Colorado just had to retire a bunch of dogs because they were trained on marijuana.

What country though? Marijuana isn’t illegal in a bunch of countries and the dogs aren’t trained on it.

Yep I remember when they put that in place.

I’m pretty sure can ask for first and last in every state, but not everywhere will let landlords do first, last, and a deposit on top. That’s the case in my jurisdiction, only first and last.

I got married well after I passed the bar in Canada, thanks ✌️ have fun in life.

Are you suggesting parents’ bank accounts are correlated to their children’s success rather than a cause then? I just find Reddit loves to say money is a direct cause of x or y, but just as often it’s not.

Maybe it’s weird to attribute my success to genetics. But here’s the way I see it: I have worked my ass off to be successful, but there are plenty of other people who have or are going to work just as hard as me and not achieve the same success simply because I placed well in the genetics lottery (in terms of many of society’s predictors of financial success in a Western society). So we (husband and I) try to keep this in mind in the way we donate our money and vote, while at the same time I resist this idea that most successful people in American society bought their way there. There are the super notable exceptions, but generally I find the biggest predictor to just be genetics plus a stable enough home environment.

I’m sure you can’t totally believe this though…

My husband’s parents were Polish immigrants with PhDs. Mom got cancer within a year of arriving in the US and died. Dad’s English was kind of shit so he couldn’t keep a job at his level and struggled to pay the bills as a single father. Both husband and sister-in-law went to Ivy League schools on scholarship/loans. These kinds of stories aren’t uncommon for immigrants who have a lot of brains and no money.

Matter of fact, even with me, both my parents are educated but fucking stupid with money and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars getting grifted repeatedly. I have gone on to be modestly successful, no thanks to their money, but thanks for the genetics mom and dad 🙏

But when the snoot dares to boop back… SJXHGKENF!!

Men were not abundant then either!

It’s heavily implied that they weren’t actually related to Ike by blood, but their parents would have made it appear so to Poe.

It is an interesting question if an aunt by marriage would get priority in custody if you’ve never even met. I’m actually a lawyer lol but not a family lawyer. Just going off what I remember from the bar, custody would be determined based off the best interests of the child. If goes to a non-blood aunt meant that they remain in a similar cultural setting to what they grew up in, then that might be in favor of her.

However, I forget, is Justice Strauss from the same city they grew up in? The stability of staying in the same city would heavily be in favor of her in that regard. And Violet and Klaus’s opinions would be taken into account.

In a little bit of defense, Monty from the second book was made out in documentation to be an uncle of theirs, as well as the late Ike, husband to Josephine.

But of course, it’s very ridiculous that they don’t return to the idea of Justice Strauss after those two don’t, erm, work out. And Poe’s ideas just get more and more outlandish compared to Justice Strauss as the series goes on. So that does require suspension of disbelief. But the plot begins to get much more interesting and complicated as the books go on, so it’s not too difficult to forget about.

My thoughts on this series are that the beginning was absolutely unexpected, and I didn’t love it. I think I will watch the rest of the show though.

Mental health care is essentially privatized in Canada. It’s terrible. You can’t really get care here unless you have someone actively advocating for you, sometimes not even then. Most of the mentally ill are in jail or on the streets, just like in the US. Only difference is that the jail sentences are shorter in Canada.

There are other differences too, as a Canadian now living in the US. The discussions around school districts here is out of control. The budgets for schools is tied to the average taxpayer, so the poor get worse education and the rich get better education, and the disparities grow. There is no maternity leave here. And the guns, like was mentioned. There remain many benefits to Canada.

Yes! I’m on this too. I’ve been on the list in Canada for 16 years and haven’t been contacted yet, and recently on the US list. I tell everyone too!

US: bethematch.org Canada: blood.ca

Huh? They send you a kit and you swab inside your mouth and send it back to them according to the instructions. In the US it’s bethematch.org. In Canada it’s at blood.ca. Not sure about other countries.

I replied to OP, but reposting here as a general comment.

I don’t think this article is particularly well reasoned. He takes three very different scenarios and tries to weave them into one thesis, when in fact only one of those scenarios is relevant to his point and the data doesn’t support it.

His theory is that people prefer robots over humans because they might be “opinionated.” To support this he cites his anecdote about empty human cash registers and line ups to use the self-checkout, and a woman says she likes self-checkout so she won’t be judged by the cashier. Yet the author cites a source that only 1/3 people prefer self-checkout to a cashier, so this point doesn’t support his thesis.

He cites preference of speed cameras over cops and even acknowledges the real danger people have interacting with police… reducing this to fear of interacting with an “opinionated” person is disingenuous and frankly a little offensive. Does not support the thesis.

He cites preference for autonomous AI military pilots who are not afraid to “die.” Obviously this is a massive military advancement, both strategically and simply preserving human life. Nothing to do with the thesis of “opinionated” people.

Self-driving cars versus cabbies/Uber eliminates real risk of sexual assault. Not relevant to the thesis. There might be something there for people who simply like having the freedom to choose the music/podcast, but we have no data for that.

As for the comment about mental disorders and creativity… yes I am bipolar and yes we are tremendously creative, thank you thank you. Unfortunately we die prematurely in vast numbers on account of our disorder if it’s untreated. However, our disorder makes us quite attractive in the early days and thus we tend to procreate before our disorder really takes over and ruins lives and bipolar stays in the gene pool.

What are you implying when you say eliminate mental illness/mental disorder? This is a really interesting discussion that’s pretty unrelated to the article you posted but I would need more defining. To be clear, no one has a f**king clue what causes bipolar most of the time. It is guesswork to treat the symptoms, which are what define the presence of the disorder or not. The underlying causes are unknown, so it’s not a matter of hitting a gene switch.

Are we talking eugenics? Evil robot overloads massacring us? Or just treated and more healthy? Given that we procreate, how is it going to be eliminated?

Second last point, a person can remain mentally disordered and be not mentally ill. My disorder is very well managed and I am no more “ill” than maybe someone with a temper. I am currently not as prolific/productive in art or academics now as I was when I was ill and untreated, however I would be dead by now if I wasn’t treated so every year it continues to pay off for society. My quality of life is also better (obviously, I’m alive).

Finally, if a cure to mental disorder was an option, it’s not up to society to decide whether or not it’s “worth it” to take or not, pitting their productivity against their life. It’s a decision for the disordered people to make. I know most would take it. Would it be a bummer for the world to not have “the Nutcracker” and other works? Sure. But Tchaikovsky was also utterly miserable 10/12 months of the year and if there was a cure for his disorder then who are we to deny it? And we don’t know that he couldn’t write it while healthy.

I don’t think this article is particularly well reasoned. He takes three very different scenarios and tries to weave them into one thesis, when in fact only one of those scenarios is relevant to his point and the data doesn’t support it.

His theory is that people prefer robots over humans because they might be “opinionated.” To support this he cites his anecdote about empty human cash registers and line ups to use the self-checkout, and a woman says she likes self-checkout so she won’t be judged by the cashier. Yet the author cites a source that only 1/3 people prefer self-checkout to a cashier, so this point doesn’t support his thesis.

He cites preference of speed cameras over cops and even acknowledges the real danger people have interacting with police… reducing this to fear of interacting with an “opinionated” person is disingenuous and frankly a little offensive. Does not support the thesis.

He cites preference for autonomous AI military pilots who are not afraid to “die.” Obviously this is a massive military advancement, both strategically and simply preserving human life. Nothing to do with the thesis of “opinionated” people.

Self-driving cars versus cabbies/Uber eliminates real risk of sexual assault. Not relevant to the thesis. There might be something there for people who simply like having the freedom to choose the music/podcast, but we have no data for that.

As for the comment about mental disorders and creativity… yes I am bipolar and yes we are tremendously creative, thank you thank you. Unfortunately we die prematurely in vast numbers on account of our disorder if it’s untreated. However, our disorder makes us quite attractive in the early days and thus we tend to procreate before our disorder really takes over and ruins lives and bipolar stays in the gene pool.

What are you implying when you say eliminate mental illness/mental disorder? This is a really interesting discussion that’s pretty unrelated to the article you posted but I would need more defining. To be clear, no one has a f**king clue what causes bipolar most of the time. It is guesswork to treat the symptoms, which are what define the presence of the disorder or not. The underlying causes are unknown, so it’s not a matter of hitting a gene switch.

Are we talking eugenics? Evil robot overloads massacring us? Or just treated and more healthy? Given that we procreate, how is it going to be eliminated?

Second last point, a person can remain mentally disordered and be not mentally ill. My disorder is very well managed and I am no more “ill” than maybe someone with a temper. I am currently not as prolific/productive in art or academics now as I was when I was ill and untreated, however I would be dead by now if I wasn’t treated so every year it continues to pay off for society. My quality of life is also better (obviously, I’m alive).

Finally, if a cure to mental disorder was an option, it’s not up to society to decide whether or not it’s “worth it” to take or not, pitting their productivity against their life. It’s a decision for the disordered people to make. I know most would take it. Would it be a bummer for the world to not have “the Nutcracker” and other works? Sure. But Tchaikovsky was also utterly miserable 10/12 months of the year and if there was a cure for his disorder then who are we to deny it? And we don’t know that he couldn’t write it while healthy.

Well shit now I’m a little homesick. I’m from the North Shore and won’t be home for Christmas. Some people (cough my spouse) don’t understand the appeal of this place. The total remoteness… the world gets quieter and you can just hear your own heart and thoughts… gah. Getting more content living in the PWN (also incredible wilderness) but northern Minnesota is special.

The origin of “the West” terminology is 2000 years old, well before the rest of the world knew about the Americas. If you’re not aware of this I can see your confusion, but Europe has been the West for a looong time, and North America and Australia/New Zealand became considered extensions of that through colonization.