malermeister

So basically, lossy compression at a huge energy expense. Thanks, AI geniuses!

Now we're shifting topics. We're talking about invasions, not bringing democracy.

I also don't think that "bringing democracy" is a universal good, if you look at the US' exploits in the Middle East.

I'm not saying they're not trying to expand their sphere of influence. I just think they're not quite as gung-ho about it as western powers. They work slower and less aggressively, invasions are a last resort.

75 years ago? If that's the closest precedent you can find, that kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Did they invade Hong Kong? It's a very western viewpoint that invasion is the only way to affect change.

Why do you think the Chinese will invade their neighbors?

I don't think I have a cause. I'd like to not be constantly attacked by foreign adversaries, is that a cause? But if attacks happen, we can't just ignore them because hitting back might make the abuser more mad.

How severe an escalation would it be?

As severe as... say starting the largest war in Europe since WW2 right at our doorstep? Or as damaging our critical infrastructure? Or manipulating our democratic processes?

It's time the West pulls its head out of its ass. We're already at war, whether we want it or not.

It doesn't matter if people are willing. Taxes are not optional.

How is that a bad thing? The welfare states is the means through which the world's most livable city and those comfortable lives are achieved.

Because honestly, on a societal level, why should we give a damn about the not-so-poor? Why optimize for the extreme that's already comfortable? Why not concentrate on the average case and on making the other extreme less awful? Who gives a shit if the rich can't buy a third sports car?

"You're living life wrong" pretty much sums up all "advice" I get from Austrians when I point out any problem with Austria.

Have you considered that they might just have a point?

Or in a slightly more friendly way - Vienna has the highest standard of living, but your personal preferences do not mash with it and if the Viennese lived like you would like to, it would no longer be as livable?

What is the "real" Vienna, in your opinion? My entire family lives there and i have dozens of friends there. Are they not real people? They live cheaply in subsidized housing and generally live very comfortable lives.

Being attractive to entrepreneurs has little to nothing to do with quality of living though. It's about stuff like public transport, cleanliness, access to art and culture, safety, housing etc etc.

I lived in Vienna for 20 years - I've lived in many top tier cities around the world since. Every time I go back to Vienna I feel like "this is what a city should be".

I do not share your view at all.

Cuba also has the largest medical school in the world, specifically set up to train foreigners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_School_of_Medic...

It's tuition-free and the state provides room and board. Part of the admission criteria is that you have to be from an underprivileged community and you take an oath to go back to serve that community.

They have accepted folks from poor parts of the US, as well.

A single plant can easily produce 500 grams. In other words - you could be killed for growing one plant for your own personal consumption.

He knows that one of the key pillars of fascism is the strengthening of corporate power.

Billionaires are not your friends.

If you're somewhere with no breathable air, and control the access to Oxygen, everyone else who was dumb enough to sign up to this trip is now under your complete control. That's what it's about.

I'm sure they can. But at that point you're looking at expenses higher than just making the damn thing retractable, and with worse functionality.

In the Netherlands? If its bolted on, it won't even last a year. The North Sea has a lot of storms ;)

As a counterpoint, German ICEs are just as much of a bullet train as Shinkansen are and they have full dining cars.

It might not actually be profitable, but it sure is sweet.

Reading anything connected to Musk is annoying because he crapfloods the internet being a manbaby.

The Dutch roundabout design is amazing for cyclists. See here [0] for a more detailed explanation, but the tl;dr is: Second, outer ring that's a bike lane - motorized traffic has to yield so bikes never have to stop and lose momentum.

[0] https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/explaining-the...

If you sell my aspirin in your shop, you will have to accept what I put on the packaging or stop carrying my product.

Disagree. They're abusing a monopoly in one market to push their product in another. It's very much illegal in EU competition law.

Locking down access to NFC to smother competition to Apple Pay comes to mind.

But pushing Apple to make iOS available on other phone hardware

Wait where are you getting this from?

While the announcement is a step shy of being a formal investigation, the EU aims to compel Apple to re-engineer its services to allow rival companies to access the iPhone’s operating system. One of the aims of the DMA is to ensure that other developers can gain access to key iPhone features, such as its Siri voice commands and its payments chip.

It sounds more like pushing Apple to open some APIs and allow for some more integrations, which seems much more reasonable than your interpretation.

Finally someone is doing something about Apple's abusive practices.

The support of abusive monopolistic practices around here is something else though. Temporarily-embarrassed-tech-billionaire syndrome is the only explanation.

I think there's a few factors at play:

1) Ego/Power trip reasons: It just makes you feel like the big man to be physically lording over your minions and they miss it.

2) Class Warfare: Workers need to be kept miserable enough so they turn to mindless consumption and don't start asking any inconvenient questions.

3) Financial Conflicts of Interest: Higher Management is likely to have some real estate investments, maybe even in commercial real estate. They might be worried more about that part of their portfolio than about the company stock part.