had the same problem with Scribd recently. I've cancelled my subscription in the end of April, but still got a notification from PayPal about the money transfer in the end of May. I had to contact them per email and luckily they were very friendly and accommodating, they've cancelled my subscription on the same day and I've got my money back in two days.
I don't think there is only one good solution for this. This is a very complex problem, which, in my opinion, needs diverse approaches and combined co-operations of the governments, museums, and international and intergovernmental institutions (like ICOM, for example) and agencies (like UNESCO) and organizations (like UNIDROIT).
There are already a couple of conventions (some of them I have posted in the comment below), which proved to be ineffective in the face of Iraqi (destroyed sites of Nineveh, looted Mosul museum and Mari temple, etc.) and Syrian(destroyed Palmyra) wars and not only (forever lost Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan). Those international conventions will never be 100% effective, unless all parties are involved and working on the problem and websites like Ebay and the auction houses have to be part of it.
What would be of a great help in this whole story, is if the cyber security specialists (please correct me if I used the wrong term for it)would co-operate and help track down the black markets.
I'm not a specialist myself and I believe there are far more experienced people working on this problem already. I just think that a combination of 'powers' would bring far more effective results.
> Texts from Irisagrig were scattered everywhere, some popping up on eBay and at auction sites, and as far and wide as Australia and South America.
This makes me so sad. With all those looting going on, whether in Iraq, Syria or Egypt, we lose our history. With all those artifacts scattered all over the world, the scientists straggle to reconstruct the history because of the lost context.
I understand, this all comes down to money at the end of the day, but on at least ethical grounds (not to mention the legal ones) Ebay and other auction houses bear the responsibility for looting practices, encouraging the looters. They have to work on some mechanism to make it stop, like a strict provenance control policy before the objects are listed for sale.
+1 on that one. What I don't get is that they are already giants, why would they undermine and hinder other companies from developing? I found this article very interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices
I agree that there's a lot of low quality staff on amazon, but hey, it's not ebay, not everyone can post everything there for selling, so Amazon is kind of responsible for what's listed there.
I don't think that monopolizing market is a good idea.. a healthy competition keeps the quality level of the products high.
I hear you and I agree with most of what you've written. That's why I said above that I agree with you but I still find the approach very idealistic and sometimes very difficult to accomplish.
> The notion of "alpha" among canines is so misunderstood by most people that it is kind of pointless to use it as a guiding principle in dog training.
I come from the place where stray dogs are a very common phenomenon, they almost always move in packs and the behavior of alpha dog can be at times very brutal towards the pack members, if they don't follow the lead. I once even had two dogs at the same time, both males and they would fight for leadership badly unless one of them established himself as a leader. So I wouldn't say that most peoples'approach is necessarily pointless.
> Perhaps we're just using different terminology here, but when people say "punishment", I assume they mean loudly yelling "no!" at the least and at the worst a rolled up newspaper, or rubbing their nose in poop, a shock or choke collar, or throwing them out of the house, or whatever.
all the examples of the punishments you've mentioned are very violent and brutal and are mostly observed by unexperienced caregivers or by people who are violent by nature. I frequently caught myself yelling, too, and it might be normal at some point, because you are a human and sometimes things happen and you say or do something in a way you didn't mean to. Important here is to realize it was too much and not to do this again. So you learn.
> I sometimes catch myself becoming frustrated and yelling...but, I have also observed that it does not achieve my goal with the dog, and I can see their confusion and discomfort.
The confusion comes into play when the dog is used to a distinct pattern of your behavior and you suddenly change it. If your dog has never seen you strict and you've been always gentle with him, of course he will be baffled, that's very natural.
Strictness is not bad by definition. If you can balance, and it is very important to do this, it is alright to be strict from time to time IMO. Raising a dog is the same for me as raising the kids, they are part of the family deeply loved and cared for. As I mentioned before, I'm not a violent person but I am strict because I have my limits.
> Nearly every dog owner I've ever known is doing it so wrong, and I wish I could fix all of their broken ideas because dogs deserve a good relationship with their people.
I hear you. i want to live in a better world, too and I hate seeing people mishandling animals. There are millions of people who are brutal to their own children and who are very sure in the rightness of their raising methods. That's very sad and unfair, but will stay the way it is unless the awareness will be raised. Only this way will all creatures have a chance to be treated fairly. So I thank you for your kind attitude very much.
Well, even saying no in a particular tone of voice can be accepted as a scolding, especially if the tone is in higher notes. What is a particular tone of voice, which will not effect them in a way that scolding does? They are not human and cannot express their minds, which makes it more complicated to understand whether you crossed the line or not. I remember talking to the kid the other day and saying no to something in a very calm but firm way, she said I was scolding her and didn't understand why I would do that. I hope it does complement my point.
I didn't disagree with the fact that it is the ideal way of raising them, but sometimes being strict wouldn't hurt if the other methods don't work. And by being strict I don't mean being violent and beating them, since I am not a violent person by nature.
I do agree with your statement, but it's the idealistic approach and sometimes not effective at all.
A big problem with the dogs (as observed in humans, too) is that if they don't see a leader in you, they are going to take this position over. I've had 4 dogs in my lifetime and I've tried different approaches with all of them, because they all had different characters, but one thing I did with all of them: I was strict and I punished them at times. They are like babies, I don't think you can raise a child without punishing him from time to time; if you don't do so, there can be much more complications which maybe harmful for both parties.