This is a product that shows why there shouldn’t be any billionaires: These people live completely detached from reality—and their narcissistic hubris makes them a danger to any civilized society. Musk, like all the other PayPal billionaires—Thiel, for example—is the best example: They are mentally ill individuals who feel validated by their financial success.

This is by no means their achievement, but rather a flaw in the system that grants power to these people, who have done nothing more than happen to be in the right place at the right time with money. They simply should never have this kind of power, because they are antisocial in the truest sense of the word.

I’m not a U.S. citizen, but I’ve never missed an election in my home country.

Edit: Just in case it wasn’t clear—I don’t live in the U.S. either.

With people like Schumer, not a single thing will change.

As an observer from afar, I can of course only be pleased that U.S. citizens have taught the current regime a lesson. Nevertheless, it’s sobering to see how little this will actually change. Things will stay the same: The U.S. is an oligarchy in which a child molester and serious criminal is president—the opposition cannot be taken seriously, since its leadership prevents people who actually want to change the status quo from reaching positions of power.

There will be no prosecution for all the crimes the regime has openly committed; everything will remain as it is, with the only difference being that it will be less obvious. That is as certain as death and taxes, as long as corrupt politicians like Schumer are not held accountable.

Yes, apparently they’re suddenly worried that stealing other people’s work—which is their business model—might backfire on them. I assume this is a measure intended to give the impression—in the face of one of the countless lawsuits against Anthropic—that they’re actually taking licensing or intellectual property rights seriously. I can’t think of any other explanation, because Anthropic simply can’t afford to have questions raised about where the training data used by their models actually comes from.

:)

It’s interesting that in France they’re named after Gabriel Morris. In Germany, they’re called Litfaßsäulen, after their inventor, Ernst Litfaß.

This is a “Litfaßsäule” (advertising column), the kind still found in many cities across Europe today.

Litfaßsäulen are cylindrical advertising columns located in public spaces. They were invented in 1854 by the German printer Ernst Litfaß and are particularly common in Germany to this day. The first 100 columns were erected in Berlin in 1855.

Unfortunately, it is not clear what is being advertised in this painting, but on the day Béraud captured this scene, it likely included contemporary advertising posters for products or perhaps announcements of upcoming events.

Edit: This is what these things look like today. Advertising posters are gradually pasted onto them one after another until the layer gets too thick, at which point all the old posters are cut off. Then the process starts all over again.

:)

Alphonse Mucha was one of the most important representatives of Art Nouveau. You can find a list of his works here.

On Wikipedia, you can also find more information about this style here, as well as some other Art Nouveau posters and prints by other artists.

Hope this helps a bit :)

Everyone should call him what he is: a rapist.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, in his 24-page ruling Monday, said the jury found Trump raped Carroll “as the term is understood more broadly.”

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He is also a felon.

The fact that he is president instead of being in prison for all his crimes does not change reality—it simply shows very clearly just how corrupt the U.S. is.

I didn’t say anything of the sort, and I never would, since I reject political violence. I’m simply saying that there shouldn’t be any billionaires, since the concentration of too much power in a single place is clearly harmful to a fair and free society. This is by no means a call for violence—you’re reading that into my statement.

It would be enough if there were (once again) reasonable top tax rates and if monopolies were broken up. The situation we find ourselves in today is a direct consequence of deregulation dating back to the 1980s.

There is nothing political extremist about basing one’s views on reality.

There simply shouldn’t be any billionaires.

I’m afraid you completely misunderstand what dictatorship means. The U.S. has been an oligarchy for a long time, because the citizens have allowed it and continue to do so to this day. Now, as a logical consequence, the screws are being tightened. If there were still one last chance, resistance would be called for right now. But since that isn’t happening, it will come down to what you’re already mistakenly assuming.

I’m sorry to have to say this, but the current situation is only the beginning.

Anyone who still believes that the U.S. is a democracy should educate themselves.

Yes, I think so too. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen the painting in person, but I imagine it must be impressive, especially since the canvas is quite large (222 × 300 cm or 87.4 × 118.1 inches).

Cool, thanks so much for the info! It’s wonderful to hear that people are still keeping this traditional craft alive.

Fun fact: Renato Bialetti, the man who helped make Italy’s iconic Moka pot famous around the world, was buried in an urn shaped like the very coffee maker he represented.

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