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I'm rather suspicious of this story given the timing and the increase of "we need online ID to protect the children" narratives being pushed by various government

Not sure about these days - other than 7-11 the typical "corner store" seems to be getting increasingly rare - but when I was younger most were generally run by people that I assume were immigrants due to having some accent or other.

It's true that normal books do experience wear and tear, but looking at what my local library has I'd say that many or most can still least many years before needing to be retired or replaced.

As we're seeing with Amazon, with ebooks it's really the readers that expire over time

That's what the princess days, apparently!

Uh, no what they're saying is that buying a particular book is actually no t exactly equivalent to genocide. Supporting somebody with shitty views sure, but these days there's a lot of those

Bezos has the phallic rockets. Musk has the propaganda machine and electoral tampering. Thiel working in the deathbots and Skynet

Zuckerberg maybe? Or maybe Ellison, he's got property in a good location for volcano-lairs.

Yeah I'd be happy with a safer battery with a bit less range if it also means it's more consistent in said range between seasons. It's good to know you'll make it to X next city/charger/etc regardless of temperatures

At a significant loss, yes. When it was really cold here that was about 30-40%

Yeah this is a huge thing with vehicles. I like my Japanese cars and typically have had either Toyota or Honda. Neither was problem-free by any stretch, but at the same time the ENGINES tended to be very reliable with routine maintenance (belt/oil/etc changes) and the other stuff parts were always available and generally not too expensive.

My car's did spend a decent amount of time in the shop, but at 360,000km the engine in my old Camry was still running like a champ even if it burned a little bit of oil and certain parts of the body were becoming more bondo than metal. When small things failed, I'd grab a new one from the hardware store or in some cases the wrecker. I was - with assistance - able to do basic general repairs like belts, brakes, and a clutch in my relatives' garage. We did fuck up the timing slightly once but the engine just stalled out without any permanent damage (whew). I'll also add that a lot of people who drove the more "efficient" foreign cars tended to treat them nicely whereas versus domestics or sporty vehicles. The mindset of the owner matters too.

These days... fuck. I can't even easily change the stereo out on my current car - and that's now over a decade old - because it's tied into the side/rear camera system, front display, and a bunch of other shit. I think there's like one head unit that will still handle that stuff but it's hard to get and even then there's no guarantee. Domestic stuff is even worse, with certain trucks unable to source key parts within months of the warranty ending. There's one model where the ECU failed regularly and the supply of replacements dried up, others in shortages due to "supply chain" issues etc, and a whole run of GMC vehicles from between '21 and '24 with connecting rod issues (6.2L v8) that have a major backlog in parts even for in-warranty repairs.

My wife's car... well it's an EV which - while it's great not to be buying gas at these prices, the company absolutely is not building these to be convenient to service, and we're lucky if the local dealer could do the more complex stuff it battery work much less a 3rd party mechanic (or me). I'm actually looking at some of the Chinese models which can have safer batteries that are built to be more easily swapped out, and China being what it is somebody will probably be able to make replacement parts for decades.

I similarly was meeting somebody (though a girl in my case). The only thing the border guy questioned regarding that was her age - which, fair enough and she was a year or two older than me - and then that was it.

I'm guessing that cross-border seekers of love aren't exactly uncommon since the Internet has been a thing.

Yeah. It's not just signal either that could be an issue. Sure, I want my private messages to be private, but there are financial apps, business email, and many other bits of very sensitive information that could be captured in those messages

Pretty much. These guys are all marketing with not so much understanding of the tech their hawking