And they could do it, too!

The net effect of WhatsApp is the sum of each individual's decision to use the app, or not. The app has not always existed, and it is my sincere hope that it will some day cease to be relevant. You appear to be making the "nothing I can do" argument for using a tool which has alternatives, which you and others are free to adopt. If you decide that there is nothing you can do, then Meta profits from your choice, and continues to do harm.

Funny thing is that those air filters are reducing the exposure to PM2.5s. And it is PM2.5 particles that are associated with an increased risk for dementia.

Air pollution linked to dementia cases https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/air-pollution-linked-dementia-cases

A systematic review with a Burden of Proof meta-analysis of health effects of long-term ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure on dementia https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-025-00844-y

How PM2.5 drives dementia: emerging mechanisms and unanswered questions https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnag007

That's the barrel I wanna live in!

I live for a day when poultry can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

I'm just glad when I get crema. Whee!

Unintended consequences are not always a bad thing. I wear a mask now through much of my work day. My home, office, and where I workout all have HEPA Filters now. I monitor the AQI, and if it's a 'shitty air day' I will either do stuff inside until it clears up, or wear a mask outside. The problem we are definitely not solving is the fact of air pollution. There are mountains to the south of me, and it used to be a rare day when the air in between was hazy. Now it's a rare day when the air is not hazy.

They spent a pretty penny on those robotic arms, but the outcome is no better than surgery without the expensive assist.

Robotic-arm-assisted versus conventional total knee replacement (RACER-Knee): a pragmatic, multicentre, participant-masked and assessor-masked, superiority, randomised controlled trial https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00986-4/fulltext

Aneurysms prevent can brain only you.

a TLM.

Have you come across this substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-212401946 It's a blog post titled The Banality of Facebook' Evil. subtitled: Popular conceptions of ‘evil’ fall down when confronting systemic moral failure

"Mark Zuckerberg is an especially egregious example of a tech lord who has created untold misery around the world. And I’m not just talking about creating products specifically designed to addict children so they will compulsively use his social media products. Although that’s pretty bad in itself.

To really understand the depth of Meta’s depravity it helped me to read a ‘tell-all’ book by someone who once worked at the highest level of the company. I’m referring to Sarah Wynn-Williams’ book Careless People. "

SYAC - too many scripts had to be unblocked. So I took one for the team, and am saving you the trouble:

New Excavations At Göbekli Tepe Are Challenging Old Theories About The 11,600-Year-Old Site Tom Hale 4–5 minutes

Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Türkiye is the oldest known monumental structure in the world. Archaeologists excavating there have recently broken fresh ground and have already uncovered some tantalizing finds that shed light on the lives of the Neolithic people who lived there and potentially upend what we thought the complex was used for.

Why Göbekli Tepe is a big deal

Göbekli Tepe is a mountainside archaeological site found in present-day Türkiye that features numerous monumental structures with beautifully designed pillars standing 5.5 meters (18 feet) and massive carved stones.

You can imagine it as a prehistoric temple-like structure, comparable to Stonehenge, but bigger, way more ornate, and at 11,600 years old, significantly older.

It was built through numerous phases between 9,600 and 8,200 BCE, predating other large megalithic structures by thousands of years. Around this time, the world was only just emerging from the last Ice Age, and agriculture was only just starting to take root in certain parts of the world. The new excavations at Göbekli Tepe

Part of the latest work at Göbekli Tepe is focusing on an 80-by-70-meter (262-by-229-foot) plot, just a stone's throw away from the famous temple-like ruins that typically steal the show. However, the excavations are showing a very different, more domestic side to the site.

ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.

Data from surface scans and geomagnetic surveys suggest this patch of land was once home to several large-sized quadrangular public buildings.

Professor Necmi Karul, Coordinator of the Stone Hills Project, explained on social media that the internal design of the structures unearthed in the new dig suggests they were residential and “used as dwellings” in the site’s second phase, approximately the early 9th millennium BCE. What was Göbekli Tepe used for?

This challenges the original theory that Göbekli Tepe was not a settlement, but an isolated temple complex used for ceremonial gatherings. The discovery of domestic buildings instead suggests people lived here rather than just gathering for ceremonial events.

Despite decades of excavations at the site, archaeologists have found limited evidence of domesticated plants or animals, nor pottery, leading some to conclude it was built by hunter-gatherers rather than settled agriculturists.

Klaus Schmidt, who first seriously excavated the site in the 1990s, was a firm believer that Göbekli Tepe was a purely ceremonial complex. He even argued it was built and maintained as a ritual site by hunter-gatherers, and the social organization needed for this feat was one of the sparks for the agricultural revolution and the emergence of complex settlements.

This theory has been critiqued in more recent years, and these latest excavations further support the emerging idea that people did live here, at least during part of the site's long history.

ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.

Along with these residential structures, the ongoing project is helping to conserve and better understand the temple-like structures that have already seen the light of day.

“Alongside the excavations, we place great importance on conservation efforts. While reinstalling the final fragments of the monolith surface in Structure C, we reinforced the walls of Structure D and the base connections of the two central monoliths. We are also securing the monoliths against tremors using steel cables,” Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Culture and Tourism Minister, said on Instagram.

“By simultaneously conducting excavation, restoration, and conservation work across various parts of Göbeklitepe, we are carrying this unique heritage into the future through a holistic approach."

Great, so now both USians and Canadians will pay more. I'm striving to not buy anything this this stupid shit is over. Guess I'll go live in a barrel.

Decades ago, I had two toaster macs connected by 2 X 4 conductor telephone wire over a distance of about 20 feet. A SysOp that I know, at the time, called it a TAN, a tiny area network, as compared to a LAN. lol

Thanks for the suggestion. Turns out cardboard is a good building material. I'll get right on that.

This IS kidnapping/abduction and human trafficking. It is illegal in the US, internationally.

https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking

https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IF/PDF/IF11942/IF11942.6.pdf

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/protocol.html

https://www.ohchr.org/en/trafficking-in-persons

Have you heard of Signal? This is the same argument. Meta has made people think that it is indispensable. They are not, as soon as we all realize they are not indispensable.

And yet, people still use FB, IG and What'Sap. I just don't get it. Of course that's why I'm here, and not there. smh

Gee, exceeding their authority, again, how creative and unexpected. /s

But be careful. If they offer you food, for instance, a turkey sandwich, if you take even on bite you'll be gobblin!