“Very little fiber”, “Frequently have a lot of oil”, and “Relatively high in salt and sugar” aren’t a classification, they’re vibes.

“Use of Emulsifiers” is worthless. Eggs, garlic, and butter are emulsifiers.

NOVA is not about finding stuff out, it’s about creating a science-y sounding framework to replace the food pyramid.

“Real bread” meets that definition of ultra-processed. It’s a bunch of individual constituents (flour, water, yeast, etc.) that are mixed together.

You don’t even have to show the gold. Just say you saw it and it’s now in that tent over there. No you can’t go in. This is what was written on it though. Oh it’s in a language only I can read. Don’t worry, I’ll translate. Give me your wife.

Building from source is always going to come with complications. That’s why most people don’t do it. A docker compose file that ‘just’ downloads the stable release from a repo and starts running is dramatically more simple than cross-referencing all your services to make sure there are no dependency conflicts.

There’s an added layer of complexity under the hood to simplify the common use case.

Part of the problem is they exist, but not in America. Ford even makes a small EV hatchback in Europe.

You can install key and screen loggers if you want. Could even setup offsite backup and rclone it all wherever you want.

If you think a 2nd and 8th gen Toyota Hilux are the same dimensions it might be time to visit an optometrist.

A Maverick is a light truck in much the same way a 737 is a small plane. Sure there are bigger ones, but it’s a 4 door truck with a 4 foot bed that’s high enough to make loading and unloading harder than it needs to be. It’s twice the weight and almost twice the size of a 70s/80s Toyota Pickup, which is a light truck.

They “work” in much the same way having a big dude standing over the questioner’s shoulder playing with a crowbar works, they sometimes make the person being interrogated nervous. That’s it. They’re about as accurate and well regarded as phrenology.

The concept of independence can be a problem because it tends to manifest in a “I’m a lone ranger that doesn’t need anyone” mentality.

If you’re someone who generally just wants to live alone off-grid in a cabin in the woods and interact with people once a year that’s fine.

If you’re massively dependent on your neighbors and international trade and are in a self-destructive anger spiral about it because the realities of living in society damage your sense of self-worth, which has been tied to the fiction that everyone is an island, it’s an issue.

And even if they did, it doesn’t matter.

“But they have an iPhone / Computer / Telephone / Refrigerator” is a very tired trope about how people shouldn’t complain. None of those are luxury items anymore and, even if they were, someone prioritizing getting one doesn’t mean they aren’t struggling. A used or prepaid iPhone/smartphone is <$100 and necessary for even the lowest jobs and assistance programs and far more available and useful than a full computer.

That’s awesome! Hopefully AirBnB doesn’t donate a million dollars to Trump for an exemption.

I do kind of wish these things required some kind of disclosure instead of letting them pretend they’re super consumer friendly and don’t need any of that demonic regulation.

Their footnote section is doing a lot of work.

1 In some countries and regions taxes are included in the total price displayed. The total price including taxes is always displayed prior to checkout.

They also either don’t know how notations work, or the AI they’re using to generate this doesn’t because it has a separate footnote with that same sentence later on.

I would be thoroughly unsurprised if some EU or other regulation came into effect so that they have to do this, and now they’re taking credit for being consumer friendly.

For a bit.

Public institutions need and deserve public funding.

It’s possible there was a lab leak, and relevant labs should be investigated for the same reason we investigate all plane crashes, it either leads to finding gaps in processes or confirms whether or not a systemic issue was a factor. The probability has decreased as COVID has been further researched and shows more markers of a ‘natural’ development, but it’s generally beneficial to have a comprehensive audit when processes are in question.

That’s not what these people are arguing. They’re arguing that it’s China’s fault and not Trump’s. That’s it. For that to be the case it ‘must’ be a lab leak, and so they’re retroactively finding justification for how that is possible. That they’re running parallel to a reasonable line of logic for a portion of their argument does not validate their argument.

I think we’re long past trying to be prescriptive about the phrase “conspiracy theory”.

There are real conspiracies, but conspiracy theories tend to start from a place of “X must have been at fault” and work backwards from there. Which leads to endless loops of whataboutisms and excuses to try and excuse the existence of the theory at all costs instead of being interested in what actually happened.

It’ll be like the good old days before the FDA when the warning sign that food was contaminated was people dying and companies regularly put additives like sawdust in food because it made their profits better.

We tried self-regulation of all these industries. That’s why we created government regulation.

The longer it takes to find the lab origin link the higher the probability of zoonotic origin. /s

The problem with conspiracy theories is they’re non-falsifiable. That something is possible is not evidence that it is probable, that something is probable is not evidence that it happened.

Maybe a lab had something go wrong. Maybe that was because they were careless. Maybe that’s because Trump withdrew funding and oversight from the programs that helped labs like this. That should all be investigated. There’s a difference between asking for a due diligence after action report and assigning blame because “it had to be someone’s fault.”

Mathematically worse.

This is/was letting a contract expire. It’s not something that was brought up to the level of congress. Up until the last few years of supreme court decisions agencies were founded with broad powers in their domains, including discontinuing sub-programs.

That’s how it’ supposed to work. None of this has been brought to a vote, which would give Democrats the opportunity to oppose it. For “some reason” congressional Republicans are continuing their prior strategy while being a majority and having the leadership of just, not doing things.