garrettheaver

It's a piss up when the death is somewhat expected or of "natural order". The very elderly, etc.

Wakes for young people are very very different and difficult as are wakes for people who died before their time or who have left young families behind.

And you're right about the word Celt being bullshit but we definitely consider ourselves distinct in culture.

"And wakes are generally unknown in Ireland outside of relatively isolated rural areas."

From where do you get that mad notion? That's not correct at all. Living in Dublin with friends from virtually every county and every single one of them would have been to wakes and not just for people of an elder generation. I'd go so far as to say it's standard practice across the country with a few isolated places where they don't.

Ireland

Seven proxies perhaps?

As someone looking to replace my 2013 13" MBP this is almost exactly what I want.

Enough has already been written about the new MBPs and why many of us will no longer consider them. I've already tried the Kaby Lake Razor Blade Stealth but returned it due to shocking quality and support issues. I considered the Asus Zenbook but it has too few ports to be a serious contender and the HP offerings all have screens with a lower resolution than I want.

I've always avoided Lenovo, party because Apple were building machines I wanted and partly because my experience of Lenovo to date has been low end cheaper models which suck. I'm willing to give them a chance at the upper end with this though. The sooner to market with this the better

That's pretty interesting! I see that train (or one very much like it) around Connolly station in Dublin when I'm commuting in and out of work.

So trying to classify Ireland a tax haven isn't correct. It might be popular amongst certain political classes and media in the US to do so but it doesn't stack up. Ireland has a flat corporation tax rate of 12.5%. Many other EU countries have rates which can, and often do, end up even lower. Look at France for example where the tax rate drops down to an effective 8% for many of the CAC40 companies (according to the OECD).

The 0.005% rate is NOT the corporate tax rate Ireland charged Apple, its the rate Apple managed wrangle on all their European wide profits by arranging their corporate structures to take advantage of various loopholes in several countries, not just in Ireland. This was perfectly legal under Irish, EU and importantly, US law at the time. Now the EU wants to effectively rewrite history and even the US agrees with Irelands position on this.

Which tax haven(s) are you referring to there?

Now now scandox, not sure if you're trolling with this one? I don't for one second think "the green jersey" was a factor in their thinking at all.

Ireland can definitely capitalise on this calamity and there is no doubting how good the IDA are at what they do. What could make it a major success story is if the Dept of Finance get their act together and finally listen to what the investment community has been telling them for years re competitiveness.

Follow baseless political dogma much?

I'm getting down voted for giving my point of view and trying to be cordial at the same time but cest la vie.

I agree there is progress to be made on fossil power cars but it's still unsustainable in any analysis. We're also not seeing anything like the kind of gains that are needed medium to long term. Progress through one technique yields a regression in other areas (emissions vs efficiency)

I too live in Northern Europe (Ireland) and we're really badly setup for electric car adoption as it stands now though the situation is slowly improving. Policy and infrastructure here (as I imagine in other countries) always lags demand.

I understand the skeptical point of view and its fair enough, we'll all just have to wait and see how this all plays out. I'm more optimistic bearing in mind that nine years ago the electric car industry barely even existed and its ramping up at an astonishing pace over the last three years.

Yeah I understand what you mean and I think you're right. 1000 charge points is unacceptable but do we really need that? Given the current generation Tesla can already self navigate pretty well what's stopping the cars navigate the car park in your absence and charge themselves at a few central charge points.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI

I don't really agree I'm sorry to say. It kinda makes assumptions about charge rates, charge locations (home, work, car parks) or even the means by which cars are "refilled".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY

I know what you're getting at but I don't think the above comparison is entirely fair. Those houses don't have petrol pumps outside them either

I appreciate the reply and that what you mention is undoubtedly a major turnoff for many people depending on attitude to work/life balance and family, etc.

I guess I'd wonder whether SpaceX would ever intentionally target those people for "poaching" though given they're not a cultural fit to begin with? It would appear from the outside to be quite a self selecting situation?

Does SpaceX need to "poach" people. I'd have assumed people were lined up around the corner to work for them?

I agree, I think the ISS is an utterly amazing achievement. In so many ways I think it really is a prime candidate for humanities greatest achievement so far.

In many ways you make a very valid point, the ISS is what we've been up to for the last few decades rather than going back to the moon and the research coming from it will be essential in preparing for longer journeys. But for all that I stare up and marvel at it passing overhead some nights, it just doesn't hold the same mystique of say the moon or further afield.

Personally I think it's in our fundamental nature to want to explore things in person. I'm never satisfied with pictures of beautiful beaches or landscapes. I have a need to experience them with my own eyes.

I could understand there being no one left who has walked on the moon if we'd been concentrating on the next challenge, i.e Mars. But that's obviously not what happened.

Ultimately I think it would serve as a marker of our collective lack of imagination over the past 50 years to explore, perhaps because the costs weren't palatable relative to any resources we could hope to exploit.

Sadly none of these guys are getting any younger. The youngest person from the Apollo missions is now 80 years old. Humanity really needs to get a move on if we're to avoid the scenario where there is nobody left alive who has walked on the moon.

Same as. 3x MagSafe connectors in 10 years (3 laptops). All still working perfectly and in good condition despite daily use.

Easily breakable pins? I honestly can't imagine what I'd have to transport an adapted beside to break those pins. Any hints?

Same. I still have an adapter from a 2006 MacBook Pro which is used daily and not a hint of damage on it bar scuff marks.

You can always try I guess. Whether or not it works is another story :-p

I started using tor for this type of thing. It's very handy in that it generates a new circuit every 10 minutes or so and hence you get a new exit node.

Came back here to suggest your point 3. I sense a cease and desist is on the way...

It's worth pointing out that Apple's overall operation in Ireland is significantly more than a PO Box. Like European headquarters with 4000 employees (expanding soon to 5000) kind of significant.

Speaking of being polite...

Yeah it looks pretty good there alright. Like I said, I'd be happy to be proven wrong but a few things spring to mind.

1. Once fully extended, the door seems to protrude out from the car a bit which may cause a problem if you're tight against a wall. I'd be curious how they have solved this? It may be that we just can't open the door similar to a regular door when you're forced to park too close to the wall?

2. Similar to above, since the door protrudes a bit, what happens when there are Xs parked beside each other?

Other than the door questions I agree it looks like a superb SUV. If Tesla can manage to convince people on the door design and it reviews as well as the S did, then they've another great product on their hands.

I'm really not sure how the Model X is going to perform. I really don't think the European market will go for the gull-wing doors. On a sports car yes, but on an SUV? I sincerely doubt it but I'd be happy to be proven wrong if it works well even in our über tight parking spaces and seriously narrow lanes.