whats today's rant?

[keyboardlover]

I hate non-stop bickering about US politics. "Sarah Palin blah blah blah... Republicans blah blah... Democrats blah blah... deficits blah... health care blah blah... terrorism blah.. security blah... taxes blah blah blah..."

Everybody around the world has to listen to this crap - on top of their own countries' political bickering.

You should write letters to your news companies to stop reporting on American politics. I honestly wish more countries would do this - it would almost certainly result in less misinformation about our politics being spread around the world.

[itlnstln]

Sex for money is different story, though.

[itlnstln]

You probably get more accurate coverage from other countries' news than our own.  I know I do from the BBC.

[keyboardlover]

You probably get more accurate coverage from other countries' news than our own.  I know I do from the BBC.

IMHO BBC reports similar stuff to CNN et al.; to me its no better with US politics reporting than what we have.

[mr_a500]

You should write letters to your news companies to stop reporting on American politics. I honestly wish more countries would do this - it would almost certainly result in less misinformation about our politics being spread around the world.

Misinformation? There is certainly more accurate information about US politics outside the US than in mainstream US news. I bet elementary school children in Canada know more about US politics than the average American college student.

[keyboardlover]

Misinformation? There is certainly more accurate information about US politics outside the US than in mainstream US news. I bet elementary school children in Canada know more about US politics than the average American college student.

Really? How is that? I doubt that very much
I have yet to meet a single person from outside of this country who really understand US politics at all. I've taken AP History and US Government classes, so I think I'm fairly qualified to say that. Usually people liken the concepts of 'liberal' and 'conservative' to the forms of those which reside in their own government, which is very different to how those type of folks are in the US.

[mr_a500]

Certainly more than I know about Canada.

Speaking about the Weather.

Show Image

Yes, that's Canada all right. We've got storm troopers, Luke Skywalker and Santa. We usually sit around stiff plastic fires on top of wagon wheels.

I have yet to meet a single person from outside of this country who really understand US politics at all.

I've yet to meet an American who really understands US politics. :wink:

[itlnstln]

I've yet to meet an American who really understands US politics. :wink:

I would agree with this statement.  I seriously doubt many US GHers could pass the US history test given to immigrants coming into the country (including myself).  Americans are pretty dumb when it comes to our own governmental affairs.  You can even see it in the way people vote.  Conservative or liberal, how many people do you know vote in their own self interest?  Texas would be a blue state if they did.

[mr_a500]

The one thing I know about Canadians is they tend to be unimaginative.  The creative artistic ones like Justin Bieber all move to the US to become famous.

No, Canadians go to the US because that's where the money is. There's always a huge market of ignorant people ready to buy useless crap.

You think Canadians are unimaginative?? You come up here and see how long you last the winter. :wink:

[keyboardlover]

IMO, not all Americans or Candians or anyone else understands their own political systems well, nor do they understand others. It takes formal education to truly understand a political system, plus we have to dodge misinformation, bias and propaganda presented to us from the media every day.

[mr_a500]

Meanwhile in Canada.

Show Image

OK... I'll let you have that one.

When I first heard of Curling in elementary school, I naturally assumed they meant hair curling. (and likewise assumed that the guys going for Curling were gay)

Broomball kicks ass though.

[mr_a500]

I assumed most Canadians were gay and that's why you have such an aggressive expansionist immigration policy?

Well, I'm not gay and my wife is an immigrant. (Immigration has allowed me to have a larger range of females to choose from.)

San Francisco probably has more gay people than in all of Canada. New York city probably has more immigrants than in all of Canada.

[microsoft windows]

New York's probably got more people than all of Canada too.

[keyboardlover]

New York's probably got more people than all of Canada too.

Ask Google. I did:

Population of NYC:
8,008,278

Population of Canada:
33,739,900

[db_Iodine]

This situation is getting seriously frustrating here. I ranted about the snowing here in Finland a while back, but now it's a lot worse. It has snowed about 50cm of snow in the last two days, and as it was our independence day yesterday, the snow was just left on the streets.

Today the traffic has been absolutely terrible. I mean you don't want to stop your car uphill, if you still want your car to go forward. This includes traffic lights, where you have to slowly approach the intersection so you wouldn't have to stop.

The second thing is, when you get out of your car to walk that 150m walk to your office. There's 30-50cm of snow EVERYWHERE, so by the time you get to your office your shoes and socks are completely wet, so you get to work barefoot.

[microsoft windows]

Got the first snow yesterday. About a quarter inch (about half a centimeter).

[Lanx]

Meanwhile in Canada.

my limited understanding of canada history was after the war the french really wanted the carribean since it was where the sugar was produced and sugar was the commodity of the century just like how oil is today. So since britain wanted to gain something the french said, here you can have the big landmass that has no resources and call it canada, we'll take the sugar islands.

so if canada was given up on, why does something like quebec exist? The frenchies didn't want yous why do you still speak the language?

[quadibloc]

Ask Google. I did:

Population of NYC:
8,008,278

Population of Canada:
33,739,900

On the other hand, California has more people than all of Canada: 36,961,664.

[quadibloc]

34M Canadians?  

What do they DO up there?

Some of us are not fortunate enough to have been born in a gentle climate. And, of course, we are still much more fortunate than those people born in warm countries that are not wealthy like the United States; despite Mexico having Mayté Carranco, the average Canadian is so much luckier to be living here, with all the cold, than the average Mexican.

In searching for more information on this mysterious weather presenter, I instead found information on the tragic life of a beautiful woman who presented the weather in Atlanta: Dagmar Midcap. Such a lovely woman, and who is her boyfriend? A man so troubled that, sadly, he ended up committing suicide. She ended up leaving Atlanta because it haunted her with too many memories of this.

[wellington1869]

34M Canadians?  

What do they DO up there?

i believe they eat snow, ice fish, and stare at each other.

[wellington1869]

(Immigration has allowed me to have a larger range of females to choose from.)

lets hear it for immigration

[mr_a500]

We can surf up here.

[itlnstln]

What that mag cover doesn't tell you is that the wave is frozen.  Makes for some interesting photos.

[HaaTa]

Snow + Mountain == Awesome



Snow + Anything Else == Stupid

[itlnstln]

Snow == Stupid.  FTFY.

[wellington1869]

i just noticed that all my positive reps come from posts in which i use cursewords or insults.

lol. so thats the secret.

[microsoft windows]

Webwit would have a good time with the new Reputation system then...

[itlnstln]

i just noticed that all my positive reps come from posts in which i use cursewords or insults.

lol. so thats the secret.

I'm still in the ****ing red.

[itlnstln]

Oh, I was making a joke, but MW got in the way.  I clarified it a bit.  I really don't care about reputation. I'm worthless here, and I know it.

[wellington1869]

I'm still in the ****ing red.

lol, repped

[itlnstln]

All my rep is either negative or neutral (including yours).  I'm destined for failure.

[mr_a500]

Funny...we don't get enough snow.

If career prospects weren't so bleak I'd move way further north than I am now.

Exactly. Same here.

Those heat-loving wimps just don't get it. Snow and cold are great! There are no bugs. There is no smog. You can ski (or drive, even) across lakes. Food doesn't spoil. If you're thirsty, you can just eat snow (as long as it isn't yellow). If you get hot, you just open your jacket. If you're cold, just zip up your hood.

The best thing about Canada - the further north you go, the less people there are. The land isn't all "private property", like in the US. It's fairly easy to escape from the hordes of idiots into the blissful peace of silent wilderness.

[wellington1869]

How do you get neutral rep?  I was wondering what the gray  things  were.

I think my positive rep just added +1 to a negative count, and in some count-range (maybe 'zero' count?) it shows up as purple (neutral) ranking.

[keyboardlover]

I think my positive rep just added +1 to a negative count, and in some count-range (maybe 'zero' count?) it shows up as purple (neutral) ranking.

I can't downvote you on here anymore, so I just mentally downvoted you for saying that.

Hehe...I said "mental"

[microsoft windows]

How much "reputation" can you spread around before downvoting somebody twice?

[wellington1869]

I can't downvote you on here anymore, so I just mentally downvoted you for saying that.

Hehe...I said "mental"

thats cool, tho just want to point out you're supposed to be mostly just ignoring me  I'm not worth any attention, seriously.

[quadibloc]

Actually, I did find out that Mayté Carranco was born on September 4, 1974. Which makes her 36 years old. So even though I couldn't find a reference to her family life, no doubt she does have a husband and children, to the despair of her legions of admirers.

She doesn't have much longer to get that big break, that Hollywood contract...

The TV station which features her is MTY Television, channel 38 in Monterrey. Monterrey is a city in the northern part of Mexico, and it has a lot of industrial activity on behalf of foreign companies like LG and Dell. So if you have a keyboard that was assembled in Mexico, it could well have come from there.

[Fwiffo]

All my reps are neutral or negative too, even though some of them have positive sounding comments...

[microsoft windows]

I don't think anybody here's ever given me positive reputation yet.

[quadibloc]

I notice from a news article at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10783019

that the failure of the Susan B. Anthony dollar didn't cause the United States to give up minting dollar coins. But since Americans prefer dollar bills - so did Canadians, and so our government had to discontinue the dollar bill and the $2 bill to force us to use loonies and toonies - and the political gridlock prevents legislation from being passed to discontinue the dollar bill in the U.S. ... dollar coins are piling up, costing money to store.

And they're also having troubles printing the new, more secure $100 bills, but that's a technical glitch, not a political problem that could be avoided.

[keyboardlover]

My funny rep comments today:

(-)

doucher

(-)

d'oh

(+)

I like you

[wellington1869]

I don't think anybody here's ever given me positive reputation yet.

you sure about that?

[Konrad]

i believe [Canadians] eat snow, ice fish, and stare at each other.

We also do prank calls to Texas, convincing them that we misdialled a Canadian area code and are really trying to reach a friend who recently had one of these new-fangled phone thingies installed in his igloo.

[Lanx]

cable internet out-tage!
options, i can "surf" on the many various neighbors wifi who don't secure their connections and use DSL (i have cable as i said so theirs should still be up).
tether my phone to my computer

who's paranoid enough to still have a landline and 56k?

edit
going with the tethering to phone, thats what i'm doing right now, borrowing neighbors wireless for a few hours is not so "right" and honestly it's slower than my 3g tether.

[Konrad]

Landline can include cable, DSN/DSL, and fiber. I much prefer any of these to WiFi or cellular ... the landline is faster/wider bandwidth, not powered by a dinky battery, isn't subject to radio interference (or radio eavesdropping, if you're one of those paranoid guys), and doesn't apply extra charges (per minute, per minute over the cap, per cubic lightyear if you're roaming/longdistance, per MB transferred up or down, per MB above the cap, per webpage, per ringtone, per spam message, etc etc).  Yes, there's some landline ISPs who'll try to rape you with extra charges; they can blow because there's plenty of alternatives.
 
56K is for losers. Unless you're on the space shuttle, where 56K is cutting edge and really cool. Or you live in some place faraway from civilization that the landline providers still quarantine as a medieval wildlife preserve.
 
Tethering is good for mobility. Tethering is slow, inefficient, and expensive when mobility is not required and landline options are available. Plus if somebody leeches your bandwidth you can just pick up a baseball bat and follow the wire straight to their computer room.

[mr_a500]

Oh, man! Somebody just put me into the red, calling me a "whiner" in this thread. I'm not a whiner, I'm a ranter!

This just makes me want to rant more. :wink:

[itlnstln]

Quit whining.

[mr_a500]

Ach! You! Wha! Who! Hey! Snuh!

(...and after I modded you up into the green... that's gratitude.)

And now, I'll open up with machine-gun fire on all of geekhack:

[mr_a500]

I'm not going to whine, but this is a wine I had last week. I was a bit worried about drinking it, because the description didn't sound very promising:
(I underlined the bit that worried me)


I was right to worry. It was crap. (...and did have a hint of "mouse")

[Konrad]

That's whatcha get when your Made In China wine label isn't translated properly.