Loose Ends (211)

It turns out employers have come up with a genius method to screen out potential employees who will be needy narcissistic nuisances in the workplace:

Resumes including ‘they/them’ pronouns are more likely to be overlooked, new report finds

. . .We sent two “phantom” resumes to 180 job postings. The resumes were identical, except the test resume included they/them pronouns, and the control did not. Though most companies were Equal Opportunity Employers, the test resume with pronouns received less interest and fewer interview invitations than the control resume.

To find out why the resume with pronouns may have gotten less interest, we sought feedback directly from hiring managers. We found that these managers were also less likely to want to contact an applicant whose resume included “they/them” pronouns. 

As major layoffs sweep through the U.S. workforce, these timely data show that nonbinary individuals may have a more difficult time finding new jobs.

Since having a pronoun fetish is not (yet) a protected class in civil rights law, they/them shouldn’t run off to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just yet.

Meanwhile, the folks who brought you Jeremy’s Razors have now brought us Jeremy’s Chocolate because Hershey’s has lost its mind (50 seconds long):

The small built-out portion of California’s high-speed rail to nowhere, which hasn’t carried a single rail car yet and won’t for some time to come, is already covered in graffiti:

Meanwhile, surprise surprise surprise:

California bullet train project faces more cost increases, possible delays

California’s bullet train project that is meant to link Los Angeles to San Francisco faces more cost increases and potential delays, according to an update from project leaders released this week.

High Speed Rail Authority officials on Thursday could not provide an estimated completion date for the original vision pitched to voters but said the price tag for the entire project is now up to $128 billion, a 13% increase from last year’s projections. . .

The Los Angeles to San Francisco project was originally pitched to voters with a $33 billion price tag and an estimate that it would begin operating in 2020. Voters approved $9 billion for the project in 2008. . .

The Central Valley segment also faces 41% in cost increases compared to last year’s estimates, now expected to cost up to $35.3 billion.

In other words, the easiest part of the line to build is now going to cost more than the entire LA to San Francisco line was estimated at the start.

By the way, California had a nearly $100 billion budget surplus last year, but this year is already nearly $50 billion in the red, and likely to climb much higher if the economy slows down. But Gavin 2024!

Well this certainly comes as a  yuuuge relief:

Holy anointing oil for King Charles III’s coronation will not contain the intestinal wax of sperm whales or civet secretions

The holy anointing oil used at the coronation of King Charles III will be animal-cruelty free, the BBC reports. 

The sacred “chrism oil” has previously contained oil from the glands of small mammals such as civets and ambergris, a waxy substance from the intestines of sperm whales.

However, in keeping with changing values — and King Charles’ track record of environmental work — the new oil formula is animal free, per the BBC.

The BBC also reports that the new oil, predominantly olive oil, will contain a mixture of rose, jasmine, cinnamon, orange blossom, and sesame.

As you may have heard, Cocaine Bear is tearing up the box office. It seems we’ve come a long way since Yogi and Boo-Boo. Anyway, I have already spotted the obvious sequel, also “based on a true story”: Cocaine Hippos.

Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ spark conservation row

. . . The hippos escaped from drug-cartel leader Pablo Escobar’s estate after he died in 1993. Left alone, the male and three females that Escobar had illegally imported from a US zoo established themselves in Colombia’s Magdalena River and some small lakes nearby — part of the country’s main watershed. After years of breeding, the ‘cocaine hippos’ have multiplied to about 150 individuals, scientists estimate.

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