As a player of civilization, I can say that even if you I did not play the industry path, other players would easily ruin the world without my help. I can see that this works in real life as well.

Bombardier is French. And of all the things the French despise, the Germans are very high on the list. Siemens is German and of all the things the Germans hate, the French are very high on the list. And many customers, among which the Dutch railway company Prorail for which I have worked, prefers to buy material from as many different vendors as possible, to prevent vendor lock-in. So the company that made the TGV and holds the world speed record for rail with it, and the company that made the ICE, the most comfortable high speed rail in the world, will not be working together soon.

Thanks for your detailed explanation. There is quite a bit of voting going on in the US. :-)

We (The Dutch) vote every four years for a lower house (second room; 150 people), who in turns elects the higher house (first room; about 15 people, including the president). And every four years we vote for municipal government, including the mayor. While the lower house elections has options of about 15 political parties, only about 7 have a serious chance of getting seats. They then form a (usually majority) coalition and an opposition.

Municipal elections are similar. However, candidate mayors are sometimes all from the political party. Sow whichever you vote, they may all be in agreement or disagreement with your own views.

Municipal and state elections alternate.

What if we could get Bombardier en Siemens to work together on building trains? Within ten years, nobody would want to travel by car again!

Out of curiosity; what do you Americans vote for? As a European, I am only familiar with the US presidential elections...

That is not very likely, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

If it ever deteriorates beyond my tolerance, I will go for another new Sonim. :-)

I would never want a smart phone. Power gurgling fragile devices, having way more features than I would ever require. I prefer my sonim XP 3.20 Quest Pro. The best Sonim ever made. It lasts more than a month on a battery and I can hammer nails in with it, would I be so inclined. And with a bit of luck, it will last me for life.

Hopefully that will be in time. Here we have to teach 3rd year science students who struggle with for loops and who cannot come to grasp with allocatable arrays. It is despairing.

Did anybody seriously even consider that they would not do that?

Is it on purpose that there are only American schools? I see nothing from Europe and Japan, for example. It seems terribly unbalanced.

But this approaching sport with science. It has become a number game. Is the temperature too high? Forget it. Is your VO2 incorrect, you're screwed.

At most 120 minutes

Tax Euros in this case, but in essence the same thing.

Heard it from a tax advisor who knows all the loop holes in the system. You have to pay them for advice, but it is usually worth it.