I don't think they sold too many Mercedes' during World War II. Not doing business with the enemy is pretty much standard policy. And make no mistake, China is the enemy,

+1. This is just more extortion, and the EU is just a protection racket.

Security "flaw"? As it if were some accident?

Long since accomplished. It's much more expensive to make that it is to mine.

I have no problem with people making money, I have done it every day for 50+ years. But the diamond business stands is a toxic combination of all the most extreme negative cartoonish stereotypes and abuses of a capitalist system. DeBeers, etc, deserve every bad thing they have coming to them. If synthetic diamonds put them out of business tomorrow, it will be a great step forward for western society.

Yes, what an odd coincidence, with a completely unexpected side effect.

A real book may be readable 2000 years from now. Your Kindle book may not work tomorrow.

        I was originally skeptical about "digital rot", but after publishing maybe 150-200 technical papers and a similar number of "chart packages" over the last 40ish years, 100% of those I have on paper are still good, and the ones I published last week are about 50/50 on whether they are corrupted or unreadable. Similarly, my library of my predecessors' work dating back to 1956, 100% good on the paper documents.

Same thing with various supposedly "eternal" internet/web documents, those die even more quickly.

      People worried about this all becoming a "blank" generation leaving no permanent record are absolutely right.

That's very glib. But it is clearly obvious that air conditioning could mitigate the effects of heat on the sensitive. I note that your "heat wave" is normal temperatures for most of the USA, we don't have people keeling over dead on New Orleans/Houston streets every July.

Having air conditioning would definitely reduce the death count and is a practical solution that can be implemented right now, for relatively cheap. But you apparently want to wait around for a perfect solution in the indefinite future (or more likely, never), damn the death count- instead of an implementable partial solution now,

Well, people were paying attention to Al Gore for a while, so from his perspective, great success!

But, you, the little guys, are practically salivating on yourselves to stick it to "These Big Corporations". Economic activity doesn't take place in a vacuum, you add cost somewhere - anywhere - and it drags down the entire system. And you, the little guys, are the ones that are least able to cope.

      You are deluding yourselves, and you are doing it to yourselves. Pick only things that really matter because *you*, and me, and everyone else is going to wind up paying for it.

I suspect is it the same as the evidence you have for calling it a lie - and since you are making the accusation, the burden of proof is on you.

Hamas was only in control of the Gaza Strip in the first place (for the last 20ish years) solely and entirely at the agreement and behest of Israel trying to gain peace. The attacks broke that agreement, what did anyone think was going to happen?

        And the last is rhetorical, of course, because what is happening now is exactly what Hamas and all their supporters expected. They got in their licks, of course the Israelis responded just like any state would to such an attack, a bunch of quasi-innocent cannon fodder it getting wiped out while the masterminds call the shots from Tehran, Qatar, etc, and spin up the rest of the Western liberal apologists to put pressure on Israel to stop - again - so they can try to consolidate their position.

        Lather, rinse, repeat, it's the same story over and over. You can almost excuse a bunch of 20-somethings not realizing they are being played, if *every single step of this tawdry cycle wasn't clearly documented on the very internet they are supposedly experts about*. The cycle is about 20 years for a reason - anyone older than about 20 isn't dumb enough to fall for the same scam again.

Exactly. The sole reason that Hamas exists and controlled the Gaza Strip was because Israel unilaterally agreed to it - land for peace. Hamas violently broke that agreement (as anyone older than about 25 could have easily predicted) with a series of brutal, barbaric murders. Now they are running off the the world community again hoping for someone else to intervene. Classic chickenshit "punch someone in the back of the head and run for home". This is just the latest example, I have seen it over and over in my lifetime.

That's like saying those against US's Iraq invasion were "pro-Saddam".

        Of course, that's merely sophistry. I note the invasion of Iraq enjoyed wide bi-partisan support - until it appeared to be giving Bush 43 too much political currency, whereupon, presto-chango, the hard left flipped and then it became the worst thing ever.

Exactly. While I find in incomprehensible that anyone could actively support Hamas, it doesn't matter. You are getting paid to do a job. You don't like it, quit, but if you disrupt the business for whatever reason, you need to be gone, ASAP.