That “money is good” fixes a lot of problems, though.

I’ve heard that developers in US can even afford a house!?! Crazy, huh, I couldn’t believe it either…

I give you that US is getting a better talent on average. But I don’t believe this is the most pressing problem for EU - there’s plenty of talent, there’s just a problem in leveraging it.

heavily impact the sovereignty of all countries

Personally I don’t have an issue with impacting sovereignty of countries like China or Russia, since their idea of sovereignty means suppression of others.

Nah, it’s difficult to get into US even for high tech workers. Western Europe also gets a lot of talent through immigration.

Joining sanctions necessarily incurs a cost in trade. It’s understandable that poorer countries which have smaller stake in the war don’t want to participate.

Why do you think so many countries want to join BRICS?

They want to join to get funds from the development bank. Not much more.

Russia / Putin didn’t want to follow standard procedure, feeling entitled for a special treatment.

Soviet diplomacy was actually pretty strong.

Programs shouldn’t get confused since RAM/swap is transparent for them.

How is stealing a product any different than wage theft from large corporations

It’s not different, both are unethical and illegal.

In my og comment I clearly stated that when people feel like society isn’t working for them then what use is following the rules.

So if you feel you’re entitled to a luxurious lifestyle without having to work for it, you can steal and rob?

FYI: It’s easier to get some XM4s to sell for bills and food than to steal a whole food shop.

So, did you sell those for bills and food or did you use them?

Not all eshops are run by huge corporations.

Xi and Putin, have hated each other for basically their entire times in power

Any sources for that? Because from what I’ve been reading, they actually have a pretty good relationship on a personal level. Xi once called Putin “best, most intimate friend”.

Besides the therapist, moving to a foreign country requires savings. Getting broke overseas, likely without knowing local language, sounds like a very bad idea.

When you steal, somebody gets hurt. If you encourage many people to steal, employers go bankrupt or have to downsize, letting employees go. But XM4 is a human right?

Yeah, I’ve watched The Expanse, and it’s kinda weird for me to read what I’ve already watched. I prefer to read first, watch later, otherwise the TV imagery influences the reading too much and there isn’t so much space for imagination.

This is not why the war was started, this is just the excuse they’re trying to justify it with. Don’t be complicit.

Well, US domestic politics isn’t international, is it?

an informal offer can constitute a binding agreement provided one party gives up something of value in consideration of payment in goods or services.

What did the other side receive? We’ll never know, since it wasn’t recorded, most people involved can’t remember (Gorbachev couldn’t recall any such promises) and/or are already dead.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved informally for example.

It can be used to resolve an immediate problem. But it’s absurd to think that an unrecorded agreement whose terms nobody knows will be binding for eternity.

It’s all that matters. Some random utterances, speaking off the record etc. don’t count, aren’t and cannot be binding.

How could we bind ourselves to something if we don’t even know what exactly was promised?

Furthermore, were those people uttering those hypothetical sentences even authorized to make such promises? We’ll never know, they were never written down, never vetted, nothing. It’s all meaningless.

It’s written right in your article:

None of NATO’s pledges to the leaders of the Soviet Union have been written down in any agreement, signed by the two parties and codified. Indeed, no one claims to have such a document.

So the Kyiv offensive was a feint after all. Genius!

It’s a decent book, but there were some things which bothered me.

The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author’s alter ego. The character seems hollow. This unending optimism and humour spoils the atmosphere for me. Universe is a dark, dangerous place, I want some of that in sci-fi books …

I also disliked the easiness with which the hero was able to learn to communicate with Rocky. I guess it was necessary to progress with the story, but figuring out a communication with aliens might be way more challenging because their whole way of thinking would be likely different (e.g. Arrival).

Out of the rest of the books, my favorites (roughly in this order) are Hyperion, Wool, Neuromancer, Children of Time.

Red Rising is IMHO rather a YA fantasy than sci-fi.