For not explaining what they're doing, look at all the comments here that have 0 clue what "atmospheric physics" even means, let alone entails, but because the absolute fuckwits at companies like this don't explain anything it's basically a given that dim ape instinct just assumes it's bad whatever it is and also gives full permission to "reporters" to clickbait "blot out the sun!!!!!!" for a headline like the companies plans for profit mirror a 70's era Bond villain.

I could just kick these people for being so utterly ignorant of the necessity of PR, in fact I'm pretty sure I would should I meet any of them

Challenge level, impossible?

this is not new. i worked on such a system 15 years ago, almost entirely opensource down to the os (with the sole exception of the smartcard reader drivers used for key management, this was accepted by the client) and it successfully ran two binding public elections (with a subset of the census, it was a pilot) with no serious issues (some issues, but nothing serious although some people made much fuss about them). people could vote even with their phones. https://www.regjeringen.no/en/...

it did promote vote engagement indeed. but no form of electoral process could possibly promote "democracy", though. that's a different problem that can't be solved by technology (not even paper).

it already has. verifiable electronic voting is indeed feasible and arguably more secure than paper voting. however i'm not sure it would scale well as it requires strict observance of protocols and cutting corners is something i would expect in the long term. however, that happens with paper elections too. but more importantly ... the process isn't the issue anyway: your piece of paper in the ballot box doesn't allow you to hold your representatives accountable, your choices were rigged from the get go and your understanding of public matters is likely shaped by planted narratives anyway.

the aim of democracy is not to give your vote real meaning but just give you the false impression that it matters so that you don't question the system, that is, your overlords. you most likely don't even know who they are. it's a quasi-perfect form of tyranny.

Wealth is not in any way inconvenient. It only ends up that way for people that feel the need to show they are wealthy to others.

It's not dumping as they are not selling at a loss

Firstly why the fuck are u letting people know you have any sort of liquid wealth. Be it cash, gold, bitcoin or tulips, keep your mouth shut, it is beyond me the people that brag online, complete morons. Secondly if you have enough to be noteworthy hire some protection especially if you are not capable of keeping it quiet

no, it didn't. taiwan never declared independence. after losing its position on the mainland the kuomintang exiled themselves to taiwan in 1949 and declared it to be the roc. that's not a declaration of independence, there is no official international recognition, although de facto relations.

oh, they did try. they intended to culminate the civil war but were blocked by none other than the us (don't say!) in 1950. they never recognized the roc's legitiacy, nor renounced the the reunification. they just put the situation on hold, and the status has not changed.

no, it isn't. the official status is "contested sovereignty", btw the official us "one china policy" still recognizes taiwan as part of china.

i keep wondering why "the us's feelings" should even matter a bit in this situation. anyway, china is for now happy with the status quo, as is the vast majority of the taiwanese population. they do not renounce reunification but aren't in a hurry and the only thing that would endanger this balance is western interference, in particular crossing a few well established red lines: declaration of independence, breaking off ongoing negotiations, external interference or severe unrest. so the best the west could is not to fuck around to find out.

anything goes if you append "probably", right? :-)

remains to be seen. of course china is ultimately motivated by self-interest, but there is no evidence at all of china subjugating or exploiting these nations, or even intending to do that, and there is considerable evidence that these nations are benefiting greatly and enjoy good relations with china for the time being. my take so far is that china's interests appear to be: that these countries develop, repay the debt and become prosperous trade and cooperation partners in a context of geopolitical stability. again, time will tell.

this is comically cynical and hypocritical. the brits of all people! british colonialism was notoriously violent, brutal and exploitative. it left behind death, destruction, dysfunctional states and arbitrary borders that have caused no end of conflicts to this day. western colonial powers in general have made sure that none of the ex colonies develop true autonomy and remain remote controlled, mostly to this day. the best case scenario for them is de facto vassailage by becoming a puppet state. "functional and stable democracies" my ass.

And my desktop is evolving into Linux!

not most, it's literally that:

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-in...

besides "popularity" being hardly a relevant measure for language choice, that's how daftly they measure it, and no matter how often this gets pointed out every time this clickbait nonsense gets published, it keeps coming back. /. could at the very least add "... and guess what happened next" to the headline, that at least would be fun.

ok, there is the fun of watching opinionated fanbois vs haters erupt in dialectical flames, but that gets old fast.

what can i say ... welcome to the real world?

fair enough. though badly thought out individual action that accomplishes nothing isn't going to get us very far, unless the point is just a little ego trip.

that's one way to go. better yet, put that slop on a solid free cdn with unlimited bandwidth. my impression is that several sites already do that, but more are needed. publicising poor or failed stunts might raise awareness but is not the way to go. also, methinks this would require wider political action. then again that path is hard (point in case: regular spam) precisely because the sad reality is that "rich people can usually rape you any time".

good on him, the guy is an idiot and couldn't resist to proclaim it to the world. his stunt didn't accomplish anything except costing him money, which was to be expected, since meta can crawl vastly more than he can produce fake. so he finally resorts to 404 when it hurts ... take that, meta! and he thinks they "reacted" after 5 months, which means that they didn't react at all, they're not even aware he exists, the pause is probably just coincidence and the crawler will be back.

besides, only meta? the whole fucking web is full of crawlers, it's a plague. but he just wanted to make it personal and create a cool story about his adventures and his incredible cunningness. on a topic he ostensibly has no clue about ... (and the guy has a cs grade).

omg. hong kong has been china since imperial times. they didn't take it over, they got it handed over through negotiations long after it had become ... wait for it ... a fucking british colony.

wtf are you talking about? when did china "take over nepal"?

china has border disputes with india. india has a lot of border disputes, and most of them trace back to british colonialism. then again relations between china nad india have considerably improved lately.

taiwan is actually china, at least china has plausible claims over it and is managing that issue through diplomacy. the biggest threat to that process by far is western interference. now explain to me what the fuck is the us doing in taiwan, which is 12.000 km away (but 130km away from china)?

anyway none of all that has anything to do with colonialism except for western historical/neo-colonialism.

if you say so. the very story in this thread is possible thanks to china, which has heavily invested and contributed to developement in the african continent, and is even involved in these lauded startups and projects in particular, although to a lesser degree since they operate mostly on larger utilities and infrastructure, and trade. and, guess what, they don't need any military bases in africa for that, except for a small support and logistics base in djibouti (where a big and permanent us base is located too). do you even know how many bases the us has in africa?

now, go read a bit about burkina faso, somalia, niger, mali ... the us isn't precisely installing solar panels there.

and, i mean ... get a clue in general?

china. the power of non-colonial oriented superpowers ...

or else they're going to try to source from china directly?