patrick.net

jazz music says

Rick Steves has a nice series of DVDs making it easier to plan one's tourism. I got the France-Benelux disc and started planning. If you've ever experienced moving to a far corner you've never been before, even within USA, it's an odd adaptation

I don't know, still looks like if it's tuesday it must be Belgium. If I visit a country I pick a place and plant myself there. I didn't vacation in France I lived there. I have residency still. I'm going to be doing residency leading to citizenship in Italy starting in 2016 becoming my retirement.

jazz music says

Apologies if the remark is seen as simple "trolling," but it's a thought that should be aired more often.

You really think engineers in general are that arrogant? Do you watch a lot of TV or something?

jazz music says

The benefit in mentioning personal hazards of accolades we get from industry is awareness that praise tends to pull us into accepting lies and myths of meritocracy, the nobility and righteousness of the powerful, the diminished, even laughable importance of your fellows. You are motivated to want to obey, conform, produce, compete, so that you may aspire to consume conspicuously imitating your masters as seen on TV. (who have it all)

You are confusing R&D with Sales&Marketing.

jazz music says

I agree with you that corporations will soon have their own armed forces. They have before and they will again have them.

They already do:

https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency.html

http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/the-9-largest-private-armies-in-the-world-what-are-they-fighting-for-179460/?singlepage=1

Most of the lands of the world that are considered "civilized" are indeed less violent than they've ever been as the book Science of Fear demonstrates. That's not necessarily the case in countries that are in perpetual destabilization mode however.

On the side note, the abortion dividend is kicking in. The babies that have been aborted in U.S. in the last 40 years didn't grow up in disfunctional environment which is associated with pathway to criminality and we are seeing the trees of peace cement their roots.

bob2356 says

That is neither the definition nor the intent of a priori.

He didn't know the meaning of the term "straw man" either, if you remember. I wouldn't waste excess time on trying to correct him -- he just won't get it:

http://realestate.patrick.net/?p=1238673&c=1060205#comment-1060205

bob2356 says

A priori is a concept of relating to what can be known through an understanding of how certain things work rather than by observation.

Doesn't that describe a board game under pre-set rules? What can possibly happen in a board game is a priori knowledge. There is no meteor strike in the board game unless there is a rule allowing meteor strike. There is no invention in the game that is not known to the game designer. Real life has no designer.

BTW, its not entirely a typo either. The word "apriori" is frequently used in data base and knowledge base computing, as in "apriori algorithm." That's how a priori knowledge is incorporated into computer algorithms.

bob2356 says

I'm not talking about your post I'm talking about the sentence "every single possible development/outcome is prescribed apriori in the rule book." The only word that could possibly used substituted (at least that would make reasonable sense) is beforehand. That is neither the definition nor the intent of a priori.

"Beforehand" not in the temporal sense, but in the sense of "how things work as preset." The rule book does not exhaustively describe all possible outcomes among N player in a multi-branching tree map, but it sets the rules and these rules encompass all that can happen in the game; there is no surprise beyond the rules. The rule book fully describes all the game works, and provides the logic basis for what can happen in the game. "A priori" is the precise description of the game circumstances, and how it differs from the real world.

jazz music says

Harsh reality is if engineers were so smart their pay compression would have been overcome over the last 50+ years. Doctors organized very successfully and now they make double what engineers make; MINIMUM. Immigration policy protects doctors. Doctors have lobbies. Engineers work real hard, get praise and laid off. Can you blame management for condescending when engineers allow themselves to be led around like children?

Doctors have a recession proof job. Engineers dont.

jazz music says

Harsh reality is if engineers were so smart their pay compression would have been overcome over the last 50+ years. Doctors organized very successfully and now they make double what engineers make; MINIMUM. Immigration policy protects doctors. Doctors have lobbies. Engineers work real hard, get praise and laid off. Can you blame management for condescending when engineers allow themselves to be led around like children?

Engineers need better lobbyists. Other professions lobby or otherwise move the goalposts themselves to make it harder for newcomers.

Originally, if you wanted to be Certified Financial Planner, all you had to do was say so (this is back in the 80s). Over the years, they added the test, and then they started adding more and more requirements so fewer people could join the club. Now you have to take a "capstone" class and you have to have 2 full years of work experience, even if you would have qualified under the old regulations automatically (e.g. if you were a lawyer, you could become a CFP basically just by taking the test, which many people who know a lot about finance could probably pass without studying).

Similarly, the California Association of Realtors did the same thing. Previously if you were a lawyer, you automatically qualified to be a broker. Now, you have to have work experience as a realtor in order to become a broker, even if you could have the other requirements waived.

These sorts of changes entrench existing members and make it harder for noobs. The engineers haven't done a good job of this, but the AMA is awesome at it, and so are certain other organizations.

Call it Crazy says

"as a result of a supplier quality issue,"

That's what happens when GM insists on lowest bid and demands the lowest bidder cuts costs repeatedly. It's how they have operated for years while blaming their inferior cars on high pension costs. Idiots. Fucking business school grads.

jazz music says

You think there are a lot of engineers on TV?

Actually I have no idea, I cut the cord a few years ago. Too much money for too many commercials.

jazz music says

Evidently engineers don't realize that others see them as out of step with normal people.

What's normal then?

Jesus freaks?
Gun nuts?
Hippies?
WASP country club types?
Cat people?
Realtors?
jazz music says

Once you get "above" the troops it really is sales, marketing, customer relations especially. Everything hinges on a successful pitch, technology is rarely the key.

Look at Adobe many key technologies they sell were acquired free from NASA.

Perhaps but did Adobe add any value to the products? Are they more user friendly? More reliable? Greater compatibility among platforms?

He didn't have to go on CNN. He's doing fine on FOX.

Fuck you Army! The Navy will have the Marines kick your asses.

jazz music says:"Dumb-down of population has progressed very far."

George Carlin:
" They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests."

"Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that!"

"You know what they want? They want obedient workers."

I will always vote for Republicans & Democrats.

He will get his boots, Iranian boots.
Unfortunately Iran is best positioned to handle the Iraqi situation at this time.
Time to reshuffle political allies in the middle east.

bgamall4 says

Bill Kristol wants boots on the ground in disintegrating Iraq, a nation he helped to disintegrate through regime change neocon doctrine.

HEY YOU says

Fuck you Army! The Navy will have the Marines kick your asses.

The Air Force has most of the big toys:

Call it Crazy says

Hmmm, even permits for multi-family housing drop 19.5%., so even the demand for rentals is slowing down big time....

Living in mom's basement must be all the rage....

All those nice moms are slowing down the housing recovery. She should kick out that 30 year old loser.

It's all water under the dam.

prodigy says

Time to reshuffle political allies in the middle east.

Never happen as long as the US is a lapdog to the house of saud. The saudis (our allies, with friends like these you don't need enemies) are financing and equipping the insurgency fighting against the US sponsored government in Iraq in the first place. If the US were to approach the shia iranians the sunni suadi's would have a fit. No matter what happens in the middle east the US will be the loser and totally powerless to influence the course of events.

Invading and destabilizing Iraq is going to go down as the worst US foreign policy blunder since stumbling into vietnam with zero understanding of the issues and no plan of any kind. I wrote an oped for USA today in 2003 just before we went into Iraq stating that invading Iraq would result in it splitting Iraq into 3 parts and create chaos in the entire middle east. The only surprise to me is it took 13 years to happen.

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Tuesday, June 17, 2014 __ Level is 105.5

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes! This was in the New York Times on August 27, 2006:

And up to date (by me) is here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

And "ThePublic Be Suckered"
http://patrick.net/?p=1230886

We are in as long as oil is our main source of power.
Change that equation and you will change our involvement in the middle east.

bgamall4,
I think a better site for you would be stormfront.

bgamall4 says

Interesting point. Technically, we are Israel's lapdog because the biggest money is Rothschild money, and Israel is the Rothschild project.

I haven't seen a US president holding hands with a Rothschild like they do with saudi princes.

You need to gain a better understanding of middle east politics before attempting to converse on the subject.
The Saudis are not our friends.
The Saudis are not our enemies.
The Saudis are our Frienimes.
Try to stay current, please.

bob2356 says

prodigy says

Time to reshuffle political allies in the middle east.

Never happen as long as the US is a lapdog to the house of saud. The saudis (our allies, with friends like these you don't need enemies)

Nominated for most asinine comment of the month.
All sides over there are in a constant state of "fit".

bob2356 says

If the US were to approach the shia iranians the sunni suadi's would have a fit.

Jesus christ...anyone who possesses smart bombs and cruise missiles are ALWAYS able to influence the course of events.
Get with the program, please.

bob2356 says

No matter what happens in the middle east the US will be the loser and totally powerless to influence the course of events.

Typical short-sited liberal logic. It's all about you, and today, isn't it??

Invading and destabilizing Iraq will be seen 100 years from now as the greatest single act executed by a sitting president.
This act will ignite the great muslim war, which needs to be fought between the radicals and moderates, before terrorism is finally muted to the point of irrelevance.

Better to fight this war now before either side obtains nuclear weapons. If this happens, it's too late for everyone. We cannot stop the nukes from arriving in our ports via ship containers. We are toast.

Fantasizing about the terrorists rolling over and playing dead, which is a core belief etched in the liberal agenda, is a fools errand.

bob2356 says

Invading and destabilizing Iraq is going to go down as the worst US foreign policy blunder since stumbling into vietnam with zero understanding of the issues and no plan of any kind

Read the previous post. Then you will understand you are projecting...

bob2356 says

zero understanding of the issues and no plan of any kind.

Too bad it did not happen sooner. The longer it takes to execute the great muslim war, the more risk to the rest of the world regarding nukes in radical muslim terrorist hands.

bob2356 says

I wrote an oped for USA today in 2003 just before we went into Iraq stating that invading Iraq would result in it splitting Iraq into 3 parts and create chaos in the entire middle east. The only surprise to me is it took 13 years to happen.

spydah_hh says

In fact society is saying "HERE TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY AND GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING
PRODUCT BECAUSE I WANT IT OR NEED IT AS IT BETTERS MY LIFESTYLE."

They say that until they have no money. Which is rapidly approaching.

Don't worry there is always the home equity loan

So inflation requires rising prices and rising wages. Since only prices are rising, there is no inflation.
Print more money!

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

accounting principles are considered too radical to talk about.

Were you in a coma or out of the country?

Accounting principles turned out to be a scam conspiracy by accounting departments and opportunist polticians to game tenure and federal research grants.

60 Minutes and Fox News (Megyn Kelly) both ran exposés, based on damning e-mails and interviews of backlit silhouettes.

SoftShell says

Jesus christ...anyone who possesses smart bombs and cruise missiles are ALWAYS able to influence the course of events.

Get with the program, please

Yes it certainly has been proven in Iraq and Afganhastan. Last I heard people were flocking to move to those peaceful prosperous democracy loving nations.

All that has been proven is it's more likely to have a bad infuence on course of events than a good one. .

SoftShell says

Invading and destabilizing Iraq will be seen 100 years from now as the greatest single act executed by a sitting president.

This act will ignite the great muslim war, which needs to be fought between the radicals and moderates, before terrorism is finally muted to the point of irrelevance.

Dude you really, really have to kick the meth and get off the crack pipe. Serious business, that shit is really bad for you. Once you are more or less clean and sober you need to crawl out of mom's basement and catch up on the news for the last 10 years.

Ok quick summary news flash so you can keep up with the adults. The saudi financed and equipped sunni islamic fundamentalists are winning all over the middle east. The are and will continue to overthrow the corrupt shia strongmen leaders (who are frequently the minority to start with) who were installed by the US and Russia. Of course to grasp this concept would mean you need to learn the difference between the two sects and why it matters. That is on your shoulders.

Now here is where it gets tricky for you to conceptionalize. Try hard, but take breaks if your brain gets to tired. Invading Iraq created more fundamentalist islamic fighters than any other action the US could have possibly taken. In other words the good old USA of is by far the best recruiter of terrorists there is.

SoftShell says

Invading and destabilizing Iraq will be seen 100 years from now as the greatest single act executed by a sitting president.

This act will ignite the great muslim war, which needs to be fought between the radicals and moderates, before terrorism is finally muted to the point of irrelevance.

Mostly ignoring the other crap you wrote where you are not really making coherent arguments and liberally use the word "liberal" (use of the word "liberal" or "conservative" in an argument usually means that's a weak argument because you can't make the argument stand on its own merits).

How do you account for the fact that other majority-Muslim countries have had their own "great muslim wars" started without western invasion? As an example, Egypt is already having its own war on this, and certain other Arab Spring countries also had movements started without foreign invasion. Leaders in countries like Bahrain are already seeing levels of protest against their governments.

Also, why would we consider the invasion of Iraq to be the precipitating event? These sectarian issues have existed since the British divided portions of the Middle East into Mandates. The decolonization of the Middle East in a way that didn't account for lessons learned in European history seems to be the most obvious triggering event.

A single invasion of a single country to depose a corrupt dictator looks like a footnote compared to that, not "the single greatest act executed by a sitting president." And the way it could become more than a footnote is that if the US invasion of Iraq pisses off so many people in Iraq and the Middle East in general that they engage in more acts of terror against us. That result is probably not what you were referring to when you called it "the single greatest act."

We're certainly not calling what the Soviets did in Afghanistan genius, and many people are saying we did the exact same stupid thing that they did.

Earlier, Maliki's government accused Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power, of backing ISIL - something Riyadh denies.

"We hold them responsible for supporting these groups financially and morally and for its outcome - which includes crimes that may qualify as genocide: the spilling of Iraqi blood, the destruction of Iraqi state institutions and historic and religious sites," a government statement said.

Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for supporting militants in the past, but the language was unprecedented. On Monday, Riyadh blamed sectarianism in Baghdad for fuelling the violence.

Maliki, who has been buoyed by a call by Iraq’s senior Shi’ite cleric for citizens to rally to the armed forces, dismissed four generals for abandoning the big northern city of Mosul a week ago and said they would face court martial.

One man's debt has become another man's asset

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Wednesday, June 18, 2014 __ Level is 106.1

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes! This was in the New York Times on August 27, 2006:

And up to date (by me) is here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

And "ThePublic Be Suckered"
http://patrick.net/?p=1230886

We have to get involved. Racist Republican Warmongers can't miss an opportunity to kill Brown People.

This comment has to stand alone.

Fuck the Democrats!

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

How many guys would Hillary gave to suck off on ESPN2 in order to convince America

All of them.

Boy would that piss Nancy off.