The US was literally created the same way.
319 karma · joined March 17, 2015
There is a very slight product difference in any luxury experience. It adds to the experience after all. However this is meaningless in the overall comparison. You don't drink drip coffee anymore because you love the other experience. It's obviously not "gross" because you were drinking it just fine before you were exposed to espresso. Maybe at some point you'll become disillusioned in being a coffee snob and then go back to drip. It happens.
This isn't unique to you or coffee. You could say pretty much exactly the same thing about whatever brands/hobbies I'm into and I'd feel exactly like you do: that my preference was justified by more than pure emotional connection. In reality, our choices as consumers are 90% emotional, which is why advertising works so well after all.
These whales had been living in that pool for years and had even given birth without issue. Seems rather strange timing to all of a sudden have a mystery 'toxin' bring two of them down, particularly with the pool testing clean after their deaths.
Not a lot of direct evidence, but a shitload of smoke.
Considering that the last report confirmed that the Belugas had been poisoned by a foreign substance, I wouldn't be so confident in that statement.
Saying "waiting for a lower tax rate" is just a nice way of saying "never". There is no good reason a corporation would bring offshore cash back unless they absolutely have to. The whole point of putting it there in the first place is to isolate it.
Unless something changes dramatically that makes the current practice really unfavourable to them, there should be no expectation that corporations are actively looking to use this money and are simply waiting for the "best time".
The Interac system in Canada is pretty much a given for any vendor that has a cash register. That automatically makes every single bank card into a direct debit card. You can choose to use it if you want of course, but it's default for all bank accounts, really.
The issue of "un banked" can be distinctly American too, actually. Given the extent of social programs in Can/EU, even the nearly homeless have bank accounts, because government funds are pushed directly into accounts, and it's more secure/timely than receiving a physical cheque. Not having a simply checking account is a very rare thing in Canada.
It's more likely the case that an American credit card holder cannot buy them, even when he is in Germany, because he's subject to American laws, as I would be if I took a box into the US and started selling them.
The US definition of a "debit card" is massively different than the Canadian one. For us, our bank card is the debit card. The same one I use to take money out of my account at an ATM is the same one I can use to buy a $1 coffee.
Why some banks do charge outrageous fees, thanks to the free market there is a healthy market and many banks in Canada are now fully virtual or offer next to no fees.
Just because a system is poorly designed in one locale does not mean the idea itself is flawed, just that it should be implemented in an improved way.
The idea that eliminating paper is some sort of boogeyman from Revelations is about as silly as the idea that holding on to your Glock allows you defend your rights against a corrupt government. Neither actually offer any type of protection against these particular issues.
Unless you are wandering around with $20K in cash everyday, your bank account is still subject to the very things you seem to be afraid of. The only thing that changes in a mostly cashless society is your access to your bank account. If the government is going to freeze your account, it matters little if you have a chip card or need to go to the teller.
Thankfully, we in the west have moved most of the management of this to the private sector, and require things like warrants before any real action is done. That can and is an issue at times, but has little effect on the day to day implementation of one method over another.
Ahem, ahead of the US, really. Canada and the EU can be cashless already, with chip cards and direct bank withdrawal at the POS a reality for 99.99% of merchants.
I used to be able to enter that country with a driver's licence and a hello. Amazing how things have changed.
That's pretty amazing in and of itself.
Here in Canada, we get a year that can be divided in different ways. Almost everyone takes it when they have kids, so it's the norm. We pay for it (60% salary to a hard max IIRC) through "Employment Insurance" which is basically a jointly funded payroll tax. Employers can choose to top up if they want. Some do.
Honestly, I can't imagine any other way of getting through that first yet without this set up.
>"Bob Ward, of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, added: “Peter Wadhams has made predictions of the imminent disappearance of summer Arctic sea ice which have not been fulfilled, but the evidence still shows a rapid decline."
One guy missing a prediction isn't reason to dismiss the entire line of thought. All the evidence in the article shows the trend pretty clearly. Wadhams being aggressive in his prediction is not the story.
Someone just coughed on a passing car's exhaust fumes and blamed it for the warming earth, and we all just went with that.
Now, you have 2.7 apps that are very mature, stable and reliant on lots of little things. Okay, big job.
Now let's throw another wrinkle into this. You can pay good money to develop your next feature, or to port your system to 3.x. One adds real value to your customers and improves your bottom line. One lets you say you are on 3.x and gets nods of approval from random programmers.
What do you think a business is going to do? Exactly.
When will we eventually port? Sometime shortly after 3.x becomes the overall standard. THIS is actually what we are seeing right now, which is great, but that hasn't been the case up until the last year or so.
>Any technology that lives long enough eventually has to transition its customer base.
While true, this costs money, time, and effort. So you better be damn well sure there is a good ROI that is something more than "This code that nobody but programmers see is more elegant and properly structured".
There's a reason banks are still using COBOL after all...
I suppose an engineer would have more input on this though, I really don't know too much about bridge design.
Not all of us have hobby-sized projects on the go.