> These programs work well in intensely impoverished areas

[Citation needed]

I'm not saying you're wrong, or even that I disagree; But the catch here is that the places where this program presumably has the biggest impact are also the places where little to no data is available.

But also, if the OLPC are actually existing and being used... they have network connectivity. Presumably they need some form of internet to "give access to information that otherwise just wouldn't be there" if only intermittently or by proxy, which in turn should provide a way to collect usage statistics and/or track students in these hard to survey populations.

Either way you can't claim they work well in any population without actual data or reports to support that claim.
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> Did the advisor not check the student's work?

The student made up the data, claiming if came from a legitimate source. Other than independently trying to get that same data from the same source and verifying it, how exactly do you 'check the work?'

The review is typically focused on how the data is processed and if the conclusions follow logically from the data presented. If you just make shit up at the very start it can be very difficult to catch or prove short of completely redoing the study - which is in fact how a most fraud is caught, when someone tries to replicate a study's results and fails.
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This should be a career-ending move. Demonstrating this level of dishonesty should bar him from holding a graduate degree of any kind, really, let alone anything in scientific research.

Increasing and enforcing standards is needed, but also higher standards mean nothing if there are no consequences. Make it clear that this kind of nonsense will obliterate your academic career.
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They don't have the authority to arbitrarily decide where to put fracking wells either. Or mines, or oil rigs, or chemical factories...

In fact they technically get permits to do basically everything everything they do. Or at least that used to be the case when the EPA actually meant something. Never stopped them from completely fucking everything up to save money though, did it? And I bet you know it.

I guarantee that if any of these get built and fails, the way the public finds out about it is someone noticing a spike in cancer rates.
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I, for one, have complete confidence in corporate industry's ability and willingness to respect the environment and the safety of the general public.

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> Have grade-separated tracks that go above or below the roads.

Easier said than done.

Grade for typical trains is something like 2% or less, so raising a railway high enough to get over a roadway needs almost a quarter mile of track on either side minimum, so for a single rail bridge you just created at a half mile of impassible wall and cut a whole neighborhood in half. Automotive roads are better but still limited in a similar way. maybe triple the grade/a third the distance but you're still making a huge barrier.

So if you need to get through a town without having grade crossings you're basically stuck building the *entire* thing 14+ feet in the air, including the stations, which is outlandishly expensive both to build and to maintain.
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> but how much does it really happen?

A lot. Like, a LOT a lot.

Maybe you would like some other videos if that's your preferred media?

Roblox Situation is Worse Than You Think
Roblox: How to Destroy Your $83,000,000,000 Company Overnight - A Deep Dive
Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen)

Roblox has had problems with child exploitation too, for years now; Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers and their follow-up, Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.
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You are discussing - ranting about, really - what should be.

The rest of us are discussing what is.

The original claim is that people aren't buying the F-150 Lightning because (paraphrasing) people want mid-size trucks and not fill-size trucks. That claim is refuted by pointing out that mid-size trucks already exist, they do not sell very well, and in fact full-size trucks are overwhelmingly popular.

Now you come in with your righteous indignation that because, in your view, people don't actually make full use of full-size trucks, they should not be buying full-size trucks. Notwithstanding that the majority of these trucks actually ARE used as trucks - because the cultural bubble that exists entirely up your ass along with your head is not representative of the entire world - the very real popularity of these vehicles is not dependent on what people actually do with them.

I'll say it again just to be crystal clear: It does not matter if you think they should not be popular, the fact is they are popular. Reality does not give a shit what your opinion is.
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Whether or not people use the vehicles for their supposed purpose or to the full capabilities is completely irrelevant to the sales numbers.

I'm sorry that the world does not conform to what you imagine it should be. The reality is full size pickup trucks are the best selling vehicle type in the US by a wide margin. Feel free to masturbate your is-ought sophistry until you go blind though...
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That's probably because the "Typical millionaire in the US" is likely a farmer or rancher.

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> MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

Counterpoint: The Ford F series are the best selling vehicles in the US. Second place is the Chevy Silverado, which is another full size pickup. If you broke out just the F-150 I think it's just barely behind the Silverado (Looks like ~420K vs ~410K so far this year?)

The physical size isn't the problem. Smaller pickups like the Honda Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick do not sell well. The kinds of people who actually want a pickup truck do not seem to actually want a midsize or compact pickup truck.

Cheaper, on the other hand... that's something you can sell to the masses. Sounds to me that the market for EV pickups is still there but the price isn't alluring enough, and maybe people are willing to compromise on the size to get an EV truck that's more affordable.

> Back in my day

It ain't your day anymore; the world has moved on.
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> If the bubble pops, that hardware won't be worth much as everyone will be offloading the same type of hardware at the same time.

The hardware will be worth something in that it exists and can be re-deployed for literally any other computing task. They will not have to build a new data center for whatever bullshit waste of time they come up with next. Yes, the hardware will be basically worth scrap on the secondary market, but we're probably not talking about outright liquidation.

> All the big decision makers seem to have fallen into the AI cult mentality

I agree and that's a problem, but the bubble will still pop. The money to dump into the infrastructure is not infinite; Even governments will run out of money and/or public willingness to continue funding it.

Probably the early-mid 2030s I reckon, based on analysis I've seen that they need to start actually making money on this nonsense by then or face bankruptcy.
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> Microsoft receives a 27% ownership stake in OpenAI worth approximately $135 billion and retains access to the AI startup's technology until 2032

Is that actual value of the hardware or speculative value of the brand?

As far as I know, there is still zero plan to actually make the trillions of dollars from AI that they will need to justify the trillion plus they've thrown at it so far. Like they need to make a lot of money just to break even, and so far the only plan seems to be "then a miracle occurs."

So I guess if Microsoft at least gets 27% of the physical hardware that's something tangible they can recover when the bubble pops.
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It depends entirely on what the consulting is.

Usually you use consultants for one-time or infrequently needed services that would make little sense to maintain staff for. Architecture and engineering services, legal consultation, and advertising are all easy examples of things a business might need but not often enough to have that manpower in-house. Some professional services also carry liability insurance requirements which, if you hire a consultant, you don't have to pay for either.

If you want to talk about something like IT services; Seems likely an IT admin might not be the busiest person in a company, so depending on the size of your business it might make sense to contract for on-call services and remote administration. One person can probably manage 3-4 small businesses worth of tech support and management, so each of those businesses pays less than hiring their own dedicated in-house employee both in salaries and benefits. (And yeah, they are very likely ALSO getting paid less...)
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> The Japanese have found a way to use small temperature differences to generate electricity

And for about $50 I can buy an engine that runs off the temperature difference between the ambient air and a cup of hot water. The idea of using thermal gradients in the ocean to generate power is at least 150 years old. Any guesses why it's not caught on?

Hint: the facility in Japan you're probably thinking of only generates 100kw (~135HP), and it's not clear if that's before or after they account for the power to pump the seawater.

There is no utility in chasing down such incredibly low quality thermal energy unless you happen to actually want heat, but even then it's not really hot enough for most things you'd want scavenged heat for.
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