voicereasonish

Much of Europe has far more boring weather than the UK.

I don't think it is a bad comparison at all. You could say people have a preference for being happy. But being happy every day would be pretty unwise. After a while it would stop being happy and it'd be relentlessly normal. Then you'd need something to make you "super happy"!

Variation in all aspects of life is what keeps us grounded and gives us reference points.

But end of off-topic hijacking for me...

there are people in the US who hate the lack of a "real" summer (30+) in places like Seattle, London, or Paris.

But then they have AC turned up to full so it's freezing in their office! Funny old world...

I'm talking about UK weather in general. I lived in London for a year, worked there for 4 and remember many thunderstorms. Not so much neighbourly camaraderie though. If you want neighbourly camaraderie live in a village.

I think you can also draw a lot of parallels between weather and emotion also.

It'd be amazingly unhealthy to be in a permanent state of "contentedness" for the rest of your life like some drugged up zombie. We need the bad days, the sadness, the anger, the whole range of emotions, so that we appreciate the other emotions, and feel truly alive.

There's definitely an unhealthy obsession for some with nulling out variable weather and replacing it with whatever they deem as "good weather". Exactly as a mentally ill person might go to their doctor and say "I don't want to feel any emotions any more".

Perhaps they detest building snowmen, cuddling up in bed when it's cold, drying off in front of an open fire after walking through the rain, that awesome thunderstorm with cool rain after a boiling hot day, the neighbourly camaraderie assessing the damage after a storm etc etc

I've never understood people who don't like the variety of weather and seasons. It must be so so boring to not experience, or enjoy weather.

I agree. I went to uni in London for a year - worst decision ever. It's not somewhere you can just meet up with friends who live somewhere else in London.

But then cities are generally like that - very lonely places swarming with strangers.

This part of England has the same weather throughout most of the year

Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. We have seasons over here - clearly defined seasons. At the moment we're enjoying hot sunny days, rainy nights. We'll probably have some good snow in the winter, and a variety of things thrown in between now and then.

If you're a fan of weather, then the UK is a great place to live. If you don't like weather then somewhere like California is a better option with its relentless boring sunshine.

I have seen a few crashes involving motorcycles not paying attention or taking unreasonable risks. Overtaking on blind bends etc. I haven't seen anywhere near the same number of crashes involving cars.

Is that confirmation bias as well?

Funny. Whenever I see a motorcycle, it's being driven recklessly and dangerously. So from my point of view, if you want to make roads safer, get rid of motorcycles first.

That's nonsense and you know it.

software bugs, ability to be hacked, snooped upon by NSA, also go along way.

I'll take my chances thanks. Road deaths have been falling for years, despite the number of cars rising. More people die from accidental falls.

As a software developer, there's no way in hell I'd trust a car driven by software.

Driverless cars means safer cars.

Where's the evidence for this?

perhaps if everyone on the road was in a driverless car, and they all communicated and prevented crashes. But that's not going to happen.

Lets be clear here. The aim here is to let you sit back, browse the web, and click on Google ads.

People these days are so busy photographing, videoing, posting crap to twitter to see if people approve of what they're doing... They're missing out on actually enjoying and living life.

Look at concerts - a sea of idiots holding up their phones, videoing an event, watching through their silly little phone. Enjoy the event! Buy the official DVD later if you want.

So IMHO, this seems pretty obsessive and extreme.

OK End of rant...

I very much doubt Uber does enough business to draw any conclusions.

Look at another example though - airbnb negative reviews and experiences - you'll find millions of them.

You're confusing "more efficient" with "deciding to not abide by licensing regulation".

Regulation exists to protect consumers. It's like that shady hotel chain that sidestep any regulation - airbnb.

Only in the startup bubble is "Ignoring consumer protection laws" spun as "distruptive".

Good on the black cabs I say.

Also the big red flag in the reasoning is:

"But take the square root of each side".

Sorry, but that's not really something you can do without recognising the fact that there are two square roots.

It is after all Google's bread and butter.

Is it? How much do Google make from the adsense publisher network vs advertising directly on Google properties?

Also obviously if Google reduces the pool of adsense publishers, the money is more likely to be spent advertising on Google properties, and Google will take 100% of that, rather than 32%.

Pretty comparable - 26,000 accidental falls, 30,000 car deaths.

30,000 deaths a year in a country like the US is nothing. More people die from falling down the stairs. Should we ban stairs next?

1) Make sure your site complies with the AdSense TOS and then hope Google will restore AdSense eventually?

This just doesn't happen. Google couldn't care less. At all.

2) In the meantime, serve ads from a different ad network.

Google has a massive monopoly. There just aren't any decent competitors with the inventory.

I think you have to judge each case on its merits.

The sure fire way to beat a bully though is to stand up to them and let them know that what ever they throw at you, you'll throw twice as much back. They will not win.

Some bullying stops if you just ignore it and make it "not fun anymore" for the bully. But it all depends on the individual circumstances.

I agree... IMHO, parents should be legally responsible for the behaviour of their children. That is, if their child harasses someone, the parents should be prosecuted for harassment. If their child steals, prosecute the parent.

The majority of parents are good, and instil a good sense of morals into their children, but there's always those parents that either do not care, or decide to make their children rude evil little things.

Because some people want to pretend that a village idiot is as valuable as an Einstein to society.

We are all drastically more wealthy than our parents and grandparents. We have it far better. But for socialists, this is not enough. They despise "inequality" and wealth.

You obviously don't remember the 70s.

Do we have rubbish piling up on the streets, dead people piling up not being buried? Do we have rolling power cuts due to strikes? Are we all on a 3 day week? Massive inflation and interest rates?

The UK is turning the corner after the disastrous spend spend spend! Socialism of the last decade.

A majority voted the same way as him. The president held the same views. But you're singling him out as homophobic??

Incest?

"if you wanted a free trade zone and international cooperations in all sorts of areas between 28 nations."

I don't... I don't see any upside to increased centralisation and globalisation.