Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Nate White on Trump (Score 1) 218

Oh horse shit. I heard on a podcast, talking about Canadian vendors (and avoiding American products btw), saying how their customers would just stare at the prices of European cheese being sold. They would be in shock saying, you want us to pay that, for that!? So, whatever. I'm sure European organic, location of origin, cheese, wine, everything, is already expensive and have their prices already jacked up. You can enjoy your expensive beef. Frankly, as a liberal/centrist American I hope that we don't sell any of our American beef anywhere else, its too expensive, herd counts are down. I feel for the general situation. Some prices are up. Some (like commodities, soy, alfalfa, etc) are down. It is gonna be a K shaped shitty economic situation for a while. But keep some context please. Like we're jacking up your prices, whatever.

Comment Re:Targetted by DOGE? (Score 1) 127

He won because he said enough nice things to a broad enough coalition to get angry people to vote for him. Mad about inflation well I'll get groceries down. Mad about your school library book choices well I'll defund them. Etc. Democrats were mad at their leadership and so their only choices were to vote third party, not vote, or plug their nose and vote for their chosen next in line. Republicans were mad enough to have one of many reasons to vote for the orange clown show. The real story is that in the first Trump term he was surrounded by enough establishment conventional Republicans that there were sane voices in the room. They're all gone. Now it is yes men, yes women, and only those self selected by their indiscriminate loyalty to him. They no longer hear the voices from the center or anywhere else. It's all about the Stephen Miller and the Breitbart flood of shit. Their base no longer consumes sane/centrist/other media. These are farmers who will tariff their own (or their neighbor's) farm out of existence to own the libs. And then not even second guess their fat government check when they plant soy beans again anyways. It is insanity. No one thinks critically anymore. Idiots everywhere. I hope the left can learn from this and return to the center instead of talking about drag shows and reparations all the time. Democratic candidates can win in Montana, Minnesota and all these rural mostly conservative states when they run centrist liberals and mostly stay in the center as a party.

Comment Re:Smart watches are such shit though (Score 2) 29

Yes, but they're amazing for running. I have an older (series 3?) apple watch. The core OS no longer updates, but the app for nike run club sure did. It broke itself. The NRC app depends on a newer version of the OS. I refused to buy a new one out of spite. I now run a lot less than I did in '23, I'm a hair over 40 years old and now I just take the dog on more walks. But it still sucks, I loved running with the watch and the NRC integration. Our dog is a Beagle so he is pretty near impossible to take on jogs with me in spite of rather excellent stamina. Point is, I will soon be deciding if a running watch is worth the purchase.

Comment Re: The near future (Score 2) 1605

Yes, and for American farmers, you know, the normal kind? The kind that grow GMO corn and soy beans like lemmings? You think there won't be tariffs for them? I look forward to the next four years how Trump and Republicans will just fix everything. I bet they'll balance the budget, the markets won't crash, they'll repeal and replace Obama care, deport all the illegals and pass tax cuts that grow the economy and end inflation. Now, personally, I look forward to some serious schadenfreude. But I am not a normal American voter, I actually remember what it was like "four" years ago. How he shut down the economy, sped up the shot, and threw money around out and passed two stimulus bills. How the fed bought corporate junk bonds. Anyways, if he undoes Biden regulations like for clean water, I'll remember that too. I remember not buying scotch whisky, tarriffs do matter.

Comment Re:Define "Win". (Score 1) 522

I am starting to believe this also may reach a tipping point. Internal combustion engine vehicles are also becoming very expensive for newer vehicles to stay maintained. Engine bays are very cramped, engine designs are very complicated. Replacing timing chains, water pumps, gaskets, etc. is a big undertaking and quite expensive. This all means that it could get to a point where a used car's battery replacement becomes a reasonable option as long as they can stay available in a reasonable way. I do not believe that auto manufacturers (or their lobbyists/lawmakers) are helping their own cause with the stuff they're kicking out. Older engine/automobile designs from ~30 years ago in a typical sedan are preferable for longevity to a twin turbo, quadruple overhead cam (exaggerating... maybe) monster w/ awd and a 6+ speed auto of today.

Comment Re:Clue: Happy customers make shareholders rich (Score 2) 216

So when do we as Americans finally get fed up enough to let these guys fail? Or do we do as these WSJ editor idiots propose and save them for national securty's sake? This is the stuff in politics that enrages me, I'm pretty much done with it all. But hey, maybe we need tariffs to prop up our (shitty?) American manufacturing, so we can pay more, for worse products, so Trump and his rich constituents can make enough money to throw us some scraps like Musk is in Pennsylvania right now. Don't tell the board/management anything, they certainly aren't asking or listening.

Comment Re:Honor killing (Score 1) 26

If we set aside of course that in the USA you're innocent until proven guilty, it somehow is ok for a Muslim to kill someone to restore family honor, but is it worth asking if telling the truth about what you've done is also important to the concept of honor? Or can you just lie about anything you want to in the interests of self preservation? I think I know the answer, as supposedly Muslims are allowed to lie in other situations...

Comment Re:You want resilience? (Score 1) 86

Not doing so opens them up to zero days. Was I born yesterday? Doesn't a zero day mean you were open to the risk the whole time, but then wait for the patch to be available? I bet the reboots for this CrowdStrike update weren't even important, it was probably just routine bug fix/features for their software, not even the core OS.

Comment Re:So for all the boomers who got into their house (Score 1) 109

This is probably the more important theme here, those with capital, and especially the right kinds of capital win. Kinda like always but especially now. They're mostly silent on all this, and I believe driving most of the post covid inflation. If you're a consumer right now, you lose since wages aren't keeping up. If you rent, you lose obviously. If you're in banking you're making hay right now, getting all these new loans out at higher interest rates and giving those w/ deposits jack squat in return. I would assume commercial real estate and residential/rental real estate are similar and have shorter revolving loans that get called in and renewed more often - but on this point I haven't read enough to confirm if the latter is true. If you're an investor (holding capital) you're likely going to get through all this inflation ok. It is noteworthy that the Fed has pulled back the rate at which it draws down its balance sheet. No one actually wants to buy it. El Erian says to stop shooting for 2% but no one publicly agrees yet. -- On a personal note, I've lived/remembered three of these financial messes, DotCom early bush years, '07/'08 late bush years banking collapse, and then the '20 covid shutdown. Our governmental leaders have spent their way through recessions and spent their way through the easy years too. When the cash fell from helicopters I paid off the debt remaining on my home loan as fast as I could. We sit now mostly ok, insulated from this chaos because I managed our personal finances in a certain way, while many around me were refinancing homes or buying toys. I urge any who would read this to read all you can about finance, personal finance, banking, etc. Think for yourself. Be ok to go against the grain and do something different, but especially live within your means. That said, young kids now will have it hard, and there's not an easy answer.

Comment Re:Blind leading the blind (Score 1) 151

The american auto industry is leaving all the low end and forsaking the common man. They don't want to make reasonably priced quality cars. There are probably examples like dodge working on their pentastar and tiger shark engines and the chrysler 200 failing to sell in reasonable numbers. Ford quit on the Fusion. Chevrolet's cruze aren't reliable (anecdotal from a friend...) and they've moved on to SUVs and trucks almost exclusively and they aren't affordable. I personally plan to drive my '04 Grand Am as long as I can. It's been a great car, and this whole situation is a shame. Reasonably sized cars are what they should be putting their batteries into at reasonable prices. Not a big boxy awd fake suv, but like examples cited, they probably just don't/didn't sell. For one more complaint, it's hard to see through/past all these big cars w/ tinted windows.

Comment Re:If you're having kids, you're irresponsible (Score 1) 250

I believe we're already almost there, and certainly on this path. Birth rates are downward trending, mothers having kids later in life. Supposedly fertility/sperm counts are also trending downward and scarily so. I believe you're also correct about the "wise" people in power fighting UBI. Not to mention the nativist rejection of immigration in America (and elsewhere) which coincides with birth rate issues to be an interesting dilemma. No nation anywhere really wants their gdp to consistently trend downward but there's not really another option if your population shrinks. I do believe AI is a tractor moment and wonder what comes next. I read Grapes of Wrath a couple years ago and AI comes across the same way in my mind. Certainly, if you consider the prospect of UBI you don't want open ended immigration from poor countries into rich countries destabilizing the financial system. Unless all countries normalize their standards of living in some unknown way, which also seems doubtful. It'll be a mess. The American Republic model wasn't built for this, our disparate voting blocks see things very differently, at least right now. I'm a centrist in a "red" state/family and I don't think you could propose UBI to the current crop of Republicans.

Comment Stallman is right... (Score 1) 76

I have an apple nike watch series 3, the watch itself no longer gets OS updates but the nike app apparently has because the watch app itself no longer runs on the watch since it depends on a newer version of the watch os. Just incredible how stuff like this can break w/ basically no user recourse. Out of spite now I really do not want to buy a newer apple watch even though the nike run club app was super motivating to track runs, runs per week, per month, per year, total milage, etc. And having this on the watch instead of your phone makes running so much more convenient than carrying your phone in some way. Anyways, yelling at clouds.

Comment Re:Ok serious question (albeit unkind) (Score 1) 323

"Right-wing kookery" is generally a pretty easy sell, but in my opinion doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. Which is fine, cause most Republicans or those on the right are fine with skin deep self reflection and a lack of criticism. They care about free speech, when it comes to government running any interference with twitter, but god-forbid a teacher go off script and give commentary or color to material in school that the new school board dislikes. They hate inflation and blame Biden but forget about the TWO stimulus bills passed under Trump - even though McConnell passed the second to try to buy two Senator seats in Georgia!!! Do they wish the federal government instead rose taxes to address rising inflation? It would've worked better, did they think any of this anger through? They don't want the government interfering in health choices, or vaccines, or any health protocols, but they want a pregnant mother to carry to term for 9 months? I have become very cynical. I think the right and the left is just filled with idiots. I now vote for those that anger me less, which ever since Bush Jr has been dems. I'd vote for a "potted plant" if it was a Democratic party candidate.

Comment Re:PVC, PEX, copper, iron, lead (Score 1) 204

In all likelihood this is not the same, or not comparable. Supposedly the water flowing through municipal & home plumbing over time develops a layer of "film" as some layer of protection. This came out in the Flint Michigan lead water crisis story. They had a kind of water (corrosive?) that needed an additive and removed the additive for cost savings and then the water ate through the film and into the lead pipes.

Anyway my reason to comment today is to shun all the FUD throwers trying to urge us to ignore the problem and ignore these journalists. I suspect they're industry shills, or are doing so for free because they're straight up idiots. We ignore all of this at our own peril. Sperm counts are down. Why? Cancer rates among the young are rising, and its not just Covid or the shot, this was happing in the years before 2020 also. We've got glyphosate/roundup in our corn food products and no one wants to be concerned about it. Certainly not the revolving door of industry and lobbyists at the FDA or the Ag department. We should be concerned, and listen to Mexico's anger on this in particular - though I suspect we eat more corn in the USA than we realize. Journalists have to raise alarm where its due, and we should think critically about these matters and weight them with an open mind. All of these things will unfold over time and just like tobacco will take decades to face the music.

Slashdot Top Deals

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Working...