Month: August 2024

Chill Links

Bosses Are Finding Ways to Pay Workers Less. After a tumble in pay for white-collar job openings, wages for new hires in many blue-collar sectors are now falling.

The American Dream Feels Out of Reach for Most.

Does Ozempic Burn Fat or Just Reduce Appetite? A New Study Offers a Clue.

The Right Hates Kids. It’s Weird. Love fetuses, though. Right up until they are born.

CEOs with lowest-paid US workers ‘focused on own short-term windfall’ – report. CEOs spending more on stock buybacks than capital investments and employee retirement plan contributions.

ASML’s China Chip Business Faces New Curbs From Netherlands.

3 Takeaways From the Department of Energy’s Big New Jobs Report.

What Will We Do With Our Free Power?

The US presidential race will be fought over competing definitions of ‘freedom.’

The Social Recession Is Accelerating. Did wages rise 10-fold to match the 10-fold rise in the cost of a modest house? No. That is social recession in a nutshell.

California passes school cellphone restrictions. But some students find workarounds.

Why all the shade for the Godfather of Gloom? He’s a straw man for the post-Swift pop wave—which includes Carpenter, Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish—as it makes a forceful, witty reply to the music-snob tradition of portraying male emotion as deep and female emotion as trifling.

Officious

Chill Rant

An anti-remote work Australian mining CEO wants workers to stop stepping out for coffee: ‘I want to hold them captive all day long.’

I’ve already said that much of the RTO push is that a lot of people genuinely want slaves. And that’s as close as they can get.

And as I’ve already said a million times, I’ll never, ever work in an office again. Not gonna happen. I’m twice as productive at home and I work longer hours. And have a better quality of life. It’s a win-win for everyone. Except those who want slaves.

Types

Chill Culture, Cute

This weirdness is caused by a few things. A lot of Gen Z is very, very prudish — of a kind and severity that hasn’t been seen since the Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s. This doesn’t just include “prudishness” directly related to sex, but also a deep suspicion and hatred of anyone doing something so innocuous as having fun and dancing.

And part of it is just misogyny — any time women are acting of their own volition with no men around, especially if they are having a good time, it’s seen as invalid or undesirable. This is becoming common even among Gen Z men.

Another part is that Americans in general are distrustful of anyone — man or woman — not working, not preparing to work, not doing something directly related to work, or not otherwise pointed in a direction that might be related to doing something “productive.” It’s that ol’ execrable Protestant work ethic popping up as it always does. Seeing those women enjoying themselves at a yoga dance rave (?) triggers that subconscious voice in the back of their heads that says, “Shouldn’t they be working or doing something useful?”

As for me, I think they’re cute and their awkward dancing is also cute. Good for them for having fun in the way they want to be having it. We need a whole fuckin’ lot more of that.

Armor Lauren

Chill Cute, Music

I think Lauren should wear the pauldrons, spaulders, and maille collar with every outfit and at all times, personally. Maybe add some matching greaves.

This is peak woman’s fashion, my friends. All women should wear this for that matter.

There’s not a close, steady shot of her standing with her arms down, but it looks even better like that. So do watch the entire video here to see some shots of her standing up with the armor on.

Stand In the Place

Chill America Fuck Yeah, Politics

Even though I was already cynical politically and jaded, Obama burned me badly. I’ll never be excited about a candidate again. I am absolutely certain Harris will break most of her promises and will most likely be a middling president. In our system, that’s pretty much guaranteed.

But I believe she will stand against China and will not be a senile, chuntering old man obsessing over past slights and grievances while America burns. And that is far and away enough to get my support.

Chill Quote

When we were kids, free as the air
With a violence craving to turn up somewhere
A tap dancer, a memorized number
An avalanche of the deep red clay earth

When it got bad, Arkadelphia Road
I couldn’t cry, I just pick up the load
And feign a strength, try to force your hand
But you leave a promise wherever it may land

Waxahatchee (Katie Crutchfield), “Arkadelphia”

Chill Links

When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself.

COVID-19 intranasal vaccine.

30 Vintage Photos Capture People With Radios During the Golden Age of Radio. Those AI captions are terrible.

Your Immune System is Not a Muscle.

Microsoft security tools questioned for treating employees as threats. Cracked Labs examines how workplace surveillance turns workers into suspects.

This state calls itself the ‘most pro-life.’ But moms there keep dying.

‘Barely surviving’: Some flight attendants are facing homelessness and hunger. Did not know their pay was that low; that’s inexcusable.

A lot of new in-car tech is “not necessary,” survey finds.

Manufacturing (beyond Boeing) Not Dead: Orders Rose to New Highs in 2024, after a Little Dip in 2023, after Pandemic Boom.

America’s most boring job is on the edge of extinction. Inside the desperate campaign to get Gen Z to become accountants.

Webb telescope spots six rogue worlds within a glowing cosmic cloud.

Ukraine’s Mysterious New ‘Rocket Drone’ Targets Russian Air Force.

How bringing back the woolly mammoth could save species that still walk the Earth. The main reason to do it is because it’s freakin’ awesome, though.

Calif. tech companies see laid-off workers as ‘table scraps,’ recruiters say.

About Those Crowd Sizes: Take A Look For Yourself.

Deter

Chill Politics, Prediction, War

I very much hope we do not go to war with China, to be clear. It would be disastrous for both countries and for the world. We should do all that is reasonable to prevent this outcome that still protects our own valid interests while not leaving our allies to hang1. But part of that prevention is putting in place a strong deterrent, i.e., a military with enough resources to plausibly fight and win a protracted war if needed. In the realpolitik of nations — which resemble corporations in their amorality — that ability to be a lethal snake in the grass is the only deterrent that matters. Therefore, at least in this case, being prepared for that war is an excellent way to prevent it ever occurring.

Harris seems to understand this, at least. It remains to be seen if she acts on her understanding if she wins and the inevitable coup is not successful. If there is a coup in 2024 or 2025 that ousts her and installs Trump, I’d expect the war with China to occur during the middle of his term as he’ll be even more weak and incompetent than his first already-dismal effort. And the nation will be in chaos. This will be all China needs to do what they are already planning to do. They absolutely will not ignore that opportunity. And no, we will not be able to avoid that war even with Trump at the helm, but what we will be is utterly unprepared to fight it.

One of the main reasons I support Harris is that attempting to forestall the war with China is something she’ll be better at in every way possible. And right now preventing that war while readying ourselves to fight it is the most important issue we face. It’s far more important than climate change, disease prevention, crime or anything else that most people seem obsessed with. But it’s been a long time since a war had any real effect on the US so people have forgotten.

There is no perfect candidate. There is no truly just war. But we are coming up on some pretty hard years ahead. We need to prepare for them, whatever they might bring. Trump will be completely incompetent at the project of averting war or prosecuting it in the highly-likely event Ares does point his blood-stained finger at us once again. This storm is coming whether we like it or not. The only thing to do now is get ready as best we can.

  1. As they would, mostly, without us when China gets squirrelly.