I'm generally not a fan of superhero movies - but I think that Logan is great.

I still find it confusing how people consider TikTok to be a security concern. What data exactly is it that they are gathering that is a threat to national security?

Yes - and we should follow the most logical people of all, the Vulcans, when it comes to our sexual habits. We shall only mate once every 7 years.

For some people this will mean much less sex. For others it will mean much, much more.

The truth is that we don't have enough unity among even the 'developed' world to establish such standards right now. And global capitalism doesn't really want any framework for which it would be forced to conform to.

How can the 'free world' call for certain rights when they are not even being protected in its leading members. A large section of Americans believe that racism doesn't exist, 38% of Japan's LGBT community has been harassed or assaulted at some point, Italy has a quasi-Fascist Prime Minister.

Cloud Atlas.

The fingers cutting thing is something that clearly drags the film into absurdist territory - I can see how people who wanted a more straightforward historical drama would find it jarring.

Rather than a allegory for a civil war, I interpreted it as a struggle of someone having an existential crisis about not wanting to just accept the familiar and mundane in life. But, rather than finding a new balance that allows you to explore new things, you fixate on burning the bridges to your old life. And ultimately all that does is harm yourself and the people around you. You see multiple examples of that theme in the film: With the sister taking the 'healthy' option of pursuing the new, rather than pushing away the old, whilst the 'idiot' kid loses all hope after his first half-hearted attempt at pursuing his 'dreams' fails. Farrell's character (can you tell that I don't remember any names) has no dreams at all, no capacity to deal with change - and unable to handle things when they inevitably do.

You're generalising quite a bit when you say 'Western Society'. I don't think that France/Germany/Sweden/Canada - maybe not even Japan is going to have a significant problem with the idea of redistributing the gains from automation. And ultimately, the democratic pressures to do so can only be held back for so long - even the best right-wing propaganda is going to struggle to tell people that black is white.

My own opinion is that this process will start by 'dealing' with the problems we're seeing right now with funding for an ever increasingly elderly population. That will take a huge amount of resources just to get us back to the same position we were in in the early 1980s.

Once that has been 'paid down', I think that states will start providing more basic services for free, and reducing taxation, rather than giving money directly. So, there will still be incentives for people to earn, but the salaries that they are willing to accept will be less. If there's no income tax up to a certain level and your water/energy/public transport is provided for free then you can afford to accept a much lower wage, which companies will be still willing to pay whilst the move over the full automation is taking place. On top for that, companies will be able to afford to offer more hybrid work/training programmes at these lower wages, meaning that people can get developed in a skill that has value in the new economy whilst they are working.

The left side of my LCD-1s stopped working less than a year after I bought them. So I sent to off for repair and got a reply saying that they didn't have the part and had no idea when the part would be shipped to them.

I followed up every 4 weeks or so and go the same response - so ended up emailing their main customer support centre. They finally authorised them to send me a refurbished set.

So, the issue was resolved in the end (and my pair had also developed a crack, so it was nice to get a replacement) - just took a bit of hassle.

One thing you always have to consider is that 'forever' is a long, long time. Our currently comprehension of reality and what is possible is limited by the capacity of our biological brains. If we are able to augment them with more advance processing /memory abilities then who is to say that we wouldn't suddenly shift what is possible. Like when the first primates evolved to comprehend the idea of tools.

So, India buys 'cheap' oil from Russia and then sells on refined petroleum to the West?

Edit - Not sure why i'm getting downvoted, I phrased my comment as a question - I was asking?

It would seem to me to be a bit of a loophole in sanctions if we're not buying oil from Russia, but we are buying the petroleum refined by India, using oil brought from Russia. If that's not the case then good.