Even buildings built for the homeowner suck, because building codes suck and construction materials suck. It’s very hard, and very expensive, to build a nice home of any size. And even if you spend the money, you’ll never get it back because the market doesn’t value quality.

Yes, and it’s also unfettered capitalism. Developers buy land cheap, build homes cheap, and sell them for a profit. That’s usually not in the best interests of the homeowners or the community. In many other countries, homeowners buy land, choose a builder, buy materials, and contribute to their local area. It’s a system that costs slightly more upfront, but most of the value stays where it should, with the homeowners and the laborers. There’s no mass-produced garbage or corporate veils to syphon and protect profits far away from the community.

There’s a reason that Putin throws people out of windows. He wants everyone to know that he killed those people, and he wants everyone to know that nobody is going to stop him.

Trump and his fascist army wants you to know that they will murder witnesses, and nobody will stop them.

Even if it was just a horrible coincidence, Trump is going to act like they killed him because he likes taking credit for things.

The second fetus may have been terminally underdeveloped, and small enough to be delivered without realizing it was a second baby. They may have told her there was no second baby or that it was part of the afterbirth, or she may have misunderstood what they said.

Doctors have been known to lie to patients in the past, but the practice is not very common anymore in most cultures.

My kids get their assignments, turn them in, and receive their grades on four different apps, plus there’s a version for the parents.

Where? Fuck you, that’s where. You want your kid to be on time for their activities? Surrender all privacy, because what are you going to do? Keep your kid out of sports and clubs?

Seems to have worked then.

I think there wre both willing coconspirators and terrified bystanders unwilling to make a stand. The coconspirators belong in prison. I don’t have hope for them. I do wish the rest will locate their nerve and become better people, but I doubt it will happen.

That feels like something we could crowd-source. I don’t need the space and tools to build two open source cars, but if we had ten people in the community that wanted them, it would make sense to rent the space and buy the tools.

On the contrary, I’d say it’s a smashing success. First, the author was deeply engaged with Facebook to write the article. Second, everyone who saw this article and discussed the findings was engaged with Facebook even if they didn’t have the app open. You and I are engaged with Facebook right now. And third, many many more people logged into their Facebook to test the findings either out of curiosity, to disprove the theory, or because they are horny goblins thirsting for smut.

It’s called pillaging when it’s an invasion force.

I would definitely pay a premium for an open source car.

So he stole a chicken, which is actually a war crime, and he’s just casually admitting it on social media. Says a lot about the state of the world at the moment.

The Facebook feed is an advanced algorithm that knows a shit ton about what to feed you to keep you engaged. It’s not just the cookies from sites you visit. They track what thumbnails get you to stop scrolling. They track the way a human eye moves and how far your thumb glides across the screen.

Point is, if it’s all scantily clad thirst traps, thats what gets your attention. If you see one, and you stop to take a screenshot for an article you’re writing about how it’s all thirst traps, then every third item will be another thirst trap.

Facebook doesn’t care if you want to see that content. Their goal is to keep your eyes on Facebook. If it makes you mad enough to comment, that’s engagement.

I didn’t read the whole article, so maybe the author addresses this, but what you see on Facebook is a funhouse reflection of your own interests.

This is yet another impeachable offense. Congress just needs to sack up.

It would be less expensive to simply trust everyone. Administering a numbering system and trying to prevent fraud costs more than the actual fraud it prevents, and does nothing to prevent the larger frauds.

It’s like having a chain on the pen at the bank, with a security guard watching the chain, and three managers making aure the secuirty guard is watching the chain all day, but the cash drawers are open and the three managers simply help themselves to as much cash as they like.

I know this is a serious story, but that headline had me wondering when the war got to Walmart.

There are lots of reasons not to use ChatGPT (or any AI) but it’s silly to think the consumer subscribers cancelling their subscriptions will make a dent. The real money is in the enterprise contracts. They only have a paywall to set limits on the overhead.

You’re right. They add it to your homescreen without asking, and then one of the kids clicked on it. It’s not a terrible app, actually, I just resent having to turn off all the bullshit they keep adding to my home screen. Once I realized that someone had enabled it, I picked some images that weren’t too bright or distracting, and left it alone because I figured why not? Then I walk into the room where someone left the tv on, and it’s got this qr code across the bottom.

Thankfully, there wasn’t any burn in, but still. It felt like a “Beware of Sign” sign.

I drove in Austria and Germany for work a few times. After a day or two, you pick up enough words on signs to understand “Entrance” and “Exit” and “One way”, but between the symbols and the English on everything, it is probably much easier for us to drive there than for a non-English speaker to drive here. I bet most immigrants learn “No turn on red” faster than “No Parking Enforced on Alternating Wednesdays and Saturdays except on Holidays from 6:00 PM to 12:45 AM”.

In any case, speaking English is not required of citizens. Tests were offered in Spanish because of a need for it. It’s not that they cannot learn to read a few signs, it’s that the written portion of the test needs to be clearly communicated. The ADA requires that illiterate adults be provided with an audio test or interpreter, because it’s more important for people to understand the test than it is for the government to bully immigrants to score political points with bigots.