I still mention the carnival ride to people: The riders have a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying. And I don't simply mean "statistically" or "potentially".

I agree with your sentiment as well.

Unlike stick-up-his-ass drinkypoo, I like Piers Anthony's books, and always will. But if he was just some random author that got people reading, who then moved on to other authors, fine. No skin off my nose. Same thing if someone first got into reading because of the classics, or westerns, or sparkly vampires.

Good to see another PA fan, though. :^)

Yes, I'm sure you read everything he wrote by time you graduated eighth grade, and can compare it to your new favorite author now. Good for you.

Or did you just read a couple Xanth books and the first Space Tyrant book and decide he wasn't serious enough for you?

Yeah, it does show how people judge him. Thankfully for me, he is one of my two favorite authors, mainly because of his disregard for our common sense of decency. (Isaac Asimov is my other favorite.)

The Space Tyrant series has sex throughout it, graphic to an extent. Xanth always had the "stork calling ritual". I read the book that page mentions, Tatham Mound, with the honey lube/birth control. Firefly is a full length novel that contains a section that, IIRC, is presented as something one of the characters dreams while being affected by a powerful aphrodisiac. In truth, that part was actually written by a pedophile serving time in prison.

Sex is not a taboo subject for him. No aspect of it seems off limits, as far as story line goes. I wonder if that Stross guy considers him to be worthy of praise for that.

--I just looked for mention of Piers Anthony in Stross's essay. There are a couple comments that mention one of his short stories, but I'm not sure if the comments are from Stross, a reader, or both. PA's story "In the Barn", which they attribute to a collection edited by Harlan Ellison, was actually published first in a collection of short stories by PA, called "Anthonology". I read that back in the late 1980s. Certainly doesn't get praise for not following our social mores.

In the original story, the ship doesn't even land on Earth. It is in a completely new solar system.

By "original story" I mean the book by Pierre Boulle.

I read one of those for school, and never touched the other. They certainly were not for entertainment.

That was a very good book. It wasn't what I was expecting, but turned out to be even better than I could have hoped. Very imaginative indeed.

Was that the one with one-eyed aliens that lived on a peanut? Read it 20 years ago, and strongly recommend it for this thread.

Speaking of Piers Anthony, have you read Firefly? Or Pornucopia? If not, find them.

also: http://hradzka.livejournal.com...

Considering your first real attempt is only made after a couple decades of preparation, I'd say it is more difficult than you think.

I wouldn't say "woosh" over misunderstanding this. It's a stupid application of a term with an already established meaning. When I first saw the poll, I didn't even bother voting or reading the comments because it is a asinine as i thought it would be. Might as well be the basis for a script from Sony Pictures.

First off, unionized pencil makers are "private sector". Unionized package deliverers are "private sector". I am not specifiying private or public sector unions. I am talking about unions in general.

If you think the opposite of "union" is "private sector", then we can't have a conversation, because you don't know what the terms mean.

As to non-union employees who do shitty jobs and don't get fired, that is at the discretion of the manager/owner/boss. Other non-union employees generally don't defend lazy or shitty co-workers, because those people make the good employees have to work harder. So the good hard-working employees want to see the lazy shitbags fired.

In unions, good workers want 'job security', which means they have to defend all the lazy shitty workers, so that if a good worker is facing being fired later, they know the union will defend them as well.

Some of us would rather not have lazy shitty coworkers, and build our job security by actually doing our jobs, or even starting our own companies.

But, hey, if you want to defend lazy shitty workers so that they will defend you in turn, more power to you. Have fun doing their work for them for the rest of your working life.

Good for you. I've pumped diesel a few times, and the pump handles usually smell of it. There must have been some diesel on them. Which meant my hands then smelled of diesel, because there were not disposable gloves to wear.

I've never had that experience with gasoline pumps. I don't know why only one fuel type would have the problem. But there it is.

In a rational world, yes it would be. But here in America, unions make their own rules. Senior union members would have to do much worse than being drunk to get fired. However, new union members would not necessarily have that protection. That would still be at the discretion of the union bosses though, not the employer.

That is true, but most of us here on /. are American living in America, so we give our slant to it. Personally, I don't reject the concept of unions, and I know what conditions they were formed to fight against, but their current manifestation in the US is not good. It's party politics, but with people's jobs.

The improvements can't happen, because the unions themselves, along with their political benefactors, insist they are already perfect. The improvements would take power from the union, since it isn't likely that the needed fix is to give the union more power over the workers and employer. And any change that would limit the power of the union is treated as a deathmatch, to be fought with every available resource.

My father worked for GM and was in the UAW. It never stopped him from telling us how bad his coworkers and fellow union members were. Stupid and lazy people are not excluded from union membership.

One of my teachers in high school also had UAW experience. One story I remember was of the spot welders that were supposed to make a dozen precise welds as the frame moved down the assembly line. Some days the workers just didn't care, and made eight welds that were near where they were supposed to be. Those cars would rattle from the missing and misplaced welds. Also, he mentioned the senior union members who came in late, left for lunch early, and never returned. Or worse, returned from lunch drunker than they were earlier.

So, for all the good than someone can point out in unions' favor, there are just as many examples of how they eventually fail. As another post points out, it is more the character of the worker than his membership in a union that determines the quality of his work.