Category: Culture (Page 3 of 13)

Germans used to be smart.

October 23, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Germans are known for being smart and industrious, and not questioning their leaders. This leads them to getting too swept up in ill-advised causes.

A fire alarm system wasn’t installed in the building because experts did not consider it necessary.

A new fire station in Germany that was destroyed in a fire, causing millions of euros in damage, did not have a fire alarm system.

Germany has building codes. Someone made the decision to exempt this new fire station from customary procedures. Nobody objected.

Buried in the news report:

The fire broke out on an emergency vehicle belonging to the fire department, which contained lithium-ion batteries and an external power connection.

Lithium batteries burn very hot and are difficult to put out. When an electric car burns, fire fighters don’t extinguish the burning battery, but keep the fire contained. Why did the fire department need an electric vehicle? Because Germans are suppressing the smart part of their brains, and embracing the EV cult.

Here is respected physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, explaining “Why I’m embarrassed to be German”.

The good old days are gone unless America stops screwing around.

October 11, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

NYT: Manufacturing isn’t coming back.

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are vowing to engineer a manufacturing renaissance. Such promises evoke 1950s-era memories of strong communities full of ordinary Americans, many without college degrees, earning attractive pay and benefits for their hard work.

The author believes the US cannot get back to the fully functioning country we had in the 1950’s. That is a widely held opinion, so talking about this article is as good as any other.

Manufacturing bottomed out at around 10 percent of nonfarm workers by 2019. The numbers employed in manufacturing started to recover under President Biden and may continue to rebound.

The author shows her bias. If the bottom was in 2019, then it started to recover after that. Biden took office in 2021, so it wasn’t his policies that turned things around.

While women and immigrants helped offset the slowing growth of the native-born population, it hasn’t been enough: Two-thirds of respondents to a National Association of Manufacturing survey this past spring said that their biggest challenge was attracting and retaining employees.

Attracting and retaining employees is simple. Pay more and improve the working conditions.

Austrian opera makes audiences swoon.

October 11, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Daily Mail: People faint at opera.

Its provocative scenes left theatre goers reeling, with 18 suffering with nausea and shock and requiring assistance over the first two performances. In three cases, a doctor even had to be called.

This report is surprising, because it’s assumed that audiences are more savvy or cynical now. Nobody was coerced or tricked into attending this opera. Decades ago, my nephew Brian and I attended a machine gun shoot in Knob Creek, Kentucky. When the “Commence Fire” command was given, the amount of firepower unleashed from the firing line was astounding. One might swoon if the title of the event wasn’t so clear. It was great fun.

Women athletes finally show some courage.

October 3, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Fox News: San Jose State Trans volleyball player.

The Utah State Aggies are the latest women’s volleyball team to choose not to participate in a scheduled match against San Jose State University due to a biological male playing on its women’s team.

It’s good to see female athletes finally showing the courage to stand up to the crazy Progressive ideology. Trans players in women’s sports is an issue that men can’t do anything about. When the players don’t tolerate it, change can happen, but not before.

Blaire Fleming is 6′ 1″. According to this site 7% of American men are that tall. About 1 woman in 10,000 are that tall, and I bet Blaire Fleming can bench press more than any of them. The NCAA women’s volleyball net height is 7 inches lower than the men’s net height because of the sex difference in height.

I don’t want to see a man smash a volleyball into a woman’s face at point blank range, but my opinion doesn’t count. The NCAA wants that to happen, and it’s up to the female players to allow it or not.

Gen Z people are strange.

October 2, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

What went wrong with Gen Z? Why do they talk like this?

This was posted on the Teacher subreddit. So much about this post baffles me. We don’t know if the author is a man or a woman, but from posting history, is about 25 years old.

Why is this on a forum for teachers? This is a “dating a coworker” scenario, not a teaching, school or education topic. Does the poster have no friends with whom this could be discussed?

YUP! So I’ve found solace in forming connections with my colleagues. Recently, I’ve been bonding with another teacher over after-school work drinks, where we’ve both been able to vent about our experiences, students admin, and support each other through the ups and downs of our jobs. However, as we’ve spent more time together, I’ve started to develop feelings for her.

Many posts from young teachers are fraught and dramatic. Who says, “found solace in forming connections”? A normal person might say, “I’m getting to know my colleagues”. Better yet, leave it out as it isn’t relevant.

That could all be replaced with, “I am developing a crush on a colleague”.

Now, I’m faced with the question: what should I do about it? I understand I could just be trauma bonding with someone and maybe that’s why I’m catching feelings.

“Trauma bonding”? “Catching feelings”?

How in the hell would a bunch of anonymous online strangers know if this is a rebound crush or something more?

I’m thinking probably the best move is to wait for one of us to leave the school before we either make a move. But should I wait that long?

This person is a full-time teacher. I moved around more than most, and was at Normandy for eight years and seventeen years at North Royalton. Who waits years before dating? Younger teachers seem so frightened of violating social norms. Maybe the #MeToo movement shook them up.

The post ends with:

I also know a lot of teachers date/marry other teachers did y’all meet at the same school or what? Just need some advice.

This person doesn’t mention social anxiety or being neuro-divergent, which Gen Z brings up at every opportunity. The person sounds normal, except we doubt that the person has dated, has good friends to talk with or was ever in danger of a sexual encounter.

The topic of this post is unusual, but the word choices and writing style is pretty typical. It’s strange.

The fine line between news and propaganda.

August 17, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

NPR: Morning Edition

A week before Operation Desert Storm began, I flew to Madrid to start a year-long temporary foreign service assignment. This was 1991, a few years before the World Wide Web was operational. I didn’t speak Spanish, and because this was only 16 years after Spain was run by a nationalist dictator, Spain didn’t speak English.

The ridiculous Olympics

August 11, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Australian dancer ‘Raygun’ is going viral for her Olympic breaking performance

When boxing women turned into battering women, the IOC’s response soured the Olympics for me. The Olympics used to be about perseverance, determination, excellence and other high-minded ideas. Now the Olympics is a media franchise that is chasing social media attention.

Break dancing tested well, so it’s an Olympic event. Looking into the break dancing event, I found that Australian break dancer, Rachel Gunn, was trending. This meme sums up the general response:

I don’t agree. Gunn’s routine is outlandish and compelling. I couldn’t stop watching. She seems to be saying, “I’m in Paris, competing in the Olympics, and this is how I dance.”

Good for her. Gunn can’t compete with the aggressive athleticism of the other competitors. She couldn’t even compete with the little Black kids I’ve seen break dancing on the street in Chicago in the late 80’s.

Known as the country’s best female breaker, Raygun has proudly represented Australia in 2021, 2022 and 2023 at the World Breaking Championships, per CNBC. She ranked 64 out of 80 breakers.

Rachel Gunn is Australia’s “Jamaican bobsled team”. Is it possible that Australia can’t do Black urban culture? Australia is far from the Western world, and have their own Black folks. It feels disrespectful to call Aborigines “Black folks”, because they are portrayed in media as an indigenous people with the mystic old wisdom. Maybe Aborigines fill the societal slot for Black culture, so they don’t need ours.

Budweiser is still covered in stink.

July 3, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

On a pre-4th of July trip to Giant Eagle, I noticed that Budweiser is still trying to move their swill. Over a year after seeking marketing assistance from an ingrate who’s entire shtick is mocking feminine attributes of women, it’s still a slog.

Nice person being neighborly and helpful

June 29, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Yesterday, my dashcam caught a littering pig as anecdotal evidence of the descent of man. Today, my dashcam caught a nice person being neighborly and helpful. Do the two anecdotes cancel each other, or is Seven Hills just more civilized than North Olmsted?

Tractor Supply rejects the DEI agenda.