I've thought about this quite a bit and really consider advertising to be a form of assault on attention. The presumption that companies are entitled to our attention without our consent feels like an attack on our own agency.
Before we get to banning advertising though we first need to figure out how to connect people to businesses that have goods and services they actually want to seek out. Word of mouth is great, but it's insufficient. We need some sort of directory. The yellow pages were surprisingly functional, but some modern accessibility and ability to update info is needed. I think the 10,000 pound gorilla in this space is Google maps. However, alphabet is fundamentally an advertising company at this point and prioritizes selling ad placement over user experience. Could organic maps eventually serve as a searchable business directory? I'm not sure. I think any open source initiative would quickly be ruined if companies thought that rigging that system woild get them more customers.
Is a public option viable? I'm not sure. There's a lot of equal access and gatekeeping concerns there. We shouldn't allow obvious scams to be listed, but what's the threshold and who makes that determination? Is someone's Mary Kay mlm a legitimate business or scam? The potential for corruption is very high in an endeavor like this. Imagine if someone is buddies with an administrator and can get their competition completely delisted. Such an endeavor would likely face lots of litigation over claims of unfair treatment.
Many companies I think would be eager to stop paying for advertising if they had a means of connecting to customers that was effective and lower cost, but to achieve this, you're literally trying to compete with the entirety of google/alphabet.
The link I included in my comment goes over driving one in recognizeable notes to play the nokia tune. It's worth a read if this concept interests you.
They use piezo buzzers which work differently to most speakers. I would guess that the units used in smoke alarms and microwaves generally have integrated drivers that only operate at a single frequency. However, it is possible to drive piezo discs at different frequencies. Their ouput will always approximate a sound square wave though, so don't expect to be able to use them like a normal electrodynamic/ voice coil speaker to play arbitrary sounds.
Not just the UK. There is a coordinated push to use nationalism to replace democracy with oligarchy all across the world right now. The US is simply the most obvious example due to the orange one lacking any semblance of subtlety.
People need to watch for and oppose media consolidation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, ballooning law enforcement spending, surveillance and online id requirements. These are all hallmarks of groups aiming to install an authoritarian regime.
Tl:dr The max theoretical efficiency for a silicon solar cell is estimated to be 29.4% with real world high end modules topping out at 26.8%
26% in a lab is not the same as 26% in the field after 5 years, but it is nonetheless a good result.
Solar scales out well, so low conversion effiency isn't really what determines whether an installation is feasible or not.
If you're evaluating cheap 20% efficient panels vs expensive 25% efficiency panels, you need only scale up the area of cheap panels by 25% to match output. Plus, panels that start at a lower efficiency experience less derating over time, so the difference in performance diminishes as an installation ages.
A conviction by the Senate is the only legal way to hold a rogue president accountable. The founding fathers foresaw the branches of government vying for more power, but they did not expect a congress to work with an executive against the interests of the people.
Minor notation quibble: I suspect you were thinking of the hecto prefix. Centimillionaire would imply a net worth of $10k which isn't going to get you the time of day from a republican.
The loss in trust may be permanent, but I think there is still a real desire to develop new good relations. If the US were to pass meaningful reforms and approach old allies on a more equal footing in real negotiation and not primarily the role as the big bad bully, I think a new framework of trust could be slowly built again.
Joining the ICC and not threatening invasion if they dare try to hold an American accountable would be a good start.
I don't recall the media covering the fake electors of the Jan 6 coup hardly at all. The media loved to cover the big violent crowd becaus it was flashy. However, the fake elector scheme was the more significant crisis in my mind. That showed a planned and coordinated effort by people in power to subvert democracy.
SpaceX was his one good company thanks to the work of people like Gwynne Shotwell. xAI must not have been getting enough investor interest and rather than admit it's a stinker, he's shackling spaceX with it.
If I were a spaceX investor, I would be absolutely pissed about this and talking to my attorneys.
The US Marshals Service serves the judiciary. Unfortunately, they're directed by the Attorney General which is a role currently occupied by a loyalist.
I think it was primarily the 2A special interest groups suddenly showing disloyalty that spooked the MAGA regime. They can't get away with rigging the midterms if the 2A groups aren't at least turning a blind eye.
I hope Chris Madel dropping out implies that big donors don't want to be associated with the republicans right now. I really don't buy his conscience for his kids schtick.
“Secretary Noem refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year and now tells us that she will be available in five weeks—should she still be DHS [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary at that time,” Durbin said in a statement.
Because they let Noem state her availability and she expects this to have blown over or have resulted in her firing before then.
Newsbreak straight up rips content with barely a mention of a source. I have a family member that shares their links all the time and I hate it because I have to search the title every time to find the actual article.
I've thought about this quite a bit and really consider advertising to be a form of assault on attention. The presumption that companies are entitled to our attention without our consent feels like an attack on our own agency.
Before we get to banning advertising though we first need to figure out how to connect people to businesses that have goods and services they actually want to seek out. Word of mouth is great, but it's insufficient. We need some sort of directory. The yellow pages were surprisingly functional, but some modern accessibility and ability to update info is needed. I think the 10,000 pound gorilla in this space is Google maps. However, alphabet is fundamentally an advertising company at this point and prioritizes selling ad placement over user experience. Could organic maps eventually serve as a searchable business directory? I'm not sure. I think any open source initiative would quickly be ruined if companies thought that rigging that system woild get them more customers.
Is a public option viable? I'm not sure. There's a lot of equal access and gatekeeping concerns there. We shouldn't allow obvious scams to be listed, but what's the threshold and who makes that determination? Is someone's Mary Kay mlm a legitimate business or scam? The potential for corruption is very high in an endeavor like this. Imagine if someone is buddies with an administrator and can get their competition completely delisted. Such an endeavor would likely face lots of litigation over claims of unfair treatment.
Many companies I think would be eager to stop paying for advertising if they had a means of connecting to customers that was effective and lower cost, but to achieve this, you're literally trying to compete with the entirety of google/alphabet.