Perhaps the gay dating portion of the site was a better, more productive use of time, but the straight side represented only the dregs of society. As I remember, the sheer quantity of low quality mutants was most impressive; and that was once one managed fed to filter out the obvious sex workers, scammers, trafficked individuals, etc.

RTFM: "'Foreign Tech Workers Are Avoiding Travel To the US'"

I would also hope that tourists avoid the United States. Tourism is an enshitification of a culture.

Your use of the term unwelcome in this case suggests differently. You suggest that immigrants *should* be welcomed and coddled, when in reality, they're only allowed in to lower wages.

I don't bother with romance novels (they're usually about abusers being rewarded for being abusers, and not really my cup of tea even when they aren't), but AI is not great at translation, is terrible at metaphor, and is horrific at writing.

If they're going to use AI for auto-translation, then I think the best thing they can do is pay for the first 30 sessions of therapy needed afterwards.

Over-reliance on an unreliable source is stupid.

Britain has plenty of brilliant minds and is more than capable of building services equal, or superior, to those in the US. It honestly isn't hard - I've worked in the US tech sector and their minds are nowhere near up to scratch. Those that are are overworked, underpaid, and essentially beholden to their employer because the US is a "good ol' boy's club" where executives abuse power and authority on a regular basis. This is not a good way to run a reliable, competent, business.

Hell, give me the seed money and I'll set up an damn cloud provider that can beat the carp out of those in the US. I've been in this business longer than most of the techies working on the US cloud infrastructure but I'm also not blinded by the naive assumptions and political intrigues that have defined the sector thus far.

We passed Idiocracy some time back. We're now in a region where satirists and humourists are simply no longer able to function without sounding saner.

True, but to be fair, the scientists, engineers, and scholars are largely fleeing the country, the tech industry is in a massive slump (agriculture is the only sector growing jobs according to the last reliable official figures), and there's a political need to create the impression that the country isn't in a bad way.

Regarding the "Fishing boats": even the most adherent of the mainstream lefty agitproppers have long since abandoned that narrative, because it's so easily disproven by even a layman with a modicum of knowledge. Fishing boats don't have a hundred thousand plus dollars worth of Yamaha outboards on them. They don't go 80+ miles per hour, they don't go beyond the horizon in the middle of night, and they actually carry fishing gear and tackle, which anyone with a functioning eye can plainly see none of those boats had.

You're like five news cycles behind the times, bub. There is no argument that you can provide which would prove these boats were not up to no good. On the other hand, is there an argument that maybe we shouldn't blow them out of the water? Maybe try making that argument instead of repeating stale propaganda.

If a teacher earning 100k can't improvise a short lesson on how to read an analog clock and make it also applicable to other aspects of the class, or life in general (fractions, counting by fives, understanding of language, time management) then the teacher / curriculum may be the lowest common denominator.

As I've outlined, there is already violence. There has been violence. Literal nonstop violence. It will end when both sides want it to end, but that is the one condition that absolutely must be met, since without a will there is no way.

I don't even think it would be that hard, if there were truly a will for it, and if peace were truly pursued it would heal so many facets of life in the area, Israel wouldn't need Iron domes or Samson options; IDF budget could be repurposed in meaningful ways that help the population.

A) Israel needs to stop being the stereotype in its relations. Full stop, whatever things that could be perceived as Jewy: just stop doing them.
B) start recognizing your neighbors as human beings instead of amalek. Honor the intent of agreements and don't weasel your way around them. That includes ceasefires: if your people open up on unarmed civilians, they need to be publicly PROSECUTED instead of privately ATTABOY'D. Also stop justifying rape of POWs. It's beyond sick.
C) don't murder peace delegations, especially don't send missiles into foreign countries to murder peace delegations. Crazy, right?
D) absolutely stop settler activities
E) acknowledge how you've manipulated the situation (supporting Hamas publicly and secretly) and prepare to institute reparations
F) recognition of the Palestinian people internationally, lead the world into supporting a Palestinian government you'd be comfortable having as a neighbor.
G) build reasonable accommodation (not tent cities) in NEGATIVE FIRE ZONES, with international oversight, and invite survivors to start new lives there. Strictly uphold their security.

The idea that "before oct 7 the violence was mostly not going on" is insane on the face of it, as the population of Gaza has been under constant blockade since the early 90s--therefore under constant military threat and in fact enduring a constant act of war throughout the last 35 years--multiple generations essentially living in an open air concentration camp.
Blockading a civilian population can be considered at once: an act of war, and a war crime; especially if aid is withheld as it has been multiple times. People have an individual and a collective right of self-defense. That includes Israelis, of course, but it also includes Palestinians.
The situation is entirely untenable all around, and it doesn't help that it's been engineered to be perpetual by the more powerful, more connected side of the conflict--so they can continue to nibble away at Palestine with the settler strategy. I can only imagine the righteous indignation we would witness if the situation were reversed.

You can go back clear before Israel was a country and find that j-ish terrorist agents bombed British policemen, hotels, did drivebys against civilians in the days after WWI wrapped up. How far back do you want to go? 1890s, when it was still Ottoman Empire clay, and schemers were trying to bring Europe into conflict with the ottomans? Because it's there too.

Who started what and when? What does it matter? Who holds the power NOW? You can scarcely call what is being prosecuted a war any more than fish in a barrel are capable of waging war against someone with a gun shooting randomly at the barrel.

This is horrifying, terrifying, and sadly well-known even to those who superficially monitor such things.

Popular media: More than one US film/tv studio has "lost" or "suffered a mysterious fire" in un-digitised archives, destroying the lot, during battles to preserve. The BBC sued Bob Monkhhouse for preserving material it destroyed. In Britain, it has been no better. Fans of the British TV series "The Avengers" can only see old episodes because armies of previous fans descended on rubbish tips and, at great risk to themselves, collected as much film as possible.

General history: Places like the John Ryland's Library and the British Library have suffered with rescuing archives at risk of becoming submerged or destroyed by mould. The Archimedes Palimpsest was partially destroyed by one collector filling in the pictures with coloured pens and by another collector allowing the book to be severely damaged by mould.

The National Archives have mysteriously "lost" a great many files over the years and are only digitising those they've retained at an incredibly slow rate. I know because I've personally forked out several hundred to get just two scanned, all because politicians far prefer frippery to archiving. We've absolutely no idea how many of the manuscripts held in other archives are still in usable condition because nobody bothers to check.

It's not just limited to archives, of course. The US has, over the last couple of decades, demolished numerous buildings within the US that are over 300 years old because malls produce profit and ancient structures don't. (They also then complain they have no history...) The Space Shuttle is to be taken to Texas for a PR stunt, which will require it being dismantled and those things aren't designed for that. There is no guarantee any of it will survive the journey. All because PR matters and preservation does not. Other countries? The Louvre... well... probably best not to talk about that utter disgrace. In Egypt, 3000 year old gold artefacts are routinely melted down so the conservators can pocket some extra cash.

It's at times like this that Kenny Everett's general comes to mind.

"academia works"?

You think Academia ever accomplished anything at all?

Good. You're finally getting the picture that American crony Capitalism sucks rocks and considers immigrants to be barely better than slaves.