Spyke

Replies

news

Comment on

Elon Musk Admits X is Throttling Links — Effectively Limiting People From Reading News

Interesting. One of the primary defenses against attempts to hold platform operators liable for the content on their platform is that they operate like common carriers (e.g. telephone companies), in that they don't curate content, or any curation is the byproduct of algorithmic engines (e.g. you see posts that are currently popular).

They have simultaneously argued that they shouldn't be regulated like common carriers because that would be harmful to the public and not appropriate for... reasons, I suppose.

This admission contradicts the first point and drives home the need for net neutrality like regulations for platforms. Not only are they interfering with the free flow of information, contrary to their whole "freedom of speech for all" branding, they are admitting that it is for purely business reasons (as opposed to moderating community standards or hate speech, which they have resisted and labeled censorship).

canada

Comment on

Liberals believe time is on their side. Is it?

It's amazing to me how quickly we forgot that carbon pricing was a conservative policy proposal. It was literally a concession the Liberals made to the Progressive Conservatives in the early days of planning to address "global warming" back in the days of the Kyoto Accord. PC's wanted market solutions instead of regulatory heavy handedness to shape Canada's way forward. LPC preferred cap and trade, but couldn't get it passed, so they agreed to support carbon pricing because it was better than nothing.

Fast forward to today and suddenly carbon pricing is Liberal policy and ignore/deny is the CPC strategy.

canada

Comment on

Canadian government suspends advertising on Meta-owned platforms Facebook and Instagram

Reply in thread

I strongly recommend the book "The Four" by Scott Galloway. He does an excellent job of breaking down how the Four Horsemen (Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook) destroy regional competition by leveraging their power as content gateways yet constantly skirt regulations that apply to broadcasters. Their cries of "we're not a broadcaster, we're just an aggregator" ring hollow when their algorithms determine what articles & headlines people see and they have shaped public opinion on various topics (e.g. elections, supreme court decisions, labour negotiations, public demonstrations, etc). He outlines how Google outmaneuvered the NYT and became the defacto gateway to all journalistic content because they were able to freely link to content created by others, while still putting an editorial spin on stories through their aggregation (eg should the story talking about "BLM protestors" appear before or in place of the story about "counter-racism demonstators" (narrator: they are the same story).

Comment on

Why were we able to stamp out Nazism but not the Taliban?

The Nazi party was outlawed following the war. The Nazi ideology was not stamped out. The reason why the Nazi party didn't fight a guerilla war to maintain power was because they didn't have to. Prominent Nazis with valuable skills were pardoned and welcomed into mainstream life (e.g. Werner von Braun became one of the lead rocket scientists for NASA). I don't believe they even had to recant their ideology or party affiliation.

One need only watch a few far right rallies before a swastika flag or three will show up and announce that Nazism is still alive and well 80 years later.

calgary

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

They don't want insidious "woke" teachings to enter our school curriculum. Teachings like LGBTQ people should be treated like everyone else, same sex relationships are normal, people of different racial backgrounds can be friends, we should demonstrate respect and tolerance for people of different religions (or non-religious people).

In essence they want the freedom to hate and vilify those deemed unclean by their preferred stone age text that was written decades after the events it purports to describe and has been translated across a dozen or more languages. And they want the freedom to pass that hate onto their children without anyone from the government/school suggesting to their impressionable young children that there are acceptable alternative points of view in a plural society.

canada

Comment on

Retiree 'in shock' after Canada Post finds missing $300K inheritance cheque

Reply in thread

No you're understanding is incorrect. There is a big difference between an expired cheque and a reissued cheque.

If I walk into a bank with an expired cheque, they will not honour it, so there is no risk of 2 people cashing the separate cheques. If I walk in with a valid certified cheque, they MUST honour it, even if someone already cashed the reissued cheque.

You are correct that the recipient could wait ~1.5 years for the cheque to expire and then issue a new cheque, but that's a significant delay and the estate likely wants to close its books before then.

movies

Comment on

What do guys think of the current state of blockbuster movies?

Reply in thread

This is demonstrably untrue, and contradicted by your own statement. Guardians 3, Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse both did very well in theaters despite being big franchise movies. Audiences aren't tired of the theater, they are tired of spending big dollars for badly written movies at the theater.

Disney and Marvel have been cranking out a massive flood of titles over the past 5 years, and that has diluted the talent pool and shortened the development pipeline forcing way more cookie cutter scripts going through far less review with much worse CGI hitting the big screen. It isn't cinema people that is keeping people away, it is bland, uncreative cinema with bad writing.

canada

Comment on

How 'forced financing' makes some car dealerships more money

Reply in thread

My wife and I once had enough saved up to buy a used car from the dealership. The sales manager told us their incentives were structured around financing, so paying cash up front wouldn't count towards their monthly sales figures, and to them it was "useless".

Ended up financing with an open loan and paying it off, in full, on the first payment. Probably lost them ~$1000 in processing fees but they knocked off another $150 for my first interest payment.

You reached the end