In the US it's been turned into a culture war thing, because ignoring the problem benefits some already wealthy people who think they'll either be insulated by their wealth or they'll dead before it's time to face the consequences
India and Pakistan are both reliant on the Indus River for their agriculture. The Indus has its source in glaciers in the Himalayas. As those glaciers disappear, the Indus will deliver less water, and deliver it much less reliably (melting ice and snow provides a nice steady flow, runoff less so).
So: you have two nuclear powers who are both relying on the same diminishing resource to feed their people. Do you not see how that could cause....tension?
I started listening to an audiobook of Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust with the best of intentions. It's high quality literature, and it unquestionably has artistic and human-ness value!
However...it's become my "put this on with a 30 minute timer if I'm having trouble falling to sleep" tool. I'd probably have better luck with the physical book. The narrator, John Rowe, does an excellent job, but his voice is so damn _soothing_.
I'm interested to see if this is the whole story[0], but on the surface it sure is infuriating.
[0] this article and a bsky post by the author of the article are the only sources I can find other than the website itself - which is definitely as chock full of AI as indicated
I'm a big fan of WaterFox! I switched when Firefox decided to add a ton of AI crap without providing a "turn this crap off" button (you could force it, but I don't want to fight my tools). Really good experience, been recommending it to all my friends.
Librewolf is also good, and I use that on one of my other machines. I like Waterfox a bit more, but that's probably just personal taste. Both are solid and both cut the mold off the tasty cheese that is Firefox
I know that if I lived somewhere urban it would feel welcoming. I know there's a large LGBT community there already. I know that there's gay clubs and stuff like Texas Furry Fiesta.
But the urban areas aren't passing the state laws. The state of Texas has laws that ban teachers from talking about LGBT topics or about LGBT folks in school. If I were to find a partner and I wanted to adopt, in Texas I have no protections against discrimination. A child placing agency can exclude me on religious grounds.
Trans folks face all that and more. They ban transgender folks from using school facilities. They ban trans folks from using public restrooms. They do that thing where they define gender as being exactly equal to biological sex. The "panic" defense is allowed in murder cases. I'm not trans personally, but they're part of my community and they're slowly having their existence criminalized.
Again: there are many parts of Texas that are great. The legal landscape is hostile to LGBT folks.
As a gay dude I will never take a job in Texas. Companies may enjoy the lax regulatory environment and favorable tax laws, but there are many bright people who - for one of a NUMBER of reasons - will never move there. It is repressive and frightening.
Who knows if that will be enough to move the needle on any of this, but companies aren't just buildings and incorporation paperwork, they're also the people.
If things ever get bad enough that the wealthy need underground nuclear bunkers, the underground nuclear bunkers aren't going to be enough to protect them. The ordinary people who did the electrical, plumbing, security, etc. know where you are, and no level of security will protect you from an angry mob with nothing to lose.
Agreed. For a long time Jack Welch was lauded as "The Greatest CEO in History" for burning GE to the ground in a way that made a lot of money (while destroying a company that took 100 years to build and employed 400,000 people).
By the time he died (pretty recently actually, 2020!), it was pretty obvious what kind of legacy he was leaving behind. Which is probably why his family was very careful to keep his burial location secret, presumably to keep people from peeing on his grave.
The problem is that a private company holds onto the data forever. Then the government can ask the private company for that data without a warrant. With the number of Flock cameras (I'm upset at how many have popped up near me), it's turning into a record of all of your movements. And that record lasts forever and can be queries at any time.
You mentioned "more serious crimes", but what about the case where LEOs in Texas track women who go to get an abortion in another state? Or police officers who stalk their exes? Or an oppressive government that wants to know who went to a protest? Once the tool exists you can't assume it's only going to be used in a way you like.
Prediction markets seemed neat when I first heard about them, but they've proved to have "theory meets the real world" externalities I wouldn't have ever considered. Insiders betting on (and possibly influencing) military/diplomatic stuff, reporters getting threatened, weather stations getting hit with hairdryers. It's wild.