Comment Re: socialism fails (Score 2) 38
Why not? A sale is a sale. Of course it is also about suckering the poor into overpriced luxury items, and overcharging the middle class.
Comment Re: This needs to die. (Score 1) 38
the market has ALWAYS endorsed "from each according to their ability," it's just that we call it "charging what the market will bear".
all this does is change the granularity of the decision making. instead of poor grocery stores and rich grocery stores, a store can target both markets at once through so-called "surveillance".
i'm not saying it's good or bad, but it sure as hell isn't communism. you're just trained to use that word when you don't like something lol.
Comment Re: socialism fails (Score 1) 38
Imagine a utopia where poor people could be identified by sight, rather than waiting for an EBT card and letting the government waste money paying for them!
Instead the poor could be just be sold staples at a lower price without a nanny state, while not losing a more profitable sale to a rich person who just happens to like cooking with the same ingredients.
Comment socialism fails (Score 4, Funny) 38
looks like Maryland has made its position on the free market clear! i feel bad for Marylanders who will be deprived of this dynamic innovation!
Submission + - Chinese passive switch spying on you (pilulerouge.ca)
antatack writes: Canadian company find affordable network hardware could secretly enable large-scale espionage, creating serious risks for privacy and national security.
From the original article in french.
From the original article in french.
Submission + - Trump Administration to Begin Refunding $166 Billion in Tariffs 1
hcs_$reboot writes: After a Supreme Court of the United States ruling in Feb. 2026, many tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were declared illegal, because the president overstepped his authority.
As a result, the U.S. government now has to refund a massive amount of money, around $160-170+ billion, paid mainly by importers.
On April 20, 2026, the administration launched a system/portal (run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection) so companies can start filing claims to get their money back.
Who gets the money?
— Primarily importers and companies, since they were the ones who directly paid the tariffs.
— Consumers generally won’t get refunds, even though they often bore the cost through higher prices.
How it will work
— Claims are submitted electronically.
— Refunds (with interest) could take 60–90 days per claim, but the overall process may take much longer due to scale and complexity.
Challenges and uncertainties
— The process is logistically huge (hundreds of thousands of importers, millions of shipments).
— There are legal disputes over whether companies must pass refunds on to consumers.
— Delays and administrative issues are expected, possibly stretching the process over years.
As a result, the U.S. government now has to refund a massive amount of money, around $160-170+ billion, paid mainly by importers.
On April 20, 2026, the administration launched a system/portal (run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection) so companies can start filing claims to get their money back.
Who gets the money?
— Primarily importers and companies, since they were the ones who directly paid the tariffs.
— Consumers generally won’t get refunds, even though they often bore the cost through higher prices.
How it will work
— Claims are submitted electronically.
— Refunds (with interest) could take 60–90 days per claim, but the overall process may take much longer due to scale and complexity.
Challenges and uncertainties
— The process is logistically huge (hundreds of thousands of importers, millions of shipments).
— There are legal disputes over whether companies must pass refunds on to consumers.
— Delays and administrative issues are expected, possibly stretching the process over years.
Comment Ask your city managers to prohibit drones. (Score 1) 86
Ask your city managers to prohibit drones.
Drones are dangerous. We have heard of only a few serious accidents. If drone delivery continues, there will be many more accidents, including a package delivered by a drone hitting someone.
Drones are dangerous. We have heard of only a few serious accidents. If drone delivery continues, there will be many more accidents, including a package delivered by a drone hitting someone.
Comment Re:What? (Score 4, Informative) 65
Back in the day lots of people did. Because there was no built in browser to use before IE came out. And pirating it would require getting a cd from someone else, and cd burners weren't a thing yet. Your options were use AOL with whatever they had built in on their cds, or use Netscape which you'd need to buy.
Comment Re:Prohibition doesn't work, never has (Score 1) 57
If tickets were an auction, the problem would instantly solve itself. You could even still have a secondary market for last minute buyers. And the extra revenue would go to the venue/artists, rather than a random scalper.... if those even exist anymore. I expect it's more likely Ticketmaster themselves selling them as resell at a 3x markup.
Submission + - Two new studies about how many birds die from wind turbines (euronews.com)
ZipNada writes: The energy company Vattenfall and the tech company Spoor have analysed the extent to which wind turbines endanger birds at the offshore wind farm in Aberdeen. Over a period of 19 months — from June 2023 to December 2024 — video recordings of a wind turbine were made with the help of AI-supported analyses. A total of 2,007 bird flight paths near the monitored turbine were examined.
"By combining AI-powered detection and detailed expert analysis, we can replace assumptions with concrete observations and measure actual behaviour in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines," says Ask Helseth, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Spoor.
The study found that there was not a single collision
A study by the German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) also shows that migratory birds almost completely avoid wind turbines.
For one and a half years, researchers analysed over four million bird movements with the help of radar and AI-based cameras. The result showed that over 99.8 per cent of migratory birds reliably avoided the wind turbines.
"By combining AI-powered detection and detailed expert analysis, we can replace assumptions with concrete observations and measure actual behaviour in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines," says Ask Helseth, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Spoor.
The study found that there was not a single collision
A study by the German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) also shows that migratory birds almost completely avoid wind turbines.
For one and a half years, researchers analysed over four million bird movements with the help of radar and AI-based cameras. The result showed that over 99.8 per cent of migratory birds reliably avoided the wind turbines.
Submission + - Government Workers Say They're Getting Inundated With Religion (wired.com)
joshuark writes: Federal workers across multiple U.S. agencies are complaining that Christianity is flooding into their workplaces in ways they've never seen before—and they feel powerless to speak up.
It started after President Trump returned to office and signed an executive order in February 2025 creating a White House Faith Office and similar offices inside federal agencies. Since then, religion has crept into everyday government life in a big way...Secretary Brooke Rollins sent an agency-wide Easter email titled "He has risen!" with explicitly Christian messaging. One employee called it "grotesque" and suspected AI wrote it. A formal complaint was filed with the Office of Special Counsel.
Department of Labor hosts monthly worship services with pastors and political figures. One speaker, Alveda King, said she was "more concerned about" nonreligious employees—a comment that rattled staffers who felt it implied atheists were going to hell.
Health and Human Services, under vaccine denier RFK Jr., expanded funding for faith-based addiction treatment and gave workers the afternoon off for Good Friday.
Department of Defense has seen the most dramatic shift, with Secretary Pete Hegseth hosting monthly prayer services featuring high-profile Christian nationalist figures like Doug Wilson, who has advocated for a theocracy and argued women shouldn't vote. Hegseth himself has called the U.S. war with Iran a "holy war."
Employees are afraid to push back—only 22.5% of federal workers in 2025 say they could report wrongdoing without retaliation, down from nearly 72% in 2024.
The government's position: these events are voluntary and legally permitted. A public policy professor quoted in the piece put it plainly: "The Trump administration has opened a new chapter in the integration of Christianity into the daily work of government."
It started after President Trump returned to office and signed an executive order in February 2025 creating a White House Faith Office and similar offices inside federal agencies. Since then, religion has crept into everyday government life in a big way...Secretary Brooke Rollins sent an agency-wide Easter email titled "He has risen!" with explicitly Christian messaging. One employee called it "grotesque" and suspected AI wrote it. A formal complaint was filed with the Office of Special Counsel.
Department of Labor hosts monthly worship services with pastors and political figures. One speaker, Alveda King, said she was "more concerned about" nonreligious employees—a comment that rattled staffers who felt it implied atheists were going to hell.
Health and Human Services, under vaccine denier RFK Jr., expanded funding for faith-based addiction treatment and gave workers the afternoon off for Good Friday.
Department of Defense has seen the most dramatic shift, with Secretary Pete Hegseth hosting monthly prayer services featuring high-profile Christian nationalist figures like Doug Wilson, who has advocated for a theocracy and argued women shouldn't vote. Hegseth himself has called the U.S. war with Iran a "holy war."
Employees are afraid to push back—only 22.5% of federal workers in 2025 say they could report wrongdoing without retaliation, down from nearly 72% in 2024.
The government's position: these events are voluntary and legally permitted. A public policy professor quoted in the piece put it plainly: "The Trump administration has opened a new chapter in the integration of Christianity into the daily work of government."
Comment New Samsung cell phones have Google connections. (Score 4, Insightful) 48
New Samsung cell phones have many connections to Google.
There need to be laws limiting Google's invasions to user devices.
Fewer than 1 of a hundred ads are interesting to me. Maybe 1 in a thousand.
There need to be laws limiting Google's invasions to user devices.
Fewer than 1 of a hundred ads are interesting to me. Maybe 1 in a thousand.
Comment Re: Huh (Score 1) 162
i think he's referring to brahmin caste hindus.
it's not so much that onions are immoral exactly, it's that they cause laziness/stupidity and thus should be left for the lesser classes to eat.
Submission + - Cell phone for limited use? Avoid carrier lock? Avoid ads?
Futurepower(R) writes: How to buy a cell phone for a low price and avoid carrier lock and advertisements?
Some people use a cell phone only when they are not at home and want to call or do a search. Which low-cost not-locked phones would be best for that?
People who use a cell phone extensively, for watching movies, for example, are often happy to pay more.
The cell phone industry is possibly the most complicated for buyers in the history of the world.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy model A36 cell phone has 7 versions. Other than the A36, there are many other Samsung versions.
Other complications: Cell phones often come with no case, no charger, and no screen shield. Also, the prices given in a search are often low because of being locked to a particular carrier.
The cell phone service providers would be T-Mobile and AT&T.
Some people use a cell phone only when they are not at home and want to call or do a search. Which low-cost not-locked phones would be best for that?
People who use a cell phone extensively, for watching movies, for example, are often happy to pay more.
The cell phone industry is possibly the most complicated for buyers in the history of the world.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy model A36 cell phone has 7 versions. Other than the A36, there are many other Samsung versions.
Other complications: Cell phones often come with no case, no charger, and no screen shield. Also, the prices given in a search are often low because of being locked to a particular carrier.
The cell phone service providers would be T-Mobile and AT&T.
Comment Re: Really? (Score 2) 199
It could be upper-lower class.
Slashdot Top Deals
According to all the latest reports, there was no truth in any of the earlier reports.
