This is why I keep a bunch of equipment by default on an isolated subnet where the router drops all packets to the outside world. Doesn't matter what the device is trying to do.
Connecting to these devices requires one level of indirect - where I connect first to an internal machine that can send packets to/from the hidden subnet.
Some ideas are ancient. The painting doesn't have to move. The money doesn't have to move. We just all agree to assign it to someone else.
"Because these stones are too large to move, buying an item with one simply involves agreeing that the ownership has changed. As long as the transaction is recorded in the oral history, it will now be owned by the person it is passed on to and no physical movement of the stone is required."
My daily mix is a couple of cast iron skillets and all-clad stainless steel saucepans. The combination is perfect for me.
Just looked over the Falk line - absolutely beautiful. I've never considered copper cookware. What benefits do you get? How much time in maintenance do you spend? Do you have to clean and polish the copper bottoms of your pans weekly? I periodically pull out BKF and polish my all-clads - but it isn't necessary.
E.g. intuitively grokking the Maillard reaction, fond, deglazing, etc.
In my experience with beginners - the number one error they make is not understanding their heat source and pans. For example, they'll put oil in a thin pan, turn on the burner and drop in a chicken breast right from the fridge and wonder why its not done in 6 minutes.
My advice to beginners cooking on stove tops: get a cast iron skillet - treat it with love and kindness. Let it warm up for a bit before you start cooking.
Sometimes transactions stick at the strangest places. For example, a buyer balks at paying a final $500 fee allotted to him because he has hit his financial stress limit - potentially killing the entire transaction.
Good agents are not just facilitating the transaction, but also acting as friends/confidants/therapists for buyers&sellers - helping them make responsible decisions. Good agents also come up with creative solutions to complete transactions - this pops up often in resolving inspection contingencies. Say there is some leakage discovered underneath a bathroom sink with some cabinetry damage. The buyer is getting cold feet. What do you do?
Good for Redfin. Disruption in any business that charges 6% transaction fees is great.
Having said that, real estate transactions are complex beasts with many moving parts. A lot of this process can be scripted and templated. But there are many situations where it cannot. Buyers and sellers are under immense stress as they face very large financial and legal decisions. They don't understand the process, the terminology, the legal and financial consequences, etc. There are local regulations and conventions that differ from region to region. E.g: Check out the differences in who pays fees across counties: http://chicagotitletransfertax.com/
Good agents absolutely earn their fees when uncertainty and complexity arise. I suspect Redfin is seeking to carve out the part of the market that comprises straight-forward, template driven transactions.
Focusing global political will into action to address climate change is hard.
What is depressing is that even when local benefits are present, it is challenging to enact policy. Case in point: the folks over at Citylab periodically write about the loss of urban forests.
Look at the attached map, even the liberal enclaves of Santa Monica, Venice, Manhattan Beach, BelAir, Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills show tree cover loss.
So far cheaper to operate is correlated with smaller/lighter cars. The lower safety ratings of these small cars in offset crashes suggests that owners of these cars are taking a greater risk on the road.
"Over the last month or so, the spinning toys have gone from an elementary-school fad to a nationwide obsession. Unlike many other toy crazes, fidget spinners offer a wild-wild west for global capitalists looking to cash in on the craze. For one, there are no patents or trademarks to worry about infringing, so any factory can spew them out by the thousands. They're cheap to make and buy, so there's little risk in investing in, say, 500 or 1,000 of them. And unlike hoverboards, the craze that Chinese factories were cranking out last year, they aren't going to explode or catch fire.
"I'm selling a couple thousand a week just walking around and asking stores if they them""
Unfortunately through modern capitalism & the global supply chain we are all complicit in slavery.
The lowest cost of labor is zero or near zero. The challenge for miners/garment makers/manufacturers/industrial farms/etc. is to circumvent local laws & regulatory bodies while expanding their profit margins. Once past the local regulatory hurdle, the global supply chain adds successive layers of obfuscation and legitimacy until finished goods reach our homes. At that point, we can't tell anymore the amount of slave labor (or environmental externalities for that matter) that went into the product, so most people buy with little regard.
The solution is to strengthen regulatory bodies at all steps of the process worldwide with punitive damages to violators making the cost of circumventing labor laws greater than the benefit from exploiting poor/at-risk populations. This is an ongoing challenge for all governments worldwide - the difference is only of scale. Whether it is the plight of poultry workers in the midwest, slave fishermen in asia, trafficked women in Europe or indentured workers the world over, exploitation is an intertwined economic and moral problem.
As for Lola, I found it heartwarming that the author accompanied her home twice.
Unexpected healthcare costs keep seniors nervous. Although Medicare and Medigap insurance plans offer good coverage, long term care and home health care is dauntingly expensive. Many rely on a mix of family + caregivers. Even then, the hourly/weekly/monthly costs are quite high.
Overbooking guarantees near 100% utilization. As you observed, it also leads to regular situations where a gate agent has to prioritize customers into limited slots. If overbooking and gate agents predictably end up destroying customer goodwill, then the practice has to be reconsidered.
Comment might be buried... But, the problem is the baroque overlaid combinations of [seat class, fare class, FF status, standby, cash vs FF purchase, time of arrival at gate, etc.] intersecting with [connecting flts, equipment, weather, etc.] leads to a large range of predictable conditions with uncertain outcomes. E.g. only one seat remaining, who gets it: passenger needing to make intl connection on a FF ticket or cash paying high status passenger?
This is a global optimization problem that can be easily solved - but there are many cases where on the ground discretion is required [last minute aircraft change, weather delay]. Poorly paid, under trained and under motivated staff will always drop the ball in this situation.
The solution for United here is two fold 1) Increase training, comp, authority and motivation of gate agents to solve problems with minimal disruption. This used to be the case a bankruptcy ago. This setup is not likely to return due to a simple reason: cost. United in bankruptcy blew up the pension promises to some of their most experienced staff. They left.
2) The best outcome for United is to reduce the complexity of their product so that customer expectations of service align with the company's ability to deliver.
tl;dr: United's service is too complex for their gate agents to deliver. Service should be simplified.
Pension funds are one of the largest victims of Central Banks after the 2008/2009 financial crisis. Quantitative easing on top of zero/negative interest rate policies has dramatically reduced the risk-free return on capital. Bond yields have collapsed worldwide.
In short, the problem is this: commitments were made when interest rates were higher than now. Interest rates have now stayed far lower for far longer than expected. Meeting those commitments in the recent few years would have required taking more risk than the funds can justify.