You would have had similar thoughts back then. Ever hear of the Gilded Age? The late 1800’s was that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age The parallels to today are striking - to the point that many think we’re in the second Gilded Age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Gilded_Age . However, the late 1800’s/early 1900’s was also the beginning of the Progressive Era, which was the solution to many of the excesses of capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era We STILL benefit from many of the advances that occurred during that time. It may not seem like it, but we’re actually better off than they were back then, despite all the bad that has happened. The underlying ideology behind MAGA is to undo many of the reforms that happened during the progressive era. They won’t succeed, not entirely - the changes are too baked into the fabric of the country to fully undo. Some of the reforms are enshrined in Constitutional Amendments that they don’t have anywhere near the support to repeal.

But this should also be a source of hope. We’ve beat these people back once before, we can do it again. We can have a second Progressive Era. It’ll probably have alot of talk of socialism this time, but socialism and progressivism have alot in common. And we’re seeing support for this sort of thing rising in response to the excesses of capitalists, much like what was occurring in the late 1800’s. It takes time for these sorts of movements to gain traction. But it’s one of those slow then fast sorts of things.

Sure, right. And I have some nice oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

And quite possibly an infant murderer, according to some reports. And possibly much more.

Technically, the Palantiri weren’t the evil eye of the Sauron. Sauron and Saruman did use them (and that’s why you see Sauron’s eye in one of them), but the stones themselves were basically just communication and surveillance devices. They were, themselves, fairly neutral and not made by anyone especially evil (probably Feanor - flawed but not evil). But they were used for evil purposes during the time in the LOTR trilogy.

That would be one of the biggest ironies in history if Peter Theil ends up dying because the AI ATC he championed crashed him into some other evil exec. I’m thinking maybe Elon Musk.

You should see what they have to say about relativity - it’s absolutely insane.

Though there are a few creators that do such good ad segments that even those are worth watching. Map Men, Aging Wheels, and lazerpig all come to mind.

And sometimes very, very dark grey.

And, as a bonus, that car will add very few miles to the odometer every year.

You haven’t seen some of the theories coming out of the Epstein files? There’s a bunch of really rich and powerful people in there making a weirdly big deal about jerky. These are the sort of people that have assistants, servants, and the like to take care of their every need and want. So, for them to be emailing each other about something as mundane as jerky is really weird. Oh and a chef closely associated with Epstein has a restaurant called the Cannibal. There’s also some accusations, not sure how believable they are, from people who claim to have been around Epstein’s operations and that they had witnessed or heard from a fellow employee that kids were getting killed and eaten.

What I always think about these morons is that we propose a test. Since they have super healthy bodies, or so they claim, they should be totally resistant to whatever virus or bacteria we expose them to. So, how about we expose them to the worst viruses or bacteria we know about and see who wins?

And then there’s the fact that two of the bedrooms have no way to get to the kitchen and living room - you have to go out the garage and in the front door.

Hey, it’s not all bad for the kid walled in that bedroom - they can just crawl in and out the window, so they’re not trapped in there forever. No idea how they’re going to have any furniture though. Guess it’s gotta all be stuff that can be disassembled to be small enough to go through the window.

Not sure where this particular image is from. Could have been ChatGPT. But I’ve seen some of these from actual AI plan services that weren’t much better.

This is closer than you think. Take this lovely floorplan (and that’s one of the better ones I’ve seen):

And yes, there’s multiple companies offering this as a service:

https://floor-plan.ai/

https://gen.hexa3d.io/free-online-ai-floorplan-generator/minimalist

https://ideal.house/create/aiFloorplan

Maybe if we get lucky, Oracle just dies and Ellison goes bankrupt then goes to prison.

You know the funny thing? Hitler also doesn’t appear to have been religious. But he used religion (both Protestants and Catholics) extensively to help him gain power. Interesting that Trump appears to have taken inspiration from Hitler (like that whole book of Hitler’s speeches on Trump’s bedside table). Birds of a feather…

Can just literally torment this guy already because of all the harm he’s done?

It’s only a matter of time before the open source stuff gets those features too, if people want them. There’s plenty of decent open source generative AI out there. I’m sure people can find creative ways to incorporate them.

To make you even more jealous, the 100Mbps I pay for tests as that, both up and down. For $48/month, no billing shenanigans. I had 1Gbps for a bit and it was testing near gigabit ethernet’s theoretical maximum, both up and down. Fiber to the rack is kind of awesome. Oh and when I call for tech support, I get somebody local. I’ve actually gotten one of the owners before. And they do a yearly Halloween party/customer appreciation day. Talking with one of the owners, it’s like he practically expects that people are going to be downloading those 4k Linux isos.

You’d probably like what I had before - awful DSL. I was near the maximum limit for DSL. The technician said the line could do 15Mbps. I usually ended up around 12. And I was the lucky one. Some of my neighbors were like 1.5. So glad to dump Centurylink.