Comment Re:They're bums, why keep them around (Score 1) 743
But that's probably barely enough to sustain a standard of living similar to a typical 3rd-world country - and that is exactly the problem
But that's probably barely enough to sustain a standard of living similar to a typical 3rd-world country - and that is exactly the problem
^ all true...
How many nations could? Germany *might*, given their huge hard currency reserves, plus their gold and other physical assets. (Many people don't know this, but after the United States, Germany holds the world's largest gold reserves)
China probably could, given the massive foreign currency they hold.
The US of course could, given that the US Dollar is the world's reserve currency, we could print enough to pay it all off tomorrow, abit at the cost of inflation, but we could.
Who else? Honestly, I think that might be it.
Most of Germany's gold is on US-soil. It's assumed to exist, but nobody knows for sure...
The problem is that the politicians failed to prepare their voters for it (for 20 years). Now would be the time to do, but it's a "bad time".
I'm not sure if we've hit the end of the road here, yet, because chances are there's a foul compromise that let's them kick the can down the road a couple of weeks or months more.
We have transfer-payments in Germany, too. But there are a few paying states and a lot of receiving states and the paying states are mostly fed-up with it, because in the past, the receiving states didn't put the money to much use, instead using it to finance short-term projects to appeal to voters...and we all speak the same language, have the same flag, the same national soccer team...
In the end, though, politicians are voted into power by people. So, you can aways say that people got what they voted for.
I've read from women who confess they get drawn to married men (or those they know are obviously engaged) while at the same time being super-embarrased about it. Yet, they catch themselves doing it over and over again.
Personally, I don't really need one - it doesn't have enough sports-functions and all the rest (notifications, messages) isn't important to me as I don't sync my work-email, work-calendar with my iPhone.
And my iPhone is too old to be paired with one. But it's an intersting device, nevertheless.
I don't understand the hate towards people who buy one.
"I don't have any music, so I don't need an iPod (or the music-playing capabilites of the iPhone) - so I can't see how anybody else would need such functionality."
That kind of optimism is rare.
Also, unfortunately, totally unfounded.
I live in Switzerland (but I'm not Swiss, so I can't vote (well, it turned out I can vote on things that my church puts up for vote) and the way things (esp. the tax-system) are set up here is very interesting. I'm not sure if a larger (population and land-area wise) state like the US or Germany (or even Russia) could be governed like Switzerland. But as nobody has tried, nobody can be sure it wouldn't work
So far, I've not read an official statement that said he wouldn't have been grounded.
As such, in his own very twisted logic, he was right.
I was wondering, though, if pilots don't get to use the loo on the ground?
I usually try everything I can not to use to loo on the plane - especially if the flight is only two hours like this Germanwings flight.
I'm not sure if it's a good reaction to go crazy with new regulations for the pilots. They've already got to go through the same security checks as passengers (which is insane, as this sad case proves) and now they're supposed to distrust each other?
Next thing you know is that each keypress has to be acknowledged by the 2nd guy or it will be automatically voided.
At some point you've got to trust these guys up there in the pilot seat to do the right thing.
And, as voiced in previous posts already, instead of trying to find more reasons to ground pilots, we should find ways these people who are dedicated to their job can continue to do what they love to do, after they've dealt with their problems.
As for TVs - I'm glad Apple skipped that. Just look at the mind-bogglingly brutal deprecation these things have come under recently.
TVs selling for thousands a couple of years ago can now be had for hundreds.
Why all this hype around a technology that involves applying electric fields strong enough to induce electrical currents high enough to recharge an electronic device, which is DANGEROUS to do with electronic equipment (you can fry the device)? Not to mention the serious problem of electromagnetic interference in what is around? It is not much safer simply connect a cable to the device?
In my opinion, yes.
And I don't freak out about the "radiation" of normal phones and WLAN like some people do.
I've also heard that it's inefficient. OR rather, even less efficient than charging via cable.
Dell's XPS seems to be an OK-alternative, but you've got to run either Windows or Linux.
If this is supposed to be your bring-your-own-device laptop that you actually do work on and need to connect to a LAN directly, then it might not be the best thing.
But that's not the fault of the laptop or Apple.
How many people in Starbucks do you see who use a mouse with their laptops?
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.