I'd argue the same that marriages rates are down, I'd like to see some stats on it. The prospect of marriage has no benefits when you look at it unemotionally. You get marginal tax benefits when you are married but these are completely offset when the cost of divorce is considered. Its quite a risky proposition for a young successful entrepreneur, escpecially the Californian alimony laws.
In Australia, if you're married as an international student, you can bring your spouse, and he or she doesn't have to study and have the right to work full time. That makes it much more easier for both of them financially, individually to make a foothold in the country. It's one part time income and one full time income to support two people and one degree as opposed to, if they were by themselves, one part time income to support themselves studying a full time degree.
Then later as they achieve temporary and then permanent residency the marriage can be used to apply for visa for the spouse.
I have met a few international student couples who marry at 20 or 21, and one of them drops out, for this advantage.
And since they're living pay check to pay check anyway, it's not risky for either of them.
I agree it's insane but looking at the few previous attempts it seems its a regular expected sea state so I suppose there is no option but to work around it.
The lead trunk has indicators that the convoy is platooning, sure some people with interfere with it but for the most part when drivers start to recognise this on the road they are mostly going to stay out of the way.
>This technology looks hardly any better then Tesla's lane keeping assistant
So? It's the first step in removing a human driver. Are you assuming that this technology is not going to ever improve? The end game is a head office operator that controls a network of 50 trucks across a country remotely. It's just a matter of time until they get there.
In the year 2020 a 12 year old girl could operate a fleet of 50 trucks through an open source NPM package (orders, planning, monitoring). You'd never suspect when you see her in person.
As someone who is not American it doesn't matter to me how it's worded or under what category it falls, but that the three letter agencies can completely silence individuals so that they can do whatever they want with immunity is absolutely terrifying. Lavabit, and the Ross Ulbricht case are particularly bad examples that spring to mind.
As a guy who has recently started to come out of debt and starting to prepare for pension and savings, the more I learn about the financial industry the more it scares me. It seems like a zero sum game and nothing more than sophisticated gambling.
Everything can be said to be "sophisticated gambling." Nothing is certain, and only those who don't understand finance believe that any financial instrument whatsoever is a certainty. And even outside finance: the job you took isn't certain, nor is the car you bought or the marriage you entered into. Finance has its problems but the gambling aspect isn't the root of it.
>how would we know which mutations are broadly beneficial or not?
In general terms we know what a good specimen looks like and the specific traits that they have. We can only build to that because:
>sickle cell syndrome are also more resistant to malaria
This is evolution by process of elimination, and unfortunetaly elimination means lack of breeding from disadvantaged phenotypes. We've largely uncoupled reproduction from evolutionary advantages anyway, and just like humans are so dedicated to controlling the world in they inhabit, we'll insist on controlling the finest details of reproduction too.
Irish guy here who was taught all of this history in school. My overriding sense is that of disillusionment with the commemorations. The media outlets are trying to induce a sense of patriotism that I cannot feel because it's too far removed from our modern lives, the internet has brought the world closer anyway so these acts were for what? Being branded one nationality instead of another. What difference does it make when the vast percentage of my Irish friends live in Canada, Australia, UK, Germany anyway, forced out by a government that nationalised banking debt and ruined my generation's chance of a normal life that the previous one enjoyed. My friends won't return because none of them can afford a house and could never raise a family on the taxes we have here. Its like being told by an abusive partner that "No, I wont hit you again". Maybe others will have good counterpoints but this is my perspective on it.
I remember seeing a documentary once on the stories of Irish immigrants who went to the US at the end of the 19th century. One of them had left because he was an industrious small farmer but the British had introduced taxes where if you had done well enough to improve your property (was it called a window tax?) they simply nailed you. They punished people who were you too productive in order to keep them down. Not to mention how the British behaved during the famine.
So maybe you could call that oppression? And agree that it was not a good thing? That the revolution was about more than just "being branded one nationality instead of another".
The window tax, along with the Chimney tax was implemented in a lot of countries in that era, including England. The current effective rate of tax is 55% in Ireland along (with a sales tax of 23%) for people earning the highest level of wages (the entry criteria into this highest rate is the lowest in Europe). You get minimal services for that, including a passable heathcare system where everyone still needs private health insurance. Road taxes, Property tax, Water charges, Capital gain are all exceptionally high so I really don't see the current situation better than past times except for material changes. The low corporation tax rate utilised by foreign multinationals is another slap in the face where the citizens are charged one rate and the corporations another.
Perhaps what you are thinking of is the rule that in most of Ireland, the tenant did not get credit for improvements to the property. So an evicted family lost the value of any work it had put in.
