This is what I never understood. The principle of respecting the autonomy of other cultures is good imo, but what “cultural contamination” could be worse than the total extinction of the civilization you’re trying to protect?

Applying the Prime Directive in such extreme circumstances turns it from an anti-imperialist ideal to a Social Darwinist one.

A soon-forgiven liar revealed scene or the suitably mourned and quickly avenged death of a sympathetic character by a villain are not even remotely on the level of the protagonist we’re rooting for causing genocide without remorse or consequences.

Why would the “lying” scene even remotely matter when Tim Allen’s character killed their entire civilization? That’s a much bigger deal than lying about being a space captain! Why would they put him in charge again without even explaining his error?

Wait, what? I don’t remember that being implied at all. That would be incredibly dark for such a light-hearted comedy.

The Thermians were fighting Sarris long before they brought in Tim Allen’s character.

Ah, hm… I guess that makes sense. Bringing people to the office raises the value of surrounding retail, which in turn raises the value of the office. Thanks, that explanation clears it up.

Buying something to create artificial demand usually isn’t a good investment strategy. A “pump-and-dump” can work if you can set off a buying frenzy and sell before it wears off, but it’s not a long-term strategy.

Besides, if that was the plan, leaving the buildings vacant would be just as effective as using them.

Ok, so it’s about responding to local government incentives? I feel like that’s an important piece of the puzzle that’s overlooked when people say it’s about real estate prices.

I see, so the idea is that they’re responding to external pressure from governments and financial institutions? I guess I could see that, though it shouldn’t be hard to prove by pointing to specific policies and loan conditions.

But also, some of these companies own those buildings. If they’re not in use, their value in the market drops.

How does that work? Why would a buyer care if the seller was using the building? If anything, I would think using them would depreciate their value due to wear and tear.

Also, it’s not uncommon to call a creation after it’s creator (“that painting is a Van Gogh”), so calling him “a Frankenstein” works too.

Yeah, I’ve been having the same issue. It clears the page after a BRIEF period of inactivity.

Here I thought I was doing OpenAI a favor by keeping garbage out of their training data…

I think it’s possible that people are simply confused because the answers are the same for most decades. But one thing I would try maybe is setting the “value” of the different options, since that’s what you’re reading.

As I understand it, if no value is set, the browser should return the name instead, so the way you have it should work, but that may vary depending on browser.

EDIT: I tried to give an example, but lemmy keeps filtering out my explanation even if I enclose it in code tags. Hopefully you know what I mean.

Not to mention that even if one inventor decides not to release their creation, eventually someone else will make something similar.

This comic is still around? I haven’t thought of it in years!

Henry George wrote about this extensively. The solution is a tax on all land at just under 100% of it’s rental value. That allows landlords to profit from the structures they build and maintain, but not from the land itself. It disincentivizes real estate speculation, lowering the cost of land and housing and improving accessibility to people who use it productively.

They’re written differently, but pronounced the same.

I agree. But there were a few moments where the Ferengi were shown not to behave consistently with the principles they espoused.

They shouldn’t have had any problem with (Edit: Rom) forming a union, for instance. After all, what’s wrong with a little collusion and price-fixing between the sellers of labor?

I guess some hypocrisy is to be expected in any society.

Star Trek: Picard has Picard too…

That makes sense.

And you never left there until you were 17?

(I know you’re not OP, but still.)

What stopped you from doing so prior to that?

The people who think not having it be one means children are avoiding rather than overcoming their fears

It may not have been intended as such originally, but if you defend the design on that basis, it becomes intentional.