Life After BA and Random Stuff

Some of you know that I will be pursuing an MA in sociology in the fall.  I guess either I will close down the blog, or rename it or something.  No matter.

Typically I go to Baltimore when school's out, but with the border closed and Covid still a thing, I don't know what summer will be like.  So I decided to sign up for a random course for fun.  It's online anyway, so even if I go back to Baltimore, I can continue with it.

It's Oceanography.

You may wonder why on earth I am doing that.  Well, a picture paints a thousand words, as they say.

With my luck, instead of a mermaid, I might find these folks

 

 

Anyway, course starts May some time.  So we shall see.

 

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A somewhat different note.  On my daily walks I notice that most people swing their arms when they walk, especially if they are going at a good pace.  Most, I believe, swing their arms up and down.  You know, like they do when soldiers march?  But I see some people swing their arms sideways.  I mean, left to right instead of up and down.  Their arms are in front of them, and they go left and right.  Very interesting.  Not sure why or if it's even a thing.  I also notice that certain types of people are more likely to do that.  But in these days of political correctness, I shall not mention what type I am referring to.  If you observe the same, drop me a note.  Maybe I am just imagining things. Or maybe not.

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So what's with this Anti-Asian hate attacks taking place, often against lone old ladies or old guys.  Seriously.  Did you read about that 76-year old woman who was punched in the face in San Francisco?  She ended up beating the attacker unconscious.  The guy had to be carted off by stretcher when the cops came.  Good for her.  But seriously, couldn't these people pick on someone their own size and age if they are so fucking brave?  Anyway, in case you miss the story, here's the link.

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56453806

You can even see the attacker being carted off on a stretcher.  Fucking shithead.

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To my faithful readers -- by that I mean all three of you -- stay safe, stay happy.  And chill!

On the perpetual myth of private enterprise efficiency

Most of us grew up in an era of Neoliberalism.  Part and parcel of this hegemonic ideology is of course that private enterprise is better for society, that it's more efficient, and make people more productive and the economy more robust.

And all that is a load of bovine excrement.

What private enterprise excels in is to make their senior executives rich.  Period.  Everyone else can go fuck themselves.  And that includes so-called shareholders.  Let me elaborate.

Executive compensation.  I will not recite all the stats about the multiples that senior execs of large corporations make versus what an average worker makes.  What's the point?  Are we any more sanguine if the multiple were 200 instead of 500?  Hell no.  If I am selling shoes at minimum wage, and less than full time at that, it really matters not to me if some senior head honcho makes $10 million or $40 million.  I am fucked.  Basically.  With no benefits to boot.

And of course when senior execs get the can, as they sometimes do, they walk away with tens of million in severance.  If you and I get canned, we walk away with... Oh wait, nothing.  Such is life.  So very fucking Charles Dickens.  Which also tells us that nothing much has changed in the last 150 years, by the way.

As for efficiency, sure, Amazon gets you your Made in China shit crap gadget in a day.  Hurrah.  Hey, guess what?  They do that how?  Making sure workers need to work more and more just to buy bread.  Ever wonder why the Roman navy ships were fast?  Fucking slaves rowed them, no?  And if they slacked off, they got whipped to death.  Nothing has changed in two thousand years either.  Just recently an Amazon warehouse outside Toronto was ordered to shut down.  Why?  Because there were hundreds of cases of Covid detected.  And how did that happen, you think?  Because Amazon cares so much about the welfare of their workers?  Right.  And if you believe that, I have some swamp land in Florida that would be perfect for your dream vacation home.

Efficiency, eh?  Hospitals in the US are privatized.  How's that coming?  Once upon a time my wife had to go in for a surgery.  They actually marked the WRONG SIDE of her body for the operation.  Lucky she was awake and told them so.  Are you fucking kidding me?  Are you happy with airlines who somehow manage to lose your bags all the time despite all this tracking technology?  How about Ford's (another) recall of hundreds of thousands of vehicles of wait, what, LEAKY airbags and tires?  All made by private enterprise.  Are you quite happy with all the produce recalls because of this and that bacterial infection?  All private enterprise as well.  How about car rental companies?  We must love them, eh?

I won't bore you with all these examples.  Let's just say so-called efficiency isn't all that's efficient or effective.  What it's good at is to enrich the senior execs.  That's all.

But hey, what about shareholders?  The OWNERS of the corporation?  If you believe that as a shareholder you are a part owner, you should get your head examined.  Say you owned a share of Amazon.  Try going to their headoffice and take a brick from the building.  Tell them you are a owner and see how far that gets you.

The stock market is no more than a fucking casino.  You are placing a bet.  You get lucky, and you may win some.  You get unlucky and you are screwed.  You really think market fundamentals have anything to do with market performance?  You really believe EPS drives stock prices?  Seriously?  Read the news instead of your textbook.  Get real.  It's a setup, and you're a tosser if you think it's actually a free and efficient market.  The efficient market hypothesis?  Haha, right.

Folks, we have been brainwashed by the neoliberalism ideology, and sold down the river by this revolting propaganda about the efficiencies of private enterprise.  No, I am not against private enterprise, but I don't think it's the cure-all it's pretending to be.  Examine the facts and your beliefs.  Don't let ideology (of any persuasion) control your intelligence.  Don't be sold snake oil.

Triumph of the Scientific Method -- Or, Don't Drink Water

I know, I know, for many of us, the last time we took a science course was ages ago back when we were in high school.  And knowing how high school curricula have been watered down over the years, some only ever had the one course in science and it took place while one was playing with (and smelling) glue.  But here's a tribute to the scientific method, which informs everything we do.  Or at least it should.

Remember that idiotic thing called BRICS? Yeah, that one.  As some of you know, that whole concept was devised by some guy sitting in an office (not a researcher by any stretch of imagination) playing with himself.  By now we all know (or should) how dumb that whole thing was.  But that's not the focus of this post.  It serves, however, as a useful illustration of what happens when the scientific method is not consulted.

Things we take for granted are often things that we just repeat enough times to ourselves.  Maybe we read about it a lot, see it in print or the internet.  Give it enough exposure, voila we start believing its veracity.  Yup, that's how those fucking advertisers screw consumers, yeah?  I mean, why do we think we need a car with 500 hps?  Because we were told so!

Ever heard the adage that people have different learning styles, that some are visual and some are verbal?

Read this article then.  https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-myth-of-learning-styles/557687/  (you can click on the link and it takes you there)

The guy who came up with the idea was a school inspector.  He thought people had different learning styles, and came up with a scale to measure it.  Before long, because it sounds so plausible, people started believing it, and school counselors tell kids they have this style and that style.  Sorta like that other stupid piece of shit calls Myers Briggs thing that is still being sold.  I even know a professor who has made it his THING to do Myers Briggs.  Snake oil.  Anyway...

Well, back to learning styles.  If you have read the article, you'd realize that some people have decided (at long last) to actually TEST the fucker.  Guess what.  In a nutshell:  It ain't true.  The scientific method says:  Take two samples that are the same in every respect.  Give one the treatment, and the other one no treatment.  What is the different in outcome between the two.  Remember that?

The upshot of the scientific tests that are done:  people who are supposed to be visual learners perform no better than those who are not, when given lessons visually.  I am paraphrasing here, but you know what I mean.

Otherwise, don't drink water, because it's the most poisonous thing on earth.  Everyone, but EVERYONE, who drinks water dies.  Period.