Doesn’t matter how many times it’s sold or how many miles it’s driven - the engineers never see another dime. The only people who get money along the way are providing gasoline, parts, or repairs.
Exactly. Now, how much are the engineers who worked on the design of all of the 2008 Ford Focus are getting paid quarterly based on the number of miles driven in 2008 Ford Focuses in 2022?
Your passport contains biometric data (your photo - not as complete as a depth scan or multi-spectral image, but still biometric).
There are two (well, threeish, legitimate) reasons for biometric. First, it is currently harder to fake. Digital passports are difficult but not impossible and non-digital are relatively easy, especially for state actors. Second people are stupid (or unlucky) and lose their passports, which leads to a shit-ton of paperwork to fix. Third, and this is really the rule for which lost docs are a sub-problem, efficiency. Even the cheapest front-line human costs about $100 an hour, including management, training, benefits, etc and I’ve yet to meet an international (or domestic) traveler who enjoys waiting in hour+ lines to get through passport control. Less contact time / zero friction interfaces are both better for passenger attitude and cost efficiency.
Until we stop the practice of drawing imaginary lines on the planet and regulating which side each person is allowed to be on, nearly every travelers and pretty much all the boarder control apparatus is going to want to spend as little time and money on one another as possible.
From a practical perspective? They could eventually cross reference the exits to arrivals, automatically flagging those who have overstated their visa (or, more specifically, automatically clearing those who have left). The data (exit data) is generally useful for all sorts of mundane statistical work. From an automation standpoint it’s both cost effective and time saving. Anyone who’s queued up in an hour+ line to get through border patrol will attest that the prices can be infuriatingly slow.
Of course, that the data can be used for non-official or privacy-adverse uses doesn’t make the collection ok, but that fact also doesn’t mean that the data isn’t useful for its overly intended purpose (automated tracking of everyone who leaves)
Sounds like the real problem is publishers not actually finishing their games before release, so even if reviewers did try to play the whole thing, they couldn't. The switch to digital downloads (over pressed media) has created an opportunity to do more with a game, but the reality is that it's simply made games more expensive (since there is no resale market) and, worse, created an entire generation of game developers and managers who think that the launch date product is like a rough draft copy of their book report for Freshman English.
The whole idea the internet is interlinked sites. Then again the whole idea if the internet was also a robust, reliable, multi-nodal, non-corporate architecture for redundant transmission of data, so we’re headed into the shitter already.
But, more to the point, if you start charging people for links you break the purpose of being able to link things. It will kill Canadian journalism first, but it will wound a portion of the internet in the process. And if it spreads it will do net harm to both sides, everywhere.
Pack it up - This dude Barron laid out an opinion piece five years ago saying the Justice was wrong. Debate's over, laws go back on the books, Scalia will be impeached and removed.
Seriously, the opinion page of WaPo is just Medium for connected people. I love reading the post for in-depth stories and to check on the local section for news of my home town, but I wouldn't even wrap fish with the Opinion section.
I tear up just thinking about it. In a way it was worse because she was having a (then rare) "good day" and I think we were all sort of second guessing whether she needed to go. OTOH, she went as easily as possible, with all of us there, and in our house. I found a vet who would make house calls and would come to us. They are family, but they are more. We are their guardian and their provider as well as their companion. I think it's natural, no - I think to some extent it's healthy, or at least right - to feel the way we do. But it's also healthy, for us, to know our limits and be mindful of our own mental health. hugs
Google just told me that three million people graduate from college each year full of technical knowledge but with effectively zero workplace skills and more than 5 out of 6 get jobs. All those people pretty much need to be trained from scratch. Does it affect every workplace? No. But for the vast majority of large companies there is a constant flow of fresh blood they need to beat into the corporate mold.
That's Europe, right? The countries with universal healthcare, reasonably maintained infrastructure, and generally high standards of living? I don't know, I don't think it would work in the US. Too much Freedom™ here to overcome.
I grew up with animals on a farm and was pretty callous (not because of the farm, just immature lack of empathy). I caved in and let the family get a rescue pup several years ago. She wasn't "mine," really, but it still hit me incredibly hard when she passed. I went to get a cotton cloth to bury her in the day before before she was put down (uncorrectable, painful colitis) and the cashier asked me what I was making. I said it was for my dog, then got into my truck and ugly cried. It's the second pet I've lost as an adult and it will be my last. I can't deal with the pain. Good for you for adopting the cats; I hope they bring you solace for the time being and many enjoyable years.
I suspect this is partially a result of change, not that work from home was implemented. Shaking up a work environment (for something more desirable to the employee) is always a morale and productivity boost. Move everyone from a bull pen to offices, or move to a new facility where there are fewer distractions and new equipment, or simply change the work schedule to a 9x9 or 4x10 and you'll see short term gains. .
Regardless of the cause of the productivity boost, full time WFH will come at the expense of training young (or new to the field) employees. Ironically, part of the cost of training new employees comes out of the billable hours of the experienced ones. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 20%-25% reduction in output of an employee who is given an intern or new hire to mentor. That won't happen when you're remote because the new hire can't constantly bug you for simple requests, ask for more work, or require active review and monitoring of their work process. But in a couple of years, you'll have two people at 100% (nominal) output in return for the loss in productivity of the mentor.
It's said that it takes 150% of the annual salary in costs to a company to replace someone. Having mentored young engineers, most cost me far more in the first year than I billed, and it took close to 3 years to break even - and that's at a relatively low salary. To have mentored someone remotely for the first year would have likely taken even longer to get them up to speed and profitable. In the short term, moving your office of independently competent individuals remote should absolutely produce a boost in productivity.
Anyway, it's this long view that is the actual, actionably logic behind the return to the office. That isn't to excuse the micromanagers who's only job was to walk around and remind people to put covers on their TPS reports - they are no more than overpaid hall monitors and a relic that should die. It also doesn't excuse the upper managers who never understood the concept of sunk cost in college and feel that they need to fill the seats in the building where they have another 8 years on their lease.
Quick point of clarification - concrete is about 40% sand. PortlandPortland cement is one of the other parts of concrete - it’s what actually holds concrete together. Other pozzolons, like fly ash, can make up 25-50% of the cementitious material.
FWIW, Cement is wildly energy intensive to create and produces a huge amount of CO2. We don’t have a lot of replacement options for cement (or concrete generally) because of its unique durability.
I have one of the mod-tier consumer versions and I would happily pay for an extra TB…they simply don’t offer it at any price. I would love to per TB filter down to their family/plus/std plans.
Doesn’t matter how many times it’s sold or how many miles it’s driven - the engineers never see another dime. The only people who get money along the way are providing gasoline, parts, or repairs.