I'm still using it. I've got nice headphones and speakers that run off of a cable and no interest in top-end phones, so it makes sense to get a phone that fits the more expensive audio stuff rather than a bunch of adapters. Nokia's cheaper smartphones have served me quite nicely
I don't think anyone is saying anything happened overnight. We're talking a fifty-sixty year delay on the events mentioned above. But also, I would want to see some evidence that Africans on average weren't aware of the legacy of colonialism up until the 2010s, because that seems like an unreasonably low estimation of education on the continent.
Besides that, Russia and China also saw declines throughout the 2010s from peaks in 2009/2010. That would suggest to me that something in the 2010s made Africans on average less approving of the world's major powers in general
To be fair to OP, it's "I don't like this specific kind of humour". Which is a pretty normal thing to feel. There are a lot of comedy TV shows I don't find funny or find downright unpleasant, but that doesn't mean I don't like humour in general. Much as this overly-serious comment suggests otherwise.
One of Scotland's most famous castles, Eilean Donan, actually is built on an island. If you go further back in history, though, the people that lived in the Scottish highlands long before Scotland became a country often lived in crannogs, which are the same idea on a smaller scale
I think the geography and history of the region is playing a part here. These castles are at chokepoints, it's just that they are water chokepoints. Eilean Donan sits at the narrowest point between the sea and two large lochs, and because the highlands are basically nothing but hills and lochs the easiest way to get around there for most of history was by boat. I'm less familiar with Ardvreck, but it looks like the waterways are navigable from the sea up to the point of the castle, and the castle controls the best place to embark or disembark.
Additionally, most of these castles were for handling other highland clans and conflicts between the lowland-based government and the highland clans. They weren't trying to stop the full weight of a massed French invasion. On that smaller scale, there's less likelihood that someone will be willing to properly siege you out and even less likelihood that they can do so when you can just take a boat to the other side of the loch.
It's not one or the other. You can do both. The French do. Vote for whatever the least bad realistic option is at the election, and then you have years of time to do the other stuff
Poland is one of the larger NATO militaries and would probably be leading the early parts of a NATO-Russia war. Poland will absolutely be targeted either way in the event of a nuclear war
The United States last week secretly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces immediately used the weapons to attack a Russian military airfield in Crimea last Wednesday and Russian troops in the country’s southeast overnight on Tuesday, according to a senior U.S. official....
There is a Convention on Cluster Munitions but many of the world's largest military powers are not signatories to it, including all of the top five by expenditure in America, China, Russia, India, and Saudi Arabia. Ukraine is also not a signatory.
I finished Tunic yesterday! I had a great time with it. Extremely vague and minor spoilers after this, I can't get the spoiler tags to work so I've just taken out the detail. ::: The golden path puzzle in page 9 nearly beat me, but man what a cool discovery it was to figure it out. :::
An ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Europe on Tuesday that Russia has already drafted legislation to retaliate if nearly $300 billion of Russian assets were seized by the West and used to help Ukraine....
The EU has cut its imports of Russian gas down from nearly half of the total supply to about 15% since the war started, so that's not nearly the threat it once was
I think you may have missed part of OP's idea here. They specify multiple-member constituencies in which all candidates get elected and their power is proportional to the number of votes they get. The total power of the constituency is conserved, it's just divided between multiple electors.
It would probably influence people to vote for the perceived winner instead of their choice.
This is an issue with FPTP regardless, unfortunately
You might be interested in mixed member proportional voting. It's not exactly what you described, but similar in philosophy. It has FPTP elections and then a second round of regional electors which compensate for the disproportionality of of the first round. It doesn't achieve perfect proportionality and is potentially open to abuse by some methods involving puppet parties, but it mitigates a lot of the issues with FPTP
Seeing as you referenced the UK Labour Party you might already know this as the system used in the Scottish and Welsh assemblies
It wasn't actually originally Sunak's idea, this one was Johnson and Priti Patel. So probably not. Or at least, that wasn't the original motivation, I would not be surprised in the slightest to hear that they're moving to exploit it. Reporting in 2022 had said that other places had either been rejected for being unsuitable or had refused to agree to the deal, so it seems like Rwanda was basically just the one place that said yes. Being far from Britain, landlocked, and poor enough relative to Britain to be cheap to persuade (you know, if your idea of value for money is burning it to be a dickhead to refugees) makes it ideal as far as the creators of this policy see it
As an American, I can see that there’s what appears to be a vocal minority in Scotland pushing for independence, but I genuinely have no understanding of how likely that is to ever actually happen. Is it at least in the realm of possibility, or is it more of a “The South shall rise again” type thing? (No offense intended...
To be fair to them, Scotland did vote to stay in the 2014 referendum by roughly 55% to 45%. I think thst there are sufficient meaningful changes in the situation since then that asking again would be fair, but it's important to acknowledge that it isn't based on nothing
It won't be happening in the next couple of years for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, while the push for independence is not solely dependent on the leading pro-independence political party, the SNP, (and nor should it be) that party has taken a hit recently. The former leader, a very effective and generally well-liked politician despite how long she was in the top job in Scotland, had quite an ignominious end to her career. It'll take a while for the SNP to re-establish sufficient credibility and support, or for other pro-indy parties to fill the gap. Hopefully the Greens, but I suppose I must begrudgingly acknowledge the Alba party too.
Secondly, there's no incentive for the Westminster parties to cooperate. In 2014, the Conservatives were relying on a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to secure a majority in parliament. The LDs were quite popular in Scotland, and the Conservatives' biggest rival Labour were popular in Scotland, so throwing the Scottish electorate a bone was a good way to shore things up. Now, though, we have a comfortable Conservative majority which is likely to give way to a crushing Labour one in the next election either late this year or early next year. Polls suggest Labour might even make something of a comeback in Scotland, which they have been largely excised from at the UK general election level for about ten years. As such, neither of the two have anything to gain by offering a referendum.
There's also less of an appetite for it while things feel less steady in general. Making a new country is a major undertaking with a lot of risk attached, and it's reasonable for people to be less willing to take that risk when they already feel like times are tougher.
Prosecutors made the unusual decision this week to remain almost entirely mum about the order in which they planned to call their first witnesses in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York....
The thing is, he wouldn't do it openly. He'd pass the names to an assistant who would make some anonymous posts online and let it go from there. Sure, maybe that can be proven in another trial, but that's too far away to help the witnesses or to avoid slowing this case
Russia isn't necessarily fine with it just because they started it. After all, they seized Crimea back in 2014 and got away with it without a fight. Russia also made a push to capture Ukraine's government in a matter of days at the start, which they wouldn't have done if they didn't think there was a chance of it succeeding. It's very possible that Russia expected this to be over quickly and based its decision on that expectation
[General question to the Android community] Have you given up on the audio jack, or do you still only buy devices that have it?
(Posting this here rather than !askandroid as it’s a quite general question)...
The US loses to Russia and China in popularity across Africa (africa.businessinsider.com)
China and Russia surpass the U.S. in approval ratings in Africa....
One month after launch, Star Wars Battlefront is below 100 players (www.pcgamesn.com)
'Tank of the future': France and Germany sign new arms deal (www.euronews.com)
France’s defence minister received his German counterpart on Friday to ink a deal between the two countries to build a next-generation battle tank....
Am I the only person who doesn't like memes?
Ardvreck Castle in Sutherland, Scotland - George Blackie Sticks (1894) (d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net)
‘They Are Just Pissed Off’: Scott Galloway Warns Young People Are ‘Opting Out of America’ As Older Generations Failed Them (www.mediaite.com)
Russia says Polish discussion on hosting US nuclear weapons is dangerous (www.reuters.com)
Ariel Henry resigns as prime minister of Haiti, paving the way for a new government to take power (apnews.com)
New evidence found for Planet 9 (phys.org)
U.S. Secretly Shipped New Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine (www.nytimes.com)
The United States last week secretly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces immediately used the weapons to attack a Russian military airfield in Crimea last Wednesday and Russian troops in the country’s southeast overnight on Tuesday, according to a senior U.S. official....
Your barren urban sprawl: Tolkien's modern Mordor in the making. (lemmy.world)
Weekly what have you been playing discussion - week of April 22nd, 2024
Russia warns Europe: if you take our assets, we have a response that will hurt (www.reuters.com)
An ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Europe on Tuesday that Russia has already drafted legislation to retaliate if nearly $300 billion of Russian assets were seized by the West and used to help Ukraine....
Has there ever been a political system where legislative votes were weighted by how many votes each legislator received?
Let’s say you have multi-member constituencies. You hold an election with an outcome that looks roughly like this:...
UK passes bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda (www.theguardian.com)
Lawyers prepare for legal battles on behalf of individual asylum seekers challenging removal to east Africa...
How likely is Scottish independence from Britain?
As an American, I can see that there’s what appears to be a vocal minority in Scotland pushing for independence, but I genuinely have no understanding of how likely that is to ever actually happen. Is it at least in the realm of possibility, or is it more of a “The South shall rise again” type thing? (No offense intended...
I understand it was legitimate, necessary even. But I will still mourn. She deserved better. Fuck Putin. (sh.itjust.works)
r*ddit
Trump trial: Prosecutors withhold witness lineup from former president’s team (gazette.com)
Prosecutors made the unusual decision this week to remain almost entirely mum about the order in which they planned to call their first witnesses in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York....
These 112 House Republicans voted against Ukraine aid (www.businessinsider.com)
The House passed a more than $60 billion bill that provides more military aid to Ukraine....
Unknown process is destroying Mars rocks (youtu.be)