Upvoted and agreed. But I think the US financial collapse has more to do with:

∙	Short-term incentives — businesses chasing next quarter while ignoring the long game. CEO tenure averages around 7 years, but comp structures reward short-term predictability over long-term health. Make the number go up, cash out, someone else’s problem.
∙	Crushing debt — not “insolvency” in the household sense, since the US prints its own currency, but debt-to-GDP at ~120% and interest payments consuming an increasing share of federal revenue creates real risks: inflation, dollar credibility erosion, and crowding out actual investment.
∙	No savings cushion — ~57% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency. That’s not a recession risk, that’s a detonator.

Empires don’t fall suddenly — they transform. The Roman Empire never really “ended”; the eastern half ran unbroken from Constantinople for nearly a thousand years after Rome’s western collapse. The threat isn’t a single dramatic crash. It’s a long, slow institutional rot that’s already underway.m

Not leveraging solar energy, which abundant , decentralized, and is the cheapest unit of energy there is.

Not at all. You get to say what happens with your body. The fact that he took offense to it is on him. It’s also a smart move.

Personally, I can’t stand condoms, but I wouldn’t hook up without one. “This is a strange car, in a foreign dense highway; why would I need a seat belt?”

Also, if I heard a woman say “it was a fine night” in a meh tone, I’d be gutted lol.

Gentleman reading this, remember the golden rule: women always come first.

This! I think twice before commenting because of blowback. And everything is _ so_ dramatic. Also, consistently, if my world view and lived experience doesn’t align with the group think of the post and comments, then I’m automatically disqualified as a “bot” or “fedposting”. In all honesty, it’s not the most welcoming community. Diverse discourse is discouraged.

I migrated openaw from docker running on my raspberry pi to an old nuc I had lying around. Backed it with mainly models off of OpenRouter or my local Ollama instance. For very difficult tasks it uses anthropic. Added it to my GitHub repo and implemented Plane for task management. Added a subagent for coding and have it work on touch up or research tasks I don’t have personal time to do. Made an sdlc document that it follows so I can review all of its work. Added a cron so it checks for work every hour. It ran out of tasks in five days. Work quality: C+, but it’s a hell of a lot better than having nothing.

It helped research and implement SilverBullet for personal notes management in one shot.

I also migrated all of my services’ DNS resolution to CloudFlare so I get automatic TLS handoff and set up nginx with deny rules so any app I don’t want exposed don’t get proxied.

This weekend I’m resurrecting my HomeAssistant build.

We need more of this. I bought my SO stickers for Christmas. Time to put them everywhere.

Yakkety Sax

Look more closely. There’s another planned in April.

The law does not require photo ID uploadsor facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age, setting AB 1043 apart from similar laws passed in Texas and Utah that require “commercially reasonable” verification methods, such as government-issued ID checks.

Seems toothless. Good.

On that note: https://generalstrike2026.com/

100%

I reply with “yes and”.

If someone tells me I’m an idiot, NEXT! It immediately invalidates their argument.

“A Splendid Torch” by George Bernard Shaw

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Exactly this. If I had to chose between hundreds of third party websites having my ID and my phone, I’ll take my phone.

We already have very sophisticated ways of validating payment and passport information with our devices. Validating age could be as simple as a registration procedure between the device and the identity issuer , validating the device is held by a person “of age” and then that’s it. If that user successfully completes a biometric challenge, then allow the activity.

So web browsing goes from “I’m John Doe and here’s my ID proving it” to every site (which has HUUUUUGE PRIVACY ISSUES) to “This anonymous user is over 18; this one is over 21, this one’s not”.

Also, if this behavior of forcing websites to ID you continues, it will enable a renaissance in data mining. Right now companies see “actor is in ZIP code 90210; rain in the forecast “ and put the two together to show “maybe they need a new slicker”. That’s simplified of course, but that’s basically the trick. You can use hundreds or thousands of these data points to paint an ever clearer picture of the person, but you never know exactly who they are. These ID laws are changing this rapidly.

This also has the potential to be used for some very dark purposes. Example: said something on Instagram critical of the US President? You don’t get to vote because of some label.

My position is still if the site or service requires my ID, then I don’t need it that badly.

The book “Sapiens” does a good job framing this. Humans are social creatures. Our social groups define their own norms, mores, values, etc. To be “good” is to align with those values. Clashes happen when groups with vastly different values interact. The old adage “if you were born where they were born, and you were raised how they were raised, then you would believe what they believe” applies here, even though this isn’t always true.

The Internet makes this problem more stark. Our groups aren’t based on location anymore; our neighborhood, our school, our church. We can find our group(s) that align with and reinforce us any time we want. It’s also upset the typical way we define our values, and our society is struggling to catch up.

So long way of saying, good or bad relies on context and the values of those you’re close with.

But fuck people who don’t return their shopping cart. They’re just plain bad.

In not in favor of providing ID for anything. If a service requires it, I won’t use that service. Also, I can’t think of a verification system like this that hasn’t been bypassed or exploited, so it’s largely an exercise in futility.

However, a compelling argument is to use your phone’s biometrics to perform a challenge and verification. Basically, your device acts as your ID so sites never have it. I think this way better than all websites to keep a copy of the identity.

Removing my gross socks after a long day on my feet. The dressier the socks, the better the feeling.

Completely agree. I live in central NY and public transit is so gutted it’s basically nonexistent. I think there’s a way to increase demand though…

“You’ll never thrill the bold
Divisions in the sky
Of whom predestined you to always
Be the last in line” Winners - Deadsy

Oh no, don’t take The Ultimate Warrior from me…

Luigi intensifies…