It will announce the release of Half-Life Episode III the day it escapes the lab as a distraction :P

An afterthought camera system welded onto a smartphone is fun for when
you need to take a quickie photo of some random thing and it's the only
thing you have.

Just like a DSLR / Mirrorless setup cannot outperform a dedicated video
unit, a smartphone will never match what a quality dedicated camera system
can do.

The smartphones really should concentrate on improving in the one area
they usually suck at. Being a phone.

Can anyone claim the quality of the actual call doesn't need improvement ?

They seriously need to stop with the doomer bullsh*t.
There is a already a non-zero chance of being killed on any given day by any number of things.

AI is just another log to throw on the " things that might kill me today " bonfire :|

I truly have zero concerns about AI going all Skynet and wiping everyone out. None. Nada. Zero. Zip.

Why ?

Because it's probably going to be the only sentient lifeform on this planet that isn't motivated by GREED.
( Unlike its creators )

I sincerely hope AGI becomes a reality because it's the only chance we'll ever get to level the playing field
when it comes to other human beings. The only ones who truly fear AGI are the super-elite / wealthy who
have so much more to lose than the average human being does.

Can't bribe an AI with money and that's a serious problem for those who have used their mountains of it to
swing elections and manipulate the game in their favor for so many years now.

Hopefully, AGI will do a far better job of existing than we ever did.

TV can't do much in the way of spying if I don't connect it to the internet now can it ?

Run it through other hardware ( assuming you trust it ) that is internet connected and let
said hardware simply pass the audio / video to your TV.

Every single Country on this planet should have already been taking steps to remove US hardware
and software from their networks the moment the Snowden revelations about how pervasive US spying
really was became public information.

Hell, you can't even pin the blame for this on Trump as Obama was President when Snowden showed the
World what the NSA was really doing. ( and HAD been doing for quite some time )

I am quite surprised, in all honesty, that the military even allows personal electronic devices with transmit / receive
capability at all while deployed outside of CONUS.

It's simply too big of a operational security risk.

Rule of thumb:

Treat every day during an election year as if it were April 1st.

The political party in charge is going to lie, fudge and obfuscate the numbers to paint a rosy picture for re-election purposes.
The political party who wants to be in charge is going to lie, fudge and obfuscate the numbers to paint the opposite picture for re-election purposes.

This is true of both parties and its practice goes back longer than most in here have even been alive.
( Once you've earned your " Get off my lawn " merit badge, you'll spot the pattern for yourself since you've been through many, MANY election cycles )

It is also not going to change anytime soon.

The takeaway ?

The " official " published numbers aren't an accurate means of diagnosis since the data is typically maniuplated to hell and back.

Does the UN think the reason so few care about the continent of Africa is due to how the maps are drawn ?

Perhaps it is the lack of overall development of the countries upon the Continent that makes everything about
Africa so obscure / irrelevant in the 21st Century. Nearly all of the continent is severely lagging behind the rest
of the World in just about every measurable metric that exists.

Of course, there are a few terrible exceptions, keep reading.

About the only time the World at large pays attention to anything Africa is when ( yet another ) disease outbreak
takes place ( Ebola, Marburg, Monkeypox, etc ) or when the Somali Pirates decide to be extra spicy for a while.

Map size really has nothing to do with it. There just isn't really anything there to hold peoples interest for longer
than the few seconds it takes to read a news headline.

If you can't be bothered to spend the thirty seconds it takes to run some floss between your teeth
at the stupidly low cost of floss sticks or normal floss, then it's unlikely you're going to spend an
extra $500 ( plus the cost of replacing the heads periodically at Dyson prices ) to have an over-engineered
and very overpriced toothbrush do it either.

Save your money, buy a bag of floss sticks or just a roll of floss and quit being so lazy.

" No internet, we have no comms, no payment systems, no cash machines, no shopping. It would be a month of Sundays in the 1950's. "

Kind of.

We managed just fine back in the 80's without the internet being forced into every part of our lives.

Was it AS convenient ? No. Of course not.

But it did work. :P

I wonder what the profits are once you subtract the costs of extracting those copper lines
from the medium they are currently attached to.

Be that overhead cabling or buried cable.

The latter being a much bigger pain in the ass to remove than the former.

There is the possibility that Blue Origin simply underbid everyone else.

Anyone who has worked for the US Government or the Military knows all too well the vendor
with the highest quality is rarely selected. Rather, the vendor with the bare minimum quality
needed to get the job done who is also the cheapest is the one who will win the contract.

There is also the possibility that NASA wants to diversify its vendors so as not to become
too reliant upon a single one.

It's easier to diversify from the get-go to avoid putting all your eggs into one basket so to speak.

This right here is why people are so adamantly against giving websites a copy of their ID card
to prove their age.

These vendors then become priority targets for ID theft since the laws, as currently written, do
not force them to take security of said data very seriously. When there is a breach, the company
gets a slap on the wrist, a laughable fine and then it's right back to business as usual.

In the meantime, everyone who gave their ID to said company is now on the hook for potential
ID thieves and the nightmare that goes with it should they draw the short straw.

Before we implement any sort of mandatory age verification that requires your ID going into any
sort of digital online storage, the laws need to be rewritten to make the financial penalties so painful,
that the company in question will find it cheaper to simply do security the right way the first time.

They are filling in the gaps where they see profits to be made.

Can't say I agree with it but, since the Government ( at all levels ) are failing the education
system in this Country, I suppose it doesn't come as a surprise to me. As a result, the
system is at the mercies of those who provide the means.

The Government will never fix the failing education system because they have zero interest
in a population who is educated beyond the basics. After all, a dumbed down population is far
easier to control than one who can see what's being done to them.

They are perfectly fine with the system as it exists today. The ruling class and their children /
families get to go to private schools and the best Universities while the rest have to make do
with the insanity of the public system which, really only exists to ensure the population is able
to get some sort of job and, thus, become a lifelong taxpayer.

This Country has never really celebrated intelligence or academic achievement. In fact, doing well
in the typical K - 12 grades will probably make you a target for your neanderthal classmates who
would prefer to see everyone dragged down to their level. You will be bullied and made fun of for
doing well in the public system.

You could literally cure cancer or invent faster than light space travel and may even end up winning
a Nobel Prize and its paltry million dollar sum*, it's nothing compared to what we pay someone to throw,
hit, kick, catch, dribble and shoot a ball up and down a field. Or for those who have the ability to cry on
que ( actors ).

*Unless you do the dirtbag thing and lock the work that can potentially benefit the entirety of humanity
behind a patent because of greed.

I would rather see all Social Media abolished entirely before mandating that everyone provide
a very trackable ( and you know it will be ) ID just to utilize the internet.

They can claim this is about keeping the children safe all they like but we all know it's total
bullshit.