The endless scroll is predatory at every moment.

It even reloads when you stop for a while. Switch to a different tab, do something else for five minutes, come back - it reloads and refreshes everything. Why? Because that activates a primal fear in your brain that you're losing something, missing something that might've been important, so your instinct is to NOT divert your attention elsewhere.

In theory I would agree, but the issue here is that social media platforms intentionally compromise your ability to make decisions. That's what the addictive pattern is all about. You could at any moment decide to stop scrolling and get back to work or life - but everything in there is designed so that the decision is made for you and bypasses any critical thinking paths in your brain.

And while I'm the first to agree the politicians are sleazebags and are the first ones that need much tougher regulation and laws, it's a fact that laws in this area actually do work. Anti-smoking laws have reduced smoking, for example.

Someone hasn't flown in a while.

I don't click the cheapest price. What happened is that the major airlines have copied some (not all) of the budget airline shit. Luggage used to be included, now it's an extra - which causes people to bring carry-on to the max instead, which leads to the overhead compartments always being full.

Yeah, good point. No, wait, that's complete bullshit.

I've taken a number of trips on business class in the past years. What you get in business class today is what you got in economy class 20, 25 years ago.

You know what, you may actually be right if you compare multi-thousand halfway-around-the-world intercontinental flights. I've never flown to Australia, so I can't compare that. I'm talking about shorter flights (a few hours) which I do frequently and where I can compare. We might both be right.

The $5K a year just gives you a $300 per person per visit discount. So pays itself back in 15 visits or so.

Man, now I'm *really* glad we ditched our landline earlier this millennium...

Besides this, the NYC rule seems to cover rental agreements, which the FTC rule did not cover, to my knowledge.

Indeed, but I was answering the question: "It seems like there is an obvious business opportunity for a domestic tractor manufacturer here. Anyone care to explain why nobody has moved into this market?"
European tractors would not be a domestic manufacturer. A domestic company moving into the market would be a "new manufacturer" and would have to invest quite a bit into development - design, manufacturing, etc...
It's easier for other companies, whether Chinese, Japanese, or European to move in instead with their own superior offerings.

I wonder how long this completely artificial content split will last? On the one hand, they charge more because they can (weakly) pretend you're getting TWO channels rather than one... but, on the other hand, the high mucky-mucks always want to slap their own single brand all over everything.

It's simple addiction, based on a very low-entry, socially approved neural anesthesia.
Think Trainspotting writ small, played out in public where every time the family stops moving, Mom or Dad (or more often, both) pop out their phones to "just check some things".

Ah, but you may be mistaken about the point.
If you're talking about the simple physical reality it accomplishing the task of detection, well sure, it might be impossible. But if you recognize the point isn't to detect nukes but to gain nearly infinite streams of funding based on ok-perhaps-it's-implausible-but-hear-me-out -nukes-are-scary, well sir that certainly is within our reach.

So... ordinary airport before enshitification ?

Air travel used to be pretty cool. Now absolutely every part of it is annoying. Especially the booking and its 25 upsale offers.

A few years more of this and you'll have to book business just to get a seat and fresh air.

Certainly not when Egypt is one of the teams...

The issue is, I think, that those of us who want search engines to work exactly like that are in the minority.

Plenty of us nerds can afford this and want to see news about this.

That would be that labor costs are too high, they wouldn't be able to compete with the established players as a new manufacturer that would have a bunch of development costs for what would, at least at the start, be more primitive offerings.
Of course, primitive is what some people are after.
Meanwhile, the Chinese have taken over on much of the innovation, or at least development. The USA and Europe have too much invested in the status quo these days.