Is it self hosted or do you pay someone else to host it? Do you have a fixed IP? I’ve always wanted to try and set it up but it definitely seems like one of the riskier ones if you then use it to sign up to a lot of things.

Hmm, that could be an attempt at bonding over a common enemy? Kind of like talk bad about the boss behind his back, so that you bond woth your peers? Generally not for everyone, but could see how people get fixated on it if it works for them. Or maybe they are just caught up in the negative media and it has a big effect on their overall mood. Do the happier countries you mentioned have less reliance on media? Again, negative generates views, thats why the news is usually mostly bad.

I think this is a classic case of “The complainers are way more vocal than the life enjoyers”, combined with modern technology being set up to promote controversial content. When someone’s enjoying this life and being chill, they also don’t usually care about spreading thier message. The complainers are either memetic or often political and seem to enjoy a much greater platform. Also more controversial content generates more negative engagement, and most social media promotes content that has high engagement, because it benefits them to have users engage and stay on the site longer.

UK kettles use the standard 240V mains and it’s excellent. Under 2 minutes to boil 3 US Pints with a 3000 Watt kettle.

In the UK you can get on a train without booking a ticket for that specific train, for example an open return or just a day pass. The train company has no idea how many seats will be taken or how many people will get on the train. So say it’s a 10 carriage train. Every seat is taken by someone, reserved or unreserved, and theres not a bit of standing room anywhere (this is very common). Which person sat on a reserved red light indicator seat should you kick out? And how do you know they didn’t reserve that seat specifically before you do that? Or do you kick someone out of a green lit non-reserved seat, with thier proof that the seat is not reserved and they are allowed to sit there, and your proof that you dont even have that seat reserved. It will also be the old people and small children sat down, and you won’t really be popular if you make them stand. Yeah you’re not sitting if you have this ticket. You’ll likely be stood by the entrance door for 3 hours instead. This seat reservation ticket may as well say, “sorry no seat today”, and it’s definitely infuriating to lean that you will be standing for your journey when you’ve payed full price for a seat, maybe £40 depending where.

Wouldn’t you be benefiting from your friends? It’s ok for a little bit, but if they live there permanently then they will pay off your mortgage and have nothing to show for it themselves. That sort of thing might build resentment long term. Though in the short term you both benefit.

But as I’m sure you’re aware, any money issues may sour the relationship. Even just having a formal contract with exchange of money could change the dynamic drastically.

Sounds like you’re well paid and your time is valued, I imagine most devs would be happy with that!

Just because you said medieval ruins, I’m much more impressed with the medieval buildings that aren’t ruins. Definitely worth looking into some of these less well know places if you ever plan a trip, or just want to look up some cool pictures.

For US people, the thing thats most impressive, is that all of these were built before Christopher Columbus even started his voyage to the americas in 1492.

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham - Established around 1189, makes it approximately 835 years old. The pub is partially built into the sandstone caves beneath Nottingham Castle. Still a great looking and fully functioning pub today, I want to go there.

Anne Hathaways Cottage, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire - Dates back to about 1463, which makes it around 560 years old. A very British medieval farmhouse and the childhood home of William Shakespeare’s wife.

Stokesay Castle, Shropshire - Was built in the late 13th century, around 1291, which makes it over 730 years old. It’s one of the best preserved fortified manor houses in England.

Monnow Bridge, Monmouth, Wales - Was built in the late 13th century, around 1272-1297, making it about 725 years old. It’s the only remaining fortified river bridge in Britain with its gate tower intact.

St. Ives Bridge, Cambridgeshire - Built in the 1400s, making it around 600 years old. The bridge has a full chapel in the middle.

The GMO gene in Golden Rice is patented. It’s just licensed for use for free in developing countries on small hold farms. A monoculture of golden rice would be less diverse than the current wide range of heritage rice varieties, and there could be over reliance on it which could case issues if there was a blight. Theres some concern that spread of the genes could catch unaware farmers with legal issues, but it’s harder for rice genes to spread than most other crops, as they’re usually self-pollinating. The risks dont seem to outweigh the benefits in this case, but it is more complex than it appears on the surface level. Greenpeace doesn’t seem to be able to use scientific research to back its claims here, and is instead just staying true to it’s anti-GMO message.

Just to address the chatgpt comments, I assumed you were a troll but I now see that you’re a real person, deserving of a real answer. My standpoint is that science should enhance religion: as they approach different problems, they should be compatible. Science deals with the workings of the natural world and how things happen, while religion often addresses why the world exists and what our purpose might be. For this reason I’m against dismissing scientific discoveries solely due to religious teachings. Some see new discoveries about the universe as enhancing our understanding of God. Just because the bible was written without the understanding we have today doesn’t mean that the progress of all modern knowledge is false. And similarly when specific bible teachings are disproven doesn’t mean that the underlying purpose or values are invalid. In summary, ai think the purpose of religion is to improve society and wellbeing by addressing fears, providing a deep need for community and creating a moral code. I think problems and frictions arrive when, the moral codes develop over time due to new understanding of what is right or fair, and knowledge of the world improves. There are religions that accept that they should change over time and accept these new viewpoints, such as evolution, dinosaurs, or to respect womens rights. There are other hardline religions that believe that the world is 6000 years old, that women have no rights, that dinosaurs are false creatures created by the devil, and that technology is evil and should be avoided. Right now you seem to be leaning towards more hardline standpoints, which can anger some people, as you’ve seen by the down votes. I would encourage you moving forwards to not see new viewpoints and scientific understanding as a challenge to your religion, and instead accept that the world is beautiful and this knew knowledge was a gift to you from God. Gay marriage is legalised, so God accepts that people should be allowed to be happy in themselves, accept that into your religion. Dinosaurs are found and thousands of people work to understand them, God has given those people a gift to work in such an exciting career, accept the gift into your religion. To dismiss knowledge, is to dismiss a gift from God. Ancient wisdom and modern understanding should go hand in hand.

It sounds like you’re taking a skeptical stance towards the conventional interpretation of dinosaur fossils without proposing an alternative hypothesis for their origins. This approach can be useful for critically examining evidence but might limit understanding if alternative explanations aren’t explored. In scientific discourse, it’s typically valuable not only to critique existing theories but also to propose viable alternatives that can be tested and evaluated against the evidence. If the goal is to challenge established views like the existence of dinosaurs, developing a coherent alternative theory on the origin of fossils could strengthen your argument and provide a new perspective for consideration.

The existence of dinosaurs is well-established through a variety of scientific evidence. Here are some of the key proofs:

1. Fossil Evidence

• Bone Fossils: The most compelling evidence for the existence of dinosaurs comes from fossils. These are preserved remains found in sedimentary rocks that have formed from sediments laid down in ancient rivers, lakes, and seas. Dinosaur bones show distinct features, such as air-filled cavities that indicate they were adapted to support massive bodies while being lightweight, similar to modern birds.
• Tracks and Footprints: Fossilized footprints and tracks give clues about the behavior, movement, and size of these creatures. Sites like the Paluxy River trackways in Texas and others around the world show clear, sequential dinosaur footprints.
• Egg Fossils: Fossilized eggs have been found in many locations around the world, providing direct evidence of reproduction in dinosaurs. Some nests even contain embryos, which help scientists understand growth and development in these creatures.

2. Geological Distribution

• Global Spread: Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica. This widespread geographic distribution is consistent with the known plate tectonics and continental drift over geological time scales, supporting the timeline in which dinosaurs are said to have existed.

3. Radiometric Dating

• Age Determination: Radiometric dating methods allow scientists to determine the age of rock layers where dinosaur fossils are found. These methods typically use the decay of naturally occurring isotopes, such as uranium-lead or potassium-argon dating, to establish the age of rocks as ranging from about 66 to over 200 million years old—corresponding to the Mesozoic Era, the time period during which dinosaurs thrived.

4. Comparative Anatomy and Phylogeny

• Anatomical Similarities: The study of dinosaur fossils allows scientists to reconstruct their skeletons and infer muscle attachments and body shapes. Comparisons with modern animals can help interpret their posture, diet, and lifestyle.
• Evolutionary Relationships: Dinosaurs share many features with other groups of vertebrates, especially birds. In fact, modern birds are considered the direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs, a relationship supported by numerous anatomical and genetic data.

5. Soft Tissue and Molecular Evidence

• In some rare cases, soft tissues have been preserved in dinosaur fossils. For example, flexible blood vessels and cells have been reported in Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. While controversial and rare, such findings can provide insights into the biology of these ancient creatures.

6. Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions

• Contextual Clues: Fossilized plants, pollens, and associated animal fossils found alongside dinosaur remains help reconstruct the environments they lived in, further validating their existence and providing context about the ecosystem dynamics of the past.

Collectively, these evidences from paleontology, geology, and biology robustly demonstrate that dinosaurs existed as real, living organisms on Earth millions of years ago. Their study continues to provide valuable insights into the history of life on our planet.

My understanding with phones is that you phone your own provider, who then looks up the provider of the number you’re calling based on country code, provider or area code prefixes. Providers will “peer” with each other to route calls over the most cost efficient path. So the other sides provider is responsible for getting it to the right destination phone within thier own customer network. Theres no authentication from the sending party on a protocol level, this is why scammers can spoof as any phone number.

I believe that IP routing does something similar, the IP data is handed over to possibly multiple providers until it reaches its destination provider. The blocks of ip addresses are published as linked to an Autonomous System and each autonomous system has an owner/provider. The source is not authenticated at a protocol level which is why we need client and server certificates.

In DNS you go to the root TLD servers and ask what IP the .com resolver is. The .com resolver has a list of mappings of authoritative name servers to domains. So example.com may have an authoritative NS of 1.2.3.4 who you can go to and ask what IP test.example.com is hosted on. The authoritative name server is the source of truth for that domain and other servers cache it to prevent overloading and increase speed. You may check with the authoritative NS if you want, but it may be slower to respond than your local NS. Again DNS is not authenticated at the protocol level so we need server certificates to prove that the device behind the IP serving you is allowed to serve you test.example.com.

You’re probably right about being worse off overall, just so much unnecessary complexity. We do have council tax here, but that depends on how big a house you live in and how expensive the area is to maintain for the council. And its a fixed rate per household, owed monthly while you’re at the same address. But I know the councils get most of thier funding from the state budget and other income streams like selling land. Theres also national insurance too which I guess is like social security. https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance

I have no idea ehich one is better, or costs more, but the UK does seem to offer more in return. Admittedly I only see the bad news stories about the US so have no idea what its like “on the ground”. I’ve been to Florida, New York and Vermont, so I see how states are very different places with different needs, understandible why theres not a lot of state unity on issues.

The UK also has much higher income taxes. Comparing US and UK income taxes:

• in the US, for someone earning 578,126+ USD (£457,000) it’s 37%
• in the UK, for earnings over £50,000 (~65,000 USD) its 40% , equivalent US earners only pay 22%
  • and when over £125,000 (~157,000 USD) this increases to 45% in the UK

US income tax is ferarally controlled. I don’t have exact numbers but increases in income tax for the highest earners should be able to fund a public healthcare system, at least for the lowest earners in the US.

https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/united-states/individual/taxes-on-personal-income https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

Edit: There are also state income taxes, which vary for some reason, I’m sure theres also county and city based taxes as well, processing them must be a nightmare. Is the US just 52 countries in a trench coat?

In the UK you can invest £20,000 (25,000 USD) per year into a fully tax free ISA savings account. You can spend it on anything you chose at any time, and you will never need to spend any of it on healthcare against your will. https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/how-isas-work

Dental care is free in the UK for under 18s, people who are pregnant or given birth in the last 12 months, or people on low income. https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/

Also if you were to unfortunately become disabled and are unable to work, you will be supported fully for the rest of your life. These benefits are not based on previous taxes paid like in the US. https://www.gov.uk/financial-help-disabled https://www.gov.uk/pip/how-much-youll-get

This is wild, in the UK, if you were in an accident and needed years of surgeries, it will always be free. The cost of parking to visit the hospital will be the most expensive thing anyone ever gets billed for, and that will be around 10 dollars a day. We do pay income tax, but lower income earners pay less or none. Theres also sales taxes, and things like sugar, alcohol and nicotine are taxed quite highly as they can contribute to health problems. But it’s all well worth it to never worry about medical costs. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sugar-tax-revenue-helps-tackle-childhood-obesity https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-shopping/alcohol-tobacco

Rip

That would be fine, but a lot of these features are added in an update, with complicated setups or mods to turn them off. Start bar local app search now gets sent to bing search by default, thats almost never what people want. Most people wont know how to disable it or care. But I guess thats fine as long as Microsoft gets to increase its bing usage stats and collect more user data.

To be clear, my problem is with these features getting pushed as default enabled.

AI assistants usually need to upload the data to process it. So it’s potential enshitification via adding data upload/harvesting features to a trusted offline text editor. Usually companies have ways to generate revenue streams based on the data from these “free and useful features”. Adverts based on what text files you open might be the long term end goal.