RightMillennial

If person A has a criminal record, it's quite possible he couldn't afford a good defense lawyer to be acquitted, and was better off taking the plea bargain than risking a worse conviction.

I meant border control. I didn't realize those gates were operated remotely.

You can already pass customs in an airport through face recognition in the EU. I don't see it as much of a stretch for it to be extended to boarding.

I just tried some borscht a couple weeks ago. It was made by an older Russian gentleman at my church (in the U.S.). It was definitely a different flavor but it was pretty good.

I took German back in high school but I don't really remember anything about it. How can you read if you don't at least have an idea of what each word or phrase means? I'm a native born English speaker, and I occasionally have to look up English words if I have no idea what they're supposed to mean. It's one thing if it's an obvious random word for a gadget such as doohickey. I can't imagine reading a foreign language and surmising what a word means without a definition.

Likewise. Discussions like these are interesting and a nice break from technology and politics.

I don't mean to dismiss the idea. I think animals, farmed or not, should be treated humanely. My point is living or growing up on a farm where animals do get slaughtered can affect your perspective on the matter. I doubt a lot of people really do know the reality of it if their only knowledge of it is from the shock and horror perspective. I suspect culture also plays a role.

Have I ever struggled with it? No, nature itself is violent where the only fittest and luckiest survive long enough to procreate. Death is the inevitable outcome of life. I doubt our chickens had any worse of a life than they would have out in the wild (if they weren't domesticated). I know factory farming exists but I don't care enough about it to give up the deliciousness of meat. We're omnivores by nature.

See, I grew up on a small farm. We raised chickens that my father would butcher. He'd string one up, slit its throat and it'd die instantly. After it was bled we'd pluck the feathers off and then cook it for supper. There wasn't anything particularly cruel about it, and I feel no moral qualms about eating chicken or any other meat for that matter. Maybe growing up on a farm taught me the reality of it which I see as normal.

Is that gross or net revenue or income?

That sounds like quite an improvement over our system in the U.S. This budget standoff with a month long shutdown is a disaster.

I was referring to the 4th Crusade's siege and then sacking that crippled the Byzantine Empire.

The sacking of Constantinople was just an honest mistake. /s

Online retail isn't particularly meaningful. However, I enjoy the work and it pays well.