the fact is that there is this huge metal machine, driven by even greater systems and processes of our economies, and that mighty machine stops for one girl
I don't see it as that big a deal at all. A single train in the middle of nowhere stops for 20 seconds. This is cute, nothing more.
As the previous comment points out, too much employee protection means no employee, not protected employee. You're suggesting the choice is secure employee vs insecure employee, whereas it seems it's actually insecure employee vs unemployed. If you make conditions unfavourable for employers, there won't be employers. I'm an employee, so I'd like protection, but it seems that's only possible to a degree, and when competing with other countries I guess it's a race to the bottom, until employees start leaving the country instead of the employers.
Really? My first encounter with facebook was when I got spammed by a guy I barely knew, along with the rest of his email address book. I've always found the company to be slimy.
Yes, I started learning a bit of Mandarin this year. Interesting, but tedious. Imagine they constructed their numeral system the way they constructed the (non)alphabet. Instead of 0-9, and all numbers constructed from those, there would be a million characters for counting to one million.
$100 monthly income puts a person in the top 52.40% earners worldwide.
That's misleading without considering numerous other variables - cost of things? It seems to me to be the kind of statement aimed at deceitfully triggering emotions, by the likes of charities. Charities are like police - there for good reason, but along with the good intentions they have a slightly seedy side. Of the countries I've lived in, the one where I was paid least had the highest standard of living.
Maybe I'm alone on this, but is transport only an economic matter? I am not a package, a cardboard box. I have senses and a brain which processes to some degree, and as a result I need to be transported with more consideration than a parcel. I find the London underground to have crossed the threshold from acceptable human transport. Infinite shoe-horning is not a solution. I'm aware of the various problems that need to be considered, but I think my psyche should not be excluded from consideration.
I've long considered London to be nothing more than a giant PR exercise. Of course the prime minister is an ex-PR guy, so a connection wouldn't be surprising. I'm not sure it delivers on the image it projects in any respect. Except the new trains that have started on some lines - nice to have room to breathe when you're stuck on a track waiting for a signal failure. Even the new double decker busses with the aero fronts. What's the real difference? Nothing. In fact the new appearance doesn't even last beyond the front of the bus which is what people see when it approaches - the rear of the busses is unchanged. So we don't have impressive new busses, we have busses that look, upon first glance, from a specific angle, as though they are. Everything is careful illusion. People buy into perception. Look! We have silicon roundabout! Seriously?
A degree carries much weight in London. Developers with negligible coding skills and a degree sail past those with skills and experience but no degree. It's quite bizarre. I guess the companies who hire that way don't know any different, and no one can be accused of taking a silly risk if something doesn't pan out.
To guard against terror. Terror coming from a certain group of people, we are pushed to choose between living without potential terrorists, and without the stasi, or with the potential terrorists, and with the stasi. Stasi and multiculturalism - both or neither.
No. You won't get hired to do machine learning just because you did a Coursera course and read a few books. If you do, you know you're working at a dead end.
Of the millions of people in London, how many of them do you know? Presumably a statistically significant proportion or you wouldn't mention it for risk of appearing blinkered and living in a bubble.
Could you elaborate? I know it's controversial and dispute-ridden, but it seems to still be progressing, looking on from afar as someone who has nothing to do with these things.