blackshaw

Entrepreneur magazine are famous for this too.

The Rwanda ECHR injunction was followed, which is one reason why no migrants have yet been sent to Rwanda despite nearly two years of harsh rhetoric.

How did you survive before 2020?

I always do, but increasingly I'm finding places don't even have one to give me.

You forgot "restaurants that no longer provide printed menus and expect you to view the menu on your phone instead".

Dear fucking God I will go to my grave complaining about how much I hate this trend.

So? 25% doesn't mean it can't happen. I wouldn't cross the road if there was a 25% of being hit by a car.

The real way to measure predictive accuracy is to find _all_ the times they gave something a 25% chance of happening. If the predictions are accurate then roughly 25% of those things should have happened.

If we're talking about spelling, the biggest source of English's orthographic oddness is the Great Vowel Shift:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

we are the champions of how to write something easy most difficultly, and crank weirdness of pronunciation to 100

Wurs than Inglish? I hav my dowts.

Cigarettes kill you slowly over decades, fentanyl can kill a first-time user with a single dose.

Moronic analogy.

Why do you say it's not working out in Portugal or Amsterdam? I frequently hear those two places cited as an example of where drug liberalisation has been a big success. Is that not true? I ask from ignorance.

As dang explains in one of the linked posts, it's because if they don't do it, the discussion usually becomes "how is this on the front page when it's 2 days old?" instead of discussing the topic at hand.

Of course in this case we're now discussing the opposite question and still not discussing the topic at hand.

But is that old man wrong?

So much nostalgia in this thread!

I lived in Southeast Asia for a few years in my 20s - not teaching English, mainly just scraping together a living through random Internet bullshit, but I had lots of friends who taught English, and I've seen what a good springboard it can be for global travel if you want to live abroad.

But the main thing I'd say to anyone considering moving countries is that most countries aren't highly desired immigration destinations like the US or Western Europe, and thus most countries don't have strict and tightly-controlled immigration systems like Western countries do. If you want to go spend a few years in Thailand as a Westerner, it's laughably easy - just buy a flight and you'll probably figure it out once you're there, as your Western dollars/pounds/euros will go a looooong way.

(I apologize to any Thai people reading this; I know that digital nomads and other wealthy foreigners aren't universally appreciated in the countries they park up in. Am just sharing my own experience.)

I wouldn't want to live in that part of the world for the rest of my life, but the time I did spend travelling was the best thing I ever did and I have no regrets. I wrote about it here if anyone's interested:

https://blackshaw.substack.com/p/digital-nomad

Yeah, it's quite hilarious that this article's only critique of the OSB is to quote someone saying that it doesn't go far enough.

Here we go again:

Alex Jones is being a dick? Disgraceful - we need to censor the internet.

Cloudflare is protecting a Neo-Nazi website from being DDOSed? There's no such thing as neutrality - we need to censor the internet.

Journalists are getting "harassed"? This must be stopped - we need to censor the internet.

Someone I don't like got elected? The problem is "disinformation" - we need to censor the internet.

Some guy in Scotland made an idiotic and tasteless joke involving his dog? We can't allow this kind of content - we need to censor the internet.

Joe Rogan is platforming the wrong people? They mustn't be allowed to spread their bad ideas - we need to censor the internet.

Something, something, Russia? Censor the internet! Censor the internet!!!

But wait: now suicidal people are getting suicide information from a web forum? You'd have never have guessed, but the answer is... to censor the internet!

Idk, I think that maybe the issue isn't the issue, these people just want more power to censor the internet.

Interesting. I don't think I've ever seen it here in Britain. Some smaller businesses might insist on a £5 minimum spend if you're not paying cash, but even that has become very rare since the pandemic.

Who are you to decide what other people should consider essential?

Google "canadian trucker protest"

Maybe we should also mandate the USDA to bake same-sex wedding cakes.

You do understand what the word "addiction" means, right?

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” - Anatole France

Okay, then let's not force businesses to make their buildings wheelchair-accessible either, because most customers can walk. If some customers can't shop there anymore then the market will take care of that problem too, right?

That sounds like treating the symptom rather than the problem...

Wait, is it common in the US for brick-and-mortar businesses to charge you extra if you pay by card? That doesn't happen in the UK.

Let's think about who wouldn't be fine in a cashless economy:

* Elderly people who struggle with technology.

* People fleeing coercive situations like domestic abuse where their abuser controls their finances.

* People with mental disabilities, for whom cash might be the only thing they know how to use.

* Homeless people, who might literally rely on cash to survive.

* Poorer people who prefer cash because it helps them budget and limit their spending.

* People so poor or otherwise disadvantaged that they don't even have a bank account.

That last group is much bigger than you think: by one estimate, 6% of American adults don't have a bank account and another 13% are "underbanked".[0] That's tens of millions of people in the US alone who don't have access to the basic financial services that you and I take for granted.

I have no idea how they do it. I'm not sure how it's even possible to navigate modern life without a bank account, but then I'm an educated, affluent professional who has no idea what it's like to be poor. Just because I don't need cash doesn't mean that no-one else does.

So basically, I think that asking "why should a business be forced by law to accept cash?" is like asking "why should a business be forced by law to provide wheelchair ramps and elevators?" If you don't think the answer is obvious, then you need to check your privilege.

[0] Source: https://usafacts.org/articles/who-is-the-least-likely-to-hav...

https://blackshaw.substack.com/

Here are two recent(ish) posts I was proud of:

https://blackshaw.substack.com/p/desert-island

https://blackshaw.substack.com/p/the-great-reset-is-too-stup...

Must have been tough if you rolled out this system in Indonesia.

The "posh" one is commonly repeated, but there's no evidence it's true: https://www.etymonline.com/word/posh#etymonline_v_18515

They unbanned some controversial accounts (Trump being the most famous by far, although he hasn't posted anything since being unbanned), but it's pretty hyperbolic to say they allowed "all the banned users to come back"