7.10

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While we banned plastic straws, Russia drilled and doubled nuclear energy production.

As Ukraine war bogs down, U.S. assessments face scrutiny. The growing conjecture is fueled by U.S. assessments of other wars, notably Afghanistan, where officials habitually sidestepped questions of whether success was sustainable

But how much can Japan really expect in the way of returns from the subsidies?

“Dutch farmers turned out in their thousands to speak out against the World Economic Forum (WEF) climate change policies of their government.”

The council is accused of having secret, unannounced meetings, from which no agenda or minutes are ever published, in violation of the Local Government Act 1972.

A one-for-one replacement of the E2 for the E1, allowing a much “greener” airplane is good for the environment and the improved fuel economy is better for the airline’s bottom line as well—which, in theory, helps protect jobs. There are simply routes that do not support mainline jets. Switching to greener airplanes also reduces the ability of the Greta Thunbergs of the world to pressure commercial aviation to the detriment of jobs.

On top of this, construction on the first sub in the class began when design was only 10% complete. Inevitably, design requirements changed as development proceeded, causing further rework, delays, and cost overruns. There were also difficulties finding vendors who could meet the fabrication requirements of the components, forcing the shipyards to fabricate many of them themselves (at increased cost.) The initial submarine in the class (the USS Seawolf) would ultimately take 6 years to build.

Get in the habit of Fermi estimation, looking up key quantities, and using upper and lower bounds. I’ve noticed a lot of the smartest people I know do this: they don’t take any claims at face value, and check for themselves whether they’re plausible. This means, e.g. when they hear a fact, they’ll look it up to assure themselves that it’s true, because often people cite things that are false or partial.

Royal Mail’s stamps are finally entering the digital world, with printed codes that can be used to track letters or linked to videos. Collectors, traditionalists and royalists are not amused

On the campaign trail, Mr. Harden has gotten an earful from voters about maddening and arbitrary restrictions: Why are wineries in Maryland limited to serving only 13 kinds of food? Why does a woman who sells her grandmother’s cobbler have to cough up tens of thousands of dollars to build a commercial kitchen? Why does a federal inspector have to be on hand to watch wild catfish get gutted — but not other kinds of seafood? The short answer is that restaurant associations tend to wield more political clout than wineries, and catfish farmers in Mississippi are more powerful than seafood harvesters in Maryland. Big businesses can afford to hire lawyers to help them cut through red tape and lobbyists to bend government rules to their will. Small businesses, especially in rural places, get slammed.

Ridgely Walsh, according to Department of Justice filings, had not registered, and in response to Vox’s inquiry, the firm said it would change its status. “As a prudential matter, we’re gonna go ahead and register immediately to represent the Government of Ukraine on a pro bono basis,” Juleanna Glover, the founder and CEO of the firm, told me.

To my mind, the two primary accomplishments of the DMA are that 1) it restricts the scope with which platform operators can compete directly with businesses that utilize their platforms, and 2) it forces choice and alternatives for core platform functionality for both consumers and businesses (eg. payments and discovery). The restrictions of the DMA apply to so-called “gatekeepers,” as defined through qualitative and quantitative criteria (eg. “annual EEA turnover equal to or above EUR 6.5 billion in the last three financial years or has an average market capitalization of EUR 65 billion or higher”). Penalties for non-compliance are stiff at 10% of global turnover for initial infractions and 20% for repeated breaches. I outlined the DSA’s impact on digital advertising back in April, but the DMA was the more popularly annotated and interpreted legislation, in part because of the quixotic and, in some cases, impractical or unworkable requirements it imposes on feature interoperability. This article provides a thorough and even-handed interpretation of the DMA and its impact on large consumer technology platforms.

In the past 20 years—and particularly the last 10 to 15—the average age of actors appearing toward the top of the bill in film and TV projects has risen significantly.

“We’re not brain surgeons here — all we’re doing is finding the best spots and washing and delivering the sand,” said Brock, 34. “Frankly, that it took us this long to get here is pretty wild.”

“These are pyrrhic victories. The party’s death spiral is over, the body is there, but it’s a zombie,” Mike Madrid, the former political director for the CAGOP and a longtime Republican strategist, told me about the future of the party.

I posited that these actions by Microsoft bear a striking resemblance to both the “Embrace” and “Extend” portions of the famous “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” strategy that Microsoft has used, in the past, to defeat other competition.

But the main takeaway—why Linux succeeded where many operating-system startups and projects failed—is: Too much organization leads to fragility. Too little organization leads to ineffectiveness. But the right level of grassroots, distributed community organizing can become unstoppable.

“I wouldn’t want an L.N.G. terminal next to my home,” he told Forbes in 2005.