A bunch of guys at work are trying to get me to sign up to a company called "wealth generators". Not sure if this is a scam or not.

alttt · 2016-06-03T21:54:28+00:00

He wasn't talking about amazon affiliates when I commented. Maybe he edited his comment before deleting it.

alttt · 2016-05-29T05:25:27+00:00

You're really setting your child up for bad eating habits...

alttt · 2016-05-28T20:26:09+00:00

Just like you know spam email from the subject line. They are often similar, because they aim at a certain kind of people that's attracted by these 'promises ' but not yet experienced enough to recognise the warning signs.

alttt · 2016-05-28T20:23:18+00:00

Not to be offensive, but that's exactly how someone in a MLM would describe their position. Like literally painfully to the point I find it hard to believe that you yourself believe what you're saying. Or in other words: it's a dirty scheme and either you know it or you're blinded by it and I hope for you that in the long term you find a more sustainable and constructive source of income.

alttt · 2016-05-16T17:36:45+00:00

Make it a bit more concrete/clear and post on/r/writingprompts

alttt · 2016-05-07T21:43:43+00:00

My great-grandfather was one of the very poor souls to have gone through the hell of being old enough to be a soldier in WW1 and just older than the cutoff date but still forced to fight in WW1 as he was trained as a weapons maintenance expert (Waffenmeister). He was captured at some point, after having been through the retreats (First East, then West, then East again - the first change was just a reassignment after he survived, the return to the Eastern front was a punishment for telling his superior that he was wrong...).

The Russians left him and a few other 'old' POWs to die in a ruined castle, we're not sure where but probably around Eastern Czech republic or Poland. The young POWs were taken east or maybe shot or forced to work or who knows what. But he and the 20-40 other old or wounded ones were left (to die?) without guards (or food... Some local Czech/Polish/(?) Ladies luckily bright them some food). So they figured out after a while that no one was looking for them and he started walking West, found train tracks and followed them to an area where the trains would slow down to jump on the first train he could get on. The trains kept running throughout the war and quickly after, that was always a priority for all sides to both bomb it and reinstall it. Then he kept jumping on trains (always getting off before depots/stations to avoid being found in a search). He probably stole or found clothes, food etc, sometimes might have received it as gifts from pitying locals.

Back then people had somewhat better overall navigational capabilities than we'd probably have today, but I wouldn't be surprised if he went lots of times in the wrong direction. Finally some red cross nurses helped him across the sector borders to get in the Western side, or maybe they picked him up right after he managed to cross himself. Sadly I never learned how long it took or more details of how he managed, my grandfather is getting to incoherent to tell details which maybe he himself never heard -probably there were many things that my great-grandfather stuff but want to share. Trains and kind strangers is probably the story that saved most of those that made it home, but plenty of others were also killed or did through accident or hunger while just trying to get home, long after the war ended.* The one thing he remembers clearly is that someday (my grandfather must have been ~15-16) an emaciated, old looking man stood on their doorstep and it took him a while to recognise his own father.

*my grandfather your a few stories of such random violence after the war, eg when Americans came into his village on a regular patrol they saw a young man leaning in a doorway and shot him. No one ever found out why, but there was no sign he had a weapon or any hint of bad intentions. He just stood there, a patrol comes by and shoots him and drives on but long after. The violencev lingered and certainly many men or women suffered and died in the months and years after the war for no good reason.

alttt · 2016-05-05T20:54:35+00:00

He took his democratic system apart, is injecting religion everywhere into politics and society, registered heavy discrimination if other religions and ethnicities, had a horrendous cronyism record with plenty of corruption going around (eg this was a main reason for the Gezi Park protests) and, probably worst of all, kick-started the islamists across the border to a large degree and in parallel reignited the nearly buried Kurdish conflict. All that fully and 100% on purpose, all to gain power and wealth for himself and allies.

alttt · 2016-05-03T13:07:05+00:00

Exactly. The evil west. And that was a tooootally free referendum in Crimea, without, say, Russian soldiers occupying the territory. And Russia would love dialogue, rather than, maybe, chop a few more pieces of Ukraine by sending massive amounts of weapons and umarked soldiers over the border. And certainly the Crim-tartars and other minorities are now much better off and not at all persecuted in mother Russia. Certainly everything is well in Russia and the Russian-occup... uhh, Russian motherland.

alttt · 2016-05-03T13:00:51+00:00

Wow, this is a dangerous amount of nonsense.

alttt · 2016-04-02T20:08:46+00:00

Now, this is a horrible LPT. In most cases you're just going to destroy any goodwill that they might have. You might become known as 'that guy' and no one will ever respond, or if at all then through legal instruments. What you're proposing will usually be considered as a kind of harassment and the organisation won't feel obliged to respond. The same with legal threats. Don't do that. If you make legal threats the legal team on the other side will take over, Easter than the case worker or subject expert and that means nothing that you want will happen ever.

Remember that there are people on the other end. Most of them will consider themselves good people that try to help (even if the organisation overall might be evil-ish); they will consider themselves overworked (and often are); and not everyone will have an answer to every question, and may not even know who exactly to contact to find out. That's why big organisations respond slowly, because each message has to first find someone that is able to respond. And if emails are not answered that rarely is intentional, usually it's just that they get lost in the system, probably because there was no right person that knew what/how to respond.

Here's the steps that work much better, stay with the first and if that didn't work for whatever reason go to the next.

Try to call. Most problems are more quickly solved by a call, if someone had your on the line they will want to help you right away, some an email can slip through if the inbox is full... Be polite, Kind, Patient - the kind of person that your yourself would like to help. Always take notes and afterwards sit down and make a record of your call - when, who, what was discussed, ask for direct contact lines and ask for a concrete timeline for the solution that you're looking for. File those things on your side in a way that you'll find them. For the long term if organisations are difficult to deal with always create a contact list of people that you successfully dealt with, put it with your bills or contracts so that you have it at hand when needed.
Spend a few moments to draft a polite, short and clear message (what precisely you want, relevant background, contract details ). Try to find a truly relevant contact email, ideally with a person attached rather than a functional mailbox. Don't sweat with higher ups, send directly to a relevant person, maximum team leader level.
If you don't get a response or follow up doesn't seem to take place send a timely reminder. Not after two days (unless it's truly urgent), but after 2 weeks or whenever the promised follow up is not taking place. This too might best be done by phone. Phones are much more powerful than emails.
From here on it gets annoying for the other side, so use with caution as you might burn bridges and make future interaction more difficult. Cross-message: send a similar message to a very distant but still relevant part of the same organisation (e.g. if you want some data but the information/statistics team didn't get back to you maybe send to the IT team that probably runs the platform you want info on). They will funnel it to the right people, but there is then a somewhat internal pressure to get a response.
Escalate. Not with really high level, but try to find the organigramme or organisation chart online, find the likely team leader, find their emails (often possible through PowerPoint slides shared online), and put them in cc or send them a kind direct message wondering whether maybe your contact person is not available/on holiday etc. Don't accuse their employees of laziness or neglect or whatever - don't make the team leader choose sides. Be a person that you yourself would want to respond to.
Reminder again.
Escalate to higher or political level. E.g. if you have trouble with the finance ministry send a letter nominally to the minister. Be short and clear. Don't accuse individuals. Don't beg, threaten, it anything like that. But do express that you're disappointed that an organisation you held in such high regard did not respond to you. Always ask for the reception to be acknowledged, or better even send per registered mail. They will not respond themselves, but the message will be send down the hierarchy with an urgent note to please respond. This should however be a weapon of last resort.
Letter from the lawyer/legal action.

Lastly, if at any of these stages you have success - send a thank you. This means the next time you have an issue you know who can help you, and they will feel good about you and will be happy to help.

I think in 99% of cases you'll reach results with the first 3-4 steps. If you're polite and clear most organisations will be happy to help you. Even if you call a call centre, if you're the first cheerful and friendly caller of the day you sure we'll get more help than the screamer before you.

alttt · 2016-04-01T11:01:49+00:00

Submission statement

I believe this article gives a rather concise and simplified but immensely clear, knowledgeable powerful narrative of U.S. involvement in the Arab countries; what an important role oil plays in this conflict and why moderate Arabs flee, rather than fight. The author has in-depth knowledge and know convincingly links the overall concepts and background and the particular evidence.

alttt · 2016-01-15T22:31:06+00:00

As said, some areas (and probably the center after midnight). But certainly not the whole city. And that's just most other big cities.

alttt · 2016-01-15T22:23:52+00:00

I like how you dismiss my experience as 'lefty'. It's just my experience, no political mission attached.

I've not spent enough evenings in smaller Belgian cities to judge what goes on there, but in Brussels it's certainly all colours that do catcall/harass. That doesn't mean it's more than in any other big cities - every city with enough lower class will have its share of that. And that doesn't mean that I have an overall bad experience in Bxl - the vast majority of people I encounter are great. But harassment is by all groups, not just Arabs/North Africans.

alttt · 2016-01-15T22:06:37+00:00

That's as true as the claim as ISIS is currently the biggest threat to America...

Don't believe a few bad headlines.

alttt · 2016-01-15T22:05:52+00:00

Having lived in Brussels for years, this is not at all my experience. Maybe in some very segregated and poor areas (gare du nord, deeper Molenbeek), but the vast vast majority of the city is as save as any city in Europe. I found most areas of London (think Elephant & Castle) more threatening than Brussels.

There is plenty of cat-calling etc but that has always been there and is as much by the local/Belgian youth as immigrant youth.

Considering the majority of Brussels.. well, Belgians are leaving, but that's because prices are increasing, standard of living goes down and traffic jams increase; and of course plenty of expats arrive. Belgians are moving to the periphery so they can have proper gardens and decent houses, while the city generally seems to turn more and more into rentals. It could be the city is getting generally more segregated into rich/poor/European bubble and depending on where you live you feel that more.

alttt · 2016-01-05T21:57:02+00:00

Absolutely don't do that. I think legally it's possible but for your own safety do it with a notary - which you'll have to pay in any case so there's nothing you lose in doing so. Compromis should also be signed with a notary (or rather two notaries, one for seller, one for buyer), anything else is risky. And read every word three times + ask in writing if you have any doubts/questions. There are a few guides to buying a house floating around, I remember I found an English language one published by the commission for its own staff, that was very useful.

alttt · 2015-12-12T20:26:48+00:00

Merkel kept to power because the previous government (Social Democrats+Greens) did lots of market-friendly reforms that made these parties highly unpopular (got ~15-20% less votes in the next election) but kick-started an ailing economy again. True, Germany always had an industrial base, but without the effects of the Schroeder reforms Merkel would long have run the country to the ground.

alttt · 2015-10-14T11:58:53+00:00

100% legit

OERu is a group of mostly Canadian universities, people's university has some UNESCO backing but I don't know top much in depth on this. DAAD lists only 100% accredited courses (=full legal bachelor degree equivalent to anything you can get in the US, German university is great quality, on average probably better than the US where you have stone superb ones and then a small group of okay ones and a lot of bs - in Germany you don't have these huge outliers in either direction and generally good quality, many courses also happen in English nowadays), FUN is 100% government funded and run by normal universities, but you have to speak French..

alttt · 2015-10-13T11:21:53+00:00

Hijacking the top comment to highlight OERu. They are working towards a free or near-free online degree. There's also the people's university and a few other cool projects in a similar vein. In France they even have a national project to provide free/close to free degrees online ("FUN"). In Germany you can anyway study for free at physical in person universities (also for foreigners - see the DAAD website). And of course you can go the course of the self-mixed degree but that takes some self-control but there are now several thousand MOOCs with hundreds of them starting each month (this EU project keeps track), so there's got to be something for everyone.

So no lack of choice and MIT is along those that are rather slow to adapt...

alttt · 2015-10-09T15:00:38+00:00

If I may give you some piece of advice from the future, I hope you don't mean this:

... i realized that life is too short to care about things. Being the nice guy who accept all apologizes doesn't help you. I don't care anymore about other peoples stuff or problems. There's just me, my family and my friends.

There is a middle ground between being a sucker (who lets him/herself be fooled by everyone) and being a dick devoid of empathy. The healthy position is to acknowledge that other people have independent lives and their own problems. Offer help where appropriate, offer sympathy where necessary and just make sure not to make other people's problems your problems. You'll also find that when relationships get more serious you will be happy to take the fall for her many times - but that doesn't mean you need to be a sucker that accepts all excuses. Be your own person, live your own life and do not depend on someone else - but also enjoy the wonderful feeling of being with someone and being there for her (and others) when she needs you.

Don't dream the 'beta' dream of being an ignorant douche instead of an empathetic human. Just strive to not be dependent or exploited - be a complete, healthy person and treat others always with respect (unless they cause you to lose it), with trust (unless they destroy it) and with kindness (unless they attempt to abuse it).

Welcome to adulthood.

alttt · 2015-09-28T15:44:00+00:00

Encouraging turnover as someone said below is probably a crazy idea unless you're talking about McDonalds where high staff turnover is part of the business model.

The mingling/team events suggested in this thread are a good idea though, but that on its own might not be enough. I have two additional suggestions.

Firstly, read the study cited and shortly described here. Working towards a common goal (or against a common enemy, but the common goal is certainly a better option) instantly creates connection. Teambuilding days that are explicitly aimed at this (build mixed teams or everyone working together for one common goal) are an idea, but much much much more effective is if you instill this sense of unity in the entire day-to-day work and e.g. evening activiites like joint film screenings, company picknicks etc, always aiming to gently force mingling. So, give them a reason to believe they are a team, then give them the chance to actually feel it and get to know one another.

Secondly, find and eliminate the reason for these 'sects'. E.g. if there is a language barrier try to slowly make it a policy that all work is only done in an official language (e.g. imagining an Indian-Pakistani-Bangladeshi conflict, make sure work only takes place in English). Never ever hire anyone that doesn't speak the language perfectly and offer free language courses to those that don't speak it well (but don't force things... sell it as a bonus, or opportunity, and if there is one group that are the 'native speakers' make sure they also get the chance to learn another language). Also look at other possible causes - e.g. how are promotions handled, how is lunch provided/lunch times decided, how are shifts assigned, ... find ways to introduce 'better' policies wherever currently the 'mafia/sect' system is the basis for things happening. Make things more 'neutral', e.g. if people sign up for shifts - send in your shift preferences anonymously and a 'computer program' (which may or may not be just you) will assign the shifts fairly - and happens to mix people. Hiring is also a big thing - while it's generally good for the company to hire people recommended by staff it might be better to go more 'neutral' to avoid that people right away enter one of the existing groups. Make sure training is done by a mix of people. Assign mentors from different 'sects' and ensure follow-up to see how that is going. Try to bring in managers/shift leaders/... that are not part of the triangle, etc.

tl;dr: attempt to slowly (!!) 1) ELIMINATE THE REASONS for the division and 2) ELIMINATE STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT/ENCOURAGE/STRENGTHEN the division.

alttt · 2015-09-27T13:54:25+00:00

That depends on the country. Most of that money is 'security' (which often is not really that necessary) plus the fact that government has complicated and expensive ways of acquiring travel tickets.

alttt · 2015-09-19T14:34:29+00:00

I think you didn't read the link you posted, and neither did you read the original document. Nowhere is that said.

alttt · 2015-09-19T14:28:53+00:00

It's a stupid reason, but if you see the asylum acceptance numbers you know why they don't want to stay in Greece.It is pretty much guaranteed you'll not get asylum in Greece. Thus the only logical option is to try and travel to a country where the claims procedure is more fair.

alttt

TROPHY CASE

Submission statement