They can afford it because:
1) They get a third of the number of foreign students that the United States attracts
2) German universities tend to be a "no-frill" affair, with large auditoriums, limited to no athletics programs, and none of the social life seen in American campuses, Most students tend to study locally, so generally there are no dorms. They are more comparable with American state colleges. This isn't a bad thing, in my opinion, but those who go to college hoping for the experience of the "college life" will be disappointed if they go to Germany.
As this story has been submitted several times in the past several days, by various submitter and is going around various other tech forums( https://news.ycombinator.com/i... , https://soylentnews.org/articl... , https://www.reddit.com/r/progr...
The intention of the IMF is not to help those it gives money to. The intention is basically to control them.
If you accept money from someone, don't be surprised if they try to put conditions on how you spend the money. When you're begging for money in the international market because no private investor will give you a loan due to your reckless spending behaviour, don't be surprised that donors ask for conditions on how that money is spent. If the Greeks didn't want conditions, they could always radically cut expenses to meet tax revenues and not be dependent on any handouts to make the budget balance.
The summary makes it sound like all of the bills are AGAINST ride sharing... but that's not the case. For instance, in Massachusetts(which is highlighted in the summary) Uber is actively campaigning FOR the regulation bill.
Why?
Because the bill states once and for all that ride sharing is a legal activity. Yes, it puts some protections in place: but not much beyond what Uber already provides.
As someone that uses Uber quite a bit (2-3 times per month) I welcome the new legislation as long as it allows Uber to continue to operate. Regulation is not all bad, as long as it is fair and reasonable.
There already exists taxi regulations that cover Uber, which in every respect is taxi company. However, you're dead right as to why Uber is pushing for these changes - it allows them to operate and claim legitimacy, while providing a framework of regulation that is a "light" version of what real taxi companies have to deal with, addressing only the most egregious flouting of commercial taxi operations such as commercial insurance and background checks. These so-called ridesharing regulations appear to completely ignore allowable fare increases (Uber's surge pricing), who they can or cannot pick up, handicap access, amongst others. They are a way for Uber to legitimize into law their competitive advantage.
does having a single- or limited-purpose device make really make sense for consumables?
Fixed that for you. Single use devices never made sense for coffee either.
The current fascination with smart watches reminds me when I was in high school in the 80s and there was a brief fad of full feature electronic watches. Calculator watches were in the geek must have list, but there were also kids with watches featuring radios or mini-LCD screen games. There was even a rumour of a someone in school with a tv watch, which as it turns out wasn't so far from the truth.
None of these watches were very successful, for the simple reason that the watch as a form factor was never well suited for these tasks. Trying to use a calculator in a watch was slow and frustrating. It seems that the people trying to cram features into watches nowadays have forgotten how much of failure this was when it was attempted in the 80s
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.