UKMT Spring 2023 - Springtime for NatCs - The Something Awful Forums

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Nuclear Spoon: Aug 18, 2010; I want to cry out
but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud
to be alive

quote:

Today 2.6 million people are too sick to work & denied support they want to return to work.

seems like a pretty big conflation mr ashworth

cat tax

Nuclear Spoon fucked around with this message at 09:55 on May 22, 2023

# ? May 22, 2023 09:53

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# ? May 24, 2024 16:40

Microplastics: Jul 6, 2007; It's what's for dinner.

OwlFancier posted:

Everyone must return to work, everyone wants to return to work.

Everybody wants to work anymore

# ? May 22, 2023 10:03

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

hate this new tears for fears album

# ? May 22, 2023 10:05

Microplastics: Jul 6, 2007; It's what's for dinner.

I wish I could have been furloughed but sadly I could work from home with ease, being a computer toucher

But I can't complain really, I have a great job. Work for a charity whose mission I really believe in, decent pay, decent hours, decent working conditions, I'm extremely lucky

# ? May 22, 2023 10:05

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

sebzilla posted:

Being furloughed on full pay for a few months was the best time of my life.

Many a happy day where I'd just sit in the garden for a couple of hours with a book and some music.

Halcyon days, aside from all the people dying because the economic demanded blood

# ? May 22, 2023 10:06

Angrymog: Jan 30, 2012; Really Madcats

I got redundancy from the NHS once, and that was an amazing six months. I lounged around, I pretended to be a game dev, I got my driving license. It was great.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:15

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

This is the actual case in favour of what is called idleness by Protestant Work Ethic freaks, you can learn new skills, create art

If you spend all your time off masturbating and watching Countdown and Pointless you almost definitely will end up depressed. But if you use even a small part of it learning a language or to play an instrument or go bagging Munros or whatever, reading the great works, or whatever the gently caress appeals. It's invigorating.

The problem is only the wealthy have the ability to truly engage in that freedom without the big axe of worrying about money dangling over their neck.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:25

keep punching joe: Jan 22, 2006; Die Satan!

I am fully in favour of a zero day work week. What's the point in all this AI and robotics tech if I still need to go to the number factory and crunch more numbers from 9-5.

Gimme a ubi, I'll spend my days woodworking or something.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:27

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/22/postal-desert-island-mulls-residents-cut-off-from-civilisation-by-royal-mail

Privatisation working well I see

quote:

The allure of the Isle of Mull is its sense of apartness. In summer, flocks of tourists make the 45-minute crossing from the mainland to sample life on the edge. From the point of view of its 3,000 residents, modern transport and communications have brought them closer to the rest of the country than ever. But now, thanks to Royal Mail, islanders fear they are being returned to isolation.

For the last three years, parts of Mull have been cut off from mail deliveries for days. Since March, those days have turned into weeks.

Residents have missed hospital appointments, bank cards and passports have been held up, and penalty charge notices gone unpaid. A former postman suggests there are 50 cages of mail bound for Mull stranded in the mainland sorting office in Oban.

Last week, households in the village of Dervaig and the surrounding area, a 40-mile postal round, were informed that their temporary postal worker could no longer oblige due to reduced ferry timetables.

They would have to collect their post from Tobermory, the main town. That�s a 45-minute round trip over mountain roads for those with a car; an hour on the occasional buses.

The tiny Scottish community is one of numerous �postal deserts� across the UK where first-class mail can take two weeks to arrive. From Brighton to Bromley in north London, from Salford to Lerwick, daily deliveries are a privilege of the past as strikes, staff and vehicle shortages plunge Royal Mail�s performance to a record low.

Last week, the communications regulator Ofcom announced it was opening an investigation after new figures showed it failed to meet its performance targets for 2022/23. More than 11% of delivery rounds were missed and more than a quarter of first-class mail didn�t arrive within one working day.

According to Georgia Satchel, an artist who lives in the north of the island, the universal service obligation, which requires Royal Mail to deliver letters to all UK addresses six days a week, has a vital impact on remote communities.

�Living in a beautiful place is a balancing act,� she says. �Weighing up the advantages and disadvantages, the peace and quiet versus the inconvenience and expense. The multi-crises of no postal service and ferry breakdowns is tipping that balance.�

Gordon Chalmers, a ex-postman turned delivery driver in Dervaig, missed an urgent cancer referral after receiving no post for a week.

�I thought it was strange when no letter arrived,� he says. �I called the hospital in Glasgow and was told that I was meant to be there in 10 minutes. It takes five hours to get to Glasgow from Dervaig.� His biopsy was rescheduled for the following week and he was given the all-clear.

Tobermory resident Angus Stewart also missed a hospital check-up because the notification was held up for two weeks in the Oban sorting office. �It said that missed appointments cost the NHS �140 which was deeply embarrassing,� he says. �I had to wait four weeks for a new date. I worry for those who have waited months for critical appointments.�

According to Mull community council, 75% of the island and neighbouring Iona is affected. �Some areas are experiencing as few as two letter deliveries per week,� says council member Mark Aston. �Where annual leave is taken, with no holiday cover in place, this drops to zero.�

Royal Mail tells complainants that reduced ferry services, due to winter timetables and ageing boats, have disrupted deliveries. Islanders, however, blame its management.

Postal vans are unable to board crowded ferries because, insiders say, the company fails to pre-book crossings, and some vans that do make it across are too poorly maintained to cope with the island�s potholed roads.

�Several of the council members have witnessed postal workers struggling with inoperable vehicles and resorting to their own cars to fulfil their rounds,� says Aston. �Local police have even stopped some Royal Mail vans for being unroadworthy.�

Fraser Kennedy resigned as postman for the Dervaig round in March when his van broke down for the sixth time in eight weeks. �This was a known problem with vehicles coming over from Oban with bald tyres, broken suspension and engine warning lights,� he says. �We were continually told there was nothing else available. If you reported a fault, you�d often get a repair date weeks later and, come the day, the vehicle wouldn�t be booked on the ferry and no replacement provided.

�All the roads on my route were narrow single-track, plus miles of rough, unmade roads in areas with poor or nonexistent mobile phone coverage. The only vehicle breakdown service is two hours away.

�I enjoyed my job, but when one van suffered complete electrical failure, and the replacement came with bald tyres, I decided I was no longer prepared to risk my licence by driving unroadworthy vehicles, or the safety of myself or others.�

According to Kennedy, the failure to book vans on the morning ferry meant the day�s post would sometimes reach the island after 2pm, and postal workers waiting on unpaid standby would be expected to work as late as 9pm to deliver it. �Although I was on a three-day contract, I worked six days a week for my last 10 weeks due to long-term absences. My pleas for help fell on deaf ears.

The article goes on bit you get the idea

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 10:35 on May 22, 2023

# ? May 22, 2023 10:28

sebzilla: Mar 17, 2009; Kid's blasting everything in sight with that new-fangled musket.

In Praise Of Idleness is nearly 100 years old now and we (collectively as a culture) haven't learned a loving thing

# ? May 22, 2023 10:29

kecske: Feb 28, 2011; it's round, like always

luckily we live in the timeline where humans are shackled to the coalface in the name of capital while robot intelligence makes art

# ? May 22, 2023 10:29

Private Speech: Mar 30, 2011; I HAVE EVEN MORE WORTHLESS BEANIE BABIES IN MY COLLECTION THAN I HAVE WORTHLESS POSTS IN THE BEANIE BABY THREAD YET I STILL HAVE THE TEMERITY TO CRITICIZE OTHERS' COLLECTIONS

IF YOU SEE ME TALKING ABOUT BEANIE BABIES, PLEASE TELL ME TO

EAT. SHIT.

keep punching joe posted:

I am fully in favour of a zero day work week. What's the point in all this AI and robotics tech if I still need to go to the number factory and crunch more numbers from 9-5.

Gimme a ubi, I'll spend my days woodworking or something.

At some point work does need to be done though.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:29

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

Private Speech posted:

At some point work does need to be done though.

Let the freaks who want to work do it

# ? May 22, 2023 10:30

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

I wonder what�s going to happen when they automate all the jobs and then realise nobody has any money to buy the poo poo they�re trying to sell them because all the jobs got automated

# ? May 22, 2023 10:31

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

I also need to poo poo occasionally but I don't spend my non-making GBS threads time wondering when I will poo poo again or thinking about shits i have previously taken.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:33

His Divine Shadow: Aug 7, 2000; I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

forkboy84 posted:

This is the actual case in favour of what is called idleness by Protestant Work Ethic freaks, you can learn new skills, create art

If you spend all your time off masturbating and watching Countdown and Pointless you almost definitely will end up depressed. But if you use even a small part of it learning a language or to play an instrument or go bagging Munros or whatever, reading the great works, or whatever the gently caress appeals. It's invigorating.

The problem is only the wealthy have the ability to truly engage in that freedom without the big axe of worrying about money dangling over their neck.

Yeah I find it miserable to just sit and do nothing productive, like watching TV or gaming. I end up listless and depressed. I did that once in 2008 or so I think when I had vacation and I ended up almost breaking and actually enjoying coming back to work, for a short short while.... I have a need to keep active with things. This is not to be confused with work. I work 8-16 so I can do the things I like on my free time. If I had enough money to not work I'd still do these things, puttering about in the garden, in the forest, woodworking, metalworking. I'd love to have the time & money to just have my own forest to tend to instead of working every day...

# ? May 22, 2023 10:34

Noxville: Dec 7, 2003

I do have �productive� hobbies already (woodworking and baking) but if I didn�t have to work I�d do so much more still. Get back into painting, homebrewing. Actually spend time growing stuff in the garden. Maybe try some more esoteric stuff like blacksmithery or glass blowing.

Always find it so sad when people think that their life would be empty without the meaningless toil to enrich others, there�s so many other fulfilling ways to spend your time.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:35

His Divine Shadow: Aug 7, 2000; I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

keep punching joe posted:

I am fully in favour of a zero day work week. What's the point in all this AI and robotics tech if I still need to go to the number factory and crunch more numbers from 9-5.

Gimme a ubi, I'll spend my days woodworking or something.

I like to think this is what happened in Star Trek, at least in the TNG era before it got all dark and depressing to fit our modern world. Nobody needs to work there, everybody does what they like. Some people join starfleet (some likely for the prestige and power, humans be humans), some become colonizers, some run a restaurant, some keep tending their families wineries.

It strikes me that I never saw a loving mall or shopping center in star trek. That's the indicator of a utopian future to me.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:42

Jedit: Dec 10, 2011; Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

History Comes Inside! posted:

I wonder what’s going to happen when they automate all the jobs and then realise nobody has any money to buy the poo poo they’re trying to sell them because all the jobs got automated

I saw something the other day pointing out that with the rise of automated writing in newspapers, journalism has become a profession where humans do all the hard work without getting paid while machines do all the creative endeavours.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:43

Just Another Lurker: May 1, 2009

Nuclear Spoon posted:

the best i've felt in recent memory was last year where i got signed off for 6 weeks with covid during the summer. physical symptoms weren't great but also: i could just loving exist without worrying about being fired and consequently evicted

since then i've changed to a new 4-day week job and i'm so loving glad for it

Simply the best. :thumbsup:

# ? May 22, 2023 10:43

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

His Divine Shadow posted:

I like to think this is what happened in Star Trek, at least in the TNG era before it got all dark and depressing to fit our modern world. Nobody needs to work there, everybody does what they like. Some people join starfleet (some likely for the prestige and power, humans be humans), some become colonizers, some run a restaurant, some keep tending their families wineries.

It strikes me that I never saw a loving mall or shopping center in star trek. That's the indicator of a utopian future to me.

There's the Promenade in DS9.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:46

keep punching joe: Jan 22, 2006; Die Satan!

Jedit posted:

I saw something the other day pointing out that with the rise of automated writing in newspapers, journalism has become a profession where humans do all the hard work without getting paid while machines do all the creative endeavours.

The best thing about automating journalism is that you can't work your way into the profession as a school leaver. All of those lovely small time articles can get churned out by hackgpt and the proper jobs (opinion columnist) can go to your mates kid who went to oxford.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:46

Angrymog: Jan 30, 2012; Really Madcats

Oh yeah, the six weeks I had off due to RSI were pretty great too.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:48

Nuclear Spoon: Aug 18, 2010; I want to cry out
but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud
to be alive

His Divine Shadow posted:

I like to think this is what happened in Star Trek, at least in the TNG era before it got all dark and depressing to fit our modern world. Nobody needs to work there, everybody does what they like. Some people join starfleet (some likely for the prestige and power, humans be humans), some become colonizers, some run a restaurant, some keep tending their families wineries.

It strikes me that I never saw a loving mall or shopping center in star trek. That's the indicator of a utopian future to me.

the promenade on deep space 9 has always felt like a shopping centre to me. you have quark's bar, there's garak's shop, there's the cafe where julian and garak go on dates,

efb

# ? May 22, 2023 10:48

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Dabir posted:

There's the Promenade in DS9.

I mean that's got a pub and a tailor's shop that is just a front for garak's espionage and murder business, and I don't think they mention anything else.

I don't get the impression it's selling industrially produced goods.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:49

josh04: Oct 19, 2008; "THE FLASH IS THE REASON
TO RACE TO THE THEATRES"
_{This title contains sponsored content.}

Brendan Rodgers posted:

Oh yeah my bad, I see, "alternative medicine"

<Jim Bowen voice> It's the alternative to medicine, I say :dadjoke:

# ? May 22, 2023 10:50

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

https://twitter.com/bareleft/status/1660571215398940673?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q

Also note the reference to the public-health catastrophe that was Care in the Community.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:51

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

If I'm unwell I'd rather be in a hospital actually. community care is what we did before hospitals were invented.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:52

Jel Shaker: Apr 19, 2003

Angrymog posted:

I got redundancy from the NHS once, and that was an amazing six months. I lounged around, I pretended to be a game dev, I got my driving license. It was great.

lol i�m astonished. i don�t know if anyone being made redundant from the nhs in 20 years, they either quit, move jobs or retire

# ? May 22, 2023 10:56

Failed Imagineer: Sep 22, 2018

OwlFancier posted:

I mean that's got a pub and a tailor's shop that is just a front for garak's espionage and murder business, and I don't think they mention anything else.

I don't get the impression it's selling industrially produced goods.

DS9 economics are best not scrutinized too closely - do the post-scarcity Starfleets get a per diem to spend in Quarks holo-brothel? How do you avoid massive hyperinflation in the latinum market? Is GPL even a legit currency or more like some kind of crypto darkweb coin of convenience for arms traders? Many questions

# ? May 22, 2023 10:57

His Divine Shadow: Aug 7, 2000; I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

Nuclear Spoon posted:

the promenade on deep space 9 has always felt like a shopping centre to me. you have quark's bar, there's garak's shop, there's the cafe where julian and garak go on dates,

efb

DS9 was around that time star trek was going more grimdarky too.

Also I wrote some became "colonizers" when I meant to say "colonists". The two I believe are.. different things.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:57

keep punching joe: Jan 22, 2006; Die Satan!

I got made redundant once, and boy did I smoke a lot of weed that year.

It owned.

# ? May 22, 2023 10:57

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Failed Imagineer posted:

DS9 economics are best not scrutinized too closely - do the post-scarcity Starfleets get a per diem to spend in Quarks holo-brothel? How do you avoid massive hyperinflation in the latinum market? Is GPL even a legit currency or more like some kind of crypto darkweb coin of convenience for arms traders? Many questions

I vaguely remember it coming up that yeah they get some kind of stipend they are supposed to be able to spend, presumably on the same system that stops them replicating infinite amounts of ipads and trading them to people.

Economics aside my broader point was that the DS9 promenade is apparently extremely hipster being full of bespoke local businesses that sell you artisanally prepared crap so I don't think it counts as a mall. It's basically the space version of sisko's dad's restaurant that is in some bit of new orleans that looks like paris and presumably got annihilated by a hurricane or capitalism IRL.

OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 11:07 on May 22, 2023

# ? May 22, 2023 11:04

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

His Divine Shadow posted:

Also I wrote some became "colonizers" when I meant to say "colonists". The two I believe are.. different things.

The difference is who is writing the history.

One group arrived at a place that was near empty and lovely and built to make it better. The other are the ones who made it near empty and lovely.

# ? May 22, 2023 11:07

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

OwlFancier posted:

I vaguely remember it coming up that yeah they get some kind of stipend they are supposed to be able to spend, presumably on the same system that stops them replicating infinite amounts of ipads and trading them to people.

Economics aside my broader point was that the DS9 promenade is apparently extremely hipster being full of bespoke local businesses that sell you artisanally prepared crap so I don't think it counts as a mall.

That's what I think of when I go to Quark's, artisan drink. Artisan dabo

# ? May 22, 2023 11:07

Tesseraction: Apr 5, 2009

I got made redundant and then the pandemic hit.

Now correlation doesn't equal causation, but I say fire me at your peril.

# ? May 22, 2023 11:08

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

forkboy84 posted:

That's what I think of when I go to Quark's, artisan drink. Artisan dabo

I mean yes he has a bar full of weird booze and actual tables where you can gamble with actual scantily clad ladies around.

Not selling tins of fosters while you sit at a FOBT and crank the handle all day. You need to pay for the holosuite if you want to crank your handle.

Quarks is not wetherspoons.

OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 11:13 on May 22, 2023

# ? May 22, 2023 11:10

Failed Imagineer: Sep 22, 2018

OwlFancier posted:

Quarks is not wetherspoons.

Not during the events of DS9, but Lower Decks and Picard show that Quark's has since become a big time (presumably soulless) franchise imitating the original.

Original Quark's clearly became famous due to all the soldiers passing through in the Dominion War, in the same way that GIs brought tiki -bar culture and Hawaiian music back from the Pacific theater after WW2

# ? May 22, 2023 11:17

Pistol_Pete: Sep 15, 2007; Oven Wrangler

keep punching joe posted:

The best thing about automating journalism is that you can't work your way into the profession as a school leaver. All of those lovely small time articles can get churned out by hackgpt and the proper jobs (opinion columnist) can go to your mates kid who went to oxford.

Why would they need opinion columnists? I'm sure chatgpt or similar software can easily churn out articles about current events in the style of "a bitter old Boomer", "a sensible Centrist", "A progressive so long as nothing has to change" etc etc. All you need is the standard mugshot at the top of the page and there's different AI software to generate that.

# ? May 22, 2023 11:18

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# ? May 24, 2024 16:40

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

https://twitter.com/labourlist/status/1660589675143127041?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q

gnaaaaaah

# ? May 22, 2023 11:18

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