They accomplish that and the already diminutive presence they have in the world will shrink even more.

It should. An open technology standard should gain traction over closed proprietary ones.

Aliens took them, obviously. What else? What other logical, rational, simple explanation could there be?

Thank you.

But… Why do you assume I have instant knowledge of acronyms because I opted to insert a comment on a topic that teased my interest? Does it pressuposes anything about my person?

Then what is the choice?

Good morning.

Let’s call that example the canary in the mine but I’m seeing many similar situations where I live.

Being in a less than urban area, there is still a bit of industry around and some factories are cutting staff and a few have already shut down operations, especially in sectors more closely related with end user products (clothing, footwear, yarn, etc). Industries with ties to industrial use (metal working, construction materials, wood and derivates) are keeping afloat but only replacing workers that go into retirement or that for some reason or another just quit, and these industries, in my understanding, are keeping afloat because of the hard push into more sustainable and efficient houses, which is forcing a good deal of public investment into large renovation projects and funds.

Parallel to this, bakeries, coffee shops, small businesses that rely on consumption, are shutting down. For me, this implies there is less money floating around.

Paired with the hike in housing…

You are going to have to unfold all of those acronyms before we can move forward with this conversation.

I don’t have the palest of ideas of what you are trying to convey.

The only thing I’m sure of is death and taxes.

I’m risking that statement because I’m seeing a good deal of events similar to what happened the last time we went through one (the world) and the big companies starting to let go people is like the canary in the mine.

I smell a recession forming!

If it is impossible, either shut down operations or find a way to pay for it.

It has everything to turn out right. No possibility to stem resentment and anger.

Americans: demand from your government the responsibility to handle your taxes directly.

I’m in the EU, from a small country, and all tax forms have to be filed through government tax authority servers, running state designed programs.

I can hire a legion of accountants, a lawyer firm and third party to represent me and still everything will still go through the same channels.

Or I can simply use that same program, through the same website, with my secure credentials, and file my own taxes for free, calling the tax department whenever I have doubts on what I’m doing.

demand that your taxes supply you with the government services it supports

It is and I’m feeling the need to get back to it.

Allow to tout the horn for Minetest!

Yes. And no.

I went through some degree of what today is called bullying and never took to defend myself because of a castrating father and severe insecurity. This also impacted my overall school success.

But knowing what I know today, doing what needed to be done to defend myself, I would quickly be labelled as a menace.

[…] Put homes and work locations close together […]

The best hope for that to have marginal improvement is a move towards remote work, mostly feaseable for white collar activities.

Anything else is constantly pushed outside and away from residential areas.

I know a few stupid examples of very well planned and thought out industrial parks and long time industrial sites forced to vacate because residential were built 2 or 3km away and residents did not enjoy the movement going back and forward (not through the residential areas, mind that) of trucks and other machines or the sounds coming from a factory when the conditions were just right to carry it over the distance. Needless to say companies simply moved away or closed down activity and the previously complaining residential areas became high unemployment areas.

It’s the same absurd reasoning behind people building houses in the middle of nowhere and then demanding power, water and communications connections.

I would love to get an ereader but all models I can find are horribly expensive and come with strings attached.

A good quality tablet, with Android stripped down, perhaps an older model, with a proper ebook program can make good job at that and comes at a much lower price.

I have a 6.49 inches screen on my phone and it had enabled me to read more books than I can think of.

Probably controversial on my next few words but use your phone as an ereader.

Go through a couple of apps for ebooks (FDroid as a few) until you find the app that most suits your needs.

Amazon is not your friend, so try to explore other venues; Smashwords has a pretty interesting catalog. Project Guttenberg has a good number of older texts and public domain books, all for free.

I am sure other options exist, especially if willing to navigate the high seas.

At least 20cm of clearance from the road, awd capable, with high torque setting for rough terrain and steep inclinations, as I sometimes need to use trails not even fit to be considered goat paths.

In a van, it’s an exotic combination.

The issue here is oversized vehicles becoming norm, not exception.