I can tell you that for AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego), the vast majority of "custom" parts are embraced. At the very least parts usually have a broad application within their specific role, but more often than not, because they all have studs, or technic holes, or bars or clips or various ways to connect to other pieces, people find all sorts of uses for them.
Lego now have a broader range than ever. If you want more conservative sets, they are there. Some of the sets with bionicle-type parts are specifically to fill a certain segment of the market - flashy action themes for example. But you can get whatever you like, Castle, Pirate, Space, City or just bricks. Or you can get the incredible exclusive sets from the Lego website, aimed at adult builders/collectors.
In general even the sets with specific parts allow you to build similar things - so if you like building spaceships, good Lego sets to buy are the Space sets - they have parts most suited to the job (although if you look at the parts inventory, even seemingly "special" parts are used across many themes).
Anyway, in general the complainers are those who don't know what they are talking about, or had the misfortune of experiencing Lego in the late 90s early 2000s when they bulked sets out with larger parts and jacked up the prices (modern Lego sets now have the bulky parts *AND* more bricks and intricate detail than ever before).
Oh come on. Ever since the early days of Lego Castle (early 1980s) there have been factions for kids to enact battles between. It's not exactly a new phenomenon for kid's play either. Certainly it was one of the main play themes for my siblings and I (usually Space constructions). Even in boring old Lego City, for kids it is always about stuff going wrong so you actually have something for all those police/firefighters/medics/builders to do!
Besides, this game includes a lot more than just battling bad guys. Building stuff is everywhere!
Hasn't hurt Tesco to treat all their customers as potential criminals. Their shopfronts are now like Airport security (indeed if they could get away with it I'm sure Tesco would love to use the body scanners) and they now have combined their CCTV with a computer system that tracks individuals and highlights for special attention people who are at the high-value shelves and performs all sorts of other analysis.
Tesco here in Ireland is like a little exported slice of Police-State Britain, and the diabolical talking automatic checkouts add to the 1984 flavour (or indeed Feeble Files for any computer game fans).
Just gradually use km on new road signs. Sure it's no big deal if people get a bit confused as to whether the distances are miles or kilometres. Then 20 years later you can finally change the speed limits to km/h overnight. Admittedly this is a bit of a more major cost/manoeuvre, but sure by now people will just want an end to it all, and most people would agree a mix of km/h and mph speed limits is not good.
I kid you not, this is pretty much what happened here in Ireland. Fortunately, it's all over and done with now, bar the small issue of the north of the island not being metric as it's part of the UK!
We are supposed to be fully metric now, but I think Imperial survives on the railways (mileposts and even some obscure measures like chains or something). Also people use Imperial for everyday stuff like height (although weight is increasingly referred to in kg due to official use in hospitals/doctor), pints (of course it's actually 576 ml - and because Germany doesn't include the head of the beer in their 0.5 litre measures, and we include the head in the pint measures, we can use the same glasses as Germany for their beer) and for meat a lot of people still ask for pounds (although again, it's priced in kg and they'll give you something approximating 454 g). People are switching over to referring to distances in km now, although sometimes you'll hear people use miles especially for made-up distances (ah sure it's a few miles down the road).
Well, there's no easy answer. Here in Ireland the Fianna Fáil government of 1977 following on from their a "buy the election" move, abolished domestic property rates entirely (they also abolished motor tax, but that was reversed quickly enough). We've suffered barely functional local councils and things like water infrastructure ever since (now that they are in power with the Green Party in coalition, they plan to bring in water metering as they can blame the Greens and it keeps the environmentalists in that party happy).
In the UK domestic rates were also seen as not being entirely fair/sensible and they've tried several different approaches to the problem (some more unpopular than the original - see Poll Tax).
Here in Ireland Fianna Fáil still cling to power, but with poll ratings in the mid to low 20s, they thankfully *finally* face wipeout next time round after doing their best to ruin the country ever since deciding to sit in parliament (they were the losing side of the civil war). If we are very lucky indeed, they'll not only lose the largest party tag, but will end up in third place.
Like the dot-com crash of the late 1990s, the recovery/false boom of the 2000s, and the crash of late 2000s. Except in this instance it seems the false bounce was deliberately engineered - a property bubble organised similarly to a pyramid scheme.
No, the commission is not quite as bad as you make out, as the commissioners are nominated by the elected governments in the European Union. This shouldn't be a surprise as much of Europe does not want a directly democratic federal model, but rather want their national governments to remain one of the main influences in Europe.
A lot of the Euroskeptics want to have their cake and eat it - i.e. undemocratic when national governments set the agenda, and impinging on national sovereignty if the European Parliament was to have greater powers.
But basically, the best way is what we have (especially post-Lisbon) of power divided between the two.
That's media frenzy. There is no Plan B, countries leaving Eurozone, etc. There will be bailouts somehow (and there are already underhand mechanisms going on to replace what states used to be able to do - Ireland is buying bad bank assets with government bonds, and the European Central Bank will swap the banks cash for the bonds). Politicians have said as much and it is only fear and superstition that traders aren't just accepting that.
On the other hand, the UK has been postponing big trouble (due to the impending general election), and it may be to their detriment that they manage their own currency if things finally tip over the edge. Quite a number of ratings put them right up there with PIGS (and in any case those countries are not all facing the same issues, in certain respects Ireland is out of that group already - the cutbacks, and there will be more, deal with the wobbling over deficit - with the banks dealt with by the aforementioned mechanism and other shenanigans, and Greece's difficulties are much worse than Portugal or Spain).
The US in fact is also placed close to the PIGS by certain measures.
This is why Euro, Pound and Dollar have all been going down (albeit by different relative amounts at different times). I'd still put my money on the Euro as it is essentially the new Deutschmark despite being weighed down by the peripheral countries. Even with a lack of growth, the main European countries are *stable*. The same cannot be said for the UK or US. Also despite different problems in different member states, Europe's eggs are not all in one basket due to the diversity of economies within the EU.
Undemocratic? We got not one, but two votes on the Lisbon Treaty here in Ireland:)
In fairness, the Treaty was signed by people's elected governments (democracy - you vote in a government to run your country as they see fit), and in countries other than Ireland, was not in conflict with the constitution (despite scrutiny in a number of countries it was found not to be a problem). Even in Ireland, if the government had wanted to, they could have passed almost all of Lisbon without a constitutional amendment (the amendment was only necessary for certain items). As far as I know, the main difference with Ireland is that the constitution is very detailed, and a previous amendment pretty much meant all European treaties had to be appended by constitutional amendment.
Besides, direct democracy isn't very sensible - Switzerland is an example (or indeed the history of constitutional amendments in Ireland). The majority can hold up essential reform (like not letting women have the vote till late 60s/early 70s) or pass dubious votes (e.g. the minarets vote) where a government, despite having to keep an eye on what voters want, does have some freedom to enact unpopular measures that may nevertheless be needed.
Anyone who thought Lisbon was a bad idea should have come here to Ireland to see the appalling scaremongering tactics by the opponents (Lisbon will mean your foetuses aborted, your sons conscripted, the elderly euthanised) as well as negative campaigning (the unpopular ruling government want you to vote Yes, fat cats want the gravy train to continue, etc.). These are tactics that political parties have refrained from using in general elections etc. as they just lead to a vicious downward spiral. The proponents used standard political tactics based on generalisation of arguments (so "Vote Yes for Recovery", "Vote Yes for Jobs", etc.). These kind of tactics are acceptable enough and the public are familiar enough with them. You do have to sum up your arguments snappily on election posters. And all you need is some clever brainstorming to get your point across this way - no need to resort to dirty tactics.
Besides, as cynical as people are about politicians and the establishment - when *all* main political parties, opposition and government are speaking together - surely it should suggest that they may be right? Admittedly losing the first vote also showed they were incompetent.
Yeah, I'm in Ireland and use online banking (interbank transfer). However, it wasn't that easy until recent years, and afaik it's still iffy as regards anything outside Ireland. Until recently you had to phone up the bank to add a new payee, but as long as you are happy that you know what you are doing, you can now add one yourself in the online banking interface. It's not foolproof - I did receive an accidental payment from a friend who intended to pay his landlord (he had me as a payee to pay back a small amount I had previously lent him) - fortunately I spotted it quickly on my online banking statement. I guess if you don't double check you could easily switch one payee up/down in the drop-down menu when making a payment.
Previously, with no cheque books (banks here have been trying to ditch them for ages, even without alternatives) I used bank drafts (like a cheque from the bank) to pay landlord. Usually these have fees (although maybe a euro or two onto a couple hundred) but as a student you don't pay them.
I also pay/manage my credit card online. I don't use direct debit now for my phone bill ("trusted" companies can take money from your account even if you tell the bank not to pay them, and most have made errors) but I could add them as a payee on my online banking. But for now I pay by credit card (ring automated system of phone company) as that way I can manage it as I see fit. I could also pay in cash (or by credit card) at the local post office or bank branch.
Well, in fairness, it doesn't take much imagination to see why some would rail against Google Chrome, given that Google in fact seem to do the opposite of their mantra (after all, their main business is advertising). It's bad enough them having your search history, but installing software from them for the purposes of all your web browsing? Really that doesn't seem very sensible. In fact I would suggest that at this stage, it would be perfectly logical for a lot of people to consider jumping ship from anti-Microsoft (an aging dinosaur that increasingly poses less threat despite their behaviour) to anti-Google.
Now I agree to some extent as regards other non-IE browsers, but although not an expert myself, I presume there are sufficient differences for people to argue which one is better.
Actually for about 3 weeks there were only about 3 days where there was a thaw at midday - and that was the situation further south. It was pretty dramatic weather for somewhere that normally has relatively mild winters (even the usual week or two of more extreme weather is just a few degrees below freezing at night, and as you say, about zero by day). The outdoor temperature one morning at 10:30 AM (admittedly an hour and a half to go till midday) was -11C with freezing fog causing rather pretty ice constructions to stealthily grow on every surface!
The council's actions were pretty much an act of desperation. It was awkward enough over the Christmas holidays (and people did die on the roads) but once people went back to work, with supplies pretty much exhausted and neighbours all having to conserve rock salt too, things were pretty dire.
We'd have been completely snookered but for some investment in winter gear for the councils during the boom years. Previously in the 80s/90s a lot of councils probably would only have had a pick-up truck with guys with shovels to spread grit - now there are fleets of gritters with snowplough attachments and also supporting off-road vehicles with plough attachments - plus afaik some councils in parts of the country where it is more necessary have actual snowploughs too. However circumstances were nevertheless exacerbated by councils having limited 2009 budget left for paying overtime, so some of this kit stayed at home during Christmas.
Things were bad enough that parts of the motorway network were temporarily reduced to one lane operation, and there was consideration given to closing even some major routes if the thaw hadn't arrived when it did.
Europe is not hetrogenous. UK approach is quite different to the rest of Europe. The Irish approach seems to be pretending nothing is happening (but that goes for most "problems" here). Some countries seem a bit mediaeval in their attitudes (appalling xenophobia to immigrants). Some go for more the US "melting pot" approach.
Meanwhile the European Union has to some extent strengthened national identities as it makes them less of an obstacle to co-operation. It has educated people more to the cultures of neighbouring states, facilitated commerce, and raised the bar in terms of standards in the less well run members (although some, like Ireland, are perfectly capable of ignoring EU directives, or even if not ignoring them, failing to enforce national laws that implement them - or indeed other national law).
I think it will be for the best that European states hold onto their own identity. It may lead to strife in the short-term, but it doesn't postpone trouble the way the US is still doing (whatever you say about the US dealing with it while Europe postpones it - mainly the difference is just that European countries didn't have as much immigration as the US until recent times). Plus immigrants are not under any illusions - it's better for people to be fully aware what they are in for rather than labouring under illusions.
The answer nevertheless is not small government, but rather to reform government so it works properly (or rather "reasonably" as a more realistic goal). The US has not I think had the same amount of reform of government over the centuries as European governments, many of whom have had to radically change at times.
I think it's probably more to do with a tech that still today has a cool factor, and manages to still seem futuristic. Seriously - you put a pod in a tube, and it is whisked off to some location on the other side of the building or even a campus. It's the next best thing to Star Trek transporters - and it is indeed made all the more impressive by being a 19th century invention.
Sure there are oodles of old inventions we still rely on or even marvel at, but I think the pneumatic tube system is indeed a worthy candidate of special attention, particularly as many will not have encountered it and it is perhaps getting more use again.
Incidentally Tesco here in Ireland use it for cash (surplus from checkouts dispatched into it, and possibly small notes sent the other way).
Here in Ireland (and I think most other European countries - certain UK and Germany in my experience) you have to wait till the transaction is completed, then insert the card, wait for a moment, enter your pin, press OK, wait again (even a moment before the receipts print) and then take your card and take the receipts.
If you are somewhere without broadband (countryside) you potentially have to wait for the dial-up modem to connect.
Every so often some bank's system goes down and you end up with people unable to pay by card for half a day or so.
Cash is fairly quick for most people as either they can make change fast, or they don't bother and just handover notes (check-out operators are fast at making change). I find most of my change is used paying for small-ticket items and even though I don't hoard change and prefer to use it, I can mostly just pay with notes of €10, €20, €50 for items above €5 and still get my loose change used up paying for coffee or whatnot. If I have too much loose change, I use it for a larger amount sometime when there is no queue.
I prefer card just for when I have little cash on me or would end up low on cash in my wallet and it's inconvenient to go to the ATM. Even abroad this is the case, as it costs me nothing to use my cash card in a UK or a Eurozone ATM and it can be inconvenient not to have cash on hand for small items.
I should have used preview. The sentence about Germany isn't criticising liberals, but rather saying people who have civilised egalitarian views are targetted as "liberals" and lynched also.
Also to clarify, this isn't some extremely widespread issue or making Germany out to be particular bad (quite the reverse, they can actually run their country sensibly unlike here in Ireland), just one of the many little issues just like all Western countries have.
You can say the same about Northern Ireland, and indeed there are various parts of even Western Europe where certain seemingly ordinary behaviour can get you in a lot of trouble (like being in a particular place that unbeknownest to you is a "bad area" - like one block away from a busy ordinary central area). Parts of England are grim and like something out of Dickens, supposedly civilised Germany still has problems with trogodytes who will lynch certain categories of people or liberals who cling to concepts of people being equal. Here in Ireland most of the country gets drunk often - and the emergency rooms fill every night with the results. Like England, there is the problem of a roaming "underclass" who might take offense to you happening to look at them.
As for the US, the police there shoot people. Criminals are executed. People have guns for "safety". Being ill can pretty much being destitute too. Certainly being mentally ill or poor can mean being homeless. OK a gross simplification, but from a European country the US seems like the Wild West (or worse in some social respects). As regards ordinary people, I would suspect it isn't healthy in certain places in the US to be obviously Muslim, or the wrong skin colour, or even certain European countries like France. Being very Irish or very Italian probably causes issues in certain places too.
Basically the world isn't civilised, and "the West" although probably more civilised than many parts of the world, is still not entirely civilised either, and differs in its definition of it.
Israel is pretty civilised in general for a "trouble spot".
We can already feed everyone. It's down to economics that we don't. The West produces vast amounts more food than we need, and the majority of it that is sold doesn't even get to our plates. Every year less farmland is worked in parts of Europe as it becomes unprofitable.
As for conditions - well, our beef here in Ireland comes from cattle who are raised on grass (apparently means the meat is far healthier than corn-fed or even the grain mixtures used elsewhere in Europe). You can see them out grazing for yourself, most people would know someone on a farm and have visited a farm or two, and while slaughterhouses aren't pretty, EU legislation is so strict that there are few cases of people getting away with mistreatment of animals. One can buy free-range eggs and chickens, and even on a large scale that just fits the definition, it's fairly reasonable (certainly compared to battery chickens). Tastes better too.
People do need to eat less meat though - even just from dietary perspective. I'm not talking about something regimental either - reasonable portions daily would still be a lot less than many people are currently eating.
This synthetic meat thing I have to say sounds absolutely grim from a taste and dietary perspective. If it comes to market, it will not be due to any superior qualities or advantages save one - that it will make some people a lot more money.
It nevertheless should tell you something that criticism of Wikipedia is now so widespread, and particularly by ex-editors/admins (one could argue that is nothing surprising - but the sheer numbers of such "exs" surely is extraordinary).
Anyway, it is interesting, sometimes useful in a sort of "ask a friend" way, and sort of a real-life H2G2, but basically, it's a bit of fanciful nonsense to think it's anything particularly special or proper (the same goes for the web in general, and "web 2.0" in particular). People are the same as always, and the information online is neither necessarily persistent, and is mostly noise (and any influence on offline "hard copy" information may be overall detrimental due to the noise/inaccuracy added).
Also too many people still haven't realised that the Internet is not some special mystical place but is in fact just part of the real world, and ultimately has to be subject to real world social, political and judicial norms, despite the difficulties in applying some of those.
A lot of the idealists who want to belief the fluff about a free magical Internet are people who in the real world would try to push their idealistic nonsense and simply allow the strongest elements in society to abuse any "freedom" to impose horrible restrictions of freedom. It's the same kind of mindset that believed the nonsense accompanying certain failed political ideologies of the 20th century, which we now have ample evidence that they are fanciful ideas that in reality just bring misery.
People need to stick to boring old tradition and the lessons we have learnt over and over again over centuries.
Plus the more "optimised" languages don't cease to exist, and are available for use where more appropriate than a "friendly" language. Indeed there exists a spectrum of languages, with situations where each can be appropriate (although obviously some particular languages have disadvantages or even a degree of "brokenness" as all of them are pretty much characteristic human creations, and some more so than others).
Personally I like getting the opportunity to code in various languages - one quickly gets comfortable with the idiosyncrosies of each, and to be honest, I think the experiences coding in higher or lower level languages are complementary (one has a better understanding of what functionality you want to manually create in lower level languages, and in the higher level ones you have a better idea of the implications of using certain features).
It's all great fun really - although possibly my viewpoint is biased by an academic setting.
I consider we're pretty fortunate here in Ireland to have cows that graze on pasture and are mostly grass-fed (eating silage in winter). Also use of hormones and other practices are banned by EU regulations. Plus, it's reassuring to see the conditions cattle are brought up in, and also it adds to the countryside to have cattle idly grazing throughout the year. It's not perfect - milk farmers are not allowed to sell cows for meat, so male calves instead of being used for food are just a waste byproduct (they do get used in rendering plants I believe) - but on the other hand, it's not just a matter of red tape - the practices "meat" farmers have to sign up for (and that dairy farmers don't want to, or can't afford to deal with) are part of what improves things for consumers.
I don't know about slaughter/butcher practices, but in any case you have to properly cook minced beef and at least seal cuts of beef (cook the outside) - bacteria can grow on the surface of the meat whatever about how it has been cut or contamination, and with minced beef - if that has happened already, then mincing it mixes the bacteria all through it. So even uncontaminated beef, eating raw mince, while it may be OK most of the time (people being able to cope with some ordinary bacteria) it won't be OK for some and will sometimes have particularly bad bacteria that may cause stomach upset or illness for even the more robust.
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I can tell you that for AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego), the vast majority of "custom" parts are embraced. At the very least parts usually have a broad application within their specific role, but more often than not, because they all have studs, or technic holes, or bars or clips or various ways to connect to other pieces, people find all sorts of uses for them.
Lego now have a broader range than ever. If you want more conservative sets, they are there. Some of the sets with bionicle-type parts are specifically to fill a certain segment of the market - flashy action themes for example. But you can get whatever you like, Castle, Pirate, Space, City or just bricks. Or you can get the incredible exclusive sets from the Lego website, aimed at adult builders/collectors.
In general even the sets with specific parts allow you to build similar things - so if you like building spaceships, good Lego sets to buy are the Space sets - they have parts most suited to the job (although if you look at the parts inventory, even seemingly "special" parts are used across many themes).
Anyway, in general the complainers are those who don't know what they are talking about, or had the misfortune of experiencing Lego in the late 90s early 2000s when they bulked sets out with larger parts and jacked up the prices (modern Lego sets now have the bulky parts *AND* more bricks and intricate detail than ever before).
Oh come on. Ever since the early days of Lego Castle (early 1980s) there have been factions for kids to enact battles between. It's not exactly a new phenomenon for kid's play either. Certainly it was one of the main play themes for my siblings and I (usually Space constructions). Even in boring old Lego City, for kids it is always about stuff going wrong so you actually have something for all those police/firefighters/medics/builders to do!
Besides, this game includes a lot more than just battling bad guys. Building stuff is everywhere!
Hasn't hurt Tesco to treat all their customers as potential criminals. Their shopfronts are now like Airport security (indeed if they could get away with it I'm sure Tesco would love to use the body scanners) and they now have combined their CCTV with a computer system that tracks individuals and highlights for special attention people who are at the high-value shelves and performs all sorts of other analysis.
Tesco here in Ireland is like a little exported slice of Police-State Britain, and the diabolical talking automatic checkouts add to the 1984 flavour (or indeed Feeble Files for any computer game fans).
Ah sure it's childsplay to switch over.
Just gradually use km on new road signs. Sure it's no big deal if people get a bit confused as to whether the distances are miles or kilometres. Then 20 years later you can finally change the speed limits to km/h overnight. Admittedly this is a bit of a more major cost/manoeuvre, but sure by now people will just want an end to it all, and most people would agree a mix of km/h and mph speed limits is not good.
I kid you not, this is pretty much what happened here in Ireland. Fortunately, it's all over and done with now, bar the small issue of the north of the island not being metric as it's part of the UK!
We are supposed to be fully metric now, but I think Imperial survives on the railways (mileposts and even some obscure measures like chains or something). Also people use Imperial for everyday stuff like height (although weight is increasingly referred to in kg due to official use in hospitals/doctor), pints (of course it's actually 576 ml - and because Germany doesn't include the head of the beer in their 0.5 litre measures, and we include the head in the pint measures, we can use the same glasses as Germany for their beer) and for meat a lot of people still ask for pounds (although again, it's priced in kg and they'll give you something approximating 454 g). People are switching over to referring to distances in km now, although sometimes you'll hear people use miles especially for made-up distances (ah sure it's a few miles down the road).
Well, there's no easy answer. Here in Ireland the Fianna Fáil government of 1977 following on from their a "buy the election" move, abolished domestic property rates entirely (they also abolished motor tax, but that was reversed quickly enough). We've suffered barely functional local councils and things like water infrastructure ever since (now that they are in power with the Green Party in coalition, they plan to bring in water metering as they can blame the Greens and it keeps the environmentalists in that party happy).
In the UK domestic rates were also seen as not being entirely fair/sensible and they've tried several different approaches to the problem (some more unpopular than the original - see Poll Tax).
Here in Ireland Fianna Fáil still cling to power, but with poll ratings in the mid to low 20s, they thankfully *finally* face wipeout next time round after doing their best to ruin the country ever since deciding to sit in parliament (they were the losing side of the civil war). If we are very lucky indeed, they'll not only lose the largest party tag, but will end up in third place.
Or would you being paying for those categories *as well*?
Like the dot-com crash of the late 1990s, the recovery/false boom of the 2000s, and the crash of late 2000s. Except in this instance it seems the false bounce was deliberately engineered - a property bubble organised similarly to a pyramid scheme.
No, the commission is not quite as bad as you make out, as the commissioners are nominated by the elected governments in the European Union. This shouldn't be a surprise as much of Europe does not want a directly democratic federal model, but rather want their national governments to remain one of the main influences in Europe.
A lot of the Euroskeptics want to have their cake and eat it - i.e. undemocratic when national governments set the agenda, and impinging on national sovereignty if the European Parliament was to have greater powers.
But basically, the best way is what we have (especially post-Lisbon) of power divided between the two.
That's media frenzy. There is no Plan B, countries leaving Eurozone, etc. There will be bailouts somehow (and there are already underhand mechanisms going on to replace what states used to be able to do - Ireland is buying bad bank assets with government bonds, and the European Central Bank will swap the banks cash for the bonds). Politicians have said as much and it is only fear and superstition that traders aren't just accepting that.
On the other hand, the UK has been postponing big trouble (due to the impending general election), and it may be to their detriment that they manage their own currency if things finally tip over the edge. Quite a number of ratings put them right up there with PIGS (and in any case those countries are not all facing the same issues, in certain respects Ireland is out of that group already - the cutbacks, and there will be more, deal with the wobbling over deficit - with the banks dealt with by the aforementioned mechanism and other shenanigans, and Greece's difficulties are much worse than Portugal or Spain).
The US in fact is also placed close to the PIGS by certain measures.
This is why Euro, Pound and Dollar have all been going down (albeit by different relative amounts at different times). I'd still put my money on the Euro as it is essentially the new Deutschmark despite being weighed down by the peripheral countries. Even with a lack of growth, the main European countries are *stable*. The same cannot be said for the UK or US. Also despite different problems in different member states, Europe's eggs are not all in one basket due to the diversity of economies within the EU.
Undemocratic? We got not one, but two votes on the Lisbon Treaty here in Ireland :)
In fairness, the Treaty was signed by people's elected governments (democracy - you vote in a government to run your country as they see fit), and in countries other than Ireland, was not in conflict with the constitution (despite scrutiny in a number of countries it was found not to be a problem). Even in Ireland, if the government had wanted to, they could have passed almost all of Lisbon without a constitutional amendment (the amendment was only necessary for certain items). As far as I know, the main difference with Ireland is that the constitution is very detailed, and a previous amendment pretty much meant all European treaties had to be appended by constitutional amendment.
Besides, direct democracy isn't very sensible - Switzerland is an example (or indeed the history of constitutional amendments in Ireland). The majority can hold up essential reform (like not letting women have the vote till late 60s/early 70s) or pass dubious votes (e.g. the minarets vote) where a government, despite having to keep an eye on what voters want, does have some freedom to enact unpopular measures that may nevertheless be needed.
Anyone who thought Lisbon was a bad idea should have come here to Ireland to see the appalling scaremongering tactics by the opponents (Lisbon will mean your foetuses aborted, your sons conscripted, the elderly euthanised) as well as negative campaigning (the unpopular ruling government want you to vote Yes, fat cats want the gravy train to continue, etc.). These are tactics that political parties have refrained from using in general elections etc. as they just lead to a vicious downward spiral. The proponents used standard political tactics based on generalisation of arguments (so "Vote Yes for Recovery", "Vote Yes for Jobs", etc.). These kind of tactics are acceptable enough and the public are familiar enough with them. You do have to sum up your arguments snappily on election posters. And all you need is some clever brainstorming to get your point across this way - no need to resort to dirty tactics.
Besides, as cynical as people are about politicians and the establishment - when *all* main political parties, opposition and government are speaking together - surely it should suggest that they may be right? Admittedly losing the first vote also showed they were incompetent.
Yeah, I'm in Ireland and use online banking (interbank transfer). However, it wasn't that easy until recent years, and afaik it's still iffy as regards anything outside Ireland. Until recently you had to phone up the bank to add a new payee, but as long as you are happy that you know what you are doing, you can now add one yourself in the online banking interface. It's not foolproof - I did receive an accidental payment from a friend who intended to pay his landlord (he had me as a payee to pay back a small amount I had previously lent him) - fortunately I spotted it quickly on my online banking statement. I guess if you don't double check you could easily switch one payee up/down in the drop-down menu when making a payment.
Previously, with no cheque books (banks here have been trying to ditch them for ages, even without alternatives) I used bank drafts (like a cheque from the bank) to pay landlord. Usually these have fees (although maybe a euro or two onto a couple hundred) but as a student you don't pay them.
I also pay/manage my credit card online. I don't use direct debit now for my phone bill ("trusted" companies can take money from your account even if you tell the bank not to pay them, and most have made errors) but I could add them as a payee on my online banking. But for now I pay by credit card (ring automated system of phone company) as that way I can manage it as I see fit. I could also pay in cash (or by credit card) at the local post office or bank branch.
Well, in fairness, it doesn't take much imagination to see why some would rail against Google Chrome, given that Google in fact seem to do the opposite of their mantra (after all, their main business is advertising). It's bad enough them having your search history, but installing software from them for the purposes of all your web browsing? Really that doesn't seem very sensible. In fact I would suggest that at this stage, it would be perfectly logical for a lot of people to consider jumping ship from anti-Microsoft (an aging dinosaur that increasingly poses less threat despite their behaviour) to anti-Google.
Now I agree to some extent as regards other non-IE browsers, but although not an expert myself, I presume there are sufficient differences for people to argue which one is better.
Actually for about 3 weeks there were only about 3 days where there was a thaw at midday - and that was the situation further south. It was pretty dramatic weather for somewhere that normally has relatively mild winters (even the usual week or two of more extreme weather is just a few degrees below freezing at night, and as you say, about zero by day). The outdoor temperature one morning at 10:30 AM (admittedly an hour and a half to go till midday) was -11C with freezing fog causing rather pretty ice constructions to stealthily grow on every surface!
The council's actions were pretty much an act of desperation. It was awkward enough over the Christmas holidays (and people did die on the roads) but once people went back to work, with supplies pretty much exhausted and neighbours all having to conserve rock salt too, things were pretty dire.
We'd have been completely snookered but for some investment in winter gear for the councils during the boom years. Previously in the 80s/90s a lot of councils probably would only have had a pick-up truck with guys with shovels to spread grit - now there are fleets of gritters with snowplough attachments and also supporting off-road vehicles with plough attachments - plus afaik some councils in parts of the country where it is more necessary have actual snowploughs too. However circumstances were nevertheless exacerbated by councils having limited 2009 budget left for paying overtime, so some of this kit stayed at home during Christmas.
Things were bad enough that parts of the motorway network were temporarily reduced to one lane operation, and there was consideration given to closing even some major routes if the thaw hadn't arrived when it did.
Europe is not hetrogenous. UK approach is quite different to the rest of Europe. The Irish approach seems to be pretending nothing is happening (but that goes for most "problems" here). Some countries seem a bit mediaeval in their attitudes (appalling xenophobia to immigrants). Some go for more the US "melting pot" approach.
Meanwhile the European Union has to some extent strengthened national identities as it makes them less of an obstacle to co-operation. It has educated people more to the cultures of neighbouring states, facilitated commerce, and raised the bar in terms of standards in the less well run members (although some, like Ireland, are perfectly capable of ignoring EU directives, or even if not ignoring them, failing to enforce national laws that implement them - or indeed other national law).
I think it will be for the best that European states hold onto their own identity. It may lead to strife in the short-term, but it doesn't postpone trouble the way the US is still doing (whatever you say about the US dealing with it while Europe postpones it - mainly the difference is just that European countries didn't have as much immigration as the US until recent times). Plus immigrants are not under any illusions - it's better for people to be fully aware what they are in for rather than labouring under illusions.
"HELLO computer, are ye in there?"
Despite the best efforts of the UK, there is actually some regulation of that kind of thing here in Europe.
The answer nevertheless is not small government, but rather to reform government so it works properly (or rather "reasonably" as a more realistic goal). The US has not I think had the same amount of reform of government over the centuries as European governments, many of whom have had to radically change at times.
I think it's probably more to do with a tech that still today has a cool factor, and manages to still seem futuristic. Seriously - you put a pod in a tube, and it is whisked off to some location on the other side of the building or even a campus. It's the next best thing to Star Trek transporters - and it is indeed made all the more impressive by being a 19th century invention.
Sure there are oodles of old inventions we still rely on or even marvel at, but I think the pneumatic tube system is indeed a worthy candidate of special attention, particularly as many will not have encountered it and it is perhaps getting more use again.
Incidentally Tesco here in Ireland use it for cash (surplus from checkouts dispatched into it, and possibly small notes sent the other way).
Here in Ireland (and I think most other European countries - certain UK and Germany in my experience) you have to wait till the transaction is completed, then insert the card, wait for a moment, enter your pin, press OK, wait again (even a moment before the receipts print) and then take your card and take the receipts.
If you are somewhere without broadband (countryside) you potentially have to wait for the dial-up modem to connect.
Every so often some bank's system goes down and you end up with people unable to pay by card for half a day or so.
Cash is fairly quick for most people as either they can make change fast, or they don't bother and just handover notes (check-out operators are fast at making change). I find most of my change is used paying for small-ticket items and even though I don't hoard change and prefer to use it, I can mostly just pay with notes of €10, €20, €50 for items above €5 and still get my loose change used up paying for coffee or whatnot. If I have too much loose change, I use it for a larger amount sometime when there is no queue.
I prefer card just for when I have little cash on me or would end up low on cash in my wallet and it's inconvenient to go to the ATM. Even abroad this is the case, as it costs me nothing to use my cash card in a UK or a Eurozone ATM and it can be inconvenient not to have cash on hand for small items.
I should have used preview. The sentence about Germany isn't criticising liberals, but rather saying people who have civilised egalitarian views are targetted as "liberals" and lynched also.
Also to clarify, this isn't some extremely widespread issue or making Germany out to be particular bad (quite the reverse, they can actually run their country sensibly unlike here in Ireland), just one of the many little issues just like all Western countries have.
You can say the same about Northern Ireland, and indeed there are various parts of even Western Europe where certain seemingly ordinary behaviour can get you in a lot of trouble (like being in a particular place that unbeknownest to you is a "bad area" - like one block away from a busy ordinary central area). Parts of England are grim and like something out of Dickens, supposedly civilised Germany still has problems with trogodytes who will lynch certain categories of people or liberals who cling to concepts of people being equal. Here in Ireland most of the country gets drunk often - and the emergency rooms fill every night with the results. Like England, there is the problem of a roaming "underclass" who might take offense to you happening to look at them.
As for the US, the police there shoot people. Criminals are executed. People have guns for "safety". Being ill can pretty much being destitute too. Certainly being mentally ill or poor can mean being homeless. OK a gross simplification, but from a European country the US seems like the Wild West (or worse in some social respects). As regards ordinary people, I would suspect it isn't healthy in certain places in the US to be obviously Muslim, or the wrong skin colour, or even certain European countries like France. Being very Irish or very Italian probably causes issues in certain places too.
Basically the world isn't civilised, and "the West" although probably more civilised than many parts of the world, is still not entirely civilised either, and differs in its definition of it.
Israel is pretty civilised in general for a "trouble spot".
We can already feed everyone. It's down to economics that we don't. The West produces vast amounts more food than we need, and the majority of it that is sold doesn't even get to our plates. Every year less farmland is worked in parts of Europe as it becomes unprofitable.
As for conditions - well, our beef here in Ireland comes from cattle who are raised on grass (apparently means the meat is far healthier than corn-fed or even the grain mixtures used elsewhere in Europe). You can see them out grazing for yourself, most people would know someone on a farm and have visited a farm or two, and while slaughterhouses aren't pretty, EU legislation is so strict that there are few cases of people getting away with mistreatment of animals. One can buy free-range eggs and chickens, and even on a large scale that just fits the definition, it's fairly reasonable (certainly compared to battery chickens). Tastes better too.
People do need to eat less meat though - even just from dietary perspective. I'm not talking about something regimental either - reasonable portions daily would still be a lot less than many people are currently eating.
This synthetic meat thing I have to say sounds absolutely grim from a taste and dietary perspective. If it comes to market, it will not be due to any superior qualities or advantages save one - that it will make some people a lot more money.
It nevertheless should tell you something that criticism of Wikipedia is now so widespread, and particularly by ex-editors/admins (one could argue that is nothing surprising - but the sheer numbers of such "exs" surely is extraordinary).
Anyway, it is interesting, sometimes useful in a sort of "ask a friend" way, and sort of a real-life H2G2, but basically, it's a bit of fanciful nonsense to think it's anything particularly special or proper (the same goes for the web in general, and "web 2.0" in particular). People are the same as always, and the information online is neither necessarily persistent, and is mostly noise (and any influence on offline "hard copy" information may be overall detrimental due to the noise/inaccuracy added).
Also too many people still haven't realised that the Internet is not some special mystical place but is in fact just part of the real world, and ultimately has to be subject to real world social, political and judicial norms, despite the difficulties in applying some of those.
A lot of the idealists who want to belief the fluff about a free magical Internet are people who in the real world would try to push their idealistic nonsense and simply allow the strongest elements in society to abuse any "freedom" to impose horrible restrictions of freedom. It's the same kind of mindset that believed the nonsense accompanying certain failed political ideologies of the 20th century, which we now have ample evidence that they are fanciful ideas that in reality just bring misery.
People need to stick to boring old tradition and the lessons we have learnt over and over again over centuries.
Plus the more "optimised" languages don't cease to exist, and are available for use where more appropriate than a "friendly" language. Indeed there exists a spectrum of languages, with situations where each can be appropriate (although obviously some particular languages have disadvantages or even a degree of "brokenness" as all of them are pretty much characteristic human creations, and some more so than others).
Personally I like getting the opportunity to code in various languages - one quickly gets comfortable with the idiosyncrosies of each, and to be honest, I think the experiences coding in higher or lower level languages are complementary (one has a better understanding of what functionality you want to manually create in lower level languages, and in the higher level ones you have a better idea of the implications of using certain features).
It's all great fun really - although possibly my viewpoint is biased by an academic setting.
I consider we're pretty fortunate here in Ireland to have cows that graze on pasture and are mostly grass-fed (eating silage in winter). Also use of hormones and other practices are banned by EU regulations. Plus, it's reassuring to see the conditions cattle are brought up in, and also it adds to the countryside to have cattle idly grazing throughout the year. It's not perfect - milk farmers are not allowed to sell cows for meat, so male calves instead of being used for food are just a waste byproduct (they do get used in rendering plants I believe) - but on the other hand, it's not just a matter of red tape - the practices "meat" farmers have to sign up for (and that dairy farmers don't want to, or can't afford to deal with) are part of what improves things for consumers.
I don't know about slaughter/butcher practices, but in any case you have to properly cook minced beef and at least seal cuts of beef (cook the outside) - bacteria can grow on the surface of the meat whatever about how it has been cut or contamination, and with minced beef - if that has happened already, then mincing it mixes the bacteria all through it. So even uncontaminated beef, eating raw mince, while it may be OK most of the time (people being able to cope with some ordinary bacteria) it won't be OK for some and will sometimes have particularly bad bacteria that may cause stomach upset or illness for even the more robust.