That was quite good.

But man, that 4th issue is a doozy. Learning that "hard work pays off" is difficult when it just really doesn't, at least not anymore. Massive income inequality, zero class mobility, and on and on. We feel like relatively easily replaceable cogs in a relatively pointless machine because WE ARE.

We hear lots of stories about people that manage to buy in, feel like they are doing something important and making a real impact, enjoy some period of good job satisfaction...

...and then all too often, they end up looking like saps when the company that they work for gets bought out by some massive faceless corporation that doesn't value their years of loyal service at all, at which point they get replaced by A) a robot, B) an outsourced sweatshop laborer in a 3rd world country that can be payed a fraction of the local rate, C) a younger and more compliant hire that will inevitably have a massive turnover rate, but who cares because there are plenty more where that came from, or D) the cokehead nephew of the new CEO that needs a job to keep him out of trouble, and hey, might as well keep things in the family, right?

Maybe I'm just a bitter, late Gen-X'er.

Her kneejerk reaction masks a cunning plan. That car is going to get ANTS!

Seriously though, with the amount of HFCS in those drinks, cleaning that fucker would be an absolute nightmare. Really hope she didn't get in to trouble over that (because we all know big faceless corps love their low level employees throwing products at cuntstomers).

Slightly off-topic, but that's a pretty optimistic approach. Most of us wouldn't spend 10 euro to save the life of a faceless unknown person on another continent.

Some of us would do it, but only if we got personally thanked by that person.

It's not evil, it's just human nature that we care more about people to whom we have a closer connection.

As much as I'd love to pile more hate on some faceless / heartless corporate entity that doesn't care about anything other than profits, I find it somewhat unreasonable to be TOO hard on Takata here.

Just by sheer Philosophy 101 arithmetic of lives saved vs lives taken, airbags in general are massively beneficial. Take a worst case hypothetical scenario -- I know that my car has Takata airbags, AND I live in a very humid environment, AND my car is pretty old, AND the waiting list on the recall means that I can't replace the airbags for another 2+ years. Even in that scenario, I think I'd *still* opt to keep the thing in and active until it could be replaced. It would be nice to have further information on the 10 fatalities (roughly where, make/model, age) and corresponding information from other recent crashes under similar circumstances where the airbags *did* work properly, but I'd wager that even in that kind of worst-case scenario the good outcomes still handily outweigh the bad outcomes.

It is hard to foresee everything that can go wrong years and years into the future. We put lots of hardware through robotics that open doors / actuate things / etc. every few seconds continuously for months in an effort to predict how they will stand up to normal wear and tear for years, but that's harder to emulate with chemical processes.

So, until/unless there is evidence that they used the Ammonium Nitrate while knowingly and intentionally ignoring the potential long-term risks as the stuff ages in some environmental situations, I would be very hesitant to call for their heads over this. I guess that is the purpose of a "criminal investigation", but I really hope that isn't code for "witch hunt".

We SO need more intelligent people pointing out the screwball fuckery that is today's modern economy. This video made my day.
The only thing that separates the sift from this kind of activity is the community, and that the creators actively participate, and thus convey a sense of humanity, unlike faceless corporate machines.
(Now if only they could work out this bullshit permissions access/limits).

The reason MMA fights are more likely ending with getting choked out than having your limbs broken is quite simple. If you are the guy who breaks everybodys shit, nobody will want to fight you anymore because broken bones take you out of fighting (the thing you do to make money), training (the thing that allows to compete on such a level in the first place) and the enjoyments of life (ever tried to masturbate with two broken hands?) for weeks. Weeks or erven months.
Nobody will book you or allow you in their competitions anymore because 30 second fights aren't that interesting (which is why proffesional boxing matches rarely turn out to be like Muhammad Ali vs random guy from the audience), getting qualified and equal fighters as opponents becomes next to impossible (see above) and "liability" would be the word promoters mutter in their sleep while having nightmare about faceless lawyers.
MMA isn't the Kumite from Bloodsport. MMA matches are a business and their cash cows are their fighters otherwise it would be just bum fights. You can't milk a cow with a broken udder. But you can choke its nipples until the milk flows, you just gotta have the right technique.

If these folks can afford guns, then the good, hard-working people in Oakland can most certainly afford guns.

In fact, this small Mexican town really understood the meaning of the "consent of the governed." They disarmed the police!

One thing I think gets missed by most people is that people aren't saints. But nor are they devils. If empowered, they won't let a minority of criminals take over their community. Even when this drug cartel tried to take over this Mexican town, the residents eventually said "Enough" and took matters (and arms) into their own hands. (And of course, the police tried to stop them.)

In addition, few people grasp how the belief/faith in the need for a police force in order to "protect" us from our neighbors, implicitly engenders a tacit distrust among those with whom we share community -- all in the name of some faceless, unnamed "third party" called The State.

I don't know about you, but between the police and my friends, I will invariably trust my friends more than any cop. Every. Single. Time.

190 degrees may be the ideal temp for extraction, but what Mc Dickheads and the rest of the bath-water brew-drinkers at truck stops and corner markets fail to give a fuck about is the flavor of the undrinkable swill after it's SAT AFTER BREWING at a constant 190 degrees in those giant auto-brewer/hoppers for hours. Their "standards" are shit just like their food is poison.

Judgement for the plaintiff for poor choice in a place to buy coffee-esque, sub-critical temperature liquids from.

McDonalds handed a cup full of 3rd degree burns to a couple of ladies, and balked at her injuries is the real issue-They sucked then, and suck now, faceless, corporate balls.

People are retarded and need to be schooled on where to get real coffee along with good food and how to enjoy them both.

Anyone who thinks people shouldn't sue the shit-out of a death-dealing corporate monster like McDonalds constantly for anything including crimes against humanity, has already drunk the Kool-Aid.
The same people who fed on the media-hype when this happened have had their world-views shaped by the same entities who spun this story in McDonald's favor.

Fuck mickey-d's, this woman and her deceased mother are heroes.

Gonna throw out what will probably be an unpopular dissenting opinion.

To quote Harlan Ellison: Pay the fucking writer.

I am pretty much the only person I know who doesn't download/torrent/stream media.

I'd love to, but I genuinely believe in rewarding creators, even if that creator is "Hollywood" or "labels" or whatever other faceless entity that can afford to be ripped off.

Amanda Palmer didn't come out of obscurity and raise $1.2 million on kickstarter. She was an established artist. An unknown band down the road won't raise that money.

Oh and since people are gonna hate this anyway, living statues are the single least creative bit of street theatre ever.

Rant over

It could have easily been a staged event by merely giving the would be assassin a defective gun. Then no one is on it, except the nameless, faceless party who provided the gun. Perfect ratings boost.

Thanks for hearing my plea @dag.
I hate complaining, especially since the faces behind the curtain are also part of the group. (A faceless company is easier to complain to ). But I do feel that at times if some things don't get mentioned, they may not be recognized.

>> ^quantumushroom:

"Simpsons animator weighs in." They've all been "weighing in" as pro-taxocrat liberals since back when the show used to be funny, in 1995.
There was never any "surplus", which would mean the national debt was zero.
Tax cuts won't work if you keep spending more than is/can be taken in.
Who really pays the taxes? 70% of all taxes are paid by the wealthy while 50% of Americans pay no federal income tax.
"Deregulation" caused the housing crisis? Bullsh1t.
The short answer to why this sift is bunkum? Europe. That's the socialism American taxocrats want. How has it worked out over there?


I'm sorry QM, sometimes I totally get your arguments. The fact is though that the American people wouldn't vote Republican (or Democrat) if they knew they could be voting FOR their interests and not for a PR Bullshit show. Both parties are significantly to the Right of the Public, on almost every issue down the list. The people are supposed to stay out of running the country, we're not supposed to have a say. Because if we did suddenly the Banks would be regulated. Our Foreign Policy would not include having bases all over the world trying to control it. Nafta wouldn't fucking exist and everyone would have health care and free education. People would own and work the factories in their towns and it wouldn't be run by some faceless corporate entity. Life would be what we make of it, if this was a functioning democracy.

Also Simpsons was funny until 98 stupid! Everybody knows that!!! Well a few episodes were at least.

Not sure if you're trolling or not, but if you'd read the links I posted it's clearly spelled out--with research-backed evidence--how and why Finland's system is one of the best in the world. You show me good empirical research that less government involvement produces the amazing gains not just in academic performance but overall societal well-being (i.e. happiness) that Finland has shown in the past decade and maybe we'll have something to discuss. Otherwise, I'll take well-conducted research over politically-biased speculation any day of the week.
>> ^renatojj:



You guys might want to consider that the right path is not Finland, but going the other direction, with less government involvement in education. This is about putting education and its institutions in a more competitive environment, governments will always bog them down, making it more about teachers or whatever else, turning them into the massive faceless institutions that are like prisons like @dag points out. Instead, we should put on schools the pressure to compete in quality and price for those who'd normally be paying for education, the students or their parents.
Mintbbb points out that bullying does exist in Finland, even though they have a lot less of it. A finnish friend of mine once told me he never saw a fist fight in his entire life, ever, not even as a kid. However, just because they had the decency of adopting anti-bullying measures, doesn't mean letting government educate and make choices for our kids is any better, don't let that fool you. Bullying has been going on for so long it's become an institution in itself, public schools in America and elsewhere have little incentive of stopping or even acknowledging it as a problem.

>> ^renatojj:

You guys might want to consider that the right path is not Finland, but going the other direction, with less government involvement in education. This is about putting education and its institutions in a more competitive environment, governments will always bog them down, making it more about teachers or whatever else, turning them into the massive faceless institutions that are like prisons like @dag points out. Instead, we should put on schools the pressure to compete in quality and price for those who'd normally be paying for education, the students or their parents.
Mintbbb points out that bullying does exist in Finland, even though they have a lot less of it. A finnish friend of mine once told me he never saw a fist fight in his entire life, ever, not even as a kid. However, just because they had the decency of adopting anti-bullying measures, doesn't mean letting government educate and make choices for our kids is any better, don't let that fool you. Bullying has been going on for so long it's become an institution in itself, public schools in America and elsewhere have little incentive of stopping or even acknowledging it as a problem.


For-pay schools exist. Gasp! If you want to send your kids to one, you can do it. Bullying still exists in them.