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But... why? Out of boredom?


Makes no sense. As long as you are primarily in your timezone, why take the trouble of converting date/time every time you look at the clock?


There is no scenario possible in which china invades taiwan and "surprise" is involved. In ukraine it took months for russia to prepare at the border.


Not everything is for sale, especially at this ridiculous price. Why would you think the taiwanese people are so poor that they would all betray their country for 100k?


> the taiwanese people are so poor that they would all betray their country for 100k?

You'd be surprised. I'm not saying that all of them (or even most of them) will accept the payment, but there have been multiple cases of espionage committed by Taiwanese military personnel for extremely trifling amounts of monetary reward from the Chinese. Here's just one example: https://www.worldjournal.com/wj/story/121222/8572208

Excerpt:

"檢警調查,李慧馨陳姓小弟在台北市中山區放款接觸軍人,2023年6月李女以新北市蘆洲區瑞磘宮主身分及宗教交流名義至澳門,再到大陸接觸國安情資人員,返台以金錢引誘缺錢軍人。

李女等人要求軍人交出軍人身分證審核後,穿制服拿五星旗拍攝宣告投降影片,呼口號「中國人不打中國人,我反對戰爭」,用Telegram傳送交付影片「閱後即焚」,偷公務文書,交付航線圖、演習時間等多項軍機,收賄依資料機密程度計價,吸收同袍可提高報酬。

張、林、劉、吳、彭、李姚姓及兩名陳姓現、退役軍人涉案,涵蓋陸軍、海軍、憲兵軍官、士官、士兵,最高階為中尉,僅劉獲利15萬元台幣(約4500美元),其他人尚未拿到犯罪所得。"

Translation:

"According to the investigation by the police and prosecutors, Li Huixin's younger associate, surnamed Chen, was involved in lending money to military personnel in the Zhongshan District of Taipei City. In June 2023, Li traveled to Macau under the pretense of religious exchange and as the head of Ruixian Temple in Luzhou District, New Taipei City. From there, she went to mainland China and made contact with national security intelligence personnel. Upon returning to Taiwan, she used money to lure financially struggling military personnel.

Li and her associates required military personnel to submit their military identification cards for verification. Afterward, they were asked to wear uniforms and film surrender videos while holding the Chinese five-star flag, chanting slogans such as "Chinese people do not fight Chinese people, I oppose war." These videos were then transmitted via Telegram with a self-destruct feature. The group also stole official documents and provided information such as flight paths and military exercise schedules. Bribes were paid based on the confidentiality level of the data, and recruiting fellow soldiers could increase rewards.

The case involves active and retired military personnel with the surnames Zhang, Lin, Liu, Wu, Peng, Li, Yao, and two individuals surnamed Chen. The suspects come from various military branches, including the Army, Navy, and Military Police, spanning officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted soldiers. The highest-ranking officer involved was a lieutenant. Among them, only Liu received illicit gains amounting to NT$150,000 (approximately USD 4,500), while the others had not yet received any criminal proceeds."


There are two significant points to make about instances like this.

Finding someone who meets Criteria X is a long way from finding either a Majority or even just enough of a minority to make a difference.

When people believe their action will not make a difference, they pay less heed to the consequences of their actions. People will take money to do things if they don't think it will change much.

There are probably plenty of gun runners who sell guns to rebels that would should they succeed in their rebellion it would be detrimental to the gun-running business. Nevertheless they would happily sell them guns to them while they think the rebellion is doomed.

It's not always that simple though. Significant strategic decisions can involve projecting ineffectiveness to obtain the support of those who do not want you to be effective. Because of this, people have committed betrayals that have turned out to be far more significant than they imagined. I suspect this happens more often in fiction than real life, but fiction more frequently focuses on the significant. Real life produces the significant by having millions with the one in a million chance of being significant.


> When people believe their action will not make a difference, they pay less heed to the consequences of their actions. People will take money to do things if they don't think it will change much.

So in a completely hypothetical scenario, if the CCP surreptitiously offers 10,000USD (or pick any other amount you want) to each Taiwanese citizen who votes in favour of reunification, might we not potentially end up in a situation where >50% of Taiwanese voters accept the deal because each of them labours under the erroneous assumption that he or she is in the minority?


In another completely hypothetical scenario, if trump offers 10.000USD to each canadian citizen to vote to become the 51st US state, might we end up in a situation in which >50% canadians vote yes? Food for thought.


I'm quite certain taiwan is aware of this "kubernetes clusters" paradox and the military has the issue addressed.


I think there's no actual plan, trump et al are just stupid. Looking at how DOGE is doing seems to coroborate this view.


trump and the republicans must really be stupid to trade NATO for russia, while leaving an opening for china to side with europe. If US ditches europe, india/SK/JP and the rest of asia will soon reciprocate.

All this so that US sides with a bankrupt cleptocracy and dictatorship. 1000iq move, I guess.


Europe is not allowed to have its own foreign policy, let alone "side with China." All of those US military bases are there for a reason.


…for now. With the US acting in concert with Russia against Europe’s interest, it’s time for Europe to reconsider whether those bases should stay.


Europe has no say in the matter, short of France using its nukes.


Unless Trump wants to start WW3 the US won't be able to do anything, and even if he did start WW3, Europe would be able to destroy those bases.

The whole point of them was to give the US influence while improving US security. Given Europe can't trust Trump will come to their aid, they won't give the US as much influence over Europe.



Have you ever wondered why the US is able to spend so much on its military? Ever wondered why the US keeps on printing the dollar that's not backed by any gold reserve and other nations still give you real things such as food, resources, goods in exchange for it?

Here's a hint! It's your military. To put it bluntly, European nations and other US allies pretend the dollar has actual value and the US in turn guarantees security and backs the world order based on the rule of law.

Looks like the US is looking to pull out of its end of the deal. That's fair enough, being the world's policeman is sure a heavy burden to carry. I just don't see many people recognizing the implications for the US economy.


No argument from me. I'm not happy that Europe is in this position, I just wish that Europeans were aware of it.


"Is not allowed", lol.


Deduplication can be achieved the same way as in sqlite, by keeping files indexed by sha256. There are also filesystems who provide transparent compression.

Seeing as you need some kind of layer between web and sqlite, you might as well keep a layer between web and FS who nets you most or all of the benefits.


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