I do agree. The monarchy is back long enough that it is fading into the background. However, in Bratislava they are larping Habsburger coronations every year, but Slovaks are different in some ways ;)
jk I have never experienced a problem getting around in Czechia but I have been mostly in Moravia close to the border or in cities like Brno or Praha. Young people can usually speak English well enough to make themselves understood on both sides of the border I think but maybe that's my bubble.
Not that anyone cares but I think Austrians view Czechs the same way that Czechs view themselves in that image. I don't know how it is the other way round, if they hate Austrians for the counter reformation, the monarchy, Nazis or all of the above.
Hey, but we all love powidl, don't we?
Full price at 0 EUR shipment on 1EUR order? By which magic can that cover shipment across the world, no matter how it is done?
Wrong. The micro orders via Ali Express standard shipping to Austria are distributed on their last leg by the Austrian Post, the same company sending any other letter.
Yet shipping can cost as little as nothing, on a 1 EUR order. You still maintain this is not dumping and instead cost covering?
I am talking about Austria because to compare it with other parliamentary democracies it helps to chose one concrete example, you can chose another one if you like. How about Germany, the largest member state. There Parliament's position in this regard is actually weaker than in Austria.
I have no idea where you are coming from but you seem to lack knowledge how parliamentary democracies work if you hold the completely outlandish view that they are on the same level as the Chinese system in terms of democracy.
Back to the EU Commission. Its election is obviously a system where both, the Council / member states and the EP hold power. ("election" is the word in the treaties btw) This is by design. Power is not centralised. It is common in parliamentary democracies that parliaments elect/consent on members of the government but don't choose them. However government with members that are not to the liking of a majority in Parliament won't be elected/voted into power. The same is the case in the EU and there is precedent for that as well. The vote on VdL yielded a paper thin majority im the EP and only because VdL was giving the EP concessions in return. If the EP targets candidates as not acceptable they will not make it into the Commission. Again, there is precedent for that.
If that sounds like Chinese "democracy" to you, half the democracies (ie all parliamentary democracies) on earth are in reality a Chinese style "democracy". Seriously?
Mistral has recently shown a good trajectory of improvement. It is already an important thing that there is a European mid range open weight model that can compete. (Frontier models need a lot more resources, it is important to compare apples with apples) This is good enough for many applications were data security and sovereignity are prime concerns. Of course, it would be good to have a frontier model, lets see how Large 4 will perform when we get there.
The EU commission is elected by the directly elected European Parliament based on suggestions by the Council/member states. The Commission can be voted out of office anytime when it loses support in the European Parliament.
The Austrian government is elected by Parliament based on suggestions by the Chancelor candidate (the latter chosen by the President). The parliament can vote the government out of office anytime.
According to you the one thing is utterly undemocratic while the other is not. ok.
The EU Commission is not the EU, but it is its executive and administration. I f you just kill that, you let everthing derail. Bureaucracy is a dirty word but there without it political entities implode.
Mistral Medium 3.5 isn't that far behind comparable current open weight models.
"Materially speaking is more expensive to send a letter next town than a packet from something like aliexpress."
That is wrong, in many cases quite obviously. Microdeliveries are commonly sent as letters within Europe. So they are literally a letter(coming commonly from another European country) + a consolidated flight freight from the other side of the globe. The last leg alone creates more costs than the entire product plus shipment is purchased for.
Sorry, but if you think this can be done for 0-1 EUR (the latter if we assume the 1 EUR product is worth exactly 0 EUR) I can't help you.
Of course this change will incentivise larger but fewer orders. If the platforms would care about that, 1 EUR products with free shipping wouldn't even exist. They aren't stupid or incompetent. If there is economic incentive for that, they'll do it. Removing the advantage of <150 EUR orders, removes the incentives for smaller more frequent orders. This will do a lot to remove a lot of stress from logistic infrastructure, even if total amount of stuff bought in China remains the same. That's the point. That and systematic mislabeling of shipments that lose their incentive to some extend as well.
Turns out, if you don't sacrifice cities on the car altar and plan for quality of life instead, children can in fact play on the streets. The Netherlands show it.
Oldie but on the topic, Georg Kreisler's "Telefonbuchpolka" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6IzN02CMYA&list=RD-6IzN02CMYA&start_radio=1
;)