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mdemone posted:So is that five arsons, and three accidental fires at black churches in just two weeks? What the gently caress is going on here? The accidental ones are probably like the shark attack frenzy a few years ago, in which a smaller number of shark attacks than usual happened that year, but everyone was looking for them so it seemed like an epidemic. Or the "knock-out game," with a few isolated actual cases and the media folding every episode of interracial assault in the country into "stats" showing this was a widespread thing. No doubt there's a very serious issue here (5 still seems like a lot), but it is important to keep perspective on the human tendency to see patterns in things.
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Jul 1, 2015 16:28
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Spun Dog posted:All at black churches. Forgive my rush to judgment. I sincerely doubt those black churches are the only buildings that have been accidentally or purposefully lit on fire in the past two weeks.
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Jul 1, 2015 16:34
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Good Citizen posted:I've literally heard nothing about it besides on here and one left-leaning news outlet, and only there after it got up to the current figure http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/02/u...WT.nav=top-news Spun Dog posted:And I sincerely doubt that racist angst over the confederate flag and a string of black churches burning is a coincidence. For what it's worth, I hope you are right. Racists are always angry about something, oftentimes something that never even makes the news outside of their insane "news" bubble. Post hoc ergo propter hoc isn't especially definitive.
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Jul 1, 2015 17:01
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Joementum posted:They both took it four times. Obama did it twice in 2009 due to Roberts loving it up and twice again in 2013. And why didn't he take it five times? ... Really makes you think.
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Jul 2, 2015 02:53
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The US has no shortage of problems, but there are lots of ways in which the US is way less sexist and xenophobic than plenty of areas in Europe. Let's not act the KKK's continual existence in the US erases Golden Dawn in Greece, or the National Front in France, or the British National Party in Britain. People are (systematically) assholes everywhere.
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Jul 2, 2015 18:18
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Relentlessboredomm posted:The reason to get out of the US is not because other countries are perfect and lacking in systemic racism. There's no place on earth without some genuinely upsetting racial history/policies. The difference is many other first world countries have an actual functioning infrastructure and social safety net. As a not rich person UHC, favorable labor laws, and a better education system sounds incredibly appealing. Sure. As a not rich person, good luck getting into those other countries, much less getting citizenship.
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Jul 2, 2015 19:49
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Relentlessboredomm posted:It is interesting that everyone assumes I mean Europe when I say first world countries. In my head I'm thinking of Australia, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Japan, etc. Australia and Japan: known not-super-xenophobic countries.
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Jul 2, 2015 21:31
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Race isn't the only thing. It's anecdotal, but several feminist women friends of mine have had really lovely extended stays in the UK, France, and Italy in terms of sexism / chauvinism. I don't know what kind of non-anecdotal evidence you could gather for comparative sexism, though.
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Jul 3, 2015 00:23
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In US news, we're one step closer to removing the threat of dirty poors having access to economic mobility: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/business/unpaid-internships-allowed-if-they-serve-educational-purpose-court-rules.html?partner=rss&emc=rss quote:Unpaid interns can be used legally when the work serves an educational purpose, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, setting aside a lower court decision that the movie studio Fox Searchlight Pictures had improperly classified former workers as unpaid interns rather than employees. McAlister posted:Salary comparisons.
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Jul 3, 2015 01:07
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Colorado reduces teen pregnancies AND abortions by over 40% each using One Weird Trick http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html?partner=rss&emc=rss quote:Over the past six years, Colorado has conducted one of the largest ever real-life experiments with long-acting birth control. If teenagers and poor women were offered free intrauterine devices and implants that prevent pregnancy for years, state officials asked, would those women choose them? Surely this will lead anti-abortion advocates to embrace this plan.
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Jul 5, 2015 23:45
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mandatory lesbian posted:yeah, this is real political?!?!?! The FIFA president didn't show up to hand out the trophy because he's a scared baby about being arrested. He even sent a message to that effect that they quoted during the ceremony. The USA's crackdown on FIFA corruption remains the diplomatic coup of the past ~30 years. Zero cost, every soccer fan in the world likes us a little more.
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Jul 6, 2015 03:10
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Trabisnikof posted:People have been saying that exact thing since at least 1945. Potentially earlier. Well Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835 posted:There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world which seem to tend towards the same end, although they started from different points: I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place amongst the nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time.
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Jul 8, 2015 20:28
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Rheiynccze Preebucks, hater of fun: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-party-debate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0 quote:The Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, faced with growing pressure from inside the party to quiet Donald J. Trump, called the provocative developer-turned-presidential candidate on Wednesday and asked him to speak in more measured tones.
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Jul 9, 2015 19:19
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ReidRansom posted:Entrust it to math/data spergs and computers, I say. zoux posted:I think we have computers than can do it, but the thing is that you do want some gerrymandering in your congressional maps, to ensure that like constituencies that have similar interests and goals aren't diluted. This is a great way to embed subjective, political judgements about definitions of terms like "non-partisan," "fair representation," and "communities of interest" in a system that's even harder to object to because now the status quo can be defended by calling it "objective" and "scientific" and leaning on the authority of science/math.
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Jul 9, 2015 19:47
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Doctor Butts posted:What? I've never heard of this poo poo before. Something about this sounds exactly like the Muslim No-Go Zone bullshit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-11/news/mn-8071_1_safety-zone
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Jul 10, 2015 16:25
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Renting out a room in your house / subletting sometimes: an evil made possible only by the new technologies of our technological techno-dystopia.
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Jul 13, 2015 15:53
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ToxicSlurpee posted:The issue isn't that people were occasionally renting spare space but people were buying houses and deliberately turning them into minihotels in the middle of purely residential areas. Hotels have regulations and restrictions for pretty good reasons but suddenly people were using Airbnb to get around them. This wasn't "well my cousin is in town and needs a place to crash but can't afford four days for a hotel so he gave me a few dollars to sleep on my couch." Sure, which is obviously a public problem and worth a serious response. There's just a lot of snide backlash among my liberal friends against all these services, as if Uber is inherently exploitative (or at least, more exploitative than taxis, always a lovely industry for workers) rather than potentially a good service that only screws its employees because it chooses to, and bashing AirBnB in broad strokes, using them as an outlet for anger that should more often be directed at political decisions not to build more affordable housing stock.
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Jul 13, 2015 16:54
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Harik posted:I'd argue "Capitalism without even providing the capital" is inherently exploitative. berzerker posted:(or at least, more exploitative than taxis, always a lovely industry for workers) I would argue sticking taxi drivers with mandatory 12-hour shifts, almost always also arranged as independent contractors, is at least as exploitative as marginally lower pay but more flexibility. Most cabbies have to pay a lease fee each day, whatever amount of money they make on their shift - they're not really "provided the capital" as much as rented it. Uber sucks in some ways, but it unquestionably also removed some real inefficiencies in the market that hurt everyone, and cab companies tend to be pretty awful too. And yes, we should be seeking better conditions for both groups, rather than saying Uber is okay because it's as bad as others.
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Jul 13, 2015 17:48
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DOOP posted:Does Uber employ people full time as drivers a la taxis? Or is Uber driving something people do on the weekends for a few extra bucks? Most cab companies employ drivers as independent contractors, not employees. http://www.yellowcabaustin.com/driver.aspx Edit: This says in California an appeals court called them employees, but the terminology is still 'contractor.' I don't know the specifics state-by-state, maybe someone else does. http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de231tc.pdf
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Jul 13, 2015 18:05
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hobbesmaster posted:Which is why they want you to pay cash instead of using the credit card machine that is connected to the central office. That's pretty much just to avoid credit card fees and allow the driver to dodge paying tax though, I don't think it has anything to do with employee vs. contractor. The large majority of taxis just lease a vehicle to drivers for $x/day or $y/week and they have to pay that fee no matter what. If the driver earns $x + $1000, he makes $1000. If he earns $x, he makes nothing for his time. Maybe some places use a percentage system, but I'd be surprised.
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Jul 13, 2015 18:13
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Ghost of Reagan Past posted:The oddest thing about Uber and AIrBnB is how excited people are about it. It's a loving taxi. It's couch-surfing. All with a veneer of technology and "sharing" put on top, with some extra labor abuses and legal loopholes snuck in there. To be frank the whole "sharing economy" is just confusing to me. I gather the idea is that people like the idea that the driver is just like them, but I don't know why this wasn't true with taxis, or why it really matters to people. Uh, because the service is legitimately much much better than standard taxis. They come to you when you need it without a phone call to a dispatcher and 15-60 minute wait (wait time unknown, sometimes just don't show), you don't need cash or a card with you to pay, easy records/receipts for tracking expenses, estimates the cost pretty precisely ahead of time, and it's all much cheaper to boot. AirBnB opens up many many places that would never be listed on couchsurfing (which is a company that has imploded also, due to horrific mismanagement), including some really neat/unique places where there might not be any affordable hotels whatsoever, like central Paris. Also great for putting a middleman to ward against scammers (keeping money in escrow, assuring the person pays, provides insurance against your place getting wrecked), who are super common on craigslist sublet markets. Say what you will about the employee relationship, these are legitimately great things, however uncool it may be to be excited or positive about things in life.
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Jul 13, 2015 18:22
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computer parts posted:Couch surfing is a concept that predates the internet. So are taxis and renting out rooms. Changes in scale and method can matter.
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Jul 13, 2015 18:26
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computer parts posted:I mean the fact that your mind jumped to a website instead of the concept in general speaks volumes. Uh, okay. But couchsurfing the website was a big deal phenomenon for like 10-20 years that, like AirBnB, vastly increased the availability of couchsurfing as a realistic possibility for people who didn't have preexisting international networks of friends and family. Then AirBnB vastly increased the amount of options for informal housing again by bringing in those apartment/home-owners who would never have listed their place as a free crash site for wandering racist Australians and weirdo German teenagers. Radbot posted:Yeah, we get it, we've all used Uber. It's better than a taxi. The point is that making it better than a taxi didn't require shifting 100% of the risk running a business to employees - but they want you to think that it did. It's a page right out of the charter school textbook. Ghost of Reagan Past posted:Their ability to outsource the employee relationship is the only reason these companies exist. Their "innovation" is just finding a new way to exploit people and work around regulations. They would not exist if it weren't for their finding of loopholes in employment and hotel/rental law. As for AirBnB, that's true about hotel/rental laws, but those laws were never strictly enforced, nor is it clear that they should be. People subletting rooms for the summer or bringing in a renter to meet bills goes back basically forever, and it's for the general good that they not get reamed with fines and fees for doing so. AirBnB is a significant change in scale, which does matter and requires rethinking of where to draw the legal line. But like with speeding, rigid enforcement of all of these laws is not actually something that society is going to be okay with, and it's doubtful the laws were written with strict enforcement in mind.
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Jul 13, 2015 18:47
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Hollismason posted:Where do you people live that Taxi Service is poo poo? I live in Chicago, there is in fact a Taxi App you can use, cars are clean, their well kept etc.. I wonder why that universal taxi app launched in Chicago in the year 2015.
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Jul 13, 2015 19:12
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Evil Fluffy posted:It's basically a company that exists to profit by getting people to break the law. There is literally zero reason AirBnB shouldn't be shut down by the government. quote:When I lived in Atlanta I could call one of the Taxi companies and have a car at my apartment in maybe 15minutes. Less during the weekday and maybe slightly longer when I'd call for a Fri/Sat evening pickup. I'm sorry to hear you had bad luck with Taxis but Uber sure as gently caress isn't magically better. I think one of the Taxi companies had an app but I never cared to install it and I sure as gently caress wouldn't install Uber's malware-infested app. I'm also white though which definitely helped down south
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Jul 13, 2015 20:26
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Munkeymon posted:City ordinances don't spring fully formed into existence without reason. You, in your home, built to some basic standards to resist fire and whatever environmental hazards your region may commonly face, segregated away from noisy, high-pollution heavy industry and other types of heavily-regulated business that have historically been problematic for permanent residents in the area, might not see why those laws exist, but that's exactly why they do: so you don't have to live with the externalities they cause. Yes, but that's assuming those ordinances were put into place with knowledge of the economy as it exists now and haven't become outdated. When the law tries to analogize old technology / circumstances to new technology / circumstances too strictly, you get ridiculously non-optimal outcomes like today's wiretapping exceptions for Internet traffic based on literal telegraph technology. It's more important to identify the social goods/ills those laws are meant to regulate, and see if they still strike the optimal balance, than it is to just say "that's illegal" and assume that carries with it a just and reasoned rationality. New technology definitely does not mean "toss out all the old laws, they're useless relics," but it is worth reexamining them. gradenko_2000 posted:I don't think anyone is going to essentially disagree with "taxis suck", but the solution really isn't Uber either. It's just that there's also a fat loving chance of "taxi industry reform" either. berzerker fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jul 13, 2015 |
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Jul 13, 2015 20:43
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mandatory lesbian posted:when the US beat Japan in the world cup there were people saying that was revenge for Pearl Harbor I'm not sure a lot of people using a really easy dumb joke at the same time says all that much about anything. If it has been the English it would have been Tea Party jokes or "revenge for burning down the White House that time" or something.
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Jul 14, 2015 17:16
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pangstrom posted:That's too bad. Or maybe irrelevant, I don't know I haven't kept up with that topic. Uh no, not remotely irrelevant. If/when a big disaster becomes a huge huge disaster because it hits a "temporary" waste storage facility there's going to be a lot of people asking how we didn't see this enormously obvious, preventable disaster. There won't be a good answer.
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Jul 14, 2015 19:39
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PostNouveau posted:Don't tell me there's not some shithole in the South that would throw parades everytime a truck full of nuclear waste rolls into town in exchange for, like, 500 federal jobs. Even there people are...skeptical http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20150320/AIK0101/150319310 quote:Former Gov. Hodges closed S.C. to nation’s waste, hopes it stays that way
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Jul 14, 2015 20:20
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clockworkjoe posted:Sort of a minor issue, but there seems to be an Orphan Works copyright law under consideration by the Library of Congress - some artists are up in arms about it: http://www.tomrichmond.com/2015/07/17/return-of-the-son-of-the-orphan-works-act/ As a historian is really blows when a book you need from 1930, Google has scanned it, it's sure as hell not in print, but you can't see more than 3 pages at a time on Google Books because ~*my copyright*~. Also, as someone who has read pretty deeply into the current scholarly work on innovation and business, there is some evidence that extending copyright to about 45 years leads to more/better work being produced, but zero evidence that extending it past there does anything but line the pockets of a very small number of corporations (or descendents of a very small number of artists).
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Jul 20, 2015 13:18
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resurgam40 posted:This, right here, is what a lot of voters want to hear, and what (I believe) was behind all the hullabaloo about Bernie Sanders avoidance.
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Jul 21, 2015 02:04
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Burger Trench posted:top YouTube comments
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Jul 21, 2015 14:08
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VanSandman posted:The gently caress is a cuckservative? Just looked it up, and I don't recommend doing so at work just because most discussion is on white supremacist / extreme rightwing sites you don't need in your search history. Basically it's a turncoat race traitor Republican, who fails to follow through on the blood lust race war fantasies of the hardest of hardcore rightwingers. The base was "cuckolded" by such a politician, in some weird-rear end kind of metaphor.
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Jul 27, 2015 15:07
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