Whether or not it’s true … it’s marketing for Google and their AI

How does anyone verify this?

It’s basically one person’s claim and it’s not easy to prove or disprove.

“Don’t be evil” …

… for now

$1,000 to give birth is just the start of the payment process to having a child

Last I read, on average to raise a child with the most basic requirements to give it a decent life in North America to the age of 18, the estimate was about $200,000 - $300,000 … that was about 20 years ago I read that, it’s probably way more now.

Or hiring two guys to be co-referees for the no holds barred orgy that’s about to start.

I think you’re one of the coolest people in the fediverse … keep flying you crazy squid

@[email protected] … your squid signal has been shone into the fediverse skyline

ahhhhh … I really don’t care any more … I’m nice and respectful and open to everyone … I accept everyone no matter race, gender, identity, nationality, background, religion (or non religion) and I do my best to respect everyone for who they are … beyond that, if people give me a hard time to be around them just to give me a hard time or show authority or try to be above me or control me - I really don’t want to be around you.

How about farm workers … I’m up in Canada and I know because I’ve seen entire farm communities in southern Ontario base their entire business on immigrant labor that was either legal, illegal and everything in between. Around Norfolk (a region southwest of Toronto), entire towns are filled with Mexican, Haitian, Dominican and more recently, African workers as labor for the planting, management and harvest.

We all have cheap vegetables in North America because of cheap immigrant labor that our governments allow into the country to work (for little to no money) but not to stay.

I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out if this was just an Onion headline … only to realize it is indeed an Onion headline … this is beautiful

I have an old clock in my cottage. I got it years ago from a previous cottage I renovated. When I found it, the glass had broken so I just treated it as a piece of junk. I renovated that first cottage over a winter and left the clock there to freeze. I put in an AA battery and forgot about it. It kept time great and didn’t lose time … for about two years on the same battery!

The dammed thing outlasted every other wall clock I owned. So I kept it, removed the broken glass and just left it like that.

After about 15 years I still have it in my cottage and it freezes and thaws with the northern Canadian weather. And I’ve only ever changed the battery with the same basic energizer alkaline battery maybe four times!

I’ve never found a comparable clock anywhere. Every new clock I’ve ever bought either fail prematurely or I am constantly changing batteries every two or three months.

So far I’ve junked about a dozen new clocks because they stopped working while this old cottage clock just keeps ticking reliably.

I’m never getting rid of my cottage clock.

But 1989 … wow! … I also had an old Italian friend who was very frugal with her money and the vehicle’s she owned. She also had an 80s era Volvo station wagon that she ran for about 15 years before she got tired of it and traded it for another newer Volvo in the late 90s.

Feel the same here … I miss my 960 … it was known as a diplomats car … the thing was luxurious inside and it looked like a plain vehicle from the outside. And it could turn on a dime! I used to love being able to turn around on two lanes without doing a three point turn! I joked with my friends that it had a turning radius of a bicycle. The main reason I didn’t want to sell it to the demolition derby guy was that I didn’t want to see the car destroyed!

1990s or 2000s era Volvo station wagon or sedan

I owned a 96 Volvo 960 for about 15 years before engine gave out with fixable problems … I didn’t have the money to get it fixed, sold it and from what I heard, the new owner is still driving the thing. (one potential buyer that wanted it was a young guy that wanted it for a demolition derby as he claimed that Volvos were great for this kind of use because they are indestructible in a crash. He said the engine is so well placed and protected that it would take several hits from other vehicles before being compromised)

Later bought a 2004 station wagon and other than a few minor problems (electrical issues that aren’t critical to driving the car) and a bit of rust spots, it’s still my daily driver. I met a young guy a few years ago that had a 1992 Volvo Station wagon with a million kms on it (the thing was covered in rust and looked like hell but it was still driveable)

Deporting Musk? … I’d be more worried that they will want to deport you.

More like

Microsoft … I make billions spying
Google … I make billions spying
Apple … I make billions spying

Linux … you guys make money spying?

Instead we use a worldwide network of interconnected computers and systems to micromanage everyone’s lives and convince them all that billionaires are good for the economy, infinite money is possible, immigrants are bad, global warming is not real, perpetual war is normal, no one landed on the moon, the earth is flat and nazis are OK.

“The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it.” - George Carlin

I’ve seen many of these up here in northern Ontario and everyone raves about them.

The funny part is, every single one I’ve ever seen is a broken down hunk of junk in someone’s barn / backyard / garage / storeroom / warehouse that hasn’t run in decades. Every guy who ever owned these remembers being a kid and seeing their dad / uncle or other adult running it and calling it the greatest thing ever made. Then then grow up buy a broken down useless vehicle, work on it for a few days, plan on fixing it and never get it running. It stagnates on the property for a decade and then someone else comes around buys it and does the same thing.

I see it as a mythological thing from some forgotten past at this point. It’s like saying unicorns or minotaurs existed in Canada a generation ago. It might be true but I’ve just never seen a working machine in real life.

The last time I saw one was with an old elderly friend who had torn one apart and I spent an afternoon with him fixing it up. He said he needed about a dozen parts to get it running … he died a few years later, and never got the parts or the machine running. It got sold off for a hundred bucks and now the next owner is doing the same thing again.

Wow … thanks for this again … I’ve heard references to it, read articles about it but just never had time or space to read it … I’ll definitely look into this and take the time to listen and read it now … never knew much about it other than the writer and the book and the fact that he just questions and holds a mirror to society and the insanity of our supposed ‘civilized’ society.

The insanity becomes more tolerable when you can find and read the thoughts of other people who agree that this world is indeed … insane.

Great … another reminder that I should read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Thanks for this Flying Squid the Sane