I got nothin'. Nobody can see even 6 months into the future so how things like self-driving cars, AI, etc progress is impossible. I choose to see a mostly positive future for tech. Some folks don't. I pick and choose what tech I use as well as how I use it and which billionaires I support (hint most of them are right off that list).

I drive 2 vehicles that utilize some form of driver assist tech: adaptive cruise control/automated braking and lane departure management. Both of these improve my driving experience and increase driving safety. I can see myself going fully autonomous on freeways once the tech is validated as safer than human.

IF (big huge IF right here) self-driving cars can be made fully safe and widely adopted (no clue what the minimum percent of cars is) then the required space between vehicles can be set to almost zero and road capacity will increase, drive times decrease, and accident rates drop. We get the stop/go problem because people are self-interested and jam up the system or they get distracted and run into stuff. Self-driving cars eliminate the first issue and drastically reduce the second. And yes, I know that this is currently a vision of 'THE FUTURE' and not near-term reality.

FWIW, I just used acronym finder and https://www.acronymfinder.com/...

I left the BSA 50 years ago so the acronym lives rent free in my brain forever.

Europe is leaving due to actions taken by the US. If those actions are a problem, maybe support candidates who have better policies. Justva thought.

Also Boy Scouts of America care about software??? Not a fan of acronyms in article titles.

A million years ago when I got my first management job I had to attend a training session on 'Goals and Objectives', the current in vogue management tool. The instructor impressed on us that 'you get what you measure'. He used an example of police wanting to improve road safety by measuring the number of moving violation tickets given out. Ticket quantities went through the roof but there was no improvement in accident rates; go figure. What was true in the 70s is still true today.

My house, all the time. It. Ain't. Funny.

I have two hearing impaired elders in my life. Voice to text fails for the same reason as hearing aids; everything gets converted to text. The fallback is just yelling or hand written notes.

Companies just started merging with or acquiring other firms for no apparent reason. Tecnicon was one of the original firms building hospital lab equipment. If you've ever had a 'Chem 12', 'Chem 24' or similar lab profile, those were developed by Technicon. Nearly every lab in the US had Technicon gear.

The 80's hit and Technicon was aquired by Revlon and Pantry Pride Grocery. WTF???
This crap with AI smacks of the same nonsense.

"I can disable plenty of them in the Settings". This. As far as I know, I've shut down all the ad-like features in the browser and it wasn't all that difficult. When I get a new device, it's just a few clicks to clean up the UI. If there's anything left, it's not annoying enough for me to even notice it.

I see what you did there. Took quite a shot at the vendor.

asked to hit 'any key'????? Oh the horror!

We're going to reach a point where the tech to do this kind of thing is pretty close to invisible. It's going to be interesting when that happens.

Blue dot in red state here. Farmland is currently zoned as agricultural across most of Georgia. Two main categories exist; exclusive (use as farm only) and non-exclusive. I'm not going to search all 3 zillion counties property maps to see what the balance is but the state does use zoning to protect land.
FWIW, zoning can be challenged and changed so just because something is zoned agricultural now means nothing.
A better long-term solution is to establish a permanent conservation easement. As said elsewhere in this bit of thread, these options require the land-owner push to get the specific zoning category. I can see why a farmer would not want to restrict what their land could be used for in the event that they get old and the kids might or might not want to keep farming.
No simple answer to this problem because it's not A problem but Many problems all balled into one thing.

My spouse has felt for some time she had some type of arrhythmia. In office ECGs never detected anything. She has a Samsung watch (not the latest version) that detects abnormal heart patterns. It pops up with 'you have AFib'. Meh, figures it's bogus. During one of her episodes, she initiates an ECG, AFib is the result. At a regular doc visit she mentions it to her PCP. They open up the app, find the displayed data, and doc concurs; she has AFib. They do a 24 hr monitor and confirm AFib. In conversations with her PCP and the cardiologist the docs confirm that they're seeing people with smart watches that do, in fact, have things like AFib that are confirmed on further testing. This seems to be a real thing. I'm sure there are false positives and likely false negatives so it would be good to have actual clinical data but in the absence of real studies, if you have one of these that pops a message, see your doc.