chat thread 2021: RIP Paul Mooney

[DeacsATS]

when i say disable the grid, i mean no new permits for drills or refineries or power stations that can solely run on fossil fuels, and when i say start from scratch, i mean rebuild the grid based on next gen technology, and not retrofit based on teh needs of the 20th or 19th century

i also think the big problem (and i don't really want to make the chat thread political) is that there is no capitalist solution here. power should be decommodified and nationalized.

Had to step away for a worthless client lunch, but power is already a heavily regulated business. I'm about as free market as they come, but actually agree that the government should play a huge role here.

Fine with rebuilding the grid, but you are still left with the problem of generating enough power to satisfy the demand of a gigantic country. That means nat gas for the foreseeable future... And hopefully nuclear.

I don't pretend to know how much permitting is going on for drilling or power stations, but the last greenfield refinery that was built in the US was back in 1977. I actually think new refineries might be a good idea, in that technology has improved a little bit over the last 40 years.

[wakephan09]

Not that you were actually making the argument, mako, but I've always found the "posting during the work day" slight (utilized against phdeac weekly) to be facile and dumb. Just about anybody with a smart phone can post during work hours no matter their job.

[TownieDeac]

yea we're not in a factory using our hands all day, we're sitting in front of a computer or have a phone handy

[CreamyGoodness]

I post 100% of the time I'm pooping between 7:00-5:00

[wakephan09]

Haha, like DeacATS had to stop posting because he was at a "worthless client lunch". Not posting during the workday because of his job!

[wakephan09]

I post 100% of the time I'm pooping between 7:00-5:00

Hmm, but not pooping 100% of the time you're posting.

That might be more impressive

[mako1331]

Not that you were actually making the argument, mako, but I've always found the "posting during the work day" slight (utilized against phdeac weekly) to be facile and dumb. Just about anybody with a smart phone can post during work hours no matter their job.

I'm just saying I see a whole lot more of my English folk with the leisure to peruse and post during work than I do engineers.



Of course, as I've said before my brother works for a finance company and makes at least 5 times what I make and he just sits on the couch and watches old WWE videos all day and occasionally calls the people in India that do the real work so what the fuck do I know?

[DeacsATS]

Haha, like DeacATS had to stop posting because he was at a "worthless client lunch". Not posting during the workday because of his job!

Well, it is tough to use your phone when you are talking with somebody 1x1 for 90 minutes.

But yeah, I clearly post a lot during the workday.

[ImTheCaptain]

Well, it is tough to use your phone when you are talking with somebody 1x1 for 90 minutes.

But yeah, I clearly post a lot during the workday.

pro tip: if you put the phone in your lap below the desk/table, no one notices

[wakephan09]

Well, it is tough to use your phone when you are talking with somebody 1x1 for 90 minutes.

But yeah, I clearly post a lot during the workday.

I didn't mean this as a criticism of you, I promise! I just thought it was a nice example for my argument that posting or not posting during the work day doesn't tell us much of anything about someone's job

[TownieDeac]

just sits on the couch and watches old WWE videos all day and occasionally calls the people in India that do the real work so what the fuck do I know?

this is kinda my whole gig too, but instead of wwe i just post here

[TenaciousKory]

ph does have a lot of posts though.

[TenaciousKory]

DG3 on the other hand is constantly on that rise-n-grind tryin to link and build fam life and his post count is pretty low

[wakephan09]

I'm just saying I see a whole lot more of my English folk with the leisure to peruse and post during work than I do engineers.



Of course, as I've said before my brother works for a finance company and makes at least 5 times what I make and he just sits on the couch and watches old WWE videos all day and occasionally calls the people in India that do the real work so what the fuck do I know?

It is an interesting observation in the context of the chat thread. If I had to posit an explanation I'd suggest that humanities majors (is that sorta what you meant by "English folk"?) have selected jobs that give them more flexibility to complete projects or tasks at their own pace.

As a teacher you'll know we sometimes have a very flexible schedule (summer!) and sometimes have an unusually inflexible schedule (classes!).

[PhDeac]

It’s always interesting that people have great passion or thoughts about real world problems then go back to their job that really does nothing. That I think in the last few decades is also an unaddressed problem. How many intelligent people with the capacity for problem solving and making a difference end up charting a career path that in the end leads to making money. Also it’s a circular problem because that’s also where the jobs are, moving some money around to make more money or help a company make money instead of jobs in engineering, research and so forth.

This is a big problem in engineering. Way too many people spend 4+ years learning how to solve complex real world problems using available resources and then go off and get an MBA and the problem they end up solving is rich people don't have enough money.

I went back and looked at a paper I published 10 years ago that found Black and Hispanic engineering majors were more likely to switch out of STEM into business majors as well. We lose a lot of talent to money majors and professions.

Depending on the school (obviously), but the overhead for a department like this is probably just about zero. They cost the school nothing.

The humanities are hella cheap. In some cases pay for themselves. In some cases subsidize other departments.

Science departments are expensive as fuck to run and many of them are largely funded by outside grants. If people decided they valued the humanities and wanted to fund them with outside grants at even a fraction of what we give to science programs I think the world would look a lot different.

For every "worthless" theater major making cappuccinos there's two biology majors who didn't go to medical school and are working at Dunder Mifflin

This and include social sciences. Humanities provides a broad skill set for a range of jobs, hobbies, interests, whatever with low overhead. In terms of $$$, our sociology, psych, and anthro programs bring in a ton of grant funding compared to peer institutions, yet use minimal resources compared to the STEM departments. I bring in millions and my only expense is my time and my 8 year old MacBook Pro. The STEM folks are taking the indirect funds I bring in as well. Indirect is a major scam.

It's probably gonna be an unpopular opinion here, but as a high school teacher I think we send entirely too many goddamn kids to 4 year colleges in this country.

I assumed that was the prevailing opinion

Yeah. It's not unpopular at all. It's just hard to do like turning around a cruise ship in a pond.

we should run these boards like a business and require posters to pay .02 cents a post

To post, read, or both?

[DeacsATS]

pro tip: if you put the phone in your lap below the desk/table, no one notices

I actually did that for a second, but not to post on OGBoards.

[TownieDeac]

i do very few tasks as a job, apart from attending meetings and writing emails.

i basically just get a budget that has an outcome written by someone else, and i take that budget and tell people what tasks to do, in what order. i don't even figure out how, that's someone else's job. but doing the things? couldn't be me.

[TenaciousKory]

i am a graduate student so my job tasks are read, write, teach, and stress

[PhDeac]

I agree with the first half there, not so much the second. Maybe intentional communities as a whole will become more prevalent, but I almost see that as an effect of COVID more than anything else. I do think friendship is one area where women have the def. leg up on men, though. The lack of deep, honest friendships where REAL SHIT is discussed is a significant issue for men. Dunno, maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.

Define REAL SHIT. Like how to make the world a better place or sex deets?

meh. something to be said for gender performativity getting in the way of men expressing themselves to one another but I've generally had honest discussions with my closest male friends when the topic is serious.

but also i'm pretty reticent to essentialize gender ("there's just something about women that X, there's just something about men that Y") so I'll admit my bias

also i teach interpersonal communication and my gf works as a therapist so yeah pretty open dude when it comes to FEELINGS

I don't think it's essentializing gender to notice gendered trends in a gendered society as long as the goal is unpacking gender.

[TownieDeac]

all these posts are happening while i wait on the non-tribbles to do the work

before too long, i'll go from bossing around non-tribbles to bossing around tribbles and then i may change my tune