In Norway e-bikes are extremely strictly regulated: They need to have a power output of 250 W or less, motor output has to be linked to your pedaling movements, and the motor has to shut off completely when you reach 25 km/h. Anything more than that and you need to register it as a scooter/motorcycle. At which point you need a drivers licence, insurance, and can no longer ride it on bike paths. I was under the impression that this was an EU requirement. But maybe S-Pedelecs are treated like normal bicycles in the rest of Europe?

French and UK nukes

You can’t rely on another country starting a nuclear war to protect your country’s territorial integrity. And would you really want to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack? It would in effect render the planet uninhabitable for humans for a long while.

…very little showed for absurd amount of spending

Spending inefficiencies are an issue that would need to be addressed, and spending and industrial capacity would need to be increased gradually.

Which countries specifically at which times?

I was wrong. Sweden was at 4% for a little while in the sixties.

If you think we should mimic Russia, whose resources should pay for our armies?

I don’t think we should mimic Russia. I think we should help the Ukraine defend itself, so that Russia’s way of doing things doesn’t pay off. I also think that we should have a credible conventional defense for when they’re done in the Ukraine and start invading the Baltic countries. In order to do this, spending has to increase.

To defend against a possible Russian threat requires more EU unity and integration, rather than more individual military spending.

Ideally, spending, R&D, and manufacturing should be coordinated across the EU. This is however not realistic. The EU can’t even agree on increasing sanctions. Euro sceptics are the largest party in Germany, France, and Italy. And they’re becoming more and more popular everywhere. A credible defense seems difficult without European integration, but I don’t think it’s something we can rely upon.

We live in a world where governments don’t care about human rights, the rules of war, or rules-based trade. Without a credible defence and a strong economy, you will all be at the mercy of the US, China, and Russia. If the war in Ukraine wasn’t enough to convince you, the Trump administration should be. It’s also not wasted money if you invest in the domestic defense industry. And we’ve spent at this level before without invading people. But if you think it always leads to invasions, you should be even more worried about increased military spending and military industrial capacity in Russia.

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Why do you want to avoid the Raspberry Pi?

Udoo is Italian and OLinuXino is Bulgarian.

In Sweden it’s also legal to sell heroin, but buying it is against the law. /s

Imagine having dual Swedish and German citizenship, and being stripped of both at the same time. Imagine how fucked you’d be in that situation. Can you still work and access banking services? Can you legally move about in the Schengen area? I know my country fast tracks citizenship for stateless persons, but I can’t find a lot of information about what to do in the meantime.

long term support and updates.

Three years of security upgrades is very bad, in my opinion. Google offers seven years, and Fairphone offers eight.

The EU was founded in 1993 and has never committed a genocide, as far as I know.

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I assume that you haven’t watched any American TV shows for the past couple of decades. Nudity and gratuitous sex scenes are a staple of the American entertainment industry.

In Norway we have BankAxept. Debit cards issued by Norwegian banks have BankAxept and an international system like Visa or Mastercard. Basically all domestic debit card payments are via BankAxept. It costs less for the stores, because the fees are lower. And it costs less for society, because the money isn’t just transferred abroad. As far as I know, the same applies to Vipps (our mobile payment solution).