died. Micro-strategy I just read is now saying they may have to sell some btc to pay dividends and interest. If that stock isn't a pyramid scheme, I don't know what is. They sell common shares to buy btc to inflate btc price. Problem is that means more dividends to be paid, and the dilution of their current btc holdings from selling shares. I think China is smart enough to know when this sucker crashes, its going to be monumental. And they'd rather not have their citizens holding the bag.

Time flies, 20 is only 2005, which was full swing internet. I'd say 40, well really close to 50. I was using email in school on arpa in 78 or 79. Commercial beginnings were mid-80's I think. I worked for a defense contractor early 80's and the project managers were communicating with DoD via arpa email. Mere worker bees like me were using email, but I think all internal if I remember right, on a VAX/VMS system, and near the end of my stint there, Sun's. So long ago a bit foggy. I do recall in 92 submitting an application for a domain name for a company I joined. It was much more of a bar to jump to get a domain name back then. Basically you had to justify why and promise all sorts of things. Now you don't even give your name.

I think many have sold them off. Ford looks like they still own a /8(19.xxx), but gm does not anymore. The "big" guys these days are the cloud providers, although quite fractured. ATT & verizon as you'd expect have big chunks as well.

Perhaps if you work for someone. I've had several things done over the past few years. A water heater for 3500, probably cost 600, so around 3 grand for 3 man hours of labor. The guy worked as a contractor. I asked him if he ever moonlit, as I thought he did good work and would want to bypass the corporate take if he could. He was completely uninterested. Completely. I think he was making very good buck as he had his own tools including a cool little device to crimp copper fittings. I also had a new AC put in. I did a little research, looked like around 4 grand in materials for the system. My price, 13.5K. Probably 20 man hours between the group. Not quite as good as the plumber wage. These were some guys that worked for themselves, and their price was lower than a "big firm". So I see a big disconnect between that average wage and what I've been paying.

OK Komrade. Pretty clear where your loyalties lie.

a low budget sci-fi movie. Attack of the black radioactive fungi. Or Escaped from Chernobyl.

And I repeat, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The alliance was happy to have Russia throwing bodies on Germany's eastern front. Immediately after the war, the friendship was over and the winners were in chop up mode. The west got western Germany & Russia got eastern. Which would you want to have lived in after the war?

That was a very brief period when Yeltsin was pres and it looked like Russia may go for a real democracy. Didn't last. And if we go back to the earliest days, the French wanted to screw the British so they helped the US against Britain. Spain and the Dutch also provided some support. Russia was nowhere. The US should be natural enemies with any dicktatorship. Which is precisely why we should be supporting Ukraine, not having our puppet help vlad take Ukraine, and probably the rest of eastern Europe after he does that. If we are lucky, Putin will die. Hopefully from his fav, poison.

Remind me, when were the US and Russia ever really allies. Immediately after WW2 the alliance collapsed. We were never friends beyond the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That is not friends.

That is my point. The subsidy is they work more for less. The US conversely works less for more. Unsustainable. Really a typical cycle. Societies ascend, societies descend. Maybe it is China's turn again to be top dog. Humans being humans, expect a war.

The one I always enjoy is the wealthy house with the Model X in top tier trim with the Range Rover with the supercharged gas guzzling engine as the stablemate. Its all about image for these people.

From what I can tell, industries in the US feel like China subsidizes everything. Translation, they have a lower standard of living and work hard. While the starting post of this talked about pharma R&D getting lazy, it really amounts to the US in general has gotten entitled. Work in the US is now considered "influencers". Another area the US dominates is money management. Neither of these or many others produce anything of value. IE something someone wants to actually pay for. I believe strongly the reason for the increased friction for direct import to consumers is to stymie things like alibaba and temu. Regular people were discovering the big box and amazon people were adding 3X+ to the price for handling the transaction. The direct import model was a direct threat to one of the last bastions of profit in the US, retailing. Business in the US (even co's like Apple) discovered the best way to large profits was offshoring the labor to reduce the cost but then not reducing the price.

While I agree with some of your arguments, I don't think the proposal would affect you. Sounds like you drive a regular hybrid. From the summary, "Electric vehicles will be charged 3 pence per mile and plug-in hybrids 1.5 pence per mile". Only plug-in hybrids would get the charge. Looks like they are trying to come up with a "gas tax" for ev's. I think reasonable. But I also think their math is a bit high, but did not do the pence->dollar conversion so not quite sure of the numbers.

As to solar, yep all over the map. I'm getting new panels after the roof replacement. Old panels were 20+ old, so starting to fade. I'll get a rebate from the power co to put them in and then they'll charge me back for the power I use. It is psycho how they do it. "Value of Solar" instead of "net". I guess AC electric is bipolar and so is the power co. Give & Take.

Interesting theory. Unfortunately the courts did not agree in the case of Michelle, all the way up to the supreme court. But really how you can defend anyone (or anything) who advises suicide is just weird to me. I'd characterize chatgpt in beta, a beta that should not be in the hands of minors or probably even the general population. Sort of like a new drug, it should be in clinical trials, possibly even animal studies phase, not general use.

Not really, if the kid was smart enough to figure that out, he might also have considered that chatgpt might forward the chat logs to the authorities and some dept like CPS (child protective services) might have taken over and put him in a facility for observation. And if they had, he'd probably be alive today.

And if indeed you are suicidal, I suggest you call the hotline. And I am 100% serious about that. I think fairly common to go thru periods in life that are overwhelming, and professionals can help.