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PhysicalStamina so i made a new avatar from Who's askin'? Since: Apr, 2012 Relationship Status: It's so nice to be turned on again
so i made a new avatar
#2401: Sep 4th 2018 at 2:03:54 PM

I'm going to bet on much, much later.

AngelusNox The law in the night from somewhere around nothing Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
The law in the night
#2402: Sep 4th 2018 at 2:07:19 PM

I wish this was something exclusive to the US.

However, this is both the Human Resources knowing jack shit about the work they are hiring people for and the companies really refusing to train their employees and provide experience under the logic that since it takes time and money to properly train someone who in the end might leave for a better job opportunity, then they should hire already experienced workers to skip the training phase.

Seriously, I've seen junior programing positions in medium to large sized companies that required 3 to 5 years of programing experience and a resume with so much qualifications that anyone who has half of those requests would never allow themselves to work for mere 2200$ a month, since those skills and knowledge are worth 10x that amount in a serious company.

Inter arma enim silent leges
PhysicalStamina so i made a new avatar from Who's askin'? Since: Apr, 2012 Relationship Status: It's so nice to be turned on again
so i made a new avatar
#2403: Sep 4th 2018 at 2:11:37 PM

••• I wish this was something exclusive to the US.

I'd prefer it if the problem didn't exist anywhere.

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from a handcart heading to Hell Since: Mar, 2011 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#2404: Sep 5th 2018 at 3:31:10 AM

With programming jobs it’s always extra funny, as often they’ll require years of expeirance with a particular language/program when that language/program hasn’t been out that long.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
AngelusNox The law in the night from somewhere around nothing Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
The law in the night
#2405: Sep 5th 2018 at 7:17:08 AM

[up]You say that but I've been able to experience that with the Haskell 2010, where I've seen job positions asking for 3 to 5 years of experience in this language in 2011.

Sir, unless you are looking for time travelers, I can assure that no one on earth has 5 years of experience in Haskell 2010

How can you be so sure?

I finished developing that language less than a year ago and I don't and developing it didn't take 2 years

Or when someone puts being an Oracle, My SQL or MS SQL Server DBA among the qualifications on a 2200$ a month job when being a certified DBA alone is worth at least 70K a year.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#2406: Sep 5th 2018 at 10:02:22 AM

If I understand correctly, usually when they're asking for these sorts of impossible qualifications it's because they usually have a specific person in mind for the job.

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
TairaMai rollin' on dubs from El Paso Tx Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Mu
rollin' on dubs
#2407: Sep 5th 2018 at 10:45:40 PM

Mechanics and technicians can't be outsourced and many fields are hurting for people to fill jobs. In many "white collar" jobs, it's common to have those who don't know or who are looking for an excuse to fill out ridiculous "qualifications". There was the famous ad that required 3 years of experience in a computer language that was only 2 years old.

Construction jobs are cyclical - the Great Recession really hit that sector hard. Now construction is booming - in El Paso the West Side is really booming.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
PhysicalStamina so i made a new avatar from Who's askin'? Since: Apr, 2012 Relationship Status: It's so nice to be turned on again
so i made a new avatar
#2408: Sep 6th 2018 at 2:51:17 PM

Now construction is booming - in El Paso the West Side is really booming.

Pfft, you should see Maryland. Where I live, you can't drive 100 feet without something getting torn up or built up.

CDRW Since: May, 2016
#2409: Sep 13th 2018 at 9:02:21 AM

Mann, that aircraft cabin repair job sounds great.

TairaMai rollin' on dubs from El Paso Tx Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Mu
rollin' on dubs
#2410: Sep 13th 2018 at 11:15:37 AM

Need a job? Delta's hiring 8,000 pilots

Delta Air Lines is asking flight attendants, ticket agents and other employees to consider taking a seat at the cockpit controls.

Concerned about a shortage of pilots, the second-largest U.S. airline is offering its workers the chance to take an unpaid leave of absence to attend flight school. On the other end: a job flying a Delta jet.

Delta estimates it will need to hire more than 8,000 pilots over the next decade, as its ranks of more than 13,000 pilots thin due to the federally mandated retirement age of 65, or leave for other companies. The initiative is part of a broader program Delta unveiled on Tuesday that also includes conditional job offers for certain college students.

Pilots are aging while air travel demand grows globally. The high cost of training and low starting salaries are hurdles to the field. Boeing, the world's largest airplane manufacturer, estimates a global need for 637,000 new pilots by 2036, 18 percent of them in North America.

Not just Delta, the airlines are hurting for pilots as the generation that got hired when the wall came down (and after the Gulf War) are hitting or going to hit 65 years of age.

The US military is bleeding pilots to the point that the US Navy and US Airforce are trying anything to keep pilots in the cockpit. The Army just uses cash.

Edited by TairaMai on Sep 14th 2018 at 1:18:13 AM

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#2411: Sep 13th 2018 at 8:04:12 PM

So maybe it doesn't say good things about me that I'm really enjoying Elon Musk's recent misfortunes...but I'm enjoying them.

I've made no secret of my contempt for people like Musk who I consider to be the embodiment of everything wrong with Silicon Valley.

Edited by M84 on Sep 13th 2018 at 11:09:06 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
TairaMai rollin' on dubs from El Paso Tx Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Mu
rollin' on dubs
#2412: Sep 13th 2018 at 10:09:51 PM

Given that many silicon valley companies oversold the "we're going to change the world" only to act just like any other company - [up]you are not alone.

Google Elizabeth Holmes - she's an example of "all sizzle and no steak" - she went from billions to nothing and may be facing prison time for fraud.

Now the funniest story is the Segaway. Before it was revealed, the hype for "IT" (as the scooter was known) was huge. Fanboys said that "IT" would change how cities would be designed, transportation would be revolutionized, the car would be obsolete etc.

And then "IT" was just an electric scooter used by mallcops, overweight tourists and those with too much money.

Edited by TairaMai on Sep 14th 2018 at 12:09:45 AM

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
HallowHawk Since: Feb, 2013
#2413: Sep 14th 2018 at 3:30:57 AM

Is there anyone from Silicon Valley that is the vile opposite of Musk and anyone else who are technological pioneers with skeletons in their closet like opposing public transportation?

Edited by HallowHawk on Sep 14th 2018 at 6:31:22 PM

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#2414: Sep 14th 2018 at 6:46:42 AM

I dunno how anyone opposite Musk is gonna be vile, the dude is a pretty fuck awful human being, all things considered

Oh really when?
HallowHawk Since: Feb, 2013
#2415: Sep 14th 2018 at 7:44:36 AM

Sorry to have used "vile" like that. Meant it as someone as Musk would see as vile.

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#2416: Sep 14th 2018 at 11:19:21 AM

Speaking of billionaires and what they're doing for America, at least one journalist is suspicious of Jeff Bezos' donation of $2b to fund preschools and homeless shelters ... while simultaneously fighting tooth and nail not to pay taxes to fund preschools and homeless shelters.

    Full article text 
Emphasis mine.
Billionaire acts of philanthropy can often be half-baked or blatantly self-aggrandizing—like Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million misadventure with Newark’s schools, or the time Steve Schwarzman offered his old high school $25 million to rename itself after him and hang his portrait on the wall. Jeff Bezos’ first major step towards giving away part of his riches, thankfully, appears to be neither. On Thursday, the Amazon founder announced on Twitter that he and his wife Mac Kenzie would pour $2 billion into a new organization, the Bezos Day One Fund, to combat homelessness and create a network of preschools for lower-income children. While there are lots of unanswered questions about the details, the move seems like a promising and soundly straightforward attempt to help America’s poor.

Even if it is, that doesn’t mean Bezos should be celebrated uncritically for his generosity. Whenever a massive fortune is used to do good, it can’t help but raise questions about how that fortune was made in the first place. And the timing of Bezos’ new venture is especially fraught, given Amazon’s recent role in killing a tax that Seattle lawmakers had hoped would fund the city’s own anti-homelessness efforts. It’s simultaneously smart philanthropy and a symptom what’s ailing our country to begin with.

Until now, Bezos—net worth: $163 billion and counting—has never been particularly involved in philanthropy (unless you count his $250 million purchase of the Washington Post, which I would not, given that it is now a profitable business). Unlike Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or Oracle’s Larry Ellison, he has not signed Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, the pact that a group of billionaires have made to donate most of their money. His documented charitable giving has also been fairly negligible until now, at least compared to his wealth: One of his biggest donations was a $33 million gift to a group that gives scholarships to immigrants, for instance.

Bezos began inching his way toward the world of big-dollar philanthropy last year, when he solicited ideas from the public on Twitter. “I’m thinking about a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time — working on the long term,” he wrote then. “For philanthropy, I find I’m drawn to the other end of the spectrum: the right now.” As an example, he cited Mary’s Place, a homelessness relief organization in Seattle that Amazon has supported (though not without some hiccups).

The Bezos Day One Fund will stick close to that sketch. Part of the money will be used to open a nonprofit chain of “full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities.” The other portion will be used to fund existing nonprofits that provide shelter and food for homeless families. Once again, Bezos offered Mary’s Place as an example.

It’s too early to fully pass judgement on Bezos’ new fund as a philanthropic effort, since the organization hasn’t actually done anything yet and the rollout is short on details about how it will work. But David Callahan, the founder and editor of Inside Philanthropy, told me that based on his early outline, Bezos seemed to have a “smart plan” that avoided some of the traps billionaires commonly fall into when they try to donate large sums of money. Unlike, say, Ivy League colleges or world-renowned medical centers, homelessness and pre-K are both underfunded causes that generally don’t attract the attention of wealthy donors. Bezos also isn’t likely to duplicate a lot of pre-existing organizational infrastructure: The U.S. needs more affordable preschools, and he’s giving to homeless groups that are already doing good work, rather than trying to bigfoot them. And while $2 billion may not seem like much compared to Bezos’ vast personal resources, there’s something to be said for going slow. “These people often do start small,“ Callahan told me. “Because remember, this is hard work. A lot of these philanthropists, no matter how much money they have, say let’s put some initial cash on the table, let’s start to do some things, we’ll see what works.“ Also, if you forget the source for a moment, $2 billion is quite a bit of money—roughly the size of a top 50 college endowment.

Of course, nobody is going to forget the source. Nor are they supposed to. Every massive philanthropic gesture by a famous billionaire is, to some extent, part of a public relations campaign. Bezos, who has named the charity after himself, would probably like to curry some favor with a public that is starting to question the role of major tech companies in their lives and the economy. (I, for one, am hopelessly conflicted about it.) But while he is busy trying to use his fortune to help the poorest of the poor, his company has become an almost perfect diorama of American inequality—from his own outrageous wealth, to the highly paid executives and tech employees, to the underpaid warehouse workers who often need to use food stamps to get by. Especially since so much of his wealth is tied up in the stock value of his company, every dollar Bezos gives away is in part a reminder that many of his workers could use a raise.

In this case, it’s also a reminder that Amazon helped squash Seattle’s own recent effort to address its homelessness epidemic. The 18th largest city in the country, Seattle has the country’s third largest homeless population; its city hall is currently doubling as a temporary homeless shelter each night. Earlier this year, the city council proposed a $500 per employee tax on the city’s large corporations, with proceeds going to fund affordable housing and relief efforts. In protest, Amazon paused construction on a new tower in downtown Seattle, and hinted it might move its workers elsewhere. Eventually, local lawmakers passed a smaller, $275 per-head tax that would have raised about $47 million a year, about a quarter of which would have come from Amazon. Along with Starbucks, Kroger, and other big companies, though, Amazon funded a campaign to get the tax repealed through a ballot initiative. Eventually, fearful city council members backtracked and repealed the tax themselves.

In his Twitter announcement, Bezos did not specify how much of his Day One Fund will be spent fighting Seattle’s homelessness problem in particular, and how much of its grant-giving will be spread nationally. It’s possible that the city will end up with more resources to fight homelessness thanks to the man’s largesse than it would have ever raised through its tax. But that would mean the city would be giving up control to the private hands of a man who doesn’t answer to voters. That may turn out to be a worthwhile exchange, but it also encapsulates the fundamental challenge billionaire philanthropy poses—even when its used for good purposes, there’s not much accountability when things go wrong.

As Rob Reich, the co-director of Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, pointed out to me, there’s another irony here. If Bezos does find good ideas for preschools or easing homelessness, he’ll eventually have to rely on governments to adopt them or make them stick. “He has to engage the public infrastructure at some point,” Reich told me. In other words, if Bezos really cares about these issues, he and his fellow billionaires will need to get used to paying more taxes to pay for permanent fixes.

So who wants to enroll their children in a proper corporate indoctrination center so they don't become runners?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
TairaMai rollin' on dubs from El Paso Tx Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Mu
rollin' on dubs
#2417: Sep 14th 2018 at 11:54:06 PM

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#2418: Sep 14th 2018 at 11:57:27 PM

[up][up]Is it any surprise that Silicon Valley has effectively deified this man? And yes, I know he's from Seattle.

Edited by M84 on Sep 15th 2018 at 2:57:31 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Pachylad (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#2419: Sep 15th 2018 at 5:23:27 AM

Something tells me we should be making a thread for Silicon Valley specifically?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#2420: Sep 15th 2018 at 5:33:42 AM

(We do have a "California matters" thread, for what it's worth)

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
HallowHawk Since: Feb, 2013
#2421: Sep 15th 2018 at 6:16:37 AM

[up][up] More or less.

More of something in the US Politics thread but on why Democrats are represented as donkeys and Republicans as elephants, why did the two parties stick to those animals as that was something cartoonists did. The specifics of that story.

EDIT: And I was ninja'd by Septimus.

Edited by HallowHawk on Sep 15th 2018 at 9:16:33 PM

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#2422: Oct 2nd 2018 at 11:12:02 AM

A different take on why Kavanaugh is unsuitable to be SCOTUS has nothing to do with his politics, but because he sounds like an alcoholic, a fact that no one seems ready to call him out on. Posting in the culture thread due to how we treat alcohol consumption in the US.

    Full article text 
Emphasis mine.
I have a friend who is a survivor of sexual assault. I thought about her a lot as I watched Christine Blasey Ford testify on Thursday. I made sure to check on her a few times throughout the morning to see if she was doing all right, and I admired the community of survivors online who I observed taking care of each other, thanks to #Me Too!.

I took a break for lunch, then turned the television back on to see Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testify. I sometimes feel the word trigger is overused, and I have never felt entitled to it because I am not a sexual assault survivor. But as I watched Kavanaugh’s testimony, I can only think that what I experienced was triggering. Alcoholism runs through my family, and what I saw every time Kavanaugh was questioned about his drinking was achingly familiar. The defiance, the casual references to “liking beer,” the mentioning of a friend who has a real problem, the insistence that he was the “Ralph King” because he has a “delicate stomach,” the turning the question on the questioner—all are tactics of the person with alcoholism who has been cornered. I’ve seen this scene before—in a kitchen, and in a driveway. But I was stunned to see it on the floor of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

I watched some of the news analysis of the hearing, hoping this angle would be discussed. But while there’s been quite a bit of discussion about Kavanaugh’s high school and college habits, there’s been very little discussion about his drinking now. Yet Kavanaugh used the present tense often. He said “I like beer” a number of times. He even asked two of the senators what they like to drink, the implication being now, not when they were in high school. When pressed during the hearing about whether he drank to excess in the past, Kavanaugh avoided the question and instead recited his accomplishments: Yale, Yale Law School, 12 years a federal judge. But high achievement in these realms doesn’t actually tell us anything about Kavanaugh’s drinking habits, now or in the past. Going to Yale is not an assurance of sobriety, and it does not rule out the possibility that he was also a problem drinker.

Based on the testimony of Ford and numerous accounts of people who knew, and drank with, Kavanaugh in college, we have good reason to believe that he abused alcohol in his youth. Liz Swisher, a former classmate, has said, “He drank heavily. He was a partier. He liked to do beer bongs. He played drinking games. He was a sloppy drunk.” Another acquaintance, Charles Ludington, released a statement saying, “On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive.” We do not know whether he continues to drink this way, but the way he responded to questions about his past drinking makes it a relevant question. And yet, even in one of the most charged Senate committee hearings in decades, no one was willing to ask about his current drinking habits.

We have finally moved our understanding of rape from something that is perpetrated by strangers in dark alleyways at night to a more realistic view of the crime as one that is often committed by close associates and even loved ones in familiar places. Just so, we need to adjust our understanding of alcoholism and problematic drinking. It is not just the drunk in a gutter or the person who sneaks shots before work. It is also the people who don’t drink all the time but who have a hard time limiting consumption once they start, people who frequently black out, and people who behave in ways that are inconsistent with their sober selves when they are drinking.

But we don’t talk about this much, because in our culture, drinking is so socially acceptable it is uncomfortable to question another person’s drinking habits. We saw that in the hearing when two senators tried to do it. Sen. Whitehouse looked down. Sen. Klobuchar looked nervous, even after revealing that her father is in recovery. Both times the line of questioning was aborted due to the defiance of the witness. But when the red flags of addiction present themselves, we have a duty to ask these hard questions of family, of friends, and of our public officials in whom we place our trust.

I wish this could be a moment for people to talk more openly and honestly about problem drinking. It is painfully clear that our country does not know how to talk about it, just as once we didn’t know how to talk about rape, but the two are actually very related. Many men in the corridors of power share Kavanaugh’s prep school and frat-boy background. They do not see, or do not want to see, evidence that his drinking may be problematic. But others, like me, may have watched these hearings and may have finally had enough. There is plenty of debate over the scope of the FBI investigation, but I think it would be worthwhile for it to attempt to assess Kavanaugh’s drinking behavior not when he was in high school or college, but right now.

Obviously the alcoholism angle is one I've had to deal with - over the 20 years I've served in the military, there has been a huge push to get sailors and soldiers to drink less, drink more responsibly, and to get them care when they are addicted and unable to function because of it. This makes me wonder if someone should slip an "anonymous" referral for Kavanaugh to the head DAPAnote  to try and submit him for treatment.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#2423: Oct 3rd 2018 at 6:41:23 AM

[up]It's certainly a factor. But... when it comes to treating an addiction, the addict kind of needs to actively take part.

Kavanagh isn't going to be that kind of client, from what I've seen. Denial, denial, denial, rant, accuse somebody else, more denial.

I'm also pretty sure he's got a current problem (and, it might stretch to more than drink). But, short of hauling him in for regular surprise blood tests (because he will probably try to duck breathalysers and urine alone)... We can't really tell how advanced his state may be. And, his current social and economic position is rather good for disguising how dysfunctional he could actually be in many other ways, besides. <shrugs>

He will not ever see what he does as bad until he hits rock bottom. And, even then, I wouldn't bet on it.

Edited by Euodiachloris on Oct 3rd 2018 at 2:44:37 PM

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#2424: Nov 9th 2018 at 7:54:10 AM

Imma summon this from the depths, since the US have for the first time in a few decades a chance to have a chess world champion. I don't think this is very high profile though.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#2425: Nov 9th 2018 at 7:59:55 AM

Is chess high profile in any part of the world? Genuine question, because all the focus for famous champions of things seems to focus on sports, and that's far from unique to America.


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