That is basically it yeah. The vast majority of gold was moved from the US (essentially 41% of Dutch gold reserves in the US were moved out), while we barely moved anything out of Canada.
The official reason is “crisis preparedness”, but I believe the actual unofficial and unspoken reason is that the US is simply too unreliable to store our gold.
It’s not that there is a shortage of sand in general. There is a shortage for the correct kind of sand needed to make a sufficiently strong concrete mix, in the places where that concrete is needed
At least if the styrofoam falls down it can’t kill someone by hitting them on the head. Maybe it was for safety reasons? /s
Which, if it works well, is a big deal as the headline claims.
The world is slowly but surely running out of sand which has the right consistency and courseness to be used as an ingredient for concrete. Manufacturing that sand artificially so that it is suitable for concrete is rather tricky, from what I understand.
That said… I’ve seen the weak-ass concrete mixes used in some Chinese tofu-dreg buildings. Let’s hope that the artificial sand is not the culprit there.
We know the US basically depleted their stockpile in the war with Iran.
This is a promise the US made to Ukraine after that to allow them to manufacture the missiles domestically, which Trump is now seemingly reneging on.
The prospects for China are not looking particularly good. Decades of a one-child policy seems to have helped normalize one child per couple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_fertility_rate
China has a fertility rate of 1.02 children per woman.
For comparison, in the US that rate is 1.62 children per woman and in Germany 1.46.
A “healthy” fertility rate, where the population remains more or less stable (not accounting for immigration), is roughly at 2.1 children per woman.
The West is going to have issues with their low birthrates, but the looming Chinese demographics crisis is looking to be much worse than what the West is going to be dealing with.
Funnily France will probably be the loudest opponent to giving Iceland this concession.
Realistically though this is the best opportunity for Iceland to try and get this concession, since Europe needs allies and the UK isn’t there to throw a spanner in the works.
The Brits are probably still a bit salty about losing from Iceland in the Cod Wars three times over.
The hope is that the European Union is willing to add water to the wine, and give Iceland an exemption to the common fisheries policy for the sake of finding more better allies in the world and expanding the European Union.
Maybe we’re in a simulation, but the script of history ended in 2020, and now an AI model is just halucinating what happens next.
Tipping is a thing in the NL. But this 15% nonesense by default can go fuck itself.
Tipping is gratuity, to be awarded for excelent service. If they dare ask me for a tip, I’d consider that rude and they’ll get nothing from me.
Like hell it is.
Card terminals may be asking for tips, but if they do that they’re getting 0% from me. Asking for a tip is rude and a guaranteed way not to get one.
I experienced it once at a place where I had to prepay for the drinks, so they dared to ask me for a tip before I even received service. The absolute guts of asking for a tip before even offering service…
Tips are gratuity awarded for excelent or exceptional service. Unlike America waiting staff actually earns a proper wage, so it’s not like they need tips to get by.
Usually it would make sense for the operator of a vehicle to be the one liable in case of an accident, not the owner of a vehicle.
I’d imagine that in the case of vehicle sharing it might be difficult for law enforcement to determine who was operating the vehicle if the person in question leaves the scene of the accident. Making the company liable might encourage them to divulge information on who was operating the vehicle at that time.
The Zwarte Piet discussion has been ongoing for the past decade orso, and especially a few years ago that discussion was very heated.
As someone who lives in the Netherlands, I get the impression that at this point the vast majority of people accept that Zwarte Piet in its old form is not really acceptable anymore. It does help that, unlike a few years ago, there have been proposals to update the tradition without making a complete mockery out of it.
The new the design of the soot-face Piet is a decent compromise, and more in line with the story we have been telling kids for decades anyway.
I bought mine in February for the purpose of heating my apartment without gas. It was installed by March.
Now I can count myself lucky that I have at least some relief from the heatwave in my office. (I’m only cooling the office during the day and the bedroom at night in order to save on electricity at the moment. There is no need to cool rooms which I’m not using)
I don’t know how it is in the UK currently, but here in the NL there aren’t any ACs in stock anywhere. They’re all sold out.
From the reviews I saw the U3 really only has macros.
In my opinion the activities are necessary for it to be a full-fledged Harmony replacement.
I’d love it if they’d release a base station-less version with activity capability. I see no reason why that wouldn’t be possible (other than potentially cannibalising their own sales with a cheaper and similarly capable model)
I checked some reviews to see how they operate. It looks like the main difference is that the Sofabaton does not have “activities” where the remote keeps track of the state of a device. That is a bit of a shame, but other than that is seems like a pretty close match.
Thanks. I’ve been looking to a proper remote to carry the torch of the Logitech Harmony. This seems like a great package
To my understanding Hamas is in control of Gaza, and not the West Bank. In Gaza demolition happens by bombing indiscriminitely, rather than driving up with a bulldozer.