A better way to measure that would be, what percentage of 911 call were because of “sleepers”. Why? Because a million people don’t need the service at any given time. But are the needs of the people who do call being met? That is the question that matters.

This would be kind of hilarious if it wasn’t such a drain on public resources. Maybe the cars should have a mechanical prod coupled with the sound of wailing infants a playing at an uncomfortably loud volume to wake the drunks. That and the passenger should be liable of for all associated cost if 911 is called. A $500-$1500 surcharge would be a mighty incentive for better behavior.

The US median age is 38. In Europe it is 43. In Japan/China/Korea/Taiwan 48. In Africa it’s 20, but the life expectancy is only 63. If you are younger than the average age of your region and your region has a relatively high average lifespan it’s fair to say that makes you young in the eyes of most people you encounter. In Africa if you were 48 you’d be considered relatively old. In Japan, that merely middle aged.

There is just something awesome about using all four limbs to finely control a high powered machine. It is the closest I am likely to ever get to piloting a humanoid mech. Alas, you are right. Those days are gone.

Manual transmissions are the ultimate theft deterrents. Most crime is committed by the young and...well...the supermajority of them can't drive a stick.

Where I live there are many, many, large trees everywhere (80+ feet tall) and much of the ground is hilly and uneven. The power goes out once or twice a year. The worst I can think of was 3 days after a particular big storm. Most outagges last a couple hours to half a day.

There are basically two ways to fix the issue. Burying the lines or widening the power corridors to keep the trees far from the power lines. Both would require chopping down thousands of 100-300 year old trees. No one here wants that.

So instead maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the homes have whole home backup generators powered by natural gas or propane. I would not be surprised if a good percentage of the rest have back up batteries. It is a choice most of us have made that we would rather live in lush and leafy shaded place than have more reliable publicly supplied electricity. I can't say I know anyone losing sleep over it.

To the modern Republican "Conservative" means a dedication to concentrating wealth and power in those that already have it.

Established laws?Meaningless.
Established social norms? Meaningless.
Legal precedents? Meaningless.
Established and well researched science? Meaningless.

Sure they will pretend differently when it suits their goals. But their overriding goals are more power and wealth for themselves and to hell with the consequences.

To be clear I am not saying the Democratic Party doesn't have it issues. They suck at messaging. There are plenty to still seek power and wealth while being selective about the truth. But the pervasiveness and unabashed shameless boldfaced lying to achieve their goals is simply unmatched by the modern Republican.


As yourself this: Who does this policy benefit? Follow the money.

Exactly. There is no walled garden on Mac OS. That is only only on their other devices. Which is one of the reasons it is very lame the top end IPads, and the AVP are behind their walled garden. Though I don't really mind, given the option it would be nice if IOS wasn't a walled garden too. The top end iPhones are more powerful than most of the laptops sold only a few years ago. There is no real reason why shouldn't be able to plug it into a dock and then have a full desktop experience.

Mac OS has more of a low fence than a wall consisting of scary sounding messages to ward away people who may not really know what they are doing.

It seems to me the real point of this is get people to pay to have their conversations listen to so OpenAI can have a bigger dataset to improve their models. Why pay people to improve the models when you can get people to pay you instead?

I saw Pearl Jam at the height of their fame in the 90s for $28 GA near the stage.

I have seen Tool 6 times. The first time it was only $12, GA, in 1998. The last time was 2019 it was $230 for floor seats.

So the outrageous fees and monopolistic vertical integrations were not enough, they also were buying their own product and then reselling it at higher prices so they could taken in even higher fees. The brass balls on these people.....

Why anyone besides gamers still uses Windows is beyond me. As far as I can tell it only exists because of critical mass of the market share it got with business in the 80s, 90s, and 00s. People are used to it. For me, Windows jumped the shark with 8 and so I jumped too. I’ve never looked back. Linux and Mac OS are superior in pretty much every way that matters. Price wise Linux has windows beat. And Chromebooks are likewise cheap and will do most everything most people use computers for. Easy of use Mac has windows beat. Windows sole superiority comes from hardware and software compatibility due to marketshare. As far as hardware compatibility, Linux will also run on nearly everything too. As far as software goes, for the vast majority of things there are viable alternatives on Linux, Mac OS, or even Chromebooks for basic users programs. And Mac OS is way more polished and usable for both basic and power users.

Very true!

I think the bigger thing is that a significant percentage of the population is more concerned with fitting in with their tribe than they are with thinking critically. Furthmore, a good percentage of those people are only minimally capable of thinking critically about a situation. Those people have the same vote I do. Well, not exactly. I live in a so called purple state of divided government, aka a swing state. Still, on the state level the percentages are similar. When people are able to blatantly lie and transmit that lie over and over with effective anonymity to influence the easily influence with zero negative consequences we get the government we have today.

We get a government which no longer represents the people, but instead enacts laws and polices favoring those who give them the most money. The saddest thing is that the voting public is entirely capable of putting an end to it. Well....we would be if so many of us were not so selfish, apathetic, gullible, and/or just down right dumb. It is no coincidence public education is attacked by the republicans. However, the democrats don't do themselves any favors with how the public school systems are run in our biggest cities either.

Is age verification done via credit card? Is it done by a state ID? A social security number? If it is a credit card, then I don't see the problem. If it is done by social security number or state ID than it becomes just another way to track what adults do online.