The proposed EU age verification app is a good deal less intrusive than any of the nasty mechanisms that some social media is already employing. Most of those are a privacy nightmare. The EU app, in contrast:
- Site / App operator does not get your identity, only a proof of age.
- Government does not get to see which sites you visit.
- Actual verification takes place once, and whatever ID you use does not need to be stored (and can't be subsequently stolen)
- App is open source, so the workings can be verified.

Has it though? In the West, certainly. It's what the MBAs all parrot: focus on your core strengths, divest everything else. Or at least split it off under different names. But there are still Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean conglomerates that make everything from oil tankers, appliances, musical instruments to motorcycles. All under the same name. Somehow they are not too concerned about brand name dilution or core strengths. Like the MCP guy says in Robocop: "Good business is where you find it".

The stock argument is a good point... I'd love to invest in SpaceX the aerospace company, not so much in SpaceX the AI company with a satcom division and its own rocket department. Certainly not if they add an automotive department that seems to have lost its way. Though I don't know if this is about Musk's wants, it smells a lot more like the acquisition of X and xAI by Spacex: a trick to artificially pad the company's valuation, or something like that.

Capitalism just means that the means of production are privately owned, by investors with a profit motive. That's all. You mention the post WW2 era as an example when life was still good for even the lower incomes, and that was also a capitalist era. Capitalism has brought a standard of living unheard of in most of human history, not to the rich but to the working class.

It took more than capitalism to make that happen, capitalism does not provide equal opportunity to everyone nor does it necessarily distribute wealth fairly. And it seems that capitalism tends to concentrate money and with it power into ever-smaller groups. It takes unions, governments, laws and watchdogs to ensure that businesses keep their proper place, play fair and do right by everyone. And they used to do that fairly well for over a century. It's those entities failing us now, not capitalism. GP is right about that.

Yes and No.
MBAs are taught to look at the wrong things. But that "wrong thing" is not the profit motive. Profit is the purpose of a business, in its essence. A founder or enlightened CEO might give it purpose beyond that, but at its core, profit is the goal.

The real question is: what agencies and regulations exist to ensure that this profit motive - useful as it is - serves society's higher goals?

The mass events (global ones) are not so common, we've had like 4 in the past 80 years or so. But there are some regions (Great Barrier Reef for instance) where it is more or less a yearly affair. It doesn't seem feasible to manually re-seed these areas by hand every year.

Maybe. If speech is transcribed on the fly, then there is no recording that needs consent. Somebody at some point will sue and the court will establish a precedent.

It means "you will own nothing", as they no longer offer FSD as a lifetime puchase. It's a subscription.

Defrost mode.

Same day, Albert Heyn and Delhaize got hit (Netherlands and Belgium). The nature of the incident is as yet unknown, but it is now clear that these supermarkets have had to shut down parts of their systems preemptively, following a "cyber incident". The shops are operating (and freezers are cold), but websites are down, self-checkout kinda works, payment systems are slow, and all home deliveries have been cancelled. Logistics to stores have also been affected.

I don't think people looking for entertainment are going to pay to watch a propaganda hit piece.

A calendar-clock change like this needs at least a year of time to prepare it and get all the software systems tested and ready for the change when it happens.

Even if they pass the law now doesn't mean it has to take effect when it's passed. Indeed, most newly passed laws' effective date isn't the day it's passed but typically months in the future. (However, if a law is declared unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional immediately.)

12PM is fucking noon is when the fucking sun is at its highest position in the sky.

While I somewhat share your sentiment, noon (as shown by your clock or watch, let's call it clock-noon) is not when the sun is at its highest point in the sky except for exactly 4 days per year and only if you just so happen to be standing on one of the 24 meridian lines on Earth.

When the sun is at its highest point in the sky is solar noon and isn't what most people mean (or what your clock or watch means) by "noon."

The discrepancy happens due to (1) the Earth's axial tilt, (2) the Earth position in its orbit, and (3) time zones. The first two can be compensated for using the Equation of Time. If you don't compensate, then you can be off by as much as 14 slow (around February 11) or 16 minutes fast (around November 3).

For time zones, you have to adjust by your longitude relative to your time zone's central meridian: for every degree east or west, you have to subtract or add 4 minutes, respectively.

Live with nature and quit fucking denying it like a conservative.

Ideally, yes, but reality isn't the way it is for the convenience of humans and it would be highly impractical for everyone to have his or her own local time based on their (current) longitude.

That said, the twice-a-year changing of our clocks certainly doesn't help matters.

Shut down the whole business ..

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

"There use to be news, with editors that would filter out the wrongthink"
FTFY

Wading through the garbage, one does find a few gems from time to time. Not unfounded rumours, but verified stories with links to sources that the regular newspapers do not print for some reason, or discussions and opinions outside of your own bubble. And it becomes clear how much of a bubble mainstream publications have become. Or maybe they always were...

How about governments using AI to process intelligence and making strategic decisions based on the AI's "insights".