The parliaments don’t, and they don’t have the loyalty to the security apparatus that US Congress has.

Either way, this is a distinct and important difference between the US and the EU, and a frequent point of disagreement in treaties and discussions between the two. It’s silly to claim they’re the same on this.

Not “the EU”, but one particular group in the EU. This sort of thing pops up every couple of years, and unlike in the US, it always gets shot down. The current law says the exact opposite.

From what I remember, burgers were usually about 3500 isk, while fish and chips awas 5000 isk. I think that’s about €25 and €35. I’ve seen several restaurants with prices in that range, but I didn’t remember all the prices.

Yeah, the food isn’t bad at all, just not terribly varied. Except for their hot dogs; hot dogs with fried egg, vegan hot dogs with blue cheese, and a few dozen other variations.

“Those of us who”? Dude, you’re here encouraging apathy and arguing this is nothing special. You’re not fighting for anything, and now you want to pretend you’re the one fighting the good fight here?

I’ve been fighting for these issues for decades. Many have. You don’t see us arguing that “none of this is newsworthy”. It makes our news every single time.

You’re doing a poor job living up to that username of yours.

EU law prevents any government from accessing your email or other data, whereas the US demands easy access to your data. That’s what I’m referring to.

But I’ve also never heard of them blocking anyone’s email, and certainly not in retaliation for investigating war crimes.

I was in Iceland a few weeks ago, and hot dogs and burgers seemed to dominate the national cuisine. I expected more fish, but fish and chips was usually the most expensive item on the menu.

I am not the one forgetting that. You are forgetting that the EU is not the US, and EU law is the polar opposite of US law on this issue.

Are you intentionally trying to miss the point? Don’t you think it matters what the law is? Harmful laws are absolutely newsworthy. Your data not being safe in the biggest data platforms in the world is absolutely newsworthy. I don’t understand how you can be so apathetic about that.

It doesn’t matter that they’re forced by law. That just means no US company is safe. It still means you need to get your stuff out of there.

And yes, your data and email can be safe, because EU law requires your data to be safe. It is becoming impossible for international tech companies to obey both US and EU law, and if you want your stuff to be safe, you should choose one that obeys EU law.

Mind you, Microsoft is actually planning to do something about this; they’ve suggested (but not yet implemented, I think) separating their EU based servers into a separate daughter company under a European board. But until they actually implement that, your data isn’t safe.

And your data is even less safe with some other US tech companies which have a longer history of flaunting EU data protection rules in order to exploit your data.

And those laws currently serve to suppress the international rule of law, and to enable fascism.

Why would you possibly think this is no big deal, when you see the size of the deal right in front of you?

US companies are subservient to Trump and will hurt you when Trump demands that.

No, the fact that MS can and will be forced to shut down accounts of people Trump dislikes is newsworthy in itself, and warning for everybody to avoid entrusting US companies with your data or money. If they can do it to this guy, they can do it to anyone.

Doesn’t change the fact that they did it, though. Although “US govt forced MS to shut down prosecutor’s email” would indeed have been more accurate.

The question still remains to whether corporations should bow to tyrannical demands. I think they do so too eagerly and should fight it more. If they don’t, that’s a pretty clear sign to anyone that your data and email simply isn’t safe in their hands.

Sounds interesting, but considering how thick hydroelectric dams need to be to hold back a mere lake, how thick are these spheres going to be to hold back an entire ocean?

I know one example of advertising that I liked: the creators of Penny Arcade had only advertisements for computer games that they liked. And they made those ads in the same art style as their own comic.

Advertisements are good when they’re an honest endorsement. Any others are inherently deceptive and often invasive.

There are also showers that reclaim shower water while you shower. Most water goes down the drain clean. It’s apparently easy to separate that from water that’s mixed with soap and dirt, and send it back op the shower again. This can dramatically cut back on your water use much more effectively throttling the water flow.

As stupid as this is, I see mostly positive consequences coming from this: either they’ll oppose TSA, or they’ll refuse to fly. Both sound like a win to me.