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thejohnconway

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thejohnconway
·قبل شهرين·discuss
Because it’s on track to become expensive than other sources of energy. There are plenty energy sources we don’t use because they are comparatively expensive.
thejohnconway
·قبل شهرين·discuss
To my ears “Molten” would imply that the sand is currently in liquid form. The sense ”melted” is used here, as having been melted, seems right. You melt sand to get molten sand, right?
thejohnconway
·قبل شهرين·discuss
Apes are a subset of monkeys.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
Trump’s talking about a “joint venture” with Iran for charging tolls, weird that he feels that might have to make this concession, right?

https://x.com/jonkarl/status/2041839012097229086?s=20

He’s mentioned this possibility before, by the way.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
> Iran does not “control” the strait any more than neighbor controls my front door because he threatened to stop me from using it. If the US or other naval power tried to pass it would have no issue

If your neighbour threatened to shoot anyone attempting to use your front door, and followed through on their threat a few times, and now no one uses your front door, I would say they control it.

Al Jazeera are reporting that Iran is planning to continue with the toll: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/8/us-iran-ceasefire-de...

Your assessment of the military situation in the strait doesn’t align with any expert analysis I’ve come across.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
Real world events are conditional. Would you prefer I talk in absolutes?

Defacto Iran still controls the strait, as they have since the start of the war. If they start letting the ships through with no toll, I think that would indicate a tactical loss but strategic draw for Iran (well, the IRGC). If they don’t, it’s a strategic win. We’ll find out I guess.

The small gulf states are incredibly fragile because of their water supply. Major disruption to their power or desalinisation directly renders them largely uninhabitable.

You’re misquoting me on the 10 point plan. He accepted it as the _basis for negotiation_. Here’s direct quote from him on Truth Social:

“We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate”
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
As a cyclist in London, I’ve hit one pedestrian: they stepped backward(!) into a cycle lane. I had nowhere to go, as there was a curb on the other side. Pedestrian behaviour is just totally wild with respect to cycle lanes, a lot of them are just totally oblivious. If you cycle, you will come across people walking along or stepping into dedicated cycle lanes several times during the average commute.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
None of those things matter if they survive and control the straight, which seems to be the situation. The toll revenue will be enough to rebuild several times over. They have proven that they can absolutely crush the gulf states with missiles and drones.

I think the fact that Trump accepted their 10-point plan as the basis for negotiation, instead of them accepting the American 15-point plan, makes it obvious this is America taking the loss.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
> I can't see Trump or anyone else willingly misusing that trust

Is this sarcasm? It’s hard to tell these days.
thejohnconway
·قبل 3 أشهر·discuss
If we look at the stated goals (as inconsistent as they have been):

Unconditional surrender -> nope Regime change via popular uprising -> nope Destruction or removal of enriched uranium -> nope Destruction of drones and ballistic missile capability -> nope

Final goal of getting back to the pre-war state (which is admitting loss in itself):

Reopen in the straight of Hormuz -> nope

So no objectives have been achieved, and although you could argue they will be in the future, this seems increasingly unlikely in the short timeline the Trump admin has given themselves. It any of them were possible at all, which seems doubtful.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
That’s not what people are worried about, it’s the rigging of real world events (including wars!) that has people worried.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
I don’t see how it relates very well to what I said. I think you’re trying to say the that the Chagos island lease disagreement is as big a deal as threatening to invade a NATO ally.

I disagree.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
I don't understand your comment.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
Maybe Americans don't really get this, but the Greenland stuff was a very, very big deal. The rest of NATO was staring down the barrel of the unthinkable: war with the United States. For what? Some lib owning? A bit of fun? A real estate deal? The sense of betrayal is very strong, more than the politicians are letting on.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
I'm using it Infomaniak, including their KDrive as a Dropbox replacement (with 2TB of data). I've even used their video conferencing app. No complaints so far. All seems to work just fine.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
Honestly, the instability of the political environment in US feels so extreme, that it seems like something could bite you that you didn't even see coming.

Just on the Gmail front: maybe Trump decides to trade embargo you country and pressures Google to cut off email access. Maybe he decides Google needs to be broken up and sold for parts, and Gmail's data goes to Truth Social. Maybe he thinks illegal immigrants or "radical left wing lunatics" shouldn't have access to American email providers and gets Google to start suspending accounts based on a some criteria. Maybe some of this seems far fetched, but we are talking about a president who threatened to to go to war with one of America's closest allies.

The non-American west's exposure to the instability is too high, and already affecting people. Switching software providers where possible is something that can be done quickly, and relatively easily by individuals in the short term.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
Lol, I’ve had cutting edge models suggest I make an inflexible hole bigger by putting shim in it, and argue their case stubbornly. I don’t know what you’re using to suggest they are anywhere near solving your problem there!
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
Indeed, “defence” so obviously an Orwellian term for these departments, I’m very much in favour of the change.
thejohnconway
·قبل 4 أشهر·discuss
Yes, but it doesn’t have to be error-free. The friendly fire rates in symmetrical hot wars is pretty high, it’s considered a cost of going to war.

If autonomous weapons lead to a net battlefield advantage, I agree with the GP, they will be used. It is the endgame.
thejohnconway
·قبل 5 أشهر·discuss
If you think literally everything I'm saying is wrong, you haven't done much of a job of explaining why.

I realise that the watch was probably under development for years before Jobs died. It was, however, released in a half baked state – do you remember what the the original use of the lozenge shaped button was, for example? Things being "hits" is not what's under discussion here, Apple has sold a lot of stuff in the Cook era, no doubt about that. Microsoft has had a lot of hits too, doesn't make their products Old-Apple-like!

I don't know how good Ive is without Jobs. His post-Jobs efforts have been pretty mixed. I'd argue Apple's hardware has improved since he left (although, admittedly through playing it safe, especially with the Mac).

Do you think Apple is in decline when it comes to the quality of their products? Because if you don't we're just talking past each-other.