the DEA visited them last year and performed “accountability audits” that uncovered violations of the federal Controlled Substances Act, namely through inadequate record keeping, according to records obtained by The Baltimore Banner.

At the scale of prisons, these pharmacies are called institutional pharmacies. The size, operation, automation, and throughput of institutional pharmacies is mind-blowing. For example, the biggest Costco pharmacies might process 300 scrips a day; institutional pharmacies generally handle 15000 to 30000 per day, with some being even larger.

The “inadequate record keeping” part is just idiocy. There exists automation and auditing software for this. I know because I wrote the last-mile portion of a suite that manages end-to-end compliance automation for institutional pharmacies. A single failed audit generally costs more than most of the auditing and compliance suites licensing fees. And even in small pharmacies, there’s usually more than one failed C-2 audit when it happens. And let’s be clear; these audits are always for C-2 drugs (opioids and stimulants).

Well, clearly YOU didn’t learn your lesson! :D

This is a serious bummer all around. But wow, does that article suck on its lack of detail. But I guess actually digging into the facts wouldn’t make for clickable headlines. “Oooooh, DRONES!”

1. There are Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) in place for that region.

2. Was the drone part of monitoring/firefighting efforts? If it was, that is a terrible error on the part of the sUAS operator and observer. Then again, smoke and fire, which would make for a less interesting story. “Drone participating in firefighting hits plane.” Editor: Boooring! Let’s make it vague so we can cash in on some drone fears.

3. Lots of drones won’t even fly in a TFR zone. More professional drones will warn the pilot AND provide a warning about planes in proximity.

4. All sUAS 250 grams and larger are required to have RemoteID. Plenty of drones won’t even fly unless the RemoteID is functioning fully. And if it shits the bed during flight, lots of drones will just automatically land. Again, except for more professional models or for small cheapies. So one of two things are true: the FAA knows exactly who the responsible party is, or the operator is an utter douchecanoe

I have a different perspective. Sure, we want talent in our country. Let’s set aside that H-1B is an abusive program only a half-step away from indentured servitude. Can we agree that we actually want all nations’ citizens to be healthy, well-educated, and high functioning? If we can agree on that point, we should work to enable and empower those workers in their home countries.

This obviously requires other factors: penalties for offshoring, compulsory unions, strong unions, limiting corporate power, strong environmental protection… And while I’m dreaming, I still want an RC car for Xmas.

But seriously, brain drain is real. And pulling talent from other countries is just colonization on a smaller scale, but with serious impacts for both countries involved. If US corporations can’t compete without importing talent, all while refusing to invest in our citizens, they deserve to be consigned to the scrapheap.

A huge factor is occupancy rates, which directly affect commercial real estate values which in turn affect interest rates on the loans for a given property. Commercial real estate loans are reevaluated every ten years and a low occupancy rate results in higher interest rates because the property is determined to be lower value. For example, Amazon is pushing RTO so hard because the South Lake Union properties are coming up on their ten year mark. Even a tiny increase in interest rate would result in (IIRC) billions in interest payments over the next ten years. Corporations are willing to risk the unknown labor/skills carnage than face the known interest payments carnage.

The other factors are getting people to quit so that unemployment/severance don’t need to be paid and managers with control issues. It’s all contemptible, but that’s what’s going on there.

As an aside, I work in software. Even in compliance-intensive environments (think: auditing, national security), some forward-looking multinational corps are going remote-only. And the really nimble players are remote-first. They get their pick of top talent at lower pay rates. I gladly take ~50% less to work from wherever I want on a flexible schedule without ever sitting in traffic. I think we’re going to see a shakeup in the top ten companies because new entrants are going to get superlative talent.

The “consequences” for those involved in the Mỹ Lai Massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre) paints a different picture.

That said, I have some close friends in the military, including one who is a Military Defense Counsel. Enforcement, when it happens, is quite strict.

That seems kind of harsh. I’d totally accept falling on his own sword, maybe seppuku.

Having seen firsthand what happens when someone unknowingly enters a hypoxic enclosed space, I think the difference is foreknowledge. Thrashing sounds like acidosis from holding one’s breath. I was helping an acquaintance work on his old steel boat. There was a watertight compartment. The risk of steel-enclosed spaces is that rusty steel in an enclosed space can consume all of the oxygen, leaving only nitrogen rich air.

He opened the hatch and, before I could stop him, he just strode on in like it was nothing. He was unconscious before I could get to him, maybe ten seconds. Fortunately, he was near enough to the hatch that I could just reach in and grab him, rather than trying to find an air tank and regulator, and then put it on.

He recovered just fine, but had a terrible headache. He didn’t remember anything about it. He didn’t thrash. There was no drama. He walked in and fell unconscious. Lucky for him it was a small space, so the bulkheads kept him from doing a full header into the steel deck.

If my juggling of balls catches your fancy, you might also be interested to know that I also smoke meat, play the flute, and churn butter. 😆

Oh, throughout the whole thing, he and his employees were treated like garbage. He would get through security, go directly to the person’s office, and reassemble the pistol in front of the manager. And then my friend (or one of his employees) would get interrogated for hours on unrelated questions, like it was somehow my friend’s fault that the TSA failed their audits.

I travel a lot for work. US Customs and the TSA are absolutely a sick joke. I could easily write a novella on the extremely poor training of TSA employees. I have a small permanent retainer (read: braces); about 25% of the time, that is considered suspicious, and I get an enhanced inspection. “Ya know, I could just open my mouth and show you what’s in there.”

The TSA always determines that my juggling balls are suspicious, so I never pack them in carry-on anymore. I have NEXUS, yet I always get an enhanced inspection on return to the US. Literally every other country to which I have flown just waves me through, even before I got Pre-Check/NEXUS/Global Entry.

My partner had her rigging knife in her backpack on a flight out and back. She was unpacking and found it in her backpack after the trip. Good catch, TSA.

And the absolute frosting on the TSA shit sandwich: one of my close friends owns a private security firm. His company was approached by the TSA to assist in security audits at a major international airport. He and his team were contracted to “smuggle” fake firearms through TSA checkpoints, any way they could. The TSA repeatedly failed to detect the firearms for each of five audits. The TSA division (district? regional?) manager, frustrated at his group’s 100% failure rate, determined that my friend’s company must have specialized criminal training, and everyone who worked that contract were put on the no-fly list. It took him about 18 months to unfuck that mess for him and his employees.

I had written a few more paragraphs about TSA hassles, but I think y’all get the picture.

I miss lawn darts, but the ban made sense. Holy hell, people were stupid with those things.

It’s sofa king exhausting. Craft a cover letter and tweak the resume for each application. And still get crickets.

For the entirety of my engineering career (25+ years), I’ve been accustomed to getting an offer for every position to which I applied. This time around, something is way off. I’m at 78 applications, despite being a perfect fit for almost all of those applications. There have been only two responses, and those were for interviews, still in progress. The fake listings makes a lot sense, but I can’t help but feel that the problem is way larger than this article indicates.