I never once said the North and South were morally equivalent, or that both sides were equally bad.

I am pointing out that history is complicated and the "heroes" of the past often did despicable, horrible things, and that their motivations were not always holy and pure. And that means we are all capable of despicable, horrible things; and therefore we should not see the world as "us = good," and "them = bad," but instead we must figure out, not through secession and sending "them" away, but rather, by working together, on how we can create a world that is more just and fair and meets the human rights and needs of everyone.

"Broadly speaking, our Constitution says that the police should only be able to invade a person’s rights to privacy, property, or liberty if they have a specific reason to think that the suspect has done something wrong." (https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resources-by-topic/fourth-amendment-search-and-seizure)

Seizing data on my airline travel activities, and searching it to look for evidence of criminal wrong doing, seems to me a pretty obvious example of a violation of the fourth amendment of the Constitution.

We have HIPAA for health information and FERPA for educational records; it's probably time for a broader privacy law that explicitly describes these limits and protects our privacy and liberty in other areas of life, too.

Where I go and where I travel is a key component of my personal liberty, and collection by the government of those data to inform possible criminal actions against me is clearly an unreasonable search.

You do know that it is the CHILDREN of anti-vaxxers who are suffering and dying, not the stupid, manipulated parents, right?

The Civil War was because of slavery but it wasn't about slavery, if that makes sense. Lincoln didn't want to make the war about ending slavery because there were too many racists in the North who would not have been interested in going to war to stop slavery. Specifically, Lincoln didn't even emancipate the slaves until midway through the war, after he changed his mind about the issue of slavery and saw it as a way to end the war more quickly. The North also engaged in all sorts of racist actions against black people throughout the war, even those who signed up to fight for the North (such as paying them much less, giving them leftover / used equipment, being led often by white officers who weren't "good enough" to lead white soldiers, etc.).

In general, the notion that we can resolve our differences through secession ought to be eradicated (much like we need to eradicate measles). Instead, we need to reform our political system (and especially get the rich and corporations out of our politics) so that the minority does not continue to control all three branches of government with no need to compromise or listen to science and facts.

The Fourth Amendment is pretty clear, no?

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt4-6-4-1/ALDE_00000793/
br>"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Having, for example, a relatively low AGI while taking an expensive trip, in my view, should not be considered probable cause to issue a search warrant. So why should the IRS be able to collect and use such data to sift through data to try to find evidence to charge people with tax fraud? This seems to be a textbook case of the violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Just spitballing here, but, the Constitution might have something to say about it?

...to hold back on shipping a piece of trash. Yes, Apple got a carried away with their advertising ("Ready for Apple Intelligence!"), but rightly held back on shipping garbage.

...are excitedly throwing their money at another thing that their investment manager PROMISES will make them even richer...news at 11.

Certain losses and capital expenses can be used to lower the corporate tax. But even without these financial games, there are costs to booking a room that you don't get if you don't book it. Room cleaning, for example. I don't know the going rate in all markets, but probably around $15+ just to clean the room (for just a normal level of grime), plus some laundry costs, so probably around $25-$40 for a single night just for cleaning? Plus wear on the room. Plus electricity. Plus water. Plus the throw-away key. Shampoo. Soap. Security to tell them to keep the noise down so they don't disrupt other guests. Booking fee paid to the 3rd party booking agency. And on and on. The building itself is a sunk cost, but all of these other costs can be managed and go up when you have more people in the hotel. "Filling rooms at any price point" is not the goal; the goal is to make a profit and build strong customer loyalty. And managers who do not understand this are dumb; and since most managers are dumb, this is why we are in this situation with the hotel market.

You forgot there's also a cost to booking a room to the hotel - utilities, wear and tear, room cleaning, running the pool, having sufficient staff to handle the # of guests on hand, etc. So at some price point, selling more rooms will cost you more than you bring in. Empty rooms have zero revenue but also less cost than a filled room.

The current model pushes consumers to become last-minute bookers who ONLY pay the lowest minimum price that the hotel will accept. AND it forces customers to price shop and comparison shop all open rooms, rather than developing a good loyalty to a specific brand that always delivers.

You should not sell your product through third-party sellers. Not ever. Because it means you are handing over control of a key component of your product to these third-party sellers. And then they control your business, not you. That's the whole point of the above article. That managers turned over the sale of their product to third parties, then were SHOCKED, just SHOCKED I tell you, when that third party took control of their business model and forced them to change how they do business. Managers are dumb.

The customer is NEVER the problem. And I'm not asking for the lowest price and the best quality. I'm asking that you give me a good product and a price that you won't undercut at the last minute. That the price we agree on IS fair and not liable to change at your whim, that you're not ripping me off because I dare to plan ahead. That what I'm paying is what it costs and I don't have to look at 50 hotel.com cheap.com ABCD.com sites to be sure I'm getting a good price. Do that as a smart manager and you'll have more customers than rooms.

Why penalize your best customers who reserve the longest in advance?
Personally, I hate spending time hotel shopping, but I do, because the price and quality can vary greatly and it's the only way to get a good price and a good room. But it is dumb management policy because it forces your customers - your best customers - to shop around every time they are looking for a room.

Instead, I would be happily loyal to a chain that had uniformly good quality (not luxury, just good - clean, working pool, no bedbugs, hot breakfast) and guaranteed the best price (and they will lower my price if they decide to lower the price to "fill rooms"). Done.

Why are managers so shortsighted and dumb?

Of course! Where else will hotel administrators learn how to put the noisy ice machine right next to my room no matter where I stay?

17. Forcing a public college in Miami to give him ocean-front land, worth hundreds of millions, to use for building his "library" (which will be 3% library, 17% monument to Trump, and 80% for-profit hotel).

AI doesn't "need" anything. It's people - madmen tech tycoons - who want to move AI to space so it can continue to grow with unlimited energy until it overtakes us all and kills us off.

That they are interested in this for continuing their fanatical growth of AI, rather than to, say, end human suffering from extreme poverty or solving the climate crisis, speaks to their lack of connection with humanity and the madness of the AI craze.