Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment The times we're living in: all is political (Score 1) 183

It really says something about the times we live in that a social network's success becomes defined by polarized political discussion. Political discussion is vital of course, and is one of the existential crises of our lives, but there are other things to talk about: music, art, history, tech, science... the whole human sphere. People need a third space to thrive as the social beings we are, and when all of our connections are reduced to us vs. them, I fear for our humanity.

Comment Re:But they weren't (Score 1) 235

Actually they ended up with a lot more money, per my reading (I'm no economist though). From the paper: "The transfer caused total individual income to fall by about $1,500/year relative to the control group, excluding the transfers." Including the transfers ($1000/mo or $12k/yr) means individual incomes rose by $10,500/yr. Given that, it's no surprise they were not as hard pressed and were able to work less and have more leisure time.

Also I see no mention of "quality of life" or "happiness" in either the surveys nor the mobile app data.

"These surveys included questions on time use with different lookback periods as a complement to mobile app-based time diaries, as well as questions on job search, quality of employment, job satisfaction, hours worked, income changes, intrahousehold employment outcomes, housing search and mobility, and participation in formal and informal education and training, among other outcomes"

"the [mobile] app provides a user friendly calendar interface that allows respondents to report all of their activities in a 24-hour period by dragging activities into time slots."

Comment Absolutely competent for the office (Score 2) 17

Tell us you don't know any old people without saying you don't know any old people.

I'm starting to believe that Joe Biden is exactly the president we need right now. Yes, he hesitates in speech sometimes. Yes, he's old. But in most of the world, age is actually respected. And most important to me, he has demonstrated actual character over the years. You can't fake that. Right wing jackoffs hate it when a leader shows character, and watching them make fools of themselves over Biden is an added benefit.

I think he's doing fine.

Comment Kia's response: we'll take our ball and go home. (Score 1) 53

Kia has disabled their "Kia Connect" app and subscription service in MA for all new EVs, supposedly due to this law. I just got an EV6 and had to sign a waiver saying I know the app is non-functional for all cars sold in Massachusetts. No remote start, no software updates (except at the dealer), nothing. It's basically them saying "we'll just take our ball and go home, then." Of course there are ways they could tweak the service to allow non-covered functions but they're not doing that.

Comment Re:Hyperbole (Score 1) 226

Quote from the press release at https://newsroom.statefarm.com...:

State Farm General Insurance Company®, State Farm’s provider of homeowners insurance in California, will cease accepting new applications including all business and personal lines property and casualty insurance, effective May 27, 2023. This decision does not impact personal auto insurance. State Farm General Insurance Company made this decision due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.

We take seriously our responsibility to manage risk. We recognize the Governor’s administration, legislators, and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) for their wildfire loss mitigation efforts. We pledge to work constructively with the CDI and policymakers to help build market capacity in California. However, it’s necessary to take these actions now to improve the company’s financial strength. We will continue to evaluate our approach based on changing market conditions. State Farm® independent contractor agents licensed and authorized in California will continue to serve existing customers for these products and new customers for products not impacted by this decision.

Comment Re:Is it phones or something else? (Score 3) 158

I agree with you that they should get out and meet people IRL, absolutely. What I can see from my kids is that they do that -- and they use their phones to organize. My point was really that they can't "be OK with all of that [impending doom]" and *just* go outside. They feel powerless and that causes real mental health harm. Yes, there are better ways to self-medicate than doomscrolling, but the underlying fear is still there, in a way that seems really different than when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. (I didn't even mention that many of them have immense college debt they'll be paying off most of their lives.)

Comment Re:Is it phones or something else? (Score 5, Insightful) 158

I'm 60yo and live in the US. Grew up with "duck and cover" and Vietnam and the cold war and all the wars in the middle east. I know what that felt like, and seeing things through my kids' eyes, this is different.

Yes, it's not life during wartime. No single one of the things I mentioned is as immediately dire as living through a war, for sure. But the breadth of existential threats everywhere you look, the paucity of refuges, the seeming inevitability and the indifference of the powerful, certainly makes for a significant amount of anxiety among the Gen Z kids (and me too, frankly). So yeah, they self-medicate with their phones. But they also take to the streets with people like Greta Thunberg and Amanda Gorman and John Lewis. So there's that. And yeah, the hippies took to the streets too, and that didn't turn into the utopia they wanted. So the kids that know history become even more disenchanted.

I agree that phones (especially social media) share some of the blame, no doubt about that. But to point to that as the primary cause of Gen Z's ills seems a bit disingenuous.

Comment Is it phones or something else? (Score 3, Interesting) 158

We're all doomscrolling more than ever, no denying it. But it seems disingenuous to blame it all on phones and social media. This generation is growing up into existential crises the depth and breadth of which we've never seen -- impending climate doom, the decline and possible fall of democracy, polarization to the point of possible civil war (a huge fraction of US Gen Zers think it's likely in their lifetime), massive wealth inequality unseen since a century ago, and of course a pandemic with all of its attendant societal breakdowns. But they should be OK with all of that, just put down their phones and go outside for a walk? Hmm.

Comment Re:Who is financially sponsoring this bill? (Score 3, Informative) 453

20% of Wyomings power is from wind. 75% is from coal.

And 90% is from right-wing bullshit that the faux "cowboys" eat up because they think it makes them look manly, when it fact, they're some of the biggest welfare queens in the country. Their government ranks #5 in the states most dependent on Federal money, then they brag about not having a state income tax.

https://wallethub.com/edu/stat...

Comment Re:EMACS and org mode (Score 1) 187

Emacs user here since the mid-'80s. I wish I could use org-mode for my notes, but logseq (org-based) is faster, nicer looking, fully mobile, and supports seamless editable block-level transclusion which is huge for me (along with other nice-to-haves like whiteboards) and a large set of JS-based plugins. Still I do switch into emacs for any serious editing, query-replace, etc. of my notes. What I miss: executable src blocks, org-mode's exports, and of course all the power of emacs itself.

Slashdot Top Deals

What sin has not been committed in the name of efficiency?

Working...