The Falklands have massive fishing rights over a massively rich area. It has nothing to do with a few thousand people and a few sheep. The UK couldn’t care less about the people. Same for Argentina. You don’t fight a war over a forlorn rock. Same with Gibraltar ( as the UK has shown with Brexit. Gibraltar is strategically important for Spain and the UK, nothing more. The people are just an excuse)

Festool, Fein, Metabo, are German top shelf. Virutex, Spanish, make incredible woodworking tools.

You’ll get what you pay. A lot.

I assume you are talking blue, not green

AEG were originally that, AEG. German quality. They were bought by Atlas Copco, and stayed top notch. They are now TTI, which has positioned as prosumer(ish) level, and they don’t make a marketing effort, so they are somewhat rare. I own an Atlas Copco era router that is simply great.

Bosch green are garbage, like Black and Decker, etc.

Bosch should do as Black and Decker. Brand their tools by use level;

Black and Decker-garbage

Stanley-prosumer

DeWalt-pro.

That way B&D doesn’t dilute DeWalt.

Einhell is really hit or miss.

For DIY Lidl has a fantastic lineup, hand and power tools. Their battery ecosistem is really good, and batteries are half the price of Brand names.

Their black tools (Performance) are prosumer level. They can’t go head to head with DeWalt, Makita, Bosch blue, Milwaukee, etc. But they are definitely above The Ryobis, Bosch green, Black and Decker, etc. I own quite a few, and some are truly impressive.

I owned a sign shop for over a decade, so I kind of have an informed opinion. We were 80% Team Yellow, and I still keep a few. Also, the newer generations are just not the same as 10-20 years ago. Most of the DeWalts I kept were made in USA, UK, or Germany. Not usually the case now.

I haven’t owned Makita, but have only heard good things.

We had a couple of Hilti. Hilti is on another level, but you’ll pay for that quality.

It has nothing to do with the people. Politicians and oligarchs wave a flag, as they do in any other country, to stir up the masses, but the whole thing is about fishing rights.

I drive a 1999 Skoda Octavia, VAG, with the 1.9 TDI, with the mechanical pump. The thing, with proper maintenance, is ultra reliable. Doesn’t leak or burn oil. It hasn’t had a major repair in 27 years/400.000 km, just consumables, like a clutch, belts, a starter motor, stuff like that.

Two people I know that have bought VAG cars the last 5 years are constantly bitching about their cars.

Engineering is not the problem here, it’s management making engineering decisions.

The Chinese make generational planning. Western make quarterly decisions to appeal to speculators, not investors.

Western car makers, and Japanese/Koreans, definitely have the know how to make good value EVs, and some do (see Renault and Hyundai). If western and free market oriented Asian makers made long term investment and decisions they would compete just fine.

The Roman’s were doing this 2000 years ago

That is not a bubble, it’s a shortage caused by a bubble.

My father was an airline Captain. He taught us that you only take your seat belt off to go to the lavatory (yep, that’s what they are officially called in planes).

Ryanair is all Boeing 737

Boaty McBoatface was a lame attempt. Google Boaty Mcboatface Blas de Lezo, which was actually the winner.

I have been using recertified, or used enterprise class drives which have a crystal disk info good health report. These have waaaayyy higher MTBFs than consumer grade, as in 10x more, so a drive with 40.000 hr. on it, may have 10x *theoretical *the life left. do remeber that the M in MTBF means mean, it doesn’t mean guaranteed time between failure. Enterprise drives tend to be noisier.

A alternative that works well for me for many things is buying from Lidl. They source from China, or wherever, but through European importers. They have a three year warranty, parts or replacement at least for that period, their branded products meet EU safety standards, and are good value. Not everything is perfect, but I’d say that about 80-90 % of what I buy meets or exceeds my expectations. Selection is orders of magnitude lower than Amazon, Aliexpress, etc, but their online catalog is growing fast.

Tools in particular are great value, they have a great battery ecosystem for their power tools, and even have a prosumer line (parkside performance, the black ones), that are impressively close to pro stuff from DeWalt, Makita, etc…)

The article is clanker slop. It’s mostly reiterative, a clear sign of clanker slop. Clankers are reiterative in their slop. A lot of clanker slop is reiterative.

Europe’s royal shuffling is rife with things like that. Most royal families have blood ties with each other, and historically have agreed to place one of theirs on another countries throne to keep collective hold on the continent.

“The German Kaiser (Wilhelm II), Russian Czar (Nicholas II), and English King (George V) were all first cousins. Their grandmother was England’s Queen Victoria, making the English and German kings first cousins. The English and Russian kings were also first cousins, as their mothers were sisters.”

Colonialism has generally never played nice for the conquered, however, some, like the Romans, and to a certain extent the Moors, Ottomans, Spanish, and others were somewhat integrating, excesses and plunder non withstanding, and contributed to the conquered. Belgian Congo was pure evil.

I have Belgian blood, BTW.

So, because they love cricket, they can’t love basketball? Spain, which has 2 orders of magnitude less the population, is a powerhouse both in football and basketball.

Weir Al’s fans would like a word.