Taiwan also serves the role as an unsinkable battleship right next door to Chinas mainland. Its military value extends far beyond its chip production capabilities in order for the US to check Chinas influence in SEA region.
The U.S. military doesn't stage any assets in Taiwan, not since shortly after rapprochement with China and establishment of the current strategic ambiguity. The U.S. military is very careful about both what and who it officially permits to land on Taiwan. Occasionally (on the order of years) there are borderline cases, such as a research vessel with U.S. Navy ties docking in Taiwan, and it becomes a huge thing in the Chinese media. AFAIU, high-level officers are rarely if ever given permission to enter Taiwan; direct military liaisons in Taiwan are limited to lower level staff officers. When this protocol is broken it's a tit-for-tat situation designed to send a message, and doesn't change anything of substance in how the relationship operates.
Anyhow, the U.S. has no need nor desire to establish a presence on Taiwan. Okinawa and Korea are more than close enough for its purposes, peaceful or otherwise. And if the U.S. were to try to establish a presence, you can be sure China's invasion fleet would reach Taiwan before any significant U.S. materiel could make it ashore.
In my case I mostly listen to audiobooks and take notes. My top 3 favourites based on the amount of notes taken for this year:
Creativity Inc:
Fun read about the conception of Pixar Studios and why having a different process amd focus than other studios have led them to create so many award winning films. Ties in to some other books on adapting the process in order to generate better/more creative outcomes that have influenced me.
Immune:
With everything going on this year it felt appropriate. Explains to a layperson how your immune system functions and who the main players are. I had to take quite a bit of notes and read up/look at quite a few pictures/train using flashcards in order to make this info stick. I'd highly recommend anyone considering this book to get the physical book rather than the audiobook.
How to avoid a climate disaster:
Bill Gates explains the key metrics a layperson should keep in mind when climate policy is discussed. I recommend creating a cheat sheet to remember it better. While it felt informative I dont really like the fact that Bill Gates is the author rather than some climate scientist. I tried to reduce my bias by reading some more climate change related books written by subject experts after this one.
I'd like to chime in with my anecdotal counter example from my big corporate workplace. A colleague recently created some graphs showing commits over time, confluence pages created/updated, tickets fixed, ticket turnaround time, code reviews given, and number of features released. All of these metrics made a sharp improvement as soon as our WFH policy came into effect and have kept its pace for the last 1.5 years. While this might not be the experience at every workplace, as far as I can tell, my workplace seems to have greatly benefitted from more remote work.
While this is true from an economic perspective many argue that the true value of the Sri Lankan deep water port is that it allows the Chinese military (officially this is for hunting pirates) a foothold in the Indian ocean, similar to how the US can project its power far outside its border through the use of military bases around the world. Hence it isn't a major concern how profitable the port is, or so the thinking goes.
Building and leasing an oversized commercial port is a kind of expensive plan if all they wanted was a naval base. Last I heard, the Sri Lankan government expressly forbade China from using the port for military purposes and instead moved their own base there: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-china-port/sri-...
So whether the primary aim was economic or military doesn't matter much, since the outcome was an expensive failure either way.
No but they are not entitled to customers and they have the right to express their dissatisfaction. Just as China can threaten Blizzard with no business unless they kowtow, customers from other countries can threaten Blizzard with no business for giving in to China's demands.
How is this an abuse of GDPR? I own my data and have the right to withdraw my consent for a company to store and process that data for whatever reason I want. If people no longer feel like they want Blizzard to have their data they have the right to withdraw that consent. What part of this is "abusing" GDPR? The law is working exactly as intended.
I have a great circle of friends and family and would describe myself as possibly more stable and relaxed than most people, yet I had a similar experience to the above poster. Then again, I was kind of asking for it.
My tip for anyone wanting to try hallucinogenics is to micro dose (~10µg) and to be really cautious about the set and setting.
