My dad died last year, and when I called the funeral home we'd picked out for him to come and pick up his body, the answering service was AI. It had the fake typing and background noises, and when I said dad's name the AI read it back to me for confirmation as "Bob common name, Smith common name". Like WTF? I was pretty much in shock from this and too flummoxed to tell it to fuck off and call a different funeral home. However mad you think this would make you in that situation, trust me it was worse.
My dad went into hospice a year ago and died less than a week later. We keep getting letters from Medicare indicating that his hospice program keeps submitting bills for services to them.
I'm a school bus driver myself. We're unionized (Teamsters) and the district operates its own buses. We make about $34 an hour and get subsidized health insurance and a small pension (after 10 years) as well. A neighboring district privatized their school bus service a few years ago; their drivers make $22 an hour with no benefits at all, their accident rate is 4X ours and the drivers keep getting busted for positive drug tests and drunk driving, and their operating costs (as measured per student/per mile transported) went up about 50%.
It is such an absolute no-brainer to realize that the only advantage of privatizing a service like this is to put money into the pockets of the bus service owners (as well as the officials and school board members that they bribe), and the disadvantages are literally every possible other aspect of the deal. And yet surprise surprise my district is discussing privatization to "save money". It doesn't help that our newly-hired transportation director is a member of the family that owns the largest private bus service in the area.
My dissertation chair wrote a book partially on this subject. He pointed out that the Qamranites (like John the Baptist) preached that everything in the holy land belonged to god and nothing belonged to caesar. In that vein, "render unto caesar that which is caesar's and render unto god that which is god's" translates to "fuck caesar". Personally I have no dog in the fight, but this interpretation is a lot more fun.
My last landlord put a clause in the lease that made me responsible for any sewer line repairs. I was like what the fuck is this? He said it was because tenants tend to flush shit you shouldn't flush and that's why sewer lines need to be replaced. To his credit (sort of) he took that out when I said no way I was signing. He was a member of that species of landlord that just puts whatever into leases because some people will sign anything.
The one thing he did that I liked which surprisingly does not seem common in rental leases was to require me to purchase and maintain renter's insurance. Not because he gave a shit about my stuff being stolen or lost in a fire (which renter's insurance covers) but because it's a source of coverage in the event of damage caused to the place by the renter. It was only like $15 a month so hardly a big deal.
I do believe there is some end game these tech billionaires believe is on the horizon
I think it's just a variant of the standard republican "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". They think financial wealth is something they can just create out of thin air using AI (the way that government creates wealth out of thin air by printing money, allegedly), so as long as they acquire the data centers to fuel it, by whatever means necessary, they'll be all right in the end.
I assume ignoring it for long enough is tantamount (in their eyes) to accepting it. And then they just issue new terms and conditions a few days later.
I'm a school bus driver. We are actually trained to push cars the fuck out of the way if they block us from completing a railroad track crossing. I actually ran into this situation my first day of driving training -- I stopped before the tracks, put my emergency blinkers on and opened my door, and a car behind me passed me (which is illegal) and then got stuck on the tracks behind another car. My trainer was like 'GO! HIT HIM!" but I couldn't do it. He was really pissed at me.
I live near a town that has a trolley that runs down the middle of the main (2-lane) street. Because the street has parking on both sides, cars can't get past the trolley in either direction, so you frequently get the hilarity of multiple cars trying to back out of its way to the nearest intersection. But at rush times the parking spots are all full and you get multiple idiots double-parking, which just jams up the entire town. Like, how fucking stupid do you have to be to park on shiny railroad tracks?
My dad died last year, and when I called the funeral home we'd picked out for him to come and pick up his body, the answering service was AI. It had the fake typing and background noises, and when I said dad's name the AI read it back to me for confirmation as "Bob common name, Smith common name". Like WTF? I was pretty much in shock from this and too flummoxed to tell it to fuck off and call a different funeral home. However mad you think this would make you in that situation, trust me it was worse.
I don't think it's fraud per se. The dates for the services are all from when he was still alive.
My dad went into hospice a year ago and died less than a week later. We keep getting letters from Medicare indicating that his hospice program keeps submitting bills for services to them.
I'm a school bus driver myself. We're unionized (Teamsters) and the district operates its own buses. We make about $34 an hour and get subsidized health insurance and a small pension (after 10 years) as well. A neighboring district privatized their school bus service a few years ago; their drivers make $22 an hour with no benefits at all, their accident rate is 4X ours and the drivers keep getting busted for positive drug tests and drunk driving, and their operating costs (as measured per student/per mile transported) went up about 50%.
It is such an absolute no-brainer to realize that the only advantage of privatizing a service like this is to put money into the pockets of the bus service owners (as well as the officials and school board members that they bribe), and the disadvantages are literally every possible other aspect of the deal. And yet surprise surprise my district is discussing privatization to "save money". It doesn't help that our newly-hired transportation director is a member of the family that owns the largest private bus service in the area.
My dissertation chair wrote a book partially on this subject. He pointed out that the Qamranites (like John the Baptist) preached that everything in the holy land belonged to god and nothing belonged to caesar. In that vein, "render unto caesar that which is caesar's and render unto god that which is god's" translates to "fuck caesar". Personally I have no dog in the fight, but this interpretation is a lot more fun.
Cars.
C'mon now, we haven't overthrown the governments of every country in this continent. I think.
Make A Grave Already
Just in time to get that half of a penny per play.
"Schwanz" is almost as funny as "sportin' a woody".
My last landlord put a clause in the lease that made me responsible for any sewer line repairs. I was like what the fuck is this? He said it was because tenants tend to flush shit you shouldn't flush and that's why sewer lines need to be replaced. To his credit (sort of) he took that out when I said no way I was signing. He was a member of that species of landlord that just puts whatever into leases because some people will sign anything.
The one thing he did that I liked which surprisingly does not seem common in rental leases was to require me to purchase and maintain renter's insurance. Not because he gave a shit about my stuff being stolen or lost in a fire (which renter's insurance covers) but because it's a source of coverage in the event of damage caused to the place by the renter. It was only like $15 a month so hardly a big deal.
Arkansas would like a word with you ...
I think it's just a variant of the standard republican "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". They think financial wealth is something they can just create out of thin air using AI (the way that government creates wealth out of thin air by printing money, allegedly), so as long as they acquire the data centers to fuel it, by whatever means necessary, they'll be all right in the end.
I assume ignoring it for long enough is tantamount (in their eyes) to accepting it. And then they just issue new terms and conditions a few days later.
When you accomplish a victory for humanity and don't even get the royalties.
And those of us with full bladders.
I'm a school bus driver. We are actually trained to push cars the fuck out of the way if they block us from completing a railroad track crossing. I actually ran into this situation my first day of driving training -- I stopped before the tracks, put my emergency blinkers on and opened my door, and a car behind me passed me (which is illegal) and then got stuck on the tracks behind another car. My trainer was like 'GO! HIT HIM!" but I couldn't do it. He was really pissed at me.
I live near a town that has a trolley that runs down the middle of the main (2-lane) street. Because the street has parking on both sides, cars can't get past the trolley in either direction, so you frequently get the hilarity of multiple cars trying to back out of its way to the nearest intersection. But at rush times the parking spots are all full and you get multiple idiots double-parking, which just jams up the entire town. Like, how fucking stupid do you have to be to park on shiny railroad tracks?
You'd be making dollars!
I mean, that's like the core of almost every superhero's story. They almost all wear masks for that very reason.