I think Reddit doesn’t realize that what made their UI so appealing was precisely that it felt really functional and bare bones, like Craigslist still does or Google used to. As if it was designed by nerds who just wanted the most functional site. It makes it seem more trustworthy and neutral, less monetized.

This redesign looks painfully corporate.

They compared the $130 TB4 Apple cable to $5 junk cables, but I wish they included some $40-80 competitors in the comparison. How does Anker fare?

I would be excited about a well planned walkable good public transportation city during a housing crisis, but 100% of tech bro utopia ideas have been disappointments.

A concerning way to read this is that trust in institutions, not just religion but all of our institutions, is falling amongst the younger generation. But the best functioning societies enjoy high trust in their institutions. I am genuinely concerned about the falling levels of social cohesion.

I’m not convinced it is a good thing that both are being investigated if the investigation into Buttigieg is just political smearing. HRC’s emails show the cost of abusive investigations. Investigations aren’t cost free, either monetarily or in terms of public trust in institutions. It implies he did something worth investigating, and devalues the seriousness of real investigations, like those against Trump.

When the review was announced, Buttigieg had flown on FAA planes 18 times out of 138 flights for official trips since becoming secretary early in 2021, according to The Washington Post. He takes commercial flights most of the time, and when he uses FAA aircraft, it’s usually because it’s cheaper than commercial flights, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman said.

This does not seem to be something worth investigating.

I like the article, but red tape means pointless or needlessly complicated bureaucracy. Doesn’t apply to just any regulation.

After hearing the results of several antitrust cases, the standard of evidence for anti competitive behavior seems impossibly high with current laws and precedents.

Even gun loving conservative scholars agree that the 2nd amendment is a barely coherent grammatically tenuous mess. It’s notoriously unclear.

But for my part, I don’t see how any sane person reads “A well regulated Militia” and concludes that all regulation is prohibited.

This might be the first time I’ve heard a demand imposed on Israel from the US during this recent escalation. Hopefully, the first of many.

In the reality where people can be raptured, what is logically incoherent about rapture causing slight discoloration of furniture? For me, if there’s difficulty in suspension of disbelief, it’s in the former part, not the latter.

I wouldn’t be celebrating this. The reason why he’s not getting traction is because he didn’t help overthrow the US government. That’s a terrifying reason for him to lose.

I see people on the internet often criticize the sample size of studies, but I think this is a misunderstanding. Due in part to the central limit theorem, sample sizes can be surprisingly small, provided the sample is actually representative. And if the sample isn’t representative, then a larger sample won’t necessarily help.

For example, there are about 60 million 18-29 yr olds in the US. With a sample size of 300, and a confidence interval of 95%, that gives us a margin of error of just ~5%.

Edit: to clarify, the study might still be wrong because the sample is biased, but not because the sample is too small. And it might also be wrong by chance, despite no methodological problems. 95% is still a 1 in 20 chance of a long tail result. D&D players know: critical failures happen!

There are other conceivable sorts of disagreements that might cause a shut down, some much more reasonable. I think it’s fair to call this particular shutdown out for being the result of extremist elements in the Republican Party making absurd demands.

It’s so extreme that even most Republicans outside of the freedom caucus don’t seem to want a shutdown, to the point where the last speaker sacrificed his career to try to avoid one.

I think that, more likely, they'll plump up healthcare services for only themselves. Boomers don't vote against big government social services for everyone, they only oppose it when it's not for themselves. That's why both Republicans and Democrats defend Social Security and medicare for the elderly. Even DeSantis is campaigning on defending SS.

What the hell. Can people please cancel en masse already? Why are consumers putting up with this? The price increases stop once it’s not profitable anymore.

Agreed. It’s a vicious feedback loop. Failing institutions leads to lack of public support for those institutions, which leads to even worse institutions. I think it’s still possible to get out of this nose dive, but I’m concerned.

The 16 victims filed the suit in 2016, seeking 200 million won ($155,000) each in compensation.

Wait, so this long simmering international dispute can be settled for just $2.48 million? Sheesh, just pay it.

I don’t get why this is so confusing. This is basically a rotating theme restaurant/theme shop. Disneyland, Universal Studios, the new Nintendo park, etc. aren’t really about the rides or food either. Will tourists buy Stranger Things tchotchkes and Bridgerton merch? Sure, we’re a hyper consumeristic society that loves pop culture doodads and experiences. I somehow get the feeling this will fail, Netflix’s brand has lost its luster recently, but I don’t think this idea is totally out there.

Yes general intelligence is related to genes. Two important caveats:

1. Don’t forget the environment. See the Flynn effect, according to which measures of general intelligence have risen over time, showing the effect of the environment. This is just like height. The Dutch were once amongst the shortest people in Europe, and now they’re amongst the tallest. It’s true that they are tall now, in part, because of their genes, but, since they used to be short, obviously there’s much more to height than just genes. The best genes won’t help an unwatered seed sprout. Someone with low intelligence now might have the genes of a genius, if only they had received an education.

2. Racists are still wrong. There is an overwhelming consensus that there is no genetic basis for race. There is no gene or set of genes or distribution of genes that all and only members of a race have. In fact, there is more genetic variation within races than between races!

“Handing out public money”? So if we increase funding of healthcare or education, are politicians not allowed to talk about that either? Is it less icky if you tell people they got a tax cut, as conservatives do? This is just nonsense. You may as well say that progressivism is icky to talk about.

Well said. This feels like an existential election for Taiwan.

I’m NOT saying I disagree with the conclusion, but the judge’s reasoning would negate all sorts of consumer protections as paternalistic. You agreed to join Facebook, so you “voluntarily” allow them to track you, manipulate you, and sell your information without any limits. It’s a kind of deeply libertarian argument, just like how you “voluntarily” agreed to work a job, so why would you get worker protections? If you don’t like it, just quit!

Some “paternalistic” laws function under the reasoning that markets don’t always work. Not all consent is informed. Not all choices have sufficient alternatives that allow consumers to choose otherwise. Busy consumers may not have the information or energy to understand all the ways corporations abuse their power.

From the perspective of realpolitik, I’m not convinced abandoning support for Israel will win him more votes from pro-Palestine groups than he loses from pro-Israel groups. Lots of moderate Americans support Israel implicitly.

Either way, it’s politically costly with no upside for him. I think Biden’s only hope on this file is for the Gaza war to end quickly before the next election, but I don’t see that happening. Looks like Israel’s plan is an indefinite multi-year occupation of Gaza under an authoritarian police state.

I suspect they just can’t be willfully negligent. Right now Facebook could actively promote a genocide and not see any consequences.

In a normal corrupt system, lobbyists have to bribe lawmakers. In the US, the court is now an unrepresentative unelected legislature with no accountability. It’s another level of corruption.

Why not? It’s like saying, “Witches don’t exist, but if they did, it’s ridiculous to think that they can make love potions.” I would even go so far as to say leaving “shadows” behind is a standard part of rapture lore.

I guess I’m just a lot less confident about how rapture physics works than some folks.

I think a lot of it is also “national mood”. The world is a bummer right now and people feel fed up. For a lot of voters, including sadly many on the left, “vibes” are more important than facts.

The solution is strong regulation. Just completely disallow things like this.

It drives me crazy that people think credit card points are “free” benefits. You’re just getting your own money back! If you get 2% cash back or whatever, it’s obviously only possible because they’re charging merchants more than 2%, raising prices for everyone. It’s basically a hidden tax on everyone.

What’s worse is that it’s a regressive tax. The better credit cards with more benefits are available to the rich, not the poor. But the elevated prices are paid by everyone.

This is horrifying. Did they learn this from the US and Canada? It sounds extremely similar to residential schools.

Good to know. Link for the lazy.

I wish there were some effective way to invest in fighting climate change. God knows there's plenty of money invested in the opposite direction.

Sure there is.

• campaigning for vice president
• campaigning for 2028
• Trump, who is an objectively old man, may die before the election
• however unlikely, Trump somehow loses support, perhaps by being sent to jail. He’ll always have his loyal core, but moderate republicans and independents may abandon him
• Republicans can test different policies and message

Demopublican? Implying the parties are interchangeable? That is a jaw droppingly ridiculous thing to say.

It feels like we’re finally waking up from insane free market dogmatism. I’m liking the active regulatory posture of the Biden administration.

By that logic, imagine how much a soccer ball will cost!

Americans pay more in taxes towards healthcare than any other country, and then pay for private healthcare on top of that.

On one hand, there’s the risk that someone might get murdered by their spouse. On the other, the risk that someone is wrongfully deprived of their guns for a period of time.

Which risk should we minimize? This doesn’t seem like a tough decision to me.

All the exceptions are fake. How long does a rape conviction take to secure, assuming the perp is actually found guilty at all? Longer than a few weeks, that’s for sure!

Your wording makes it sound like the existence of even more dangerous trucks somehow excuses this dangerous truck. Both the 4 ft wall and the sharp metal blade edges are dangerous and irresponsible designs.

For context, this article is from the conservative/libertarian Reason.com, and it addresses some conservative counter-arguments.