Fun fact: in both world wars, Germany was absolutely dependent upon Swedish iron ore to produce high-quality steel. In WWI, it was only the High Seas Fleet of battleships and battlecruisers that prevented the Royal Navy from sailing into the Baltic and choking off this supply and ending the war (an under-appreciated reason for Germany building all those capital ships in the first place while being generally unwilling to risk losing them all in a major fleet engagement). In WWII, it was Hitler's quick occupation of Norway and the Luftwaffe that preserved the supply of Swedish ore.

Germany was also critically dependent upon Swedish ball-bearings, but at least Sweden sold those to both sides.

Germany was one of the world leaders in science and technology in the early 1900s all the way up to WWII

One of the greatest ironies of WWI is that going into the war, British and French propellants and explosive charges for artillery made extensive use of synthetic chemicals purchased from Germany, while German artillery propellants relied on guano from South America. The British Navy immediately choked off German supplies of foreign guano (and obviously France and Britain could no longer purchase German chemicals) leading to the so-called "shell crisis" that afflicted all sides with severe artillery shortages after the first few months of the war exhausted their stockpiles.

"Fortunately," all the combatants quickly found substitutes and ramped up production, allowing them to slaughter each other in enormous numbers for years more. Another fun fact: during WWI, approximately 260 artillery shells were fired for each soldier killed (and only about 2/3 of all dead soldiers were killed by artillery).

he’s been selling the AI kool aid for so long that he actually believes his own bullshit

I worked for an Internet startup in the '90s and at one point we were sucking up to R. J. Reynolds' venture capital division for more funding. This tobacco company had so much fucking money they had actually branched out into venture capitalism to do something with it. The VCs came to visit us one day; we were in a non-smoking office and these assholes spent the entire day literally chain-smoking in the meeting room. We had not much ventilation and the smoke was so thick you couldn't see to the end of the hallway. I kept walking past the meeting room and loudly coughing and my bosses eventually sent me home.

We ended up not getting any money from them. The only good part of this story is that these guys have all surely died horrible deaths from cancer or emphysema by now. But in order to sell the lie that cigarettes aren't harmful, these R. J. Reynolds executives had first convinced themselves of it. The human capacity for self-delusion is truly remarkable.

Even if the shit happened immediately his followers wouldn't care.

The person I actually am hits the snooze button 26 times in a row.

People come here to hoard broken cars & ripped tarps

Not to mention the enormous, life-changing $1700 per year of oil money everybody gets.

Just curious, how can UBI be implemented in a way that doesn’t result in hyperinflation?

I don't know - and we're never going to find out, in the United States at least. I may support UBI but that doesn't mean it's not the biggest pipe dream in the history of pipe dreams.

Also, "assistance" is something that is given out of the kindness of your (or the government's) heart and that the recipient should feel gratitude (and/or have to grovel) for. "Welfare" is seen as something the recipient is entitled to as a right. FWIW I support a UBI that is adequate for food and shelter and the necessities of life - as an entitlement for everybody.

I got paddled once at school in 6th grade (this was in the '70s when they still did that shit). Two whacks for talking during class or maybe it was because my desk was messy. The teacher let me choose between two paddles (an evil all by itself) and I foolishly chose the one with holes drilled in it (which leads to greater whack speed and less surface area hit). She took me out in the hall and her first blow missed badly - hit me on my hamstrings behind my knees and they kept hurting for days. She said "oh that one doesn't count" and hit me on my ass twice more.

Weirdly enough, she had marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era and played his "I Have a Dream" speech for the class (not on the say day as my paddling, though).

I've done some bicycle-only stretches in my life. It's funny how literally every person I knew assumed I'd gotten my driver's license suspended for DUIs.

Which highlights the utter insanity of food delivery services: you're paying $10 to $20 extra to have food that is already shitty and overpriced brought to you in an even worse condition.

Oh, we're weary all right.