It used to be that the first result to a lot of queries, was a link to the relevant Wikipedia article. But that first result has now been replaced by an ai summary of the relevant Wikipedia article. If people don’t need more info than that summary, they don’t click through. That Ai summary is a layer of abstraction that wouldn’t be able to exist without the source material that it’s now making less viable to exist. Kinda like a parasite.
It’s not going away any time soon. There’s currently 2 to 3 times as many humans as what would be long term sustainable with the way that we live. That means that it’s going to be a problem for at least many decades, but more likely a few centuries. It’s definitely not yesteryears problem. And sustainability should always remain a concern, in everything that we do. Many countries (not the USA obviously) are already taking steps to be more sustainable, but it’s baby steps compared to what is needed.
To sustain the current amount of humans, we are using unsustainable methods. That makes us unsustainable as well.
Some estimates from Wikipedia: “Climate change, excess nutrient loading (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus), increased ocean acidity, rapid biodiversity loss, and other global trends suggest humanity is causing global ecological degradation and threatening ecosystem services that human societies depend on.[9][10][11] Because these environmental impacts are all directly related to human numbers, recent estimates of a sustainable human population often suggest substantially lower figures, between 2 and 4 billion.[12][13][14] Paul R. Ehrlich stated in 2018 that the optimum population is between 1.5 and 2 billion.[15] Geographer Chris Tucker estimates that 3 billion is a sustainable number, provided human societies rapidly deploy less harmful technologies and best management practices.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_population
Would the outcome have been the same without people in the media repeatedly bringing this to everyone’s attention? Probably not, because there would have been no public pressure against it, while the shadow groups that want this would have still been lobbying the politicians.
Something bad is going to happen.
Some people advocate to stop that bad thing.
Even more people are holding their clutches that the bad thing might happen.
Because of public pressure, action is undertaken to prevent the bad thing from happening.
Thanks to those efforts, the bad thing is successfully averted.
Some random person: that bad thing was never going to happen, look at all those gullible people who were panicking over nothing, we could have just done nothing and the outcome would have been the same.
Also known as the “preparedness paradox”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparedness_paradox
That’s good for office work, the constant ringing gets annoying and when sitting behind the desk, you’re going to see the display light up anyhow. But yes, those settings shouldn’t be used for a house phone, I wouldn’t be surprised if that telecom company uses the same standard install for small businesses and households.
I’m on Android and android has something called app pinning, but that still allows full functionality of the open app and is thus open to abuse. I looked up the guided access system and it’s a lot better than the android method, but it seems much more convoluted to set up. I just want a simple option: you can look at what is currently playing, but touching does nothing.
I want this, but not just for toddlers, just for handing over my phone to anyone really. Put on some media (photo, slideshow, video), lock your phone inputs, hand it over to someone else to look at, without having to worry that they will invade your privacy as a prank.
A non exhaustive list of what makes them awful: https://expertbeacon.com/why-is-paypal-so-bad/
Afaik, the issue that was making the most victims, was that they were facilitating scammers that targeted sellers:
5. Good Luck Recouping Losses as a Seller in Disputes.
89% of sellers experienced dispute resolution problems with PayPal in 2021 surveys. Despite providing evidence the item shipped or service rendered, they lost cases and sums averaging $622.
This is driven by PayPal‘s buyer-favored review round taking 1-2 weeks. This favors scamming buyers at the expense of legitimate businesses.
Iirc, there was a time when Paypal always sided with the buyer, irregardless of evidence or past track record, the review process was useless. Once scammers picked up on this and began scamming sellers en masse, Paypal still kept their policy unchanged for years and sellers started to raise their prices on platforms that forced them to accept Paypal (ebay used to do this). Ebay has since tossed Paypal off their platform. I don’t know if Paypal ever improved.
Gunboat diplomacy in the 21st century. Since Xi Jinping came to power, it’s been an endless stream of criminal behaviour by the Chinese state. I miss the time of Hu Jintao.
When calling that number, the caller will need somekind of proof that they are in control of the car that they are trying to opt out of ads. Afaik, the easiest way to accomplish that when requiring a phonecall, would be pairing phone and car. But obviously Stellantis is not going for easy with this setup, so this is purely speculation on my part.
Apart from how insane it is to put obtrusive ads on a car dashboard, having to link your phone to your car and then call a phone number to opt out of touchscreen display ads is 🤯
There is going to be a reason that they’ve set it up like that.
Most European countries do not use first past the post, but proportional representation with multiple elected representatives per voting district. There is far less incentive for politicians to gerrymander with proportional representation.
It appears that in the future, Itch will allow creators to opt out of payment providers, meaning that it’s probably on a per game basis, not per platform. That Itch and Steam are not making a per game solution now, is most likely because their current software doesn’t allow it and they need time to rework it. Itch has promised various changes already, Steam has been mum afaik.
Source for Itch: “For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account.”. https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content
I only use Steam myself, so I hadn’t checked Itch Io’s communication yet. I don’t know the platform myself so it’s quite possible that I’m misinterpreting this, but to me it appears that Itch Io will allow creators to delist payment options that they are not compliant with: “For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account.”.
Do you have a source of where they are saying that?
I have seen an article about the Australian political action group that was claiming credit for getting the games banned. The story behind the start of the controversy.
And I have seen an article about the communication from Steam that they were banning games which were in conflict with the rules of their payment providers. The result basically.
But I’ve only seen conjecture and speculation about what went on to get from the start to the result. I haven’t seen any article that spelled out exactly what the different payment providers demanded from the gaming platforms, nor anything about what they discussed in between them.
Edit: after 12 hours there’s 4 downvoters and 0 sources. Another victory for vibes over facts.
I don’t get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
If visa doesn’t want people to purchase game X with Visa, then remove Visa as payment option for buying game X.
HH alone is already a significant dog whistle. It’s basically 88, but already one step closer to it’s intended meaning. As dog whistle messages go, this one is very blatant. I wonder what hidden symbolism they put in that image, there’s bound to be more there. NVM that last bit, it’s a painting about white supremacy, but there probably won’t be hidden fascist messages because the painting is older than fascism as a political movement.
Homeland Security was already sending out the occasional dog whistle during Trump’s first term. Back then there was still doubt as to whether it was accidental or intentional, but now we know that the fascist take over of that organization started back then, which means that those old dog whistle messages were most likely intentional and an invite to other fascists to come join up. Which they did.
Which also explains how it was that ICE could immediately embrace the new status of being Trump’s brown shirts, without any significant protest from inside the organization: unlike other government departments, they didn’t need to do internal purges since the fascist take over was already complete at the start of Trump’s 2nd term. This should be a warning to other countries where politicians are considering of giving fascists even one iota of power.
This was new to me so I tried looking it up as well. I found a lot of results right away with startpage, which makes me wonder what search engine you were using?
They (the evangelicals) are apparently calling it “toxic empathy” and they jump through a lot of loops to claim that it’s bad to have empathy with the victims of USA republican policies.
My first result was a long opinion piece criticizing evangelicals for their newfound crusade against empathy: https://churchleaders.com/news/511911-the-scandal-of-evangelical-empathy.html/4
2nd result is an evangelical that does a bit of mind bending to explain why empathy with outgroups is “toxic”: https://unityinchristianity.com/2025/02/03/the-truth-about-toxic-empathy-and-why-its-becoming-a-controversial-topic/.
The 3rd article has a claim that Jesus Himself was not empathic: “Clearly the Lord Jesus Christ can be sympathetic, but He cannot be empathetic in the sense of identifying with our sinful emotions and desires.” https://www.e-n.org.uk/features/2025-03-the-problem-with-empathy/ That article also references a book by an evangelical called “the sin of empathy”.
Modern USA could be summed up by the old Russian adage: “And then, somehow, it got worse.”
Blabla, google it, yet you ignore all evidence that was posted to the contrary of your beliefs. As expected you come up empty handed because you have nothing except your own vitriol.
I get that you are a bitter and resentful person, but that is a choice that you are making. I’ll try to explain below and I get that the text will be longer than you are used to, but I do implore you to read it. I’d like to try and help you get some perspective.
You don’t have to make up things and present them as facts. You don’t have to resent other people who try to show you that some beliefs that you hold, have no factual basis. We don’t try to inform people like you out of malice, but it’s to help others to be more informed and to help people in general make more informed decisions.
I suspect that your wilful ignorance has often brought you into useless conflicts where you ended up resenting the other participants because they were dismissive of you and your opinions. But that’s not their fault. You are the one chosing to reject facts and resenting those that do not accept your beliefs over factual evidence. Your resentment and frustration has it’s origin within your own choices, which has one major potential upside for you: you can chose to stop being that bitter resentful person.
Don’t make things up, respect other people’s opinions, be open to the possibility that some of your beliefs might not be true. Do those 3 simple things and you will find that interactions in your life will on average be much more agreeable and positive for you.
No coaches in Mar-a-lago? Is Vance not welcome there?