UK libel laws sound way more reasonable to me. They force you to take accountability for your speech. Generally opinions and even hyperbole are fine (e.g. in this case, it’s likely OK to say that you think this person is Darth Vader). But if you spout some nonsense factoid about someone, be prepared to have some proof. US could definitely use some of that (it would put a lot of right-wing media companies out of business immediately, and I’m all for it)

Least surprising outcome

claiming the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said they would “not be blowing up ships anymore.”

Is there any confirmation from them, or is he making shit up again?

* IF the EC decides to move forward with the review and IF the review recommends suspending it and IF the EU Parliament votes to suspend it; each if being significantly less likely than the previous.

Not even a review. It’s a call for a review.

Can someone explain with less legalese? In my reading, the court decided that it did not have the jurisdiction over it because… UAE decided that it didn’t want the court to have jurisdiction over it? That shit would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

To me it seems they’re behaving (driving? riding?..) in a very surprising/unsafe manner on the road. Admittedly I’m from a country with a completely different driving culture. Do people just ride scooters like that in China?

Also, there’s this interesting legal question of who is responsible when one of those things crashes into a car or a pedestrian.

Other than that, this is cool as heck and I want my bicycle to do the same now.

I’m all for ridding our society of marriage and transitioning to civil unions instead. It’s a dumb-ass concept to promise to love someone for your entire life when both of you are bound to change a lot, sometimes becoming unrecognizable. The only reason it “worked” in the past is because the primary concern wasn’t actually love or happiness but rather performing the duties assigned to genders by patriarchy.

On a more philosophical note, did the marriage really “fail” if the person you promised to love changed so much so as to become a different person in the same body?

Depends on the situation

I would say rather it depends on the mode of “failure”.

marriage is something I would see as for life so that absolutely is a failure

Nah, people can change a lot even within a couple of years, let alone their entire lives. Sometimes it just so happens that people are no longer compatible, or grow bored of each other, whatever. What I would consider a failed marriage is if it was abusive from the start or otherwise made one of the spouses unhappy, or if it ended because of some gross misconduct (cheating, domestic violence, etc). If a marriage was fun for a while and ends amicably I’d say it’s a success overall. Consider the alternative: the marriage becomes a chore, spouses start to hate each other and be miserable, but continue living together just because “marriage is for life”? That’s exactly what I call a failed marriage, not one which ended on good terms.

if you are bankrupt that is a failure

If you are bankrupt because you did some stupid/illegal shit, then yeah. If the circumstances changed to the point that the business couldn’t continue being profitable, it’s totally fine to downsize or even close the business. If you performed some services or sold some goods that made people happy for a while it is a success. Once again, consider the alternative: the business is no longer profitable but you continue running it, paying out of pocket?

For example, in the US, Samsung has had locked bootloaders on all its phones since the Galaxy S7.

Yikes. While shopping for a new phone last year I was under the impression that at least in the European market they still allow you to unlock the bootloader, even on the latest models. The catch is that there’s pretty much no third-party Android distros that work with the phones, because they don’t release drivers or kernel patches and people have to scrape them from first-party OS images, which sounds horrible.

You can (on most Android phones) run an Android fork that doesn’t have Google services running and gets software and updates from elsewhere, e.g. GrapheneOS. Can’t do that with an iPhone. I get that you’re still ultimately dependent on Google to continue Android development and make security updates, but it’s way less of a dependency. And yes, GNU-ish Linux on phones would be awesome.

If you oppose the genocide GO HOME

So that anyone with even a shred of decency is gone and only the most rabid genociders remain? I think organizing a protest - even as meek as this - is better than just running away.

Both iPhones and MacBooks (to a lesser extent) rely on US services provided by Apple. They (techically) can execute arbitrary code on your devices if you have auto-update enabled (and probably even if not). They’re almost definitely spying on you, your habits, your decisions etc.

Yep, I think that “cut a liberal and a fascist bleeds” is in the same vein. I understand where it’s coming from, but I feel like instead of alienating people who self-identify as liberals we need to point out that liberalism is self-contradictory (private ownership of capital is eventually incompatible with equality before law, democracy and liberty in general). So, when times get tough (because of centralization of capital and thus power in the hands of few, combined with lobbying/bribes/regulatory capture) liberals will have to choose one or the other - those who choose private ownership are fascists, and those who choose liberty are communists. I don’t have a good catchphrase to encompass that idea, though.

Good for the environment? I recycle everything I can. I don’t use plastic bags or single-use cups. I avoid using heating in the winter to save on CO2 emissions (used it for 2 days this winter when my gf was sick). I stave off aircon in the summer for as long as I can to save electricity. I’m vegan (mostly because of ethical concerns but also because meat is awful for the planet in general). I avoid using my car when there’s an alternative (cycling/public transit).

Good for me? I do at least some exercise (stretching, workout, jogging, cycling) every workday and hike on the weekend. I brush my teeth twice a day, floss weekly, and get a full dental cleaning annually, and because of this (and genetic luck I suppose) I never had any issues with my teeth (don’t have even a single filling). I don’t drink alcohol or smoke at all. I avoid caffeine and sugars when possible.

I feel privileged to be able to form those habits, and also often blame myself that I don’t do better. I’m addicted to fat and carbohydrate-heavy foods, can’t bring myself to clean the apartment with any regularity beyond the most necessary, and can’t form a habit of regularly reading books. Sometimes I wonder how other adults manage when they have a 9-5 office job with commute times, kids, etc.

I just use IBM Plex, but that’s mostly because the keycaps my keyboard came with used it :) I also think it’s just fine for readability (i.e. I/l and O/0 are different enough)

There’s no credibility to lose at this point. He has been lying for his entire life, no way he’s stopping now.

It can always get worse. “Only” ~200000 deaths from Israel’s actions for now, or ~10% of the population, which Israeli pieces of shit see as “90% still to go”. One can imagine how a total famine can speed up the genocide significantly.

Expansionist? No.

Putin literally started an imperialist land war to expand the territory and capture resources (and stay in power for a while longer).

You’re confusing the Soviet regimes of the past with the current country.

No, you have it backwards.

The Soviet government at least had some noble goals for their expansion, and measurable improvements to the lives of people on the captured territories.

Russia is an oligarchy and the only goals are territorial gains, resource exploitation and enriching the richest at the expense of the poor under the pretext of wartime nationalism. Same as the US, really, but with less power and resources.

Look at where progressive policies have gotten the west thus far!

You seriously think that the current state of the west is due to “progressive policies” and not capitalism and nationalism? If anything, progressive policies (women’s rights, LGBT inclusion, secularization, education for all, universal medical care (in places where it exist), and some limited labor rights) are one of rare good things that’s been happening in the west.

the people seem to overwhelmingly support the government despite these serious shortcomings

BTW, few people actually support the government. The best way to confirm this is to look at the public reaction to the attempted coup by Prigozhin in summer 2023. It ranged from apathy to amusement, the same kind you would have if you were watching Fast&Furious 21 (or whatever number they’re up to). However most people don’t oppose the government either and just go about their daily lives. It’s similar to what most Americans are doing right now despite their country turning to mask-off fascism, dismantling all their all social safety nets and flaunting a world war.