1) In large metropolitan areas going all electric cars is very realistic in a few decades. The average trip is likely very very short and therefore very amenable to all electric cars. In rural areas it will take probably take longer and be more difficult because the average trip length is much longer (and the farm equipment may never convert, but if that is the only thing burning fossil fuel it probably wouldn't matter). I wouldn't be surprised if there is an order of magnitude difference or more in the average trip length between those on Manhattan island and some farmer in the middle of Iowa. 2) It is like your first link quipped, nuclear fusion has been 50 years away for 50 years. I am a fan of the research and hope it comes to fruition, but there is another kind of nuclear (fission) that currently powers 20% of the country and could basically take emissions from power generation to zero. Expand the fission while waiting for the fusion.
He probably wouldn't have this conversation. I just think you are missing the point of the award. It isn't just for being injured while in the military (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart#Criteria), but rather being wounded by the "enemy". Yes people receive these for standing around in Iraq when a mortar hits the base they are on, but many are obtained by being actively engaged in combat.
How much of that price difference is due to the cost of importation (taxes, tariffs, etc.)? I found a couple of articles quickly searching the web that make it look like the import tax would be 100% or more (http://www.ehow.com/list_6529981_import-duties-brazil.html, http://www.rosalienebacchus.com/articles/UnderstandingBrazilsTaxesOnImports_031210.html). I am not sure if this is applicable for iPhone or if it is even accurate/up to date. If that is correct then the prices of iPhone in Brazil are exactly what they should be. Start with a US price of $550 for iPhone 4S, apply the 2 to 1 currency conversion to get to 1100 Reais and then hit it with ~100% import tax and you get 2200 Reais for the 4s 16GB. Same applies for the iPhone 5 and you get to 2600 Reais. I thought that was why Apple and Foxcon were trying (did?) start manufacturing Apple products in country, to avoid the crazy import taxes.
Why add the "Neo One" to the name? You just won a case for a very valuable name in the electronics industry, why go adding extra crap to to let people know that it isn't really an iPhone? If you have no intention of trying to "trick" people into thinking it is an iPhone, why not just sell the name to Apple for what ever you can get? Just go all in and claim it is an iPhone period. Or get some balls release 4 models really quick and claim it is the iPhone 5.
You could tell that to the Marine Sniper I know that was blown up by a grenade in Fallujah. He might take exception to you saying all he did was stand around and get blown up (he was providing cover fire for his unit when he got blown up). I don't think the purple heart devalues the medals system and there is probably a better example of what you are getting at (sure there are some folks that got it for standing on base and being shot but nothing is perfect). For example, my Global War on Terrorism Medal does devalue the medal system along with a number of others.
I received the Global War on Terrorism Medal for showing up to work in the morning. While I was in, I worked in a cubicle and did engineering work. I suppose the work I did contributed to the Navy fulfilling its mission, but to me it was basically a medal for being in the service at the right time. I can prove that with my DD214 just as well as with the medal.
What about Discovery and National Geographic. They used to be science based Channels. Now they split their time fairly evenly between ghost hunting, psychic phenomenon, and dog whispering. At least there is still shark week, until it becomes "possessed shark week with with live shark exorcism."
It is also sad that they have a monopoly over most of their customer base. They will slowly find ways to eliminate the alternatives that are available on-line to paid cable TV. They will throttle connections, impose more severe data caps etc. and then invent some BS reason for it all so that they aren't hit with an anti-trust law suit.
All of the carbon it claims is attached to nuclear is also attached to building the infrastructure that is necessary for solar, geothermal and hydro and the article you linked to states as much. The article you linked to goes on to say "[Nuclear] even does better than solar power and small-scale hydro projects." This is largely because carbon producing plants are predominantly providing the energy source for the manufacturing and construction operations (it doesn't have to be that way through). Man you should read your sources. Also from your link "A 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study recommended vast expansion of nuclear power to make a dent in the climate-change problem...One University of Wisconsin life-cycle emissions study in 2003 found even lower carbon emissions for nuclear than for most renewables."
It impacts more than just the big businesses profit. Many fast food restaurants are franchised. The details change but many times the store owner just kicks back a fixed percentage of revenue to the corporate office. When minimum wage increases that fixed percentage doesn't decrease. The profit margin in these businesses is typically not large say 10% or less of revenue and labor may come in at 20% of revenue (some of the big players like mcdonalds may have different numbers but these are representative of the numbers for smaller places in my community). The last change in minimum wage was almost a 40% increase (5.15 to 7.25) well if all else stays the same, in that scenario labor cost just went to 28% and profit went close to 0 or worse. The only options are to raise prices (which is a business killer in fast food) or to cut staff and hope the service doesn't degrade.
Why limit the solutions to geothermal, hydro and solar? Nuclear power could provide all of the carbon free energy that is needed with current technology.
It is possible that a state board of education had some twits on it that resulted in sub-par information being taught. You didn't grow up in Texas or Missouri did you? I hear that kind of thing happens there.
Sounds like you've completely misunderstood my post. Pinching pennies typically applies to a situation where there is no disposable income and someone is struggling financially. In that case spending money on a minecraft sever doesn't seem like the best idea. Also no one is suggesting forced child labor. Working as a teen is legal in the US.
The non-transfers I was talking about are not checks, just electronic transfers between accounts at different banks (but I guess they may be treated that way and pass through the ACH, I am not a banker so Ill trust you if you say it is the same). I really thought when I wired funds they were gone. The last time I closed on a mortgage my bank asked my like 10 times if I was sure the account was correct and if I really wanted to wire 22K to them because it couldn't be reversed.
I basically get shut out from online purchases if I don't have the VPN turned on using an American based server. Even with that my paypal account gets Fed up every time I use it. I agree that the US cc is very important but far from the only thing that maters (sure to be vendor specific).
Yes, we won't buy your product if we don't think we are getting a good deal. That is how markets are supposed to work. However, there are some advantages that the US has. Primarily a large population with disposable incomes. This allows the group, using market forces, to put severe pricing pressure on many items. There are 4 states in the US that are each about the size of AU or bigger (CA, TX, NY, FL) population wise (and pretty close GDP wise too).
There is more than one possible outcome from your suggested course of action. One of which might be not selling it to you period. However, I think you could get the desired results without begging your governments to take care of the bully for you. Stop buying the products. If everyone in Australia stopped buying Adobe software for 6 months or a year, I bet they would lower the price.
This "guilty" concept keeps being raised in regards to this issue. What are they guilty of? Maybe they are "guilty" of being dicks but that is hardly criminal. Is there some law in Australia that requires companies to sell products for the same price there as in the country of origin?
Yeah, my astrill account cost like $60 bucks a year. I live in China and I can buy software online as if I am in the US just by selecting a server there. It also works when I want to appear like I am in Europe. I guess my US issued credit card helps with that too. I don't know how an international card would fare in this situation.
A lot of this is a US problem because the banks refuse to update their systems. I live in china and they have an interesting system set up for online purchases (in store is not as rigorous). When you get your card they give you a token (appears kind of like an RSA token, but I don't know the security behind it). To buy something online with that card you have to use your pin, token number, and enter a separate code that they text to your phone at the time of checkout. If set up right this form of on-line purchasing would put a serious dent in fraudulent purchases. Even if they have my card number and access to my account to change the phone number for the text, they don't have the token, unless they also broke into my house. Another example where the US misses the boat is the credit cards with chip and pins. In the states if you have the card you can basically max it out. At least with chip and pin you have to have the pin number for the card to work. The banks just don't care because they pass the losses back to the customers and merchants.
This is how it works in the US too. The poster just hasn't seen or noticed it (I would go with noticed it). But there is a difference between transferring funds and wiring funds. I can do as you describe and it will take a few days for the money to get from one account to the other. If you wire funds it is basically immediate and the money is gone.
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1) In large metropolitan areas going all electric cars is very realistic in a few decades. The average trip is likely very very short and therefore very amenable to all electric cars. In rural areas it will take probably take longer and be more difficult because the average trip length is much longer (and the farm equipment may never convert, but if that is the only thing burning fossil fuel it probably wouldn't matter). I wouldn't be surprised if there is an order of magnitude difference or more in the average trip length between those on Manhattan island and some farmer in the middle of Iowa. 2) It is like your first link quipped, nuclear fusion has been 50 years away for 50 years. I am a fan of the research and hope it comes to fruition, but there is another kind of nuclear (fission) that currently powers 20% of the country and could basically take emissions from power generation to zero. Expand the fission while waiting for the fusion.
He probably wouldn't have this conversation. I just think you are missing the point of the award. It isn't just for being injured while in the military (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart#Criteria), but rather being wounded by the "enemy". Yes people receive these for standing around in Iraq when a mortar hits the base they are on, but many are obtained by being actively engaged in combat.
Do you have a link for the video (I speak Portuguese) and wouldn't mind seeing it?
How much of that price difference is due to the cost of importation (taxes, tariffs, etc.)? I found a couple of articles quickly searching the web that make it look like the import tax would be 100% or more (http://www.ehow.com/list_6529981_import-duties-brazil.html, http://www.rosalienebacchus.com/articles/UnderstandingBrazilsTaxesOnImports_031210.html). I am not sure if this is applicable for iPhone or if it is even accurate/up to date. If that is correct then the prices of iPhone in Brazil are exactly what they should be. Start with a US price of $550 for iPhone 4S, apply the 2 to 1 currency conversion to get to 1100 Reais and then hit it with ~100% import tax and you get 2200 Reais for the 4s 16GB. Same applies for the iPhone 5 and you get to 2600 Reais. I thought that was why Apple and Foxcon were trying (did?) start manufacturing Apple products in country, to avoid the crazy import taxes.
Why add the "Neo One" to the name? You just won a case for a very valuable name in the electronics industry, why go adding extra crap to to let people know that it isn't really an iPhone? If you have no intention of trying to "trick" people into thinking it is an iPhone, why not just sell the name to Apple for what ever you can get? Just go all in and claim it is an iPhone period. Or get some balls release 4 models really quick and claim it is the iPhone 5.
You could tell that to the Marine Sniper I know that was blown up by a grenade in Fallujah. He might take exception to you saying all he did was stand around and get blown up (he was providing cover fire for his unit when he got blown up). I don't think the purple heart devalues the medals system and there is probably a better example of what you are getting at (sure there are some folks that got it for standing on base and being shot but nothing is perfect). For example, my Global War on Terrorism Medal does devalue the medal system along with a number of others.
I received the Global War on Terrorism Medal for showing up to work in the morning. While I was in, I worked in a cubicle and did engineering work. I suppose the work I did contributed to the Navy fulfilling its mission, but to me it was basically a medal for being in the service at the right time. I can prove that with my DD214 just as well as with the medal.
What about Discovery and National Geographic. They used to be science based Channels. Now they split their time fairly evenly between ghost hunting, psychic phenomenon, and dog whispering. At least there is still shark week, until it becomes "possessed shark week with with live shark exorcism."
It is also sad that they have a monopoly over most of their customer base. They will slowly find ways to eliminate the alternatives that are available on-line to paid cable TV. They will throttle connections, impose more severe data caps etc. and then invent some BS reason for it all so that they aren't hit with an anti-trust law suit.
All of the carbon it claims is attached to nuclear is also attached to building the infrastructure that is necessary for solar, geothermal and hydro and the article you linked to states as much. The article you linked to goes on to say "[Nuclear] even does better than solar power and small-scale hydro projects." This is largely because carbon producing plants are predominantly providing the energy source for the manufacturing and construction operations (it doesn't have to be that way through). Man you should read your sources. Also from your link "A 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study recommended vast expansion of nuclear power to make a dent in the climate-change problem...One University of Wisconsin life-cycle emissions study in 2003 found even lower carbon emissions for nuclear than for most renewables."
It impacts more than just the big businesses profit. Many fast food restaurants are franchised. The details change but many times the store owner just kicks back a fixed percentage of revenue to the corporate office. When minimum wage increases that fixed percentage doesn't decrease. The profit margin in these businesses is typically not large say 10% or less of revenue and labor may come in at 20% of revenue (some of the big players like mcdonalds may have different numbers but these are representative of the numbers for smaller places in my community). The last change in minimum wage was almost a 40% increase (5.15 to 7.25) well if all else stays the same, in that scenario labor cost just went to 28% and profit went close to 0 or worse. The only options are to raise prices (which is a business killer in fast food) or to cut staff and hope the service doesn't degrade.
Why limit the solutions to geothermal, hydro and solar? Nuclear power could provide all of the carbon free energy that is needed with current technology.
It is possible that a state board of education had some twits on it that resulted in sub-par information being taught. You didn't grow up in Texas or Missouri did you? I hear that kind of thing happens there.
The budget was balanced and had a surplus in 1999 and 2000 (I think in 2001 too but I can't find the information). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_United_States_federal_budget and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_federal_budget
Sounds like you've completely misunderstood my post. Pinching pennies typically applies to a situation where there is no disposable income and someone is struggling financially. In that case spending money on a minecraft sever doesn't seem like the best idea. Also no one is suggesting forced child labor. Working as a teen is legal in the US.
The non-transfers I was talking about are not checks, just electronic transfers between accounts at different banks (but I guess they may be treated that way and pass through the ACH, I am not a banker so Ill trust you if you say it is the same). I really thought when I wired funds they were gone. The last time I closed on a mortgage my bank asked my like 10 times if I was sure the account was correct and if I really wanted to wire 22K to them because it couldn't be reversed.
I basically get shut out from online purchases if I don't have the VPN turned on using an American based server. Even with that my paypal account gets Fed up every time I use it. I agree that the US cc is very important but far from the only thing that maters (sure to be vendor specific).
Yes, we won't buy your product if we don't think we are getting a good deal. That is how markets are supposed to work. However, there are some advantages that the US has. Primarily a large population with disposable incomes. This allows the group, using market forces, to put severe pricing pressure on many items. There are 4 states in the US that are each about the size of AU or bigger (CA, TX, NY, FL) population wise (and pretty close GDP wise too).
There is more than one possible outcome from your suggested course of action. One of which might be not selling it to you period. However, I think you could get the desired results without begging your governments to take care of the bully for you. Stop buying the products. If everyone in Australia stopped buying Adobe software for 6 months or a year, I bet they would lower the price.
Or, those companies just don't do business in your country after you pass this law.
This "guilty" concept keeps being raised in regards to this issue. What are they guilty of? Maybe they are "guilty" of being dicks but that is hardly criminal. Is there some law in Australia that requires companies to sell products for the same price there as in the country of origin?
Yeah, my astrill account cost like $60 bucks a year. I live in China and I can buy software online as if I am in the US just by selecting a server there. It also works when I want to appear like I am in Europe. I guess my US issued credit card helps with that too. I don't know how an international card would fare in this situation.
If it is only for minecraft? If so, and you are trying to pinch pennies, have the kid stop playing minecraft and get a job.
A lot of this is a US problem because the banks refuse to update their systems. I live in china and they have an interesting system set up for online purchases (in store is not as rigorous). When you get your card they give you a token (appears kind of like an RSA token, but I don't know the security behind it). To buy something online with that card you have to use your pin, token number, and enter a separate code that they text to your phone at the time of checkout. If set up right this form of on-line purchasing would put a serious dent in fraudulent purchases. Even if they have my card number and access to my account to change the phone number for the text, they don't have the token, unless they also broke into my house. Another example where the US misses the boat is the credit cards with chip and pins. In the states if you have the card you can basically max it out. At least with chip and pin you have to have the pin number for the card to work. The banks just don't care because they pass the losses back to the customers and merchants.
This is how it works in the US too. The poster just hasn't seen or noticed it (I would go with noticed it). But there is a difference between transferring funds and wiring funds. I can do as you describe and it will take a few days for the money to get from one account to the other. If you wire funds it is basically immediate and the money is gone.