omginternets

I live in Massachusetts. What’s the best way to get started with amateur radio?

You're comparing lazy researchers in universities with corruption in government. If you don't see the obvious differences in nature and consequence, I'm really not sure what to tell you.

But in case it needs to be said, yeah, we should probably maintain some reasonably-effective process for weeding out unproductive researchers. Again, we had one that wasn't too bad long before the bean-counters ruined research.

>What you don't seem to understand is there are some who are not motivated by that.

Yes, and the classical solution was to deny those people tenure. The system worked pretty well, for a large institutional system, until roughly the early 90's.

What we have now is an impossibly high standard that prevents well-motivated researchers from accomplishing the very goals that the institution is meant to serve.

Edit: now do me a favor and analyze whether university administrators have a track-record of using funds with prudence.

I'd go out on a limb to say "likely many", especially since this is a rather new phenomenon. This is yet another example of bean-counters being at the helm: in their pursuit for productivity (narrowly defined as "impact factor"), they have undermined the very conditions that favor meaningful discovery. These essentially boil down to: the ability for research faculty to make long-term, risky bets.

What the bean-counter class can't seem to understand is that researchers are motivated to make big discoveries, so you can actually trust them to be judicious in their use of resources.

There’s a joke I like a lot (fair warning: it is a stupid one).

An elderly husband and wife die in their sleep on the same night. They both appear before the pearly gates, where St. John takes them on a tour of the heavens, ending with the banquet hall. The table is overflowing with all sorts of delicious foods—sweets, beautiful cuts of meat, cakes, cocktails, etc. This puts the husband in a foul mood, which further degrades into full-on sulking when he sees the liquor cabinet and the humidor. Eventually, his wife says to him “okay, dear, out with it. What did I do wrong this time?”

The husband glares back at her and mutters under his breath, “you and your damn bran-muffins… we could have been here years ago.”

Welcome! You now know who Terence Tao is :)

Lack of culture on your part?

>All of what you say is pretty accurate for free-tier Gmail/etc. No customer service, risk of an account getting blocked and nothing you can do, new apps not finding success and getting cancelled.

Dunno, they've still taken the time to implement all this crazy auto-management software for their free tier, so I'm fairly confident they'll deploy it from time to time on their paid stuff.

I'm considering the same, especially as Apple has gotten quite heavy-handed in their push towards iCloud. Question: what kind of mobile phone do you use, and how's the OS integration? I am expecting it to be markedly worse than Apple's, but also curious what kind of integration does exist.

Is there a way to file a complaint online?

It’s even worse than this because once the idea of mass CSAM-scanning is normalized, a false accusation is immediately credible (they would know, after all…)

You may want to read up about the so-called "crypto wars" of the 90's. You'll find it illuminating.

When I bought my first computer in 2005, I discovered SumatraPDF and good lord it was miles better than the bloated alternatives. In particular, it was lighter and faster than everything else, which for someone like me who had to buy used hardware, was a godsend. So thanks for that!

"Are the bean-counters and ad-men at the helm" has unfortunately become a very good heuristic for predicting a downward turn in virtually anything.

My (bilateral...) PCL injury took about 18 months to resolve. It was way longer than anyone was willing to tell me at the time.

The good news is that it's now like it never happened, but I suspect that's because my only exercise during those 18 months was walking and light calisthenics.

Edit: I'm a male, FYI.

To be fair, I should have said "Milan".

>I don't know what "slaughter your cattle to reduce greenhouse gases" refers to specifically

I'm rather shocked that you're unaware of this.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_farmers%27_protests

- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/03/ireland-...

- https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/green-deal/fit-f...

>Greenhouse gases are bad and reducing them is good

Agreed, but that's hardly the point. Reducing crime is also good, but I'm sure you'd agree that the methods employed matter very much.

Good day to you as well.

I've found it to be a class divide more than a national divide.

A referendum involves more than just filling in a ballot; there is a literal public debate involved, as I'm sure you know.

As you surely also know, the debate around the Lisbon treaty is a matter of public record. You can pull a random sampling of articles op/eds and political speeches from the time and see that this point is made again, and again, and again.

>Furthermore, the EU more or less worked the same before the treaty, and this treaty didn't really change that.

Yes, and it seems most of the governed weren't too happy about it.

Also, what point are you trying to make here? Are you suggesting that referendums should be ignored if the people vote against the status quo?

Ah yes, the classic "you voted wrong; try again" posture.

In my experience it goes a fair bit beyond that. There is a high tolerance for the involvement of government authority in such things as (to sample from recent history): "you shall slaughter your cattle to reduce greenhouse gases", or "you shall not leave your residence".

This is positively unthinkable in other parts of the word. Puzzlingly (or perhaps not-so-puzzlingly), large swaths of Western Europe are comfortable with this, despite having recent experience with totalitarian states that were positively brutal.

Say what you will, I do see a connection between the two.

The general line against the EU constitution was "this is not a representative democracy". That core truth hasn't changed.

When the majority of a country votes against the EU constitution in a public referendum, "conspiracy nut" is a very tough sell.

Actually, no. I spent most of my time in France, Italy, Spain and the UK. I insist: most upper-middle class (and above) voters are stuck in what I can only qualify as a "govern me harder, daddy" mindset.

I distinctly recall that the omertà on this particular issue predates Brexit ... by about 15 years. There was a brief outcry when the EU constitution was ratified before the topic suddenly and mysteriously vanished from public discourse (at least, insofar as such discourse took place on mass media).

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time both in the EU and the US, one thing that continues to puzzle me about the average Western European voter is his unshakeable trust in government institutions. Given what happened in living memory, I would expect a very different relationship with Big Government.

I like to remind people that the French (and I believe a few other nations) voted against the current EU constitution in a referendum before their governments went ahead and ratified it anyway.

>public servants

Careful, you're touching on the core of Euroskepticism within the EU itself. These are not elected officials, nor are they public servants in the usual sense.

Where can I read more?