Phone books also did not show a relation between people. "Here's all the people in this town that did not opt-out of being listed" vs "here's a list of people that I know well enough to have their number, regardless of if they want their number known to others".

On a side note, I wish android would let me keep old contacts for archive purposes, but let me hide them. I don't want to see my abusive ex or her friends in my contact list, but I want to know if they're the person trying to contact me currently.

I worry less about battery or starter failure, and more about bearing failure. It's relatively easy to replace a failing battery or even a starter in many vehicles, but every time that engine stops, the oil pressure drops and the main bearing and crankshaft lose the oil's fluid separation. You get way more bearing wear at engine start from friction, even when it's already warm, than the engine gets the entire rest of the time it stays running, and bearing failure, or even just replacement, is an expensive process.

Additionally, the often recommended 10k mile oil changes allows more carbon and contamination build up in the oil more, which is going to lead to more bearing friction, turbo issues, valve issues on GDI engines, etc.

It may be a trite saying, but it's as true in education as it is in a gym. If you don't exercise your brain, it's not going to improve.

There's a reason weightlifters don't use a forklift or crane to pick up the barbells and do a dozen reps. The problem is not that the weights are in need of lifting. And that's the same problem with homework. The teacher doesn't need a stack of 5 page reports; what they need is for their students to practice using their brains.

Unfortunately the education system is designed to evaluate output instead of process. It's easier to grade a paper or a test, not evaluate a demonstration of knowledge. It's always been ripe for cheating, but now the cheat tools are everywhere and made legitimate by techbros demanding AI productivity. So either teaching will change, or we'll head straight for idiocracy and nobody will be left with the skills to wonder why it all went to hell.

I have a merchant services account through First Data and I get emails from at least 8 different domains, have disparate logins on another 6 or so domains, all of which require password changes every 90 days, there are at least a dozen different numbers to call depending on what kind of help you might need if something isn't working.

On top of that, they're still sending statements to an old business address I left in 2016 and they can't seem to figure out how to change it to the address I've been at for the last 9 years.

Biden and Obama went after conservative non-profits for having a political disagreement with their agenda. Biden also pressured social media sites to censor information and people they didn't like. Biden had the FBI raid Trump for having classified documents at home even though Biden himself was guilty of the same thing (this isn't me supporting Trump, I despise him). There is all the scandal surrounding Hunter, both here in the US and abroad, and the things that Biden did to protect his son while harming American citizens and our interests abroad. You have the aftermath of Kabul, undermining of railroad workers, his extremely broad pardons protecting people that caused harm to Americans, etc.

I know, you'll hand wave all of that away, because he's on your team... but he has decades of displaying his authoritarian biases and hating Americans that he doesn't like (including blacks, Indians, gays, etc).

So, care to tell me how you missed the hundreds of stories of governmental abuse posted on slashdot in the last 25 years and think it just started under Trump? At least be honest and consistent with yourself.

You don't know about internment camps, seriously? You don't care about due process (I hope you aren't opposing the removal of undocumented people without due process if killing them is ok)?

They've all been spying on us for decades. The breadth of that spying has only broadened thanks to an increase in technological capability, not a change in desire. Obama and Biden both targeted individuals and groups they politically disagreed with as well. It has escalated under every single President, regardless of party (because they're all authoritarians regardless of their rhetoric).

If you haven't seen it, it's because you intentionally haven't wanted to see it. It's been right here on slashdot going back to the 90s. If you cared, you'd go educate yourself on the matter instead of claiming ignorance.

Woodrow Wilson (internment camps)

FDR (internment camps, destroying food during the Great Depression)

J Edgar Hoover, Eisenhower, JFK, RFK, LBJ, etc (COINTELPRO)

GHWB (Ruby Ridge)

Bill Clinton (Waco, Elian Gonzalez, clipper chip)

GWB (PATRIOT Act, Total Information Awareness)

Obama (droning American citizens)

How young and/or sheltered are you that you never suspected anyone of doing it while it's been happening and making the news for decades? This is just a quick list off the top of my head. We can get into the whole NSA/Snowden thing, the Utah data center, wiretapping everyone, ECHELON, Five Eyes, ALPRs, etc, all of which made headlines on Slashdot itself (and with a 6 digit UID, I assume you've been here for it).

If you think this is unique to Trump and he's the only one acting like a dictator, your political bias is showing.

I agree that Trump is once again guilty of treason.