Lurker > Zanzenburger

This is an interesting case. Personally, I think that the amount is kinda ridiculous for Target doing something that most businesses due as standard practice.

However, there is a big problem with companies that do background checks at the beginning of the hiring process or ask about the criminal record in the application.

When people think of criminal records, they immediately think of murderers and drug dealers and rapists. But the vast majority of people with criminal records (I need to find some recent stats) are due to domestic violence (spouses got into a fight), petty theft, child abuse/neglect (can sometimes be something as simple as letting their kids play outside unsupervised), public intoxication (being drunk outside a bar), or a dispute between neighbors.

In a lot of these cases, the "criminals" are just people that did something stupid and got caught and punished for it.

But employers rarely take that into account in the hiring process. In the hiring committees I've been in, they see the criminal record checked 'yes', and they toss the application, without being bothered to see what the reason is. The most unfortunate part is that most applications will even state in their fine print that a criminal record alone does not disqualify you from a job, but in process that's pretty much the case.

For those who watch Shameless, there is a great example of this. One of the characters makes a really stupid mistake which is ultimately ruled as a felony. Fast forward to the future and she has turned her life around and is making her way up. She even gets an interview with an entry-level company. They are overly nice to her and are impressed with her skills. The second they see the 'yes' checked on the criminal record box they change their demeanor and let her go.

I do believe that saving the background check to the end of the interview process is worthwhile, because at least the person has a chance to impress the hiring committee before they find out about their past. They can then explain how they've learned from their past and have shown to be a competent applicant.

Should a person really be punished for the rest of their lives for being arrested for something as simple as public indecency or disorderly conduct 10 years ago?
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Boss: "Make yourself more valuable for a promotion"

*Makes self more valuable*

Boss: "Actually, you're doing so well in your current role that you're too valuable for us to move you"

>:/
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TBH I'll probably put my phd in my email signature when I graduate this year... <_<

But I also work at a university so...
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#SuperBernieBros
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The whole "staple four papers for your dissertation" thing is so weird to me. In Public Policy (and the softer sciences in general), the dissertation has to be an empirical research study. Like, we do literature reviews for class and theoretical model-building, but that wouldn't suffice for a dissertation. There has to be some kind of data collection, data analysis, and then reporting of the findings. If that results in the development of a new model or theory, that's just icing on the cake.

Most students, though, still take the easy route and their "data collection" is usually using secondary sources of data that already exists. Take some data, do some multivariate regression analysis to correlate it with some latent variable or characteristic, and bam, you have a dissertation that's 100+ pages.

My data collection involves a quasi-experimental study with actual people (high school students, no less), so that's taking me a lot longer than my colleagues.
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Also, you better tag me the next time you share your postdoctoral escapades. I care... <_<
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Congrats Dr. Anteaterking!

I'm actually almost at the end of data collection for mine. I'm getting my last bit of info at a meeting tonight and will start my data analysis this weekend. Hopefully I get to defend early this summer.

Did you have a crowd at your defense? Family? Friends? I'm deciding whether or not I want to invite anyone.
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Coffeebeanz posted...

Also Oklahoma is probably the most ass backwards state financially. In the 90s they passed a bill requiring a 75%+ majority vote to raise taxes on anything, which is as close to being politically impossible as it gets, but made even more so in a state dominated by hardcore conservatives.

The funny thing about this is that the House actually managed to pass a tax increase for education funding by meeting the 75% threshold for the first time last week since the 90s bill was enacted.

Though, unfortunately, it wasn't enough and so the walkouts are still happening.
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That was very satisfying to listen to.

I can only imagine the amount of work that was put into this. Love it, though.
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There's an episode of Seinfeld that illustrates why. And she's at least wearing a bra out there.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

are you talking about the original or the Burton remake?

I've been wondering this too. It seems almost all the users are assuming he's talking about the Burton remake.
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Tyranthraxus posted...

Zikten posted...

or even worse odds. like probably more like every 1 out of 100 mutants actually has a cool power. the comics just show all the good powers. in real life, if you were a mutant, unless you were super lucky, your life would probably suck. having a power like the xmen is like winning the lottery. 99 other mutants have powers like just purple eyes, their feet are green, or they have a snake tongue. and then there is the really bad ones like one guy in Ultimate Xmen who's power was that he was a walking bomb. when he first got his power, he killed everyone in his hometown. then Wolverine found him in a cave and killed him. he was a highschool student and among the dead were his deads, I think a girl he liked, and his mom. it was a very sad issue.

He wasn't a living bomb, he just gave off massive amounts of radiation and basically vaporized everyone in his town. Wolverine was sent after him because he could regenerate from the damage he was perpetually causing and killed him.

I say this to be distinct because there is someone who is a living bomb. (several in just Marvel, actually).

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I am a sucker for feel-good episodes, so San Junipero and Hang the DJ are my favorites. Though the Star Trek parody and Nose Dive are also up there.
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Link HT posted...

saspa posted...

Whoa what's with the hate for agents of shield

It's a crappy show that depends on name dropping to try to appear relevant.

People who say this haven't watched past season 2 of the show. Seasons 3-5 have become theirs own thing and I don't believe any MCU namedrops have happened since then.

Seasons 4 and 5 have become entirely different shows with the writing seeing great improvements and heavy-hitting episodes not typical for broadcast TV. The Matrix/framework arc is one of my favorite arcs of TV.
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