soramimo

EU produces about the same amount of nuclear energy as the US - and that's despite Germany shutting down all reactors

Noting that France has one of the highest shares of nuclear in the world, offsetting some of Germany's shutdown.

1) Mobile browser views: I do this too, for extra friction don't store your password in your mobile browser and force yourself to type it manually when logging in.

E-Mail! :)

The one I have in mind is actually 100% separated from car traffic, eg along a river or rail line.

Yeah, agree. Although I'm not sure how much of a difference biking makes vs. living there in general.

The secret of LA biking infrastructure is that there are a few small rivers / creeks / storm drains running towards the ocean and sometimes those have bike trails.

Those are really next level because they are essentially bike freeways; completely separated from car traffic (no intersections because the river & bike trail go underneath road bridges).

In fact, it's not only safe and fun, but also much faster than driving during rush hour.

I've been biking to work in Los Angeles for ten years and it's surely been one of my best life hacks ever (to the point where access to biking infrastructure has been a primary consideration when buying my house).

Amazon solved trust is very much different than my perception of them:

- ads everywhere trying to push low quality product

- fake/bought product reviews

- commingled inventory (up until recently, still I would never buy food items, drugs or other health sensitive items like air filters or sunscreen there)

Note that, in the Netflix example, this is at (or mostly) full pay.

Yep, same boat. That's why I had kept my pixel 4a for years until is finally kicked the bucket 2 years ago.

Yep, judging a tree by its fruit.

I hope you're right!

Still got my E46!

You'll understand why a neutral third party is wary of both.

Oh I can understand this, yet my conclusion stands that China (CCP) is and remains a threat to democracy woldwide (which is my original point).

You are not disputing this, correct? (if anything, you're drawing an equivalence to the US, which I disagree with, but doesn't refute the conclusion on the original point)?

I see where you're coming from, but I disagree.

The US is far from perfect, but - so far, TBD where we go from here - has had IMHO a net positive influence on keeping democracy around (specifically, I'm thinking of Germany after WW2, Western Europe during the Cold War, Japan and with detours South Korea).

Perhaps you'll point out that the US did this out of pure self-interest and these countries are just vassal states to the US. However, a useful comparison in this context is comparing Western Germany (US) to Eastern Germany (Russia), South Korea (US) to North Korea (China) or, say, Poland (US/EU) to Belarus (Russia) to assess which sphere of influence (and its implications on national self-determination) is preferable.

Going back to democracy, in my view is not the "default state" of human society (the default is probably mob rule like we have in Russia).

That's the reason why people consider China a "adversary" not morality.

I personally view Russia and China as adversaries because they are a serious threat to democracy worldwide (that I think we agree on?), which I believe is the very thing we're discussing.

So in summary, there are very good reasons to be critical of China (CCP) independent of the current US administrations actions and historical baggage of the US.

To be clear, I'm not arguing in favor of the current administration. In fact, I would argue that they have a similar "might makes right" mindset to the CCP and should be opposed on the same grounds.

If anything, foreign adversaries like China or Russia welcome / help to power parties like the current administration so democracies self destruct.

Well if you care about democracy, they are the only power that can arguably undermine it, not just at home, but worldwide (tiktok, fueling division, funding antidemocratic parties like Germany's AfD).

Further, look into their support of Russia in their war of conquest against Ukraine, the treatment of their neighbors like the Philippines and look into what their fishing fleet is up to worldwide.

Truth social (or similarly Pravda)

Thanks for sharing this, comments like yours are the reason I come to this site.

Yeah, reverse osmosis systems adding microplastics themselves is a scary fact I also learned on hacker news a few months ago.

Does anyone here know if they are RO systems that don't have that problem?

FWIW, the energy use per capita in the USA (and other western countries) is lower than in the 1970's and has been steady/declining [1].

Granted, some of the energy intensive manufacturing was outsourced to China and other places, but then again there's also an increase in efficiency standards (e.g. vehicles, heating etc).

CO2 emissions per capita in Western countries (including the US) have peaked in the 1970s and are now roughly on pre-WW2 levels [2].

(note that I'm onboard with reducing waste etc, but the claim that consumption drives energy use is somewhat misleading)

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use?tab...

[2] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita

We could free up a lot of capacity by somehow taxing/regulating the externalities of bitcoin to get people to use etherium (if they must use cryto).

Can't both be true?

Same here. I kept my 4a for ages for the same reason until it died on me (power button stopped working).

I'm now on a Pixel 8 and am hauling around a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter as I don't want to put up with the logistics of keeping wireless headphones charged.

It works OK(ish), but often comes loose when putting my phone in my pocket while listening to music and little annoyances like not being to turn the volume as far down as I used to be able to on the headphone jack. Definitely a downgrade in user experience.

In German there's a nice word for this: Verschlimmbesserung.

Yes, agree that it would be very impractical if Elon was heavily diversified.

That said, as it stands, the vast majority of his net worth is tied up in just a few of his own companies, hence this approach should work for now.

And to clarify, this was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment implying that the US will become friendly enough with the two big autocracies of the world so they will officially buy arms from US defense companies (in which case Denmark can pass those F-35s to them).

For the record, I dearly hope it doesn't come to this, but right now I'm not sure.

Well, I'd say it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you don't agree with his political stance and and want to loosen his outsized influence on US democracy (e.g. by pouring hundreds of millions in political campaigns, silencing intra-GOP opposition by threatening to primary them with his money, using Twitter to push the fringe talking points of the day), then I would argue your goal should be reducing his net worth by refusing to buy from companies he's invested in.

If on the other hand, you're mostly criticizing that the quality of Tesla's cars suffers because the company doesn't get his full attention, it's a different story and your stance makes sense.

They can probably sell them to Russia or China a few years down the road at the current trajectory.

In fact, TSMC itself (never mind the Arizona plant) is the result of Taiwan's smart Industrial policy (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC#History).

The main need for this comes from the rise of China. Specifically, its rise in economic power and military capabilities make is so that 1) the US is no longer able to deter both Russia and China combined, but needs to prioritize China (its main geopolitical rival) and 2) Russia can openly engage in armed conflict without the fear of Western sanctions, as China will keep Russia's economy afloat (mainly via purchase of energy).

With Trump back in the White House there is an additional motivation for EU countries to up their military spending; at best the US is now viewed as a less reliable ally (that may or may not help in the face of conflict), at worst the US will align itself with autocratic regimes to divide up the world in their respective spheres of influence and actively undermine the EU.

So if you accept the premise that democracy (and the liberal, rule-based world order) is worthwhile defending, increased military spending of EU countries is in fact a "good thing" (as in, better than the alternative of submitting to imperialistic authoritarian neighbors).