The Ottermanempire.com » rambling

The UK disease that seems to be catching on in the USA: Everyone’s a victim.

Haltse — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:44:46 +0000

BBC NEWS | Business | 850 jobs go at Mini car factory

The UK has a cradle to grave welfare state that may, arguably look after the body, but the real damage is done to the mind.

“I’ve worked here for three-and-a-half years and now I’m being sacked for no reason. I’ve been used.”

What else did they think they were doing? Of course they were used that’s the whole bloody point. Rather than being people that are in , at least illusory, control of their lives the opposite seems to be the mindset.

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I knew we’ were f’ed but this is ridiculous. Bush will come on economy.

Haltse — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:19:41 +0000

Ouch:)

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Socialist cars what the Volk is that all about.

Haltse — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Last night I was at a meeting of our libertarian atheist ( motorcycle) group and the talk was about growing up in communist Hungary. I’ve more thoughts on this later but suffice to say that Scotland was not remotely as restrictive as Hungary but the underpinning thought that society can be planned as some kind of ideological exercise leads to really really crappy automobiles. ( Lada , Skoda and the infamous E. German Trabant. What’s even more amusing is that when the Scots tried building cars something not a millions unreliable miles away was born. Note that the cars were being built in Scotland as a result of the UK gov only lending money to the car makers if they set up the factories in a place where the jobs were politically advantageous, not that made sense, hence you have parts made in Scotland , driven a few hundred miles to have work done on them and then returned. That’s pretty much what happens when markets are mandated inefficient BS happens.

This from Wikipedia

The Glaswegian workforce who were all recruited from the shipbuilding industry were also not versed in the intricacies of motor vehicle assembly, and Imp build quality and reliability suffered. They also brought with them their militant left-wing values, and as a result strike action and industrial disputes were a rule rather than an exception. In 1964 there were 31 stoppages and only a third of the plant capacity was realised – 50,000 rather than 150,000. On the other hand the Imp was seen as a “Scottish car” and was popular north of the border.

All I can say is that the Imps sold a shit lot of Datsuns ( Nissan) as people were getting tired of having to bump start their relatives at the end of visits. I’m surprised at how well loved the cars seem to have become and put that down to the UK diet of deranged moo cows.

Hillman Imp – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Doogie Howser WMD aka Dr Horrible’s sing along blog

Haltse — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:32:00 +0000

Fans of things Whedonesque have got a lot to be thankful for. This show may be instructive on proving that Unions still have a use That point is that whenever a sea change in technology ,be it media or improvements to manufacturing , education ( yeah right) they are always present in the role of societal Canute. I will grant you their role had value back in the early days but in the latter half of the 20C it’s been all about maintaining their power from that point on , the organization uber alles. I digress but this show is a product of the WGA strike and rumblings on who gets paid what in relation to online content from both sag and aftra. There’s a great post on that here from the closest thing to an objectivist I think you’ll find in media ( I saw closest as I am agnostic about their existence;)

Anyway this is a mini web series , three episodes, and other than note that anyone I know already has this , so , so who the hell am I telling? Frak that .

Think live action Venture brothers with a tad of Pinky tossed in. Seeing Captain Mal, er Hammer again rocks as the “good “ guy that wants to take the heroine on a tour of a VW’s rear , you know somewhere uncomfortable was great. It’s not like most web shows , ephemeral to the power of mayfly , you truly can watch and sing along more times that may be healthful:) Don’t be horrible, buy this , don’t rip it off as I want to see more, more more!

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Hit-and-run victim left in street without help "claimed" – CNN.com

Haltse — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:29:49 +0000

Read the whole thing. Even with the later facts that came in CNN keeps a misleading headline and it seems that cursory scan would leave you with a massively different view if you hit para 4 that negates much of story.

As to the Police chief a little reading on group psychology e.g the bystander effect
,something he SHOULD be aware of ,would have prevented a statement that is rather unfortunate.Consider how much of policing in a large city relies on knowledge of groups and human nature and to have your head protector denounce you all as immoral. Nice going,real nice.

capital city’s biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."

"We have no regard for each other," said Chief

Or apparently for waiting till more facts come in.

Hit-and-run victim left in street without help – CNN.com

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Randomness and mental scatterings.

Haltse — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:19:22 +0000

I’m wondering if any guide to influencing people is effective if they’ve already gained many years experience of you. I’m wondering if you start pushing their influence and compliance buttons how well they spot it? Do we really have to play the game of crafting onion requests to have people agree to the what looks like a concession but hey, that’s what we wanted you to think anyway. Maybe that’s why APS keep asking for insane increases to make us all happy when instead of screwing us they use lube first.

So here I am reading in parallel Tom Robbins Still Life with the woodpecker( 5th time round, a book on influence the psychology of persuasion by Robert Cialdini , a book on how organizations are inherently evil,Calculated chaos by Butler Shaffer and have just finished The invisibles book, kissing Mr Quimper, by Grant Morrison. Is it any I wonder how I can’t finish a sentence around people without trailing off?

It’s hard to rein in new applications of information in the short term which sadly is about the only timespan most American’s work on. They miss the here and now because they are so fucking anxious for it to arrive that they miss it going by. ADD makes perfect sense here I think Rushkoff’s take on this being an adaptive strategy to the messages hitting you daily is closer to the truth than would be convenient for those making a living from the effects of it.

Ok since this is a dump post.

People that haven’t read Violent Acres are missing out.

Penn Jillette has started vlogging over at Cracker.com rather than link directly check out the header on the referring blog is worthy of your consideration.

And this defense of liberty by yeah I say this for humor value “Canadian” since freedom to me isn’t border related but cultural. Via Ernunnos but then every damn blog I read the day after;) This would have been awesome had it been a scripted show. That it’s reality , Alberta a Canadian one ,made my Sunday. We’re talking about beating out Summer Glau kicking ass in the Sarah Connor chronicles too. I’m watching hockey, getting intellectual stimulation from Canadians, other than Bear Naked Ladies ,and listening to a CBC series called how to think about science. I’m stuck in the land of the hot dog between a rock hard tortilla and a Tim Horton’s place.

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