simplestats

In some fields of engineering PE is pretty nonexistent. Some people come from other degrees (like math, physics) and call themselves engineer without difficulty. But engineering fields require a much more narrow and deep set of skills. generally the key classes to learn those skills come at the end of three or four years of prerequisite classes, so it's a pretty high barrier to starting without doing the degree.

In programming you can learn your way to advanced skills while getting paid. Once you know roughly one class worth of basics there's valuable contributions you can make, at least if you are decent at figuring things out on a computer.

I think every school, has its "smart kids" who define their identities by their academic achievement, and who seek to ace every test. It's their way of standing out and being special so they try extra hard to keep it that way.

Unfortunately they often tend to be introverts which colleges want less than overachievers in other areas. Except for the science/technology departments, who were probably overruled by other departments if decisions like abandoning test scores are made.

I'm not sure how much overlap ther is between the people who want meritocracy and the people who agree with your definition of a just and equitable society.

Luck and genes are generally considered fair arbiters in a sense, at least when they are the source of one's merit. No one complains the chess champion only won because she was fortunate to be given a chess board at an earlier age than the competition or something.

Your third source summarizes the common knowledge that has already been stated here: anyone can practice on their own with cheap or free materials to achieve the same benefit of those expensive classes.

What progress is there towards the "hard problem" of consciousness? Even a oversimplified approximation akin to the Rutherford atom? Research in the area is considered fringe anyway, as no one has any hope a researcher will get anywhere.

QM required that we accept a new phase property of matter which cannot be observed even in principle, and which causes counter-intuitive experimental outcomes that require contradictory physical explanations. This remains unsolved, physics simple sucked it up and moved on using it. The Copenhagen Interpretation essentially says some questions are not "askable" (e.g., what is the state of an unobserved electron), and observation instantantaneously changes vast-universe-wide systems via collapse of the wavefunction (pretty magical in the opinion of many). The many-worlds interpretation is even kookier, though much more intuitive, and is gaining popularity lately. If parallel universes and "spooky action ata distance" (quoting Einstein) is not magic to you then what does it take?

I don't think this line of dismissal necessarily fits. If we ended up having to expand physics to include some new (today seen as mystical) property of the universe, then you are essentially wrong here. With QM (which I doubt is related to consciousness) we had to add unmeasurable quantum phase to everything and accept certain previously-"nonphysical" new properties of systems. Similarly with other revolutionaly theories.

Magic can be disproven by explaining the phemonen with a conventional physical theory.

But they leave a company somewhere else so don't affect the average number unless they move from a smaller company.

But between you and the previous renter it may have been driven by an employee or transported across the country by truck, or just damaged in the lot by the person renting the car next to it five minutes earlier.

I found the walkaround off-putting initially (years ago). Especially when you get it wet from washing and this it hides all the minor damage. But they have pretty lax rules about what counts as damage.

The best though, is those airport lots with cameras that record the condition of the car as you drive out.

The flip side is you can choose to extend your rental without giving them any advance notice. And you can cancel your reservation without penalty (at least before these new pay-in-advance deals). Hence they are never quite certiain they will have cars. I have had to wait around for someone to return a car before I could get my rental a few times before.

Also I believe one of them (Hertz or maybe Enterprise) told me if I did the pay-in-advance deal they would guarantee a car was there because they'd bring one in from the airport if needed. Some locations have very few cars and can be hit-or-miss.

Oh no, future generations will curse our barbarity for doing the experiments (from the comfort of their greatly-extended lifespans).

> Globally, given an at-least-middle-class lifestyle (and any other years than 2020–2021), "not travelling outside [your home country]" is actually rather abnormal. It's mostly an American thing.

Japanese people don't leave Japan much either. And between those two countries we've now called half the developed world "abnormal". It may be just as accurate to say Europe is the outlier, especially when you consider all of humanity and all of civilized history. Also it obviously depends where people travel to, developed or otherwise.

Either way though, the vaccination recommendations in the US (as I'm sure every country) vary depending on whether you plan to travel or not. There isn't a fixed policy for everyone, at least when it comes to recommendations.