Public Salary Information is an Equalizer
The NYT column has a column framing this as a negative, about how the publicizing of salary info hurts "super stars" and it dampens the ability to make exceptions for employees viewed as exceptional. Overall, the article shares a few tidbits but largely seemed to fail to make a case against publicizing salary information.
In the final paragraphs, they talk about how some managers might turn to other ways to compensate employees besides salary to sidestep the public information, which to me just seems like corner shooting and areas not adequately covered by legislation. So, then fix the laws or company policies.
However, it is forced to repeatedly note that publicizing this information helps women and minorities which is the reason for this legislation. So, I don't know the goal of this article other than to try and make something unremarkable about the new legislation in California and Washington somehow more controversial.
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Medieval technology and colonial America
I was doing some reading and research and found this interesting in-depth piece which discusses the comparative technology of the middle ages and colonial America.
What have colonial America and medieval Europe in common? More than is popularly believed. Early America was a cultural and technological extension of the Middle Ages. Most of the farming and metalworking methods used in colonial America were from the scientific revolution that had taken place in the twelfth century. Medieval Europeans had been forced to new inventions, because the farming and metallurgical techniques practiced in the Roman Empire were unsuited for Europe north of the Alps. By the year 1000, there were new methods to grow crops, process food, and make metal. The last refinements came about during the period 1100-1200, at the same time that the population began to grow rapidly, traditional energy sources (wood) were depleted, and there was a demand for a better standard of living. At that time, North America was a part of medieval Europe. Viking settlements along the Atlantic coast of North America, made by colonists from Greenland, brought medieval technology to the Americas.
Moving ahead six centuries, there were later, and more successful, colonies. Once again, colonial society in North America was an extension of medieval European culture and technology. As immigrants adapted familiar forms and industries to the realities of life in a new land, they faced problems that had been addressed in the Middle Ages: land reclamation, transportation, and food supply. Their solutions involved the two crucial industries of food processing and metalworking or, more simply, the mill and the forge. As had been true in medieval Europe, Early Americans had to find sources of energy to power their machines, and this dictated how they lived. How successful they were depended on an idea: freedom. Individual self-reliance and the freedom to choose their own course of life was important for the ability to adapt to new conditions and to develop beyond earlier machines. Colonial adaptation of this technology flourished in those parts of the new world where individual freedom and self-determination were encouraged.
Author of popular Twitteriffic client blogs about the ignominous end thanks to Musk
Well, it happened.
We knew it was coming.
A prick pulled the plug. And what bothers me most about it is how Space Karen did it.
What bothers me about Twitterrific’s final day is that it was not dignified. There was no advance notice for its creators, customers just got a weird error, and no one is explaining what’s going on. We had no chance to thank customers who have been with us for over a decade. Instead, it’s just another scene in their ongoing shit show.
But I guess that’s what you should expect from a shitty person.
Toxicity driven by the need for likes
So there was a horrific plane crash in Nepal killing dozens of people. Worse, one of the passengers streamed the final moments of the flight on Facebook live. Worse worse, the goblins driven by upvotes on Reddit are reposting it in countless subreddits so people can watch this horrific incident over and over.
This is some dark shit. Who gets pleasure from this video? It's horror porn capitalizing on this tragedy for the nonsensical drive for upvotes. Just awful everything.
Cuba and the Internet, Geopolitics at work
An interesting article diving into the ALBA-1 cable which finally allowed Cuba direct Internet access and for them to stop relying solely on geostationary satellites for national access.
I find this image particularly fascinating to show just how isolated Cuba is when there is a literal cable ring around it. One which they are still be denied access to due to the isolation they are held to.
$26 TRILLION of new wealth created since start of pandemic went to richest 1% Oxfam report reveals
But yes, tell us how taxing the rich will destroy the world.
Automated Archives for January, 15th 2023