> rant about how open source is wage theft and value extraction by unscrupulous third parties is built in and unavoidable

Yes, I came to realize the same thing about open source, it was created with lofty ideals, but the practice is just the opposite. Of course, most people will not agree with this conclusion since the whole industry will tell them otherwise.

do you honestly think pasteurization does anything to prevent viral transmission

I would think that once enforcement becomes automated (and thus applies to those with resources, who currently get away with it), there would be a lot of pressure on the legislature (by those who currently get away with it) to make the rules better. Legislatures can move fast, but only when they're motivated. e.g. if every NYC taxi suddenly got a ticket every time they stopped in the street to pick up a passenger, those laws would be updated very quickly.

I'm simply pointing out the relative frequency of these incidents, that's all.

> If we had an organization responsible and capable of preventing MRSA deaths

MRSA is known for spreading in hospital settings. Hospitals are supposed to prevent this from happening, but it is hard.

I just had a really stupid thought, after finishing reading the article.

So, the electron is an elementary particle, right? Compared to the proton, the electron is "simple", yes?

Despite this difference in complexity, an electron has a charge of -e and a proton has a charge of +e. They are exactly complementary regarding charge (if I am understanding right, I am not a smart person).

my question is... why? why must protons and electrons be perfectly complementary regarding charge? if the proton is this insanely complex thing, by what rule does it end up equaling exactly the opposite charge of an electron? why not a charge of +1.8e, or +3e, or 0.1666e, etc? Certainly it is convenient that a proton and electron complement each other, but what makes that the case? Does this question even make sense?

so, there's a concept of a "positron", which I can understand - of course it has charge +e, it is the "opposite" of an electron. it is an anti-electron. at least that makes some kind of sense. but a proton is made up of this complex soup of other elementary particles following all these crazy rules, and yet it also ends up being exactly +e.

US-only. What if my EU data is found in US-based data brokers?

It's fascinating that I have to pay to get my data removed from datasets into which they got without my consent (well, my consent "is not worth much" IMHO) and somebody else gets paid to put my data into this dataset.

So I need to pay to get something I never wanted in the first place.

To highlight the untold level of harm Apple caused, I now realise this event stopped me reading for years.

I loved ebooks and my reading went way up. They were cheaper than paperbacks and cheap enough that I was making curiosity and impulse purchases. The problem with digital sales is that unlike a bookshop, I could not browse and take a book from the shelf and start reading and get hooked.

Once ebooks suddenly jumped in price and absurdly became more expensive than paperbacks, I was done, and didn't buy a book for years. You might try and argue this was irrational, but when I feel I am being scammed, my wallet stays in my pocket. I will indeed cut off my nose to spite an asshole.