Takatakatakatakatak

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I have been buying phones and various other electronics on Aliexpress for years, shipped to Australia.

    For Australia, Aliexpress have implemented a system where the required import tax is handled during the transaction. I’ve never had a single issue with customs and there is no further paperwork. It couldn’t be any easier, and there is a level of buyer protection not quite as good as ebay in the medium term, but certainly protection if your goods don’t arrive or they arrive damaged or not as described.

    For us, it is a standard 10% tax on all imports so it’s easy enough for them to calculate and pay at checkout. None of those things you mentioned are an issue.

    The more realistic concern buying mobiles is if your device will support VoLTE and VoWifi out of the box in your country. Bands are generally OK these days because manufacturers rarely make a seperate device for each country anymore - all bands are generally included. The exception is, if you are using one of those weird US networks that are still using CDMA technology.









  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2976712/

    It’s significant. Biggest effect is on efficacy of drug metabolism. There are many such studies.

    One size does not fit all here owing to differences in expression of metabolising enzymes and drug transport mechanisms.

    No, the Japanese are not aliens but they may require far less of a given drug than a westerner, or far more. This affects the likelihood to experience side effects for any given compound, and their severity.

    It’s fairly ironic to make this change for Japan whilst elsewhere in the world with more racially mixed populations there has been a push in the opposite direction: a recognition that you cannot assume the results of a trial carried out on white male subjects will apply to those of African descent for example.

    It’s not just drug treatments either. There are many aspects of medical care which have suffered from a lack of specificity and systemic bias.