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1
DnD Central / Re: What's going on in Scandinavia, North Atlantic, Baltic States and Scotland?
Last post by Frenzie -
Tartu is sending some propaganda out into the world about becoming the "capital of self-driving vehicles".

https://e-estonia.com/tartu-aims-to-become-the-european-capital-of-self-driving-vehicles/
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To start with, Tartu decided to experiment with on-demand transport in the region. Organising a regular bus route in its sparsely populated surroundings is unreasonable. But according to Tambet Matiisen, Head of Technology at the ADL, this challenge was a perfect opportunity for self-driving cars: it is often easier to achieve driverless mobility on smaller highways than in dense urban settings. Combining these considerations, and with the participation of several technology companies, Tartu ran a widely popular experiment between 26 on-demand stops connected by 66 km of roads.

This pilot provided both the city and other participants with valuable information about future challenges before such a transport system could be applied more widely. Mr Matiisen recalls, for example, how they quickly realised that using traffic lights for navigation is suboptimal.

Something like 24-hour buses could certainly be a very good thing in theory.
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DnD Central / Re: The comings and goings of the European Union
Last post by ensbb3 -
The answer was no. Google not required. Not like they need to. Anyone gonna stop buying Chinese products? Got something otw from China right now probably?

Russia has embarrassed itself and China would do no better. Sure a pain. Sure, pointless loss. All just Russia trying to remain relevant. China already is so no need for them to do much of anything. What's India gonna do? Try to scam them with bad grammar while trying to act official?

The US & EU should of done more to shutdown aggression when the Ukraine first asked. The only reason not to is China... There you go. Why would anything change?
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DnD Central / Re: The comings and goings of the European Union
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
You're serious underestimating their ability to facilitate diplomacy.
Hm. Are there any indications of an inclination to "facilitate diplomacy" from the CCP? :)

Good ole Google provides this:
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When did China get veto power in UNSC?
China turned abstention into an "art form", abstaining on 30% of Security Council Resolutions between 1971 and 1976. Since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, China has joined Russia in many double vetoes. China has not cast a lone veto since 1999.
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Browsers & Technology / Re: Best about wristwatches
Last post by ersi -
It's about investment. Must put excess money somewhere. Watches are fine artsy manufacts akin to jewellery, guaranteed at least to hold value in long term, different from electronics, which are guaranteed to halve in value quickly and then never recover from there.

At the beginning of the year I started to try investing on the online platform provided by my bank. Right on time for Americans to launch another goddamn worldwide financial and economic crisis as they did last week. Exactly my kind of luck. The stock/securities kind of investing is non-different from gambling, extremely repulsive to me. Watches are much better. Suppose I become a war refugee like my grandparents, then it is good to have some high-value little wearables to carry along to somewhat be able to start a new life elsewhere and not go totally broke and get screwed several times over like my parents who were not even war refugees.

A few thoughts I have gathered about watches according to their price brackets:
- Below 100 e mechanical watch: probably not a good idea, unless it is Vostok from Russia, Luch from Belarus or Red Star from China. Until recently, also cheapest Seikos and Orients were below 100 e, but not anymore.
- A quartz watch over 200 e: suspicious, usually not a good idea
- A mechanical watch in the three-digit price bracket: Make a perfect pick based on the looks and specs. Get what you absolutely like, no compromise.
- Four-digit price bracket: Research the intestines of the watch carefully before committing to it. The clockwork must certainly be unique and special. Also the looks better be unique, not some homage, lookalike or hype of the moment. Some quirks may be allowed - if you made an honest purchase under warranty, issues will be fixed.
- Higher prices: Grail.
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Browsers & Technology / Re: Best about wristwatches
Last post by ersi -
...and this is where my quest for watches ends. Now I am a legit Swiss watch guy and I have accumulated a small collection of three watches.
Yeah, who was I kidding. This thing can get you hooked. Even me.

For the short while I have had a mechanical watch now, I think manual winding is something to appreciate.
So I upgraded myself to the four-figure price bracket and got myself the current top model by Oris[1] https://www.oris.ch/en/watch/big-crown-calibre-473/01-473-7786-4065-07-5-19-22fc



In this one it's all about the clockwork. The movement is a recent in-house achievement of the brand, probably will be featured only in this model - this model is the first one to have it, released in January 2023. It is manual wound[2] up to 120h power reserve - 5 days, proudly (but entirely unnecessarily in my opinion - Oris has had earlier models with 10-day power reserve) declared on the dial too. The power reserve indicator, attached directly to the spring, is visible through the transparent caseback. Which is nice. I like the power reserve indicator, but I do not want it staring at me when I check the time.

By the way, I did enough research to find the channels and opportunities to pay considerably less than the list price, while still getting the brand new official and authentic item with original box, papers and warranty. The channel is Chrono24 where you can poke around a bit for the kind of prices that dealers deal with among themselves.

I still have all my earlier collection too. Each one of them serves a specific purpose. The Oris will be a vacation and retirement piece.
Last summer in Switzerland I visited an Oris shop. They did not manage to brainwash me to buy one right there on the spot - brilliant customer service culture in Switzerland, by the way - but this purchase now is definitely influenced by the experience.
My automatic watch that I very much like and do not consider selling unexpectedly stopped on me once in the middle of the day. It turns out that desk work can be so static that an automatic watch does not get swung enough.
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The Lounge / Re: What music are you listening to right now?
Last post by ersi -
I heard this band live some 20 years ago. The genre is called "Siberian ethno-rock". One of their earlier albums was called "Yenisei punk".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkLNXybElJA

Russian/USSR regional folk music was not particularly popular or hip, but it was there. Every republic (and "autonomous republic") had at least one favoured folk band. After the collapse of USSR, some of those bands - often less favoured ones - went viral.

Yat-Kha is from Tuva. Also Sergei Shoigu, Russia's current minister of defence, responsible for conducting the war against Ukraine (also responsible for stealing all the tank and airplane gas prior to the war, because he had not been informed that an actual war would start very soon), is from Tuva and reasonably popular among his people. Also Tuva is officially the poorest constituent region of Russia. Siberian ethno-rock and Central Asian classical folk music help me thoroughly disconnect from everything when I want, so that I think no thoughts for days and the world becomes a formless pile of random trivia.