I don't disagree about the sensationalist aspect.

As to displaced animals, could be quite a few. We had a similar clearing near us maybe a mile away - even bigger, and we ended up with a lot of wildlife, squirrels, deer, various birds, and black bears. (note, I live in a forested village) I'm probably in a minority, but I enjoy watching bear and deer walking down our streets in the morning.

Yeah, another AI BAD! story. If they are clear cutting and turning large areas into mud, they might need to do a little better protecting the environment.

Sometimes you get it, sometimes not. A former neighbor bought the house next to me, He's an engineer and his father was in construction - a Master carpenter. I liked both of them. They did have a bit of a "We know better" thing going on.

So they set about remodeling the house. It was good work, but they didn't get any permits. Things were going okay until they installed a new electrical drop and got caught after they disconnected power, and reattached it. They replaced the drop attached to the house with a proper conduit ingress. Kinda pissed off the electrical company, and the attention then caused the township to get involved. Took something like 8 months to get everything settled.

The crazy part is that the permitting process is not that difficult, and the electrical utilities are pretty prompt. The neighbors work was very good. But a lot of people who skirt the rules are doing poor work, so their work was gone over with a fine tooth comb.

But that's a different subject. Where was the Finnish Government with permits, environmental impact statements, inspections for compliance?

And contractors will do things on the cheap, down and dirty if allowed. That's why even if you Are building a house, you make certain all the permits have been filed, and you visit the site at various times to make certain it is being done correctly.

Whatever Google is or isn't, the Finnish government is complicit.

Finland is a modern nation, and modern nations have processes and permits required, especially for environmental impact. If Finland has no permitting process, and if any multinational company can come in and clearcut their forests just by showing up and clearcutting with no oversight, maybe it is time to consider implementing a permitting process.

Here in the USA you have to comply with permitting and inspection even if you own the property. And were not supposed to be civilized.

That is a really good point - here in the USA, where we don't do anything right according to Slashdotters, construction has a lot of environmental impact to be done. If you want to see them get really serious, have a high quality stream (HQW) run through your property. There are very few allowances for clear cutting large areas, smaller areas like for pad construction must have a lot of protections enabled, and be completed in short order to avoid runoff. Want a real treat? The process of replacing a bridge over HQW. Even non-HQW waters have a lot of protection. And well past the permits, with compliance inspections.

If Google and its contractors caused a problem, the Finns weren't keeping proper track with permits and inspections. Which is strange, because I would think in a far north area and its fragile ecosystems, extra effort would be taken to ensure they were protected.

HAR!, I see what you did there.

Probably for the guard towers, machine guns and barbed wire.

Ah yes - accounting. You are correct that the accountants will whine. In irony, much of the expense is directly attributable to accounting demands. At the place I retired from, after accounting went from 3 people to the largest division, I joked that soon, we'd be hiring a 6 figure accountant to keep close tracking of the 5 thousand dollars we spent on number 2 pencils. And then...

And all of that intense accounting requires the IT to do that.

And pretty sure "Elite" means something different after the DOGE purge ...

And Google possibly didn't care and thought if anyone complained it would be better for them to then ask for forgiveness than first ask and wait for permission, that they might not get. I hope they're fined *and* made to replace all the trees.

I agree, it would be very nice.

Okay - let's discuss. What game is China playing? Then what game is the US playing?

Chang'e, the Chinese Lunar program is moving along recently landing at the lunar South Pole. They have a pretty well thought out mission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Present plans are to land people in 2030. Planned for 2035 is a moon base with nations China, Russia, South Africa, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Pakistan and Egypt as partners.

This isn't the same game as the 1960's race, this one might have sovereign property declaration involved. There are science implications as well - witness the brouhaha over China's recent landing at the South Pole. There are mineral rights as well - if the pole holds water, it would have an important role in water for drinking and fuel for further space exploration. Seems like a plausible reason for a race to me.

Your thoughts?

Since I'm required to be on that cesspit, and all jokes aside, there are plenty of under 60's there. Surprisingly seems to be as many thirst traps as say, instagram. There are even some proper uses for it.

But yes, social media for kids is terribly toxic. And I'm certain some will get around the ban. But we shouldn't make perfect the enemy of good.

As we fall off this bridge, we really need to attempt to do an assessment of how it affects older people as well. People might remember I'm an amateur researcher in the area of gender relations. Young adults are being harmed as well, especially in the area of relationships.

Things like the Toxic TikTok relationship tests are "testing" relationships by destroying them - loyalty tests, fake breakup tests. Illiterate boyfriend tests. Ignore your boyfriend tests.

And on the other side, since men have learned of these tests, the result is usually an immediate breakup. Because men have their own access to the internet and social media, and are sharing some of this.

A pity, because a lot of relationships that might have gone somewhere have ended over stupid tests.

China! There needs to be a prod to get the US moving. Just as the Apollo Program was in response to Russia's space program, we now have a fire lit under us by China's space effort.

The pieces are in place, so time to roll seriously. Artemis appears to have shaken down okay. Now it’s time to get the mating pieces put together and make certain they work.

And... The company and/or product will be called "Luckey Dogs". /s

(A subsidiary of "Greased Palm(ers) Industries.)