We cannot even agree not to do wars that are essentially just stealing from others.

Nonsense. My people lived on that land centuries ago even though others were already there so it's my land by default. It's not stealing. I'm just taking back what is mine.

2007/8 was also the result of fraud and the interdependence of the banking and rating system. For a study on how this worked and what happened, you can read this paper.

Also, I distinctly remember banks giving a loan to anyone with a pulse despite the rules saying otherwise as well as double or even triple mortgaging the same property.to different people.

As for the banks, it did end badly, right up to the moment the taxpayers were once again held at gunpoint and told to hand over their money. That is why Bear Stearns is no longer around. Unfortunately, others involved weren't allowed to fail as well.

If I tell you to buy 'Y' from Amazon using my account, I have given authorization for that purchase even though it is not me, the owner of the account, making the purchase.

In a similar fashion, Perplexity can claim the user telling their software to make the purchase is no different. That it is not a human is irrelevant. The owner of the account has given permission to make the purchases.

Keep cutting down trees and paving over grass. What could possibly go wrong?

How to make succulent looking eggs or giant mechanized robots?

He says he doesn't think college is worth it, yet his company is being run by people who went to college and then graduate school.

Or does he think all that AI stuff is just pulled off a cereal box?

These trends are not unique to America.

(Oh, and it was 1984, not 1983 when I first used my passport. So long ago.)

I remember the first time I used my passport - in 1983 - to discover (because the spook at Immigration didn't close the door behind him) that I'd already accrued several pages of notes accessible (to the right users) via my passport number.

Privacy was cherished.

Maybe by people. Not by "the Authorities". Never by "the Authorities".

And your owners/ managers, honouring no such binding oath, are the ones who dictate which services (profitable, of course) are supported and promoted, and which are denigrated and downgraded.

Now you know how Joe Random Prelate felt, setting the chestnuts out for Joe Random Pope's latest whore-party.

I believed tech could transform the world for the good

Transform the world, maybe. But as it turned out, it just became a tool for humans (sub-species businessmen) to make personal profit.

I'm just astonished that you could have such an optimistic opinion of humanity in ... was that the 1980s?

Definite DCMA violation there.
What do you mean, "I was using the analogue hole to listen to [sound] with the person in the same room as me."

Into the tumbrel ; off to the guillotine.

Didn't people foresee this? Back when a 4-digit UID actually meant something? In the late 1990s?

Case : yes (TechBroDudes implement a meaningless range of "countermeasures", which do not affect profitability.

Case : no (TechBroDudes do nothing that might affect case (1) ; otherwise as case : yes

And the surprise is ... ?

To store your governmental data.

I'm sure Googazon will be hauled over the coals by @NSA for not adhering to their contracts, and Amagle will respond "Your president did this, we can't physically force people to send us their data - even with your breakable encryption."

What could compel a sovereign power ( a word some Americans use, without understanding it) to store their data with a hostile power?

OK - here's an idea : you, as a government, instruct your "spooks" to send false data, suitably encrypted, for storage on $Enemy$ servers, knowing that $Enemy$ will decrypt them (thinking you you know nothing about this) and then they will think they have genuine "intelligence" "treasure", When, in fact, their treasure is shit.

Didn't anyone in the NSA/ CIA read any of John Le Carré's books?

Emperor's new leaky condom, and they're the ones getting fucked.

I don't normally waste my effort on reading sites like Phys.Org when I can find the original paper instead. Crap like this is why.

to scintillate, which is a fancy science word for "sparkle." We see the sparkle; we detect dark matter.

No. Bollocks. We see the scintillation, we run it through a spectrometer. Depending on the wavelength of the scintillation we may be seeing an intrinsic decay from some isotope of the detector material (noble gas, whatever ; sodium iodide is a popular industrial scintillator, with a moderate slew of potential contaminants). Or we may be seeing some background radiation from the surrounding rock. Or we may be seeing a cosmic ray from the small furry flatulent creatures of Alpha Centauri. It's a very long way from "see sparkle" to "collect Nobel".

In the unlikely event that one of the writers of Phys.Org actually reads this, this sort of slop is why you're considered 4th or 5th rate - if that high. If you've got a retarded English graduate in the editorial seat ... c'mon, you're physicists : practical demonstration of launch technologies involving his char and a high window? Clickbait article on adding mains-powered in-chair heating to a 7$ office chair? Do something practical. And make sure the blame attaches to a second English Graduate in "Management", to kill two stones with one bird.

Of course, it could have been written by AI. The standard is that low.

After Meta announced its earnings on Wednesday, and presumably this announcement was part of the earnings call, Meta's stock dropped, erasing $237 billion in value.

As the article relates, "Meta's spending is hard to rationalize, some analysts say, as it's uncertain whether heavy investments in AI will generate compelling returns"

Further down in the article, "Significant investment in Superintelligence despite unknown revenue opportunity mirrors 2021/2022 metaverse spending," Oppenheimer analysts said, referring to Meta's recently formed Superintelligence Labs focused on AI that would surpass human knowledge. After Wall Street panned earlier metaverse-spending plans, Meta went through a "year of efficiency" focused on cost cuts.

Take this as you will.

Another solution would be to compost the body. The mercury would still be in the ground, but either stay there or be dispersed among the tree and vegetation.