pingveno

I just upgraded to the Pixel 8 Pro when the Pixel 5 went out of official support. The screen fingerprint reader works fine. Where it is flawed is that it’s not as quick to unlock from the front. I’m looking forward to the greatly improved support period. Three years was ridiculously short. I know something like GrapheneOS is always an option, but I’m hesitant to do so when I don’t have a backup phone.

The Pixel 8 Pro has been treating me well. Great photos and video, snappy UI, good feature set. And it sounds like I’ll be getting feature drops for the next few years, so that’s nice. The battery life is good. I added on Peak Design’s case and mini tripod, so I can quickly set it up on a surface to take videos or make a video call.

Interesting. I’m not going to stop doing it, but still, interesting.

Make your bed each morning. Your bedroom will look more organized and you will have a nice bed to lie down in at night.

For reading, digital. I can have access to a functionally unlimited number of books. They also tend to be less expensive. That makes a difference for media like manga where it racks up pretty quickly. And I can make adjustments to the text and lighting that help with readability.

I still like having some books around as decoration. They bring a room together nicely.

As per the article, it’s not additional Adderall. It’s the prescribed amount he’s used for years.

Don’t be an ass.

Yeah, it sounds like his legal team is trying to build grounds to appeal and whoever is governing his medication is playing into their hands. Seriously, how much effort does it take to properly treat someone when they already have a prescription written?

Or knock it over, if you’re a pigeon. Iran definitely loves being the pigeon.

Come to think of it, it doesn’t really make sense for Iran to want this sort of escalation to happen. The ideal situation from its standpoint is for Palestine to be a continuous thorn in Israel’s side, but not too much. That’s cheap to do and disruptive to Israel. If Israel connects the killing of hundreds of civilians to Iran, that could be justification for all out war. That would be damaging for both sides, but ultimately I think Iran would come out the worse.

For a vaguely comparable situation, look to Ukraine. NATO is willing to arm and train Ukraine, but committing NATO soldiers involves incredibly high amounts of risk. That’s why NATO has held back, even though its conventional armed forces would have no trouble taking on Russia.

Don’t panic. Think globally, act locally. Help the next generation be better than your own. Know that successive generations are likely to keep improving. Watch the arc of history instead of despairing whenever there is backsliding or push back.

I think it’s becoming better overall, not worse. Yes, there’s a populism issue at the moment, but this is far from the first time that’s happened. We’re dealing with the introduction of an entire new means of communication, online media in general and social media more specifically. That brings all new hazards and benefits that need to be dealt with.

The era after the printing press was developed brought intellectual development, but it also sparked revolutions. Those didn’t always wind up with that right people getting into power. It took a while for society to adapt and stabilize. I expect the same will happen with Internet communication.

I’m also hopeful because studies have shown that successive generations generally improve their abilities in abstract thinking. (I’m having trouble sourcing that statement, unfortunately). That’s important for the economy because the jobs of the future will need that abstract thinking. At least in my experience, it also acts as a bulwark against bad actors because people with poorer abstract thinking abilities tend to be more gullible, at least when it comes to lies that they like.

Oh, Br’er Musk, I don’t care what you do with me, so long as you just don’t throw me in that briar patch over there.

Come on, Freedom Loving Nations like Russia don’t use them to monitor their Totally Fair and Unbiased Elections.

They pulled a bunch of emergency levers then to stabilize the ruble (and the economy as a whole). Thing is, emergency levers are emergency levers. You can’t just keep pulling them. It’s been predicted for a while that Russia would not be able to prop up its economy forever.

It tickles me pickle! Ban it post haste!

I get the point you’re trying to make, but it wouldn’t be at all out of character.

Nah, the “anti-woke” crowd is already going after Chick Fil A. They dared to have a DEI position. The horror!

Same as any strongman leader. Talking tough reliably gets votes from a certain type of voter, even if what is proposed is utterly insane.

I doubt Ukraine will demand anything less than Russia pulling out of previous held lands. Russia will doubtless demand all lands it currently occupies (and maybe even ones it claims but does not occupy). Russia’s demand could be cast as peace, though really it involves giving a massive portion of Ukraine to Russia. And if you’re thinking that might be temporary… well, just ask Finland, which lost 9% of its territory to a peace agreement in the Winter War after the Soviet Union invaded them.