Most people think of evolution as "survival of the fittest", but this is a gross simplification. In a population bottleneck, genetic diversity can shrink rapidly if a large portion of the population dies out. Imagine what would happen if everyone in the world died except a small and distinct group- lets say the Vietnamese people just for example. If the population recovered and repopulated the world, humans would have lost a tremendous amount of genetic diversity which may or may not be beneficial to survival.

Evolution in the traditional sense also only affects characteristics which affect the ability to reproduce. For example, it is impossible for humans to evolve the problem of cataracts or alzheimer's out of our genetic code. By the time these problems show up, the children of those affected have already become self-sufficient. Evolution is about "reproduction of the fittest" not the more general "survival of the fittest".

You seem to deride the practice, but handing out halloween candy has a purpose- its a gift to make people want to keep doing what they just did (ie. show up). Small incentives and gifts can be very valuable tools for building relationships. I used to be a field engineer working at power stations. The big thing there was stickers. Millwrights and pipefitters have a tradition (going back probably until the invention of stickers) of collecting stickers and placing them on their hard hats. Stickers are "earned" by attending mandatory safety presentations ("Power Plant XYZ Safety Training 2014"), by belonging to various industry clubs, or just handed out by people (engineers/sales reps) looking to get a favor in the future. A hard hat full of stickers shows that you're an experienced guy who has been around a while. It is a mark of respect and experience. If you work in those professions and don't have a hard hat full of stickers, you're a greenhorn or otherwise somebody who doesn't know what they're doing.

I've shown up to a power station many times with a roll of stickers, and these guys instantly became my best friend and helped me out greatly in achieving the thing I was there to do. Don't underestimate the value of token gifts.

They would make just as much money, if not more, by selling smaller volumes at a not-quite proportionally smaller cost.

If the US taxed corn syrup, instead of subsidizing it, that would be a start. Soft drnks are very modestly sized in every foreign country I have been in. Coincidentally, all those foreign countries use real sugar instead of corn syrup in their fizzy drinks.

The ammonia in your cleaning bottle is hydrous ammonia, which is a fancy way of saying it is mostly water. Hydrous ammonia is pretty tame stuff. Anhydrous (no water) ammonia, like the kind required for chemical reactions, is nasty nasty stuff. If you breathe the vapors it can cause permanent damage to your lungs. If you get it on your skin, you can easilly get a nasty chemical burn. The vapor is flamable and forms explosive mixtures with air. It reacts violently with a variety of compounds.

Anhydrous ammonia is dangerous. Certainly much more dangerous than you seem to think it is.

You've got the overall picture, but this isn't pushed down by the companies. It's the unions. There are numerous unions, including for things which are not unionized in other countries, like Engineers. Everybody could work 8 hours a day if they wanted, but there is pressure to stretch out the work. If you aren't booking a similar level of overtime as the other workers, you might get a visit from the union guy. Companies are hesitant to increase wages to eliminate the need for overtime, because there is no guarantee that employees wouldn't just soak up as much overtime as before.

One other odd thing about Japan is that in many professions, the salary curve is an upside down "U" shape. Straight out of college they pay low salaries, mid-career the employee has received salary increases and promotions and so are making a lot more. But as the employees career peaks, so too does their salary. The salary eventually decreases every year until the employee retires. Some companies even have a special "Retiree Consulting Company" where employees work when they reach a certain age (55, 60, etc). The employee takes a big pay cut, is taken off the company payroll, and is then a contractor/consultant, but doing the same job. Usually their hours are ramped down to 3 days/week, 2 days/week, 1 day/week etc until they actually retire from working.

It has benefits in that a person retiring has had a LONG time to prepare, pass on their knowledge, and train the next worker. But it definitely adds perverse incentives to milking the salary when you can because after a certain point, the employee is just making less and less every year.

Day 1 DLC is still idiotic. It raises the cost of entry for the gamer and doesn't do anything to foster goodwill. Have the devs make DLC during the lull time if you must, but delay that DLC until 3-5 months after release.

Its not a lie, just a bad manager. The problem for management is that what works awesome at some companies fail completely at others. Company/Department A may be doing great with an open-office scheme, all the employees are happy and productivity goes up 50%. The problem is that a a manager at Company/Department B will try it out without considering in what, if any, ways which A is different from B. if B is the same as A in all the ways which matter, then the manager is a hero. But if B is different than A in some small way, then the manager has committed a big mistake. Sometimes the difference is foreseeable (bad manager) and sometimes it isn't.

Different cultures. Don't assume that just because they are neighbors, Japanese products and Chinese products have the same potential. Japan has a long history and culture of quality and craftsmanship, and these are values which show in their products and services. In Japan people do a good job for the sake of doing a good job. I'm not as familiar with China but when I traveled there, I constantly felt hustled and that people were trying to take advantage of me. Their culture will gladly screw you over to make a dollar.

It is very valuable to grab someone's attention. Stuck in phone support hell? Company not treating you right? 49 cents and you get a piece of paper that someone, almost certainly outside of the small group of people who is treating you badly, will read. If you complain about something specific and actionable, it will be escalated and probably taken care of. 1 letter to CIGNA HQ and I got them to actually do something on my behalf. It took less time to write and drop in our office mail than a phone call to CIGNA usually takes. AND I didn't have to deal with their dreadful phone menu system.

Don't discount 1st class mail just because you aren't using it to your advantage.

Do you have a use for 1200 images per second which is not a very niche purpose?

Why go to all the trouble of actual pieces of paper/stamps/etc? A database keeping track of which person has which vaccine is probably the simplest database there is. I wouldn't use a SSN as a unique identifier but Name+Birthdate+Birthtown is probably sufficient. Make it open to the public on the internet so that we can check our neighbors if desired. Make some APIs so that other software packages can check easily. That kind of information is a public service/right to know. I'm all for the right to privacy but for this information, public health trumps. It boggles my mind that it hasn't been done already, even on a state level.

Frankly it amazes me that it is so hard to find a chip and pin card in the USA now. I got a traveler-oriented credit card a couple months ago. When shopping around the chip and pin cards were really nowhere to be found, despite how useful they would be if I were to travel to Europe. It wasn't a feature high on my list though since I primarily travel to Switzerland and Japan, both of which seem to accept the chip less cards.

What he has done is effectively apply game theory in deciding which coins to target and how to spread his resources. It is quite clever but applying this solution to this style of problem isn't really unexpected.

Not really that amusing. Screen sizes in even the most solidly metric countries are often measured in inches.