skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYeah, some "gifts" are spam, if they're low quality.Yeah, some "gifts" are spam, if they're low quality.
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentPeople have forgotten that all work on open source projects is on a volunteer basis. A good bug report is a gift. You can take it or leave it. There’s no obligation for anyone to fix it. That...People have forgotten that all work on open source projects is on a volunteer basis. A good bug report is a gift. You can take it or leave it. There’s no obligation for anyone to fix it.
That doesn’t change just because it’s Google. The idea that they have some additional obligations to an open source project because they’re a big company is just something people have made up.
Regarding creating pull requests, anyone could try using AI tools to fix bugs and see if they work. But these tools are still unreliable, so there’s no guarantee that they will work for any particular bug.
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Comment on Russians confront wartime internet cuts with public shrug, private fury in ~tech
skybrian LinkFrom the article: … … …From the article:
According to Runet Monitor, which tracks the state of connectivity in Russia, 57 regions across the country reported mobile internet cuts Tuesday, and on any given day, dozens of areas are affected. Authorities have justified the cuts as a way to avert attacks by Ukrainian drones, which have been known to use local mobile networks for guidance. One Russian region, Ulyanovsk, home to military-linked factories, said this week that mobile data would be blocked until the end of the war.
The constant cuts in mobile internet are the latest way Russia’s population is feeling the effects of nearly four years of full-scale war with Ukraine, but also come on top of measures to restrict Russia’s internet and convert a once-raucous online world into what many are calling a “digital gulag,” as repressive as those in China or Iran.
Residents in St. Petersburg said the restrictions can cause chaos, scrambling taxis and transport and stopping card machines, but war-fatigued Russians have learned to shrug and get on with things, adapting to a world that is often without the online conveniences so many other countries take for granted.
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The bans began with Facebook and Instagram after the 2022 invasion and moved on to throttling the very popular YouTube starting in the summer of 2024, then this past August restricting WhatsApp and Telegram calls.
“Of course, people are mad. They are not happy with what’s happening with the internet,” said Mikhail Klimarev, Berlin-based executive director of the Internet Protection Society. “People are very unhappy and infuriated. But people will not protest, just because it makes no sense. If you do, you will be beaten up and then you will be put in jail.”
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Another way Nadezhdin copes is by carrying several phones, because “in some regions, one operator’s connection is better, and in others, a different operator’s connection is better.” It also gives him a way of dealing with the increasingly mandatory state-controlled national messaging app, Max. The service has no end-to-end encryption but is needed to access any state service, so he restricts the app to just one phone.
“Max has a very bad reputation. People say that with the help of Max, the authorities can follow you, can see what you write, can listen to what you say,” he said.
The government, meanwhile, said Wednesday that all the building chat groups that residents use to communicate must be transferred to Max by year’s end. There are an estimated million such chat groups among the tenants of all the apartment buildings in the country.
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In the past, Russia implemented “black bans” — blocking thousands of websites associated with opposition figures, activists or other unapproved activity, according to a July report by Human Rights Watch. Now Russia is increasingly shifting to “white lists” — strictly limited lists of government-approved sites that Russians may access, with other sites blocked.
The next step could be banning virtual private networks, or VPNs, which can be used to bypass restrictions on internet and individual sites. Individual VPNs have been blocked, and advertising them is illegal, but there is not yet a blanket ban.
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Russians confront wartime internet cuts with public shrug, private fury
22 votes -
Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
skybrian LinkFrom the article: ... ... ... ...From the article:
Prices have risen so high at the iconic fast food chain that traffic from one of its core customer bases, low-income households, has dropped by double digits, McDonald’s chief executive Christopher Kempczinski told investors last week. Meanwhile, traffic from higher-earners increased by nearly as much, he said.
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McDonald’s executives say the higher costs of restaurant essentials, such as beef and salaries, have pushed food prices up and driven away lower-income customers who are already being squeezed by the rising cost of groceries, clothes, rent and child care.
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Josephson and other economists say the shrinking traffic of low-income consumers is emblematic of a larger trend of Americans diverging in their spending, with wealthier customers flexing their purchasing power and lower-income shoppers pulling back — what some call a “K-shaped economy.”
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According to a corporate fact sheet, from 2019 to 2024, the average cost of a McDonald’s menu item rose 40%. The average price of a Big Mac in 2019, for example, was $4.39, rising in 2024 to $5.29, according to the company. A 10-piece McNuggets Meal rose from $7.19 to $9.19 in the same time period.
The company says these increases are in line with the costs of running a restaurant — including soaring labor costs and high prices of beef and other goods.
Beef prices have skyrocketed, with inventory of the U.S. cattle herd at the lowest in 75 years due to the toll of drought and parasites. And exports of beef bound to the U.S. are down because of Trump’s trade war and tariffs. As a result, the prices of ground beef sold in supermarkets is up 13% in September, year over year.
McDonald’s has also placed blame on the meat-packing industry, accusing it of maneuvering to artificially inflate prices in a lawsuit filed last year against the industry’s “Big Four” companies — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and the National Beef Packing Company.
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McDonald’s said last year that spending by the company on restaurant worker salaries had grown around 40% since 2019, while costs for food, paper and other goods were up 35%.
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McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers
31 votes -
Comment on US Army to buy one million drones, in major acquisition ramp-up in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article: ...From the article:
The U.S. Army aims to buy at least a million drones in the next two to three years and could acquire anywhere from a half million drones to millions of them annually in the years that follow, U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said.
Driscoll detailed the major ramp-up in the Army's drone acquisition plan in an interview with Reuters, acknowledging the challenges given that the biggest branch of the U.S. military acquires only about 50,000 drones annually today.
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Ukraine and Russia each produce roughly 4 million drones a year, but China is probably able to produce more than double that number, Driscoll said.
Driscoll said his priority is getting the United States into a position where it can produce enough drones for any future war, stimulating domestic production of everything from brushless motors and sensors to batteries and circuit boards.
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US Army to buy one million drones, in major acquisition ramp-up
7 votes -
Comment on Is trying to become an author insane in times of LLMs? in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentFor me it's similar, but I hardly ever read anything that just came out this year, other than by certain authors I already know. So for new, unknown writers, it probably doesn't help much?For me it's similar, but I hardly ever read anything that just came out this year, other than by certain authors I already know. So for new, unknown writers, it probably doesn't help much?
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
skybrian LinkI haven't given it a serious try in a couple of years. Are there good tutorials now?I haven't given it a serious try in a couple of years. Are there good tutorials now?
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Comment on Is trying to become an author insane in times of LLMs? in ~tech
skybrian LinkI think it depends on genre and your motivation. The odds are against being successful enough to make a living, but that doesn't seem new?I think it depends on genre and your motivation. The odds are against being successful enough to make a living, but that doesn't seem new?
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
skybrian LinkFortunately, some US states have adopted better teaching methods and hopefully that will continue. (Also in California.)Fortunately, some US states have adopted better teaching methods and hopefully that will continue. (Also in California.)
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Comment on Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentThe blog post was corrected:The blog post was corrected:
Corrected an error about the speed of the attack: not "thousands of requests per second" but "thousands of requests, often multiple per second"
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Comment on Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign in ~tech
skybrian (edited )Link ParentThere’s evidence that the blog post was sloppy (it’s been corrected), but I think this is a bit too dismissive based on vibes. One blog post doesn’t make it a PR campaign, and “our tools are...There’s evidence that the blog post was sloppy (it’s been corrected), but I think this is a bit too dismissive based on vibes. One blog post doesn’t make it a PR campaign, and “our tools are dangerous” would be an unusual sales tactic. It doesn’t seem like a viable way to win customers? They have other ways to do that.
Yes, details are lacking, but that’s not unusual. It seems like if they didn’t report on this, critics would later be attacking them for the coverup?
One thing I’m wondering about is why nobody else involved said anything at all:
we banned accounts as they were identified, notified affected entities as appropriate, and coordinated with authorities as we gathered actionable intelligence.
What did this look like from their point of view?
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Comment on New US regulations will lower wages for H-2A farmworkers in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article: … … This seems like a complicated way to say that they get minimum wage now? … Here is Sarah Taber’s commentary.From the article:
Over the last decade, farms in the region have increased their use of the H-2A visa program, which allows foreign workers to come to the United States for temporary agricultural jobs and return to their home country when the season ends. As of June 2025, the Department of Homeland Security had approved just over 28,000 H-2A workers for Washington state.
The new nationwide regulations will change the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which aims to protect domestic workers in similar jobs by setting a minimum wage for H-2A workers. In Washington state, H-2A farmworkers with contracts starting on or after Oct. 2 will make less than they would have before and see housing costs subtracted from their wages.
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At the beginning of 2025, Washington’s AEWR was $19.82. Under the new rules, that number could be more than $3 lower.
The new AEWR is $16.53 for farmworkers in entry-level positions and $19 for farmworkers in skilled positions.
For the first time, employers providing housing to H-2A workers can deduct those expenses off of workers’ hourly wage. In Washington, that translates to an additional $2.49 per hour shaved off a worker’s pay.
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With the new housing deduction factored in, Washington’s AEWRs for both entry-level and skilled workers sit below the 2025 state minimum wage of $16.66 per hour.
That doesn’t mean farmworkers will be making a sub-minimum wage — per the AEWR rule, growers are still required to pay workers the highest wage class between the AEWR, prevailing wage rate, collective bargaining wage rate, federal minimum wage or the state minimum wage.
This seems like a complicated way to say that they get minimum wage now?
The Department of Labor estimates the new interim final rule will transfer $2.46 billion from H-2A workers to H-2A employers annually.
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United Farm Workers — the nation’s largest farmworker union — condemned the decision in a news release Monday.
Here is Sarah Taber’s commentary.
The surge in hiring H2A workers isn't just about "getting away from undocumented labor." It's also about replacing US workers.
Since its inception, H2A has had a high minimum wage- precisely to prevent competition with US workers.
And that's what Trump just got rid of.
"That's not a big deal, how many people actually work on farms anyway?"
About 2 million! Just hired hands, not including people who live on & own family farms!
The US also has about 2 million waiters/waitresses and about 2 million truck drivers.
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New US regulations will lower wages for H-2A farmworkers
8 votes -
Comment on Epstein-Barr virus appears to be trigger of lupus disease in ~health
skybrian LinkFrom the article: … …From the article:
A common childhood virus appears to be the trigger for the autoimmune disease lupus, according to groundbreaking research.
The study suggests that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which for most people is harmless, can cause immune cells to “go rogue” and mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues. The team behind the work said that uncovering the cause of lupus could revolutionise treatments.
“We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases,” said Prof William Robinson, a professor of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University and the study’s senior author. “I think it really sets the stage for a new generation of therapies that could fundamentally treat and thereby provide benefit to lupus patients.”
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EBV is typically a mild illness which causes a sore throat, fever and tonsillitis. By adulthood, about 19 out of 20 people become infected and – since the virus deposits its genetic material into DNA – carry the dormant virus in their cells.
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If confirmed, the findings would add impetus to clinical trials for an EBV vaccine, which are already under way. There are also several teams exploring repurposing cancer treatments designed to wipe out B cells for severe cases of lupus.
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Epstein-Barr virus appears to be trigger of lupus disease
27 votes -
Comment on Giant mirrors in space to reflect sunlight at night? No thank you, astronomers say. in ~space
skybrian LinkFrom the article: …From the article:
Reflect Orbital is looking to send giant mirrors in space to “sell sunlight after dark.”
It’s a plan that’s causing alarm among astronomers who are already concerned about the loss of the night sky due to satellite constellations — hundreds to thousands of satellites belonging to one company, most often providing internet services — and overall light pollution.
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Aaron Boley, an astronomer and professor at the University of British Columbia, said there are "basic misunderstandings or willful misrepresentations" on the company's website.
"They were talking about reducing light pollution by having this giant light from space. And it really seems like they're trying to suggest that because it's natural sunlight, it's not like pollution.”
The company — which filed a request with the U.S. the Federal Communication Commission to launch its first satellite, EARENDIL-1 — is proposing using the satellites to beam down reflected sunlight on specific locations, such as solar farms after the sun has set.
I have no personal knowledge, but increased wages for fast food workers seems to be real according to statistics and the news articles I've seen. Why don't you think it's real?
If McDonalds can't attract paying customers then they'll have less revenue and the stock price will go down. But what seems to have happened is that McDonalds attracts different customers that willingly pay more.