This is an astroturfing article meant to hypnotize the reader into thinking fiat currency controlled by private banks is a good thing. Its purpose was to normalize this idea of money and grease the tracks for the Federal Reserve Act that would be rammed through congress a few months later.
Please enlighten us, what are the health benefits of swallowing sodium silicofluoride and hydrofluorosilicic acid?
Edit: Just to be clear, you shouldn't assume that my comment being gray means it was unanimously downvoted. I saw it losing three points for every two gained, meaning roughly 40% of HN shares my curiosity.
They lower human fertility and reduce human resistance to mind control and communist propaganda.~
But seriously, the fluoride (F-) replaces hydroxide (OH-) in an apatite matrix--as one might fight in tooth enamel--and makes it less soluble in water and more resistant to acid attack. A small quantity strengthens teeth, especially in children. Larger quantities, as may occur in naturally fluoridated water, can produce white spots on the teeth, which is dental fluorosis.
There is little benefit for adult teeth. As apatite is also found in the bones, fluoride will replace hydroxide there, too, which can result in skeletal fluorosis. As bones are not generally exposed to acids, there is no benefit, and the fluoridated portions create harder, more brittle spots, which can interfere with the normal self-repair mechanisms of the skeleton.
As a society, we have determined that fewer dental caries in younger people are worth more brittle bones in older people. But we also decided that we want to do the cavity thing really cheaply, because who wants to pay for some dentist to treat all kids' teeth manually when we could just add cheap chemicals to the drinking water?
Replying to the phrase "anti fluoride in the water" with the specific chemicals that are added to the water while pretending to have no clue why they're there is more like something a conspiracy theorist would do.
Apple's latest Magic Keyboard is an atrocious piece of garbage whose keys are so sensitive that they trigger when you breathe on them. Apparently Tim Cook thought it would be a good idea to make this the only keyboard you can buy from Apple and cancel the old model that humans could actually use. I bought one of the older ones from Amazon and now I get to worry that it's going to be a counterfeit that phones all my keystrokes home to China. Nice world we're building here.
Teams are spontaneously disbanded and their projects are moved to other countries because it prevents people who share the same allegiance or ideology that runs counter to Google's from conspiring to hide "accidental" exploitable bugs in the code which could later be used to damage the company. The project gets audited by the next team's fresh eyes and if an exploit is found then it is patched and can be traced back to the moles who can then be monitored or fired. Rinse and repeat until launch.
I can't tell whether the people in this thread claiming this will be the downfall of China are serious. Do you really believe that, or do you just want it to be true because you're afraid of China?
Probably both. Everyone, including and especially China's own citizens, should be very afraid of the current regime and its path towards a surveillance state. I don't think anyone in this thread actually expects China to fall within a few years, but it isn't unjustified to believe that this will be the downfall of China, and that we should be very worried about an upcoming war.
A Chinese civil war would spill all over the place. Look at the chaos surrounding the Syrian civil war and scale it up by at least an order of magnitude. A billion refugees trying to flee across the borders mostly in the east (where population densities are highest) would turn the surrounding countries into giant refugee camps, unless they somehow manage to close their borders.
North Korea is so fragile that it would follow shortly thereafter. South Korea (a US ally) would have a huge mess on their hands.
Japan (another US ally) has got an ocean to protect it, but given the huge shipping volume in the region, shiploads of refugees would try crossing anyway.
So that means that the US would have even more reason to intervene than in other conflicts.
I don't know how much Russia cares about it's eastern territory, but it's unlikely they'd sit around doing nothing.
By now there are 4 countries with nuclear weapons involved, and I haven't even mentioned India and Pakistan, who usually don't appear to be the interventionist type, but they have a common border with China. Who knows how they might react.
Basically, any war involving China is bound to be WW3 levels of bad.
Personally I'm afraid it could result in China attempting an invasion of Taiwan. This could lead to war between the US (as well as other countries) and China.
I doubt the US would actually go to war with China for an invasion of Taiwan. We happily gave Taiwan’s UN seat to China to establish relations and no longer have official relations with Taiwan at all. I don’t think we’d sacrifice the relationship with our largest trading partner over Taiwan. Nor do I think our politicians would sign up for a war against China except in the face of an existential threat.
I doubt the US would not actually go to war with China over an invasion of Taiwan. At the very least, there would be huge consequences in the very quick remilitarization of Japan and the start of a new cold war.
Remember that time the US went to war with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine?
An invasion of Taiwan would likely garner a similar response. Heightened tensions, international sanctions that don’t seem to do much, and yes, increased military presence in nearby allies. Outright war would be costly and endless and frankly unwinnable.
I don't think that the two are really that comparable. The US is much better equipped to help thwart a Chinese invasion of Taiwan than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion would be very far from an easy operation or even a sure win. And even ignoring America's historical support of Taiwan against China, if China were to successfully invade Taiwan, it would change the security situation of the area to such a degree that even military brass would be vary wary to not take a stand.
> Outright war would be costly and endless and frankly unwinnable.
I'm not sure why you think this is the case. If the US were to try to invade China, then yeah it would basically be unwinnable. But why would the US do that? They would only be trying to contain them. If they could help thwart and invasion and then shutdown the Chinese navy, then they would basically already have won by any reasonable measure.
Not comparable at all. Protecting Taiwan has been a foundational element of American foreign policy. A Chinese invasion would signal to the world a huge shift in power and would effectively be the end of US dominance over the world stage.
It would be a shift, not an end. The world is essentially dividing itself up into the three regions described in 1984, to an almost eerie extent. The US will maintain its own power base through increased control over North and South America.
The only chance that would trigger China invading Taiwan is that it declares to be an fully independent country, in which case China will probably do so at any cost, even if it means full scale war with U.S. Will U.S. be ready for that?
The U.S. doesn't have much history promising Ukraine defense as it was part of the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. In contrast, Taiwan was practically there since 1949.
Taiwan's economy is multiple times the size of Ukraine's and is comparable to the likes of Saudi Arabia. To not defend Taiwan would send a very bad signal to all American allies that unless you're worth more than Taiwan, we'll sell you out. Assuming China continues to grow more powerful, this also means South Korea would be in danger as well. This is not even accounting the fact that if China controls Taiwan, China will control a majority of sea lanes to Korea and Japan. If she wished then she could interfere with oil supplies to those countries.
Plus the U.S. already goes great lengths to restrict China from acquiring U.S. technology, much of which has supply lines and partners in Taiwan. Letting China take Taiwan would mean a massive change unless you think we'll just accept that every Taiwanese company now will be forced to put backdoors for the Chinese.
In our highly globalized world. A civil war in China, India, Europe, Russia, or America is almost guaranteed to spill out due vast amount of global resources already being fought over in light skirmishes, proxy wars, and shows of power at various borders.
In China's specific case, India and China are fighting over borders. China and the US (allies) are running into issues over resources in the South China Sea. Also Russia and the US both are increasingly their navy presence in the Pacific. It's a powder keg waiting to go off for sure.
Doesn't seem to me this is a step towards China growing into the preeminent power. More like a small step toward autocratic rule and a cult of personality.
Xi is a fine leader — I don't believe problems would start with him. More so his successor who may have decades of rule.
Yes, this is the story everywhere. It all works this way, until you get old, and your kids think they have a right to the throne and being a old parent you usually have to yield. Also decades of rules would have weakened most institutions who could likely stop this from happening. Then you use military etc to suppress any dissent. And then you have a dynasty in making.
2017 Honda Accord V6 with the sensor package. I'm not a total luddite. As far as I know, it has no physical modem hardware of its own, based on some online research and creative questioning of different dealer salesman (none of them would knew to answer the most direct technical question).
I didn't go digging through maintenance manuals, however. I probably should.
Some. Some push the same old practice model but with reasonably cheap prices, so they can keep their old patient base and make their income off the slightly higher billings and the reduced overhead of eliminating your billing (read: calling the insurer and arguing) staff.
