2012-2024 Form

''Turning a blind eye''April 1801: During the Battle of Copenhagen, this man, Admiral Horatio Nelson, ignores a direct order to retreat and the expression “turning a blind eye” is born.The order was sent by a flag signal from the ship commanded by his naval superior. Lord Nelson had lost the sight in one eye during a previous battle, so he simply held his telescope to his 'blind eye' and carried on regardless.Brits have been turning a blind eye and carrying on regardless ever since…June 1966: My parents, my brother Greg (3) and I are on the deck of the SS United States, a spiffy American liner en route from Southampton to New York.All passengers are on deck for a safety drill. Anxious ratings are trying to ensure that everyone is wearing their life jacket. My dad is trying to thread Greg's little limbs into an infant life vest. Greg is having a toddler meltdown and holding his arms rigid so Dad can't get the life vest on. The ratings insist that there will be hell to pay if their officers see a passenger without a life jacket. Dad says that he appreciates their problem, but is not prepared to break either of Greg's arms to ensure that he is suitably attired. After a brief conflab, the ratings usher Dad and Greg into a nearby broom cupboard and let them out once their officers have passed by.September 1966: We are crossing the Atlantic in the other direction (from the St Lawrence Seaway to Liverpool) on a Cunard liner with a British crew. Another safety drill. Another meltdown by Greg as Dad tries to get him into a life jacket. A British rating wanders over and takes the life jacket out of Dad's hands. He smiles: “Never mind, Sir. We aren't going to sink and if we do we’ll get the little bugger into it somehow.” His officers glide past. Oddly enough they fail to notice a very small passenger who isn't wearing a life jacket. The ship doesn't sink.31 December 2015: London Gatwick airport. My twenty one year old daughter and I arrive back from a short trip to New York to the organised chaos of a British airport. Our flight has arrived at about the same time as several others, including one from Kingston, Jamaica. We clear the baggage carousel and passport control in double quick time and walk through the "Nothing to Declare" customs area. Ahead of us are two young women about my daughter's age who've arrived on the Kingston flight. One has a cardboard box marked in large letters "BEEF PATTIES". I make up that these are eagerly awaited by family or friends who are looking forward to a nostalgic taste of a former home.The customs guy looks at the box and announces: "So those are vegetarian!" The nonplussed young woman says: "No, it's beef.” I'm standing six feet behind her. His eyes and mine meet and we exchange a very small smile. I shimmer forward to her side and say in a stage whisper: “He doesn't want to take your food. You can't bring in meat.” He and I exchange another micro smile as he triumphantly declares: “Yes, vegetarian!” and waves her through.No snacks were harmed in the making of this very British moment.

Many Turks work like slaves.Long hours in little shops, 10–12 hours a day, 6 days a week, with low employee benefits or labor rights, and little pay.They deserve better.Many things are outrageously expensive compared to their income. Used cars, electronics, anything imported…A pair of Nikes can be a week’s pay for some. A laptop or smartphone can cost a month or two of wages.Want an iPhone 8? It's only 5,000 lira!The minimum monthly wage *after taxes* is 2,020.91 lira.And that is a 26% increase from 2018. (Can you imagine what it was like before? 1,603 lira after taxes.)Car and fuel prices are CRAZY, too!!Many don't understand how high used car prices are in Turkey compared to America.Back in 2016 or 2017, I bought an old 2004 Honda Accord in Kusadasi for $10,000, or 35,000 lira at that exchange rate.I had sold the same car (same year and model, everything same) two months earlier, in America, for $2,500, or 8,750 lira.Same car cost 4 times as much in Turkey.. not counting the exchange rate on top of that.Now, pay close attention—For me, $2,500 was 1.5 weeks of work, working at an office job. ~ 60 hours of work.In Turkey this car was 35,000 lira? Some might make that in a year, working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week..3,290 hours of work!!Google used car prices (in U.S.), or check the used car price estimates at Kelley Blue Book and see how much used cars sell for here...then compare to used cars selling in Turkey on sahibinden.com.For the same old car they have to fill with fuel at prices that are the highest in the region!! One liter is ~7.10 lira. In neighboring Iran, it is ~ 0.29 lira. Why do Turks pay 24 times as much for fuel as their neighbor?*I told my Turkish friend about the difference in car prices… he couldn't believe, and started telling his other friends.Part of it is how the government collects taxes, but it is difficult for the average person who lives there.Turks work ~20 to 50 times as many hours to buy that same car or shoes or technology as the rest of the Western world.Why?These are not some luxury items! It is not fair for them and it makes me angry.The sad part is many don't realize how crazy it is to pay that much. A lot do, of course. But nothing changes.My Turkish friends were not exposed to what fair capitalism looks like. So, many think capitalism is bad.I don't “like” capitalism, but I don't think the concept is horrible. But how it is done there is very bad.The solution is complicated but possible:Revamp the economy to be fair to workers. Pay people more money, don't make them work so many hours, improve work conditions and employee rights, stop charging so much for import products and just improve the tax code.. and get the lira back to a normal exchange rate. I left Turkey when it was $1 = 3.5 lira. And two years later, it is almost $1 = 6 lira. There is no reason for that.The US needs improvement, too, I am not saying our economy is perfect because it's not. But I lived in Turkey, and there's a huge difference. Many people just walk or take crowded small buses or ride scooters. For those with cars, they convert them to run on LPG, because of the fuel costs!Matt Cates's answer to How are the Turkish people perceived by the rest of the world?Edit: There's lots of great things about Turkey!! I love Turkey. I really do. This answer was not meant to be comprehensive or cover every aspect of the country. The question asked about “ugly truths” so my answer was specific to that, and is only my opinion based on my personal experience and observations as one person. And I am not a troll and I don't have an agenda. I just like answering questions on Quora and this one happens to be more popular than I expected.Tamam mı?Edit 2: Someone wrote that minimum wage is a liberal idea. Well I am not a liberal. Companies can not remove minimum wage and just pay whatever is the lowest amount a person will work for.If you do that, people cannot survive.. and they will have no disposable income to buy things.Workers are also consumers!So of course you have to pay a decent living wage. The problem is not the wages, the problem is companies are 1) sometimes too greedy, 2) have inefficient processes that cut into their profits. So they need to improve processes and not take it out of employee wages. These are the people running the business. Value the workers, invest in their training and education, pay them more, listen to them and learn how to improve and grow the business.*Update:Today a pair of Nike Air VaporMax Flyknit shoes is $190 in America. At the minimum wage possible, this is 15–20 hours of work to buy a pair in America.Same shoes in Turkey are 1,200 lira, ~ 120 hours of work for a minimum wage worker. So at least 8 times as much work for this one example, because of the exchange rate… the lira is at $1 = 5.80 TL. Wtf? (Update: now at 5.94??)

Sigh. Here we go. Again.Do Americans really need guns?Yes. Many Americans really need guns.See, the United States is not like many of the other first-world countries, especially those in the EU.And because of these differences, many folks here in the States need guns for their livelihood and survival.For instance, my friend Matt lives in Alaska. He’s in the middle of BFE and surrounded by wild beasts, including both brown bear and grizzlies. And no one wants to mess with a grizzly, not even on a good day. An estimated 98% of US’s brown bear population lives in Alaska, so, lots of Alaskans own guns.Then there’s the fact that 20% of Americans, one in five, live in rural areas. That’s 60 million people spread across nearly 97% of this vast land. And when I say vast, I mean vast.Christ, Texas itself is bigger than Germany, the Netherlands, half of Austria, a good portion of France, and then some.Or how about this one. Most of central Europe and a few seas fit within the same land size as the US, not including Alaska, which is huge in and of itself and more than large enough to cover most of Norway, Sweden, and Finland.So… yeah. We’re pretty big. And rather rural. Let me bring you back to that statistic. Only 20% of the US population lives on 97% of the land.But so what? What’s rural have to do with anything?A damn lot.For those of us living in rural America, we face different challenges than those in urban areas. We don’t have to worry about the closest dog park or having a purse just the right size to carry our pup in. Instead, we have to worry about protecting our livestock from things like coyotes and rabid coons. Livestock that many city folks are munching down on, I may add.What’s more, police aren’t just a phone call away. For some of us, they’re an hour or more away. Legit. So these people need a way to protect themselves that doesn’t involve calling 911.Then there are many of us who rely on taking wild game to fill our freezers and our stomachs. People who hunt to survive. Because maybe they don’t want to buy the shit meat they sell at Walmart and few small towns have a local butcher. Maybe because they need lean meat that’s not filled with hormones due to their Thyroid condition. Maybe they can’t afford to buy meat and need it to survive.Or maybe the farmer down the road gets extra hunting permits because the damn deer are eating the shit out of his crops and he won’t have any left to sell to Kroger's or the dairy farmers or the ethanol companies if somebody doesn't get the population down.So, to come back to the question at hand, without referencing the Second Amendment, do Americans really need guns?Yes. Yes, we do.Feel free to check out a few of my other answers about gun ownership and why I carry:Molly Carter's answer to Why do you need a gun?Molly Carter's answer to Question for Americans: Do you have a permit to carry a firearm, and do you carry one regularly?Molly Carter's answer to Why does a man like guns?

In the United States that I want to grow my children up in? Absolutely.Yes, the undocumented create a burden on the system.Their children, born in the U.S. go to college for free, fully subsidized by tax payers while they themselves pay no social and federal taxes. The only taxes they pay are what visitors to the U.S. pay through sales taxes.They are afraid to report crimes and criminals.They are unable to afford quality care and end up burdening the E.R. as their sole means of healthcare.Unethical employers are able to exploit the undocumented and replace qualified American workers with less than market value wages and benefits (more on that below).In case of a disaster, the local authorities are overwhelmed with the undocumented and this affects the access for everyone.One of the core pillars of a successful society is honesty and integrity of each and every member of society :If my neighbor's car stopped working tomorrow, would they break into my car and start driving it because they are afraid I might say no when they ask for it?If I was gone for a year, would my neighbor break in and throw a party in there because I was not using my house to live in and thus they felt it was a waste of resources and took it upon themselves to use it as they thought would be beneficial to their friends?If they came across my bank’s savings account information, would they then fraudulently take out the funds I had worked so hard to save using the information they had obtained?The United States has an asylum program - some people even argue that the asylum program is riddled with fraud, but that’s a discussion for another day - which lets in people from all over the world who fear their lives.Everyone else has absolutely no reason to skip the well established routes to immigration unless they lack honesty and integrity, in which case I don’t want them in the society I live in.Yes, I am well aware that well established routes to immigration are riddled with tsignNowerous roads. I am aware it’s expensive, long and arduous. I am an immigrant from India that has a typical multi decade wait for citizenship.It all boils down to decency and mutual respect.There are two ways for me and my family to enter your home:Learn who you are, see if it is for me and you decide whether it is for you and if we agree, you let me in and my family and I treat you with respect as you, us while we exchange food, thoughts and experiences. We decide on a protocol of when I can come visit you or be in your home and all parties honor that.My family and I sneak or break into your house and take what we want and make ourselves comfortable. Maybe we clean your kitchen or we don’t. Maybe we replenish your fridge or we don’t. There’s no protocol, there’s not agreement. Anything goes.Originally being from a land where the latter is a signNow possibility on a regular basis, I don’t stand nor care for it, which is why I came to the United States.I will have nothing but absolute support for the former and will do my part that mutual respect, trust and laws are maintained.That is the kind of community that I want my friends and family to consist of.Immigration is a privilege not a right.(and to clarify, Emmigration is a right not a privilege)If you had a policy of "friends and family always welcome, strangers please set an appointment", how would you feel if I just jumped the gate and helped myself to your property?You know, because setting an appointment with you is such a hassle and you said you would take weeks to see me and I decided that was just not acceptable.Even if you did not charge me with trespassing, wouldn't you be a bit upset?Be honest now, don't be naughty!The U.S. is a land where laws are respected.In fact, this is often the sole reason why a lot of legal immigrants enter the U.S. because they have given up on the corrupt systems of their own (former) homeland.(Source: These are the world's most corrupt countries )As I write here, the U.S. constitution is a fantastic work of art, a masterpiece in systems engineering: Subhobroto Sinha's answer to Who is running the United States of America?For laws to be respected, sometimes sacrifices need to be made.In the U.S. the constitution is not just a textbook that's meant to be regurgitated during exams or elections and promptly forgotten.Blood is spilled, families are broken, court cases are fought to uphold and protect the constitution.The U.S. has to have the ability to ensure anyone looking to live here long term and lay down roots agree to uphold and protect the constitution.This extremely important ability to ascertain that they empathize with the expectation, the responsibilities (not just the rights) required of them, is lost the moment a person enters the country ignoring all laws, regulations and statutes of this nation.Immigrants are required to take an oath, which among others, require them to relinquish allegiance to their former homeland and serve, protect the U.S.The Illegal Immigrants have not taken such an oath and as a result, have no obligation to serve the protect the U.S.Infact, children born in the U.S. by parents employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power, are not conferred U.S. Citizenship because of this very reasonThe biggest challenge with illegal immigrants is that they, under whatever situation, undermined the rules of the land from day one.By entering this land illegally, these people have demonstrated, without doubt, that they are happy to break the law as they so desire.You see, the U.S. lays out that no one is above the lawJust like the President is not above the law, neither is anyone else.Now, we must understand that the dislike for illegal immigrants currently is a far cry from the xenophobia of the past.I have often seen people making counter arguments try to align xenophobia with the current dislike for illegal immigrants, and to understand the difference, we must first study history:Philadelphia nativist riots - WikipediaKnow-Nothing Riot - WikipediaThese were not the only xenophobia driven riots in the U.S., there were more, but these were well documented.The other issue is the skew in resources used versus contributed. The challenge is that these statistics and numbers are, due to the very nature, hard to get, but as a highly vocal enthusiast in Southern California, I have observed extreme and mind bending length illegal immigrants go to obtain assistance:Undocumented marriages leading to the mother obtaining single mother status Welfare Benefits(Source: US Wars Fund The Welfare State Which Finances The Liberal March Towards Totalitarianism -- Sott.net )2. If the child is born in the U.S. and the parents are undocumented, even if the parents earn well above the poverty rate, the citizen child gets access of signNow financial benefits because they come from a “zero income” family.On the other side, we have dwindling resources made available for people who have given their lives and body to protect the U.S.3. Illegal immigrants are not subject to U.S. labor laws and thus are exploited in different ways, including suppressed wages. In fact, many farms in the U.S. explicitly depend on the support from illegal immigrants because they won’t pay a minimum wage and this skews up the whole market.https://www.washingtonpost.com/l...(Source: Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the Economy ? )Infact there is a direct correlation between rise in pay and border enforcement:(Source: On U.S. Farms, Fewer Hands for the Harvest )Suppressed wages due to immigration is not just specific to illegal immigration, it’s an issue for situations where unethical companies have exploited Work Visas to play labor arbitrage games: Subhobroto Sinha's answer to Are H1B visas causing large scale unemployment in the US? Or is the argument that H1Bs are causing unemployment rhetoric for political gains?Yes, Immigration Hurts American WorkersAlso being illegal, these people are more likely to be targeted by extortion and to channel illegal activity because they are afraid to signNow out to law enforcementDepressed wages, risk in crime, social benefits arbitrage, disregard for the rule of the land - these are some of the reasons why illegal immigrants are disliked.This is not to say illegal immigrants are evil, scheming people. I am sure that most of them are honest, hard working men and women.However, they broke the law.Without laws, rules, checks and balances, there would be no U.S.(Source: Checks and Balances - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com )Even the President of the U.S. is overridden when an unconstitutional decision is made and can even be impeached if he’s found to disrespect the rule of land, as he’s made to swear:The U.S. has a few departments to help legal immigrants live in this country, there is little reason to disrespect the rule of the land (there is even the option of political asylum if such is the case)(Source: USCIS Finalizes Guidelines on Signature Requirements for Immigration Documents | Atlanta Immigration Lawyers, Employment Immigration Attorneys, Green Cards, Kuck Baxter Law )Resources:Williams Backs UHRI’s Position; Wants Foreign Aid to Corrupt Nations HaltedChecks and Balances and Separtation of PowersUS Wars Fund The Welfare State Which Finances The Liberal March Towards Totalitarianism -- Sott.nethttps://www.hainerporras.com/usc...

Everyone, regardless of where they are on the totem pole, should control their brand. It's not just about self-promotion.The fact that some senior people choose not to leverage LinkedIn doesn't tell us much. It could be that they don't want to send the message that they are on the job market. Or they figure that at this late stage in their career, they simply don't need to have a full LinkedIn presence. I recall seeing a study some time ago which basically said that the more senior you were, the shorter your email messages. You can probably apply this phenomenon to LinkedIn - senior people, for various reasons, don't feel they need to fill all sections of a LinkedIn Profile. As Matt Becher has already said, there's probably also an element of delegation at play. It's a good bet that the majority of the c-suite who currently have LinkedIn Profiles probably never visit them and got their 'people' to set up and manage their Profiles. I think if you're going to be on LinkedIn, you may was well do as much as possible to look (a) like you're trying and (b) you want to engage. If you're not going to fill out the Summary or provide a headshot. Don't bother at all. Not doing something has consequences. People judge omissions as well as failures or mistakes.I don't see people who do an excellent job of marketing themselves and their skills, personality, services etc on LinkedIn as "desperate". I see them as smart, able and current.BTW - I can help you present powerfully on LinkedIn by reviewing or re-doing your LinkedIn Profile & Summary -  ask me how : linkedinsights@gmail.comLinkedinsights - Advanced LinkedIn StrategiesAdvanced LinkedIn Strategies

Last time I flew in an airline -I won’t name,the flight attendant forgot to get me my meal. By the time the trolley signNowed me, the non-vegetarian meal rack was empty. I was told that they will get me the meal in 5 minutes, I told them even if it’s a vegetarian meal it’s fine. It wasn’t really an issue for me as I don’t like troubling them but they insisted that they have more fish packs and they will get me one.My wait was for half an hour, with them avoiding me,avoiding my call and not even looking at me. They didn’t even get me water. I got pissed. I literally raised my voice the next time with an “Excuse me, are you deaf?” and the flight attendant was like, “yes,mam can I get you something?” and my soft reply was,”YES! Your complaint book and it should not take half an hour, I want it right now.”That led to some prompt working and them apologizing for some 15 times in next 15 minutes, they offered me meals (which I refused) and goodies (I refused them as well) and as I didn’t accept their peace offering or apology, in the end, after our landing the ground staff met me and after another series of apologies they refunded my ticket.It’s not about the food,it’s about their non-caring attitude. I have paid for that seat and that meal with hard earned money. If one form of meal is not there, I understand it’s not their fault but if they refuse to get me any meal then I can get nasty as well.So, asking for the complaint book work wonders, do it the next time they harass you.PS I am not proud of what I did but it was needed.

Yes, you can buy as many guns as you wish in a single visit and in a single transaction. Note that the background check is performed as part of the purchase process, not before. So the guns you are buying are listed on the Form 4473 as part of your purchase transaction. The NICS check clears the transaction, not the guns themselves.My local shop has told me storied about them transferring 30+ guns at once to a single buyer. Part of a collection changing hands. They were more annoyed about filing out the forms. But all of the guns were transferred in a single background check.There is no limit on how many guns you can buy at once unless your state imposes a limit per transaction such as one gun a month.As to limits on giving guns and ammunition as gifts, there is no limit but you must ensure that such gifting isn’t seen as a straw purchase. As long as such gifting doesn’t violate Federal, State or local law, again no restrictions. And that only applies to guns. I can give away ammunition on the street corner provided the recipient is not a prohibited person.

VFX, graphics and many computer softwares are used these days for making movies.The actual scene:After removing wire:There are many techniques which can be used to remove these ropes known as wire removal technique. 1. Wire Removal By Painting Frame By Frame.The ropes are painted out in each frame. But painting out each frame is a difficult job.2.   Rig Removal By Patching Over The Top .This is based on finding a clean frame from some other point in the clip and pasting it over the top of the offensive rig or wire. 3. Stabilise And Paint Back.One approach to solving a moving shot is to stabilise the image, fix it, and then invert the stabilisation. If a wire is moving relative to the background, this approach can be very effective. Once the background is stable, the artist can paint back to a previous frame where the line or wire isn’t seen.4. Roto Clone Tools/Source Nodes.Here we create an accurate matte of the wire or rig via rotoscoping. This matte is used to cut a hole in the image. To fill the hole, the same frame is slid or shifted to reveal a part of the frame that is wire-free.5. Automated Tools.Some of them are:(i) Matador(ii) Commotion(iii)Mokey(iv)Furnace(v)CC simple wire removal.