I started buzzing my hair down to an 1/8th inch when I was 14. Then much if it fell out in my 30s also.

Not being sure was part of my point. We can’t be sure. But all their incentives are aligned in the right way. That’s the best we can hope for. And better than any alternative right now.

You can’t have? Or you can’t be sure?
Because you certainly can have. Just because you pay, doesn’t mean they will log your searches. In fact Kagi claim they don’t. And since their only income comes from paying users. If anyone ever found out they’re lying about that, they’d quickly loose a big chink of subscribers and income. As well as get sued for fraud. So it’s rather unlikely they do.

Unlike every other search provider, Kagi is the only one with a business model that ensures it’s users are the customer, not the product. When actually using it every day, that’s quite obvious in the results. Even when you search for a company directly, it’s Wikipedia entry is usually the first result. The the company site is the second.

Those are very big questions. This Wikipedia Page is a good place to start.

The simple answer is, everything humanity does happens in cycles.
But you can think of it as roller-coaster passing through an infinite series of loops. We keep going forward in the long run. But but the repeating loops take us up and down, even upside down and backwards along the way. In every case, coming down each loop gives us the momentum to reach the next one.

It works in cycles.

The last Guilded Age (think Roaring 20s) ended with the great depression. Which then triggered the creation of all the great economic policies the boomers enjoyed as children, which they’ve been dismantling since the 70s.

Once things get bad enough, (very nearly there now) the cycle will repeat.

I’m not sure you know what post scarcity means.

Imagine a world where nobody needs to work, but everyone can still have any material desire filled at any time.

Think Star Trek. Unlimited energy resources, combined with replicators which use that endless energy to create unlimited stuff without any labor required.

It really is the most efficient way to manage and trade scarce resources. Going back to a barter system wouldn’t be possible with the size and scope of a global economy.

The most profitable league in all of sports…
Is being killed?

I don’t think that means what they think it means.

comes with their school districts’ decision to install AI-powered monitoring software such as Gaggle and GoGuardian on students’ school-issued machines and accounts.

That’s kind of standard practice on any company issued devices I’ve ever used.
Unless they’re being given for the kids to own. If they have to give them back at the end of the year, then they don’t belong to the kids.

Hypocritical for sure.
Not really unexpected, so not ironic.

I would liken the Democrats to Megamind, and the Republicans to Hal Stewart.

they say giving their biometric data to an unaccountable company crosses a line.

The company is unaccountable‽
That’s some projection.

Not really. One can be dealt with if needs be, since they’re US companies. The other can’t because it’s the Chinese government.

Nobody cares because they are US companies.

First, it’s not a TickTok ban. It’s a ByteDance ban. ByteDance could sell TickTok to another company outside China and TickTock would be fine in the US.

Second, it was never about protecting user data. It was about preventing China from tweaking the algorithm to try to subtly influence public political opinion, instead of maximizing generic rage and political polarization, to exploit for ad dollars.

It doesn’t help any one else unfortunately.
But I subscribed to Google Play Music All Access during the original promo in 2013. Part of $7.99 promo deal way back then, was that it was a Lifetime Subscription. Even after raising the price on all the 2014 YouTube Red promo users at the beginning of 2024, I’m still locked in at $7.99. I’ve de-Googled nearly everything else, but I’ll hold on to that subscription till I die, or YouTube does.

If there aren’t workers, there is no need for unions.

But that doesn’t happen anyway.
UBI doesn’t replace work. People still work. Pilot programs and tests show, people might work less overtime, or call out when sick more, so they can go to a doctor, spend more time home with a new baby, and stay in school longer gaining higher degrees. But they don’t quit their jobs. So there will still be plenty of workers to join unions.

How does it take leverage from unions?
It would effectively be a permanent strike fund.
Wouldn’t that help unions?

It’s also not so much “taking” power, as it’s not giving power you feel is your right.
Which, is the same kind of thinking that let’s copyright holders claim every count of piracy is theft of money they never actually had.

It’s an academic term used in anthropology circles, studying primitive, ancient, or even non-human social structures.

In ape or chimpanzee social groups, high-status individuals (male or female) may have more mating opportunities, be able to eat first, insist on the best spots to sit, whatever. The specific benefits can vary from culture to culture, species to species.

It doesn’t mean low-status individuals are shunned at all. They’re still part of the group. But for whatever reason, they aren’t given as much trust, opportunity, or maybe respect, as others in the group.

In our modern social world, it would be the correct scientific or academic term for people who are unable to attract a sexual partner, or make many friends, or build much “social capital”, for any of several possible reasons.

People who have a job, or even a career, but wouldn’t be considered for management, would also be considered low-status in that context.

In short, yes. It’s the correct terminology.

Have you tried the “Stealth” protocol option ProtonVPN has?
It’s intended to bypass VPN blocks. Sometimes it works.