Fortunately things are not as bad over here in Europe, there's still loads of competition. That being said, Ryanair as an ultra low cost carrier specialises in flying from smaller airports to an airport somewhere near somewhere people want to go (I.E. "London" Isle of Skye airport) so for many it is their only option apart from driving a few hours to a major airport.

I doubt they'll try this as EU and UK consumer laws will have some rather strong things to say about it. O'Leary has a history of saying outlandish things to get free publicity in the press. Things like charging for lavatory use or dropping one pilot and training the cabin crew to fly in emergencies.

I too have had the pleasure of flying Cebu Pacific and travelling in the Phils, generally they're not a good example of how to do things and Filipinos, as lovely a people as they are really tend not to do things the easy way.

In Europe, even here in Colombia almost every airline will have automatic check in machines with manned desks as a backup in case the machines fail. 99 times out of 100 it makes things faster and easier as well as allowing for more people to check in simultaneously.

I didn't realise how much until I had the misfortune to fly on the same day as the Collins Aerospace cyber attack. Qatar Airways had to check in 2 full 777-300s manually which meant both flights were delayed (mine by 3 hours) which meant a great many people including me missed their connection. I've no doubt that Qatar would have pulled in every warm body they could to help on that day too.

Ryanair's O'Leary is well known for making outlandish statements that never come true in order to get his name and his airline plastered all over the news and generate faux outrage for free publicity. Would bet this is just another such stunt.

Almost every airline that lets you check in online also sends you a PDF that you can print out. I'd be very surprised if this was not already industry standard if not law in Europe. Even if they get rid of printers at the airport I suspect this system will remain for people without smartphones or those who simply want a paper copy with the boarding QR code on it.

Finally I strongly suspect that if they actually did try to force people to download their shitty app... the EU will step in and say nein, non, no y fuck off in 3... 2...

Oh my poor innocent sweet summer consumer...

You actually think HR has anything to do with helping workers. No, misguided one

No, no, no.

HR exists to protect the company _from_ it's employees. If US companies are expanding their HR, then they're preparing for war with their own employees.

People paying $2.99 for a flash game on their phone have finally figured out that you can play them for free on the interwebs. News at 11.

Erm... so a minimum wage employee has to risk their lives so you an feel better about "something" being done. I bet you also wonder why the modern world is fucked.

Also clue by four: if shops could stop shoplifting tomorrow they'd not lower prices, they'd just increase their profit margins. Hence if there is anyone to blame it is really the stores themselves. There's a load of changes they can make to store layouts to minimise theft and shrinkage, however they wont as it will reduce the purchase of impulse items significantly. Until shops are willing to do that, they're just complaining that someone else hasn't fixed their problem and protected their profits.

The local ASDA (UK supermarket) recently installed barriers that only open one way at the entrance to the store but still keeps impulse items outside the barriers... which makes them about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The barriers are waist height so they won't stop anyone and if you want to leave the shop you can just walk through the dozen or so unmanned checkouts. I suppose it will deter the casual theif... sometimes.

Conspiracy implies a degree of secrecy.

Good sir, this is clearly a desperate cry for help... This "national centre for gaming disorders" seems desperate for people to learn that they... erm... exist.

More Americans seem to be aware of Milton Keynes than people who have heard about this place, probably because Britain's most unremarkable town has more functions.

Fun fact: there are over 140 roundabouts in Milton Keynes, giving you ample opportunity to turn around and get the hell out of Milton Keynes.

The irony of that I sense will be lost on you.

Crocodile Dundee were American films. The stories were American, the language used was American (they're called prawns, only Seppo's call them "shrimp" and no-one in Oz BBQs them), even Paul Hogan had left Australia (albeit for the UK). This is exactly the kind of thing that these kinds of legislation are meant to stymie.

If you'd like to watch a few Australian films, I'd recommend "The Castle" as a light hearted drama, "Chopper" as a more gritty comedy based on Melbourne gangland figure Mark Brandon "Chopper" Reid (both films feature Eric Bana) and "Bad Eggs", Australia tends to do comedy well. Although I suspect a cultural references will go straight over the heads of many.

As a former Australian, the culture is being subsumed by the worst parts of American culture.

Long gone are the days of the knockabout larrikin culture of my youth (we're only talking 20 odd years ago too) which has been replaced with American style selfishness and ignorance, a grab, snatch and take followed with "I got mine, fuck you". If you aren't old enough to have 20 houses, there's nothing left for you to grab, snatch or take either. The old "laid back" Australian image is just a myth these days, "She'll be right" has been replaced with "I'm alright Jack".

As for this particular move, the old system is dying, by that I mean broadcast TV and it was broadcast TV that used to pay for all the local production. This is again Americanism creeping in with a little help from the British, TV is little more than cheap reality TV any more. If it isn't American style reality, they'll steal things from the British (Strictly Come Dancing, Bake Off, Love Island (which was only named such because Chlamydia Peninsula was already trademarked)). There is little in the way of local drama and local comedy produced these days. I'd hazard a guess that is the kind of thing this move is trying to stymie.

I've long since moved away and found something in the UK I realised Australia lost, it could still laugh at itself, it wasn't taking itself too seriously and sadly that seems to be dying out in the UK now.

I largely agree, however one minor point of order is that banks rarely make interest off people who don't repay their debts. So someone who is at risk of defaulting is going to cost, hence organisations that give easy credit to anyone like Klarna are in dire straights. Whoda thunk you'd lose money by lending it to people who wouldn't pay it back.

What they want are people using credit (preferably exclusively) but paying it off every month, hence people who have credit cards but don't use them are often called "deadbeats".

I'm just glad I don't live in a country that judges me on a credit score. It seems pretty Orwellian to me. Lenders have to make their own decisions when someone applies for credit which means the lender must accept the risks (the likes of Experian have tried to set up credit score like systems here and failed as no one would buy them).

Yet.

They're not going full Stazi on white people, yet.

It'll happen, first they'll say it's just the "Lib'rals" and the ignorant sleepwalkers will just keep watching Fox News and swallowing their State Approved bullshit... however it'll start applying to them too and by that point, it'll be too late as "no one was left to speak out for them".

People who support the mechanism of a police state, especially out of bigotry, rarely seem to understand that the same mechanisms will be turned against them in due course. Well, not until it's too late.

At least they still managed to break my Taylor guitar.

Spain doesn't really benefit from DST because it's highest latitude is still so low that there isn't a huge difference in the hours of daylight between summer and winter.

The UK has an 8 hour difference between midsummer and midwinter. Yes, July has 8 more hours of sunshine than December. If you stuck with permanent summer time, the sun wouldn't rise until 8:30 and would still be dark by 5 in midwinter. If you stuck with permanent GMT, in midsummer the sun would be up around 03:30. Without DST, a whole bunch of seasonal issues (in particular S.A.D.) will get a whole lot worse.

Most clocks adjust themselves these days, so there isn't even that excuse any more.

I think that Too Big To Fail has become Too Big To Fail.

The whole point of a free market economy is to foster competition, if one entity becomes so large or controlling over a market segment that it can cause a serious disruption then the free market has failed, so that entity needs to be heavily regulated, nationalised or broken up.

That being said, I don't think any AI company is too big to fail... I suspect their failure will be too small to notice except by people who have foolishly invested huge sums of money in white elephants.