Good, I wish NATO would disintegrate and European defence return to the competences of the European Union.

“Return”? It was never really there.

I don’t want my taxes to benefit the United States neither economically nor strategically.

The 5% are not a membership fee that goes to the US. What the US most often got out of NATO was that they defined the standards and requirements, which at some point required American IP and American products to fulfill those. But in the end, the leverage they had was their huge investment in NATO that also benefited other nations; once the American investments end, other nations will fill that void (hopefully).

Restricting such an alliance to the EU would rule out members like Canada, for example

With the small detail that failures in your backyard are in general much less catastrophic compared to mishaps in space

My argument wasn’t against space exploration in general, but rather the democratization of space travel as a commodity; as in as in we have already democratized it so far that the trophy wifes of billionaires can travel to space. I’m unsure of scientific advances that has brought and rather think this made someone money

But the question is – why?

In the end, it’s a huge investment of resources; you can’t cheat physics. There is a theoretical floor (and a much higher practical floor) for what you need to get out of Earth’s orbit. And frankly, there isn’t that much to do for you in space as a layperson (not talking about actual astronauts who are rather scientists) except flex on other people.

I wonder if her ability to waggle her finger helped to get hired or if that even was a condition for hiring her?

Also gotta give credit to her how she doesn’t seem to panic at all and just goes “fuck this, I’m out of here” when the building gets struck.

All the best to the people who didn’t want this, regardless of nationality and faith.

This is the second time I’m reading this kind of logic (about service time).

10 years is nothing for an aircraft. This is almost the best span during its lifetime – when you have the experience with both the model and the particular unit.

To quote Airbus:

As commercial aircraft spend 30-plus years in operational service, Airbus takes the long-term view in accompanying the aircraft it produces throughout their lifetime – enabling operators to maximise performance and minimise costs, while also contributing to the overall sustainability of air transportation.

30-plus. Not less than 10.

It could be bad maintenance, for sure. But it could also be just Boeing again.

It’s such a shitty airline anyways, had bad experience both times (issues because of carry on luggage, name on ticket etc) - not directly to me, but this always caused delays on my two flights, one of which required them to unload cargo again. I only used them because they were the only one flying a certain connection, they weren’t even particularly cheap; but after the second incident, I just used a different airport because I’m not putting up with such a shitty airline.