In the history of mathematics, -1 was understood waaaay before 0.

For the Greeks, doing 1-1 would be invalid, something close to dividing by zero for us.

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in word. --Jean-Paul Sartre

Iran has a history of using international terrorism, and the US has just re-affirmed themselves as “the great Satan”, Iran’s primary enemy.

While it might be the least bad outcome, it is arguably not cause for celebration. Even if you don’t like Trump.

Trump is like 100 years old. There is no endgame but dying pretty soon, there is only the mental disorder of some kind of horder syndrom, accumulating resources he does not really need for no good reason.

The adult version still have plenty of face wrinkles. If it was botox, those wouldn’t be there, right?

The idea of psychological pricing is that the price is perceived lower. But as you imply, the price is in the image is (to me at least) perceived higher, with all the 9s. Especially the 99 cents seem counterproductive to include…

The one-term Biden economy wasn’t sturdy enough yet to withstand their bullshit as well.

IIRC it was said that the economy at the end of Biden’s term was amazing.

Trump has been uniquely economically irresponsible. Stuff like the tariffs changing every week is just insanely stupid.

Are we sure they don’t just mean that you can’t use the Amazon store to download new books? I know that is not what they literally write, but it is likely what they mean.

I agree that Google removing “don’t be evil” is bad. But mentioning that change in this context is a non sequitur.

So not giving away 15GB of free storage is evil? How does that even work…?

I thought being evil was about doing, like, evil things?

The war powers resolution failed 49 to 50 as the Pennsylvanian was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans who control the Senate. Three Republicans — U.S. Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky; Susan Collins, of Maine; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska — voted with Democrats.

Saying that Fetterman’s vote was deciding is silly, when it was a 49 to 50 vote - every vote was deciding.

And the Republican dissenter votes are purely performative. They pull this shit all the time, with the same persons. Who would never vote against their party, if the vote could truly fail. Especially Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski do this all the time. Hence the people here blaming the Democrats for being captured are sheep being tricked by the Republican performance.

The old Republican party died a long time ago - with Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

Submarine cables exist because it is superior

Submarine cables are usually cheaper and simpler at intercontinental scale, especially because they avoid negotiating rights-of-way across many countries. But unlike oil tankers, internet traffic is not physically constrained to the Strait of Hormuz itself. Capacity could be rerouted over terrestrial fiber links around the Gulf if the economics changed enough.

The bigger issue would probably be the time, permits, and infrastructure investment needed to build enough alternative land routes. Not any physical impossibility of carrying the signals over land. The cables themselves are likely pretty cheap.

And permits should be quite easy to come by, in the empty desert of the Arabian peninsula.

But Iran would be pissing off everybody - for example China and India. Not just the US.

War is pissing other people off. But does Iran want to be at war with all other countries in the world?

Seems pretty short term gain for Iran by pissing everybody off.

Because surely the cables can relatively easily be rerouted over land, instead of paying Iran’s tolls. Unlike the tankers, the Internet signals do not need to go though the water.

And how would Iran even justify forbidding the cables from going through the part of the strait which is not their territorial waters? The same way Iran “justifies” forbidding ships from doing that? - as in, no real attempt at a moral or legal justification.

Maybe. But the future is hard to predict, so maybe not. So no reason to burn the bridges under Trump, unless we have to.

And even if it is only temporary, Russia is threatening to invade Europe now. So even a temporary 4 years reprieve under a Democrat President would be hugely valuable.

But she is a woman. Isn’t a woman having a job DEI per definition, according to Republicans?

And doesn’t stuff like that operate on a “need to know” basis? What does she need to know?

And if it is a paid position, what are the chances that she was the most qualified candidate, and it is not nepotism?

I don’t know why the U.S. gets shit for using the system that our colonial overlords forced us to use in the first place.

When America was colonized, the metric system did not exist. Saying that your “colonial overlords” forced it on you is silly - there were no better options at the time.

In fact, the metric system was created after US independence. So the US can only blame itself for not adapting it, unlike the UK which mostly adapted it.

92 years old, obviously doesn’t have all his marbles, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Major “weekend at Bernie’s” energy here.