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Comment Re:Just a RIF? (Score 3, Funny) 23

More and more I am wondering if these AI "initiatives" are just an excuse to reduce headcount and figure things out later, rather than an actual commitment.

It's a bit of both. They really think AI will eat those jobs, and they're almost certainly right. It's just a matter of getting the timeline, and better to be early than late on big defining trends.

The glorified scripting that we're calling AI, along with other automation and robotics, is going to end entire categories of jobs, with nothing visibly in sight to replace them. Unless you can get governments to mandate make-work positions, there's really no way to stop the waves of layoffs that are coming.

Comment Re:Trump Trying to Silence CNN (Score 2) 154

It's easy to make your case when you just exclude alllllll the conservative media particualrly in new and alt-media spaces. Let's list some out:

With the exception of Fox and the WSJ (and maybe Rogan), that list has nowhere near the reach or audience numbers as even the worst rated MS-Now program. For every thing you list there, there's at least one and usually more left-wing equivalents. And all of that is beside the point, because...

For Republicans to claim they have no media presence

Uh, who is doing that? The whole point of the parent post was his assertion that conservatives are buying "all the media". It's a horseshit assertion, just like "Republicans claim they have no media presence".

while they have been dominating the entire media landscape for 20 years

Holy shit, you're either delusional or that's the most Stalinesque piece of spin I've seen in years. In what alternate fuckin' reality do you live in where Republicans have dominated the Big 3, NPR, Newspapers, wire services, etc etc etc?

Comment Re:Trump Trying to Silence CNN (Score 1, Insightful) 154

It's legitimately frightening how conservatives seem to be buying up all the news media/p>

What? Please give me an example of "all the news media". Even if Paramount would get WB and properties, and even if you count CBS as "Pro-Trump" now... which is laughable on its face... ABC, NBC, PBS, MS-Now, The New York Times, and the vast majority of city newspapers and wire services are in no way, shape or form owned by, or friendly to, conservatives. Add to that the considerable influence of magazines... Politico, etc... and any notion that "conservatives are buying up all the news" is farcical.

Comment Re:College education is still worth it (Score 1) 142

If anything, the Internet has revolutionized and democratized education to an extent undreamed of in human history.

Yeah, go ahead and put "Didn't attend college, but I spent a lot of time reading Wikipedia, Reddit, and getting tutored by ChatGPT." on your resume and see how far that gets you. /s

There are already first-level companies that no longer require a degree for entry-level positions... Google among them. This is only going to accelerate. There will be more things like 3rd party certification programs that to some extent replace traditional degrees. Colleges can either adapt to this change, or be wiped out by it.

Comment Re:College education is still worth it (Score 1) 142

A whole bunch of very rich assholes want you to think that you don't have any use for an education because they are tired of paying for it and because they don't want you to learn critical thinking skills. That's why you get at least two stories a week attacking education in your feed.

You get two stories a week because the current model of education we have is broken beyond repair, and to some extent, obsolete, and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. You don't need to go away to a campus at a debt of six figures (or a cost of six figures to taxpayers) to get an education anymore. If anything, the Internet has revolutionized and democratized education to an extent undreamed of in human history. From the freely available works of the greatest minds in history to real time or recorded remote instruction, people now have everything they need for a first class education at their fingertips. It's all about personal motivation at this point. The resources are there, often at little or no cost. How hard is one willing to work to get the education? That's what it comes down to now.

The old model is going to have to either adapt to this reality, or die out and be replaced. I think some of both will happen. You already have 100+ colleges a year closing in the United States. That will only accelerate with AI now in the mix.

Submission + - Netflix to buy Warner Bros film and streaming businesses for $72bn (bbc.com)

sinij writes:

Warner Bros owns franchises including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, and the streaming service HBO Max. The takeover is set to lead to a radical reshaping of the US film and media industry, but analysts have warned that it could face resistance from competition authorities.


Comment Re:A troubling trend. (Score 2) 116

I've bought Crucial upgrades for the last few laptops I've owned, both RAM and SSDs.

I used to joke around about how the AI companies wouldn't be satisfied until all resources on the planet were directly routed to them and everything else was eroding because of it. Now? Now, it's not seeming so much like a joke.

Crucial was always my go-to for RAM upgrades. I'm getting my son some upgrades for Christmas, and when I saw desktop memory prices, I was stunned. It's the same thing everywhere. "AI vendors are grabbing all the RAM they can get their hands on, dramatically driving up the price".

Comment Re: No, I don't think so (Score 1) 143

Trump doesn't have the will to deploy military strength.

Syria says "Hi".

 

His actions so far have been performance theater (ie, pick on small countries in hopes that Russia and China will be afraid).

We're the United States. The world's most powerful country. Outside of Russia and China, all countries are "small".

And Russia and China... they have nukes. Attacking them means WWIII. If you think this is a good idea, by all means, run for President on your End Humanity platform.

Comment Re:Fuck that (Score 0) 143

I mean, let's just come up with a hypothetical example. Let's say that baby formula manufacturers realize that the specific tests used by the regulator to check for protein can be fooled by melamine and so they use melamine as an ingredient to save money while fooling the regulator. Consequently hundreds of thousands of babies get sick and tens of thousands are hospitalized with some dying, and that's just the ones that are known about. Should the regulators be the only ones that get in trouble while the executives who made the decisions buy themselves some private islands? I mean, A. that's not a hypothetical example and, B. I just do not understand what you are trying to argue here. Maybe it's my fault, but it just seems incomprehensible to me given the actual, real-world history of corporate behavior when it comes to food and drug safety.

I presume you're referring to the 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal? I'll point out this was something perpetrated by the Chinese industry, not American. It was knowingly covered up with the complicity of the Chinese government to prevent it from embarrassing the ongoing Olympics. Only when the scandal became impossible to cover up did the CCP take any action.

As of December 2025, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and former Mayor London Breed have both expressed praise for China and the relationship between San Francisco and Chinese cities.

Submission + - Chernobyl's Radiophile Fungus (sciencealert.com)

j_f_chamblee writes: There is a black fungus thriving on the outside of the sarcophagus of Chernobyl's infamous Reactor 4. And it may be thriving because of the high radiation, not in spite of it. From the article:

"That fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and some scientists think its dark pigment – melanin – may allow it to harness ionizing radiation through a process similar to the way plants harness light for photosynthesis. This proposed mechanism is even referred to as radiosynthesis."

Submission + - UK to remove right to trial by jury for most charges (theguardian.com)

DesScorp writes: The UK Ministry of Justice will move to eliminate the right to trial by jury for all but the most serious charges in a controversial overhaul of the British court system:

Criminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, the courts minister has said, promising to enact radical changes to limit jury trials by the next election. Drug dealers and career criminals were “laughing in the dock” knowing cases can take years to come to trial, Sarah Sackman said, while warning that inaction would be a road to “chaos and ruin”. Ministers will legislate to remove the right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in one of the biggest and most controversial overhauls of the justice system in England and Wales in generations – promising the changes will significantly shrink the court backlog by 2029. The Ministry of Justice is braced for a backlash from barristers and the judiciary as it presses ahead with the measures to tackle a backlog of nearly 80,000 cases, which will create a proposed new judge-only division of the crown court to hear some cases. Sackman said the “stakes are incredibly high” as she prepared to announce early next month that vast numbers of cases will now be heard by judges and magistrates rather than juries, a response to recommendations in a review by Sir Brian Leveson.


Submission + - Man jailed over possession of 'extreme' music

An anonymous reader writes: Man jailed over possession of 'extreme' music

“A man has been jailed over his music collection which included 'extreme right-wing' recordings .. Norbert Gyurcsik was .. was sentenced to 40 months for each offence at Worcester Crown Court. The terms will be served concurrently.”

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