A while back there was a post where someone referenced the Digital Time that was proposed by the French Revolution. Well, arguments about our calendar are really useless.
Or are they.
Your calendar: Summer (the season) begins on June 21st.
Status: You’re doing it wrong.
I can’t believe the resistance that I get about this topic. It seems pretty simple to me. Why is June 22nd a summer day but June 20th belongs to spring? Chasing that question down led me to some surprising results.
If you plot the deviation of daylight hours over the year it looks like a sine wave.
But this looks weird. The days of summer don’t start until the longest day of the year?
And, I had always wondered about Ground Hog Day. What was its significance? Wasn’t the first day of spring always fixed at 6 weeks after GHD? Spring is delayed until March 21st? Duh!
It turns out that the dates of the seasons are fairly arbitrary.
In fact, I cannot find where the dates were set to the current observation1. The “usual” observance doesn’t seem to have much of a tradition behind it other than it being the system in use.
So, what would be a logical definition of the seasons? It seems to me that the best layout would be based upon the duration of the solar day. To me, the Summer Solstice would not be the beginning of summer but rather the midpoint.
Well, what do you know; this has been the standard recogntion for hundreds of years!
Suddenly the Ground Hog Day tradition makes sense. Spring starts on Feb 2 (halfway between the Solstice and the Equinox) but rodent-shadow “Spring” starts on the Equinox instead as an abberation. May Day never made sense to me (other than the Soviet orgasm) but now it was simple: It’s the first day of Summer. Hallowe’en, the first day of Winter. Autumn begins on August 1st.
The earth has changed orientation over time and the alignment of the seasons has changed as well. If we were to do a strict reckoning then we would use the last graph, summer starting about May 6th and the other seasons following every 91.25 days. To choose the traditional dates (May 1st, August 1st, October 31st, February 2nd) seems to me to be a reasonable compromise, bringing matters back to traditional observations while being closer to the solar midpoints.
I’m trying to keep weather out of this discussion, but for my region, November is a winter month. I could argue spring and fall, but May is a summer month here, as well. The USWS is off of my schedule slightly as they say that summer begins on June 1st (all others follow). It seems to me to be a rather arbitrary choice based more upon weather than anything else. It is their setpoint, not mine2. But basing the reckoning of seasons upon the weather makes little sense in places like Hawai’i. My friend spent some time there and mentioned that there is no weather segment on the local news. Every day had basically the same high and low temperatures year around. If there was something else (“Typhoon On The Way”) then it was news, not weather.
I can’t help but to be an engineer whose job is to “fix things.” Here’s a fix for something that you never knew was broken.
Now get off my lawn.
1. I haven’t looked very hard
2. They are the “Weather Service” after all
“Now get off my lawn.”
That is how you properly end an article.
Also, fried chicken.
Is your lawn green are are you in a drought area? I mean i would not be on a brown lawn anyways
In the Northeast, traditional “summer season” begins Memorial Day Weekend, which is partially based on the typical advent of summer-type weather.
What about seasonal lag?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_lag
Would seasonal starts be different across latitudes? In NH, the amplitude of the wave would be larger with a peak of 15 hours of daylight and a trough of 9 hours.
I’d also add that this system would make no sense at all in the tropics.
And everyone knows that paradise is in the tropics…
I thought paradise was by the dashboard light.
Pair-o-dice.
http://www.acedux.com/assets/product-images/95806/1500.jpg
I will admit to having a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from my car’s rear view mirror.
I’ve got a pair of Rubik’s Cubes.
Please tell me it is ironically
It started ironically, but has moved on to post-irony.
Please tell me they are d20s.
Nothing makes sense in the tropics. Except for the love of that brown skinned angel with the almond eyes, Mariquita.
So true.
I initially read that as “margarita” and pictured tanned, nubile Latinas bringing me drinks on the beach. And in that context, yeah, I’m on board 100%.
That doesn’t make sense anywhere. Doesn’t Mariquita mean gay?
Yes.
But remember, in most countries in or bordering the tropics, you are only gay if you are the catcher. If you are the pitcher, you are just dealing with the circumstances that there was not pussy to be had. That is exactly what I was told, not in one, but in over a dozen countries in the tropics or bordering it that I lived in. Never understood how this way of thinking works out.
Because you’re not gay.
I was always told it’s only gay if the balls touch.
Correct! Also you must avoid eye contact.
Isn’t that really the historic mindset in many places? Romans, Greeks, etc?
That was also the thinking in the Roman Empire, traditional Scandinavian societies, modern Turkey, and plenty of other places.
The general logic is that catching is a feminine act; the problem isn’t being a man that likes other men, it’s being a man that is acting in the role of a woman. In Rome a man performing cunnilingus was just as abhorrent as a mean receiving during gay sex, since in both cases he was taking the feminine role during sex.
I understand the root cause, but I don’t get the mindset. Never been in the position where I wanted sex so bad that I was willing to poke another dude, so I can’t relate.
AlexinCT that’s just the patriarchy shoving cis-heteronormativity down your throat. It is why we all need #Feminism.
You fucking owe me a new monitor now CA, I spewed Iced Tea all over mine at work after reading your comment and bursting out laughing.
In the Middle East it’s only gay if the boy has reached puberty.
It’s a trap! (/ackbar)
It’s also just a nickname for Maria.
Colloquially, kinda. A literal translation would be ladybug, but it’s often used as an insult more akin to pansy or fairy, more like a little gay or effeminate. It’s more mild than something like maricón; the -ita suffix defangs it a bit.
Man, I have no head for foreign languages unless they compile.
As long as they aren’t object oriented.
-functional programmer
I think I’m beginning to like you.
If Chomsky is right, all natural languages compile to I-language.
So, nah, nah, nah, boo-boo.
Thanks for the link, I’ve never read Chomsky. Tried reading it. Got to the line
“the symbol ^ denotes CONCATENATION— a^b means ‘a followed by b.’ ” an noped the hell off.
Forget his stupid political views. For this line alone Chompsky is one of histories greatest monsters.
I thought mariposa was the Spanish slang for gay.
English translation is butterfly I think. It has been awhile since high school Spanish when I tried to learn all the insults and swear words.
Mariposa, maricón, and mariquita can all be used to call someone gay in Spanish. Better English translations would be gay, faggot, and fairy, respectively. Same technical definition, different levels of insulting.
There are still plenty of upper class British women named Cecilia who go by “Sissy” in their daily lives.
Fanny.
I have a middle class arkansas neighbor who goes by sissy. I’m actually not sure what her real name is though.
My great aunt Sissy agrees. Or she would if it wasn’t for the whole being dead thing. However, since sissy means effeminate, it wouldn’t really be insulting to women that are invested in upholding their traditional roles in society, such as your usual upper class British woman of refined breeding.
Mama guevos is also Spanish slang for someone in that category if addressed to a male…
In German-speaking countries, Elisabeth can be nicknamed Sissi too. Most notably would be Austrian Empress Sissi, played by gorgeous Romy Schneider in a series of saccharine 1950s movies.
I’d think so. Going from N.Carolina (Even the southern georgia part of it) to Portland, OR I noticed a rather dramatic change in how many hours of day light there are extra this far north. It screws with me every year how big the variance is between the height of summer and the dead of winter.
That, and despite the reputation of the NW as perpetually dreary, the summers are usually very dry with lots of sun which also increases the variance.
As much as I reject the June 22 as the start of summer intellectually, September is a warmer month than June on average here.
Yup. Summers here are amazing. Everyone is bitching about the heat waves and I’m loving it because there is no humidity to speak of, the air is moving and I don’t feel like I’m breathing through wads of cotton. It’s almost like we have Sprng – Spring Intensifies – 2nd Spring then the long wet season.
I don’t what he is babbling about. There are TWO seasons. Wet & dry. Who needs 4 seasons?
I know! People are starving!
Frankie Valli?
There are TWO seasons. Wet & dry. Who needs 4 seasons?
Two seasons are opulent. We have have narrowed it down to 1…or 5 depending on who is waxing rhapsodic about the rhythms of LA.
Today’s weather is apocalyptic.
A man I can respect. Risking his life to fish.
“the rhythms of LA”
Are the cycles all synchronized?
There are TWO seasons. Wet & dry.
Half right. The two seasons are “Hot” and “Warm”.
“winter” and “road construction”. In a pinch they overlap.
This post literally, actually, not-literally-like-metaphorically-but-literally-like-actually erases my lived experiences. When I lived in the Ohio valley, the seasons were Winter-Construction-Fall-Winter again. Here in Minnesota, its Winter-Hoth-Winter-Summ-Winter again. (Not long enough for a full Summer)
OT question: is neutral language required for ballots and whom do I complain to if the ballot is not neutrally worded?
“…whom do I complain to if the ballot is not neutrally worded?”
The Russians.
Good call. Anyone have the number for Putin’s hotline?
Ask the ruskie hiding under your bed. He should have it.
(202) 456-1111?
Hmm. I smell a trap. Screw it. I’ll bite.
Ah. Clever.
Hmm. I smell a trap. Screw it. I’ll bite.
This line of thinking perfectly fits both your avatar and your forum name.
He should have asked someone to hold his beer to make it completely accurate.
867-5309
*huddles in AC two weeks into another heat wave*
That’s crazy pants.
Yup, my birthday is mid August (I will save the exact date for a morning thread) and it has never been autumny any time in my life. It has been freakin’ hot plenty of times. And mostly hot the rest of the times.
Seasons are a social construct tool of the patriarchy used to enslave POC.
Also, fuck winter.
That’s an odd way of spelling summer.
I can deal with hot. Cold gets in your bones.
I can deal with cold. I can always put on more clothes, I can only get so naked. But de gustibus and all that.
“I can always put on more clothes, I can only get so naked.”
I realized a few years ago I didn’t come up with that, but anything above 65F is warm unless you are at the beach…
^THIS^
There’s a limit by the rules of gods and men as to how much I can take off. Plus I’ve never gotten second degree sunburn in winter.
Windburn on the other wand…
Better than on the staff.
Bingo. Unless you’re actually in the Artic Circle, I can always dress warmly enough for the temps. When it’s 102 and humid? Yeah, there’s nothing I can do about that except stay in the air conditioning.
Man once again defeats a natural limit.
That is because your horrible working conditions which unions would prevent got you used to heat
I overall prefer winter in summer and summer in winter but the heat gets to me more than the cold. I can better control temperature in the cold. Also red wine and scotch work better in winter
Coffee too. I fucking love my coffee in the winter.
Fuck summer?
Autumn is best season. In bucharest late september early october are sunny dry warm not hot and the vegetables are at their best and it is hazelenut season.
This from the guy who was complaining about 20-degree temperatures this past winter. :-p
What is spring?
That time when a young man’s thoughts turn to motorcycles?
Croppie fishing time.
Or Crappie, depending on where you live. Either way, good fried up in a skillet.
We says Crappie.
When we said it in the Midwest, it’s spelled like that, but when we say it, it comes out as Croppie.
Floridians can’t get anything right.
I’ll go with ancient religious observances as the reason, given that a number of ancient civs thought of the solstices and equinoxes as particularly significant. Thus they would mark the seasons as the time between those events.
“Your calendar: Summer (the season) begins on June 21st.
Status: You’re doing it wrong.”
Because we stood up some big rocks and the rocks said so.
I like November rains on fallen red and orange leaves as they disintegrate into the earth.
Why are you so evil?
Speak for yourself. I ejaculated.
I thought you liked me that way. *pout*
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. As such, I petition that we move it to the summer, when normal people can enjoy it.
Tryptophan Day is when the (perpetually decorated) Christmas tree gets pulled out of the closet and there is Christmas music playing and we watch a lot of Christmas specials over and over again.
Hopefully it is also when I am NOT hosting dinner.
Halloween FTW. Autumn crispness combined with a day in which ladies release their inner whore. And candy.
Also Halloween horror nights. Yeah boy!
+ all the slutty witch costumes
Fuck no. I host, and having my over running all day in the middle of summer would make it just terrible.
Well, stop hosting!
No way. It’s one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving. Besides, no one makes the turkeys as well as I do.
It wouldn’t be better anywhere else. Oven all day is needed for Thanksgiving cooking, and doing that in summer is just bad.
Besides, then I would have to depend on someone else’s beer and booze selection.
Authentic old colonial homes have outdoor kitchens. They weren’t dumb enough to cook inside before AC.
Nothing lasts forever.
Not the right kind of evil.
Nothing lasts forever in the cold November rain.
Latest Dem Superstar Taking Nation by Storm?
She needs a name.
Where is Mike M. now that we finally need him?
We can be sure he’s not working.
He’s busy writing his new memoir, “Block Insane Yomamma and Me”
Gamboling in his natural habitat, the H&R comments area.
And “Killer Collins,” obviously.
She’s no Georgia Peach to be sure.
Is that like a Tom Collins with cyanide?
Lookit those eyes. She’s already dead on the inside.
That look always gets me in trouble.
Around here we have cold and dry, warm and wet, hot and humid, then a short period of cool and wet before cold starts back up.
Yep. Sounds like my part of Mizzoura.
I should not have worn TechPriest red to work.
Everything was moving along smoothly, then we had users reporting errors. Evidently the process being implemented involved stages within an entirely different process no one understands, and we had to fumble about in ignorance saying ‘Ave Machina’ and wondering why our thoughts went to toasters all of a sudden.
” Ave Machina”
You guys best stop playing with those things, you’ll usher in the robot apocalypse. Just ask Elon.
If it results in me becoming an immortal brain in a jar with a robot body, I don’t see the problem.
Be careful what you wish for.
Alt-right Nazi lies. Winter is over. It will never snow again. Ours is a Venusian hellworld of ever-increasing temperatures, until the angry oceans drown us.
I remember that episode of the Twilight Zone.
Repent, ye carbon sinners. Pledge yourselves to the Allmother. Shut off your AC and suffer in the wicked swelter of our fallen race.
Vengeful Gaia will disembowel you and force you to gaze up on your own entrails before passionately kissing you and then decapitating your rapidly exsanguinating carcass.
I prefer cold. Bone-chilling, soul-crushing, life-destroying cold. It’s why Fairbanks is my ideal place to live.
It’s also odd (or perhaps the reason why) since, excluding my current location, I’ve lived in hot climates all my life; New Mexico, Arizona and Florida.
Perpetually erect nipples? Although too covered to see.
Who knows why. The Arctic is like a siren to me. Few seem to understand, but those who do need no explanation.
Anything below 55 is too cold. I hate cold. I’d prefer it be 75 in the day and 60 at night all year round, but I don’t know anywhere to get that. Somewhere in the Panama highlands I guess.
My 40th birthday plan is a trip to Antarctica. I get the allure, but fear my drink will freeze.
A close friend of SP, WebDom, and mine got a berth on a research ship to Antarctica. When he got there, he dropped me an email letting me know he’d arrived. I asked, “How cold is it?” He responded, “About one centimeter.”
Lol
I get it.
My grandfather was in the 162nd Troop Carrier Squadron (Deep Freeze) out of Auckland, NZ in the 1950s. They ferried all the Seabees and equipment down to build out McMurdo. He said they had to wait until it warmed up to -50°F before they could safely go outside and work.
I worked with a lady who used to live in Canada. It was somewhere pretty far north. I don’t know if she was exaggerating, but she told me that in the winter if you didn’t have a heated garage, it would get so cold that you had to leave your car running all of the time or the gas lines would actually freeze and you couldn’t get it started again. I asked and she said actual temps would reach 40 or more below zero Fahrenheit. Brrrrr!
She was exaggerating a little. Most people who live in those climates don’t heat their garages, they have engine block heaters that they plug into a wall outlet.
But, yeah, at cold enough temps diesels won’t run at all (the diesel fuel gels), and gas engines are extremely unhappy.
I love the heat. Drinking in the pool, drinking in the river, drinking at the beach, drinking at the lake, drinking at the water park, drinking in the boat. You get the idea.
Driking is better when it is cool. Heat and alcohol dont work
Sure it does, NE Brazil, the beach, and cerveja estupido gelada, works great.
This guy gets it.
Unless you drink bad beer or bad cocktails
Cocktails? OK, now we’re onto you, Pie, you’re with the Reason staff here spying on us. Confess!
That comment indicates i disaprove of cocktails or that is what i intended
PIE IS A SPY!
If you consider Rye & ice a cocktail, sure.
Hmm, bourbon and 2 cubes sounds good right now… too bad I’m still working.
I really enjoy a cask strength/barrel proof bourbon with ice. The flavor continues to evolve as the ice melts.
Or you can try not being a savage and add a few drops of water. Ice is for barbarians
Or you can try not being a savage and add a few drops of water. Ice is for barbarians
Now I’m imagining Florida Man charging around dressed like Conan and am
kindavery aroused. Thanks, Pie!Strongest bourbon I have right now is 45%. Still good and I still put 2 cubes in the glass. I pour in a couple shots and it does not last long enough to get watery. 2nd glass and the cubes are still not melted.
My brother may have a job offer to relocate to Arkansas. He talked to me about applying for a job with the firm when I graduate and moving out there. I’m more inclined to move somewhere colder and even dryer than NM.
Montana FTW. Although I’d also move back to rural northern New Mexico in a heartbeat.
I looked at land in Montana a few months ago when I was fantasizing about building a cabin far away from everyone. The ten acre parcel within sight of a lake looked very attractive. Wish I had $90k lying around.
I’m buying land in Alaska in a couple of weeks. You can get land for next to nothing. Do that.
Snowmobile buddies?
We could start a cult!
Also, you’d think land in Alaska would be worth a whole lot more, what with global warming turning it into New California.
Matanuska Colony II: Climatic Boogaloo!
North Dakota? That should fix you right up.
Wyoming.
Low taxes, too.
oh yes wyoming
“dryer than NM”
That’ll be tricky. Maybe the Atacama Desert?
Utah?
Damn, I was going to say the Peruvian desert.
Is that the one in Chili? I think they have the driest desert on earth. The moon?
The Atacama is the driest “true desert”, but the polar deserts technically get less precipitation.
Mars?
Really? Hard to see boobs under a parka.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/03/28/18/329C8E3E00000578-3512445-Who_cares_about_the_weather_Pixie_lies_on_the_snow_as_she_basks_-a-5_1459187651117.jpg
“I prefer cold. Bone-chilling, soul-crushing, life-destroying cold.”
Sounds like my recent girlfriends…
You have to get them together and make sure both of them know you were sleeping with the other. Then they freak out and you get the best sex ever right up until they both hate you also. But by then, you’ve moved on. Ah, the good old days…
Yeah, in my case I ended up having to call the cops cause both of them wanted to kill me. For real.
…go on…
Don’t make me. It only went downhill from there.
I believe you. The last time I pulled the trick I was just talking about one of them called me up and went completely fucking nutso city. I wound up dating one of them for a while after that while they hated each other and one of them hated me, then I actually felt guilty about it. I really didn’t to it on purpose. The moral of the story is be very cautious about dating 2 friends at the same time and letting either of them find out.
be very cautious about dating 2 friends at the same time and letting either of them find out.
There’s no “letting” or “not letting”. If they are friends (or even acquaintances, or even have acquaintances who are acquainted), they will find out.
It didn’t go down exactly like that. I met one of them and we were just friends. And she fixed me up with the other. But then when I started dating the other, she decided that I should be sleeping with her instead. Being a pig dog guy, I started sleeping with her. Then she called up the friend and told her that we are in love. Crazy bitch. WTF? Love was never even brought up. Then she told me I can’t see her friend any longer. I refused. At first she was just like ‘ok’, then you’re not sleeping with me anymore. That’s when she later called me up and went psychopath on me. So I stopped talking to her and kept seeing her friend, who I did like better as far as romance goes. But then I did feel guilty because I realized I had broken up a long running friendship, just because of being a horndog guy. I also had to embarrass myself by pretty much convincing the one I was till seeing to forgive me for sleeping with her friend and not telling her. But I really did like her a lot, so that’s how it went. I didn’t mean any harm, seriously, I’m just a guy, it wasn’t me, it was that evil dick. As my x gf has said ‘this is a fucking soap opera’. I don’t need that sort of drama anymore, too old for any more of that. Ah, who am I lying to, I’ll probably wind up causing some GILFs to burn down the nursing home one day, with me in it. That’s how it will end.
These euphemisms are getting really, really complicated.
Hah, same here. As an adult, I’ve lived in Virginia, California, South Carolina, Florida, Okinawa, Arizona, Alabama, Florida again, Virginia again. Unpleasant summers in all but California, and yet I hate heat and prefer cold.
Kind of consigned myself to it when I married a woman who would keep the house at 80 degrees if she could.
“woman who would keep the house at 80 degrees if she could”
So… pretty much any woman on planet Earth?
69 at night.
…what you did there… I see it?
Go on…
Simi Valley, CA had that best weather by far of all the places I’ve lived, which is just about as many as you, but all in the states. I’m sure it’s overrun by progs and illegal aliens by now and is currently on fire, but back then it was great.
When I lived in California, I lived in Long Beach about nine blocks from the water. Didn’t have a/c there, almost never missed it. Usually if it felt warm, all I had to do was open a window and get a nice cool breeze. At most, I’d have to turn on the fan.
I grew sick of many things about living in the LA area, but the weather was divine.
Lachowsky: I see you are around so I will +1 the idea of doing the dog and pony show. I am on an advisory panel for the local Community College technical program that had to undergo a curriculum overhaul a few years ago because of legislative mandates. They need to hear from you, even if nothing really seems to come of it. I would also echo others in being firm and confident (I think you are) without being overbearing or combative. Some bureaucrats do take what the front liners say seriously, and may make changes (or not) depending on your input.
“Some bureaucrats do take what the front liners say seriously”
As long as you can come up with a solution to a problem that doesn’t need fixing, then they will surely take you seriously.
I enjoy bashing ‘crats as much as anyone, but as is often mentioned here about numerous ‘monolithic’ groups of people, they are not all of like mind.
“Some bureaucrats do take what the front liners say seriously”
IME, you can’t motivate a legislature to care about your pet problem. But what you can do is work with an already-motivated legislator to understand the problem better and formulate a solution.
If they care about this problem, and are generally receptive to the idea that EE education needs to have more hands-on education, they’ll be receptive to suggestions from domain experts about what that hands on education is going to look like. If they think that EE education needs to improve but don’t know how, they’ll be perceptive to well formulated suggestions about how a straight-forward change will improve EE.
If they think that EE needs to have more diversity or more English or whatever, there isn’t a damn thing that you can say about improving internships that will change their mind. You’ll get a smile, a polite thanks, and a quick ignore.
Your best bet is to go in and prepare to be helpful to anyone who already is inclined to think the same way as you. Your best bet is to try to make it a dialog, if that’s possible. The same way that a good salesman starts out by asking questions and understanding your problems, you want to start out by understanding their positions and what they’ll be receptive to. If you really want to be productive, you should research the legislative agenda of the people that will be there. This might be online, or you might want to try calling there office and talking to a flunky. It would be fine to say that you have this thing coming up and you want to prepare to be as productive as possible.
Good advice.
I’m curious about the overhaul you underwent. I went to a technical school aboit 10 years and took classes on electricity and industrial automation. I was taught the things I needed to be taught in order to be a successful industrial electrician/mechanic/hydraulics tech/welder/troubleshooter/instrument tech/whatever.
Apparently, my company, and many more across the state are trying to hire new people into their maintenance departments and the kids coming out of these various technical schools dont know shit.
I have talked with many people currently attending these schools and the curriculum is all wrong when it comes to teaching the particular skill sets it takes to make it as a maintenance tech in a manufacturing facility. It wasnt this way 10 years ago and I have no idea what has happened since then. I do know that a lot of the technical schools were gobbled up by the larger universities and put under their umbrella. This has allowed for people to get actual degrees in things instead of a technical certificate like I have. I suspect that being under the umbrella of the larger universities has changed how things are done though. I dont know this, but I suspect it.
Larger schools are just going to try to push their wokeness before anything. What those kids needs is internships with actual companies so they can learn from people who do real work. I worked with an engineer once, German guy who had moved to the states. This guy told me that at the mfg company he worked for there, I can’t remember the one still, but no one could be a manager who had not first worked in and knew everything about the actual mfg process. He said that’s how everything pretty much worked there. He seemed appalled that American companies hire managers who know nothing about the actual processes. Of course, Germany is so woke now, they probably don’t do thing like that anymore. That was 20 years ago.
That’s how it used to be in telecom in the not too long past. Ivan Seidenberg at Verizon started as a cable splicer’s assistant as a summer job.
Which is another thing that used to done- college kids taking summer jobs, usually blue collar type work. My dad cleaned out the paint booth in a car factory. Now it’s all about internships, often hanging around senior company execs for several weeks followed by a pizza party & a certificate of achievement.
Current CEO of Walmart started as a part-time stock boy during summer vacation.
I could definitely see that happening if Sam Walton was still around. I think he started in retail working for JC Penny and I guess his manager there told him he’d never amount to anything in retail. If you haven’t read hid story Made in America, you should, it’s good stuff.
‘his’
The general manager at the mill I where I work was a furnace utility 35 years ago.
I’ve always had interns working on actual real work. One of the things I also like to have interns do is go to meeting with clients. Because no matter how well you can do the technical work, you’ll never go much further until you can actually communicate with clients and understand how that all works.
^^ Fantastic ^^
“Apparently, my company, and many more across the state are trying to hire new people into their maintenance departments and the kids coming out of these various technical schools dont know shit.”
Maybe your company should switch to hiring college grads? They know even less shit (or only know things that ain’t so), but they are credentialed!
And they all figure they need to be the CIO, CFO, or CEO after working for 3 months or so.
Oh Geez
Last summer I had a college engineering intern assigned to me for a few days. I was tearing out an old electric motor drive in a cabinet and upgrading it to a modern one. It was a bunch of wiring, installing some terminal strips, putting in a relay or two, and mounting and programming a new drive.
My boss told me to put him to work. I tried. I really did. But watching that kid struggle to use a screwdriver to remove wires from a terminal, not having any idea how to drill and tap a hole, asking me how to operate a chop saw to cut din rail, and not be able to use a pair of wire strippers for hours on end tried my patience.
I ended up giving him a label maker and my drawing of the cabinet schematic and told him to print me off labels that matched the wire numbers on the paper.
He mostly got that right.
More financial aid.
But the for-profit schools were evil incarnate.
In this case in MN in a nutshell the legislature mandated the max credits to graduate with a technical degree*, obviously trying to limit the number of the ‘extra’ classes needed to graduate. Sounds great, and I agree that you shouldn’t have to have college level English lit classes to be a plumber or machinist or forest technician. But it caused a lot problems for special types of degrees that may need slightly more training or education.
In the specific case of my Alma mater and the committee I am on, we had to hash out what to remove from the curriculum. We did remove a couple humanities credits, but of course that same legislature also mandates some of those be included as well as other mandates (like the English level classes I mentioned earlier). In the end we had to remove classes that actually apply to the job to ensure the state mandated minimums.
I don’t know the specifics of who you are actually addressing and what power they have, but at the very least you can say YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING!! and that is most important…
* I think they did this for other degrees and certificates as well, but am not that familiar.
Also, why is a beurocratic body in charge of advising schools about what to teach in the first place.
I know. I know.
Those are experts.
Certs are nice, but Knowledge is Better, and XP is Best……..
Very true. If you look at the ads for industrial maintenance jobs, every single one of them states that they want someone with 2 years of schooling, or 5 years experience.
I’m my experience, most companies vastly prefer the 5 years experience.
In IT, experience rules. Degrees will not get you much of anywhere without it and if that is all you have, you have to be able to convince people in an interview and also be willing to accept anything they have to get in the door. People who graduate and think they’re going to just waltz right into a place and start at 9 eleventy bazillion dollars are greatly deluding themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had interns and other kids I’ve talked to tell me ‘I don’t want to get a degree, I just want to start making money’. And I’ve told them, you’re shooting yourself in the foot right out of the gate. First of all, you don’t have any experience and the only thing going to get you even an interview at this point is to at least show the ambition to get a degree or at least a certificate. Otherwise, no one is even going to talk to you.
It is simple. Spring months are march april may. As suck spring starts march 1. summer june 1, autumn september 1, and winter december 1.
+1 common sense season control
I too vote for Pie’s way.
That’s how a racist would think. Why do you hate everyone in the southern hemisphere?
Because they’re hairy and swarthy and short.
Oh?
+1 Christmas cookouts at the beach.
Do you work for the Romanian Weather Service?
IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA, WEATHER SERVICE YOU!
Functionally, that’s pretty close to the way most people see it in the US. De facto summer starts Memorial Day (end of May), de facto autumn starts Labor Day (end of August). Winter and spring are a little fuzzier, but I think Thanksgiving (end of November) kicks off the holiday season and winter. Spring is pretty much on its own.
Snow, rain, heat, cold, snow those are the Wisconsin seasons and they can come and go as they please. Like a blizzard in April, when the year before it was 65 in February.
I thought the Wisconsin seasons were snow and road construction.
The Celts (and some other societies IIRC) had their seasonal boundaries more or less at the midpoints between the equinoxes/solstices (hence May Day, Samhain/Halloween, etc). those always seemed to make more sense to me.
Make celtic paganism great again. Just with pretty women not weird dudes in robes
The weird dudes will be sacrificed.
Wicker Man? (And no, not the crappy Nicholas Cage remake)
In Hawaii the Sun actually “travels north” of us each year. The two days where it transits north and south are “Lahaina Noons” and it has the fun phenomena of objects throwing no shadow at local noon. Also between those days you can get the Sun in your eyes driving north. Odd bit that.
Seasons, who needs them? Winter: lows low 70’s and highs lower 80’s. Summer: high 70’s and high 80’s. September: highs in lower 90’s some days. The weather report here concentrates on the two important things: what are the Trade Winds doing and where is the swell for surfing.
Ah yes, Lahaina noon, when Hawaii looks like a bad video game render.
You can get the sun in your eyes driving north north of the Arctic Circle, too.
Tourist Season
Football Season
Canadians
So, we have three seasons here.
You shoot tourists and canadians at different times where you live?
Same here, except that the Canadians keep showing up earlier every year and interfering with football seaon. Maybe they are still on the Julian calendar?
“Don’t you hate pants?!?”
The inside jokes around here are so obscure that i dont get many of them after all this time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U14QaBE8N7c
When I’m home alone, I typically just wear the ostrich coat.
Do you light cigars with $100 bills too?
I can’t because I typically don’t carry that much cash, and don’t smoke. But now that you’ve given me the idea… Just for added effect, I should probably first soak those hundreds in a bottle of top shelf Bourbon and dry them out. That should add to the ambiance.
My new avatar will be me in my ostrich coat, no pants, lighting a cigar with a $100 bill soaked in expensive bourbon. This is why I get all of my best ideas from here.
Wait… an orphan will be lighting the cigar. Of course I didn’t have to mention I’ll be with monocle and tophat.
Hyp lights his cigars with his credit card. Its acrid, but it works.
If I was a woke socialist democrat, I’d light it with other people’s money.
YMMV.
https://themysteriousworld.com/cities-with-best-weather-year-round/
TITS OR GTFO
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Blue_Tit_aka.jpg
That’s a quality tit.
You’re better than this.
Too warm-biased for me but that is to be expected.
Of all of those, I think Loja probably has the best climate for my tastes. But I wouldn’t live there. Not too safe for rich gringos and all of us gringos are rich. You will have a big target painted on your back, whether it’s latina cuties staring into your pocket or the local banditos planning to rob you.
My ideal weather is Arizona winter – dry as a bone, sunny, and between 65 and 75 degrees.
7i am waiting for my flight back to Bucharest and I bought a 250 ml bottle of wine from the freeshop and am drinking out of the bottle. This makes me feel ashamed and lower class but wine is wine…
Where are you flying from?
Munich
Just don’t go berserk on the flight and make me read about you stripping down or attacking another passenger and getting “escorted” off the plane brah.
Munchies in München?
Is it in a paper bag?
Nope no bag and it is a tiny bottle. Flight is late. Fucking tarom
Embrace it pie. Everyone has white trash in them longing to be freed.
How many times must you people be told? White trash is a racist, offensive term… for blacks.
shame is using a plastic straw.
Higher class people would be drinking wine–but probably of worse quality–in a lounge.
Yeah, I’m the barbarian. *stares at wino Pie*
St Patrick’s day, memorial day, labor day. Thanksgiving.
Those are my informal season barriers.
Yup. I was thinking Easter as the transition from winter to spring, but that moves around too much. St Pat’s is a better marker.
This lines up with the weather patterns of Iowa pretty well.
I am waiting for someone that has been married to long to say there are only 2 seasons: birthdays and anniversaries.
With long periods of drought in between?
^^^This guy gets it^^^
You find a woman who has a birthday on Christmas and get married on Christmas. Done.
Really fucking cold
Road Construction
Those are the seasons in our area.
Never have seen this road construction thing you speak of around here. We just have pothole season and next pothole season which promises to be more potholes than ever before.
Call dominoes. I hear they have a plan to help people out when this problem messes up their ride home with a pickup pizza.
Oh, it’s not done to fix or improve things. It’s done because the paving contractor is the brother in law of the campaign manager of the State Assemblyman.
Illinois: we may not have invented corruption, but we perfected it!
/Illinois Board of Tourism
Have you never been on 695?
Mueller is really showing that laserlike focus on those dastardly Russians now!
He really is running a circus. No wonder the judge is getting low on patience.
Hell, might as well call in Heidi Fleiss at this point.
Mary Magdalene.
I’m sure Trump had something to do with corrupting her and then colluded with Putin to try and stop Jesus.
He gave Tony Podesta immunity.
I had to let that sink in for a while. Any other Democrats out there who need legal cover? Why not Huma and Hillary Herself? They might have something to say in exchange for immunity.
that’s the precise moment Trump should’ve said nope, yer fired.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/23/mueller-witnesses-immunity-735966
^these guys are saying Podesta not on Mueller’s list. maybe he “leaked” that name to see how it would play out. incredibly self-aware regarding his tone deafness.
Is it just my phone or did Mojeaux chaged puctures just now?
She did change it.
It is not your phone. Blame Q. He mentioned Halloween.
Did someone say Halloween?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vdufDtiYWi4/TpRxl9X6LFI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/I-J-i-J_qM4/s1600/226_PEA_Welcome_Great_Pumpkin.jpg
Oh noes, now you’ve gone and did it, we’re going to get green boobs!
It’s what Russian bots do, it’s a trick! She’ll make you vote for Drumpf!
HA HA HA HA!
My (now) ex went to brunch with friends. I tagged along because I’m an idiot. She starts talking about her cat. Offers to show her friends photos. I groan inwardly thinking Oh, honey, nobody takes pictures of their cats. I was embarrassed for her. Next thing I know her friends are all taking out their phones to show off pictures of their cats. Everyone takes pictures of their cats.
Cat ladies do that shit.
Pussy pics.
The kind that go “meow” or the kind that queef?
Asking for a friend.
Are they mutually exclusive?
+1 Mrs. Slocombe
I NEVER take pictures of my cats! Never!
Doesn’t mater. If you have a cat or a kid, no matter, if you post the pic on Facebook, you can be sure that you have the most interesting cat/kid on the planet and everyone loves you and you’re a great person and the most interesting person in the world. Then out of nowhere, everyone down votes you, and you dindonuthin, and so you become depressed and buy an assault rifle and shoot up the place! They had it coming cause you dindonuthin!
^^^No kidding.
Yes you have a new baby, congratulations. I’m happy for you. However, I do *NOT* need to see 2.5×10^34 pictures of the baby in every conceivable quantum reality including the one in which he emerged from you fully grown with three arms. Your new baby is the most fascinating and wonderful thing in the world to *you*, not to everyone else.
Do you know what hell really is like? It’s a room full of women and a baby.
Unless it’s yours and mama is nowhere to be found!
I’d rather just have a really cute puppy. I can take that back to the pound after I’ve scored some milf.
In my considered opinion, there is no better puppy for panty-dropping than a Newfie. Its the soulful eyes and the fuzzy hair right on top of their head. 60% of the time, it works every time.
Love Newfies!
But this is the ticket.
Seasons dont have anything to do with daylight hours or weather, not directly. Seasons are about planting, growing, harvesting and then starving. Very few westerners have a direct connection to that anymore.
It all started when that one smartass talked us into leaving the trees.
This.
They also are not arbitrary but rather tied to very definite astronomical events, being the moment the sun touches the tropics/crosses the equator
Those astronomical events were signals. Time to plant. Time to harvest.
Here I plant in late Jan to first week in March. I have to get the roots in the dirt or seed on the ground while it is cold enough for them to stay asleep. They need to stay that way and get enough rain for the dirt to settle so there is no air around them and the bugs are still asleep.
Spring shows up and they are prepared and off to the races.
Trees I have planted in the summer or late spring, when they live, are perpetually behind the ones planted at the proper time. They never grow as fast or as large. They dont make as much fruit or nut. I dont know why just that they do. It is like they are crippled for life.
Cutting season is late fall. The process of harvesting shakes all of the mature seed off of the tree making replanting easier and the wood has less sap in it so it dries easier.
Ask any farmer. Our notion of season is centered around the life of plants.
When I woke up this morning, the first thing my gf said to me was “I don’t know whose underwear you’re wearing, but I woke up wearing yours.” I checked and was in my own undies, but not the ones I had been wearing last night. I don’t even remember the sex, but I’m claiming this as my #metoo moment.
Rohypnol’s a helluva drug.
Huh. That is an odd story. That has never happened to me. I have also never helped the wife change the bedsheets and discovered a pair of her panties hidden in the sheets somewhere and asked “Hey, what are those doing there?”
*refusing to make eye contact*
It’s an old story.
Wife: I can’t find my panties, what did you do with them?
Me? It was the squirrels. I can’t find mine either.
My wife wears my t shirts, pajama pants, or boxers all the time and I never have a sour word to say about it.
She catches me wearing her panties one time and all the sudden I’m the one with a problem.
LOL
Yeah, I am with her man…
At least they’re hers.
Please do not post photos, we believe you!
Winter starts in Jan, ends in May, then Spring til about Mid June.
Summer starts about then and goes til Oct 1st, then Fire season starts til about March
Interesting. Air conditioning/heaters are your plants. Your seasons are solely about temperature.
These two towns actually sued each other over usage of the term “Icebox of the Nation.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser,_Colorado#Climate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Falls,_Minnesota#Climate
And of interest to Suthen:
“Fraser, with an annual mean temperature of 32.5 °F (0.3 °C) (or 34.8 °F (1.6 °C) based on another station in town) is the coldest incorporated town in the lower 48 states. It also has the shortest growing season with an average of only 4 to 7 days”
the shortest growing season with an average of only 4 to 7 days
Days? So I guess nothing lives there?
Very slow growing, cold tolerant conifers and some scrubby buffalo grass. That’s about it.
Coming soon to the world from Africa or South America: ‘No you’re not! We’re the shithole of the world!’.
I guess that due to this news, that makes this appropriate.
Did they not think to visit Phoenix?
O.T.: Holy shit.
https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1027317330060034048
A tatted up Latino shoots at black people, and the first thing you think is “white supremacist”?
Holy shit, indeed.
I know that Lefty autophagy is inevitable and has been going on for a while, but this, along with Zimmerman, seem to signify a change in tone. It used to be that only Asians and Jooz were conditional POC; blacks and Hispanics were untouchable. Have Hispanics become conditional POC too now?
Hispanic men, yes.
Note this is (a) brown-on-black, followed by (b) black-on-brown. Blacks and Hispanics have a long and honorable tradition of despising each other.
HenriettaSnacks has you covered…
Also, would.
Because “Hispanic” is not a race.
Unless you say something negative about Hispanics. Then you’re a racist.
Oh man, National Council of La Rasa is gonna be SO pissed at her!
White Hispanics, yeah, but not black Hispanics like, say, Roberto Clemente
If they stick with their identity politics and things continue to go as they are now, it will not be good for them. Considering that a solid majority of both native-born and foreign-born Hispanics consider themselves white, continued alienation of white voters would spell doom.
Then again we could all drop identity politics completely, start judging people as individuals and vote on principle.
I crack myself up sometimes.
Just kind of an interesting related note, when we collect Demographics for clinical studies, Ethnicity (just Hispanic or not) is considered separate from Race (Black/White/Asian/Pacific Islander/etc) by the FDA.
So while I don’t really understand it, Hispanics are usually considered white, at least according to recent FDA guidelines. Never mind the avalanche of Hispanic-focused population studies that exclude non-Hispanic whites because the populations can have different health risks. I imagine this is wokeness spillover into the FDA, same as the official guidance they released on the use of the terms sex vs gender, but just shows the fluidity of group labels.
I’ve always understood “Hispanic” to be a sort of rhetorical wild card meaning brown when there’s good news to report and white when there’s bad news.
US Census treats it the same way. They didn’t even add the “Hispanic” category until 1970 when identity politics started really getting ramped up. Up until that point, people self-identified race by skin color and mestizos typically identified as white. Caribbean Hispanics of African descent would obviously identify as black. In fact, there are isolated populations of blacks in Honduras that speak Pidgin English (“Miskito”) and not Spanish. How are we supposed to categorize them?
It’s just manufactured bullshit to keep up the divide and conquer identity politics train going. Why do you think they keep adding more and more categories to LGBTQIA+++++? Gotta pit the groups against each other rather than treating people as individuals.
My mother is convinced my family is part black because she took a 23andme test and it showed some Ethiopian ancestry 40,000 years ago. I’ve tried explaining that we’re not considered black, but this led to me pondering how do you actually quantify something like that. Which just shows how ridiculous it is to actually tie race or ethnicity to anything of substance beyond waving a flag at a parade.
Race is useful for nothing other than a descriptor, just like eye or hair color.
Unless of course if you are applying to college
Why did I read the replies?
Because you didn’t have a fork handy to jab into your eyeballs?
You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.
So he was deemed white because he shot at people? Sorry, but that guy looks very native American, not European. He’s white if he shoots at people, but brown if he votes democrat. I get it.
“He’s white if he shoots at people”
Only if he shoots at black people.
I think he’s a white supremacist because he shot at black people.
I can’t think of any other reason why Tariq would hang that on him.
Hipanic?White?Black?
This can get really touchy.
I remember on a Boston sports talk radio the subject of “why don’t blacks play baseball anymore?” came up.
Oh boy! Every sub group/nationality of hispanic had different and definite views about what they and everyone else was.
Someone would say “what about soandso, he’s black?” Followed by “Who you callin’ black?” It was both funny and sad.
And then there is Sammy Sosa
Chicago has two seasons: Winter and Murder.
Rough.
+1 Sister City in Murder with Balmer
OT: Drunk people eat junk food.
https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-how-a-night-of-drinking-affects-your-food-choices
Boy am I glad we had a taxpayer funded study to figure this one out.
I thought this was Taco Bell’s entire business plan?
Just be careful when you leave…
Hey RBS, congrats on the new addition!
Thanks!
The follow-up study will include a thorough investigation into the baffling mystery of bars serving complimentary peanuts and pretzels.
Kentucky Fried Christ, is that article ever so stupid.
It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that alcohol accelerates dehydration for which the body compensates by craving sodium to replenish electrolytes; that would simply be too obvious. Better cook up another grant funded study to get to the bottom of this.
The dummies neglected to tie in climate change.
I’m sorry, but in what world is taco and pizza not primarily grains and milk and dairy product? Oh yeah, sorry, its got vegetables on it too.
Pineapple isn’t a veggie.
No, but I’m pretty sure ham is.
in what world is taco and pizza not primarily grains and milk and dairy product?
In my world, they are grains, dairy product, and meat. With vegetable flavorings.
I said primarily and I chose my words very specifically.
Milk?
/just busting balls
As I read it, three modifiers conjoined with thee AND operators and no coma mean that it has to be parsed at two categories, the first category being “grains” and the second category being “milk and diary,” the same way that “cruel and unusual” is a single category (which is why its AOK to have cruel but in-common-usage-at the time punishments.) As a gut-check, it appears that “milk and dairy” was in common usage after about 1920, including the time at which the author of the original statement used the term.
Yeah, because alcohol will drop your blood sugar level like a lead brick. After drinking a lot I have often found myself having to eat way too many carbs just to get awake and coherent.
Just finished 12 miles in this beurre blanc. I deserve a beer. And this joint.
Two tweets ten years apart neatly bookends Twitter.
I’m pretty sure that’s the best thing I’ll read all week.
Oh, that’s really good.
So YOU’RE the one enabling the substance abuse!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/08/homeless-people-wearing-barcodes-new-project-increase-donations/
(How many will also become tax scofflaws?)
Speaking of Mueller and his fishing expedition …
*cue “three hour tour” refrain*
At 4:15 this morning or thereabouts, during my sleep mode malfunction, I heard some guy on Bloomberg News braying happily about how Mueller is just killin’ it in the Manafort trial. He’s winning that case. Winning it! Pack your bags, Trumputin. Your goose is cooked.
How hard must it be to not be able to cope with the real world and need to create these fantasies where the left is taking down orangeman finally for not letting Hillary win?
LOOKATMELOOKATMELOOKATMEEEEEEEEE!
So, Trump is a racist and hates her in particular so his strategy is to employ her (periodically)?
They seem to be frenemies.
That can only mean they’re secret lovers.
Romance novel waiting to be written.
Not by me.
I was just trying to give you some new material.
I appreciate that. My well is pretty dry.
Trump and Omarosa makes it even more dry.
A Mojeax/Sugar Free collaboration?
It occurred to me. LOL
Hat & Hair & Apprentice.
Precisely. This supposedly happened before the election, when he was still filming The Apprentice, and she was so horrified and outraged that she…..accepted an offer from him to work for him at the White House.
Totally checks out.
She’s totally not an opportunist.
Surely that is a high crime or misdemeanor, we got him this time boys!
So, who’s got the tapes? Should we ask Tom Arnold, I mean he has the pee tapes, right?
I thought he had the elevator tape?
Him and Michael Cohen had it, but then they got high and forgot where they put it.
Time for some Florida women talk…
At least it’s not privately run.
I scanned that entire article…not even one screencap from Chained Heat.
I am disappoint.
I really cannot see how we’ve come that far since slavery. We throw people in what are basically rape cages, sometimes, often over non-violent offences, like drugs. And we call ourselves civilized. At least prison reform is getting some serious attention now. I can’t for the life of me figure out how the exalted one didn’t even try to fix this in 8 years. It’s almost like he didn’t give a fuck.
Obama’s idea of prison reform was keeping the prison population down by having his DOJ either decline to prosecute connected Democrats, or pass out immunity deals like potato chips to connected Democrats.
Misplaced this on the previous post:
What’s the pic on the main page for this post? Because I want one so hard.
Looks like a boxer to me.
URGH. I meant, what’s the pic on the main page for the post on You’re Doing it Wrong relating to the puzzling and illogical dates for beginning the seasons.
GAAAH!
Yes, it’s a boxer. Great dogs, especially with kids.
Can confirm, as a former kid who grew up with one. A white boxer with a half-dollar sized tan spot behind his right ear named Caesar.