2,940 karma · joined July 25, 2016
If this is the case, what are the consequences of not paying the fine? I interpret your statement to mean that they can't prevent registration of your car. Can they tow you in SF for unpaid fines?
What I am less able to excuse them for is capacity issues, especially on weekend and Friday trains on popular routes in the Summer. That Zurich Lugano train is packed to the gills most weekends during the summer such that it's standing room only for most of the 2 hour ride. They need to add more trains or at least more cars.
Reliability is not something to complain about. The trains are punctual, that's for sure.
Air travel sucks. I wasted 8 hours today and I won’t even get a lousy T shirt. I’m sure next time I can take my business to a different airline who will also be happy to not do any better.
-Sent from my 1T parameter LLM
It's true that Consider Phlebas is set outside The Culture. I think that's for the best as The Culture is pretty alien and the Phlebas protagonist is more relatable. Banks does a great job of building the world such that when you get to the end of the book, you're like "I get it" in terms of understanding the Culture. Plus, Phlebas has a number of wonderfully evocative set pieces that are super cool. You can see how influential the series was on later sci-fi, especially stuff like Halo.
I don't know what the answer to them is other than to remove the anti-DTC laws but that seems unlikely.
>> A professional will be deemed to be self-employed if he or she will be rendering services to a corporation or entity of which the professional is the sole or controlling shareholder or owner. [0]
I did quite a bit of digging to see if I could find corporate entity filings that might indicate if she is a sole or controlling shareholder. My initial findings suggest that she's not, but with low confidence.
Her product's site lists a mailing address in Illinois. I noticed the first line was "My Crew Doses"[1] (side note: lol - I guess this is a pun and a double entendre for "microdoses" but also "my friends dose"). I checked the Illinois register of corporations for that entity but came up short. I noticed the email listed on the contact page was "jeremy@enjoyholywater" and searched for 'Jeremy Holy Water' and came up with this guy [2] who lists himself as "Chief Scientific Officer" and a Co-founder of Holy! Water. I noticed he's in Colorado and checked the Colorado corporate register and bingo, came up with this: The corporate entity for My Crew Doses[3]. Not much info there but it lists the home registration of the entity as Wyoming. Going to the Wyoming register, we find the listing: [4]. That lists "Brian Mccaslin" as the sole corporate officer (President) with an @enjoyholywater.com email address. Cross-referencing his LinkedIn, it seems to be this guy: [5]. He also seems to go by BJ.
Now, assuming that this is the corporate entity for Holy! Water, I find it highly doubtful that the subject of the article is a controlling shareholder. We don't know what the ownership breakdown is but the fact that she isn't even listed as a corporate officer or a director is to me a strong indication that she isn't a majority shareholder. My hunch is that she in fact would be eligible (or at least not disqualified under this rule) for a TN visa.
[0] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2012-title8-vol1/pdf... [1]https://enjoyholywater.com/policies/contact-information [2] https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremywidmann/ [3] https://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityDetail.do?quit... [4] https://wyobiz.wyo.gov/business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=035... [5]https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjmccaslin/
While not about these loans specifically, the principles described in [0] apply. Check the section "who buys mortgages?"
[0]https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/mortgages-are-a-manuf...
That is not to say that I personally take all or most of Hoffman's suggestions at face value. It's abundantly clear that the level of nuance he considers in coffee is not relevant to me. But I do tend to see him applying a much more objective level of rigor to his reviews than many other content creators.
Unfortunately, I won't use your product. While you do appear to be cheaper than Vanguard for a comparable product, I don't think the risk of switching is worth it. The primary risk I'd be worried about is your business model changing (or you getting acquired by legacy finance) and increasing fees down the line, at which point I'd feel like I'd want to switch back to Vanguard. I'm also worried about exposing myself to your organizational risk (e.g. your internal controls failing and an employe running off with the money, your accountant falling victim to a deepfake scam, etc.) which I suspect is going to be much higher than your competitors. For the additional .17%, I actually feel that Vanguard is a damn good bargain.
I think your product actually does have a lot of value for folks invested in crappy mutual funds or with some advisor taking a massive AUM fee, but I don't really think those consumers are generally lacking the information required to understand that your product is superior, I think they're just going for something different.
It's a tough spot. The market size is obviously tantalizing but I feel like the segments are all reasonably well served as it stands. For the folks that you're really targeting, I think it's very hard to beat Vanguard. Their corporate structure and huge size really gives them a massive advantage that seems hard to beat. Best of luck to you folks!