The problem with ranked voting the way it has been implemented and proposed is your vote no longer counts once all the candidates you voted for have been eliminated. Finding a candidate unacceptable should count as that applies to most people running for office.

"President Biden is committed to saving Americans time and money and ensuring families receive the tax benefits they're owed,"
They consider taxes to be a benefit?

I think it is a shame that the tax code is complex enough that many need software to file.

From Byte Magazine, April 1981, Unclassified Ads, Page 414:
https://archive.org/details/BY...

MUST SELL: One slighty used Cray-1 -- too big for my apartment. Hardware included: light-dimmer interface, toaster interface, one home-brew 64-bit parallel I/O port with Nixie-tub indicators, coat hangers, extra buffing powder for instruction buffers, one box of bootstraps. Software included: CAL assembler on thirteen cassette tapes in Kansas City format, Morse-code trainer, tic-tac-toe game, 8080 emulator. Price is negotiable.

Byte magazine April issues always had gags like above. The one I remembered about the Cray-1 was he was selling it because he was switching to wood heat.

If only they knew back then that we would be using much faster computers than Cray just to play solitare.

Senator Joe Manchin ("D" - WV) is for it -- as long as those nuclear plants burn coal. :-)

Getting coal to fission would be interesting. Get it to work and it would mean fusion based coal would only be 20 years away. :-)

My wife bought a magnetic sign for the dishwasher that you can slide between Clean and Dirty. The first thing I did was slide it half way between the two and pronounce it to be Schrodinger’s Dishwasher since it was both clean and dirty at the same time. She didn’t get it.

As an example of how crazy car prices are now, I bought a new 2019 Subaru Forester Touring in August 2019 for $34,200. KBB now lists its trade in value at $36,072. Private sale price as $37,486. Prices are zip code specific so may vary in your area

All this negativity in agreements to ban this or ban that. What we need are more positive agreements. Such as an agreement that the weapons we develop will be more polite. The anti-satellite weapons should politely tap the satellite on the shoulder and ask it nicely to leave orbit. If it declines the invitation and things get ugly, the weapon should at least be required to clean up after itself. /sarc except for maybe the clean up after itself part.

I think you have the optimist / pessimist reversed. The pessimist would stay in the cave and starve to death because there might be saber tooth tigers out there while the optimist goes out and gathers food, overcoming any obstacles that get in the way. Instead of ignoring reality, optimism is really about confidence to overcome obstacles.

Even though the article was about mocking people who died, my post said I believe it is wrong to mock anyone. My intent is to convince the living. Are you likely to change your opinion because someone mocks you?

I feel sorry for people died because of choices they made. I will do what I can to convince people not to make those same choices. I believe mocking is very counter productive.

In other words, apply cancel culture? See the last sentence of my original post. "Of coarse strife and division are the goals of many."

I am vaccinated and boosted. I have had many discussions with vaccine hesitant people. I always try to listen and respect the person even though I disagree with them. This has contributed to some of them later getting vaccinated. Can you name a position you have changed because you were ridiculed for it?

It is wrong to mock or belittle others no matter how much they deserve it. Mocking does nothing to convince them of their errors and only creates more strife and division. Of coarse strife and division are the goals of many.

The data is perfectly safe. Nobody will be able to find a working drive to read them.

I wonder how many theater patrons are hard of hearing because of the loud volume in the theaters. I always bring foam earplugs to the theater to lower the noise to a tolerable level.

As an Engineer for an electronics OEM, I can tell you it is not just semiconductors with long lead times and shortages. It is almost every electronic component. For example I am being quoted 36 to 52 weeks on hybrid polymer capacitors. I have customers throttling back production because they cannot get enough steel and aluminum in the particular alloys they use. There are a few large semiconductor foundries announced that will add capacity in 18 month or so, but very few suppliers of other parts seem to be adding capacity.

Do you actually know any farmers? All the farmers I know are among the smartest and most capable people I have ever met.

They manage a complex business. They pay close attention to data monitoring soil and crop conditions. They are heavy users of modern technology. Many are also very competent mechanics repairing their farm equipment. I have nothing but respect for them.