The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

Release bears. That'll teach them wolves

We will get there - along with a wolf and bear habitat assessment required to build a shed

[HVC]

Release bears. That'll teach them wolves

We will get there - along with a wolf and bear habitat assessment required to build a shed

I think Eurasian bears are bigger, but grizzlies are meaner. Grizzlies do kills wolves though, so who knows might work

Just don't release boars. Ecological disaster in NA. Canadian super pigs (Feral pigs rebred with and domestic pigs) are wreaking havoc. Domestic pig size mixed with wild pig meanness.

[Valmy]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/05/france-prepares-to-ban-vegetarian-products-from-using-meaty-language

Wait so you are telling me vegan sausage contains no actual pig intestine?!

[Sheilbh]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/05/france-prepares-to-ban-vegetarian-products-from-using-meaty-language

Reminds me of the European Court of Justice decision banning the use of words like "milk" or "butter" or "cheese" for vegan products. I think Oatly (who are Swedish) are now leading a fight to stop regulations banning the use of analogies too, like "yoghurt style product". I strongly support the PDO regime but this stuff always strikes me as mad. Not least because, say, the phrase "oat milk" is in common usage - it's horse bolted, door closing.

[HVC]

I'm firmly in the camp of calling milk substitutes "nut juice" because it makes me laugh. Oatmilk complicates it. "Endosperm juice" keeps the theme. "Fetal grass juice" maybe?

[Josquius]

Cannot wait for us to ignore this and re-introduce wolves
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/04/eu-to-rethink-conservation-status-of-wolves-after-numbers-surge

I wish British people didn't mainly access nature through David Attenborough shows (and realise it's red in tooth and claw for us to triumph over ).

On the other hand I wish they'd pay more attention to David Attenborough.
I thought his latest one on how we shouldn't go so mad with the mower et al might cut through, since you can hardly call such a long standing treasure woke. But no.

[Josquius]

BTW does anyone get the financial times?
This sounds interesting but pay walled and ft seems to beat paywall dodgers.

https://www.ft.com/content/9aa0fcc0-31fb-44be-b5a0-57ceb7fb7a52

[mongers]

So I was today years old when I realized this forum has a stats page.

[Zanza]

BTW does anyone get the financial times?
This sounds interesting but pay walled and ft seems to beat paywall dodgers.

https://www.ft.com/content/9aa0fcc0-31fb-44be-b5a0-57ceb7fb7a52

If you enter the title into Google, you can often open FT articles. Worked with that one for me. Sheilbh had posted quite a bit of it in the Brexit thread some pages ago too.

[Threviel]

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230905-workers-now-face-a-hard-line-on-return-to-office-policies

Apparently the dismantling of work from home intensifies. I still don't see any good reasons for it. Less demand for office space ought to be a godsend to companies.

[Syt]

Not for the companies building/owning that office space, or tied to long term leases.

[Josquius]

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230905-workers-now-face-a-hard-line-on-return-to-office-policies

Apparently the dismantling of work from home intensifies. I still don't see any good reasons for it. Less demand for office space ought to be a godsend to companies.

It remains 10 steps forward, 5 steps back.

This logic is fucking stupid:

"There's been a shift among Fortune 500 companies, moving from a flexible hybrid strategy to a much more structured approach of set days teams are expected to be in the office," says Cassell. "And if the likes of Starbucks, Disney and Google all say they need their employees back at their desks, it's likely that smaller companies will see their example and follow suit."

The big name companies that have people queuing up to work for them can get away with worse working conditions. Smaller companies wanting to compete need to take every advantage they can get to recruit top people.


The big drawback in remote work that I see áre beyond the company itself in the decline of city centres, transit, and all the attached bad shit around that. This is a worry.

[Sheilbh]

Not for the companies building/owning that office space, or tied to long term leases.

Yeah and I'd handle JLL's data on occupancy trends with care Also a lot of that seems from a particular type of American company.

I think I posted this before - it's imperfect but interesting on how it's shaping out across the world:


It includes workers who don't get any because of their sector. But including those workers the global average is 1 day a week - I believe surveys of employees show they basically want WFH 2-3 days a week.

[crazy canuck]

And that observation is entirely consistent with employers wanting employees in the office the other days.

[DGuller]

Not for the companies building/owning that office space, or tied to long term leases.

I really don't get this conspiracy theory about companies nixing WFH to justify their office space leases.  It assumes sunk cost fallacy thinking among the companies, and a conspiracy between competitors to collectively make conditions for their workers worse so that none of them would enjoy competitive advantage from offering WFH.

I think the explanation for WFH being scaled back is the most obvious one:  companies don't think that collectively this is a good thing for them.  There is also a network effect:  you choosing to work from home makes people you collaborate with work from home as well, even if they're actually in the office.  The whole point of working in the office is that everyone you work with is in the office, not just some people.

In my company, the data scientists have been granted the option of WFH full time.  I think the effect on the culture of collaboration has been disastrous.  I personally have been working hybrid, but since most of the people I work with work remotely, I'm still essentially working remotely.  I can't wait until my company needs to "justify their lease" for the data scientists as well, I hope I'm not going to decompose before that happens.