it’s not just about spying.  The good thing about content engines is the proof is right there on the screen-- and it’s been fairly conclusively proven that tiktok heavily promotes dangerous and antisocial content like the “steal a car challenge” and various “eat this inedible thing” or “do this thing in a dangerous…

Nah, that’s not the case here. The real case is that TikTok is a massive propaganda operation and our laws and the caselaw around the first amendment just hasn’t caught up to how to deal with the realities of the digital age.

exactly, it’s tough to take them seriously when they laud the “show up for votes or you cannot ever run for office again” bill in Oregon, and then also say it was irresponsible not to skip this vote.

I may not like them but this is a great example of how these criticisms ultimately don’t matter because there is no way to avoid them.  At one end of the country we have state legislators being kicked out for not being present for votes, on the other we have people saying they shouldn’t have been there for a vote.  To…

I never got the whining over that, do they think WE cared about participation trophies? we were seven, we did not.  It was our fragile-ass boomer parents that couldn’t possibly cope with the idea that their child wasn’t god’s gift to creation that demanded them.

That’s very true, and yes, fraud is an exception to the first amendment, my objection was solely the contention that somehow the first amendment “not making you immune to consequences” means it doesn’t protect you from the *federal* securities and exchange commission.

Same! I’m in the suburbs but for some reason even if they’re two blocks away they manage to arrive soggy and lukewarm.  I think it’s because of how they deliver, it has to be, maybe they’re stacking multiple deliveries and being so close I’m the one they hit on the way back? I have no idea.

that may be true but it also didn’t require QR codes or points systems or other complicated systems.  Download app -> get cheap icecream.  It was elemental in its simplicity.  And that’s sort of the point, when you have an app there’s a temptation to try to add complexity and take full advantage, but customers have a…

I’ve eaten there irregularly, and they’re... they’re okay. Yeah they’re a chain but the food is good and the cheesecake above average. For the food quantity and quality the prices are slightly high but not outrageous.

I think that’s why they get a rap as the most chainy of chain restaurants and frequently used as…

THANK YOU. I truly, truly hate that this has become used as an example of frivolous lawsuits and the news along with other people uncritically report it as such. This, after they disabled the safety on the carafe to enable them to heat it beyond the safety limits and served a cup of coffee so hot that had she drank it…

I’m with you part of the way, but no, megachurches are a uniquely awful form of religion.  They are often completely unaccountable, acting as a private piggy bank for the charismatic pastor in charge, and far more political than large organized churches.  They’re a unique and wholly more dangerous thing.

people change, and most politicians see politics not as a matter of morals and deeply-held beliefs, in fact most of them find the concept of deeply-held beliefs risible and privately hold even their big donors with contempt if they’re ideologues. They see politics as a game or a means to personal power.

it’s true, NO ONE likes a turncoat. Sure they might praise them in public and yes, they may support them when convenient but they’ll never truly be trusted, the stink of betrayal clings forever and trust is like a mirror, once it’s broken you can’t ever put it fully back together. One side may, to quote LBJ “rather…

then all that would happen is they don’t switch parties but vote with the other side, you cannot legally force people to toe a party line, they have the legal right to vote as they wish.

the old “first amendment doesn’t stop consequences” is not accurate when you’re talking about the federal government.  They’re the ones the first amendment was designed to restrict.  SO yes, it does, or should, protect you from the government punishing you for speaking, outside of a few narrow exceptions for…

The whopper analogy should make it pretty clear, there’s no room for nuance here. If I advertise “XYZ with W and Q, 15,000" the law says that if you pay 15,000 you have to get an XYZ with W and Q” They can’t turn around and say “oh well W is available for 3,500 dollars” if it’s listed in the advert.

To stay within the…

That’s basically true, a fusion bomb is a over-unity (power producing) fusion reaction, but it’s far from contained and basically useless for anything but either bombs or maybe propelling a spacecraft if you’re an absolute lunatic.

no, MyTVNeverLies is correct— a fusion bomb is an over-unity fusion reaction. the initiator bomb is not involved in the fusion reaction, it is indeed pure fusion.

Basically in a fusion bomb they make tritium in situ from neutron bombardment of lithium deuteride and from there the process is very much the same as an…

in my experience they should be neither!  The texture is more rubbery than squishy and slimy, and the butter makes them slick but not slimy.

there’s a great-tasting Soylent Green available... just don’t check the ingredient list.