eplanit

"I've told this to lots of people who work in other division (that I can trust) and they've said the easiest thing is to just accept it as it is and coast"

The Big Head character from Silicon Valley is again proved to be (like all the characters) spot-on accurate. Mike Judge is sorely underappreciated.

My $0.02 advice: you seem smart, hard-working, and self-motivated. Become a consultant and be your own boss. Use the FAANG creds to demand a high rate. It's a market, and you can leverage your abilities as services you can offer. Work it to your advantage.

I was going to say, 's/amputees/lonely guys/g'

The only missing parts are the weapons themselves.

I can't trust the authors when they start with a false premise: "The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly raised the need for technological solutions capable to trace contacts of people and provide location-based analytics".

No, it has not created any such "need". "It's for yours and _everyone's_ health" is the most common premise used to reduce privacy and increase control over people.

No!

I have several neighbors who have fled California (smart bastards), and they knew to make it a very clean break. First get an apartment in another state; move bank accounts to new "state" bank in new state; get a new driver's license in that state; ensure employment address and all "official" addresses are changed, along with any and all other correspondence that's possible; sell house and/or car -- leave, leave, leave. Any reason they can find to make any association to the state, they will; and, like TFA says, the burden is on YOU to prove you DON'T live here.

I agree. I've been in this game 35 years, and it has been true most all that time. The examples in TFA are really all rather recent -- and frankly quite stupid (IMHO). Yak shaving is a thin reference to Ren and Stimpy, but requires complete explanation for it to make any sense; and, when it does, it's just dumb. If an analogy or metaphor requires much explanation, then it really isn't very good. It should 'click'.

But, I go along with it, too. At least the new cliches replace the tired old Star Trek/Wars allusions. Let the new generation have their day.

You're right, will correct.

It's 20 years, 100s of billions of dollars, and many thousands of lives -- all wasted. The government that was setup (and then propped up) to replace the Taliban is gone, and replaced again by the Taliban: 0 net gain. All those rights and liberties that had been gained for women and girls have vanished literally overnight.

Everything, all efforts, sacrifices, and losses are for absolutely nothing. The depth of this historic failure is mind-boggling.

It sounds like there really isn't anything to be concerned about then.

"If California stopped growing alfalfa...we could probably house 20-30M more people". I'm very happy to stop growing crops in the desert, and agree there's absurd waste there (just because something can be done does not mean it should be done). But 10s of millions more people...is that really a goal, or even a good thing?

So 100% of reservoir loss is due to evaporation? In the analogy, filling the glasses before EBMUD turns the water off is like filling a reservoir during (even brief) rainy seasons.

"Our reservoirs are empty. Why would another reservoir help up?"

A serious question? More water in reserve = more water in reserve.

If you fill 4 glasses with water now, and then then EBMUD turns the water off for the rest of the day due to a broken main (I know EBMUD really well), you'll have 4 more glasses of water to drink than you would have, otherwise. Simple math, really.

These droughts were anticipated, but here in California preparing for climate change means preaching at others, and setting up a carbon exchange. Not a single new reservoir has been built since 1979. It's impossible to take California seriously about much of anything, but especially not regarding the environment:

"In 1979, California’s population was a little more than 23 million. Today, it is more than 39 million. Yet in that entire time, California did not construct one additional, large-scale water storage project – meaning water infrastructure that once suited the state’s irrigation, livestock, and human needs has become chronically inadequate to meet its essential tasks."

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/another-california-dro...

Not only does the state not prepare, but thanks to the record-setting wildfires of the past decade, the amount of carbon and soot pumped into the air has probably offset any gains that had been made. They're really just stupid out here.

earthquake..."get a break". Yeah, I see what you did there.

They're now aligned to be the stage for a proxy war between the US and China, as Haiti is now involved with Taiwan. Their future isn't looking any brighter, unfortunately.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/09/haiti-assass...

The Chinese Communist Party is prepared to recognize the Taliban if (when) they overtake the government.[1][2]

This is a truly historic fuck-up. It's not about it being right to withdraw (it is), but how it's done. We've wasted unfathomable money and time, not to mention lives. Now we have truly nothing gained, we're embarrassed and humiliated, and our enemies emboldened. It's pathetic.

1. https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2021-08-12...

2. https://nationworldnews.com/china-has-taken-new-steps-with-a...

That 3000 you're seeing reference to in the past day or so is about new troops being sent now to rescue the US Embassy staff as the Taliban approaches.[1]

We have not been this embarrassed or humiliated since Saigon. It's pathetic foreign policy, and a stupid military withdrawal -- capping off a monumental waste of lives, time, and money.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/12/afghanistan-us-urges-citizen...

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a sadly similar story. They're downright extreme nowadays.

Given the primary example used on the kids, the 2016 election, this seems more about instilling bias under the name "news literacy". Are they going to do a section studying the "coverage" of hunter biden's laptop? Remember, for weeks it was cast as Russian propaganda. What about the origins of covid.. will they discuss how at first the lab leak theory was discarded as "misinformation"? I could not trust a public school to ever touch such topics.

This is as comforting as hearing that schools are teaching religion.

They do, and I've lived that. Sincere advice: force yourself to stand up without any assistance from your arms. I had a knee issue for a couple of years, and got into that very habit -- at first out of necessity. Before long it was required. It took about a month (!) to build back up the core strength to stand normally again.

Your core strength will decline quickly, and soon you will have to help yourself up all the time. Don't let the slide happen.

Yes. And, for women the insanity is mind-blowing. Now, being a "woman" is a state of mind and simply a matter of choice -- i.e. it's a meaningless "construct". We spent decades _rightfully_ learning to recognize and respect our differences, in terms of recognizing equal rights. But now, boom that's just bullshit, I guess.

But, that's me who's amazed by this. I'd be more interested in the the opinion of women (biological females) on this recent phenomenon.

The Diversity agenda of the past 20+ years has created more racism and division than I witnessed in my entire life before then. I have come to conclude that it's one of the most misguided movements in modern history. We were making progress (seemingly too slow, I know) by applying Dr. King's prescription for Color Blindness. But, that concept has been rejected (though his name is still used in honor); and sure enough, we've slid horribly backwards.

Not being an Apple fan, I'm enjoying the schadenfreude of watching them destroy the arguably most-favored, though one of the last remaining, qualities of Apple products -- people used to see them as the great protectors of their privacy.

It fits, though. They also used to be considered the masters of UI design, and the best at hardware innovation, and in manufacturing. They've mostly destroyed those reputations, as well.

It's actually good when old institutions/companies fail, because the opportunities created for others. The problem is that their failure often takes many years (i.e. look at IBM). If only we could accelerate the process across FAANG, the world would then truly be a better place (and their mission statements fulfilled).

Today they look for child porn, tomorrow it will be "Covid Misinformation" (which is today's terrorism). A blind man with a stick can see it coming.

What an unhappy author, who goes to such trouble to throw whatever cold water he can dream up in order to disparage captialism, without ever making a solid point. It comes off as envy, without any concrete points beyond well, luck was maybe part of their success. Multi-generational business or wealth accumulation is invalidated, because not everybody has that, so therefore it's inherently unfair. Sigh. Yeah, capitalism is bad m'kay.

The LA Times is writing stuff their readers like, so everything is actually going as it should.

"A lot of people think masks are very effective"

And they are free to make YouTube videos saying so. A US Senator, trained in medicine, is not allowed to opine otherwise, and is in fact banned from saying _anything_ on their platform for a week. It's punishing him in addition to silencing him. A lot of people find this very problematic.

Yes. With this, they're already doing that to his constituents in Kentucky.

For those who haven't yet experienced ageism, it often starts for you when the hiring manager/director is younger than you are. Beware of the age of the bosses when surveilling a potential new gig.

They've built and earned their (negative) reputation. This is cool, but it's like Philip Morris Tobacco Company coming out with a useful home appliance. Uhh....thanks?

Yes Vietnam was a shitshow -- but it was Nixon who was the chief executive who decided what to do. I have no love for Kissinger, but his job was giving advice (no matter how cold) on how to win the absurd war. My point is, of all the players in that saga, Kissinger seems to get a greater portion of disdain.

It's time to re-educate or ignore the elephant, whose policies are what brought us what we have now. It was that elephant who eradicated logging, promoted extinguishing all natural fires, and told us that the best thing is to allow unchecked growth.