The states have limited power to defy the feds.

Case in point: legalized marijuana. That said, my fear in regards to states defying laws is:

• Targeted attacks by MAGA terrorists, particularly regarding anything LGBTQ+ or reproductive healthcare related.
• The fed withholding federal funds to punish states that don’t fall in line.

The former is particularly concerning as police and the national guard are predominately right-wing. My state passed the SAFE-T Act to address abuses in the police/justice system. Naturally, various police departments weren’t happy about this, and through obtuse interpretation of the act they’ll claim they can’t legally do vital parts of their job – something I’ve seen multiple times first hand. Refusing to do their job competently in response to MAGA terrorism isn’t hard to imagine.

The later gets tricky. Most of the states that would push back against unjust federal laws are also states that pay more in federal taxes than they receive in aid. The “obvious” solution withhold tax dollars going to the fed to make up the difference … which would be next to impossible in practice. Even if states mange to do it they’d be playing into Republican hands by defunding essential federal services.

The CHIPS act? You mean one of the things the Biden admin bragged about?

Good thing the incoming administration isn’t petty enough to nuke anything associated with the previous administration…

Hands you a random laptop.

“The thing doesn’t work.”

Refuses to elaborate and leaves.

I bought an LG microwave a few months ago to replace a dead 10 year old Sharp. My favorite “features”:

• The sticker on the door stating that by using the microwave I agree to LG’s TOS, including binding arbitration.
• The single 4 minutes and 30 seconds of use I got out of it before the magnetron broke.

When I returned it they customer service person asked if I wanted it serviced under warranty – hilarious. Bought a Panasonic instead.

You’re not wrong, but the idea that “plant based” is “safe” isn’t right either. Plants create all kinds of horribly toxic, carcinogenic compounds – especially when burned or heated.

Don’t forget that starship launch last year. The dumbass blew up a rocket and launched giant chunks of concrete onto people’s property because he’s a impatient child.

Which is hilarious, as the eponymous Culture is the epitome of luxury gay space anarchism. Pan-sexual, non-monogamous space hippies that can (and do) change their biological sex just by thinking about it. People so past the idea of “gender” that they consider giving any serious weight to the concept barbaric.

I know it’s a rhetorical question: but is Elon stupid or something?

There are jobs where it’s not feasible or practical to pay an actual human to do.

Human translators exist and are far superior to machine translators. Do you hire one every time you need something translated in a casual setting, or do you use something Google translate? LLMs are the reason modern machine translation is is infinitely better than it was a few years ago.

One of the major problems with LLMs is it’s a “boom”. People are rightfully soured on them as a concept because jackasses trying to make money lie about their capabilities and utility – never mind the ethics of obtaining the datasets used to train them.

They’re absolutely limited, flawed, and there are better solutions for most problems … but beyond the bullshit LLMs are a useful tool for some problems and they’re not going away.

I didn’t disagree with that part. Doing what you suggested and using the “vape detectors” aren’t mutually exclusive.

Considering they are only harming themselves

Again, we’re talking about actual children. You know: people that have yet to mentally develop to the point where they can make fully informed decisions on everything and sometimes have to be “coerced” by reasonable adults into doing so.

There’s this wild, outlandish idea that kids don’t have the maturity, experience, or impulse control to make informed and rational decisions all the time. Thus we don’t give kids the exact same rights and responsibilities we give to adults – they gradually gain them as they mature and demonstrate they can handle them.

How would you like this installed in your workplace?

Yes, because my workplace staffed entirely by people 21+ is the same thing as a school filled with literal children. Also, for some unknowable reason we don’t have issues with people vaping in the building despite having people that smoke and vape. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact none of us are teenagers.

What if [slippery slope]?

You do know that’s a fallacy, right?

… good?

Everyone (even kids) have a reasonable expectation of privacy, but children using drugs in school isn’t something that falls under that reasonable expectation of privacy.

How dare people cope with something horrible by making jokes. Everyone knows it’s impossible to make those jokes while simultaneously being horrified by and pushing back against the thing they’re joking about.

“I don’t have anything to hide because I think I’ve done something wrong: I have something to hide because I question your judgement and motives.”

They’re fine giving you their info because they trust you. The problem is when the person seeking that information is untrustworthy – and some shithead(s) making their way into a company or government isn’t just possible, it’s likely.

Tell them to give all their sensitive personal information to someone that hates them. Credit card numbers, political beliefs, nudes, sexual preferences/fetishes, etc.

I’m a 7 minute drive from downtown and my options are satellite, cellular, or fixed wireless. Everyone around me has gigabit ethernet, but due to costs involved in running fiber and the fact my little community is mostly old folks (and thus likely not going to buy in) ISPs don’t want to “invest” in us.

Before any tankies claim the word is a blanket slur against communists: “tankie” was coined by British communists that were disgusted by the attitudes of some of their so-called “fellows”.

Predators? That sounds expensive, complicated, and could negatively affect profits.

Can’t we just spray the trees with massive quantities of something cheap and effective like DDT?

Alright, so I watched the video so you guys don’t have to. Here’s a synopsis:

Youtube’s ad blocking is going to backfire because:

• It caused people to stop using crappy ad blockers that didn’t even work with youtube to switch to effective ones that do.
• Drawing attention to “good” browsers and ad blockers, increasing adoption – including people that weren’t using or aware of the existence of them in the first place
• Increased support of the people making/maintaining ad blockers. Spite driven increase in donations, subscriptions to paid ad blockers, bug reports, etc.
• Cites the Streisand effect.
• Analogy of how prohibition led to stronger drugs, stronger booze, etc. If you tell people they can’t do something, they’re more likely to do it and get better at doing it.
• Cites how Youtube’s attempts to block ad blockers is breaking older embedded apps in smart TVs, chromecast, etc. Older or non-tech people are just more likely to stop using those rather than try to fix them – and thus cut back on watching youtube.
• Believes Youtube’s actions are an indication the internet’s “free with ads” model is dying – they’re getting desperate to maintain profitability.

“I’m sorry, Elon. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”