Sorry, but poor excuse for racism is poor and wrong.

Europe has far more tourism, especially to developing countries and does not have the same issue. This has also been going on for decades so if it were those evil foreigners, why is it only now just becoming a problem.

The answer is, it isn't the foreigners. The cause is the large anti-science and anti-vaccination movements that have sprung up in the last 20-30 years and have become particularly popular in the last 10. If we drew a Venn diagram of anti-vaxxers and racists we'd also find a lot of overlap.

"Free" clinics... What are you, some kind of Columnunist like those dang people over in You-Rope?

Poor people should die without medical care because they cant afford it... That's Freedom Fries health care. None of that caring about people, helping the sick or poor... That ain't in the bible.

If we don't stop this kind of thing now the next thing you'll they'll start demanding European style happiness.

More and more I'm encountering AI as customer service agents (both online and by telephone).
I have not had a singe good experience with any of them. They provide wordy generic useless responses.
The worst experience was with Tesla Insurance. They randomly sent me a message that they were cancelling my insurance because they didn't have a home address for me (in spite of them being able to see my car parked at home every night for the past three years). I thought I could just call them to straighten out the confusion. AI agent was useless and said I had to talk to a real person. I spent hours a day over a week and never got to talk to a person. I ended up just cancelling and getting a new (cheaper) insurance company.

Are they using Musk's Nazi-Grok AI?

Tesla has been collecting extensive data on all their models since the beginning.
They used to do it without charge (how generous of them) but now charge about $10/month if you want extra data services (maps, etc.). Even if you don't pay they still collect data on the car, location, etc.

Interesting to see all the deniers here.
China is ahead in robotics, automobiles, and manufacturing of all kinds.
The US is "great" at borrowing money and buying stuff from the rest of the world.
Oh yes, don't forget our military bases all over the world. All these do is cost money and make people hate the US.
The US has lost the plot. It's not military power, the winning ticket is economic power and China has it.

Good to see that the "professionals" are looking up from their greedy profits and starting to realize that the Jenga tower is tottering.

Hotels often drop prices when they have unsold rooms and it is getting close to the date. They would rather have a lower income than let the room expire without any income.
That's why I usually book rooms at the last minute when traveling. I find I can get a better deal. Also, the risk that I would have to cancel so close to the date is small.
As far as availability goes, it's rare for an area to be fully booked and I've always been able to find a suitable room.

It (bitcoin mining) is the same efficiency as a heating coil. 100% of the electricity input is converted to heat.
NG heaters convert 60% to 90% of the potential energy to heat.
Heat pumps move up to 400% of the input energy to useful heat.

As far as bitcoin mining goes (I am only vaguely familiar with how it works) I think that you get "credit" for each number computed whether or not it is the solution so that when the actual solution emerges from the pool, everyone who contributed gets a share of the "coin". So yes, you can make money with a small bitcoin miner but probably not enough to pay for the electricity.

Yep, any increase in demand is going to affect prices even if it's not in your location as costs for supply will increase. This increases for everyone not just the people next to datacentres.

Not that the OP didn't also have a valid point.

China's CO2 emissions have plateaued and dropped over the past 18 months.
If China can do it, so can the rest of the world; especially the "developing" world since they can bypass fossil fuels and go straight to solar and wind.
Pakistan is a notable early example.
(The US, I fear, will be relegated to third world energy status due to ignorance.)

Not necessarily.
China tends to use AI for real world problems in science, manufacturing and engineering where it has proven utility.
The US tends to use AI for slop to attract "views" and sell stuff (mostly from China).
See the difference?

Look at DeepSeek as an example of China's thinking.

Pretty much this.

Banks and payment processors are making money for doing next to nothing every time someone uses a card... other organisations, especially merchants want in on this as they're the ones paying (directly, you're still paying indirectly)

Does anyone actually do this? Sounds like an urban myth to me.

The benefit of gift cards to shops is that they encourage people to spend more precisely because people donâ(TM)t want to lose that 44p. So if you've a gift card for £20, you spend £21 and pay the rest in cash/card.

Fortunately things are not as bad over here in Europe, there's still loads of competition. That being said, Ryanair as an ultra low cost carrier specialises in flying from smaller airports to an airport somewhere near somewhere people want to go (I.E. "London" Isle of Skye airport) so for many it is their only option apart from driving a few hours to a major airport.

I doubt they'll try this as EU and UK consumer laws will have some rather strong things to say about it. O'Leary has a history of saying outlandish things to get free publicity in the press. Things like charging for lavatory use or dropping one pilot and training the cabin crew to fly in emergencies.