There are 2 parts at work. The focus reflex and the blink reflex. The window between them is the dangerous part. If the pulse is fast enough ( a few ms) then the eye can’t focus, and it’s fairly safe (unless you were already focused on the emitter). If the pulse is low enough power then the blink reflex kicks in and protects your eye.

Hitting a mosquito is a hard task, tracking one is even harder. It’s better to use an ultra short pulse, with a bit more power. You can also shift the frequency. If it’s an infrared laser then the eye won’t lock onto it, and will struggle to focus it dangerously.

This idea was tried previously. If done right, it doesn’t take much energy to damage a mosquito’s wings.

Secondly, a laser is only a real issue for vision if the eye focuses on it. With a continuous beam, it would be instinctive, making it dangerous. If the pulse is short enough however, the eye won’t have time to focus and so the power will be safely spread out, even inside the eyeball.

I’m pro suicide. However, a lot of times suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

There should definitely be at least a couple of doctors in the loop for an assisted suicide. There also needs to be a lot more in the way of support for people in that hole. Both the emotional support, and more practical guidance (it’s hard to break out of the cycle when your life is objectively shit and all you can get is “there there, it will get better”).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyonic_antitelephone

Basically, an “instant” communication device can create paradoxes.

E.g.

Earth sends mars a instant message. Mars the relay’s it via normal radio to a passing ship/probe moving at 0.99C. That probe then sends an “Instant” message to Earth.

The final message will (depending on alignments etc) arrive before the original was sent. If the message the voids the reason for the original message to be sent then a paradox happens.

You can make similar things happen with any form of FTL communication. C isn’t technically the speed of light, it is the speed of information. It just happens that light has no other speed limiting, and so moves at maximum speed.

I’d argue they didn’t, they just changed.

There are 2 groups worth noting. Government and private.

Government assassination is still a thing. Israel has used it aggressively over the last few decades. There are also signs that china has too. That’s just off the top of my head. It’s also worth noting that drone strikes etc can fill the same roll as an assassin.

Private has definitely changed. I suspect the high profile assassinations have stopped. Low level ones just had to get a lot better at not looking like assassinations. The ever classic boating accident being a good example.

The change is mostly from improvements in policing. You can no longer just move to another city to escape the law.

It’s also worth noting that a lot of society has changed. It used to be that a country pivoted on its leader. Now, it’s a lot more reliant on formal structures. Taking out a leader doesn’t have the same, devastating effect it used to. Iran being a good example.

Agreed on that. Though in the scale of the UK there aren’t that many cases. The ones there are however, are (deliberately) high profile. It has a chilling effect on the population, without needing to use it much.

They also hamstring the bobbies via the budget assignments. I know a lot of forces would love to get rid of some of the more overtly racist/sexist/other-ist officers. Their budget limits wages however, which limits the selection of replacements. They end up having to try and weed out the ringleaders (to fire or retire) and split the followers up.

The long and the short, most of the police are working class and do the job to try and make our country better. Some are even trying to counter the bullshit rolling down from on high.

So are a lot of scientists.

The UK force has its problems, but it functions fairly well. It also has a lot of people in it who honestly want to do a good job.

The problem is the rules and mandates coming down from the government. (And the political upper management level of the police)

America has “police by intimidation” as its default response. Most of Europe seems to have “police by consent” as the default.

It leads to a different mentality. They might still roll out the whole cavalry, but it will more likely be led by a polite knock at the door, and an initial attempt to de-escalate.

I thought it was mostly a jamming type effect. The memories are often still here, but become progressively less accessible. They then degrade from lack of use.

It might well be that a lot of memories still exist for longer than it seems. Even if not, stopping the degradation, and allowing new memories to form would allow people to remain cognitive and functional for a LOT longer.

Counselling can be useful for undoing, or avoiding maladaptive behaviours (behaviours that are intended to help one problem, but cause other, often more severe problems elsewhere). It’s mostly covering the emotional results but the line is quite blurry.

If your tinnitus is bad enough for it to be offered, your likely experiencing emotional based stress from it’s fallout. Unpicking that, can avoid developing worse behaviours e.g. using alcohol to get drunk each night, to help fall asleep.

I would guess, with tinnitus, you would also want more specialist help. Tinnitus itself is in the brain, it’s very often caused by physical problems in the inner ear. It’s possible to reprogram the brain to ignore the rogue signals (ghost or real). That would likely fall under the CBT umbrella, if not something even more specialised.

A lot of the big building companies, in Europe, treat solar panels as a premium option and so charge a larger profit margin on them. Installing solar, while constructing the house is a LOT cheaper and easier than retrofitting them later.

The panels have gotten cheap enough that it’s no longer a real cost burden, Vs the cost of the house.

A friend had an excellent (but evil) one.

His son had found some more… interesting areas of the internet (aka porn). He collected a selection of his browsing history and sat him down. They then went, video by video, having an open and honest discussion about it. Dad had FAR more tolerance for mortifying embarrassment than his son did. He learnt to clear the history at least.

The 2nd discussion, 6 months later, used the router logs instead.

I’m not sure I would use this particular method. However, it was apparently highly effective at making his kids think things through (for better or for worse!).

Similar mentality here.

I’ve got some basic parental controls in place. They are intended at emergency buffers, rather than to stop a concerted effort however.

The best method is to teach and train. No security is going to be invincible, without being very problematic to work within. Children also learn fast, when motivated.

This would definitely be mine too. Particularly if it was still jailbroken, as in the book.

In story, it could even cope with a lot of future sight powers. It was only the apex level ones that were on an even field with it.

The only downside is the erosion of your free will. It’s hard to make your own choices when this power is available to make them all for you.

Based on the books you need an exact sense of the place. Not just sight, but smell and feel. The place needs to absolutely unique, in your mind. The photos are primarily an aid to recall.

The tags don’t have GPS. They are basically a Bluetooth beacon. If a compatible phone is within range, it notes it’s existence and reports back to a central server.

Basically, if you took one out into the middle of nowhere, without a phone nearby it would be completely useless. They are only useful when in a crowded place.

My wedding hit full population inversion. It was quite funny watching the few neurotypicals slowly realise the whole dynamic was wrong/unusual. Most of them adapted quickly to join the rest of us weirdos. The few that didn’t were quite out of sorts.

Oh, and my wife didn’t get diagnosed until well after I was. Nothing was wrong. She was no weirder than her friends… Half of them are now diagnosed in various ways!

Part of the issue is that the category of “ebike” is quite large. It really needs to be split into multiple subcategories for regulation.

For bikes intended to mix with pedestrians, you definitely need to limit speed and weight. Europe’s 250W, 25kph rules seem reasonable for this.

The problem most places have is the grey area between ebike and moped, particularly for cargo bikes. They are fast/heavy enough to be a risk to pedestrians, but not enough to be classed as motorbikes. They need some restrictions/licencing to keep pedestrian areas safe, but not so much that they get lumped in with cars.

No problem at all!

I know several people who wouldn’t still be around without the NHS. A diamond is understating it!