This is the second time parody metal band Psychostick has foretold the future of US politics, first with "Political bum" and then "Numbers" - complete with muppets!

They were probably most concerned with ensuring that it wouldn't question the primacy of supporting free markets:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/p...

If they were to go into it as an experiment saying, "Hey! We're going to see how good it is and tell you where it failed," while jumping in and fact-checking it throughout the podcast, they'd have a winner.

Unfortunately, they were so poorly informed (maybe THEY don't read the news?), that they thought LLMs were actually artificially intelligent digital beings, capable of human-level thinking and retrospection, and now they feed disappointed and frustrated.

That's like saying, "I'm frustrated that my Tesla can't safely drive me everywhere I want to go without my interaction."

Everything old is new again:

https://damagedglitter.com/pro...

I'd guess the device was one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Let's wait for some precedent or at least a strong hint of inclination before we assume that future Dem presidents will also take the wannabe-dictator path from now on. While all future US presidents will have the opportunity to be mini-dictators until some much-needed guardrails are added, so far only one party (and in fact only one man) has taken it.

"The biggest night on the video game calendar" was never going to be The Game Awards. There are very, very, very few industry awards ceremonies that people care enough about to watch unless they're personally involved in that industry and video games are not one of those industries.

Movie and TV awards are chock full of beautiful people, charismatic personalities, popular music, haute couture, comedy, and themes that span generations. Gaming, by comparison, is significantly more niche and (as widespread as game-play is) there isn't enough emotional investment for the people **who otherwise go completely unseen** to attract an significant and enduring audience.

In regards to the complaints about the lack of recognition of layoffs and other issues: "What the hell did you expect?" No one builds an awards ceremony around the airing of dirty laundry.

A Twitter-branded Mastodon instance might have a decent shot at success just due to the branding advantage, nothing since Twitter has been as well-known as Twitter.

If you parked the Venus zeppelin on Mars it wouldn't offer the inhabitants enough protection from the cold or radiation. But that's a minor issue next to the fact that it would explode due to the lower atmospheric pressure.

This article is so full of cherry-picked bullshit that I would expect a 3rd-year undergrad wrote it to be edgy. I can't get to everything, so here's the lowdown on the cost of education.

Colleges didn't "oversell" education. If the well-wishers of the world had their way, we would ALL be college educated because educated people tend to make better decisions and be less horrible to each other. The value of education is extreme. PARENTS oversell specific careers to their and in consequence mandate their children attend the most prestigious university they can get into. They also have no clue how to tell one university from the next and thus lean on prestige.

The COST of higher education (Ex. post-secondary, college, uni, etc.) is highly variable based on who is providing the education. Let's take a look at a couple examples:

The University of California (UCLA, Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.) has 9 undergraduate campuses and is a powerhouse of research. Their campuses are RESEARCH institutions whose charge is to be the research arm for California while also creating more PhD RESEARCHERS in addition to lawyers and medical doctors. Those researcher-faculty are also required to teach classes. Please understand that I wrote that description for a reason. Research is the primary focus and education is secondary. Thus, if you are a student that needs to be spoon-fed everything, then the UC is probably going to be a bad fit.

It costs around $15,600/year for UC tuition plus a variable amount of campus fees ($1,200 - $2,200) depending on which campus you attend.

The California Statue University has 23 campuses and is a powerhouse of education. Their campuses are EDUCATIONAL institutions whose charge is to be the educational arm for California while creating industry experts (Master's Degrees) and limited doctorates (Education, etc.). Those instructor-faculty have the option to do research as well within the realm of their instructional duties. Instruction is the primary focus and research is secondary. Thus, if you're a student that is desperate to get into a lab and work on cutting edge (albeit sometimes monotonous) research, the CSU is probably going to be a bad fit.

It costs around $6,450/year for CSU tuition plus a variable amount of campus fees depending on which campus you attend.

Side Note: The #1 reason it's more "PRESTIGIOUS" to attend a UC campus than a CSU campus is because they have Nobel Prize winners and big cool experimental toys. People see that and assume, "Wow... they must be amazing educators," but it doesn't always translate. Often, you're being taught by "lecturers" (temporary instructors who JUST focus on instruction) and THOSE instructors tend to be, on average, better than research faculty. (End Side Note)

That's all very, very affordable, right? No one gets into $100K of student debt solely on the basis of paying tuition at UC Berkeley. So what are we missing? EVERYTHING ELSE.

Housing: Rentals and homes for sale near UC and CSU campuses are under extreme demand due to both student and employees wanting to live near the campus. People buy single-family homes near major campuses and rent them out to students at massive mark-ups because... it's a strong investment and home values near major university campuses bounce back FAST after any downturn.

So how much are we talking about? Near a small campus (Chico State), it's safe to budget $500-$1000/month for a room rental. Near a major UC campus, it's safe to budget $1,000-$1,500/month for a room rental. (Note: Back in the day, almost no one rented their own room. It was always 2-3 people per room. The pandemic changed that and students view the dorm experience as a "one and done" and all but demand their own room and the cost of that preference is high.)

That's just rent. When you add in bills (electricity, water, sewer, waste, broadband internet, phone), transportation (car, gas, parking), textbooks, food, and other living expenses like clothes, the total COST OF ATTENDANCE gets you over $45,000/year to attend a University of California campus. It's not the tuition... it's the EVERYTHING ELSE and that's 100% predictable because we've been watch the cost of EVERYTHING ELSE climb mercilessly upward for the last 20 years.

Don't believe me? Look at the breakdown yourself:

UCLA - https://financialaid.ucla.edu/...
Berkeley - https://financialaid.berkeley....

And you can see the history of tuition prices here: https://www.ucop.edu/operating...

Lastly, the tuition you pay during your first year at a UC campus is what you pay throughout your undergraduate experience. Tuition increases only affect the incoming class.

I guess you missed this part:

That's because most blockchain activity is wash trades, so everything else is small in comparison. Here's something to get you started:

https://www.moneylaundering.co...

Reminder to all readers: Monero and zcash exist, off-chain transactions (including cash-for-wallet deals) exist.

The difference is that Visa transactions are overwhelmingly for non-criminal purposes, while cryptocurrency transaction are (excluding wash trades) overwhelmingly for criminal purposes.

I'll just leave these here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/1...

https://www.rand.org/pubs/comm...

https://www.dw.com/en/north-ko...

https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/re...

https://www.moneylaundering.co...

There are two cryptocurrencies that functionally specialize in helping criminals launder money and evade sanctions, Monero and zcash. They are inherently untraceable and can work as a one-stop money laundromat once you can get currency in and out of them, and the subset of cryptobros who are trying to take cryptocurrency mainstream don't want you to know this. A little money laundering flaring up with some random stablecoin is background noise in the criminal finance world of cryptocurrency.