Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: NHL Hockey thread

Last post by Grey Fox - Today at 07:12:48 PM

It's a violent contact sport, it's not handball.

#2

Off the Record / Re: NHL Hockey thread

Last post by viper37 - Today at 06:52:52 PM

I haven't watched a game yet in the playoffs, but all I see are clips of dirty hits and near dirty hits or very rough play.

Not encouraging. 

#3

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 05:55:18 PM

The news I saw makes it appear more of a promotion... (of sorts) 

No apparently that security council thing is a meaningless position with no power. At best an advisory board. A far cry from having command over the Russian military.

#4

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 05:34:43 PM

The news I saw makes it appear more of a promotion... (of sorts) 

#5

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by garbon - Today at 04:50:30 PM

University here is pretty cheap...all things being relative. 

#6

Off the Record / Re: Vote in the Catalan electi...

Last post by celedhring - Today at 04:46:00 PM

They have been in

What the hell happened to the Cs? They went from like 25% of the vote to nothing in what seems like five minutes.

Many things, none of them good. My general theory is that they were a coalition of very disparate elements tenuously held by opposition to Catalan nationalism. As the threat waned so did the glue that held the party together, and Vox captured the full-throated anti-separatist vote anyway. A bunch of miscalculations, intestine infighting, and being completely outplayed by PP in the game of thrones didn't help either.

#7

Off the Record / Re: Vote in the Catalan electi...

Last post by Valmy - Today at 04:30:26 PM

What the hell happened to the Cs? They went from like 25% of the vote to nothing in what seems like five minutes.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2024

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:08:45 PM

Right, which is why I am not sure you made a comment about there being a gap between truth and malice.

I thought it was striking - and still do - that in one court you have a finding of no libel because of the defence of truth and in another a finding of libel with actual malice. The gap between those two results seems pretty huge.

Roger Corman, legendary B-movie producer and director. Helped launch many New Hollywood directors.

RIP indeed

Went through a big phase of watching a fair few of his films (I don't think anyone, not even Corman, could have watched them all). Honestly I associated him with 50s and 60s Vincent Price films - I had no idea he was still alive.

#9

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:03:55 PM

Oh yeah. They definitely exist but in pretty pathetic numbers.
It is a common populist chant from old folk out of touch with the real world - "you shouldn't just hire foreigners. You should train up local kids instead! "
Which... Aye. Naiive in the extreme. I completely understand why companies tend not to do this. Do it and your less socially conscious competitors can just use the money saved not training to poach any good people you've trained or hire in people ready to go without having to wait years for them to skill up.
I do think this is where it works well with trades and less academic stuff, as very often a lot of the work is just about having an extra body to help with the heavy stuff. Apprentices aren't just a drain as they can be in professional jobs.

I think it works very well with vocational areas - which includes law, accountancy. I'd also welcome nursing and teaching going back to having a purely vocational route.

There are big tax benefits for having an apprenticeship scheme which is part of why law and accountancy firms have invested into it.

But is a different type of route and needs resourcing from the company and a bit of thinking about how to make it work.

That would definitely help. I've regularly heard of people looking for apprenticeships and having no clue where to start, basically just asking if anyone knows anyone.
[...]
The women thing is a problem.
My joiner-dad had a female apprentice a decade or so back.
I've heard tell she has had big trouble getting work since with a lot of management saying amongst themselves "so if we have a woman on site then we would need an extra toilet and a special bin for pads and all that. It's just extra trouble"
Considering exactly following the rules is rare in that industry... They're keen to avoid being stuck to them.
Illegal and discriminatory and shit but I do get their reasoning within their own thought process. I suspect the solution can't just lie in threats for discrimination.

Yeah and as I say I think this would be helped by a more consolidated industry. I'm not sure how you encourage that though.

And you've slipped into just looking at the higher end.
There's tonnes of graduates out there in call centres and other low paid white collar work.
Yes, in terms of overall export value to the economy it's services that really do it. But how many people actually work in this top end consulting place?
There's a whole economy of less immediately rewarding not particularly exportable work providing a foundation behind this, which is suffering.

Not really. My point is that higher education is shaped by our economic structure and people are doing vocational degrees because there's demand from both sides for it - and are in every other sector. The reason 75% of students are doing law, accountancy, business, medical professions is because our big exporters are professional services and (as everywhere else in the West) healthcare is also a sector with a lot of demand for graduates. It's not culture and we can't just magic that economy into something else (I'm not sure we should necessarily want to either).

Call centres typically don't require degrees - as I say this is the Tory line of higher education churning out people with shit degrees going into shit jobs and it's not really true. It's people doing pretty useful degrees and going into everyday jobs. All of the administration and management and project management etc in the NHS, all across the civil service, in every big-ish company (it's just we also export it as consultancy). But the reality is the vast majority of students are not doing Media Studies and then ending up trapped in a call centre they're vastly overqualified for. That's a tabloid stereotype.

In the UK I don't know anyone (well. Garbon? Ish?) unless it's someone making a big conscious career switch.
The cost is a huge part of it absolutely.
But then just signing on to do a course at a local uni is a pita. Admissions are very focussed on this yearly cycle for whole degrees.
Pre brexit I did quite a few courses over the years with Swedish unis. The only thing hindering me being the low number of remote courses that were relevant and I was qualified for (Swedish being a key thing missing) . If it was local and in my language....

Universities normally run all sorts of short courses and certificates, same for FE colleges (which are funded by local councils so fucked). But looking up stats and apparently 44% of adults in the UK have taken part in some sort of formal learning in the last three years and 55% of full-time workers are doing it right now.

It looks more common as you get older (wealth and, I suspect, kids growing up probably being key factors) and there's a big socio-economic split.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 03:57:53 PM

Shoigu has been sacked. I heard during the arrest of that corrupt colonel that this was a big hit for Shoigu and it likely was the first step in getting rid of him, the only question being whether Putin would be forced to fire him or if he wanted to.