I’m not an expert, so take my findings with a grain of salt, but the current scientific consensus seems to be:

We don’t know.

Recent studies suggest that the behavior of spiders is more complex than previously thought. They show behavior that can’t be explained by simple automatisms, such as the development of hunting strategies depending on their prey.

Keep in mind that these findings do not indicate any capability to love or to grow fond of someone. But there is an ongoing discussion about whether invertebrates should be considered sentient.

I disagree with that assertion.

While not in power, the conservatives have shifted their position to what was considered to be the far right only a few years ago. For example, one of their main messages during their campaign was to close Germany‘s borders for refugees, a position that was only supported by the far-right AfD beforehand (and which is violating EU law).

Their main target during the lead-up to this election wasn‘t the far-right, it was the green and left-wing parties. They ranted against renewable energy, taxes on gas, the legalization of Cannabis and such, instead of fighting against the rising far-right extremists.

Friedrich Merz, the conservative’s candidate and likely future chancellor, is an opportunist. If he expects to win something from the talking points of the right-wing extremists, he has absolutely no issues embracing them. He’s very, very different from Angela Merkel.

He already voted with the AfD against the other democratic parties a few weeks ago, which he explicitly ruled out only two months earlier. I have no reason to believe him, if he says he won‘t cooperate with them again.

That really depends on the service you’re looking at and what your needs are. Google probably offers the best all-round package, but depending on your needs, there are often times good or even better alternatives available.

As far as I know, address completion is supported by almost every alternative. At least I don’t know of one which doesn’t support that.

The quality of directions not only depends on the product, but also the method of transport you want directions for and the geographic region your targeting. For example, Google is, in my experience, very good for cars, but terrible for cycling. At least in Europe, OSM based maps generally include far more paths and details, which, combined with a good routing engine, results in better routes. I have made very good experiences with OpenRouteService.

For SteetView-like images you’re unfortunately pretty much limited to Google or Apple. Mapillary exists, but, as it’s crowdsourced, quality and coverage just aren’t all that great.

I think that there’s a good open alternative for most use cases of embedded maps available, as few of them really need StreetView or traffic-based routing. If that’s the case, though, you’re unfortunately stuck with Google or Apple.

I‘m personally very happy with kagi when it comes to features and, most importantly, the quality of search results. But, as they don‘t have ads, it’s pretty expensive to use.

There‘s a great video on that topic by Matt Parker (Standupmaths) which I‘d wholeheartedly recommend.

TLDW: No, terrain elevation isn‘t generally taken into account when calculating a country‘s surface area, though the actual method differs slightly from country to country. Switzerland would be around 7% bigger, if its mountains were to be taken into account.

You just need to learn from big automakers and use Volkswagen!

I think it’s important to remember that LiMux, the Linux project in Munich, didn’t really fail because the software didn’t work. The city had commissioned a study that blamed bad implementation, bad internal cooperation, and bad administration. It explicitly did not recommend that the project be shut down. Unfortunately, this recommendation was ignored by the mayor, who was previously responsible for convincing Microsoft to move its German headquarters to Munich and who calls himself a “Microsoft fan”.

So it’s probably worth noting that the success of such large projects doesn’t only depend on the viability of the software. It’s also very much dependent on the lobbyists the project is up against, especially in the public sector.

This is absolute nonsense.

In Germany, between 38-48% of plastic is recycled (source). Sure, that‘s far from all of it, but still far, far better than nothing.

The recycling rate might be lower in other countries, but just giving up and putting everything in the regular trash is probably the worst thing you could do.

I‘d be really surprised if Apple tried that.

They have to know that it violates the DMA. And the penalty for violating it can be up to 10% of their yearly worldwide revenue (not earnings!) for the first violation and up to 20% for repeated violations. I don‘t think they‘d risk that, especially as the EU really isn’t known for its leniency when someone intentionally breaks their rules.