rekabis

Whoever thought of putting an entertainment system right next to the waste disposal is a complete and utter moron.

I can’t even turn things on without wondering if the cleaners sanitized/wiped in the wrong direction.

So what? Most of us were never meant to be impactful, or even lack the ability to be impactful. I would posit that life in general was only ever meant for us to vibe with the universe for a brief time. In the span of epochs, and especially once humanity makes itself extinct, vanishingly little will have any material impact on even the planet, much less reality as a whole.

Unless you manage to trigger false vacuum decay. Then you have made the biggest possible impact by destroying the entire universe. Not sure this is an appropriate goal to reach for, but hey. You do you.

But somehow matter magically organizes itself into life?

There is a recent, decently-supported hypothesis that the emergence of life is a byproduct of entropy, and the need for a system as a whole to almost “self-process” itself from a state of high order to one of lower order. So life is an emergent “engine” that allows entropy to function more efficiently. Or, at least a more efficient path than non-life.

Downside is that life - as we understand it - is only possible under a narrow range of environmental conditions, and complex life even more so. So while “life” may exist throughout the universe in measured single-celled doses, complex life - especially sapient life - may be distressingly rare or even wholly absent except for us.

Which is a real kick in the nuts when you examine the scientific evidence of how fast we are hurtling towards our own extinction.

While it is incredibly difficult to keep the breast meat properly hydrated (even I find the best turkeys seem dry with their white meat), another commenter is absolutely correct - a properly done turkey will have absolutely succulent and tasty brown meat. To the point where adding any garnish or gravy is almost an insult.

Guardrails are only enforceable by the state. Without the state to smash capitalism and enforce guardrails against corruption and the power of greed, capitalism and authoritarianism will always step in to fill the power vacuum.

This is why communism has always failed within a few months to a few years of initiation: lack of guardrails and laws that are effectively enforced against capitalism or authoritarianism. It’s why every “communist” state in history devolved into an authoritarian, anti-communist political structure very, very quickly. Hell, even in Russia communism was effectively dead by 1918.

We are so close to having the technology to implement direct participatory democracy (A.K.A., political communism), where things like presidents and premiers and politicians in general just don’t exist, and only minor functionaries and coordinatinative councils remain to carry out the people’s directives.

What is still needed, however, is a highly educated and literate population that values education, facts, and meritocracy - thereby suffocating conservatism and strangling it to death - and for that population to have an exceedingly tiny level of economic inequality, such that the wealth is returned properly into the hands of the Working Class that created it, and most people can then acquire the mental headspace to focus on more than just daily survival needs (as in, focus on community-level or even nation-level subjects).

A strong state is not necessarily a dangerous one. What makes ours dangerous is that power is concentrated at the top, with those who have money (capitalists) calling the shots. A distributed, citizen-directed state that is utterly immune from money and power hierarchies can be built that will only ever feel oppressive to those who are inherently abusive, greedy, and malicious.

Piracy is the response when companies refuse to serve market needs.

I mean, there will always be people trying to get something for free when they normally have no problem affording it or obtaining it personally. It’s why the Parasite Class continue to drive down wages while raising prices for that sweet labour-free profit margin, even though they already have obscene amounts of wealth. Their boundless greed demands they squeeze even more out of the Working Class whose labour is the source of all wealth.

So yeah, there we’ll always be some people who will pirate purely for the fish.

But in the end, any significant piracy is 100% the fault of those very companies that complain about it.

I already practice a 5-year cycle.

As in, I get the latest and greatest, and then use it for a minimum of 5 years or until it can no longer take the currently released OS.

And because I run with Apple, that usually means 6-7 years between phones.

Android would have cost me a hell of a lot more over the years with the same upgrade pattern. Even now, most Android phones see only 3 or so years of full OS updates (if that!!), leaving their arses flapping in the wind for every remote exploit and malware under the sun once they’re abandoned.

Anything old enough to not have DRM.

I have a 1999 HP 4050DTN Laserjet that is still relatively bulletproof and works with pretty much anything that takes PS6 drivers. The larger OEM toner cartridge is good for 20,000 sheets at 5% coverage. And sure, after a quarter century of use the fuser is finally starting to go, I just don’t print all that much anymore - and certainly haven’t been needing crisp output - so I haven’t gotten around to replacing it as of yet.

If you want something in near-photo-quality colour, I would recommend the Epson tank-based inkjet printers. Because they use tanks, and not cartridges, the ink can stay viable and not dry out for much longer.

The “fuzziness” inherent in reality once you get close to the Plank distance is clear evidence that we exist in a virtual universe whose computing power goes only so far. Reality breaks down at the Plank distance because that’s the pre-programmed limit of detail in the simulation.

I am sometimes forced to wear size 11 shoes, despite having 9½ feet, because so few manufacturers put out 9½ size shoes in an EEEE (quintuple wide) or oversized EEE (quadruple wide) width.

At least a size 11 in a W (wide) is comfortable enough for me, and most shoes come in at least a wide.

I think out of all the shoes I have ever bought, only two styles in 40 years have been wide enough to allow me to wear a 9½. I recently found that second style in a work boot that was being surplussed (through Princess Auto) and no longer being produced, with the marketing that it was wide enough for any foot. Once I confirmed the comfort, I immediately bought three more pairs for a lifetime supply, clearing out the stock of size 9½ for that shoe nation-wide (I checked, as I wanted even more… would have gladly gotten a half dozen pairs if I could). That brand was Terra. Highly recommend, as the model I got have been fucking awesome work boots.

our telecom infrastructure is privately owned.

This is the crux of the matter.

You look at Norway, Sweden and Finland, and you will find geography on-par with BC’s west coast and then some. And yet, they have full wired Internet access and LTE data throughout the region.

So geography is not a viable excuse.

I’m mid GenX, and frequently have to trot out the saying, “regulations are written in the blood of innocents” to people a lot more ignorant than I am. And I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.