Russia is no longer a threat to anyone except, perhaps, a small neighboring country with no defensive capabilities. China, on the other hand, is certainly a growing problem. While the USA maintains a significant technical advantage, China is set up to out-build the west from a manufacturing perspective.

He can't remember.

The Russian population will continue to ignore any and all imperialistic geopolitical ambitions perpetrated by their political elites like ostriches with their heads in the sand. As is tradition.

He hung himself after being prosecuted by the federal authorities for academic journal article piracy. He was trying to make journal articles available to the masses and was facing life in prison for it. This was many years ago.

The rule of thumb I was taught many years ago in operations management class was that shipborne cargo freight, on a TEU basis, uses less fuel to get from Hong Kong to Los Angeles as it did to deliver that freight to the store in North America. It's 100x less impactful in terms of CO2 output as trucking.

https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/freight-transportation

Yes, but full-size vans aren't a popular vehicle outside of passenger and tradesmen applications, unlike pickup trucks. I was only pointing out that North Americans apparently prefer to have a passenger vehicle where 40-50% of the wheelbase is unused useless space.

Most tradesmen I know haul a trailer with their tools and supplies so that they have the option of unhooking and leaving all that weight behind without unloading the truck. Or, conversely, unhooking at the jobsite so that their workers can keep going while they run for supplies.

The most handy truck I had doing construction when I was a kid was out Mazda B2200 with the Perkins diesel. It'd go forever on no fuel and was perfect for grabbing a few tools for a quick run to a job site.

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/cc-outtake-1983-mazda-b2200-diesel-a-veteran-of-the-great-diesel-boom-with-a-license-built-perkins-engine/

I had a 1 ton Ford van for 12 years and I could haul a pallet of flooring or 20 sheets of drywall inside it, as well as lumber 12 feet or shorter. Anything more bulky than what fits inside a van like that would have difficulty fitting inside a 6.5 foot truck bed without a rats nest of ratchet straps and hanging way over the tailgate.

We are just spectators at one of the worst wastes of private funds the world has ever seen.

It honestly feels like Elon is holding a bet with someone as to how quickly one can destroy $40 billion in value. How many times in history has someone bought a brand with as much recognition as Twitter and then proceeded to try and rename it?

Paint.net is one of the first apps I install on every new computer. It's just excellent for quick and dirty image manipulations.

I mean, there are definitely wrong ways to run Linux, like a single root user with no password, but your point is well taken. If Linux fanboys would keep the subjective gatekeeping to themselves the new user experience would be much more pleasant.