The Off Topic Topic

[Jacob]

I've recently become sane and have no desire to appear sophisticated.

That's the spirit

[Grey Fox]

My physical Blizzard authenticator is running out of battery after ~15 years. Altho, I haven't played any games that require my battle.net account in years, I took no chances & removed it from my account before it's too late.

Goodbye Old friend, may you rest in peace.

[HVC]

Yi post in music thread made me think, is there another accent that is only appealing for one gender besides a deep southern ones. Can Sound great on a woman, but makes a man sound like a hillbilly

[Syt]

There's been a (minor) debate about working hours in Austria in recent years. On the one side (left-ish) you have people saying we should generally work less for work life balance, to prevent burnouts or working through illness, and because they say more hours do not mean more productivity by default etc.

On the other side you have businesses and conservatives saying that people should actually work more and considering cutting social benefits for anyone working part time jobs.

Some companies (usually advertising and similar service agencies) experiment with 4 day weeks at same pay and claim they see no drop in output/revenue.

Saw a poster from the chamber of commerce on my way to work this morning, showing a female plumber with a wrench (guess they want to appeal to the blue collar guys), saying "More tax free overtime instead of fewer hours" (i.e. people should do more paid overtime - which only exists in blue collar jobs anymore, really - and should get tax exemptions for those).

Meanwhile, statistics show that the number of people threatened by poverty in recent years has increased significantly (inflation + little to no salary increases). The chancellor was recorded at a meeting with business leaders that no one in Austria needs to miss a warm meal, because "McDonalds has burgers for €1.50"). And if people don't have enough money they need to work more.

Which makes sense. E.g. Harald Mahrer, an ÖVP politician at one point had 7 jobs at the same time (head of Austrian Chamber of Commerce, chairman of National Bank, chairing one of the major Austrian pension funds, plus chairing a few more conservative interest groups). He's still head of the Chamber of Commerce and the National bank at the moment.

[The Brain]

Should they be happy in their work?

[Syt]

Should they be happy in their work?

That's not really part of the discussion

[Josquius]

There's been a (minor) debate about working hours in Austria in recent years. On the one side (left-ish) you have people saying we should generally work less for work life balance, to prevent burnouts or working through illness, and because they say more hours do not mean more productivity by default etc.

On the other side you have businesses and conservatives saying that people should actually work more and considering cutting social benefits for anyone working part time jobs.

I have to wonder here whether this would be a place where we'd see a break typical conservative-liberal alliances?
Breaking the old 9 to 5 Monday to Friday cornerstone of our society, of course its bad for conservatives. Its change.
But to liberals?...if it increases overall productivity then surely thats a good thing?


The big problem I see in it all is how we break free of the tyranny of hours. My boss only just shifted to a 4 day week- albeit with the promise of extra hours of work on those 4 days.
Of course she isn't actually working every single one of those hours. We have a pretty relaxed setup where its fine to take some hours out during the day as long as you get your work done.
But then how do you define things are done 'enough'- when is someone going above and beyond vs. dropping below the minimum?
Most professional level jobs are not like a production line job when you can say 8 droid assemblies constructed per day.  Attempt to say, e.g. 100 lines of code per unit, and then that can be gamed easy as hell within a hour or two of work to get to the weekly quota.

[Legbiter]

The geologic drama still continues here.The Blue Lagoon has shut down operations for the next week at least and massive preparations are hurriedly under way to evacuate the small town of Grindavík if there's a massive volcanic eruption close by. Same with the geothermal power plant, only a skeleton crew to maintain operations. If that powerplant goes offline a lot of people on the Reykjanes peninsula lose their heating and electricity. A sustained magma intrusion has been steadily building up a short distance away from the town and the power plant, sort of in the worst possible place wrt to infrastructure. And the longer the seismic activity continues the more likely it is to end in an eruption.

[Josquius]

Random youtube video made me smile

[Sheilbh]

So the Guardian does these weekly fantasy galleries. "Homes near rivers" or "next to the park" for example.

This week for first time buyers. Four of the five are over £450,000
https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2023/nov/10/homes-for-uk-first-time-buyers-in-pictures

Which first time buyers?!

[HVC]

Don't look at the Toronto market

[Barrister]

So the Guardian does these weekly fantasy galleries. "Homes near rivers" or "next to the park" for example.

This week for first time buyers. Four of the five are over £450,000
https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2023/nov/10/homes-for-uk-first-time-buyers-in-pictures

Which first time buyers?!

#4 just gets me - a half million pounds ($850,000 C$) for an 860 square foot house in Bath?

[Tamas]

So the Guardian does these weekly fantasy galleries. "Homes near rivers" or "next to the park" for example.

This week for first time buyers. Four of the five are over £450,000
https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2023/nov/10/homes-for-uk-first-time-buyers-in-pictures

Which first time buyers?!

#4 just gets me - a half million pounds ($850,000 C$) for an 860 square foot house in Bath?

Welcome to England.

[Legbiter]

Very heavy and unprecedented earthquakes around the affected area here. Volcanic eruption seems imminent in the next few days. Civil defence has started constructing 4km barriers around the power plant and the town of Grindavík.

[Legbiter]

Current status: 



Grindavík has been completely evacuated aside from a few policemen manning roadblocks into town. The magma intrusion is breaking through the crust so an eruption is a matter of time apparently.