Except the assemblers would probably be getting paid more like minimum wage here, which is the bulk of the labour. You'll need a few people with more skills and higher wages for some things, but the people that install iPad batteries would not be making $32 an hour. That's a ridiculous notion.
I ran into something weirder the other day. "California grape leaves", I bought for making dolmades.
Anyway, I later notice it says packaged in Vietnam. I then thought maybe California is a reference to the style, or some such.. but no, it says produce of USA.
So... Somehow, it's cheaper to ship (bales?) of grape leaves to Vietnam, have them packed in (locally produced?) glass bottles, and ship them back here, than it is to make bottles and pack them here. Mind blown.
So... Croats, Bosnians, and Serbs are all closely related, principal difference being religion, a bit of absorbed blood, and a few words. When the Turks ruled Serbia and Bosnia for 500 years, they converted some inhabitants to Islam (this was much more successful in Bosnia, I suppose because less national identity at the time).
So it could very well have been cousins killing cousins, just their great-great-grandparents had different religions, because one converted. (the grandchildren may even be atheist). I suppose fratricide might be a better fit.
Yugoslavia had an odd way of classifying Bosnians that were muslim, or atheists with muslim forebearers, they became 'muslim by nationality', I suppose like irreligious Jews.
If the consumer association wins it's case, Apple could be forced to refund Applecare contracts to it's Belgian customers while providing the additional year of warranty for free.
Wouldn't they have to honour it in all of the EU, being EU law..?
I'm rather surprised they have been getting away with this, as it is. I thought EU was pretty strict with consumer rights, and would deal with it directly (as opposed to this independent organisation suing). Hrmm...
You know, since it is weighted on the value of the offence, you'd think they would index it to inflation, if nothing else.
"theft under $5000" around here, is generally* a summary conviction (~misdemeanor, usually maximum $5k fine and/or 6mo max sentence), whereas >$5k is always an indictable offence. (I suppose you'd call this a felony, in the US).
*in this case (theft <$5k) it can also be tried as indictable offence, but even then the maximum punishment is reduced (2 years) versus >$5k (10 years). I don't think this is done too often, but I'm not a lawyer...
I agree that the dollar value is a rather shitty indicator of the harm done to the victim, but I suppose this is why we have judges instead of a state machine.
Having the USSR try to place strategic nuclear weapons 90 miles off the coast of the US didn't help.
The US putting nukes in Turkey a year prior had no part in that decision, eh? What's good for the goose...
When ex Warsaw pact states are now NATO and EU members, it's a sign that it might be time to relax the attitude to Cuba. (and that NATO has no purpose left to exist, but let's ignore that for now).
I'd call 95%+ success on rockets reliable, no? Less than 2% fatality rate? It's not quite commercial aircraft level of safety, but, well, it is space travel, right?
That said, I can't see them abandoning Soyuz by 2030. I'm sure they'll be running it until at least the apocalypse, and possibly after, at this rate. Kind of like Americans and B-52s.
There's more money to be made faster by having card readers at the pump since it frees "fuel only" customers from waiting for a clerk.
When fuel only customers trudge into the store, they might notice they're rather hungry for a bag of crisps or a drink or whatnot, or see that today's lottery is $X million, or remember they're almost out of smokes... I presume some of these items have higher margin than fuel, and definitely more profit than not attempting to convert fuel-only into extra sales.
>Considering the recent launch failures in Russia, these plans seem very ambitious.
Not sure I see the relevance, seeing as: Recent failures are a blip in a long run of reliability, and They're going to be flying different rigs by 2030, anyway, which may be invincible, or every one may fail...
Not sure I see much point to it, though. Maybe Putin is working on national morale, or make-work, or kickbacks to someone.
Vermont has: 3rd lowest poverty rate in the US. 2nd most homogeneous population (~95% white). 2nd oldest population (median age 40 years old). Zero large cities, low population. Maple syrup. Quebec oozing onto it.
Probably not too many poor thugs rolling around the streets of Burlington, doing drive-bys on other gangs.
Yeah, moderation. A fried egg, couple strips of bacon and some whole grain toast is a fine breakfast, moreso if you have a pear or something like this with it.
Eating a pound of bacon for breakfast is something altogether different, though. Limey style (back) bacon is better too, vs. north america's fatter (belly) bacon. Kind of hard to find here, though.
Opiate addiction is a terrible thing to kick, but is it criminal? Should the addicts be further maligned, 'for their own good'?
The whole two-faced way we look at opiods is very weird. On one hand they are our only real, gold standard pain killer. Essential for palliative care and quality of life with severe pain. On the other, they are 'evil' addictive stuff junkies use, and apparently need to be punished for. Seems like a very odd way of looking at things, to me at least.
Of course education and harm reduction, rehab, is all essential. Jail has proven to be ineffective.
BTW - when laudanum was easily available, back before the FDA existed... was the prevalence of opiate abusers higher? I'm not certain, but I don't think usage rates seem to change much, even with giant clamp-downs. Anyone know?
Yeah, it's a mix of two enantiomers of amphetamine. 25/75 instead of the native 50/50 state, IIRC.
I think the main reason for it not being 50/50(normal amphetamine), or 0/100 (dextroamphetamine) is because the new ratio was patentable (I don't remember if that trick is still allowed), despite the fact that only the 75% portion is the part that is clinically useful in Adderall's application. Recall reading about that somewhere recently. Sneaky bastards...
Hmm, I don't know about that, as I've been prescribed Penicillin V within the last 5 years. You know, stuff from the dawn of antibiotics. (I've also had more modern antibiotics as well, so it's not a lack of them being available).
However, I live in a country that puts health before profits, so that could be related.
On the other hand, I suppose some of the early-gen antibiotics are being used less these days simply because in a lot of cases, they don't work very well. Doctor doesn't want you coming back in a week for something newer because the infection was penicillin resistant, or so. Which of course makes bacteria more exposed to new drugs, which makes them less effective... ad nauseam.
Azithromycin. I think it's 2 the first day, one the next six, for a total of eight, but don't recall.
Surely there are other instances that require longer terms though, in which the pharmacist will give you the right amount (either from splitting packs, or from bulk, I'm not sure).
Odd piece of memory I have is that it was developed in Socialist Yugoslavia, late 70's I think, so it must certainly be off patent by now. And they say there is no innovation in pinko countries.:p
Urghhh, not another one of these FUDsters trying to say that forming a coalition is an attempt at a treasonous overthrow. Maybe you don't understand how the system works.
If harper would ever compromise (you know, something that you have to do in a minority position) there wouldn't have been so many elections.
Bloody rights it is fascist. The group with 39% can dictate something that all the other groups may dislike. In a proper system the remaining 61% can work together on things that represent their common goals.
That way the laws have support of 61% of voters, as opposed to 39%. Even if it is only supported by the 30 and 19 and 4, that's 53%, a better representation of what the voters want. If it's less than 50, you're SOL. that awful bill the people don't want isn't going to pass.
In a proper system, to get an absolute majority, you need a majority of the votes. Imagine that. So simple, and fair. FPTP is a cancerous scourge.
I'd have less of a problem with harper running the show like a dictator if the people had actually handed him a dictator's 50%+1. I'd just be ashamed of my countrymen, is all.
First past the post destroys that though. When you have to appeal to the largest base, you end up with two parties, generally. It's easier to corrupt two parties, also.
GP is saying with a small percentage of the votes, the party obtains >50% of the seats, and thus absolute power (not that they are the biggest party with small percentage, that's not the problem). Not very democratic, is it.
A group of parties with sub 50% of the vote working together in coalition is a good thing. One party with sub 50% of the vote having absolute majority, being able to pass laws without listening to the others is very problematic. This is what first past the post creates.
So in PR - we have say.. 6 parties. 21%, 20%, 20%, 10%, 15%, 14%. To pass something, they need support of at least three parties in this situation, any combination that will be >50%. Say 21 + 15 + 10 + 14 support it, so the law is supported by 60% of the electors, or at the minimum, 50%.
in FPTP, with the same results - the 21% party can get much more of the seats, and have absolute power. (if the results were like this in every riding, they would get 100% of the seats). Evil. 21% can then dictate over the others until the next election.
There are even stranger incidents with first past the post, where if the party that wins less seats wins them by a larger percentage - they can have more of the popular vote, and end up having the minority of seats.
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Except the assemblers would probably be getting paid more like minimum wage here, which is the bulk of the labour. You'll need a few people with more skills and higher wages for some things, but the people that install iPad batteries would not be making $32 an hour. That's a ridiculous notion.
I ran into something weirder the other day. "California grape leaves", I bought for making dolmades.
Anyway, I later notice it says packaged in Vietnam. I then thought maybe California is a reference to the style, or some such.. but no, it says produce of USA.
So... Somehow, it's cheaper to ship (bales?) of grape leaves to Vietnam, have them packed in (locally produced?) glass bottles, and ship them back here, than it is to make bottles and pack them here. Mind blown.
So... Croats, Bosnians, and Serbs are all closely related, principal difference being religion, a bit of absorbed blood, and a few words. When the Turks ruled Serbia and Bosnia for 500 years, they converted some inhabitants to Islam (this was much more successful in Bosnia, I suppose because less national identity at the time).
So it could very well have been cousins killing cousins, just their great-great-grandparents had different religions, because one converted. (the grandchildren may even be atheist). I suppose fratricide might be a better fit.
Yugoslavia had an odd way of classifying Bosnians that were muslim, or atheists with muslim forebearers, they became 'muslim by nationality', I suppose like irreligious Jews.
Yeah, religion is a nice excuse.
The company that made Yugos still exists, moreover, they still made the model that was exported to the US until very recently (2009?).
These days they've switched back to making Fiats under licence, though.
If the consumer association wins it's case, Apple could be forced to refund Applecare contracts to it's Belgian customers while providing the additional year of warranty for free.
Wouldn't they have to honour it in all of the EU, being EU law..?
I'm rather surprised they have been getting away with this, as it is. I thought EU was pretty strict with consumer rights, and would deal with it directly (as opposed to this independent organisation suing). Hrmm...
You know, since it is weighted on the value of the offence, you'd think they would index it to inflation, if nothing else.
"theft under $5000" around here, is generally* a summary conviction (~misdemeanor, usually maximum $5k fine and/or 6mo max sentence), whereas >$5k is always an indictable offence. (I suppose you'd call this a felony, in the US).
*in this case (theft <$5k) it can also be tried as indictable offence, but even then the maximum punishment is reduced (2 years) versus >$5k (10 years). I don't think this is done too often, but I'm not a lawyer...
I agree that the dollar value is a rather shitty indicator of the harm done to the victim, but I suppose this is why we have judges instead of a state machine.
Having the USSR try to place strategic nuclear weapons 90 miles off the coast of the US didn't help.
The US putting nukes in Turkey a year prior had no part in that decision, eh? What's good for the goose...
When ex Warsaw pact states are now NATO and EU members, it's a sign that it might be time to relax the attitude to Cuba. (and that NATO has no purpose left to exist, but let's ignore that for now).
Turkey is never going to enter the EU. It just isn't going to happen. They've been getting trolled for decades.
Besides, the EU might not even exist by then, at least not in current form.
I'd call 95%+ success on rockets reliable, no? Less than 2% fatality rate? It's not quite commercial aircraft level of safety, but, well, it is space travel, right?
That said, I can't see them abandoning Soyuz by 2030. I'm sure they'll be running it until at least the apocalypse, and possibly after, at this rate. Kind of like Americans and B-52s.
Nowadays they can only build 20 year old rockets, and make minor improvements here and there.
20 years? Soyuz is from 1966, and has heritage from the R-7 (designed starting in 1953, a derivative launched sputnik in '57).
So by my count, that's 55 years, with modifications along the way, but the major ones done in the first decade or two.
Russia's fall in engineering and science is rather tragic.
There's more money to be made faster by having card readers at the pump since it frees "fuel only" customers from waiting for a clerk.
When fuel only customers trudge into the store, they might notice they're rather hungry for a bag of crisps or a drink or whatnot, or see that today's lottery is $X million, or remember they're almost out of smokes... I presume some of these items have higher margin than fuel, and definitely more profit than not attempting to convert fuel-only into extra sales.
>Considering the recent launch failures in Russia, these plans seem very ambitious.
Not sure I see the relevance, seeing as:
Recent failures are a blip in a long run of reliability, and
They're going to be flying different rigs by 2030, anyway, which may be invincible, or every one may fail...
Not sure I see much point to it, though. Maybe Putin is working on national morale, or make-work, or kickbacks to someone.
Yeah, but that is unrelated to guns.
Vermont has:
3rd lowest poverty rate in the US.
2nd most homogeneous population (~95% white).
2nd oldest population (median age 40 years old).
Zero large cities, low population.
Maple syrup.
Quebec oozing onto it.
Probably not too many poor thugs rolling around the streets of Burlington, doing drive-bys on other gangs.
Ooh. +5, Painfully Insightful.
Sask required both recently (within the last decade, I forget exactly). I think a few others did then, as well.
Yeah, moderation. A fried egg, couple strips of bacon and some whole grain toast is a fine breakfast, moreso if you have a pear or something like this with it.
Eating a pound of bacon for breakfast is something altogether different, though. Limey style (back) bacon is better too, vs. north america's fatter (belly) bacon. Kind of hard to find here, though.
Monsanto can only buy the govn't in corporate owned places like the US and Canada.
It has to be labelled in the EU, and many types cannot be grown there, others are not approved for food use, etc.
There are saltwater ones too, I don't think most of them are very palatable, though.
Opiate addiction is a terrible thing to kick, but is it criminal? Should the addicts be further maligned, 'for their own good'?
The whole two-faced way we look at opiods is very weird. On one hand they are our only real, gold standard pain killer. Essential for palliative care and quality of life with severe pain.
On the other, they are 'evil' addictive stuff junkies use, and apparently need to be punished for.
Seems like a very odd way of looking at things, to me at least.
Of course education and harm reduction, rehab, is all essential. Jail has proven to be ineffective.
BTW - when laudanum was easily available, back before the FDA existed... was the prevalence of opiate abusers higher? I'm not certain, but I don't think usage rates seem to change much, even with giant clamp-downs. Anyone know?
Yeah, it's a mix of two enantiomers of amphetamine. 25/75 instead of the native 50/50 state, IIRC.
I think the main reason for it not being 50/50(normal amphetamine), or 0/100 (dextroamphetamine) is because the new ratio was patentable (I don't remember if that trick is still allowed), despite the fact that only the 75% portion is the part that is clinically useful in Adderall's application. Recall reading about that somewhere recently. Sneaky bastards...
Hmm, I don't know about that, as I've been prescribed Penicillin V within the last 5 years. You know, stuff from the dawn of antibiotics. (I've also had more modern antibiotics as well, so it's not a lack of them being available).
However, I live in a country that puts health before profits, so that could be related.
On the other hand, I suppose some of the early-gen antibiotics are being used less these days simply because in a lot of cases, they don't work very well. Doctor doesn't want you coming back in a week for something newer because the infection was penicillin resistant, or so. Which of course makes bacteria more exposed to new drugs, which makes them less effective... ad nauseam.
Azithromycin. I think it's 2 the first day, one the next six, for a total of eight, but don't recall.
Surely there are other instances that require longer terms though, in which the pharmacist will give you the right amount (either from splitting packs, or from bulk, I'm not sure).
Odd piece of memory I have is that it was developed in Socialist Yugoslavia, late 70's I think, so it must certainly be off patent by now. And they say there is no innovation in pinko countries. :p
Urghhh, not another one of these FUDsters trying to say that forming a coalition is an attempt at a treasonous overthrow. Maybe you don't understand how the system works.
If harper would ever compromise (you know, something that you have to do in a minority position) there wouldn't have been so many elections.
Bloody rights it is fascist. The group with 39% can dictate something that all the other groups may dislike. In a proper system the remaining 61% can work together on things that represent their common goals.
That way the laws have support of 61% of voters, as opposed to 39%. Even if it is only supported by the 30 and 19 and 4, that's 53%, a better representation of what the voters want. If it's less than 50, you're SOL. that awful bill the people don't want isn't going to pass.
In a proper system, to get an absolute majority, you need a majority of the votes. Imagine that. So simple, and fair. FPTP is a cancerous scourge.
I'd have less of a problem with harper running the show like a dictator if the people had actually handed him a dictator's 50%+1. I'd just be ashamed of my countrymen, is all.
First past the post destroys that though. When you have to appeal to the largest base, you end up with two parties, generally. It's easier to corrupt two parties, also.
GP is saying with a small percentage of the votes, the party obtains >50% of the seats, and thus absolute power (not that they are the biggest party with small percentage, that's not the problem). Not very democratic, is it.
A group of parties with sub 50% of the vote working together in coalition is a good thing.
One party with sub 50% of the vote having absolute majority, being able to pass laws without listening to the others is very problematic. This is what first past the post creates.
So in PR - we have say.. 6 parties. 21%, 20%, 20%, 10%, 15%, 14%.
To pass something, they need support of at least three parties in this situation, any combination that will be >50%. Say 21 + 15 + 10 + 14 support it, so the law is supported by 60% of the electors, or at the minimum, 50%.
in FPTP, with the same results - the 21% party can get much more of the seats, and have absolute power. (if the results were like this in every riding, they would get 100% of the seats). Evil. 21% can then dictate over the others until the next election.
There are even stranger incidents with first past the post, where if the party that wins less seats wins them by a larger percentage - they can have more of the popular vote, and end up having the minority of seats.