“The shareholder wealth maximization doctrine requires public corporations to pursue a single purpose to the exclusion of all others: increase the wealth of shareholders by increasing the value of their shares. However, a company should be committed to enhance shareholder value and comply with all regulations and laws that govern shareholder’s rights.”
The" however… " part is largely ignored, except for when it benefits shareholders.
The “however” part you quoted explicitly mentions following the rights of shareholders. From what you described, there’s literally nothing else in the doctrine to ignore.
Also, the law requires that publicly traded companies be greedy
The law doesn’t actually state you need screw over your customers and maximize profit. It says that executives have a fiduciary duty, which means they must act in the best interest of the shareholder, not themselves.
That does not mean they have to suck out every single dollar of profit. Executives have some leeway in this and can very easily explain that napkins lead to happier customers and longer term retention which means long term profits.
It’s purely a short-term, wall street driven, behavior also driven by executive pay being also based in stock so they’re incentivized to drive up the price over the next quarter so they can cash out.
Yeah sure, but then you could also say the same about a private business. The CEO works for the business owner, whether the owner is private or public stockholders.
But the reality is that publicly traded companies end up being far more greedy and profit driven than private businesses. In particular, the greedy private businesses tend to taget an IPO, while the more conscientious ones remain private.
The brands shuffle their designs to stay ahead of IP laws. Gillette made the definitive shaving razor in 1901, the patent subsequently expired and anyone could make it, now they make new razors every few years to stay ahead of the curve.
With nappies, the correct answer is reusable nappies. It sounds gross, but when you’re a parent you quickly learn to deal with all kinds of shit.
You also get funky designs and stuff. The insides are interchangeable, the oustides are fashion.
when you’re a parent you quickly learn to deal with all kinds of shit.
Depends if you have a second washing machine because you’re now creating a new waste and different expense. Also depends on how much time you have and every dual income family answer the same. None. So no the generalisation that reusables are the solution is not accurate at all. I’d prefer biodegradable nappies any day. The washing machine goes over time as it is with the 14 outfit changes every day.
2nd washing machine?? How many people do you know with 2 washing machines???
“Biodegradable” is a marketing term.
I’m not knocking people who use disposable (biodegradable - HAH) nappies, but that doesn’t mean that washing reusable nappies is something impossible for most people. If anything, disposable nappies are a relatively new invention.
Maybe with current electricity prices the maths has changed, but washing reusable nappies worked out far cheaper for me when my kids were using them.
Actually at least two families who have small children AND reusable nappies.
I don’t care for the “marketing” I mean it from the actual definition. Plus where I live companies are held to account for label based claims. So sounds like a US problem tbh.
So you have small children and both parents are working? Notice the plurals. We found with one baby it’s easy enough however the moment we both went to work and even more so with two babies it was impossible extra workload. Out of the friends and families in my circles the ONLY (2 families) that use reusable are the ones with a dedicated stay at home parent. Which is becoming rare more than ever.
I highly recommend configuring qBittorrent to only connect to the VPN interface, so if your VPN is off it will simply not connect to the internet at all.
So big mistake here: NAC is not harmless. It does have side effects and it also has toxicity at high doses.
It has not been studied in long term use orally or IV, it's main use bomg short term use for paracetamol overdose treatment. Inhalation is more studied but it is not absorbed into the body in the same way.
We think it is safe but we haven't actually done human trials to be sure. What we have found in mice is that high doses can cause lung and heart damage and also when it comes to alcohol it is protective if taken before alcohol consumption BUT it amplifies the toxicity to the liver if about 4 hours taken after alcohol. All of this is summarised on the Wikipedia page which looks to be good quality.
Overall it may be a useful drug but don't take it off label or self medicating. Medicine is littered with unexpected effects of drugs that only came out once it was too late. Thalidomide is a good example - a "wonder drug" for nausea used in pregnancy that was not tested and caused horrific birth defects which only became evident when it was too late.
Your body is not a lab, be careful experimenting with supposedly "safe" drugs.
Evident to end users. Thalidomide was well known to the makers to be godawful for pregnant people well before then - check out the behind the bastards episode on it.
Nestle gave free formula in Africa for long enough for the mothers to stop producing breast milk then charged for more, causing a bunch of starvation. Not sure if that's what Cruxifux meant.
What I use it for short term is removing middle aged smell.
Middle aged smell is the result of the skin’s antioxidant properties declining, so whenever I start getting middle age smell going, I take an NAC and the problem’s gone for a month or two.
IIRC, Egypt also sees Hamas as a threat since Hamas is backed by Iran. They aren’t going to do anything to make life easier for Hamas or similar groups.
IMO the “sovereignty” of Palestine is only as it is now because otherwise Israel would have to let the Palestinians into the democratic process where they could just vote out the settler minded fascists.
A coalition needs to impose the one state solution by force, and only withdraw as a solid millitary core is built up capable of cracking down on separationist and supremacist cells.
Draconian tier protections against violations of civil rights and equal rights.
Gonna trim my litany of complaints about modern trends down to my top 4 gripes:
Websites that look like CVS receipts with their excessive left/right padding. Some L/R padding is desirable, but the degree to which it’s done now is typically done to cram a bajillion ads in the margins.
Excessive padding for UI controls. Looking at you, specifically, O365, but others are guilty as well. I use a desktop with a precision pointing device, so I don’t need or want a UI designed to be poked at by hotdog fingers.
Unhelpful error messages. “Oops, something went wrong”. Ok, but it is it a “me” problem or a “you” problem? Should I do anything, take any specific action, retry, or just twiddle my thumbs and hope someone else fixes it?
Chatbots that pop up on websites asking if you need help.
Bonus: Any time an email, website, or other online source has “click here” for a link. It’s 2023. People know what a link is and what to do with it. All that “click here” says is you don’t know what you’re doing as a designer/publisher.
Websites that look like CVS receipts with their excessive left/right padding. Some L/R padding is desirable, but the degree to which it’s done now is typically done to cram a bajillion ads in the margins.
Yes, I deplore this. I don't see ads so I assume it's due to conform to mobile UIs that have a more vertical aspect rations like 9x16 so the designers don't have to bother actually designing their website. Fucking Wikipedia did this some time ago. Lemmy does it. I sit here on my desktop using 50% of the screen because web UX designers can't be arsed.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about half-assed mobile support being one of the reasons for that. I do responsive design all day in my job, and it’s really not hard. At all. So yeah, like you said, the UX designers just can’t be arsed to do it.
Present wisdom is to design something that would work well on mobile first so single column and then make it work on larger screens the easiest way being to keep everything the same except for replacing ☰ with the actual nav menu at a certain width and setting a max width that keeps it looking like stretched out crap.
The designers on my project actually designed such a non-telling unprofessional-tone “oops” error page.
Colleague implemented it like that, but on review we agreed it’s just bad, and suggested/implemented an actually useful, professional error page.
It baffles me how people can implement actively useless stuff like that. And it even showed up in my team. I was somewhat surprised. I’m glad I’m Lead, and have direct communication with the customer. Two ways to prevent and improve things like that. At least in my projects.
I second this. There are lots of elements on a website that seem redundant or self explanatory today now that we’ve had 30 years of websites. But you simply can’t assume this because everyone has a different amount of website navigation experience. Older people need everything to be labeled clearly and plainly and younger people are more familiar with app environments and might be inclined to look in unusual places for what they need. God forbid you take away the “home” link in the navigation “because everyone knows the logo links to the homepage anyway”. No they do not. One of the best books on the subject is “Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug and they have loads of excellent examples of why you can’t just assume things like this.
Chatbots that pop up on websites asking if you need help
They’re always like “Hi I’m a real person who will actually be able to address your query!”
… but then you ask them and it’s always some uni student from bombay who’s best attempt at helping you is to read the webpage you’re looking at and then say… “Sure, if you can call 1800-whatever we will be able to assist you with that!”
Reddit is absolutely the worst for excessive padding. Here’s your padded search page, let’s open your thread in it with a padded modal! It’s no wonder they can’t load more than three nested comments before running out of horizontal space.
I second this, it’s great if you care about a modern interface that feels in line with other Android apps these days. Pretty darn slick app with a lot of nice customization features
On the other I love that you don’t need an account to be able to “subscribe” for a custom feed, group channels into custom categories, or make playlists. And all being able to get backed up locally.
On one hand it’s great that it works that way. On the other hand, I use youtube only sometimes on my tablet so I would like to have my subscriptions carried over. Can’t have it all I guess.
Revanced is not from the play store you buffoon omfg. It’s one thing to want to denigrate another (better) app, for whatever reason. But at least don’t be an idiot about it.
For whatever it’s worth, and whoever reads this, I’ve had extensive buffering issues with Vanced/Revanced for months. Recently purged the MicroG and vanced software, and reinstalled the Revanced Extended, and it works flawlessly!
If you can’t get into pointless arguments with people who think the 1 mile radius around their house is representative of the entire world, what would be the point in even having a reddit replacement?
Yeah. Lemmy and Reddit are basically mega-forums. The voting and threading systems went a huge way toward solving the problems that made traditional forums unworkable at large scale. e.g. there were always 8 pages of replies to trudge through to find one relevant answer. (XDA is a great modern example of this problem. Woe to those who find an XDA thread while troubleshooting.)
It was also so, so much easier for someone to make a subreddit than host and maintain their own phpBB server. I am speaking from experience on both ends, there.
Reddit killed the traditional forum, and you know what? Good. It was time.
The same problem makes large Discord painful to use.
I wouldn’t say its a return of traditional forums. Far from it really design wise. I think its more of a return to independence and decentralization. I think we’re done with the whole “Web 2.0. Everything in one convenient place” and want to back to an era where things were much harder to find and communities were a lot more separated and dedicated to their own spaces. The fediverse isn’t the end all be all and we’re gonna suddenly go back to the 90s but to me, it’s an honest step in the right direction that could really change the internet for the better.
Not done with it. We want both decentralization and everything in a convenient place. Best of both worlds. So we end up with a discussion board that is also an rss reader, aka the activitypub protocol.
I’m hoping your right, that it changes the web for the better. But most people follow advertisements right back into the clutches of corpo-controlled products.
Unfortunately federation doesn’t work with Lemmy. I have to create a new account on nearly every instance, because they defederate all the time due to spam and CP issues.
It’s an inherent problem with the way federation is designed in the Fediverse. Since all content is replicated, this includes stuff like CP. If the admins wouldn’t defederate after learning about it, they’d willingly host it, making them legally liable.
most people follow advertisements right back into the clutches of corpo-controlled products.
The thing is I expect places like Lemmy and even Mastodon to eventually fall to this behavior. The reason I’m even viewing them as services that should be must for the common user is the mere ability to even move out without having to leave everything behind (if you catch what i’m saying) thats the real core difference and hope that I have. The problem is again like anlumo said, defederation is definitely going to be a major hurdle and one where major companies will especially take advantage of.
the more traditional style of forums are still around too.
They’re very rare these days though. It’s a whole lot easier to keep all your interests in one place rather than heading off to one forum for gaming chat and another for programming chat and another for gardening chat.
Keeping it all in a single feed means your interest can be piqued at random times and you’ll be more likely to interact.
Find yourself a hackerspace. They’re collective-toolsheds of people around your community who find joy in making things, learning skills, and generally interested in helping teach others the skills that they know.
My local hackerspace, for example - has a 4 axis HAAS CNC, multiple metal lathes, TIG, MIG, Stick welders, leatherworking supplies, access to 3D printers, laser cutters, and lots of woodworking tools. We also had basically every console in existence and others bring in their game libraries for everyone to play.
They are also generally filled with college students that are burning the midnight oil quite regularly but may otherwise be somewhat solitary in their activities.
These places also will kind of locally crowd-fund new machines for people to use. They can vary wildly from space-to-space, some places being filled with old guys who are mostly into woodworking, or filled with young web-devs with no interest in welding, etc. If you are lucky enough to have multiple around your area, visit them all to see which one fits you best.
Also, membership usually includes 24/7 access to the space via controlled entry (membership keys, etc)
I help run a makerspace (hackerspace with a fluffier name). We’ve done many an all nighter. Often for no good reason, other than we got going on an interesting topic!
Is hackerspace the common term for these? I think I’ve also seen makerspace, or at least it sounds like there’s overlap. I may have to do some more searching along these terms, but any time I’ve read of these it seems like they’re more around larger cities or university towns/cities, which I don’t happen to live in at the moment.
Hackerspace is the original term, but some places call themselves Makerspaces instead because “hacker” has a negative connotation with the common populace. A hack, in the original sense is almost equivalent to ‘redneck engineering’. It’s a non-formal environment, probably doing non-standard things…thus a hack.
They are generally found around larger cities, universities, etc – there’s not enough population otherwise to keep them running as they’re generally member-funded, and they still gotta pay things like rent.
Fablabs are similar, but corporate-owned and you’re expected to use tools and GTFO; not stick around and be social.
For me, Makerspace always made more sense. You go there to make something. Hacking, while not negative, always has the meaning of modifying existing things to me, which does not always apply.
I hack together an item = I merge several items into one. I hack an item = I modify an item.
Not a native speaker, so I’m unsure if that is the correct usage.
Do you have hobbies and interests? If so, hop on Google and search for MeetUps in your areas. When you find one, go to it and do that activity with other people. This is a practically fail proof plan because it sets you up to do something that you like doing with other people that also like that thing… which gives you a built in conversation topic.
While you’re there, talk to everyone for a few minutes. Next time there’s a meet up, go back. Don’t put pressure on any one person but, after you’ve been a few times, you’ll recognize and enjoy the company of other regulars and, voila, friends.
What if your hobbies & interests don’t lend themselves to meetups? I tend to have a lot of those that are more solitary in nature, which means others with them were probably drawn to them for similar reasons, being relatively content alone.
Up until they have that nagging feeling that they may benefit from socializing, anyway.
Just about any hobby can be a group hobby. I run, bike, hike, rock climb, watch sports, drink, try new restaurants, play video games, travel, and shit post. All of these can be done individually or in a group. My old man likes stamps and guns. There are shows and meet-ups for that too.
What are you in to that can’t be done with others? If these are truly solitary activities then are you willing to give something new a shot? Try something new and if you don’t vibe with the peeps or the activity, try something else new the next time.
Your hobbies aren’t set in stone, is it possible to find other ones (in addition) that involve socialising? You’re free to try out various things until you find something you like.
If it’s a hobby worth doing then it’s a hobby worth talking about. There will be a group or meetup or something with like-minded people. My hobby only has about 5,000 people in the US and I go to several meets a year and have friends from multiple states. I could do my hobby without ever interacting with anyone (and some people do it like that) but I like the social part.
There is another thing I want to mention is like how do people find dates? I don’t wanna sound like I’m whining or anything but dating apps never worked for me so I was wondering like how do you meet your potential dates in-person like at bars? Sorry if it sounds dumb but I’ve had a hard time with that so I thought why don’t I would just genuinely ask about it?
Two main ways. My brother is very likable. To the point that it’s almost silly. Dude is 6 ft 3, maybe 300 lbs. He looks like an offensive lineman. He’s probably the strongest, roundest, happiest guy I know. When he was single he never had a problem getting quality dates. Even at his size. But it wasn’t just the charisma. Dude would shoot his shot and, if that didn’t work, he’d shoot his shoot again with the next lady. If you can talk a good game, don’t care if you miss and, ideally, be attractive, then you can slay it at the bars.
I am not as likable as my brother. But I’m funny. I’m decent looking. I treat ladies right. I have hobbies and interests. When I was single, my dates always came from my activity groups. Does it turn out Jenny from run club really likes music? Invite her to a show. And, here’s the key. Only invite people to things you’re going to do anyway. The line is “I’m going to the show this weekend, wanna come with me?” No matter what Jenny says, go to the show. Talk to the people that are there. Have a great time. If you have a great time with Jenny, terrific! If you don’t, or if Jenny doesn’t come, invite someone else next time. Common interests and quality time can take you a long way. Even if it’s a longer game than my brothers.
I think one should take care not hesitate too much talking to new people. The outcome can be either ways any ways, but that usually is nothing to carry around for too long time. I figured for myself it should be (and feel) casual (not only during dating).
So of you are a nerd not used to talk to anyone, maybe get used to talk to people again before trying to advertise yourself on the dating market. Usually, most of people not overly busy are open for a short chat or a funny remark*.
*Disclaimer: may differ depending on where you live.
I recall reading somewhere making new friends as an adult takes 200 hours (it some arbitrary number) if time together in some social aspect. This requires some level of common interests as you speak of. I also noticed this factors in a couple of friends I have made. Those hours together though must be due to mutual interests and this the reason you build hours.
I see this in my personal life and those around me. As a child you often have many good friends. I have noticed the ones that survived into adulthood are those that took similar work paths. The ones that work in different fields tend not to be so close anymore. It also factors if you move away for work. Like I did. You simply don’t see the people you had such strong ties to and that is difficult. You get busy and prioritization changes. Same if some have kids and others don’t it do it at different points in their lives.
Work then becomes your next place to find people with common interests and skills. Generally this applies to jobs that are more career oriented and not the temporary mcjobs. The risk is that people job shop much more now so that friend of yours may move away. As stated joining social groups are also possible. But it takes effort and you need to be engaged to keep going. That can be difficult.
Crime. That’s the answer. I don’t suggest or recommend it, but people who genuinely can’t survive or achieve any meaningful quality of life while participating in the social order will violate it instead. Some people shoplift; others engage in elaborate plots to rip off their landlords and creditors, but there’s no squaring the circle. I’m not in the same boat, but I’ve been there, and it’s only a stroke of good fortune that kept me from a very different road.
I have the same view. People commit crime as they feel they’re not benefiting from the “social contract”, as in it pays to be a civil member of society. Well if you’re not getting what you need then you have to get it elsewhere and hence crime.
I regularly tricked the scales on supermarkets by scanning similar weight items and bagging the expensive thing whilst scanning the cheaper one. Or claiming orders didn’t arrive so I could get it again and then return one. Same for order something expensive and saying they sent a cheaper version. Sony XM4 for cheap for example.
To even more elaborate and long winded scams which I won’t detail here.
Like you, I have had some lucky breaks and I am doing better now, but I will still take what I can from massive corporations as in my eyes, whether right or wrong, they do it to.
Give people a chance at a life and they won’t be criminals. Well most won’t.
When you steal, somebody gets hurt. If you encourage many people to steal, employers go bankrupt or have to downsize, letting employees go. But XM4 is a human right?
How is stealing a product any different than wage theft from large corporations, families like the sackler being literal drug dealers and paying a fine, etc.
In my og comment I clearly stated that when people feel like society isn’t working for them then what use is following the rules.
FYI: It’s easier to get some XM4s to sell for bills and food than to steal a whole food shop.
The way I see life is we are here by chance for a limited time. Imma do what I have to do survive, but not just survive but enjoy it too.
I have this view for all laws really. I don’t not kill people because it’s illegal, more I don’t want to kill people and if I did then still the cons far outweighs the pros. It’s just a matter of choosing where you draw the line.
If I didn’t have a laptop or the money to buy one, I’d steal one because I wouldn’t be able to make money without one. Is a laptop a human right? No, not even close. Am I able to feed myself without access to a computer? Not really, no.
Western countries possibly. Not most of the world population has near zero help. Safety nets are a very modern philosophy that has only emerged in about the last 50 years and mainly in in capitalistic societies that have created the excess wealth to support.
I am happy we have those extra resources to support people. But this is not some universal law that dictates the requirement. The universe cars not about our well behind. This is provided by those that work a few extra hours to cover those that can’t.
This is absolutely horrible advice. Being financially broke doesn’t mean having to be morally broke. Those who don’t have much money don’t have to become bad people.
Thanks for putting it in words so well. These days I have to default to ‘no thanks’ for most information arriving in front of my face or I get quickly overwhelmed or distracted. Re-learning how to find the important stuff in an ever-changing media landscape takes up quite some energy, especially as the brain gets older.
I have the exact same thing. I have to ‘work’ to ‘pay attention’ to text nowadays. I can spend hours painting minis or roaming a museum, but there’s something about text nowadays that almost pushes my attention away.
I started preferring long form media recently. Audiobooks especially. Social media allows anyone to say a single thing that may or may not be legit, but since it’s bite sized information units they don’t need to back it up. Long form media requires a person to back up what they say, and having that barrier of entry filters out those who probably aren’t worth listening to.
I’m a sci fi and fantasy guy. I don’t think I have favorites, but I can list off some series. The Expanse, The Dark Tower, Dune up to Children of Dune, the series that starts with Ender’s Game, The Foundation series, the Space Odyssey series, Stormlight Archive, the Three Body Problem series, as many books as you want from the Discworld series, The Witcher, Children of Time, etc etc etc
I couldn’t name a single video essay by title. I just listen, I am entertained, and I move on. Anything by Folding Ideas is good. Those count as video essays right?
Hell yeah. I just read Guards, Guards! by Pratchett and I’m working through LotR again. Dune is amazing, but I haven’t continued past the original so maybe I’ll read those next.
If you’re into history, I’ve been listening to The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, it focuses on each major historical event from the perspective of the regular individual person rather than focusing on the people who happened to be in power during them, and it’s pretty good so far. I also read Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky, and that was life changing. Those are two pretty political ones, though.
In terms of fiction Id recommend Cormac McCarthy – either The Road or Blood Meridian – The Road is a post apocalyptic story about a father traversing through the ashen environment with his son, while Blood Meridian is a brutal Western set in the 1800s. With both of these, it’s not as much about plot as it is about the poetry of the writing.
I haven’t read a scifi book in a minute, but I haven’t seen a lot of people recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz. It’s three separate-but-connected short post-apocalyptic stories that follow the gradual resurgence of humans after a nuclear event. It’s really subtle in that it doesn’t slam you with like a whole universe and systems like Dune, but it’s expertly written and hits some pretty thought provoking topics. Def underrated.
Agreed! I miss my Samsung CLP. That was a real battle horse!
Yet, the talk was about printer ink and it is really hard to beat the price for that much ink, for those machines.
Fun fact: I don’t even own one of those machines. I have a Canon. Still cheaper than HP cartridges but those assholes tie the entire machine operation to the cartridges.
Those ink tank printers are their own kind of scam though, they clog if you dont use them frequently enough, and they use a non-replaceable dump pad when cleaning and purging that effectively bricks the printers when it is considred full, which is usually just a timer, not an actual sensor.
I have bad signal so I can’t find the sources for you, but if you look up something like “diamonds artificial supply limiting” you should find it.
Basically the diamond industry has a stranglehold on the supply of natural diamonds (which are also notoriously mined under horrid conditions - i.e. “blood diamonds”) and they artifitially alter the supply/demand ratio by limiting what goes onto market to jack up the price. Naturally, diamonds are actually a very common gemstone, and they can be easily created in a lab. They’re just hyper-compressed carbon, after all, and carbon is abundant on earth. Rubys, sapphires, and the like are much naturally rarer, but don’t fetch as high a price because of the market manipulation around diamonds.
Don’t forget that there used to be literal assassins that would kill you if you tried to sell (as a retailer, obviously the resale by individuals was so small-time they didn’t care and hard to track) under the price you were told to sell it.
which are also notoriously mined under horrid conditions - i.e. “blood diamonds”
Not only are blood diamonds mined under bad conditions, they are mined in mines owned/controlled by insurgents and terrorist groups, and then the sale of these diamonds is used to fund the activities of these groups. Watchdog organizations are a lot more careful about blood diamonds these days than they were 20 years ago, but it’s still possible to accidentally get ahold of one. That’s why it’s so bad to buy one and it’s why people all over the world made a fuss about them back around 2000 - 2003, because buying one directly funds atrocities in central Africa. They’re usually sold cheaper than the monopolized diamonds too.
The short answer is, diamonds are controlled by a cartel with literal warehouses of diamonds kept off the market to maintain artificial scarcity, compounded by very successful marketing to increase the perceived value above actual value, raising demand. If you are buying new diamonds, you are always paying too much, although how much extra varies.
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