I was so tempted to try their service, but it was always in the back of my mind, inside the part of my brain that was conscious during marketing 101 class in college: “What’s the long term business model here? What happens after they have everyone’s genetic identity?” Then it dawned on me like ooooohhhhh that’s the plan… no thanks.
The automotive manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler were partially nationalized in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis as were several banks… these were less a full government takeover and more of a government guided restructuring, but the government owned large stakes in these companies. Before that, the only full nationalization of anything substantial was the bankruptcy of the Penn Central Railroad and subsequent establishment of Consolidated Rail (branded as ConRail) the US’s only national freight rail company.
Conrail was later privatized into what is now the private companies CSX and Norfolk Southern. The collapse of Penn Central was the largest bankruptcy in history until Enron in the 1990’s. Amtrak, our national passenger rail corporation, is also a nationalized entity created around the same time as ConRail, for similar reasons, and is still nationalized (although the Trump admin wants to privatize it).
Leonard Nimoy was a pretty tough celebrity death for me. It was like losing a super cool uncle, a person who’d been in my life for my whole life, but hadn’t seen in a long while, was dead.
I think it’ll be more of an Enron slash Theranos docudrama… questionable accounting and overvaluation mixed with a superstar CEO stuck in a faking-it-till-you-make-it corporate death loop with investors drunk on hype.
Some US states and local school boards are doing this as well. I believe South Carolina has a law like this going into the upcoming term in August. Students will be allowed to bring devices, but they must be stored during class. One school district is using these little pouches with magnetic locks to which the teachers and admin have the key… so students can keep their devices on their person, but would be unable to access them.
Sadly, one of the more relevant (and understandable) arguments against this trend is parents concerns about being about to get in touch with their child in the event of a school shooting. In active shooter events and lockdowns, many school systems and local governments have been slow to inform parents of the situation… this exacerbates concerns where parents (again, understandably) want to be able to get in touch with their child.
Us Americans live in a hell scape of tragedy and senseless death.
Rugby players.
I don’t care for sports so much, but a ton of my friends play rugby. Several of my exes play rugby. I’ve got cousins who play rugby. I live in the States and, while rugby is popular, it’s no where near the levels of enthusiasm where like 90% of the people a person hangs out with plays it (and you not also play or have any real interest in it). Mostly to support people I was dating, I’ve been to like ten games in my life and, while I understand how the game is played, I’m just completely uninterested in sports and following sports as a hobby or interest. I don’t know why, but rugby people love me and I love them.
Season 1 was basically Seth MacFarlane’s TNG fan scripts… it’s a Star Trek series through and through.
They’re kinda like the S-Pen… is it cool? Sure! Do I find myself using it? No, not really.
I really loved the “Anchor Man” DVD menu. Solid graphics, great playthrough, simple controls.
And turns out… he can get away with everything.
I mean… yeah, probably.
Well, Senators Manchin and Sinema made sure nothing got done through then… which, when you realize Biden was in charge of the DNC during his administration… it’s a whole “they didn’t whip their legislators well enough” situation. Democrats are nearly world renowned for failing at that.
Filibuster only works against certain legislative pushes… usually only stuff that needs 60 votes (instead of a simple majority) in the Senate.
The white supremacists didn’t forget… they just thought the wrong side was winning.
I’m almost 40, this place reminds me of the early internet in a good way. Like, people connecting and sharing ideas… what even Reddit used to feel like. Sure, sometimes there are arguments but, due to the lack of an “outage” algorithm to juice engagement, you usually only hear about it unless it’s something you directly follow. With the lack of profit motive on the side of the platform and hosting end of things, it appears that trolls and clout chasers have a genuine hard time monopolizing everyone’s attention.
I don’t get the hate this place gets. It’s been really interesting watching Lemmy’s growing pains over the last two-ish years and all the changes it has undergone. The whole concept of the Fediverse is fascinating to me and has been a genuine delight to explore.
Could you imagine trying to get there to be libraries today if the concept was new? “We can’t possibly just let people read for free! What, do you think literacy is a right? It’s a privilege!”
This is seriously one of my favorite things about the Fediverse… someone decided to make their own experience of it and build a platform… now it’s a thing.
Kudos clever internet person!
Seriously… the fact that Rachel Ray is the only one to made it out of Oprah’s influence with any kind of wide-spread appeal is crazy.