It's "infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters" because a million would be far too small a sample size to expect Shakespeare. The monkeys aren't trying to make anything, they're just randomly hitting keys. For Shakespeare to come out, there would likely need to be more Monkeys than there are atoms in the universe. Conversely, we're getting something people enjoy from AI right now. No need to approach infinity. It's not what most people wanted AI to be used for, but it's succeeding at it, and current models have only been around for a few years. This isn't random chance happening upon something we like - this is a pattern-recognizing machine getting progressively better at recognizing the patterns we enjoy.

Sounds to me like the kid is also having some feelings surrounding the breakup and subsequent remarriage that aren't being addressed. Why does he want you to come too? Is he hoping it might bring you and his mom back together? Does he feel uncomfortable around the new stepdad, and wants you around because he's more comfortable when you're around? I think if you have a conversation with him as to why he's asking for you to come too, it might influence how you approach the situation, or at least give you a better way to explain why you can't come due to your own reasons.

I know this is a difficult decision on your part for how it affects you, but your son is also in a very vulnerable position right now, and needs both of his parents paying attention to him and the feelings he's having, even if he doesn't know how to express them directly. My parents broke up suddenly due to cheating when I was around the same age, and it was a traumatic time in my life because my parents both assumed I was old enough to "get it." I wasn't. Family is one of the main sources of stability in a young person's life, and to have it fall out from beneath you isn't something you get over on your own very easily.

This is the whole reason we have strict building codes for door hardware. Locks have to be able to open in a single action, and room with a larger occupancy have to have panic devices that can open the door just from falling on them. The panic devices were invented after a major theater fire killed a bunch of people thanks to their stupidly-designed fancy locks that nobody could figure out how to open during the panic.

Damn, stopping the strike without gaining anything is going to kill their negotiation power. Now NYT will have all the power in the world to just keep saying "Yeah, we're working on that deal. Any day now..."

Which is why the people who decide what they think steer them toward worries about the nuclear family and abortion.

That's a lot of Dong

I think the vulgarity might just be what keeps it from being ableist. I'm learning in this thread that most commonly-used words for "unintelligent" have historically been used for actual diagnoses in the medical field for people with actual disabilities, which inexorably ties the word to the concept of being unintelligent by necessity, instead of by choice. So, something vulgar that would never be used by the medical field for a real disability can, at least in theory, be used to describe someone as being willfully ignorant without the baggage of a medically-oriented usage history.

But if someone had shit for brains, that would definitely be a disability, haha! Good thing that's not an actual condition, so it would work perfectly, thanks for the recommendation!

I wholeheartedly agree. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, like every day a new word I use is considered offensive, but I try to remember that it's all coming from the desire to be more mindful of the people around us, and in the end it's not too hard for me to find - or even just make - another word to convey what I need.

Yeah, someone else corrected me, sorry about that! I'll be honest, it's a word I use myself to describe someone who is willfully unintelligent rather than being disabled. I'm trying to find another word now to describe Nick; it's important to publicly make fun of such people - clearly being silent about their bad behavior has only made our cultural and political climate worse. "Ignorant" is the closest I've gotten, but I can't see myself pointing and laughing at someone, calling them "ignorant," you know?

Hardly semantic. The way you fix a broken system is by working within the system to gradually shift it back to normal. The way you destroy a working corrupt system is by literally tearing it down French revolution style. Which path are we going to take? It's only semantic if we ultimately decide to take no path at all, and simply lay down and die.

I don't honestly think that would work. They've been conditioned to take comfort in not knowing things. I've seen the thought process unfold in front of me hundreds of times: "If a republican did it, it was a good thing and part of the plan, even if I don't understand how yet." It's exactly the same thought process that they employ for their religion: "God is good and does good things, even though terrible things happen to people all the time that God must have allowed if he exists, there's always a plan, even if we don't know it."