Fear the zombees, Nathalie!

Can't focus on news today, too busy wondering why the hell that annoying and ludicrous lens flare is in the "tech startup" stock footage.

Do you have Agnieszka Olek's email address? This needs to be directly addressed.

@2:

I blame JJ Abrams. And then, of course, the Democrats...

"Seattle Is the Hottest Market for Tech Expansion"

See kids, stop it with the gender studies or poetry therapy majors, start studying software development and you won't be a p*ssed off barista with a neon-dyed, weed whacker haircut complaining about the rents and capitalism for the next 2 decades.

Also, a "better dad" probably wouldn't have encouraged his kid to take up a career driving massively overpowered automobiles that are prone to crashing into each other at ridiculously high speeds in the first place.

@ 4,

Until AI rolls in with the ability to learn and create its own software. Sure will be a whole lot of former software engineers and computer programmers looking for work after that upends the tech industry.

"Until AI rolls in with the ability to learn and create its own software. "

Which is why you continually educate yourself on your field to keep up and make yourself;f irreplaceable. Lots of people do that.

But no doubt, it's hard work, so make it a double shot little lad.

When AI's take over the sock puppet trolling, there's going to be some unhappy folks.

@11 That is actually a false statement, David in Shoreline, oddly enough (as I know you never make those).

Hey maybe you can fill us in here, being one of the very few articulate deplorables on the face of this earth: immigration, illegal or otherwise is not in the top 10 of dire challenges this country faces, probably not in the top 20. Decreasing for years, fairly trivial. And yet it became the number one issue in the 2016 election and is still the number one issue that gets Trump supporters riled up. Can you provide some other reason this would be the case other than the obvious one: you are all a bunch of racist pieces of shit?

@11: Awww you're still upset about yesterday aren't you? What was it you said about the ICE protest in Portland? Something about the protesters should get comfortable because we were in for 2 more years of zero tolerance? And yet that office was shut down within hours and today 45 has backed down completely on his little attempts.
Poor, poor you.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-will-stop-prosecuting-parents-who-cross-the-border-illegally-with-children-official-says/2018/06/21/4902b194-7564-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.59b8c53f7045

@4 I'm sure that some baristas, and people in other fields (or no fields) have tried IT education but have found that they didn't have the knack for it; Programming appears to require a certain logic aptitude for mastering such work and not everybody has it, which doesn't mean they're stupid or lazy, but that it isn't their forte.

That being said, the political actors in the region should be a bit more creative in developing a diverse economy outside of the tech paradigm so that one can make a gainful living around here in trades other than bits and bytes.

@4:

But then of course they'd all have to deal with people like you, so, you know, there are always downsides...

"But then of course they'd all have to deal with people like you, so, you know, there are always downsides..."

I can barely sync my iPhone, so no, not a techie. But you may welll see me at the coffee shop if you get one of those useless degrees, so be a good chap, make the espresso well and maybe they'll be a tip in it for you.

FYI I'll bet they were yellowjackets (wasps) if that makes you feel better. Honeybees will live in semi-buried stumps but I haven't seen them in an under-the-driveway situation. Bumblebees live underground but not in giant hordes.

@4 & 19: why exactly do you feel that tech degrees and only tech degrees have any value? You know it's not true. People with a liberal arts degree make up the bulk of the workforce across all professions including the military. I have a degree in costume design, and besides working in that field what I learned has translated into all the other jobs I've had, from home loans, to public health, to aerospace materials, and yes, slinging coffee.
My brother got a degree in English literature and ended up a fighter pilot.
My father has a degree in History and used it in his career in aerospace contracts. My best friend has a degree in medieval history and went on to be a VP at a global insurance company.
And all that doesn't even touch the fact that there are whole trade fields hurting for lack of people because of the position you hold, that only tech degrees are worthwhile.

@21: Read the article punkin.

@21 So I take you can't explain it then? Figured as much. You, David in Shoreline, are not personally a racist (evidence: you respect your Asian colleagues, like many racists for whom Asians are the 'good kind' of minority/immigrant), and yet mysteriously illegal immigration, basically a non-issue compared to the many major issues facing this country, is of utmost importance to you and your fellow deplorables. How did it become so vitally important? Mysterious.

There's some great stuff in this article.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b2ba35ae4b0040e27403e42

It's really amazing how many of the folks that are calling for stricter rules on immigration had grandparents and great-grandparents that couldn't speak English for over a decade after moving here, and couldn't pass citizenship test on the first try.

Trump's grandfather immigrated here from Germany to dodge the draft.

resistancegenealogy

That should read:

resistancegenealogy

Or did slog remove the pound sign?

Slog is stripping the pound signs out of hashtags now?

So it's a long, sad story, but the reason the UN left the details of the gas attacks out of their report is that the details have changed so much between the initial reports of the bombings and today.

At first the gas was a "nerve agent" that only Russia could produce, then it was sarin for a little while, then it was old-fashioned mustard gas, and now it's a "chlorine agent." The NY Times, it's worth noting, reported every one of these as fact at some point. And since there aren't any foreign reporters or independent investigators in the country at all, we might never get any well-corroborated stories about what happened, let alone definitive physical evidence.

But there isn't any doubt that bombs dropped and people and children were killed and all of that is horrible, and the UN included this in their report.

David in Shoreline why do you have a problem with people "not speaking English in public situations"? I utterly and totally don't get this, really can't imagine being personally bother by people flapping open their faces and making the sounds of some other meaning-code I don't understand. What's it to you?

@19:

You should probably pay more attention next time you order your triple-tall half-caf/half-decaf almond mochaccino, just to make sure you don't end up with some extra ingredients from your barista's "secret menu".

@35:

He's probably just afraid they're making snide comments about him to his face, but of course he can't understand them, so it just fuels his narcissististic/paranoid inner monologue: "Are they talking about me? I hope they're talking about me! WHY ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT ME?!?"

@30: Huh. I had no problem and I don't subscribe either. Maybe they have a number of free reads limit like The NY Times?
You think Drudge is news source?
Did you check Info Wars too? I mean to do your due diligence?

Of the opinion, but can you give me evidence the multilingualism causes societies to fall apart?

English helps in the job market, but many people use English at work and other languages everywhere else. Many people won't ever be in the job market (older Chinese parents of well-compensated tech workers for instance).

I think that probably your distaste isn't really the product of concern for the well being of American culture and immigrants, but that rather you beard zenophobia in those good intentions.

Maybe negative emotions aroused by foreigners are natural - easy enough to speculate their adaptive advantage. I do sometimes find the cacophony of foreign language voices unnerving when I'm traveling. But you seem like a rational guy - don't let your feelings steer your intellect from the back seat on this issue. It ain't such a problem, nearly all people are cool and there certainly are benefits to living around a variety of cultural expressions!