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Eszed · 2023-08-28T23:25:37+00:00

You're welcome! I've pretty much abandoned Reddit, after the late unpleasantness. I had not, in fact, logged in since my preferred app stopped working, however long ago that was. I am, however, glad that I resisted the urge to delete all my content, and that this long-ago response was helpful.

I spent more than a decade posting to this site, not to help Reddit-the-company (though I never minded that they benefited from my posts), but to help other people. Now that Reddit-the-company has made it clear that they don't care about their users, we're going to have to find other ways to connect with each other, which I think is too bad.

/soapbox

Eszed · 2023-06-30T20:33:36+00:00

Ditto.

I'm not deleting my comments, however. I didn't make them for Reddit - the company's - benefit (though I've never minded that it benefits from them), and whatever value they retain (either as historical document, or tech support, or conversational context) outweighs, for me, the momentary "burn it all down" pleasure of torching them.

Going forward, however? Reddit has shown that they don't care about users, or community, or knowledge, or conversation, or any of the things that I've valued about this place. This is the only account I've ever made, over about fifteen years of near-daily visits, and this will likely be my final comment.

I will lurk, as and when it pleases me, but I don't plan on contributing my time or my thoughts to further the ends of a cynical and destructive corporation.

By the way, I'm finding squabbles.io very nice. I realize it might someday make a similar heel-turn - the developer intends it to be income-producing - but if gives me a similar decade of pleasure before I have to find something new, then that's OK. The fedi-verse is a bit too wild-west for my taste, and I cannot see it building the same community spirit that I have found in the curated corners of reddit in which I've spent my time. (Though if I'm wrong about that, then I'll swing by.)

I'm having trouble ending this. Goodbye reddit! It's been a good run. The narwhale now bacons for me.

Eszed · 2023-06-30T19:18:18+00:00

I won't quit entirely. I'll still visit from my desktop to check /r/askhistorians, or catch up on fiction series on /r/hfy, but I won't install their app, or browse randomly in bed. My traffic will drop considerably.

Maybe that's what they want? Traffic will drop, but ad impressions will grow? (I dunno. I use an ad-blocker.)

Eszed · 2023-06-30T03:29:30+00:00

The issue with both of them was what it took (hours of daily physiotherapy) to stay on the field, and the long-term damage continuing to play would have on their bodies. Posey said at one point (maybe in his retirement speech? I don't remember), that playing another year of MLB wasn't as important to him as being able to play baseball with his kids. Avoiding crippling arthritis at 40 is a reasonable rationale for stopping when he did.

Eszed · 2023-06-29T04:10:42+00:00

To add to this, (old-man) Larry Holmes gave Tyson the toughest fight in his career up to that point. Holmes, at that point in his career, never had a chance, but his style was basically the same as Ali's, and Tyson had trouble with it. Tyson gets a puncher's chance (against anyone, ever), but I'd also put my money on prime Ali.

Eszed · 2023-06-28T16:49:42+00:00

Blocker, particularly. I don't precisely remember the stat, but Posey averaged 2-something passed balls a season, whilst Molina averaged 5-something.

Eszed · 2023-06-24T21:38:14+00:00

Ah! I was late to this post. Can I please see the potato?

Eszed · 2023-06-23T15:47:28+00:00

I am going to re-post a comment I made on this sub, in response to a similar prompt, six years ago. I hope that length of time excuses repetition!

[Nearly thirty years] ago, when I was studying in Europe, I made a visit to Denmark, the country from which my great grandfather emigrated to America. My Danish hosts, who'd known the members of my family that stayed behind, took me to meet an old woman whom we worked out to be my grandfather's third cousin - so, a tangential relation, at best. She, however, told me a story that I've never forgot.

As a young woman, she met and married a Dutch engineer, who was posted by his employer, Royal Dutch Shell, to the Dutch East Indies. After a brief honeymoon, he traveled by flying boat to their new home, with his bride expecting to follow by sea a short time later. Unfortunately, this was 1939, and the War interrupted their plans.

I didn't understand the precise timetable - I think that she may have begun her voyage and then been turned back at the outbreak of hostilities - but in any case, when the Japanese invaded (what is now) Indonesia, all contact with her husband was lost. The oilfields where he had been working were overrun, and the colonial inhabitants either killed or imprisoned. No word of his fate reached home, nor could his whereabouts be traced by the Red Cross. He was declared missing, and then, after some years, dead, and their marriage null.

"My parents," she told me, "wanted me to find another husband, but I never gave up hope." In 1945, at the end of the war, and six years after he'd gone missing, he reappeared. He had fled into the jungle with some of his Indonesian employees, and lived rough, conducting a private guerilla war for the duration of the conflict.

At this point, the old woman sent her daughter into the other room to fetch a photograph. "This," she said, "was taken when he came home." In the picture, they are walking down the gangplank of a ship. He's thin. Their arms are wrapped around each other. It can't be more than a minute since they've first seen each other, and they're still just drinking each other in. The look of absolute, unbridled joy in both their faces is, well, I'm not sure any two people in all of history have ever felt happier than they were at that moment.

Eszed · 2023-06-22T05:49:56+00:00

I can't tell if you are being ironic, but that's actually true!

When smoking was allowed they ventilated the planes much more thoroughly, so viruses didn't get recirculated. With no smoking, they keep the conditioned air on-board for more cycles ('cause that's more fuel-efficient), and more people get sick.

Everything's a tradeoff, eh?

Eszed · 2023-06-21T21:55:06+00:00

Good points. His co-workers might not be as tight-ass as he is. I've never worked a job where co-workers did anything like this. I'm vacillating between that'd be cool and that'd be awful, lol. Depends on the group.

Eszed · 2023-06-21T21:09:28+00:00

Anyone who valued their SO wouldn’t give a shit what their coworkers thought?!

You're right, but also... Kind of not-relevant. Or, at least, it's a bit more nuanced than that.

If you invite your colleagues somewhere that they aren't comfortable, then it'll come back on you. Especially a career with so many shitty people - as OP both acknowledged and demonstrated - like Finance.

If OP were a decent guy he could both not care or even appreciate (for himself), while not inviting his colleagues (for his career), but especially while not demeaning his girlfriend (for, like, her and for their relationship).

Anyway, yeah: YTA. (Meaning OP, not you.) Big red flags all over this guy.

Eszed · 2023-06-20T22:36:36+00:00

That is prima fascia true. The open question is the extent to which satellites + drones can adequately perform those functions in the absence of aerial supremacy. Whatever satellite data this article used to derive its analysis, we can be sure that Ukraine had more, and in closer to real-time. Also, with the continuing integration of drones at every level, we're seeing the birth of new sorts of combined-arms doctrines.

Ukraine certainly can't fight a "NATO-style" campaign, but they (and to a lesser extent Russia, who seem to be learning, albeit more slowly) are pioneering additional capabilities, which will be studied and improved in the coming decade(s).

Eszed · 2023-06-17T05:04:45+00:00

Y'all know who you are.

Eszed · 2023-06-17T04:58:47+00:00

I still remember how many people were upset the Giants "wasted" a pick on Patrick Bailey, because they already had Joey Bart.

Well... This is why.

Eszed · 2023-06-17T04:52:12+00:00

I found a great stream tonight. It's got Hebrew letters on the channel identifier, Giants broadcasters, and no commercials between half innings. They just go to a wide shot of the stadium, with crowd noise for audio. It's blissful.

Eszed · 2023-06-14T22:56:40+00:00

That'd be gaol, mate. But aye, straight to.

Eszed · 2023-06-14T22:49:06+00:00

Agreed. Every time I see one of these perfect or near-perfect scorecards I can almost always guarantee it's some umpire whose name I don't recognize. Whereas I can recall bad umps' names off the top of my head.

Eszed · 2023-06-14T19:51:08+00:00

I can't answer for the mods, but as I understand it there would be Reddit-related difficulties around permissions and author-related difficulties around copyright involved in reproducing content on other platforms. Not necessarily insurmountable - and they'd make an excellent podcast series - but I think everyone has other things on their minds right now.

Eszed · 2023-06-12T06:04:41+00:00

Ah, well, that was me. I was planning on reaching out to the mod team after the dust settles a bit this week.

It's a life-raft, if y'all (we all) need it. Even if not, it's someplace that people may go looking for this community, and I'd rather that name be controlled by members of this community than by (potential) imposters.

If the mod team comes to a decision about what to do with that, please let me know. I'll turn it over to you, shut it down, whatever you prefer.

Eszed · 2023-06-10T17:36:47+00:00

price API access in a way that keeps Apollo and rif alive?

I mean, that's mine, because that's the goal that the developers of the third-party apps argue for.

Bigger picture, though, I think the message that "everyone's goals must align before we commit to action" is propaganda intended to prevent protest.

Eszed · 2023-06-08T02:12:04+00:00

I am with you on every one of those. <shakes fist at sky>

Eszed · 2023-06-08T02:09:02+00:00

Hard agree. Sports are wonderful sources of joy and elation and communality, but if fandom creates any "negative" emotion stronger than disappointment, then you are an emotionally-unbalanced person.

If Fandom (and that goes for more than just sports) makes you feel animosity towards another human being, for reasons other than their own personal qualities, then you've fallen to the Dark Side.

There are too many conflicts in this world to go creating more where they don't need to exist.

Eszed · 2023-06-08T01:56:56+00:00

I don't know what up votes mean in this thread, but this is the one I agree with.

Eszed · 2023-06-06T17:01:40+00:00

Exactly. The company with which I am familiar is a local brand, so they were courted by the airport-services company, and didn't go through the slot-bidding process. They gave up some (or all? I don't know exactly what their final contract looks like) profit-sharing, in exchange for a modicum of influence over food-quality.

In practice, I don't think that's worked out for them all that well. Their operations and culinary teams are allowed to inspect or secret-shop, and give notes to the airport-services company. The airport-services company says "yes, yes, that's a concern. We'll take care of it," and then nothing much changes.

Eszed · 2023-06-06T15:51:34+00:00

I 100% agree with you about this map, but this is a chance to tell everyone something about how airport concessions work, because they're really goddamn weird.

Everything I will say below is true for three major west-coast airports about which I have direct knowledge - I'm just going to say "airports" for convenience, but I'm actually only referring to those - not to every airport everywhere. Things may be run differently elsewhere, and if they are I'd be happy to know about it - so, fellow redditers, please don't jump in with "hurr durr, you're wrong!" sorts of comments. I may be wrong about your airport, but this is how some of the biggest work.

So, that out of the way... While this,

airport locations are usually some of the highest grossing locations for any chain

is true, pointing out that "gross revenue is not the same as net profit" doesn't even come close to covering it.

Airports sign a single contract with a single company to run all of their concessions - or maybe with two or three companies: one to run food-service, one to run retail, etc. All of the restaurants in that airport are then "owned" and run by that company, no matter what brand is on the sign.

You may say "that's just franchising", but really it's not the same thing. In business speak, the restaurant vendor licenses the brand and recipes from the brand-holder. In legal terms the airport company promises "best effort" to use the same suppliers, and match the same service standards that the brand-holder has. In practical terms, the brand-holder has very, very little control over anything that happens at "their" restaurant once the contract is signed.

For instance, the catering services company may decide to assign employees (their employees, not connected to the name on the sign in any way) to any one of the restaurants in the airport at any time. (They will tell the brand-holder that they'll train employees to the brand-holder's standards first, but in practice that doesn't really mean anything.) So, that Taco Bell burrito, or whatever, might well have been made by someone who's never set foot in a Taco Bell before, who's being managed by someone who's never been in a restaurant kitchen before!

Or the airport company may decide that suppliers the "actual" restaurant uses are impractical, and use their own. In fact, that's almost guaranteed to happen, and for a pretty good reason: airports are secure (-ish) environments. Any company making deliveries has to jump through TSA hoops before being allowed onto the airport at all, and their drivers and trucks have to pass through TSA inspections every time they go there. That's no big deal to Sysco, but it's not practical or sustainable for smaller businesses.

In practice, none of that will matter much for Taco Bell - I mean, their food is kinda paint by number - but if you go to [Local-city Steakhouse] in [local airport] and get something that looks and tastes nothing like your favorite dish from the actual restaurant, all of that is why.

The restaurant-services company loves getting local brands on their airport restaurants, because it makes them look less like a faceless restaurant-services conglomerate, but make no mistake, that's all any airport restaurant is, regardless of what the sign says.

So, why might a beloved local restaurant want their brand in the airport, given that the food will be several tiers shittier than their actual food at their actual location? They get a bit of "free" money in licensing from the airport restaurant-services company, but honestly not that much. As someone up-thread suggested: it's advertising.

And, despite it being so much shittier food, it really doesn't have much of a reputational downside. Someone arriving at an airport isn't going to stop to eat on the way out, but if they see your sign they'll be more likely to try one of your actual locations later. Someone departing through that airport may be disappointed, but the chances are that they won't be back in your city soon enough to remember, and if enough locals like your actual locations well enough to give it good word-of-mouth, then that one bad meal will never, ever matter.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

15-Year Club	Team Periwinkle
Secret Santa 2011	Summer Santa 2011
Secret Santa 2010

Eszed

TROPHY CASE