Recent submissions

Comment · 10 years ago
I do multiple 12/13 hour flights per year. It's not a big deal once you get used to it. The hardest part is just preparing yourself to be able to shut down properly. We spend too much time constantly stimulated that sitting still for a while freaks people out.

I find there is a benefit to being alone with your thoughts for half a day or so, in a physically inactive state. How many people honestly ever spend that time 'switched off'.

It's all in how you approach it really, glass half full/empty

Comment · 10 years ago
I think there is only one case, and that was because if a hijacking. The plane broke apart on landing. It was caught on video by someone on the beach.

Of course, we don't know what happened to mh17, which might have also glided into the ocean.

Comment · 10 years ago
Engines turn or passengers swim.

You have an extra word in there.

Comment · 10 years ago
The true answer involves looking at the basic inputs of an economy and seeing which are being regulated heavily, and how that flows through as price increases.

Land, labour and energy are the basic inputs. You could argue capital as well. Technology is a productivity multiplier. Some things are getting cheaper - much cheaper. But other things are getting heavily regulated, which drives flow-on price increases.

The problem is those flow on increases have swamped the price reductions from automation. Technology price reductions are gradual and incremental, whereas regulation can be applied on thickly at the stroke of a pen.

Where I live, heavy regulation on land use causes shortages, which drives up the price of everything. To sell tech in a shop requires silly rent, and paying someone to mind the cash register has been regulated to be high. So while the price of a 8Gb isn stick has crashed, the shop and the employee have rocketed up.

Comment · 10 years ago
Seriously? Ferrari impromptu infernos is an Internet meme. Those things self immolate all the time. New ones too, not old ones with leaky hoses. Google it, it's a thing.
Comment · 10 years ago
Generally construction of luxury-only housing indicates high regulatory barriers. Because it is hard to make a building, then demand is high, and the costs of meeting the regulations is also high. The rational response to that is to make he unit-cost high.

If you placed sever restrictions on car production you'd find the surviving brands would be the luxury brands.

Comment · 10 years ago
You could actually do that. If you sold options in an approved development with a five years delay in start time, you'd probably get in plenty of cash and not actually have any new residents. You could get a healthy market going in just the right to own an apartment in the future.
Comment · 10 years ago
I actually think it would be very hard to soak up demand at this point.

I think adding high rise is the right choice, as long as it is accompanied with increases in transport links. It's all very well to add in a couple of thousand people, but they all have to get in and out and buy groceries etc. you don't want each of those people owning a car and making the traffic worse.

I think there should be mor emphasis on making other parts of the Bay Area more like the things people want from the city / peninsular proper. Whether that is transport, cultural or liveability, it should all be possible.

Comment · 10 years ago
It actually describes Australia, which for the most part is uninhabited and undeveloped, and has massive amounts of mostly untouched wilderness.

Take a land mass the size of the lower 48 states, and take out all the people except for Oregon on the west coast and Florida on the east coast. Remove nearly all the interstates and all but three of the railroads. That is Australia.

Comment · 10 years ago
You can negotiate plenty of labor movement just with some simple qualifications, like not having a criminal history, being an eu citizen for 5+ years, no access to welfare for 3 years, things like that. I think most brexit supporters would go for that. The opposition is not to immigration in general from what I understand, but to uncontrolled immigration with which the UK parliament has no control.

Modern visa granting can be done electronically like the U.S. ESTA and could easily be achieved with little disruption. It could also prove a handy earner for a small fee.

I think it is misrepresenting the majority of brexit supporters to say they don't want any immigration. All the ones I talked to just wanted to have a say, and the EU did not give them that.

Comment · 10 years ago
Your second point is incorrect. There are plenty of trade agreements without free movement included. Indeed the EC (forerunner to the EU) was precisely free trade without free movement.

The first point is debatable. There is a lot of political power to be gained by the person who pulls the trigger if they do it succesfully. I think it is 50:50, but there is a lot of upside to be had if it is done well and with plenty of stability and adjustment time. Anyone in the Conservative party who refuses to pull the trigger will be subject to endless criticism and undermining from the significant base of people that wants it done.

Comment · 10 years ago
That might be your specific interests but I'd wager you didn't come from a family with anyone in jail, your parents sent you to school and stressed its importance, and were well read for their education level.

Of course outliers exist and some very successful people come from very dysfunctional families. But if you look at enough people, they come out in temperament and attitude very similar to their family. The really surprising thing is how often one family will produce two top level musicians or sports players.

Comment · 10 years ago
I would say it is less than that.

Leaving aside heritability, the environment in which the child will grow up is more or less set in concrete by the time they are born. This includes the parents socio-economic level, but more importantly to that, their attitudes towards relationships, learning, critical thought, reading, victim vs control personality and plenty more. A house without books doesn't fill with books when the child arrives.

Pretty much by the time the first cry is made, a huge chunk of their future is already written. The margin is small, but, having said that, small changes at the margin can make a big difference in individuals.

Comment · 10 years ago
I might just move to Poland then!
Comment · 10 years ago
Don't forget the extra taxes paid to provide the schooling and hospitals!

It's a good thing for these to be spread out - otherwise those who don't have kids are free riders on those that do. A healthy educated child not only supplies a lifetime of taxes paid, they also provide the labor to care for the ageing who didn't have children.

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