Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

I get that, and yes, I *did* read the article, but my point stands. Does Facebook really need your phone number? Not really, and yet the wording really does imply that it does. I can easily see more vulnerable and less tech savvy folks falling for it.
You say it's not 100%, and yet that's exactly what we do in hospitals. We lock everything down, and a huge chunk of patient info is kept in separate servers to avoid the chance of leaks. Yes, it's happened before, hospitals have been hacked (no need to send me links of hospitals being ransomed for patients), but they're held to a higher standard, and you can bet patients are incensed when this happens. But when it's Facebook, or Spotify, or another corporation, people just shrug and say "welp, just don't put your stuff online". Maybe (probably) it's a false equivalency, but it shouldn't be.

I don't think it's a false equivalency at all. The whole point of heath care privacy laws is to prevent discrimination or other mistreatment based on your health record. But other things, just as damaging, can happen if your personally identifying information is leaked from a site like Facebook.

I think healthcare privacy laws should be a model for all social media privacy laws because social media companies keep as much personal information as any healthcare provider. Just different kinds of information.

I'm not saying that places can't do a very good job at securing their stuff. Or that laws and serious repercussions for violating those laws won't help. I think it is very important that we make it harder and less profitable for cyber criminals. Especially since a lot of them are in jurisdictions we can't touch.

That said, after someone's personal data, and especially their explicit photos have been stolen and spread online the damage can't be undone. You can have stolen goods or money returned to you, you can't get your digital data scrubbed from the world. And most organizations that store personal data are one dumbass clicking a malicious link from that all getting out. Not to mention that public sector organizations don't receive enough money to really handle this well. You get what you pay for, especially when it comes to tech, and governments are constantly stripping budgets from IT, and then wondering why their IT is so bad.

And, at least in the US, security isn't profit-generating so it will never get enough support from Congress.

We have a lot of deer come through our property.

“That deer up there is so slappable. Can we train them to be slapped? Such a slappable boy”—my fiancé

E: “their rumps. Not in the face.”

Eleima wrote:

I get that, and yes, I *did* read the article, but my point stands. Does Facebook really need your phone number?

Of course they do. Their business model revolves around collecting a robust dataset for every user, and notably, NOT around securing that data against attack.

you think they'd protect our data against attack just out of greed like a trade secret

Until there are actual substantial consequences to corps leaking our data, why should they care? History has shown there is little-to-no actual impact to the company when stuff like this happens. Like anything cost related to a business; they won't care until something makes them.

Jonman wrote:
Eleima wrote:

I get that, and yes, I *did* read the article, but my point stands. Does Facebook really need your phone number?

Of course they do. Their business model revolves around collecting a robust dataset for every user, and notably, NOT around securing that data against attack.

One thing about this that gets in my craw is that even if I don’t give Facebook my cell phone number, if a friend of mine gives Facebook access to their contacts then all of my internet hygiene is pointless. Address. Blood type. Everything!

I got to carry a gallon jug of my wife's urine to a lab for analysis today. That was weird.

A gallon!

I've been collecting urine samples for work. Regular drug test stuff because the study we're working on is...well, about drugs. We have a flask we carry the urine in back to the lab. Learning the ropes, "hey I'm gonna put the urine in this one okay?" - the flask was my co-worker's water. We both chuckled, but maybe don't put your drinking flask right next to the urine flask .

Mixolyde wrote:

I got to carry a gallon jug of my wife's urine to a lab for analysis today. That was weird.

Is it weird that many years ago I did this exact same thing for my wife?

Asterith wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

I got to carry a gallon jug of my wife's urine to a lab for analysis today. That was weird.

Is it weird that many years ago I did this exact same thing for my wife?

It'd be weirder if you carried my wife's urine. I guess we're pee pals now!

Mixolyde wrote:
Asterith wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

I got to carry a gallon jug of my wife's urine to a lab for analysis today. That was weird.

Is it weird that many years ago I did this exact same thing for my wife?

It'd be weirder if you carried my wife's urine. I guess we're pee pals now!

In a different thread it has been suggested that you should freeze your pee and then feed it to ducks. Apparently it’s a much healthier alternative to feeding the ducks bread.

RawkGWJ wrote:

In a different thread it has been suggested that you should freeze your pee and then feed it to ducks. Apparently it’s a much healthier alternative to feeding the ducks bread.

Whoever told you that was taking the piss.

Jonman wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

In a different thread it has been suggested that you should freeze your pee and then feed it to ducks. Apparently it’s a much healthier alternative to feeding the ducks bread.

Whoever told you that was taking the piss.

Of course they were. Free duck food!

Jonman wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

In a different thread it has been suggested that you should freeze your pee and then feed it to ducks. Apparently it’s a much healthier alternative to feeding the ducks bread.

Whoever told you that was taking the piss.

Wait. I thought they were giving the piss.

My first permanent job as an adult was as a clerk in the Nuclear Medicine department of a university hospital. I think some vitamin deficiency test involved drinking something mildly radioactive and collecting urine for 24 hours. You could always tell that the person with the brown paper grocery bag was there to drop off said, urine, but those conversations were always funny to me.

patient: "I'm uh, here, to uh, um...."

me: "Drop off your sample? Sure no problem. Please set it on the counter over there."
(far away from me...cause mildly radioactive, not because it's pee).

patient: "Thank you." (but their whole face would be yelling, "OH THANK GOD I DON'T HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT THIS BAG CONTAINS MY PEE.")

I was talking with a friend today, reminiscing as people approaching 40 are wont to do, and we were trying to figure out what the three most culturally defining moments in America during the 90's were. And my list came down to:

- Rodney King + the riots
- OJ
- The Clinton Impeachment

And like, just missing the list was the WTC bombing, the releases of Nevermind and The Chronic, Titanic, the 92 Olympics and the first Gulf War.

I might swap the Gulf War with Rodney King, but I think OJ and the Clinton Impeachment are.... well, unimpeachable.

EDIT: Oh, Columbine. I might swap Rodney King with Columbine. We left out Napster and the rise of the internet because it didn't feel like that really became An Omnipresent Thing until after the millenium.

Prederick wrote:

I was talking with a friend today, reminiscing as people approaching 40 are wont to do, and we were trying to figure out what the three most culturally defining moments in America during the 90's were. And my list came down to:

- Rodney King + the riots
- OJ
- The Clinton Impeachment

And like, just missing the list was the WTC bombing, the releases of Nevermind and The Chronic, Titanic, the 92 Olympics and the first Gulf War.

I might swap the Gulf War with Rodney King, but I think OJ and the Clinton Impeachment are.... well, unimpeachable.

EDIT: Oh, Columbine. I might swap Rodney King with Columbine. We left out Napster and the rise of the internet because it didn't feel like that really became An Omnipresent Thing until after the millenium.

I think WTC would have a much more prominent place in my memory if it hadn't been for 9/11 and the police state reaction to that in the early 2000s, that kinda overshadowed the significance of wtc.

The USSR dissolved and the Berlin Wall came down.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The USSR dissolved and the Berlin Wall came down.

I always thought that was in the 80s i have vague memories of it but i feel like i might have been young for it to make a strong impact. (i;m an 82 baby)

Of course the dissolution of the USSR was a process that occurred in many steps.

The attempted coup against Gorbachev was in August 1991. That was followed by many states declaring their independence. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and soon after the USSR was formally dissolved.

The Berlin wall was rendered moot when the gates were opened in December 1989. But the official demolition of the wall began in June 1990.

Ah, but in America.

It was a pretty big deal in America, yes.

I don't think either of those events had the specific, lasting cultural American impact as much as the ones I've cited, personally, although I was too young to truly remember what the Cold War was like during the 80s. I'd say this especially about the Berlin Wall, but that's what the discussion is for!

In the 90s I remember growing up in, those were things that happened "over there," and they had an effect, sure, but OJ, for example, dominated everything.

thrawn82 wrote:

I think WTC would have a much more prominent place in my memory if it hadn't been for 9/11 and the police state reaction to that in the early 2000s, that kinda overshadowed the significance of wtc.

Yeah, 9/11 has completely overshadowed the original WTC bombing. But even as a kid, I remember it being A Thing, but it didn't seem like as much of a thing as Oklahoma City did (another one I left off).

That is the problem with top 5 lists...

I am trying to think of stuff that has a huge and lasting American cultural impact. I think we could argue the rise of Eminem was one of the biggest things culturally of the 90s that influenced the next two decades of pop culture.

If you think lee is bad, when my wife and I were trying to get pregnant I had to regularly drop off ‘samples’ for checks of number and quality.

Spoiler:

My wife’s IVF doctor once described them as ‘disappointing.’

LeapingGnome wrote:

I am trying to think of stuff that has a huge and lasting American cultural impact. I think we could argue the rise of Eminem was one of the biggest things culturally of the 90s that influenced the next two decades of pop culture.

He occupies such a weird place in musical and cultural history. Like, at this point, he is simultaneously still relevant in terms of his influence, but I don't see any hip-hop people clocking for him now. But if you're asking me to split hairs, I think The Chronic is more important, because without Dre, do we get Em?

Prederick wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

I am trying to think of stuff that has a huge and lasting American cultural impact. I think we could argue the rise of Eminem was one of the biggest things culturally of the 90s that influenced the next two decades of pop culture.

He occupies such a weird place in musical and cultural history. Like, at this point, he is simultaneously still relevant in terms of his influence, but I don't see any hip-hop people clocking for him now. But if you're asking me to split hairs, I think The Chronic is more important, because without Dre, do we get Em?

If we’re talking 90s and memorable albums, Radiohead’s OK Computer at least has to be included in the conversation.