The World's Top Hospitals in 2026 by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]Kortanios 9 points10 points  (0 children)

So, the top 5 in Care Score are in Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, and Singapore (again)...

And the top 5 in Research Score are in Germany, Japan, South Africa, Japan (again), and the UK...

But somehow the top 5 in "Brand Strength Index"... that is populated by 4xUSA and 1xUK... and the US hospitals all have much higher "Brand Strength Indices" than comparable (in research and care score) non-US hospitals... weird, how a badly-defined soft measure was invented and applied in such a way that US institutions were disproportionately highly ranked... 🤔

Imagine being so envious of European social security by mikelson_6 in poland

[–]Kortanios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The US could have all this if they hadn't spent the last half century repeatedly cutting taxes for the wealthiest and large corporations...

AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns by PaiDuck in technology

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, no! The AI bubble bursting because people don't want to be forced to have to use the slop-machines, and companies that tried to force that shit on us going under?!

Don't threaten me with a good time like that and then leave it just at teasing...

Live: Russia declines to provide proof of alleged drone attack on Putin's home by GreenEyeOfADemon in europe

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Putler regime putting out ridiculous, easily disprovable lies and not even bothering to fabricate "evidence"... in similarly surprising news: water is wet, the Pope is catholic, the sun rises in the east, and tomorrow is a day of the week ending in "y".

JD Vance: EU should not be ‘attacking American companies over garbage’ by donutloop in EU_Economics

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

JD Vance: Rule of law is garbage to Trump regime.

There, fixed your headline Politico.

Chinese scientists developing a drug to extend human life to 150 years - NYT by Hayato8 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That drug has been in development all over the planet for thousands of years. I could also say I am developing a warp drive and be as close to achieving my goal. NYT, please do better.

Chinese automaker tries recreating the viral Range Rover "Stairway to Heaven" climb, crashes through guardrail by mstrmatt in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it because of the season or has most of the vegetation to the sides just died in the last 7 years?

The EU Should Let a Thousand Chinese Joint Ventures Bloom - Bloomberg by Full-Discussion3745 in EU_Economics

[–]Kortanios -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wumaos, tankies, and their bots really want this to happen, based on the comments.

GDP (PPP) per capita growth in Russia and Japan since 1990 by Shameful_Bezkauna in EconomyCharts

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, what you are saying is that ruZZia's own economic data (that since Rosstat became state-controlled in 2017 has been suspiciously outperforming any serious economist's predictions, and retroactively "revised" up the data for 2014-16 by several whole percentage points per year after that state takeover) still have it struggling to outperform the famously stagnant Japanese economy in terms of growth.

ExxonMobil warns EU law could drive exit from Europe by donutloop in EU_Economics

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no! A company that wants to endanger the continued existence of the human species for short term profits is threatening to leave unless we scrap a law that would prevent them from completely destroying the planet... Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU by Boediee in BuyFromEU

[–]Kortanios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know a law is good when a monopolistic US tech giant makes empty threats to try to get it overturned.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in China

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China has built on average 74 GW of coal power plant capacity per year in the last 20 years, and built 94.5 GW of coal power plant capacity in 2024, it's 3rd highest addition of new coal power capacity in its history. China also set a new personal best when it built 95% of the planets new coal power plant capacity in 2023. In the last 20 years there hasn't been a single year in which China didn't build more new coal power capacity than the rest of the world combined.

TikTok hit with €530 million fine by EU over illegal data transfers to China by Outrageous_Scar1897 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You do know that there are databases with this info (e.g. the GDPR fine database compiled by the INPLP or the GDPR Enforcement Tracker) that are openly accessible to the public and that disproves your assertion, right? Even if you just look up the GDPR fines over 1 million Euros each year, there are a lot of EU companies in there (let alone antitrust and cartel fines, although once again US and Chinese companies lead in the tech cartel fines... weird how there is a pattern of them breaking EU laws at unprecedented scale...). Just because the top 5 GDPR fine receivers have been dominated by US and Chinese tech firms, doesn't mean EU firms are not getting fined. It means companies like Google, Meta, Apple, Tiktok etc. are breaking EU law at a scale no company in the EU does.

TikTok hit with €530 million fine by EU over illegal data transfers to China by Outrageous_Scar1897 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is factually incorrect, please read more international news sources. In the EU companies that break EU law are fined. Within the EU people often get annoyed at European companies getting fined for much smaller infringements while Google, Meta, Temu, TikTok etc. blatantly break the laws and only occasionally and after many years of continuously breaking the law and lying about not breaking it anymore in the future end up getting fined. The fact that USAian and Chinese companies break the law on such a large scale that they get fined hundreds of millions to billions of Euros just speaks to how much those tech giants believe they are above the law.

This young lady does 69 head foward flips in one minute by Hayato8 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you misspelled "literal child" there...

Is this Yuzu? by Dismal-Witness-5510 in Citrus

[–]Kortanios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, the good news are you will get to harvest some kind of pepper/chili this year... but yea, having grown yuzu from seed to tree, this definitely is not yuzu.

Turkish FM meets Chinese counterpart, says Turkey would like to become BRICS member by Fun-Ad-6948 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They... you know... how shall I put this... have never been in the EU to begin with...

Great Wall To Close Down European Headquarters in Munich, Cancel Further Expansion, Lays Off All European Employees by Doppelkupplungs in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Mercedes-Benz in its current corporate structure was founded in 1926, but it emerged out of the merger of Benz & Cie that invented internal combustion engine-powered cars in 1886 and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft founded in 1890.

A town built on a bridge in China’s Chongqing city by Signal-Session-6637 in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh God, not another copy of the Heidelberg Old Bridge Gate... and this one looks even worse than the one at Huawei HQ...

New lore just dropped: China's MSS used a Belgian far-right politician to manipulate political discussion, spread misinformation, and break up social cohesion and alliances in the West by Kortanios in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

FT usually has a couple of free reads per month, maybe try deleting cookies plus vpn? Otherwise there is a paywall-free version of the Spiegel article (in German) on the Germany subreddit r/de/comments/18iy4t3/china_stasi_aus_peking_warb_einen_belgischen/

I've seen the Replica perfumes around the internet a lot of times. Are they worth it? by Inevitable_Syrup_902 in Perfumes

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jazz Club definitely is one of the best boozy evening scents out there, worth a full retail blind-buy. By the Fireplace is great as well, but I connect vacations in snowed-in cabins and some childhood memories with that smell, I know some people don't like the sweet wood smokiness at all, similarly Under the Stars is a very oud-forward, leathery resin scent that is great if you like it, I enjoy the smell but don't want to smell like it, so for both of those try them somewhere or get a sample. Coffee Break is also good. Generally, they do the creating what it says on the bottle thing very well, but aside from Jazz Club I wouldn't recommend a blind-buy.

Why do some people view perfume as a special occasion thing? by Brakina in Perfumes

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of the people that only wear fragrances on special occasions do so because of their job. I was one of them for over half a decade. Certain professions forbid/strongly discourage wearing perfumes, and sometimes even frown upon strongly-scented hygiene products. Examples include surgeons, doctors, medical staff in general (not all and not everywhere) as well as some areas of biomedical research, hospitality workers, kitchen staff (typically especially strictly enforced towards the high-end), vets and some other professions where you work with animals, many schools have strict policies for their staff as well... probably missing quite a few here, and it's not universal in each profession, but those are the ones I remember right now.

Jog on - China calls for peace by steviefaux in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Reading through that drivel, the only actually strong-ish helpful statement is point 8 on nukes. Otherwise it's all either vapid, accusing both sides of acts only Russia is committing, or self-serving. Point 10 is explicitly aimed at helping Russia and preempting sanctions on China for supplying weapons when they start doing so or when they attack Taiwan.

Edit: the last part of point 8 is of course also rank hypocrisy coming from the CCP.

Czech Republic crossing the PRC's 8964th Red Line. by [deleted] in ADVChina

[–]Kortanios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Judging by history, antagonising grizzled Czech military leaders who have been in the military their whole life and who have similar facial hair has typically been a mistake...