It would be interesting if Google would hash the images and replace the image URL with a comon one per hash that is stripped of tracking info and shared by all users who got the same hashed image in their mail. It would even reduce storage requirements as the images would get deduplicated.

Canon support is really good. True story - I had a canon A70 that I left inside a car in probably 160F heat during a Dubai summer. All the photos it took after that were all washed out white except one corner where some of the image showed through. I took it to the local Canon service center for repair. The camera was purchased in the US and was out of warranty. I got it back in a week fully repaired and at 0 cost. All my cameras since then have been Canons.

This discussion should be mandatory reading for PHBs and HR drones.

ok, so seriously, what are good or better alternatives to Plantronics?

The UAE authorities know very well that they cannot block everyone. Even with the "gaping holes" in their firewalls, I won't be surprised if they block more that 90% of the local population from accessing restricted sites. That's probably good enough for them. The effort required to block the remaining 10% would be too high and not worth it.

In many cases it makes sense to spend more energy in extracting oil than the energy available in the oil itself. This is because oil is mobile energy. It can be easily transported and stored. Also, much of modern infrastructure depends on energy in liquid form, eg. cars, airplanes, farming equirpment etc. There may be plentiful nuclear, solar, coal, or natural gas energy, but it's useless in many cases because the current infrastructure can not use it. So it does make sense for example to use a certain amount of nuclear energy to get a lesser amount of energy in the form of oil.