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Ah, the smell of freedom from that useless putrid thing!

I'm fairly libertarian in my views, but I do agree with the City of Berlin in requiring commercial licensing and insurance on Uber drivers, as a consumer protection issue. How Uber chooses to solve this is up to them. They could require commercial licensing for all driver applicants, and provide the insurance on a per-ride basis, if this is legal in Germany.

HOWEVER, while this problem is separate from the medallion issue that Uber has faced in the US, only time will tell how the German local and national government treats Uber and other ride-sharing services. AFAIK, there is no set limit on the amount of commercial licenses and insurances in the city of Berlin, which is unlike how the medallions work. Medallions are not in place to provide consumer safety, but to limit the availability of providers. And protecting profit margins.

If Uber solves the issues presented and starts working with commercially licensed and insured drivers, but keep getting into trouble with the government, then we can start suspecting foul play.

And I'm not saying the official taxi companies played no part in this, they probably were very eager to tip off the local government of this legal issue

Exactly. For example, every time Krugman gets involved in a debate about the banking sector, it becomes clear why he got the award. The Honorary Nobel Prize he got was handed to him by the head honchos at the Swedish Central Bank, so it shouldn't come as a surprise when his views are heavily leaned towards a more finance sector friendly Keynesian way of thinking.

So trying to boost his credibility with this "Nobel Prize" will only work on people who don't know what kind of a rigged anti-prize it is.

The testing standards for the EU fuel consumption numbers are very strict and stringent and have never actually stated that you'll be able to reach these figures yourself. The cars are tested indoors, and are not in any way subject to real world conditions during this test. It's just a tool to standardize the way the cars are tested so as to give the consumer a clue when comparing different cars.
Because of course the car manufacturers are going to game the system by not only "cheating" with taping, over-inflated tires and such like mentioned in earlier posts, but also building cars in a way which makes them more optimal for this test.
The test itself includes both a urban-cycle and a non-urban cycle, which are then combined for an EU-average. The scores for all three measures are then stated by the dealership and as I said, they are mostly for comparing between cars and not estimating any real world consumption, because that would be almost impossible to do because of varying temperatures, road surfaces, drivers.... The list is long.

Nope, people *think* they only authorized one payment, because they don't know how the system works.
What they actually are authorizing is a 30 minute windows of purchases.

How can Google fix it? Just remind them at every log-in. "The device will have authorization for payments for the next 30 minutes."

For once, won't someone think of the PARENTS?

Well, least corrupted if you look at how corruption is defined in the laws of the land. A lot of the corruption is legalized by law(state sanctioned or state run monopolies, or oligopolies run by politicians) and thus not counted towards the corruption score in international rankings.

Funny that, just invent a BS reason for a protection racket(protecting the state's or your own profits, not the people...) and BANG! Not corruption, just the way the country is run.

BTW, in socialist countries, welfare is a kind of bribe, it keeps the poor masses living on those welfare payment in line, making sure they keep voting for the political parties who keep promising them the best short-term deal.

One of the most important features is the "Other Half" or whatever they're calling it, which is basically a back cover with a digital interface. There are already projects in motion to produce back covers with slide-out keyboards, extra batteries, among other things.

This feature has been seriously underplayed, it's one of the most exciting things about the whole phone!

Paired with here means that the phones are sold by the telecom operator in their stores(first the pre-orders are fullfilled), but there are no requirements for contracts and no sim-locking.

The online shop is Jollas own. I just paid for my pre-order phone through their website.

It's rare that the trash I produce takes up more space than the groceries I've carried home. Right now I have 4 or 5 plastic bags from previous trips waiting neatly rolled up under my sink. For when I take out the next filled bag. I've never run out of trash bags, and never bought a roll specifically for that use.

My recommendation; ban flimsy bags, and make only the big (40L is almost standard here) strong ones out of biodegradable materials.

But saving time and bother. Some plastic bags here are some kind of biodegradable plastic(or they offer them), and when I throw them they'll end up in the municipal incinerator anyway. Doesn't matter.

Ok, so plastic bags in the grocery stores here in Finland have cost somewhere between 15-30 Euro cents for, well forever. I could get a proper cloth grocery bag to reuse, or buy paper bags instead, but I choose not to. Why? I use those plastic bags for my trash!

So if I did go cloth or, heaven forbid, paper, I'd still have to buy plastic bags to put in my trash cans. It doesn't matter if I buy them separately or on a roll, I'm going to keep buying those plastic bags until I come up with a better way to get rid of my trash.

In this case, some of these problems are non-issues. The exam is a national exam, taken simultaneously all over the country. So a "leaked exam" doesn't really matter once the exam has started since everyone that's supposed to be taking it, is sitting there taking it. The test timing is done on clock. The real one on the wall. Time from 9am to 3pm. Doesn't help if you can pause the program...

As for the internet part, they just need to have bootable USB-sticks, with the exams on them, tagged with the name and ID of the exam taker. The students boot the exam under supervision, and start. The answers are then saved locally onto the stick, and collected at the end of the day. Alternatively, a central exam server is put up locally(with no internet access), the computers connect to that for login/exam saving.

Also, these exams are overseen be at least 2 people at all times, and they're were sensitive to people breaking rules. Carrying a mobile phone is enough to get your exam failed, sometimes even all the exams of that spring/fall nulled. So any activity that's off from the normal test-taking would raise suspicion.

Just by this statement alone I'm assuming you don't live in Europe. Europe has had 20 years of HUGE improvement in diesel cars, and VW has been exporting this to the US for quite some time. Just because U.S citizens haven't adopted it doesn't mean the technology isn't there. Today diesel cars are way cleaner than comparable gasoline cars(if equipped with a particle filter, which all but the cheapest ones are), and in some European countries have a 50% market share for new car sales.
As for CFLs, if you can tolerate the 10 second "warm-up", the 90% energy savings are quite amazing and even the CFLs from IKEA are good enough to use around the home in places where you don't need glaring "office-type" lighting. Not the mention the longer lifetime. And soon those will be replaced by LED lighting anyway. Hell, the bulb in the reading light I have on my desk and next to my bed is LED, and it's brilliant. I'm curious to see how long this will work. I'm worried I might not see the day it burns out.