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Comment Re:Not surprised (Score 1) 66

I think that damage is going to be something we see down the track. The kids who are getting their educations fucked up now because steaming goons are burning books and banning anything that doesnt look like an 1800s schoolmaster screaming at kids to do their 3xRs.. We'll see that damage in 10-15 years.

Whats happening now I think has a lot to do with the damage we're doing to our cognitive 00executive functioning by being glued to screens all day. There *might* be other things but this one seems obvious.

I used to finish a book every couple of weeks. And I *somehow* managed to hold enough of an attention span to spend a decade in academia, loads of reading. Now I struggle to get past the first chapter because my attention span is toasted before my attention span fritzes and I'm back to reading ragebait on scoial media. SOMETHING is going on, and I think its social media hijacking our reward circuits and fucking up our attention spans.

And the poor kids, they've had this damage going on all their lives. God knows we've already fucked our democracies up by losing grip with reality, what comes next with an entire generation of black-screen cooked ADHD-alikes is anyones guess.

Comment Re:Tragedy is not a sufficent reason for liability (Score 2) 110

Judas Priest was sued in 1990 because the parents claimed the band had planted suicidal messages in one of their songs that led to a suicide pact.

Angry grieving parents will often lash out at a convenient external cause, in part so that they don't have to face the reality that the odds are more likely they were an agent in the suicide.

Comment Re:Buy = mine (Score 4, Interesting) 107

Its really a case of someone getting the issue before regulators. They've got a lot on their plate.

But yeah, the legalities are obviously off. Amazon will stamp their feet and complain that "Hey its in the contract you signed" , but they are expecting you not to realise tht the "piece of paper" is not the contract, its just a record of the contract. The contract is what the two sides agreed on, and its important that this means what they two sides *think* they agreed on. While amazon *can* put "you agree that your first born heirs soul belongs to amazon" in there, in latin lawyerese, but a judge is gonna say "Hang on, thats not what the customer understood when they clicked the button that said "We totally dont want your firstborn heir!". Judges kinda hate fineprint. The reality is, the usual test is what "a reasonable person" would understand. And I think its pretty fucking stretching it to assume most people would see a "buy it!" button and thinkthebutton doesnt means "buy it!".

Companies have been raked over the coals before for this stuff. Repeatedly. But it really needs the regulators to get on board and say "Hey, honor the fucking agreement you made with the customer or refund the goddamn money" *or we'll force you to*.

Comment Re:So this is illegal (Score 1) 153

When will people marry his declarations and musings with the fact that he's marching Federally-controlled troops into cities to "fight crime". What the hell does everyone think is going to happen in next year's mid-terms when armed forces loyal specifically to Trump with little or no objection from Congress or the Supreme Court starting "guarantee" a "fair vote".

Everything he and the Republicans have been working towards since the claims of Obama's ineligibility has been preparing for the moment when they move in to seize control of state voting apparatus. He'll do what he's done with everything else and claim it's a "national emergency."

And MAGA will cheer while the Democrats put on their sackcloths and roll around in the dust crying about how they were impotent. The American people have chosen, they want tyrants who rule by fiat, engineer and weaponize crises to entrench their power.

The political system the Framers came up with was always a steaming pile of crap. Bagehot pulled apart deftly in the 1860s, explaining that the only thing that made it work was the "American genius for politics". Well, that's done. The Democrats are frozen in place, the Republicans, ruled by oil barons and sociopathic billionaires, intend on building a dictatorship with the shape of the American republic, but where checks and balances once existed, will be impotent paper tigers.

Comment Batsur (Score 5, Interesting) 55

I still think we should be looking very close at Bats for how to build the ultimate response to viruses. Bats are not immune to viruses, but they just dont seem to be hurt by them, almost *any* virus. As best we can tell this has to do with a lack of inflamatory response. Likely an evolutionary compromise where evolution said "Ok, we wont stop viruses, but we will stop reacting to them", as a sickly bat is a bat thats unable to survive. Now, I suspect that just doing that to humans wont be very useful, as we actually do need that strong response to viruses as unlike bats, humans have a long lifespan, and that gives viruses the ability to do real long term harm to the genome, cancer and all that. But combining a strong antiviral therapy with something that reduces or eliminates inflamation might at least make certain nastier viruses a lot more survivable.

Though this does seem at odds with the approach in the paper.

FYI, the actual paper is here: https://www.science.org/doi/10...

Comment Re:Its been the cheapest power for a while (Score 4, Interesting) 103

I suspect a lot of it is patents expiring. The university I went to had a giant solar power research lab thingo at the back of it, and I'd go down there occasionally on campus busibness. One of the guys there claimed part of the problem was BP and certain other oil companies had a number of the key solar patents locked up and where charging through the nose to use them, This was 25 years ago, and a lot of those patents have expired in the time since. Be very wary when oil companies get involved with renewables. Chances are , its to lock up the patents and sabotage the market.

Comment Re:Government should not own businesses..?? (Score 1) 101

The first stage of the revolution is to keep a cordial relationship with the Mensheviks. We're all on the same team. We're hear to overthrow that rotting edifice of the old order and create a stronger, better society, with a government truly representative of the people. We're all a big tent, and can accommodate differences of opinion.

The second stage of the revolution requires the sidelining of the Mensheviks. Yes, they have their objections, but those objections are mainly spurious, perhaps a little too influenced by moderate opinions. It's understandable, revolutions have casualties, and not everyone has the stomach for the hard fight. Objections will be duly noted and recorded.

The third stage of the revolution requires the expulsion of the Mensheviks. They've become too influenced by counterrevolutionary ideas. The middle ground they try to occupy is the path back to the old order. The revolution cannot afford these divisions, the people must see unity lest they question the revolution. Show the counterrevolutionaries the door, we no longer recognize their standing.

The fourth stage requires the destruction of the Mensheviks. It is not enough that they have been rendered impotent, they are traitors to the revolution, and like the moderates, in the hands of the old order. Some, maybe, can be rehabilitated, others must face more severe punishments. We owe to the people to destroy those who would undo our accomplishments.

The fifth stage has no memory of the Mensheviks at all.

Comment Re:Profit over Peoples Lives / Health (Score 1) 57

This is the thing that gripes me. I got an apple watch specifically because my doc recomended it to me to keep an eye on blood oxygen (I have a slightly lower , not quite emphysema, but it could go bad, O2 level) and cos it'll call an ambulance if my heart does something stupid. Worked great for 6 months then this lawsuit happened and that functionality just disappeared. This stupid lawsuit actually puts me in physical danger.

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