All Chinese companies should be regarded with suspicion, based simply on the fact that independent companies don’t exist in China. The CCP has their own offices and people in every company and organization of sufficient size.

FBI wants a backdoor into iPhones, Apple says no and Tim Cooke is just fine. The richest man in China, Jack Ma, criticizes government policy holding back Big Tech domestically, he gets disappeared for 3 months.

In autocracies, citizens are expendable. They either take away the citizen’s ability to organize against you (like in China) or provide just enough services to avoid a critical mass of discontent.

First time we had to worry about microscopic black holes. Now interdimensional biological organisms which somehow can survive in our nitrogen based atmosphere and climate temperature envelope.

No, of course it’s not the sole reason, but cost of materials is a factor. Also if there is a pro-longed cease-fire in Ukraine, the amount of materials needed for reconstruction is immense and drive up prices. Meaning stockpiling cheap steel right now would make sense.

It deters new customers. If a particular brand of car has a target painted on it. Either for ridicule, vandalism or destruction. Who is going to want a car like that? Besides, in terms of quality Tesla has been long surpassed by the incumbents anyway.

This. And some people just want to post in front of a crowd. So far I like Lemmy because there’s more conversation going on. And less “Look at me!” posts.

Awesome, we need cheap steel to fight the shortage of housing.

Unfortunately the political competence crisis has led to a shift towards autocratic right-wing elements. Who promised action and change, but so far have only made matter worse. Housing availability and pricing, a genuine crisis at the moment. Is now even worse as effective policies reduce income of the top 5%, investment companies and banks. And are thus not being implemented.

But are they aging healthily? I work in a healthcare setting and there are so many 70-somethings that are barely functioning. I’d rather have a 75 year expectancy but with a high level of health (which includes independence and function) than add 10 years of poor health and constant care just to die miserable.

And it’s just mediocre coffee anyway. Roasted too dark just to keep a consistency in flavour between locations. Starbucks is a tax dodging lifestyle brand, they could start a clothing line and make the same money as they do selling coffee.

I think you need to brush up on your history. And who is “you”? I’m not even American my friend.

My on-line persona, my work persona and home persona are 3 different people. I totally understand OP

Just look at how ppl use their smart speakers. They ask it to set timers or ask for the weather. AI will be the norm once the benefit is obvious to everyone. When I can trust my AI with my credit card info and allow it to purchase stuff for me. Right now AI is basically a self-organizing dictionary which is often confidently incorrect. Not once has GPT told me it didn’t know something.

Hasn’t won any wars with unlimited objectives. Where there is no clear end goal, because regime change and installing a friendly government isn’t really clear and actionable.

The first Gulf War had limited objectives, was a massive success and took only 6 months.

For me the voice is what matters. Male Commander Shepard, Female V.

The EU is not a geographical union despite it’s name. Even then, Canada and Europe share a common border; the Atlantic Ocean. Also it’s part of the Commonwealth, Has a strong economy, social politics, The Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian tradition. And they speak the two most common European languages. Canada makes more sense than Türkiye if you disregard distance.

if ads were normal and unobtrusive. We wouldn’t need ad blockers. Instead we get an almost unusable internet where ads take up more and more real estate. I had been running an ad blocker for so many years that when a friend (who doesn’t use an ad blocker) showed me a website, the unfiltered experience was horrifying.