First it was fentanyl, and it's been downhill ever since. If you assume that everything this administration says is a lie, you will be almost always correct.

Like a lot of Canadians I made my decisions with my wallet rather than my voice. I've cancelled motorcycle trips through the US across two seasons. I cancelled a trip to Louisiana and went to Portugal instead. I avoid US produce when I've never looked at country of origin before.

And now there are new products released by companies I adore that I am foregoing simply because they are American. I'm looking at you, ThermoWorks. I will miss you.

Even our canes were better.

Incorrect comparison. You'd need to compare to a robot also on wheels. But if we're mismatching transport modes, we could compare the out of shape cyclist to the fastest self-guided drone.

The past 40 years have failed to catch up to the level of musical quality from before the 80s. Why not throw another log on that fire? :D

It doesn't matter if people believe it's a hoax or not. Let them think whatever they want.

We're part the point where we need people to act preemptively, and on belief. We are well into reaction territory. And people are forced to react no matter what their internal beliefs suggest.

It's like you haven't been paying attention for the last 18 months. Constitutionality isn't important, the legal recourse available to citizens is prohibitively expensive when it isn't an illusion, and if something rises to the level of the Supreme Court the presumption of fairness is... gone.

It doesn't matter whether he wins in the short term. Even if he wins the government will ignore it and he will lose.

If it were a larger, less targeted set of folks I would have questions. But it sounds like they are niche folks with special skills. They're probably paid in the higher range. Apple could probably find places in the company for them, but probably not roles as well compensated. So overpay them or package them out. Overpaying has consequences, including upsetting peers. Packaging is cleaner.

Lot of assumptions in that... but when your employee base is something like 165,000 this isn't exactly a cull.

Ignoring millions of books while setting impactful policy is also bad. Seems like the humble book is having a tough go in 2026.

As a relatively honest man, I look at Youtube and ask myself a series of questions.

"Am I deriving value from this?"

Yes.

"Do I hate the advertisements?"

Yes.

"Do I consider it theft to derive the value and circumvent the ads?"

Yes.

"Do I have another option to obtain the service without the ads?"

Yes.

And so I pay for it.

So "always" useless because "sometimes" it's insufficient. Got it.

I guess I should clarify... I disagree with the idea that my post is in opposition to the bulk of your post. I just never intended the thing you rebutted.

If you don't have or attend dinner parties, you should. It might seem quaint or antiquated, but sharing lives over food is one of the most underrated, easiest, least pressure-laden social experiences you can have. Even if the food fails to come out right, it generally works out fine.

I disagree with your clarification - and post in general. I addressed dinner parties and the like. Not the world at large. Some things need preserving. Casual social interactions are not among them.

Lazy, ignoring explicit instructions and hiding it, possibly blackmailers and unionizers... sounds like they're already direct replacements for people.

If I find out somebody is using wearables to archive anything that includes me without my direct permission at a dinner party I attend - video, audio, or stills - it'll be the last time I ever speak to them.

Almost precisely nothing that happens at these sorts of things needs to be preserved - in fact, it should specifically be fleeting. Experienced, then gone. This desire to preserve everything is a sickness.