https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he saw as a chronic deficiency of purchasing power in the economy, Douglas prescribed government intervention in the form of the issuance of debt-free money directly to consumers or producers (if they sold their product below cost to consumers) in order to combat such discrepancy.
        In defence of his ideas, Douglas wrote that "Systems were made for men, and not men for systems, and the interest of man which is self-development, is above all systems, whether theological, political or economic. ...
        Douglas disagreed with classical economists who recognised only three factors of production: land, labour and capital. While Douglas did not deny the role of these factors in production, he considered the "cultural inheritance of society" as the primary factor. He defined cultural inheritance as the knowledge, techniques and processes that have accrued to us incrementally from the origins of civilization (i.e. progress). Consequently, mankind does not have to keep "reinventing the wheel". "We are merely the administrators of that cultural inheritance, and to that extent the cultural inheritance is the property of all of us, without exception."
        Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx claimed that labour creates all value. While Douglas did not deny that all costs ultimately relate to labour charges of some sort (past or present), he denied that the present labour of the world creates all wealth. Douglas carefully distinguished between value, costs and prices. He claimed that one of the factors resulting in a misdirection of thought in terms of the nature and function of money was economists' near-obsession about values and their relation to prices and incomes. While Douglas recognized "value in use" as a legitimate theory of values, he also considered values as subjective and not capable of being measured in an objective manner. Thus he rejected the idea of the role of money as a standard, or measure, of value. Douglas believed that money should act as a medium of communication by which consumers direct the distribution of production."

If the data is processed locally, great -- but I'm guessing it goes to Google?

I am writing this on a Chromebook Plus (Acer 516 GE). For contrast, I recently installed the VS Code Speech speech-to-text plugin by Microsoft into VSCode (running under the Linux subsystem) but it runs locally. From the plugin blurb: "The Speech extension for Visual Studio Code adds speech-to-text capabilities to Visual Studio Code. No internet connection is required, the voice audio data is processed locally on your computer." The plugin works amazing well, even usually adding appropriate punctuation automatically in sentences. Odd to think Microsoft in some ways might be more committed at the moment to both FOSS and privacy than Google?

I was using spelling-assistive and grammar-assistive tools under Unix (VMUTS) circa 1984 -- and the tools helped me become a better writer. Hard to believe such tools can't run locally given so many computing advances since then. Frankly, I'd still like a grammar tool for VSCode or Thunderbird as good as what I had forty years ago.

I think this was probably the tool:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"The Writer's Workbench (wwb) is a grammar checker created by Lorinda Cherry and Nina Macdonald of Bell Labs. It is perhaps the earliest grammar checker to receive wide usage on Unix systems. ... The Writer's Workbench was meant to help students learn to edit their work... As of 1983, the wwb package contained 29 utilities. As of 1986, this had increased to around 35-40 utilities."

On an Android phone, I have been repeatedly prompted to "backup" all the pictures on the phone to Google. The prompt happens at odd times and it would be easy to accidentally click the wrong button and have all the pictures go to Google. Worse, when I click no, then it seems at least some (maybe all?) pictures are selected and another prompt appears to backup the selected pictures. Again I have to click "no" and also deselect pictures. Seems like a "dark pattern" to me. I haven't seen that prompt in the last week or two so many enough people complained for them to revise that?

Anyway, I am wondering if I will eventually have to stop using the Chromebook (or at least reimage it with a non-chromeos Linux distribution like GalliumOS as I did with a previous Chromebook) if Google has now integrated stuff that could send the content of any text area to its servers with a mis-click?
https://www.makeuseof.com/best...

by Peter C. Gotzsche, to support your point: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-...
"DEADLY PSYCHIATRY AND ORGANISED DENIAL explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good. Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Peter C. Goetzsche documents that psychiatric drugs kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and above in the United States and Europe. This makes psychiatric drugs the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. Goezsche explains that we could reduce our current usage of psychotropic drugs by 98% and at the same time improve patients' mental and physical health and survival. It can be difficult, however, to come off the drugs, as many people become dependent on them. As the withdrawal symptoms can be severe, long-lasting and even dangerous, slow tapering is usually necessary.
        In his book, Goetzsche debunks the many myths that leading psychiatrists - very often on drug industry payroll - have created and nurtured over decades in order to conceal the fact that biological psychiatry has generally been a failure. Biological psychiatry sees drugs as the "solution" for virtually all problems, in marked contrast to the patients' views. Most patients don't respond to the drugs they receive but, unfortunately, the psychiatrists' frustrations over the lack of progress often lead to more diagnoses, more drugs and higher doses, harming the patients further."

Here is the deeper issue (and a cure for many):

"Depression is a disease of civilization: Stephen Ilardi at TEDxEmory"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"The TLC is composed of six lifestyle changes which include:
Increasing consumption of omega-3 fatty acids.
Engaging in meaningful hobbies to prevent rumination.
Engaging in physical activity.
Receiving sunlight exposure.
Staying socially connected.
Getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night."

Very sad to see just now that Dr. Ilardi's website has gone away when it was up last week:
https://tlc.ku.edu/

And archive.org is down at the moment. But the key thing he says is: "We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, socially isolated, fast-food-laden, sleep-deprived, screen-addicted, frenzied pace of 21st-century life. And the result is an epidemic of clinical depression".

ADHD is not the same as depression, and neither is Autism, but some of the roots could be the same.

Maybe some options of interest: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vega...

One example: https://wholeharvest.com/pages...

Others: https://vegnews.com/taste-test...

I tried Whole Harvest for one big experimental order last year and overall liked it. However it tended to have too much pepper for my taste. Also there was so much from the order I had to organize what I ate and also freeze many things to avoid spoilage before the best-by dates. And also there is a lot of packaging to dispose of (to be expected of course). And of course there is the cost. I still may order from them again though. It certainly inspired me to think more about a variety of healthy food that avoids added SOS (Salt, Oil, Sugar).

I can wonder though why they have a notice on their website right about being closed for 120 days to revamp their system?
https://wholeharvest.com/pages...
"We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for the incredible support and loyalty you've shown us at Whole Harvest. Your enthusiasm has fueled our growth over the last 90 days in ways we couldn't have imagined. However, as we've grown, we've noticed some challenges at our culinary center that have impacted our ability to provide amazing tasting meals while providing you with an exceptional customer experience. We know how important it is to bring you the absolute best, and we want to make sure we're delivering on that promise. To tackle these concerns head-on, we've made the tough decision to take a brief pause in our operations starting on February 25th for around 120 days. During this time, we'll be working behind the scenes to revamp our systems and cook up some exciting new additions to our menu."

Another similar company, Daily Harvest, had a recall a couple years ago from a contamination issue:
https://www.bonappetit.com/sto...

I had previously tried Pritkin frozen meals but they do not completely avoid SOS.

But I guess there are risks with whatever food you get (especially if it is mostly pre-cooked).

It's true a plus for many ultraprocessed foods (e.g. salted/sugared/oiled cardboard) is how shelf-stable they are and thus relatively free from foodborne illness compare to food served fresh or frozen (especially uncooked veggies) -- even if ultraprocessed foods are also relatively free from good nutrition too, sigh.

In general I am a fan of Dr. Fuhrman's (mostly vegan) "Nutritarian" approach, and Whole Harvest supports that. But I don't eat that way as much as I would like in part due to convenience issues and other factors (including stress eating).

More options if you eat non-vegan things:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=meal...

I am heartened to see this kind of discussion on Slashdot though and to see so many people now aware of nutritional issues -- especially compared to, say, a dozen years ago here. Gives me some more hope for the world!

They're spelled slightly different.

Also, AIUI, if all you eat is meat you get the runnypooze. You need to eat something with fiber in it as well.

Their money's more important to them than your heath is to you.

Occupational Therapy is what they call it when you wank under your desk.

Skin color.

So what do you expect? A sudden consideration for something besides his own interests?

Probably he grew up watching The Jetsons.

To Hell in a handbasket?

"If the software's shit, you must acquit!"

Who is lowering prices?

What observables make you say there's an obvious recession?

How many decades too late?