Spyke

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world

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World Cup tourists aren’t leaving tips — and restaurants are fighting back

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No it’s not. The only one taking advantage of workers is the restaurant owner.

If tipping is optional, why the hell would anyone “choose” to pay more? Imagine if I sold you a phone and said you can buy this phone for $500 or you can optionally pay an extra $100 and get literally exactly the same product. That’s tipping.

If tipping is mandatory, then make it clear beforehand that there is a mandatory fee and how much it is.

canada

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Are canadians friendly to people from other countries?

Canada is very welcoming and people are friendly. After living abroad for a decade I can say it pretty confidently. Nowhere is perfect but the level of racism in Canada is very low compared to the things I’ve seen in Europe and Asia.

Not sure how it is where you’re from but don’t get caught thinking because Canada is safe that you can be careless with your stuff, don’t let your guard down with personal belongings. Don’t leave your things unattended in cafes or shops, don’t leave your mobile phone on the table, and especially don’t leave anything in your car if rent a car. Canada is safe but there is still a lot of petty theft... you won’t get mugged but someone might try to swipe your backpack at a cafe when you aren’t looking.

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I Went All-In on AI. The MIT Study Is Right.

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Even worse, the ones I’ve evaluated (like Claude) constantly fail to even compile because, for example, they mix usages of different SDK versions. When instructed to use version 3 of some package, it will add the right version as a dependency but then still code with missing or deprecated APIs from the previous version that are obviously unavailable.

More time (and money, and electricity) is wasted trying to prompt it towards correct code than simply writing it yourself and then at the end of the day you have a smoking turd that no one even understands.

LLMs are a dead end.

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How many cars are needed

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Honestly, in a denser city focused on transit and not cars, and without shit zoning laws, these aren’t really problems for most people.

You should have a supermarket, school and other essentials within walking distance of your home. Even the vet, hairdresser, etc. That’s what a human, livable city is like.

Mass transit can get you close enough. Walking 10-15 minutes to your destination is good for your health. Especially for seniors. We wouldn’t have such an obesity crisis if people got up and moved more. Humans are built for walking.

Who the heck is hauling lumber every day/week? It’s cheaper to rent a van/truck for the couple days a year than it is to own and maintain a car. I bet the lumber yard has a delivery service.

If you have 5 kids and need a car to take them places, great, cars still exist. If you have mobility issues, cars still exist. If you live in the countryside, cars still exist. But I think these cases should be exceptions to the rule. Most of those 50k people who are just commuting to work every day could be taking public transit and contributing to a more livable city.

canada

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Alberta separatists claim independence means holding onto a Canadian passport. We asked legal experts

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I don’t think so - the only time citizenship can be revoked is if it was fraudulently acquired, as far as I know.

We can revoke citizenship if parliament changes the Citizenship Act as part of a secession negotiation. The supreme court will put constitutional guardrails on it but it's absolutely possible.

The boring answer is that if a province is going to seceed, it will require a negotiated settlement between the said province and Canada, and such a settlement will absolutely contain agreements around what happens with the citizenships of that province's residents.

canada

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Alberta separatists claim independence means holding onto a Canadian passport. We asked legal experts

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There is no real legal mechanism for revocation.

There is. Parliament has the right to control how citizenship is obtained and lost, it's governed by federal law. If Alberta actually passes a referendum and gets it past the clarity act, you can expect that Canada will be looking into updating the Citizenship Act. They can create whatever legal mechanism they want as long as they don't leave people stateless or apply it in a way that is unjust (according to the supreme court and constitution).

It would be a huge legal battle but it's something that the federal government will hold over the province in a secession negotiation, and the final settlement between Canada and Alberta would include an agreement about how to handle citizenships.

canada

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Canada is burning while Mark Carney tries to sell us on snake oil climate change solutions

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Especially so in Canada. The politics that affects like 95% of your daily life is local and provincial. It infuriates me when I hear people blame all their problems on the PM that are actually the responsibility of your local or provincial government. Blaming Trudeau (or now Carney) for Doug Ford’s faults.

Housing, healthcare, education, public transport, urban planning, welfare, labour standards? It’s all exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces.

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How many cars are needed

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If you’ve ever tried to drive across London (UK)… it takes 1 hour to get across the city by tube. 2 hours by car. Transit isn’t always slow!

The new REM in Montreal can go highway speeds, too, and usually crosses the bridge faster than the cars especially during peak times.