— Points of failure? With the non-metal frames, I have hit two failures
1) Jersey City basketball
2) late 2015, before I bought the blue from Evershine

Based on the failure analysis,

• I would go for large lens, which can be trimmed to fit into a smaller frame.

— spares:
jolt: The cheaper models have confirmed my assumption that brand doesn’t matter whatsoever in my case.

A related goal (already satisfied) — have multiple cheaper alternatives to reduce the stress of safe-keeping. Needed

• after an unlucky basketball game, or
• after a misplacement, or
• after a drop,
• frequent hairline scratches

However, I was advised to wear each one for at least a few days each year. Otherwise they might deteriorate faster.

— light-adaptive .. (SGD 150~200 typically)
Q1: how important is light-adaptive? Given the 100%reimbursement, I will accept the extra cost. I guess in 10% of the sunny days it could prove useful, but much less effective than traditional sunglasses.
Q1b: (as comparison) how important is progressive? I guess in 15% of the days it could prove useful.

For the pricey Transition lens, better use big frames, so that the lens can be reused in a later frame.

The color change is triggered not by how bright you see things, but by the amount of ultraviolet light directly falling on the lens. Therefore, I think a hat may slow down the change.

jolt: The maximum color change is probably seldom achieved. I guess that is for extreme radiation.

— ear hooks .. Priority is 1) pain 2) protection of lens as over 30Y I won’t always have so many spares 9) symmetry
* sugg: bend the long temples slightly less downward, assuming I will always have some ear hook as stablizer. If you consider the level of security (#2) without hook, it is much lower.
* sugg: when painful, just rotate the hook upward, off the ear
* Sugg: trim
* Sugg: without reimbursement, buy online for cheaper, but unlikely more comfy. 

• — pain contributors
• superthick temple .. /precludes/ some specialty rubber hooks
• overweight frame
• ^^ considering these unique factor, we should consider special hooks for the first progressive.
• slanted angle of the temple
• mask fastener pulling the ear hook forward

— Q: taking a step back, what are the really important things to me

1. eyesight maintenance as I age .. so far not declining fast
2. avoid wasting my own money
3. spares where needed
4. sunlight glare protection .. simplest sunglasses are best for me.
5. ear hook
6. — important to other people not me
7. brand
8. light weight
9. light adaptive

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-Gulf-countries-the-UAE-Qatar-Kuwait-Bahrain-Saudi-Arabia-not-considered-developed-countries-despite-having-very-high-GDP-per-capita-and-high-standards-of-living-Is-it-because-of-being-Muslim-majority has two quasi-expert answer

— These countries are all oil based economies, and they produce little else. Most work is performed by foreigners, and the locals just live off oil income from the government.

— Basically, there is nothing of value produced in the Gulf, from a industrial or technological point of view. There are no autos mass produced in the Gulf. No semiconductors. No steel produced in the Gulf… And that is the primary way that technologists assess how mature a society is. If you produce things of value, then your society is probably industrialized.

Many sites are written by travellers for travellers. I try to be more broad.

https://leaveyourdailyhell.com/2019/06/01/korea-vs-japan/ is very personal and truthful. Somewhat biased as author admitted

• cost of travel – Korea slightly cheaper
• English — both poor
• technology is slightly more important than tradition in Korea, while slightly less so in Japan.

• China invited youth representative from 65 countries. The 65 are mostly developing countries. Many of the population sizes are below 2 x SG.
• most of the countries are somewhere below China in terms of economic or technological capabilities.
• No western-European country. Very few pro-west or pro-US countries (Israel, SG)
• Notably no Japan/Korea. Australia pulled out.
• Many of the countries are former colonies. National language (native) and official language can be different
• Russia population: 77% ethnic Russian

I feel China has excellent expertise and excess capabilities in infrastructure, but the poorer countries along the bent and the road are “starved” of infrastructure development. These infrastructure projects help China import raw materials and export manufactured goods. Without this new infrastructure, the existing trade networks were mostly created by other economic powers, and are insufficient for China.

When China or the colonial powers of the past century build a transportation facility for a developing country, the creator/debtor nation has a privilege using the facility though the facility legally belongs to the land it stands, the host country. China is not taking over the land to build it.

The propaganda is 100% positive, like win-win, but not in reality. There is surely lots of opposition.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2020/02/28/how-beijing-is-losing-support-for-its-belt-and-road-initiative is critical but not completely biased. There’s an audio version.

— naming .. I find OBOR more memorable than BRI. OBOR is closer to the Chinese version. I feel the two words translate imperfectly into English but let’s accept them. One has right to name one’s creations, esp. where substantial financial commitment is backing the words. I guess a lot of other initiatives by other national governments have more “correct” names but not backed by real actions. Xi’s two words are directly translated from Chinese, sounds a bit odd but paradoxically memorable.

• “Belt” … is short for the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” referring to the proposed overland routes for road and rail transportation through landlocked Central Asia.
• “Road” … is short for the “Maritime Silk Road”, referring to the Indo-Pacific sea routes through Southeast Asia to middle-east to Africa

— How official member countries? While Beijing boasts that the official list of Belt and Road participants is up to 137 countries, in most cases the criteria for “signing up” is a vaguely worded, non-legally binding MOU.

China Mobile is not burdened with fixed-line operations. Unicom and Telecom still have to maintain their landline systems. The fixed costs in those systems are big and, all else equal, revenue falling in that business will squeeze profits.

China Mobile has international business in Hongkong and Cmlink countries. At least, this management is making a serious investment.

At end of 2022

1. ChnM had 970 M mobile customers
2. ChnTelecom had 390 M mobile customers
3. Unicom had 320 M mobile customers
4. A distant #4 is ChinaBroadnet中国广电 (broadcasting), probably below 10M