Monetizing Fake News
Monetizing fake news. It's genius.
Amazingly, several pundits are quoted to the effect that calling someone a rapist in the absence of a verdict is not such a bad thing. ?
It's slander, you numbskulls.https://t.co/CUvq9qieEp
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 16, 2024
Some of the comments are extraordinary. Someone named Michael J. Stern says
When George Stephanopoulos said Trump “raped” E. Jean Carroll, he was using the word colloquially.
I didn’t even know there was a “colloquial” use of the word “rape.” Did he use finger quotes when he said it. I bet he didn’t.
Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast says, “This sets a worrisome precedent,” i.e., that you can’t say someone is guilty of a crime in the absence of a verdict. The Daily Beast is worried about that.
God is Not Mocked
I’m not a believer myself, nor am I anti-abortion, but I have no use for “Catholics” with more reverence for abortion than for the teachings of the Church.
Should not have defied the pro-abortion Eucharist ban. God is gonna cut you down.https://t.co/lRH7weEVwq
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 15, 2024
Autumn in Berkeley
Please Say What You Think “Misinformation” Means
The author is chasing his tail in so many different directions that it’s hard to respond.
You should not write a looong post on “misinformation” without defining “misinformation.”
For example, during COVID, a NY Times reporter said that getting a COVID vaccine doesn’t prevent you from getting or spreading COVID. Our government labeled that as “misinformation” and coerced tech companies to ban the reporter from social media.
Of course, now we know that statement to be true. I could go through more examples but the point is that labeling something as “misinformation” is arbitrary.
Pending a definition, I’ll say that “misinformation” generally means “something I don’t want you to read or hear” and is protected speech.
The author mentions hate speech. Hate speech is protected speech. Supreme Court precedent is very clear on this.
The author mentions fraud. Fraud is the intentional act of deceiving someone to gain a benefit. Fraud is illegal.
Your Karma Ran Over Your Dogma
Brian Thompson is the United Healthcare CEO who was shot to death.
Some of these comments on this post are really ghoulish. “Obviously murdering someone is inappropriate. However, . . .”
I mean, where do we set the bar here?
“Obviously murdering someone is inappropriate. However, I did pay $15 extra for express shipping and my package still arrived late.”
Or “Who do I have to kill to get an online flight with this airline?”
You can come up with more examples yourself.
I hope your dogma gets run over by your karma.
An Experiment in Educational Equity
"During one meeting, an educator recounted their experience of finding a colleague crying in a closet because they felt like such a failure teaching multilevel." https://t.co/RhU4kDFbZz via @BostonGlobe
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 11, 2024
Hindsight to Foresight
What you’ve learned in hindsight about giant stories like RussiaGate and Covid should now be converted into foresight
You won’t get everything right if you do this but if you don’t do it you will most surely get nearly everything wrong
What Is Your Life Worth?
I saw at the supermarket they were selling whole roasted chickens for six dollars. You get the whole chicken in one piece — six dollars.
Imagine if your life was only worth six dollars. I wouldn’t know how to explain this to a chicken.
A roasted chicken on its back still looks very much like a chicken, like it gave up its life for you, just like Jesus. For six dollars.
Supercut on the Hunter Biden Pardon
SUPERCUT!
Corporate media: Obviously Biden would never pardon Hunter pic.twitter.com/gJRhASCAUs
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 2, 2024
Anti-Trump pundits and cable news talking heads singing Biden’s praises for his no-pardon pledge and using it to rip Trump to shreds, pointing out the “stark contrast” with Trump’s complaints that the Justice Department was weaponized against him.
Did not age well.
Stop the Presses!
California Fast Food Restaurants Shed Thousands of Jobs after $20 Minimum Wage Hike https://t.co/TwFBK03Imc
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 6, 2024
The Skeptics Were Right Again
I Know Why You’re Not Getting Hired
I can tell you why you’re not being hired but you know already.
People like to hire people who look like themselves and fit in with the group. My experience with that was when I moved into the “white, male, over 40” group. I didn’t look like a typical software engineer anymore (a young person’s profession), I didn’t fit in with the group, and I wasn’t adding any diversity points. (Age doesn’t count as diversity, it’s just age.)
The saving grace is that my profession is performance oriented so if you know things that others don’t know and you can solve problems that others can’t solve, which is demonstrable at interviews, you can get hired.
I do not have a solution to your problem but I wish you the best.
Do the Right Thing
What You’re Missing on BlueSky
An example of the elevated intellectual discourse currently taking place on BlueSky:
Love Will Return in Another Way
A story I read in a Facebook post:
At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.
Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.
The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying “please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”
Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka’s life.
During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.
Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.
“It doesn’t look like my doll at all,” said the girl.
Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: “my travels have changed me.” The little girl hugged the new doll and brought the doll with her to her happy home.
A year later Kafka died.
Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:
“Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”
Working Remote is Not All Good or All Bad
The posts I read on remote work are too black and white: remote work is good or remote work is bad.
I’ve worked from home. I liked it and I understand why people like it. But it’s not without problems.
Off the top of my head: decrease in corporate culture, cybersecurity issues, isolation, distractions, slower work, difficulties in onboarding and training, communication, work-life balance, people are burning out on Zoom calls.
IMO, anyone writing a post on how great remote work is should be required to address the obvious problems.
Thus spoke The Programmer
Employee Loyalty
This is deplorable conduct obviously, but I see a lot of “if companies continue to act this way, there will be no employee loyalty” posts and I always wonder if employee loyalty is a real thing.
I have to admit here that while I’ve always tried to do my best work as a matter of personal pride, I’ve never made a decision in life based on my loyalty to a company, e.g., I’ve never said, nor can I imagine myself saying, something like “What you’re proposing would improve my financial situation, but I can’t do it because it would be disloyal to my employer.”
Does anyone really do things like that?
What Rights Do Men Have That Women Don’t
What Could Cause This Behavior?
The election results? https://t.co/uzepYVG62w
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) November 15, 2024