Growing up in Reagan's '80s America, I remember of being warned about central planning, and that economies are far too complex for any central committee or one person to plan. But that's exactly where we are 40 years later, with an elected dictator dictating what tariffs we pay on which goods and services, how we should invest our retirement savings, and how the Federal Reserve should conduct monetary policy.

According to the 1942-1946 pay chart, a general officer with over 30 years of service made an annual salary of $8000. This would include all the famous American Generals in WW2 who led major operations such as the D-Day landing. The lowest private in WW2 made $50 per month, or $600 per year, and he was often the one taking the greatest risk. This is only base pay, so they probably made slightly more on top for hazardous duty, flight pay, etc. But WW2 salaries were low across the board, because we had just exited The Great Depression, and the military was on a war-time footing.

Pardon and a steak dinner at the White House. And I thought Hunter Biden was profiting off of the White House, and Democrats would all be exposed as child sex traffickers, just as soon as Trump releases all the Epstein files.

This is just yet another example of why we (USA) really do need a public, non-profit, health insurance system. Too many people cannot access proper medical treatment for life-threatening conditions, and in their desperation fall victim to quacks and other grifters and con-artists. But unfortunately our for-profit healthcare industry has brainwashed the American people into thinking that considering any alternatives to our corporate healthcare system is borderline treasonous, even though we only need to look north of the border to see a better alternative.

The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence. The GOP's greatest achievement is convincing the middle class to blame somebody else, other than those actually doing the squeezing.

I don't know. Do you like modern medicine?

Yes. Trump will be holding a gun to the head of the American Economy for the next four years, playing MAGA Roulette. Cycle: make threats, take bribes, time the market and make quick returns, then delay such threats...

When this change was made many Slashdotters said it was ridiculous.

Cayenne8 said: "Yeah, my first thought was WTF would they ditch the very popular and VERY well known company name "HBO" for just Max? Seems like the latest round of marketing folks coming to businesses these days haven't a clue about the job they are trying to do, and how it all works."

Then we piled on from there...

An American dream for the very privileged: Getting paid generational wealth despite messing up so badly.

Will the typical person be able to tell the difference between a human and AI voice reading the stories?

Certainly the best-sellers will retain humans, even famous humans, to read their books. But for the rest, AI could save them a lot of time and money.

Hopefully this technology will spread fast and then every book will be available with narration on many platforms. That would lead to price competition and competition for quality. Let the free market decide if this is a good idea or not.

What prevents one or a handful of IDs from being used by millions of people?

An obvious solution for that problem would be for every ID verification to be cross-checked against governmental registries.

This is also very convenient for the government to 'protect the children' and 'fight terrorists' by knowing every 'sensitive' thing that your ID has been registered to have had accessed. Your personal liberty will certainly be secured by this enlightened system, and no dragnet will ever ruin your reputation and good standing.

Oh, and if things you have already accessed are later deemed to be 'sensitive' then could that blemish be added to your permanent record after the fact - long after you had a chance to decided to click the link?

Bring a sled! This slope looks slippery.

Five years after a major architecture change sounds about right, given Apple's history. M68k was supported up to about 1998-1999. PPC software updates ended around 2010. So 2025 would make sense as the last year of Intel- Mac support.

This seems like a distraction for the driver. Distractions cause accidents. Accidents cost money.

The lucky drivers of these vehicles will pay again in higher insurance rates.

Will this be a 'feature' in rental cars too? I do not want this feature.

Use AI to maximize productivity &out compete your peers: Get a job!

Use AI and lose your ability to handle irregular situations: Lose a job!

Everything will be fine as long as nothing goes wrong in a novel way.