Last week, yo.

[silveradept]

Assuming I survive the week physically (which I really hope to do - after all, dying before you’ve managed to make anything of yourself just sucks), I will have only one semester left. There is, indeed, light at the end of the tunnel. Now, if finding work is as easy as doing classes, then I shouldn’t have anything to worry about, right?

torakiyoshi, I would like to send you VEWPRF correspondence, but I have no destination address. If such could be provided in private communications, that would be fantastic. It’ll also be a chance for you to get any needed data from me. For the grand majority of those selected to receive VEWPRF correspondence, the objects will be posted tomorrow. Some of you may have to wait until later, or will have your correspondence hand-delivered if a suitable meeting time/place can be arranged. Yes, that was how I spent a significant part of my day. I’m rather glad I could, too.

Verizon CSR gets confused on the difference between .002 cents and .002 percent of a dollar. The link is to a page that then links to the conversation. Now, my science and accuracy-insistent people, do you see the problem here? 2/1000 of a cent is different than 2/1000 of a dollar. If the quoted price is .002 cent/kb (2/1000 cent per kb), then that’s the rate. If it’s supposed to be .002 dollars, (2/10 cent per kb) then that’s what should be said. Of nothing else, to prevent this kind of numeracy difficulty (I’m trying to this of the appropriate opposite for someone who has numeracy. I can’t recall it.) Otherwise, your own reps will be confused by marketing’s doublespeak, and ripe to be embarrassed by someone who actually notices. (This is also another reason why I suggest that all laws and regulations must be understandable by very young children. It cuts the confusion down for everyone.)

Even if only in symbolic gesture, someone has introduced a bill to impeach the President. Someone on her way out, frustrated by both parties’ leadership, makes her statement. We probably need a Congress full of people who are willing to crush party politics, rather than forcing out the people who are willing to look beyond the parties.

Apparently available on the Internet is a CIA manual on Coercive Questioning. This is a trange thing to appear on the Internet. A summary of Chapter IX as well as the link to the final document is available on Daily Kos. Kos claims that this document has been recently declassified, which makes me wonder if anything actually detailed in it is actually current practice. Even if it isn’t, the ideas outlined in the Kos summary are disturbing, yet they also have a ring of truth to them. Were I in the business of needing to coerce information out of someone, I might well resort to the tactics outlined there. So much for “we do not torture”. (We already knew it was bullshit, but this is just more.)

From here, an eclectic collection of books, chapters, and other things, all available in PDF format for free download. I’m not sure if any of the material there is actually of any use, but it’s there. Welcome to the Brainsturbator Library. There could be quite a few gems in there, if you’re willing to sift. If you do find something good, let me know. I can always use more reading material. Speaking of reading, Merriam-Webster says "truthiness" describes 2006 best. I think I agree.

Your Blog Should Be Green
Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff.
You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas.
However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.
What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Yet another “onoez” sort of thing - some people do, indeed, have trouble disconnecting from their on-line lives. We knew this. For a while now. Some people will have difficulty with any new medium, using it to the point of addiction. Some people are still so very socially anxious that they do well behing the screen as opposed to in person. This has all been known. The fact that this is a growing trend suggests something about the American lifestyle - perhaps we need more socialization options outside our computers? Of course, that means believing that the streets are reasonably safe, that other people are not all monsters or molesters, and that people might actually enjoy doing things in the company of other people. Novel concepts, all of them.

Also something we’ve known, but that is actually disturbing. Societies where women are not empowered have all their children, not just daughters, suffer. From not enough food, or from being unable to get complete education because they’re being pulled out for doing domestic chores. We need to improve the lot of life for a most of the world in general, but if people insist on having focus areas, improving women’s statuses is a good place to focus.

In some senses, it was a slow links day. That’s okay, though. Tomorrow begins the last week of what will hopefully be my last fall semester. I’m pretty psyched about it, honestly.

Comments

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Go to my info page and follow the link at the end of my bio. You'll find my address there.

As for the Verizon article, they are correct. 0.002 cents is 0.002% of a dollar. Write the percent out as a number and it's 0.00002 dollars.

Have the best

-=TK

[hollygrahm.livejournal.com]

"...appropriate opposite for someone who has numeracy"

Iirc, illiteracy with math is called innumeracy.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Indeed, the article is slightly misquoted in SA's post. The actual transcript it links to the link to, on the other hand, genuinely has Verizon staff claiming that, while 1 dollar is not 1 cent, and 0.5 dollars is not 0.5 cents, in fact 0.002 dollars is the same as 0.002 cents.

(Apparently the real rate was 0.002 dollars, but the staff were too stupid to understand the difference, and so quoted it as 0.002 cents.)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Ok. Got it. That's what I get for not reading it, I suppose.

Have the best

-=TK

[silveradept]

That's what I wanted to call it, but it's a funny-looking word, even if it was right, so I wasn't sure.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

The Verizon bit...that's just inexcusable. I'd assume that if you were working in a billing call center you would have to pass at least a BASIC math test and would KNOW that cents are NOT dollars, and that it in fact takes 100 cents to make a dollar. Then again, that's the kind of stuff I expect someone to have learned in the third grade. 2% of a dollar is 2 cents. .02% of a dollar is .02 cents, but take away the percent sign and it's a whole new ball park.

Booklistr - Stranger in a Strange Land (http://www.brainsturbator.com/pdf/StrangerInAStrangeLand.pdf) is good if you haven't read it already, and check tihs out (http://www.hermetics.org/ebooks.html)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

kind of makes sense, innumerable means "Cannot be measured"...so someone who can't measure....

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

On the Cyber addicts article -

I think the article is grossly exaggerating between the title of the article, and the content. Er. maybe that's the wrong word I want to use. The article seems to talk about people who can't function without their net connection, as opposed to the people who are simply online all the time like yourself and myself, and most of our friends. I don't consider use net-obsessed. I consider the person with the blackberry who turns it on as soon as the plane lands to be net-obsessed, if that makes sense.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

sorry, thought of something else. the article claims:

Of those surveyed, 68.9 percent described themselves as regular Internet users. Just under six percent felt their relationships suffered as a result of spending too much time on line, while nearly 14 percent found it hard to stay from the Internet for several days at a time.

but what about those people who are in long distance relationships that pretty much depend on being on the internet to talk to their other? Like dave, who's gf is in Korea for work right now? Sure, they both spend a crapton of time online, but they do it to talk to each other, so what percentage of that 68.9% are people who are on the internet because it's how they talk to their significant other?

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Huge difference between aggregate statistics and individual circumstances.