Smuggling of small, high-value goods was old when President Nixon declared a "war on drugs" in 1971. It was old when the US gave up on Prohibition (of alcoholic beverages) in 1933. It was old when King Edward I of England was trying to collect his duty on the export of wool in the late 1200's. It was old when Rome was still a one-horse town.

Bloomberg is supposedly a real business publication - not "Noob Newz, for Today's 10K". When the Western sanctions and export restrictions on Russia were announced, all the grown-ups understood that they were performative politics, and would only add some costs and friction to Russia's supply chains.

If mainstream journalists don't want to be viewed with contempt and distrust by the public, then why are they working so hard to earn those sentiments?

Supply chains are complex, rife for corruption at many levels and giving some understanding how it happens seems a worthy news item for me, especially to understand the effectiveness of such sanctions, and as an educated citizen, either clamor for tighter supply-chain control, or be OK with the status quo, or ask for less control or for alternatives.

oh, dear... i appear to have been confused about what flip-flop chips actually did.

is this an AI hallucination? or just a liberal-arts-major hallucination?

    journalist (staring at his sandals) > flip-flops? you mean like the ones with the strap thingy that goes between your big toe?

    ti communications director > well, no. not that kind of flip-flop. a flip-flop is a circuit which maintains a single bit of state.

    journalist (furiously scratching out some unseen notes) > what kind of state, like state of matter or like in government?

    ti communications director > for example, lets say we need to keep track of whether the state of some electronics is in sleep or power-down state or not. you could store that information in a flip-flop.

    journalist > so the power knows which way to go?

    ti communications director > sure. why not.