Only in the US though. Elsewhere 'liberal' still means what it always has. This makes discussing politics in different countries difficult at times.
Every time I (Australian) mention the Liberal Party online, I have to add a "note to Americans: this is a centre-right, conservative party, not what you guys call 'liberal'". Pain in the ass.
As an Australian that moved to the US a few years ago and does a lot of flying for work, I'm on the fence when it comes to airport privatisation proposals. One of the interesting differences between the US and Australia is that, despite the fact that the US is generally more in favour of private sector delivery of services (think healthcare etc.), it has overwhelmingly kept its airports publically owned. Most major airports in the US are publically owned, whereas I think every major Australian airport was privatised many years ago.
On the one hand Australian airports are wayyyy nicer than US airports. More modern and up to date, cleaner, more spacious, better and more facilities etc. Nicer places to be in by a long shot. US airports, especially some of the major ones (Newark and O'Hare spring to mind) are very overcrowded at peak times, straining at the seams and generally just more unpleasant places to be in (e.g. what's with those disgusting old seats and claustrophobically low ceilings in Concourses E/F at ORD?)
But why are they so much nicer? Because they charge a lot more and thus have a lot more money to pump into improvements. US airport parking fees, even in a major city, are a small fraction of what they are in Australia for instance. I could park at Chicago for a week for what it could cost for a few hours at SYD or MEL. Australian airports no doubt also charge the airlines more than their US counterparts too (landing fees etc.), which indirectly affects ticket prices etc.
So in terms of user experience, private airports seem nicer, but in terms of equity of accessibility to travel itself, publicly owned is the way to go. Prices go through the roof when airports are privatised, if Australia is anything to go by. Travel should not be only for the wealthy.
They don't get lost
I suspect that's simply because they don't support Australian interbank transfer/payments systems like BSB/account transfers and Bpay etc. Since they aren't Australian there's no reason they'd have this set up, which leaves only outgoing wire transfers which are expensive for them as a business.
What I do is use GDAX to transfer the coins to be sold to an Australian crypto exchange. This is completely free using GDAX (they even eat the BTC transaction fee for you, which is kinda amazing given how high those fees have been recently). Australian exchanges will obviously then allow you to sell the coin(s) and do a normal Australian bank withdrawal. Money appears next business day in my account. Done it several times and it works well.
Opt out if you're in Australia: https://www.directoryselect.co...
Someone else already posted the US opt-out.
Australian here. I tend to use debit cards most of the time rather than credit. The CC is just there for emergencies. I used to work as cashier and EFTPOS accounted for the bulk of all our transactions.
Like with a CC I'm not liable for any unauthorised transactions, and I usually don't have that much in the linked transaction account anyway (the bulk is locked away in a savings account that is not accessible via the card).
I don't think I've ever seen an unembossed credit card (i.e. with the raised numbers). Is this just an American thing or are there other places that have unembossed cards?
Sounds to me like the problem is having an internet connection in class rather than laptops themselves, since the findings focus on time wasted on social media, shopping, other non-academic uses. I used a laptop in class in the late 90s/early 2000s for taking notes on, instead of on paper, but it wasn't really a distraction because there was no internet connection (Wifi wasn't ubiquitous in classrooms back then). It was just the way I took notes.
As someone who moved to the US (from Australia) hearing these sirens is one of the (many) surreal things about living here. Australia relies on radio, TV and SMS/phone alerts - no sirens.
The sirens here in the US sound like something out of an old cold war movie. Duck and cover! They test them at noon every Wednesday in the area I live in...
No, you don't, but a 4 year old isn't going to know that. There's an emergency call button on the lockscreen (screenshot below):
I have to admit, just when I thought facts about US healthcare couldn't surprise me anymore, I learn that astronauts - one of the toughest and highest profile government jobs you could have - don't have guaranteed healthcare later in life? That seems insane, especially given there's really not that many astronauts out there to begin with.
I'm from a country with public universal health care, with a private option (i.e. you can pay for private health insurance on top of the public system if you think it's worth it - it covers extras like dental, cosmetic surgery, etc.) But private insurance isn't tied to employment. You just buy it from a company like you would car insurance or home insurance. Having said that, the public system is good quality (you'll probably be treated by the same doctors either way), so there's no need to worry if you can't afford it. It's not a perfect system but it's gotta be better than what's happening in the US.
That's one of those cultural things and is true in most countries. I grew up in such a country and find buildings in North America and some European countries ridiculously stuffy and overheated in winter. It just depends on what you grew up with I guess.
I live in the US now but keep my indoor temperature at 18/19 C at most (65-66 ish F), and yeah, wear a jumper. I sometimes crank it to 20 C / 68 F if I have guests coming around hehe.
I'm from Australia and live in the US, and 90% of people here think I'm English. I just think they can't tell the difference (to be fair, there's not a huge difference between urban Australian and RP/London English).
Yep - this makes complete sense. The two TVs we do have are used purely as displays for Chromecast and games. We don't actually watch 'TV' on them. I also have various computer monitors, some of which are big enough that you could comfortably use them as 'TVs'.
Increasingly I think distinguishing TVs from monitors by whether or not they have a tuner will become meaningless, as more and more people are just using them to watch content from one HDMI/DisplayPort source or another, which may be a timeshifted 'TV' show, or a movie, or a game, or YouTube, or...
I feel like if they are desperate enough to fly you out to NZ for a job interview and show you around for a week, that it would defeat the purpose to get to the salary negotiation part of it and skimp on the dollars there. Cost of living in NZ is quite reasonable. So yeah, if you're constantly thinking of your pay in terms of "what would this buy me if I converted it back to my home currency and spent it at home", then it may seem like a bad deal. But you wouldn't do this purely to bring money home - you'd be spending it locally and enjoying the lifestyle.
I agree with you on the weather - I actually quite like COLD weather, but the constant wind in Wellington is irritating and makes even mild days feel colder than they are on paper. Having said that, NZ has plenty of beautiful countryside and scenery, and Wellington itself is quite a fun town. Three hour flight from warm beaches and bigger cities in Australia too (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane).
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein
