Hourly Worker Abuse

In the USA, we seem to have this obsession with making excess demands of hourly workers. Cashiers in grocery stores aren't allowed to sit. In many workplaces, you see a sign on the wall saying, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean". Even if there's nothing that needs to be done, the hourly wage earner is expected to keep himself busy until the designated break period, or dismissal.

In other countries, workers are protected from such abuse by labor laws. Cashiers are able to sit, workers are able to take a break if there's nothing that actually needs to be done.

Why in the USA, do we deride worker protection laws as socialism? Why is it OK for employers to abuse the workers in this fashion?

Perhaps it's time for hourly workers to unionize and demand an end to the abuse.

Movies

I think movies thrive or suffer depending on the mindset of who made them. Movies that are created to tell a story thrive, while those that are created only to make money suffer.

When James Cameron created the two canon Terminator movies, he did so to tell a story from an image he saw in a fever dream. T3 and beyond were created by Hollywood to milk a profit from the first two.

When Peter Jackson created the original LOTR trilogy, you could tell how much love he had for it by all the work, detail, and heart that went into each movie. The Hobbit trilogy had great special effects, to be sure, but lacked all the heart the first set had had. Jackson simply made it to milk the cash cow of the original. 

The Rurouni Kenshin trilogy had so much love and thought put into it that it made my heart ache. I could tell that Otomo loved what he was doing and really wanted to breathe life into Kenshin. My only hope is that his heart is still in it with the new Jinchuu Arc movies. 

Wuhan Light Show?

Wuhan Celebrates the Lifting of Travel Restrictions With Light Show

All it takes is one infected person returning to China to start a new cycle of this thing. I think restrictions should stay in place until either a cure or a vaccine are developed and everyone who needs them gets them. Let's please put humanity before economy just for once!

Digitus Impudicus

Seems like the single finger salute has been with us since before there was civilization. Aristophanes wrote about it in his play, The Clouds. The Ancient Romans called the middle finger digitus impudicus (indecent finger). Seems like since Man has had the capacity for symbolic thought, people have been flipping each other the Bird.

Sonnet 18

https://twitter.com/SirPatStew/status/1247312842321248257?s=20

Stonehenge and Woodhenge

Stonehenge

Wouldn't it be cool if we could restore Stonehenge to its ancient glory, rebuild Woodhenge, then recreate the winter and summer solstice pilgrimages and ceremonies of the Neolithic Britons?

Space Engine

Space Engine

If I had to recommend any video game, or simulator, it would be Space Engine 0.99 (available on Steam). This thing is good for hours of fun, searching for galaxies, stars, planets, etc. Unlike other sims I've used, you can actually land on the planets and walk around on their surfaces.

It's not perfect. There are no weather effects on the planets, nor does the lava from the volcanoes move, but those are just minor quibbles.

Overall, this sim's a beast!

English Workers in 1901

Watching these videos is so eerie. I've seen posts describing the people in them as ghosts, and that does feel quite accurate. They're no longer living, yet we see them moving. Our grandparents weren't even born yet when this was made, yet we can see them, going about their daily lives. It's almost like peering through the veil of time into a bygone era.

Coronavirus

One thing I'm really hoping will come of all this is a fundamental shift in our society away from cutthroat capitalism more toward social democracy. Maybe we'll all just wake up and see that either a universal income, or universal healthcare, are a necessary safety net for us to maintain a modern lifestyle.

Money Talks

Those who have the most money speak with the loudest voice. Those who have the least speak in barely a whisper.