bb101

With Facebook's distributed data stores, I'd be really surprised if any deletion was immediate. It's more likely that they tombstone a post. That's where they store a "this post has been deleted" flag in their database. Using this style of deletion, the post and the tombstone would be eventually removed from the data store when it is periodically compacted.

I felt the same way before I tried Airpods. They are ridiculously useful and convenient, and they don't sound bad either. For me, it's a tiny device to use for hands-free phone calls and indulge in music on the go without having to lug another large device around.

When my Airpods die, I'll take them back to my local Applestore to be recycled. Apple is streets ahead of most companies in this respect.

If you're interested in topics such as these, I can highly recommend reading Ian Mortimer's Centuries of Change [1]. The moving type features heavily, as do clocks and looking glasses (mirrors).

One memorable example: thanks to moving type, women could publish views that were, at the time, at odds with views in a male-dominated society. Previously such manuscripts, being few in number, would have been easily destroyed or restricted, whereas distribution of printed books became harder to control.

Books also reduced the stranglehold of education held by the clergy, with women and common folk learning how to read and educating themselves with the help of the printed book. The Bible was the best-seller at the time -- Mortimer quips that it was one of the world's first "self help" books.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20493659-centuries-of-ch...

It's worth watching Al Jazeera's series on the production of the 787 Dreamliner, and related cultural issues at Boeing after their merger with McDonnell Douglas [1].

Personally, I think it's worth taking with a grain of salt as it appears quite one-sided, but the interviews with Boeing ex-employees and head engineers are enlightening, and could go some way to explaining the lack of redundant systems (i.e. cost and time).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvkEpstd9os

This reminds me of the Terry Gilliam 1985 film “Brazil”. It portrays a future dystopic Britain where bureaucracy and the State has run wild, creating various Kafraesque situations, such as repairing your own airconditioning being classed as “terrorism” and a typo on an official document landing the character in jail, with no way out.

A few decades ago this was classed as fanciful entertainment. Now it’s become real life. Scary stuff.

Did anyone play Dune II back in the day? In a world where North America is Atreides, Russia being Harkonnen, the EU is conveniently taking the place of House Ordos (ambitious vying by disparate powers).

Awesome. I look forward to beginning my future supersonic intercontinental flights with a dive from 50,000ft. Will certainly make travelling interesting again.

I've heard that too. From an engineering POV, the aircraft _is_ the wings, and the fuselage is a simple tube in comparison.

I've read a few posts on here about people getting off their A380 flights feeling better sans dry throats, chapped lips, etc. I find that a bit odd, as the A380 still uses bleed air systems, unlike the A350 and 787 which use filtered air. All other factors being equal, there should be no difference between air quality on a 777 and A380. Perhaps I'm missing something?

Unfortunately not all carriers give more space to economy passengers in an A380. Qatar Airways for example, pack the seats in just as tight. I actively choose against A380s for my long flights because the aircraft feels like a flying city as opposed to a flying village. An A350 or 787 provide a far superior passenger experience in my opinion.

What's the end game for China, and indeed the world? One dystopian preview is Ma Boyong's award winning short story "City of Silence", published as part of Ken Liu's Invisible Planets.

One can also read it at https://web.archive.org/web/20120221185906/http://worldsf.wo... and https://web.archive.org/web/20120229091732/http://worldsf.wo...

Edit: added part 2.

Wouldn't surprise me if its name was from Budweiser's What's Up ad back during the last dotcom boom. It was really popular at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhlZoq3niIY

I'm of the same assumption, but I think it only applies to our chats. The value is in the metadata - contact lists, contact photos, locations, connections. I doubt any of that has end-to-end encryption.

Having read the title of the post, and browsed its contents, I went and ordered an autobiography of Gandhi with the hope of reminding myself what real success is.

It just goes to show that a large company is made up of many different people in different departments, sometimes with different agendas. It appears that there is a conflict of vision within Google.

In the Pork and apple skillet dinner[1], they recommend using canola oil, a recommendation one doesn't see all that often. With canola oil having been engineered in Canada, is it an oil of choice for Canadians?

[1] https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-food-...

I beg to differ. An example is Australia. Plenty of national and regional broadsheets, but no purposefully trashy tabloids that I can think of.

I suppose it might serve as a useful warning for readers from other countries, especially if their country doesn't have tabloids of their own. I would say most people in the UK know to take news from certain publications with a grain of salt, but it can be far from obvious for others.

Bloomberg do this with the staff in their Paris office, or at least used to a few years ago. Not on helicopters, but on trains from London. Labour rules can become flexible when your staff arrive from another country on Monday mornings.

Or worse, one just needs to be within 3 metres of the machine. [1]

[1] "Dyson Airblades 'spread germs 1,300 times more than paper towels'" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/13/dyson-airblades-...

I agree. When our cleaner started with us, we had the latest Dyson vacuum. We asked what she would prefer and she asked for a Miele. The Miele is still going strong ten years later, whereas the Dyson broke sometime after its second repair (lots and lots of brittle plastic).

Gattaca here we come: "Sequence this strand of hair for me will you?"

I use Instagram like I imagine others use Pinterest or browse lifestyle magazines. Subscribe to a few nice cooking, travel and photography feeds and open it once a week or so for inspiration.

I would never consider posting my own photos on there, the same way I wouldn't consider mailing my own article to a magazine.

> If you make a mistake, another mistake, there is a very severe possibility that you’re both going to get shot. Do you understand?” Sgt. Charles Langley yells before telling Shaver to “shut up.”

> “If you move, we’re going to consider that a threat and we are going to deal with it and you may not survive it,” Langley says.

> “You do that again, we’re shooting you, do you understand?” Langley yells.

> “Please do not shoot me,” Shaver begs, his hands up straight in the air.

> At the officer’s command, Shaver then crawls down the hallway, sobbing. At one point, he reaches back — possibly to pull up his shorts — and Brailsford opens fire, striking Shaver five times.

> According to the police report, Brailsford was carrying an AR-15 rifle with the phrase “You’re F—ed” etched into the weapon. The police report also said the “shots were fired so rapidly that in watching the video at regular speed, one cannot count them.”

So a bully psychologically tortures his victim, kills him and in the end, is acquitted of murder... The mind boggles.

Interestingly, peanut butter is near the bottom of the scale for being insulinogenic (the food insulin index). That means it's less likely to be put away as fat according to The Personalized Diet by Drs Segal and Elinav [1]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1478918802

From a mobile perspective, I used to be heavily invested in the Android ecosystem. Now I use an iPhone and and willingly hand over my Apple tax every few years and will continue to do so whilst I can afford it.

Google's direction is a pity really, as Apple needs a strong competitor in the mobile market to maintain innovation momentum.

I was in exactly the same camp as you a year ago. Then I played with a hand-me-down iPhone 6s and couldn't believe how much more pleasant it was to use iOS than to use Android (Nougat at the time). Having owned an iPhone 3G and 5, my memories were of a restrictive OS and a dumb Siri but both have really has come along since. I made the switch and can't imagine going back to Android now.

The Arabs had translated many Greek and Roman works into Arabic, and then these were translated back into Latin by monks hundreds of years later during the time of the crusades.

So not the original works, but not anecdotal either.

https://aeon.co/ideas/arabic-translators-did-far-more-than-j... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Clas...

For anyone interested in this, the Roman Empire series on Netflix is very good. Presented in a mini-series format, the primary characters, events and dates end up sticking in one's mind. Crassus's death at the hands of the Parthians is particularly brutal but some may say he deserved it after crucifying 6,000 men, one every 10 yards, on the road to Rome.