BJones12

I believe you're touching on the idea of 'legibility'. The topic is explored in the book Seeing Like A State (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_Like_a_State).

> the level of production in the winter would be very low, and no batteries can fix that

But overbuilding can. It's already a fairly common idea.

> What's in this for the oil industry?

The ability to sell more oil at a higher price, and to lose less of the revenue as tax.

That's like saying Bernie was unpopular because he couldn't win the primary. He was very popular.

> I've lived here my whole life and while I have some level of sympathy for the sense of western alienation I feel that it's more of an identity thing that's been fomented by bad actors...

As someone who grew up in Ontario, there is a real "f*ck Alberta" mentality in the central provinces.

This Astral Codex Ten (Slate Star Codex) article is what led me to think Alberta would be better off if it separated from Canada:

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-cities-and...

As someone who grew up in Ontario, I judge this comment to be 100% accurate.

My quick search suggests that slogan only showed up in 2019.

No, the original claim was "as of April 29, 2025", which was false and will always be false.

Perhaps they should make another page for the newest claims. But again, the situation is very different than this article's headline.

As is tradition, I'll plug the latest episode of What's Going On With Shipping:

https://youtu.be/QCyB-Ym0ryk?t=947

(the timestamp links to the "May 2025 Estimate" chapter)

That's the thing...you would not be fortunate. The institution exists because it is a net benefit to humanity.

> Is there a single entity to have ever existed in the history of humanity that has more blood on its hands?

Depending on how you count, probably many. In wars, more than 98% of casualties are attributable to political wars that had no religious motivation, and fewer so of Roman Catholic motivation. So, whatever those political entities are.

A confounding factor in answering the question is that the Catholics have been around for 2000 years, and many violently bloody entities fell after comparably short periods of time. For example, the Khmer Rouge existed for 4 years and killed 3 million people, no religious entity could attain the same level of bloodshed over their long existence even if they tried, which they don't.

> If people really cared about kids, we would... prosecute priests via the legal system.

Prevost has literally said to alleged victims that they should go to the police.

Seeing as he's now head of a religion that believes none of us is perfect (Romans 3:23) it's unsurprising to think someone may allege that he is not perfect.

For the curious, search "color analysis" for a somewhat algorithmic approach to choosing clothing colors that has a cottage industry of practitioners.

> I received my initiation into the flaws of capitalism in September of 2000... a profitable company... was suddenly trading for less than half the value of our cash on hand.

This is no more a flaw of capitalism than finding a $20 NES at a garage sale.

Because you don't have to play this game. If you buy and hold long term you could ignore every news article this year and you'd be fine.

Regardless of whatever happened today, it's never a good time to buy $DJT because 1) it's not profitable and 2) holders are slowly continually liquidating in a complicated manner explained by past Money Stuff articles.

I don't think you can sell a luxury brand without a luxury story behind it. The creation of a substitute good in times of high cacao prices is the opposite of a luxury.

The profitability problem in the aviation industry was not a lack of regulation. The profitability problem was simply that there were a lot of countries pouring money into their flag-carrying airlines to enable them to operate at a loss. Since many competitors wanted to operate at a loss, the entire industry operated at a loss.

(2003)

> If history has taught us anything, outright banning them only makes them into forbidden fruit.

They may be 'forbidden fruit', but does that means that it would lead to more use of them?

Do you think people drank more in 2020 or 1920 during prohibition?

Do you think people smoked more weed in 2025 or, say, 1985 when it was less legal?

Do you think there is more gambling in 2025, or in 1925 when the laws banning it were still fresh?

I think you'll reach the conclusion that outright banning does in fact reduce the usage of the vice.

Catastrophizing may be a cognitive distortion, but it's also a behavior encouraged by certain political affiliations.

The FBI got a warrant to search his house. That's not immigration-related.

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/03/iu-professor-bloomin...

Note that while this may be first state to ban fluoride, it's not the first state to not have fluoride in the water. That would be Hawaii (effectively).

> I think it's: more comfortable/complacent societies don't care about eliminating suffering so established institutions (religious or not) just stopped caring too

This seems accurate to me. To wit: https://principiadiscordia.com/book/45.php

But instead of 'just stopped caring' I might substitute 'realize they don't have the resources or power to fix the root cause and are resigned to reducing suffering on a small scale'.

One important detail in the article, but not the headline, is:

> In short, these age patterns might be signs of secularization... However, it’s also possible that some of the age differences in religious affiliation revealed in a single survey could result from people becoming more religious as they grow older.

Here's an article from the same research firm last month that examines a different measurement: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-c...

You may want to change the name. Avid is also a very well recognized brand, and you won't rank highly for it either in search or in people's brains.

Somewhere, some poor schmuck is phoneless, sitting by a waterfall, completely unaware of how scared he is supposed to be

The only thing people love more than money is status. I suggest you start your search there.

> They're designed to make productive workers and members of society.

Let's say that is correct. Wouldn't the observed failure of school to make boys productive workers and members of society then indicate that it should be changed to meet its goal?