That’s it folks, close it all down, we just peaked.

We’ll agree to disagree I think - unless you are a specialist in anthropology (a doctorate perhaps?), in which case I’m happy to cede my position to your expertise.

Scholars, the real deal, are rare for a reason - few people choose knowledge over wealth and power. There lies the crux of the matter, since anyone who pursues the other two paths would be the antithesis of the system so designed.

It’s a nice model, but it runs too counter to human nature to work; and there is precious little (if anything) that can change the nature of a species as expansive as humanity.

It has always been so really - it’s a clever strategy really. It ensures you can be easily branded if you opposed it “don’t you care about online safety for children”, and ensures it remains in place as “government removes online safety for children” is a powerful piece of propaganda.

I keep meaning to team up with a sociologist and write a piece on this particular tactic; alas time gets away from me!

I’m just going to leave this here…

https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk/

Huh, neat. So as a percentage of the population, drivers break the law more often, and it is always more dangerous when they do.

Any chance of a link to those stats for the UK? It’ll be great to show my students.

I think that depends on country…

“Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on shared use cycle tracks and to horse riders on bridleways.” - nope, you hear a bell you dodge as they’re not slowing down. Happens every time I use a shared path.

“Only pedestrians may use the pavement. Pedestrians include wheelchair and mobility scooter users.” - nope, we get plenty mounting the pavement illegally; again, you hear a bell and you dodge. Happens 1–2 times a day on my trip to work.

I reckon people in a hurry just bend the rules more readily than people taking their time.

“…to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them…”

Hey, that sounds really familiar!

1. Add censorship for mods containing adult (sexual) content.

2. Slowly move the bar so that more content falls under definition of “adult” (themes of violence, LGBTQ+ themes).

3. Continue to move the bar until desired level of censorship is obtained.

Well done, you’ve used moral panic to control your media.

Dark futures aside, why do I think that folks are just going to VPN their way in?

Honestly, I am a little scarred from snap.

Otherwise I’m agnostic on flatpaks - I’ve used a couple and they’re ok? They just remind me of old windows games that dump all their libraries in a folder with them.

On a modern system the extra space and loss of optimisation is ok, but on older hardware or when you’re really trying to push your system to run something it technically shouldn’t, I can see it being an issue.

Not to mention teachers (it steals our lessons and tutoring work), writers (it steals their work and rehashes it), musicians (music generation is a thing), programmers (so many code snippets, so few coding jobs), and many more.

So, long (long) term gamer here. Case in point, partner went out for dinner with a friend so I just sunk 6 hours into an old favourite (a game older than my students).

A relationship is a two way street - sometimes you do need that space for a solo hobby, other times your partner needs you. You find that balance, but not always.

Sometimes a partner wants too much alone time, sometimes they never let you be alone. Neither of partner is a bad person, it’s just a difference found in people.

The best advice is to have a chat, negotiate a little, find a middle ground where you’re both happy. My partner wanted a bit more physical affection, I wanted a bit less verbal, we found a happy mix. If you’re burning for a talk, maybe write down what you want to say to get your thoughts clear, think about your wants and needs, then have a friendly chat over tea (or video game genocide - you’d be amazed).

A genuinely heart warming story that deals with strong themes of love and friendship in a way that made a genuine impact?

Undertale.

Not my Latin ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpe_Jugulum?wprov=sfla1

If we’re going by carpe jugulum rules - yes.

Ah, so we’d be turning in twice as many illegal copies? Sounds like good citizenship!

And when this measure fails to protect children and, instead, becomes a data security nightmare, another scheme will be proposed to further erode the freedoms the web brings.

I look forward to hearing about the workarounds kids find.

Remember, copying a film or picture is theft, so technically a copied thing is an object in its own right. A copy of bald JD is an illegal object.

Also, remember, if you find something illegal or stolen, you should be turning it in to the authorities.

Sounds to me like people should be emailing these in so they can be safely disposed of…

So, this one is a bit controversial but, when something doesn’t work try running it from terminal.

Unlike windows, Linux doesn’t tend to do “pop up errors”. Running in terminal gives these alerts, and can often give you a hint as to why it isn’t working - be it a missing library, a permission error, or something internal you can quickly search. Usually, someone has a fix!

My short stories may not be amazing, but at least I wrote them.