Yeah, but I suppose even then, you probably wouldnt be hunted down by the police for slandering a random person, it would only be if you insulted someone wealthy/powerful?

Yeah, sales taxes is generally bad because it is regressive. The fact that it can capture revenue from non-locals is one of the main benefits.

The fake leather is polyurethane, which goes through hydrolysis. Basically humidity destroys the bonds.

Hopefully I can cunningham’s law a more intelligent response, but libel and defamation aren’t “illegal” as in the police will arrest you for it, it’s a civil violation, so the target of that libel would have to sue you for it.

Different countries have different bars for proving defamation. Famously, British media avoids calling drunk people drunk, and instead uses “tired and emotional” or similar, because if you say someone was drunk, but you can’t prove it, you are liable if they sue. Contrast that to the US, where if you sue someone for calling you drunk, you have to prove that they would know that they are lying.

Both methods are subject to abuse, but since suing costs money, it’s more often a weapon of the privileged, so I prefer the US method.

Not just political

That’s not a recycling symbol, it’s a “resin identification code”. They just make it looks like the recycling symbol to trick people.

You’re making a good point, but I think it’s also equally pretty weird to just dismiss a facet of someone’s humanity. It feels a little bit to me like the whole “I just pretend everyone is white”-approach.

I think there’s too much nuance to make a hard rule on it. I’ve worked with someone who’s go-to way to describe people was always ethnicity/perceived nationality-based to a weird extent, never with anything negative, but it was still jarring. Like he would say “the Bosnian guy who works with Steve” instead of "the guy who works with Steve ".

I would also find it strange if someone treated someone’s race like it was a bad word. Like, I think it would be fairly natural to say “what’s the name of the black guy who works in the shop?”, and much less natural to say “whats the name of the person in the shop who often wears black pants, and said they were a fan of that new TV show, and they said they were from Oklahoma, and …”

“East Asian” also feels needlessly specific

This might be a regionalism. In the US, someone from India wouldnt be called Asian (even though India is obviously in Asia), but (in my understanding) in UK English, “Asian” will be used for both south Asian as well as east Asian folks, so it’s probably more normal there.

I think it just comes down to which people groups migrated in the largest numbers to which place first.

The idea that we could accidentally create a superintelligence is a psy-op by the companies looking to boost their stocks.

During peak pollen season, there are a few things that really help me. One is rinsing my face after I’ve been outside for a bit, particularly if I’ve been sweaty and/or moving quickly (like running or biking).

The other has been having an air purifier in my bedroom.

In addition, Florida traditionally grows juicing oranges, while California focused on eating oranges.

I dont think most Mexican food in the US is tex-mex. Fast food like taco bell isnt tex-mex, and most taco trucks and takeout places aren’t. The main category of restaurant that seems to be largely tex-mex are sit-down places with names like “El Mariachi” that cater to non-hispanic people and advertise the cheapness of their margaritas.

Even the concept of food being “authentic” or “inauthentic” is pretty dumb. Pretty much every food short of raw foraged ingredients is the result of cultural exchange.

You could argue that an Italian cooking with chilis or tomatoes is inauthentic and that the resulting food is more Mexican than it is Italian.

Extending the concept from ingredients to techniques, you could argue that every food that relies on the cold chain (refrigerated/frozen storage and transportation) is an American food because the cold chain was created by an American.

Ah, that all makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I can see this being really useful once apps have handled all the ways people might want to shorthand things.

Actually seeing the grid makes it way easier, I think. I bet there’s a way to turn that on in the Google maps app itself.

How does that work?

V75V+8Q Paris, France

If you reach “v75v+ paris”, it’s less detailed than the full plus code, and “paris+8q” doesnt get you anything.

I would hope they minimize the use of homophones. They do use different forms of words, but the way the words are assigned, you aren’t going to have 2 really similar sounding locations in the same area. If you know someone went missing on a hike in Scotland, you’ll be able to figure out that the three words correspond to a Scottish location and not somewhere in Kenya.

It almost seems like a different use case. It seems like the plus codes are effectively like mailing addresses for places that dont have addresses (lots of countries). They still lack the ability to do clear, analog communication (e.g., over radio or just a person’s memory in a search and rescue situation).

I will say, I’ve noticed the plus codes, but never looked into them. It’s really good that they are open source and can be generated offline. Hopefully they have some adoption in other apps/devices.

The original use case, as far as I know, is helping search and rescue. Words that are easy to communicate verbally, and easy to remember, so you dont have to worry about bad radio or phone signal garbling communication. Even if your phone dies, or you dont have pen/paper, it’s easy enough to remember the three words and communicate to search and rescue after you’ve made it out to a trailhead or whatever.

Oh dang. I haven’t actually used the app in a while. It seems like the monetization of core features is a new thing?

It’s such a simple and good idea at its core, so it seems really stupid to muck it up. I guess I will just have to go back to using decimal lat/longs. At least mapping applications seem to be able to interpret those better now. For the longest time, even Google maps would just give you no results if you typed in what was obviously lat/long if you didn’t have the ° symbol and minutes/seconds.