The Bad News Thread

The Bad News Thread

This is for those who want to highlight events that spell Bad News for them.

... and for those who feel just plain Grumpy.

, , and

Have you become more morose <a href="http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=754856">after 50 months</a>, or the opposite, that 50 months ago you thought good news were unusual and more worthy of our attention, while these days the bad news are?

Originally posted by jax:

Have you become more morose after 50 months, or the opposite, that 50 months ago you thought good news were unusual and more worthy of our attention, while these days the bad news are?

Thanks for the tender concern () No - see my most recent post in the Good News thread. Occasionally we get grumpy posts in there so I see a need for a place to redirect them.

Alas, it appears that the importation of Masal Bugduv will not revolutionize British football. And alack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_bi_ge/economy

"The recession is killing jobs at an alarming pace, with tens of thousands of new layoffs announced Monday by some of the biggest names in American business — Pfizer, Caterpillar and Home Depot.

More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive.

"We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg — the big firms," said Rebecca Braeu, economist at John Hancock Financial Services. "There's certainly other firms beneath them that will lay off workers as quickly or even quicker."

Looking ahead, economists predicted a net loss of at least 2 million jobs — possibly more — this year even if President Barack Obama's $825 billion package of increased government spending and tax cuts is enacted. Last year, the economy lost a net 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945, though the labor force has grown significantly since then.

The unemployment rate, now at a 16-year high of 7.2 percent, could hit 10 percent or higher later this year or early next year, under some analysts' projections.

Obama called on Congress Monday to speedily enact his recovery plan, warning that the nation can't afford "distractions" or "delays."

With the recession expected to drag on through much of this year, more damage will be inflicted on both companies and workers.

The mounting toll was visible Monday as roughly 40,000 more U.S. workers got the grim news.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., which is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal, and Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's third-largest wireless provider, said they each will slash 8,000 jobs.

Home Depot Inc., the biggest home improvement retailer in the U.S., will get rid of 7,000 jobs, and General Motors Corp. said it will cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio because of slow sales.

"We are seeing no improvement in labor market conditions," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics. "This year could be as bad as last year in terms of layoffs."

In response to deteriorating business conditions, Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, disclosed nearly 20,000 job cuts, most of which already have been made. They include 5,000 new layoffs of white collar workers, which will occur globally by the end of March.

Earlier actions included the elimination of 2,500 Caterpillar workers through a buyout offer announced in December, the termination of about 8,000 contract and temp agency workers, and the reduction of 4,000 full-time factory workers through firings and buyouts.

Texas Instruments Inc., which makes chips for cell phones and other gadgets, will cut 3,400 jobs due to slumping demand. The Dallas-based company said Monday it will slash 12 percent of its work force — 1,800 jobs through layoffs and another 1,600 through voluntary retirements and departures. And Brooks Automation Inc. said it plans to get rid of 350 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force. It will be the second round of cuts for Brooks, which makes software and equipment for chip manufacturers.

Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. said it will eliminate jobs in markets particularly hard hit by the recession, though it didn't provide details. Its larger rival Schlumberger Ltd. said last week it will cut up to 5,000 jobs worldwide in the first half of 2009 and consider further reductions this spring.

The flurry of layoffs comes on the heels of similar action by big-name companies just last week.

Microsoft Corp. said it will slash up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. Intel Corp. said it will cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs. And United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it would get rid of 1,000 jobs, on top of 1,500 axed late last year.

And there's no end in sight. In a survey by the National Association for Business Economics, 39 percent of forecasters predicted job reductions through attrition or "significant" layoffs over the next six months, up from 32 percent in the previous survey in October. Around 45 percent in the current survey anticipated no change in hiring plans. About 17 percent thought hiring would increase.

A new report by the placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that companies are often turning to a creative combination of measures to cut costs — beyond layoffs. Those measures include pay freezes or reductions, forced vacations, travel cutbacks and the elimination of year-end bonuses.

"Many companies cannot cut their payrolls as deeply as they have in previous downturns, simply because they did not do as much hiring during the most recent expansion," said John Challenger, president of the firm. "As a result, they are forced to find alternative ways to keep costs down."

Not all the economic news was as grim Monday. Sales of previously owned homes and a separate barometer of economic activity each logged unexpected gains in December. But economists didn't view them as signs of improvement.

"Keep the party hats in boxes and the Champagne in the cellar," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "It's one month's set of data and they tell us little about the future."

Economists said the uptick in home sales was due to sinking prices spurring buyers. In the other report, a government-influenced balloon in the nation's money supply largely affected the outcome.

Wall Street closed moderately higher. The Dow Jones industrials rose 38.47,or 0.48 percent, to 8,116.03, after briefly moving into negative territory.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million last month. Buyers took advantage of dramatically lower prices, especially in distressed states like California, Florida and Nevada, where foreclosures are soaring.

The nationwide median sales price sank to $175,400, down 15.3 percent from a year ago. That marked the biggest annual drop on records going back to 1968. The median is the middle point, where half the homes sell for more and half for less.

For all of last year, existing-home sales totaled 4.9 million, down more than 13 percent from the previous year, and the lowest since 1997.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board's monthly forecast of economic activity rose 0.3 percent in December. But that pickup was influenced mainly by federal efforts to ease the credit crisis, which caused the supply of money to expand. If the jump in the money supply were excluded, the board's index would have dropped sharply, economists said.

The national economy, meanwhile, is continuing to backslide.

Many analysts predict the economy will have contracted at a pace of 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter when the government releases that report Friday. If they are correct, that would mark the worst performance since a 6.4 percent drop in the first quarter of 1982. The economy is still contracting now — at a pace of around 4 percent, according to some projections."



Thanks a lot Bush(s) and Clinton!

The good news is Doddles has been unemployed for over two decades. It's amazing what a change in attitude can do!

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

More pink slips,

What the fork is a pink slip? It sounds like lingerie. [/quote]

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Thanks a lot Bush(s) and Clinton!

It can't all be their fault!

Originally posted by Daveski17:

What the fork is a pink slip? It sounds like lingerie.

Pink slip (employment), an American term that refers to being fired or laid off from one's job.

Originally posted by Daveski17:

It can't all be their fault!

Oh but it is. They were in power from 1988-2008. It is, I assure you.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by Daveski17:

What the fork is a pink slip? It sounds like lingerie.

Pink slip (employment), an American term that refers to being fired or laid off from one's job.

We call that 'getting the sack'. (It isn't a pink sack though)

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by Daveski17:

It can't all be their fault!

Oh but it is. They were in power from 1988-2008. It is, I assure you.

Well....maybe George's fault, as he was a todgerhead.

Milk is bad for you!

Originally posted by Daveski17:

We call that 'getting the sack'.

So do we, but more commonly, "Getting sacked."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090128/ap_on_go_ot/meltdown_post_office

WASHINGTON – Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.

If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Postmaster General John E. Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.

And, despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week."

"The ability to suspend delivery on the lightest delivery days, for example, could save dollars in both our delivery and our processing and distribution networks. I do not make this request lightly, but I am forced to consider every option given the severity of our challenge," Potter said.

That doesn't mean it would happen right away, he noted, adding that the agency is working to cut costs and any final decision on changing delivery would have to be made by the postal governing board.

If it did become necessary to go to five-day delivery, Potter said, "we would do this by suspending delivery on the lightest volume days."

The Postal Service raised the issue of cutting back on days of service last fall in a study it issued. At that time the agency said the six-day rule should be eliminated, giving the post office, "the flexibility to meet future needs for delivery frequency.

A study done by George Mason University last year for the independent Postal Regulatory Commission estimated that going from six-day to five-day delivery would save the post office more than $1.9 billion annually, while a Postal Service study estimated the saving at $3.5 billion.

The next postal rate increase is scheduled for May, with the amount to be announced next month. Under current rules that would be limited to the amount of the increase in last year's consumer price index, 3.8 percent. That would round to a 2-cent increase in the current 42-cent first class rate.

The agency could request a larger increase because of the special circumstances, but Potter believes that would be counterproductive by causing mail volume to fall even more.

Dan G. Blair, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, noted in his testimony that cutting service could also carry the risk of loss of mail volume. He suggested Congress review both delivery and restrictions it imposed on the closing of small and rural post offices.

The post office's problem is twofold, Potter explained.

"A revolution in the way people communicate has structurally changed the way America uses the mail," with a shift from first-class letters to the Internet for personal communications, billings, payments, statements and business correspondence.

To some extent that was made up for my growth in standard mail — largely advertising — but the economic meltdown has resulted in a drop there also.

Potter also asked that Congress ease the requirement that it make advance payments into a fund to cover future health benefits for retirees. Last year the post office was required to put $5.6 billion into the fund.

"We are in uncharted waters," Potter said. "But we do know that mail volume and revenue — and with them the health of the mail system — are dependent on the length and depth of the current economic recession."

He proposed easing the retirement pre-funding for eight years, while promising that the agency will cover the premiums for retirement health insurance.

At the same hearing the General Accounting Office agreed that the post office is facing an urgent need for help to preserve its financial strength. But the GAO suggested easing the pre-funding requirement for only two years, with Congress to determine the need for more relief later.

Potter noted that the agency has cut costs by $1 billion per year since 2002, reduced its work force by 120,000, halted construction of new facilities except in emergencies, frozen executive salaries and is in the process of reducing its headquarters work force by 15 percent.

I'M ANGRY AS HELL!!!!!!!!!!! AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

Here it is !

Originally posted by MAXXTHRUST:

Here it is !

I love it. You can never have enough string, duct tape or bubble wrap for popping purposes!
...........................................................................................................................

Pew: Almost half of Americans want to live somewhere else
...............
Living in Las Vegas appeals more to men than women. Affluent adults are twice as likely as poorer folks to want to live in Boston. Young people like big cities such as New York and Los Angeles. More Americans would rather live in a place with more McDonald's than one with more Starbucks.
...............
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2009-01-29-where-we-live_N.htm?csp=34

Very few would rather live in Afghanistan. No McDonald's or Starbucks.

So, put the price of stamps up. Then you arte back in proffit.

Not EVERYTHING can be sent over the internet.

I couldn't care if the post is delivered six times a week, five times a week, once a week or more seldom, I stopped reading it a couple decades ago. My routine is to fish out any subscriptions (currently <i>New Scientist</i> and <i>Monocle</i>, not including a few NGOs I care enough about to pay for, but not enough to read their magazines, a few have caught on to this and offer a "let us siphon money from your account and we won't tell you about it" option, but most do not), and put the rest unseen and unopened into a bag. About once a month, in theory anyway, I rummage through the bag to see if there is anything that I have to attend to. The once a month is a heuristic for the shortest interval from getting unknown bills or other summons until they get restless, if it hadn't been for that anything that went into my mail boxes would go directly into trash or, in these days of recycling, into the paper bin. My principle is that if someone wants to get hold of me, they can send me an SMS.

The privileged role of the Post Office is becoming a thing of the past. The governments need it to make sure that they reach their subjects in a legal sense, but as electronic communication becomes legally binding the Post Office will become just another corporation. Norway hasn't had six day delivery for at least a quarter of a century, the Czech Republic hasn't had so for at least a decade. With EU competition rules I'm not sure if the Post Office is even allowed to have a privileged role, if it is it is unlikely to keep it for much longer.

On the other hand logistics is a growing field, more things are being shipped around to businesses, government agencies, organisations, and physical persons. The Post Offices have an extensive distribution network and a great number of outlets. In Norway most dedicated post offices have been shut down and sold, opting instead for local partners, usually some supermarket with one or more post-enhanced tills. The dedicated post offices sell profitable knick-knacks as well, DVDs and the like, and the longer they have to wait the more likely it is that the customers will buy something. Finally it has brought on <a href="http://www.bring.com/Home">Bring</a>, the name means the same in Englih and Norwegian, I have no idea how much they paid for the domain name. Like with the telco liberalisation, we can expect head-on competition between formerly state-owned Post Offices in Europe. Like with Bring and the telcos, we can expect many new names as we've already getting used to Vodafone (British-based conglomerate), T-Mobile (offshoot of the German telco), Orange (of the French), O2 (Spanish), Telenor (Norwegian), Telia (Swedish), and so on.

GIVEN that the legal documentation part can be sorted out on internet, the ONLY thing we need "post" for is parcels. Which is, as I see is, a SHORT version of what Jax said?

That and the image of the international postal war to come. USA was ahead of European countries in splitting up Ma Bell into competing companies, while the EU is ahead of USA in doing the same for the national post office. The flavour of the fight is different, the telcos have been highly profitable for most years the last decades, while the post offices have generally been losing money. That has been most clearly apparent in countries that split up post and telecommunication early on, something e.g. Germany did very late. The fundamentals on the other hand are much the same.

The landscape in Europe is different from in USA. The rough equivalent would be that post offices of each of the 50 states were free to compete with the 49 other states as well as upstarts. The telcos give an indication of what is about to happen. They were state-run company until liberation about a decade and a half ago. Norway's was called Televerket until it changed name to Telenor in preparation of the competition to come, it is also the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenor#Technology">godfather of Opera</a>. In a small part it was highly high-tech, the Nordic countries were well ahead of the curve in telecoms & Internet and the world is to a large extent running on Nordic technology today, in a much bigger part it was a stateowned staid bureaucracy. My family waited five years just to get a phone line thirty-some years ago. All the other European countries have similar stories, and after privatisation the stateowned staid bureacracies became private staid bureacracies, but more importantly they had to compete. Having had dealings with many of them when I worked for Opera I'd say they are still pretty bureaucratic, but not really worse than companies like Oracle and Microsoft.

Which leads us back to the post offices. These are really logistics companies, much like UPS and DHL, and DHL is appropriately enough a subdivision of Deutsche Post. Logistics is more than shipping parcels, it is part and parcel of our civilisation. From an IT background it is more natural to think of this as packets rather than parcels, making logistics an extension of the Internet shipping bits and pieces together with bits and octets. The letter is dead, as is the postcard, long live logistics. This trend is fitting, the fundamental metaphors for the Internet is taken from the postal system, including packet switching, the most fundamental one of them all.

Like most of the largest telcos in the world are former stateowned companies, many of today's national post offices are going to be among the major logistics companies tomorrow. Deutsche Post is going to be there, what will happen with USPS will be interesting to see.

Originally posted by jax:

the fundamental metaphors for the Internet is taken from the postal system, including packet switching, the most fundamental one of them all

Just me, sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong: Packet switching had much to do with ham radio; nothing to do with postal services...

I was talking about the metaphors, not the technological development, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet">ALOHA network</a> was a fascinating early pioneer. The metaphors are largely taken from the postal system, while current and future logistics systems may materialise the idea of a packet network, including packages that distributedly and dynamically home in on their destinations like data packets do. There are differences of course, a package is more expensive to transport and replicate, packet loss is not acceptable, and while you generally don't want to know where a particular data packet is at any given moment, that can be crucial information for a logistics system.

"Big freeze expected to hit the UK"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7862378.stm

Aye. Well if like they say, it is coming from Siberia. It MUST pass over here first. And here is spring like warm.

NEVER trust the British weather service. They pay a fortune for a sattalite and then give a weather forcast which is SO wrong it is unbelievable, when all they needed to do was stick their bloody head out of the window and they would KNOW if itr was raining in London or not.

I got laid off. I was surprised. Of all non-governing type things that governments do, I believe that funding education is the most important. I thought that no matter the economy, schools will be funded. But no. So no more quality assurance for certain educational software programs!
Well, I was looking to change jobs anyway, so small silver lining there. And I have enough savings and such to last a few months, so it's actually kind of nice to not have to go to work. Just so long as it doesn't last too long

Originally posted by aefields:

I got laid off.

Hope you find something soon!
...........................................................................................................................
Think you have bad news?! Look at this harbinger of doom!

Iran Denies Visas for U.S. Women's Badminton Team
...............
TEHRAN, Feb. 4 -- Iran did not issue visas for a group of U.S. female badminton players it had invited to compete in the country in events starting Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, citing the "time-consuming process" of handling such applications.

"They will not participate in the competition," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said during his weekly news conference.
...............
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020400817.html

Originally posted by aefields:

I got laid off.

Dang. Welcome to the Legion of Unemployed.

"French President Nicolas Sarkozy accuses Gordon Brown of ruining British economy"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4537545/French-President-Nicolas-Sarkozy-accuses-Gordon-Brown-of-ruining-British-economy.html

Mr Sarkozy, who is under pressure over his own handling of the downturn, made his remarks during a live 90-minute grilling screened on three television channels when asked whether he was considering economic stimulus measures similar to Mr Brown's VAT reduction.

In comments said to have caused anger in Downing Street, he replied: "The British chose a recovery plan by boosting consumer spending, notably by cutting VAT by two per cent. It is plain to see that it has brought absolutely no progress.

"When the English decided to cut VAT by two per cent, a certain number of politicians rushed to tell me that I should do the same. Since then, not only has consumption in England not gone up, it continues to go down.

"The reason is simple: because it's in people's heads. If the consumer no longer consumes, he won't change just because we add or subtract one VAT point, it's because he's scared for his future, he's scared for his job and says to himself: 'I must save, because bad times are coming'.

"In France, we chose investment because when we put France into debt by taking money to invest, in return we have assets, infrastructure. When you put your country into debt to pay for operating costs, you have nothing in return for your debt and you ruin the country.

"If the English did that it's because they don't have any industry left. Gordon Brown cannot do what I am doing with carmakers [giving them up to 6 billion euros]... in construction and other industries, because they haven't got any left."

His remarks led a clearly-irritated Downing Street to seek urgent clarification from the Elysée Palace.

In public, the Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted that Mr Brown understood that the French leader was speaking in a "domestic context" and had not meant his words as an "attack".

But, he added: "The Elysée have been in contact this morning to assure us that these remarks were not meant as a critique of our economic policy - which is nice."

Privately No 10 is said to be "angry" at the overt criticism of the Prime Minister's response to the recession.

Downing Street refused to reveal whether the telephone call to clarify the remarks was initiated by the French or British governments.

The two leaders did not speak, leaving officials to attempt to repair relations, and are not due to meet until a summit in Germany at the end of the month.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "The Elysée have been in contact this morning to assure us that these remarks were not meant as a critique of our economic policy.

"We saw the news reports last night. They have been in contact. It was not meant as an attack. I will leave it to the Elysée to explain why that is not a criticism.

"We appreciate the context in which the President made those comments, in the context of a domestic French political debate about France's future economic policy."

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said: "President Sarkozy is the latest international leader to condemn Gordon Brown's main policy for tackling the recession.

"We said at the time that Brown's flagship VAT cut would only make things worse and would be an expensive failure. "Gordon Brown claims to have saved the world. It would appear that world leaders increasingly disagree."

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

Aye. Well if like they say, it is coming from Siberia. It MUST pass over here first. And here is spring like warm.

NEVER trust the British weather service. They pay a fortune for a sattalite and then give a weather forcast which is SO wrong it is unbelievable, when all they needed to do was stick their bloody head out of the window and they would KNOW if itr was raining in London or not.

I think they use Mah Jongg tiles or a crystal ball...

Quite. The German weather service, particularly for Berlin is bloody GREAT. Even the 5 day advance one.

I prefer the BBC weather service, it consistently has better weather than the competitors.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

"If the English did that it's because they don't have any industry left. Gordon Brown cannot do what I am doing with carmakers [giving them up to 6 billion euros]... in construction and other industries, because they haven't got any left."

His remarks led a clearly-irritated Downing Street to seek urgent clarification from the Elysée Palace.

What an accomplishment! Nobody in either the UK or France likes Brown. Only Bush beat that.

Incapability Brown is a one eyed FAT Scottish idiot.

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

Incapability Brown is a one eyed FAT Scottish idiot.

Don't hold back. What do you really think about him.

You not heard the Jeremy Clarkson fuss in the last two days?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1137242/Im-sorry-calling-Brown-eyed-Scottish-hes-STILL-idiot-says-Clarkson.html

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

You not heard the Jeremy Clarkson fuss in the last two days?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1137242/Im-sorry-calling-Brown-eyed-Scottish-hes-STILL-idiot-says-Clarkson.html

How about the Thatcher controversy as well?

Carol Thatcher 'golliwog' jibe referred to black tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Carol Thatcher was dropped by the BBC for making a 'golliwog' remark about French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, according to insiders at The One Show. ~ Telegraph.

Aye. What gets me in these cases is that there are now so many informers in the U.K. The place is getting like the old East Germany before the wall fell down. (I was there before the wall fell down). Same with this nurse that was suepended for ofering to pray for her patient.

Informers EVERY where in the U.K.

THAT is the bad news for TODAY folks, so we are even ON TOPIC!!!

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

Aye. What gets me in these cases is that there are now so many informers in the U.K. The place is getting like the old East Germany before the wall fell down. .

Informers EVERY where in the U.K.

The government are promoting this 'grass your neighbours up' attitude for almost everything. More hysteria to control people with! That's bad news...

I am working on a thesis at present which compares modern day Britain with such things as "the Nürnberg laws", Gestapo operating methods, Stasi methods, and the whole nazi/soviet comparison field, particularly in the culture of "public control" (both physical and psychological), and the "peronality cults" which both communism and naziism gave rise to.

JUST at the begining, evidence collecting" phase at present, but got SOME notes together (5-600 pages or so).

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

I am working on a thesis at present which compares modern day Britain with such things as "the Nürnberg laws", Gestapo operating methods, Stasi methods, and the whole nazi/soviet comparison field, particularly in the culture of "public control" (both physical and psychological), and the "peronality cults" which both communism and naziism gave rise to.

JUST at the begining, evidence collecting" phase at present, but got SOME notes together (5-600 pages or so).

That sounds like a very interesting thesis.

Originally posted by Daveski17:

That sounds like a very interesting thesis.

Yes. So now we're going to have to report you to the government.

Originally posted by Daveski17:

The government are promoting this 'grass your neighbours up' attitude for almost everything. More hysteria to control people with! That's bad news...

Over here they're literally saying that tattling is a good thing on tv, in combination with government phone numbers to do so.

EXACTLY Frenzie.

When I came to this region in early 1990 as the Iron Curtain was dismantled, I was surprised by how little control these countries had over their citizens, particularly DDR. Yes, they had an intricate and very extensive system of informants and data gathering only rivalled by a few other regimes in history, but in practice most of this information was useless. They had no system for handling this mass of data, nor for sifting out quality information from scurrilous rumours and misunderstandings. As a rule the information Stasi gathered was wrong, irrelevant, unverifiable, nonactionable, misfiled, unavailable, verbose, and sometimes plain silly. It was good for creating a dossier when preparing prosecution or during interrogation, but not for much else. The greatest benefit may have been that it made a good part of the population complicit with the regime. The state had a better hold on you if you informed on someone than if you were being informed upon. I think there are lessons to be learned from this.

While I was amazed by how primitive and incompetent they were in their information gathering and processing, and I am positive I could come up with a better system, it is a hard problem, a series of hard problems really. I am not sure for instance that the US war on terror project is performing that much better on their data than the DDR was on theirs.

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

You not heard the Jeremy Clarkson fuss in the last two days?

I'd not seen that. I like a man who goes straight to the point! The British have a nice habit of getting straight to it.

Originally posted by jax:

While I was amazed by how primitive and incompetent they were in their information gathering and processing, and I am positive I could come up with a better system, it is a hard problem, a series of hard problems really. I am not sure for instance that the US war on terror project is performing that much better on their data than the DDR was on theirs.

Here it could be another case of too much data by far.

The records gathering of the NSA has to leave the agency with more data than ability to make sense of it. We're constantly reassured here that anti-terrorism measures have stopped more than one "attack" after 9/11. What we'll hear after the next problem surfaces is a large, collective "Oops!" Then a lot of finger-pointing.

Christsakes, nothing sacred.


Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike
Lawmakers say tax will help budget; brewers warn of lost jobs
This will defintely wreck our country!

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_021309_news_oregon_beer_tax.126942e1.html?npc

Originally posted by MAXXTHRUST:

Christsakes, nothing sacred.


Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike
Lawmakers say tax will help budget; brewers warn of lost jobs
This will defintely wreck our country!

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_021309_news_oregon_beer_tax.126942e1.html?npc

The supporters of this will bubble in the lake of coors for all eternity!
Most targeted taxes are bad. This is one of the bad ones.

Originally posted by MAXXTHRUST:

Christsakes, nothing sacred.
Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike Lawmakers say tax will help budget; brewers warn of lost jobs
This will defintely wreck our country!

From the link;

Specifically, the bill says it would fund prevention, treatment and recovery programs for those addicted to alcohol and other substances.

Britain has suggested similar. WHEN are these knob rots going to bloody LEARN???

The only problem is there are three countries that have already tried it, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

In the 60s they were terribly woried about the alcoholism "problem". SO they put the taxes up b about 500%. Within the first two years afterwards the alcoholism rate ROSE by something approaching 200%!!!

Why? Because people;

1) relearn what us oldies already know. It is MUCH easier, and MUCH cheaper to brew your own. So you can drink VAST amounts comparatively FREE compared to shop and pub beer.

2) Learn that home brew can be made ANY damn strength you like. I made mead with a home brew recipe, and by using 40 Kilo of honey instead of 2 Kilo of sugar, and leaving it for two years instead of a month in the bottles, I got 10 gallons of mead that was 70% proof. Average rum, gin, whisky, etc in the U.K is 40%.

O.K, two years, but you can brew a beer that is three times the strength of shop beer, in around one and a half weeks.

3) home made wine

4) Any one know how damn EASY it is to build a still? If beer is five pound a pint, you learn DAMN quick.

My family had three. Two on the farm, and one in the engine room of the ship, which used the engines heat exchange pipes as the heat source.

'Chocolate tax' to tackle obesity

quote
"I had one patient recently who said to me she thought chocolate was good for you. People are being brainwashed into believing this."
unquote

Obviously he has not been reading the Good News thread; miserable so-and-so. Maybe he thinks people should be brainwashed into not eating anything they like.

Hmmm. Deep fried marathon and Mars bars with a side order of double chips, deep fried battered pizza and a 3 Liter bottle of coke, or Irn Bru. Bugger all to do with that, it is just the chocolate then?

Originally posted by Von-Spreuth:

Originally posted by MAXXTHRUST:

Christsakes, nothing sacred.
Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike Lawmakers say tax will help budget; brewers warn of lost jobs
This will defintely wreck our country!

From the link;

Specifically, the bill says it would fund prevention, treatment and recovery programs for those addicted to alcohol and other substances.

Britain has suggested similar. WHEN are these knob rots going to bloody LEARN???

The only problem is there are three countries that have already tried it, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

In the 60s they were terribly woried about the alcoholism "problem". SO they put the taxes up b about 500%. Within the first two years afterwards the alcoholism rate ROSE by something approaching 200%!!!

Why? Because people;

1) relearn what us oldies already know. It is MUCH easier, and MUCH cheaper to brew your own. So you can drink VAST amounts comparatively FREE compared to shop and pub beer.

2) Learn that home brew can be made ANY damn strength you like. I made mead with a home brew recipe, and by using 40 Kilo of honey instead of 2 Kilo of sugar, and leaving it for two years instead of a month in the bottles, I got 10 gallons of mead that was 70% proof. Average rum, gin, whisky, etc in the U.K is 40%.

O.K, two years, but you can brew a beer that is three times the strength of shop beer, in around one and a half weeks.

3) home made wine

4) Any one know how damn EASY it is to build a still? If beer is five pound a pint, you learn DAMN quick.

My family had three. Two on the farm, and one in the engine room of the ship, which used the engines heat exchange pipes as the heat source.

You forgot:
5) Get on a ferry to Germany or the Netherlands, get stinking drunk in Kiel or Rotterdam or whatever, crawl back on the ferry if you can.

If a non-computer-literate friend asks you to help him choose a computer, decline.
Believe me, the machine will be "your computer" and the vendor will be "your guy" forever after.
Frantic phone call from a neighbour whose computer erupted into a shower of sparks when he pushed a card-reader into a USB port.
"Should I turn it off?" Err... Yes.
I can't imagine what he could have done or what strange coincidence could have eventuated but I will find out later this morning when I have a look at what will certainly be referred to as "your computer". This will be a morning of not having fun.

Edit:
We Pisceans don't believe that Friday 13th is unlucky

'Fight Club' For Disabled Causes Firestorm In Texas
...............
The head of the agency, Commissioner Addie Horn, broke into tears as lawmakers grilled her about the alleged abuse at a state facility in Corpus Christi, where police say caretakers appeared to have organized a "fight club" in which mentally and developmentally disabled residents were encouraged to fight each other for the staff's entertainment.
...............
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101842135&ft=1&f=1001

News can get much worse than this, but it'll do for this morning.

It's a toss-up whether this thought should go into the Good News or the Bad News thread.

There are people alive who will one day refer to 2008-2009 as "the good old days".