This seems to be fueling everyone's confirmation bias. The Gallup poll[1] shows a four year decline since 2020. I mean, I don't know what would have happened in 2020 to precipitate this /s. Preceding that was a decade of improvement in employee engagement.
What's a little more interesting (and not at all mentioned in the Axios article) is there is a parallel increase in /active disengagement/. There's clearly a significant minority who consistently feels disconnected from work, but this is back on the rise.
We're also reading a summary of a summary of a Gallup poll by Jim Harter, Ph.D. who posted 5 months ago [2] that "U.S. Employee Engagement Inches Up Slightly After 11-Year Low" [3], so I'm not sure what conclusions to draw.
Unrelated to the links, DOE immediately stop as soon as they realize they're reading derivative commentary and immediately search for whatever source material is being referenced? Unless you have access to the survey information[4] everyone in this thread is already at least two degrees removed from the data (Jim Harter -> Emily Peck -> HN).
It seems like covid let corporations do in 4 years what would normally take 20+. They usually have to slowly boil the frog, but with Covid they had a great excuse to take large actions without consequence. Layoffs, inflating prices, cutting perks are normally things that need to be eased into, but they all jumped on the covid/covid economy excuse to do these things overnight.
This may be the wrong take-away, but the Air Force shooting your balloon down would be a massive source of pride for the science clubs I remember from my youth. We would have had that on a t-shirt within a week.
I feel like this sort of spirit is now completely gone. If your science experiment gets shot down, my expectation is you're going to get labelled a terrorist and thrown into a prison cell.
I’m sorry. I completely believe that this is how you feel. On the other hand I see no evidence to show that there is any reason these guys will be prosecuted.
I suspect that maybe you feel this way because this is the context you are hearing about pico balloons the first?
The people who launched the balloon first studied the law, and then designed a balloon to colour inside the law. For them the question: “is this even legal?” did not just come up today. They started with the question “what is legal to do with balloons” and went from there.
And it is not like they launched and bam got shot down immediately. That very balloon has already circumnavigated the planet multiple times.
Imagine if you live on a desert planet and the first time you hear the concept of “swimming” through some horror story where someone drowns. Because of the context you would be appaled and would think only crazy daredevils would try such a thing. Maybe you would be of the opinion that anyone who provides facilities for swimming surely must go to prison prompt. On the other hand if you grown up in a coastal or river-side community and spent many days with your friends swimming on beaches then you know that while drowning is a danger, most people return safely from a swim.
Yes, but that was a different America. Post 9/11, post housing crisis, post global terrorism, post decline into late stage capitalism is changing the narrative substantially. Everyone is constantly on guard these days. But I agree with and love the sentiment.
I was a tabletop gamer for 25 years before I played my first sit-down D&D session. GURPS, Paranoia, Cyberpunk 2020, WHFRP, TOON, Amber, World of Darkness...you name it. To say, "Wizards of the Coast wants to dismantle the tabletop industry," feels like hyperbole when there's a rich history of alternatives, but I sympathize with the content creators. There's a cultural battle as much as there is a commercial one being waged here.
That said you gotta be _asleep_ to not see the tightening of the reins coming from these mega-companies sitting on fertile creative IP. Marvel Cinematic Universe only made — what? — $28B worldwide while making Rocket-fucking-Raccoon a household name. Games Workshop put the screws to content creators leading to the launch of Warhammer+ and r/grimdank is still hitting the front page of Reddit. Not to mention Uber-nerd Henry Cavill is hooking up with Amazon to bring 40K to streaming.
The strategy works and I suspect it's driven entirely by folks — all grown up and with deep pockets — thirsty to see their marginalized childhood hobbies hit the mainstream. I'm conflicted. As much as I want to say, "Fuck WotC. Fuck Games Workshop" there's visceral appeal in hoping for good Drizzt Do'Urden movie or the Drop Site Massacre becoming as much a cultural touchstone as the The Red Wedding.
I can't express just how much I want the Horus Heresy saga to receive the high-production-value HBO/Netflix/Amazon treatment. The animated content on Warhammer+ is good and all, but that would be a dream.
What? Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie wasn't enough for you?
I kid. Every 40K fan wants this, but it almost feels like hubris to hope it actually happens. I have to wonder if the Amazon deal[1] is Games Workshop's attempt to get out of the streaming business. Nothing coming out of Warhammer+ is breaking out of the core fanbase; I couldn't fathom suggesting to anyone not familiar with the universe, "Yo, you got to checkout this show The Exodite."
My guess is GW is falling back to its comfort zone of licensing IP: "Amazon Studios today announced that it has secured global rights to Warhammer 40,000...The agreement encompasses rights to the universe across series, film, and more..."[2] When you have two producers from Vertigo Entertainment, one of which happens to be dating Henry Cavill, brokering an escape hatch I'm sure they were, "Yes, please."
My guess is we're going to see Eisenhorn first[3] which feels like a far more approachable introduction to the setting anyways.
How so? Do you mean the caricature has been co-opted by far-right activists and provocateurs[1] to promote antisemitism while hiding behind a flimsy defense of ironic trolling?
Or do you mean that in the past decade the Internet has come to its senses and contemporary usage of the meme means: “I am posting this as an affirmation that I _should_ be able to post it, not that I’m a racist, so don’t question my motivation. I come in peace. ;);)”[2]
This tweet is in reply to Musk's revelation that Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter[1] while making an assertion that it must be because "they hate free speech in America". This puts Apple in the same free speech hating category as Chevrolet, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., Ford, Jeep and others.[2]
The screenshots of the app review don't corroborate the "disallowed almost anything related to Covid, especially vaccines or human origins of the virus", but the Pepe the Frog[3] images could certainly run afoul of Apple's "Defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content" restrictions[4]
The App Store Review's comment "We continue to find that your app or metadata includes content that some users may find upsetting, offensive, or otherwise objectionable" also makes it sound like they went around the block a couple of times with this and Odysee was either unwilling or unable to apply content restrictions.
Related, why does it seem like every time Musk rallies for free speech it's adjacent to some hateful dog whistle?
Jalopnik had an article supposing Musk’s Hyperloop was just a ploy to subvert California's high-speed rail project.[1] Hanlon's razor seems applicable here, but that's not necessarily more flattering for Boring. Seems like a case where the hard part of deploying underground infrastructure in major metropolitan areas isn't actually digging through the dirt.
As an example for your last point, boring the tunnels for London's Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) began in May 2009 and was finished by June 2015. But the line didn't open until May 2022.
Amsterdam is infamous. A swamp with centuries old buildings that are classed as monuments.
But on the positive side: subway systems are long term projects. After a few decades everyone but historians will have forgotten the cost and hardships. I'm sure Crossrail will be used by millions of people every year.
HSR is doing a fine job subverting itself. Even if it completes in the optimistic case of 20 years, autonomous electric vehicles are likely to be mainstream. Some possibility of electric planes capable of the SFO/LAX route. With CA's push to renewables and electric vehicles, CO2 differences aren't likely to matter.
HSR will be the slower, lower end, option at a higher price just like Amtrak is now.
I think it's fine to doubt whether HSR will exist. But if the plans are built as designed it will take about three hours from San Francisco to LA: it's hard to imagine any autonomous vehicle matching that speed. Similarly, the problem with flying from SF to LA isn't the choice of plane fueling, it's the hassle of going to the airport and passing through security.
Even eliminating the security and the getting to the airport, there's still the wait to check a bag if you have to check one, the wait to board the plane, the need to be on the plane 15 mins before takeoff or they seal the doors, the wait for everyone to get their stuff out of the overhead when the plane lands, then if you are checking a bag, at the end the wait to get your bag again if it shows up at all. Not to mention it could all go south at any moment, maybe the plane lands at LAX, but then an LAX happens and the pilot says there isn't a gate yet so you twiddle your thumbs on the tarmac for another 45 mins. Oh and then the fact that no airline wants to be straight with you with ticket pricing being dynamic and the whole experience of trying to time buying your ticket at the proper time. Its like they've all taken a playbook from ticketmaster, or maybe satan.
I think its even more optimistic to assume autonomous vehicles are likely to be mainstream, much less in 20 years. They don't even exist yet, meanwhile high speed trains are proven 70 year old technology. Electric cars have been out for over 10 years now and they aren't even taking over.
Peoe need to stop waving around Hanlon's Razor. Ya know, if you'd just let stupidity qualify as malice like it should, maybe there'd be an actual decrease in the amount of it that goes unresolved.
The timing makes this look like a reaction to Musk firing Twitter engineers for criticizing him on social media[1]. It seems like a thinly veiled loyalty test instead of a marshaling the troops for the rough road ahead. The lowest performing engineers ostensibly got the axe in the first round of layoffs. Now Musk wants to root out those employees who aren’t willing to dedicate their lives to the bizarre theater[2] of Total Commitment.
Some folks seem content to give this behavior a pass citing Musk’s admission that he works 100 hours a week The self-satisfied joy that the gravy train is over for these “lazy tech socialists” is surreal. When you consider that Musk is literally the richest person on earth, it is physically impossible for Musk to work enough hours — over multiple lifetimes — to reconcile a $193B net worth with what any reasonable person would consider a fair compensation.
And to believe that he has a plan for Twitter 2.0 as a “digital town square”[3] strains credulity when he’s been a notorious shitposter. It’s almost as if he insists on sincere engagement from everyone but himself. The Twitter Blue fiasco makes it look like Musk is struggling with his first truly /complex/ challenge. As opposed to, you know, simply complicated shit like rockets and electric vehicles.
Not to mention "working 100 hours a week" is very different when you're the boss and set what your output is expected to be. Working 100 hours a week at the top is very different: it's voluntary (meaning he knows he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to, which means he won't feel trapped doing it), a lot of those hours are probably things like meetings or reading emails or whatever (not suggesting it isn't important, but it isn't the same as doing more involved engineering work for 100 hours a week by any stretch), etc.
And that's assuming we even believe Musk actually genuinely works 100 hours a week. I am sure he is around his businesses and stuff for that time, but I wouldn't be surprised if he took long breaks between doing anything of real value regularly which massively dropped it
The Elon-Twitter saga is fascinating in quasi r/ABoringDystopia meets, well, Twitter sort of way.
The stage is set with a billionaire doubling down on a meme and then stumbling into an absurd $45B baby trap. The Internet loves watching a fool and their money parted; Twitter definitely loves watching a fool and their money parted.
And then, for some, it’s dawning that Musk has been on this MAGA-infused, grade-school-interpretation-of-free-speech trajectory and the stakes of this Twitter acquisition are suddenly much higher. Doubly so when you review the behind the scenes discussions [1] and believe Musk is completely disingenuous (any guess who “the boss himself” is?) in his desire for a neutral platform[2].
I’ve been doom-scrolling the Elon-Twitter news mostly for the rapid unravelling of Musk’s ur-engineer persona. His engineering management has been a cavalcade of bully choices: shitcan half the company, stack rank your engineers by LOC, enforce work-the-weekend death marches, and throw all your coders on to a manager schedule...in an office...in 2022.
Maybe my opinion will change when I start hearing stories about the first of his Twitter pull requests, but right now he’s looking like a dilettante who meme'd into a shit show and has forgotten his ambitions to make us a multi-planet species.
The FTC decree isn't related to free speech. It was a part of a settlement the FTC reached with Twitter regarding their mishandling of customer data[1].
The original article is anticipating a messy collision Twitter's legal obligations to the FTC and Musk's inscrutable product development roadmap given the recent employee churn (both layoffs and exits from key roles, e.g. CISO, CPO, & CCO.)
In contrast to what, the impartial journalism of the past[1]? It doesn't serve well to surrender your worldview to the journalistic authority over truth any more today than it did then.
But now, articles like the TechDirt post are extremely verifiable (admittedly, the "anticipating a messy collision" is my own editorializing.) Don't believe Twitter is under a consent order? Go read it[2]. Don't believe their CSIO quit? Go look at their LinkedIn profile[3]
But I suspect your issue is not with the facts of the article, but the motivation behind making this /news/. I'd argue it absolutely is news regardless of the circus surrounding surrounding the acquisition especially if you care about consumer privacy. You can go read the 2011 complaint[4]; TLDR Twitter was super cavalier with non-public consumer data and the FTC was, "Clean this shit up and put a process in place so it doesn't happen again." And it did happen again! This year Twitter paid $150M for using 2FA numbers for ad targeting[5].
So you now have to think: is Musk going to make consumer privacy a priority? Maybe these exoduses are a good thing? Clean house and all. Or maybe he still coming up with a plan while courting advertisers[6] and scrambling for recurring revenue? But that comes back to the original question: even if Musk gave a shit, does Twitter retain the organizational capacity to police itself?
What's a little more interesting (and not at all mentioned in the Axios article) is there is a parallel increase in /active disengagement/. There's clearly a significant minority who consistently feels disconnected from work, but this is back on the rise.
We're also reading a summary of a summary of a Gallup poll by Jim Harter, Ph.D. who posted 5 months ago [2] that "U.S. Employee Engagement Inches Up Slightly After 11-Year Low" [3], so I'm not sure what conclusions to draw.
Unrelated to the links, DOE immediately stop as soon as they realize they're reading derivative commentary and immediately search for whatever source material is being referenced? Unless you have access to the survey information[4] everyone in this thread is already at least two degrees removed from the data (Jim Harter -> Emily Peck -> HN).
[1] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654911/employee-engagement-...
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jkharter_after-us-employee-en...
[3] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/647564/employee-engagement-...
[4] https://www.gallup.com/q12/