Apple has not sold directly in Russia since 2022. There are parallel imports but no direct sales.

You’ve only described one half of the coin (and not very accurately in my view). The other side is the flip side, under which there are huge quantities of CSAM, suicide being promoted, scams and hustles of every kind tricking or coercing the vulnerable into giving up their savings, and of course endless torrents of the vilest abuse directed towards lots and lots of people of various types. The problems of the internet absolutely do include people saying things that would not be legal if said in any other medium, whether on TV or in a pub.

Your first post sure made it sound like you had clear insight into what these folks were and were not predicting. This second post makes it sound like you don’t know. Until you know, how can you tell whether or not what they’re providing is useful or not?

And?

“Predict flooding” is a uselessly vague term for you to use. Like saying that when my mother-in-law got her terminal cancer diagnosis, the oncologist didn’t predict her death because you have in mind some level of precision for a prediction that she would die that meant that the terminal diagnosis wasn’t a good prediction of her death. Sowhat, specifically, is the detail that you think First First Street are claiming to be able to provide insight on, for which you don’t think they should?

I want them to bring back Slashdot subscriptions. I'll happily pay to support Slashdot, but I uncompromisingly reject advertising. Not to mention, the few times the newer ads have gotten through uBlock filters they've been atrocious.

I know the site has been on life support for a decade but subscriptions seem like a pretty easy way to make some money.

I could see why a CIC could make this work. The main problem outside London is that populations are less concentrated, and there's relatively less money (bc London is so disproportionately wealthy compared to the rest of the country). And while these services ought to appeal to people wanting to save money through switching from ownership to a PAYG model, I don't think that's what happens in practice.

Any independent politician who acts totally by themselves will only be able to accomplish the most insignificant things, because it needs more than one person acting alone to exercise power. And the minute you have two or more people acting together, they heed a method to agree how they will work together... which is a political party, whether you wnat to call it that or not, and with all the compromises that brings. It's inherent to humans and how we get things done. We have to cooperate, and that means compromise, and sometimes that will mean doing things we don't want to do or that we promised not to do, etc. It just *is*.

These folks need to get clear about the problem they hope to solve, and why their solution will make things better rather than worse. Maybe there's something there, but it's not clear what it is.

I mean, as long as they continue to bill uncle sam less than their competitors, i'm fine with this.

Those were all competing modes from day 1. The other modes I mentioned were either only nascent in the UK or not present at all.

In the last decade, we’ve had massively improved cycling infrastructure and also the rise of scooters, e-bikes and Lime and similar bikes, along with Uber. I think each of those will have eaten away at Zipcar rides.

A shame, bc Zipcar filled a niche, but if they can’t make the number add up, then not a surprise

Well, to be fair, itâ(TM)s a firmware change, so itâ(TM)s something that can mostly be done in parallel. Set 20 planes updating the firmware and when you get to the end of the row start running the verification process. No need to spend 5 hours on each plane individually.

>The ruling elite has decided they do not want you to be educated

No, the ridiculous price of tuition is actually the result of the government encouraging people to go to college. They will pay whatever 'need' is, and 'need' is whatever the price of college is... so colleges keep raising the price, year after year, much higher than inflation.

It's not going to the professors, either. At my local state college, only 13% of the budget goes to professors (including benefits).

At community colleges here in California, 50% goes to direct instruction. Why? Because state law mandates the 50 percent rule. So community colleges are reasonably priced and often do a better job actually teaching with smaller classes than state colleges, but I guess we have a good 9-3 football team at state, so...

Radiation on Mars really isn't an issue. Radiation levels on Mars are on average 0.64mSv per day. Radiation levels in Ramsar, Iran are 0.71mSv per day (that's entirely natural, not some crazy weapons program the Iranians are running). Want to know how many extra cancers there are in Ramsar due to the elevated natural radiation levels? None. Absolutely none at all. In fact, Ramsar has a lower cancer rate than both other cities in Iran, and the world in general. This matches a pattern where it seems that people exposed to low-moderate radiation levels actually appear to have lower risks for cancer than people not exposed to any elevated radiation at all.

There certainly will be areas of Mars with high radiation levels due to geology, altitude, etc, and we'll want to avoid those areas, or use shielding, but the average case is really not a problem at all.

I agree. They are just so much less adroit than Blair's government was. Being less completely shit than the Tories is just not good enough.