I would fully agree with you if state employees were all on a defined contribution plan, but they are on defined benefit plans. It is like more like, we will set aside $20 for your future compensation today, but if you get a bunch of raises, live longer than expected, investments underperform, you are entitled to an automatic retroactive modification to that $20 for work you did years ago. I can't imagine a scenario where a sane person would agree to such terms.

I have fond memories of all kinds of good stuff. I think my favorite was trying to ignite calcium carbide with toilet paper. It didn't work, but when I tried to put it out with water, I sure learned my lesson.

The clay is primarily cut by a big 5-axis CNC machine. My guess is the printed plastic takes more sanding and smoothing, thus would require more union labor. Clay also has the advantage that is is easy add and remove, which is the whole point of using clay in the first place.

My previous employer had the same policy, but I just incremented the password. By the time I left 2 years later, my password was "ilove77"

Ford buys 90% of it's hybrid powertrain from Aisin and Denso (Aisin is part of Toyota, and Denso is practically part of Toyota). Ford never developed a thing. The reason no money changed hands is because they agreed to buy the powertrain from Toyota at ridiculous prices. The whole thing is really quite funny, as Toyota/Denso probably make $1000 for every hybrid Ford sells, and Ford loses around $5000 on each one.