Signtist

I was able to insert the mini disks that came with Lego Bionicles on my family's iMac back in the day. Never had a head-shaped disk, though.

Campaigning in the US relies heavily on money from wealthy investors to get off the ground. Meaning, any new party that wants to get going needs approval from the wealthy to do so.

Additionally, a huge percentage of the population pays no attention to politics at all, just closing their eyes to the whole election and either not voting, or voting for the party they've always voted for every time, so even if your party managed to get some attention, it'd just be another 3rd party further fracturing what small portion of the population risks voting outside the 2 party system as it is.

In other to have a shot at winning, you'd need to somehow make enough money to afford competing with the 2 established parties for screen time, which would mean major corporate backing that would only happen if they liked your policies.

Hiking and fishing, mostly. It doesn't take much to get a tick. If they get near my feet they can latch onto my ankle if I don't catch them soon enough.

I'm the opposite. No matter how hot it is, I'm wearing full-length jeans. It's never bothered me, and I've had significantly fewer instances of finding ticks on my body compared to my friends.

Yeah, I spent about 8 hours going over every person this election, including local mayor, city council, and board of education members. And, yeah, 8 hours isn't an amount of time everyone has all in one block, but most of the research was pretty easy to digest quickly, and I could've split it into a bunch of 5-minute pieces whenever I had a bit of time over the course of a couple months. I get that it's not the most interesting or calming activity, but I think people could at least take a small amount of enjoyment knowing they've properly educated themselves on the goals and qualifications of all the people on their ballot.

Yes, I agree it's a bad comparison. That's why I said as such in my response to your comment that brought it up.

Though the current models have only been around for a few years, pattern recognition programs have been around for a long time. The latest ones are just a better model ...because they are getting better.

The monkeys are just random chance - if you don't yet have Shakespeare, you're no more likely to get it than when you started - but pattern recognition software is steadily improving. If it's not at some benchmark you want it to be at, it's at least closer than it was 10 years ago, and will continue getting closer over time.

It's "infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters" because a million would be far too small a sample size to expect Shakespeare. The monkeys aren't trying to make anything, they're just randomly hitting keys. For Shakespeare to come out, there would likely need to be more Monkeys than there are atoms in the universe. Conversely, we're getting something people enjoy from AI right now. No need to approach infinity. It's not what most people wanted AI to be used for, but it's succeeding at it, and current models have only been around for a few years. This isn't random chance happening upon something we like - this is a pattern-recognizing machine getting progressively better at recognizing the patterns we enjoy.

Sounds to me like the kid is also having some feelings surrounding the breakup and subsequent remarriage that aren't being addressed. Why does he want you to come too? Is he hoping it might bring you and his mom back together? Does he feel uncomfortable around the new stepdad, and wants you around because he's more comfortable when you're around? I think if you have a conversation with him as to why he's asking for you to come too, it might influence how you approach the situation, or at least give you a better way to explain why you can't come due to your own reasons.

I know this is a difficult decision on your part for how it affects you, but your son is also in a very vulnerable position right now, and needs both of his parents paying attention to him and the feelings he's having, even if he doesn't know how to express them directly. My parents broke up suddenly due to cheating when I was around the same age, and it was a traumatic time in my life because my parents both assumed I was old enough to "get it." I wasn't. Family is one of the main sources of stability in a young person's life, and to have it fall out from beneath you isn't something you get over on your own very easily.

This is the whole reason we have strict building codes for door hardware. Locks have to be able to open in a single action, and room with a larger occupancy have to have panic devices that can open the door just from falling on them. The panic devices were invented after a major theater fire killed a bunch of people thanks to their stupidly-designed fancy locks that nobody could figure out how to open during the panic.

Damn, stopping the strike without gaining anything is going to kill their negotiation power. Now NYT will have all the power in the world to just keep saying "Yeah, we're working on that deal. Any day now..."

Which is why the people who decide what they think steer them toward worries about the nuclear family and abortion.

That's a lot of Dong