WTF? Temu.com’s captcha asks me to slide puzzle pieces to the correct position. But there are none that fit no matter now many times I refresh. Is this some new version of “How to keep an idiot busy?” (It’s working.)
The fact is, social media has been stagnant for well over a decade, but everyone is so addicted to it, they rarely step back and ask WTF any of this is for, or if it’s even productive for society or their own lives. The only new things to have happened in years were TikTok and Elon Musk. Ho hum.
And let’s stop calling social media a place to keep up with “news” when what we mean is keeping up with opinions about news. Politics isn’t really the blood sport it once was anymore. Social media ‘about politics’ is.
Argggh Nothing ruins a lovely morning like going out for a bike ride (first since my foot surgery), only to find the bike was stolen right out of my carport overnight. I blame Republicans. Because I can.
I am negotiating a pre and full production buy of some melamine furniture board with a company in Shandong, China. I am learning the hard way (once again) just why some industrial business brokers do so well. Just getting the basic specs agreed upon requires a lot of time zone and language drama.
Why not the US, you ask? Because there are no afforable producers of this shit here. American companies that don’t buy from China typically make their own panels from raw MDF. But that’s not within reach of a startup.
And the difference in price is soul crushing. When it’s even available here, you pay $40-60 a 4x8 sheet. From China, it’s; $6.00 a sheet (plus about $15 for shipping).
Four years ago today, amid an out of control pandemic, the unemployment rate hit the highest level since the Great Depression. It's now been under four percent for more than two years. The Biden administration did a remarkable job leading us out of covid and bringing back jobs.
@aaron.rupar In another era, it would be something most Americans would be proud of. Then came Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes. And that was the end of all that.
These are the sorts of (often but not always simple) chats I have almost every day with ChatGPT. It’s impossible to describe just how useful it can be for thrashing out product designs or materials and methods choices. It’s not always spot-on, but it rarely matters.
Anyone who ever “sources” materials or methods knows the problem. The most recent project almost always requires education about the particulars of the materials, products or applications in question. ChatGPT has already saved me dozens if not hundreds of research hours on a single design.
@Professor_Stevens@gooba42 I agree. One thing that I find really off putting about substack journalism is just because I might respect a particular reporter on SOME stories (or even just one), doesn’t mean I’m interested in paying for their other views. Too many newsletters become a platform for THEM, more than their journalism.
@SamUpstate@jeffjarvis You have no idea how timely this question was. I was just detailing a productizing direction for the software I am building with @Green_Footballs. Its value to almost any curation project would be incalculable. I haven’t thought about anything else for the past 2.5 hours :)
I lived through a lot of war in the Middle East and heard most arguments. Nothing will ever change so long as a terrorist organization is driving the bus for Gazans. You cannot convince a powerful enemy you’re interested in peace when continually supporting people whose only skill is war.
@Colby Of course, you conveniently neglect the fact that these wars are always started with acts of terror by devout jihadists who want to do exactly that to the Jews. Evidently, you feel if they can just get on with that mission, everything “will be fine.” If you only want to see one side of this conflict, you can’t be interested in a solution.
I’m not convinced of that. In much the same way that Israel accepted the UN mandate as permission to declare a nation, the Palis could hold a referrendum on a 2SS that could be enforced by global peacekeepers for a minimum of 15 years. Convince israel of peaceful intent, and even their hardliners would have trouble selling endless war.
@galad Then they will simply surrender the rest of their lives to war. Arabs will go on thinking land lost to war is still theirs, and many jews will still believe it was their land in the first place. There is no right or wrong solution. Just a solution. Both sides will take a hit. It’s called compromise.