The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) likely was at 49.5 in December from last month’s 49.4, according to the median forecast of 24 economists in a poll conducted Dec 22-28. The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction.
It’s great that these people are receiving treatment, not only because it’s the right thing to do but also so that the world gets an accurate idea of how much damage is actually being done and what kind of resources will be needed to heal from this war and occupation.
The trauma experienced by hundreds of thousands of children and their parents in Gaza will also have long-term debilitating effects, psychiatrists and psychologists have warned, particularly as there are no therapeutic facilities left. Few of Gaza’s hospitals are functioning any more, even for operating on the severely injured.
There are also thousands of examples in the West Bank, especially with warrantless entries to Palestinian homes (most often done at night to instill more fear and suffering from sleep deprivation onto the Palestinians) and indefinite incarceration without charge, sometimes subject to torture.
I think intent plays a role here. If the goal is to incite a reaction or to hurt a population by publicly burning something that they care about, it’s probably not a great to do
One of those things where you know when you see it, but it’s hard to define explicitly.
If anything, it might help as a temporary measure to reduce tensions and inflammatory incidents
It’s worth remembering that no one thinks of themselves as the bad guy. Their reasons for doing things may not be good ones, but there are always reasons. Treating people like human beings goes a long way toward solving a great many problems that anger and outrage can only make worse.
Qatari money isn’t being used to prop up a terrorist organization in Sudan, obviously they’re not going to get the same support the general populations attention has been pushed away from Sudan in favor of Chinese psyop apps and Qatari state media.
American politicians aren’t any different than the general public. They go where they’re led. If they don’t they quite often get run out of office.
Just SUVs? Why not Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bently, or all the other luxery vehicles? This seems pretty arbitrary at first glance. I don’t know french car culture very well but aren’t SUVs more of a middle class thing?
French car culture isnt much different than European car culture in general, for the sake of the topic here. Small displacement engines (1.6, or 2.0 liter usually) and small footprint because of space. Scooters and pedal bikes are super common around places like Paris, tho…parking, gas, weaving through the congestion, etc. However, some of the wagon variants of cars and these luxury cars you mention sometimes have a much larger footprint than small and mid-sized SUVs. Unless overhead clearance is an issue, like in parking garages, i don’t quite understand the reason for singling out SUVs here.
This, of course, is all stated with European sized SUVs in mind that share the same small displacement engines as other cars. Not the giant American sized ones that have much larger engines where emissions issues now come into play. However, all those luxury cars usually have even bigger engines and sometimes the loud exhaust as well…sooo…🤷
Could it also be to do with the increased lethality of SUVs? A study in Ireland shows 11.5% of pedestrians hit by an SUV were killed versus 4.5% for a car.
No law is perfect and there’s always an edge case to provide a reason for doing nothing. This is definitely a step in the right direction to stop the arms race that purchasing larger vehicles has become though.
Bruh, my only vehicle for close to two years was a truck that I inherited, a 2002 Chevy Silverado 1500 LS. I believe it got about 8mpg on average, but I dealt with it because I didn’t have any other way to get a different vehicle at the time.
Nowadays I drive a 2018 Ford Fiesta SE. The difference is night and day. Stops on a dime, accelerates quickly, I can fit it anywhere I want, and it gets an average of 34mpg. I went from paying between $75 to $125 every week and a half for gas to spending about $30 over the same time period.
I drive small cars in my personal life, although I currently own 2 station wagons because of family and pets. I usually get an average consumption of 6-7L/100km, which is not bad at all.
My first and most beloved car was a hatchback that could get 5,5L/100km.
I have to drive a pick up for work but I do not enjoy it, to the least degree.
Most of my friends that are in the trades prefer small vans over pickup trucks. They can fit more tools, better organized, and easier to secure. Pickup trucks are very niche vehicles.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no risen raised vans or with 4x4 traction, which I often require to reach some remote locations, especially with rainy weather.
But I would gladly trade it in for a small van.
Either that or a 1990’s 4x4 FIAT Panda, with a roof rack.
Pretty sure mercedes has some vans like that. I know of a company that build them into off road & off grid camping vans and they do rock climbing, or whetever one would call it, in them. They are still quite long and big but not like the sheer stupid toys that a modern pickup is.
There are, not sure what your qualifications for a “risen van” are, but Ford Transits and Mercedes Sprinters have an AWD variant. Dodge has had 4wd panel vans since the 90s, not sure if they still are, tho. There’s probably other makes out there, but that’s what I know off the top of my head. I think there’s also aftermarket companies that can mod vans into 4wd, but that’s getting a little crazy for just a basic work van.
At least 20cm of clearance from the road, awd capable, with high torque setting for rough terrain and steep inclinations, as I sometimes need to use trails not even fit to be considered goat paths.
Ya, it’d be doable for sure with the craze of all the overland van-dweller builds the last few years. Ive seen plenty that meet all your requirements. But, whether it would be cost-effective or not for a work van would be the major issue, especially considering most trucks can do all that without being a special order for probably less than half the price.
Unfortunately not a lot of demand for such a thing, like you said.
Years ago i was in a spot where i needed the same as you for basically all the same reasons. The old van kept getting stuck everywhere, and then it actually got rolled from hitting a patch of black ice one winter, so it was totaled. These high-top vans had just started coming to market which was great, but I couldn’t convince the boss to spend the extra money for at least an AWD version, nevermind the higher ground clearance or low-torque options. I still got that thing stuck so many times…having a high-top I could stand up in was nice though.
By the power of distribution issues by not ordering more dogs from Texas… We have… Feel good headline!
Seriously. At least 3/4 of the dogs at every shelter I’ve been to in the Midwest have been from Texas shipments. At least you occasionally get stuff that isnt a Pitt mix that way.
Flintknapping is extremely prone to finger and hand injuries, and nobody understood infection back then. Probably everyone was making and using stone tools constantly. Might explain things.
Collard and colleagues first published their finger amputation thesis a few years ago but were criticised by other scientists, who argued that the amputation of fingers would have been catastrophic for the people involved. Men and women without fully functioning hands would be unable to cope with the harsh conditions that prevailed millennia ago.
Sounds pretty fair.
Since then, Collard, working with PhD student Brea McCauley, has gathered more data to back the amputation thesis. In a paper presented at the European Society conference, they said their latest research provided even more convincing evidence that the removal of digits to appease deities explains the hand images in the caves in France and Spain.
Oh really? Sorta interesting, okay, what’s the evidence?
The team looked elsewhere for evidence of finger amputation in other societies and found more than 100 instances where it had been practised. “This practice was clearly invented independently multiple times,” they state. “And it was engaged in by some recent hunter-gatherer societies, so it is entirely possible that the groups at Gargas and the other caves engaged in the practice.”
…
That is not convincing evidence.
Sure, it’s possible. If someone assembled some data that showed that in the modern day, ritual amputation is way more common quantitatively than accidental loss of digits, and showed that they were able to reject some other plausible explanations (e.g. showing that there wasn’t a particularly cold climate in that area that would cause frostbite to be more common than normal), then sure. But that’s not this paper, it sounds like.
Don’t ban them, that’ll just start up a black market for them which way less safe and also makes sure the government doesn’t get any portion of the sales to fund healthcare.
I say slowly ramp up the tax on them, incentiving smokers to quit. The higher price would also help prevent future smokers from picking up the habit since they’ll be so expensive, for pretty much no gain.
theguardian.com
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