US complaining about "economic coercion" is like Jimi Hendrix telling his girlfriend to "stop acting so crazy".

I'm all for an IRS direct option, but for federal, freefillableforms actually works pretty well. Kind of a drag filling in all the W-2's and 1099's by hand, but there is no income limit and can do quite complicated returns, as we have done for ~10 years, But even though the state form is only 2 pages, there is no way to file it online except by paying a company. And none of the companies will let you do just the state form, we'd have to do the federal all over again. So we file it on paper.

Exactly. "Privacy", "harmful content" and "cybersecurity" are just excuses. What the EU bureaucracy really wants is to control the narrative on everything, by suppressing anything they deem as "misinformation" because it disagrees with their blinkered, narcissistic view of the world.

Or more specifically, the voice of the computer in the original series. A computer voice as it should be, that lets you know unmistakably it is a computer. Only then will I consider getting a digital assistant.

In my suburban area is Stony Point medical park, a virtual moated complex of specialty clinics whose only access is via freeway exit. It is very near neighborhood surface roads and bus stops, from which you can see its buildings and its parking lots, but you can't walk to it without trespassing across someone's yard or illegally walking half a mile along the freeway and down the exit ramp. You can't get there by bicycle or even motorbike, both of which are illegal on the freeway. There is bus service, but only a few scheduled stops in the morning and evening rush hours, in other words OK for employees but useless for patients. In short, you can't go there without a car. Is there any doubt this was done deliberately to keep out the riff-raff?

European heavy industry, including autos, is heretofore hopelessly uncompetitive due to huge energy costs resulting from its sanctions war. Volkswagen for example is revamping its flagship ID3 EV and the new version is priced almost 10,000 euros higher. BMW is moving production of the EV version of the Mini - practically Britain's national symbol - to China, where cheap Russian pipeline gas that used to go to Europe will soon be available. The US is of course the prime instigator of the sanctions, but the US has its own vastly cheaper pipeline gas and is much less affected. That's a much bigger advantage than IRA subsidies. Meanwhile ASML is already losing billions in sales because of US pressure not to sell high-end chip-making equipment to China, but the US wants even more restrictions. Cutting China off from Western chips might delay its tech development temporarily, but it will forever cede to China one of Europe's few remaining viable export industries. At the same time, Europe's other major export, financial services, is being undermined by its rampant use as a geopolitical weapon, again mostly at the behest of the US. The WSJ's proposed grand bargain is just one more step in Europe's transition into an economic backwater.

Because the more politically engaged these target 18-35-year-olds become, the more likely they are to oppose EU policies and support secession of their native counties from the EU.

I'll exclude the Wang desktop electronic calculator with Nixie tubes which competed with Marchant mechanical calculators at the summer job I had with an engineering firm just out of high school in 1968. The first real computer was the UNIVAC 1108 I used in the introductory computer course at Carnegie-Mellon University the following Fall. You would type the FORTRAN programming instructions on punch cards, one instruction per card, plus cards with any input data, at any of dozens of consoles scattered about the campus. Then you would submit your stack at the computer center in Scaife Hall (named after and presumably donated by uber-right-wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife). A few hours later your cards and printed output on giant 17" wide traction paper would be delivered to your assigned mailbox. The center was open 24/7 and often you would spend all night submitting and resubmitting programs for assignments due the next day. And better not leave them till morning, as it was not uncommon to have them stolen by competing students, although it never happened to me.

I'd gladly accept a little less economic growth in return for less development. And surely one home per 2.3 people ought to be plenty.

As the US becomes more and more aggressive in enforcing its own rules upon the rest of the world, it is instead turning the oceans into a wild west where there are no rules. When will we have the US Navy raising the Jolly Roger and confiscating Iranian, Venezuelan and Russian oil on the high seas? Seems it's only a question of time.

Firefox was fine as is, but what I increasingly find is that a for large number, perhaps a third, of e-commerce sites, it simply doesn't work, while the same sites work using Edge on the same computer. Ebay is a big one. If I try to buy something with an ebay gift card, Firefox hangs every time, while Edge works perfectly.

And so future generations will be spared from an experience that is as enjoyable as a root canal, as stressful as a police interrogation and as degrading as a fraternity hazing.

An engaging and beautifully written tour of the world of Neanderthal man, and of the amazing high-tech archaeology that is bringing it to light. The Neanderthals were as human as any of us, is basically the author's thesis, and she makes a convincing case that, at least, they were much more like us than we thought.

Microsoft, Google etc. are always whining about how they need more H1-B visas to fill all their tech openings. Instead of just giving them away, the government should auction them off, then use the money to fund competitive scholarships for US citizens in STEM majors. Imagine how much more popular STEM degrees would be if a student could graduate debt-free, vs. $50,000 in loans for an English degree.

"Reducing the pupil size expands the depth of field" Yeah, by blocking all the light coming through the outer perimeter of the lens! What if you then drive home in the evening with your already age-impaired night vision exacerbated blacking out half the light? And anyway, which is easier, putting on reading glasses or applying eyedrops? Which is safer?