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Comment Re:China is a totalitarian hell (Score 2) 142

These were people who worked in defence so anywhere behind the Iron Curtain was right out and I imagine Cuba would have been too. Even Austria was considered a risk, probably because so many spies would hang out there from both sides.

Or so they told me. I can't be entirely sure they weren't exagerrating.

Yes, certain destinations were off-limits to people who chose to work in defense, however that falls far shy of this "Exit Ban".

The US saying "If you travel to Cuba, you may face charges when you return" or even "You have been charged with a specific crime, so you cannot leave until the charges are resolved is significantly different from China saying "You are important to our plans, so you cannot leave the country at all, and neither can your immediate family", or forbidden a US citizen from leaving because of visa inconsistencies, much less the common situation where Chinese employers require staff to surrender their passports.

Yes, a judge can require the defendant to surrender their passport as a condition of bail, but the USA lacks effective exit controls, so that isn't actually a high barrier to exiting (but makes it tough to come back).

Comment Exit Bans (Score 2) 142

If, as the article suggests, this is an "Exit Ban" on certain individuals and extending to their family members, that's significantly more restrictive than anything the US has imposed on defense workers and top scientists other than during wartime.

Yes, people with sensitive jobs and a security clearance are strongly discouraged from visiting hostile nations, with a subset even being required to submit their travel plans before any foreign travel, but this is explained clearly when you accept employment directly with the US government, or start working under a government contract, and you're always free to not accept the job offer. And yes, all US citizens were for many years prohibited to travel to embargoed nations (Cuba). But this was nowhere near an "exit ban" on key personnel, much less on their family members!

When I held a clearance, I was never forbidden to leave the USA. I might not have a job when I get back, but that's not the same thing at all.

Comment Re:Who's waste is it? (Score 2) 74

The people who dumped it there are long dead, or will soon be aging out of life anyways. It's everybody's problem now. Being on the literal bottom of the ocean and "missing" for many decades it's probably not doing much harm down there. If the ocean evaporates enough that a human can get within 2 miles of the stuff, we'll have bigger problems to worry about anyways.

Comment E-Waste (Score 1, Insightful) 165

Apple et all stopped including charger, cable, headphones etc because it's tremendous amount of ewaste. I already have cables, charges, headphones. I don't need crappy earbuds, if i need them i will buy them. I think the EU explicitly banned pack in power adapter and cables like ~10 years ago? There's already probably 25 USB adapters on the planet for every man woman and child

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 4, Informative) 246

The advantage of sodium battery means anybody can produce it, there's no geopolitical alliances needed to manufacture them. Lithium is super rare by comparison. Any and every country can domestically produce sodium batteries forever. The low temp operating envelope of sodium is interesting, but only 11% of the worlds population lives somewhere that is useful. The big benefit is any country can stick a straw in the ocean and build a battery factory regardless of sanctions. Go look at Iran right now if you want to understand why I keep harping on this point.

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 1) 246

I dunno, people on boats and in vans buy this stuff and run it for a decade or more without problems. Name brands like anker and ecoflow have very solid track records and 5-8 year warranty on most of this stuff. It's not fly by night Chinese crap. All this stuff has a very solid track record at this point. I bought my first MPPT way back in 2017 it's still alive and kicking no problem

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