The often overlooked figure is the 21% “economically inactive” statistic; in particular, what are the criteria for this? My partner falls into this category, despite actively seeking work, due to being disabled and out of work for some period of time.

You missed the point. It says directly in the screenshot that the artist is a digital artist. The entire point is that an artist is not tied to a medium.

Yeah, I’m sorry that yours happened to be the comment I jumped on. In fact I’ve been ruminating on this sentiment for a while now. I think that voters on the left in general, myself included, need a fundamental shift in our voting mentality and how we prioritise events in the election cycle.

The battle for us is making sure that a desirable candidate is on the ballot paper on November 3rd. In that respect, the big midterm election for us is March 3rd. We need to be rounding up and riling up as many left wing voters as possible in time for March 3rd so that the choice in November isn’t between political apathy and a status quo corporate democrat.

So do something, right god damned now, and practise as you preach. Use your comment to namedrop your pick and why they’re your pick.

I’m just acting on your username and basing this info on Texas. It’s not my state, not even my country, but it takes minutes to find out that Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico are running for the Democratic senator candidate, that Crockett is an AIPAC shill who has rejected the label “progressive” and Talarico is pro-healthcare reform and critical of Israel and Christian nationalism. I’m sure with a few more minutes you could find their voting records, just like I can for my local representatives in my country.

Who is the person that you want as your candidate in March and why?

My conspiracy theory is that this and “blowing Bubba” have been tactically released to lessen the impact of any actual leaks. Just look at how the idiot masses jumped on blowing Bubba instead of ignoring it as clearly hyperbolic. People will attach to this with the same fervour. It robs credibility from any real release.

The problem with compromising for a “middle ground” is that, when the right decide to re-litigate the issue (if they ever stop litigating to begin with), your starting position is now that middle ground. Compromising for a middle ground simply moves the Overton window to the right.

I love this: adaptive techniques are general improvements. When talking about adaptive teaching, there’s Carter’s golden rule: “good teaching practices for SEND are good teaching practices for all pupils.”

(Just trying to emphasise the “just improvements” point, not making any other statement).

Do those communities just accept anyone in your area? In all the cities I’ve lived, you have to apply to these communities with a desired skill from a list; it’s necessary for filtering out people who think making lattes and doing tarot readings are key skills.

It’s a bad joke. You feeling the need to write 4 paragraphs explaining the joke is testament to that.

31?! Hate really ages you.

I saw the angles and assumed this was a joke about Dirac notation, which I’m still convinced is a massive joke to get mathematical physicists seriously talking about bras and ket in the staff room.

You’re right. All 8 billion people in the world aren’t telling you you’re wrong so it isn’t literally everyone. You’re the only person rejecting objective fact. People are quoting Apple’s license agreement. “nuh uh, free”. People are rebutting your top level “show me a receipt” comment. “I never mentioned receipts, you brought them up. Also nuh uh, free.” People are explaining the economics of perk systems. “No evidence that Apple applies this general economic theory to its business. Also nuh uh, free.”

You are evidently working with a definition of free that deviates from the commonly understood definition of the word, insofar that no one has yet agreed with you. You need to communicate better because what you are doing now isn’t working. Start by defining what you understand the word free to mean.

You know, if I made a statement and everyone responding disagreed with me or appeared to be misunderstanding me, I’d consider the quality of my own communication first before spending a day telling everyone else that they’re wrong or failing to understand me. You’re the common factor in all these discussions.

Your argument hinges on the fact that it doesn’t appear on your receipt. Neither do any of the components of my M1 Macbook Pro other than the optional extras that I selected. By your logic I only paid for the itemised extras.

You’re arguing that any perks tied to a purchase aren’t actually factored into the cost, which is certainly a mindset that some people have and those people are the kinds of consumers that give marketers wet dreams.

A “free” perk that has the implicit requirement of buying into the company’s ecosystem - whether through a software subscription or purchasing proprietary hardware - is not free. You’ve already paid into the ecosystem and there is no additional cost.

I own and use Apple products. That’s how I know you’re talking bollocks. You also realised at some point that you were talking bollocks, which is why you’re now pivoting to absolutely absurd responses to pretend this is some elaborate troll attempt.

Alright Theseus, how many components of a macbook need to be removed until you’re no longer buying a macbook? Would you be satisfied receiving an empty box since the monitor, CPU, motherboard etc. are not individually itemised on your receipt for a MacBook?

The OS is a component of the whole product by Apple’s own reporting and marketing material. If you bought a Macbook directly from Apple and it came without MacOS preinstalled, would you consider that a fulfilled transaction?

We have one for combinatorics: Ask Fibonacci about his rabbits.

Just an observation from a mathematician: I’ve never heard this comment from someone who was competent in high school maths. Whenever I mention that I’m a mathematician and someone responds how they “never got on” with maths, usually the next thing to leave their mouth is some gripe about financial literacy.

12 years later is “shortly after”?