unclevlad

Could be...but I'm gonna be a tad cynical here. The doctor's got a self-interest here. That said, it does seem that it's something for more media to note. If there's any media that could truly be considered impartial any more...as the typical outlets, by and large, will observe anything through their own particular color of glasses WRT the Donald....

As the story notes, it's the direct result of the push to assert that life begins at the moment of conception...that is, when fertilization occurs. They'll try to segregate natural vs. in vitro fertilization, but that won't be easy for them. And they won't want to back down on the assertion, as, if not then, then...when? And that opens the door back for abortions. Politically, this also just brings the issues right back, front and center...and this is a very, very bad weak policy point for the Republicans. "See? Here they go again, here's Republican policy at work. IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?" It's much easier to push this point when it's still fresh.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/why-trend-of-college-football-coaches-bolting-to-nfl-taking-lesser-job-titles-has-no-end-in-sight/ Interesting take. I rather like this: You've also got massive rosters to oversee...and whose bad behavior will reflect on the head coach to a degree...massive coaching staffs to monitor, and boosters whose self-interest and self-motivation may not mesh with rules. Note that head basketball coaches have many of the same pressures, altho their overall programs are much smaller. The basketball coaches generally *can't* leave, tho...a college head coach at, say, a .500-level, group of 5 program that makes the ESPN "we need programming" bowls pretty often, can move to a coordinator at a middling Power 4 school. The middling Power 4 head coach can shoot for an NFL coordinator, or probably even just a position coach, if they are feeling burned out. Even a few years of pay, at the rate power conference HCs get paid, likely means they can be set for life...see for example https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2023/10/03/look-updated-big-12-coaches-salaries-for-2023/

And in the continuing exhibition of ineptness, then NCAA lost in court *again*. This time, it's a temporary injunction barring them from enforcing their rules about using NIL during recruitment, until a final decision can be reached. The judge said the rules likely violate anti-trust laws.

No, I don't think that's the take...because the line about "God's will" and "an affront to God" was written by the Alabama Supreme Court's Chief Justice. Therefore this isn't political, in the sense of worrying about losing votes. It's purely ideological. IF you accept the notion that life begins at the moment of conception, and that conception occurs when sperm and egg are combined, and last, that the fact that it occurs in a wholly unnatural manner...a procedure in a lab...is not relevant...then life has begun. The motivation doesn't matter. The intervention needed to achieve this, doesn't matter. It's a highly literal, very rigid interpretation. And there's also this: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/politics/alabama-ivf-treatment-law.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Xk0.GZqq.8PtvcsEey9yi&smid=url-share There doesn't appear to be much backing from even the conservative politicians or the anti-abortion side.

A local SF station said "can't post it, it's NSFW." The Twitter post has also been deleted. Yeah, I think I first heard about this a couple days ago from the Athletic, but now, the criticism's everywhere. It'll be interesting to see how much and how fast Nike can respond.

The tournament selection commttee released its initial top 16 a week ago. Since then, 9 of them have lost a game. That's how insane a season it's been. #1 UConn got mugged at Creighton...but the Blue Jays were #15 at the time. #2 Purdue lost to an Ohio State team that fired its coach for being 4-11 in conference. UConn has 2 losses; Purdue and Houston, 3. Dayton at #16 has 4...but no one else in the top 25 has fewer than 5 losses. Some of this is, Dayton, Colorado State, and Saint Mary's are the only non-Power 6 (Big East counts in hoops) teams. The mid-majors are almost totally shut out of the rankings this year. That might, in part, be due to cannibalization by the conferences.

ARGH......the latest Microsoft intrusion is *their* AI, Copilot. A preview version was forced onto my desktop by the latest downgrade...I mean, Windows Update. FORTUNATELY it can be disabled. For now. But this is Microsoft, and they'll likely try to force it down our throats by making it a "core feature" of the OS....

ARRRGGHHhhhhh.... MLB Network will have multiple games...a few live, but most of em time-shifted, VERY often into graveyard hours...like, 10 PM Saturday night, then 1, 3, 6, and 8 am Sunday morning, Eastern time. But the MLB Network listings STILL say "games subject to local blackout rules." Even tho they're pre-season, time-shifted, and very often compressed replays.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos in test tubes are children under state law. From the NYT: This is part of the equation as well for some conservatives...the religious angle, and the supremacy of what they view as "God's will."

Ugly... That was Monday. Conference handed out punishments today. 4 players (3 AM-C, 1 IW) suspended for 3 games; 3 other IW players suspended 2 games, and 1 other AM-C for 1 game.

You're talking about impacts to the player and to the campaign...not to the character. I'll also note that this is MicroLad hijacking the entire game, should you do it. Not that it's wrong per se, but that's the impact, and that's something I grew very leery about a long time ago. It's also part of the reason why I agree with RavenX99...especially with an NPC, this'd become just a plot device. And yes, with an NPC, points are NOT a primary concern.

You're trying to make a points analysis, rather than a character impact analysis. If this was a PC, getting taken out of the campaign for a month, would you not say this was *incredibly* extreme? How is this any different from being captured, in any meaningful way??? The impact is that the person cannot interact with the world *at all* while this is the case. So...microverse or a prison cell, who cares? That's a meaningless distinction.

Extreme Physical Limitation. Wrote up this one: Phys. Lim.: When fully shrunk, 8- to fall into the microverse for 1d6 weeks (Infrequently; Fully Impairing) Or, alternately, Extreme Side Effect. Extreme starts at -1. If it always happened, it'd go to -2. OK, so for something intermediate...happens on an 8- might be another -1/4, 11- another -1/2. You're saying the NPC's power simply does this sometimes, and he's got no control...so I'm taking the additional -1 for "it always happens" and reducing it based on how often it happens.

For another point of comparison? https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Professor-Salary-in-Berkeley,CA This is at UC Berkeley...they're putting the average at about $135K. For someone with a doctorate. Or, if you prefer, registered nurse: https://www.indeed.com/career/registered-nurse/salaries/CA Registered nurse is where you start needing a degree. So, yeah, clearly, someone flipping burgers deserves the same pay as a trained medical professional....

2 adults charged with murder in the KC parade shooting. Ballistics matched the shots that killed the DJ to the gun of one of them. The charge is felony murder in the 2nd degree. Missouri law says So even someone who didn't fire the fatal shot...it won't matter. Someone died. This is on top of the 2 minors charged. Story in the NYT says the other defendant told detectives, "just being stupid." Yeah, I'd say so, man. Really, really stupid. And it's basically cost you anything like a normal life from here on.

Yeah, that's the main thing...this isn't even a 20% increase, 30% increase...it's a massive increase. Historical precedents don't apply because the magnitude of the increase is so large.

The first point...probably very little individually, because the corporate execs get that little bit from *every* McDs, in some way or another...because corporate charges for basically every item that has a logo. There's 36,000 of em, and sales estimates are 2.5 BILLION burgers per year. And you may have picked a bad example: https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/mcdonalds-ceo-chris-kempczinski-got-big-raise-last-year The McD's CEO is making about...a penny a burger. You're not counting correctly. As I said...at dinner, IIRC, we ran about 15 people. *2* of them would be the people making the burgers. You have to factor in the register people, the food runners, etc. And you misunderstood. The labor rate at that point was expected to be kept to about 15% of sales. That aggregates all employees (other than the manager) and all items. The actual cost of labor to the menu price is an approximation that's based on the typical cost of labor compared to the gross receipts. And, sure, it's not entirely true that raising the minimum wage will cause prices to rise. Raising prices will cost some business, so it's not the first choice. One can look for other cost savings...streamline operations, perhaps. That's why the salads went *poof*...and the Filet o Fish is only available at Lent. (ESPECIALLY with McNuggets. They're both fried, but you can't use the same oil, so you need 2 fry vats. McNuggets are popular enough.) Cut down serving size...that's tricky for McD's, but I've known companies that did. My most commonly used coffee roaster dropped bag weight from 12 ounces to 11 ounces. Shift around perks...that roaster does free shipping at $50. Well, maybe raise it to $60 or $70. Before the pandemic, a local supermarket pretty often did $5 off your next $75 purchase...ok, well, not a lot but every little bit helps. They ran that for 3-4 weeks, and fairly often. Now? Nowhere near as often. You're not considering that this will reflect throughout the supply chain. The food costs will also go up 20-30%. Power will go up...probably less, as I doubt labor is a large driver of power costs...but it'll still go up. Say, 5%? And so on, and so on. And remember...there'll be increases at each step of the supply chain. The farmers will need to charge more, because their expenses go up. That means the intermediate producers like the bakers, they'll be paying more...and paying more in wages. This doesn't have an impact in isolation. So the actual increase is likely significantly higher than 50%. Nor would your take-home increase nearly as much; if nothing else, your taxes would jump greatly: https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets If (single) you went from $30,000 to $100,000 taxable, at $30K nothing's higher than 12%. At $100K, the bulk is taxed at 22%. Your deductions won't change...but they'll remain fixed, whereas your gross income jumps a LOT. (I transitioned from working for the state, to being a contractor, before I retired...so I got the state pension AND my salary as the contractor, which was similar. In essence, what I was getting in retirement funds from the state, were all getting taxed at the higher level.) And as I said earlier: the $50/hour might be sensible for SF, LA, San DIego...but not statewide. It's too much. The middle class IS being priced out of the major cities...but the solution isn't an across-the-board, massive increase in the minimum wage. What is? I have no clue, it's not my field. This isn't fancy economics, just from bits and pieces picked up over the years. Like...when I worked for the state, they charged the contract, IIRC, about twice what they paid me. Why? THEIR costs had to be covered. The hourly rate *to me* was based on 2080 hours...but the contract was billed at a rate to cover only 1800 hours or so...because they can't charge the contract for the annual leave, the sick leave, or the holidays. State pension...the employer share was 8%. Social security, 6%. I worked in an office in a state building most of the time...so facilities costs. The state's contribution to health insurance. ALL of those have to be billed to the contract I was working on, and probably others I can't recall right now. In fact, when I switched to the contractor, part of the motivation was because the employee's contribution to the state pension plan disappeared...that was due to rise to, IIRC, 9%. Factors like this are often why paying 4 people, 10 hours of overtime each, is FREQUENTLY cheaper than hiring a 5th person...because overtime generally has a lower loaded rate. If nothing else...leave/holidays don't get tossed on. Some years back, one of the El Paso bankers said "every dollar you put into El Paso banks comes back to create $7 in economic activity." Believe that's right, those ads were ages ago. They loan money to businesses, that creates jobs, those jobs help create more jobs. 1000 new production jobs like, say, making furniture, *also* creates more food service jobs, hair salon/barber shop jobs, teacher jobs, etc. etc. I spend time on a watch forum. A whine I saw periodically was the "gouging" going on for precious-metal watches, that the surcharge was WAY!!!! over the value of the metal itself. Yes, well, those people just proved they knew nothing about econ. The cost to produce an item is based on the cost of materials, the cost of labor, amortization of major production equipment, facilities costs, and probably a few other aspects slipping my mind. Going from a steel case (most common) to a gold case *greatly* increases the cost of materials; the cost of steel can be considered basically zero, compared to gold. Everything else should more or less be fixed. So...ok, why does the company sell the gold watch for SO MUCH more than the gold cost would justify? Because that's the cost to manufacture. At every step from there on out...the price doubles. That's the typical maxim. From manufacturer to distributor to retailer...2 levels, so the cost reflects 4x the cost of materials. The point I'm making: these forces don't just work in isolation. Attempting to raise the minimum wage so *sharply* is basically printing money...it's massively inflationary.

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WAY back in the day when I worked at a McDs, there were times when different costs, such as labor, or waste...throwing out burgers that'd sat too long...came up. IIRC, the goal was to keep labor to about 15% of receipts. This wouldn't remain that way, but figure, even if labor in Cali is 10% of receipts, then $150 retail at $15 per hour, means $135 in Other Expenses and profit. To keep things constant, you're looking at about 3% increase when labor rose to $20 per hour. But to $50, you need $185 in sales...perhaps $190 because there's likely secondary costs like unemployment insurance, paid for by the company, that would rise...to keep the $135 in non-labor charges. NOW we're talking a 20-30% price increase, and the labor costs represent over 25% of the receipts. That will drive factors like hours; it's too expensive in base labor costs to be open too early, or stay open too late. It may drive menu choices; McD's is reported to have dropped its salads because demand was low, and prep time was high...well, make labor that expensive, and that only gets worse. (Subscriber only but the headline should be enough: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-09/mcdonald-s-is-cutting-healthy-food-to-speed-up-wait-times?sref=P6xXtEaF)

The lead paragraph of the USA Today article I linked earlier: Mmm...Statista disagrees. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274326/big-mac-index-global-prices-for-a-big-mac/ It's a push, according to them. Plus, it's the sheer magnitude of the wage jump. From $15/hour to $20/hour is 33%. From $20 to $50 an hour is 150%. The dinner crew when I worked at McDs...40-odd years ago...was probably about 15 people, IIRC. 5 register people (we had 6 registers), 4 in the grill area, 1 on fries/shakes, probably 2 on drive-through when that came in, and some for lobby, stocking, dishes, and possibly gathering food orders. Plus at least 1 manager. IIRC...we'd probably handle 200 or so separate orders in that hour. If labor cost goes from $300 for that hour, to $700...how can that NOT result in a price increase?

Cite for what? That she doesn't recognize it? I'm implying that. That prices will have to rise...does that even need a cite?

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The discrepancy in cost of living from areas like San Fran, versus elsewhere, is a major problem. https://livingcost.org/cost/united-states/ca She's picking the most expensive city in Cali by that article; Kiplinger's has a 10 most expensive in the US. San Jose is #3, San Fran is #4...and that's in the country. #2 is Honolulu , #1 is Manhattan. So, she might arguably have a case *in San Francisco*...and LA, and San Diego...but not necessarily for many other parts of California. She also, as Hugh suggests, doesn't recognize that businesses would be forced to raise prices substantially, particularly fast food and small retail. To the business, it's not just the wages. That $50/hour isn't the final cost to them...not even close. Every employer has to kick in 6.2% to Social Security. There's worker's comp and unemployment insurance. The salaried employees won't be happy if the hourlies get a massive raise, and they don't get *something*...even assuming they actually don't get a big raise in the first place. (I never made $50/hour.) The cost for full-time, full-benefits salaried employees is MUCH higher than simply their salaries. EDIT: she's also not considering that not everyone has a family. $127K *for a family of four*. But the wage is gonna get paid to singles too...or to 2-income, no-children couples. To teenagers at the big fast food places. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/11/01/chipotle-mcdonalds-raising-prices-california/71408254007/

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