Meme - "Baby-sitter *dour woman*
Friendly, Responsible and Well-Presented Babysitter.
43 yrs old, new to the area, looking for work
Great with kids
12 years experience babysitting the children of the other inmates.
I am available outside of the regular pub hours.
I have basic literasy skills
Personal Hygiene upon request
I have basic first aid with reliable access to pharmaceuticals
I can put any child to sleep
Call Doreen ***
References: Grafton Correctional Centre. Phone: ***"
Meme - Dr Strange to Wanda: "I need your help. I bought this sex doll but there's no emotion in our relationship. I want what you and Vision had."
Wanda: "..."
Meme - "I think it supposed to be jerk chicken.
Chicken rude and unreasonable 川水波辣鸡"
"The name of the dish is actually a pun in its original Chinese on the two words 泼辣 which can mean rude and unreasonable in certain contexts, with the second word 辣 also meaning "spicy". Therefore, the dish in its original Chinese means Spicy Chicken but using the same words that could mean rude and unreasonable."
How universal basic income experiment proved a FAILURE in Finland - as Labour minister suggests introducing the system to cope with AI wiping out jobs - "An experiment with 'free money' in Finland proved a failure nine years ago, when a landmark trial found that unemployed workers are 'no better or worse' at finding a job if they receive a guaranteed basic income. Nevertheless, a Labour minister has said the government may have to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) system to allow society to cope with the scale of artificial intelligence stealing people's jobs... Advocates of the idea argue that it cuts bureaucracy and say that people will be more willing to take on temporary or part-time work if their benefits will not be cut as a result. The system was trialled in an experiment in Finland from January 2017 until December 2018, when 2,000 randomly selected unemployed people got a monthly flat payment of €560 (£490), with no obligation to seek a job and no reduction in their payment if they accepted one. The study ultimately found that the no-strings-attached handout did not improve employment levels, however, leading to people being in work for only six more days over a one-year period. But participants in the Finnish study 'were more satisfied with their lives', researchers found, and 'experienced less mental strain, depression, sadness and loneliness'... The experiment compared the income, employment status and general wellbeing of those who received the UBI with a control group of 5,000, who carried on receiving benefits. After one year of the experiment, researchers found that there was no difference between the two groups in terms of employment - with both working an average of 49 days in 2017, and the UBI trial group earning €21 less on average than the control group."
Peter St Onge, Ph.D. on X - "Major UBI study finds giving cash to poor people just makes them quit work. They don’t get healthy or start a business. They don’t get their life together. They actually become worse parents. Like most welfare, UBI is about bribing the poor to stay poor."
Here's what a Sam Altman-backed basic income experiment found - "A recent study on basic income, backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, shows that giving low-income people guaranteed paydays with no strings attached can lead to their working slightly less, affording them more leisure time."
Clearly, they didn't give them enough money
Stéphane Dion: How the conquest of New France paved the way for co-operation - "French Canadians were able to establish decent relations with the first British governors, Murray and Carleton, who treated them better (or less badly) than they had been under the French regime, especially after the misdeeds of that scoundrel, Intendant Bigot. The preservation of their religion and customs as provided in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 would enrage the New England settlers. They would take the too-accommodating treatment granted to these papists of the long-hated former New France as one of their grievances to rebel against the British crown. It should also be added that it was less a conquest than a cession following a war whose outcome was decided on another continent... If Montcalm had managed to drive Wolfe back on the Plains of Abraham, Montreal would likely have been taken anyway the following year, as the forces were so disproportionate between the belligerents. Amherst arrived with 20,000 troops, while Lévis had only 2,000 to oppose him. The British colonies had 1.6 million inhabitants compared to 70,000 for all New France. If France had won the war on the European stage, Great Britain might have been forced to cede its conquests in America. One of the reasons France failed was the unexpected death of its ally, Russia’s Tsarina Elizabeth I, in 1761, which led to a reversal of alliances, saved the King of Prussia from a probable defeat, and forced France and Austria to seek peace negotiations from a position of weakness. Faced with having to give something to Great Britain under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France chose to sacrifice the north of New France and to keep its more profitable and easier-to-defend Caribbean colonies. In short, contrary to the myth, the fate of Canada was not decided on the Plains of Abraham. One could almost say that it was decided in Saint Petersburg, by the death of a tsarina!"
The Religion of Workism Is Making Americans Miserable - The Atlantic - "By some counts, Americans work much less than they used to. The average work year has shrunk by more than 200 hours. But those figures don’t tell the whole story. Rich, college-educated people—especially men—work more than they did many decades ago. They are reared from their teenage years to make their passion their career and, if they don’t have a calling, told not to yield until they find one. The economists of the early 20th century did not foresee that work might evolve from a means of material production to a means of identity production. They failed to anticipate that, for the poor and middle class, work would remain a necessity; but for the college-educated elite, it would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community. Call it workism.
The decline of traditional faith in America has coincided with an explosion of new atheisms. Some people worship beauty, some worship political identities, and others worship their children. But everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants... In 1980, the highest-earning men actually worked fewer hours per week than middle-class and low-income men, according to a survey by the Minneapolis Fed. But that’s changed. By 2005, the richest 10 percent of married men had the longest average workweek. In that same time, college-educated men reduced their leisure time more than any other group. Today, it is fair to say that elite American men have transformed themselves into the world’s premier workaholics, toiling longer hours than both poorer men in the U.S. and rich men in similarly rich countries. This shift defies economic logic—and economic history. The rich have always worked less than the poor, because they could afford to... The best-educated and highest-earning Americans, who can have whatever they want, have chosen the office for the same reason that devout Christians attend church on Sundays: It’s where they feel most themselves... Finding meaning at work beats family and kindness as the top ambition of today’s young people... a culture that funnels its dreams of self-actualization into salaried jobs is setting itself up for collective anxiety, mass disappointment, and inevitable burnout. In the past century, the American conception of work has shifted from jobs to careers to callings—from necessity to status to meaning... One of the benefits of being an observant Christian, Muslim, or Zoroastrian is that these God-fearing worshippers put their faith in an intangible and unfalsifiable force of goodness. But work is tangible, and success is often falsified... literally visualizing career success can be difficult in a services and information economy...
Since the physical world leaves few traces of achievement, today’s workers turn to social media to make manifest their accomplishments... The problem with this gospel—Your dream job is out there, so never stop hustling—is that it’s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion. Long hours don’t make anybody more productive or creative; they make people stressed, tired and bitter. But the overwork myths survive “because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies”... Our jobs were never meant to shoulder the burdens of a faith, and they are buckling under the weight. A staggering 87 percent of employees are not engaged at their job, according to Gallup. That number is rising by the year... On a deeper level, Americans have forgotten an old-fashioned goal of working: It’s about buying free time. The vast majority of workers are happier when they spend more hours with family, friends, and partners"
Time for left wingers to once again mock rich people for not working hard
Michael Strong on X - "A friend reviewing Harvard applications remembered one student clearly: he had dropped out of high school, joined a Buddhist monastery for a year, then finished school. Great academics, yes. But among hundreds of applications, that's the one she remembered and recommended. When you're reading through piles of identical resumes—4.0, 1550, student council, community service—you notice the ones that are different. A purpose-driven life produces a distinctive application. The grind produces indistinguishable ones."
Daniel Friedman on X - "The SAT used to be a test designed for drawing distinctions among top students. Each section was scored on an 800 scale with a 100 point standard deviation, which meant the test dedicated as much of its range to the top 2% of students as it did to the middle two thirds. Today, the test has been watered down and so about 8% of students score above 1400, and thousands per year now get perfect scores, which dramatically reduces the ability of the test to measure differences in performance among the top few percent of test takers. This was done intentionally at the behest of universities to obscure who the best students are and allow admissions officials to make subjective admissions decisions without objective metrics demonstrating their favored admits are inferior to the “boring grinds.” Once, if you dedicated yourself to academics, you could earn a spot by beating all the rich kids on tests and proving your worth. But now, Ivy League administrators have changed the rules to get rid of the ways brilliant people from normal backgrounds could outcompete the elite so they could give the spots that used to go to top students to the kinds of applicants who can do gap years in Buddhist monasteries. The institutions are unsalvageable."
Meme - "French girls wearing their German boyfriends uniforms during World War 2.
The og of "stealing my boyfriends hoodie""
Meme - Han Solo: "Sounds crazy doesn't it? Windows that didn't force updates and ads... or search Bing for local files... or install crap you never wanted... it's true... All of it..."
*Stunned Rey and Finn*
Canada’s quiet allergy to the wider world - "Canada markets itself as one of the most “open” societies on Earth. We celebrate multiculturalism, herald immigration, and proclaim ourselves global citizens. And yet beneath this rhetoric lies an uncomfortable truth: Canada welcomes people from the world — but not ideas from the world... We are an Atlanticist echo chamber convinced that our value system is not just one system among many, but the only legitimate framework for modernity. This creates a strange paradox: a multicultural country with a monocultural mind... We live in a world where the gravitational centres of modernity are shifting toward Asia with astonishing speed. Yet Canada behaves as if:
China must be kept at arms’ length because it is “authoritarian”,
South Korea’s infrastructure miracle has nothing to teach us,
Singapore’s governance lessons are too “foreign”,
Vietnam, Indonesia, and India are curiosities rather than peers,
urban, technological, and engineering excellence beyond the West is not serious or real.
We do not study Asia — we moralize about it... Canada has always been comfortable only within the ideological universe of its imperial guardians. Once it was London. Now it is Washington. We prefer mimicry to mastery. We prefer alignment to exploration. We distrust anything that doesn’t look like what the “parent civilization” already approves... For decades, Canada could afford this insularity because we were rich and stable, America handled global complexity for us, the world changed slowly, and the West still set the pace. But we now live in an age where:
our infrastructure is collapsing
our governance is sluggish
our economy lacks dynamism
our best talent leaves
our immigration numbers mask deeper decline...
Increasing numbers of immigrants see Canada as safe — but unserious. They come seeking stability, not excellence. They remain physically, but spiritually they look elsewhere: toward China for ambition, Singapore for efficiency, America for opportunity, Europe for culture, and India or Korea for dynamism. Canada becomes not a launchpad, but a landing pad — the place where potential is paused."
Public transit risks becoming the latest wedge between housing haves and have-nots - The Globe and Mail - "The cost of building public transit projects in Canada has soared in the past two decades. A recent study found the country spent nearly 60 per cent more than a global average per kilometre of newly built rail. And that’s not to speak of years-long project delays and underwhelming performance. Cue Toronto’s recently completed Finch West LRT. Originally scheduled to be completed in 2021, it opened in December only to become the butt of jokes when an area man was able to outrun it by 18 minutes. Experts have pointed to a variety of recurring issues – from poorly managed public-private partnerships to political meddling – for exorbitant spending and ever-stretching timelines. The result has been chronic underbuilding of public transit. Countries, such as Italy and South Korea, that build more for less often use simpler designs, fewer private-sector consultants and, among other things, a sound practice of sketching out a project in great detail before allowing companies to bid on it, which reduces pricey surprises down the road. Unless Canada learns to build subway and rail lines quickly and cost-effectively, urban life will get progressively worse for everyone"
Clearly, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Spain, and South Korea can only build transit for as low as 1/10 the price per km because of slavery and there's nothing wrong with how Canada does things (unless you can blame "Capitalism")
UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF TRANSIT CONSTRUCTION COSTS IN CANADA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY - "The Transit Costs Project argues that cities in the “Anglosphere” (countries with English as the primary language) experience the greatest cost premiums compared to their global counterparts. Other studies have found that Anglophone countries are uniquely insular in their project delivery practices, from procurement to design and stakeholder engagement, which results in higher costs. In fact, every country with a transit project over $1 billion per kilometre speaks English as its primary language. The six countries that have the widest distribution of costs (the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia) are also all English-speaking countries, indicating that these nations have experienced the greatest cost escalation over time... The problem is not so much with English itself; rather, that these nations share a common institutional history, exchange ideas, and learn from one another... other jurisdictions avoid overbuilding and overdesign. Canadian transit agencies tend to overbuild in multiple ways, with larger and deeper tunnels and stations – a result of greater risk aversion... Canadian transit agencies tend to use stricter interpretations of global safety standards than other, more cost-effective jurisdictions... The second aspect of risk aversion that is in play is letting external stakeholders drive design. To build political support and avoid the risk of litigation, many Canadian transit agencies allow external stakeholders (e.g., community groups, municipal governments, and business interests) to extract concessions from transit projects. However, these often come at high cost. For example, Toronto’s Yonge North Subway Extension was forced to tunnel deeper than previously anticipated under the affluent suburban community of Royal Orchard, while preserving station access, because of resident concerns about noise and disruption from tunnel boring (see Figure 6). Transit researcher and activist August Pantitlán argues that this capitulation to local interests sets a poor precedent, encouraging other resident groups to fight for costly aesthetic mitigations (as happened later with the Ontario Line through Leslieville)... Like many North American transit agencies, Metrolinx relies extensively on external consultants for project delivery – not just for professional services, but also for management-level positions. The Ontario Auditor General found that “25% to 30% of all staff positions in the Capital Projects Group… [including] 25% of management positions… are filled by external consultants.”... The abnormally high proportion of professional services does not seem to stem from a lack of in-house personnel. Rather, the heavy reliance on external consultants impedes the retention of knowledge and expertise within the organization, leading to a scenario where there is minimal learning and an excessive managerial focus among public servants... Many Canadian projects enter the bidding stage with 1% to 10% of design completed, a result of lacklustre in-house capacity that necessitates large public-private procurement contracts that welcome private sector involvement early to fill gaps in expertise. Lower-cost cities like Paris, Milan, and Istanbul, on the other hand, generally enter bidding only when the public sector has developed 30% to 70% of the design... Decision makers, planners, and agency staff must be open-minded and proactive in seeking out best practices from abroad. Detailed learning requires sending ordinary civil servants and researchers – not just executives – to conferences and exchange programs (which public servants in Canada are typically discouraged from attending) on a regular basis to gather new ideas and build long-term connections... low-cost jurisdictions emphasize public transparency, enabling more cost-effective planning and decision-making. They avoid lump-sum contracts that make costs opaque and change orders more difficult to track. In comparison, high-cost jurisdictions like New York and Toronto consider cost estimates to be akin to trade secrets, citing their commercial sensitivity to prevent public disclosure... low-cost jurisdictions have shown that the opposite is necessary: publicly available cost benchmarks released regularly by governments in Turkey and Italy, for example, have proven to be important for the symmetry of knowledge between clients and contractors, stabilizing market bids... Political micromanagement has also been well documented throughout Toronto’s history, from the cancellation of the Eglinton West subway to the advent of Transit City."
Meme - Peasant with sticks: "You should act on your principles when you have ample ability to do so."
Man popping out of well imagining peasant is saying "we should improve society somewhat" and he replies "yet you participate in society, curious!": "I AM VERY INTELLIGENT."
Meme - Man: "SLAVERY SHOULD BE ABOLISHED!"
Slaveowner: "I AGREE!"
*Man looking askance at slaveowner with slave*
Slaveowner: "WHAT? I CAN STILL PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETY WHILE CRITICIZING IT."
This is a response to left wing hypocrisy, like when they denounce capitalism but happily drink Starbucks, use Macbooks and use iPhones
Meme - "SUPER ANTICS #20
Jimmy Olsen: "SUPERMAN CALLS ME HIS "BEST FRIEND," BUT HE WON'T TELL ME HIS SECRET IDENTITY. IT'S IRRITATING. I'VE LONG SUSPECTED SUPERMAN IS ACTUALLY CLARK KENT, BUT I HAVE NO PROOF, AND HE DENIES IT. WHAT'S THIS? HE'S SNEAKING INTO A CLOSET... AND HE'S TAKING OFF HIS SUIT! THIS IS MY CHANCE TO PROVE I'M RIGHT!"
*opens broom closet and snaps flash photo*
*topless Clark Kent and Lois Lane [?] with no top but with a black bra on*
Jimmy Olsen: "OOPS."
Meme - Mr. Reply Guy @GenericSnarky: "Its easy to say "no women voters", but do you have the courage to say "no poor voters"?"
"What if only taxpayers voted?
2012 Taxpayers. Electoral Votes 97 blue 441 red
2012 Results (all voters) Electoral Votes 332 blue 206 red"
The 100-year saga of one man’s attempt to pay off the national debt - "A £585m fortune donated by the wealthy banker almost 100 years ago has finally been donated to the public purse after a five-year legal battle. Mr Farrer, a former partner at the now-defunct Barings Bank, is thought to have left £500,000 in 1927 as a gift to the nation in response to the UK’s huge national debt after the First World War. But rules stipulated that the so-called National Fund, established in 1927, could only be made available when it was enough to pay off the national debt in full. It means that for years, the fortune has been locked away from successive governments."
Conspicuous consumption and household indebtedness - "Using a novel, large data set of consumer transactions in Singapore, we study how conspicuous consumption affects household indebtedness. The coexistence of private housing (condominiums) and subsidized public housing (Housing Development Board [HDB]) allows us to identify conspicuous consumers. Conditional on income and other socioeconomic characteristics, those who choose to reside in condominiums—considered a status good in Singapore—are likely to be more conspicuous than their counterparts living in HDB units. We find that condominium residents spend considerably more (by 25%) on conspicuous goods but not differently on inconspicuous goods. Compared with their matched HDB counterparts, these consumers with higher conspicuous motivation carry 7% more credit card debt and 108% more delinquent credit card debt. Our results suggest that status-seeking-induced conspicuous consumption is an important determinant of household indebtedness."
Calif. Restaurant Mistakenly Serves Toddler Wine Instead of Juice - "A family's visit to a California restaurant ended in a trip to the emergency room when their toddler was mistakenly served cooking wine by the staff. According to the local outlet KSBW 8, Noemi Valencia and her partner were with their 2-year-old daughter at the Fujiyama Japanese Restaurant in Salinas on Aug. 17, when they noticed that the youngster was experiencing signs of intoxication. "She was swaying, she was falling over, she was leaning on walls, she couldn’t hold her head up, she was slurring her words," Valencia explained of her daughter, which prompted immediate concern. The parents investigated their toddler's cup and discovered that the beverage she was given and told was apple juice was, in actuality, cooking wine. Restaurant staff told the couple that the alcoholic beverage had been mislabeled as apple juice by a staffer... The concerned parents quickly rushed their child to Salinas Valley ER, where they spent the night. A blood test revealed that the child had a blood alcohol content of .12, which is twice the legal limit for a consenting adult."
Why are Brown, Black, White, Green and Gray common surnames but Yellow, Orange, Purple, Blue and Red are not? : r/NoStupidQuestions - "Green in this case is not a color, it's a location, as in 'the village green' The rest are generally thought to be based on hair colors. Yellow and Red hair color names do exist, Blonde and Russell."
"There are names like Redman and Redmayne as well, possibly coming from someone with a ruddy complexion or red hair."
