This will never work in the EU. Our regulatory organs are apolitical. They don't depend on the ruling parliament. The parliament doesn't appoint the chairs of the organs, nor does the president. The courts also operate independently from the parliament, other than the laws they pass. There are no executive orders to give preferential treatment to some companies in Europe. There are no shady backroom deals because 28 countries must be kept on track at all times.
Empty threats do not concern us.
It's fine if you're careful. I never got Lasik because you can only get it once and it only lasts 10-15 years until your eyesight degrades again. Then it's back to glasses or contacts. Especially after 45-50 when it really goes downhill.
I skipped Lasik because my yearly contacts cost is 120 €, which over 15 years would net me 1800€. Lasik was quoted to me at 5000 € for both eyes. You could be a statistical fortuity and it lasts more than 15 years, but considering you get used to something it's not permanent and have to change back i figured might as well stick with lenses.
There's also orthokerathology, which is some rigid contacts you use only when sleeping that shape your eyes for up to 48 hours so you see well. They're more expensive than contacts, cheaper than lasik and much safer because you only sleep with them. Alas, i can't wear those because my astigmatism is too high for current technology, but i hear they're getting better with it.
FYI if you use contacts (from https://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/acanthamoeba-keratitis.htm with some extra tidbits from other websites i found while getting informed about this)
Never use tap water with your contact lenses. The FDA has recommended that contact lenses should not be exposed to water of any kind.
Do not swim, shower or use a hot tub while wearing contacts. If you do decide to wear your lenses while swimming, wear airtight swim goggles over them.
Soak your lenses in fresh disinfecting solution every night. Don’t use a wetting solution or saline solution that isn’t intended for disinfection.
Always wash your hands before handling your lenses.
Always clean your contacts immediately upon removal (unless you are wearing disposable contact lenses that are replaced daily). To clean your lenses, rub the lenses under a stream of multipurpose solution – even if using a “no-rub” solution – and store them in a clean case filled with fresh (not “topped off”) multipurpose or disinfecting solution.
Wash your case with solution and not tap water.
Replace your case at least once every 3 months with a new one.
And if you do get a red eye with a burning sensation and blurry vision that does not go away and you use contacts, do remind your doctor that you're specifically worried about acanthamoeba and would like to make sure that you're not at risk, as this woman visited several ophthalmologists every 2 days and not one of them thought about it. The treatment was eye drops. Now she is blind and needs a transplant.
I tried looking around but this humble soul doesn't have much in the way of receiving donations. I suggest contacting him via https://github.com/Catfriend1 to ask for an alternative and if he gets back to you, share it here for other people who dislike paypal.
Fyi the syncthing-fork guy (catfriend1) who's still updating has a donating button on F-droid via Liberapay. It's up to you if your financial situation allows you to donate, but the more of us help the remaining developers for their time, in particular those of us that rely so much on their work, the better off we'll be. Let's give them a little motivation to keep working on this.
FYI2 syncthing-fork (as written and confirmed in this thread) has an import button for your folders from syncthing Android.
ESA is the European Space Agency. It's a pretty prominent acronym. They really couldn't bother researching it before registering their little butthurt group? Imagine making a corporate group and calling it NASA.
This app was incredibly important to me. I don't really understand what the developer was saying about Google Play either. What does Google want from him?
I'll be saving this post for all the suggestions in the comments. Hopefully, a viable alternative presents itself. I've been making a lot of tech illiterate friends reliant on this app, and they're going to be asking me for an alternative.
The math depends on where you're living, but what would you mathematically compare here, available required roof area and roof load limits?
Because the SWH, if put in a place like Cyprus, consumes next to no electricity. Pumps and electronics, but even that is pretty nil if the tank is on the upper floors. So let's assume a mild sunny climate where the electrical heaters of both the heat pump and the solar heater are off. The heat pump requires power and the water heater doesn't. As for cloudy days, with proper insulation, a SWH can keep the tank piping hot for a few days.
Personally i don't see how a heat pump could beat a SWH in costs and benefits over time. Off the gate it already starts at a disadvantage on environmental impact and upfront costs. When it's sunny, it loses to solar heating, as it's free vs very efficient. It probably regains some ground during inclement weather and very cold winter days. There's also the degradation of the solar panel, which happens at a faster rate than the degradation of the solar heater. So i guess in the end it boils down to how bad the weather gets where you live and yeah, do the math. There's probably a graph of bad weather days with a point where the SWH becomes less attractive than solar powered heat pumps. But for Mediterranean climates, no contest I'd say. You require less area on the roof for a SWH.
And this is only considering available roof area/weight limits, because being honest they're both free sun energy. But you could use the solar power/money/environmental impact elsewhere.
I still fondly remember my first perma ban. It was 3 months after signing up, commenting on stories on offmychest. The user was talking about her own infidelity and i told her cheating was wrong and she should just break up to prevent causing unnecessary suffering.
Mods banned me for not being supportive enough. Muted me when i asked about it. Looking back i should have stopped using the website then and there, because it only went downhill from there. At one point i was permabanned off a dozen subreddits i wasn't a part of because i was discussing with anti covid vaxxers about their misinformation and other subreddits said i was participating in subreddits responsible for misinformation and thus, was permabanned from their subreddits now too. The anti vaxxing subreddit didn't ban me, even though i was against everything they stood for, but they were banned by admins later on.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when i was in a news subreddit and a user posted a story with a clickbaity title. I said the title was clickbaity and i spoiled the bait by answering the clickbait on the title. The mods permabanned me and i mod mailed them and said it was ridiculous to ban me for such a frivolous thing. Mods reported me for harassment and admin gave me a 3 day ban. I deleted my account and just stuck to Lemmy ever since, where i haven't been banned even once in a year.
That folks is the 4 year long, 10k karma reddit experience nowadays.
From the point of view of efficiency, solar heaters beat pv. With pv you need to convert the sun's energy into electrical energy, with losses, then convert electrical energy into heat by extracting it from the outside with the heat pump. If you store it in batteries to heat up water later, there's even more losses. Depending on the outside temperature, there's a limit to what the heat pump can do, which an internal electric heater inside the water tank takes over to reach usable shower temperature.
With solar heating the sun heats water, that's it. Not only you can yield energy from the sun more efficiently, this doesn't need complex electronics or semiconductors, so it's also better from an environmental impact point of view.
And it doesn't have to be either/or. In my country, solar heating usually comes as a package deal with pv heating. Some companies are making hybrid pvs. Solar panels become less efficient as they heat up, so a hybrid pv would use coolant to keep them within their most efficient working temperature and extract that heat to be used for space heating, using radiators or floor heating or forced air systems, and/or water heating. Having both just makes sense, since it makes your pv needs (and your upfront investment) smaller and the maintenance on solar heaters is much simpler.
Who would've thought that an industry that disregarded and actively attacked and insulted their viewer/reader base, who gained a fame for 10/10ing all games under the sun and folding to the most miniscule of complaints from pressure groups would end up not having viewers/readers at all ? Not to mention hiring people who hate video games, can't play them and/or plagiarize footage from youtube to showcase the game as journalists.
Let me play the tiniest violin concerto for you guys. Now roll over and let youtubers take your industry.