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Comment Re:Let kids play in the dirt (Score 1) 89

There have been many studies at this point showing that exposure to dirt, dust, and dander early in childhood results in low rates of asthma. I'm personally fondest of the one a friend of mine (Hi Dubes!) worked on in Papua New Guinea where they found the westernization of formerly isolated cultures where dirt floors are replaced by cement results in an increase in asthma.

I recall recently hearing of a study where it was determined that when an infant's pacifier falls on the ground, and the parent cleans it by putting it in their own mouth first before returning it to the child, the children end up with substantially stronger immune systems than if the pacifier is cleaned more vigorously.

As with many aspects of developmental biology, we are born with scaffolding that needs to be trained in order to function properly. A lack of that training leads to disease. So, yes, let your kids play in the dirt.

Comment Orthogonal issue (Score 2) 136

Whether or not workers in a particular segment are unionized is entirely orthogonal to the quality of goods being produced and services being provided.

Enshittification is happening because of many factors, but perhaps the biggest single idea is "move fast and break things." When a company no longer values the customer experience, the customer experience is shitty. That effect has nothing to do with the organizational structure of the company.

Comment Re:Awesome! (Score 2) 35

What "workflows" can you possibly have on a phone?

This makes you sound unaware that a phone is a general purpose computer with more power than any of us had just a couple of decades ago.

Yes, that is true, but the grandparent perhaps was referring to the fact that the user interface on phones is excruciatingly bad for anything other than entertainment and communication. Sure, you might be able to use it in a pinch to do actual work, but for general-purpose productivity, a modern phone would be left in the dust compared even to a laptop from 25 years ago. CPU and memory in a device are not the only factors for productivity. In fact, I'd argue for general use (e.g., writing, spreadsheets, light computations), screen size and keyboard will be the primary factors driving productivity. For anything specialized (e.g., photo / video editing, data analysis, visualization, CAD, etc.), there's no question that the screen size of phones is crippling.

Comment Re: Curious catch 22 (Score 2, Insightful) 238

Never expect UBI, as long as billionaires exist. They want to keep you poor, weak, and most importantly *dependent*.

I believe you have that backwards. UBI is exactly about creating dependence; that's why the B stands for "basic", and not S for "standard". UBI is about creating a new version of welfare, larger and more extensive, that will keep even more of society placated in servitude.

Comment Re: Curious catch 22 (Score 5, Insightful) 238

Perhaps with loss of employment it motivated them to increase their skill set.

I'd normally ignore such a bone-headed comment, but as my career is focused on improving the lives of people with a specific disability, I find I cannot sit idly by.

People in positions like the ones described are not the part of society that can increase their skill set. As a segment, they typically have very, very high unemployment. The particular demographic I work with currently has 75% unemployment in the US. Their disability fundamentally precludes an increasing of their skill sets.

So, instead of assuming that every person can be trained to the New Reality, please seek out products created by or with people who are disabled in one way or another. In doing so, you are improving the lives of people whom the rest of society has quietly forgotten about.

Comment Re:The plot was never the point for Tron movies (Score 1) 51

The original Tron was fantastic... if you were an '80s computer geek. If your experience with computers starts in the '90s or later, it's hard to relate.

Tron Legacy went all metaphysical. Metaphysics is where science fiction goes to die, and die it did. Tron Ares is a fitting sequel to Tron Legacy, which is to say: hot garbage with nifty special effects.

Comment Re:Cloth diapers? (Score 2) 49

For our first kid, we used resuable. Reusable diapers mean you must do laundry every day. Even if you have enough diapers that you can skip a day, longer than that, and the odor becomes intolerable. So, for the most part, it's laundry every frelling day, and you cannot do something like forget to move it to the dryer.

That relentlessness, on top of sleeplessness, on top of full-time job, meant hubby put his foot down for kid number 2, and we switched to disposables. It wasn't about convenience, it was about sanity.

Now, if you are fortunate enough to have someone helping you with your kids for an extended period, perhaps a professional housekeeper, then washables are a viable option.

Comment Re:I thought this could be good, until... (Score 2) 48

As someone who knows how to solve a cube, but isn't very fast, I thought this might be quite a good thing to buy. My assumption was that it might help me learn some algorithms for faster solving. That was until I figured out what was nagging me... 24 displays? But.. a cube has 54 faces, not 24? And then, clicking on the link, I saw it. It's a 2x2 cube, not a 3x3. Who would be "puzzled" by a 2x2 cube? Awful.

Come back when it's 3x3 and I'll buy one.

A book / web site will give you likely better training on new algorithms than an overpriced, needlessly complex gadget (should they ever release a 3x3), and will be more cost-effective. In all, this is a product that won't have much of a market. ... but you'd think about spending hundreds of dollars to get a little better at cube solving? Why not take that money and do something really good with it, like give it to some charitable organization? Even if you just give it to your local elementary school science / tech teacher for supplies, you'll be improving the lives of dozens of kids. You'd be surprised what they can do with a few hundred dollars.

Comment They'd better tread cautiously. (Score 3, Insightful) 41

Not sure what Intel contributes that they could change to closed source without harming themselves. Closed source doesn't make it into the Linux kernel and with very few exceptions doesn't make it into the Linux distros. I can think of few Intel product lines where that wouldn't be destructive to their market share.

Comment Re:Question is (Score 4, Interesting) 162

The diagnoses were merged because the evidence had begun to suggest that they were different severities of the same ailment. If the evidence has begun to suggest that we're dealing with fundamentally different ailments then the diagnoses should be split accordingly. If not then you're shuffling names for the sake of politics and it's not a good day in science when that happens.

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