Too bad they didn’t go electric, though.

I will assume this is not a troll question. Corridas follow a strict protocol and rules.

First, they get several men in the arena to evaluate the bull, the matador will tease him and other men incite him to complete his charges, so that he doesn’t stay on the matador in the center. Fresh and not well evaluated, he could be a risk for the matador.

Second: picadors (horse back) pierce the bull and try to slice through his neck muscles, so that he can’t raise his head no more, or not too much.

Then, the matador pitch some banderillas on its back.

To kill it, they use swords they get all the way in, then incite the bull to turn left and right so that the sword will cause additional internal damages.

When the bull finally falls, the matador cuts its ear as a trophy. Sometimes the bull is still agonizing.

I let you decide if that’s torture, fair fight, or whatever justification they use to keep that tradition alive.

You don’t need to go that far. Arrest and jail the CEO, and tell the execs you’ll come back for them in 3 days.

I absolutely guarantee you the bad practice stops within 24 hours (or some smartass may try to hide it better, might warrant a few years in jail with the commoners, of course).

There should be a group of inner people that the law protects but does not bind and an outer group that the law binds but does not protect.

And he’s not a child rapist billonaire, so not in the right group!

Says more about the fragility of democracies. For other countries, the warning should be clear: do not fucking defund public education, do not restrict education.

Unfortunately, we keep electing people who defund education, because it’s expensive, and then cry that people vote for morons who waste away tens or hundreds of billions of dollars…

I lived in China for 6 years. I experienced smogs dense enough you couldn’t see a building 10m away.

I’ve been travelling to Shanghai on several occasions and went there again last year.

The improvement now vs 10years ago is dramatic! I’m not saying it’s all fine, but I will say this: now I live in Canada (Québec) and forest fires make the air here worse than what it is in Shanghai on a regular basis.

The trend is what matters. China: electrification is going so fast it’s hard to follow. Pollution is going down very fast. The USA: cancel all plan to promote EVs and weaken regulation on gas cars: pollution is to go up. And that’s not including public transportation offset on the cars density, where China is basically 40 years ahead…

The cross-point on air quality might be much closer than you think.

It doesn’t, but it has an unapologetic mass surveillance. In China, you use apps on your phone for absolutely everything and anything: all payments, use of public transport, shared bikes, ordering food, etc.

If you say something wrong, or if you’re just in a group chat where someone repeatedly say the wrong thing, your account can be suspended and suddenly you can’t do shit for several days. That keeps people in line, or they find other tricks to communicate, like swapping key words to trick the algorithms, or use VPN, though it’s also forbidden.

Sun in intermittent. Let our salespeople introduce you to our ASSymetric Hybrid OveralL Energy plan: for a modest monthly premium, you will be allowed to draw a quota of electricity from the grid that you can replenish by sending back your own excess of production. Of course sending back too much won’t increase your quota. If you exceeds your quota by drawing too much, a reasonabe penalty will be applied to your rate, as an incentive to moderate your production and make the world greener.

On a side note, you’ll be happy to learn our revenues have kept growing this year, and you can rely on us for years to come in our very fruitful partnership.

With love!

Apparently in this case he’s a Saudi agent. So it seems he’s primarily a whoever-pays-him-the-most agent. And he’s a very very worthy investment: for 110M$ of fees, Saudi got a war worth tens of billions of $ paid by USA’s tax payers.

Well, there a side-effect they probably didn’t anticipate, but you know Saudi rulers: they funded Bin Ladin, ISIS, their former king was convinced Earth was flat, their scholars still don’t believe it rotates, they thought vanishing a journalist in their embassy would not be noticed. You can’t expect a real strategy or deep thoughts…

The sad truth is we said exactly the same thing during Trump’s first mandate. Granted it was not as bad as this time, but on a general principle: “we know someone like Trump can happen once, so we need to assume it will happen again!”. And… as soon as Biden started talking, the EU went back under a cozy mama-wing, easy solution.

This time might be different… or not. Far right parties are getting stronger in France, Germany, already in power in Italy. They all somewhat allied with Trump and his goons. All the effort made to render the EU sovereign could be discarded just as quickly as they were put in place. Imagine Trump’s successort is someone smart enough to understand (or rather not too stupid to not understand…) the benefit of US military supremacy and protection, and you may see some EU govs happily reduce their military spending again: the US promised to have their back!

At this stage, I am less pessimistic than I am careful: the direction is somewhat correct. We (the people) need to make sure it stays that way.

But for Snowden’s case: I wouldn’t come back either. The minute he sets land in Europe, he becomes a bargaining chip in sode negotiations with the US! He could try his chances in Spain, until the next election, then it’s uncertainty all over again.

Imagine the US forced to retreats because their soldiers start to fall sick from malnutrition.

Best military force in the world!

Hi Caitlyn! I do believe your supreme leader wants people like you to vanish, by shutting up, by being invisible or why not by dying.

I would normally say don’t submit to any of that, you have our support. But in your case out of loyalty, maybe you should shut up, find a spot to lay low, and become invisible. You see I’m much nicer to you than him: I do NOT wish you to die!

The answer is most likely US on her way back…

Well guess what, Russia, there might be very predictable consequences to bombing a single location in the EU, like a total war against all of its military forces combined…

and here we go… https://xcancel.com/Paul_Reviews/status/2044723123287666921#m

You assume commercial apps will choose to lose the US market rather than comply.

Big techs are all ready to comply with chinese authorities in order to get in! Apple did. Facebook tried repeatedly to get a pass, offering complete access to chinese authorities.

Corporates will just do whatever makes more profit.

If you don’t control it, you don’t really own it. Modern cars can be remotely disabled on the whim of the car maker. Is it really YOUR car if someone else can cripple it or completely disable it without your permission?
It’s already the case with your phone if you use OEM OS: manufacturers can do pretty much whatever they want remotely.
Now it’s the turn of the computers: either it has a “compliant OS” (remotely controllable by 3rd party), or you will be cut off a growing part of basic use.

You’re missing the point.

1.Few will work around it, which will make anyone working around it de facto suspicious.

2.That law can also be weaponized as an intended side effect: all dictatures have vague un-enforcable laws for the sole purpose of making sure anyone and everyone is somewhat guilty of something. That eases considerably arbitrary arrests: there WAS a lawful reason, every single time!

It’s a matter of exposure and attack surface vs rewards for the attacker, and risk in companies are evaluated by the trio: freqency of occurrence, severity of occurrence (how large), severity of the occurrence. Banks can spend a lot because severity quickly gets very high in money.

What’s the incentive again for the next gov to properly fund the system? Oh yes: they would have to say “sorry! shit happens! that’s all because of the previous admin!!” and maybe throw one guy under the bus.