"My Mom, creator of the original Care Bears, drew a Black Lives Matter Bear! You can buy prints/shirts/etc on her RedBubble. All proceeds go to Reed Foundation, a Black founded organization which helps disadvantaged youth in Tulsa!"
Kamala Harris, Madeleine Albright, Barbara Lee, RBG, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stacey Abrams, Toni Morrison, Melle. Quinquin (my 7th grade teacher), Ms. Rosa, Elizabeth Warren, Oprah, Maya Angelou, at least a half dozen of my sons’ teachers. So many others.
"Chinese authorities have been trying for three years to reverse the devastating imbalances of their one-child policy and coax couples to have more children.
They’ve told couples that it’s their patriotic duty to have two babies. They’ve dangled tax breaks and housing subsidies. They’ve offered to make education cheaper and parental leave longer. They’ve tried to make it more difficult to get an abortion or a divorce.
None of this has worked. China’s birthrate remains stubbornly low and men massively outnumber women, creating a demographic crisis that could hinder economic growth for decades to come.
But now, an economics professor at Fudan University in Shanghai has come up with another — and, unsurprisingly, controversial — solution: allow women to have multiple husbands, and they will have multiple babies.
“I wouldn’t suggest polyandry if the gender ratio was not so severely imbalanced,” Yew-Kwang Ng, who is Malaysian, wrote in his regular column on a Chinese business website this month. The headline asked: “Is polyandry really a ridiculous idea?”
*head => desk* an easier choice for this is to simply give women money to have girl children. Not any less of a societal mess, but easier to make legal without stepping to hard on traditional toes. And not a small amount of money, but something like what it would cost to raise a kid through to finishing high school or so.
IMO, this is a dumb article as it follows on a poorly thought out internet post with the predictable resulting outrage. One-Child Policy is only enforced in urban areas. It is not a problem with women forgetting to have sex. It is social values on having children on upward mobility, the social value of women, the economic cost of de-facto dowry, and the safety net from sons taking care of parents due to very different patterns of savings for retirement. If any country can forcably change social values quickly, it's China.
Not only do I not have an opinion about this, I don’t know how I would go about developing one. Sounds like a looking for socially acceptable way to treat women more like breeding stock?
It does provide yet another example of how once something gets ingrained into a culture, it is very difficult to change, regardless of the consequences, or the arrival of new information.
The part that I find mystifying is that each male can only be responsible for one pregnancy at a time. It’s not wholly clear to me how getting stuck with child care by 2 men instead of one is going to be of interest to a woman tbh.
Probably my fourth grade teacher. Also with regard to diplomas I am not sure where my Cal diploma is. Seems to have disappeared. Probably in my ex-wife's stuff. I do have my diplomas from biz school and my doctoral degree, but I don't display them.
My current and last boss are women in physics, which also means that they are barely older than me (there are far fewer women in physics before the relatively recent attempt to create more diversity in the field than white and Asian men). As minorities in the department, they are also settled with a disproportionate amount of extra responsibilities to both showcases that the department is getting more diverse and because they do genuinely want to promote further diversity in physics.
I've had some really good and some less good women managers/bosses over the years. The good ones tended to be not only technically proficient, but thoughtful and encouraging. The worst bosses generally have been men. This past year here has been the first time at the county where there is not a women in a direct line over me (either my boss or bosses boss).
In the creating leaders section, I've tried to encourage some of the women interns we've had over the past few years to keep at the work and be thorough in written stuff. They mostly have been focused on getting a masters in civil engineering, so probably i'm less help than I might be.
Wilma Chan was our leader for the Oakland organizing for the UDC in '92, went on to run for county Supervisor in Alameda County, then State Assembly and later the Senate. I worked on her run for the county Supervisor; she's much more liberal than I, but I have the greatest respect for her.
My undergrad advisor is the biggest factor in my being in my dream job now. She is committed to science, to helping her students achieve their dreams, and to educating the public. You can read about Peggy Lemaux's work here: https://nature.berkeley.edu/breakthroughs/sp20/grains-of-change
I've been fortunate to work under the direction of many talented women in my career. My undergrad senior thesis advisor, half my master's thesis committee, half my dissertation committee, my postdoc advisor, and my current supervisor were all women and have all had major impacts on my career. I'm very thankful to have worked with each of them.
I work in tech, and so have never reported to a woman. Our current engineering org only has one female manager, in Project Management.
Our publicly-traded company does not have any female executives. We do have a couple female VPs, but I must note that the most prominent of them is also the CEO's kid sister.
I am in the tech industry, and I recently reported to the CEO in a prior company. She was the best boss I have ever had the opportunity to report under.
I had a female boss at large chip company outside Portland. She was horrible. The female boss that was head of our group was better but I never directly communicated with her. She was probably 2-3 levels above me. That company does have a huge directive to try to hire/promote minorities. to the extent that many resumes I got from HR were either female or non-white/Chinese/Indian applicants.
Yeah, perhaps I should have specified that I work in engineering specifically. Not that we've never had female engineering leaders, but all of the 12 bosses I've ever had have been men.
Since I'm in finance, female managers are rare. I've only worked with two. Both were very, very thoughtful. Only one "leaned in". She became the CFO of Nike. The other was a fantastic boss who helped us to calmly, quickly, and decisively divest of our portfolio as the second of the Twin Towers fell.
I've had the pleasure of working for at least 4 women as bosses in my career, and they've all been pretty great to work for, very supportive and helpful and easy to communicate with, and I've learned a lot from them. I wouldn't say any of them were without flaws, but that's because they are human, not because they're women. If I have to report to someone at work, I'd say I would generally prefer it to be a woman over a man.
Doing federal work means I’ve had a lot of female customers and a few female managers. The consistent theme of the good female managers and customers was that there was less posturing and bullshit. One former colleague in particular went from being a peer (good but not an instinctive consultant) to a tremendous SES exec in the government. Learned a lot from watching her in the senior position.
The Dollop is a funny and informational history/comedy podcast. Most of the other one's I listen to are hosted by various stand up comedians, so your interest really depends on if you like their style of comedy or not.
i dont really listen to that many but because i work for Vox and that is seemingly a growth area for us i try to keep tabs on them.
i particularly like the ones where Sean Illing substitutes for Ezra Klein. Sean is something of a political philosopher so his podcasts are not usually about the regular news cycle.
Right in a water-proof, clear container that also contains several autographed baseballs. The box (more the baseballs in it) is visible behind on Zoom meetings when I do decide to turn on my camera.
I don't think I ever like received mine. There was a mailing issue for the official documentation, and then it was a PITA when I tried to resolve everything so I gave up. It's a piece of paper.
It took me about five years after I graduated to pick mine up. I was living in Alaska but visiting my parents in Oakland and decided to go walk around campus. On the spur of the moment I went by Sproul to ask about my diploma. Less than five minutes I had it. I was surprised how easy it was for them the retrieve it. Now it sits in a box in my condo storage unit.
Hmm...were we supposed to pick them up? Then maybe I don't have mine. It's been so long ago that I don't even know how I got it. Was it sent to me because I don't recall ever picking it up.
I don't know that we were necessarily supposed to pick them up but at graduation we just got a generic congratulations letter. When I stopped at Sproul I explained my situation and asked if there was something I could do to get a diploma not really thinking of picking it up. They asked for my name and minutes later there it was.
College, Grad School and Middle School (WTF?) certs are framed and stacked up against the wall in my office. Hell if I know what happened to my High School Diploma.
Getting transcripts official transcripts from Cal was such an easy process. It was only ~$2 to get them sent when I took my current job. Meanwhile UC Irvine charged $19(!) for my official transcripts for my grad degrees.
Nor sure. My mom had both my HS & College diplomas, and I'm not sure where they wound up after we lost her (years ago). On the rare occasions when I've needed to establish their existence (and its been over a decade since that last happened), a transcript was required, and had to be ordered. They may be packed away (PC for buried) in a box on a shelf somewhere in the house. But then I'm not sure where my daughters diploma is either.
I'm proud of both of mine (do not understand the mentality that any diploma from an actual accredited entity is somehow not); its just that after a while, they aren't something you ever need.
No idea. It's probably gone. I had to get a copy of my official transcript for something maybe 15 years ago since that was gone as well. Of course, after a few moves, I'm not sure if I have that anymore either.
Honestly, I don't know where it is. I've got a photocopy of my Bachelor's degree, which was sufficient for HR files in Asia. I haven't needed it in the US as the only time it was requested an official transcript was required. Also, I was raised in a family where a Cal degree was a bare minimum, so undergrad diplomas are not something to be displayed.
I probably agree that Guardians of the Galaxy is good for someone who doesn't care about superhero movies, like me. My kids wanted to see Guardians 2 so I took them. I enjoyed it, but more for the saractic banter than the actual action in the movie.
Snowpiercer is technically a comic book movie that's quite good and frequently overlooked. Chris Evans is a grayish protagonist leading a rebellion on a classist train that holds the last vestiges of human society.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider verse has fantastic animation/visuals and is a very clever twist on the well-established Peter Parker story.
Thor: Ragnarok admittedly does require some MCU background but it's still a goofy-as-hell Tails Waitito comedy.
HBO's The Watchmen is excellent prestige television that builds on the 80's comic book story, so it's still useful to have someone available to answer background questions.
I had long been recommended to watch Snowpiercer, and I didn't get around to it until earlier this year (or late last year--I don't know, time doesn't matter anymore). What a fantastic piece of sci fi. I really enjoyed it.
interesting question. A few thoughts on movies that might fit...
Wonder Woman - fairly straight up superhero origin story set in WWI, but such heart and joy. non-genre lovers will go WTF? at the ending fight scene, but so did everyone. The trench warfare scene has people either screaming at the theater or crying.
DeadPool - pokes fun at superhero tropes, fairly graphic, awful dirty jokes. at the core a sweet romantic comedy/save the girl story.
Logan - Aging gunslinger gets roped into a road trip to save a young version of himself.
The Montgomery Biscuits is the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.
They have perhaps the greatest mascot & cap in all of baseball. It is an anthropomorphic biscuit with Cookie-Monster eyes peering out behind a cursive M. He has a pat of butter for a tongue for the primary cap. On one alt-uniform cap, he has two slices of bacon. Naturally, fresh biscuits are available at home games.
They are the OG food as mascot minor league team...before Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (named after pig irons ores) had a big hit with those bacon caps and then just about every minor league teams have some special food-related special uniforms and caps.
We've just all collectively given up on beating this thing, right? We're not paying attention to the data, we're opening up because it's too hard not to, whatever.
Yeah, it's not that we're not beating COVID-19, it's that, for all intents and purposes, we're not even trying. "Flatten the Curve" isn't a plan for defeating the virus, it's a plan for managing the associated health care rationing crisis and basically just living with the virus until we find a vaccine or a cure. We're just trying to slow the spread -- there's no plan, not even a discussion of a plan, for actually eliminating the presence of the virus in any significant community or part of society.
I think there are still a lot of people who are actively working in their labs to beat this (there are also lots of money to be made) with some progress (and already conspiracies about how Trump is saving the cure until closer to the election). How many people might contract the disease before the cure is found is independent of this effort.
Because there's nothing we can do individually aside from slowing it down. The smart people need to work on bringing out a vaccine to market ASAP. Until then, all we can do is flatten the curve.
I feel like we have strong counterexamples of actually eliminating it through distancing and protocols around the world. The US, however, has cultural tendencies that make this infeasible.
Where have they actually eliminated it, though? I think the closest example is South Korea, but I thought it was more rapid testing so that whenever anyone pops up they immediately quarantine them to keep it from spreading?
I think it's significantly harder to "eliminate" the virus in a company as large and diverse as the US. Too many ways for the epidemic to keep reviving itself.
Physical distancing is a method of defeating the virus--albeit an imperfect strategy--if executed properly. If infected individuals were completely quarantined, then it wouldn't be able to spread.
It's not just distancing, though. It's enforcing that distancing strictly, and it's a robust testing and tracing program to find and quarantine individuals to stop community spread. We don't do any of those three things nearly well enough to stop the virus completely, and we lack the political will to even try.
It's some of that, but it's also more than that. We're opening up the economy because that's what the economy needs, not because we've learned what things we can do safely and are starting to do them.
This was always the goal. Flattening the curve is so that we can open up the economy and prevent people from starving and going homeless without overrunning our hospitals (which you noted above). Even among capitalist societies, America is an especially consumer-driven economy. If people aren't working, we're kind of fucked. It's unfortunately up to companies now to make sure that they bring people back in the safest manner possible while listening to the CDC's and WHO's recommendations. The good thing is that office workers can transition to WFH pretty seemlessly. The concern to me is all the supply side workers that are going into high risk situations every day to keep us moving forward.
I noticed that once we hit 100k, there wasn't much discussion any longer about the number of dead. It's 114k now. One hundred fourteen thousand dead Americans. It is astounding how casually the nation as a whole is treating that number.
"Widespread Face Mask Use Could Help Prevent A Second Wave Of Coronavirus, Study Finds
LONDON (Reuters) - Population-wide facemask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study published Wednesday.
The research, led by scientists at Britain’s Cambridge and Greenwich Universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public.
“Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of facemasks by the public,” said Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at Cambridge."
This will ensure that the masks are communism people will not wear them.
Our county is following the state guidelines on distancing, reopening, etc. People are mostly good where I've been.
At work, we have gotten some silly guidelines from the County Administrators Office that we are supposed to follow. Mostly they are due to the fact that the CAO's office and most county offices don't have much dealing with the public directly. We however....have something like 500 individual customers per day (and a fair number of those have more than one person in the car/truck, plus during the summer typically something like 30 to 50 people who work for contractors doing stuff. So, we might be spending a shit ton of time asking people about their symptoms or not.
We got word that we can open up on Friday, but it looks like we are still about two weeks out from actually getting on the water again. We are following L.A. County and CDC guidelines as best we can and are putting some additional measures in place to make people feel more comfortable. We also asked all of our members if they had any additional feedback on our proposed measures to see if there was anything else we could do. I would say the limited places I've been to in L.A. are using county guidelines and most people seem happy to cooperate. In Glendale businesses are all complying, but the resident cooperation seems to lag behind a bit.
I'm wondering how many of the stores are able to get huge things of hand sanitizer for customers to use. Maybe they have access to the distribution for businesses? I did see Office Depot had something about being able to buy 2 32 oz bottles of hand sanitizer for 9.99 each. So I ordered two for pickup. Let's see if they're actually available for pickup tomorrow.
My two half gallon ones arrive sometime next week, which will be for below deck (where access and time spent there will be limited), but we have small ones available in the cockpit and will have disposable masks available if someone "forgets to bring their own" to a sail.
In the Bay Area just about all counties, I think, require masks to go into stores. And basically everyone is following it. Even though stores ask for 6 feet separation, people I think are subconsciously not following it as closely. For example, I've seen people 2 feet apart looking at produce, etc.
People just don't follow directions. I see masks everywhere, which is good. But the Safeway by me has each isle going in one direction to help with distancing, but nobody follows that forcing you to pass by people in close range.
I thikn the directions were followed early on. I do notice that once I'm looking at the signs and at the aisle to figure out if I'm in the right one, I never notice the arrows so I end up going the wrong way. I think when I do notice them I try to follow them...but that doesn't always work out either.
I'm on strike today to support #ShutDownSTEM. In addition to learning from people who have been working on this way longer than I have, I'm also thinking about what I can do.
I've gone to a lot of talks where, after delivering a lecture, the speaker receives questions on being a woman in STEM rather than the groundbreaking work she just presented. This includes the Cal favorite Jennifer Doudna. It's important to discuss these issues, but we shouldn't only be asking women, only asking PoC. So, I'm committed to asking white men these questions, too.
I started this week when I interviewed a cishet white man who has a position of leadership (the interview is for a profile in a work newsletter). I asked him: What are YOU doing for IDEA?
(At work, we call it IDEA: inclusion, diversity, equity, accountability)
I have also technically been on strike (by not checking my work emails and being on slack). I also did the bare minimum that was suggested on the Particles for Justice website, which was watching the Astronomy Club sketch show on Netflix (which was actually listed as a thing to do).
In other news....
https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1270802155201576962
"Official response from CNN General Counsel to
@TeamTrump‘s letter demanding CNN apologize for a poll that shows
@JoeBiden leading."
I love that the GC signs the letter "Very Truly Yours,"
"Very Truly Up Yours"
paraphrasing..."middle finger"
Scoots, this is for you: https://jezebel.com/an-interview-with-the-man-who-told-the-lapd-suck-my-di-1843965821
I read that and was sad that he is a fair bit less interesting than his exceptional call.
a beautiful call.
A perfect call
I didn't know of the existence of Chronicle of the Horse, but now I guess I should read it: https://twitter.com/msLAS/status/1270441508831784960?s=20
https://twitter.com/colinaut/status/1270105369348472832?s=20
"My Mom, creator of the original Care Bears, drew a Black Lives Matter Bear! You can buy prints/shirts/etc on her RedBubble. All proceeds go to Reed Foundation, a Black founded organization which helps disadvantaged youth in Tulsa!"
Unfortunately, it got taken down by the rights holder, but you can see the Reed Foundation here: https://www.reedcommunityfoundation.org/
My favorite response was: https://twitter.com/Monthenor/status/1270436988173389825?s=20
"Solibearity"
In no particular order:
Kamala Harris, Madeleine Albright, Barbara Lee, RBG, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stacey Abrams, Toni Morrison, Melle. Quinquin (my 7th grade teacher), Ms. Rosa, Elizabeth Warren, Oprah, Maya Angelou, at least a half dozen of my sons’ teachers. So many others.
"Chinese authorities have been trying for three years to reverse the devastating imbalances of their one-child policy and coax couples to have more children.
They’ve told couples that it’s their patriotic duty to have two babies. They’ve dangled tax breaks and housing subsidies. They’ve offered to make education cheaper and parental leave longer. They’ve tried to make it more difficult to get an abortion or a divorce.
None of this has worked. China’s birthrate remains stubbornly low and men massively outnumber women, creating a demographic crisis that could hinder economic growth for decades to come.
But now, an economics professor at Fudan University in Shanghai has come up with another — and, unsurprisingly, controversial — solution: allow women to have multiple husbands, and they will have multiple babies.
“I wouldn’t suggest polyandry if the gender ratio was not so severely imbalanced,” Yew-Kwang Ng, who is Malaysian, wrote in his regular column on a Chinese business website this month. The headline asked: “Is polyandry really a ridiculous idea?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/two-husband-strategy-may-be-a-remedy-for-chinas-one-child-policy-professor-posits/2020/06/10/56e6eff8-aac0-11ea-a43b-be9f6494a87d_story.html
*head => desk* an easier choice for this is to simply give women money to have girl children. Not any less of a societal mess, but easier to make legal without stepping to hard on traditional toes. And not a small amount of money, but something like what it would cost to raise a kid through to finishing high school or so.
IMO, this is a dumb article as it follows on a poorly thought out internet post with the predictable resulting outrage. One-Child Policy is only enforced in urban areas. It is not a problem with women forgetting to have sex. It is social values on having children on upward mobility, the social value of women, the economic cost of de-facto dowry, and the safety net from sons taking care of parents due to very different patterns of savings for retirement. If any country can forcably change social values quickly, it's China.
Not only do I not have an opinion about this, I don’t know how I would go about developing one. Sounds like a looking for socially acceptable way to treat women more like breeding stock?
It does provide yet another example of how once something gets ingrained into a culture, it is very difficult to change, regardless of the consequences, or the arrival of new information.
Well, yeah, that seems to be the point.
The part that I find mystifying is that each male can only be responsible for one pregnancy at a time. It’s not wholly clear to me how getting stuck with child care by 2 men instead of one is going to be of interest to a woman tbh.
Well, maybe if one of them has low sperm count it would help, or maybe having twice as much sex? I don't know, seemed like a goofy idea.
Probably my fourth grade teacher. Also with regard to diplomas I am not sure where my Cal diploma is. Seems to have disappeared. Probably in my ex-wife's stuff. I do have my diplomas from biz school and my doctoral degree, but I don't display them.
Women leaders
My current and last boss are women in physics, which also means that they are barely older than me (there are far fewer women in physics before the relatively recent attempt to create more diversity in the field than white and Asian men). As minorities in the department, they are also settled with a disproportionate amount of extra responsibilities to both showcases that the department is getting more diverse and because they do genuinely want to promote further diversity in physics.
My best boss was also a physicist. She’s probably 70ish now.
I've had some really good and some less good women managers/bosses over the years. The good ones tended to be not only technically proficient, but thoughtful and encouraging. The worst bosses generally have been men. This past year here has been the first time at the county where there is not a women in a direct line over me (either my boss or bosses boss).
In the creating leaders section, I've tried to encourage some of the women interns we've had over the past few years to keep at the work and be thorough in written stuff. They mostly have been focused on getting a masters in civil engineering, so probably i'm less help than I might be.
Wilma Chan was our leader for the Oakland organizing for the UDC in '92, went on to run for county Supervisor in Alameda County, then State Assembly and later the Senate. I worked on her run for the county Supervisor; she's much more liberal than I, but I have the greatest respect for her.
My undergrad advisor is the biggest factor in my being in my dream job now. She is committed to science, to helping her students achieve their dreams, and to educating the public. You can read about Peggy Lemaux's work here: https://nature.berkeley.edu/breakthroughs/sp20/grains-of-change
I've been fortunate to work under the direction of many talented women in my career. My undergrad senior thesis advisor, half my master's thesis committee, half my dissertation committee, my postdoc advisor, and my current supervisor were all women and have all had major impacts on my career. I'm very thankful to have worked with each of them.
I work in tech, and so have never reported to a woman. Our current engineering org only has one female manager, in Project Management.
Our publicly-traded company does not have any female executives. We do have a couple female VPs, but I must note that the most prominent of them is also the CEO's kid sister.
It's...not stellar.
Sports, Footwear and Apparel - 4 women bosses, 3 men
I am in the tech industry, and I recently reported to the CEO in a prior company. She was the best boss I have ever had the opportunity to report under.
I had a female boss at large chip company outside Portland. She was horrible. The female boss that was head of our group was better but I never directly communicated with her. She was probably 2-3 levels above me. That company does have a huge directive to try to hire/promote minorities. to the extent that many resumes I got from HR were either female or non-white/Chinese/Indian applicants.
Hmm, I work in tech and have had mostly female managers. It's not in engineering, though.
Yeah, perhaps I should have specified that I work in engineering specifically. Not that we've never had female engineering leaders, but all of the 12 bosses I've ever had have been men.
Since I'm in finance, female managers are rare. I've only worked with two. Both were very, very thoughtful. Only one "leaned in". She became the CFO of Nike. The other was a fantastic boss who helped us to calmly, quickly, and decisively divest of our portfolio as the second of the Twin Towers fell.
I've had the pleasure of working for at least 4 women as bosses in my career, and they've all been pretty great to work for, very supportive and helpful and easy to communicate with, and I've learned a lot from them. I wouldn't say any of them were without flaws, but that's because they are human, not because they're women. If I have to report to someone at work, I'd say I would generally prefer it to be a woman over a man.
Doing federal work means I’ve had a lot of female customers and a few female managers. The consistent theme of the good female managers and customers was that there was less posturing and bullshit. One former colleague in particular went from being a peer (good but not an instinctive consultant) to a tremendous SES exec in the government. Learned a lot from watching her in the senior position.
That should have been “less posturing and bullshit than their male counterparts”
Recommend a podcast to the DBD
How much time you got?
I love movies. I listen to two podcasts on the opposite ends of the spectrum:
How Did This Get Made? - comedians discuss bad movies and make jokes about them
Unspooled - goes steadily through every film on the AFI Top 100 American Films list and discusses them
Both co-hosted by the same guy, Paul Scheer.
HDTGM is great and if you are into movie trivia Doug Loves Movies is also a lot of fun.
I listen to that one too!
Hard to do just one, so here are three in heavy rotation for me right now:
Higher Learning
Revolutions
United States of Anxiety
The Dollop is a funny and informational history/comedy podcast. Most of the other one's I listen to are hosted by various stand up comedians, so your interest really depends on if you like their style of comedy or not.
Pod Save America is quite good, I only catch bits while my wife listens, but it's solid.
I consider myself a FotP
i dont really listen to that many but because i work for Vox and that is seemingly a growth area for us i try to keep tabs on them.
i particularly like the ones where Sean Illing substitutes for Ezra Klein. Sean is something of a political philosopher so his podcasts are not usually about the regular news cycle.
i listened to this one recently and ended up reading the guys book.
a non-religious book about sprituality and society.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/5/18663220/god-religion-socialism-martin-hagglund-this-life
Where is/are your diploma(s)?
Right in a water-proof, clear container that also contains several autographed baseballs. The box (more the baseballs in it) is visible behind on Zoom meetings when I do decide to turn on my camera.
And to be clear, the box includes my bachelor, master, and phd diplomas. I think my mom has my high school one somewhere.
In a folder on a bookshelf somewhere.
on a wall in my house in a room that i almost never go into.
I don't think I ever like received mine. There was a mailing issue for the official documentation, and then it was a PITA when I tried to resolve everything so I gave up. It's a piece of paper.
On a bookshelf to my right. Not anywhere special, just tucked into one of the many piles of books I have here.
In a filing cabinet in Sproul Hall somewhere (or probably in a shredder by now).
It took me about five years after I graduated to pick mine up. I was living in Alaska but visiting my parents in Oakland and decided to go walk around campus. On the spur of the moment I went by Sproul to ask about my diploma. Less than five minutes I had it. I was surprised how easy it was for them the retrieve it. Now it sits in a box in my condo storage unit.
Hmm...were we supposed to pick them up? Then maybe I don't have mine. It's been so long ago that I don't even know how I got it. Was it sent to me because I don't recall ever picking it up.
I don't know that we were necessarily supposed to pick them up but at graduation we just got a generic congratulations letter. When I stopped at Sproul I explained my situation and asked if there was something I could do to get a diploma not really thinking of picking it up. They asked for my name and minutes later there it was.
Was it in storage or did they print on demand?
We're talking a very long time ago so I'm sure it was gathering dust in storage somewhere in the basement or in some corner.
Assuming my HS one is somewhere at my parents. My college and maritime institute ones are in our file cabinet.
I don’t actually know.
College, Grad School and Middle School (WTF?) certs are framed and stacked up against the wall in my office. Hell if I know what happened to my High School Diploma.
They're on the wall in my home office.
Getting transcripts official transcripts from Cal was such an easy process. It was only ~$2 to get them sent when I took my current job. Meanwhile UC Irvine charged $19(!) for my official transcripts for my grad degrees.
Nor sure. My mom had both my HS & College diplomas, and I'm not sure where they wound up after we lost her (years ago). On the rare occasions when I've needed to establish their existence (and its been over a decade since that last happened), a transcript was required, and had to be ordered. They may be packed away (PC for buried) in a box on a shelf somewhere in the house. But then I'm not sure where my daughters diploma is either.
I'm proud of both of mine (do not understand the mentality that any diploma from an actual accredited entity is somehow not); its just that after a while, they aren't something you ever need.
No idea. It's probably gone. I had to get a copy of my official transcript for something maybe 15 years ago since that was gone as well. Of course, after a few moves, I'm not sure if I have that anymore either.
Honestly, I don't know where it is. I've got a photocopy of my Bachelor's degree, which was sufficient for HR files in Asia. I haven't needed it in the US as the only time it was requested an official transcript was required. Also, I was raised in a family where a Cal degree was a bare minimum, so undergrad diplomas are not something to be displayed.
" I've got a photocopy of my Bachelor's degree, which was sufficient for HR files in Asia"
No longer! Need the actual one nowadays. I used to use a fax copy for a decade.
* Bear minimum
hanging on a wall at my parents house. they seem particular proud of that kind of stuff
Is there a "comic book/superhero" movie that a non-genre lover might enjoy?
I'm not a comic/superhero guy, but I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy
Ant-Man is really just a Paul Rudd movie with super heroes.
My wife was impressed by Daredevil. A blind vigilante is an unusual concept.
I hate that shit but thoroughly enjoyed Black Panther.
yeah, this too
Unbreakable
The Incredibles
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
I mean, the original Superman (1978) is still a great watch (if you can forgive the dated effects).
Out of the MCU I feel like Guardians of the Galaxy is the best stand-alone entry for someone who doesn't care about superheroes.
As someone who is not especially interested in the MCU I’d agree with this
I probably agree that Guardians of the Galaxy is good for someone who doesn't care about superhero movies, like me. My kids wanted to see Guardians 2 so I took them. I enjoyed it, but more for the saractic banter than the actual action in the movie.
*sarcastic
Snowpiercer is technically a comic book movie that's quite good and frequently overlooked. Chris Evans is a grayish protagonist leading a rebellion on a classist train that holds the last vestiges of human society.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider verse has fantastic animation/visuals and is a very clever twist on the well-established Peter Parker story.
Thor: Ragnarok admittedly does require some MCU background but it's still a goofy-as-hell Tails Waitito comedy.
HBO's The Watchmen is excellent prestige television that builds on the 80's comic book story, so it's still useful to have someone available to answer background questions.
I had long been recommended to watch Snowpiercer, and I didn't get around to it until earlier this year (or late last year--I don't know, time doesn't matter anymore). What a fantastic piece of sci fi. I really enjoyed it.
Thor: Ragnarok is 19/19 for the first 1/3 of the movie, and 12/19 for the rest.
interesting question. A few thoughts on movies that might fit...
Wonder Woman - fairly straight up superhero origin story set in WWI, but such heart and joy. non-genre lovers will go WTF? at the ending fight scene, but so did everyone. The trench warfare scene has people either screaming at the theater or crying.
DeadPool - pokes fun at superhero tropes, fairly graphic, awful dirty jokes. at the core a sweet romantic comedy/save the girl story.
Logan - Aging gunslinger gets roped into a road trip to save a young version of himself.
Montgomery
British Field Marshal of some note.
Eh, he was just ok as a general, best of a rather lame bunch at the waning of the empire.
Is the capital of Alabama. I learned that last night. Bus boycotts. Lo is of massive courage.
I read this thread on the bus boycotts and related parts of history. It was FASCINATING. https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/1270076281040797699?s=20
His threads are always a roller coaster ride of “things I didn’t know”
You are probably the reason I came across it
Graduated from Sidney Lainer HS in Montgomery.
Also home of the flea market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk
The Montgomery Biscuits is the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.
They have perhaps the greatest mascot & cap in all of baseball. It is an anthropomorphic biscuit with Cookie-Monster eyes peering out behind a cursive M. He has a pat of butter for a tongue for the primary cap. On one alt-uniform cap, he has two slices of bacon. Naturally, fresh biscuits are available at home games.
https://www.neweracap.com/medias/sys_master/root/h36/h63/8916511359006/8916511359006.png
They are the OG food as mascot minor league team...before Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (named after pig irons ores) had a big hit with those bacon caps and then just about every minor league teams have some special food-related special uniforms and caps.
I'm in.
Yum!
Sandy Barbour hiring Mike Montgomery - despite his connection with 'furd - IMHO was her best hire.
Yes! Love this.
Elsewhere in college
Duke AD comes out against college likeness rules
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29288245/duke-ad-worried-unfair-advantages-nil-laws
I think the UNC AD also is against it as well. Probably one of the only things UNC and Duke agree on.
USC ending disassociation with Reggie Bush
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29289915/sources-usc-expected-end-reggie-bush-disassociation-school
Mildly surprised to see no commentary about this, we really have become irrelevant
People are too busy rioting and protesting right now to care about CFB methinks :)
More a case of a ridiculous action expiring, so its finally gone away.
✌🏻
Today in CV19
We've just all collectively given up on beating this thing, right? We're not paying attention to the data, we're opening up because it's too hard not to, whatever.
And by "we," it's specifically Americans. Other countries seem to have been able to beat COVID-19...
Yeah, it's not that we're not beating COVID-19, it's that, for all intents and purposes, we're not even trying. "Flatten the Curve" isn't a plan for defeating the virus, it's a plan for managing the associated health care rationing crisis and basically just living with the virus until we find a vaccine or a cure. We're just trying to slow the spread -- there's no plan, not even a discussion of a plan, for actually eliminating the presence of the virus in any significant community or part of society.
I think there are still a lot of people who are actively working in their labs to beat this (there are also lots of money to be made) with some progress (and already conspiracies about how Trump is saving the cure until closer to the election). How many people might contract the disease before the cure is found is independent of this effort.
but even if he released it a month before, it's not like he actively did anything to make it. Though the trumpers would think he did.
Because there's nothing we can do individually aside from slowing it down. The smart people need to work on bringing out a vaccine to market ASAP. Until then, all we can do is flatten the curve.
I feel like we have strong counterexamples of actually eliminating it through distancing and protocols around the world. The US, however, has cultural tendencies that make this infeasible.
Where have they actually eliminated it, though? I think the closest example is South Korea, but I thought it was more rapid testing so that whenever anyone pops up they immediately quarantine them to keep it from spreading?
I think it's significantly harder to "eliminate" the virus in a company as large and diverse as the US. Too many ways for the epidemic to keep reviving itself.
Physical distancing is a method of defeating the virus--albeit an imperfect strategy--if executed properly. If infected individuals were completely quarantined, then it wouldn't be able to spread.
It's not just distancing, though. It's enforcing that distancing strictly, and it's a robust testing and tracing program to find and quarantine individuals to stop community spread. We don't do any of those three things nearly well enough to stop the virus completely, and we lack the political will to even try.
Exactly so
A few, not most.
Enough to demonstrate that it's possible IF PEOPLE WOULD FUCKING LISTEN TO SCIENTISTS!!!
Though it's not always so easy, with the WHO putting out confusing press releases here and there.
Listen to The Scientist in particular. Imagine if everyone listened to me--what a wonderful world it would be.
I think some of it is, "I haven't gotten it so far so maybe we don't need to be as vigilant on sheltering in place and staying 6 feet away".
It's some of that, but it's also more than that. We're opening up the economy because that's what the economy needs, not because we've learned what things we can do safely and are starting to do them.
This was always the goal. Flattening the curve is so that we can open up the economy and prevent people from starving and going homeless without overrunning our hospitals (which you noted above). Even among capitalist societies, America is an especially consumer-driven economy. If people aren't working, we're kind of fucked. It's unfortunately up to companies now to make sure that they bring people back in the safest manner possible while listening to the CDC's and WHO's recommendations. The good thing is that office workers can transition to WFH pretty seemlessly. The concern to me is all the supply side workers that are going into high risk situations every day to keep us moving forward.
Basically, living with the virus, because we have no hope of defeating it.
Sadly this is true.
I noticed that once we hit 100k, there wasn't much discussion any longer about the number of dead. It's 114k now. One hundred fourteen thousand dead Americans. It is astounding how casually the nation as a whole is treating that number.
People are still just replying “lots of people die” to this kind of observation on Twitter
We're all gonna die. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/facemask-coronavirus-prevention_n_5ee07dcdc5b6a6b09fc4e9fc
"Widespread Face Mask Use Could Help Prevent A Second Wave Of Coronavirus, Study Finds
LONDON (Reuters) - Population-wide facemask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study published Wednesday.
The research, led by scientists at Britain’s Cambridge and Greenwich Universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public.
“Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of facemasks by the public,” said Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at Cambridge."
This will ensure that the masks are communism people will not wear them.
How are your localities treating CDC guidelines? Are they enforcing social distancing and face masks, or is it a free-for-all?
Here in MD people are still very good about wearing masks, although social distancing norms seem to be eroding.
Our county is following the state guidelines on distancing, reopening, etc. People are mostly good where I've been.
At work, we have gotten some silly guidelines from the County Administrators Office that we are supposed to follow. Mostly they are due to the fact that the CAO's office and most county offices don't have much dealing with the public directly. We however....have something like 500 individual customers per day (and a fair number of those have more than one person in the car/truck, plus during the summer typically something like 30 to 50 people who work for contractors doing stuff. So, we might be spending a shit ton of time asking people about their symptoms or not.
We got word that we can open up on Friday, but it looks like we are still about two weeks out from actually getting on the water again. We are following L.A. County and CDC guidelines as best we can and are putting some additional measures in place to make people feel more comfortable. We also asked all of our members if they had any additional feedback on our proposed measures to see if there was anything else we could do. I would say the limited places I've been to in L.A. are using county guidelines and most people seem happy to cooperate. In Glendale businesses are all complying, but the resident cooperation seems to lag behind a bit.
I'm wondering how many of the stores are able to get huge things of hand sanitizer for customers to use. Maybe they have access to the distribution for businesses? I did see Office Depot had something about being able to buy 2 32 oz bottles of hand sanitizer for 9.99 each. So I ordered two for pickup. Let's see if they're actually available for pickup tomorrow.
My two half gallon ones arrive sometime next week, which will be for below deck (where access and time spent there will be limited), but we have small ones available in the cockpit and will have disposable masks available if someone "forgets to bring their own" to a sail.
In the Bay Area just about all counties, I think, require masks to go into stores. And basically everyone is following it. Even though stores ask for 6 feet separation, people I think are subconsciously not following it as closely. For example, I've seen people 2 feet apart looking at produce, etc.
People just don't follow directions. I see masks everywhere, which is good. But the Safeway by me has each isle going in one direction to help with distancing, but nobody follows that forcing you to pass by people in close range.
I thikn the directions were followed early on. I do notice that once I'm looking at the signs and at the aisle to figure out if I'm in the right one, I never notice the arrows so I end up going the wrong way. I think when I do notice them I try to follow them...but that doesn't always work out either.
I see plenty of people in stores not wearing masks or not wearing them properly (i.e., exposing their goddamn noses).
That's interesting. In SF, I don't think I've seen a single unmasked person inside a store.
I see lots of exposed noses on the streets and occasionally in stores across LA unfortunately
But I think people definitely aren't standing right next to people to pick out produce. I'll see people waiting to get to the same apples, etc.
I totally agree that we are all gonna die.
Protests
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
I'm on strike today to support #ShutDownSTEM. In addition to learning from people who have been working on this way longer than I have, I'm also thinking about what I can do.
I've gone to a lot of talks where, after delivering a lecture, the speaker receives questions on being a woman in STEM rather than the groundbreaking work she just presented. This includes the Cal favorite Jennifer Doudna. It's important to discuss these issues, but we shouldn't only be asking women, only asking PoC. So, I'm committed to asking white men these questions, too.
I started this week when I interviewed a cishet white man who has a position of leadership (the interview is for a profile in a work newsletter). I asked him: What are YOU doing for IDEA?
(At work, we call it IDEA: inclusion, diversity, equity, accountability)
I have also technically been on strike (by not checking my work emails and being on slack). I also did the bare minimum that was suggested on the Particles for Justice website, which was watching the Astronomy Club sketch show on Netflix (which was actually listed as a thing to do).
https://www.particlesforjustice.org/strike-details
Excellent!
CNN: color piece that interviews Trump voters
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/politics/trump-supporters-florida/index.html
I suppose it's about time for another wave of Cleetus Safaris as media outlets go inside the minds of voters in "Trump Country"
I would just like to applaud the phrase “Cleetus Safaris”
So fucking sick of this story. Why not talk to working class people of color?
because they don't give you breathtaking hypocrisy in a 20 second sound bite like the 'Clettus'es do.
Cleeti?
Without read it, I think it's a "white" piece...
Long lines in GA election.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/06/09/june-9-primaries-georgia-faces-long-lines-graham-wins-gop-race-sc/5325331002/
System working as designed
Exactly, that.
Unfortunately. Also another advertisement for vote by mail.
Reports are many tried to do so, but were never sent the mail-in ballots.
Absolutely
PRO
MLB: Players give counter offer to owners
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29289638/sources-mlbpa-proposes-89-game-season-expanded-playoffs
Soccer: US MLS will resume July 8th with a World Cup style tournament
https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/4108957/mls-is-back-tournament-to-kick-off-on-july-8-in-orlando
I shall probably watch it even though I really prefer to watch DC United while sweltering in the stands, beer and pupusas in hand
CAL
Go Bears!
Jake Curtis with another good article at SI, another in a series profiling Cal 2020 football.
https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/assessing-2020-run-defense-part-2