This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
And people will still say.. "oh just parent your kids"... In the face of this and all the other pulls on time and energy in the real world as well as how fast it all changes, it's so hard to just parent your kids. We can't rely on every individual parent staying up to date on and understanding how to get around all of this.
To be clear, I'm not in favour of stupid shit like age verification.
I called this years ago. I could see the Dopamine addiction happening, and knew these psychopaths would lean into it and try to weaponize it, and they have. Of course, they have.
It's not the first time. Tobacco companies were found to manipulate their formulations to make theor products addict users quicker, addict them stronger, and make it harder to quit, all while denying the addictive properties, and even the obvious health issues.
Oil companies had their own studies back in the 80s, that clearly predicted Climate Change from fossil fuels, and yet they continue to deny it to this day.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that the think tanks that fund and support the Conservative Propaganda Machine have also done studies to identify the addictive properties and triggers in their propaganda, and manipulate it for maximum effect.
WHEN we take back our country, and make major changes to get away from the ugly conservative society that they've tried to force upon us for decades, the addictive properties of "products" need to be identified and strongly regulated, to avoid exploiting unsuspecting citizens.
This is not a reason to pass Kosa, KOSA does not address these problems. These companies need dismantled.
⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣶⣶ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣀⣀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿
Did you copy it from the Internet, or did you do it yourself?
I am nothing but a peddler of stolen ASCII art and memes I'm afraid.
That's alao good. ASCII art is a treasure that must be preserved.
Meme smarter, not harder. 🤌
Preach, sibling.
Connoisseur and collector of fine ASCII art you mean. An online archaeologist if you will. :-)
This gave me a sudden flashback to the days when I had a program on VAX VMS that would spit out ASCII art to a chat console from a collection of dozens.
This was also huge on the old WWW III and other BBS Systems over various networks like FIDO. What a time.
Reminded me of dialing in to BBSs to play LORD. I had a nice collection of ANSI and ASCII art. I thought I was hot shit with my i486 that had two hard drives, 100MB & 200MB. Look out world!
Maaan, I read The Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll recently and was more than a little jealous of what y’all got to experience. Sounds like it was a blast : )
Ah damn, I loved that book when I was a kid. I can probably blame it, at least in part, for my career...
(I was a massive nerd and a FidoNet sysop back in the 80s & 90s, and got my first VMS and Unix experience hopping onto academic networks over dialup and X.25 gateways using, err, "unconventially obtained" credentials... This experience helped me convince my interviewer at Imperial College to overlook my less than stellar academic record to admit me to their Computing peogramme.
That book - and the movie WarGames - were definitely inspiring, if not life-changing.)
At least in Linux, you can do this with any image using something like jp2a which is usually packaged into any distro repo.
This article is pro KOSA Act. A tainted report
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/kids-online-safety-act-will-make-internet-worse-everyone
The two options always seem to be:
Option 1: Do the thing that expands the hyper-surveillance police state.
Option 2: Do nothing and wait for the problem to get worse, until you're compelling to accept Option 1.
Which is why we need to replace the people deciding what the options are.
This is why I hate all the superhero movies of the past 20 years. Their ubiquity has made people subconsciously believe someone else out there with super powers will come to save the day, so it's okay to continue sitting back helplessly and waiting.
I think that’s why comic writers started going to stories with flawed non super powered heroes.
I mean.....it worked in WWII.
See, there was this guy named Hitler, who wanted to take over the world, and kill the Jews.
Then two jewish teens from Cleveland created Superman.
So Superman goes off, fights the nazis, and was on his way to Hitler's house, to give him a lecture about why killing is bad, but Hitler heard Superman was coming. So he killed himself before Superman got there.
True story.
My only knowledge of WWII comes from Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Schindler's List, Conspiracy, Enemy at the Gates, Midway, Memphis Belle, Das Boot, Valkyrie, and Band of Brothers. In NONE of those historical accounts is this story told. It's probably covered in that Inglourioueaus Basteards documentary, which I still have yet to see.
TIL
Yah, their fallacy is false dichotomy.
Option 3: Detonate a nuclear warhead in Arasaka HQ.
It’s the same model as religion and cigarettes: Get ‘em hooked young and you have a customer for as long as they live.
And coffee strategy in Japan
This explains so much! So THAT'S why I masturbate! I was addicted as a teenager, and I guess I'm going to be addicted for life.
The trick is convincing people that a literal body function is shameful and some kind of sin.
Its was also Epsteins priority for his clients.
No shit, Sherlock.
This is why I am glad that social media is slowly becoming age gated in other countries.
See also: LLMs
Litterally just reading about the reading crisis and how we don't know why it is so bad...
Maybe there's a link between the two.
In other news: water is wet.
I misread this as “teen pregnancy” at first and with everything going on, i believed it.
Unfortunately, they've been so successful, we won't be able to get our kids to read this report.
