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Comment Re:selling ads are a separate issue (Score 1) 465

Well that is a big part of it (The US has an "equal time" rule I belive)
Another part of it is that you can not run overtly negative advertising against anyone. Party politial broadcasts can to a certain extent diss thier opponents but only within thier own claims. And there is that guarenteed right of reply. Third parties (not politically associated), as we do have legitimate third fouth and so on parties, can not make adverts for or against anyone. If they do they end up being billed to the pro party or in court to find out who funded them to discredit the offeded party (yes this can take a long while to be sorted out but it can be very damning and, as I said earlier, media do not want to be tangled up in that so they only marginally break the rules behind this.

Well they could. It just ends up in court a long time after it is relevant.

Now that does not hinder the press as they can and do pick up on things and tell everyone they know about it in print and on the internet. Even on the news and talk shows.

But It leaves parties and canditates very skitish as they could be billed with the cost of whatever happened and that will be auditied as part of thier election campaign.

Convoluted? Yeh. But this is the UK so Most things are and it sort of acceives its goals. Cant say if those are good goals as the bribry is now hidden but the election funding is there to see.

Comment Re:Commodore Amiga 3000T (Score 1) 702

It is working then as it is proudly saying that it is not working. Try wiggling the SIM or a different SIM.

I never got any of mine to say that. They just did not break (apart from the plastic covers flying off (clip them back on or buy a new bling set for pennies)

You may actually have broken one. I am humbled Sir as that is quite an impressive feat.

Comment Re:12 years of Clinton in the White House got us h (Score 1) 465

I live in the UK.
Campain financing is regulated and audited. Also adverts in any media can be examined and used for procecution.
It is sort of this.
Any advert promoting a candidate or party must be credited to that candiate/party and hence on thier books for money. Any advert credited to a party MUST be given a right of response (If your whatever can fork out the money you must be given equal advertising to respond no matter which candidate/party you are running for).
If you or anyone else runs adverts that diss the opposition then the producer may end up in court (negative advertising is not allowed).

It sort of works for mainstream media (TV/Radio) and oddly is not often abused. It is terribly complex though. Thankfully it does not cover local drives. The internet is handled on a case by case basis with nothing done for blogs and what have you.

As I said it is not a great system but as mass media (TV/Radio) became popular it was deemed that the owners of those media could not be allowed to block parties/candidates from the ability to respond to any "Party political broadcast".

Comment Re: 'Bout time (Score 1) 210

Yep I've seen the same silly argument.
Europe wide the only thing that has changed is that the retailer is now responsible for any fraud using C&P cards if they are not used as C&P (say just swiped as that is the normal fallback). Non C&P cards (such as amerians visiting) are still the liability of the card processor/bank.
The client has never been responsible for fraud. Although I think there is a lower limit for credit cards they normally wave it unless the item was very expensive. But that is a slightly different set of liabilites then you have with debit cards.

Comment Re: Chip and PIN (Score 1) 210

The company accepting payment bumps the user off to an outside service such as "Verified by Visa" or mastercards equiv and let them handle the problem. These are run by the payment processors and as a card user you generally have to sign up to them seperately. They tend to use seperate information that is not on your card.

Then visa takes responsibility for fraud.

Comment Re:Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (Score 1) 702

Not unusual. It is a motor in a cast iron body. They only thing likely to go wrong with it is the power cord degrading and sort of turning to dust. I have no idea what the coils on the motor were insulated with but it seems to have lasted and works well enough. I suppose it is not wiggled around enough to cause it to fail. Wire insulation from that period is very brittle (even 60 years ago it was brittle. but they designed it with that in mind. I wonder how well the insulation lasted the last 60 years)

Comment Re:Commodore Amiga 3000T (Score 1) 702

Nokia phones, even feature phones (not so much the smart phones). They are almost indestructable.
A 3310. Plug it in and it will work even if you have for some reason thrown it out of a plane or decided that it would like to see the bottom of the mariana trench. Dry it out and it will probably work.

Almost bullet proof (OK they are made of plastic so not really proofed against bullets). Not just that they put up with people mistreating them. You actually had to really try to damage them. Not accidental.

Comment Re:My toilet (Score 1) 702

Nah. All that was required was a strong structure and a very good glazed finish. Pottery gives the first and advances in glazing give the second. Neither required the far east. That was more directly related to fine china and in the west how to copy it (bone china). Bogs are and have been mostly cast clay with a glass like glaze.

Comment Re:Important Quote from Article (Score 1) 190

Sort of.
Insects with multifaceted eyes tend to only see montion flow. Changes in intensity moving from facet to facet. stripes can cause problems with this scheme due to what is in essence the equivenent of aliasing.

I'm not saying this is why Zebra have stripes.But from what is known of compound eyes and the processing happening it is plausable. Even humans can suffer from a very similar problem. Drive past a bar fence (fence made of vertical metal plates close together) when the sun is setting behind it. Not for the same reasons but it is not hard to confuse the vision of any beastie.

Comment Re:This is true. (Score 1) 323

Terrifying thought isn't it.

Not even upper management jobs and execuative jobs will be safe.

I think this is what is called a trickle up policy (off shoring or out sourcing wise) as more execuative jobs get shifted to the countries in which the work is actually done (to better integrate with the culture and workflow don't ya know). So that leaves who left in the incorporated company? The board, The CEx's and who else?

Perhaps the Boards will start shopping for the most cost efficeient CEO and CFO. I am shure in a world of 7 billion people there are many that can do a much better job for a lower cost. Thier shareholders may welcome that.

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