I can't even read the link in OP, but support for joining the US is even lower. (The headline is about the EU, the European Union)
Support for US statehood is at about 10%, and there's heavy overlap with antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists. The rest of us are appalled and talking about beating people with our elbows.
Trump said state, so we would (and would vote heavily Democratic, basically like another California). Puerto Rico would feel miffed as hell I'm sure.
No such promise has been accepted to Greenland. I guess you have to be white to get a vote again.
They prefer Quebecois (pronounced -wa) or Quebecers.
Brazil... Yeah, that's one to perma-waitlist along with Bosnia, probably. TBF they both could be strong members eventually.
AFAIK the oil pipelines are the main barrier there. Port capacity might be a problem too, but it doesn't seem to be easy-to-find information. The road and rail system is nicely connected within Canada.
NYC alone has a population not much less than our whole country. Quebec would be apoplectic.
If we're doing an uno-reverse on the whole annexation thing, we probably shouldn't go south of Boston.
New York City is built more like a European city than every other American city, as of last I checked. I presume Buffalo is typical, though.
So is it possible the blood-brain barrier is designed to trap nanoparticles? They do exist in nature.
Like what? If you're building an airplane or a sewer main all substitutes are inferior. The problem is that we're using the ultra-permanent wonder material for, like, candy wrappers.
I've definitely seen AI get into loops personally. From what you're saying it sounds like they've added restrictions on reusing words to try and solve that.
Plastic also has the benefit that it's really easy to make in whatever shape with injection molding, and is totally permanent, which if you don't care about disposal is great.
Meanwhile, making stuff out of a sheet of paper is a manufacturing challenge that has resulted in creative solutions like corrugation, and the container might seep through or soften or something.
There's a thing called extended producer responsibility which basically is the idea of making disposal not free anymore for the manufacturer.
Not very well. Those long molecules break down into shorter segments every time they're recycled, which makes for an inferior and eventually useless product. Some plastics are also thermoset and can't ever be melted again, and some are just hard to recycle for other reasons and get picked out and landfilled. The whole idea of plastics recycling is basically greenwashing on a massive scale; the industry put a lot of money into promoting it to avoid scrutiny.
That being said, they're also permanent in the good way. Plastics don't biodegrade or erode. If you bury a plastic pipe in the ground, it may well still be there and intact in a million years. Anything natural will rot long before that, common metals will corrode, and concrete usually has metal rebar that pulls it apart as it corrodes. Plastic is also lightweight, which ceramics (stone-like materials) and metals are not, while still being strong under tension like metals.
Sunlight does slowly break down many plastics, but only into ever-smaller particles, which is where the microplastics in OP come from.