Tommi Nieminen

The figures only make sense in “first past the post” (or “winner takes it all”) systems.

I wholeheartedly agree; but there’s now growing fear all around the world that not even attending to a research conference will save you from ICE if they are behind their daily quota.

I’ve heard of a big conference this year in the US (decided and planned for years before Trump) that now offers remote participation option.

I don’t understand why tourism hasn’t dropped more than it has. I

Probably because something so big as a voyage to the US is often planned for years before which may make it too difficult or expensive to cancel. A year from now, things might look a lot different.

I think a majority would find that unethical regardless. Majority of Americans, no doubt. Majority of the rest of the world, probably not.

When I was beginning to work at the university, there was a professor who had started an affair with his student. Everybody knew about that, no one cared a s***. Later on, the student got employed at the department, and then they got married. The only thing I ever heard of it being talked about was that it wasn’t quite sure whether it was the student or her professor who actually did her “maturity exam” (a then-compulsory exam after finishing your MA thesis, the questions of which were based on the thesis).

The most curious thing in the whole mess is the revelation that Americans actually think companies should react to this kind of thing. Like the employer would “naturally” and “obviously” have a right to invade employees’ personal life and privacy.

Well… not really. My current installation of Tumbleweed is three and a half years old, and back in 2022 the only reason I re-installed it was changing the NVMe drive. I’ve never read factory mailing list and don’t ever recall having made manual interventions. I’ve just booted it, updated (zypper ref; zypper dup), rebooted and continued working.

Basically a Sophie Scholl kind of resistance.

That was probably one reason why Hitler wasn’t assassinated by the allies. OTOH, the death of Franco (but to old age!) meant the end of fascism in Spain. When a dictator dies, there’s always a chance for better.

Win10 or Win11? :p

Which is not going to happen, and not only because he’s not born a US citizen.

“Strictly phonetic”—no. But more-or-less-strictly phonological, yes. Finnish is also one of those.

“Why would I own a car? Our public transportation works fine. Or a watch, since I can already see the time from my mobile phone.”

The humanity does. Well, maybe not “need” it but deserve it. Finding out about the world around us is what we exist for.