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Comment Individual Insured bank deposits a big part (Score 2, Informative) 809

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34364418) Attached to: The Luck of the Irish Runs Out
A big part of the private debts were individual's insured bank deposits. Foreigners (like the British) deposited money in Irish banks and considered it safe because those deposits were insured by the Irish state.

In retrospect it is obvious that the state should not be insuring bank deposits when the amounts become so large relative to GDP, and maybe the Irish state should not have honored that pledge, but it's not stupid or corrupt of them to do so.

Also you can't blame this on free markets, insured deposits are extremely mainstream but have nothing to do with free markets. The problem with the regulators was that they were asleep or caught up in the exhilaration of the housing bubble.

Comment Re:Ivy League schools... (Score 1) 436

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34305368) Attached to: How the 'Tech Worker Visa' Is Remaking IT In America
If you want to cut an immigration program how about the immigration lottery? Right, there are 50K or permanent visas awarded annually to random applicants. How can that be better than giving visas to college graduates?

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1322.html

The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 50,000 diversity visas (DV) annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Comment Re:Wrong (Score 2, Insightful) 542

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34298084) Attached to: Google Warns Irish Government Against Tax Increase
So who has the right to express their views about policies? University presidents? Union leaders? The Pope? Why shouldn't corporations have the same right to expression?

Actually the problem of what government policies are best for the economy is complex to unsolvable, nobody knows the answers. You have the right to express what your position is, "tax the hell out of the corporations." Why shouldn't Google be able to say, "tax the hell out of us and we'll move somewhere else?"
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Australian Visitors Must Declare Illegal Porn To Customs Officers 361

Posted by samzenpus from the don't-blunder-down-under dept.
Australian Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor has advised visitors to take a better safe than sorry policy when it comes to their porn stashes, and declare all porn that they think might be illegal with customs officers. From the article: "The government said it changed the wording on passenger arrival cards after becoming aware of confusion among travellers about what pornography to declare. 'People have a right to privacy and while some pornography is legal and does not need to be disclosed, all travellers should be aware that certain types of pornography are illegal and must be declared to customs,' Mr O'Connor said."
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Cooking With Your USB Ports 188

Posted by samzenpus from the sorry-your-dinner-crashed dept.
tekgoblin writes "Wow, I would never have thought to try and cook food with the power that a standard USB port provides, but someone did. A standard port provides 5V of power, give or take a little. I am not even sure what it takes to heat a small hotplate, but I am sure it is more than 5V. It looks like the guy tied together around 30 USB cables powered by his PC to power this small hotplate. But believe it or not, it seems to have cooked the meat perfectly."
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Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee 2058

Posted by samzenpus from the deadly-serious-homeowner's-association dept.
Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"

Comment Re:Try to think a bit out of the box for a change! (Score 1) 450

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#33339422) Attached to: Germany To Grant Privacy At the Workplace
You are confusing human rights, where everyone is entitled to their opinion, and economic productivity, which should be data-based. Productivity is complicated, but I think you would find in some cases giving employees more rights is associated with more productivity, and sometimes less productivity. People are prone to vastly oversimplify the issues based on their feelings.

Comment Re:RTFA before commenting (Score 1) 629

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#33325270) Attached to: Union Boycotts LA Times Over Teacher Evaluation Disclosure
When I read the RTFA, I thought, I'm more like John Smith than Miguel Aguilar -- I know a lot of math, but I would probably have a hard time maintaining discipline in a 5th grade class and getting the kids interested in math. So I would be a bad math teacher. Fortunately I'm not a teacher, and I'm pretty good at my actual job, 'software engineer'.

In the long run we're not doing anybody any favors by protecting people with little teaching aptitude. I'd rather see the teaching jobs go to people with good teaching skills, and pay them well, and let the John Smith's (and me) find some other work that we're better suited for.
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Icelandic Company Designs Human Pylons 142

Posted by samzenpus from the anthropomorphic-power dept.
Lanxon writes "An architecture and design firm called Choi+Shine has submitted a design for the Icelandic High-Voltage Electrical Pylon International Design Competition which proposes giant human-shaped pylons carrying electricity cables across the country's landscape, reports Wired. The enormous figures would only require slight alterations to existing pylon designs, says the firm, which was awarded an Honorable mention for its design by the competition's judging board. It also won an award from the Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture competition."
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Southwest Adds 'Mechanical Difficulties' To Act Of God List 223

Posted by samzenpus from the blameless-travel dept.
War, earthquakes, and broken washers are all unavoidable events for which a carrier should not be liable if travel is delayed according to Southwest Airlines. Southwest quietly updated their act of God list a few weeks ago to include mechanical problems with the other horrors of an angry travel god. From the article: "Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst based in Port Washington, NY, called it 'surprising' that Southwest, which has a reputation for stellar customer service, would make a change that puts passengers at a legal disadvantage if an aircraft breakdown delays their travel. Keeping a fleet mechanically sound 'is certainly within the control of any airline,' Mann said. 'Putting mechanical issues in the same category as an act of God — I don't think that's what God intended.'"

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