Once upon a time in Hollywood.

Closely followed by anything that’s self-jerking Hollywood’s ego. I’m looking at you too La La Land!

Right, they’ve perfected the rocket, now we just need to load Elon onto the next flight.

Belt CVTs - I’m right there with you, but take a look into the more modern geared CVTs such as Toyota e-CVT in their hybrids - I think Honda have a similar tech. It’s a planetary gear system that provides infinite gears without the rubber band feel that plagued belt CVTs and hella-reliable.

https://youtu.be/vHc-_E8xWnM

I’m a petrolhead at heart and would love more options for manuals but in lieu of that, a geared CVT is by far the next best transmission and 100x better than a traditional auto.

Even better, jump in one and take it for a drive - because there are gears, it feels more connected to the motor - almost manual-like response and no sluggish delay like a traditional auto.

You literally pick your revs by pushing the throttle more or less, they’re magic for hills or when the car is packed since you’re never waiting for revs to climb up into the power nor holding a speed because any faster and you have to change again which takes you out of the power again. If you want more power, you simply modulate that with the throttle and the revs rise instantly to accommodate.

It could become as normal as talking about dancing:

"I went to dance class last night, only my second week so I still get nervous but it’s good fun and great exercise!

They taught the newer students a new dance and we had to partner up with someone we hadn’t danced with before. I got a lovely older lady and OMG - she was so agile she almost broke MY hip! I’m soo sore but going back tomorrow!"

New plan: we all kick out the US and we’ll invite most of the rest of the friendly countries name it the one-hundred thirty-eyes and we’ll have blackjack and hookers.

100% you are burnt out. That was me a couple of years ago in a very similar position and problems.

Find a new job while you keep working there then leave as soon as you can. If it’s legal where you are, then leave them stranded with no notice. Even if they counter-offer with a pay rise, the problems will still be there (like, why didn’t they pay you that to start with!?) as well the expectation of 150% - probably more if they’re paying you more!

Look for something completely different outside help desk/operations to give yourself a mental break and after a couple of years you may find your passion for IT comes back. Even moving to another area of IT might be enough of a change.

Good on your for recognizing it but that sort of environment can kill you and your passion if you try to push through it. Get out of there and things will get immeasurably better!

Yes!! This and Fatal Racing was my entire early teens!

A real team effort if the air traffic controllers join the effort too

gollum cough gollum

I suspect the contract means that they only actually pay for those that are played

Oh man, most of those were in place during the so called “golden age” of America. Maybe this is what the red hats have been fighting for all this time! /s

The areas don’t reflect the population, it reflects the wealth of that percentage of the population. Using the map is just so fun way to represent the values.

So, bottom of the south is the total wealth of the bottom 50% of the population (2.6m). From Kaikoura north is the wealth of the top 10% with the Auckland/Northland representing just the 1% (around 52k people) who own about the same as the bottom 50%

You’ve misread the graph (or I didn’t make it clear enough, this was 10min job!)

The land represents all of NZ’s wealth with each area highlighting the proportion owned by each percentage of the population. It is not a distribution of wealth by geographical region.

The source for the data used to build the graph is on the bottom of the image.

The source for the rest of my claims however, many can be found by a moment’s search, some others are anicdotal based on many years of watching news, learning, observing and life experience (hence the mention of the vibe).

Many of these (asset sales, welfare, tax changes, wealth redistribution, NIMBYism, trusts, productivity, union membership, productivity) and their impact on New Zealand and wealth distribution will be familiar to any kiwi who pays attention or who takes an interest.

People much smarter than me have written plenty of articles, published papers and worked through the stats over the years.

I don’t think we’re unique in the world, this impacts most countries but I believe the average kiwi doesn’t realize how bad it is and so thinks NZ is still a fair-go country.

Caused by dozens of issues over the past 50+ years:

• No1 on my list would be the demonization of unions (deserved in some cases, probably not in most), leading to reduced membership and weakened labour bargaining power
• Gradually shifting tax burden from those who could afford it (thus redistributing some of that wealth into public assets) and onto the lower-earning masses who can’t. By way of policy, tax rates, financial structure (trusts etc)
• Ongoing pro-business policy on the right with compromise worker/business friendly policy on the left
• Requiring business to prioritise profits for owners/investors, without employees having equal footing in this consideration.
• Anti competitive/duopoly businesses in almost every major sector
• All of the above leading to wage suppression
• Nepotism and racism leading to those who go to private schools more likely to land lucrative roles
• Privatisation of national assets. Sold to only those that can afford to invest (amplifying inequality) then once there is a profit incentive, only increases the costs for consumers.
• Govt getting lumped with cleaning up the carcass after private business has bled an asset dry to retain it for the national benefits or to avoid environmental damage (Kiwi Rail, Marsden point)
• Demonization of welfare meaning anyone hitting bottom just gets pushed further into the dirt
• Demonization of any attempts at wealth distribution. CGT increasing the top brackets, UBI etc.
• Low productivity. Shitty businesses run by owners/managers who can’t see past the end of their nose.
• Productivity improvements fought by the labour force because productively gains aren’t shared (less jobs)
• NIMBYism
• Short term thinking by both Govt and voters. Often caused by immediate need as more and more people become desperate and in hardship.

Probably many, many more but in summing up, it’s capitalism, it’s nepotism and racism - it’s the vibe.

Exactly! That pos has the attention span of a potato. Just tell him “yes sir, all done” and he’ll forget all about it

See the much faster leak really messing with the valve stem provides? This would be even faster if snipped rather than just removing the stem core

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbpz-JHFtO0

If you snip the stem off, the tyres will be flat very quickly, they will immediately notice this when pulling away unless they’re completely clueless and ignore the car handling like shit

Yes, yes it is. The tyre is at a higher pressure than the atmosphere so any hole will allow the air to equalize but the difference is how that air comes out:

Stab the sidewall (big hole, rapidly) air rushes out with a big bang.

Snip the stem, smaller hole, air rushes out slower but still very quick. Likely flat in under a minute. Different structure/strength that sidewall which is why it doesn’t pop/explode.

If you get a puncture, the reason it doesn’t leak as fast as snipping the stem (nor pop) - usually the nail/screw is still in the tyre, keeping it plugged somewhat, the distortion of the tyre under weight means this hole can open and close as the car rolls letting out a little at a time.

Source: have had punctures that take hrs to run flat, have watched tyre techs clip stems on an old tyres, seen videos of tyres being stabbed.

The air is like a flock of sheep - as soon as one finds a way out, they all immediately rush out too.

Even a tiny nick on the stem, the tyre would be flat before they’ve fastened their seatbelts.

Next time AF1 goes for a jaunt to pedo-island, the air traffic controllers that trump is insulting have an opportunity to become really American heroes…

Well, if that’s how it works, every country now needs to renames the US to something else on their maps. Whoever has the best name wins something - like, the Olympics or free membership to the UN.

Suggestions now open, I’ll start: “Little Girls Blouse”