It was before, but it is even moreso now if you can believe it.

Larry Ellison bought CBS and turned it into a propaganda rag.

"The Top Gun exists and he’s Iranian.'

Leave it in the index funds if you're more than 10 years away from needing it for retirement. You can use target funds to automatically dial back the risk as you get closer to retirement. But if you're awhile away from retirement, they'll be invested in stocks anyhow.

There's a decent chance that it will get cut in half at some point, and then rebound. And it will rebound because the people who have the power to shape the direction of society will guarantee that asset prices stay high, even if it fucks up a lot of other stuff in the process. And so weirdly, your 401k and IRA investments are probably one of the safer ways you can store any accumulated wealth for the long run.

If the line does not go up long term, that's probably an indication of a fundamental crisis in capitalism, and all bets are off. But I don't think it's wise to count on that, for better or worse.

The battery might swell as it ages. But it probably won't. Then the question is: do you want or need more battery life? Is it worth the $50 or so that a new battery costs? If yes, then do it. If it's always just plugged in anyways, then maybe pass.

One of the funniest criticisms I hear leveled against Zitron is that he's just a lone crank, and no-one else is saying the stuff he is. Obviously he's milking the attention he's getting (gotta get that bag), but I haven't heard any coherent responses to his claims, nor have I seen anyone else pursue even the modest degree of journalistic effort that he puts into his blog. Modern mainstream journalism is in a state of complete flatlined, and at a time when there are bigger, crazier stories than ever to discover.

I could never tell them apart as a kid. But once I saw both of them in the same context (perching on my fence) I could start telling them apart at a glance. They weirdest but most useful analogy I can think of is that Ravens are to crows what your little brother looks like pre and post puberty - bigger, stockier, rougher around the edges.

"Let's give the racist chatbot the power of life over death" (immediately murders a bunch of schoolchildren)

My bosses have been pretty okay.

With the exception of the boss who was also the owner of the business, he was a fucking nightmare. He ended up initiating a lawsuit against me a couple of years after I had left, claiming some malpractice during an install. It never went anywhere; it died after a couple of communications between our lawyers (which of course ended costing me a fair chunk of change in legal bills). You can probably imagine what this dude was like - a veneer of personability over an absolutely psychotic interior.

He's the sin eater for the entire establishment of Iran hawks who have been clamoring for decades to go to war.

A very strong agree. And it's a very universal thing to experience: much of the wisdom you develop from worldly experience is seeing and thinking about the connections between things. It's something nearly impossible to teach, and young people can't fully understand until they've experienced it.