So, you're saying you don't want those RAGBRAI dollars. Welp, we're more than happy to stop spending that money all the way across your state.

I had a bunch of Linux-loving, anti-ad, tinfoil hat employees in the early 00s. They tried to convince me of how bad things will become. It turns out that their tinfoil hats weren't nearly thick enough.

How long before so much of daily life is governed by such algorithms, models, dark patterns? "Oh, you didn't pay rapt attention to the entire chain of ads. Guess your car is going to have to break down this week and your egg prices will go up 25% at every grocery store."

The idea of using computers to aid in medical diagnosis is older than you are, probably older than you and me put together. The field is called Medical Decision Support (MDS). The Department of Defense invested heavily in MDS, and last I knew, MDS was a key component in Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application.

Medical knowledge is collated by accomplished medical specialists, often surgeons and/or professors. The knowledge is weighted and encoded into modules using a specialized computer language. An engine runs a given module based on initial questions, then drops or engages modules based on how the questions/answers progress. Various tests are performed along the way, e.g. Bakody Sign for a cervical radiculopathy. At the end, the software spits out something like:

• 5/5 indications for C4/C5 nerve impingement
• 1/8 indications for COPD
• 8/10 indications for douchebaggery
• suggest the [X, Y, Z] for further testing

The same company (PKC) that first developed MDS was founded by the guy who also developed the Problem-Oriented Medical Record, an early form of EMR and an efficient means to quantify medical diagnoses. I worked for him at PKC and wrote the IIS version of the engine. You can see a deeply neutered version of the software at Sharecare (I think they now call it AskMD).

I don't know, man. Looks a little lightweight for Toronto traffic.

Also, back before unleaded gas and modem emissions... Engines had to run a touch rich. Can you imagine the smell?!

Fully agreed all around! For me, the aesthetics of the Atlas just don't convey badassery regardless of the reality.

Based on what I've seen, most homebuilders don't understand how to build a house. :D

Regardless of capabilities, variant, or loadout, since I was a kid the Marauder was always (IMO) the coolest looking mech of them all.

I try them all. The one(s) with the most fruit, I drink first since those volatiles will diminish fastest. Anything less than awesome gets turned into cold brew.

This is going to curl some nose hairs, but here goes... We got utterly socked in by a blizzard a few years ago and ran out of coffee. In desperation, I dug through the cabinets and found a 2 year old partial bag of light roast that had gotten buried. It... wasn't bad. Definitely wasn't good either, but better than nothing and on par with/better than most of what's available at our big chain grocery store.

The United States was founded on principles of liberty and equality for all.

12 hours and $35k? Stop your bullshit. I've dealt extensively with healthcare in the US. It's more like 10 months and $110k.

My partner is literally waiting 10 months to see a rheumatologist for debilitating joint pain. A virtual visit, no less.

Me, before I read the article: this is nothing unusual, and I don't see what the problem is. My employers have paid for some pretty advanced training over the years. In return, they asked me to agree to stay for six months. NBD...

Me, after the article: HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

This shift has also opened the door to a new industrial complex of employer-run, for-profit training sites and academies, which many workers are steered into when they’re hired for a job. Critics say employers now use these job training programs to force workers into debt and suppress wages, courtesy of TRAP contracts.

This is heading into Company Town territory. Seriously predatory shit.

You are using a modern, privileged metric informed by an intensive media penetration that was unavailable during the first three campaigns you mention, and only to a slightly higher degree in the last two.

Most enlisted I have known, and it's a lot, thought they were defending the world from despots. Hell, even the officers I know initially thought they were serving the public good. The rest I know who don't fit into that category just wanted to be able to afford college and a family.

And even if the Marine in the picture knows NOW he only served a bloodthirsty tyrannical regime, the fraternity of the USMC, the commitment to the Constitution... It's some deep, deep connection. Even the most disillusioned Marines I know are still loyal to the Corps and the Constitution. Moreover, it is better that one realizes US hegemony later than never, yes? So how about we welcome those have opened their eyes and remedied their ways?

Or we can just keep shitting on allies and see how that works for us.

I mostly disagree, but this line:

Blowjobs are psyop by Big Blowjob to make you have dumber sex.

...had me laughing out loud in the doctor's waiting room.

I travel a lot for work. US Customs and the TSA are absolutely a sick joke. I could easily write a novella on the extremely poor training of TSA employees. I have a small permanent retainer (read: braces); about 25% of the time, that is considered suspicious, and I get an enhanced inspection. "Ya know, I could just open my mouth and show you what's in there."

The TSA always determines that my juggling balls are suspicious, so I never pack them in carry-on anymore. I have NEXUS, yet I always get an enhanced inspection on return to the US. Literally every other country to which I have flown just waves me through, even before I got Pre-Check/NEXUS/Global Entry.

My partner had her rigging knife in her backpack on a flight out and back. She was unpacking and found it in her backpack after the trip. Good catch, TSA.

And the absolute frosting on the TSA shit sandwich: one of my close friends owns a private security firm. His company was approached by the TSA to assist in security audits at a major international airport. He and his team were contracted to "smuggle" fake firearms through TSA checkpoints, any way they could. The TSA repeatedly failed to detect the firearms for each of five audits. The TSA division (district? regional?) manager, frustrated at his group's 100% failure rate, determined that my friend's company must have specialized criminal training, and everyone who worked that contract were put on the no-fly list. It took him about 18 months to unfuck that mess for him and his employees.

I had written a few more paragraphs about TSA hassles, but I think y'all get the picture.

Am I imagining it, or do they have serious Tiny Dick Energy?

All the tacticLOL hardware, rolling with the whole crew, and motherfucker feels the need to aim his pepper ball gun threateningly? I hope those small, insecure men get every ounce of hell they deserve.

Humorous on face value, but that's not what utility companies do. In every utility district I ever lived (and it's a lot), if the meter readers were "unable" to read your meter, the consumption was estimated.

I had many conflicts about this because I traveled a lot for work and knew that there was no possible way I could have consumed as much electricity as they estimated. It turned it that meter readers could just claim the meter was inaccessible, and their job was considered completed.

Pssh... This guy is chump change, maybe a senior engineer at best. You can tell by his footwear. The really highly paid engineers have Crocs with socks, if any footwear at all. 😆

Alec's call to action was refreshing amid so many other outlets smoothing over current events.

The first section though... I'm all in on renewable energy and have been for 15 years. What blew me away was how much I internalized the "challenges" to solar. Propaganda is a hell of a drug. Even as aware and informed as I like to think I am, I still managed to drink the wrong Kool-Aid. The numbers in favor of solar were surprising, even for this true believer.

I guess Techno Viking finally caught up to Chuck Norris.

This article feels a little disingenuous and seems written by someone who has only heard their friend complain about David Brooks. In his book "The Second Mountain," Brooks goes into his mea culpa moments. He has on more than a few occasions admitted his errors. I would share citations, but it was a library loan and it's on hold.

Those of us who protest against power, aren't we looking for exactly the kind of change of hearts and minds such that Brooks is showing?