Doesn’t something like this exist already? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_search_engine

No.

AI search offers me nothing that “normal” search doesn’t also offer.

But it uses a thousand times more resources.

10 years ago people were shocked by the size of Google’s server halls. Now imagine the increase in size/numbers through AI.

Fuck this shit. The internet isn’t what’s driving the climate catastrophe, it’s how people use it.

How does that work? The government gives him a schedule of … what exactly? Honest question, I have no idea.

Reading the article, however, makes it clear to me that Belgium treats its royalty almost like normal people. State employees.

Even judged by the average royal family member, this person must be quite the arsehole:

Laurent received €388,000 (£333,000) last year from state coffers and lives in his home rent-free. “This is not about financial means but principle,” he told Belgian broadcaster RTBF. “When a migrant comes here, he registers, he has a right to it. I may be a migrant too, but one whose family established the state in place,” he added.

WTF?!

Talking about deeper motivations, I suspect this made him throw a hissy fit:

In 2018, his annual state allowance was cut by 15% for a year because he met foreign dignitaries without the federal government’s approval.

Reading more of the article he says a few things that seem to make sense on the surface:

Laurent and his British wife, Claire, have three children now in their 20s. He pointed to medical costs and his concerns over his family’s financial well-being, since the royal allowance will be cut when he dies.

- until you consider that he does get 32 000 euro per month.

I’m glad to hear that Belgium treats its royalty like normal people.

It sure makes Trump look bad, putting the diplomatic ball in his court.

But how is that any different from how all of Trump’s foreign dealings played out these last weeks? And how did he react? 🤷

I hope they really get fined hard this time. Unfortunately the “pay to consent” feature is easily removed while the larger problem (though harder to grasp judicially) of election interference, abusing personal data, hateful content, disinformation - remains. And imho we should be looking much harder at X in that regard anyhow.

The world already has several global reserve currencies, the euro already being #2. I see no benefit in vying for first place here. I find the whole concept a little artificial anyhow; but hey, I’m not a banker.

She herself answer the question posed in the title: “this could be the end of my political career”, and further:

Le Pen appears to be anticipating a guilty verdict, telling the panel of three judges: “I feel we didn’t succeed in convincing you.”

In case of conviction, the court could impose a period where she is ineligible to run for office “with immediate effect” — even if she files an appeal.

“50 raccoons in a trenchcoat pretending to be a country”

We have too much emotional baggage to have regular discussions but it was kinda cool to be on the same side during Covid, pro Ukraine and against Putin and Trump. Although he too thought me hyperbolic when I compared Trump’s first weeks in office to Hitler’s first weeks in office. Maybe he has changed his mind by now.

My parents fled a socialist country many decades ago. I grew up listening to my father drone on and on about how bad Socialism is. He still doesn’t understand that there’s a difference between socialism and totalitarianism, but following political developments of the last decade or so I am often reminded of his sermons.

One detail was: what happens when you hire people not based on qualifications but loyalty. You get stupid people in positions of power, happy to wield it for its own sake. Often with a penchant for cruelty and a vague feeling of revenge (against “the bourgeousie” then, against “woke globalists” now). And it always ends the same: you have to dilute milk with water and lie about it. This is where the US are headed now, folks. Stalinism, the burgeoning 3rd Reich, take your pick.

My parents fled a socialist country many decades ago. I grew up listening to my father drone on and on about how bad Socialism is. He still doesn’t understand the difference between socialism and totalitarianism, but following political developments of the last decade or so I am often reminded of his sermons.

One detail was: what happens when you hire people not based on qualifications but based on loyalty. You got stupid people in positions of power, happy to wield it for its own sake. Often with a penchant for cruelty and a vague feeling of revenge (against “the bourgeousie” then, against “woke” now). And it always ends the same: you have to dilute milk with water and lie about it. This is where the US are now, folks. Stalinism, the burgeoning 3rd Reich, take your pick.

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It could be argued, I guess?

But to impose arbitrary (and contrary to democracy itself) rules overnight and expect everyone to follow suit instead of negotiating a solution? No fucking way.

Maybe I should have put it differently:

“If you don’t run your business by our fascist rules right now you can’t do business with us!”

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“If you don’t play by our rules you can’t do business with us!”

They just keep shooting themselves in both feet. As if a tariff war wasn’t enough.

I’m beginning to understand why it’s called a trade war.

Retaliation is swift*, across the globe.

One might even call it a trade world war.

* bureaucracies permitting

The EU has been too soft on tech giants for decades. The causality implied in the title is bullshit (and reading the article confirms this).

I’m starting to think the FT is a rag, thanks to OP’s choice of articles.

If you don’t see how the war between the west and russia is going you are literally blind.

This doesn’t even address what I said. Learn to troll harder.

Right. Not in my case anyhow, my blog is even a top ten search result for a specific topic.

FWIW every user gets a unique IP address.

It would be the nice thing to do to inform those keeping up these blacklists whenever the owner changes. Maybe they do. Or maybe they’ll do it on your behalf if you ask.