R&D tax credits did not end. The way they are accounted was changed. IIRC, instead of being able to claim 100% of the credit in year one, you claim 20% of the credit in each of five years. This is a rolling period, so after a five year adjustment period, the credit is essentially a wash.

Your link only says, essentially, "congress should have given us more money" and not "evil mustache twirling republicans are the reason for our problems." So, I did look.

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (first I could find post Dubya administration) was, indeed, somewhat contentious (most house democrats voting against the final conference bill, though the senate was less divided). I don't know why the bill was controversial, maybe it was direct funding, but I don't have the data. The FAA Reauthorization Act(s) of 2018 and 2024 were both broadly bipartisan, so I will make the (possibly poor) assumption that 2012 was about other things rather than a specific dollar amount.

From 2009-2024, the democrats have controlled the senate for a total of ten years, the republicans for six. The democrats controlled the house for six years, the republicans for ten. The democrats controlled both houses for four years, the republicans for four years. The democrats controlled the executive for twelve years, the republicans for four (and each with a two year period of full control of government, with the democrats having a ~3 month period of theirs including a filibuster proof senate majority).

So, where is the evidence of your claims that this is a single party problem? Which record should I be looking at?

Given that a Republican controlled congress (with broad bipartisan support) and a Republican president appropriated that money and manpower 22 years ago, I would say that you are the one being purposefully ignorant.

<OldManVoice> Back in my day, it was all about hot grits and a petrified Natalie Portman, and Goatse was just a giant gaping asshole without a dick shoved in it, dammit! We had CowbowNeal and polls, and we liked it that way! </OldManVoice>

As usual with your claims, [citation needed]. Floppy disks being sold today new all appear to be old stock manufactured in prior years or used, rather than rolling off a production line (and, really, "thousands per second?" If we define "thousands" in the lowest possible term (i.e. "two") that would be 7.2 million per hour, 57.6 million per eight hour shift, 288 million per five day week at one shift per day, and roughly 15 billion per year... which is triple the number of floppy disks sold per year at the peak of the market).

I agree it's worth being angry about, the problem is that blaming this on Republicans is simply bullshit. The issue appears to be the typical "bureaucracy cannot accomplish useful work" rather than the claimed "mustache twirling villains are responsible."

I'm just gonna put this right here.

Two decades ago, Republican majorities in both houses and a Republican president.

Apple typically provides mainstream support for a macOS release for a year, and then security patches for the two years following.

For example, macOS 13 (Ventura) was launched in the fall of 2022. It is receiving security patches until (at least) the fall of 2025.

"It's actually impressive that they are as useful as they have turned out to be."

A good analogy is flight - aircraft don't flap their wings like birds but need engines instead. Less efficient but still useful.

If we're not intelligent then the term is meaningless. And we're more that just a search engine (well, you might not be) because we have self awareness (yes, we do , its not an "illusion" as some idiots claim because otherwise who or what is the illusion fooling?)

"Many (most?) have labored under the hubris that there is something mysterious and unattainable about the human mind"

Few people claim that. What they do claim is that the human mind is way more complicated than was assumed plus it works in a different way to ANNs anyway - biological brains do not use back propagation. What they do use in lieu of it isn't really understood plus its not only the neurons that affect brain state and operation. White matter and various chemicals plays a big part too.

No one is saying AI isn't useful, the argument is whether its intelligent in the human sense. The point is it doesn't need to be and it doesn't matter anyway - all that matters is whether it gives useful output that would be difficult or impossible to reproduce with conventional single level (ie writing code to solve the problem directly, not using a learning simulation of neurons) programming.

Unfortunately the legacy of the anti-nuclear anything ideology from the CND clowns, green hippies and their ilk has taken FAR too long to purge from the establishment. This should have been done 20 years ago.

The ways data can be hidden in plain site are virtually limitless. Obvious ones are using the least significant bit in WAV data, putting space and tab whitespace on the end of lines in plain text etc. The only limitation is the imagination of people who need to do it.

In the 14th century?? You must be joking! The worlds first police force which was formed in london in the 19th century. In the past all you had was military, kings guards or the shire rieve (sheriff) out in the countryside who kept the peace but solving crimes was way beyond their remit. The local courts back then tried to do that but often had zero evidence to go on except heresay and was often biased. See various witch trials in europe and the USA for how balanced justice was in the past.

As a licensed radio operator, you are eligible for emergency tags in the state of Tennessee. While that wouldn't insulate you fully from the effects of the law, I can't imagine law enforcement pulling over someone with emergency tags talking into a handheld radio, so this could be a solution to your problem.