tiatia

"A market in which buyers are not free to choose better products is not a free market."

Which is not the case here.

If I sign a one year gym contract and suddenly a much better, much cheaper gym opens across the street, I can whine that the gym market is "not free". In fact it is, not like "free" in "free beer" but in "free" like in "freedom". But if I insist of using the better gym instantly I may have to pay for two gyms at the same time.

Ultrasonic Dryer? Who needs this? And DOE dropped nearly a million on it? Was it an SBIR grant with nice kickbacks? :-)

I found a washing machine with ultrasonic much more interesting:

http://www.tovatech.com/blog/3759/ultrasonic-cleaner/ultraso...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/21/dolfi-washing-devic...

Would be a little worried about stress on your clothes AND/OR Ears. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-cant-hear-...

The equivalent to a COOP could be many things, depending what you want to do and achieve. I would look into GmbH/AG (inc/LLC), gGmbH (non profit Inc), eingetragener Verein e.V. (not sure there is such a thing in the US), or, most likely, Genossenschaft e.G. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genossenschaft

"That's something for his lawyers to look into of course, I have a feeling the 300K a year guys they keep on retainer who likely approved this policy have a good idea of how they can argue this was legal under current regulation."

They can argue. But will the judge or jury agree?

Regarding the boarding, this was posted by a lawyer and makes it look a little bit like a clusterfuck. Could get quite pricey for United.

1. First of all, it’s airline spin to call this an overbooking. The statutory provision granting them the ability to deny boarding is about “OVERSELLING”, which is specifically defined as booking more reserved confirmed seats than there are available. This is not what happened. They did not overbook the flight; they had a fully booked flight, and not only did everyone already have a reserved confirmed seat, they were all sitting in them. The law allowing them to deny boarding in the event of an oversale does not apply.

2. Even if it did apply, the law is unambiguously clear that airlines have to give preference to everyone with reserved confirmed seats when choosing to involuntarily deny boarding. They have to always choose the solution that will affect the least amount of reserved confirmed seats. This rule is straightforward, and United makes very clear in their own contract of carriage that employees of their own or of other carriers may be denied boarding without compensation because they do not have reserved confirmed seats. On its face, it’s clear that what they did was illegal– they gave preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a.

3. Furthermore, even if you try and twist this into a legal application of 250.2a and say that United had the right to deny him boarding in the event of an overbooking; they did NOT have the right to kick him off the plane. Their contract of carriage highlights there is a complete difference in rights after you’ve boarded and sat on the plane, and Rule 21 goes over the specific scenarios where you could get kicked off. NONE of them apply here. He did absolutely nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been targeted. He’s going to leave with a hefty settlement after this fiasco.

Yeah. Love this guy.

If you like him and aphorisms, you may enjoy this Colombian: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/340970.Nicol_s_G_mez...

Peak-a-boo http://socialfixer.com/

Well, what makes the cards so great? Seriously?

* Collect miles? I prefer the Cash back I have with my CC.

* Zero foreign transaction fees is a nice feature.

* Create virtual credit cards is a good feature.

* Travel insurance? Have a better one that any CC could offer me, including air evacuation. Don't need that with my CC and also would be worried about the fine print.

* Lounge Access? If you are a frequent flyer you should have Elite or whatever status anyway, hence I don't need this either. If you really need a card with "lounge access", Diners Club is still available in some European countries for less than US$ 100 per year. (Dines Club Lunge access included)

If I miss something with my CC then it is bicoin access: https://bitpay.com/visa/

If you need a "prestigious" card, try here: http://creditcardforum.com/blog/most-prestigious-credit-card...

AH, Just saw. 100 bucks for, at least previously, 100k miles is not so bad. Most "prestigious" cards I know have fees from 400-1000 USD

"Introductory Annual Fee of $0 the first year, then $95."

Hm. No. Just the outcome:

"1993 and 2005, air conditioners in the U.S. increased in efficiency by 28%, but by 2005, homes with air conditioning increased their consumption of energy for their air conditioners by 37%."

Jevons sends you his greetings I guess.

"That's great!" It is likely a sing of a sinking standard of living. Had to come sooner or later, so I would not call it "bad".

"But, overall energy use per GDP will fall through the floor due to their much higher energy efficiency vs gas powered cars." Highly improbable.

Wealth And Energy Consumption Are Inseparable http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/01/wealth-and-energy-...

I have not used United in many years after a major cluster f.. on a trip. Things like this were supposed to happen sooner or later. This airline hast a total "FU" attitude regarding customers. It is the only airline that I insist of not using.

Regarding the boarding, this was posted by a lawyer:

[Edit: This is about the recent incident, not this HN post]

1. First of all, it’s airline spin to call this an overbooking. The statutory provision granting them the ability to deny boarding is about “OVERSELLING”, which is specifically defined as booking more reserved confirmed seats than there are available. This is not what happened. They did not overbook the flight; they had a fully booked flight, and not only did everyone already have a reserved confirmed seat, they were all sitting in them. The law allowing them to deny boarding in the event of an oversale does not apply.

2. Even if it did apply, the law is unambiguously clear that airlines have to give preference to everyone with reserved confirmed seats when choosing to involuntarily deny boarding. They have to always choose the solution that will affect the least amount of reserved confirmed seats. This rule is straightforward, and United makes very clear in their own contract of carriage that employees of their own or of other carriers may be denied boarding without compensation because they do not have reserved confirmed seats. On its face, it’s clear that what they did was illegal– they gave preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a.

3. Furthermore, even if you try and twist this into a legal application of 250.2a and say that United had the right to deny him boarding in the event of an overbooking; they did NOT have the right to kick him off the plane. Their contract of carriage highlights there is a complete difference in rights after you’ve boarded and sat on the plane, and Rule 21 goes over the specific scenarios where you could get kicked off. NONE of them apply here. He did absolutely nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been targeted. He’s going to leave with a hefty settlement after this fiasco.

Also, sometimes the employer pays for the miles.

If you get reimbursed for your flights, some airlines give you much more miles if you buy a ticket (Economy has many sub classes) that is slightly more expensive (e.g. 100 Dollar more, double miles). This is a "nice" way to collect miles and have somebody else pay for it.

In the US I have a Citi Platium Cash back card since man years. Very satisfied, except it has foreign transaction fees.

If lounge access is your goal, you can get this with some cards (US: Amex, Europe: Diners Club)

Collecting miles is an art. (See Flyertalk). In my experience:

- You can collect the miles but it is very difficult to use them. I think I had this problem with AA, if I remember right. They were rated last in a Frequent Flyer Miles Ranking I once saw.

- It is easy to use the miles (Lufthansa, can use for every flight, even pay taxes with miles) but they don't give you the miles. Lufthansa was #1 in the ranking. I flew something like 100k miles and they credited 10k miles based on Booking Class and cross carrier miles crediting (Star Alliance).

I have not looked at the link. But would Sagemath not be both? Python AND R?

http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/reference/interfaces/sage/in...

2) New Zealand would be a decent choice I guess http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/01/technology/peter-thiel-new-z...

But positioning yourself is also a good idea. I can stay unlimited in three continents with the option of a fourth :-)

You would not believe me how many applications I wrote. I know the black hole.

There are a few rules.

Never apply to a job that uses Taleo, SAP or any other "application" interface. A real job requires to send or upload a resume and an _OPTIONAL_ cover letter. Ignore everything else.

Never apply for a job that requires anything unusual (only non-smokers, hand written resume, time of birth for astrological evaluation, hard copy of application etc.). I am even skeptical about "motivational" letters. All these are signs that your future boss is nuts.

Be very open to create "sample" work, like a 10 page marketing plan or an "investment analysis of 5 companies". Just be very clear that this will be billed at your consulting rate too.

Remember the second most stupid people work in HR (with the most stupid people working in real estate). This does not mean the every HR person is an idiot - in fact I am sure there are brilliant people -, it is just a reflection of the entry requirements for these jobs.

I never really found a decent job after my PhD and I was desperate for years. The funny thing is: Now I get sometimes offered two jobs a day by just meeting people. I don't even engage in the conversation. They wouldn't be able to offer any salary that would make me even considering taking a job. And if I look at my former peer, never getting a job in the past may be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Ah. Yes. Billions.

"medieval Arab scientists"

Ibn_al-Haytham was one of the inventors of the "scientific method". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham

Cost of the Manhattan project in 2012 US dollars: 30 Trillion http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/05/17/the-price-of-the-m...

This was a significant part of GDP and please also consider that the US had a much smaller population to bear the costs.

I am sure that Miele builds outstanding washing machines. But, first, a Miele basically costs double what another branded machine would cost. And partly, they live on their old name and reputation. Same with Mercedes. I am sure a Mercedes is an outstanding peace of hardware. But I am also sure any Mercedes will never be as long lasting and as reliable, as a Mercedes build on the W123 platform.

Well, there are crazy people everywhere (don't need to understand the language, just look at the pics) http://www.zabex.de/site/waschmaschine.html

Regarding the opening link: " I’ve bought and sold refrigerators and freezers from the 1950’s that still work perfectly fine."

This may be true but in many countries electricity costs will kill you if you run a freezer from the 50ies.

"would gladly pay $3000 for a washer"

Miele. https://9to5mac.com/2011/03/07/how-steve-jobs-picks-a-washer...

"In situations where there are far more good ideas than funding, good ideas will be rejected. This is mathematics."

This was not a vague idea, this was a project that was very advanced. Obviously nothing came out of the funded ideas or I would have heard about.

But again. I was told how this grants are given and I am glad I don't waste my time with it anymore. I played Hare and Tortoise too long already in my life. I became successful when I stopped playing it.

"The rejection rates for SBIR's are commonly 90%+ because there are far more proposals than dollars."

I know. But I thought it is based on merit. If you try to tell me it is a lottery it should require very few people.

"Now you want to burn down the agency because you had two SBIR proposals rejected," Reading is not your stength. Somebody explained me, how grants are given and I don't think I like the idea.

Let's say it is overdue that Trump cuts some fat.

I could not know that the first one was not feasible. I had no access to the equipment (but later someone had access who published a paper). But still, one of the main points the reviewer did not get. Even if it was not a good idea from an energetic standpoint, it was still a good idea to store energy. If you have electricity (wind!) that you can't use, it may still be a good idea to convert this to fuel.

The second one had nothing comparable. We had peer reviewed publications. Nobody had this in this field. The main argument was that it is financially not feasible for mass production. The reviewer was off by factor 100.

The guy who got the proposal, he told me how it went. I don't want to go into details.

Does this answer your questions?

Mate, I know that the plural of anecdote is not data. And I can't provide specifics because such a thing may easily blow up in my face (blow back).

But just FYI: I had a SBIR grant rejected and it was rejected with a cause. But I also had a SBIR grant rejected and the rejection was totally bullshit. There can't be another name for this but corruption. At the same time, when I submitted this application, a buddy who got a major SBIR grant in the past told me not to have high hopes. He explained to me how and why his proposal was selected from the big stack of proposals. It is not an open race.

Don't shed a tear. I am sure this officials with their high 6 figs salaries can easily find a job in the private sector. Enjoy!

"The National Institutes of Health, for example, would be cut by nearly $6 billion, about a fifth of the NIH budget."

Many of their employees have drop dead salaries. And the same time these department are corrupt as fuck (say hand out of SBIR grants to buddies). I know I will be down voted but trust me, I won't shed a tear about these cuts.

How do you do this?

I rooted my HTC one, put hosts in /etc/ but somehow the phoen "ignores" it?

Stupid post extraordinaire. Respect

"You can trade $6.95 on ETRADE". Yes. Right. By the way, the fuel cost the same per gallon for a Lamborghini than for a used Toyota. Why not buy a Lamborghini then?