Because there are eight billion people on this rock. The words "smart" and "bed" both exist, so of *course* somebody made a "smart bed", and of *course* there were people who bought the silly thing. Presumably there are also internet-connected toothbrushes, can openers, pencils, cutlery, and socks. Why wouldn't there be?

Are these *popular* products that *lots* of people own or want? Well, no, but that's an entirely different question.

> No one who is just getting by is going to do it out of the the kindness
> of their heart for the environment.

Almost no one, in that demographic, yeah. And I think that demographic
(just getting by) is going to include the overwhelming majority of ride-share
drivers, because it doesn't pay well enough to raise someone out of that
demographic, and it's not really a highly regarded "dream" profession that
a person with other means of support would do because they think it's
important (like teaching school or medical work) or just plain love doing
it and don't want to do anything else (like art or music), at least not for
most people.

The price gap between traditionally powered vehicles and electric ones
is narrowing, but it's narrowing fairly gradually, and I don't know that it'll
necessarily be down to zero by 2030 (for the new vehicle market), and
if you want drivers of older used vehicles to all be using electric by 2030,
the deadline for that price gap to narrow to zero is more like 2010, and
that ship has sailed.

With that said, superficially, a $4k subsidy is substantial enough that it
might *sound* like a real windfall to some people, and fear of missing
out on that deal (especially if it's advertised with a prominent and
imminent expiration date) might potentially motivate some people to
try to stretch for it. Dunno.

(Presumably there will be car dealers who will go out of their way to
provide financing that allows people to overextend and buy a more
expensive car than they can really afford, with a loan term so long
they won't be able to afford the maintenance on the car by the time
it's paid off. It's a sleazy practice, but it would neither be new, nor
unique to EVs.)

Much of the early web was an open invitation to create something cool with nary a thought as to how it was all going to be paid for.

Eventually money wins over cool, whether it be music, movies, or the web, and oh boy! in the past few hundred years have we gotten exceedingly adept at extracting every red cent from the punters.

Yes yes yes, the wonders of capitalism and all the wonders it has to lead the masses out of poverty.

But there are trade-offs, and commodification doesn't even begin to describe the hellscape of modern culture.

Somehow I imagine you are perfectly fine with corporations making political donations that may be contrary to their shareholders' or workers' politics.

Criticizing one without the other ("but money is speech unless a union does it") is just the mark of a sycophant.

We've heard it before.

You're not getting it.

Can't speak for Texas but I caught an interview with the sponsor of the porn bill in Kentucky, and he made clear one of the effects he was after was to drive such content from the state.

PornHub has proposed methods to verify age that are less onerous (tying age to a device, verified at point of sell), but they have been shot down as not being stringent enough (as if sending a copy of an ID isn't easy enough to spoof).

This isn't about "for the children" inasmuch as soft banning certain types of content.

It's the same playbook from decades ago with the same arguments.

Just don't buy the content.

Don't download it either.

Read a fucking book. Go outside and smell the flowers. You gave them this "power." You can also take it away by not playing.

Best,

I don't recall seeing much concern about Joe Biden being a Catholic. But it's important here?

One of those Catholics is Sotomayor, one of the group of "progressive" justices. What exactly are you ham-handedly trying to imply?

Best,

The birth of the Mycogenians! :)

Unplug it and move on with life.

^^^This^^^

This is the 3rd (fourth?) incarnation of this company in 20 years. Nobody is going to buy these things and investors will watch as the stock plummets after the hyped up IPO. Best to watch this train wreck from the sidelines.

But prospective owners can run out and get a motorcycle license in advance just in case any of these make it into production and they want to own a collectible curiosity.

Best,

Yes, but that's a _later_ problem.

The CCP is incredibly good at kicking the can down the road. I mean, most governments do a fair amount of that (not necessarily with regard to stuff in space specifically, only a handful of countries even have stuff in space; but there are other kinds of cans to kick down roads), but China is on another level. Short-term thinking is pretty much their whole modus operandi.

You can point to harmful mutations being a significant cause of death.

From my vantage point, there is a gauntlet of trials males have to go through just to breed let alone survive long enough where disease has a significant impact.

Certainly having a copy of DNA is an advantage long-term, but males often die well before that.

So basically the same as stickering albums from days past, with the same motivations- do-gooderism with unintended consequences.

And can we finally admit that much like music before, this was never intended to serve the public but stroke the egos of the pearl clutching class?

And can we further admit the same of locking down the web, for the children, may have noble intentions, but the methods are completely counter-productive?

Nope. I guess another generation has to suffer through this idiocy.

every bit of land that is occupied by islam has been stolen from some other culture. by the sword, 100% of the time.

you want some justice? have the arabs give back all the land they stole from the native peoples of the time. every land they have was stolen. why is that never talked about?

there were religions long before islam, but all the countries that are islamic were forced under threat of death to convert.

genocide is what the arabs did to everyone who did not convert.

funny how you guys want to flip the narrative.

actually, its not funny.