2021 Catch-All

[southsider2k5]

4 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

Not sure if I'd even call us smart. If that technology exists, one can only imagine the other technologies that must exist that surely surpass human comprehension

For my two cents, there is nothing more exciting than trying to comprehend things we don't even realize that we don't yet know.

[Jose Abreu]

2 hours ago, Tony said:

Right. And obviously it goes without saying a UFO doesn't have to mean space martian, it could be anything that we simply don't know what it is. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the UFOs themselves, such as the "tic tac" ones in a lot of the leaks, are extraterrestrial beings themselves. I think movies and books have conditioned us to expect something with 4 limbs and a face, but there doesn't necessarily have to be something inside these UFOs, if that makes sense

[Tony]

48 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the UFOs themselves, such as the "tic tac" ones in a lot of the leaks, are extraterrestrial beings themselves. I think movies and books have conditioned us to expect something with 4 limbs and a face, but there doesn't necessarily have to be something inside these UFOs, if that makes sense

Yep, I know what you’re saying. It’s sort of even hard to talk about because as you said, movies have made us think of things one way and hard to break that. 

[southsider2k5]

1 hour ago, Jose Abreu said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the UFOs themselves, such as the "tic tac" ones in a lot of the leaks, are extraterrestrial beings themselves. I think movies and books have conditioned us to expect something with 4 limbs and a face, but there doesn't necessarily have to be something inside these UFOs, if that makes sense

If someone could break entangled particles as a form of travel or moving consciousness, they wouldn't have to send a physical self.

[Jose Abreu]

31 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

If someone could break entangled particles as a form of travel or moving consciousness, they wouldn't have to send a physical self.

True, they wouldn't have to. It's just a possibility that I never see mentioned

[Tony]

Waiting on an Ebay package. Tracking stopped updating about 3 days ago and stuck on "Out for delivery." I called my post office. I asked if I could pick it up at the post office. They said my carrier will be in late today, but he has over 400 packages backlogged that still need to be sorted, so even I went to the post office, they don’t have anyone to look for my package, I just have to wait. 

Meanwhile I can track basically by the minute where my Amazon package is.........I hate USPS. 

[southsider2k5]

2 minutes ago, Tony said:

Waiting on an Ebay package. Tracking stopped updating about 3 days ago and stuck on "Out for delivery." I called my post office. I asked if I could pick it up at the post office. They said my carrier will be in late today, but he has over 400 packages backlogged that still need to be sorted, so even I went to the post office, they don’t have anyone to look for my package, I just have to wait. 

Meanwhile I can track basically by the minute where my Amazon package is.........I hate USPS. 

It is amazing how effectively sabatogued that they have been.  Between the 75 year pension funding mandate, which literally no other industry in the world has, and then all of the actions to slow deliveries, bottlenecking of logistics, and shutting down of key facilities, it is amazing they have survived.

[Tony]

9 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

It is amazing how effectively sabatogued that they have been.  Between the 75 year pension funding mandate, which literally no other industry in the world has, and then all of the actions to slow deliveries, bottlenecking of logistics, and shutting down of key facilities, it is amazing they have survived.

It's absolutely brutal. And I do feel bad for the mail carriers, it's not their fault. 

But it makes me not want to buy anything that is going to be delivered by USPS. I just don't want to deal with the headache. 

[StrangeSox]

If I order something from Amazon, it may come from an Amazon truck, a gig-work delivery driver (think Uber, but for Amazon deliveries), UPS, FedEx, or USPS. And that's with a major UPS and Amazon distribution center like 2 miles from my house.

[bigruss]

No Stargate jokes on the UFO stuff with pyramid shaped UFOs?  Or am I the only Stargate nerd here? ?

[Texsox]

On 5/27/2021 at 10:46 AM, southsider2k5 said:

It is amazing how effectively sabatogued that they have been.  Between the 75 year pension funding mandate, which literally no other industry in the world has, and then all of the actions to slow deliveries, bottlenecking of logistics, and shutting down of key facilities, it is amazing they have survived.

Plus the past administration ordered the USPS to remove functioning equipment. They were literally used as a political pawn in the mail order ballot war. 

They deliver to every house six days a week and for less than a $1 will take a letter from a house in Penitas, Texas population 400 and deliver it anywhere from a penthouse in New York or a remote mountain cabin in Alaska. Amazing. 

[Middle Buffalo]

When did Soxtalk become hot take central?
 

The Pale Hose Talk section is crazy now with some of the “fans” who are posting. I swear some of these guys would be happier if the Sox were losing.

[Brian]

On 6/1/2021 at 9:55 PM, Middle Buffalo said:

When did Soxtalk become hot take central?
 

The Pale Hose Talk section is crazy now with some of the “fans” who are posting. I swear some of these guys would be happier if the Sox were losing.

I've stayed away from game threads for years and really only go to Palehose Talk if there is big news.

[Texsox]

Win or lose I’m enjoying the games more without the game threads. That really surprised me. 

[Texsox]

Holy crap with this post my post count and the cost of my new truck match. 

[greg775]

Fans get very mad in game threads when things do not go well. A great hitter succeeds three out of 10 times. During the seven failures, game thread fans get quite irate.

[ptatc]

Traveling down I80 in Iowa and the lines at the drive through fast food restaurants were all at least 10 cars long and not moving. One McDonald's had a sign that said 14 and 15 year Olds are encouraged to apply. Didn't realize it was that hard to find employees.  Also didn't realize that was even legal.

[StrangeSox]

 

[southsider2k5]

2 hours ago, ptatc said:

Traveling down I80 in Iowa and the lines at the drive through fast food restaurants were all at least 10 cars long and not moving. One McDonald's had a sign that said 14 and 15 year Olds are encouraged to apply. Didn't realize it was that hard to find employees.  Also didn't realize that was even legal.

4 million people left jobs in May.  Labor actually has some power, and they are using it to leave retail, and to move up in the world.

[Iwritecode]

1 hour ago, southsider2k5 said:

4 million people left jobs in May.  Labor actually has some power, and they are using it to leave retail, and to move up in the world.

They did but the fast food and retail workers never stopped working. My wife and all 3 of my kids work retail and they never stopped. 2 of them changed where they worked but that was it.

 

Where did all the workers go?

[southsider2k5]

19 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

They did but the fast food and retail workers never stopped working. My wife and all 3 of my kids work retail and they never stopped. 2 of them changed where they worked but that was it.

 

Where did all the workers go?

Well, considering 600,000 people have died from COVID, plus all of the long haulers who aren't able to work anymore, that is a big starting point.  We have also choked off immigration over the last administration, so the normal source of cheap labor during a shortage is also closed off.  The crazy thing is that if you look at the labor force, it has shrunk pretty significantly over the last year, so they aren't sitting on unemployment, as the modern myth thinks.  They are gone from the workforce.

[Chisoxfn]

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

Well, considering 600,000 people have died from COVID, plus all of the long haulers who aren't able to work anymore, that is a big starting point.  We have also choked off immigration over the last administration, so the normal source of cheap labor during a shortage is also closed off.  The crazy thing is that if you look at the labor force, it has shrunk pretty significantly over the last year, so they aren't sitting on unemployment, as the modern myth thinks.  They are gone from the workforce.

Roughly 70-80% of deaths would have been from people typically on social security and likely not working.  I say likely because I am sure, given the socio economic breakdown of who died in this country - there are certainly a chunk of those deaths > 65 who still were working to some extent. The reality is we have inflation going on combined with some other stuff too - which is causing an interesting supply/demand shift in the labor market.  

I won't predict where it is going to go - what is temporary vs. a true trend. But I've long said - in any of these inflationary situations, it is still the lower income who get hosed the most because they will get squeezed the most in an inflationary environment (and many don't have assets or cheap loans locked in where they technically benefit from inflation).  

[southsider2k5]

4 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

Roughly 70-80% of deaths would have been from people typically on social security and likely not working.  I say likely because I am sure, given the socio economic breakdown of who died in this country - there are certainly a chunk of those deaths > 65 who still were working to some extent. The reality is we have inflation going on combined with some other stuff too - which is causing an interesting supply/demand shift in the labor market.  

I won't predict where it is going to go - what is temporary vs. a true trend. But I've long said - in any of these inflationary situations, it is still the lower income who get hosed the most because they will get squeezed the most in an inflationary environment (and many don't have assets or cheap loans locked in where they technically benefit from inflation).  

It is a pretty unprecedented time period, so I can't even begin to guess where this will go.  I know historically we have filled labor shortages with immigration, but it is going to take some work to undue all of the policies which cut back so much on immigration, and get the process flowing again.

[StrangeSox]

Bad tornado in Woodridge area last night. Watching WGN this morning, both of my old neighborhoods there got hit. Homes just a block away from our old house were pretty heavily damaged, and the panned over some serious damage to the condo building we used to live in as well. Hope everyone in the area is safe and avoided the worst of the damage.

 

[Texsox]

The more I'm reading about the building collapse in Miami the more I don't want to enter a multistory building again.