NZ tourism isnâ(TM)t âoecompletely at zeroâ! Last weekend when we went skiiing at Cardrona the slopes were doing great. When we took the Earnslaw across lake Wakatipu there were plenty of tourists too. The main difference is that businesses that can cater for domestic tourism are doing well, some better than before the pandemic, whilst those that are unable to adapt are suffering. Travel agencies on the otherhand have absolutely needed to downsize. Itâ(TM)s not a one off thing, the weekend after lockdown (a few months back) Queenstown (a tourist town) was packed. The week after when we visited it was still very busy including in the towns along the main route from Dunedin. Two months later? Still busy.

I like being able to run Windows natively on my Apple laptops as well as run Mac OS X. If I canâ(TM)t run Windows natively then I wonâ(TM)t bother buying another Apple laptop.

Actually youâ(TM)ll save money now if you want that functionality. Previously you used to have to buy an (admittedly inexpensive) third party app as I did years ago. Now that is finally built in - as it should be since it is a fairly obvious and common feature with cheap things like the miband I used to use before I got my Apple Watch 3.

China have not managed to slow the spread to one portion of the country. It is EVERYWHERE. Hardly surprising since warnings before the massive Chinese New Year migrations were suppressed :-(. https://www.google.com/maps/d/...

If the steal from a company that is willing to work with them and try and help this time, what happens the next time they have a deadly virus?Short sighted and ultimately likely to result in a bigger disaster next time.

Older certs support older and more easily compromised encryption standards.

Has no one yet cottoned on to why China's leadership isn't backing Russia against the USA, when they almost always back nasty little tin pot dictators elsewhere against the US? Look up Tannu Uriankhai. Then look up Mongolia. China lost 15% of their territory when Russia interfered in Mongolia. The average Chinese doesn't know their own history, but the government sure do. Now add in restive areas like Tibet. Then add in Taiwan. China has many reasons not to support Russia's fake "referendum". 97% it such poor propaganda you have to wonder if Russia has learned nothing about successful propaganda since their last empire collapsed.

The mind is the sum of its physical structure. Is is not mystical or magic. You're suggesting human society is going to continue along just as it is now - a struggle over limited resources, short term thinking, and not much of a change in energy and manufacturing. I think it is possible that as technology advances and energy production and manufacturing become more sophisticated we'll reach the point where we have a practical excess of both. At that point the "high cost of achieving this state" won't be an issue. Longer term, assuming humanity doesn't destroy itself we'll probably become space faring, initially within the solar system. Once we have self contained manufacturing off-planet everything will change. Practically unlimited space, resources, and energy. I'd love to be around when that happens...

Immortality in our lifetime requires a few basic scientific advances: 1. Preservation. The most obvious means to do that is freezing. 2. Revival. If we can freeze a mind and bring it back with its memories intact then we can wait for technology to repair the damage that necessitated freezing the body in the first place - assuming the preserved mind does not decay further over time. Factors that are probably significant here are whether freezing the body below a certain temperature actually makes revival more difficult. If not, then the colder the better, since the longer the body can be frozen the higher the probability the revived body can be repaired. One more thing... Uploading our minds into computers is not "immortality". A program would be a copy, not the original. Longer term, gradually replacing parts of a living mind with electronic components such that the mind felt a sense of continuous existence would be one way to transition from organic to machine. Immortality is continuation of our mind and personality. I hope to be frozen when I die. A slim chance is better than no chance at all. Cheers, Mark

I use it myself with a social group of 40 or so. I occasionally worry if they'll decide to add it to their growing list of abandoned offerings, which is probably a consideration for you too. More annoyingly, like most Google offerings, the interface is pretty crap so I can't imagine it would be enjoyable managing a list your size ;-)

Much as I prefer iOS, if I ever did decide to buy an Andriod device it would be either the usual cheap POS, or... a Transformer. The hardware looks quite decent with the keyboard and trackpad.

You mean you never unthinkingly type shit when thumping keys on slashdot? Now that you've had a good whine, how about you piss off and find a website for perfectionists.

Mars, a prison for the modern age, just like Australia was in its time. This time around it can be for copy write infringements.

Unlike when they sent their terrorist team to blow up the Greenpeace "Rainbow Warrior" boat in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-war/ With the French for "friends" who needs enemies?

That depends on which country you are talking about. In New Zealand cows graze on that stuff called grass.