Although, from my two second check just now, Venus is technically considered within the Goldilocks zone for this solar system it is right on the very inner edge of it. This finding differs from Venus in that respect, making it more interesting as a possibility.

All highly speculative of course, but to be fair that's exactly what the article says. Atmosphere detected, everything else speculative.

Many people use Android-based OSes that don't come with the Google stuff - ie there's no GMS or Play Store at all (or maps, Gmail, YouTube etc etc - unless you put in some effort, maybe). Many are Chinese companies, of course, since they've been knobbled by the US government. Does this affect those companies' devices and users?

FYI Firefox on iOS will get proper Adblock ina few weeks https://piunikaweb.com/2026/06...

Years back I was interviewing people for a coding position. We went through the standard tech stuff and then did a bit of project to see how they thought. We said (this is circa 2009'ish I think) - imagine you're on a team creating a new phone. You don't have time to test all the functions, so which would be your top two functions to ensure working?

All a bit Kobayashi Maru - obviously you can't release a phone testing only two functions, but we wanted to see what they'd prioritise. The very best answer we received was this one: "I would make sure it has the ability to call emergency services." Their thinking was that this was likely the most critical feature of a phone for both a user, and also for the manufacturer to avoid being sued. Absolutely great answer.

And yet here we are, with the post above. Taking the thinking of this interviewee - the ability to work with emergency services is important for general society, for the user of the vehicle (so they don't get in trouble) and for the manufacture of the vehicle (so they don't get fined/sued/both). Absolutely critical.

Likely bots.

Have...

Well, as someone who lived through the mad cow in the UK, it is certainly best to avoid burgers made from them...stick to prime cut steaks.

Moo.

The tyre burst annoys me. The Air France Concordes didn't have the same safety features as the British Airways one - specifically, the BA ones had guards against burst tyres.

Virgin Airways wanted to buy the BA planes to keep them flying and offered to, but BA just didn't want to give them a public relations win so refused to sell. Shambles all round.

I'm amazed that any company relies on anything from Google...with them shutting things down and deciding not to provide services to huge chunks of the world.
I guess it's time for me to review my use of all things Google, again...

China doesnâ(TM)t want its civilian tech used in the war, so Ukraine has had to build its own droneâ'component industry.

... and hosting the most aggressive military in the world - the one that is the cause of the world's problems. They're afraid of the wrong country...

Insanely, it's still the cheapest way to pay some of my bills. They charge extra for using a credit or debit card, and the cost of a stamp + paper check is less than card transaction fee. I keep dutifully mailing them a check every month, hoping they'll get tired of having to deposit manually and just make everything the same cost...

Necktie? Nectar? It was definitely an n word.

Another ancient here - I still try to convince the admins to give me my first account back, this one - number 13802. The place both has and has not changed - it always had its share of ranting, but people do seem to knee-jerk more negatively to developments than in ye olden days.

Note that I created my account, saw that nearly 14,000 people were here and thought "what's the point? Who will ever possibly hear me in a place with 14,000 people?". Now of course, you can get ten times that for a picture of a dog's nose.

With the rate datacenters are gobbling up all the electricity they can get, I don't think 'abundance' is quite what you expect it to be.