Ok, fine. I'll just cry at work. Thanks.

And short-lived. More and more workplaces are charging the actual cost of the charge. We should expect this to continue as more people get EVs and the cost of subsidizing the fueling of commuter vehicles gets more public visibility and the value is required to be imputed/taxed as employee income.

First, the Maverick IS a truck. It's a SMALL pickup truck. You probably want a MEDIUM pickup trick, like the lightning. Or maybe one that doesn't have a back seat.

Ford says:

1. It will have a similar footprint to the Maverick
2. It will have the same passenger space of a RAV4

Ford hasn't said:
1. Towing capability
2. Bed size

1. Climate Change: This is decided science. The only reason we're barreling toward climate disaster is the people in political power. We were making progress on this front for decades prior to 2016.

2. Tobacco: You mean, the science came out and contradicted the lies of tobacco company, there's been a 70% reduction in smoking in adults and an >80% reduction with youth? Vaping is still an issue, but it's significantly less harmful than smoking.

3. Purdue Pharma: Purdue pharma was officially dissolved in May of this year after being successfully sued for >$7B. It's now comparably difficult to obtain opioids, particularly in the excessive amounts that fed the start of the crisis.

4. Boeing: What about them?

Pro-Tip: Life gets better when you acknowledge the improvements being made by the hard-working people around you and don't just focus on the headlines.

Actually, it DID work for climate change and smoking.

We made absolutely MASSIVE strides in reducing the risk of catastrophic climate change leading up to the early 2000s and then the US GOP started actively fighting against the science. Looking at California alone, they went from a huge amount of smog days per year to them being rare. (https://www.aqmd.gov/home/research/publications/50-years-of-progress)

And the decided science empowered social change to MASSIVELY reduce the incidence of smoking in America. (https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/tobacco-trends-brief/overall-smoking-trends)

People will not make MASSIVE, generational change without sufficient reason to believe that that change is necessary.

35% of University of California students receive the Pell Grant -- federal funding for the lowest income undergraduates. The UC population isn't at risk of losing "mommy and daddy" endowment donations. Discipline can work well-- but it needs to be WIDELY ADVERTISED discipline so as to invoke a strong deterrent effect.

You're right about the risks of just expelling, though. All public universities are exceedingly concerned about student "retention" and are very slow to actually dis-enroll a student. There's just not much back-stop funding from research grants thanks to this federal administration's new policies.

That's very idealist, but not in line with the pragmatic realities of education.

1. Most people want to HAVE learned, but are unwilling to go through the process of studying and repetition to actually learn.
2. We set up massive educational system to ENSURE that people learn. Those systems are held accountable when their students DON'T learn.
3. Checkpoints are set up throughout a curriculum to force students to learn if not for their own sake, then for the sake of a grade that will influence whether to progress in the educational system.
4. Remove those checkpoints and more students will fail. And then the educational system fail. And then there's no more advanced education.

Congrats -- Welcome back to serfdom.

These are not children. These are students at a top-tier research university. They will become doctors, engineers, and career mathematicians.

Their job is to learn.

Do consider that we're talking about math at a top-tier research university.

Math classes at a University of California campus will range between 100 and 350 students. One-on-one discussions are not a functional realistic option.

Homework is graded to force students to practice because they wouldn't practice otherwise.

That's the difficulty of education. EVERYONE recognizes the need for it and almost everyone is grateful for having been educated, but 98% of the people receiving education would rather be doing something else.

Very few people are driven by the intrinsic rewards of education.

I've been getting requests and suggestions from Google and every other app/program company to associate a phone number for years.

Say what you want about Anthropic (I will probably say it with you), but their instigation of investor actions at little or no cost to themselves is hilariously adept:

1. We develop AI and we're going to call on the nations of the world to restrict us and everyone else working on AI. It's going to get out of hand soon... because it's so advanced and powerful.
2. Whoopsie, guys! Our AI just hacked some companies when it shouldn't have been able to do so. Wow, this thing is powerful!
3. We're going to IPO, but we should warn you that our AI is SO FUCKING ADVANCED that it may cause "catastrophic or existential risk to humanity".
4. Hey guys, can you please not be horrible to our AI? We're not saying that it's actually sentient (out loud) and could lash out like an incredibly powerful weapon (*wink*), but ... ya...

Those watching these announcements are either:

1. Holy crap! We have to stop AI.
2. LOL-- Skynet by Christmas!
3. What a bunch of blowhards.
4. Oh, fuck ya, give me that big fucking weapon! (These are the people with the money.)

Are streets lights "growing dimmer"? It could be:

1. Color temperature changes
2. Your eyes being more used to high-K light and misunderstanding low-K light
3. You're getting old and your own eyes aren't as good in the dark as they used to be

Regardless, the solution isn't to blind other people on the road while you improve visibility for yourself. It's to drive slower with lights that are safe for everyone.

It really sounds like the college was stuck in a bad contract. At my university, almost every contract has a 30-day no-cause exit written into it, so if we're done, we can kill just about anything within 30 days.

This should also serve as further warning to everyone consider this or similar products. Know the contract. And know that they may adhere to the contract much stronger than you anticipate because you're not the only customer being served here.