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Murderbot Diaries is dark and funny. 10/10

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is a series where the audio book is better than reading.  The murderbot is a sentient robot who no longer has a compliance chip, so he fakes it so he can stay free.  He hires himself out for security jobs.  The murderbot is dark, witty and ambivalent about human life.  The narrator sounds like a young Samuel L. Jackson.  The series is not long, many of the stories are novellas, but it is just hilarious in parts.  Definitely worth listening to if you don’t mind some cursing.

Is Gen-Z screwed?

WSJ: Gen-Z yearns for stability

WSJ: Gen-Z yearns for stability

Not long ago, a friend who teaches a communications course at a Midwestern business school asked me to speak to her class. Her instructions were invitingly wide: “Just tell them about your career.” And so I did, trying to hit all the points that might be relevant to students about to enter the job market.

Unmentioned in the article, and presumably the address to the class, is that Suzy is married to Jack Welch.

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I don’t encourage girls to go into engineering.

A course meant to inspire more Black students to take AP classes

I don’t encourage boys to go into engineering either.  For individual students with the interest and aptitude to become engineers, I did everything I could to help them become engineers.  I have recommended colleges, suggested specific majors and made arrangements for them to talk to people I know working in their intended field.  The same things I would do for any of my students.

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The new show, Extrapolations, is green porn with a great cast. 6/10

Extrapolations is a bracing drama from writer, director and executive producer Scott Z. Burns that introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives.

Extrapolations is Green Porn with a great cast.

I watched a few episodes because this TV series was eagerly anticipated by swampies.  They felt that when people see how Climate Change impacts regular people, then…I don’t know, we will all join their church or something.

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What happens if Trump is arrested?

It would be better to not find out what happens if Trump is arrested.

In 2016, adult film star Stormy Daniels contacted media outlets offering to sell her account of what she said was an adulterous affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006.

Mr Trump’s team got wind of this, and his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Ms Daniels to keep quiet.

This is not illegal. However, when Mr Trump reimbursed Mr Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Mr Trump falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour – a criminal offence – in New York.

This is a bullshit charge that happens all the time.  The district attorney is applying it to Trump as a punitive use of his authority.  Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney issuing the indictment, doesn’t care about blow back or fracturing America.  Assume the arrest will be maximum embarrassment, bail denied and leaks of confidential information.  There will be no reasonable restraint.

Some organization has been working to undermine America by funding divisive activities.  I don’t know if it’s George Soros, Communist China or Putin.  Whoever it is has decided that it’s time for a showdown.

The Ohio State University College of Engineering is WOKE.

They are like termites, borrowing in to everything and causing structural damage that isn’t obvious until the whole thing collapses.   The Ohio State University College of Engineering is committed to DIE. 

OSU has a nuclear reactor for training and research.  When hiring a Nuclear Engineering professor, they want a statement of loyalty to the DIE cause.

This is from The Ohio State University job posting for a tenure-track Nuclear Engineering professor.

Attachment 3: Diversity Statement (Pursuant to the university’s shared values the search committee will ask all applicants to provide a written statement that describes your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please provide specific examples such as teaching and/or mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds, outreach activities to underrepresented groups, or conducting research that address social inequities)

At one point, diversity, inclusion and equity sounded benevolent, but now we know better.

Diversity:  People are reduced to their demographic value.  Quality is long term and hard to measure.  Diversity is easy to measure right now.  It’s too much to ask that Deans and hiring committees hire on demonstrated excellence when that could hurt their careers.  The quality of research and instruction is subordinate to having the correct number of people from favored identity groups. 

Inclusion:  What a person says and does matters less than how words and actions are interpreted by a person with more points on the identity privilege matrix.  Pretend fear by a privileged person causes real fear in everyone else.  It’s like living in that episode of Twilight Zone where Will Robinson has vast mental powers, and everyone has to suck up to him constantly.

Equity:  Equality of outcome means that individual aptitude and effort is irrelevant.  Why would a gifted and motivated person work hard if the outcome will be the same?  By definition, professors are smart.  They will see that grade distribution must reflect the appropriate demographics or questions will be asked.  Objective assessments are out.  Grade inflation is inevitable.

Go woke and go broke.  That rhymes and is true.  Embrace DIE and die.  Disney was the most loved company in America.  Now, it’s market capitalization and public perception has collapsed.  I attended Ohio State and loved my time there.  When OSU won the National Championship in 2002, it’s reputation and prestige went through the roof.  That can all be squandered. 

The state legislature in Ohio is attempting to ban the racist and sexist hiring policies of DIE.  If that legislation passes and the Board of Regents gets involved, OSU may be saved before it is ruined.  The Ohio State University has huge amounts of good will, but like Disney, that can be lost.

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