http://www.cracked.com/article_25132_5-insanely-important-jobs-were-running-out-people-for.html

Supply and demand should ensure that we never run out of people to do the really key jobs. If there was a dire shortage of, say, potato chip flavor developers (don't panic, this is strictly theoretical), chip companies would make the salary and perks of the job more attractive, colleges would hype up the benefits of majoring in flavor science, and new blood would enter the field, bringing with them the caramel-and-Worcestershire-sauce-flavored Pringles we truly deserve. But reality is nowhere near that efficient, and we are running out of people for some especially vital jobs. For example ...

Old Programmers Are Dying Off ... And Taking Their Computer Languages With Them

The Demand For Oncologists Skyrockets While Supply Plummets

We're Short On Farm Labor

Nobody Wants To Be A Skilled Manufacturer Anymore

We Don't Have Nearly Enough Pilots To Meet Our Demand For Air Travel

https://www.theonion.com/dollar-tree-to-stop-selling-assault-weapons-1823437635?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing



CHESAPEAKE, VA—In response to the deadly shooting at a Parkland, FL high school earlier this month, Dollar Tree officials announced Thursday that the discount variety store will no longer sell assault weapons. “Under no circumstances should a teenager be able to walk into a Dollar Tree, purchase a Basic Brands ValuPak aluminum foil rifle for one dollar, and shoot up a school with it,” said CEO Gary Philbin, adding that other items to be removed effective immediately from shelves in all 13,600 locations include Good Sense clear plastic bump stocks, RitePrice high-capacity magazines, and the entire Essential Products line of disposable flash suppressors. “We are determined to provide customers with the best value around, but in light of this terrible tragedy, we cannot in good conscience continue to offer deals like Home Bargain’s three-for-one semi-automatic shotgun bundle or our 6.8 mm Remington SPC bargain bins.” While military-style rifles will no longer be available from Dollar Tree, Philbin reassured customers the store will, of course, continue to offer a wide selection of discount handguns after enforcing a 21-and-over age restriction.

https://www.boredpanda.com/gender-equality-women-dark-side/

There are plenty of badass women but Academy-Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore thinks there aren’t any bad ones. “No women ever invented an atomic bomb, built a smoke stack, initiated a Holocaust, melted the polar ice caps or organized a school shooting,” Moore tweeted. Missing logic in his claims, writer Jessica Ellis wrote an insightful rebuttal to Moore, and her Twitter response quickly went viral.

While attacking the patriarchy, Moore suggested that women are naturally superior to men in living up to universal moral standards. “My initial response was actually very personal,” Ellis, who considers herself a feminist, told Bored Panda. “I had been struggling with anxiety issues and going to therapy, where I realized I thought the fact that I had dark thoughts sometimes made me a bad person. I had also come to realize that part of the reason I felt that way is that women are raised on a doctrine of purity and that Moore (who I respect greatly as a filmmaker) was furthering that concept. When you are taught that all women are naturally sweet and wonderful, you can feel extra-extra crazy if you feel anger or depression or anxiety.”

And even though ladies have not held powerful political positions as much as men, Ellis perfectly points out why they struggle with making ethically just decisions, too. “It’s bad for women’s mental health to be held to an unrealistic purity standard.” After all, we’re all human! Scroll down to read her reasoning and let us know your thoughts about it in the comments.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/01/news/gun-stocks/index.html

Gunmakers are coming to grips with a new reality after Parkland.
The stock of American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the owner of Smith & Wesson, tumbled 25% in February and is trading at its lowest level in almost five years. Sturm Ruger (RGR) fell 19% to a three-year low. Vista Outdoor (VSTO), which makes guns and ammunition, is down 12% since the school shooting two weeks ago.

Wall Street investors backing the companies are asking questions. More than a dozen companies have cut ties with the NRA. And Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart and Fred Meyer, a unit of Kroger (KR), are limiting gun purchases from stores.

For gun manufacturers, declining stock prices reflect a change in a decade-long operating model.

As recently as the Las Vegas shooting last October, mass shootings provided a jolt to their stocks. Investors bet that Americans would rush to purchase weapons because of the prospect of tighter gun restrictions.

That was especially true before last year. President Obama and then Hillary Clinton, the favorite to win the White House in 2016, heightened gun owners' fears of new legislation and drove stock prices higher.

Obama was a "clarion call to the gun industry," said Brian Rafn, an analyst at Morgan Dempsey. Manufacturers doubled and tripled production during the Obama administration to meet rising demand, according to federal data.

But with President Trump in the White House and Republicans running Congress, the gun industry was left without a bogeyman. Mass shootings during the Trump presidency in Las Vegas and in Sutherland Springs, Texas, did not cause buying sprees.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/01/news/companies/kroger-gun-sales-age-limit/index.html

Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, said it will stop selling guns and ammunition to customers who are younger than 21 years old. It's the third major retailer in two days to impose new age restrictions on sales.
Kroger (KR) sells weapons and ammunition at 45 Fred Meyer stores located in four western states. Those stores sell general merchandise. The Kroger grocery stores do not sell weapons.

It is already illegal for licensed gun sellers to sell handguns to anyone under the age of 21, but it is legal under federal law to sell rifles of any kind -- including assault-style -- to anyone 18 or older.

The company joins Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), the nation's largest sporting goods retailer, and Walmart (WMT), the nation's largest retailer, which both said Wednesday that they would stop selling weapons and ammunition of any kind to anyone under 21. Dick's also said it would stop selling assault-style weapons. Walmart stopped selling those kinds of weapons in 2015.

"In response to the tragic events in Parkland and elsewhere, we've taken a hard look at our policies and procedures for firearm sales," Kroger said in a statement. "Recent events demonstrate the need for additional action on the part of responsible gun retailers."

The company said that it stopped selling "assault-style rifles" at its Oregon, Washington and Idaho stores several years ago, and that it will no longer accept any special orders for those weapons at its stores in Alaska.

https://www.boredpanda.com/faith-in-humanity-restored-wholesome-happy-random-acts-of-kindness/?page_numb=1

Not everything is terrible. Sometimes we let ourselves forget how beautiful the world is. It doesn’t mean that the issues we face every day are not important. Sometimes we just need… a little break. A reminder of what it all could be more like. What we could be more like.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/27/technology/amazon-hq2-atlanta/index.html

Could Georgia Republicans' spat with Delta threaten Atlanta's bid to land Amazon's second headquarters?
The city is on Amazon's short list of the 20 metro areas still in running for the $5 billion facility that will create 50,000 jobs. The company received proposals from 238 cities and regions across North America.

Experts say Atlanta's cost of living, talent pool and access to the world's busiest airport (despite its major power outage last year) are some of its biggest draws. But the state's current political climate could cause Amazon to think twice.

Georgia Republicans are threatening to kill a tax break for Delta (DAL) over the airline's move to sever ties with the National Rifle Association following a mass shooting at a Florida high school.

"It signals to Amazon that politicians in Georgia are more concerned about scoring points with constituents sympathetic to a particular social view than they are about whatever business or economic rationale they may have to direct benefits to a specific firm," he said.

Other companies thinking about expanding to Georgia could worry about politics interfering with business, as well, according to Wisconsin's Arora.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/27/news/companies/johnnie-walker-women-jane-walker/index.html



Scotch drinkers, meet Jane Walker.
For the first time ever, the top-hatted man who appears on bottles of Johnnie Walker whiskey is being replaced by a woman.

Johnnie Walker, which is owned by liquor giant Diageo (DEO), said Monday that it will launch a special edition of its Black Label blend next month featuring the female logo.

"As a brand that has stood for progress for nearly 200 years, Johnnie Walker is proud to take this next step forward by introducing Jane Walker as another symbol of the brand's commitment to progress," it said in a statement.

Priced around $34, the special edition bottles will go on sale in the U.S. in March to coincide with Women's History Month and International Women's Day.

It's the latest effort to feminize a well known brand. Last month, country music star Reba McEntire was cast as KFC's first woman to play its iconic pitch person, Colonel Harland Sanders.

While some people applauded Diageo's efforts, some women said they found it patronizing or cynical.

"Let's be SO equal we need a specific bottle. How are people this stupid. HOW?" tweeted Ashley K. Wilt.

"I don't see this as a symbol of gender equality," wrote Diana Pardo, whose Twitter biography describes her as a communications consultant. "All I see is a marketing strategy to increase sales."

https://www.vox.com/2015/12/4/9845146/mass-shootings-gun-control?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Note: This piece was first published in December 2015, in the wake of the San Bernadino shooting.

One thing I often hear in the wake of these endless mass shootings is, "Surely this will convince those gun people. Surely the carnage and suffering are bad enough now that they'll feel compelled to support some gun control."

This betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the cognitive and emotional dynamics at work. It presumes that mass shootings constitute an argument against guns, to be weighed against arguments in their favor. But to gun enthusiasts, mass shootings are not arguments against guns but for them. The rise in mass shootings is only convincing both sides that they're right, causing them to dig in further.

It's not even clear that opinions on guns and gun violence remain amenable to argument. Over the past few decades, gun ownership in the US has evolved from a practical issue for rural homeowners and hunters to a kind of gesture of tribal solidarity, an act of defiance toward Obama, the left, and all the changes they represent. The gun lobby has become more hardened and uncompromising, pushing guns into schools, churches, and universities.

This has taken place in the context of a broader and deeper polarization of the country, as Red America and Blue America have become more ideologically homogeneous and distant from one another. The two sides are now composed of people who quite literally think and feel differently — and are less and less able to communicate. The gun issue is a salient example, but far from the only one.

This suggests that if the status quo on guns in the US is to change, it will be through overwhelming political force, not through evidence and argument. Guns have now ascended to the level of worldview and identity, areas largely beyond the reach of persuasion.