I'm trying to figure out whether that's the best place to attack it (getting the loans part), and I don't have the financial wherewithal to figure it out. The ultimate dodge is when the heirs get a stepped up basis on those assets when it comes time to pay back the loans. That really looks like a rule written by the rich for the rich. Get rid of that loophole and much of the benefit of using trick goes away. (And I say that even though my heirs could potentially benefit from this, though to a much smaller extent than the billionaires.) That, and the ridiculously high inheritance tax threshold.

Another option: both.
As the dementia advances, episodes where he really has no clue what's going on in any way gets more frequent.
However, there may be moments of clarity when he remembers at least some things.

Of course, it's pretty obvious that he's pretty ignorant/clueless about how the world works*, so I'm leaning towards 1. He just says it because he things it makes him sound powerful.

*bleach, light, "groceries", apples in supermarket fridge, eclipse gazing, Hitler's generals, tariffs, asylum, U.S. is spelled US, "excursion", dumb with a "b".

Big clue that he just learned something new is the phrase "most people don't know that".

Sort of veering off-topic, but if one buys Costco gas with a Costco branded credit card, there is an additional 5% "back", which is effectively a 5% discount off of the Costco price. Assuming one would have already paid the membership for other reasons/purchases, this makes the price probably more competitive than the nominal 5 cents difference on the sign. As for lines, staying away on weekends and evenings usually lets one avoid them. As always, YMMV.

Yeah I very much liked to read it as well. Goes to show that some engineers deeply care about the neatness and maintainability of our beloved kernel.

yeah, I was (jokingly) thinking to myself,
Ok, shield one side of the exposure plate.
Attach the exposed side to the astronaut.
Take a spacewalk.
Develop plate.

Tada! Instant xrays.

Earlier in his career he had a law firm with Michael Tang

Last mile wires are likely running VDSL, not POTS or ISDN. Phone service runs through a modem which the user plugs into their house wiring to give the illusion of POTS, but outside the house it is just VoIP

Not contesting your point in any way, but 128MB 72-pin SIMMs exist. Not sure how common it was back in the day, though, and support on the motherboard side is questionable. I know it exists because I had (and still have) one in my Mac Performa 630 (68040).

Let me be the first to complain about the improper use of the DEC logo. Again.
What the heck does DEC have anything to do with this story?

Hmm... re-read the post. Guess I read too much into your use of the specific number 30%. Perhaps there's something in the article, but there's nothing in the summary implying a "30% failure rate" that you stated. If you were just stating that as one possible hypothetical number, (or there's more information in the article) then sure, that makes sense.

It sounded to me like:
"there were 30 crates and 20 oranges in the shipment".
"Perhaps 30 percent of the crates were faulty because..." which is non-sequitur.
That's all.

So I don't play that type of game. Has anyone here played those, and had the gambling feeling over these loot boxes? The summary is rather damning, but I'd like the opinion of an adult gamer.

Thanks for the chuckle. The 6-digit IDs check out. But wasn't the line "Pace picante sauce is made in San Antonio by the folks who know what picante sauce is supposed to taste like." Where does El Paso come in? (maybe that's what's actually on the jar? I don't know.) I am also disturbed by that fact that I remember that line in its entirety. I haven't watched significant broadcast TV/commercials in over a decate.

I am not deeply versed in the topic, but doesn't all that just mean that "schools that get to pick and choose the best behaving students perform better than schools that are required to accept all types of students"? If all of the "best" [not necessarily in terms of grades, but in terms of not having behavioral/psychological/physical/economic problems that hinder their (and their peers') learning] students were siphoned off to private schools, I would expect exactly those results. The public schools will be left with the worst cases (the ones that 'cost' 2x, 3x, 10x more to educate) with correspondingly worse funding. I don't know if it's the best choice as a society to handicap the most disadvantaged people even further. I'm not OK with "let them rot in the streets". Society will pay the price sooner or later.

The folks who can afford private schools are welcome to it, but we shouldn't cripple our ability to take care of everyone else to help them. The first step to making vouchers fairer would be to tie the amount to how much it would cost to educate THAT student. "Average" cost per kid in the district - $200. Affluent kid with plenty of resources, tutors, and supportive parents - $50 voucher. A single-parent household needing help with books, food, and extra instruction time - $500 voucher. (numbers pulled out of the air). Of course, I have no idea how to make that workable.

You mention "70 percent", but the numbers can't be related that way from that statement. It does NOT say "70 of the wombs successfully produced babies, and 30 of the wombs had complications."
There's no way to derive a percent number from "number of operations" and "number of babies", so perhaps avoid trying to draw any conclusions in that direction until other/more numbers are available.

1) one womb can have multiple pregnancies.
2) Each pregnancy may or may not result in a healthy baby.
    2a) because of the issues with the transplanted womb
    2b) because of issues unrelated to the transplanted womb (e.g. genetics of the mother/father, environmental conditions, etc.)
3) as stated, some wombs may never experience a pregnancy
    3a) because there is something wrong with the transplant and it's incapable of doing so
    3b) the owner of the womb hasn't had an opportunity to (for whatever reason)

Because of that, it could be that only a handful of the 100 wombs are fully functional (and they are pumping out tons of babies) or nearly all of them are fully functional (but haven't gotten around to be used yet.) Or, or it's a mixed bag where the good transplants can carry 100% of pregnancies to term, while some of the bad transplant only can carry 10% of pregnancies to term, and everything in between.

tl;dr #babies =/= #good wombs.

     

Imagine being highly educated in a field that could help people, (neuroscientists, psychologists) but choosing to sell your soul to these parasitic companies. Back when I was looking for a job change, I avoided those types of outfits, and was glad I was able to find something else. How do they live with themselves?