Yes, absolutely. Good point.

Interesting question.

I think not, on the grand scale. Whilst yes, it would vastly outclass other tanks, you’re forgetting about the adaptability and inventiveness of humans. I believe they would find a way to disable it fairly quickly - after all, WW2 was a constant stream of one fighting unit encountering new technology - Allies had nothing like the German Railgun for example, but it had little influence in the outcome. Also, like the Tirpiz, something like this could become a liability. It would become such a target that it would tie up a huge amount of resources protecting it. Modern tanks are still vulnerable in many ways - even from as simple a thing as just digging a hole in the ground and covering it with branches caveman style.

You sound angry. Are you sure you’re angry about this and not about him dying?

Sucks, right?

Hello fellow codger. I, 55m, work amongst much younger people. Here’s my take: It’s not about age.

People “who only care about gossip” - well, there’s as many of those in the older age group. Age sometimes teaches people cunning, so they’re less overt, but they’re sure as hell gossiping about you and everyone else when they find a friendly ear. IME, the only difference age brings to work relationships is a different set of cultural references. They’ll talk about stuff you’ve never heard of - and you’ll be doing the same to their ear.

It sounds like you’re new to this workplace, and possibly working with people of differing ages and experiences. That’s fine, I’ve been there too. (Full career change in my late 40s). It’s scary, uncertain and confusing - but just dive in.

In any group, there’ll be a few people you get on with, some you don’t, and the majority somewhere in the grey middle. Some will go out of their way to help you some of the time. Some won’t. Some are annoying, some aren’t. If someone offers to help and does the opposite - that’s a useful thing to learn about them.

If you’re annoyed by them, then much of the resolution lies within you. Mentally close them out, or find ways to deal with those feelings. This can’t be the first time you’ve been in this situation?

I was on anti depressants for a while, which not only reduced libido hugely, they removed the ability to orgasm. Like, you’d get to the final crest of the wave but never be able to reach it. Very frustrating and I get why you’re angry. Now and then I could climax but it would be pretty much without any satisfaction.

duckduck for 90%.

Google only when dd fails me.

To tbh, many of the things I used to use a search engine for I now use a variety of chatbots. No adverts, just answers. (I suspect this won’t last)

I’d rather not know of these terrors.

If you really care that little about what happens to your corpse, why does having it stuffed in a box with your family bother you so much?

OP did say that didn’t, they’re more concerned about wasting money.

Only if you go to rest not carrying on any familial grudges.

Imagine literally never hearing the end of what our Karen said about our Julie that time.

A single tick bite can lead to you becoming allergic to meat for the rest of your life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome

Boomer here. 👍

I’m pretty happy with the asus vivobook I bought for half that. Very fast processor, 8gb, 256. My only criticism is it’s a little flexible in that if you lift by one corner the track button will fire. Minor issue, otherwise it’s been great for two years.

As everyone is saying “used thinkpad” - do your homework for the specific model. They are legendary, but that legend is not universal. Lenovo traded on their name and produced some pretty poor models for a long time. They are very often: Overpriced. Or crap quality. Or so old that they’re not usable.

Google’s summer of code started 21 years ago and has been a positive thing from every angle.

Remember that back in 2005 Google was still largely running under its founding principles of “Do no evil” and I honestly believe it was a truly altruistic move. Certainly, a great amount of coders got access to skills and support they would never have otherwise, and a huge amount of projects benefited from it. Google weren’t the only supporters of it, I know Suse contributed and likely others.

So why do they still do it now that Google is all grown up and abandoned those founding principles?

I suspect it’s due to some or all of these reasons;

• Why not? It’s good PR and cheap advertising.
• They get to spot good developers early on and enhance their hiring quality.
• Those developers bring energy, skills and access to projects. Those are the active employees that every employer wants.
• The projects are used by Google so improving them is net benefit to the company.
• Cancelling it now would lead to bad PR and bad feeling. Even Google doesn’t want to needlessly waste a good thing. And if they did stop it, a competitor might swoop in and not only take the benefits from it whilst looking like the white knight.

“The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today.”

Officially - be the person. Be passionate and tireless. This isn’t about money - whips are cheap and if you can get some momentum behind socials then people will donate trees, tools and money.

Find what land your local council actually owns and visit it. See what’s possible. (No overhead lines, safe, easy access for pedestrians, soil conditions etc)

Then find out who’s responsible on your council and visit them. Make it easy for them - have lots of options, have the answers ready, make it clear there’s public demand. Most town officials have limited budget that’s already allocated, not much time, and are often not hugely motivated by yet another half-arsed proposal to spend both, so get it right. Be dogged, you’ll get brush offs and you’ll hear no a lot, so keep trying. Eventually you will connect with the right person at the right time and things will happen. The positive feedback then is pretty motivating and you’ll learn a lot of new skills.

Don’t expect universal support even from the public - a percentage of people will try to drag you down, or deliberately sabotage them. Forget them, or if they damage the trees, get the media in - the outcry will get you more momentum.

Obviously this is a lot of work, but it’s how stuff gets done.

If you can’t face that, I would understand it, and as guerilla gardening has already been mentioned, that’s absolutely a valid way too. Even just picking up rubbish on those walks is rewarding and beneficial.

It’s pretty much just the cost of Google doing business now, right?

That they keep getting fined for the same things strongly suggests this is not a deterrent and they’ve factored in the fines as a tax that’s harder to dodge than most.

Also ham and almost all boiled and reconstituted meats.

I do, to the point of worrying about what I’ll do when I retire.

Good take that they’re a business, but if they have no physical presence in France there is very little else the French Government can do, other than what they’ve just done.

Same way. Transfer money in once you’re on the website and is not being blocked at bank level. They also take crypto so it’s not like the bank can block it either even if France tried to block that.

BTW, I think the site and premis behind Polymarket is shit and nobody should use it, but blocking websites effectively has proven difficult at a technical level. (See PirateBay, still going strong despite everything entire governments and massive lobbying power can throw at it, and 4chan’s refusal to be blocked by the UK’s OSA) Most governments settle for the political win and blocking people with only a casual interest, which is fair enough. Most serious attempts at blocking specific sites tends just to make lawyers richer.