Those statistics are misleading. China’s population is very unevenly distributed between the east and west, but Western China is still serviced by high-speed railway.

The 1786km Lanzhou–Urumqi HSR serves three Western Chinese provinces: Gansu (57.7 people per sq km), Qinghai (8.2) and Xinjiang (15.8).

TIL I don’t like ranch.

The ultimate cause is an economic system which is failing to meet the needs of the majority (combined with media run by, and for the minority who the economic system does serve.)

The media’s real purpose at this point is to distract the majority from the real issues, and deflect any movement towards a real solution.

I specifically needed a numpad on my keyboard so I went for a 40% ortholinear. I have the numpad on a layer on the right hand side. With all keys reachable from the home row, I can use it more easily/quickly than on a full-sized keyboard so it’s really the best possible solution.

I’ve configured the layer button so that it can either be held down for quick use, or toggled with a double tap.

That’s not true. The majority of wine is aged in standard oak barrels. Bourbon barrel-aged wine is a modern gimmick which is not at all common in the classic wine growing regions.

Dithering… Shit or get off the pot.

Caravan owners will often holiday in them frequently, though others will mostly/exclusively use them as holiday lets. I believe that they can’t be occupied all the time (maybe 10 months in a year) so no permanent residents (I could be wrong on that though.)

Have you considered an ortholinear layout? Can use the whole keyboard as a numpad if you like (I’m a programmer too and specifically went for a 40% ortho for this reason.)

Almost once a week from an online supermarket. I typically plan 4 or 5 meals as I shop, with adhoc rice/pasta/noodle dishes, frozen portions and takeaways/meals out that usually lasts for 8 or 9 days.

I mostly cook vegetarian so most of the shop is fresh vegetables. We do eat chicken or fish once a week though. “Essentials” are pea milk, fruit juice, tomatoes, bread, eggs, avocados, oats, fresh/dried/frozen fruits - everything else is meal dependent.

It’s much easier planning and buying from home and the selection online is much better than any of the local supermarkets. The only thing I regularly buy offline is coffee from a local roastery. There’s some great independent shops in my village, but the green grocer can be a bit hit and miss on quality and it’s rare that I can find everything we would like (or need) so I mostly use for the odd thing/special occasions. I will go to the bakery on a weekend in warmer months though.

A whistleblower is likely to have access to sensitive data or other forms of leverage not directly linked to whatever they’re whistleblowing on. Of course this sort of insurance policy would be useful to them.

Any words in particular? I can only think of certain ableist and misogynist slurs which are uniquely(?) censored on .ml, which I would imagine could be deeply hurtful to those who have been subjected to abuse and discrimination, and are thrown around too readily by ignorant and uncaring sorts (including my past self.)

It would be nice, of course, to be in a world where such measures weren’t necessary to create a welcoming space for all, but we’re evidently some way off.

I have no experience with that channel. What makes you think it is being brigaded? Seems like a very unusual target. Given that it’s well-used tracks that appear to be affected, it seems to me that it may just be attracting a greater breadth of viewers - who are generally less familiar with the content and may have different expectations (and would be just as likely to downvote whether visible or not.)

Like I said, many of us use like/dislike ratios to gain insight into quality of content; whether or not that was the intended use of the feature is really irrelevant.

You’re massively overstating the incidence of brigading. A tiny fraction of videos have experienced this. The idea that brigading is significantly affecting user recommendations and even causing them to align is hyperbolic nonsense.

How so? Like/dislike ratios are a very quick and effective means of identifying problematic content. Clickbait titles and thumbnails are another issue - they aren’t a reasonable indicator of the quality of the content. It’s an emerging trend in an oversaturated environment in which even creators of high quality content feel the need to partake.

What an awful mischaracterisation. While the dislike feature may appeal to misanthropes, it also appeals to the much larger pool of people that are intelligent enough/respectful of their own time to understand the value of the feature in helping to avoid poor quality and misleading content.

It really bears out in the results. For those who recall what old ratios looked like, for sufficiently popular videos, they still hold true with this plugin.

A tossup between books 7-10 of the Wheel of Time series. I gave up half way through book 10 and resent the time that I wasted on the series. 20 years later I still recall the desperate hope that the next chapter/book would advance the storyline, only to be greeted with more subplots, stupid things happening because of characters inability/unwillingness to communicate, and overly verbose descriptions of every little thing.

I hear the final books, written by a different author, were much better.

Pizza Napoletana (usually margherita DOP or marinara when at home.)

One of my local Neapolitan pizzerias makes a fantastic pizza melanzane too.

High quality ingredients, carefully selected; less is most definitely more!

About 30% in Europe/US; half that in China.

Electricity consumption drops sharply during the night - when wind power typically peaks. There are power companies that offer substantially cheaper rates at night for charging EVs for this very reason.

“Most BEVs are charged over night, where only Hydro or Geothermal makes power”

Maybe in Iceland; anywhere with wind and nuclear power, this really is not the case.

They do. Someone with a salary of €400,000 would take home approximately €242,000 after income tax.

Up to €10,777: 0% tax rate
From €10,778 to €27,478: 11% tax rate
From €27,479 to €78,570: 30% tax rate
From €78,571 to €168,994: 41% tax rate
More than €168,994: 45% tax rate

According to The EIU, the cost of living in Paris is similar to San Francisco.