SpaceX fans quickly began calling for a rescue mission.

I don’t see evidence in the article of anyone calling on them (SpaceX and Musk) for a rescue: not even the anonymous fans. There is only the unsubstantiated claim. And I don’t see even a claim that anyone other than the alleged anonymous fans are calling on them.

It does use the terms “theft” and “improper transfer”

It is possible that Nexperia breached some conditions of the purchase but the statement of the Dutch Government doesn’t indicate any such conditions existed or that they were breached. The only justification seems to be “serious governance shortcomings and actions within Nexperia”, and their concern that Nexperia might not continue to provide goods and services in the country the way the government wants. I don’t see any indication that Nexperia had an obligation to do so under the terms of the purchase by WingTech in 2018.

To be fair, much of the media and even the Dutch government is accusing or suggesting WingTech is doing something illegal: that they don’t have the right to do as they wish with the intellectual property of the company they purchased, including giving it to others, if they wish. It’s not surprising that many people end up with the impression that WingTech has done something nefarious.

And it’s not that moving production out of the UK or the Netherlands isn’t an adverse outcome for those countries. But they (at least the previous owners) did receive billions of dollars and they shouldn’t expect to be able to sell the company for financial benefit and maintain control of it, unless that control was part of the purchase and sale agreement.

What seems inappropriate to me is that the Dutch government allowed the sale of the company and then seized control of it because they weren’t happy with what the new owners choose to do with it.

Years ago I sold a house. The new owners cut down the beautiful old apple tree in the front yard, turning it into a barren expanse of grass lawn. I didn’t like it. My old neighbours didn’t like it. It was a loss to the community. But none of us suggested the new owners didn’t have the right to do with their tree as they choose and none of us even attempted to sieze control of their property. It would have been absurd if we had.

The referenced article is not new. It was published in 2022.

I’m sceptical that it is the first-ever recording of a dying human brain. I recall significant interest in and controversy regarding changes in EEG recordings around the time of death back in the 1980s and EEG was in use and the issue was controversial for decades before that.

Time to loss of brain function and activity during circulatory arrest reports findings of a literature review published in 2016 and many of the reviewed publications were published much earlier than that.

Guideline 6: Minimum Technical Standards for EEG Recording in Suspected Cerebral Death records some details of early standards, practices and literature going back at least to the 1960s. It is focused on use of EEG to confirm death as opposed to EEG recording ‘of a dying human brain’, but it is inconceivable, given the intense interest at the time, that there were no EEG recordings around the time of death prior to the recording reported in 2022.

This is not to suggest that there was nothing novel in the reported findings, but the ‘first-ever recording’ in the headline is, I think, sensationalist misrepresentation.

It’s not clear to me what the similarity is. As I understand it, Lowell took trade secrets from UK companies without purchasing them.

In contrast, WingTech purchased Nexperia in 2018 for $3.6 billion, according to wikipedia. I’m not privy to the details of the purchase but in general I expect that when one purchases a company as a going concern, one purchases all its assets, including any intellectual property, goodwill, facilities, etc. Note that the article says that WingTech ‘appropriated’ techniques, not that they misappropriated them.

The distinction is made clearly in the quote of a WingTech statement in the article:

“Furthermore, Wingtech Technology is the lawful controlling shareholder of Nexperia, and Nexperia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wingtech Technology — there is no need, nor any basis, to ‘steal’ technology from a subsidiary.”

It says “designed to have high levels of energy density for space-constrained areas”. I take it that if you need more power but don’t have space for more of the lower cost alternatives, then these might be worth the expense.

It’s not a problem. Tariffs are brining in twice that every month, according to Trump. He can bail them out and subsidise them and still have plenty left over. Because that’s how free market capitalism works: with government subsidies and bailouts.

Nothing good comes from trying to appease a bully.

While in the shower, one might think of a question. Is that not a shower thought?

It’s true that intense bombing was done before, but the intensity of bombing in Vietnam and surrounding countries was unprecedented and some of the most intensive of that bombing was done under the command of Nixon.

To call Nixon the ‘father’ of carpet bombing is, of course, hyperbole, but the exaggeration isn’t extreme.

carpet bombing

Carpet bombing

Carpet Bombing

The Most Bombed Place on Earth

Bombing missions of the Vietnam War

20 years of war, 7.5m tonnes of bombs, 1.3m dead: How the US razed Vietnam to the ground

Birds of a feather… You can know a man by the company he keeps.

A peace award from the father of carpet bombing. That’s rich.

I am a little curious how one can walk daily steps once a week. Do British doctors even English?

It’s a long time since I played moonlander. I’m not sure which version but last on a pdp-8 with a manually toggled in cheat code for more fuel, so I didn’t crater every time. Thanks for the nostalgia.

I’m not running your configuration so can’t tell you with the assurance that I have it working but Forwarding ports with firewalld appears to address port forwarding to rootless podman using firewalld. If that doesn’t work for you you might need to clarify what your firewalld configuration is that obscures the client IP. I wouldn’t expect a simple port mapping to affect IP address.

What happened to “A rising tide lifts all boats”?

They may accept the ongoing cost, but that doesn’t make it free. There may be no cash payment, but that doesn’t make it free. Cost comes in many forms. The glib misrepresentation of the transaction is disappointing.

It’s not free.

If it’s a US company, it’s not sovereign for any country other than USA. In any other country, it’s US spyware and theft of intellectual property, from a moral perspective if not a corrupt legal perspective.