Dutchie

Pensions are managed by pension funds. Can't touch 'm until you're 67 (in the Netherlands). And even then you won't receive a lump sum, but a monthly allowance (that's how I see it). All employees take part in a pension fund, as mandated by law. It's one very important reason why I'm self employed. It's the only way to avoid this nonsense.

I don't know about the USA, but in Europe "ordinary" people don't do investment portfolios. You can safely assume that if they don't have any savings, they most certainly won't have investment portfolios.

So don't hire them. Let a payrolling company officially hire them. The payrolling company sends you a monthly invoice and takes care of all the legal stuff. I'm currently doing this in the Netherlands, and it's totally legal.

Wouldn't it be enough to set up a postal box office in the USA to create a US 'presence' for many saas companies based in Europe? Provided, of course, that you are available during US office hours for email and phone support?

In the Netherlands, you're advised not to accept the inheritance before having investigated the legator's credit situation. If you do accept the inheritance, you WILL be hold accountable for all debts.

Computer languages are only very superficially similar to English. Like a whale is superficially similar to a fish. The syntax of ALL computer languages is completely unlike English. Computer languages don't have the phonology or morphology of English either (they don't have any phonology or morphology).

Non-native speaker here. Why could this be understood as a cuckold joke? (My dictionary says this about cuckold: "The husband of an adulteress, often regarded as an object of derision.")

In this particular case, as with the Champagne example, the name of the product indicates its origin. Bleu d'Auvergne means "Blue from Auvergne" (a region in France), where blue is short for "blue cheese".

If someone outside of France (Auvergne, more specifically) can concoct a product with similar quality, let them label and market it under their own name.

If you fork an open source project, wouldn't it be convenient to come up with a new name for your project?

No it's not just protectionism. If I buy Bleu d'Auvergne (it's a French cheese) in the Netherlands, I want to be sure I get the real deal, as a consumer.

Air regulations have an immediate, local effect too. But you're right, we should subsidize clean air in developing countries too. [..Ducks..]

For me, a European amateur sociologist who's never actually been to the USA, Stephen King was a great introduction to the American working class, especially as portrayed in the 1980s.

Don't these type of complex molecules get completely destroyed when cooked? (Total layman here, so no rhetorical question).

Regarding the racist tendencies in the Netherlands: take heart, not everybody shares them. Wilders may be a very loud mouthed politician but he still represents just a minority.

Cool, didn't know that and I use his invention literally every day!

American cheese? Does that relate to real cheese as Pizza Hawaii compares to an actual Italian pizza?

The Swedes are using cheese slicers too? I always thought the Dutch were the only people in the world to use cheese slicers.