"I've known people to not get promotions specifically on the grounds that they used too much of their sick time."

Without the context this phrase is not enough to base a judgement on. If a person is "sickly" meaning that they struggle all the time with illness then it is quite possibly the worst thing you can do to them to promote them into a role where they would either have more responsibility or were required to work harder. It may in fact kill them. For the employer it could mean that they just find it too much and quit and you would have to backfill their position. If your manager is making judgements about your work ethic based on statistical information about your sick days, then they are just a lazy, ineffective manager and should be fired by their manager.

"Some people literally cant afford to be sick, I.E. you don't work you don't get paid."

I pay my contractors when they're sick. In fact, I also give them vacation time that I pay them for if they are a long-term contractor. I want them to be healthy, happy and productive, not overworked and miserable. That just doesn't make sense.

I am a manager. Each year around this time of year I remind all of the people who work for me about the "I'm sick" policy. That policy is: "Don't come to work. I hate being sick, and if you give me the cold or a flu I'm going to be pissed off." I don't tell them they must work while they are at home, or that they shouldn't work while they are at home -- just like I don't tell them to brush their teeth or not. I expect them to use good judgement -- that is part of being a good employee. Being understanding and enabling your employees is being a good manager.

Good managers know their staff. If someone is not pulling their weight, you should know. If someone is putting in the extra effort, you should know. If you are making performance-related decisions about your staff based on statistics about their sick days you're a lazy-ass manager and YOUR manager should fire you. If you're working for someone who manages you like that, you should quietly start looking around.

IMHO, looking for the right job is as much about finding the right manager as it is about working in an occupation that you care about.

Caveat: If you are a manager and can't manage your staff properly because there is just too damn many of them, then YOU'RE manager is not doing his/her job... This is really simple, I have no idea why people find it such a mystery. People need to lead by example -- being a manager is not some kind of reward for a long successful career -- it's more responsibility and you need to step up to it.

Interesting, but until you compare the design costs of each device, you can't make a statement about whether or not the price is a fair one. These things don't just spontaneously arise.

During the ascent the Falcon 9 lost an engine. Apparently a single engine fault is something that the Falcon 9 is designed for and can continue the mission on 8 engines.

What makes me feel old (apart from the ID) is remembering the slashdotting I got in the early days after I submitted a software review. When I think back to it now, the server the site was hosted on was a Dual Pentium 133. Each "CPU" lived on it's own full-length card and had a proprietary bus to bridge them. Slashdot CRUSHED that machine, despite it being quite modern for the time.

I appreciate the current Slashdot owners attempts to keep the site exciting and relevant and yet appeal to my sense of nostalgia by putting a typo in the summary. ;)

Nature's End

"It is 2025 and the planet is rapidly approaching environmental death. Dr. Gupta Singh, a Hindu guru with a Jim Jones-like following, has proposed the suicide, by lottery, of one-third of the world's population. His followers have elected a Depopulationist majority in Congress..."

Possibly a little outdated but I recall it being a very good read.

Thank you very much for posting the link (you made my morning). I am a big fan of the man and I hadn't seen or read that piece of his before.

It's interesting the way that we (as a collective civilization) have gone from attempting to block dangerous activity on the Internet for children, to creating safe "playgrounds" for them, to giving up completely on user-based controls and instead just doing semi-autonomous monitoring of country-wide Internet traffic looking for "dangerous" on-line activity.

We so desperately want to make our children's safety a government problem so we don't have to do anything ourselves and have someone to blame/sue if they are ever in danger. Governments desperately want to exercise their control over us because that is what governments all seem to move towards at the end of the day (taking their responsibility to keep us safe a little too much to heart (or just an extension of the power play that people in the business of government seem drawn towards)).

How is a minority of responsible citizens ever to stand in the the way of the majority that want to be controlled and the governments who are willing to control them? I wish I knew the answer. It doesn't appear that a democratic system of government is enough.

You sir are a Gnostic. Thought I should tell you in case you didn't know. :)

Gnostics believe that the creator god was a false god. The "snake" in the Genesis story liberated humanity from the false god who had enslaved us by giving us knowledge of good and evil... Fascinating stuff.

Q

Q: "I've always tried to teach you two things: First, never let them see you bleed;"
Bond: "And second?"
Q: "Always have an escape plan" — before he is lowered out of view.

Piracy Warning

My favourite part of the referenced document:

"The United States remains concerned about the availability of rights of appeal in Canada’s administrative process for reviewing the regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products, as well as limitations in Canada’s trademark regime."

The US is concerned about our rights of appeal. That's awesome! American foreign policy at its finest.

I'm sure there are going to be dozens posts about the evil conservative government and how they have all their ministries scared to say anything about anything. However, and despite all the cool stuff that the NRC does (like 3d scanners, heated concrete, etc), they do do a lot of top secret research. I'm not surprised that a request involving a foreign government organization was met with a bureaucratic response.

Here is a quick list of some of their best and most important work. Probably a much more interesting article than the fishing expedition of the Ottawa Citizen.

I opt out every single time. And I pretend to know nothing about the technology. "No way, I don't want to be x-rayed". It's not an x-ray sir, its..." "I don't care what it is damnit. I dont' want cancer from your damn machine..." "Okay, sir, okay. Just step over here..."

There should at least be SOME benefits to getting old. This is one. You can pretend to be insane and people will do whatever you want them to.

I wear track pants and leave my underwear in my luggage. You think *I'm* uncomfortable? Not as uncomfortable as the guy patting down the old man not wearing any underwear I can assure you... Someone needs to counterbalance these young thrill-seekers.

Fourteen years ago I was invited to speak to Canadian MPs about "Internet safety." The only MPs that showed up (sober) were Conservative MPs. Other MPs (Liberals, NDP, and Bloc) were in the same building partying with the Lumber Lobby and the strippers they brought with them. A few Bloc MPs showed up a little later but were so drunk they could hardly walk.

To say I'm disappointed with this current turn of events is an understatement given what I have done to avoid it. That said, anybody who thinks that this is because the Conservatives are in power is, frankly, just an ignorant troll. Governments want control. All governments. You're job as the populace is to vocally encourage them to focus their efforts on methods of "protecting the people" (the initial and still principle role of government) that do so in a way that does not infringe on their rights as citizens.

If you're concerned about it (and you should be), be sure to contact your MP and tell them how you feel, what they should be doing differently, and how this is going to effect your vote in the next election.