Some countries just can't do infrastructure. The US and UK are prime examples.

Then you have countries like Japan, which take a long time to do infrastructure, but they do it. Maglev starting around 2030, 90% tunnels through mountains. And then you have China, which went from zero to 2/3rds of the world's high speed rail in about 15 years.

What we need to understand is why we can't build stuff. In the UK it's down to a combination of incompetence and lack of continuity. Every project is a one off and there is no steady supply of work for contractors, so even if it does get built any lessons learned tend to be forgotten.

In the UK, broadcast TV is the lowest quality. YouTube is considerably better, and Netflix is on another level.

OLED is good for other stuff too though. For photo and design work, it can be calibrated very well and offers HDR without the haloing.

The main issue for computer use is the non-RGB pixel layout, which makes text look poor compared to LCD. Subpixel anti-aliasing breaks. As soon as someone makes a reasonably priced 28" 4k OLED with a compatible subpixel layout, I'm upgrading.

Nah, this is a direct response to the US ban on TikTok on government devices. China mirrored it by banning iPhones for government use. Just like how many US citizens took the innuendo about TikTok and Chinese phones as a signal not to buy them, Chinese consumers switched to domestic brands too.

The US probably expected that, but was likely hoping that they had weakened Huawei and Chinese chip production enough to prevent Chinese brands making competitive phones. That failed quite dramatically.

Reap what you sow.

From what I read they tried no disruptive protest, but didn't get any traction. At that point they decided that they were not happy working for Google if it continued to contract with Israel, so would try a disruptive protest. Either it would work, or they would be leaving anyway.

I can't blame them for making that decision. Some of them have family in Palestine, now either starving refugees with no homes or infrastructure, or murdered. Others just couldn't stand to be any part of that, no matter how small.

How much of that US military spending actually protects us, and how much is about projecting US power?

We have nukes in Europe. We have modern, powerful militaries. I'm sure if push came to shove, we could fund Ukraine ourselves.

While of course it's nice to be able to work with the US, I'm sure if you asked every social democracy would be keen to point out their independent deterrent. Some of them are on the front line with Russia, and their domestically developed weapons are world class.

The big difference is that there is immense pressure on women in China to marry young. By the time they are 30 they are considered "left on the shelf" and unlikely to ever marry or have children.

Having children is a very big deal, because the expectation is that those children will look after you in old age... Or after age 35, apparently.

Of course things are changing as young women want careers now, and are choosing to have only one or two children, but it's still a big source of pressure. One of the chief complaints of Western incels is that women have too much freedom and independence, meaning they are not forced to marry said incels.

China may get there eventually, but of course the other big difference is that the Chinese government is very likely to intervene if it ever becomes a serious problem. I expect they will start to push for more children soon.

A common problem the world over. As a Brit, I get it with British people written by Americans. Japanese characters written by Westerners get it a lot. It's quite rare for authors to do a decent job with more than one culture, it seems.

It works in reverse too. A lot of the criticise I see of the Three Body Problem novels is down to people not understanding how Chinese people think about things. Again, the same applies to Japanese stories, and even when the translator provides notes to try to help the reader, it's usually insufficient. I thought I understood a lot of stuff until I actually learned Japanese and stopped relying on subtitles, at which point I realized that the translators were giving a paraphrased and Americanized version of the characters and plot that was only superficially the same.

I always thought it was odd that it took so long for Linux to get a decent scripting language. Well, arguably it still doesn't... You have shell scripts, Python, and stuff like Perl.

Decades ago we had ARexx for Amiga computers. Powerful scripting that could interact with applications and automate them. There have been a few attempts to replicate it over the years, but nothing comes close.

The idea of using it as a mobile workstation with a MacBook was nerfed by Apple. You can only mirror your MacBook screen, not use the AVP as a second screen. It's larger, but also you need to have a heavy and hot brick strapped to your face to use it.

Try adding "before:2023" to your search query. That should tide us over until search engines get a handle on it.

Maybe, but if you want to carry a small return vehicle then you need a way to deploy it. With a Starship landed on its tail, they will need to robotically deploy a rover to collect samples, and carry a rocket large enough to return those samples to orbit, where presumably a second Starship would be waiting. And maybe a third tanker one, to carry the fuel needed to get home.

There is a lot of tech that needs to be developed. Meanwhile China is likely to focus on just getting anything back, to claim the first place prize. I think that's why NASA has recently said it wants to simplify the mission too.

I also doubt that Starship will be ready this year. It might reach orbit, but that's a long way from being able to perform the mission required of it by NASA for the Moon landing. It needs to re-fuel in orbit, and then get to the Moon, and perform an automated soft landing. Then they need to man-rate it, which means escape systems and the like. There is a lot more work to do.

True but the more popular rules and legislation that the Supreme Court strikes down the sooner the Democrats are in a position to balance the courts. Thomas and Alito are both at retirement age and both very likely going to face criminal investigations for their obvious bribery scandals as soon as the election is over. If the Democrats are still in charge of the Senate and the White House then those two are likely to retire so that they can cash out and the Democrats will have a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court again with Roberts deciding. He's not exactly the most liberal judge but he tends to side with the liberals if they are the majority

Seriously fast food workers have non-compete clauses now and they have been used to bully workers into not changing jobs.

It doesn't have to be legally enforceable it just has to be a threat to someone who's in a weak position.

Tennessee is just as terrible about women's reproductive health as anything else. It's a problem for trans kids too and sure they only make up 1% of the population but when you've got several thousand employees you're going to have a few in there. That's just how math works.

I'm not exactly prime breeding age here but I wouldn't want my kid trying to set up a family in a red state with the way things are right now. Too much risk of criminal prosecution even for a miscarriage

It's the kind of thing Karl Marx predicted would happen but all anyone can remember about him is that a couple of tin pot dictators borrowed his books for rhetoric.