vixen99

'Small, non-representive samples'? Maybe, (I am in position to judge) but looking through some of the published scholarly papers relating to this subject and from what you've said, it …

Excellent! Thank you. Cuts across the problems alluded to for those who want to hear the lectures whatever (it is their decision).

Non Jewish, non-prize winner here! If culture and this 'ton of hard work' is such a winning strategy why hasn't it been emulated by other groups of people. The Jewish achievement is ex…

Now you're on to something really important! I am not aware (granted - I guess because I happen not to have seen it) of any really wide ranging high level discussion on this massive subject nor d…

Definitions! llegal tax avoidance = tax evasion. You might as well talk about legal tax evasion.

I don't think it does. Any sensible business avoids tax i.e., minimizes its tax bill. If it gets up to what are perceived as evident shenagans to do this, governments can change the law (as has b…

So legally minimizing a tax bill by selecting an optimum location and passing some of that advantage onto customers (one of the reasons Amazon is popular) is 'taking the piss'?

Indeed - they have to cover this for instance. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11255493... However I understand that some feel that drawing att…

I disagree; there is a very fundamental problem around when unelected (unsackable) comfortably situated people with golden pensions who do not create wealth, sit in rooms devising intricate schemes fo…

Thanks! Your first sentence says it (almost) all.

'If the customers IP address and billing address conflict you are going to have to halt the purchase unless ...'. So how do I, as a customer, go about buying something online while not at h…

Come on, $39.95 / €34.95 / £29.95 isn't much and I am sure Springer deserve to cash in on Knuth's work.

Agreed! Forgive me for descending to the trivial: it's 'its methods'.

The word 'racist' succeeds in generating an emotional swirl with unpleasant connotations while failing to communicate what is meant when it is used. It's just a lazy expletive.

Seems to me me you're juggling several straw objects here. Obsession? What's your evidence for this? Who knows what people are finding meaning in, and not necessarily reporting that finding …

Yes you are right (I got a bit carried away there!) but let's note "The ultimate decision will rest with EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager." - an unelected official. And wh…

You mean the unelected officials who decide these matters in non-smoke filled rooms in an organisation that hasn't been passed by its own auditors in more than 13 years (a business would have bee…

Well I think there is: it's :"the EU should stop trying to boss around foreign companies". Perhaps you can explain why that is absurd because it's prefaced by an (agreed) absurdity…

Oh Bill Gates, I love you! This is a wonderful step forward and maybe the beginning of the end for avaricious publishers. As a taxpayer I'm asked to pay £20 to access a single article written in…

Living in Brasov, Romania: price of MRI for a knee is around 400 Lei or around $110. Proportionate prices for others. Not sure but I think these might be the lowest prices in Europe. If you're de…

High anything is probably not wise. However a somewhat different story from that to which we're accustomed, is emerging. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Mar;91(3):535-46. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27725. …

What a bizarre connection! Disputing the divine right of kings had to be a private act or you faced the consequences; you and I, the consumers, ultimately decide the fate of the millions of businesses…

Just give me the convincing evidence and I will do what I can to protect the Earth that my children will inherit. By contrast, you don't need to convince me that there's a desperate world-wi…

And that overwhelming evidence is? And which of the 50 odd reasons put forward, do you favour to explain the hiatus. Apparently nobody takes Feynman seriously in his unequivocal statement that if the…

Need? Fierce debate continues but the global warming “hiatus,” followed by up to 50 different reasons for nature not following the prediction of dramatically increased global temperature provides at l…

Could be cheap as chips but without storage, forget it as a solution for most of the world. Nuclear is an exception of course.

You should qualify 'inability'. I would have thought that 'inability to change employers'. applies to millions of people particularly older ones where if they are sacked the chance…

"I'm sorry for what we did to Turing". On the other hand, if you don't happen to be a genius, tough! The countless, ordinary blokes in the street who happened to be homosexuals an…

Completely agree. It is outrageous. I am researching a topic at the moment and expected to pay £20 for the privilege of viewing a paper (with work funded as you say, by the taxpayer) published in 1960…

It had better be given that the public paid for it at a minimum cost of 1.4 billion Euros for the strictly European input.