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Accountability Sinks

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Re: Accountability Sinks

#311

Post by cjbgkagh »

amluto wrote: post #230
macNchz wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been on both sides of this—working behind a counter and answering phones at various jobs long ago, and being someone who often surprises family and friends with my ability to extract good outcomes from customer service—I think it’s somewhat of a misconception that being as unpleasant as possible is actually effective at getting results. I fully understand that the godawful CS mazes many companies set up wind u…

As an exception to the exception, a lot of automated telephone systems have a tree of options, and they try really hard to avoid giving you a real person, and none of the options are helpful. But some of them are programmed to detect swearing and direct users to a representative. So a valid strategy is to swear at the automated system and then be polite to the real human that you get.

Another one is to say random words and they’ll think you have a disability, but be careful saying random words will mess with your head a bit.

Perhaps prepare by pre-generating a list of random words to read.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#312

Post by alganet »

That is some Tetsuo level bullshit.

Did you already engulfed precious North American spirit in the process, thus, killing it by suffocating it in nonsensical debate?

Let us know when that happens so we can wake up Akira.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#313

Post by npteljes »

paganel wrote: post #233
npteljes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Not specific to the Dutch at all. Worldwide practice. 2. These are also human traits! Maybe not so much humane traits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling

> Worldwide practice. For sure we don't do that sociopathic thing here in Romania. Ok, I get it, the regulations were set in stone, but after shredding (again, what the flying fuck?!?!) the first animal hasn't any of those Dutch employees just stopped and ask themselves: "What the hell are we doing here?". It certainly explains Anne Frank, after all she was violating the regulations that were in place back then in th…

Dug around a little, found this map:

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1hbmivg/which_count...

So at least in 2023, no bans were in place in Romania for this practice.

I'm not entirely sure why it makes sense to distinguish between nations, with regards to questionable practices. A nation is large, with many different people in it. So, there will be many on each "degree of madness" as you call it. Over the course of a long history and a numerous population, you will every bad practice that you can think of, and then some.

This has nothing to do with nation - people themselves are like this, everywhere. In fact, I think that it's very dangerous to put it like that, to distance oneself so much from the horrific acts. I believe that the capability to turn on the chick shredding machine exists between you and me just as much as they do in the people who currently operate these machines. Bad acts are way easier than they seem, and, depending on circumstances of course, it takes a lot of resolution and work to build a kind and wholesome life.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#314

Post by latexr »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #308
latexr wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced Section 31, an organisation which regularly acted in the way you describe the characters from 24. They operated outside official channels and used questionable methods to do whatever was necessary “for the good of the Federation”. The character of Odo criticised it well: > Interesting, isn’t it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31’s tactics, but when they need the dirty wor…

DS9 had an actual instance of torture too, but it was a hero being tortured by... half-hero, half anti-hero[0]? Not sure that one led anywhere, beyond being a very disturbing way to do character development. Section 31 angle is tricky, because the writers unintentionally[1] made them literally save the entire alpha and beta quadrants, and possibly the entire galaxy, from slow-burn genocide . The Dominion was known to…

> DS9 had an actual instance of torture too, but it was a hero being tortured by... half-hero, half anti-hero

If you’re talking about Garak torturing Odo, that seems different than the 24 case because in that instance Garak was explicitly working for “the bad guys”. And even so he was doing the torturing reluctantly and only doing so because the alternative was the torturing being done by another operative which wouldn’t restrain themselves. In other words, in that instance the show was explicitly treating torture as bad.

> made them literally save the entire alpha and beta quadrants, and possibly the entire galaxy, from slow-burn genocide.

Technically it wasn’t the disease which defeated the Founders, though I supposed one can argue it debilitated them enough. Even so, despite the results I didn’t feel like the show was necessarily approving of Section 31 (the main characters actively tried to defeat them).

Re: Accountability Sinks

#315

Post by steveBK123 »

acheron wrote: post #290
steveBK123 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember US has no National ID card. America has 50 states, each state has its own ID and DMV. Plenty of Americans move states, remember some of our states are reasonably small enough that you might commute to the same NYC job from any of 4 different states. I have a friend who sequentially moved NY->NJ->CT->NY in something like 6 years. Also I forget why but when I moved WITHIN a state 10 years ago, it required a DM…

Real ID requirements started 20 years ago, which I suppose is “recent” in government terms, but not really. In some states everyone has already had a Real ID compliant license for years. In others, notably California, they’ve been kicking the can down the road the entire time.

Well this year supposedly they are finally going to be required at airports so it’s really real :-)

Re: Accountability Sinks

#316

Post by scotty79 »

barrucadu wrote: post #265
scotty79 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Dogs also taste good but they are way less convenient to raise per kilogram of meat then cows. That's one of the main reasons we rather eat cows, pigs and poultry than dogs, dolphins, squirrels or guinea pigs. People do a lot of expensive and wasteful things just because they are convenient in many domains of life. Meat isn't tasty. If it was you wouldn't always eat it fried almost to a char with salt and spices.…

> Meat isn't tasty. If it was you wouldn't always eat it fried almost to a char with salt and spices. Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "steak".

Buy your steak, toss in a pot of unsalted water. Cook for a while to make it edible. Eat it when hungry. Tell me again how tasty the meat is.

Do the same with rice, potatoes or lentils and you'll have completely different experience. Pick any fruit. There's even no need to boil. Tasty from the get go.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#317

Post by zhivota »

latexr wrote: post #206
xg15 wrote: post #49

One example that's missing from the list is the TV series 24. A recurring plot point was that, yes, of course torture is bad and it's against the rules and we don't do it, etc etc, but it just so happens that here is such an exceptional, unprecedented, deeply urgent emergency situation where we need to have the information now or horrible things will happen, we need the hero who breaks the rules and goes on torturing…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced Section 31, an organisation which regularly acted in the way you describe the characters from 24. They operated outside official channels and used questionable methods to do whatever was necessary “for the good of the Federation”. The character of Odo criticised it well: > Interesting, isn’t it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31’s tactics, but when they need the dirty wor…

Sounds a lot like Special Circumstances in The Culture books.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#318

Post by scotty79 »

the_af wrote: post #193
scotty79 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Dogs also taste good but they are way less convenient to raise per kilogram of meat then cows. That's one of the main reasons we rather eat cows, pigs and poultry than dogs, dolphins, squirrels or guinea pigs. People do a lot of expensive and wasteful things just because they are convenient in many domains of life. Meat isn't tasty. If it was you wouldn't always eat it fried almost to a char with salt and spices.…

> If it was you wouldn't always eat it fried almost to a char with salt and spices. I agree with the rest of your comment, except this. You eat your meat "always fried to a char"? What? Also, I barely add some salt to it. Many people add way too much salt though.

By almost char I meant browning.

Salt is cheating. Add salt to any fat and it's immediately tasty.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#319

Post by zhivota »

hakfoo wrote: post #266
reneherse wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the difference in this show as well, and I hope it continues. Besides any conscious philosophy of the producers & writers, perhaps making the show more character driven as opposed to procedural has an impact on the stories. Maybe it's easier to understand when a suspect's rights are being violated (and to not be banal about it) when you're writing a deeper portrayal of the person who wields the power.

I always wanted to see a "pop up video" take on a cop show, where they have expository information and trivia from actual legal experts. "Officer Jones just blew the entire chain of custody around the bloody knife" "Flabbodell vs Borkweather says they have to give you access to counsel within X hours and they just ran out the clock" "This type of traffic stop is explicitly forbidden in 17 states, including the one th…

The sad thing about all those observations is, all these things surely happen anyway, and lots of people end up in jail anyway, because they don't have good representation to point out how they've been railroaded and they've got a plea bargain dangling in front of them.

Re: Accountability Sinks

#320

Post by mucle6 »

crazygringo wrote: post #225
oleggromov wrote: post #37

I once booked a plane ticket from my home town airport to another country. The purchase notification said something like "PVA" instead of "POV". I looked it up and turned out, the newly built airport that had this exact code was about to open. In a week or so, so I assumed that I'm indeed flying from the new one and forgot about it. The purchase was made through a booking aggregator similar to Expedia. On the day of…

> So I thought that the problem could be solved by just arriving there by any other flight, which I booked almost immediately. Why did you do that? Especially when that cost you extra money? You should have talked to the airline directly, explained you'd missed your flight because they gave you the wrong airport, and the airline would have rebooked you and everything would have been fine. People miss flights all the…

This reminds me of the quote "I know just enough to be dangerous"

I wonder how long until we have an AI on our shoulder saying "Hey why are you booking a new flight, there is a better option"

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