Worthwhile intertubez finds

[Highway]

Even if you're being paid for goals accomplished, when you prove that accomplishing one goal no longer takes you the same amount of time, I don't think you can ethically coast on that forever after. And "hey you automated that thing we hired you to do that used to take us 4 days each week, and now it takes no additional input and is done perfectly. Cool, thanks for helping out. BTW, don't bother coming back tomorrow, since we don't need you now."

There's going to be a tipping point where you an employer is going to need you to spend an amount of time in a continuing fashion to add value through your work. Whether that's by taking on other tasks and automating them (until you run out of low hanging fruit), or whether that's doing things that can't be automated, I think that employers are fine asking employees to continue to add value. And yeah, employers need to be able to recognize the value added and reward people for that, but there's gonna be a balance that needs to get struck.

[Kolohe]

Meh, I don't believe in ethics for that sort of thing. I do believe in competition though.

[Kolohe]

I mean, if management doesn't understand or even know how long a process is supposed to take, they aren't doing their jobs, for which they are ostensibly paid even more (or have some other perq or upward mobility)

[Mo]

The only thing that would have made this better is if the trophy hunters got trampled to death.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mibia.html

[JD]

A very interesting and well-researched article on China's "vocational training centers" for Uighurs, particularly the one at Dabancheng: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/id ... dden_camps

Based on satellite photos in which we can see the number of buildings, their area, and their height, architecture firms that specialize in prison construction estimate that the Dabancheng facility is made to hold at least 11,000 people and very possibly more like 130,000.

[Mo]

What words were first used the year you were born?

Highlights from 1978: bustier, bed and breakfast, ditz, eye candy, frequent flier, information technology, MDMA, snap pea, pay per view.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1978

[Aresen]

What words were first used the year you were born?

Highlights from 1978: bustier, bed and breakfast, ditz, eye candy, frequent flier, information technology, MDMA, snap pea, pay per view.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1978

Calling bullshit. I remember seeing 'bed-and-breakfast' when I cycled around England in 1971.

[Eric the .5b]

Dang. That's a very cool idea, but that page has some data-entry or query issues. 1975 has a lot of dubious results, including "alternative rock", "blood-and-guts", "subfolder", "sports bar", and "smashmouth", with that last one outright saying it was coined during the 1984 football season if you follow the link.

[JD]

Agreed. For 1974 there are a bunch of plausible entries but also gulag and controlling. The ones that look more plausible do give you an idea of the zeitgeist, though, like Afropop, computerphobe, and Sandinista.

[Kolohe]

"Global Positioning System" was in 1973. (as was deep throat)

[JD]

The very sad story of Masha and Dasha, two conjoined twin girls born in the Soviet Union in 1950. They were basically stolen from their mother by the state medical authority, and subjected to what can only be described as medical torture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_and ... oshlyapova

[Warren]

"Global Positioning System" was in 1973. (as was deep throat)

nit pick: DT released in 72.

[Jasper]

Cannabinoid, dextromethorphan, doobie, psychedelia, recreational drug, skag, speed-freak, THC, whacked-out, zonked-out

Interrobang!?

Also, apparently, Z was invented in '67.

[JD]

The story of Chad Walde, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and died of glioblastoma (brain cancer) at the age of 44. Despite the fact that radiation exposure is one of the only known environmental triggers of glioblastoma, and there was a long history of Los Alamos being slipshod with radiation safety, Los Alamos claimed to have no record that Walde had ever been exposed to any radiation - directly contradicting many people's recollections of events - and decided that his cancer wasn't their fault.

[Eric the .5b]

Scans of an 1861 Japanese children's book about the American Revolutionary War.

More than a little jazzed up to entertain the kids. Ben Franklin points out targets for John Adams' ridiculously manly use of a cannon, George Washington fights the minions of an evil British noble to protect his wife, either John Adams or George Washington fistfight a tiger, and more. Two-headed monsters, giant serpents, etc.

Reddit and Hacker News have some background.

[lunchstealer]

either John Adams or George Washington fistfight a tiger, and more.

And there's just some guy flailing on the ground with no pants. Japan really started with the WTF earlier than I thought.

ETA:

[Painboy]

Scans of an 1861 Japanese children's book about the American Revolutionary War.

More than a little jazzed up to entertain the kids. Ben Franklin points out targets for John Adams' ridiculously manly use of a cannon, George Washington fights the minions of an evil British noble to protect his wife, either John Adams or George Washington fistfight a tiger, and more. Two-headed monsters, giant serpents, etc.

Reddit and Hacker News have some background.

That's awesome.

I had totally forgotten about the time when John Adams took on the Midgard Serpent.

[Dangerman]

Those would make amazing tattoos.

[lunchstealer]

I had totally forgotten about the time when John Adams took on the Midgard Serpent.

And then Fawkes showed up to help because Adams was a faithful Gryffindor, probably?

[Kolohe]

Adams was a total Hufflepuff.

[Pham Nuwen]

Once again capitalism shows it's worth.

[Warren]

Once again capitalism shows it's worth.



[SINMO APP]

Wait for the Christmas discounts and stock up on sinning for next year!

[JD]

Chinese economists sound more on the ball than most American economists do:

[Aresen]

Chinese economists sound more on the ball than most American economists do:

Not sure what you mean WRT to 'American economists'. The ones I've read agree that the Chinese 'Corporate State' is hurting Chinese growth and its people. They also say that a trade war is the wrong way to fix the problem.

[Painboy]

Gordon Tullock Meets Phineas Gage: The Political Economy of Lobotomies in the United States

In the late 1940s, the United States experienced a “lobotomy boom” where the use of the lobotomy expanded exponentially. We engage in a comparative institutional analysis, following the framework developed by Tullock (2005), to explain why the lobotomy gained popularity and widespread use despite widespread scientific consensus it was ineffective. We argue that government provision and funding for public mental hospitals and asylums expanded and prolonged the use of the lobotomy. We support this claim by noting the lobotomy had virtually disappeared from private mental hospitals and asylums before the boom and was less used beforehand. This paper provides a more robust explanation for the lobotomy boom in the US and expands on the literate examining the relationship between state funding and scientific inquiry.