Then we can’t know if a country was a dictatorship ship until a ruler dies. Also, all countries with despots ousted and replaced by others, disqualifies as dictatorships.
I don’t like your definition. I’d rather look for rule of law and signs of democracy. Both of which are very scarce in China.
There's something about the colors that made me fell ill to my stomach. The rose color, it's just too much Apple. And I like my rose colored iPhone. What next, Apple t-shirts? How much and how large Apple branding are we expected to flout?
At least the iPods are rather small and the phone fits in the pocket.
Reading from the other side of the pond, heating and electricity in the US seems so fantastically complicated. Where I live, the standard is water radiators for old installations and new. The last 20-30 years or so each radiator has a thermostat. (Bimetal, no electronics.)
That's it.
Somewhere there is a reservoir and something to heat the water. It can be anything, and indeed most older homes have been converted a few times already but nothing changed in the water system itsef. (For a house to have started with a wood furnace, then oil, then electric, then municipial heating or solar or whatever, is completely normal.)
The water either circulates by convection (very old systems), or with a pump. If the pump fails, convection typically still works, just less flow.