Just another reasons not to eat McDonald's, not that I needed one.

Yes, appears to be a less intrusive version of that the USA is implementing now.

So how does "a free, open-source age verification smartphone app" run on a PC?

I think the problem is that AI does not have to be particularly intelligent to kill us all. It just needs to be widely connected to the right resources that it can control. Actually you have a human example now. trump is clearly not very intelligent and yet the harm he is doing huge because of the resources he can now control.

AP journalistic guidelines aside I think it is important to keep using the real name, Department of Defense, because it clearly piss off people like Hegseth and trump.

Likewise the AP journalistic guidelines should require POTUS's name to be spelt 'trump', not 'Trump'. If it was ok to change the name of some thing as important as the 'Internet' to the 'internet' when then surely something as over rated as trump should get the same treatment.

Not to worry, I'm sure the next step is for trump to offer free training of Russian pilots in exchange for access to rare earth materials or the right to build a hotel in Moscow. Pretty sure trump would sell Russia F16s if there was a big enough kickback.

You start off ok then go off the rails. Yea, early adopters got better deals in many cases, but they paid more for their systems.

The "other poor people who could not afford to retrofit solar to their houses" isn't really true any more as solar has got so cheap that the ROI is really short in most countries, less than 5 years is common. Of course the USA with its broken tariffs etc is going to have a longer ROI but it will still pay off.

Your rant about fires is just that, a rant. Fires are rare for both house batteries and EVs, with exception of some very specific US brands and models of EVs. Generally having an ICEV and petrol cans for ICE gardening stuff is a far bigger risk. You need to stop treating one off news reports or viral videos of battery fires as a general indicator of risk and look at the actual stats. House batteries and EVs have mandated standards designed to minimise risk. It is cheap low quality battery powered consumer products that are the real fire risk.

Many years ago my first time in SF and that was exactly what I had found. I was expecting it to be warmer based on TV and LA. I was disappointed to find it was as about cold as back home. Not a problem, just disappointing.

I have found this very much depends on where people grew up. I had one coworker who wore a full on thermal puffer jacket etc when the temperature was in the low 20's C outside. He was from the middle east and was used to temperatures over 30C all of the time. On the other hand I had a coworker from Minneapolis who claimed that above 0C was tee shirt and shorts weather.

You joke now, but I would assume there are many politicians there who would love to do that. My guess is they are waiting for your democracy to be weakened enough that they no longer have to worry about voters actually having a say in who is elected, then they will fix that pesty Internet thing.

There are benefits to being tracked? Do I get to chose them? I guess I have been using the wrong social media so far.

Follow up question: Why do you stop getting your benefits if it is an opt-out choice? As I read it you can chose to continue to use social media exactly they way you do now, nothing changes unless you opt out.

Sure, the first few times. After that the Aussie government may amend the law to try to have sites blocked. That in my mind is a step too far, but it has not stop governments before.

Your being obtuse, but it is a fair point if the way the law is written is not careful in its wording.

The common argument that a linear feed from people you explicitly chose to follow is not algorithm based. This was how Facebook worked in the early days. This is the intent of the law.

If you think of "algorithm-based feeds" as common description of a way to chose content for social media users, vs a linear subscription feed, then the intent of the law is clear. If you work with software then you are right. A case where words matter. Again it will all come down to the wording of the law and how they are interpreted legally by lawyers, not by programmers.

I think you missed the part where users can chose if to have algorithm feeds. I would argue that Facebook and YouTube are very different types of social media.

In the case of Facebook I would turn off algorithm feeds, but since this is not an options I simply don't use Facebook. I wanted Facebook to see what friends and family where up to, which the introduction algorithm feeds made impossible.

In the case of YouTube I would leave the algorithm feeds on as I do use it to discover new stuff. I do wonder how people can use YouTube without a good ad blocker, but that is a different issue.

If I could use Facebook with only post from friends I might consider using it again. Endless scrolling is the main reason I don't use most social media and the lack of it is one of the main reasons I still use Slashdot.