The verbal tics I mentioned are from urban culture and California and the south. You want me to list examples of every type of verbal tic for every "race"? That would be clumsily verbose, and I assumed from those two examples it was clear that anyone who wasn't a cock would be able to understand that this isn't racism. Disposing of eye contact in some situations is in fact a good idea. America's a big place, so I don't want to generalize here. Typically eye contact is important, because without it the speaker can appear nervous or insincere. However, just try employing the same level of eye contact you would with typically Japanese that you would with a Texan. How does that work out for you?

Small talk too varies depending on culture. Finns traditionally have fewer social niceties than one would expect in the UK. Nordics in general tend to be more straight to the point. Spanish speak quickly and articulate more with their bodies than northern Europeans would. Have you never listened to Italians or Spanish and thought that they're having an argument, when in fact it's just a discussion? Irish tend to invade body space more than Danish would, as another example.

Communications training is something I've done for over ten years, so I'm pretty confident here in suggesting that anyone who thinks I'm ignorant can go royally fuck themselves.

It's pointless to hire someone whose language (verbal or body) are not appropriate to the job. If hiring for a job that requires moderate technical ability, it's far easier to fix the technical shortcomings than it is to remedy communication issues.

Does the same language employed on an Ealing market stall work for a Norwegian looking for financial advice? Perhaps, but it's in fringe cases. It's more likely to be jarring and distracting to have someone near enough finishing each sentence with "all right?" or "not a bother". There we go, now we have English and Irish added to the list. Does that satisfy your need for a united nations of examples?

When communicating, it's important to ensure that the take away point is clear in the reader's mind. You are a reactionary cock, using reactionary straw man bullshit in lieu of having any experience or the ability to offer insight in to what is in fact a very interesting field of study.

Or Zed McGlunk from Police Academy. I am slightly aroused and worried.

Yup, and anyone whose speech is infested with irritatingly repeated phrases, such as "you know what I'm saying?" or "like, you know".

Anyone who can't get through a sentence without inserting this junk may just as well wonder why blowing a tin whistle or air drumming at the end of each sentence causes interviewers to quickly dismiss them as being unsuitable? It sounds retarded, and the vocal breaking thing is not sexy. A husky voice can be sexy, but not one where it's a woman attempting to impersonate Henry Kissinger yawning.

Yeah, and well rehearsed "duck face" poses used whenever a camera comes out. Really, if this becomes the common theme for women, I'd be hanging on to heterosexuality by my finger nails.

FileMaker Pro and Excel cover the bulk of small-scale tools and automation needs in the office. AppleScript and Automator bind them together to be able to build some pretty good systems. You may be romanticizing the old days. Just as now, most people had neither the ability nor the inclination to make things easier. HyperCard was powerful and relatively accessible. Let's not kid ourselves though that the average number cruncher or sales guy in an office is going to fire it up and quickly churn-out a CRM system that isn't a piece of shit?

It's mostly pot-luck if someone in the office has a hacker mentality or even enough of an interest to begin coding/scripting. Given how computing in general has changed, I'd suspect that a smaller percentage of people are coming in to today's workforce with a hacker mentality. How many people below the age of 30 would have begun with computers that dropped them straight in to BASIC? How many computer magazines these days publish code listings, compared to in the 80s?

I'd certainly agree that they lack a sense of humor when their sensibilities are being offended or challenged, and that's certainly not restricted to religious people. Strong emotional attachments lead lead to protective outlooks. Someone with a severely handicapped daughter is perhaps less likely to laugh at Down Syndrome jokes than someone who has never had to deal with this horrible condition. One man's solemn and ritualistic religious service is another man's LARP session run by obsessively compulsive bead-fondlers.

That's what I want to know. I can see two "positive outcomes" he could have hoped for.

1) After signing his employment contract with Marriott he would dismantle his backdoors in their systems and Marriott would obviously be stuck with him because the contract.

2) He would keep his backdoors in place, to use as leverage should Marriott attempt to fire him or change the brand of coffee in the office to one that is not to his liking.

No-one above the age of six should consider his plan to be anything but hopeless lunacy.

Keeping habits is a pretty key point there. Whether it's college courses or work, it's preferable to allowing people to slip in to the demographic that has been so long out of the workforce (or never been in it to begin with) that they become unemployable. A friend was headed this way, adopting a nocturnal existence and being content to live on welfare. He thankfully picked-up college and got back in to regular routines. The work should not be intentionally demeaning - this isn't a chain gang. The intention here must be to help people back in to employment. Of course some work may be seen as demeaning, but who hasn't worked a shitty job at some point for the sake of having a job?

We don't need informed comments. What Slashdot needs is confident and angry action! That's how American politics works, so if it's good enough for Jesus and Gingrich it sure as Hell is good enough for Slashdot.

It's the "Islamic Republic" of Pakistan. You expect anything sensible to come out of a country that's happy to be subservient to the arabs' plagiarized and highly retarded excuse for a religion?

Pakistan would be little more than an amusing punchline to many jokes if it weren't eye-to-eye with India, playing stupid fucking war games with a country that is seemingly doing its best to be as retarded as Pakistan. Imagine Kansas with nuclear weapons, it's as scary as that.

Mr Internet man. Is there an official website somewhere with a list of the "real" civil liberties we should be demanding?

Yes, doctors ejaculate at the thought of a technology that would cause increased health risks in the population. I don't think they really need to make us ill. Shifting demographics and greater emphasis on regular screening and preventative medicine kind of pays quite well enough without them wishing for people to be struck down by "frankenfoods". You, sir, are an arse

No great importance? Sure, if you've no appreciation for the civil liberties and legal issues caused by this anachronistic and inequitable prohibition.

You white people aren't very good at spotting humor, are you?

Fifty years it was considered constitutional to have laws forbidding marriages between blacks and white. Anyone arguing for a return to sterner times really needs to look at worldwide crime rates and explain why crime in the western world has generally been in decline for quite some time now - despite "trendy" methods of disciplining children and adults.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/viortrdtab.cfm

So, what's the message there? Beat children a little bit and tell them that a severe beating is that beating multiplied by ten? Yes, we all know some dicks. Whether we want to live in a society that allows these people to be flogged is a question that requires an argument more substantial than an appeal to tradition.

I see physical violence as being similar to honking the horn in a car. It should only be used to avert an immediate danger: If a child is about to touch a red hot stove, slapping their hand away makes sense. If a driver is about to cut across your lane, oblivious to the presence of your car, honking the horn may prevent an accident. Honking the horn as punishment, just like with beating a child, is more about punishment than an ernest attempt to teach a lesson. How often do we see people honking their horn as a warning? Most of the time I see it used to deliver a loud "fuck you!" With spankings, how often are they done in a calm and dispassionate manner? Do parents first talk to the child so they understand what is about to happen and why, or are they more likely to just reach for the belt and begin thrashing away? Are there not better ways of teaching a lesson - such as discussing actions and the denial of privileges?