Bob

joined 1 year ago
[–] Bob@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The C8 is pretty incredible value for money if you live in the US. It’s essentially half the price of a 911, and you get a lot more performance for the money, and a nicely balanced mid engined layout. Servicing costs probably aren’t that high because you take it to a normal GM dealership for GM parts. I don’t know what kind of acceleration you consider quick, but even the base model Stingray does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds. Top of the range models do it in under two. I can’t think of any comparable electric cars for the money. If you want similar performance to a ZR1 in an EV, you’d have to buy a Taycan Turbo GT with factory Weissach package and Manthey kit, which would set you back around 370k usd.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 7 points 1 month ago

At the time I remember hearing that they were using the Maven Smart System, which uses Claude, for target selection. That system is supposed to have a human in the loop, but it’s probably easy to get complacent and just sign off on whatever the model recommends.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It seems unfair to impose a tax on someone for physical traits they have no control over. I don’t think a pay-as-you-go system is a sustainable way to fund retirements with birth rates being what they are. A shrinking working population can’t keep funding a growing population of pensioners while maintaining liveable tax rates and liveable pensions.

In my opinion an American or Australian style 401k/superannuation scheme is the most feasible solution. Just hope there isn’t a market crash at the beginning of your retirement.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From your very first link:

It is interesting to note that the proportion in northern Europe is very low, as 'Swedish snus' does not seem to be linked to oral cancer. The results are of great importance both from a global health perspective and in terms of the health of migrants." says Cecilia Magnusson, co-author of the publication.

And the article in the Lancet also says:

"Evidence on the risk of oral cancer associated with using Swedish snus—a type of moist tobacco most commonly consumed in Nordic countries as pouches held in the mouth—is currently inconclusive, with several studies suggesting a significantly increased risk of up to three-times among ever daily snus users compared with never daily users, and others suggesting no statistically significant higher risk among current users compared with non-users, due to the much lower levels of NNN and NNK than in other smokeless tobacco products."

Data from their own study shows that PAF-associated oral cancers are lower in Norway and Sweden compared to Northern Europe as a whole, despite them famously being the main consumers of snus.

I'm not saying snus is healthy. Using snus is definitely worse than not using any tobacco at all. But it is without a doubt a lot healthier than smoking.

Like I said in my first comment though, this is really of secondary importance. The most important thing is that you're not increasing the cancer risk of people who happen to be in your vicinity by using snus. If every smoker switched to snus, the world would be a better place.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why should it be banned? It is not harmful to bystanders, and a lot less harmful than smoking to individual users. Even passive smoking entails a higher risk of developing cancer than actively using snus.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 17 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Fewer smokers is good of course, but I am not sure if the consumption of tabacco is really going down significantly. It rather seems to be moving from cigarettes to snus, which I’m not sure is a good thing.

It is undeniably a good thing. Smoking increases your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease by a lot. Snus does not significantly increase your risk of lung or oropharyngeal cancer. Nor does it increase your incidence of strokes or heart attacks. Nor does it lead to copd. More important than a lot lower risks for people who choose to use tobacco products, it eliminates all adverse effects on people like me who do not want any tobacco exposure.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12954-019-0335-1

[–] Bob@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Strategic autonomy didn't seem like a pressing issue to me until Russia invaded the Ukraine, to be honest. I'm sure a large part of the population has been similarly complacent.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 18 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Would you rather have your oil and gas from the US, Russia, or the Middle East? The EU is still reliant on oil and gas at the moment, and Norway is the EU's most reliable supplier by a mile. You should work hard to become energy independent, but that can't happen over night.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 4 points 3 months ago

The title makes it sound like they're ekranoplans/ground effect vehicles, or something.

[–] Bob@feddit.org 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Does this coincide with their GDP overtaking that of the EU, as well?

Edit: I looked it up. The IMF says that in 2026, the EU has a GDP of $22.52 trillion and China has a GDP of $20.65 trillion. The US has a GDP of $31.82 trillion, for comparison.

Source: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD@WEO/EU/CHN/USA

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