|
2005/4/8 [Uncategorized] UID:37112 Activity:nil |
4/7 Dear homeowners in Canada, here is a guide for repairs: http://www.allaroundthehouse.com/lib.repr.htm And here's one for Americans: http://www.stargroup.com/ResidentialInspections.htm?costs.htm~mainFrame |
2005/4/8 [Health/Disease/General] UID:37113 Activity:kinda low |
4/8 bongs and vaporizers give you lung cancer http://my.marijuana.com/pipestudy.php3 \_ Next thing they will say is that oral sex does too.. \_ I better stock up on bran |
2005/4/8-9 [Reference/Law/Court, Computer/Rants] UID:37114 Activity:moderate |
4/7 Yay outsourcing! Indian call center employees use customer banking information to steal $350,000. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1070986,curpg-1.cms \_ I'm sure that would never happen in the U.S. -tom \_ Yeah, but the money would be easier to recover. \_ In the Bay Area there was recently a couple of people who worked for BofA who embezzled millions over the years. They're going to jail, but $5 million is still unaccounted for, and very little of the money was recovered. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/15/BAG73BPFIJ1.DTL http://tinyurl.com/69dq9 (sfgate.com) -tom \_ Any theft that goes 5 years undetected will be hard to recover. If they were busted after a month like the Indians I bet most of the money would be found. \_ Maybe if we'd outsourced to India they would have been caught faster. -tom \_ are you actually pro-outsourcing or just poking holes in her arguments? \_ I am neutral on outsourcing; I think blaming embezzlement on outsourcing is ridiculous. -tom \_ Not necessarily. Trusting sensitive data to a 3rd world country is a problematic concept \- apparetly it is also problematic to trust ucb. in itself. The above data point does not prove it either way, nor does your counterpoint, but your assertion is plainly just dumb. \_ There was a previous case where a local hospital outsourced their medical transcription to some company, who outsourced it to another company, who outsourced it to India, and then stopped paying their employees, who threatened the hospital with publicizing medical records unless she got paid. While that could still happen in the US, there's *way* less recourse when the person is in another country with a different set of laws. \- two words: "union carbide" \_ While that's a local downside of outsourcing, they got to run the plant cheaply and with lax safety procedures, and then ended up paying way less in damages than if they had killed Americans. \- well ok more than two words: how do you think some indians feel about foreigners being outside the law. anybody have relatives in canada? what do they think about congressmen saying "we cant trust crazy unsafe canadian pharmaceuticals". \_ *cough*BEXTRA*cough* |
2005/4/8 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:37115 Activity:high |
4/7 Dear John, please try to take this as something that may give you insights. You remind me of a hamster I used to keep in my cage. Everyday it happily runs on the hamster wheel. It is oblivious to the world outside of his cage, and it doesn't care because it is well fed and its surrounding all well taken care of. Perhaps you have never lived in poverty and have never seen a lot of crap poor and uneducated people deal with in the world, hence you develop certain [rigid] point of view. I know you're a well educated guy in a middle/upper-middle family and life seems pretty easy going and all. But if only you had experienced real econo/social related hardship in your lifetime, perhaps you'd feel differently. Perhaps you'd realize how unbalanced wealth, education, and power really are. You're like my hamster who doesn't see that human history is full of repeated power struggles and that once again, wealth and power are to this day continually concentrating in the hands of the few. Okay, perhaps you don't care. Why should you? You're well fed and happy and you're too busy running your hamster wheel. Now, go ahead, give me your best shot and flame me. -John Troll \_ Is this the same John who lived in that shithole known as CZ? That doesn't really strike me as the mark of someone who has everything handed to him. \_ It's a Dear John Letter. Buh-duh Chah! \_ With all the raving asshole libertarians on the motd, why the hell would you single out John, who appears to be pretty moderate on most issues, and to at least have a sense of humor about his raving? Are you new to the motd? A lot of people here clearly do not even believe in the existence of a social contract of any kind, and would be happy to see the poor die. As near as I can tell John is not one of those. \_ The raving asshole libertarians don't sign their names. -tom \_ Because attempts at well-reasoned responses are more threatening to the intellectually smug than raving asshole-ness. Welcome to the motd, son. \_ Sorry, I'd love to, but I have to catch a plane to Thailand. Feel free to drop me a mail if you'd like to have a nice debate. (And FYI, we weren't very well-off when I was growing up, and I do try to travel around a bit, including to less affluent places, so I guess I'm aware of what 'hand-to-mouth' means. I think I've made myself successful through effort (and a bit of luck, which I accept and appreciate.) Now please do lay out how believing in accountability and efficiency in how my money is spent and wanting people to try and work hard and excel in life when they can means I want to feed the poor to each other? -John \_ See, as opposed to raving-asshole, John is going to Thailand, to dance away the night on some full-moon-lit beach. He's just an asshole that raves..! <3, maxmcc |
2005/4/8-9 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37116 Activity:moderate |
4/8 http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/08/iraq.main/index.html Coming soon to a conservative blog / radio show near you! ... at least four videos in the man's camera show roadside bomb attacks on U.S. troops. All had been shot in a manner that suggested the cameraman had prior knowledge of the attacks and had scouted a shooting location in sight of the target. "The individual in question was carrying press credentials from CBS News. ... " a U.S. military statement said Friday. \_ Blogs are the new yellow journalism. \_ Journalists are not military intelligence. They never will be. You can't expect them to be your spies. \_ this is old news to those on conservative forums \_ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1379990/posts |
2005/4/8-9 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration, Politics/Domestic/President] UID:37117 Activity:nil |
4/8 Harvesting Illegals http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17649 |
2005/4/8-10 [Computer/SW/Database] UID:37118 Activity:moderate |
4/8 Anyone reccomend a good mysql programming tutorial that goes beyond the basic select statements ? I would like to be able to do a distinct on specific column and then do a count of all the rows that have the corresponding values. thanks --ramberg \_ select t.col, count(*) from tble t group by t.col; \_ thanks. --ramberg \_ MySQL by Paul DuBois (I have the 1st edition). \_ Is it the Paul duBois that once worked at Geoworks? \_ no, our pld is different. -tom \_ My main memory of pld is of him napping on keyboards \_ I don't know. I knew a Paul Canavese at Geoworks, but not Paul DuBois. \- It may be the same Paul DuBois who wrote the ORA csh/tcsh book. --psb \_ Are you the Partha Banerjee in the ORA csh/tcsh book? \_ You might want to check out O'Reilly's SQL in a Nutshell book. It's not MySQL specific, but it manages to cover SQL extensively, and documents how the dialects vary for MySQL, Postgres, Oracale, and several others. -dans \_ I checked out the Mysql book via orielly's safari. I did not see mentioned anything in the way of looping variables or being able to programmtically specify tables e.g. database a has a table column that gives you the table name. Is there a way to search through all of the tables in a db or is this something people normally program ? I am trying to figure what I can do on the mysql command line and what I need to go into perl dbi/dbd to do. \_ [nb Formatting fixed] So what you're talking about is table metadata. I know mysql has commands like describe table you can use to see the schema for a table, look through the mysql docs on mysql. They're really well written, thorough, and up to date. I suspect you can get at the table metadata via the DBI, but don't know how as I have not written anything where I needed to do so. I'm curious though, what kind of app are you writing where you don't know database schema at development time? Frequently querying table metadata in your program logic seems like an odd way of doing things to me (I may be wrong here, I'm certainly no database guru. -dans 8 Harvesting Illegals http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17649 |
2005/4/8-9 [Computer/SW/OS/Linux, Computer/HW] UID:37119 Activity:nil |
4/8 PLEASE HELP! I work in a very linux friendly environment. All of my servers are Unix/linux. But some of the execs (including the ceo) use outlook and get a lot of use out of their blackberries. Presently I am feeling pressure to get an MS Exchange Server! (blackberry edition). This pressure is very likely to increase. Is there no linux based solution that well integrates mail and calendaring (blackberry integration would be nice too, but if I just had a good mail/calender server, I think I could stem the rising tide. \_ Are you talking client or server ? If it is client: you could consider using kontact http://kontact.org \_ I'm guessing he's asking about the server. How about Novell Evolution? I don't know how far it has come, but I believe its goal is to replace Exchange Servers. \_ The 2/14/05 issue of InfoWorld has a review on linux mail server migration, where they review software that can serve Outlook clients. The stuff they reviewed are Gordano Messaging Server, Novell Suse Linux Openexchange, Scalix, and CommuniGate Pro. \_ We use Oracle Exchange Server. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it. -ausman |
2005/4/8-10 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia] UID:37120 Activity:very high |
4/8 First Bolemic Lady and now a woman in Georgia is being starved to death. In this woman's case however the woman's living will is being ignored. She's not in a persistenet vegitative state nor is she comatose. The granddaughter says "She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?" She's also prayed about it apparently and says "Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus." \_ She's prayed about it...who are we to doubt the will of Jesus? -tom \_ Yeah, how would you feel as an atheist if someone prayed for you and decided you were ready to die? -emarkp \_ If I was incapable of understanding what was going on, I don't think I'd feel much about it. Why do you think the grandmother is an atheist? -tom \_ I don't know if she's an atheist, but I'm fairly confident that you are. And the question was directed to you, not her. -emarkp \_ I'll ask again, since you obviously have infinite free time: what the FUCK is your point? Aside from the fact that stirring up mindless bile among your fellow social conservatives helps bring about your theocracy, why are you so concerned with other people's business? Maybe you should take heed of the fact that if Christian fundamentalists really do take over this country, mormons won't fare any better than us liberal athiests. \_ The irony here is palpable. I'm not for a democratic theocracy. I don't like the idea of people being starved to death when their wishes are unknown or known to be against dying. -emarkp \_ Don't argue with him, tom. Bolemic Lady's probably already a Mormon by now thanks to posthumous baptism. JPII too most likely too by now. \_ Well, if you're really not interested in turning this country into a far-right theocracy, you should re-think some things. Do you really not see what's going on here? The media circuses surrounding various moral issues is to soften up appointments in May. It is all part of a so that the far right can force their extremist have occured daily forever. Doesn't the timing of this explosion of politics seem just the tiniest bit odd to you? Think about it. Based on your other posts, I don't think you are an evil guy, but I'm afraid that you have decided to act as a tool of evil by spouting the party line of the far-right theocrats. \_ Don't argue with him, tom. Terri's probably already a Mormon by now thanks to posthumous baptism. JPII too most likely too by now. \_ Aaron!?! You're back! And you can't spell "bulimic". -emarkp \_ So you admit that your question was nothing but a red herring? OK, thanks. I already answered your question for me, and it added absolutely nothing to the discussion. I certainly don't see how someone whose brain and bodily systems are all in an advanced state of failure can think that Jesus wants her to live. -tom \_ Um, this subthread was about the Georgia woman, who doesn't have the problems you describe. -emarkp \_ yes, she does. -tom \_ Where does any story say that? -emarkp \_ Then it'd be like that six month old boy that a hospital put to death in Texas, despite the pleas from this mother! CULTURE OF LIFE!! \_ obTroll: Remind me again how many people Texas knocks off every year? Oh, that's different. -John The only online story I can find about it is here: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43688 Please don't dismiss it just because it's worldnetdaily. I'll happily eat my words if the facts turn out to be different, but I've heard a phone conversation with Ken Mullinax (the elderly woman's nephew). You can listen to it free here (windows media unfortunately): http://www.glennbeck.com/audio/free-audio.shtml (first link) -emarkp \_ Stop saying "starved to death". They are not being starved to death. Their disease process is killing them, not starvation. \_ What you meant to say was, most neurologists say a PVS patient doesn't suffer, since they have no perception of pain. \_ Wow, your ignorance is stunning. What "disease" did "they" have? -emarkp \_ OK I was referring to Terri, not your new person. \_ What "disease" did Terri have? -emarkp \_ OK I was referring to Bolemic Lady, not your new person. \_ What "disease" did Bolemic Lady have? -emarkp \_ Oh I don't know, maybe some shit called necrosis rotting away in her brain from old events due to her eating disorder. She was as close to dead as possible, so don't even try to say she was healthy. The only reason you and others think she was functioning was because her eyes were open in a creepy sort of way, fooling you into believing she was engaging you. Yeah, the lack of food tipped the scales finally, but that was hardly a major blow. Starvation was the least of her worries. \_ She only needed food and water to survive, just like you and me. Also, I've never seen proof of any eating disorder. It's commonly noted, but her family disputes that it was ever established. Can you point to proof of her eating disorder? -emarkp \_ OK, how can we prove anything then? This actually brings up a very good point, which is that NONE of her situation is for us to discuss. And by us I mean anyone that isn't her, her husband, her parents, and her medical team (which means no dumbass lawmakers and politicians of course). The issue of one's end of life is an extremely personal issue that is only relevant to the few select people I mentioned, for they are the ONLY ones that know the true situation in all its intimate and fine detail. This is not our business (and it never was), so let's stop discussing it. \_ The *real* question in the issue is why did her husband have the only vote when there was doubt about her wishes. *That's* what we need to discuss. If Terri had left we need to discuss. If Bolemic Lady had left written instructions, I'd have no beef. Though it may not have helped her, as it hasn't for the woman in Georgia. -emarkp \_ For CHRISSAKE! He didn't have the only fucking vote. There were multiple relations who testified to her wishes. Her parents had their day in court. The system did its job. Get the hell over it. \_ No, the court system determined that he had the only vote. I don't understand how the judge did that. -emarkp \_ Because he was 1) her husband, 2) her legal guardian, and 3) when challenged, the judge decided not to change the guardianship. And if you start screaming about his "infidelity" again, we've been through it. Bury this dead horse. \_ Do you have a point? \_ Now wouldn't have it been a lot better if protestors rallied to this person's cause instead of Terri's? \_ Terri's story had more time to build up, but I'd say yes, that person's cause instead of Bolemic Lady's? \_ Bolemic Lady's story had more time to build up, but I'd say yes, that person's cause instead of Anorexia's? \_ Anorexia's story had more time to build up, but I'd say yes, that this is more important than her case because (if the facts are right) they're killing someone against her express wishes. -emarkp \_ If this is indeed true, and someone wrongly claimed to have power of attourney, this is bad, and should come to legal trouble for the hospice and for the claimant to PoA. However, as the only sources so far are wnd and a few right leaning blogs, I'll continue to be skeptical. --scotsman \_ Did you listen to the audio? \_ no. but it appears to be an interview from someone who made plenty of hay out of schiavo. Get a journalist on the case and i'll lose some skepticism. check the validity of the will. check out the PoA claims. strip the hysterics and give me the facts. \_ Ah. So you're not willing to evaluate the case because Beck was in the don't-starve-Terri camp? Nice piece of Beck was in the don't-starve-Bolemic Lady camp? Nice piece of work. -emarkp \_ Uh, no, i'm not willing to evaluate the case because everything you've posted and everything on google news about it is from interested parties. Find me a couple disinterested observers as sources, and I'll consider it. For now it feels like an attempted echo chamber. \_ Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon... Manny Mota.... \_ People who lose credibility often find it tough to regain anyones trust. The whole Terri Schiavo crowd, by their pointless campaign to smear her husband by spreading a bunch of lies, has lost my trust and respect. \_ Now here is a non-WND link: link:csua.org/u/bm7 -emarkp \_ I don't doubt that even if this particular story is skewed, in the real world stuff like "Kid doesn't want to take care of granny anymore for [laziness|greed|revenge|stupidity] and sticks it to granny against her expressed wishes" is not new to the 21st century. \_ what is new is the idea that random nutjobs in Utah think they should have something to do with the decision. -tom \_ What does Utah have to do with this? -emarkp \_ Dum dum dum dum dum... \_ You mean you just discovered that people starve to death in America? This kind of stuff has been going on for a long time. \_ Hey 80 col Nazi! You keep deleting lines that are 79 or 80 chars. What's your problem? -emarkp \_ Yeah, doesn't he know that [79 columns|3 out of 4 neurologists who have done a neurological exam and say she's PVS for 12+ years] is acceptable to most people? [80 columns which causes automatic linebreaks|evil grandkid ignoring living will] crosses a line, though. \_ emarkp, do you realize all of the following: (1) In Feb 2000, the court determined "by clear and convincing evidence that Mrs. Schiavo would then elect to cease evidence that Mrs. Bolemic Lady would then elect to cease evidence that Mrs. Terri would then elect to cease life-prolonging procedures if she were competent to make her own decision". (2) Her parents appealed. (3) The Florida appeals court affirmed the decision in Jan 2001. (4) The Florida appeals court denied re-hearing in Feb 2001. (5) The Florida Supreme Court denied review of the case in Apr 2001. (6) Since then there have been multiple motions claiming new evidence, but all the courts have come back leaving the original decision intact. Sure, innocents are executed in capital crimes. Just as well, Terri Schiavo might be a case where the court is wrong. And, I can this might be a case where the court is wrong. And, I can see how it would make sense to create a law that said you can't kill someone in a PVS unless they have put it in writing. I can also see how it would make sense to have a law that says you can't kill a criminal unless there is no doubt (as opposed to beyond a reasonable doubt) that person committed a capital crime. Your focus should be on creating the former law, and you do a great disservice to your cause by not clearly stating this. In addition to saying "If Terri had left written instructions, I'd have no to saying "If Bolemic Lady had left written instructions, I'd have no beef", you should also say, "I support a law requiring such". Stop complaining about the effects of the rules -- petition to change the rules. the rules. -jctwu \_ You do know that this was a judicial review of Judge Greer's findings of fact, right? There was no 'de novo' review of the case. Oh, and sign your name. -emarkp \_ Because congress is not allowed to just create new jurisdictions. Separation of powers. The judge rightly smacked congress down for it. \_ This is not strictly correct. Art. 3 allows congress to enact legislation that provides jurisdiction for fed cts. The jurisdiction of fed cts is far more limited than what the framers allowed in Art. 3. Please note that the judges did not rule on whether the act of congress creating jurisdiction for Bolemic Lady's the act of congress creating jurisdiction for Terri's case to be heard in fed ct was constitutional. Rather he ruled on the temp restraining order that was sought to keep Bolemic Lady alive. In order to be granted a TRO the to keep Terri alive. In order to be granted a TRO the party seeking it must show that they will most likely previal at trial. The parents could not show this so the lost the motion. \_ What is "this"? Are you referring to (3)-(5), or the de novo review that federal courts were ordered by law to conduct? Before you answer, I urge you to consider carefully what I've already written. Why argue when we might already agree on some key points? -jctwu \_ "Ordered by law"... Heheh. The judge would have had a hard time deciding which grounds to toss that law out on. It's a veritable garden of unconstitutionality. \_ The standard for review of findings of facts by a ct of appeals is clear error. The only other way to make new findings of fact is to conduct a new trial. While it can be argued that congress authorized this, the text of the statute is not clear. The version I read simply says 'de novo', it does not state whether this is a new trial or merely review of the record. If it is review of the record, then the dist ct only had the power to review the record and reverse legal conclusions or findings of fact that were clearly erroneous; the dist ct would have to assume that the trial ct's findings of facts were largely true. Please also see above re the TRO. The parents did not meet the requirements to be granted a TRO (which has nothing to do w/ the standard of review). Terri's case was handled properly w/in the law, even if the judges didn't like the outcome, they were constrained to act as they did. If they were to do otherwise, all stability would be lost. If the results in this case are not to your liking, the proper course of action is to have statutes (fed or state) enacted to ensure a different result. --ranga \_ yeah, like in Texas where Bush enacted a statute that lets hospitals kill patients over the objections of their caregivers. -tom \_ I do not know the legislative history of the the Texas statute that you mention, however statutes are normally enacted by the legislature and signed into law by the Gov. Assuming that this statute became law in that fashion, the statute can be taken as an expression of the views of the majority of the citizen of Texas by their elected representatives. Perhaps the views of the citizen differ from those of the caregivers, but why should the views of the caregivers be given precedence over those of the general public? If the enactment of such a statute bothers you (1) don't live in Texas or (2) work to elect people who hold other views. \_ What kind of nonsense is this. So when the legislature of Indiana defined Pi to be 4, that was a good thing since it was the will of the people? \_ No, because the bible states it should be 3. Heretic! \_ The value of pi is a fact, community opinion doesn't define the value of pi, nature does. In contrast, the issue of how to handle end of life cases are largely based on societal conventions/opinion and are best handled by the legislative process. BTW, if pi were defined as 4, it just means that we have to change the rest of our number system, there is nothing holy about 3.14159... \_ If smart was defined as stupid, you would be smart. \_ Get your facts right. That never happened. http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm \_ I'd be willing to bet that if Terri hadn't been white and photogenic, we'd never have heard of her. |
2005/4/8-9 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Finance/Investment] UID:37121 Activity:nil |
4/8 Dear motd guy who pointed the census graph, I imported data to Excel and it's clear to me that the top 5% are gaining yearly income at a rate much faster rate than the poorest. The exaggerated data point is 1992 when the top 5% richest got 24.3% increase in income and the poorest got a measly 1.57%. I mean, we can stop arguing whether income gap is increasing or not because clearly it is. I mean, what is your stance on this now? Do we start arguing whether income gap is a good thing or not? FYI: http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/f03.html I think that our argument is becoming more and more similar to M$ lawsuits. First M$ lawyers argue that they don't have a monopoly, and when they failed to convince people otherwise they argue that monopoly is GOOD for the industry (by unifying standards, etc). \_ I thought the argument was about whose fault it was (Clinton's). \_ How so? The chart showed the gap growing steadily over the last twenty five years. Note that I am not discounting this line of reasoning, as the hollowness of the Clinton boom shows up in other sources. This source did not lead me to that conclusion, though. -- ulysses \_ Perhaps, but it's easier to say there's a growing disparity in wealth (like, no, really?) than to assign blame for it to Clinton. \_ Because one is true, and the other is trollish. \_ What this may be missing is that the top 5% richest people are not always the same people. People's income (and wealth, which is not the same) goes up and down over time. What if I said that the gap was increasing, but that 10 years from now the people in the bottom 5% would be in the top 5%? (Not true, but illustrating the point.) Would the gap matter so much? To me, what matters most is turnover. How hard is it to get into the top x% and how hard is it to stay there? Historically, wealthy people lose their wealth within 3 generations. There is pretty good wealth turnover in this country unlike in, say, Europe. \_ If you lose your wealth after only 3 generations, then it means that you're either not Jews or Asian. In another word, just another regular Joe white trash. \- Check out this book (Perfectly Legal): http://csua.org/u/bmb It is a bit tendentious, but much of the stuff is really disturbing and some of the statistics are so over the top [like in wealth distribution] it's not a matter of marginal interpretation. BTW, reading this during tax season can lead to depression. --psb \_ "Perfectly Legal, The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else". Partha, you already know this is happening, and so does everyone else. Why should I spend $16 on Amazon (who by the way donates 1/2 mil to Republicans) to read about something I already know is happening? \- then dont buy/read it. or get it from the lib. --psb \_ Is this an anti-Republican, pro-Democrat book in disguise? \_ Oddly enough, it's an old Chinese proverb that wealth doesn't last pass 3 generations. \_ Look jackass, I pointed out that graph to prove to you that your contention that the poor got poorer during the Clinton Administration was demonstratably false. I never said anything about the rich getting richer. That is your trip. I even agreed with you. Keep ranting on about it if it makes you feel better. |
2005/4/8 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:37122 Activity:low |
4/8 Evil AP: "The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving." Holy CNN: "In the poll taken Friday and Saturday, Bush's job-approval /Gallup rating is 48%, 3 percentage points higher than in mid-March. His standing on personal characteristics such as trustworthiness remains above 50%." \_ Regarding AP, only 1% is neutral or has no opinion? Hard to believe. \_ Evil AP: "Overall, do you approve, disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?" If "mixed feelings" or not sure: "If you had to choose, do you lean more toward approve or disapprove?" Holy CNN/Gallup: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?" \_ So AP forces people to make choices. \_ The idea is to get the guy a higher approval rate. Doesn't that make sense? Independent of this, it is natural to assume (without any evidence, usually) that the AP has liberal leaning staffers, and CNN has pro-administration leaning staffers. Following this reasoning, the true approval rating is between 44 and 48%. |
2005/4/8 [Finance/CC] UID:37123 Activity:nil |
4/8 Is there any downside to setting your fraud alert flag at the credit agency even if there's no report that you've been compromised? \_ You may get rejected for 'unusual' purchases, meaning locations and types of stores that don't fit your usual patterns. \_ I assume you mean for credit card purchases. Won't a call to the credit card issuer clear that up? More difficult to do overseas, but trivial domestically in this cell phone age. Seems like a small price for stronger security. \_ Yes it would clear it up, but you've now turned a 2-minute purchase into a half hour conference call. \_ I would think that "unusual" purchases are by definition "uncommon". \_ When I visited China 1.5 years ago I noticed that their credit cards have passwords, much like ATM cards have PIN's. Is it just because Americans are lazy and forgetful that we don't have that? \_ Considering how much I hear that crime is expanding in china; it makes sense. I hear from a friend of mine that the "entertainment" industry is doing especially well. \_ We have passwords on our credit cards too. It's called yermom's maiden name. \_ Nobody ever asks for that when I make purchases. \_ Some gas pumps ask for ZIP code, althought that's not very useful since crooks can just try the ZIP code of wherever they steal the cards. \_ you will have to go through more loopholes for things like loan applications, lines of credit, new credit cards, auto financing and the like. Basically, any application for new or more credit. \_ But isn't it *good* if credit applications require stronger proof? Besides, can't you just remove the flag before you know you're going to apply for something, and then just reset the flag afterwards? Setting the flag is free, after all. \_ in other words, you're not disagreeing with me. \_ Since the original post asked for "any downside", I assumed you would consider "more loopholes[sic]" to be a downside. In that sense, I am not sure I agree, as my post indicated. |
2005/4/8-10 [Recreation/Food/Alcohol, Recreation/Food] UID:37124 Activity:moderate |
4/8 Which is best? Suppenkuche, Walzwerk, or Schnitzelhaus? \-Der Wienerschnitzel on San Pablo. \_ Are all three in SF? Speisekammer in Alameda is also decent. Only been to Suppenkuche and Speisekammer, both were quite good (but Suppenkuche was superior, I though) \_ Enlighten us mere mortals: WTF are you talking about ? \_ German restaurants. \_ Huh, it seems Spieskammer is owned by a half-owner of Suppenkuche. \_ I've never been to a German restaurant, what is it like? The closest I've ever gotten is Top-Dog where I eat semi-Germananic frank. Yes, it's pathetic. What exactly do you get at German restaurants besides frank and lager? Do you get to see hot robust German blond waitresses with thick Bulvarian accent? \_ Der Wienerschnitzel, for one. Also potato pancakes and hearty dark German lagers that are nothing like American lagers. \- you can get your meat stuffed with meat at Suppenkuche \_ Is that homosexual code? \- du bist eine hasa \_ Ach, mein Leben! -John \_ Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, lasst mich auch endlich Taten sehn! \_ there are regional variants, i.e. fish from the coastal areas and wimpy bland sausage from the alps, but classics found in the u.s. include roulade (meat or cabbage rolls w/ meaty stuffing), hot potato salad, and sauerbraten (roast beef marinated for many days in wine vinegar). of course many sausages, cabbage variants, soups, and chunks of fatty roated meat. all go well w/ beer. |
11/22 |