themeatbridge

Market demand is not the only factor, though. Manufacturers make design decisions based on a variety of factors, from supportability and manufacturing efficiency to alternative profit vectors like bloatware and proprietary ports.

If someone made a slider phone with a physical keyboard, it could be the best selling phone on the market without making the most money for the company.

It's a reference to spam callers. For a few years, right around when everyone was realizing they shouldn't answer the phone for unknown callers, it was really common to get calls that, if you picked up, would play a pre-recorded message along the lines of "Hello! We've been trying to get in touch with you regarding your car's extended warranty. You may be entitled to money and blowjobs, and if your warranty expires, your hair will fall out and your car will be repossessed. To speak to a representative, press 1. Por habla Esperanto, marqué νούμερο 二."

If you pressed 1, you would ostensibly be connected to a high-pressure sales rep trying to sell you a worthless maintenance contract. Nobody is really certain, though, because despite hundreds of millions of people receiving twelve of these calls each day, not one person every stayed on the line longer than "regarding..." In fact, my memory on the end of that message might be a fabrication, because I don't think I ever heard it.

I thought I did, but you seem to be using it differently. Tell me yours.

Really? Ok. I don't have a problem with what he said there. Palestinians have a right to live, the attacks in Gaza are unacceptable and should cease immediately, regardless of the horrible attacks on October 7th. I would go further and call it a genocide, but I can understand why a politician would avoid incendiary language during an election cycle.

Does that make me a Zionist, too?

I have definitely done that. But I also think I might have a stalker who follows me around and downvotes comments. Especially when I post something stupid, they all come out of the woodwork.

But yes, I agree, I wouldn't expect "feed children" to be a contentious suggestion.

https://m.jpost.com/international/article-818970?dicbo=v2-5zzfma5&obbow

I haven't heard anything about Tim Walz that I didn't like.

You seem really upset about something that shouldn't affect you in any way.

The answer is that you're thinking about this too much. It's pop music, designed to be fun and catchy, with a hook and a fun dance routine. It's performed by pretty people who can sing and dance in a manner that is aesthetically and musically entertaining.

Why do they all look and sound the same? Why does every fast food restaurant have a similar burger and french fry combo? It's because that's what sells, and this isn't art. It's a product designed to be sold.

I dunno man, if you are a girl wouldn't you a dude that, yeah, he's attractive but also that looks manly? That can physically protect you? And that does not has a doll face?...

This just comes off as thinly veiled insecurity. There are a lot of people in the world, and attraction is a spectrum. People like what they like, and there's probably someone out there who likes you for you. You don't need a doll face, nor do you need to look manly or be physically imposing. Most people don't need protection in their day to day lives. People want support, companionship, partnership, compatibility, and entertainment. Be fun and loving, and be yourself, and just leave the outdated gender stereotypes behind. You're not going to be everyone's cup of tea, nor do you need to be (unless you're trying to land a job in a KPop band).

Strong agree on the dark side of the industry. That's the danger with turning performers themselves into a commodity. It's bad enough manufacturing commercial music as a product, but turning the talent into a product is dehumanizing in a way that leads to terrifying exploitation.

But as consumers, we're all really good at compartmentalizing the exploitation from the enjoyment we receive from it. If you think the pop music industry is bad, wait until you learn about fast fashion, or cheap technology, or luxury travel, or abundant meat, or out-of-season produce, or inexpensive energy, or pretty much anything you pay to enjoy. There's a lot of money involved in hiding the suffering.

It's so much worse than that.

During Covid, the money just went straight to the corporations, and the food went to the schools. With schools back in session, the Conservatives in the federal government put restrictions on the funding, requiring documentstion and forms for all of the students participating in the program. They wanted to make it as onerous and invasive as possible. This administrative red tape disproportionately affected the more densely populated regions, and also gave the conservative states a reason to decline participation. Because if Republicans are going to be forced to help children, by God they're going to use the statistics against their enemies.

And it's entirely preventable. We can afford to feed every single student every single day. It doesn't have to be a brown bag, sad little whitebread and cheese slice sandwich. It can be the same food everyone else eats. In fact, we spend more administering a for-profit food service payment system than we spend on the food. It would be cheaper to just give it away to everyone.

We know this because we did it during COVID. All of the schools closed, and the for-profit food providers were going to lose a lot of money. Sysco and Aramark and US Foods and Sodexo are all big donors to both parties, so we had to bail them out by buying the food. There wasn't a debate in congress, there wasn't any tax increase or funding shortfall. The money was just there because they wanted it.

Schools had more food than they knew what to do with. Food banks and public pantries were fully stocked, and school districts were begging parents to come take home some breakfasts and lunches.

It could really just be like that. No registers, no accounting, no shaming poor kids, no threatening demand letters, no lunch cards, no websites. Just feed children, because hungry children don't learn.

I think they should watch it again and again, then, because that's the behavioral object lesson of the film. Everybody is the hero in their own story. When he has his moment of clarity, and says to himself, "I'm the bad guy?" it ought to be a wake up call to all the chodes who were cheering him on.

You're supposed to relate to DFENSE and see him as the protagonist. You're supposed to feel the same revulsion he experiences when he meets an actual Nazi who thinks he's an ally. You're supposed to feel the rush of excitement and power he gets finding a duffel bag of automatic firearms. You're supposed to feel the cathartic release of shooting up a fast food restaurant when the minimum wage worker smugly follows a pointlessly strict menu policy.

And then you're supposed to feel it all come falling down when he realizes that he cannot get his life back. He cannot restore his relationship with his wife or daughter. He cannot escape the consequences of his choices and his own lack of control. He did everything they told him to, but they lied to him, and now his job, his family, they are gone, and the cruel world doesn't give a shit. He is "not economically viable" anymore, so he has been cast off.

He thinks he has nothing left to lose. He's wrong. He thinks he has fallen down, and is on the rise. That sensation that feels like flying, it's because he's jumped off a cliff. And we're all supposed to feel the landing with him.

Jokes on them, I don't have any.

Oh. I made myself sad.