Distracting from the Epstein files is only part of it. There an intentional flood of chaos and outrage to distract from each and every violation that’s going on. How can we focus on a secret international cabal of human traffickers and pedophiles when there are illegitimate wars and support for genocide, corruption on never before seen scales, personal enrichment from the government, human rights abuses, and a general cult of supporting some of the most immoral people to have served in government.

I feel like people here aren’t giving enough “credit” to Congress. Historically we’ve relied on different branches of government to keep each other in check. Their own lust for power that drove them to elected office should motivate them to guard and protect that power. However in the current realm there does seem to be a cult of personality where congressmen are judged more on their loyalty to party than on getting things done for their constituents. This extends even to abdicating the power that drove them to be elected.

Congress should be the one keeping Trump in check, at least for all the places where he steps on their own authority. However republicans have decided that party loyalty is more important.

Our founding document is the Constitution, giving Congress sole authority over budgeting, for example. The big ugly bill was passed by Congress to support trumps platform of enriching the rich. That’s legitimate, if disappointing. But everywhere that Trump redirects funding is directly violating constitutional checks and balances, is directly grabbing power from Congress. I no longer expect morality from Congress, but why do they not care that their power is being stolen?

Thank you! I can’t believe I’ve been here three years already!

I believe that initially they were only able to directly connect the vaccine to fewer deaths from cervical cancer. Something like warts is not deadly so probably not considered.

Then it was recommended that boys also get the vaccine because they can be carriers

However now we know the virus causes other forms of cancer as well. Men are not just carriers but can also have cancers caused by the virus.

So they thought it would be free forever, and are surprised by the usage based pricing? I wonder what will happen when ai companies need to be profitable and increase prices accordingly

I don’t know how onto look for this but one of my requirements next time will be responsiveness with the doorbell/video. I have a small front yard so already the Ring has trouble being timely

I was hoping a locally controlled doorbell would be more responsive than a cloud doorbell

What are your requirements?

I have a Ring that has served well and I believe there are newer models with a package camera. However I’m not happy about the privacy situation.

Since it’s not immediate, I’m waiting to see what Apple comes up with.

• Apple claims to be privacy focussed
• my family is all Apple already
• end-to-end encryption
• functional out of the box, not a project like self-hosting would be
• no extra subscriptions for cloud storage
• possible synergy with smart lock

That’s a lot of nice claims

No one is going to care: it’s more long term than climate change and much harder to conceptualize

Once we’ve stopped the drivers for the current, the water has the inertia to keep moving for a century or more. This not only won’t affect us, but won’t affect our children or grandchildren. People are really bad with such long time periods

I find that theory fascinating, as well as the one where it would have to be carbon based like us because chemistry. (Silicon a distant second on supporting chemistry that a life form might need)

Then intelligent life would need to be land based because you can’t easily do things requiring heat without an oxygen atmosphere and something to burn (an octopus or porpoise might be intelligent but that’s a dead end without fire)

To be space faring, your planet couldn’t have much more gravity than earth, else chemical rockets wouldn’t work

At what point is it usefully generalizing on what any life form would need vs where are preconceptions limiting your thinking?

You don’t have the cameras for taking picture but for augmented reality. For example maybe for your maps, it would place arrows in the right spots, or labels to identify landmarks on the landmarks themselves. It might highlight how far ahead the crosswalk is.

Starting to get in the grey area but as someone horrible with names, I want it to tell me who I’m talking to

Actually something I worry about …… my glasses have tiny embedded magnets for “click-on” sunglasses. Maybe they could be mistaken for tiny cameras on pervert glasses

FYI- much lower. At 15,000’ you need oxygen (or pressurized cabin), which most small planes do not have. I don’t think you’d need a supercharger yet, but many engines would be struggling

I was a passenger on a small plane where they only had oxygen for the pilots. I believe it was at 15,000 ‘. It was surreal: it didn’t take long for the blackness to start closing in from the sides until I could only see a small tunnel in front of me. I don’t know if I should have been worried for my life but I clearly would not have been capable of flying.

A standard air breathing small Plane without supercharger or other altitude adaptation, can take a long time and a lot of fuel to get up to 15,000’ as the engine gets weaker with thinner air. It’s generally not worth trying to go this high unless you’re in a longer trip (the article doesn’t say anything about the plane though so if it had a supercharger and oxygen, then disregard this. Nothing I say applies to anything with a turbine)

One of the most common training aircraft is a Cessna 152. Google tells me it has a ceiling of 14,700’. It can’t even reach 15,000’ (depending on air pressure)

But seriously …… a more plausible path is that instructors sometimes create interruptions to ensure you know how to focus on the aircraft. My instructors would open windows at inopportune times: little did they know but it caused me to fly an aircraft with a canopy that can slide back during flight, a “convertible”. In aircraft where you can, I’ve definite heard of instructors opening doors during flight.

The plausible accident is exactly that: instructor opening a door as part of emergency training. Of course it’s much harder to explain lack of seatbelt, or how he got up from his seat

You have to be able to handle a door or window opening in flight because there can be mechanical failures where that happens. And if we’re stretching things, the student pilot panicking could cause a sudden jerk of the wheel, throwing an unrestrained passenger out. It could happen. Extremely unlikely but it could …… except the seatbelt.

I imagine it’s more like an intrusive thought when he was vulnerable. He was likely having a bad time, feeling desperate and suicidal with no help. Then the thought came that he could just open the door, so he did. No planning, no consideration, no real thought once triggered. Other people just weren’t relevant

Arguably if you have the wherewithal to consider other people, there’s at least a sliver of something to live for

But there is no silver bullet that cures everything, or we can’t wait for utopia before we begin, or don’t let perfection be the enemy of better. I would also prefer cities designed around people: I live in Boston because it’s close to best you can get in the us. I am all for making most cars obsolete, but until then, we need to do better

The reality is the Netherlands still has cars and there always will be a need for at least some cars. The other reality is that we can switch to EVs in a handful of years, significantly reducing our impact on the environment. And the most unfortunate reality is redesigning cities is a continuous process over many decades: we can’t just do nothing until then

My point was mango Mussolini accidentally speeding up the global shift toward electrification and EVs, despite grasping for the opposite. However he has had no positive effect on transit or walkability, even accidentslly

I’m surprised he’s going after Massachusetts like this. I mean, I imagine it’s spite over humane treatment of immigrants and resistance to interfering with education, but come on. We’re so blue that no amount of voter intimidation could possibly turn our vote red

Feel free to Google whatever info whose author you won’t dismiss as less learned than yourself - it does not seem as clear cut an issue as you seem to believe, nor is this one specific issue core to the religion and culture

It was a common criticism at the time: a lot of the infrastructure bill was to work with state and local organizations to get stuff done. Entire networks of groups and agencies needed to be established and planned. At government speeds, that means many years before results are visible.

Biden-area initiatives would have made fundamental improvements over decades, assuming they were allowed to continue. But in today’s world of limited attention spans and constant outrage, we can no longer see long term efforts

Yes that’s the entire reason I no longer cycle. My bike has let itself get rundown, has not paid attention to its physical self, and looks like something that just hangs out in the garage all the time. I think it just gave up that it’s middleaged self can’t compete with newer flashier models

I’m sure your opinion as a random internet poster is more accurate than an historian who actually looked into it, but are you someone who seizes on one idea out of an entire culture, then tries to judge that entire culture on it?