is this some kind of reverse engineered justification for why the US has crumbling infrastructure and ceased public works projects? because the US used to build big public things, like bridges, canals, the interstate highway systems. Chicago reversed the flow of an entire river.

it just hasn’t built shit in the last several decades, barely maintains anything, and focuses mostly on creating opportunities for intermediary organizations to funnel printed money into the accounts of billionaires. basically a reverse, bizarro version of the civilian conservation corps.

finally, i can sell my surplus and cake up.

this only speaks to the credentialism side of things. obviously, the children of the wealthy are going to have it easier. they are going to have a leg into professional networks, they are going to have support, etc. formal education doesn’t impede that and i completely agree with the characterization of academia as more focused on revenue than service delivery, especially at the c-level. they are laying the ground work for a mass collapse of publicly-supported higher education. WVU writ large.

the US is not a meritocracy, but bullshitting one’s way through the actual, real opportunity for personal edification is legitimately one of the most short-sighted and wasteful things someone can do to themselves. like paying $20-30 to borrow a book from someone and pretending to read it while staring at nothing for 10 hours. x1000.

the way to approach higher education is recognizing the real opportunity to scam the institution out of more useful knowledge and personal/community contacts than what one gets with its most basic, minimum credential.

it’s a good thing dealerships and industry executives don’t have to give a shit what US car buyers want.

YES:

• smaller, efficient vehicles
• economy EVs
• light duty pickup trucks
• mechanical controls
• right to repair

NO:

• $1200 personal data harvesting touchpad console
• remote brickable/trackable OS
• subscription services

no weirdos please.

no. they are Dire.

in that event, i would describe myself as a 1/8th Caledonian, 3/8th Potato-Eater, 1/4th Doggerlander, 1/4th Bog Screamer

buried lede: Sheeran played at Billionaire & Coercive, Budget Handjob Enthusiast Kraft’s 2022 [most recent?] Wedding. and called him a “Sweet Guy”.

my man lives in this guy’s pocket. “neutral”? what a fucking joke.

every decision by Sheeran here looks like it came out of a Brand Reputation Management Machine, built in a crisis suite. and it shows. guy is completely full of shit.

onion link. yes, the all male exotic dancer franchise. man meat recall.

half-hispanic closeted gay catboy enthusiast

is this describing someone who is themselves a closeted gay catboy, or someone who is an enthusiast of closeted gay catboys?

also like the “half-” used for a cultural identifier. that’s how you know this person is a burgeroid. i know this as a quarter-hibernian.

there’s like 3 frat guys they really want to hire who were part of a hazing ritual which has been logically tortured into the trafficking definition.

and rather than expose all the fucked up shit going on in the frats of The Ivies, they relax the rules so Bonerpill Billiam Cramdolph IV and the Boys can get domestic surveillance jobs.

there are two stances:

“pro-israel/ukraine” and “political”

pretty sure CEOs already took over the entire internet with a botnet of toasters and coffee makers and fridges that all have to be connected to the internet and flooding bandwidth with live recordings and identifying information.

it is obscene the work and research one has to do to fulfill the basic promise of network automation in the home for things like energy usage and environmental controls to cut out the loop where every one of these devices has to phone home and share personal data with the mothership, when a completely localized network of controllable devices should be the default for resilience and security.

Les Grossman would say Trump has “shit the money bed”.

it would be easier to count the times i am not actively farting tbqh

farting harder IS smarter.

seriously. if the project is coming in free + under budget (lol ok) and all you can show me after all this time are conceptual drawings, I’m starting to get suspicious.

it depends on the phd. in my field we do a decent amount of math inside and outside of the academy, especially basic algebra. “lowly” field techs and analysts were doing stoichiometric type functions every day, unit conversions out the ass. their bosses, the phds running those groups should be able to do that, at least. and some just couldn’t.

i found the lack of fundamental math skills to be embarassing at that level. after all, besides even The Work, these are the people filling budget reports, estimating material costs, and doing very basic payroll estimations. they held all the keys of a middle manager, institutionally, but had very limited accounting AND middle school math skills.

despite living in a low cost of living area with a steady, phat salary many were in debt up to their eyeballs despite making 4-5x what their subordinates did, and it wasn’t like smart debt either. like credit cards and new cars.

like others, i use algebra all the time. professionally and personally.

i also feel like im in a minority a lot of times, in that, i can recognize the algebraic principles at work in a situation and how to most efficiently solve for the unknown with what tools are available… when others might just fudge something with a best guess that will probably come out OK with an acceptable amount of waste.

it concerns me how the decay of this skill is normalized, even encouraged in “regular” jobs. for years, i worked with STEM PhDs that had, what i would call, shaky algebra skills and part of my job was to check their math/logic. now i work in a more normal/less academic space, and i am excited when i meet someone else who can figure out nerdy math shit, because i swear too many people are just bullshitting and acting like this middle school shit is inscrutable arcane wizardry.

i still remember 9/11 like it was just a few minutes ago. i came back to class after eating a healthy and balanced McDonald’s Big Breakfast. suddenly, the Superintendent came on the announcements and told us all we were at war because of communist terrorism.

He played the audio of the planes crashing and my eyes and diaper welled up with hot piss.

That’s when I heard a group of young boys laughing and celebrating. They were Chinese Communist androids with red lights for eyes.

Then a voice came from the sun that said all the land was mine and I could exterminate anyone I wanted, if I could cry hard enough.