Well, I wait for the real-time monitor for insects and small animals killed during harvesting, in addition to those indirectly killed by deforestation!
Google is the most untrustworthy company I've dealt with. I have Google One, and pay $250/mo for Ultra, which I barely use, yet I literally have no support. They set a very dangerous precedent: tech companies can have absolutely no support, can close your accounts, and can ban you without any way to even dispute it. Facebook simply copied Google once the precedent was set. Although I hate regulation, Google, Facebook, etc., should be regulated! As consumers, our rights should be protected. These companies have immense profits and should allow basic dispute resolution. Their lack of support is preventing me from switching to Google Fi, because my life is in their hands - email, phone, Google Play, etc. Although these are completely separate legal entities, they treat them as one; if your Google account gets terminated, you won't be able to access Google Fi, Google Photos, Google Drive, etc.
Why are you even paying them a single penny if they're the most untrustworthy company you've dealt with?! That seems a lot of money to be giving a company you don't trust.
So what?! This does not prove anything! There are stones all around us, but they don't assemble themselves into beautiful, majestic stone buildings! All ingredients of concrete are around us, but we don't see them turning into concrete and pouring themselves into freeways, bridges, and all kinds of much less complex than living organisms!
So what? We are not really experienced in judging how chemical processes work across (a half of) billion year timespan. Or how can intense lighting and volcanic activity across similar timespans affect the probabilities of outcomes. And so on
Why is this process not ongoing now, then, when there are tons of prefab elements of life, i.e., it should be easier today than it was a billion years ago? A billion years is not as long as you think!
The message matters waaaaay less than the messenger.
Qatar used to be pro-Iran until Iran started striking them 2 weeks ago.
Back when the entire Gulf blockaded Qatar from 2017-21, Qatar depended on Iran [0] for food. Qatar and Iran also had a gentleman's agreement to collaborate with each other to export LNG [1]. Both Qatar and Iran also collaborated with each other to support Hamas [2] and the Houthis [3].
The fact that a Qatari national employed by a think tank that is patronized by the Qatari royal family [4] has published this piece in Qatar's state-owned media is a massive about face and signals how livid Qatari policymakers are.
Heck, Qatar's interior ministry has begun arresting Iranian sympathizers [5], forced Hamas to denounce Iran [6], and taken control of Qatar's subreddit: "You might be anonymous but we aren’t, the mod team is known to the authorities and we’re trying our best to cooperate with them and comply with all the guidelines." [7].
The kind of pro-Iran state that has hosted the biggest US military base in the Middle East for decades.
International politics are messy, as there are too many actors with their own agendas. You try to avoid taking sides and to stay out of trouble, but sometimes you end up in trouble anyway due to the choices others made.
> The kind of pro-Iran state that has hosted the biggest US military base in the Middle East for decades...
Al Udeid and Exxon's stake in QatarEnergy is Qatar's tribute to the US to not be added onto sanctions lists for conducting business with Iran.
Al Udeid Airbase was only established in 1996 after Iran and Qatar began collaborating on LNG extraction in the early 1990s and after Iran helped put down a coup attempt in Qatar in 1996 [0].
Qatar's Energy Minister - who is also CEO of QatarEnergy - is also a member of Banu Ka'b, an Arab clan that still has blood ties in Ahvaz today.
> International politics are messy
I know. I used to work in the policy space. People really overestimate the history of the US presence in West Asia.
The only states we had deep continuous ties with in the region were Turkiye (their military junta was always pro-American and a core part of Operation Gladio) and Iran until the Shah was deposed.
Israel's primary defense benefactor until the 1990s was France, Saudi's primary defense benefactor until the 1980s was France (it was French special forces that put down al-Otaybi in 1979), and the Gulf+Jordan's was the UK then France.
The US on really entered the region in earnest after the 1973 oil crisis but pulled back after the Iran Embassy Crisis and the Beirut bombings which led the Reagan admin to decide to let the French and their allies+defense partners the Israelis and Turks manage that headache (but we'd gladly bankroll any anti-Soviet activities in the region), and we didn't return to the region until the Gulf War.
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