Windows 7, first released in 2009, now well out of the most extended of support. Glad to see security of medical records is a top priority.

Conflicts over language have been tied to other conflicts (political, cultural, war) for a very long time. Cultural genocide against indigenous people has targeted indigenous language use among young people. Many people in India have objected to the establishment of Hindi as a UN language because they fear it will advance the extinction of their own language. I’m not saying some Replacement Theory bigot kvetching because someone dared speak a language besides English is equivalent. It’s more that language does have a special place in culture in a way that is very common.

Legally, yes. But you’re going to have a bad time if you don’t speak at least some English.

I wouldn’t say it’s a point of pride in the US usually, because it does make life difficult and limited. In the US, a lot of situations simply require English. It means relying on friends and family as translators, so the person can be at their mercy. They also can become very isolated within their immigrant communities while they watch the younger multilingual generations be able to integrate. My impression is that it is usually older people who struggle most learning English that remain in this group. I can’t think of anyone who is even vaguely younger who didn’t make an effort to learn English.

I remember a middle aged Iranian woman who was taking ELL courses at my university. We happen to be at the gym at the same time some nights. I could tell it was a struggle, but she was clearly picking up more of the language.

I used OkCupid for some dates before I found my now husband. It took quite a few dates on my side, but I just considered that par for the course. For him, I was his first date on OkCupid. For that matter, I was the first man that he dated, though he had dated a girl in high school.

Unfortunately, in the decade since we’ve met, I think both straight and gay oriented dating apps have probably taken a turn for the worse. We both had extensive, descriptive profiles and talked for a long time before meeting up. I keep hearing that the gay apps have turned into mostly hookup apps, but I can’t speak for straight apps.

It can be easy to forget about the rest of the world from a linguistically viewpoint. You can go over 4,300 miles from the tip of Florida to Wainwright, Alaska and never leave a predominantly English speaking region. Then worldwide, English has a billion second language speakers, so many places will have someone around who speaks English.

I wasn’t able to get a good read on it either. I didn’t spot anything obviously wrong from a technical standpoint, but I’m not a systems developer. It just doesn’t have much that distinguishes it on a non-technical level. The design is neat, but other OS projects like Redox have shot past it in a shorter period of time. That tells me something’s broken, whether it’s technical or social.

I tried Debian/Herd on a spare box. I think that lasted for what, a week? It was a less than complete experience, so I moved on to more fruitful experiments.

China also had a couple of twists. At least parts of the West have general counterparts to these problems.

Some cities had infrastructure built out ahead of demand. Many of the cities did start filling up with people, which is great. However, the infrastructure aged well ahead of when it was used. So some of the infrastructure is coming due for expensive maintenance, often without a solid tax structure to pay for it. Readers of Strong Towns will recognize this general pattern of overbuilding without building a solid foundation, but it just has a Chinese character to it.

Linked to that is a growing debt crisis at the local government level. The most current estimate I could find is 94 trillion yen (US$13 trillion). Many infrastructure investments were made that are projected to never be paid off in their lifespan. Again, Strong Town readers will recognize this general pattern.

Going from pure speculation, I wonder whether they might have been able to avoid some of the problems with aging unused infrastructure by setting aside land and right-of-way. Here in Portland, when they were planning the I-205 freeway, one concession to transit and bike advocates was to set aside a right-of-way for a transit way and a bike path. That particular concession was made around 1975. The bike path was built immediately. The northern end was used to extend the preexisting light rail to the airport on September 10, 2001 (great timing) as part of the Red Line. The southern end became part of the Green Line later.

I know there is a lot of history, especially around colonial law. At the same time, attributing this entirely to Western Christians denies agency.

I loved that one so much! The only flaw really was that the tech tree is incredibly massive. It’s feels unnecessarily difficult to learn.

The CCCP? Yeah, English speakers don’t usually refer to it by that acronym. It’s almost universally referred to as the USSR. I’m reasonably well informed on history and I had to look it up.

This article goes over a history. The difference is so inconsequential in practice that the Party itself can’t keep itself straight 100% of the time, with one cited 2016 official translation of a Xi Jinping speech including over 100 references to the “C.C.P.”

The battery issue isn’t just in devices that go obsolete. It is also in devices like bike lights where the original functionality never changes. And even in devices like a smartphone, phone battery life often drops off far before the useful life ends.

Sure, but poverty is also generational. The type of poverty that Palestinians have been experiencing won’t be shaken off quickly, even under the best of circumstances. I’m just not sure what circumstances Israeli Jews would consent to a single state solution unless they’re guaranteed to stay in power. Many Israeli Jews came from majority Muslim countries where antisemitism drove them out. Their descendants are unlikely to forget that in any discussion.

This is so hard to answer because so many of these things you don’t miss it until it’s gone. I’m going to say physical keyboards. Like, not that physical keyboards will disappear entirely, but I think they will continue to get much, much less common. I think a lot of people will miss the tactile advantage of a good keyboard, though.

One thing I think we’re in for a rebound on is how we deal with batteries. Currently, the paradigm for many devices is that manufacturers put a rechargeable battery in and that’s it. When the battery wears down or breaks, the device is done too. This can’t go on forever. It’s creating too much e-waste, expense, and pollution.

I think the deal that customers are getting from streaming services is probably too good to last, in general. It’s already starting to degrade, with companies all going to start their own streaming platforms with smaller and smaller catalogs. You have to really plan for what you want to see. The rise of exclusive shows really damaged things. Vertical integration like that hurts competition.

You have to have very up-to-date information to see this. Muslims in Israel-Palestine have a higher birth rate than Jews and are much younger. This article is from 2022, when Muslims became a majority. The difference is only expected to grow larger.

The Palestinian Authority has no claim to any mandate from the Palestinian people.

Same for Hamas. The last election was held so long ago that the majority of Palestinians were not born yet and the vast majority could not vote. There simply is no remaining democratic mandate.

bi-religious or secular successor state

There are currently more Muslims in the borders of Israel-Palestine, and I doubt they’re in a forgiving mood. I think there is a good chance that a unified state would turn into a Muslim state. I don’t think it’s unfounded to say that the current situation of a large Muslim population that is essentially disenfranchised is entirely to the liking of Israel’s leaders.

Some of the Portland parking garages downtown have them as well.

Yeah, then some of the wrong people might vote. /s

It should be noted that the evidence there is that a helicopter involved in the raid took off from a beach near the pier. So slim to none. And it doesn’t even make sense, how would the pier be useful for a military operation?