I spent the rest of the day with Tip, watching the Weavers fish, forage, weave their amazing little baskets, and as the sun set I headed back to the Hummer in some confusion. I hadn’t taken a picture or any video since the day before, and I found myself wondering why. I lay awake until well after dark, watching the stars wheel slowly past the Hummer’s window, thinking.
How and when I finally fell asleep, I don’t know. Morning took me almost by surprise, the sun streaming in through the windows. No entelodont this morning, just the singing of strange birds I didn’t recognize, and the brilliant sun lighting the odd, brushy, grassless landscape.
I got dressed quickly, threw some lunch into my daypack, picked up the rifle and headed back to the Weaver village. I left camera and video camera in the truck.
Tip wasn’t there to greet me, but the other Weavers gathered around for a moment, twittering, gesturing and exuding a warm sense of well-being. I wasn’t terribly surprised to discover that their unique talent was useful for more than projecting fear; on reflection, I couldn’t think of a better way to ensure harmony in a society than knowing – feeling – what everybody else felt. I sat down where I’d eaten with Tip the day before, wondering where he was.
I took no notes. I took no pictures. I made no sketches. I just sat, and watched.
Towards noon, Tip returned, trundling up the riverbank with a basket on his back. The tails of two fish protruded from the basket. He looked at me, bobbed his head, and disappeared into a tree – I presumed to his own personal space in the woven village. Moments later, sans basket and fish, he returned.
I offered him half of a twenty-first century ham and cheese sandwich. Sniffing it carefully first, he accepted. His eyes opened wide as he sampled the unfamiliar fare.
Where do you gather such food?
“It’s hard to explain,” I told him. “It’s something my people make – like you make your baskets, and your houses.”
To weave food – very strange. You come from a strange place.
“That’s true,” I told him, knowing just how right he was.
He finished his half of the sandwich. Strange, but good, he sent. I would like to know more about your home. Are there many others like you?
“I’d like to tell you.”
Let your mind wander to your home, Tip said, and I will watch.
So I did. I thought of Denver, where I’d grown up, and let Tip see the paved streets, the cars, the noise, the teeming people. I thought of humanity’s wars, of the plagues, famines that had swept through our history. I thought also of our art, our science, how men had walked on the moon that Tip knew only as a light in the night sky. As Tip’s eyes grew wider, his demeanor more incredulous, I thought of all I knew of humanity’s progress through the ages, the good and the bad, up to and including the project that sent me forty million years into the past to meet Tip.
And you are to go back to your place and tell all about what you have seen here, Tip concluded as my mind finally ran blank. I heard him, his first comment in hours, and looked around – it was growing dark already.
“Yes,” I admitted. “That is why I was sent here. To learn, and to share what I learn with others.”
So many… Will others of your kind come as well? Tip’s mental “voice” was concerned, even disturbed; I felt waves of nervous energy coming from him. Around us, the normal soft twitterings of the community grew quiet. The other Weavers felt it too, and I realized that they had all seen what Tip saw in my mind.
“If they learn of your kind, then yes, many will come,” I said. “We never expected to find you.”
Our river brought you to us, Tip said, but we never expected… The river brings us only good things. But so many… His voice trailed off, and he turned to face the gently flowing river nearby. His body language, his expression, spoke eloquently; Tip was frightened and worried.
What will that do to us?
“I don’t think I’m going to tell them,” I said suddenly. Flashing through my mind were images of fame, of fortune, of the sensations my news would cause in the twenty-first century – and the effect the revelation would have on the Weavers.
You were charged with telling what you learned, Tip said.
“I will. I just won’t tell them all of it.” It was a thought that had been hiding in me, unspoken, for some time now. “I’m not sure if it’s completely right – we could learn much from each other. But I don’t think my people are ready yet.”
Nor mine, Tip said. I felt a pang of sadness; Tip didn’t completely understand the length of time involved. Somewhere between now and my time, something would happen to Tip’s civilization. I had no idea what. Maybe, just maybe, humanity could help the Weavers survive?
But our track record on that score wasn’t very good.
Tip relaxed now, and turned back to face me. I am pleased that your river brought you to us, he said. I am pleased we had the chance to learn of each other. We are all pleased.
“My river?”
We all have our own rivers, Tip said to me. Our own mother river, that flows through our lives, and bring us all good things, food for the body and food for the spirit. Our river brings us fish, and gives us water, and each spring rises to scrub our valley clean while we watch from the trees above. The banks of the river give us trees in which to make our homes, grasses and reeds from which to weave our houses, our baskets, our walkways. We weave our lives, our paths, from what the river provides.
You, my strange friend, your river will bring you what you need, if you have the patience to accept it. When it comes, you will know.
It was almost completely dark now. I picked up my pack and rifle, nodded a good-bye to Tip, and walked back to the Hummer. When I got there, I climbed in and drove straight to the research station.
That night, I took the digital camera and video-cam into the research station, hooked them up to the computer, and carefully deleted every scrap of evidence of the Weavers. I transferred some of the other material to the computer and formatted the storage in both devices, to make sure that Chronos’ technical geniuses could recover nothing about the Weavers. I felt good about it – as good as I’ve ever felt about anything.
I spent the balance of my time filming titanothere herds, including one very exciting sequence of a pair of creodonts attacking a cow and calf. Birds, entelodonts, odd-looking little antelope – all found their way into the digital recesses of the camera and video cam. Sensation enough, I thought, in all that for a public hungry for news from Chronos.
The day before I left, I visited the Weaver village again, to share a last meal with Tip and the others. They brought me their favorite delicacies, and I passed out chocolate chip cookies, turkey and ham sandwiches. We sat, and watched the river. Tip sat at my side, exuding a happy feeling of camaraderie, and the other Weavers gathered around on the bank and in the trees. As we sat there, I felt very good about my decision.
Eighteen days later, I walked back through the shimmering displacement field. Walking out of the hot Oligocene sunshine, out of the smell of dust and brush, into the clean, sanitized atmosphere of the Chronos Project was disorienting. I stumbled and almost fell. People surrounded me – so odd to hear human voices again. They all seemed very loud. I held up a hand, pleading for quiet.
“Well,” someone, I still don’t know who, asked, “What was it like? What did you see?”
I looked into the ring of curious faces, the cameras, the media people, and the lights. I smiled.
“Oh,” I told them, “Nothing very surprising. Nothing we didn’t expect.” I handed over the pack of digital camera and video equipment.
Somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, I thought I heard Tip’s mental touch: Thank you.
But will there be additional research teams sent? Seems like a bad idea to waste a perfectly good research station.
The Weavers will now know to hide. Assuming researchers return to the exact same place in the timeline…
If they think our narrator was thorough, the next visit would be to another time period?
A straight ending? I was so hoping for a more Outer Limits style…
Animal does straight endings, you’re thinking of Grzzly.
So a modern Weaver let’s the author “see” him or the past Weavers saying “we need to get off this crazy planet”?
I was expecting a mindwipe.
Thanks, Animal! A sweet little story.
Did The Weavers enjoy ear skritches?
Re worn out shoes from ded thred.
1) letting shoes get into that condition would take years of neglect. Take care of your footwear and feet, and they will take care of you. Those should have been resoled long ago and rebuilt when not resoled. Instead, trashed perfectly functional footwear for a bullshit visual.
2) low cut shoes are idiotic for anything other than office work. “Field work” around the world requires ankle boots at the least, for a variety of reasons.
It really is the perfect symbolism for government worker incompetence and false expertise.
“Oh,” I told them, “Nothing very surprising. Nothing we didn’t expect.” I handed over the pack of digital camera and video equipment.”
What a great ending.
Surprise
President Donald Trump’s moves to fire thousands of federal government workers have coincided with a surge in jobless claims in Washington, D.C., that could get worse as the efforts intensify.
Since Trump has taken office, nearly 4,000 workers in the city have filed for unemployment insurance as part of a surge that began at the start of the new year, according to Labor Department figures not adjusted for seasonal factors.
In all, just shy of 7,000 claims have been filed in the six weeks of the new year, or about 55% more than in the prior six-week period. Filings rose to 1,780 for the week ending Feb. 8, a 36% increase from the prior week and more than four times around the same period in 2024.
[insert sad face emoji]
I wonder how the NGO’s and NFP’s are faring. I’ve always stood by the idea that if you’re a private entity and you need taxpayer money to survive, then you need to pack it up.
This may be an indicator…
Anyone want to enact my labor and compare to 2021? I.e., how much is usual churn on a change of administration?
Okay, that’s wild as hell.
There does look to be some cycles — oddly Jan 2023 showed a comparable dip… dem staffers clearing out after losing the House? I think the real kicker will be if it comes back up when they show February/March numbers — it seems to reliably do that in the past.
Jan 2021 shows a dip, but not as dramatic. I don’t know of a site / where to look to go back to 2017. 2013 is probably weird because iirc the ’09 crash was still depressing markets all over the country.
Burn DC to the ground and salt the earth.
Thanks, SDF – my skepticism towards these sorts of triumphalist stories remains justified.
Oh boo hoo hoo.
I’ll be sure to keep them in my thoughts while I’m preparing my taxes.
The only problem I have with the whole thing as it looks to me (based on KK’s comments and what articles I’ve seen) is that a lot of these folks are probationary or contractors and are apparently being let go with no severance package at all. That’s extra sucky even in the private sector (yeah, it can happen… but I have more sympathy for it). Since I’m really after long term gains to the deficit more than anything else, I remain fine with giving them a month or two where possible rather than have them have to mess with the unemployment system. Plus increases the chance they can use it to relocate to somewhere productive if they can find a job and all, reducing the Swamp.
Just thinking of how I want to be laid off if it ever happens again. Not my favorite experience.
My sister is a social worker at the VA in Chicago, and we were talking on the phone the other night about what’s been going on the past couple of weeks. Her assessment was that RIF’s were expected to happen but what she doesn’t like is how chaotic it has been and quite frankly sort of dehumanizing to the workers at the VA. One of the issues she’s concerned about is will there be enough social workers to be able to help with the veterans and give them the time they deserve. What she would have liked happened was the supervisors give a list of their lowest performers and then go on from there.
My first instinct is to agree — then I catch myself and find myself wondering if they don’t trust middle management to give good lists. Their plan may be to “fire everyone and hire back when we can evaluate merit.”
But yeah — Cut to the bone for vital, constitutional services (I think the VA qualifies as part of the contract with service members given what we ask of them), not amputate everything.
:said secure in the knowledge that I have zero clue what’s actually truly essential and what isn’t, I know…:
Playing catch-up here. I just got to V to the line “Here is She”.
The last time I read that line things went downhill pretty fast.
I don’t usually read all the fiction, this one I did and I really enjoyed it. Great ending.
Yeah, I have posed this question before. If you had access to a large place no. one knows about would you tell other people? Would you let other people in?
Me: No. That would mean I would have to start keeping stats on rape, murder and theft. Fuck that. When people become civilized, maybe. Until then, not a chance.
L O L
JFC. I’ve seen that beast in other clips.
Is it just boxing? Because I’d think front kicks to that vast target would go a long way.
Holy hell.. I really thought the lady in red was just going to unstoppably walk with her arms spread and smush the other woman against the sides of the ring. She got greedy — and kind of stupid. Maybe this was a “If you want to try to win 10000 rubles!” type crowd exhibition match? That would explain a lot (including her demeanor and complete incompetence).
Where everybody is an asshole. The guy that asked the question should have known better, but was professional in how he asked. Just dumb.
The rest is JPM digging itself out of PR debacle and possible employment lawsuit. No manager at my Fortune 100 company is going to have a series of text messages like this complete with multiple F bombs.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/16/us-news/jpmorgan-analyst-fired-after-questioning-jamie-dimons-return-to-office-policy-then-rehired-report/
Mind you if the managers hadn’t shot themselves in the foot this guy would have pushed out the door in 6 months after failing his PIF.
Yeah — reading how he asked it seemed quite respectful — “I don’t expect you to change this for the whole company, but here’s our team’s situation — can we ask for some discretion in such cases?” is about as polite as you can get if you’re going to ask at all. I vote the CEO is a flaming asshole, frankly. Oh… and apparently the VP too… probably hired because they think similarly, I guess.
Finance Bro culture, I have to assume… (people think tech bros are bad?)
That’s Wall Street. You don’t fuck with the king and everybody knows it.
You stab him in in the back, preferably with many others so no one person is culpable.
Tech guy didn’t quite get it even though he works for a WS company.
The guy was super respectful, and he asked an honest question pertaining to his situation. Saying that though, I’ve learn working in the corporate area for a decade or so, that unless the questions are anonymous, it’s never a good idea to question the leadership about whatever their decision is even if it’s a dumb ass decision.
Army life is the same way. General officers come around and question privates, asking how things are and so on. Every once in a while they answer truthfully and then the shitball roles downhill.
Stupid fool. Doesn’t he realize town hall meetings are a trap? Leadership doesn’t actually want his input despite saying otherwise for years.
Exactly. Keep your mouth shut and trying and try to schedule a meeting so you have a conflict and can’t attend.
Props to clap like seals and cheer on the latest pronouncements.
I have had polite discussions with senior leadership that have basically been, “has the decision been made on X and can I influence anything about it?” If the answer is “it’s made” then I don’t need for he or she to “listen” or have a “conversation”.
The only thing I may need is clarity on the decision itself. After that I either deal with it or quit. I don’t need a fucking conversation.
Of course not — can you imagine Wilson’s Mom’s rates on those?
At a former job, the CEO came by to talk with my department. It was portrayed as a ‘meet the working people’ type thing and the group VP encouraged us to come with questions to chat with the CEO about because the time was for us. He already knew the execs and wanted to talk with the regular staff.
My team started sending me ideas for questions, and I had to explain that no, the CEO wasn’t interested in talking with us and the VP was full of shit. That we wouldn’t even be allowed to speak during the meeting, let alone engage with questions, so let’s not waste our time preparing any.
As it turned out of course, only execs were permitted to speak during the meeting. My team thought I was being overly cynical going in, but that opened their eyes quite a bit.
Nice of the Post to use that specific picture of Welch. All you are missing is flecks of spittle on the camera lens.
Mind you if the managers hadn’t shot themselves in the foot this guy would have pushed out the door in 6 months after failing his PIF.
I read that earlier. “All I want is a job where I completely dictate the terms of my employment.” Yeah, sure. Better buff up your resume, pal.
How dare he ask if he could have some padding on his ankle weights. Take the uppity shitbird out and shoot him.
I vote the CEO is a flaming asshole, frankly.
Jamie Dimon? An asshole? That can’t be right.
Everybody at Davos thinks he’s great.
Heh… if you have VIP, Animal is unsurprisingly giving some Silent Cal love over on RedState.
Recent conversation with my son –
Son: “The system cant stand as it is. It is going to collapse. You realize the US Government is the largest business in the world?”
Me: “Yes, and when the largest business in the world produces nothing and passes oceans of money out to people who produce nothing you are in deep, deep shit, right?
The only problem I have with the whole thing as it looks to me (based on KK’s comments and what articles I’ve seen) is that a lot of these folks are probationary or contractors and are apparently being let go with no severance package at all. That’s extra sucky even in the private sector
I suspect this has a lot more to do with union contracts than any particular innate evilness on Musk’s part. Instead of weeding people out based on performance, seniority or lack thereof is the decider. Unions, as most of us know, do everything possible to shield the low performing employee.
That’s my read too.
They’re definitely axing the probationary ones first because that doesn’t involve 12 months and an act of
GodCongress or whatever it takes for “permanent” FedGov employees, yeah. Still sucks to not have any compensation package (of course, offering one may well put them in some other legal rat hole because that’s changing funding instead of purely Executive labor force or some messed up crap….)I should get back to work and stop talking out my hindquarters.
All of the tears…understandable. However also not unexpected. I suspect Trump wanted to do this all along but in such a way to give people as soft a landing as possible. He saw the cost of doing that was complete failure – no swamp drainage.
This time he is just putting dynamite in the levee.
What she would have liked happened was the supervisors give a list of their lowest performers and then go on from there.
Instead of weeding people out based on performance, seniority or lack thereof is the decider.
Between civil service rules and public union rules, it is effectively impossible to remove people for performance.
Probationary employees are probationary. No severance if you’re fired during the probationary period. It’s been that way in private business my entire life.
Contact employees are disposable. No severance if you’re fired for any reason. It’s been that way in private business my entire life.
I would love to see the administration figure out how to purge the underperformers. Perhaps, SCOTUS will pave the way.
But I’ll take what we can get now. And I have no sympathy for those summarily discharged without severance. My sympathy was used up many, many years ago.
Kinnath pretty much says it for me.
I would also question the ability of pubsec management to identify “underperformers”. Regardless, trying to do this on a case by case basis is a recipe for guaranteed failure.
We said we wanted drastic cuts. This is what drastic cuts look like.
How dare he ask if he could have some padding on his ankle weights. Take the uppity shitbird out and shoot him.
Regardless of the merits, asking that question in that setting just proves the guy is a fucking moron. Did he really think Dimon what going to open the floodgates of “Me too!s”?
For a not insignificant group of employees it’s the whole “if only Comrade Stalin knew” routine.
“We value your feedback and honestly desire your opinions. I have an open door policy.”
Just don’t let that open door hit you in the ass on your way out.
Exactly.
BTW here is the annual anonymous employee survey. This is your third notice that we noticed you haven’t filled it out. Please complete it.
I was accidentally privy to the senior leadership’s PPT readout a while back, including how their staffers colored the responses. It was unsurprising, but a little eye opening.
Ever since I sit on my hands and don’t complete it. Participation rates give more feedback than actually responding.
I figure Dimon was picturing this in his head
Meanwhile, in Munich
Despite the similarities, BMW instead calls the concept a “rolling test rig for drivetrain and driving dynamics management technology.” The concept houses what BMW calls the “Heart of Joy,” an over-the-top nickname for the control unit that handles the drivetrain, braking, charging, regeneration, and steering functions. The Heart of Joy will be found in every electric Neue Klasse model, BMW says, which presumably includes the upcoming iX3 electric SUV as well.
The Heart of Joy is one of four central units in the car’s electronics architecture and marks the first time that drivetrain and driving dynamics functions have been combined into a singular unit. Not only does BMW claim that the system will make driving more enjoyable, but the automaker also says it will lead to better efficiency and range.
Developed entirely by BMW, the Heart of Joy works in conjunction with the brand’s Dynamic Performance Control software to manage driving functions. The control unit reportedly processes information 10 times faster than the company’s previous units, with BMW claiming that the response is nearly immediate, with latencies in the milliseconds.
The integrated braking and energy recuperation control allow drivers to avoid applying the conventional friction brakes in most scenarios, BMW says, instead relying on regeneration. This is claimed to increase efficiency by up to 25 percent. The company also says that stopping and restarting is seamless, regardless of whether the car is in D or B drive modes, using active cruise control, or using the Auto Hold function.
I guess they are pitching it as a replacement for the cobbled together network of off the shelf modules most manufacturers are using now, which seems like a good idea, if it works as well as they say.
I have no idea how it compares to what Tesla’s OS.
It’s going to suck, and I’m going to blame it on Chris Bangle.
the control unit that handles the drivetrain, braking, charging, regeneration, and steering functions.
This scares the shit out of me.
What could possibly go wrong?
It happens now in ICE vehicles across 20 plus modules and a network in the car. It’s not unique to EVs.
across 20 plus modules and a network
I am way more comfortable with this that the massive integration of critical functions into a single unit.
The worry is single point of failure that disables the vehicle at a very inopportune moment.
I’d rather have one unit with some built in redundancies with better engineering and quality as opposed to lots of cheap shit modules with cheap as wiring throughout the vehicle.
That said, I get your point and have the same concern. I have no data to back up either approach as better.
Yes, I would love to see COTS shit replaced with quality hardware and software with the system architected with redundancy, independence, and some appropriate dissimilarity.
I don’t expect anyone in the auto industry to give me those things.
A great video from one of my auto repair channels was a Kia backup camera that worked, but was broken. It polluted the car network with so much bad traffic that the whole drive train went int limp mode. Limited to something like 2nd gear and 20MPH.
Car is undriveable because of a failure of an unnecessary Fed mandated device.
I am familiar with that video.
Separate the hardware and the OS.
Tesla runs my Model 3 with just three controllers because they made them from the ground up. Most other OEMs are 20 plus.
And since Tesla made them they don’t have to talk to different suppliers if they need to talk to each other. Think more API than OS.
The infotainment shit on car management is done on custom Linux.
In this case BMW realized it needs to own far more of the controllers.
https://youtu.be/zlpTQePnfNw?si=ZuAKqy08EUGEpVpz&t=1098
Woman running unsurprisingly came from Tesla.
Preaching to the choir. All the screwy supply chains and siloed engineering made modern cars have a ridiculous number of modules.
if it works as well as they say.
Nothing works as well as they say.
Uh-oh
Another air incident, this time in Toronto
Fuck me. How does that happen and the thing stay intact and/or not burn?
Any word on the passengers?
There’s an NY Post story saying all crew and passengers accounted for but it doesn’t mention casualties. They also have a pic showing people walking away from the plane without any apparent urgency.
Seen video from inside the cabin while evacuating.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/delta-flight-incident-arrival-toronto-airport-passengers-crew/story?id=118903345
A Delta flight crashed upon arrival at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday and the plane was seen upside-down on the snow-covered ground.
Eight people are injured, according to Peel Regional Police, whose jurisdiction includes the airport. One person was listed as “critical with non-life-threatening injuries” and seven people suffered moderate to mild injuries, police said.
Airport officials said “all passengers and crew are accounted for.”
It happens now in ICE vehicles across 20 plus modules and a network in the car. It’s not unique to EVs.
A different article I read (the verge, maybe) went a little deeper into the issue of networking suppliers’ modules.
At this juncture I would like to point out that no one has written a song entitled “Fuck You Cut Spending.”
Somebody here with musical abilities needs to get cracking.
Nice little short time-travel story. Conclusive ending but left open for sequels.
…And the raccoons hid their intelligence from mankind for all eternity…