The only male doctor at my ob/gyn was visibly angry when I told him my experience getting the IUD. He said, “The women in this practice don’t give anesthetic and it makes me furious with them.” Way to be a decent human in a sea of assholes, dude.

Yep. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time that something is made to seem altruistic but ultimately gets used in questionably-ethical ways.

Yes. It’s utterly useless now (and they aren’t being introduced into existing ecosystem to my knowledge). They view it as a proof of concept for more recently extinct species as well as a potential tool for restoring species to ecosystems in the future as extinction events pick up speed.

However, it should be noted that extinction events are a symptom, not the core problem, so I’m not sure exactly where we’d restore extinct species to, since human use of the land is the root cause of most ecosystem collapses, and it’s unlikely that they can rebuild populations in the places they died out of (and the land probably won’t be yielded back anyway).

Super cool stuff that they did regardless, but can’t figure out how it’s going to accomplish what they seem to want to accomplish.

Yep. Worked there for a bit. They’re contractually obligated to show ads on certain content. Doesn’t matter what tier you’re on. As a paying customer (a rather long time ago), my partner became so incensed at the ads that played even though he paid for ad-free that he rage-cancelled his membership.

Oh, look. Polk County being themselves out-loud again.

I hear you–this obvious to you and I and to plenty of people, but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years it’s that the majority of people need to hear the same message, over and over, in lots of different forms, from lots of different sources, in order to internalize it. There is a disappointing amount of value in being Captain Obvious when it comes to communicating with large groups of people.

Most major audio companies like JBL, Bose, etc, are putting out linkable speakers. I’ve got a Bose sound bar which integrates pretty flawlessly with the Google speakers I haven’t brought myself to get rid of yet. I’ve found that, if the logic exists to sync it with other speakers in its ecosystem and an integration for HA exists, you can probably add it to a whole-house setup via music assistant. And you can probably use multiple ecosystems, too (though I’m not certain you can adjust delays across ecosystems… I’ve never tried that myself, and it’s going to be the most vital part of your whole-house setup. My living room, dining room, and kitchen all have to have their delay adjusted by several milliseconds so it doesn’t sound like auditory torture when you turn on multiple speakers in the same area. My bedroom doesn’t have to be synced, though, since it’s far enough away from the other speakers that you don’t hear both at the same time.

…okay, yes, just checked and it is, indeed, quite challenging to sync delays across different ecosystems. I’d recommend keeping all your speakers in a single area (e.g. kitchen, dining, and living rooms) all in the same ecosystem and you can change manufacturers as you change rooms. https://music-assistant.io/faq/tech-info/ )

I think you’d be well-positioned to buy a few speakers according to your budget, and add more over time of any manufacturer you like (as long as it integrates with HA/MA) if you so choose. Any of the well-known brands are generally good. I personally prefer systems that don’t require an external amp, but that’s personal preference. I’ve been very happy with my Bose stuff, but lots of people love JBL, Genelec, and even our pals at Sonos re: audio quality. I think the world kind of is your oyster here, friend. Do what your heart (and ear) leads you to.