Well, I clicked the link and, to no one's surprise, the 8 million figure you provided is simply a lie.

The only mention of that number is when the article talks about "encounters".

And what is an "encounter"?

A migrant encounter is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) term for any interaction between immigration officials and noncitizens who are either apprehended while crossing the border illegally (Border Patrol) or determined to be inadmissible at a port of entry (Office of Field Operations). These encounters, which include both apprehensions and expulsions, are recorded as events rather than unique individuals.

I get what you're saying. I guess a good analogy would be atomic energy.

It's incredibly useful, not only for electricity generation, but also fields like medicine which greatly benefited from it. Unless someone decides to destroy humanity with it.

I think AI has immense potential. But if it comes at the cost of completely eroding human society, what's the point?

I have been saying this for some time, now. The fake news/scams epidemic is only punctually about deceiving people. But the broader goal is to actually make people don't believe in anything anymore. So, only "the leader" can be "trusted".

We have this in South America for a looong time. I would estimate some 80% of households use these boxes.

It became so widespread that the major streaming platforms started to pressure the governments. Most of the devices were outlawed and recently there were huge cross-border crackdowns that took the pirat... ahem, alternative platforms down.

One very funny thing is that because it was a paid service, most people didn't even realized it was illegal. When the boxes started to get bricked, consumer protection organizations got flooded with millions of complaints. There are reports of people that even reported it to the police.

My guesses:

1) Unix-based, non-Windows OS
Yeah, of course you could also set up a Linux machine, but just buying a Mac is much easier.

2) Small form factor and nice product design
It occupies very little space on your desk and doesn't look ugly.

3) Established ecosystem
Many of these users already use Apple devices, so the Mini nicely integrates with them.

4) Relatively low price
It's not cheap, but not prohibitive.

5) Trendy
They're following the trend.

The link provided is from a camera that doesn't work. You can watch it from Iceland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Having spent most of my life in B2B e-commerce, this topic really resonates with me.

I've always wanted modular and composable ERPs. It's the kind of flexibility that's essential, since each product has different characteristics.

But the biggest problem I've faced almost my entire life is dealing with CEOs, CFOs, and other C-level executives who swear up and down that their companies are unique and special, different from all the others.

How many hours of meetings I spent trying to convince them that, no, their company isn't that special. If you're going to hire an ERP, accept and adopt its damn methodology! Not the other way around. Don't try to bend it to fit your idiosyncratic, convoluted processes.

Even so, I've lost count of how much time and money I've seen wasted on projects that ended up poorly implemented, if not completely failed.

Thankfully, I'm retired and will never have to worry about this again.

I think it's reasonable to estimate it by peak load. You simply can't count on higher figures knowing you'll eventually and certainly fall short.

Otherwise, if you say you could provide energy to millions of homes, what would you do when it's peak season and more than half of them suddenly lose power?

P.S.:

1) Maybe the statement of 660,000 homes is already considering and deducting commercial and industrial use.
2) One solution would be of course to say "at least 660,000 homes" or "from 660,000 up to 1.7 million homes".

Before you dismiss this study, pay attention that it is very basic science trying to access specifically the effect of screen time on kids.

No, it didn't say that social media is harmless or it doesn't affect children. It only inferred that screen time alone doesn't. As with any basic science study, more research is needed to try and understand the subject in full.

Actually, no, they haven't. The study was only about screen time. By the words of the researcher himself:

"(...) our results do not support the idea that simply spending time on social media or gaming leads to mental health problems -- the story is far more complex than that."

TBH, the majority of Math problems are solved this way, even from humans. We're always building on top of other's work.

Bad, bad China!

Anyway... I guess I'll have lasagna for dinner tonight.

I still would argue that, yes, I would. Only this time I'd do it using the sensors and special bricks provided. I think it's also worth noting that these add-ons Lego is creating are expensive and will come only with certain kits, mostly created for adult audiences.

Well, here goes my personal, completely anedoctal experience:

The kits were created during my childhood (so I have some pre-kits ones). With the kits, I would usually open the box, build it according to instructions, play a bit and then completely dismantle it and store with all the other ones. Then I spent most of my days building new stuff with it. No hinder in creativity in there.

Nowadays, I still have all my Legos, and two small godchildren (4 and 6 yo). They love it and eagerly ask to come visit and play with it every weekend. Last Christmas, I bought a new kit to each one of them. And what did they do as soon as we opened it? They completely dismissed the kits, mixed all the bricks and started to build every type of crazy stuff.

This makes me think the experts may be somehow underestimating kids imagination.

The "play experts" fear it will "curtail imagination".

I call it bullshit! That only goes to show their own lack of imagination.

Introducing lights and sounds to the bricks is positively a very nice way to expand imagination. Actually, when I was a child, I did frequently add batteries, tiny lamps and slot cars engines to my Lego creations.

I feel like the real problem is not the "rebranding" per se, but the complete mess they made on the new name structure by trying to copy other companies with all the "pro, plus, premium..."

I worked for decades with sales and marketing teams in several distinct industries and in most cases it boggled me how incredibly twisted their minds are and how they tend to overcomplicate things.

I usually found their heads so tucked into the supply-chain/distribution holes that they seem to completely forget their main reason of existence: the consumer.