It's how unions work in the USA, too. GP is an idiot, and has obviously learned everything he "knows" about unions from Libertarian ideologues.

I think other authors have done a better job with postulating advances in technology. A few examples:

Charles Stross - Accelerando - One of the more believable and compelling projections of computer tech that I've read in a long time.

Linda Nagata - Vast - Similar projections for computer tech as above, plus genetic engineering. This was a recent random find in a used book store for me, and apparently the fourth book in a series called The Nanotech Succession. I will definitely be looking for more of her stuff.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl - Definitely the best I've seen for projection in biotech, and it hit me in a similar way as the first time I read Neuromancer a few decades ago. Definitely not for children, though. Pump Six And Other Stories is a collection of short stories set in the same world, but I don't know how well they would hold up on their own without the deeper context that TWG provides.

There's plenty of discussion about how we need more men in nursing and K-6 education, it's just happening on forums you aren't paying attention too. Perhaps you could pull your head out of your ass and google yourself up a bit of education on those topics. I can't speak to therapists, but then all of the relatively few therapists I've met are men.

Yes, they are, you just haven't been paying attention to the forums where those conversations are happening. A tiny bit of Googling would educate you.

Wrong. That might be the case in particular jurisdictions (LA and SF would not surprise me) but it certainly isn't that way in the whole state. All that's necessary is 30 days written notice naming the person(s) on the lease/rental agreement and however many John/Jane Does you think are necessary (it's recommended that number be generous). No need to get cops involved unless the tenant(s) refuse to vacate, but I suspect that's the case in every state.

Jack, and shit. As someone who worked in construction for 10 years and now has 3 years experience as a software developer, allow me to present a rebuttal:

The bricklayer is an independent contractor who signed a contract to deliver a finished wall on a certain date for a certain price. How much or how little time it takes him to complete the job is his own business. He gets paid the same amount regardless. Whether he's super awesome and completes the wall in half the time, or he's a screw-up who ends up putting in 80 hour weeks tearing down sections and rebuilding them, he gets paid the same.

That contract was created in the context of a STRICT waterfall development model. The dimensions, materials, and probably even the pattern the bricks are to be laid in have already been specified, in detail, by the architect/engineer. All the bricklayer has to do is lay bricks. He's not doing any design work. If there's a design flaw in the wall, that's not his fault, and fixing it will cost you extra. If the design changes after the contract was signed, that's probably also going to cost you extra. If modifications are made after the the bricklayer completed his work on a section of wall, any structural weaknesses introduced by those modification are not his fault and fixing them will cost you extra. You see where this is going, right?

In cases where the bricklayer is an hourly employee rather than an independent contractor, there is no way in hell he's fixing anything on his own time. You are paying for every minute he's working. Period. If you hired a screw-up bricklayer (probably the cheapest one you could find), you're eating those costs.

Getting too old to have kids, and dating a guy who has two, so I'm good. :^)

I for one am glad that his ex-wife insisted. :^D

I have a cat. He's pretty super.

I'll be sure to tell baldass_newbie that he needs to reverse his vasectomy so that I can have teh babiez! ;^)

Congratulations!

*waves banner*

I think the beta is pretty and the functionality of journals couldn't possibly be worse than it is now, so I'm hopeful.

Wondered who that guy was in some of my friends' G+ circles. And now I know. :^)

Actually the environments where computer programming was developed had plenty of men - they just considered the activity too mundane and low-level for their capabilities and put "the girls" (many of whom had MAs in math) on that task.

sPh