The world is a complicated place. Broad categories like the ones I gave will cover a lot of common things, but can't cover everything. Nothing is black-and-white, there are always shades of gray.

Futures and Options qualify as "derivatives" from real assets. They DO sit in a middle ground so they get classified as "speculation" which isn't quite investing and isn't quite gambling. Most of the time for most people, it doesn't matter. Investing is how people come to own the means of production, which is a foundation of wealth-building in a capitalist society. Someone who never invests (in good old-fashioned stocks) because they think it is "gambling" is seriously mismanaging their money and may remain trapped in poverty their entire lives because of it. Someone who spends a lot of money on lottery tickets regularly and considers that "investing" is going to wind up in a similar position.

The world of Futures and Options and other fanciness is for people who want to take their financial knowledge and engagement to the next level. It's a whole step beyond the distinction and advice that I was originally talking about. A veritable subject change.

Incidentally, CFDs and hedge betting have little-to-no institutional hedging, so they function a lot more like gambling (even more so than derivatives). These are generally private contracts with a broker, making them structurally more similar to the operation of a casino. I read that in UK and Ireland, they ARE legally classified as gambling, and generally not legal in the USA. So, despite their unique structure, they fall pretty firmly into the "gambling" category. And, as I said before, they are simply not relevant to ordinary people who just want to be financially healthy, put their kids through school and save up for retirement, so they don't need to complicate the conversation.

No its not. AI is a significant element of achieving technological singularity. Its a huge part of how we get there. It couldn't possibly be MORE relevant.

Clearly we haven't achieved AGI or "other big promises" yet. But the LLMs we now have are totally new and way better than the sorts of AI techniques we have had before. It's a step forward.

If by "it" you meant something other than changing the clock you could have used the English language to communicate this. Neither myself nor anyone else can read your mind.

I'd note that eliminating Daylight Saving Time doesn't require Congressional involvement. Any state can do it by simply declaring they will no longer use DST. Then they're on standard time all year, no changing clocks anymore. It's only eliminating Standard Time and going to DST all year that requires Congressional action.

As for daylight hours, for most of the year we get plenty of sunlight hours in the evening even on standard time. Between eliminating the headaches of the clock change twice a year and the demonstrated improvements from better alignment with normal sleep cycles, that seems to outweigh the short-term complaints about going to all-year standard time. People always complain about any change regardless, we'd hear the same complaints about switching to all-year DST, so I don't see any merit in considering the complaints qua complaints when deciding. The basis of the complaints, yes, but those boil down to "I don't like it." and only apply to a few weeks once a year (at the other switch the complainers get more of their preference) and that's not a very solid basis for ignoring the benefits.

1. Claim to have lost 6.3B. Replenish 90%

2. Repay the remaining 10% as promised.

3. ????

4. Proft!

I love conspiracies!

"Its" denotes ownership e.g. "a troll picks its nose". Contractions are denoted with an apostrophe. "It's not" .. "that's" .. "it's".

Otherwise you might well be on to something labeling me an idiot. I have no clue what you are even trying to say.

It is not the act of changing the clocks that is the issue. It is the pointless hassle of changing the clocks. How would such language constitute anything other than a distinction without a difference?

AI can in effect be very creative. Quality issues tend to be related to game assets generated by diffusion models.

There is a sort of feedback loop of kids growing up playing games dreaming of making games later in life leading to a competitive industry with a culture that values skills. The effect of AI is to raze every aspect of this to the ground.

Gamers are unwilling to pay for lack of human effort regardless of apparent quality. Due to AI gamers increasingly are unable to afford hardware. Wanting to make games or even developing related skills is widely seen as pointless when it is known bean counters at the studios will just demand you work as a reverse centaur.

We're sick of the ritual of people whining about doing something that takes a few seconds every six months. Freezing time was tried in the US in the 70s and people hated it so much it didn't last a year.

Or you can change the clocks and have the best of both.

It is easier to change the clocks. If you don't like changing them get clocks that change themselves.

Sure thing. Let's put you on a snowball in space then have you blaze through the atmosphere and slam into the ground. This assumes the snowball doesn't explode in the atmosphere. We'll see how you make out.

The issue is not if you'll make it back from space, that part'll happen pretty definitely. The issue is in what condtion.

We might see much lighter web pages, better-compressed images, etc.

But I suspect most of the traffic from companies like Meta, Google, etc. would be video and I don't really see a way to compress that much without losing quality.

All in all, though, I can't see this actually making it into law.

Now let's do this with audio:

When we do that, you are now violating the law in any state that has two-party consent.

Get it yet?

I think "pervy" is hyperbole to illustrate the point that some deviant could easily be covertly capturing video of kids in the park, young women, etc. without any permission or notification to the subjects of recording. Let's not focus too strictly on the word, and instead think of the overall concept.

It's rather more obvious if you're being recorded if someone is holding a phone camera pointed in your direction.

With these, all they have to do is be looking generally at you, and if you are some distance away, you won't be able to tell the difference between these and other corrective lenses.

Also - if someone is recording you with a phone, the phone operator knows they are recording you. Do you know if these things aren't recording all the fucking time and sending shit to the cloud without the owner knowing it's happening as a normal course of business? My phone can't do that when it's in my pocket, but these sure as hell could if they're on your face with reasonable lighting levels.

s/their/they're/

Speaking of things that are taking way too fucking long, why does Slashdot STILL not allow an edit button for a few minutes after a post was made for "whoops" moments?

He is also my Senator, but I'd really like to know why it takes them 5 years to start asking these questions.

It's good they are finally being asked, but seriously - this shit launched in 2021, and here we are in the waning days of 2026 and their finally getting around to asking questions about it.

It's not like they have to comb through all this themselves - they have staffers who can ask questions, brief, and take direction from the senator to advance understanding of the issues and develop a regulatory strategy.

We will never be free of this privacy rape until the legislative branch learns to keep up with the privacy rapists at least a little. 5 years of rape before starting to ask questions is ridiculous.