I've been on Firefox for years. Was never much of a problem, but lately there's more and more sites that require a Chromium-based browser. Some of them quite crucial. A list from experience:
My bank's mortgage page
Microsoft Teams - only supports Chrome, safari and edge on MacOs.
Microsoft Office - has weird quirks on MacOs
The new Adobe Express, requires Chrome or Edge
Google Meet - after years google still only supports Chromium-based browsers if you wish to use video effects
Typing this from Sync for Lemmy. Love it already! Feels right at home.
I do not mind the subscription costs for the premium version. Yes, in a perfect world a lifetime purchase would be nice. But this isn't a perfect world. Lemmy isn't a casual game that can be considered "done" once it's developed. No, Lemmy and the Fediverse are new and unfamiliar and it is likely there will be significant chances to the ecosystem and this development effort for the developer.
What's very cool is that the recipe in the paper is trivial. It's just lead, phosphorus, and copper, fired in a kiln under a vacuum. With a couple hundred dollars of equipment, one could even attempt to make this at home (wouldn't recommend with the powdered lead tho).
So if the claim holds up true, mass producing it should be quick.
That said, the lead makes this material not fit for use for a lot of applications due to its toxicity.
But would be absolutely huge if true, and the recipe in the materials and methods is trivial. Both in equipment and materials. So someone else will try this soon, if people aren't already trying.
Indeed, I live in The Hague, just a short hop from the Westland (where all the tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers are from). At least I can say I can get very local produce if I go the supermarket 😅.
Even the "water bombs" (as we call them here) situation is improving. There are some really interesting new producers that actually focus on flavor instead of yield. The price naturally is high, but I'm enjoying Dutch tomatoes for the first time ever.
I live in one of the most light-polluted areas in the world. Even Orion is hard to pick out, and even lunar eclipses visibly more muted than elsewhere.
The main source of the worst pollution is not street lights. Instead, it's industrial pollution coming from one of the largest collections of greenhouses worldwide a couple km. Many of them have growlights on all night long. On an overcast night, the sky is orange and purple - orange is the older technology with modern leds being purple.
That said, i am hopeful for the future here. Between 2012 and 2018 the brightest areas have already become a little less bright. Let's hope that trend continues.
France and dystopian copyright laws, name a more typical duo.