Link Log for August 9

Yes, this is part of my regular work week. (Due to my Seventh-Day Adventist years, Saturday is my regular day of rest, and Friday is the day when I gear down from hack writing to social networking.) Categories: Economy, Kindness, Obituary, Pictures, Politics, Psychology.

Economy 

Elizabeth Barrette sounds angry and rude...and right. This link is recommended to employers only, especially the ones who aren't hiring us able-bodied, active, experienced, talented, in many cases still decent-looking, and modest baby-boomers (many of whom are willing to work as independent contractors) 'cos they want to hire kids for the minimum wage instead, and then they whine because nineteen-year-olds tend to act like nineteen-year-olds. Nineteen-year-olds are obsessed with their social lives, they think anybody else is interested in their social lives, they try to act as if they knew it all when they don't have a clue, they see nothing wrong with taking two-hour lunch breaks and texting their friends during what's left of their on-the-clock hours, and they spend hours in the bathroom, just the way we did at their age. If you're a baby-boomer or older and you want to hire a baby-boomer or older person, write the contract already. If you want to hire a younger person, try to remember being one, and appreciate what you get. (And if you're a nineteen-year-old, scroll down, thanks.)

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3746556.html

Kindness, Random Act of, Recommended 

We should always encourage cancer survivors. Steve Mack may not be a survivor for very long. If you've not already signed his petition to Wells Fargo Bank to return the money they owe him, you may want to read it here.

Obituary 

Rest in peace, Frank Gifford.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/09/pro-football-hall-of-famer-broadcaster-frank-gifford-dies-at-84/

Pictures 

U.S. readers whose computers can handle lots of color pictures won't want to miss this look at vintage Japanese paintings of American tourists. (Note the colors of the faces.) Thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for the link.

http://qz.com/473721/150-year-old-images-reveal-what-japanese-artists-once-thought-about-exotic-american-visitors/

Politics 

What fun! Norb Leahy likes the same candidates I do and has written up the facts that support our preference, leaving me more time to research and write about topics like customer product reviews for refrigerators (people pay for that). Thanks awfully NTL! Megadittos!

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/08/picking-candidate.html

AMAC members say Fiorina won the Republican debate:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/09/shocker-new-poll-says-trump-lost-gop-debate-to-someone-who-wasnt-even-on-stage-with-him/?

Note the misleading method of the Synthesio poll. Comparing which of ten people generated the most mentions on Twitter is quick and easy to do with a computer, but it doesn't tell you which of those people were tweeting "Candidate X won" versus "Candidate X lost" and "Candidate X would be a disaster" and "What was going on with Candidate X?" I've posted a few comments about Bogus-As-His-Hair, the Pathological Narcissist, and if other people have risked being accused of "buzz" for this candidate by using his name I used it too; that certainly doesn't mean I'd vote for him (not for dogcatcher), nor does it mean I think he seriously intends or wants to win, either. Bogus-As-His-Hair is working for Hillary Clinton.

Psychology 

Can empathy be taught? Roman Krznaric thinks so:

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=6399

But actually his article felt sort of icky to me. Why? Maybe because I like the privacy inside my own skin. I don't want anybody working this hard to empathize with me; I find it hard to imagine that others want me (or anybody else) working this hard to empathize with them. Listening when I speak (without distracting yourself by trying to stare at my eyes, which, due to astigmatism, will "say" some irrelevant things about their own condition for a minute or two before they "say" anything about you) is fine. Listening should be enough. Don't try to crawl inside my skin!

(This is somewhat related to my peeve about advertisers trying to spy on what we do and don't read, online, to figure out what to advertise to us. I actually feel less hostility toward advertisements that just display one message to everybody than toward advertisements that try to "target" me. I do not enjoy feeling like a target. Does anyone?)