But still, what is the difference between a Syrian refugee in Jordan being served by the UNHCR and a Palestinian refugee in Jordan being served by UNRWA?
As a staunch critic of Hamas, and having been long dubious of UNRWA, I think having a smaller organization looking just after Palestinians as opposed to using the UNHCR was always kind of weird. Hearing overwrought pundits proclaiming how only the UNRWA can look after refugees, when the UNHCR is already running refugee services all over the world, including for Syrian refugees in Jordan seems nonsensical.
Why not just dissolve UNRWA and hand their responsibilities over to the UNHCR?
Curious on what Tencent's attitude to the OGL would be. I imagine Larian Studios to be respectful, and it sounds like Larian is the Tencent subsidiary that would be taking over the TTRPG.
I'd be happy to have an "official" Mastodon instance. If individual politicians want to engage with their constituents, they can use any old Mastodon (or Lemmy, or whatever) instance. But having government agencies use a Mastodon instance for official communications would provide some insulation from the whims of capricious corporations.
First computer was a Commodore Vic-20. Second was a Tandy 1000TX. I remember dialling into BBSes pre-internet, but not on the Vic-20 of course.
I can still remember the feeling of seeing my first computer in person. Even in the late seventies it was rare to see even things like Atari 2600's. By the early eighties most of my friends had an Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 400/800, Coleco Adam, Commodore Vic-20/64, Apple II, Tandy Coco, etc. By the late eighties most of the people I knew had PCs of some sort (Tandy 1000TX in my case), Atari ST, or Amiga. Modems were still rare. It was the nineties when modems and BBSes seemed to really explode, quickly displaced by the Internet. Granted I remember connecting to Gopher before I personally connected to BBSes.
I look back on how things changed from 1980 to 1989, and it seems so much more sweeping than 2010 to 2019.
Yeah, with discounts, my phone plan is down to around $24/30 days, 40GB of data (unlimited at reduced speed), Canada-wide talk & text. Granted I'm on the legacy rewards, but even someone new signing up would have got around $29 for the same plan, IIRC.
Also, use Public Mobile referral codes. It costs you nothing, and usually gets both parties (referrer and referrer) a little bonus. Reddit has a PM referral code bot to avoid people spamming their referral codes. If you are signing up two or more people, chain the referrals to save yourself a little extra.
In another world, maybe we would have had a conservative party that proposed a Cap-and-Trade as an alternative to a Carbon Tax, rather than just sticking their heads in the (oil) sands. But that's not the world we live in.
What you're touching on is a fundamental problem with any attempts to solve carbon emissions by "market forces", ie carbon tax or cap & trade. Those with the easiest access to capital are able to adjust their situation, such as shelling out for a BEV or heat pump. Those without can't and need to keep their old 2002 Toyota Corolla or oil furnace until they can save up enough to replace it, which is hard because their old stuff just got more expensive to run.
At best, carbon taxes or cap & trade is only half the solution. For the heat pump thing, I'd like to see a "rent-to-own" sort of scheme. If you can install a heat pump in my home today, and save me 10% on my heating bill, great! Meanwhile, the installer "owns" the heat pump, and the difference in the discounted they offer and the actual cost of power is their take. After some time, they sign over the heat pump, and I get an even cheaper rate without the middleman. Great in theory, but I don't trust "the market" to come up with something like this without specific legislation to support it.
But to OP's point, I have zero trust in PP to actually meaningfully improve anything. I'm pretty sure his entire platform boils down to "it's not perfect, so scrap everything and we'll commission another study to find the perfect solution". Meanwhile, do nothing.
In theory there are also panels and advisory boards for technical things. Of course, the same monied interests who pay the lobbyists also try and get people into those roles. Heck, I would wager a good chunk of the lobbying is in the form of a non-governmental policy advisory group.
Elected representatives don't need to be experts in everything, but they should be able to get technical advice. Unfortunately this is where much of the lobbying comes in.
It kind of makes sense. First I've ever heard about Ubuntu Christian Edition as well, but it seems to mostly be set up with filtering in mind, with the DNS tools and such. Add in productivity software aimed at preaching I guess, and you have a "safe" OS for kids and the laptop hooked up to the projector at a church.
I used to use PlayOnLinux for exactly this thing. It's a front end/manager for WINE. Heroic and Lutris are similar, but have carried the concept further.
I have an idea! The government should provide Homeopathic remedies to every household! I bet they could make homeopathic remedies in bulk real cheap. Maybe come up with a system
I'm ready for my job as Alberta's next Health Minister!
But still, what is the difference between a Syrian refugee in Jordan being served by the UNHCR and a Palestinian refugee in Jordan being served by UNRWA?