Do you think there are situations where conscription is appropriate?

When the country is doing stupid shit like invading Iraq I’m opposed to the draft. When it’s defending against an existential threat which is on native soil, I don’t have as much sympathy for people avoiding the draft.

No, but if you make the device cold it generates wind

Yup, in the sales world it’s accepted truth that you have to cold call. That said, in my sales position I’ve just switched to personalized email outreach for first contact and if anyone asks, oh of course I’m making calls. That probably only works in certain applications, but I’m making the numbers I need to.

I misread the title as “bury” toilet paper, and was excited to hear a new twist on COVID preppers

I’d venture this should be tagged nsfw, not because it has nudity but because if a boss walked by while you were looking at this they’d be like “what the fuck are you doing”. Seems gore adjacent.

This is one reason I’m especially interested in worker cooperatives.

You’re right, people spend 8+ hours a day at work, strengthening business owners, who are essentially working against them. Then some small fraction of people have/take the time to learn about issues affecting them and volunteer a couple hours a week for their chosen cause.

Even those in a union are negotiating from the standpoint of “the company owns the equipment/processes/customers and we own our labor”.

What if instead the workers also own the business? Now you’re spending eight hours (or less) a day working on something that directly benefits you, and with which you’re intimately familiar. It’s possible to make democratic decisions because it’s not some abstract issue or far away politician. And every successful worker cooperative reduces the money going to some micro-king, and in turn reduces the distorting effect of corporate money on our electoral system.

That’s a good visual

Sorry, who gave you a curfew?

What are you running from

With the space shuttle they observed an issue on launch, looked into it and decided the shuttle was ok to return, then it blew up. Not saying that’s what will happen here, but has to have occurred to the astronauts that it’s happened before.

Got to be nerve wracking as the astronaut waiting to ride back.

When you look at the material that the human mind generates, it kind of makes you look at output from AI a little different.

Well are we talking about marriage? In that case I choose Melinda Gates.

Valuable information which deserves a clearer infographic!

Good points! I know my last couple jobs have had “partner” companies that were similar to us in each major metropolitan area. So if we had a pop up request beyond the backup gear we packed, we could still get it from a warehouse less than an hour away. (And there’s always the wholesale rental houses like Rentex)

Can’t imagine this is relevant to a lot of folks here, but corporate event audio visual:

Don’t use the audio visual company that’s “in house” at a hotel. They’re paying nearly 50% commission for the privilege of being there and getting business shunted to them, so only half of what you pay is going to goods or services.

That said, make sure your hotel contract leaves you free to bring in an outside vendor without having to pay too many fees. Cross out any lines related to things like “load in/out liaison,” paying for polytak floor covering, or paying some percentage of your outside AV bill to the in house company. It might help to include a proactive clause like “client will not be charged any fees for bringing in our own audio visual partner”. Include a line that you won’t be required to pay surcharges like “event technical support” which is just a “we’re charging you a fee” fee.

You will still have to pay the in-house AV vendor for any power, internet and rigging. For internet, confirm what your rate will be before signing the contract. We see a lot of cases where they’ll say “the meeting room wifi is discounted (free) if you use us for AV too, but if you don’t it’s $20k” (actual number, and could be even higher) Once you sign without negotiating they’ve got you over a barrel.

If you already have a contract you may be able to mitigate these issues by leaning on your hotel salesperson. Trying to negotiate with the in house AV rep will usually be ineffective (sometimes they’re cool). The hotel is the in-house AV vendor’s number one customer, so if the hotel says they need to do something, they’ll do it. Usually leaning on your hotel salesperson after signing a contract only works if you have some leverage like potential for future business.

I was hoping they’d talk about click farms. Just a group chat where people interact with each other’s stuff seems kind of quaint

Thanks for sharing.

I don’t think the excerpt you provided addresses the points I was making. What do we mean by free will? Presumably it’s the idea that a person is able to make their own choices, and they’re not being controlled by some external force.

On the one hand, yes, I can imagine a conscious being without free will - imagine a scientist could disconnect the nerves that control your body and replace them with a remote control, but the nerves which provide sensation stay - someone else is driving the car, but you still see and hear what’s going on.

But that’s not what I mean when I say free will is absurd. I mean the idea that we could act without reference to our past experiences, conversations, physical circumstance, DNA, isn’t plausible. Yes, I like to eat fruit loops for breakfast! They taste good and I enjoy the sensation. I have “free will” to eat gravel instead, but I don’t.

In the normal mundane world that’s fine - we can say we have free will. In the case where we argue that an all knowing and all powerful God exists that’s an issue. Because God knows every possible force and prior circumstance that will act on us, and he put those forces into motion. So such a God would have decided for us what will happen.

Got to be honest, I started reading that, saw how long it was and stopped. Would you want to share the gist?