BayArea] UID:12738 Activity:very high |
3/18 Why do union leaders become so aggressive whenever employers or
contractors (specifically in construction jobs) choose non-union
employees? Don't those dumbasses realize that there might be a
reason the employer/contractor wants the non-union employees
(the same way a hiring manager hires one applicant over another)?
\_ is your entitled rich family still mad about the New Deal?
\_ LOL are you really this naive? It is commonplace for union
thugs to beat and threaten serious injury to any non-union workers
or any group that threatens their stranglehold on business.
There have been recent political rallies where union thugs beat
counter protestors. It's not a coincidence that the two largest
constituencies of the Dem. party are unions and trial lawyers.
\_ i hate trial lawyers and unions. -liberal
\_ me too. -another liberal
\_ What about union lawyers? The mind boggles.
\_ I hate trial lawyers too. Why can't the police just shoot
whoever they think is guilty? A fair trail is such a
stupid and outmoded concept. What were the founding
fathers thinking?
\_ Yea, and the largest republican constituency are the KKK
\_ OMG WTF LOL!
\_ hah! and you think he's naive?
\_ That's all you have to say?
\_ no, not really
\_ sure it is. you've said nothing else.
\_ Yea, and the largest republican constituencies are the KKK
and oil company executives. No, you are not naive, just
silly.
silly.
\_ Ok, then who *are* the largest donors to each party?
\_ Ok, then who *are* the largest donors to each party?
\_ for the 2004 election, top 2 republican contributors
seem to be wal-mart and sbc. top 2 democratic
contributors are the unions and the trial lawyers.
ref http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topcontribs.asp
\_ Wal-Mart and SBC vs. trial lawyers and unions...hmmm
Talk about Evil vs. Evil. Wal-Mart and SBC have more
money though, so I guess I'll go with the underdog...
\_ there are $420 billion in union pension funds.
(from 2002 data) who's richer here?
\_ PENSION FUNDS. Don't be a dumbass. What do you
think PENSION money goes to?
\_ who do you think *controls* the pension
funds? how much power does controlling
$420 billion give you?
\_ did you posed the question and then answered it
yourself? funny.
\_ Not a lot. All that money is owed back to
the people that paid into the system. You
can't just be giving it to political
candidates.
\_ you are either disingenuous or stupid.
\_ I'm neither. You're incredibly
stupid if you think that the entire
sum total of all union pension funds
is available for Democratic party
spending, which is what you're
implying.
\_ did you pose the question and then answered it
yourself when nobody took the bait? funny.
\_ God donated his only son for them both. Amen.
\_ ask around how unionization fucked over the Student Learning
Center tutoring program by forcing out volunteer tutors.
\_ So if eventually the SLC whittled down to almost no employees,
and then shut down, would that be a better alternative? At
least a union job puts food on the table and a roof over one's
head. Not everyone is privileged in life like most students
at Cal.
\_ better that than to give it to corrupt union employees
who whine and bitch at the slightest need for
energy exertion. the SLC is for students, by students.
worthless unions have absolutely no place in there.
\_ Cal's greatest export is whiny bitchy graduates who
think they are better than everyone else in the world
because mommy and daddy told them so - withholding their
love until you believed it. Then you went out onto the
world hating everyone that didn't fit your mold of what
the world should be like. Unions? they are for ppl in
socialist countries - not the good ol' USA where it's
all about me, and just me. |
| 2004/3/18 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:12739 Activity:low |
3/17 http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/03/13_trifecta.html Bush *laughed* and made a *joke* out of 9/11! At fund raisers! \_ the same way the Passion reminds me of the Lord's sacrifice, the casket reminds me that we are still at war and it's not over. \_ I visit this site every once and a while for a laugh. If you search google one finds repeated posts that wish for the death of US soldiers and further terrorist attacks because we deserve it. They deify Castro, Che, Chavez, and de Silva. The site consists of the residual scum of the 1960's and counter-culture adolescents whose every third word is an expletive. Their notion of of a meaningful political message is F*CK BUSH. \_ let me guess, you are the anonymous motd freeper? \_ this is a high quality site which tells the truth about what is really going on. if you can't deal with the truth then you get what you deserve when BushCo and Ashcroft finish destroying the few rights you have left you punk. \_ ahahah. the clueless abound \_ Actually, that smells much more of troll than of clueless. \_ Do you actually believe this or are you being sarcastic again? Can you provide any evidence of any of this? \_ Yes I visit the board fairly often. Search on Google I'm not going to do it for you. That guy Will Pitt was going to appear on CNN in the months after 9/11 until the inflamatory anti-American rhetoric he was spewing was publicized. \_ you're not smart enough to understand the value the site brings to the net. you're also dodging the issue raised by the op about Bush making a big fucking fund raising joke about the 3000 deaths he caused. \_ Give me a url that backs up your claims. This was the first thing I read there: http://www.democraticunderground.com/auntie/04/129.html It is not profane and pretty anti-communist. \_ http://csua.org/u/6hd http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004262 \_ I'm not sure I get the point of this second link. \_ Fair enough. I thought you meant in the articles, not the discussion board. \_ Although I gotta say, the guy who wrote this webpage is freakin' nuts. Reading this I can almost feel him foaming at the mouth and slobbering all over the keyboard as he writes. \_ OMG! There are people with extreme opinions on the internet? Shut it down, man! Shut it down before someone gets hurt! \_ Sounded like a reasonable and fair criticism to me. Bush is "mean". \_ So you agree that we need more democraticunderground urls on the motd to keep the motd "fair and balanced"? |
| 2004/3/18 [Politics/Domestic/Crime] UID:12740 Activity:low |
3/18 Here's one we can probably all agree is bad. Labour government in UK
wants to bill wrongfully accused criminals for time spent in prison:
http://www.sundayherald.com/40592
\_ I think Terry Gilliam already thought of that one. In "Brazil"
the bill was for "Information Retrieval Charges." In the director's
cut he has to negotiate a loan to pay for his own torture. -brain
\_ It's worse than that-- it looks like they've actually sent the bills
out and expect payment, and they're defending themselves in some
sort of class action suit about the matter.
\_ Still better than making your family pay for the bullet that
executes you.
\_ Um, what the hell are you talking about?
\_ It's a china reference
\_ Sounds like a great idea if the person can countersue for false
imprisonment damages. Of course, that will wipe out every job
except lawyers and judges...
\_ If you read the article, they pay for false imprisonment, but it
is paid in installments. The "defered living expenses" are due
up front, and the gov't charges a whopping 23% interest.
\_ That 23% interest is on the advanced payment of the
settlement, not the deferred living expenses.
\_ Come now, they were arrested, weren't they? They must have been
guilty of something. Only serves them right to pay for it.
\_ And if it weren't for those damn Democratic trial lawyers,
the police could have metered out the justice they deserved.
\_ ITYM "meted"
I hate those Democratic trial lawyers. Why should criminals
have any rights anyway? Just let the police shoot them all.
\_ Convicted criminals have damaged society. They owe society a debt.
Making them pay for part of the debt in cash restitution isn't at
all shocking. There are plenty of cases all over the world both
modern and historic where someone gets jail time plus a fine. Big
deal. boo hoo.
\_ The only debt I can see that the criminal owes society is the
overhead for his trial and incarceration. The criminal owes
_the victim_. And yes, I think it's perfectly ok to make
the criminal pay for his execution and grave. Who else should
pay for it? -- ilyas
\_ No, they have a debt to society as a whole as well as the
victim because their trial, police, prisons, and the
general drag on society criminals cause through fear,
waste, and inefficiencies costs all of us every day. I
would think a good libertarian could see that.
\_ Yes... a good libertarian did. He called it 'overhead,'
I think. Although this 'drag' on society you speak of
is getting a little too abstract for me. You charge
people for specific things they did wrong. -- ilyas
\_ I know you're intentionally being inflammatory
and retarded but the people in jail in the original
article were later declared innocents by the courts.
the british mps are just trying to be as mean as possible
to potential IRA supporters, they weren't going to
get their votes anyway.
\_ I don't think I am being either. The poster below is
right, I am not really talking about this particular case.
I am addressing the common misconception that (actual)
criminals owe a 'debt to society.' I think that's
silly. -- ilyas
\_ I guess they would in crimes that aren't against some
particular person, like espionage, traffic violations,
tax evasion, gambling, prostitution, possession of
illegal firearms, etc.
\_ That's true. -- ilyas
\_ No, even crimes against individuals cost us all.
The simplest example: a criminal murders someone.
Suing the criminal for damages or even executing
them will not bring that person back and the rest
of us have lost out on the benefits of having that
person here. A children may have lost a parent,
fellow co-workers may have to work harder, some
brilliant invention may not be made, and their
last purchase is their own coffin from their
estate. Crime hurts society. Criminals owe all
of us for their crimes.
\_ Why don't you guys start your own thread if you want to talk
about this subject? The URL was about the *wrongfully
accused*.
\_ What are you, the thread police? -- ilyas
\_ Citizen, the computer is your friend. The computer
tells you what to do. Disobeying the computer is
evidence of communism and treason. Are you a
communist traitor?
\_ In Soviet Russia, topic changes YOU!
\_ OP was talking about the wrongfully accused. How'd you come up
with this response to that?
\_ OP was talking about the wrongfully accused. How'd you come up with
this response to that?
\_ GARRIAGE!
\_ What are you smoking? The wrongfully accused owes society
even more!
\_ Easily. It's the motd. I didn't like his topic so I'm
making my own. |
| 2004/3/18-19 [Uncategorized] UID:12741 Activity:nil |
3/18 What's wrong with http://ftp.gnustep.org? \_ actually it was my firewall. \_ no it wasnt. |
| 2004/3/18 [Politics/Domestic] UID:12742 Activity:nil |
3/18 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/international/asia/18TAIW.html Presential election of Republic of China (aka Taiwan) is this Saturday. The NY Times article highlight some of the "de-sinofication" movement which has torn the Island apart. On one hand, this election is extremely unprodictable, which I gathered as a good thing (oppose to Russia's election last week). On the other hand, with electroal commision being pressued to make all sort of procedural compromise due to president's political pressure, there is a slight chance that the result of election will be in question. What would happen if significant number of people start to questioning the result is anyone's guess. |
| 2004/3/18 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Physics] UID:12743 Activity:nil |
3/18 I love this. What do we do when we found out Pakistan was selling
nuclear technology to N.Korea, and other so-called "rogue nation?"
We forgave 480 million USD of debt. How ironic we actually invade
Iraq for the same reason. Moral of the story? This is not about
WMD, it's about being on the good side of USA.
\_ Well duh, we're the good guys. |
| 2004/3/18-19 [Consumer/Camera] UID:12744 Activity:moderate |
3/18 My camera can save a jpeg with normal, fine, or superfine
compression. Does anyone know numerically what this corresponds to?
For example, maybe superfine is 99%, fine is 95%, and normal is 80%
compression.
\_ It seems from your numbers that you're thinking backwards. JPEG
uses a lossy compression. Normal would be more compressed (poorer
quality), where super fine is probably uncompressed, and thus much
higher quality.
\_ not really sure, but i've noticed very few differences in quality
on my camera (canon S45) on those jpeg settings. i save everything
in RAW format anyway.
\_ On mine it's roughly norma;=150k, fine=350k, super=1M
\_ There is no standard for such numerical values. What does "99%"
mean? 99% of the size of the uncompressed image? (Commonly used
compression levels give ~10:1 reduction in size.) 99% of the signal
represented accurately in comparison to the uncompressed image?
\_ how about you take the same shot 3 times and just look at the
output file with a jpeg info viewer? |
| 2004/3/18-19 [Computer/SW/Unix] UID:12745 Activity:nil |
3/18 Dear Dedicated Grandma of 5-Year-Old Boy:
I saw what you did. And I applaud your determination to teach your
grandson right, I really do. Its so refreshing these days, in a
country where most parents work and leave their children to the care
of strangers, that in some families a grandparent steps in to pass on
their values. You are such a hero, Grandma. And Grandson will be all
the better for it.
You: elderly female, riding the L Taraval with your five-year-old
grandson, sitting up front in those seats that face inward. Me: male
in my late twenties, from a farm town in Southern California,
unaccustomed to the ways of "the big city," sitting in the middle
section of the train, in a seat that offered an open view of yours.
There was a woman next to me. The train was moving, the scenery was
dull. I looked over at your seats. And just in time.
Your grandson reached deep inside his nose with his index finger and
pulled out a huge, juicy nose fruit. He then began to contemplate
eating it. This intention we could all see in his eyes, and it was
confirmed as he slowly drew his adorned finger to his mouth. You,
grandma of the quick reflexes, SuperGrandma I'll call you, you stopped
him just in time! You grabbed his finger, removed the nose goblin,
and. . . . ate it yourself.
A nose nugget is a difficult thing to dispose of, to be sure --
especially a nugget of this size and obvious quality. So YOU ATE IT
YOURSELF. Priceless.
What was that boy thinking, not offering it to you first?
Congratulations, Grandma. Lesson taught! Never mind that the woman on
my right turned to me and said, Did you SEE that? Never mind that she
then moaned, Im going to vomit. Never mind that I stopped riding the
MUNI that very day, and decided to contribute to every kind of
polution you can name by driving to work instead. What is important,
Grandma, is that you taught that boy an important lesson in etiquette.
N'est-ce pas?
\_ Craig's list or your own experience?
\_ This is fantastic. Thanks for making me laugh out loud. -John
\_ you should consider a career in writing. this is good stuff.
\_ I'm glad someone is teaching the next generation a lesson in
sharing. That was heart warming. Thank *you* for sharing, too!
\_ I prefer the one with Grandma getting her canary off in Savage Love. |
| 2004/3/18-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:12746 Activity:nil |
3/18 In Perl, I'm using a hash of a hash like the following:
my $w=$CATEGORY{$c};
my %w=%$w;
But after turning on strict, it no longer works and reports
Can't use an undefined value as a HASH reference at bin/categorize.pl line 72.
What am I doing wrong? Thanks.
\_ What does $CATEGORY{$c} return? A hash? you probably want a
reference to it, not a copy. And that would help you sort out
the access on the next line.
\_ You probably mean "%w = %{$w}", but why not just use the pointer?
-scotsman
\_ I'd like to use %w like $w{$key}=$val. So can I actually
reference/deference in Perl? Problem with Perl is I don't
know when I'm copying by value or copying by reference...
\_ Well, the first line there is copying by reference. My
correction of the second line copies by value. The %{}
is a dereference as well as a "cast". -scotsman
\_ same problem even with cast, whats wrong?
\_ ok I just found out that when I set to use strict,
%CATEGORY becomes empty even though I made it
public by "use vars qw (%CATEGORY)". So now
I'm just scratching my head...
NEVERMIND I found it's a logic problem and _/
has NOTHING to do with use strict. I really
like "use strict"! I've caught a lot of bugs
with it. |
| 2004/3/18-19 [Finance/Investment] UID:12747 Activity:moderate |
3/18 I flipped open my WSJ today and there are two articles on the
front page, one saying that commodity prices are shooting
through the roof, the other saying that asian countries may
be slowly diverting their trade surplus investment from US
treasuries to their own economies. Does that mean inflation
is coming and interest rates will be rising?
\_ I dunno. If you do, you could be the next Soros. But I think
it is a pretty safe bet that interest rates will be rising
sooner or later.
\_ It's not enought just to know that inflation is coming.
You also need to know how to make money off that.
\_ If you think bond interest rates will rise, you could
short bonds. If you're wrong, you're screwed, of course.
If you think there will be inflation, buy some stable
commodity's futures on margin.
\_ Soros is a scumbag.
\_ Mmmm.. unsolicited insult. Go motd.
\_ unsolicited? since when are insults ever solicited?
you are a fucking idiot. you managed to solicit an
insult with your incredible stupidity.
\_ I will explain. You tossed a pointless statement
into a discussion with nothing to tie it in. Do
you like being ineffective? Or do you just like to
rant? Maybe Tourette's?
\_ fuck you! -motd
\_ Done. -yermom
\_ just because he tossed millions to http://moveon.org to create
negative ads about President Bush...
\_ no because he made billions destroying economies.
\_ what soros did to se asia economies was fantastic.
force those economies to become more transparent
and less corrupt. - se asian
\_ hahaha yes how ethical of him to grab a few
billion along the way. im sure he did it for the
children.
\_ nothing unethical about it. if it's un-
ethical, then all traders and the whole
free market system is unethical.
\_ someone is going to do it
\_ the biggest US treasury bond holders are Japan and China. If they
stop buying US assets, the US will run out of money. The only
way to seduce (for lack of better word) investment back in US
would be to raise the interest rate, but this would come at the
cost of the domestic economy, and everyone who has to pay off their
loan either in mortgage or credit card. It really comes down to
whether foreigners continue to "lend" to us. (Of course, this
excludes the political and military chips we have which no one
else in this world has).
\_ raising interest rates will have *zero* effect on current
mortgage holders or most CC holders who have locked in rates.
so you think japan is going to do what? invest in their own
zero rate bonds? go to the EU? China is going to do the same?
very nutty.... i love the motd. some of the most pompus are
the least informed but don't let that stop you.
the least informed but don't let that stop you.
\_ Most CC holders have locked in rates???
\_ yea but I have noticed that in the past, people have been
getting 30 or 15 year fixed but these few years, it
seems that everyone I asked has been getting 5-year
ARM so they may very well get hit if interest rate goes
up. As for Japan and China, they may use the money to
bail out their debt-laden banks, which is one way
to invest in their local economies.
\_ anyone who gets an ARM when fixed interest rates are
\_ the problem is if things turn bad, it's going
to hurt the whole economy.
below 6% is a fucking moron who gets what he deserves.
\_ do you understand that an ARM doesn't instantly go up?
a 5 year arm is rate locked for (guess what?) 5 years.
after that the rate is allowed to rise a small amount
every year until it hits a maximum amount which is not
allowed to be too far above current rates. people getting
5 year arms are either selling in the next 5-7 years, are
putting the money saved back into the loan which will
dramatically reduce the total cost over term or are
blazingly stupid. As for J/C, their banks should *not*
be saved. Especially in Japan, there is a direct link
between their multiple attempts to waste money trying to
save their inefficient and poorly run banks and their
current dismal economy which has been in the dumps for
more than 10 years.
\_ there are many ways to "save" the banks. even
if you do it the right way (like in the US S&L
bailout), it requires money, money potentially
diverted from US treasuries purchases. As for
5 year ARMS, many people are already a few years
into it, and the interest rate can go up by
like 2.5% at the 5 year juncture which is a 50%
jump if the rate is originally 5%. Many
people are stretching thin on mortages, buying
bigger houses than they should, thinking
that housing price will increase and they can
just sell and make a profit after 5 years.
We saw plenty of "blazingly stupid" behavior
during the internet bubble, so I am not
surprised at all.
\_ if they're a few years into an ARM, they can get
\_ ARMs were not very popular, but are getting
more popular. http://www.dqnews.com
a fixed-rate mortgage at probably the same rate
they're already paying, so they should refinance.
Do you have any documentation of the idea that
there's a huge glut of stupid ARM holders? -tom
\_ ARMs were not very popular, but are getting
more popular. http://www.dqnews.com |
| 2004/3/18 [Computer/Companies/Yahoo, Computer/SW/SpamAssassin] UID:29873 Activity:moderate |
3/18 How is it that I attach a 167k jpeg to send via yahoo, and once
it's attached, it's now 222k?
\_ because it encodes the file in a format that isn't as compact
\_ So when yahoo or hotmail says there is a 500k limit on the
size of an attachment, are they referring to the original, or
the encoded version?
\_ because it came in contact with one of the spam mails advertising
to grow your member. |
| 2004/3/18 [Uncategorized] UID:29874 Activity:nil |
3/18 [techie thing purged] |
| 3/15 |