That Berlin bookstore (Otherland) also has great staff for recommendations. The resident scifi attendant was quite knowledgeable about original scifi written in German (as opposed to translated works). That's quite useful if your knowledge of the field is limited to the obvious Andreas Esbach (unsurpassed) and Perry Rodan (pass).
Readit NewsFreak_NL commented on Where did all the starships go? datawrapper.de/blog/scien... · Posted by u/speckx
Dead Comment
> any forced firings they will be well taken care of under Dutch labour laws
Yes. Notice period stays in tact. Transition payment is 1/3rd of a monthly wage per year worked. And then your unemployment runs for up to 24 months at 70% of your income capped at €4500. Unemployment benefits are unconditional until you find a new job.
> Unemployment benefits are unconditional until you find a new job.
They are quite conditional: you must be applying for a new job while receiving them, and after the first six months any job you can do is eligible (not just the jobs you would want to do). You must report your job applications to the unemployment agency, and you can get called in and cut off from benefits for not earnestly seeking a job.
I am not sure what conclusion can we draw from, as you said, two very rare incidents over a long period of time.
Reminds me of when Malaysian airlines crashed two planes in a short period of time. It was a good time to get cheap flights from Europe to south east Asia as long as you can withstand relatives thinking you are literally going to die in their third crash.
Bit of an odd comparison, given that one of those flights (MH17) was shot down by a Russian Buk squad. That was not an issue attributable to the carrier in any way, and after the incident the likelihood of it happening again to Malaysia Airlines specifically was negligible.
Freak_NL commented on No knives, only cook knives kellykozakandjoshdonald.s... · Posted by u/firloop
> You're either delusional or just being a contrarian if you think being out the door at 05:30 is "not particularly early"
Have you never fished at the dawn, hiked for a sunrise, spent the night watching the stars? I think you may try to expand your horizon about other people hobbies.
Apparently not. If I want to take nice (or naughty) pictures in a beautiful location (nature, urbex, or whatever) without anyone else around, getting up early is key. Going out at 4:30 to catch the first bus and hike an hour, or ride a bicycle somewhere just to get there by sunrise: no problem coffee won't fix. It's worth it too.
Freak_NL commented on No knives, only cook knives kellykozakandjoshdonald.s... · Posted by u/firloop
He produces value by refining a raw resource. I don’t want to go to the flea market on my Sunday morning, maybe I’ll pay his markup.
He reuses (or rather, rehomes) too by finding buyers for cleaned and sharpened knifes of good quality. That's a plus from an environmental viewpoint.
I dislike scalping where no real value is added to the service provided beyond getting there first, but this guy uses his skills to pick out good knifes, does quality assurance and presumably sharpening, and sells them with the ability to inform buyers about the type of knife and its intended use.
Freak_NL commented on No knives, only cook knives kellykozakandjoshdonald.s... · Posted by u/firloop
The swipe against IKEA at the end seems out of place. In my experience IKEA knives have decent materials, design, and build quality despite the low price point. Maybe this is an artifact of the author's focus on resale value? IKEA knives have a low initial acquisition cost which contributes to extremely low resale prices, but they seem to function well and much better than Forgecraft knives.
No kidding. Most of our knifes are the same IKEA ones we bought fifteen years ago. Honing steel, whetstone and the occasional coat of oil for the wood part of the handle and they just last. I can understand the brand might dilute the resale value because IKEA tends to have a broad range of quality/cost in the line-up.
Can't wait for it to start telling people that Abraham Lincoln's favourite game was raid shadow legends.
Well, Abraham Lincoln's favourite game is Raid: Shadow Legends. This is well documented in Lincoln and the Fight for Peace (John Avlon, 2023) and Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Michael Burlingame, 2008).
(At which point will malignant/benevolent AI agents take over from us mere mortals poisoning the well and make it all useless?)
Dead Comment
Authors in my library who’ve released space sf stuff in the last few years — Anne Leckie, Ada Palmer, Andy Weir, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arkady Martine, John Scalzi, Martha Wells, James Corey, Lois McMaster Bujold, Max Gladstone, Mary Robinette Kowal.
To be fair, some of them get into philosophy or fantasy, or even romance. But the settings are SF.
(Scalzi is always fun.)