All posts tagged: dumb

I’m with stupid: How The Traitors proved playing dumb is the smartest move in the modern age

I’m with stupid: How The Traitors proved playing dumb is the smartest move in the modern age

Published by skeptic

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more People keep on telling me about how clever Kas is.” These 10 simple words, though complimentary on the face of it, may have unwittingly sealed an innocent man’s fate. Uttered by Leon about his fellow contestant Kasim on the BBC’s explosively popular strategy gameshow The Traitors, they planted a seed of suspicion that rapidly grew into a veritable jungle. For three consecutive nights, the poor good doctor was hauled over the coals at the Round Table, increasingly ostracised from the group and forced to defend his unimpeachable character, before being unceremoniously banished at the end of the fourth episode. He was, of course, a Faithful all along. If you’ve never watched the show, the premise is simple: a group of strangers are thrown together …

Should you give your child a ‘dumb’ phone? They aren’t the answer to fears over kids’ social media use

Should you give your child a ‘dumb’ phone? They aren’t the answer to fears over kids’ social media use

Published by skeptic

Parents concerned about the possible dangers smartphone use might have for their children are turning to “dumb phones”. These are the brick-shaped or flip phones today’s parents might have had themselves as teenagers, only capable of making calls or sending text messages and lacking access to social media apps. Phones available include a remake of noughties classic the Nokia 3210, or new designs such as the recently released Barbie flip phone. But handing children a “dumb phone” seems to be as much an exercise in nostalgia as proactive practice. Ultimately, young people will end up using smartphones in their social and working lives. They have many useful features. It makes sense for them to learn to use them with the support of adults around them in a nurturing environment. Unhappiness among children and teenagers is often seen as being related to smartphone or social media use. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book The Anxious Generation suggests that there is a link between the rise in the use of smartphones by young people and an increase …

Economically Dumb, Politically Smart – The Atlantic

Economically Dumb, Politically Smart – The Atlantic

Published by José

Until recently, the Kamala Harris campaign seemed allergic to setting a policy agenda. Finally, the campaign is starting to roll out its economic platform, and the substance likely won’t appeal to many people who actually know about economics. But it’s hard for me to argue with the politics. As someone who has often said Democrats need to compromise their ideals to win, I don’t exclude my own ideals from that. And I see that when Harris rejects my economic preferences, she’s doing it in a way that will help her win. The first example is Harris’s proposal to fight inflation through a new federal law on price gouging. My guess is such a law would be designed in such a way that it would have little effect on the market. But if it did have effects on the market, they would tend to be negative, as with President Richard Nixon’s price and wage controls in the 1970s. According to the Econ 101 model of prices and supply, when a product is in shortage, its price …

Why are Gen Z and Millennials ditching their smartphones for dumb phones? | Technology

Why are Gen Z and Millennials ditching their smartphones for dumb phones? | Technology

Published by Sam

We’ll explore how some people are ditching their smartphones for old-school dumb phones and embracing low-tech living. Did you know the average user could spend up to 5.5 years of their life on social media? We’re living in a time dominated by smartphones and constant connectivity. But more and more people are saying they want to reclaim their time by going back to the basics. This switch is fuelled by the desire for stronger mental wellbeing. In this episode, we’ll explore how people are trying to break the addictive grip of social media and whether this is signalling a broader change in society’s relationship with technology. Presenter: Myriam Francois Guests:Shayonne DasGupta – WriterJose Briones – Content Creator & Digital MinimalistSophia Smith Galer – Journalist & Content CreatorPete Judo – Behavioural Scientist & Content CreatorMarco Prince – Tech Content Creator Source link

Eureka E10 Review: An Adorably Dumb Robot Vacuum

Eureka E10 Review: An Adorably Dumb Robot Vacuum

Published by skeptic

This is not the best robot vacuum I have tested. The Eureka E10 is fairly affordable in the face of other robot mop-vacs; our recommendation for an affordable option is $800, while the E10 is $600. You might think to yourself, why buy a more expensive model then? Why spend more if I don’t have to? The Eureka is a little dumb. It bumps into so many things you’d think it’s wearing a blindfold, and if I move the vacuum around too much–like flipping it over to cut the hair on the brush, or my toddler gets curious and pushes it around–it will forget where it is and wipe my home map from its memory. It’s adorably dumb when it can’t figure out how to get around my husband’s office chair, and infuriatingly dumb when it gets itself stuck on the same patch of rug-to-carpet transition five times in a row. It’s not a bad vacuum. If you can find it on sale and mostly want it for carpet cleaning, you’ll likely be satisfied. I …

Republicans, Democrats, and Donald Trump Agree on One Thing: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Move to Oust Mike Johnson Is a Dumb Idea

Republicans, Democrats, and Donald Trump Agree on One Thing: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Move to Oust Mike Johnson Is a Dumb Idea

Published by skeptic

Last month, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s GOP colleagues responded to her calls to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson by saying things like, “Don’t bother us,” and stop “airing your grievances,” and “Nobody cares what Marjorie Taylor Greene says or thinks.” Unfortunately for Greene (or maybe unfortunately for her coworkers), she did not appear to get the message, and rather than moving on, decided on Wednesday to dig in. Speaking to reporters in Washington, the far-right congresswoman announced that she will officially raise a “motion to vacate” Johnson next week, i.e. try to boot him from his leadership position. Claiming Johnson “is not capable” of doing his job, Greene said she was giving Republicans the weekend to “prepare,” adding, “I care about my conference.” It also seems likely she‘s hoping people will change their minds over the next several days, because currently she appears to have little support—on either side of the aisle. As The Washington Post reports, representatives Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar are the only Republicans who’ve publicly backed Greene’s effort to remove Johnson, while …

The New Hot Handset Is a Cute and Transparent Dumb Phone You Can’t Buy

The New Hot Handset Is a Cute and Transparent Dumb Phone You Can’t Buy

Published by skeptic

We’re only spending more and more time staring at our smartphones, and over the last few years, tech companies have tried to offer salves to this very problem they created. Apple and Google launched tools within their respective mobile operating systems to curb screen time. Devices like the Light Phone, designed to act as a secondary phone with limited features so you’re not staring at Instagram when you’re at a social gathering, are enjoying some popularity. This kind of digital detox mentality is also what’s behind a wave of AI-powered gadgets like the Humane Ai Pin, which promises to offload some smartphone-native tasks to voice controls on a screenless interface. The latest to hop on the trend is “The Boring Phone,” announced today ahead of Milan Design Week. The company manufacturing it is Human Mobile Devices (HMD), better known as the company making Nokia-branded phones since 2017 thanks to a licensing partnership. The Boring Phone is cute, transparent, and retrolicious. But it is not a phone you can buy. The Boring Phone is all retro …

‘Pro-EV’ New Jersey just OK’ed the US’s highest dumb EV fee

‘Pro-EV’ New Jersey just OK’ed the US’s highest dumb EV fee

Published by skeptic

“I-95 North – Welcome to New Jersey Sign” by formulanone is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. New Jersey just signed a law approving a punitive new EV registration fee – and at $250, it’s the highest in the country. New Jersey’s EV registration fee kicks in July 1, and then rises by $10 each year before it caps out at $290 in July 2028. Plus New Jersey new car purchases require a four-year upfront registration, so that’s more than $1,000 for new EV purchases. The money goes into the state’s Transportation Trust Fund for road, rail, and bridges along with gas tax money. New Jersey also raised revenue targets for gas taxes by around 18% over five years – around 2 cents annually to the state’s fuel levies. Electrek’s Take Thinking of buying a new EV in New Jersey? Your new EV will be exempt from state sales tax, so that’s cool. And of course you get the federal Inflation Reduction Act upfront tax credit of $7,500. Nice one, Biden administration. But wait. You’ve gotta …

Trump’s RNC purge: His obsession with “loyalty” is as dumb as it is evil

Trump’s RNC purge: His obsession with “loyalty” is as dumb as it is evil

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump’s infatuation with Adolf Hitler is both well documented and profoundly disturbing. What’s often overlooked is how painfully stupid it is. The latest round of stories about this phenomenon underlines why: Trump doesn’t seem to understand that Nazi Germany lost World War II. John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, told CNN in a recent interview that Trump praised Hitler for doing “good things,” including that the Nazi dictator had “rebuilt the economy” and also the demonstrably false claim that German generals were “loyal” to Hitler.  Kelly pushed back against Trump on the latter point, pointing out that German officers had conspired to assassinate Hitler on several occasions. Kelly also noted that Trump had apparently “missed the Holocaust,” adding that it was “pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theater.” Hitler’s leadership wasn’t exactly a win for Germans who supported him either. Far from “rebuilding” the nation, Hitler left Germany in literal ruins with several of its cities reduced to rubble. Millions of German soldiers …

Sneakerheads on Trump’s ‘Never Surrender’ gold shoe: ‘Tacky and very, very dumb’ | Donald Trump

Sneakerheads on Trump’s ‘Never Surrender’ gold shoe: ‘Tacky and very, very dumb’ | Donald Trump

Published by skeptic

Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Vodka – and now, Trump Sneakers. The former president is no stranger to frenzied licensing and intense self-promotion, and the grift continued this weekend, even after a judge ordered him to pay more than $350m in his civil trial ruling. His next move? Debuting the $399 “Never-Surrender High-Top Sneaker”, branded as “the official” Trump shoe. The 2024 contender stopped at Sneaker Con Philadelphia, a traveling event for sneakerheads, to reveal the shoe on Saturday. Only 1,000 pairs were made, to make this a super limited-edition run; “at least 10” of these shoes were “randomly autographed” by Trump. The high-tops were produced under a licensing agreement with a company called 45Footwear. Each one comes with a “custom charm” blazed with an illustration of Trump clad in a tight red superhero jumpsuit, muscles bulging out from underneath. During Trump’s Sneaker Con speech, the Republican presidential frontrunner said “the most important thing” was “to get young people out to vote”. In 2020, Pennsylvania’s youngest voters, aged 18-29, overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden, with …