The problem is a race to the bottom happens. Smokers tend to drink more and are quite… militant in their opinions on where to go. Basically non smoking pubs would suffer, and so likely allow smoking, ruining it for everyone else.

It doesn’t help that those left smoking cigarettes, in the UK, tend to be the rudest, most inconsiderate of the original group. The average heroin addict is considerably more polite than the average cigarette smoker now.

A friend had an excellent (but evil) one.

His son had found some more… interesting areas of the internet (aka porn). He collected a selection of his browsing history and sat him down. They then went, video by video, having an open and honest discussion about it. Dad had FAR more tolerance for mortifying embarrassment than his son did. He learnt to clear the history at least.

The 2nd discussion, 6 months later, used the router logs instead.

I’m not sure I would use this particular method. However, it was apparently highly effective at making his kids think things through (for better or for worse!).

Similar mentality here.

I’ve got some basic parental controls in place. They are intended at emergency buffers, rather than to stop a concerted effort however.

The best method is to teach and train. No security is going to be invincible, without being very problematic to work within. Children also learn fast, when motivated.

I saw an interesting thing a few years back (which I can’t now find!). It was a plot of energy usage Vs reproductive rates of various animals. The graph produced quite a linear line (more energy expended==>lower reproductive speed). Humans were wildly off that line. At least until you accounted for external energy usage (burnt fuel, electricity etc). That jumped us back to the line.

I’m still not sure if this was just a coincidental result, or pointed to a deeper correlation.

Just did a conversion. I pay £1.90/litre over here. That works out at $9.80/gallon. You’re still only 2/3 the cost of our fuel, if that.

It was £1.30 before Epstein Fury started.

Both could easily be used for controlling a drone.

This would definitely be mine too. Particularly if it was still jailbroken, as in the book.

In story, it could even cope with a lot of future sight powers. It was only the apex level ones that were on an even field with it.

The only downside is the erosion of your free will. It’s hard to make your own choices when this power is available to make them all for you.

Based on the books you need an exact sense of the place. Not just sight, but smell and feel. The place needs to absolutely unique, in your mind. The photos are primarily an aid to recall.

Violence, for a political aim should be cold and calculated, not emotional. It should also play second fiddle to non violence and communication.

The Irish troubles are a good example. The IRA forced the British government to listen to the politicians. The non violent protests and marches gave popular backing to the political process.

In a sane world, politicians know that violence is an option, and pay heed to the non violent methods before it escalates. This is what has happened in a number of non violent political movements. The option of escalation cannot be taken off the table however. It provides the silent bite to back up the bark.

The biggest thing to avoid is emotional violence. Smashing up shops in a riot might feel good but achieves very little. It burns the good will of the public. Instead it needs to be focused on a target, with minimal collateral damage. Particularly collateral deaths/injuries to the general public.

Ironically, the recent burning of a warehouse is a good example. Little to no collateral damage, but significant damage to its target, with a strong, stated reason.

One thing to note. Disparaging non violent protests is a definite bad move. Those protests provide both cover to organise, and a weathervane on public feeling.

The tags don’t have GPS. They are basically a Bluetooth beacon. If a compatible phone is within range, it notes it’s existence and reports back to a central server.

Basically, if you took one out into the middle of nowhere, without a phone nearby it would be completely useless. They are only useful when in a crowded place.

My wedding hit full population inversion. It was quite funny watching the few neurotypicals slowly realise the whole dynamic was wrong/unusual. Most of them adapted quickly to join the rest of us weirdos. The few that didn’t were quite out of sorts.

Oh, and my wife didn’t get diagnosed until well after I was. Nothing was wrong. She was no weirder than her friends… Half of them are now diagnosed in various ways!

Part of the issue is that the category of “ebike” is quite large. It really needs to be split into multiple subcategories for regulation.

For bikes intended to mix with pedestrians, you definitely need to limit speed and weight. Europe’s 250W, 25kph rules seem reasonable for this.

The problem most places have is the grey area between ebike and moped, particularly for cargo bikes. They are fast/heavy enough to be a risk to pedestrians, but not enough to be classed as motorbikes. They need some restrictions/licencing to keep pedestrian areas safe, but not so much that they get lumped in with cars.

No problem at all!

I know several people who wouldn’t still be around without the NHS. A diamond is understating it!

There are some limits to it, and ways around it for the rich (as per usual ☹️).

The cost still mostly scales with your income, rather than how much care you need.

UK.

There were complications when my wife gave birth. 2 weeks in hospital, some surgery, and nurses and midwives on call 24/7. The biggest cost was me stress buying snacks for my wife (until she told me to stop!). Even parking was reduced to £11/week, since she was in for multiple nights.

Another occasion. I had a benign lump in an annoying place. It took 14 months to get through to get it removed. It’s only when I went in I realised it was not a 5 minute snip. Around an hour for a plastic surgeon to properly remove and stitch it up.

The NHS has its problems. Mostly caused by previous governments trying to starve it (to let their mates sell us for profit healthcare). The system and staff are absolutely awesome.

If I’m asked to point out what makes me proud to be British, the NHS is the prize jewel in that particular crown.

Cost wise, we pay national insurance, a fixed percentage of income. (“Payment by ability, treatment by requirement.”) Prescriptions are £9.90 each, or £120/year. They also wave the fee for a lot of groups who might have problems with it. It’s massively more cost effective than the American system.

It could be useful in a dynamic situation. You could launch it into an area you know the enemy are in. As they approach, you can use other methods to get exact locations (e.g. spotters, or a flyover). An update can be sent out for an exact target to hit, based on where it is now, not where it was at launch time.

You don’t need to know exactly where the drone is with this, so long as it does internally. A dead reckoning estimate is good enough.

I’ve also got a steam deck. Unfortunately it just doesn’t cut it for games like satisfactory or factorio.

Luggables are quite common for gamers who travel a lot. I can’t take a tower into hotels easily, but most of my free gaming time is on the road. I know quite a few people with portable gaming systems.

My current laptop is rocking a 4080, with a water cooling loop. It has to fall back to internal graphics when on battery. The batteries just can’t provide the current required.

The perfectionism maladaptation is evil.

The best way to break it is to practice getting too minimally “good enough” with various fun projects. It helps you retrain your brain to accept mediocre when required.

This helps a lot, since you need to be mediocre before you can finally get good at something.

Most of the meds have a 4 hour half-life. You’ll get a day or 2 of recoil, worst case, but you don’t have to be medicated the whole time.