Japan’s model of lifetime employment (shūshin koyō) is a traditional employment practice in which workers are hired straight out of school or university and remain with the same company for their entire working lives. Promotion is usually based on seniority (nenkō joretsu) rather than merit alone. Salaries increase gradually over time, reflecting years of service rather than output. And workers typically retire around 60–65 with a pension and other forms of post-retirement support. While it is culturally unacceptable to fire employees in such a model, these employees also cannot leave to other companies or pursue their personal ventures till they retire.

The early 19th-century ‘Luddite’ movement in England involved textile workers who destroyed industrial machinery that was replacing their skilled labour. Contrary to the popular image of them as purely anti-technology, the Luddites saw their actions, including targeted destruction of machines, as a form of protest against economic systems that concentrated wealth and power while eroding worker autonomy. For the purpose of this debate, modern Luddism refers to the violent resistance to automation and AI-driven displacement of labour.

Venture Communism is an economic model where the government (federal, state, or local) acts as the sole investor. All tax revenue above a certain benchmark is pooled into a sovereign fund that provides generous, no-strings-attached grants to any citizen (or citizen group) with a viable idea. There’s an acceptance that several might fail, but also that some could succeed and create impactful businesses of the future.

A supernatural plea is a claim during legal proceedings to the effect that someone has been harmed by a supernatural act caused by another(defendant) or a defense that someone did an illegal act due to supernatural causes. Egs include assault by means of curse, crime caused by possession by evil spirits
Where applied in the cause of a trial it is subject to the same evidentiary standards and burdens of proof.

Several African nations (Eswatini, South Sudan, Rwanda, Ghana) have opaque third-country deportation deals with the US.

While Eswatini, South Sudan, and Rwanda accept non-African nationals, some convicted of serious crimes, holding them in high-security detention with no commitment to permanent residency. Ghana accepts only non-criminal West Africans for onward repatriation.

Ghana's Foreign Minister has admitted publicly that a key benefit of this deal is the reversal of visa restrictions however the other countries cite humanitarian aid, notwithstanding there have been media reports of US financial grants and diplomatic benefits including the reversal of visa restrictions.

West African Countries like Nigeria and Burkina Faso have rejected similar deals with the US

The USD/CNY does not float freely like other major currencies, allowing market forces to determine valuations. Instead, it’s heavily influenced by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), who establish its starting level each day.

This event, known as the ‘fix’ or central parity rate, occurs around 9.15am in Beijing. The level nominated by the PBOC is the midpoint of where USD/CNY will be allowed to trade during the session. The PBOC allows USD/CNY to trade in a range 2% either side of the fix, providing some scope for market forces to determine its valuation.

This is also commonly known as a fixed currency regime.

The Cosmic Bet is a philosophical wager. You have two choices:

a) Humanity continues just as it is, free-willed, with all the love, wonder, and suffering life entails, journeying towards an uncertain cosmic destiny
b) Humanity is peacefully and instantly dissolved, its constituent atoms returned to the universe, and all memory of its existence is erased from the cosmos, guaranteeing an end to all suffering but also to all potential.