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Showing posts with label us. Show all posts
Showing posts with label us. Show all posts

Monday, September 19, 2016

There is no federal regulation against an amplified call to prayer in the US.

There are, however, local laws blaring amplified anything, especially at certain times of the day.
Typically, at least two of the calls to prayer will happen at times where such noise restrictions will be in effect in most US communities.
While many communities will still have church bells that ring, they often are only rung once per week, as opposed to 35 times, and almost always are rung at times when noise restrictions are not in effect, or at least are less restrictive. Further, many of those bells are actual bells, unamplified, and hence not falling into restrictions on amplified sound.
Some communities (likely those that are majority muslim) may craft laws to allow for an amplified call to prayer, but such a law must be religion neutral, which is going to be tricky to implement.
None of this infringes on religious practice. There is nothing preventing you from praying whenever you choose. You do not, however, have a right to disturb others in an announcement of that time.

Noise pollution. It’s a safe bet that most people don’t want to hear a call to prayer, or anything else for that matter, from loudspeakers loud enough to be heard across town, 5 times a day.
I remember being a kid in the Middle East, enjoying the deepest of sleeps, only to get jarred awake around 4AM by loudspeakers from a nearby mosque blaring the day’s first call to prayer. Followed by loudspeakers from another mosque a few moments later. Then another. And another. And another. Like the mosques were competing to out-decibel one another, until they all blended into a city wide discordant cacophony of loudspeakers echoing and reechoing the call to prayer.

It just went on, and on, and on - seemingly forever, until the last one finally trailed off into silence. Then I’d try to get back to my interrupted sleep, knowing I’d have to wake up in a couple hours to get ready for school.
I. Was. So. Livid.
3 decades later, and the memory still gets me mad.
I’m an atheist today, and those jarring 4AM high decibel calls to prayer are a good chunk of the reason why.
So let whoever wants to practice prayer go ahead and practice prayer. Just do it without disturbing others and negatively impacting their quality of life by subjecting them to loud noises above the legal limits at all times of day and night.
Noise pollution.
In France, Christian church bell ringing is still quite common, in particular in the countryside, but it’s a practice that has been attacked in court during the recent years.
The jurisprudence may vary, but these legal procedures will likely become more and more common. It’s very unlikely that Muslim prayer callings would be allowed in such a context.

Most of the time, it’s not the nation that prohibits this practice, it’s communities (towns, cities, neighborhoods) that do.
Some degree of peace and quiet is considered a fundamental prerequisite for or necessity of life. Allowing people to consistently and regularly disturb it, needs a very special reason. The particular practices of a minority religion, aren’t considered a sufficiently special reason in most places.

Like it or not, in democratic countries the majority generally creates the rules. There is no majority Muslim country in the west so you see things like burkini bans and call to prayer bans. When I was in Turkey, I rather enjoyed the midday calls but rather disliked the first one of the day, which was louder and earlier than my alarm clock. In my home town, the city council would have simply voted to ban it.
I do not remember church bells in Istanbul.
I do remember that the Sunday morning church bells in the Italian town where I spent spent months were all too insistent. But in that Catholic town, Pietrasanta, the majority was not going to oppose the Church.
Democracy is not necessarily a bad thing when it establishes principles based on the will of a majority — just as long as those decisions do not impact the basic rights of the minority.
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Friday, September 16, 2016



Where do Salary (.com) and PayScale (.com) get their data?


It seems significantly off when comparing to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. For example, salary and payscale say a computer systems analyst earns an average of $65k annually while the US BLS says about $80k. I kept geography in mind when doing the comparison.
Glassdoor also has similar numbers to payscale and salary(dot com). Which is more reliable? I know glassdoor gets their numbers from contributors but could it be that people with lower salaries are more likely to post reviews? - I don't know.
I would assume the BLS is the most reliable source and safe to reference when negotiating salary, especially if countered with data from salary or payscale.
**One thing I did notice is that the BLS uses median salary while the other sites use average. From statistics 101 we know that median is a more reliable indicator so why do these other sites use average?

Payscale get their data from individuals who fill out their survey and disclose their salary.  

It's possible that people lie when filling out the survey (although Payscale say they have algorithms to deal with this); and in any case, I'm not sure people would be hugely motivated to consistently lie in the same direction.

What's probably more important is the sample of people who fill out Payscale's survey.  You fill it out because you want market data for your job - presumably (for most people) because they want to start a conversation with their boss about a raise.  Maybe those people are younger, lower on the career ladder, and lower paid than the norm - which means the salaries on their database are lower than other sources?


The salary information available from PayScale are gathered/collected through a survey participated freely by anyone interested to share their salary for the common good (i.e. others to have a ballpark figure when researching about salaries based on location, job, position, education, experience, and company).

So as an MBA I typically don't obsess about the actual figure displayed by a service like that. For one, they're not going to give you the"whole picture" unless you either subscribe to their services (*cash register sound!*) or jump through a bunch of hoops and allow them to cram as many ads on screen as possible.

Rather, I pay attention to the trends that those sources show.

For instance, if I know what the market in one place is, like the salary range for a Sr. Developer in the Tampa Bay area, then I can reasonably figure out what the same range is for another region based on what Salary or Payscale show. Using small and round numbers, if that range is $100 annually in TB and the posted annual salary in Seattle is $120, then I can reasonably assume that salaries are about 20% higher in Seattle. Of course I can't say that definitely all salaries are 20% higher in that region, but at least I now have a reasonable ballpark to start from. There are other factors that could play into things as well, but those are typically industry-specific and/or a bit too focused to be broadly applicable.

Actually, a decent indicator is the lowest common denominator position that you can find. So if you can find listings for something like a "fast food server" you can figure out a much better across-the-board-applicable factor for your calculations. At least then you'll have a good baseline factor that will give you a minimum difference in your calculations.
From self-reported answers or real employees.
Often times open posted positions.

They get info from people that submit their personal salaries

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Thursday, September 15, 2016

What is Casey Neistat famous for?


Casey is a film maker who made millions but later switched to YouTube. At one point, this would shock people. It would be like throwing away ones career. But instead, it opened up opportunity's for him. He can now easily promote his films and make a decent chunk of money. 

  1. He also has this epic stuio that is in the middle of NY and jam packed with some of the coolest things in the world.
  2. He has traveled the world.
  3. He can careless about money. He chucks around a $10,000 camera likes it's nothing.
  4. He rides an electric skateboard recklessly.
  5. He has a passion for helping charity.
  6. He started with nothing. He was a high school drop out who got a girl pregnant and then had to support his family with a $9 and hour job as a dishwasher.
  7. He is the first person to make VLOGS WITH QUALITY. Before him, it was just a bunch of people recording themselves with terrible mic's
  8. He has 1m+ subscribers and launched his own app known as Beam.
  9. He portrays the New York life style that so many dream of in the form of videos.
  10. He has more or less proven that the American dream is tough to achieve...but not impossible.

He has fame, money, a solid family, a nice job and the ability to travel where ever he wants. So yes, he is famous for a lot of reasons. Hopefully, that answers your question. 

For throwing away his film making career to pursue his passion of creating high quality videos on YouTube (which was back then used for posting clips of cats playing pianos). Check out this video for more info about Casey.

His vlog of which there are a number that he gone viral for Good reason. He is a great inspiring artist and anyone who wants to make a difference in the world.

Just like Steve Jobs said , you should do what you love and don't care about what people say.
Both Jobs and Casey Neistat make something different with their passion.
That's the most important thing for someone who can really CHANGE the world.
making short films, youtube.
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