Did you remember the Roman and Aztec Empires? The "Soviet bloc" came to a decisive end a third of a century ago. (If you ignore small parts of the UK).

It's a moral trend. Many people are eager to find clever shortcuts to wealth and fame.

"This one simple trick..."

History also suggests that war does little or nothing to improve air quality. Vast clouds of smoke from burning fuel and ammunition dumps all the way down the diesel smoke belched by almost all military vehicles...

I bought one about six years ago. An HP model, which still works perfectly. I recommend Exact Audio Copy and ImgBurn, both free and craftsmanlike.

Yes - I took Economics 101 long ago, too. For some reason it didn't explain that the process works equally well in reverse - where the companies simply agree to stick to a given standard of high price, poor quality, and rotten service.

But, I hear you cry, what about anti-trust laws and suchlike that forbid "cartels" and conspiracies against the customer?

They are, if possible, even less enforceable than the laws against ripping DVDs. And breaking them is much, much more lucrative.

"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [dealers], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it".
- Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary".
  - Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"

Because the government makes the laws, and the corporations own the government. (LIterally).

Where did those human brain cells come from? With my limited knowledge of biology, it seems that they must have come from a human brain.

Whose?

Presumably not a dead person's, as technology has not yet (I hope) caught up with Baron Frankenstein.

So obviously a volunteer, who agreed to allow someone to cut a few neurons out of their brain. Obviously not in return for any material inducement such as cash, as that would be hideously unethical and illegal.

I really think that question should be answered fully, frankly, and right now.

It would be nice if the software we use every day could be just useful product that works, rather than an ongoing war like the one in Ukraine.

Which, ironically, is what you get from any software company when you buy their product.

You might try Vivaldi or Opera.

Sounds like a rather big business opportunity, costing not too big an investment in money and time.

And Wye Knott? (Since she can't reach me at present).

It looks rather like the work of an LLM to me.

Or that their purpose is not what we are told.

The problem seems to have been precisely that no one noticed it was a huge transaction. What I can't understand is what sort of finger trouble would cause $280 to change into $81 trillion.

$280
$81,000,000,000,000

Not much resemblance. Certainly not a 1-digit typo. More as if the zero key got stuck down.