As a former S15 Silvia owner, you can go through the tread on a set of tyres pretty effing quickly... An afternoon isn't difficult.

We already have uninflated tyres, they're called run flats (well they can run uninflated) and have some serious drawbacks, not the least of which are how incredibly hard they are leading to a very harsh ride and that's as a person who revels in a hard riding sports car. A decent sidewall will smooth out a rough road and still maintain a good amount of feedback for the driver. Runflats tend to require excessive and complex suspension setups to protect the precious bot-bots of people who buy automatic SUVs from anything that might distract them from their phones, they use the runflats because they look better on massive rims. A wafty saloon with large tyres will have a much smoother ride with much simpler suspension.

That being said, I don't think run flats last longer or shorter than larger tyres. That has more to do with the material used for the tyre, generally softer compounds have better grip but wear faster whilst harder compounds have less grip but wear slower. Hybrids and EVs are often fitted with hard tyres to minimise rolling resistance, sports and performance cars use softer tyres to maximise grip and feedback.

When it comes to media, specifically video and audio media, the overwhelming majority of the "costs" for a service are paying the licensing fees to the "content owner". That isn't the artist in most cases, the artist might see 10% of that if they're also the writer. Most of it goes to "(copy)rights holders" who have already recouped the costs (much of which were borne by another company) and are spiriting away the profits to tax havens so they aren't even paying tax on their obscene profiteering.

If you like an artist, make a point of going to their shows, touring is where they make their money (even with the abuse of ticketmaster). Studio albums earn three fifths of sweet FA, every month they spend not touring is a month they're not earning. Hence Nirvana recorded Nevermind in less than 3 months, as relative unknowns they couldn't afford not to be playing live.

Nein, this is out and out fascism. Explained simply using a cow analogy:

Communism (Leninist-Marxist): You have two cows, the government takes both and gives you some milk.
Fascism: You have two cows, the government takes both, gives them to a wealthy supporter and they sell you some milk.

Know your tyrannies.

Fixed That For You.

It's still the Gulf of Mexico to billions of people. Including many USians.

"Snowflake" has come to mean "someone I don't like" in the same way that "Woke" means "something I don't like.

Both used by cunts. I mean if you're going to insult someone don't beat around the bush.

Before one of them pipes up, it doesn't matter what you desperately want the word to mean, what matters is the context in which you use the word that will determine it's definition, they now mean "someone/something I don't like" because that's how they're being used, as pejoratives. Usage being the ultimate arbiter of language.

I wish I could do this with mandatory training but they deliberately leave that option out... What adds insult to injury is that they deliberately leave in longer pauses for the thicker people, so 2x would just bring it up to a normal, non-thick human speed.

This.

Most vidoes are minutes of "hey welcome to my video, I'm some random tosspot who thinks acting like I'm famous will make it true. Smash that like and subscribe button, here are my sponsors which don't even operate in your city/country/planet, hit my like button, subscribe, like me, like me, like me" often followed by meaningless drivel and it's not until 15 minutes in do you get to any kind of meaningful information.

Video is the slowest means to learn anything at the best of times, let alone once it's got half an hour of guff before anything useful.

This problem is with video games especially is that everyone is making videos with their discombobulated head taking up screen space and the game so dark you can't see anything... and this has taken over writing a decent guide or walktrhough that will actually tell you useful info. Fortunately for auto repairs it's not so bad yet. Looking up how to replace a O2 sensor on a W30 Toyota MR2 will usually get you a video of someone actually doing it with little conversation (maybe some exposed arsecrack for authenticity).

I often have problems reconciling my net income with my gross habits.

It's the simple fact they've been trained to think of themselves as consumers, not people, that means this won't be easily fixed.

Good thinking but with land mines it's less ground and more ground coverage that is the problem. A lot of them were air-dropped rather than buried (not just the US, the Soviets did it too and just about everyone the Americans and Soviets sold mines to as well, Chinese and British aren't innocent either). So a huge issue is that they sit under foliage or other ground cover, ground penetrating radar would find them but for the most part, they're not underground they're under trees and bushes. Particularly the ones still blowing people's legs off, if they're buried they're usually anti-tank mines than anti-personnel.

I do applaud your thinking though, an airborne mine detecting radar would be a huge boon for many countries still suffering from the effects of landmines from wars decades past.

A less altruistic use I can think of is finding mineral and oil deposits cheaply (having worked in the exploration sector before).

It's not just America, although they are front and centre in it. It's also becoming popular in Asia and Australia as various airlines get branded cards. Australia has been doing it for years with QANTAS and Virgin branded cards.

It's not popular in the EU/UK because we've limited the merchant interchange fees so that branded cards aren't really profitable. As there is a limit on what can be charged to the merchant for accepting a card in the EU and UK, there is considerably less to share with a co-brand so it's just not worth it to either the bank or the brand, same with store cards. This is also why credit cards in general are less popular in Europe, as they can't get people to pay for their own "bonus" programs, there are far fewer. It's funny, Americans actually think their banks are giving them free money in the form of "cash back" by using credit cards where as the credit card companies are charging the merchant for accepting the card and giving a pittance back to the user, but I digress.

You can still get various airline branded credit cards, BA and Virgin in the UK, I presume European carriers such as KLM/Air France in France and Benelux (Flying Blue brand) and Lufthansa in Germany (Miles and More) will have their own but like the British ones will likely be be high end cards with eligibility requirements and membership fees. The BA ones are AMEX (which some merchants will refuse in the UK due to higher fees).

Airlines are also constantly devaluing their loyalty programs because too many people are earning status by not flying. BA/Iberia (Avios) have recently changed to a per Pound/Euro spent system for both gaining points and status. A lot of American carriers now have two systems, one for people who fly and one for people who just use credit cards. The points bro's are hating it because it means all their hard earned points are worthless now and they've spent all that money for nothing.

Sadly that is rarely the case these days as even full service carriers are running at insane load factors (LF). Especially on popular routes. BA/Iberia might run dozens of planes between LHR and MAD each day but all of them will be almost full, when you've an average LF of 95 on a route, 95% of seats filled means that one aircraft taken out of commission (I.E. mechanical fault or hit by jetway) means that distributing those passengers over later flights will take 19 flights (180 seats on a BA A320neo at LF95 means 171 seats occupied and only 9 free). Usually at that point it's a case of finding another plane. Full service carriers might be able to do it or swap a later flight for a larger aircraft (A320 to A330) but budget airlines will often have no space capacity... I once had to spend 10 hours at London Gatwick because the jetway hit an Air Europa jet, LGW is not a nice airport to spend 10 hours.

Personally, most of the time I've priced up a holiday using budget airlines it usually comes within £30 or less with a full service carrier once you've added on luggage and what not... And with some airlines you also get free stuff (like seat selection) with status. Budget airlines are only cheap if you're going bare bones, small carry on, don't care about sitting between Stinky McStenchface and Elbows McChickenDance for the entire flight (not to mention the Geordie hens party cackling through out the entire plane). Basically anything more than 3 days or 3 hours flight time and it's not worth it (IMHO of course, other opinions are available).

So if a company hires Kim from Busan who got a lefimate visa and years of experience as a skilled engineer they should go under?

I don't disagree with your point but we should be specific.

The problem is that it's not always that easy. It's often not a direct hiring, you can easily get stand ins, even in western countries to do interviews. Enough unscrupulous people out there willing to do stuff like this for a fiver and will just pass along the credentials or worse agency hires who really don't care as long as they can get a warm body. Not to mention westerners who farm their job out.

What it really comes down to a lot of the time is less an interview and more laziness on the part of HR companies. A lot of companies outsource their hiring checks these days and these companies outsource it to India who have no idea about the UK (or US) and just don't care. They're unable to google or think independently as I've found out on many occasions as they were completely reliant on me providing information about previous employers, my immigration status, et al. If I had of faked any of it, they wouldn't have a clue.

I'm in no hurry to get back to an office but wouldn't baulk at an in person interview but mainly because in a country with workers rights or where you don't depend on employers for basic rights like healthcare, an interview is a two way street. I'm evaluating the employer as well as presenting myself as a perspective employee, conversely any company that is not trying to present themselves as the best possible employer is a huge red flag.

Yep, the big problem is Labour isn't being Labour. They're still trying to be Tory Lite when it's full sugar Tory that got us into this mess.

I voted Labour and are happy they got in as another 5 years of Tory fuckery would have been worse, but now they need to change to fix the issues. Trying to be Tory but only 1 calorie of Tory isn't going to fix anything, it'll just make the problem worse at a slower rate.

The problem is, with the possible exception of the Lib Dems, all the other options are worse than Labour and if the farcical fascist fuhrer in waiting, Farage gets any more power it'll be Labour's fault in entirety. Australia has a saying "oppositions don't win elections, governments lose them". Labour won in 2024 because the Tories were so terrible, Labour needs to stop following this legacy.

The one saving grace is that Labour MPs will rebel long before it gets as bad as the Tories. Lets hope they don't leave it too long.

OK, the media isn't helping either, if they could shut the fuck up about immigrants for five seconds people will realise we have far bigger problems.

Forums like Slashdot, et al. are usually speaking about specific subjects to like minded individuals. There's a common denominator beyond the lowest one. Ostensibly at least.

I've been members of forums for years before Twitter or Facebook farted into existence and will be for years after they've consigned themselves into irrelevance. The appeal of something like Twitter is vain and vapid, the kind of person who speaks loudly in public or always thinks you want their 2p (2.6 cents) and will never hesitate to give it. It's an exercise in narcissism hence the AppFormerlyKnownAsTwitter which was a barely contained cesspool when it was just Twitter is now a insult to actual faecal dumps. The intensive is that it plays to their vanity and desire to be wanted, narcissism as I said.

I once met a girl who insisted she was a model on instagram, I told her I was a race driver on Forza. She didn't like that (and truth be told, I'm more of an Assetto Corsa person).