No idea why you are currently -1. Algorithmic targeting of people to push views that will swing them on wedge issues is absolutely what is causing the increase in polarisation and encouraging people to dismiss any fact that differs from their carefully curated stream of opinion reinforcement as 'fake news'.

The vast majority of adults do not fully understand the vast majority of the risks that they are exposed to every day.

However, on this specific topic you seem to agree that you'd need to be an adult to make an informed choice to use the technology and that information should be available warning you of the risks so that you can make an informed choice.

If all of the entrenched, senior IT folks like you unionised and went on strike until new hires were paid what you consider to be 'American wages', it would happen. Are you going to do that?

Well, not impossible. Some of us are still delivering multi-million contracts using GCC and a text editor, but yes it's increasingly rare to do something that's built entirely from your own source.

Due to the law of diminishing returns, wouldn't focussing on the lower quartile do more to improve average gains than focussing on the top quartile? Shouldn't also to 'top' be self-motivated and talented enough to improve their own performance?

Setup costs don't repeat, so the cost of follow-on years will differ. A large incoming lump sum also allows you to pay down debt, releasing money that would have gone on yearly interest payments, which provides more money in future years than the current budget.

So there are plenty of ways to fully-fund a new, on-going cost with a lump-sum windfall.

You've never been hired by a billionaire either. The closest you've come is to be hired by someone many ranks down the corporate structure from them, and across multiple faked levels of shell-companies and brand name licensing deals, that all ensure that the person who hired you pays their taxes, you pay your taxes, and the billionaire pays a far lower percentage rate of tax than you, if any at all.

They haven't been taxed on it though. Their vast wealth makes tax avoidance methods available to them that aren't available to other people. Yes, those methods are largely legal. However if they had chosen not to exploit those loopholes, and it's usually very clear that it's a loophole, then these kind of measures wouldn't be necessary.

You, a 'scientist' : My gas heater is emitting CO molecules containing atoms that have neither been created nor destroyed, therefore it's fine. Thud.

Or is there a little bit of difference depending on where the atoms now are and what state they are in?

Growth and bulk productivity yes, for certain species of plant. Nutritional value no. Mineral uptake is impacted after a certain CO2 concentration which is why you need to get the soil right for growing in CO2 enriched greenhouses.

So not so good for feeding large human populations. Expect to pay large amounts of tax to deal with the impact of increased migration due to hunger.

By the time you've paid for the bureaucracy, the court-cases arguing the accuracy of the scoring and the correct way to weight, and sorted out the fact that it needs to be global, you've got less money to give to the projects than they get now.

The DOI has stated that it will refund the fees 'after the investments have been made'. Whether it actually does so, remains to be seen. It would not be out of character for the payment never to be made.

Can a 12-yr old walk into a store in the US and buy a porn mag? If not, then you already have a precedent for requiring age-verification before allowing access to the writings (speech) of a third person.

So it provides a service to British people. Is the provider being compensated for the provision of that service? Yes, although not by the person receiving it. Therefore they are providing a commercial service. 4Chan needs to either geolocate and block any access from the UK or stick to the rules of providing services here.

Is it not safer to just use the history search feature rather than risk the tab getting closed?