Probably the concentration of a too-big-to-fail percentage of capital into a single digit number of tech companies, many of whom are engaging in circular financing deals between one another while also ransacking the entire consumer electronics space.

I appreciate your optimistic view of it. What I got out of it was that Covid was a sort of dress rehearsal for a far worse outbreak that could eventually happen, and we (Americans) failed miserably.

It was a dress rehearsal alright, but for techono-fascist control of the poulation.

Sounds like a mighty fine watch. Simple, cheap, fulfills requirements with no scope creep.

Keeps time better than my friend's Rolex too :)

I've always enjoyed the question, "how many layers of profit are between you and your doctor?"

In most states, the answer is fixed by law at either zero or one depending on whether you count insurance, because medical practices must be wholly owned by doctors.

Yes, but that's still like 20 states that don't have strict CPOM laws.

It does, but how often do you see people argue that California and Texas are paradises where healthcare is affordable because the profit-seekers have been driven out?

This past weekend I was flying on Delta and my first flight was delayed such that I was going to miss my connecting flight, so I rebooked onto a later one. During my layover I visited the gate agent to get a boarding pass with a seat assignment.

"Do you have the Delta app?"

"Nope."

Then he pressed a few keys on his keyboard and printed out a new boarding pass for me within five seconds. I couldn't believe he was trying to kick me over to the app if it was that easy.

Aer Lingus have introduced app-only self-service bag drops, which are invariably swamped with passengers trying to get them to work while a single staff runs around clearing on-screen errors and directing people to rescan, or reweigh their bags, or move closer to the window to get a 4G signal.

Meanwhile non-app users are directed to the otherwise idle staff at the check-in desk. It's bliss.

MLB is the exact opposite of this. You can't get tickets without the Ballpark app. No paper tickets at most stadiums. The app asks for all sorts of personal info too (which I usually spoof). They're even trying for biometric check-in now.

I have managed to print out a paper ticket (from some dark corner of the website) and scan it on the barcode scanner at an MLB stadium. The employees were surprised it worked.

WAIT WHAT

I'm going to try harder now!

They could prompt the AI to scroll up and copy their previous prompts for them.

What if we build our whole economy on that belief?

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Or at least our public pension systems.

Unable to open archive - copyright detected.

[Delete File] [Notify Authorities]

I have plenty of things to hide from Google which is the primary reason I use it.

I, too, would prefer Google not have their hands in a lot of my stuff. That doesn't mean the federal government won't take it personally that I won't let them look at all of it and take action.

Back in the day the city installed a new streetlight that blinded anyone sitting on the front porch of my grandparents' house, which they liked to do in the evening. So Granddad got out a painter's pole and rolled some white paint onto the side that faced his house. Problem solved and no one ever said anything.