Libra

A VPN is a VPN, having a different IP address is equally effective against those things no matter which IP it is. The issue is whether or not anyone can associate that IP with yours, and what that comes down to is how willing they are to give up their records when the government asks nicely (or, even more importantly: not so nicely.) I'm not familiar enough with either service to be able to speak to that, but everyone else seems to be talking about features, prices, politics, etc when none of those directly address your questions.

Link just takes me to a website that says 'Enter your email.'

Respectfully: No.

Sorry, Fable? I'm not familiar with that.

Don't. Even if it's not a cult (it totally is) it's a scam designed to extract money from people. If you just want to give up a significant portion of your money and feel like you belong you're welcome to buy a shitload of weed and come hang out with my friends and I.

Why? Primary sanctions didn't. The US and Europe effectively crashed out of Russia's economy for the most part; they lost access to Western banking, Western businesses abandoned Russia in droves, and the oil and gas sales to Europe that Russia is heavily dependent upon have been significantly reduced. Yet they seem to be doing fine, so what's left?

Also, why on earth would China walk away from trade with Russia? It's pretty clear the US-led world order of trade is falling apart and China hasn't been the one begging for trade deals over here, they seem fine to just write us off and go on about their business elsewhere in the world, I doubt they would have any compunction about doing the same to Europe if it came to that (which I doubt it will.)

Yeah, so instead of sending down divers with equipment you're hauling hundreds of tons of concrete out of the sea, which means aside from a ship and crew which you'd need anyway you're still going to need specialized equipment (some big honkin' chains and winches at a minimum) and tools and such, and that stuff isn't cheap either. Also they're aiming at a 20 year partial replacement cycle for parts that are going to be submerged in or otherwise exposed to sea water which is notoriously corrosive, some of which will be at fairly high pressure (otherwise the turbines will be less efficient), that seems optimistic at best, even if nothing breaks before the scheduled replacement time, and you certainly can't count on that.

I mean I think it's intentional that there's not data on that sort of thing that is collected or made available. There are methods one could use to get a rough estimate; someone elsewhere in the comments suggested taking the reported yearly profit for the company and dividing it by the number of workers. It's not perfect, but it's better than what we've got right now which is just a big ol 'shrug'.

But there is likely someone doing the math, even if they''re just ballparking it and not making it public, because that's how they justify paying everyone's salary. It would not surprise me at all to learn that giant corporations have a pretty accurate accounting of the value created by each employee.

LOL, indeed. I grew up in Oklahoma so I recognize that twang. :P I worked for years to get rid of my southern accent.

If you read the article it includes this line:

The idea is relatively simple: hollow concrete spheres are installed at a depth of several hundred metres.

The pressure is needed to drive the turbine, cause just gently-flowing water isn't going to cut it.

I wonder if that's intentional...

That just sounds like yet another unequal way to divide power, so it's still an oligarchy. Here's a radical idea: why not give everyone who is affected by an entity equal control over it? Why does anyone need more control than everyone else? How could you possibly keep that from being abused to benefit the people in power more than everyone else? This is just capitalism with a little extra shell-game on the side to try to make the inequality seem more just despite being just as unequal.

Oh yes, please sign me all the way up for corporations pumping ads directly into my brain, that's a great plan. :P