Usury was indeed the term that immediately came to mind.

Most of the math I do at work is related to compound interest. Of all the math I believe the general public should understand, the concept of how paying interest to others is a total screw would get my top vote.

I have a co-worker who took out a car loan last week at, wait for it, FIFTY THREE PERCENT INTEREST! No concept of what that was costing her. She could only see, “I can afford the monthly payment.”

(1 + r)^n and its friend 1/(1 + r)^n have been the two most important concepts in work and personal life that I’ve ever learned and applied.

I know several of those. One I don’t see listed is stuff made here. If you’re a fan of backyard scientist, you’re gonna love stuff made here.

Smarter everyday is really a special one. The way that guy involves his kids and his own boyish excitement when he finally gets an experiment right is downright heartwarming. Then there was the whole episode checking in on physics girl. He had no particular incentive to do that. He just really seems to care.

I just took a charter flight that didn’t involve going through TSA or the airport terminal.

Whatever happened on the flight itself was irrelevant as the sheer pleasure of getting on a plane without the standard anal probe far outweighed all other aspects of the journey.

The only reason I keep Spotify anymore is that I’ve got a family plan with something like six accounts. I gave those to random acquaintances back in the Facebook days - people who are really into music.

If I cancel Spotify, there are five people out there who are suddenly and without warning going to find themselves without music.

I really don’t even remember who they are, but I feel like continuing the subscription is my community service

I love the hit counter. Super nostalgic right there.

The last time I logged on to Facebook was this past fall because there was a death in our fairly tight knit group of high school classmates. It had been three or four years since I’d been in there.

So I went on and said my words.

While I was there, I didn’t really notice what was in my feed.

What I noticed was suddenly I was getting notification after notification that my posts from years and years ago were getting deleted because they didn’t fit whatever the current terms and conditions of use were.

This amused me.

So I left my words of dead classmate up for a week then sent my account silent again.

I can’t see Facebook or any social media being a place I ever hang out again, which is a little bit of a bummer because without any social media, IRL social activities all but come to an immediate and total halt.

Oh well. I’ll live.

Does this mean I still can’t watch porn in Texas?

My Roku is doing this and has been doing this for quite some time.

Of all the ad delivery schemes cooked up over the past ten years, this one is the least offensive to me.

Like I’ll come back from the bathroom or whatever, and all that registers before I hit play is that some random graphic is covering the screen while on pause. I cannot name a single thing that’s been in any of those ads.

In general, I do wonder how effective this constant onslaught of marketing is. At some point there have got to be diminishing returns, right?

Well I did just read an article yesterday where some European billionaire was complaining that Europeans don’t have the “ambition” that Americans do, so they waste their lives by working fewer hours and spending time in social situations.

Clearly, the Italian builders guild only allows for a two hour work week, so no jobs ever get completed.

Expensive and impractical today, yes. But we would say the same of every man, woman, and child having a supercomputer with the entirety of human knowledge in their pocket fifty years ago.

War and policing. You’re dug into a foxhole/bunker with your bolt action rifle, and a few thousand of these things come marching along. Or you’re protesting the party in power, so a few hundred of these automated law enforcement officers get sprung loose to “keep the peace”

How the fuck can an economy that’s almost nothing but advertisements sustain itself for any period of time? It feels like forcing more and more ads is the only thing anybody does for money anymore.

Some games really needed manuals to play. That’s what text files were for.

I had a 55 inch TV that I bought in 2005 right before flat screens became common. Thing was so heavy it was on wheels.

When it finally died, I used it as a TV stand for my TV.

COVID forced me to stay in my house for an extended period of time. I never ventured back out. Businesses are certainly not incentivizing me to do so.

As a result, I’ve watched my bank account grow at a rate it never has. In a nearly identical upward trend on the graph so have grown my depression and loneliness.

The outside world has become hostile in addition to expensive.

I’m glad I’m old and this is not my whole life ahead of me stage.

In all fairness, we panic and reach for our guns at the mention of just about anything. Right this very moment, I’m pooping on company time, scared out of my wits, a nine millimeter at the ready atop my presently ankle adorning boxers.

I would say that all the women in Kill Bill are bad ass. Some just align differently than others.

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Sorry, can’t be bothered with whatever issue this is.

I’m busy shopping for a North Face tent so I’ll have it to camp in the next time a new ear pod case gets released.