I’m not disagreeing that there’s an entire category of people with impairments who can overcome most of the barriers through effort and perseverance. That’s absolutely a thing. Please don’t think I’m dismissing that.

I’m saying there is also a category of people who will sadly never overcome their impairment though any amount of effort, or really anything short of a miracle. The simplest illustration is at the extreme end – a person with advanced Alzheimer’s is never going to become a pro athlete nor a Jeopardy champion, at least not without major groundbreaking advancements in medicine.

You seem to be making the argument that only the first category exists but not the second, which is just not true.

I’m trying to steer this away from subjective topics like motivation and effort here. I’m talking about neural hardware with concrete, quantifiable impediments that lead to poor functionality compared to the general populace. Things like physical brain damage or incomplete cortical development.

This genuinely affects quality of life for real people regardless of their mood or whether they consider themselves a victim or any other non-scientific generalizations.

I don’t know whether your family members were actually tested by a credentialed psychologist or psychiatrist, or if they were merely self-diagnosed. I won’t make any assumptions there but please know there is an huge difference in terms of accuracy.

You’re dismissing entire categories of cognitive impairment. Not just the varieties of dementia, but also learning disabilities like dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), and dyscalculia (math) that can affect otherwise smart and capable people. These are measurable impairments, not just a difficulty that can be overcome with time and effort.

https://neurolaunch.com/cognitive-disorders-list/

It would be wise to be more careful with your sweeping statements.

inability to learn is a choice.

Not always. Someone close to me has issues with executive dysfunction and short term memory as a result of brain trauma. She really struggles with algebra and she’ll almost certainly never learn calculus even if she wanted to.

lots of people I met recently, love to tell me how stupid it is because it’s not a ‘useful’ thing to learn.

That’s a different issue entirely. If they think they’re experts at judging what’s useful, that may be the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Yeah? What do you recommend specifically? I might have to grab a bottle soon when I’m in Canada (assuming they import it).

I’ve been pretty happy with Appleton Estate, Plantation 3-Star, and Wrey & Nephew. But if there’s better… yum.

I saw Weird Al when his tour hit my city last summer (finally! I’ve been a fan since I was a kid). Yeah I don’t actively follow his stuff anymore but he and the band are still great. Fun show even as an adult.

He actually closed the set with a cover of You Can Call Me Al. From what I understand that’s a regular thing 🙂

Ah drats, I par-boiled mine and then put it on a kebab spit

This is entirely reasonable and I hope this understanding catches on in courts worldwide.

If I go make my own summary/parody/spinoff/reaction video based on someone else’s content, I’m responsible for the media I created. Simple as that. Same should apply to companies.

Do they remember all the video games? Will they retain those mad Elden Ring skillz?

Where did you get the idea that chewing gum is made out of rubber and plastic? 🤔

Edit: Thanks all, I had no idea!

I believe there’s also a Valve Index there on the front.

It very much is – now, by modern standards.

But back when it released there wasn’t really anything better. Except maybe Goldeneye, or Mario Kart / Diddy Kong Racing for those diehards.

That’s all it took to get the song in my head lol

Over several hours, the brothers deleted approximately 96 databases storing government information, including systems tied to case management and Freedom of Information Act request processing. The affected systems were hosted on servers in Ashburn, Virginia.

Damn. If they deleted NSA or CIA data they could have been heroes. Deleting FOIAs and people’s equal opportunity cases is just shitty.

I got to see that in person! Newgrange is fascinating.

I know folks here are arguing about Celtic pagan culture but the spirals actually come from neolithic peoples from 5,000 years ago that we know very little about. They predate the Celts and the Picts and even the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt. We don’t know their language, religion, or much of anything except that they were pretty good engineers, moved enormous stones tens or hundreds of kilometers, and had a thing for spiral motifs!

Pretty sure Google can afford to handle… checks math… All of them.

Should be called Middle-Out? That was the algorithm IIRC. Pied Piper was the name of the startup.

Either way, funny shit.

There’s a game in the Humble ESA bundle called Horizon Chase 2 that looks very similar to Cruisin’ USA. Haven’t played it myself though.

Technically the majority of strong bases are also weak acids. Those have higher pH.

Hehe, well since you have good taste I’ll forgive you if you falsely raised my hopes.