Russia was a super power with some of the best engineers in the world. Today it needs to use war to keep another Slav country on its side. Even the UK keeps the commonwealth in place even with very diverse countries that used to be forced colonies.

To not have a conscience does not make you intelligent. Russia should be economically and socially way more developed that it currently is. To sell gas is not high tech.

Europe has the General Data Protection Regulation.

It seems that Germany thought that Russia was a rational player interested in growing their economy, but it seems that it was just power play for personal aspirations.

The United Kingdom didn't wanted to be part of it, thou.

Ironically, I think that more countries intervention would have make the Spanish war bloodier but it could have stopped World War II.

The key part is beyond their control. As a society we are being trained to see software beyond our control. "The algorithm" decides. Many non software engineers fail to see that behind each software decision there is a company that can change it.

Learned helplessness is dangerous even just because improvement becomes impossible when people just accepts software like if it was the physical laws of the universe.

And most people in other countries are not aware.

I see how much money goes to American companies like Tesla meanwhile European companies like Mercedes-Benz get less investment and no media attention at all, even when they outperform their American counterparts.

We live in the age of the attention economy. I hope that advertising on the web is forbidden and we go back to good products over flashy newspaper press releases. Less memes more information.

TLDR; it's the end of crypto currency as a refuge for criminals.

So, people will have to pay taxes, register exchange of value between parties, wallets will be trazable to individuals, etc.

Crypto currencies are the new home bubble derivatives. A complex economic vehicle to hide the absurdity of its valuation. A pyramid scheme, a hot potato game. It is bad that we have learned so little from previous crisis.

megalomania /ˌmɛɡ(ə)lə(ʊ)ˈmeɪnɪə/ noun: megalomania. obsession with the exercise of power. delusion about one's own power or importance (typically as a symptom of manic or paranoid disorder)

That is survivor bias. I have worked with such people and they destroy companies and make employee life miserable. It is impossible to get anything done in the company that does not help the megalomaniac ego. And they usually sabotage efforts that benefit the company but not themselves. It looks cool in movies and from far away, up close it is a train wreck.

Following criminals is not a valid justification in front of a jury. Crime is a common occurrence, it does not make it not crime. Everybody is the same is just an excuse for criminals to not feel guilty about their acts.

Copy pasting images is kind of different. Photocopies have been part of the comic book trade way before using computers. I see these techniques closer to it.

- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-photo-book...

- https://news.bitcoin.com/elon-musk-dogecoin-accepted-teslas-...

Nonlossy can be used for pixel perfect animations, lossy formats cannot.

> Because file size matters usually much more, than pixel perfect animation.

It depends. For video, that is true. For user interface, any glitch is distracting. Using JPEG for user interface images like buttons is in most cases a bad idea. Each format is useful in different situations.

> I wanted to convert a short screencast to a gif, result: hundreds of megabyte big monster, with crappy quality.

You are right, that is not a use case for GIF or equivalent formats.

If in 20 years it becomes difficult sand expensive to buy meat, would most people still center their diet around it?

Chicken and pork are way cheaper that plant-based alternatives. People cooking at home know many more receipts with meat that otherwise.

Societies have inertia. Good policies can move people, bad ones may delay change for decades.

In Sweden there are many vegetarians, most restaurants have vegetarian options as they do not want to miss a group of 5 because one person cannot find anything to eat. That makes it easier to go meat free, or at least reduce your meat consumption. Go to Japan, and even many vegetarians give up as restaurants make your life impossible if you want to avoid meat.

So, I share your desire. I do not expect it to happen, thou.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_syncope