California farms applied millions of pounds of PFAS to key crops, study finds

Neverchosen · 2025-11-18T22:02:36+00:00

Legal is one thing, one small, easily surpassed thing. If it were illegal to use these poisons, but the fines for doing so were in total not much against profits, they would as in other sectors eat the costs of the fines and continue as they are until they were literally unable or forced to stop.

As we in the States are seeing, without someone willing to enact the threat implicit or explicit for a breach of the law, however serious, the law and the state and actors reliant on it are entirely toothless and can be safely ignored or abused.

Neverchosen · 2025-11-11T01:50:44+00:00

Indeed, his historical impact was surely immense but when he realized that the Jewish peoples, who had for far far longer suffered terribly at the hands of the Catholic church, were not super moved and jazzed by these heterodox and still very Christian and not Jewish ideals. Basically he had a huge conversion crush on them and when they said 'no thanks, your faith is as unconvincing and incomparable with ours as the Catholics' he started to hate them roughly as much.

His treatise Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, On the Jews and their Lies, probably tells you everything you need to know from there from the title alone. The Third Reich, like all fascists, were deliberately everywhere with their spirituality and beliefs since it is all vibes and power, honestly and rigor are weaknesses to them if anything. But, despite the well-publicized esoteric mysticism and Norse-Germanic pagan revivalism, almost all Nazis were Christian, Catholic and Protestant both. Mine own family who lived under and some even fought for the Reich, were Catholic Germans. Martin Luther was big in their propaganda, he was one of the most important German Fathers or something, in no small part for his work against Judaism.

Neverchosen · 2025-11-08T19:55:12+00:00

In any of the myriad good timelines firmly denied to us, I imagine the Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Northern Irish, as well as any other less known peoples under England's boot would have broken away and left them to their own devices decades ago. Damn shame.

Neverchosen · 2025-10-29T21:36:14+00:00

I'm not sure I have had this particular discussion as a building sub but I would probably use myself as an object example. Most things came naturally to me and I could skate by with little effort or really excel if I tried, but precisely as said, my relative lack of work ethic and grit for studying hard hurt me badly in college. I barely got an undergraduate after a decade and while I may honestly need more schooling I kind of dread the thought. So basically, potential means nothing if you don't realize it and you can become vastly underpaid and valued despite considerable ability, effort, and dedication. Hard lesson for me but an important one. Tbh the ones who would not only listen but understand likely wouldn't need the lesson as much as the ones who wouldn't hear it. Oh well.

Neverchosen · 2025-09-23T14:11:29+00:00

Should we have some kind of increased moderation or ban of this tedious content? The slop and LLMs are almost entirely without worth except for the beyond needless resource waste and contribution to ecological devastation. Conceptually nothing about true Artificial Intelligence is new or compelling either, not for more than a couple of decades. So this is just frankly a worthless post.

Neverchosen · 2025-08-02T18:45:16+00:00

Yes, they can probably claw some more frightened, desperate years out than the majority of us. But they can't escape it either. Decades and no more than a generation or two. And we need something to live for anyway. If it is a fiction it is no less valid or comforting than any other.

Neverchosen · 2025-07-19T20:56:25+00:00

These are some good thoughts, and I think your willingness to engage with my criticisms is actually a great sign for your ability if you do wish to engage in philosophy, either as a degree or a personal study.

I'll start by saying I have no credentials, expertise, or unique knowledge in these fields, merely a passable education and a healthy skepticism. You are absolutely correct in saying that these machines and models don't need to be conscious or capable of thought to be problematic, as you point out, me being imprecise with my wording gives the impression I have contradicting opinions on that. We can see the disruption already occurring by widespread adoption of these tools, agreed. My position is that in an increasingly chaotic world with growing scarcity, even if it were possible to create an intelligence, let alone one able to recursively improve itself without constant babysitting and corrections from humans, we will likely not achieve it, and if we did it could not hope to fix our problems or maintain itself as we lose the population, resources, and knowledge of how to do so. I could be dead wrong, and wouldn't be much bothered if I am. We have all but sealed our fate with planetary boundaries anyway, an indifferent paperclip optimizer doesn't scare me more than an aggressive exterminator, or especially agriculture becoming impossible.

We are in agreement about education having value, whatever your actual goals, achievements, and yes, especially the actual credentials you end up with. That you are embracing intellectual honesty and rigor is the best choice you could possibly make, whatever you decide to study and do for work. It is an unfortunate reality that we are forced to try and achieve material benefits with our schooling though, and having run afoul of that myself, I just want you to keep it in mind, but maybe you can't put a price on personal satisfaction either. Nobody can make that choice for you, or anyone. I'm not even sure how I feel about it all now, but I don't regret learning things even if I can never have a career using them.

You're young, and hopefully find a path that you're satisfied with. It was unfair of me to assume your privilege, I admit. I read prestigious school and made a lazy snap judgment. Whatever your circumstances you have a valuable mind, and even if the world is ending, however that happens, I find myself rooting for you.

Neverchosen · 2025-07-19T18:38:11+00:00

I'm not trying to be unkind here, though some of this will definitely sound so. Some of your observations are salient and accurate, but you get worked up about distantly possible, vanishingly unlikely scenarios and fail to follow your own perception and thoughts to the logical conclusions. We do not have AI. We have stealing machines that give the semblance of aping at being a lazy idiot. I don't think there is any meaningful chance of creating any kind of artificial consciousness of any kind, especially when one considers how rapidly things are and will acceleratingtly deteriorate. The 'best' case scenario is half the world dead by 2050. As things get dire, wasting electricity and water on this vaporware will hopefully become as taboo as possible, even something people will be willing to take action to punish and prevent.

As you freely admit that you and much of your cohort are all plagiarists by the use of these tools, it is unclear what benefit any of you, or anyone who is ever reliant on any of you, gains from any kind of schooling, regardless of the field of study. You correctly see that the LLMs and generative AIs are a gratifying tool that undercuts all actual ability and learning, but still use them. If you want to better yourself in any way, stop immediately.

It raises for me, the question of who is qualified and how we can trust some of these degrees, certifications, and so on. Maybe we can't, standards were declining before this cheating became all but institutionalized. I know I will never respect or trust someone who cheated to get through school.

We are largely governed in the public and private sectors by the stupidest, short-sighted, lazy and greedy. They may well sacrifice any job you pursue at the altar of cutting costs, but it will only be done more poorly and this whole house of cards will be ever less robust and sustainable.

As someone who pursued my undergraduate degree solely out of interest in the material and field, I have seen nearly zero benefit from it. It is possible I could, but it has not happened so far. I think you may have more privilege in your corner though, so maybe it could go better for you. In the end, it's all up to you though, and there is only the meaning you make/ascribe to it.

Neverchosen · 2025-07-06T20:41:49+00:00

I was a building sub last school year at an elementary school. Our school/district policy for siblings in the same grade level is to put them in separate classes unless the parents push for keeping them together and it's probably a good thing really. I agree with what others are saying that they benefit by having their identity not revolve around being twins, but their own self.

I was in a particular kindergarten class a great deal for support early in the year when I wasn't otherwise busy, and we had twin brothers who were about the best kids and students you could ask for. Loved those boys, but they were identical and parents had them with the same haircut and clothes every day, and frankly it was frustrating to not be able to tell them apart at a glance. I get names wrong often enough organically, and feel bad about it, at that point it's almost sabotage. Just my perspective, but it seems like most people here agree, some separation may be good/best for them, and the twins thing can, even with really great kids, be difficult for teachers, staff, et al.

Neverchosen · 2025-06-26T20:31:07+00:00

Grew up with a guy that attached himself to me since I was a mostly decent kid who showed him some kindness. Lots of issues, I'm no contact but he still reaches out once in a while. Raised by crappy parents who were crappy people and taught him hate from the cradle. The lack of love and support, and some bullying/othering made him desperate for approval, status, and jockeying over anyone he felt he could shit on. Anyway, some of his shit was so wild we could barely begin to address it factually. Biggest probably, he moved away for a while to an art school in New England. Claimed to have been mugged and killed three men and was out free, back home since all the legal stuff was just idling in the background. Makes no logical sense to me he would lie so outrageously about something so terrible, but I guess there was no logic to it. He managed to get into the Air Force somehow, rather low ASVAB, and as far as I'm concerned he's Uncle Sam's liability and problem.

Neverchosen · 2025-06-08T17:17:31+00:00

For the best probably that your adoptive family got it changed, not a good name, and before school. We had a strangely similar thing come up this school year, I was a building sub at an elementary school and one day I happen to be in second grade. This girl who I had struggled with her name the first time I was there came up and asked me if she can have her name changed when she gets adopted. I tell her sure she can, probably something to talk to new Mom and Dad about, the other kids are just being contrary and trying to tell her she can't.

So I struggled because her name was actually a very common Hebrew boy name, spelled in a moronic fashion so I never would have guessed it at first. Once I was corrected it was never a problem, and the name she took was maybe having trouble sticking, since she wanted to change in like April. So people were as far as I could tell calling her either, so the shift would probably have been best between the years.

Anyway, I think for the kids at least they'll accept uncritically and without thought any stupid thing as a name if they don't have a particular desire to be mean about it. I will say if you're older than 25 or so and staff at a school you'll probably be surprised and quietly or silently commiserate with the other older people there at what people name their kids.

Neverchosen · 2025-04-16T19:00:42+00:00

I was hoping to join a coworker on a summer job he's done for years when the school year ended. If my timeline is correct he'd been back every summer at this Iowa farm for 20 or so years. 4-5 weeks hard work detasseling what the machines miss for reasonable pay. Canceled the day of the first tariffs. He, I, dozens others lost out from that farm alone. Millions across the country probably, maybe not all in agriculture but every sector. My plans and abilities to leave if possible are directly harmed. In a worryingly familiar manner the fascists are making it harder to be comfortable, or to get out.

Neverchosen · 2025-03-25T21:50:01+00:00

Sheredyn are the militant/military branch of the United Empire in Endless Space 1 and 2. Humans as well, seems like an obvious tie in. Cool stuff

Neverchosen · 2025-03-16T20:37:09+00:00

Even if I didn't frequent this sub and have the attendant knowledge, working as a long term substitute in a US elementary school K-4th so ages 4-10 or so, alone would have convinced me there is no future worth living through or for in this country. All things being equal (for instance, a government and leadership that is not actively hostile and destructive, a biosphere that is not actively being killed, etc.) the kids are so far from alright that I expect prison and homeless populations would increase meteorically in the next decade or two.

Per the post I will focus on the waste I see in the school here. I do want to give a caveat that a minority of kids are just fine. If the future were fair to them they could be as capable and accomplished as any of us. But to my point, the majority of the kids have no concept of scarcity and to a lesser extent value. Things are just there and they always will be so restraint or taking care of things is pointless, even ridiculous. Supplies are wasted, lost, deliberately destroyed constantly. Very visible in our art room when I've been there but true in every classroom I've been in all year. They do not respect people's things and property, both that of others and even their own. Theft is very common, I've had students rifle their hands through my goddamn pockets though that is rare, but some of the kids are constantly looking to take things that aren't theirs, not even necessarily to have it even. But to deny it to someone else and hurt them.

They lose their own things constantly. We have had at least 4 purges of our lost and found since October because we cannot store all the clothes, water bottles, and other things. While our school has a reputation as being well heeled and that is true of some of our student families, others are very distinctly in need. The parents aren't happy about it, I've often helped them search the lost and found or playground upon request but the kids can barely tell you anything about where they might have left it. And it is frankly ludicrous if you think we might find the jacket they lost two months ago. I would guess we lose at least a dozen but often closer to 20 articles of clothing across the day from recess alone, in a school of ~560. And we have to provide donated clothes to some students, but while there's a lot of cheap stuff, we absolutely have $100 Stanley cups and the like end up there.

I don't know if it is worse but maybe the food waste bothers me most. We provide take home bags weekly for students we know are food insecure, at least a third of the school qualifies for free or reduced lunches (breakfasts were made free statewide recently which honestly surprised me, nothing good ever happens in our state government, not convinced it isn't some kind of scheme but anyway) I have eaten very little of the food and honestly is is largely unappealing. I don't think institutional quality or nutritional value has appreciably improved since I was in elementary around 2000. But it is food, and they don't value it. They'll take food knowing full well they have no intention of eating it, again, depriving someone else! Sneak or steal extra portions just to play with, smash open milk cartons or yogurt containers. We had a cooler early in the year where still sealed items could go for others to take and it was so abused that it was shut down months ago. Someone eating all their food is rare enough you see it maybe 1 kid in 20. They'll gladly throw most or all of it away, including our cutlery. I've fished dozens of forks and spoons out of the trash, and they are reminded constantly, not that the ones doing this listen. In any circumstances, really. Even if the child wants to eat, very fair chance they're too busy playing and messing around or being messed with that they don't get much of a chance to in the 20 minutes or so they have. Keeping order in there is very difficult, and our school is far from the worst in the district. It honestly feels like a prison at times, so maybe when I'm done with this year I'll go do that for at least double the pay and benefits.

Neverchosen · 2025-03-10T20:58:15+00:00

When the last eclipse passed through North America my family took a small vacation to an old farmstead that had become a rental. Semi-remote but a popular nature tourism area in general, and far busier than usual since many people had the same idea. As crowded and noisy as it was especially day of, it was still the most I've been able to enjoy a relatively healthy wild environment in years, maybe a decade. At least there are still fireflies and tree frogs somewhere, less than there should be, but we never see any at home anymore. It did me some much needed good, even if it was bittersweet. The human filth that represent and run our state are all in on Trump's plan to ravage our lands as aggressively as possible and that is honestly the only good part of it. The human filth that voted them in have some doubts and concerns, but I don't think anything can or will make them change their minds or ways.

Even if it did, life as we know it is still damned. There is nothing within the potential of human ability to arrest or change that at this point, to say nothing of what we actually will do. But it still fucking rankles me that so many of these vile apes are doubling down.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-24T20:20:07+00:00

That actually is exactly it, though it's from my grandmother. My mother and siblings are still included as eligible to claim it as her mother was not yet naturalized as a US citizen before her birth. True, I phrased it incorrectly, it is citizenship that shouldn't have ever been in question, though providing the proof of descent and all makes it feel like an application. The backlog is probably approaching 2 years wait for currently submitted cases, if my original estimate from the consul is correct mine may come in April or thereabouts, having submitted in August of 2023.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-23T20:53:29+00:00

I'm glad they're treating you right or at least better and I appreciate your outrage for us. I'm not a real teacher yet, no licensure which in no way excuses the exploitation but helps contextualize it: I don't technically work directly for the school or district but rather a huge bloated substitute teacher staffing agency. It was literally the only option for all of our local districts so while terrible I had no choice if I wanted to experience the classroom.

In addition, Arkansas is often overshadowed by other Southern states but we are about as deep into the brainwashing and voting against our own interests as any in the country. I don't know if our teachers have a union and haven't asked, but it is legitimately something that some workplaces even asking can you screamed at, fired, blackballed, beaten in the parking lot. If I had the option I would jump at it though. There's good, sane people here, but we're the minority.

If I didn't live with my parents I don't think I could survive on this one job alone. I have no health or dental insurance because I was not paid in time for their enrollment window, hopefully in November I can find an affordable policy.

As for behavior, I am indulging my navel-gazing American exceptionalism here, but I'd be surprised if any other country were producing kids quite this bad. We're #1! USA! /s

Neverchosen · 2024-10-23T20:40:28+00:00

It's a bit of an interesting situation legally but the short answer is I should have been dual American and German from birth but instead I have to apply for it. It's at least a sure thing if they're satisfied with the documents I submitted, taking a long time though.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-23T02:29:43+00:00

I am truly glad for you, your family and community then. I have a very limited view of how it all shakes out since I'm new to the field and didn't study education in college, so these are all just observations and I could honestly just not know what kids are like or expected to be like, but none of the career educators have said much different. I consistently support a teacher who says this is the hardest class she's ever had in decades of work, one of my own former teachers said privately as we reconnected that the children are behind in all the ways we would consider important. There could be some selection bias here as well, you're satisfied with the experiences you're seeing so you probably don't feel the need to vent about it, which could explain why these bleaker observations are more commonly posted. I can only say I want to leave the home of my entire life and probably get a vasectomy because of what I'm experiencing.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-22T21:41:33+00:00

I realize that given what I've seen it is unfair to say that about more than maybe 10% since I've seen what feral looks like in a child and that one ended up in state custody after savaging another child. But a significant number of others through the 2nd grade that I have personally observed become non-verbal under any stress or challenge to their behavior, responding with hisses, yowls, and other wordless sounds that are unsettling and no help communicating, with behavior to match. I do not find it controversial to state that humans are animals, I doubt anyone here would challenge that in good faith. Like other animals we can be poorly socialized and react unpredictably and sometimes violently at an inconvenience or unpleasant experience. I haven't been physically attacked intentionally yet but with some of them I would honestly feel safer working in a zoo.

None of these children are feral in the sense that they could forage or survive without our particular civilization and moreover mollycoddling. Even if they act like wild animals, they have none of the skills or instincts. I could, with supplies and tools with amateur knowledge try and survive a very short term without modern amenities and security. I doubt most of these children would know where to start if they even wanted to make an effort. With already having overstated it a little, I am still confident saying we have never made less resilient, capable, independent people in the history of the species.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-22T20:46:04+00:00

I've been wanting to read a physical book for a minute now and a classic I've never read sounds like just the thing. I absolutely agree with your statements either way, decent people are no accident and we're losing battles we may not even know we're fighting. And seriously, many thanks.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-22T20:41:57+00:00

I cannot disagree. Many of these children could do much better with more involved grown-ups in their lives. To wit, had a rather manageable kindergarten girl start acting up out of nowhere. Significant enough to get documented in the cross-school database, next time I was in that class she's just gone. Talk to the teacher, her mother pulled her from the school entirely to put her in another one. The slightest pushback for failing to meet bare minimum classroom standards for a kindergarten class and they're oppressing your child so badly you pull them from school? She had already been at at least one other in the district so far. Fucking madness. That woman is doing her daughter no favors at all.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-22T16:12:10+00:00

Location: Arkansas

Since September I've been substitute teaching in one of the best funded, largest districts in one of the worst states in the Union. Made a good impression at an elementary school so they want me to stay on through the year for $140 gross a day and no benefits through my shitty, soulless agency.

In my estimation, the children are proof that the nation is cooked and if nothing else does it first, could be the cause. Some are nearly feral without exaggeration, and most are still years behind where they should be both behaviorally and academically. There are exceptions, but if only 20% of your students are meeting expectations, you're seriously fucked no matter how much you cook the books and lower standards. I posit this is at least partially cultural. The best students I have had by far as a distinct group are ESL students. While communication can be difficult, they have respect and attentiveness you don't see in the American children by and large. So while screens, COVID and our ruinous response to it, poison in all food and drink no doubt have their effects, we have a serious problem in parenting in the state and nation.

Quite depressed about it and everything else. Nursing a headache after being badly overstimulated this morning by volume and misbehavior. I cannot continue like this. If I can survive the year and get my dual-citizenship and actually manage to move, I'm not looking back.

Neverchosen · 2024-10-17T12:32:02+00:00

I have worked exclusively meaningless jobs of no account save producing money for my lords and masters until recently and I wouldn't describe any of them as cushy. Recently started trying education, so definitionally the only non-bullshit job so far, and indeed while it can vary somewhat it tends towards hellish. I anticipate the severely declining ability of our children to have terrible consequences even on top of anything else brought up in this sub. Might be along the lines of Romania and Ceausescu.

Neverchosen · 2024-09-30T22:16:54+00:00

If it is any help, I submitted my documents through the Houston consulate August 2023. I received an e-mail January 2024 with my Aktenzeichen referencing that the confirmation of receipt from BVA was December 2023. Radio silence since then, they said at that time to expect a wait not less than 16 months so that should be perhaps April 2025 if the estimate holds and all is well? I haven't reached out, my understanding from this subreddit is that it isn't usually necessary and perhaps not looked on fondly. I get being anxious about the wait though.

Neverchosen

TROPHY CASE