I don’t know why you are getting downvoted but I’m guessing that a lot of people don’t know about/understand that undetectable = untransmittable. It is generally seen as safe to have unprotected sex with someone whose viral load is suppressed to the point of being undetectable. Of course you need to believe that’s the case, informed consent is still important, and it’s probably a good idea for the negative party to be on prep, but the fact that the likelihood of transmission is so low if someone is undetectable is widely accepted in medicine and widely known in the LGBTQ+ community at this point.
This line of thinking peeks through all the time from otherwise intelligent people. Merely mentioning how heinous a crime was when we're talking about the guilt or innocence of a suspect should immediately kill your credibility. Too bad the criminal justice system doesn't care about that.
Genuinely curious, how so? This is what I see being reported in major news outlets. Thousands injured, including the families of low ranking officials who happened to be at home together when it happened.
I've worked at two companies that are heavy on former Amazon leaders.
As leaders do (and should!) they are often sharing stories of how they approached similar problems in their past roles. What I find to be interesting is how different people across time weave the same caveat into everything they say about their time at Amazon - some version of "...but keep in mind, that isn't the kind of culture we are trying to build here."
A lot of the criticism I'm seeing isn't balanced against the fact that a huge number of people die every day (in developed nations including mine) because of their inability to pay has hindered their access to medications and procedures.
This is probably an unpopular opinion and I don't know if it applies in this case, but I'm pretty convinced that a lot of instances like this are social contagions running wild.
Every few years in the city I live in there's a sudden uptick in reports of drinks getting spiked at local bars. I've seen the mere suggestion that there's a risk of heightened risk of getting roofied at a bar make otherwise intelligent people paranoid or start using it as an excuse for their over-indulgence. And of course, there is never any concrete evidence - nothing shows up in bloodwork, nobody is ever caught doing it... the chatter just eventually fades away.
This is obviously a different situation, but I'm weary of the massive scope this has taken on with so little concrete evidence that anything was actually happening. Maybe I'm totally wrong, or maybe it was a real phenomenon that many others hitched onto later on (seems even more plausible.) The point is that we seem to increasingly discount how much incentives and social dynamics play a role in situations like this.
Add me to the list. There are enough great choices with more becoming available each month that there’s no reason to paint his fence. The minute I can take possession of an R2 and sell my model Y I’m done with Tesla forever. It’s also a real shame because it’s the best car I’ve ever owned - but that in no way outweighs my desire to not be a rolling advertisement for Elon.
What I find funny is that Teslas high profile investors repeatedly and completely dismiss this effect as being insignificant, but anecdotally I do think it’s a large portion of Tesla’s owners.
It’s also not like he has traded one customer base for another. The conservatives he’s trying to cozy up to seem just as anti-EV as ever.
Anyone who takes a drug every day has had this thought and quickly moved past this narrow point of view.
We all want to live long, healthy lives, and whether we like to admit it or not, the human body isn't built to match our modern expectations for longevity. If you plan to live a long and comfortable life, taking multiple drugs every day is in your future. For some of us it comes sooner than it does for others.
Something else not mentioned here - there’s a strong incentive for both guests and hosts to use Airbnb as a way to find each other but not to book. I’m a host and I regularly get direct reach-outs from people who have found my listing on Airbnb, googled the name of my house, and reach out asking to book directly with me. Returning guests who did book through the platform always come back to me directly. Airbnb doesn’t deserve $200 from them and $100 from me for doing next to nothing.
This isn’t a sign that STRs are in trouble, people have been renting their second homes for a hundred years. This is a sign that the platforms are reaping what they sowed.
Most of the complaints you hear about Airbnb come off as off-the-shelf repeats of things people have read on social media. If you read reviews and pay attention to the listing there's little risk of having a bad experience or being surprised by a fee (which is extremely common at hotels.)
All that being said, if you actually get to the point where you need to engage Airbnb or Vrbo for help, they are actively harmful to the situation. The people on the other end of the phone or live chat don't have a single clue what is going on.
For what it's worth I see a similar trend in the US. I'm in a few neighborhood/city Facebook groups in different places and over the past year or so there does seem to be a new, reasonable consensus of opinion against divisive topics or offensive/rude behavior. Posts have taken a turn toward being people-oriented (e.g., this person needs your help) and utilitarian (recommendations for tradespeople.) Angry, overly political, or confrontational posts are quickly called out or deprived of engagement. It's refreshing!
Agree, I don't think product-market fit is the problem here. A lot of the takes here assume they need to attract top talent and they don't. There's a very long tail of popular-ish, C and D list celebrities who can command $50-$250 a video. There's a business that can work, though I agree it could never command the insane valuation it had at the peak. There's also a reasonably good likelihood that their costs aren't well managed.
This was my immediate question. I'm also curious what in terms of services these vendors actually layer on top of any other phone system. There's clearly a payment processing layer where inmates can store credit to make calls, but are these systems otherwise that different from what would be offered by any other telecom vendor?
The Reserve stores are absolutely fantastic (and twice the price.) The Seattle location was the first one I had ever been to. Sadly it seemed to me like they stopped growing the concept... the one in Palm Springs is really just an ordinary Starbucks despite being branded as a Reserve, and they pulled the plug on an intended opening in Boston a few years back.
I don't have a problem with profit motive at all, but I think it's completely valid to point out situations where it's taken to an extreme that destroys the brand or puts it in a vulnerable position, which is arguably being done to Starbucks in my opinion.
I think there’s some truth to the notion that they’ve done this in markets and stores where they are more likely to have a problem with homelessness and non-paying customers. I’ve seen first hand how much time and energy some Starbucks employees have to put in to waking people up who are sleeping in the store, cleaning themselves in the bathrooms, or trying to bring in a cart full of their belongings. Goes without saying (in my opinion) that it’s sad and a failing of society, but it also has to be a real problem for Starbucks.
This is an aside, but my how far has Starbucks fallen at the hands of profit optimization. A Starbucks used to be a great place to spend time. Today the interior of almost every Starbucks is cold, beat up, and (intentionally?) uncomfortable. (In the stores where they even still have seating, which another commenter pointed out.) The quality of the product is barely a step above a gas station.
On the other hand, my area has a few excellent locally owned options that are so important to me. When I think about Starbucks vs. one of those locally owned shops, it reminds me just how much a rich tapestry of small businesses in a neighborhood can transform it for the better. Starbucks had that going for a it for a short while.
In the US at least, the practice of owning and renting a home isn't something that Airbnb invented - it's something people have been doing for many many decades. And while it might have been a reasonable critique that Airbnb skirted regulations in its early days, the practice is almost always heavily regulated where it is allowed today.
This resonates deeply with me right now because I’m very acutely aware of how different my communication style is and when/where it’s holding me back (socially and in my career.) I have a lot of frustration that other people seem to have such rigid expectations for how they need to be communicated with; at the same time I know I’m the outlier. Trying to “fix” this also just makes it worse.
Something I’ve recently come to realize is that certain, uh, substances make this problem literally evaporate away for me. For a few hours I can connect with people in a way that feels natural and expected and that they will notice and call out as different. It’s led me to think of my “communication differences” more like layers that can be peeled away than something that is completely ingrained in me.
My doctor’s office handled the insurance approvals once I told them I was interested in switching me off oral PreP. I go to a pretty large practice that specializes in working with LGBTQ folks and one of the big advantages is they tend to be pretty good at figuring stuff like this out quickly.
I think the GLP-1s are subcutaneous injections - tiny, tiny needles you can stick in a variety of locations - Apertude is intramuscular, it’s a much larger needle, I’m guessing there’s some level of skill involved.
We’ve been on the road to this for a while, and it’s so exciting to see. I switched to injectable prep a few months ago to avoid having to take a daily pill - it’s an injection once every two months, and my doctor told me that the guidance might soon change to once every three months.
It sounds simple but for a lot of people it’s not a trivial thing to take a pill every day or adhere to a strict appointment schedule to get an injection. I’d imagine that adoption & compliance goes way up if it’s that much easier.
I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in the comments section on TikTok, and it gives me a tiny morsel of hope. It’s increasingly common to see people pointing out commenters that are likely either bots or users that are simply rage baiting. Yes it gets thrown around as an insult sometimes, but it’s often applied in situations where I think it’s correct too. It’s a tiny sign to me that discourse does shift and people are becoming more social media literate over time.
I'll offer a counterpoint - I live in a nice building in a bit of a rougher part of a major city. I've learned that the police do show up thankfully, but it takes a very long time unless there's literally a life on the line. (Which, I know, is better than some other major cities.)
The couple of times I've interacted with them, it's been painfully obvious to me that they feel like they need to put on a performance for me, even if it's clear that it's an unsolvable crime. (In both cases, it was a property crime worth reporting, but also one with literally no evidence to follow up on.) I honestly wonder if some of the less well resourced people in my neighborhood even get a similar time of day from the police - my impression is that they probably don't.
Started using this about a month ago out of frustration with the consistently poor experience I was having with another mail order pharmacy. When you take a medication daily you want it to take as little mental bandwidth as possible. Having to call an 800 number every month or two to verify some inane details at the request of my old pharmacy was enough to get me to look for an alternative. So far this is exactly the kind of experience I’d expect and want… zero drama, all online management, extremely quick delivery.
It's perfectly reasonable for me to make a determination and offer my first hand experience about Autopilot's capabilities relative to that of my own and that of other drivers I see on the road.
Accidents might be long-tail phenomenon but driving habits are observable. Autopilot has a consistent, safe, alert demeanor on the road. It reacts to vehicles I as a driver can't as quickly see, changing situations that it would take me an extra half second or more to react to.
Compare that to the average human driver on the road - a third or more of whom you can expect to see holding a phone - and I think it's a reasonable conclusion to say it's already at least marginally better. And if we are talking about accidents, you can't deny that people are generally terrible at choosing the best possible reaction to an emergency situation that happens in the space of a few seconds.