Discussing things with colleagues is also how you build collaborative networks. I'm trying to get out of the habit of searching for all information myself and engaging in more discussions with coworkers. I'm perfectly capable of searching information out myself. If I'm asking a question, it's a sign of respect, and shows that I am interested in the person's experience with the topic, and in nuance and context. I want to learn from them. If you offload the answer to AI, it's disrespectful to yourself more than anything--you don't even value your own expertise!

It's more like asking someone to use a toilet when they have a perfectly good set of pants they're wearing, already on them. Thinking is what makes you human, don't give it up so easily.

The sabot of the AI era. Love it.

Correct, PMMA is completely harmless. MMA is an incredibly common adhesive, and is in probably a dozen things in the room you are sitting in in its polymerized form.

I would be interested to know how much of that is scrap from cutting out patterns. That should be very easy to recycle, I'd think.

I had a teen whose main device was an iPad 4ish years ago and now a tween whose main device is a Windows laptop. I like Windows' implementation better--it's more granular when it comes to site access on Edge, and allows time limits in specific programs rather than categories of apps. I remember some apps that were clearly games had themselves listed as education apps.

You can do specific apps on Apple too, though. You can select the entire category, or expand it and select individual apps.

If you're getting profits, it's an avenue for bribery.

"Hey Ka$h, can we have a quick discussion about my federal racketeering case? Btw I just purchased 10000 $40 shirts from your store to give away."

And we all know that being a high profile politician isn’t an avenue for bribery. /s

I disagree. I think the caliber of public employee, and their integrity, would be much higher if they were "only" allowed to collect their salary.

No state employee would be allowed to run a business like this while employed where I live (sapphire-blue New England state FWIW). Government positions are fairly, but not extravagantly, compensated, prestigious and come with excellent benefits. They should not be an avenue for accumulation of riches. It clearly does not work well and we're not getting the country's best.

The person should also work for minimum wage, since that is a sign that the welfare of the community is more important than the employee's own. Perhaps weekly self immolation sessions would take that up a notch? What about divesting one's family because they might take attention away from important government work?

The roughly $200k/year that department heads, congress, etc get is hardly minimum wage. No one is even suggesting they should lose the assets they've built up, just that they shouldn't be allowed to own a business while serving the public.

You’re not even going to try to argue in good faith, are you? No one suggested anything close to what you’re saying.

These systems aren't in place by accident. The US doesn't typically purchase roasted coffee beans or chocolate bars from South America either.

Roasted coffee loses flavor after roasting.

Chocolate requires various ingredients to make that changes the characteristics of the chocolate. It also, famously, doesn't ship well.

Copper ingots, however, weigh less than copper ore and if they are actually too low quality they can be resmelted into a more pure level.

The only reason I can think of why you might actually want the ore is you also want and are extracting other secondary minerals.

I took the parent comment to mean, what would Terry have made if he wasn't crazy and didn't make a God-themed novelty OS?