Paper is recycled/downcycled into new paper many many times. It's not 100% lossless, but it's not an acyclic directed graph either. And Aluminum is not the only metal that is recycled.

Recycling implies a cycle where the end product goes back to the start of the process to be cycled through more than once.

Plastics lifecycle is a straight line one time deal, from oil to plastic to a form that can't possibly be reused by any known process and doesn't break down safely. That's not "recycling" in the traditional sense, it's a PR job and you're either in the industry (a shill) or a sucker. Own it.

Is it even just Google? And at least they have the courtesy to just kill the perfectly good version of the application instead of wedging their lousy new unwanted, broken features into the existing application and pretending it's an upgrade?

I see the problem you're describing constantly, but usually it's because an app grew quickly based on its original, tight vision, and now the team is flailing because they're no longer sure what they're competing against. Also, they almost certainly didn't design around sustainable revenue streams because they were in growth mode (aka, the old adage "can't make money without spending money"). They can't just slap on a "now it costs money" fee on the existing product without some new hook, because users will bail for the next application over that is still in growth mode and ignoring their own need for a sustainable revenue model.

For Google, they already own the next application over in the same space (or are in the process of buying it from a startup), so really it's just their own business units eating each other.

Sure. Let's have the plastics industry redefine "recycling" so they can pretend that they are doing it.

Because grinding up plastic stuff then melting it into a road surface is NOT recycling. By that definition, turning trees into paper is recycling.

I'm guessing lots of services have come and gone, and yet my M: (for Music) drive just keeps getting fatter. I have never lost access to my music.

My success story is due to: compulsively ripping CDs (and even older types media), downloading audio from sites like YouTube, and outright piracy.

Remember kids: home taping is killing music.

First of all, this freedom you are worried is going to end? Has never really existed. In the history of the United States the what you can say and who you can associate with has always been heavily regulated.

Furthermore, as time has gone on, the USA has recognized that if you are a business that is open to the "public" that if you want to deny someone service, you're going to have to find a reason to deny them that doesn't have to do with a growing list of protected categories (i.e. race, religion, etc).

This article https://www.theverge.com/2020/... says they wanted her to take HER name off, not Google's. Also says that the deadlines were routinely ignored.

I have a hard time not thinking that Timnit's version is closer to the truth when 1500 of her colleagues were willing to sign this https://googlewalkout.medium.c...

You must be real fun at parties.

Posting from Firefox for maximum irony.

The same people who lack any empathy for Timnit and company were generally the loudest whiners about James Damore being shown the door. You can't have this discussion any more without extreme bias front-loading it seems.

From what I could see they fired Timnit for doing her job as described. She was there to be an AI ethics scholar and to do things like write papers to help fool people into thinking Google gave a single shit about ethics. Except that she hinted there might be problems with certain approaches that Google wants to get positive PR for, so they went against all norms in the "academic/research" space and interfered with her work, to which she objected, so they fired her and then Google went around saying she resigned.

A browser and a search engine from the guy who invented the shitshow known as "JavaScript"? Count me out.

If I'm traveling and carrying a proxy document rather than the original, how is its loss any less of a problem? How would a refugee prove who they are without this? Biometric key? Chip embedded under the skin? Barcode tattoo?

One point of failure is bad for security/privacy though. Very bad. Two reasons: first, this puts all the data in one place; second, this puts all the data behind one lock. If the data stores were decentralized, it means that access to one data store doesn't guarantee access to all the data. They might access my birth certificate, but yours is still safe. Putting it all behind the same lock means that those seeking unauthorized access can likewise focus their efforts on that one lock. That's an awful lot of trust to put in that one lock.

The only way to fix reviews is to decouple them from the platform itself. And make it a single document rather than a stream of little teeny reviews. And something with a complete revision history. IOW: Consumer Reports as a wiki.

Half of the critical reviews I see on Amazon are garbage about shipping, not the product.

This is the algorithm we need for all social media: a trust metric that each user can fine tune. Building their own "web of trust" based on their own criteria.

Of course, given the death of P2P systems like Usenet in favor of the walled gardens, we aren't likely to see any such thing emerge. The first thing most of us would filter from places like Twitter would be ads. And Amazon? Why would they care? They've largely figured out how to put all the real pain on their employees/contractors/drivers, the small businesses in the marketplace and users. Where would we all go instead? eBay? The problem's even worse over there.

Why in the world would anyone want to do this "brushing" scam for seeds that no one wants (i.e. "dangerous") ? Or are the seeds in these packets not the same as the ones in the listing relevant to the scam? In that case, why even bother sending seeds at all?

Pretty sure it's a waste of time to even worry about these seeds. It's not likely they're sending seeds for the plant in Little Shop of Horrors. Besides, where I live most of the garbage goes to an incinerator. They aren't surviving that.