This is a bad argument.

They can build other infrastructure (wind, hydro, geo) in the meantime. Solar can be deployed almost instantly.. but is not great that far north.

The argument against nuclear is cost. It is costly to build, operate, maintain, and decommission. Even this is not necessarily a reason not to do it: the benefit to Canada may be worth the expense -it just makes it commercially unviable.

Why do you think they'd use crappy ones that break right away leading to endless complaints, customer backlash, and replacements? I don't know who they'd order from, I don't know how it would affect the price, and I don't even think it's that great an idea. But if people want game that's 120+ GB on a physical medium they can use without having to buy extra hardware, that's the best solution I can come up with.

I have many, many boxes of DVDs. I have boxes of VHS tapes, audio cassettes, and vinyl. I have used them never in the last decade. I have DVD and BluRay players, but none hooked up. I have a DVDRW in my desktop, but it's not connected to anything. I have not seen a new computer with an optical drive in years that wasn't a server, and those don't have them anymore either.

From what I can find, the number of computers on the market with an optical drive is probably in the 10-20% range. With no laptops including them, some consumer and business desktops including them, and virtually no gaming computers. No new ones at the least.

And why not? Why bother with them when bandwidth is cheap and USB drives are faster, easier, and rewritable? You don't even need discs for video anymore, what TV can't play off USB?

The middle class are skilled-professionals, artists, and business owners. It is not a matter of salary, but of portability. If you can pick and choose among clients you are middle class, if your skill binds you to an employer you are working class. Much of what we called middle class jobs are not, even if they paid well.

The real punishment is the loss of Liberty. Everything else stems from that.

As for vindictiveness... I'm guessing you aren't familiar with Foucault. "Discipline and Punish" provides a lengthy and worthwhile genealogy of those concepts, examining how they have been expressed and how they have changed over the centuries of recorded history (it's also where we get the idea of a panopticon). To give a very brief summary, in early societies punishment was public and brutal. Everyone had to see it to know what the King's Justice looked like. As time passed, it became both less brutal and less public. Punishment was incredibly, and intentionally, vindictive in the past. It is incomparably less so now.

That said, of course you're going to have trouble getting the general public to care. These are people who have hurt and betrayed society, and despite Christ's teachings, it can still be hard to forgive. That we need to care and need to treat people decently even if they don't deserve it doesn't make it easier. We are still just human.

Personally, I have multiple friends who have been imprisoned, and I don't hold it against them. I rent a room to a guy who did time and was living in his truck. My wife and I support a local charity that helps rehabilitate ex-cons. It's called A Better Way, and associated with a ministry of the same name.

But I will dispute the claim that most criminals are victims of circumstance or mental illness. For every criminal, there were 96 people in the same position and didn't break the law. And we don't have a treatment for personality disorders like anti-social or sociopathy.

No and, just widgets. Anything else could happen elsewhere.

You act like people need permission to create and build. You've got it all backwards. There is no bargain here, just a legal framework for people to work together for some purpose. It is not a gift from society; it is a protected right. You can start a business where people would pay you for a kick in the face. Probably won't get any customers, but you can do it. You have a right to freedom of association. You have a right to make contracts. You have a right to start almost any kind of business you want (some restrictions may apply). You have a right to use your property as you see fit. Government doesn't give you these things; it protects them.

Nobody likes their boss. We work for the paycheck, because we have families to support... or sometimes just a habit to feed.

Four double layer, two triple layer. Optical discs wear out too. And more importantly, nobody has them anymore! Well, not nobody, but very few consumers and of all the businesses I support exactly one has a DVD burner that ever gets used. They need it for various lawyerings.

And I see no reason to assume the companies would use sticks that were too cheap to last. They wouldn't be writable, so the storage is more stable. Just needs a more rugged case, and they'll be using custom cases to support artwork.

If they cheaped out on the sticks, it would be a PR and CR nightmare. They should have enough people on staff who remember cartridges to avoid that mistake. If not, I'd expect exactly one company to make the mistake.

The Rothschilds are the ones who behaved as you were originally describing with a behind-the-scenes role, while the Medicis were very much out in front. I don't know which Martin may have been thinking of.

Just remember, nothing is permanent in politics. Especially in electoral politics.

Collusion and price gouging, or just demand overwhelming supply?

That's not rsilvergun, it's some jackass who thinks that's how you make a point.

Increase capacity like they're currently doing?

More or less. Zen4 and RDNA3 came in 2022, and this uses custom versions of both. The Navi 33 GPU it uses was first released in 2023. Puts it 1-2 hardware generations ahead of the current generation of consoles, and a generation behind top of the line.

It does not appear to be overpriced for the hardware. That's $5-600 for the CPU and GPU alone, easy (most of the hardware was probably purchased 1-2 years ago, not on Prime Day). Plus, a custom motherboard, case, RAM, PSU and storage. It's not a bad price at all.

Many of the comments to this article downplay the jobs replaced by robots, after all, that's what the assembly line is all about, right?

I find it interesting that most of the comments related to AI's potential for replacing jobs, often take a decidedly different tone.

Weaker? Zen 2 at 3.5ghz vs Zen 4 at 4.8ghz. RDNA 2 GPU pushing 10 teraflops, vs RDNA 3 pushing 17.

Weaker how?

You're saying an 8th gen i5 and an RX6600 is going to be the same as a Ryzen 5 7600 and what's basically a RX7600m?