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[chat]on Oswalt

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Posts

  • ronyaronya hmmm over there!Registered User regular
    Kalkino wrote: »
    simonwolf wrote: »
    Kalkino wrote: »
    simonwolf wrote: »
    wandering wrote: »
    simonwolf wrote: »
    I like the days I go to elementary schools

    The kids actually seem excited to see me, they wave and call my name and ask me questions

    this is compared to my sullen junior high kids, who basically groan when it's time to learn some o' dat sweet English
    Have you tried wearing a backwards baseball cap and skateboarding into class

    The teachers won't approve my lesson on 1990s youth slang

    I want these kids to start saying "tubular" and "grody", dang it

    Since when did you care what "teach" had to say?

    Since I became "teach"

    boo hoo hoo boo

    I really thing the backwards cap is the only way you are going to be able to show the System that you are still an independent man.

    Great-Teacher-Onizuka-2.jpg
    aRkpc.gifSteam
  • simonwolfsimonwolf Registered User regular
    Great Teacher Simon

    this could work out

    I'm gonna buy a white suit and a pack of smokes
    turtlesig.jpg
  • JeanJean Northern Alberta , CanadaRegistered User regular
    Kalkino wrote: »
    Jean wrote: »
    Kalkino wrote: »
    @Jean have you decided when you are coming over to Europe yet?

    July or August :)

    They're is so many things to do tough, it still makes my head spin! :$

    I wonder if you should just do a tour for some of the trip - to see if briefly lots of the bits you want to see easily, then keep a week free at the end to spend somewhere. Maybe do the tour through Northern Europe, then spend a week or two in Southern France.


    Everything is so tempting!

    Perhaps Portugal-Spain-Italy would be good for the ''foreign but not too much'' part of my vacation. Latin power! :)
    "You won't destroy us, You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked'' - Jens Stoltenberg
  • KalkinoKalkino Buttons LondresRegistered User regular
    Smoking in class would be acceptable
    Freedom for the Northern Isles!
  • WinkyWinky Registered User regular
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=T4LUUE6homA#!
    vspgsp.jpg
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NJ-alquqM
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • evilbobevilbob Registered User regular
    Eye test tomorrow. Woo I guess.
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    You will listen because Neutral Milk Hotel is wonderful.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • evilbobevilbob Registered User regular
    Cinders wrote: »
    You will listen because Neutral Milk Hotel is wonderful.

    Or I can not listen to spite you.
  • ronyaronya hmmm over there!Registered User regular
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU
    aRkpc.gifSteam
  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    Bad news: I'm at work.

    Good news: I have a sausage baguette for breakfast!
  • simonwolfsimonwolf Registered User regular
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    Bad news: I'm at work.

    Good news: I have a sausage baguette for breakfast!

    Bad news: The sausage baguette is cursed.
    turtlesig.jpg
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    evilbob wrote: »
    Cinders wrote: »
    You will listen because Neutral Milk Hotel is wonderful.

    Or I can not listen to spite you.

    Do you not think I will travel to Australia to train a horde of angry cassowaries?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    simonwolf wrote: »
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    Bad news: I'm at work.

    Good news: I have a sausage baguette for breakfast!

    Bad news: The sausage baguette is cursed.

    I know, it will cause my blood sugar to mysteriously rise!
    And the potassium benzoate.
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU

    D'awwwwwww
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU

    best video on youtube award.
    Yet that is exactly what i see here.
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    Really, I hear nothing about accounting, that bird is just adorable.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • KalkinoKalkino Buttons LondresRegistered User regular
    simonwolf wrote: »
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    Bad news: I'm at work.

    Good news: I have a sausage baguette for breakfast!

    Bad news: The sausage baguette is cursed.
    DasUberEdward wrote: »
    ronya wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU

    best video on youtube award.
    DasUberEdward wrote: »
    ronya wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU

    best video on youtube award.
    DasUberEdward wrote: »
    ronya wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdW7YuzQygU

    best video on youtube award.

    Best accidental quote tree ever

    Freedom for the Northern Isles!
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    l1exwBW.jpg

    Now that the adorableness is gone, let's do some welding. With what looks like sandpaper and some goggles.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • simonwolfsimonwolf Registered User regular
    Alright, gonna play Recettear for a bit

    I have my doubts I will make it through week 2 at this rate
    turtlesig.jpg
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    Keep your combos up, and capitalism hoooooo
    Cinders on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    The adorableness will never die. Just look at page 1!
  • simonwolfsimonwolf Registered User regular
    Cinders wrote: »
    Keep your combos up, and capitalism hoooooo

    so difficult

    so desu
    turtlesig.jpg
  • CindersCinders Registered User regular
    simonwolf wrote: »
    Cinders wrote: »
    Keep your combos up, and capitalism hoooooo

    so difficult

    so desu

    No, it's not.

    Accept that predatory pricing is sometimes necessary, and then outsell your your fantasy universe.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • evilbobevilbob Registered User regular
    Cinders wrote: »
    evilbob wrote: »
    Cinders wrote: »
    You will listen because Neutral Milk Hotel is wonderful.

    Or I can not listen to spite you.

    Do you not think I will travel to Australia to train a horde of angry cassowaries?

    Hahaha like I'd be scared of some birds. :p
    Ok I'm legit scared of birds that can chase me down and disembowel me. D:
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    and 10 minutes later once I reach videos of skydiving cats and dogs I know it is time to stop. thanks DUCK
    Yet that is exactly what i see here.
  • Donkey KongDonkey Kong and a cast of thousands Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    I saw Iron Man 3 tonight. I did not care for it. It was really sloppy and shallow. The story didn't flow. What happened in one scene was almost unrelated to the next. There were like 20 little ideas that got smushed together into a movie and that was that.

    No, you are wrong and wanted a boring movie.

    Is truth.

    Though, honestly, I really did not get this sense of "smushed together" or disharmony that other people seemed to have gotten from it. I think it all fit together pretty great in the end, actually. I think it may have generated that feeling in people due to the fact that Shane Black seems to have very much wanted to do exactly what you were not expecting him to do at any given moment, though. There were a lot of set-ups that he builds and then purposefully doesn't go for. Basically he trollin', which I loved.

    I wonder which of us has attention deficit disorder.

    Did you ever think that maybe you have too much attention, huh?

    EDIT:
    Though, if I had to describe this movie, I would say: "Good for ADD, bad for aspergers."
    Stark's anxiety attacks were stupid. The movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a sequel to The Avengers or not, so they kept making oblique references, but were sure to keep them contentless so the movie would stand alone. If the b-story is gonna be Tony getting over his PTSD from The Avengers, you can't do that. Recap, go into detail, show us the aftermath. SOMETHING. It's ridiculous just just be like: NUFFIN IS DA SAYME SINCE NEW YORK and then never say more. There was no real progression either. Attack, attack, attack, boom CURED SOMEHOW.

    The Mandarin was hilarious but there was not nearly enough of him before the reveal.

    The little kid sidekick wins underdeveloped, underused character of the year. I thought the movie had abandoned him until at the very end he was awarded with Verizon FIOS presents Pimp My Lab.

    There were 10 Million Iron men but instead of being awesome, each suit got destroyed one-by-one like they were made out of aluminum foil. Also, they had the Mark 42 explode into pieces a few too many times.

    If War Machine was functional, why didn't the president try to get away?
    The anxiety attacks were great for two reasons (1) they illustrated what anxiety attacks are really like in a way that wasn't melodramatic and represented a very human way of reacting to the sorts of comic book shit Stark has had to deal with and (2) they built into the larger overall theme of the movie. Yes, all of the Avengers shit was pushed to the side and ignored because Black was making a movie about Ironman, so it ignored everything in the film that didn't have a direct impact on Ironman himself as a character. The truth is that Avengers didn't even need to happen for the anxiety attacks to make sense, all you need is Stark to feel powerless without his suits and like he's naked and vulnerable without them.

    The anxiety attacks weren't cured "somehow", they were cured when Stark came to the realization that he didn't need to hide inside his suits in order to survive, that he was the source of their power and not the other way around. He comes to this realization when the kid, who is used sparingly explicitly so he didn't become tacky or annoying, gives him a unique perspective on who he is. "You're the mechanic, build something."

    Likewise, when the suits show up to rescue him Stark proceeds to use them like tools to be discarded. They're flimsy and fall apart without the man inside them to pilot them, and even when he is they crumple against the force of the enemies they're fighting but Stark just ejects into a new one. They aren't the protagonist here: Stark is. Their only strength comes from being an extension of him.

    And the answer to your last question is an honest "Who cares?". He was unconscious or its good bits were turned off or something, doesn't matter.
    I did watch the movie. I also heard the narration that told me exactly how Stark felt. I wanted to know what caused the anxiety attacks to suddenly appear. And if it wasn't because of the events in The Avengers, totally cool. Better even! If it didn't have a cause at all and slowly took over Stark's life? The best! But the Iron Man 3 I saw kept bringing up the damn Avengers movie as the cause and then dropping it without supplying details.

    If the movie was going for realism, having Stark come to a realization and then becoming instantly cured of involuntary panic attacks doesn't really fit! What bugged me about the arc is that there was no demonstrated cause, there was no phase in, there was no progression, there was no redemptive process. It was a square wave. Suddenly this is now a problem, oh no this is bad, *boop* the Iron Man was in me all along, no longer a problem. I'm not opposed to the idea, it was just handled so. badly.

    I'm sure the suits were flimsier so Stark could be ripped out of them over and over, poking and prodding his new fear, but it just got tedious as a viewer. And having seen Iron Man take many beatings before, made we wonder if he switched up the materials or what.

    I care about the president! War Machine was totally functional and the president was conscious. The president didn't attempt escape because... that particular scene wasn't written to have him attempt escape. I can't help it, when I see contrivances like that, they stand out to me and become distracting.
    Donkey Kong on
    dkmouthsig.png
  • AssassinateMarcAssassinateMarc Registered User regular
    Well it looks like the tower ended and there is only one more boss shadow left... Am I close to the end of this game? The Calendar goes on for a while longer so I thought I was only about 3/4s of the way through.
  • WinkyWinky Registered User regular
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oFI7khOhtg
    vspgsp.jpg
  • TavTav Registered User regular
    oh god exams
  • WinkyWinky Registered User regular
    Tav wrote: »
    oh god exams

    Did you know I still have nightmares about them?

    Looking forward to grad school!
    vspgsp.jpg
  • simonwolfsimonwolf Registered User regular
    I have taken exactly one exam in my higher education to date

    is for suckers
    turtlesig.jpg
  • WinkyWinky Registered User regular
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    I saw Iron Man 3 tonight. I did not care for it. It was really sloppy and shallow. The story didn't flow. What happened in one scene was almost unrelated to the next. There were like 20 little ideas that got smushed together into a movie and that was that.

    No, you are wrong and wanted a boring movie.

    Is truth.

    Though, honestly, I really did not get this sense of "smushed together" or disharmony that other people seemed to have gotten from it. I think it all fit together pretty great in the end, actually. I think it may have generated that feeling in people due to the fact that Shane Black seems to have very much wanted to do exactly what you were not expecting him to do at any given moment, though. There were a lot of set-ups that he builds and then purposefully doesn't go for. Basically he trollin', which I loved.

    I wonder which of us has attention deficit disorder.

    Did you ever think that maybe you have too much attention, huh?

    EDIT:
    Though, if I had to describe this movie, I would say: "Good for ADD, bad for aspergers."
    Stark's anxiety attacks were stupid. The movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a sequel to The Avengers or not, so they kept making oblique references, but were sure to keep them contentless so the movie would stand alone. If the b-story is gonna be Tony getting over his PTSD from The Avengers, you can't do that. Recap, go into detail, show us the aftermath. SOMETHING. It's ridiculous just just be like: NUFFIN IS DA SAYME SINCE NEW YORK and then never say more. There was no real progression either. Attack, attack, attack, boom CURED SOMEHOW.

    The Mandarin was hilarious but there was not nearly enough of him before the reveal.

    The little kid sidekick wins underdeveloped, underused character of the year. I thought the movie had abandoned him until at the very end he was awarded with Verizon FIOS presents Pimp My Lab.

    There were 10 Million Iron men but instead of being awesome, each suit got destroyed one-by-one like they were made out of aluminum foil. Also, they had the Mark 42 explode into pieces a few too many times.

    If War Machine was functional, why didn't the president try to get away?
    The anxiety attacks were great for two reasons (1) they illustrated what anxiety attacks are really like in a way that wasn't melodramatic and represented a very human way of reacting to the sorts of comic book shit Stark has had to deal with and (2) they built into the larger overall theme of the movie. Yes, all of the Avengers shit was pushed to the side and ignored because Black was making a movie about Ironman, so it ignored everything in the film that didn't have a direct impact on Ironman himself as a character. The truth is that Avengers didn't even need to happen for the anxiety attacks to make sense, all you need is Stark to feel powerless without his suits and like he's naked and vulnerable without them.

    The anxiety attacks weren't cured "somehow", they were cured when Stark came to the realization that he didn't need to hide inside his suits in order to survive, that he was the source of their power and not the other way around. He comes to this realization when the kid, who is used sparingly explicitly so he didn't become tacky or annoying, gives him a unique perspective on who he is. "You're the mechanic, build something."

    Likewise, when the suits show up to rescue him Stark proceeds to use them like tools to be discarded. They're flimsy and fall apart without the man inside them to pilot them, and even when he is they crumple against the force of the enemies they're fighting but Stark just ejects into a new one. They aren't the protagonist here: Stark is. Their only strength comes from being an extension of him.

    And the answer to your last question is an honest "Who cares?". He was unconscious or its good bits were turned off or something, doesn't matter.
    I did watch the movie. I also heard the narration that told me exactly how Stark felt. I wanted to know what caused the anxiety attacks to suddenly appear. And if it wasn't because of the events in The Avengers, totally cool. Better even! If it didn't have a cause at all and slowly took over Stark's life? The best! But the Iron Man 3 I saw kept bringing up the damn Avengers movie as the cause and then dropping it without supplying details.

    If the movie was going for realism, having Stark come to a realization and then becoming instantly cured of involuntary panic attacks doesn't really fit! What bugged me about the arc is that there was no demonstrated cause, there was no phase in, there was no progression, there was no redemptive process. It was a square wave. Suddenly this is now a problem, oh no this is bad, *boop* the Iron Man was in me all along, no longer a problem. I'm not opposed to the idea, it was just handled so. badly.

    I'm sure the suits were flimsier so Stark could be ripped out of them over and over, poking and prodding his new fear, but it just got tedious as a viewer. And having seen Iron Man take many beatings before, made we wonder if he switched up the materials or what.

    I care about the president! War Machine was totally functional and the president was conscious. The president didn't attempt escape because... that particular scene wasn't written to have him attempt escape. I can't help it, when I see contrivances like that, they stand out to me and become distracting.
    I got the impression that the proximal cause of the anxiety attacks was supposed to be his suit failing when he was on the other side of the wormhole. I agree, though, that the movie was torn between wanting to work with the Avengers and wanting to ignore it (I was bothered that they didn't come up with some throwaway line to explain why SHEILD wasn't helping during the movie). Also, I agree that the anxiety attacks end very abruptly, but it makes the movie tidier. Probably would've been better if there was one final "anxiety attack, pull yourself together Stark" moment near the end there.
    vspgsp.jpg
  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    Winky wrote: »
    Donkey Kong wrote: »
    I saw Iron Man 3 tonight. I did not care for it. It was really sloppy and shallow. The story didn't flow. What happened in one scene was almost unrelated to the next. There were like 20 little ideas that got smushed together into a movie and that was that.

    No, you are wrong and wanted a boring movie.

    Is truth.

    Though, honestly, I really did not get this sense of "smushed together" or disharmony that other people seemed to have gotten from it. I think it all fit together pretty great in the end, actually. I think it may have generated that feeling in people due to the fact that Shane Black seems to have very much wanted to do exactly what you were not expecting him to do at any given moment, though. There were a lot of set-ups that he builds and then purposefully doesn't go for. Basically he trollin', which I loved.

    I wonder which of us has attention deficit disorder.

    Did you ever think that maybe you have too much attention, huh?

    EDIT:
    Though, if I had to describe this movie, I would say: "Good for ADD, bad for aspergers."
    Stark's anxiety attacks were stupid. The movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a sequel to The Avengers or not, so they kept making oblique references, but were sure to keep them contentless so the movie would stand alone. If the b-story is gonna be Tony getting over his PTSD from The Avengers, you can't do that. Recap, go into detail, show us the aftermath. SOMETHING. It's ridiculous just just be like: NUFFIN IS DA SAYME SINCE NEW YORK and then never say more. There was no real progression either. Attack, attack, attack, boom CURED SOMEHOW.

    The Mandarin was hilarious but there was not nearly enough of him before the reveal.

    The little kid sidekick wins underdeveloped, underused character of the year. I thought the movie had abandoned him until at the very end he was awarded with Verizon FIOS presents Pimp My Lab.

    There were 10 Million Iron men but instead of being awesome, each suit got destroyed one-by-one like they were made out of aluminum foil. Also, they had the Mark 42 explode into pieces a few too many times.

    If War Machine was functional, why didn't the president try to get away?
    The anxiety attacks were great for two reasons (1) they illustrated what anxiety attacks are really like in a way that wasn't melodramatic and represented a very human way of reacting to the sorts of comic book shit Stark has had to deal with and (2) they built into the larger overall theme of the movie. Yes, all of the Avengers shit was pushed to the side and ignored because Black was making a movie about Ironman, so it ignored everything in the film that didn't have a direct impact on Ironman himself as a character. The truth is that Avengers didn't even need to happen for the anxiety attacks to make sense, all you need is Stark to feel powerless without his suits and like he's naked and vulnerable without them.

    The anxiety attacks weren't cured "somehow", they were cured when Stark came to the realization that he didn't need to hide inside his suits in order to survive, that he was the source of their power and not the other way around. He comes to this realization when the kid, who is used sparingly explicitly so he didn't become tacky or annoying, gives him a unique perspective on who he is. "You're the mechanic, build something."

    Likewise, when the suits show up to rescue him Stark proceeds to use them like tools to be discarded. They're flimsy and fall apart without the man inside them to pilot them, and even when he is they crumple against the force of the enemies they're fighting but Stark just ejects into a new one. They aren't the protagonist here: Stark is. Their only strength comes from being an extension of him.

    And the answer to your last question is an honest "Who cares?". He was unconscious or its good bits were turned off or something, doesn't matter.
    I did watch the movie. I also heard the narration that told me exactly how Stark felt. I wanted to know what caused the anxiety attacks to suddenly appear. And if it wasn't because of the events in The Avengers, totally cool. Better even! If it didn't have a cause at all and slowly took over Stark's life? The best! But the Iron Man 3 I saw kept bringing up the damn Avengers movie as the cause and then dropping it without supplying details.

    If the movie was going for realism, having Stark come to a realization and then becoming instantly cured of involuntary panic attacks doesn't really fit! What bugged me about the arc is that there was no demonstrated cause, there was no phase in, there was no progression, there was no redemptive process. It was a square wave. Suddenly this is now a problem, oh no this is bad, *boop* the Iron Man was in me all along, no longer a problem. I'm not opposed to the idea, it was just handled so. badly.

    I'm sure the suits were flimsier so Stark could be ripped out of them over and over, poking and prodding his new fear, but it just got tedious as a viewer. And having seen Iron Man take many beatings before, made we wonder if he switched up the materials or what.

    I care about the president! War Machine was totally functional and the president was conscious. The president didn't attempt escape because... that particular scene wasn't written to have him attempt escape. I can't help it, when I see contrivances like that, they stand out to me and become distracting.
    I got the impression that the proximal cause of the anxiety attacks was supposed to be his suit failing when he was on the other side of the wormhole. I agree, though, that the movie was torn between wanting to work with the Avengers and wanting to ignore it (I was bothered that they didn't come up with some throwaway line to explain why SHEILD wasn't helping during the movie). Also, I agree that the anxiety attacks end very abruptly, but it makes the movie tidier. Probably would've been better if there was one final "anxiety attack, pull yourself together Stark" moment near the end there.
    They did handwave SHIELD's absence. They're dealing with (what they think is) a series of terrorist attacks against the US & Military, and the Military want a win without SHIELD's help for the sake of their pride.
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    Winky wrote: »
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oFI7khOhtg

    for a second i felt bad that my youtube clicking had lead me to watch King of the Hill in japanese.
    Yet that is exactly what i see here.
  • PodlyPodly RUDEASS TITTIESRegistered User regular
    edited May 2013
    Evil Multifarious wrote: »
    I think I might actually infuse some bourbon with mint

    What would pair well with that as an infusion

    mint oils, in my experience, don't really infuse well

    really the only oils that I can think of that infuse well are stuff like yerba mate and chamomile

    herbs tend to make poor infusers

    @Evil Multifarious

    edit* a mint syrup would be a better bet
    Podly on
    follow my music twitter soundcloud tumblr
    biden%20sig.png
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    oh snap. i forgot anthony bourdain has a new show.

    i wonder if it is any good. does anyone know things about this?
    Yet that is exactly what i see here.
  • ronyaronya hmmm over there!Registered User regular
    Chuan Heng Signcrafts is a family-run SME that specialises in making vehicle number plates. Tucked away on a trading estate in the middle of the city, the firm is surrounded by scores of small mechanical and electrical-engineering businesses. The boss, Iris Seah, employs four staff and has a turnover of about S$300,000 ($250,000) a year. She is still making money, she says, but compared with a few years ago, “it’s a completely different story”.

    She is struggling on but others are not: a car-repair workshop opposite has recently packed up, and other neighbours may follow suit. The main problem, says Ms Seah, is a squeeze on margins caused by rising costs—above all, labour. The government has imposed rises in a tax called the foreign-worker levy. Paid by the employer, it is charged on every foreign worker. Ms Seah employs a mainland Chinese. Two years ago the levy on him was S$250 a month. Now it is S$330 and going up every six months. She has to pay for his food, insurance and accommodation as well. So although she pays him a salary of just S$1,050 a month, Ms Seah has to shell out a further S$650 to cover the extra costs.

    It is part of the government’s three-year-old policy to restructure the Singaporean economy and wean it off its dependency on low-skilled, low-wage immigrants—who have become politically unpopular—and improve productivity. As well as increases in the levy, businesses have been made to cut the ratio of foreign workers to local hires.

    But companies are passing on the extra labour costs to consumers, fuelling an inflation rate that is one of the region’s highest. Meanwhile, rising costs make exports less competitive, especially with low-wage economies such as Vietnam snapping up business. Ms Seah wants to export to Indonesia, but she will be hit by the strong Singapore dollar, priced to reflect the booming services economy.

    The government is supporting the transition to its new higher-productivity economy with schemes such as the “productivity and innovation credit”. With it, Ms Seah recently bought a German machine that can stamp out an aluminium number plate in two minutes, rather than the hour that it took previously. She was able to claim back 60% of the S$8,000 it cost. The scheme was extended in the most recent budget. The government also helps with technical know-how and training. It is nurturing potentially more profitable manufacturing industries, like biomedical engineering that makes scanners and other advanced diagnostic tools.

    Ms Seah is moving up the value chain, just as the authorities would want. With her new plates she can charge more for a better-quality product, staking out a new position at the higher end of her market. Assuming, that is, that customers have enough money to buy them.

    Hmmm.
    aRkpc.gifSteam
  • ronyaronya hmmm over there!Registered User regular
    It's interesting because the last time the government tried to move up the productivity chain, it triggered a massive recession and opened the doors to its first real political challenge.
    aRkpc.gifSteam
  • MadCaddyMadCaddy Riksadvokate Registered User regular
    DasUberEdward wrote: »
    oh snap. i forgot anthony bourdain has a new show.

    i wonder if it is any good. does anyone know things about this?

    It's no reservations redux. A little played out, but decent. My TiVo fucked up and didn't record the one I wanted to see most (the one in koreatown which is like one of my haunts.)
    League of Legends: SorryNotRly Steam: MMForYourHealth Hero Academy: MadCaddy
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