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Featured: Interviews for the Well-Informed

Featured: Interviews for the Well-Informed

Did you know? After the last post on this page is a link to "Older posts".

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The perfect apartment!

This is a real listing in Craigslist. Grab it before it is too late! -- http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rnr/964514051.html



All the tenants I interview aren't good enough (Broadway and Commercial)
Reply to: pers-964514051@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-12-19, 6:05PM PST


I am a born again Christian. Why is this a problem for people????! I have a house that's MINE and I PAID FOR IT. I also have a basement apartment for rent. It's a great space for I'm charing very little for it, $480 monthly, for the right tenant. I know it's ILLEGAL to require a Christian in the apartment, against the human rights. That's why I NEVER put this in my ad. Why then does it keep getting taken down?

HERE IS THE AD I POSTED, AND THE AD THAT KEEPS GETTING REMOVED:

Available Immediately – Broadway and Commercial – Showing Saturday and Sunday – Email for directions and additional information.

What kind of apartment is it?

• One bedroom basement apartment with separate entrance
• Tastefully decorated with modern décor
• Approximately 650 square feet
• There is even a window! Security bars installed for your safety and to prevent unauthorized activity
• Closed circuit camera installed for security and safety. One in your suite, one at the entrance, and one in the exercise yard

Rent:
• $480.00 per month
• First month’s rent + ½ month security deposit due at move in
• Small pet allowed with approval and payment of additional ½ month pet damage deposit
• One year lease permitted, option to renew lease at end of the term with no increase in rent
• LANDLORD’S SPECIAL! Move in before January 1st and don’t pay for the remainder of December! That’s significant savings.

Included in the rent:

• Electricity
• Heat – Maintained at 21 degrees with lock box to prevent unauthorized tampering. Additional heating available for $20.00 per extra degree of heating per month. You may not use your oven to heat the apartment. If you do, you will be fined $50.00 per occurrence.
• Air conditioning – Maintained at 25 degrees during the summer with lock box to prevent extra cooling from being dispensed. Additional cooling for sale for $20.00 per degree of cooling requested per month.
• 25" Zenith color television set with basic cable service - INCLUDED IN RENT!
• Wireless internet (with content filter applied to block forbidden/immoral websites) - INCLUDED IN RENT!
• Provision of coin laundry services - You will have your own personal coin laundry washer and dryer machines. Washers and dryers are paid using a token system. Tokens can be purchased through the landlord. Washer tokens cost $4.15 each and dryer tokens cost $3.60 each. You are not allowed to use foreign
currency or slugs in the washer and dryer. Violators will be fined $100.00 per infraction.

About us: (Landlords)

We are conservative, bible believing, God-fearing, born again, evangelical Christians. We interpret the bible literally in every way possible. We live a strict moral code and observe God’s laws in our everyday life. My wife stays at home and teaches our home-schooled children. I work as a pastor at a local congregation and am active in the faith community.

About you: (Tenant)

• You are employed
• You do not participate in lascivious deviant sexual behavior
• You do not choose alternative lifestyles as your lifestyle
• You do not have any criminal history
• You must have excellent character references
• You do not smoke, drink or take drugs. Mandatory drug screening required.


Additional Rules/Conditions:

CLEANLINESS: You are responsible for the cleanliness and orderliness of
your apartment. Beds are to be made before leaving your suite,
countertops must be wiped down, and you must remove all trash. Upon
inspection, if the tenant's basement suite is not clean, the cost of
cleaning services plus a fine of $100.00 will be levied.
LIGHTS: The lights in your basement suite and in the day room are not to
be tampered with. If a light needs repair, report the condition to the
Landlord.
WAKE-UP: Wake up will be at 5:30am each morning. All ceiling lights in
the suite will be turned on automatically.
LIGHTS OUT: Ceiling lights in the suite will be turned off at 11:30pm.
CONTRABAND: The following items are considered contraband – alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, weapons, lock picking equipment. If any contraband is discovered to be in your possession, you will be subject to a minimum $1,000.00 fine. In addition, your items will be confiscated permanently. Second offense – you will be evicted without notice. A bailiff will escort you and your belongings off the premises. Your security deposit will not be returned.
SMOKING: The basement suite is non-smoking. Anyone in possession of
tobacco products of any kind or any lighter or matches, will have their
contraband items confiscated and will be fined $100.00.
INSPECTIONS: The Landlord will conduct unannounced inspections to ensure
that these rules and regulations are being followed.
VISITATION: Visitation periods will be on Saturdays and Sundays from
1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. All visitors and their vehicles are subject
to search while on landlord property. Refusal to allow a search can
result in their being barred from all future visitation privileges. All
visitors must sign the Visitor's Log. Unauthorized visitors will be
escorted from the property, and the tenant will be fined $250.00.
I.D. BRACELETS: Each tenant will be issued an I.D. bracelet with his/her
photograph. It must be worn at all times. If you lose your I.D.
bracelet or it is broken, you will be required to purchase a new one at
the nominal cost of $5.00.
EXERCISE YARD: The tenant will have access to the exercise yard in the
area to the back of the property for 2 hours per day from 4:00 pm to
6:00 pm. The tenant is not allowed to bring any personal property to
the exercise yard. Once the tenant leaves the exercise yard on a
particular day, he or she may not return. No boisterous behavior is
allowed in the exercise yard. There is no smoking allowed in the
exercise yard. Minimum fine for exercise yard infractions is $50.00.






  • Location: Broadway and Commercial
  • it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 964514051




Saturday, January 3, 2009

Online game teaches how to recognize phishing sites


Are you sure you know how to avoid scam Web sites that look like real businesses? Do you know a family member or friend who you think might get taken in by one of these "phishing" sites?

Anti-Phishing Phil is an online game provided for free to teach people of all ages how to know when it is safe to click on a URL. It was created by a university student using Flash. It looks like a child's game, but has plenty of good information, and it drills you on the the lessons in an entertaining way.

http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/antiphishing_phil/new/index.html

Saturday, December 27, 2008

NaNoWriMo

Here is an organization that puts on a National Novel Writers Month contest each November for beginning novelists. There are no big prizes -- more or less gag prizes actually -- but the point is to have a 30 day deadline to write 50,000 words, no matter what the quality. There is a separate contest for youth writers.

Some day, when I can devote my time to writing 50,000 words...

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Eat better food

Here are some articles telling about (mostly) commonly available foods that are good for our health.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdandFluNews/Story?id=5334734&page=1

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/?em&ex=1215662400&en=653a7b27f673249b&ei=5087%0A

Sunday, December 21, 2008

New Mac vs. PC ads!

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

The whole world says hunger is an outrage -- everyone except...

Once upon a time, 180 nations of the world voted that hunger is an outrage and a violation of human dignity. One nation voted against all the rest. Guess who was that one.

Here is a hint, an excerpt from the United Nations General Assembly report:
Draft resolution XX on the right to food, approved on 24 November by a recorded vote of 180 in favour to 1 against ( United States), with no abstentions, would have the Assembly reaffirm that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity, requiring the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and international level, for its elimination.
And elsewhere in the document, there are these details:
By a vote of 180 in favour to 1 against (United States) and no abstentions, the Committee also approved a resolution on the right to food, by which the Assembly would “consider it intolerable” that more than 6 million children still died every year from hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday, and that the number of undernourished people had grown to about 923 million worldwide, at the same time that the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, or twice the world’s present population. (See Annex III.)
By the terms of the text, the Assembly would express concern that, in many countries, girls were twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and childhood diseases and that twice as many women as men were estimated to suffer from malnutrition. Accordingly, it would have the Assembly encourage all States to take action to address gender inequality and discrimination against women, including through measures to ensure that women had equal access to resources, including income, land and water, so as to enable them to feed themselves and their families. By further terms of the draft, the Assembly would urge Member States to promote and protect the rights of indigenous people, who have expressed in different forums their deep concerns over the obstacles and challenges faced in the full enjoyment of the right to food.
After the vote, the representative of the United States said he was unable to support the text because he believed the attainment of the right to adequate food was a goal that should be realized progressively. In his view, the draft contained inaccurate textual descriptions of underlying rights.
The Committee also approved a draft resolution on the rights of the child by a vote of 180 in favour to one against ( United States), with no abstentions. Among other things, that omnibus text would call upon States to create an environment conducive to the well-being of all children, including by strengthening international cooperation in regard to the eradication of poverty, the right to education, the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, and the right to food.
Now, tell that part again about how people don't like us because they don't like our freedoms. And explain to me how the party that has been in power is a pro-life party. Well, actually, save your breath -- I don't want to hear it. Actions speak louder than words.

Oh, I dreamed last night...

... that we were at a party, and Bill Gates made me an offer...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Greeted as heroes?

Remember when they told you that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators, and throw bouquets of flowers at us? Not quite.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Doubt


I'm talking about the movie, Doubt, although the subject of doubt in general would be a good topic one day too, wouldn't it? Anyway, this new film with Merryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman looks like a riot of fun to me. It's not a comedy and isn't supposed to be funny, but rather a serious, suspenseful drama.

I look at the 2 minute clip here -- http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-10-28-doubt_N.htm -- and I say, "Wow! I know people just like that! I've had conversations just like those two minutes! And so many issues got brought up in those two minutes!"

Naturally, there's a lot more to the film than those two minutes, but I'd say those two minutes look promising enough to me.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Deepak Chopra to Sean Hannity: Why?


Deepak Chopra publicly asks Sean Hannity of Fox "News" why he so misrepresented Chopra's statements.

It really doesn't matter to me personally whether you agree with me or not. Leaving our debate aside, your habit of taking statements out of context and playing the blaming game is sad. You have a powerful platform that influences many people. Why do you use your influence to monger fear, militancy, divisiveness, and jingoism?

See the full text of Chopra's letter. After you know Chopra's credentials from the above link, you are faced with the question -- if you are a Sean Hannity fan -- How can you pay any attention to him?

Roger Ebert's best 20 films of the year -- most of which you never heard of



http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081205/COMMENTARY/812059997/1023

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Makes you feel prouder already, doesn't it?


President elect Obama has announced several plans to really make the U.S. a leader nation in the world again by helping states improve infrastructure and making government buildings more energy efficient, improving schools, and making higher broadband capability widely available. It won't solve all the world's problems, but it will get the U.S. back to work on things that will make life better in the future, and will restore our "can do" attitude. And who can argue with the objectives?

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0545867820081206?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews







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