Pleasing the copyright holders. I don’t know how it is for the Dutch national library, but with a system used by many libraries in the US there’s a cost to the library based on the number of times it’s checked out, so more revenue for the copyright holder and the digital middle man. Allowing you to have the e-book indefinitely would be, at least in their minds, no different than giving it away. 🤷

I think they even made a new department for that. I bet that waste will be resolved in no time!

Trump and co haven’t ordered sexual harassment training to stop? I’m genuinely surprised.

They also call themselves “the party of law and order”, but made a convicted felon their king. They also say they favor “small government”, but try to use the government to dictate what people can do with their own bodies. They also say they’re defenders of free speech, but then call the news media “the enemy of the people”. They also portray themselves as the party of Christianity, but actively try to do everything the opposite of what Jesus Christ taught.

The Republican party isn’t known for being honest.

I needed a laugh. Let me know when you publish your first novel; I’ll be pre-ordering it.

And make it abundantly clear to everyone that you’re not suicidal. Record videos with date stamps. Send date stamped letters by mail to friends, with instructions to retain the letters indefinitely, and perhaps which are clearly marked “to be opened in the event of my death”. The letters should say something along the lines of “I am not suicidal. I do not want to die. I am not going to kill myself under any circumstances. If I die, it was not by suicide. I want to live. I have ABC reasons to live. I have XYZ plans for the future.” Etc.

Keep multiple copies of the information in multiple locations, and make sure multiple people know where a copy is. Ideally, have a dead-man’s switch set up, or someone you trust to do it, to automatically send all the information to all the major news outlets if you do turn up dead, along with a statement akin to the letter outlined above to make it clear you were murdered.

Or maybe he knows he has nothing to lose, so figures he might as well try to call out inhumane conditions in an effort to improve the lot of his peers. Perhaps it is in an effort to attain some measure, however small, of atonement for his wrongdoing.

Or should he do nothing at all in response to an incompetent nurse giving people the wrong medications and mistreating her patients, the prison having poor fire safety, and the food being inedible?

Sure, people should be able to make their own decisions. But they’ll be able to make much better-informed decisions if you do your job and educate the populace about the life-saving benefits of vaccines. This guy should be stripped of his medical license.

They also want the ability to make you agree to a TOS with an arbitration clause so you can’t sue them when your wife dies because they screwed up her food.

express shipping them to heaven.

Do we have a c/brandnewsentences yet?

Yesterday, at a park, I saw some Patriot Front (a neonazi group) posters on two adjacent polls. One was something about the “American spirit” descending from “European blood”. The other said “America is for Americans”. Without a hint of irony.

As if Europeans didn’t immigrate but just popped out of the ground here, or something?

Racists aren’t known for their critical thinking skills.

That resulted in this weird situation, where the most prestigious facilities are just sport centers with a side hustle in education.

When the football coach is paid literally actually 100 times or more what the average professor is paid, we’ve royally fucked up our priorities. Coaches are making millions per year while adjunct professors are struggling to make ends meet. It’s disgusting.

Edited to add: the head football coach at my undergrad university makes 9 MILLION, PER YEAR. And his current contract runs through 2029. Let’s also not discuss how most of these contracts require they keep getting paid even if they’re fired for poor performance. Meanwhile, annual mean wage for a professor is like 80-90k.

Who is original artist / source?

I feel like we were saying the opposite? I am not in any sort of relationship presently.

Eh, I’m not sure I would say that. Someone can love/appr ciate and want something even knowing that procuring the thing has ethical problems. Desiring something isn’t the same as being okay with the problems that come with acquiring it. It’s the being okay with procuring a diamond despite the ethical problems and bullshit that would be a massive red flag to me.

For myself, I’d be having serious second thoughts about a relationship with a person who felt an expensive ring was somehow necessary. But merely wanting it, particularly if out of a sense of tradition or symbolism rather than as some silly signal of wealth, wouldn’t perturb me.

While Park said an [sic] seeing an enrollment cliff isn’t occurring just yet, […]

None of those people are 18 yet. The 2007 kids, from when birth rates last peaked, are just now 17. The declining birth rate hasn’t caught up yet.

The article says it’s multifactorial, but predominantly cost and the need to work;

The cost of college is the number one barrier to enrolling in higher education for adults not enrolled in such a program, according to a 2024 report from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That report also found that for more than three-quarters of the more than 3,000 unenrolled adults polled, cost and the need to work were preventing them from pursuing further education.

Imagine being a teenager. Hungry AF because being a teenager. Cook a ton of food because hungry AF because teenager. Parent pops head in kitchen “Oh, did you cook for sick old me? That’s so sweet”. Teen: “oh, uhhhh… Yes yes, exactly, that’s what I did!”

Also teen: Thatwasnottheplan.jpg

Should have been Wookiee ragings instead of Ewok shenanigans.

Could have just made Snoke be the guy cloning himself instead of Palpatine. 🤷 It would have made just as much sense.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.