On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:09:58 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> All I can say is that IME, as soon as you ask somebody about a job they
> instantly say "how many years experience do you have?" If you say some
> number less than 3, suddenly nobody wants to know you. I have no idea
> what the hell is so special about 3, but what ever. Employers seem
> completely uninterested in what qualifications you have, only how much
> experience you have.

How long have you been where you are now?

Jim

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On 5 Jul 2008 14:47:45 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:

>
>Not a bad answer.  Here's a new question:
>
>Why is a duck?

"Have you considered the possibility," I countered, "that I simply assumed that
you were another drunken, disheveled, ignorant bum? This city is full of them,
you know." 

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:45:06 +0300, Eero Ahonen wrote:
> 
>> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> Eero Ahonen wrote:
>>>
>>>> I blame society (and Canada?).
>>> Aren't those muturally exclusive?
>>>
>>> *runs away*
>>>
>>>
>> No, they both can be blamed, but MAC (Mothers Against Canada) says we
>> shouldn't blame society, but Canada instead.
> 
> I'm just waiting to see how many get the reference. ;-)
> 
> Jim

Never saw the movie, but of course I know what it is.

...Chambers

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Warp wrote:
>   I have noticed that many people have some kind of conscious, intentional
> mind block for anything involving math. If you try to explain or induce
> them to solve even the simplest of math problems, they immediately curl
> into their "happy world" which has a thick wall which has a sign which
> says "I'm not good at math" (which they usually also say out). It sometimes
> goes so far that it kind of feels like they were intentionally protecting
> themselves from learning even the simplest of math. Even if they were
> completely capable of easily learning the principles to solve the simple
> task, they *don't want* to do that. They completely reject the notion.
> It's like they had some kind of fear or phobia, and they like to hide
> behind their "I'm not good at math" defense. Any explanations or attempts
> at teaching will fall to deaf ears. Heaven forbid that they ever actually
> learn math!

My mother in law does this with *everything*.  No matter how smart she 
really is (and, granted, she's not the brightest bulb in the package, 
but she's not a *complete* idiot!), she hides behind the excuse "I can't 
do that" and refuses to learn *anything*.

She drives me crazy (and not in a good way).

...Chambers

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Invisible wrote:
> OK, so I can't spell very well. I think we've established that one. It's 
> actually a miracle I can read or write at all! :-P

I'd say it's a miracle *any* of us can :)  It makes no sense at all that 
things such as abstract information exist; but it does!

...Chambers

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Invisible wrote:
> No no - *everybody* gets confused as hell by taxes. ;-)
> 
> [Why do they make them so complicated? Is it a conspiracy to ensure you 
> get them wrong and hand over more money than you're supposed to??]


It's a matter of policy, actually.

The tax code in the US has been, unfortunately, chosen as politicians' 
favorite way of rewarding certain activities and industries.  Any time 
they want to encourage particular behaviors by people or corporations, 
they add a new rule to the tax code.  Things like,

1) We want people to invest in energy production, so returns on energy 
investments are taxed at a much lower rate than other investments.

2) We want people to save for retirement, so we'll allow a certain class 
of savings accounts that have tax-free growth.

3) We want people to give money to charity, so we'll allow them to 
deduct up to a certain amount from their tax liability when they donate 
that same amount to qualifying charities.

Now, when you consider that politicians have been doing this for more 
than one hundred years, you begin to get an idea about how complicated 
the tax code currently is.

The problem, of course, is that the tax system is now being used for 
something entirely unintended.  What it is meant for is to fund the 
Federal Government.  What it is being used for is social reform.

...Chambers

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Warp wrote:
>   Here in Finland all that is automatic: You receive a pre-filled form
> with all your income, tax reductions, etc. already put in. If everything
> is correct, you don't have to do anything about it. Only if there's
> something not in the form already (for example some significant payment
> which has not been notified to the tax officials, or something which is
> worth tax reductions) you'll have to add it to the form and return it.

It's official: the Finnish are more intelligent than the Americans!

How can I move to Finland? :)

By the way, the IRS recently looked at completely automating the tax 
process (meaning the individual would only have to look over the final 
result to make sure it's accurate).  It's one of their goals, but they 
decided that the technical hurdles involved would make a full 
implementation problematic (while they did collect bids from various 
companies, the IRS's own analysis concluded that most of those bids were 
wildly optimistic at best).

Even doing it for a small portion of the population would be more 
trouble that it's worth, at present.

A more realistic immediate goal for them is allowing you to do your 
taxes online at the IRS's web site, rather than paying a third party to 
do them for you (there is a partnership program between the IRS and 
various tax prep companies that allows those companies to do your taxes 
online for free, but only for certain qualifying individuals {your 
income has to be in a certain range, and your return can't be very 
complex}).  This would eliminate a large part of the business of tax 
firms, but the IRS actually seems more concerned about the taxpayers 
than the tax preparers.

Maybe that's because the IRS isn't run by politicians?  Unfortunately, 
they still have to report to them :(

...Chambers

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Warp wrote:
>
> It's like they had some kind of fear or phobia, and they like to hide
> behind their "I'm not good at math" defense. Any explanations or attempts
> at teaching will fall to deaf ears. Heaven forbid that they ever actually
> learn math!
> 

You can even annoy them by using numbers for everything possible. I, for 
example, tend to refer roads with numbers instead of names. If I'll 
drive to Lahti, I won't say "I'll go to Lammi and then continue to 
Lahti", but instead "I'll take 290-292" or if I'll go to see my mum I 

interesting looks on theier faces :).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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Darren New wrote:
> BTW - Hancock wasn't nearly as bad as everyone says. It wasn't high on 
> the list, but it wasn't notably worse than Speed Racer or Indiana Jones. 
> It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. :-)

It certainly wasn't what I expected.  But it did have some funny moments :)

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:
> It's official: the Finnish are more intelligent than the Americans!
> How can I move to Finland? :)

I was thinking the same thing until Warp mentioned that the sign of the 
temperature in centigrade is how he decided whether to wear short 
sleeves or long sleeves. I don't think I could handle that. :-)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
  Helpful housekeeping hints:
   Check your feather pillows for holes
    before putting them in the washing machine.

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