Tariffs are a scalpel and should not be mistaken for a sledgehammer.
True! Wow, was that an embarrassing Gross Anatomy class! Lucky the guy was already dead. Won't ever make that mistake again! Probably.
When spy-glasses were a theory, they were seen as a good thing: A way to have a computer explain everything (and everyone) for you.
Steve Mann has been doing that since the 1970s (or 1981, depending on source), using his own custom-made hardware and software, including a thigh-mounted chord keyboard. If you talk to him, he can call up a record of your previous interactions and other details, sort of a computerized version of the "Farley file" mentioned in Robert Heinlein's 1956 novel Double Star
"Mann went on to be an early and active researcher in the wearables field, especially known for his 1994 creation of the Wearable Wireless Webcam, the first example of lifelogging."
When spy-glasses were a theory, they were seen as a good thing
Sort of like the Internet itself.
Seems to me we need more "normal" people with cameras than fewer.
That way when the gov or black vans come for you, we at least have your last streamed video and might be able to identify some of the thugs that got you.
Maybe we could crowdsource more surveillance of various politicians and CxOs. Why can they track us and we not track them?
That seems to be the position of David Brin in The Transparent Society (1998): "Brin argues that it will be good for society if the powers of surveillance are shared with the citizenry, allowing 'sousveillance' or 'viewing from below,' enabling the public to watch the watchers."
"In [Brin's science-fiction book] Earth (1990)
Brin's vision would seem to require decoupling surveillance (or "sousveillance") from the control of both government and corporations like Meta.
Trump had a nickname for everyone...did Kamela? Hillary? Mitt Romney? GWB? Reagan?
Geoge W Bush was noted for making up nicknames.
Weird how Trump keeps raising taxes on Americans, while also expanding the debt faster than all other presidents in history, combined.
I don't know about the tax thing, but the budget deficit since October, 2025 is 1.37 trillion USD. For the previous fiscal year, it was $1.34 trillion. Total national debt for the past 100 years. "The U.S. debt to GDP ratio surpassed 100% in 2013 when both debt and GDP were approximately 16.7 trillion."
However, imposing tariffs is only going to make that process more expensive
And more profitable. Thus attracting more capital investment into the business.
Here's the problem
"SEIA estimates the technically challenging development of polysilicon production sites requires around five years. Marius Mordal Bakke, vice president for solar research at Norwegian consultant Rystad Energy, said REC Silicon’s Moses Lake fab in Washington state took two years and around $150 million to restart after closing in 2019. It is ceasing production again after struggling to meet the purity requirements of the latest silicon cell technologies." [Doesn't that mean there's only one operational polysilicon site today?]
Okay, so tariffs might result in more US production -- in five years. If the US plants can "meet the purity requirements". In the meantime, higher prices and shortages of needed raw materials.
Funny how when unions negotiate wage increases (a kind of tariff) and cause prices to increase, people are OK with it.
Are people okay with it? And do you really see no difference between paying more money to support higher wages for workers as opposed to paying higher taxes to the government? (Not to mention the difference between higher wages for workers and higher salaries for executives or using corporate funds for stock buy-backs.)
Explain how lithium is mined.
Like this: "Today, there are two main ways to pull lithium from the ground. Until recently, most lithium mining occurred in Chile, where lithium is extracted from brines: salty liquid found at the Earth’s surface or underground. To extract lithium, that liquid is pumped from the earth and then placed in pools where the water can evaporate, leaving behind lithium and other elements.
"Elsewhere, lithium mining looks more traditional. In 2017, Australia overtook Chile as the dominant lithium producer. Companies there blast a lithium-rich mineral called spodumene out of open pits. Today, Australia produces roughly a third of the globe’s supplies. More than 80 percent of that rock then travels to China, where it’s further processed to yield lithium."
And that brine method has caused a lot of harm in Chile: "... lithium mining requires a lot of water. To extract one ton of lithium requires about 500,000 liters of water, and can result in the poisoning of reservoirs and related health problems."
The production of one ton of lithium requires approximately 2.2 million liters of water, diverting scarce water resources away from local agriculture and indigenous communities. The extraction process also leads to soil degradation, making it unsuitable for vegetation and disrupting local ecosystems." [So somewhere between 500,000 and 2.2 million liters
"In arid regions like the Lithium Triangle in South America - encompassing parts of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile - lithium extraction consumes vast amounts of water. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, mining operations consume around 21 million liters of water per day and use around 65% of the region’s water, leading to severe water shortages."
"The cost of green energy: lithium mining’s impact on nature and people": "The indigenous people of South America are negatively impacted by lithium mining, and the practice has driven hundreds off the land that they once called home. Mining giants in the region originally pledged to consult indigenous communities over lithium mining on their land to make sure it was environmentally sound. However, these corporations have refused to give indigenes a voice in how they are operated. Community leaders have rightfully demanded profits be channelled their way. The indigenous community in the Chilean Atacama desert has two mining companies situated there. The head of the environmental unit of the Atacama Indigenous Council, Francis Mandoca, has said that the lithium mines are branded “sustainable” energy but they are not, as they ruin one zone to satisfy another. The community feels frustrated and concerned because the ponds they used to use have been contaminated with harmful chemicals and are now unusable."
Nobody on slashdot is going to click some bullshit link. We're either smart enough to do research from reliable sources, and/or cynical enough to know links will always be bullshit. And seriously... a site called "less wrong?" That's like if you're arguing about programming, and I'm an embedded engineer, so you quote a For Dummies book.
Dismissing information based on the name of the Web site is some kind of logical fallacy, though I don't know what formal name it might go by. The Web site is called "Less Wrong", it's rather well-known, and it was founded by Eliezer Yudkowsky, a rather famous and well-regarded AI researcher who also wrote the linked article. In other words, it *IS* a "reliable source".
Executive Summary: Concerning the link, you don't know what you're talking about.
Clearly, Occam's answer would have been the God creating life is the simpler solution, so should be preferred. That's literally where the term comes from, and this is exactly the question that he was answering with it.
In this case, I suspect you have William of Ockham confused with Thomas Aquinas.
And if you took the trouble to actually read (and understand) the Yudkowsky essay, you'd find that he explains why the God hypothesis is not in fact simplest, based on a discussion of ways of measuring complexity.
If you are a law-abiding person, and hang around with law-abiding people, the chances of your interacting with police is extremely low.
Your privilege is showing here. Some people don't have those choices. Some people live in neighborhoods where there's gang activity, or high-crime areas. You want to transplant them? And their friends and relatives? Some people have been subjected to stop-and-frisk. Sometimes police question groups of young people hanging around a high school, on the basis that they're probably up to something. Some people, believe it or not, actually live with or in proximity to, ex-cons or parolees.
These connected spy cameras *ARE* effective at catching criminals.
Are they, though? I really like numbers and evidence. Is there evidence that license-plate readers are effective in catching "criminals"? What kinds of criminals? And how effective? What are the numbers? Is spending money on license-plate readers more effective than spending money elsewhere? What are the overall accuracy rates, including human error and misunderstandings?
"An Evaluation of a Major Expansion in Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Technology (Published online: 06 Mar 2025) examined ALPRs in "the Atlantic City (NJ) Police Department (ACPD), which is located on a barrier island. A Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) grant allowed the department to buy and install stationary/fixed ALPRs on all entrances and exits to scan every moving vehicle in and out of the city’s jurisdiction."
Overall, they concluded, "While the ALPR expansion did not reduce violent crime, it was associated with reductions in shootings, motor vehicle thefts, and property crime." The paper also mentions a few other evaluations.
Previous "ALPR evaluations that have tested the technology’s effectiveness on crime reduction are limited to just a few jurisdictions. ALPRs did not significantly reduce crime in treatment areas or post-intervention periods in Mesa, AZ (Taylor et al., 2012), Alexandria City and Fairfax County, VA (Lum et al., 2011),"
I thought federal vehicles didn't have license plates. They're invisible to flock.
Yes, but no: "Flock Cameras Can Surveil Cars Without License Plates: "This is from a 2024 company presentation: Officers can also tap into data showing a car’s decals, bumper stickers, back and top racks -- along with temporary and unique state tags. Flock calls it a 'Vehicle Fingerprint'
"You know, we've won awards for this crap." -- David Letterman
