First they announce they want to nanny the car to 112 MPH.
Now they announce a nanny to prevent distracted or impaired driver.
I foresee a demise for this company within 10 years.
I forgot where I read it decades ago, it might've been Csaba Cede in Car and Driver in the 80's... that "Volvo is the car for people scared of their own shadows." Maybe it's also the car for facists who wish to impose their will on the People, to hell with what the People want.
This smacks of authoritarianism. I don't think it'll do well here in the States, and ditto for their move to govern the car to no more than 112.
In short some people do earn it; but like you I suspect a lot more folks just have their hands in the cookie jar.
It's easy to spot those those cheated their way into it, usually they make it obvious.
Those who earned it? They may be the guy next to you in the slightly-rusted, quite-dented 1982 Mazda B2000 pickup, with the 10 dollar Casio on the wrist. They have my respect.
308s are just awful. You think that's an 'Amazing engine noise'? It's a weak dinky little V8.
308s are awful. Turn everything on, then turn on the hazards, and all the lights inside and out pulse (weak electrical). Fusebox fires. Fiberglass cam sprockets. The a/c is an afterthought, quite literally. Timing belts every 16k. I"m well familiar with the car. Still love it. The look, the sound, the way it drives, all of it.
But it's not a weak, dinky v8. It's a tiny little twincam (in the later cars), 3 liters. roughly 240 horses (guaranteed if fuel injected, open to debate if carburated).. and let me tell you, an absolute blast to drive. You can floor it in the first 3 gears and not get arrested. All the while that little thing behind your ears screaming it's little heart out. I've driven one a few times, spent time under the hood. Tight, but doable. Any decent car nut with sensitive hands oughta be able to do the timing belts, tune the webers, all that jazz. (the one I drove / knew / washed was injected, black on tan over gold bbs wheels)
Horses for courses, man. You like tomato, I like tom-ah-to. You like big burly brap brap thumpa thumpa BRRRRT *shift *BRRRT* , I like waaaaaaAAHHH *shift* aaaaaahhhHH *shift*
Mustang is on my short list, as is the GT-86 toyobaru. There's honestly not much more out there. New porsche is out of my reach. Maybe a 2 - 4 year old Cayman sometime down the road, the new 4-banger one. But the toyobaru is probably the most logical choice for what I like (I just wish it had a flat six or a rotary, I don't like agricultural low-revving engines)
Who cares, they make the most amazing noises. I don't mind slow, I love Miatas, had one for 10 years, very slow. And very fun.
But it didn't make the noises.
Before a 308, I"ll have another 1-st gen Rx-7, tho. That shit stole my heart. I still miss mine, and it's been almost 30 years since I sold.
It's not about speed, but if I have to say that, then I know I'm talking to the wrong person. Sorry, that's just how I feel about it. So I guess I"m talking to the wrong person.
I am, however, disappointed. Angry, even. Irrationally so.
All my life I was taught to be good. To not steal, not cheat, to not lie. I live my life like that. I stay out of the way. I don't steal, I try not to cheat (my little cheats are leaving a tiny bit earlier, to get a jump on the other commuters, I have a heavy right foot so I tend to take off from lights like a scalded cat and go around corners like a cat on carpet, etc.) I have lied, and I feel bloody awful when I do. I have done bad things, and I feel truly awful.
These people don't, I guess? They just take what they want.
I always suspected that the cheaters are the ones that truly get ahead. The ones who make the big bank. (BIG bank, not get-by-and-put-some-away-for-a-rainy-day bank). They can't do it without cheating.
This just confirms it in a way that's visceral, palpable.
Think on that next time you see that what's driving that Ferrari 458 next to you is a bleached, tanned, perfect specimen and you, who has yearned for a prancing pony since childhood will likely never have one.. and if you do, it'll be a 50-year old 308. (Nothing wrong with that, but I hope you see my point. We have to earn it, they just walk in and buy one. The one who earned it will savor every tick of the valvetrain, every rrrp of the exhaust.. they who walked in and bought it will probably spill their latte all over the leather and worse, far worse.)
Once, I was leaving work, 2 jobs ago.. the wife of the CEO drove a RR Wraith, a car I'd love to just even look after, never you mind drive.. she cut to the right of all of us waiting on the left-turn light, dragged that beautiful yacht of a car all over wet concrete mud and slurry, then gunned it and went into traffic on a red light. And she gets away with it. Cunt. Her husband was no better, he drove a RR Phantom and was unable to park it without a 20-point turn.
Fuck the rich. I really do hope karma is a thing. Imagine being reincarnated from rich asshole to possum?
Kennedy was wrong. We should fear more than fear itself. We should fear the idiots building world destroying new technology because they are too stupid or too greedy....or both....to see how it could possibly be used to negatively impact the world.
That was Roosevelt, not Kennedy. FFS.
And the same exact argument was made against the atom bomb.
We should not fear "the idiots building world destroying new technology." Engage them. Or don't use their services. Or educate people as to their dangers.
Fearing them implies one will cower and do nothing. Are you a coward?
he US is in the same category ad China, Russia or Nazi Germany.
You're delusional. I suggest you talk to people who lived under the nazi flag. Talk to those who first-hand fought the fights, flew the raids, occupied Germany at the end. I suggest you educate yourself on what WWII Germany was doing, how they did it, and the sheer scale of what was done. Every country has blood on its hand, but WWII Germany was something else. Russia, too. Stalin offed twice as many Russians -- his own people -- than what Hitler did to the Jews and others Not Like Him.
We're not running a machine of death where we feed body upon body by the thousands into the furnaces. No, we just knock over dictators to put another dictator in, one friendly to our interests.
All we have here is a few minor inconveniences. For fuck's sake we can still buy guns with relative ease. And drugs. And cars, bikes, etc etc. We're a fucking paradise, my commie-pinko friend, even when compared to places in the Carribean.
I will fight people like you in the voting booths, now and until I die. You cannot be allowed to win. You have your right to say it, but we have the right to vote your people into oblivion.
And who the fuck modded you +1 anyway? Your post smacks of arrogant ignorance!
Step 3 involves downloading the data from outside the company and selling it.
Too obvious. Can't have it be tied back to the inside agent. Has to be laundered somehow. Someone is making money on this, guaranteed. Can't figure out how.
Going on principle only, Facebook and Twitter - what I call Facetwat - must be cleaned with fire. For one thing they make it far too easy for disinformation to get out into the heads of the gullible, and for another thing they engage in selective censorship. While it's their right as a private non-government entity to censor what they don't like, it doesn't always make it right.
Same for google. Monopoly in what sense? In the sense that they attempt to control the flow and content of information? Yes, they do do that. They do exercise undue and improper influence, I think, on how people think. That's not a monopoly, that's just being preachy bastards, as evil as Religions.
But the rest? They're not monopolies. Amazon's the closest one to being one. It could be argued that by having their own brand, now they are. If they start directly manufacturing they certainly will be.
Our money-paper maker already makes plastic (and finished bills, even) for other countries.
As for giving up *our* paper, I'm for not changing the paper. Feels nice. Way nice. And I think part of that traditionalism as something that differentiates us from countries that are all too willing to throw away the past in favor of some buzzword-worthy "future"
Money should be paper.
Cars should have stick shift as an option.
Meat should come from cow, not labs.
Guns should be steel and wood, not plastic.
And so on.;o)
Pennies before 1983 sounded different., Now they sound like monopoly money. I don't want my paper money feeling like monopoly money too. Keep it that precise blend Crane makes now.
It's _very_ good quality paper, that is one factor that makes it difficult to forge. US paper has a very distinctive "feel", which people handling money often notice before they notice the print on forged money.
Boss of mine almost 20 years ago gave me a $10 at a restaurant to pay his part of the bill. The instant my fingers touched it I knew it was bogus. I called him on it. He took it back and gave a real one.
Our currency paper is made by Crane. They recently split off the consumer stationery. I have a couple of different thank-you cards from them, and half-letter sheets. Even their consumer cotton rag paper is amazing. I only use this stuff for my closest friends and for select, worthy business. Everybody else gets a text, or a call, or good old Hammermill paper. (I don't use Georgia Pacific, as they've sent production of printer paper to China *and* are part of the Koch emprire. Hammermill is still USA-made.)
Controversy and disappointment for another ritual of the green religion today. It's almost like these schemes designed by people with a deep emotional need to feel good about themselves are all completely pointless.
You just described every religion, ever.
Oh, there's another effect of this type of thinking: Liberate your wallet from all that pesky, naughty paper (yes, I know it's actually cotton in the USA)
We used to have paper bags that were made from trees grown for the purpose but that upset some people. So you had a whole bunch of people that felt really good about getting them banned.
Can't speak for the rest of the country (world?) but here in South Florida, certain municipalities - like Coral Gables - now require restaurants to use paper bags only for takeout / delivery.
My local groceries also have paper available on request, always have. But they rather you pay $ and get their reusable sacks.
WHat is old is new again. The only thing those flimsy plastic grocery bags have over paper is you can hook the plastic on your arms, can't do that with paper. That's it. Can't think of any other benefit to plastic. Plastic lives forever. Paper, on the other hand, degrades very quickly if not protected.
I'm telling you, the screechy 70's enviro whackjobs sold this country a bill of goods, America now hates paper, hates nuclear power, hates a host of thing that misguided whack jobs screeched against back then.
I remember all that, so you know what? Fuck the current batch of enviro whack jobs, they're just as fucked as their dads and grand-dads. They're just as misguided, just as gullible.
, just the highlights please, someone else can do all the reading and picking out the most salient points, many others.
You just loved Clif Notes, didn't ya.
*whacks scarcasm detector* Not sure this thing's working right. You may be flying the S flag but I can't see it. *whack*
I only seek other's views on books after I'm done with the reading, if ever. It's between me and the author. I could not see myself doing that kind of.. what to call it.. distributed non-reading canned summary on something like Christine, or Harry Potter, or Profit over People. Or anything, really. Why should I care about 2,238,125 other opinions on whether it was LeBay driving Christine, or she was driving herself?
Either you trollin', or you're not getting the obvious.
Evil Government (aren't they all? Every single one?) handcrafts apps specifically for the purpose of spear-phishing people it disagrees with.
What's the problem? The problem is user stupidity / ignorance / apathy. Stupidity can't be fixed, Ignorance's antidote is study and knowledge, and there's no fix for apathy (it's the opposite of love. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy.)
So.. there it is. People should not blindly trust tech to keep them safe.
You could've saved yourself a lot of typing by stating that email, in general was never designed to be secure.
Google mines, Yahoo sure as fuck mines, and I'm sure all the freebies mine. I'm also fairly certain outlook.com mines, even if you pay for your o365 sub.
Use other means. There are other means, and always pay attention of what and where you click / tap / headbutt.
I wonder how good modern crypto guys would be at cracking Enigma code that was made with a four-rotor machine, of whose settings you know nothing of, and don't have the same bonehead mistakes made before.
Postcards that read YNXKA UXLWO WXOPM.... flooding the mails. I can see that.
More and more I use cash, I wish to bank less and less, and offer less of a digital footprint. I also wish to deny banks the ability to float with my money.
That, and smaller merchants get robbed every time you buy [thing] with credit / debit. (yes, the banks put a fee on debit transactions too.) Are you a big corporation? Then hell yes I pay with debit AND make a cash-back just to stick you with the fee (yes, I know that's all factored into the pricing, it's more a principal-of-the-thing thing for me.)
Funny that I'm regressing to what life was like before gas pumps started taking cards directly, which for me was around 1994 or so.
And now, even the gas stations don't get my card, I pay with the app for mobil/exxon. I don't trust the card-readers at the pumps any more than I can throw one, I live in the skimmer capital of the US. (or so claims my local rag.) I have reason to believe I've been skimmed, but the bank won't tell me where. They just automagically send a new card.
...my reading list, that is. Some nonfiction I read would include lefties like Chomsky, and factual stuff like books on motorcycles, guns, etc.
Most is in digital, for the convenience.
Treasured volumes, I go out of my way to get in hardback. Eventually. Let's see.. 20 years of Potter, and I still don't have a single dead-tree version of it, it's all in my phone and tablet.
I have just one audiobook, for some strange reason I can't quite get into audiobooks as deep as I get into the "printed" book (paper or screen, don't matter.) I hear the words but they don't stick as well, I don't see the "world" the author's painting as well as I do when it's in visible words.
Slashdot Mirror
First they announce they want to nanny the car to 112 MPH.
Now they announce a nanny to prevent distracted or impaired driver.
I foresee a demise for this company within 10 years.
I forgot where I read it decades ago, it might've been Csaba Cede in Car and Driver in the 80's... that "Volvo is the car for people scared of their own shadows." Maybe it's also the car for facists who wish to impose their will on the People, to hell with what the People want.
This smacks of authoritarianism. I don't think it'll do well here in the States, and ditto for their move to govern the car to no more than 112.
I am a bit jaded, youbetcha.
In short some people do earn it; but like you I suspect a lot more folks just have their hands in the cookie jar.
It's easy to spot those those cheated their way into it, usually they make it obvious.
Those who earned it? They may be the guy next to you in the slightly-rusted, quite-dented 1982 Mazda B2000 pickup, with the 10 dollar Casio on the wrist. They have my respect.
But the cheaters? Fuck 'em. *ptooie!*
308s are just awful. You think that's an 'Amazing engine noise'? It's a weak dinky little V8.
308s are awful. Turn everything on, then turn on the hazards, and all the lights inside and out pulse (weak electrical). Fusebox fires. Fiberglass cam sprockets. The a/c is an afterthought, quite literally. Timing belts every 16k. I"m well familiar with the car. Still love it. The look, the sound, the way it drives, all of it.
But it's not a weak, dinky v8. It's a tiny little twincam (in the later cars), 3 liters. roughly 240 horses (guaranteed if fuel injected, open to debate if carburated).. and let me tell you, an absolute blast to drive. You can floor it in the first 3 gears and not get arrested. All the while that little thing behind your ears screaming it's little heart out. I've driven one a few times, spent time under the hood. Tight, but doable. Any decent car nut with sensitive hands oughta be able to do the timing belts, tune the webers, all that jazz. (the one I drove / knew / washed was injected, black on tan over gold bbs wheels)
Horses for courses, man. You like tomato, I like tom-ah-to. You like big burly brap brap thumpa thumpa BRRRRT *shift *BRRRT* , I like waaaaaaAAHHH *shift* aaaaaahhhHH *shift*
Mustang is on my short list, as is the GT-86 toyobaru. There's honestly not much more out there. New porsche is out of my reach. Maybe a 2 - 4 year old Cayman sometime down the road, the new 4-banger one. But the toyobaru is probably the most logical choice for what I like (I just wish it had a flat six or a rotary, I don't like agricultural low-revving engines)
Yeah but, they're going to jail, and you're not.
They'll go to a country club prison, serve minimal time, and be out before the kid graduates.
Only the poor do Hard Time.
This won't change until the Rich also do Hard Time, and lots and lots of it.
Manafort much? I wish they'd given him 25, not 4. If I did that, I'd be in the clink for a long, long time, because I don't have his connections.
Ferraris especially are surprisingly SLOW.
Who cares, they make the most amazing noises. I don't mind slow, I love Miatas, had one for 10 years, very slow. And very fun.
But it didn't make the noises.
Before a 308, I"ll have another 1-st gen Rx-7, tho. That shit stole my heart. I still miss mine, and it's been almost 30 years since I sold.
It's not about speed, but if I have to say that, then I know I'm talking to the wrong person. Sorry, that's just how I feel about it. So I guess I"m talking to the wrong person.
I am, however, disappointed. Angry, even. Irrationally so.
All my life I was taught to be good. To not steal, not cheat, to not lie. I live my life like that. I stay out of the way. I don't steal, I try not to cheat (my little cheats are leaving a tiny bit earlier, to get a jump on the other commuters, I have a heavy right foot so I tend to take off from lights like a scalded cat and go around corners like a cat on carpet, etc.) I have lied, and I feel bloody awful when I do. I have done bad things, and I feel truly awful.
These people don't, I guess? They just take what they want.
I always suspected that the cheaters are the ones that truly get ahead. The ones who make the big bank. (BIG bank, not get-by-and-put-some-away-for-a-rainy-day bank). They can't do it without cheating.
This just confirms it in a way that's visceral, palpable.
Think on that next time you see that what's driving that Ferrari 458 next to you is a bleached, tanned, perfect specimen and you, who has yearned for a prancing pony since childhood will likely never have one.. and if you do, it'll be a 50-year old 308. (Nothing wrong with that, but I hope you see my point. We have to earn it, they just walk in and buy one. The one who earned it will savor every tick of the valvetrain, every rrrp of the exhaust.. they who walked in and bought it will probably spill their latte all over the leather and worse, far worse.)
Once, I was leaving work, 2 jobs ago.. the wife of the CEO drove a RR Wraith, a car I'd love to just even look after, never you mind drive.. she cut to the right of all of us waiting on the left-turn light, dragged that beautiful yacht of a car all over wet concrete mud and slurry, then gunned it and went into traffic on a red light. And she gets away with it. Cunt. Her husband was no better, he drove a RR Phantom and was unable to park it without a 20-point turn.
Fuck the rich. I really do hope karma is a thing. Imagine being reincarnated from rich asshole to possum?
Been thinking about getting some kind of encrypted email and move off the "normal" email providers.
That russia banned protonmail is a good endorsement for the product. I may go with them. If a totalitarian hates it is must be good!
Kennedy was wrong. We should fear more than fear itself. We should fear the idiots building world destroying new technology because they are too stupid or too greedy....or both....to see how it could possibly be used to negatively impact the world.
That was Roosevelt, not Kennedy. FFS.
And the same exact argument was made against the atom bomb.
We should not fear "the idiots building world destroying new technology." Engage them. Or don't use their services. Or educate people as to their dangers.
Fearing them implies one will cower and do nothing. Are you a coward?
Reviews sway the opinions of those who are weak-minded, may not reflect the true quality of the [thing] may actually be paid for.
Examples: The Final Countdown. Dreadful reviews. Love the film. Down Periscope: Dreadful reviews. Love the film.
FZ50 panasonic camera: worst camera ever if you believe the reviews. Love mine.
If someone needs reviews to decide they like something, they're susceptible to Jedi Mind Tricks and are easy plunder.
Because if Stalin had actually killed 40 millions
12 million, wsn't it? where did you get 40 from?
Still. Way to endear yourself to your people, killing your own. Niiiicely done.
he US is in the same category ad China, Russia or Nazi Germany.
You're delusional. I suggest you talk to people who lived under the nazi flag. Talk to those who first-hand fought the fights, flew the raids, occupied Germany at the end. I suggest you educate yourself on what WWII Germany was doing, how they did it, and the sheer scale of what was done. Every country has blood on its hand, but WWII Germany was something else. Russia, too. Stalin offed twice as many Russians -- his own people -- than what Hitler did to the Jews and others Not Like Him.
We're not running a machine of death where we feed body upon body by the thousands into the furnaces. No, we just knock over dictators to put another dictator in, one friendly to our interests.
All we have here is a few minor inconveniences. For fuck's sake we can still buy guns with relative ease. And drugs. And cars, bikes, etc etc. We're a fucking paradise, my commie-pinko friend, even when compared to places in the Carribean.
I will fight people like you in the voting booths, now and until I die. You cannot be allowed to win. You have your right to say it, but we have the right to vote your people into oblivion.
And who the fuck modded you +1 anyway? Your post smacks of arrogant ignorance!
Step 3 involves downloading the data from outside the company and selling it.
Too obvious. Can't have it be tied back to the inside agent. Has to be laundered somehow. Someone is making money on this, guaranteed. Can't figure out how.
Going on principle only, Facebook and Twitter - what I call Facetwat - must be cleaned with fire. For one thing they make it far too easy for disinformation to get out into the heads of the gullible, and for another thing they engage in selective censorship. While it's their right as a private non-government entity to censor what they don't like, it doesn't always make it right.
Same for google. Monopoly in what sense? In the sense that they attempt to control the flow and content of information? Yes, they do do that. They do exercise undue and improper influence, I think, on how people think. That's not a monopoly, that's just being preachy bastards, as evil as Religions.
But the rest? They're not monopolies. Amazon's the closest one to being one. It could be argued that by having their own brand, now they are. If they start directly manufacturing they certainly will be.
No complaints about Apple and their walled-garden?
A walled garden does not a monopoly make.
Besides, there's Android as an alternative, no?
Yes, I know, cockup before conspiracy. Yet I can't help but wonder if these leaks are orchestrated by insiders in the company to accomplish some goal.
1. Scrape data
2. Put it up for easy discovery
3. ???
4. Profit.
Step 3 is what I can't figure out.
Our money-paper maker already makes plastic (and finished bills, even) for other countries.
As for giving up *our* paper, I'm for not changing the paper. Feels nice. Way nice. And I think part of that traditionalism as something that differentiates us from countries that are all too willing to throw away the past in favor of some buzzword-worthy "future"
Money should be paper.
Cars should have stick shift as an option.
Meat should come from cow, not labs.
Guns should be steel and wood, not plastic.
And so on. ;o)
Pennies before 1983 sounded different., Now they sound like monopoly money. I don't want my paper money feeling like monopoly money too. Keep it that precise blend Crane makes now.
It's _very_ good quality paper, that is one factor that makes it difficult to forge. US paper has a very distinctive "feel", which people handling money often notice before they notice the print on forged money.
Boss of mine almost 20 years ago gave me a $10 at a restaurant to pay his part of the bill. The instant my fingers touched it I knew it was bogus. I called him on it. He took it back and gave a real one.
Our currency paper is made by Crane. They recently split off the consumer stationery. I have a couple of different thank-you cards from them, and half-letter sheets. Even their consumer cotton rag paper is amazing. I only use this stuff for my closest friends and for select, worthy business. Everybody else gets a text, or a call, or good old Hammermill paper. (I don't use Georgia Pacific, as they've sent production of printer paper to China *and* are part of the Koch emprire. Hammermill is still USA-made.)
Controversy and disappointment for another ritual of the green religion today. It's almost like these schemes designed by people with a deep emotional need to feel good about themselves are all completely pointless.
You just described every religion, ever.
Oh, there's another effect of this type of thinking: Liberate your wallet from all that pesky, naughty paper (yes, I know it's actually cotton in the USA)
Long Live Crane Paper Co!
We used to have paper bags that were made from trees grown for the purpose but that upset some people.
So you had a whole bunch of people that felt really good about getting them banned.
Can't speak for the rest of the country (world?) but here in South Florida, certain municipalities - like Coral Gables - now require restaurants to use paper bags only for takeout / delivery.
My local groceries also have paper available on request, always have. But they rather you pay $ and get their reusable sacks.
WHat is old is new again. The only thing those flimsy plastic grocery bags have over paper is you can hook the plastic on your arms, can't do that with paper. That's it. Can't think of any other benefit to plastic. Plastic lives forever. Paper, on the other hand, degrades very quickly if not protected.
I'm telling you, the screechy 70's enviro whackjobs sold this country a bill of goods, America now hates paper, hates nuclear power, hates a host of thing that misguided whack jobs screeched against back then.
I remember all that, so you know what? Fuck the current batch of enviro whack jobs, they're just as fucked as their dads and grand-dads. They're just as misguided, just as gullible.
Let's see some enterprising crypto crack that. I randomly swapped wheels, randomly wired the plugboard, randomly thumbed in the starting position.
, just the highlights please, someone else can do all the reading and picking out the most salient points, many others.
You just loved Clif Notes, didn't ya.
*whacks scarcasm detector* Not sure this thing's working right. You may be flying the S flag but I can't see it. *whack*
I only seek other's views on books after I'm done with the reading, if ever. It's between me and the author. I could not see myself doing that kind of.. what to call it.. distributed non-reading canned summary on something like Christine, or Harry Potter, or Profit over People. Or anything, really. Why should I care about 2,238,125 other opinions on whether it was LeBay driving Christine, or she was driving herself?
What is the problem, exactly?
Either you trollin', or you're not getting the obvious.
Evil Government (aren't they all? Every single one?) handcrafts apps specifically for the purpose of spear-phishing people it disagrees with.
What's the problem? The problem is user stupidity / ignorance / apathy. Stupidity can't be fixed, Ignorance's antidote is study and knowledge, and there's no fix for apathy (it's the opposite of love. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy.)
So.. there it is. People should not blindly trust tech to keep them safe.
You could've saved yourself a lot of typing by stating that email, in general was never designed to be secure.
Google mines, Yahoo sure as fuck mines, and I'm sure all the freebies mine. I'm also fairly certain outlook.com mines, even if you pay for your o365 sub.
Use other means. There are other means, and always pay attention of what and where you click / tap / headbutt.
I wonder how good modern crypto guys would be at cracking Enigma code that was made with a four-rotor machine, of whose settings you know nothing of, and don't have the same bonehead mistakes made before.
Postcards that read YNXKA UXLWO WXOPM .... flooding the mails. I can see that.
More and more I use cash, I wish to bank less and less, and offer less of a digital footprint. I also wish to deny banks the ability to float with my money.
That, and smaller merchants get robbed every time you buy [thing] with credit / debit. (yes, the banks put a fee on debit transactions too.) Are you a big corporation? Then hell yes I pay with debit AND make a cash-back just to stick you with the fee (yes, I know that's all factored into the pricing, it's more a principal-of-the-thing thing for me.)
Funny that I'm regressing to what life was like before gas pumps started taking cards directly, which for me was around 1994 or so.
And now, even the gas stations don't get my card, I pay with the app for mobil/exxon. I don't trust the card-readers at the pumps any more than I can throw one, I live in the skimmer capital of the US. (or so claims my local rag.) I have reason to believe I've been skimmed, but the bank won't tell me where. They just automagically send a new card.
So now, fuck 'em all, cash is king.
...my reading list, that is. Some nonfiction I read would include lefties like Chomsky, and factual stuff like books on motorcycles, guns, etc.
Most is in digital, for the convenience.
Treasured volumes, I go out of my way to get in hardback. Eventually. Let's see.. 20 years of Potter, and I still don't have a single dead-tree version of it, it's all in my phone and tablet.
I have just one audiobook, for some strange reason I can't quite get into audiobooks as deep as I get into the "printed" book (paper or screen, don't matter.) I hear the words but they don't stick as well, I don't see the "world" the author's painting as well as I do when it's in visible words.