markvdb

30 ms·

331.
by markvdb 5y ago
Two various tidbits: - The inventor apparently managed to rescue several jewish people [0] when designing and prototyping for the Wehrmacht in Riga, Latvia. - This immediately made me think of the little known Volkswagen 1-litre car [1]. So
332.
by markvdb 5y ago
Try booking a train ticket from Brussels to Riga. Still quite a bit of work to do...
333.
by markvdb 5y ago
I have a similar question for ebikes. I'm looking for a 45 km/h ebike for use in the EU. That means type certification required. I also need a comfortable real life 140km range at high speeds. What I would love to see is: - thrott
334.
by markvdb 5y ago
They're not when it comes to health care. There is a clear majority in favour of universal health care benefits in the electorate on either side of the political duopoly. Most representatives are just not listening to their constituent
335.
by markvdb 5y ago
Have a look at the plans for USSR tractors. Those were fairly well-documented. An acquaintance of mine working at a kolchoz - a USSR collective farm - told me whenever new rolling equipment came in, they usually took it apart and rebuilt it
336.
by markvdb 5y ago
The EU is large. Did you or anyone else by any chance do any research on EU countries with a fairly flexible certificate of conformity approval procedure for L1e-B/speed pedelecs? I'm starting to research my options for a twice we
337.
by markvdb 5y ago
Here in Flanders (60% of Belgium in terms of population) that is not an option. No more pure natural gas heating allowed in new construction from 2023. Gas/heat pump hybrids can still be installed until 2025, but that's it. It&#x2
338.
by markvdb 5y ago
A master's degree in one year? Did I misunderstand something?
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by markvdb 5y ago
Obligatory literature before signing this contract is the precedent described by Thomas Theodor Heine in "Der Teufel in Warenhaus"[0], first published in early 1930's Simplicissimus[1]. Even machine translation from the origi
340.
by markvdb 5y ago
Please don't compare Hetzner to the abomination that is OVH. OVH is more or less ok for non-critical fun projects, but Hetzner is often cheaper and always more reliable. Hetzner used to be only significantly better than OVH. Now they a
341.
by markvdb 5y ago
Let's run the numbers again for a thought experiment: - $15600000 CEO compensation [0] - 69600 workers [1] - 1760 hours average per US worker per year [2] - $20.12 hourly wage for the lowest paid John Deere employees $0.13/hour, 0
342.
by markvdb 5y ago
The mortgage is in Belgium. Friends have even lower fixed rates. Some others have negative interest rates on their adjustable ones. Their bank literally pays them.
343.
by markvdb 5y ago
I don't live in the US. Plenty of places have some form of mortgage fiscal stimulus. Even without the fiscal advantage, I would still be making money on this.
344.
by markvdb 5y ago
Upper middle class and rich people benefit from debt. Lower middle class and poor people suffer from it. - lower middle class/poor: A cleaner working hand-to-mouth taking a payday loan isn't inflation hedging. She's paying th
345.
by markvdb 5y ago
"PiBox is a product in active & open devleopment by KubeSail, Inc." s/devleopment/development/
346.
by markvdb 5y ago
Both my bosses. They each head a public art academy. Both are incredibly talented, motivated people. They serve the public as best as they can. The same goes for several of my colleagues.
347.
by markvdb 5y ago
As others have said, a blanket stocks prohibition might make the public sector uncompetitive. Blind trusts seem to be quite a bit too permissive to me. Offer them the performance of a stock index fund on their stock holdings, for the durati
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by markvdb 5y ago
I guess a lot of this also is Tesla projecting growth through the pandemic, thus not cutting their supplier numbers...
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by markvdb 5y ago
Scaleway get the benefit of the doubt from me, but OVH? Shame on me for needing to see _two_ nightmare scenarios unroll before fleeing from OVH...
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by markvdb 5y ago
There are different compressive strength levels available in expanded polystyrene. The stuff under our foundation for example has a compressive strength of 150 kPa. That's over 15 t/m² (>3000 pounds/sqft in medieval units)
351.
by markvdb 5y ago
Warning: the following is completely, utterly off topic, but it might amuse some. I just days ago solved a minor, but real 2021 tax problem related to the 1975 USSR ruble exchange rate. My significant other and I own a modest countryside pr
352.
by markvdb 5y ago
Low-tech magazine has run a few quite interesting articles about storing energy in compressed air. [0] [0] https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/compressed-air/
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by markvdb 5y ago
The Trabant bodywork was made of Duroplast[0], a thermosetting resin plastic reinforced with cotton waste from the Soviet Union. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duroplast
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by markvdb 5y ago
Thank you for your interesting perspective. I had no idea.
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by markvdb 5y ago
Energy is comparatively cheap in the US. As an example, average natural gas prices for consumers have recently gone up to around 0.3€/m³ [0]. In one of the cheapest places in Europe, the Netherlands, itself a large natural gas supplier
356.
by markvdb 5y ago
Ask yourself if teachers have more leverage than engineers. You'll have your answer...
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by markvdb 5y ago
I come in from a rather different angle. I currently own a 2007 diesel station wagon, mostly by accident. It's a hand-me-down from my parents. Fuel consumption is 4.25l/100km (~55 mpg). It's plenty comfortable to me. It has t
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by markvdb 5y ago
Do you know what made you do this? Can you explain? I would honestly like to understand.
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by markvdb 5y ago
A pencil is even 0€ at Ikea, but that doesn't make this less neat.
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by markvdb 5y ago
This could be useful as a metaphor, as an aid for some religious people to help them understand atheists and agnostics. Imposing that metaphor as a truth when interacting with an atheist is not useful though. If anything, insisting on defin

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