But you need to understand. They really needed that money so they could commemorate the 1812 war.

For someone at risk of descending into irrelevancy, any PR is good PR. There's a reason actresses of a certain age and caliber (or the lack thereof) start doing stupid sh*t.

It's just because the professors are vague about it. There's really nothing so difficult about "This particle collides with that one, causing the two to spin in opposite directions." If you measure one, you know the other one is spinning in the other direction. But I guess you can't write a $50 million research grant around THAT. I still suspect that some of the other mysticism around it is caused by artifacts of the measurement or modeling process, but I suppose that's where it might be handy to be a second year student...

Their computer works not by quantum entanglement but by magic.

Simple: It's a PR stunt.

Take RogueWave. Before the VCs took over, the coffee there was so good you really didn't mind the urine so much. After the VCs took over, the coffee there was so bad, the urine improved the flavor.

Maybe we should go have a talk to the FDA about "Radioactive materials Americans eat each year."

The best perk for me has always been interesting work in a congenial environment. Everything else is secondary. It helps to be a senior person, so my tasks are usually along the lines of "Figure out $newtechnology. Find a way for the company to make money with it."

I've worked for a number of companies who did the "we pay less but we're such a great place to work!" thing. Someday I'd like to at least visit a "we pay lots but it sucks to work here" company, just to see what it's like.

...laura

Thank you, Ms. Helmsley....

The War on the IRS

(The Bush-Obama administration's castration of the IRS.)

What was one of George W. Bush's first actions after he stole the 2000 presidential election (other than snarfing down a celebratory cheeseburger pizza)?

Bush shut down the "high roller" division in the IRS; that section which garnered the greatest recovered tax revenues by auditing the richest individuals and the richest corporations --- and redirected the IRS against much lower-income working Americans!

Now, this information about several IRS agents targeting the Tea Party and affiliated groups isn't breaking news --- they've been sitting on this for quite some time!

So why the sudden newsy firestorm now?

On the very same day this bullcrap spewed forth, on the IRS web site (please see special links below) an international, joint investigation was announced. Their target: trillions of untaxed dollars sitting in offshore tax havens (i.e., offshore financial centers, etc.). This investigation will be undertaken by the IRS, the UK and Australia, thanks to leaked data from these tax havens.

Now this is the big story which they are misdirecting our attention away from, the one not being covered by the CorporateMedia today!

Instead, we are treated to "breaking news" of the moronic type.

Now, I'm no fan of the IRS, and we all should realize by this time that the tax code was written by the super-rich to benefit the super-rich (one need only read IRS Rule 401(a)(5) which essentially states that structured inequality, that is, screw the workers, is legally acceptable to them to comprehend that), so this is the first real egalitarian action by the IRS in many decades, but the CorporateMedia and the Bush-Obama Administration wishes to kill it!

Support the IRS in their investigation and tell the gov't to ignore this bullcrap!

Special Links:

http://www.online-accounting-degrees.net/tax-havens/

http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/05/authorities-announce-tax-haven-investigation

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS,-Australia-and-United-Kingdom-Engaged-in-Cooperative-Effort-to-Combat-Offshore-Tax-Evasion

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/05/it%E2%80%99s-high-time-the-irs-investigates-the-funding-of-the-tea-party/

Reading sources:

Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson

Offshore, by William Brittain-Catlin

Folks, there was a big bad security breach. Now, *adjusts his massive belt buckle* we're investigating this like we would any other serious crime. And right now we're just trying to identify weapons used in this heinous attack. Now, we've discovered that the hackers were using a very vicious mechanism in this attack. In a murder, you might find a revolver used to put two bullets into the back of a poor old defenseless lady's skull in order to get all her coupons and a couple of Indian head pennies out of her purse. Or perhaps in a pedophile case, you'll find the "secret candy" that was used to lure the children into a white panel van with painted over windows.

*expels a long tortured sigh*

Well, I gotta say, in my thirty years on the force, I wish we were only dealing with something like that today, honest to God Almighty I really do. Instead this artifact was discovered at the scene of the crime. Now, I'm not asking you to understand that -- hell, I'd warn you against even openin' up your browser to the devil's toolbox. But let me, a trained law enforcement professional, take the time to explain the gruesome evidence just one HTTP request away from you and your chillun'. The page is black. Black as a moonless night sky when raptors swoop from the murky inky nothing to take your kids and livestock back up with them silently. On it is a bunch of white text that makes no sense to any God fearun' man on this here Earth. That's what they call a "man page" probably because it is the ultimate culmination of man's sin and lo and behold it displays a guide to exact torture on innocent web servers across this great and holy internet.

Even if you want to use this "man page" for WGET to learn how to use Satan's server scythe, you would have to read through almost twenty pages of incomprehensible technobabble like what that kraut over in Cali -- the one who took his wife's life -- spoke. And if you want to just see an example, it's not at the top! No, why, it's all the way down at the bottom. For this one, they don't even have examples. Just enough options to kill a man. Probably gave Steve Jobs cancer, they never proved all these options in these pages didn't. Buried in the mud of a thousand evils lie more evils.

And why, oh why are we even wasting taxpayer money on these Scripps Journos? Who needs a trial when the evidence is in the tools they used? Folks, I think it's time we WGET one last thing, I'll WGET a rope and you WGET your pitchforks and torches ... let's go down to Scripps and put all this computer business behind us. Okay?

Sorry to respond to my own comment but for Ben Rothke it looks like he just reposts his Amazon reviews here:

Book Review: The Plateau Effect: Getting From Stuck To Success is identical to this Amazon review.

Book Review: The Death of the Internet is identical to this Amazon review.

Book Review: Everyday Cryptography is identical to this Amazon review.

Book Review: Liars and Outliers is identical to this Amazon Review.

It just keeps going ...

As someone who occasionally writes reviews for Slashdot (and usually reads all of the ones posted), this is a clear violation of the book review guidelines:

(emphasis mine) There is no difference that I can see ...

As I tried to ask during the first interview who are these people? What have you got to lose in naming them right now? Do they have power in the United States? What's holding you back?!

They can cause you no more chaos or inconvenience and yet you refuse to name them -- WHY? This could only be further evidence in your accusations! Do I have to buy your book to find out or something?

Your taxes go to pay for things we ALL need. Like roads, and firemen and teachers. When someone cheats on their taxes, they're cheating ALL of us!

Ahh ha ha! Why do you guys make me read this shit? They know we're just going to tax the crap out of them to pay for hooker and cocaine parties for Washington lobbyists! Why LIE to them? !#%!WA