Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition... (Or a well designed industrial/commercial center...)

My thoughts exactly! I have a few (very old) copies of Wikipedia hanging around somewhere. I should go torrent a fresh copy. Way back when, I used to keep a text-only copy on my phone (Kiwix, which appears to still be a thing) for when I didn't have data. I bet I still have that SD card somewhere. I think it was about 10GB uncompressed back then.

I guess it goes to show how stupid and greedy these AI companies are. I'm sure that a lot of the primary training data for most models *is* Wikipedia. So letting all these AI bots go nuts hitting the public servers over and over again for slightly updated content is just plain lazy. Grabbing diffs from a mirror every month and updating a local copy isn't even hard, or maybe just spend an infinitesimal amount of that VC money on a Wikipedia API subscription. Sheesh.

Pretty sure those mailings aren't hard-pulls; if they were then everyone would have a rock-bottom score from all of them.

I sincerely hope you're right about that, though it seems to me that stupidity itself isn't the problem we face, that would be greed combined with irrational fear along with the societal delusion that all of us are temporarily embarrassed billionaires, just waiting for our "big break". Spoiler alert: the big break isn't coming for *any* of us that aren't already billionaires.

My last phone was a moto G (2017) and it was the perfect size at 5.2". I just recently had to replace it with a (second hand) pixel device, not because I wanted one (I wanted another Moto G, but they're 7" now) but because it's (just) pocketable at 6.1". "Small" smartphones seem to not exist anymore. I don't care at all about "thin" phones either. I just want an android phone that fits comfortably in my front pocket and has 2+ days of battery. The Zenfone would have worked, but is expensive and att & tmobile only.

If you have a trusted 3rd party that exercises administrative control over transactions, why bother with a blockchain -- you've already established that you trust that providers vision of who has what so the overhead of a blockchain isn't necessary. You could instead deposit your funds with that provider and let them deal with it until such time as you want the funds to leave that provider. You only need blockchain when no party trusts any other party.

CC providers already do this with holdbacks based on amount and chargeback history, I believe PayPal does as well. Coinbase doesn't expose internal transactions to the chain -- same concept.

They claimed to not have plans, and now they do, surprising nobody.

This study may be biased, but that doesn't change the fact that a single 12 oz can of soda can contain more than 40 grams of sugar. Most humans shouldn't consume more than about 100 grams of sugar per day, and 50 is more like it. Come on people. Have your sugar in your after-dinner dessert. If you're thirsty, drink water, or at least find a beverage that doesn't contain more sugar than a slice of cheesecake. Hell, drink beer. That's better for you than pepsi or whatever anyway. I wonder how much sugar is in Brawndo.

Critical point. In a fair world I'd expect it to be one of the biggies with a deep market. In a less fair world it'll be one that just so happens to be mostly controlled by connected insiders where paying the coinage to publish the stats is in effect a transfer of public funds to those insiders.

Sure, I've had those. Brown ales aren't my favorite, but Newcastle is one of the better ones for sure.

Ok, I'll give you that, though a well poured Guinness should have no more than about a half inch head on it. It does have a nice mouthfeel, though I typically prefer a heavier stout than Guinness when I'm in the mood for a stout.

I live in the US, though I can't stand "regular American" beer, which is mostly crappy "pilsner" at best, though there are a few good ones from Canada. I like German-style (dry, crisp) pilsner, and enjoy a hefeweizen from time to time. There is good Belgian beer, though I've not experienced it as particularly foamy. The English make ale I like (Bass for one, though I don't like it above 10C) and I like a good heavy porter or stout with dessert sometimes, but I mostly drink a locally brewed IPA or two with dinner. No such thing as too hoppy for me, though some varieties are better than others for my taste. I find it aids digestion.

10-20 years ago, there was a craft beer (mostly IPA) renaissance over here, and man were there some great IPAs, though unfortunately that has faded, as many of the good craft breweries get bought up by Inbev or other huge conglomerates and ruined. There are still a few good ones left, but at some point I'm probably going to have to start brewing my own.

I've never seen the point of a "head" on a beer. For me, it just gets in the way of being able to actually drink the liquid, but I guess to each their own.

I'm all for science and research for it's own sake, but who actually wants foamy beer?

I love science fiction as much as the next person, probably more, but the headline is totally delusional. There's no way that's happening by 2050, though if we cut it out with the hair-brained schemes (and wars and other stupidity, like the race to be the world's first trillionaire) and actually continue doing (and meaningfully funding) the work of installing solar panels and other renewable energy sources everywhere, ideally in micro-grids, with distributed local storage and/or more long haul HVDC lines, we could not only have enough solar energy for Europe by 2050, but a good chunk of the rest of the planet too. That is not a technological problem anymore. Hasn't been for at least a decade. It's a social/political problem.

Laws change, interpretations of laws change, enforcement of laws change. Once the data exists in their control there is no clawing it back.