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Comment Re:Could the AI bubble do something good? (Score 1) 49

They're both cheaper than fossil fuels, the main problem with nuclear has been that it can't be built in time to help with global warming and so can serve as a distraction that ties up resources that could've gone into renewables. A mad scramble to build them for the AI bubble could fix that, at least temporarily.

Comment Difference in fundamental rights. (Score 1) 55

Jokes aside about Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving dinner costs a little more this year, govt can I has a few thousand in free money? What's the difference between those examples and texas buying btc?

The difference is that food is part of(*) rights to an adequate standard of living as per Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Not dying of starvation is a fundamental human right.

So yeah, I get that you're joking about somebody throwing an excessively opulent Thanksgiving party and then complaining that it costs a bit much.

But making sure that every single person has access to sufficient food is a core job that government has to do(**). You can make jokes around what constitutes "sufficient", but you can't deny that nobody should die of starvation.
On the other hand, making sure that your Ponzi scheme doesn't implode before you had time to make it to the bank isn't the government's job. At best government's job would be to regulate in order to make it less likely that unsuspecting idiots get caught up in such scams.

(**): Yes, I understand that from the US' point of view, I am an evil Euro-communist and my country is some socialist hell-hole.

(*): along with "clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

There isn't excess public money, its all deficit trailing back to the black hole $37t...38 whatever it is now since states are dependent on federal money

You do understand that government budgets don't work like balancing your home expenses, right?

Comment Re:That's rather disappointing, but they had acces (Score 3, Insightful) 36

One generally overlooked thing that it did was launch thousands of children on careers that didn't entail plowing with the chakitaqu'lla to plant potatoes or spending interminable days herding sheep. My brother-in-law knows an accountant who was the first in his town to use a computer, lured off the farm by the realization that they were just a tool and even people like him could learn to use them.

Comment Re:The point of one laptop per child (Score 1) 36

This was much of the problem, lack of connectivity. In Paruro where my brother-in-law lives when they distributed the OLPCs the only option for Internet connectivity was an expensive ISDN line, and later an extremely congested 3G tower. In Paucartambo, where our niece taught, there was no connection for the first couple of years.

Another was that teachers were not provided with OLTPs, only students. I got a couple on Buy One/Get One and gave one to our niece, and my sister-in-law used the ancient creaking Win95 laptop we gave her until 2010.

So a good first effort, and lessons were learned. Today I can't help but think it would be much more successful.

Comment Re: The point of one laptop per child (Score 1) 36

In the 1970s Indira Gandhi convinced India's government to spend millions on secondary education, and especially computers. The portion of the world which didn't laugh at the effort was condemning it for not using that money to provide arable land, seeds and clean water (as if governments are unable to do more than one thing at a time). The investment has paid off many, many times.

Comment Re:Simple solution (Score 1) 21

mahogany lined corporate offices

No such thing. I've worked on Jassey's and Bezos' offices (and Bill Gate's as well). Their offices are only marginally better than other managers' offices in the company (although they do have much more extensive security precautions). You're probably thinking of Oracle.

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