eplanit

20 years ago, I saw home schooling as ill-informed and harmful to the kids. As time has passed and I've gained more insight as to what public schools have become, with the impact of the horrible teachers unions, and especially after this last year -- I applaud the capable parents who take this course.

900% of 0 = 0.

Further, willfully damaging or destroying physical buildings and "things" is _not_ violence.

[1] https://nypost.com/2020/06/03/ny-times-reporter-says-destroy...

"The digital wallet will securely store payment details and passwords and allow citizens from all 27 countries to log onto local government websites or pay utility bills using a single recognised identity"

I find it amazing that anybody would think this is a good thing. Then again, I shouldn't be amazed. There are numerous examples of people eagerly trading privacy for [perceived] convenience.

You may be conflating class and race (it's a common error). A neighborhood of wealthier, successful people (regardless of race) probably want their neighborhood to be a quieter, nice-looking, pleasant place.

I've lived in both HOA and non-HOA neighborhoods. If there's a barrier to entry such as price, then generally a more successful (and hopefully more refined) type of person will move in, and generally the homes will stay nice-looking without rules. Without that, then an HOA to try to maintain an aesthetic baseline can be very helpful. All the homeowners benefit from maintaining an attractive neighborhood, in that their home values will be higher.

Meh. I lived in Marin County for 12 years, and visited Bolinas several times. The descriptions of people and the 'culture' in the TFA are really good -- but overall IMHO is a grand romanticizing of the place. It's a genuine "hippie town" that epitomizes a California of another time, for sure. Its sewage issues are real, and represent so much of the overall absurdity of the place. All that, and and the overarching hostility of its residents towards outsiders made them seem to me, ultimately, as being people not above it all, but more washed-out. Lots of hypocrisy there.

There was a us navy ship (Bonneham Richard) that burned in the San Diego naval shipyard last year. From 30 miles away the stench of burning plastic was intense and nauseating. It lasted days before they could extinguish it. In that case they had all the resources of the navy to deal with it. I can imagine it's much worse in Sri lanka.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonhomme_Richard_(LHD-6)

I've always seen people who need/crave loud noises, bright/flashy colors, lots of bling, etc. as just not very bright people. It seems to correlate with lower-than-average intelligence. My theory is that those minds need more 'kinetic' stimulation in order to feel good. So far, after 50+ years of anecdotal experience I've found very few exceptions.

But many would argue that there is damage to society from that, too.

"get the vaccine or you are a bad citizen and will kill everyone"

Yep. Notice how the "follow science" phrase isn't used anymore. It's now just a demand to comply, or else you're a horrible person.

Did you support the passage of GDPR?

I live in a state (California) that prides itself for its environmentalism, and has been vocal for many years regarding climate change. But...that very same state is doing nothing to prepare for it aside from lecturing others and virtue-signalling: there are no new reservoirs being built, despite sustained droughts already happening, the forests are mis-managed and overgrown due to misguided "let's never cut down anything, ever" thinking, with massive fires every year, the electric grid is unable to keep up with demand...

I don't doubt that climate change is happening, but with such ostensibly smart and aware people making such poor policy, and for so long -- I have little confidence in the government's willingness or ability to do any good.

Now Amazon truly becomes a faceless corporation.

Yes. I'm not sure why this would be celebrated -- it's the first step in turning Uber into a taxi company. That'll teach those low-skilled workers that an independent, self-managed career is just not in the cards for them. Shut up and drive the schedule you're assigned. A sad outcome.

It's political. Trump accused the Chinese of negligence and/or intent. If Trump said it, then all left leaning folks rejected it outright as horrible and racist. Their hatred of him was so intense that they'd take the side of _anyone_ opposed to him, or that he opposed. Therefore, to be resolute in their hatred, they steadfastly demanded that it must not be from a lab.

Your comment makes mostrovs point in the comment above.

You're right. And yes, we could use those laws, but we're also now at a time in history where the combined power and influence of "big tech" is greater (by far, I fear) than the will and character of Legislators (i.e. low-character politicians) to enact any such law to constrain/regulate them, at all.

These lists get longer every time I see one. The first I saw in the 90s listed 12.

Yes, and it's annoying. It's pseudo-intellectualism that uses the tactic of confusion, of shifting the argument from its substance to deconstructing the discussion itself.

When that happens, declare victory and leave the conversation.

It's amazing how many people think that the Babylon Bee isn't satire, while there's little confusion over the Onion. Both state clearly that they're satire. Does Snopes fact-check the Onion? Do you think they should?

"they retweeted news that was significantly lower in quality and higher in partisan slant, and their retweets contained more toxic language."

Change the word "retweet" to "publish/broadcast", and that describes most "mainstream" journalism.

I stopped when they referenced Snopes as a "fact checker"....the same Snopes that "fact-checked" a satirical article in the Babylon Bee about whether Brett Kavanaugh should prove via DNA that he's not the son of Hitler. [1]

The authors should write an article on the more fundamental issue of 'truthiness' -- it was once a joke by Stephen Colbert, but now people actually talk in terms of "my truth" and "her truth" -- not _the_ truth.

If gender is a state of mind, then why not race, or even species? With objectivity lost, then they're surely unlikely to find its vestiges on Twitter.

[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/democrats-demand-kavanaugh...

Me too. I always thought it was because throughout childhood my seat at the table was next to my noisily eating stepfather. Actually, that would have desensitized me, I guess. I don't even like hearing myself eat... there must always be tv or music playing.

Restaurants are different though. For one, many of them understand how to maintain low level ambient noise; plus, in a restaurant there's usually a din of conversation, and in that setting I'm there to socialize as much as eat.

Thank you for the clarification -- but Merkel has been in power for over 15 years. I don't care how many interested parties and fellow bureaucrats keep re-electing her, or that her position is less-than-queen. For the rest of the world, she's the face of Germany. Time for a new one -- like maybe after 5 years at the helm.

Germany should really consider term limits for the bundestag and chancellor. Allowing a single politician to rule the country for an entire generation is absurd.

Hmmm.. Apple makes the phones that run only Apple's OS. Apple's OS runs apps that others create, but only Apple controls (they can dis-approve of you at any time, and can change the rules at any time). Despite paying fees and sharing revenue with Apple, that developer cannot create any other revenue for themself without also paying-off Apple.

If this isn't a monopoly, then what the hell are antitrust laws for?

Humor aside, it does raise a legitimate question regarding stereotypes -- there may be very good (biological, psychological) reasons that correlate athleticism with not-so-impressive cognitive skills.

DNA &| cameras, both with proper chain-of-custody would satisfy me.

It's from 2019 -- it was squashed and buried quickly.

That has driven job-hopping forever, and rightfully so. It's a good way to manage your own career. Companies don't give raises to make sure you're compensated well -- they raise it minimally enough to retain you.

It seems like "Principal Engineer" is the new "Architect".