Apart from the fact that it would be literally the "christian" thing to do (James 2:14-17, Proverbs 19:17, Matthew 25:31-46 ... whatever, that silly book is full of this stuff) , the real reason why the US participated in other country aid programs is soft power. Having a portion of the world see the US as "the good guys" has serious political advantages, and limits the control that other countries can have on those populations when they are allowed to take over the role of "good guy". etting them go just adds to the pool of potential future enemies. And the political gain is huge compared to the material cost.

You know that the numbers you use are arabic, right? I mean, except the zero, that was an Indian invention. Guess what's the arabic decimal separator?

it's (U+066B)

Only if you don't shape the hat properly

Why should they? First, Ardupilot has been forked countless times already, and second, they probably use it too.

You are assuming that the Apple buyers would not pay that 25% extra. My gut feeling is that they will gladly pay 25% more just to show that they can. There's a whole category of people that will buy a more expensive and objectively crappier car to show off. Who will be impacted is other smartphone manufacturers if the tariff applies to them as well, and the low income people that buys them. Import tariffs are almost without exception a tax on the poor.

Of course he is not a fascist, he is a duck!

They are trying to emulate Caldera. Who is Caldera, you might ask.... :)

Of course someone would come and complain about that partisan commie that is Jeff Bezos.

As far as I know we are the only known species that came up with a concept of ethics

You are assuming that a response to someone breaking the rules should actually follow the rules. If you play underhanded games you should expect a reply in kind.

The problem with the JAS39 is that it uses an American engine, which can cause issues with resale. Saab was not interested in re-engining the Gripen with the EJ200, but maybe they might rethink it now.

Can't mod this insightful, because I don't have mod points available. The gravitational confinement system also seems to be working well enough, and effectively we have also worked out how to harvest a little of the power produced, via photovoltaic, thermal and convection gas currents in the last few decades. Still waiting on effective storage and redistribution strategies.

Hmm, the SLS is a set of designs that is provided by private companies, (Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and ULA), and based on their existing designs. In a way it is overpriced BECAUSE it's contracted to the private sector. If anything it's not designed by NASA, it's designed by a bunch of congressmen and senators to keep happy the companies that reside in the states they represent.

It's not just that. Since taxation on gas is low, any swing in the price of petrol can't be compensated by adjusting taxation, especially if the tax is not a percentage of the cost. Also, consider a situation where you have a fixed 20 cent tax on each liter of gas. If the price of oil increases by 50% that 20 cent tax stays the same, so the gas price will still increase, but by less than 50%. So in Europe we pay a lot more for gas, but the swings of the oil market prices has a slightly smaller effect.

In the most dire situation emergency broadcasts would probably be in AM and FM, and that's the main reason for keeping both in cars. If there is a power grid failure the car might be the only authonomous receiver left, especially since most smartphones disabled the FM recever capabilities, to do away with the requirement of wired headphones used as antennas.