Yet if you abolish Mother's Day (or should I say Day for People with Uteruses who have Offspring)...
SG TUFF - Singapore Tenants United For Fairness - Posts - "Ian has two stalls in a food court in an industrial area. Monthly rental is $13, 000 for both. He was given a rental rebate of 65% for one month. Period. He did not even get the full amount from the property tax rebates. For F&B, there is no more dishes to wash nor tables to clean. But the landlord still make them pay the full washing fees at $1300 per stall. Fine.
As the Exhaust system and Aircon is centrally controlled, the landlord switched them off to save his own costs! (Note that it is an offence to operate without the exhaust for F&B). He switched off ALL ten air conditioners and refused to turn on even ONE for the staff. One of Ian’s workers had such terrible heat rash as a result and had to seek medical help. In fact, it was as hot as an oven in the kitchen and food court now that even kitchen equipment like chillers are begging for help. Just this month, two of his chillers broke down. Heat is definitely turning up as a result of the bullying tactics of the landlord but Ian has to swallow it all."
SG TUFF - Singapore Tenants United For Fairness - Posts - "“When we rent new stalls, in the midst of the agreement, or when we renew our contracts (basically it could be anytime), the foodcourt management would collect a $10K-$40K renovation fees. But after so many years, I know there are no planned future works. They never come. We just have to pay our way to the better locations”. The crux of the problem here is, the “renovation fee” can be imposed by landlord at whim. There is no accountability to how the fee will be used. More than that, these are sometimes NOT in the tenancy agreement upfront but imposed mid-way. If he wants to keep the business he worked so hard to build up or not lose his security deposits, he has to pay. Thus, while the landlord does not have the right to increase the rent during the period of the agreement, the landlord does otherwise have the power to impose additional costs on the tenant under the lease. Additional costs may be imposed through a number of clauses which give landlords the right to claim expenditure reasonably and properly incurred in respect of the building or premises. Daniel had to pay or risked chased away. He did not have a choice.
Daniel also had to use the assigned contractors for renovations and maintenance works. There are also all sorts of fees collected to ensure compliance to standards. For example, a Video Serial Interface installation fee of $1,000 and a Kitchen Design Fee of $1,000. For regular repairs, Daniel also had a list of assigned contractors to contact. Fortunately, “the local managers have some heart and will sometime close one eye and ask me fix it myself. Or else the rates will be exorbitant, even for small fixes”...
For Utilities like gas, electricity, water, sewerage and telecommunications, there are often hefty deposits and “designated suppliers” which charge higher than usual rates. One would think such bulk purchase by all the tenants of the foodcourt would equate to cheaper, more favourable rates but unfortunately this is not the case. For example, Daniel had to use gas suppliers who charge $11-$16 per metric ton when SP Gas is only about $8 per metic ton. These costs increased his monthly costs by great amounts. He did not have a choice.If Daniel’s stall is unable to achieve monthly sales of minimally $45K each month for three months, it would be a breach of agreement. If Daniel’s stall cannot get an A grade in its SFA inspection, it would be a breach of agreement. On top of that, the operator can terminate agreement with no reasons with just one month’s notice. These are all terms that lean in favour of a landlord."
Should gamers be accountable for in-game war crimes?
First world problems
So much for the 'myth' of the slippery slope
Harry Potter Butterbeer copycat recipe - "What Jayson and Florell developed is a two-part beverage: sweet-flavored soda on the bottom with a creamy whipped flavored head on top. When sipped, the flavors combine for a taste that makes you think of caramel butter cookies.The drink looks like a beer, but it has no alcohol in it, and the foam is not a by-product of the drink. It’s added separately, and you cannot get a drink without it. That makes it hard for a curious person like me to tell what the soda tastes like on its own. Hard for sure, but not impossible...
According to The Huffington Post, J.K. Rowling was adamant that Butterbeer is a dairy-free product:
“…because Universal Orlando wanted as many guests as possible to be able to sample this brew (and that included the lactose intolerant), there could be no butter, or dairy products of any kind, in Butterbeer.”
This information means that virtually every copycat recipe you’ll find on the cyberwebs is incorrect since they call for either ice cream, evaporated milk, half-and-half, cream, butter, or some other cow product. Dairy may be an easy and obvious way to make foam, but in this case it’s not the right way."
2011 Census analysis - Office for National Statistics
In the UK, Chinese and Other Asian (non-South Asian) women are significantly more likely to be in inter-ethnic relationships than men. This suggests that US-specific explanations like immigration laws about why East Asian males are considered less desirable than East Asian females are bunk. This is linked to how the same US-specific explanation about why the US has so many Chinese restaurants (linking it to immigration etc laws targeting East Asians) are also naively US-centric
Why Are Airlines Flying Empty Planes Amid Coronavirus? - " One reason to keep so many flights going is to help the airlines implement their policies that promote social distancing... There are also regulatory issues. The CARES Act grants that will give airlines money to meet their payroll come with terms that require those airlines to maintain service to virtually everywhere they were already serving... irlines have committed in advance to schedules, and changing those schedules requires some advance planning to ensure aircraft and crews end up in the right places and those passengers that do want to fly can be reaccommodated. In some cases, airlines have been dealing with the near-term crash in demand by canceling scheduled flights rather than formally taking them off the schedule, so you should not assume that all 13 of tomorrow’s scheduled Washington-Boston flights will actually fly... The airlines have ongoing commitments to pay employees — commitments that are strengthened under the terms of those CARES Act grants. They also have ongoing commitments to pay airports to lease gate space and to pay the companies that own or finance their aircraft. The biggest variable cost of flying, fuel, has come down because crude oil prices have fallen so much due to the crisis. And parking a plane has costs of its own and is more complicated than just leaving an aircraft wherever it is. The Wall Street Journal noted this weekend that Lufthansa Group has been having trouble sourcing the chemical it needs to put in planes’ fuel tanks to stop algae from growing in them while they don’t fly."
Misrepresentation of UK Homicide Characteristics in Popular Culture - "The homicide statistics of a popular UK television fictional crime series and the former Lothian & Borders police force region, Scotland were compared. This comparison was used to consider the implications for public attitudes which may influence the adoption of public health interventions to reduce homicide. 217 homicides were identified by 105 perpetrators in the television series 'Midsomer Murders' between 1997 and 2011; these were compared to 55 homicides by 53 perpetrators in the regional sample between 2006 and 2011. The numbers of serial killings (p < 0.0001), planned homicides, female perpetrators (p < 0.0001), shootings (p = 0.0456) and poisonings (p = 0.0289) were higher in the fictional sample. Lothian & Borders cases were almost all single killings, mostly unplanned, with a far greater rate of homicide by kitchen knives (p < 0.0001) and hitting/kicking (p = 0.0005) by intoxicated perpetrators. Control of access to pointed kitchen knives by members of certain groups may reduce homicide rates. If the popular perception of UK homicides is influenced by popular culture, the importance of such a public health intervention may not be apparent."
Facebook removes Fabrications About The PAP admin accounts for violating policies - ""This action is based on the behaviour of these accounts, not based on the content they posted."... Facebook removes accounts that clearly violate its policies, including people who misrepresent themselves, use fake accounts, or engage in behaviour designed to enable other violations of its community standards...
In 2017, Fabrications About The PAP founder Jason Chua was issued a stern warning by the police for breaching Cooling-Off Day rules during the Bukit Batok by-election in 2016."
I Miss Montreal Food - Posts - "You can now order food from any Restaurant, Deli or Bakery in Montreal and we will deliver it to you in Toronto!"
The Scene That Explains Why First Avenger Worked and Captain Marvel Didn’t - SCENE FIGHTS! - YouTube
Comments: "that’s the problem with writers doing female protagonists on film. Their so consumed with trying to make them fearless, powerful, and strong that they forget to do the most basic thing. Make. Them. Human. By that i mean make them have flaws and overcome dose flaws by the end of the film. U don’t need to make captain marvel a barely emotional protagonist. just use the same formula as u would with the male protagonist. Make them human, make them experience pain and failure and make them grow from dose experience."
"The only characterization Carol Denvers has is that she overcomes."
"Before the movie I only recalled Carol Danvers as the person Rogue absorbed and gained her powers from. After seeing the movie I remembered why I hardly knew the character. She barely has any personality. So the ones I truly knew as Captain Marvel was Mar Vell and Monica Rambeau."
"Captain Marvel is the "Rey" of the marvel universe. She doesn't require a hero's journey, courage or depth of character to be the best or most powerful. She just has to remember who she is... literally."
"It's so funny that a trilogy that was essentially supposed to be about it's powerful strong female lead, coincidentally had the actually only compelling character with an interesting journey be the male villain.Who then also promptly had to be killed off of course. Instead of capitalizing on the potential of how the galaxy and society reacts to the mass murdered Kylo Ren returning to the Light and trying to reform as Ben Solo. Instead we get to have Rey, who didn't really change at all throughout the three movies, and even the teasing that she would fall to the dark side was nothing more than a red herring."
"sadly the sequel trilogy's best writing is apparently "They fly now!"..."
"The problem with Captain Marvel is that she has no character, she's just a big powerhouse with no growth, no morals, and no humanity to her despite Captain Marvel being a great character in the comics, and it's because of how she was written and how Larson portrayed her in the film."
"When they introduced captain Marvel they basically introduced an unkillable god that can oneshot everyone."
"The movie claims that Carol has trouble controlling her emotions, yet she has the personality of a piece of celery the entire time. Her eyes literally have no emotion."
PFC Daniel Louis Paul Sauve (1947-1966) - Find A Grave Memorial - "While in their living quarters in the vicinity of Da Nang, the Marines were singing when one of them began to strum a M-14 rifle as if he was playing a guitar. Unknown to the man the rifle was loaded, there was an accidental discharge and a shot rang out stricking and causing the death of PFC Sauve"
Japanese academic forced to leave Britain due to visa rules - "A high-flying academic who travels the world as a Government adviser is being forced to leave Britain because of visa regulations...The world-renowned academic's work - which helps the UK Government to set foreign policy - requires her to spend long spells working in China and Africa.In 2009 and 2010 she spent around 472 days abroad, according to Home Office sources.Immigration laws now state that people working in the UK on a migrant visa cannot be out of the country for more than 180 days each year..."They changed the visa rule in 2012 and have applied it retrospectively to my travel in 2009 and 2010...Dr Hirono, an expert in international relations, has decided not to appeal the decision because the cost of the process would make it "impractical".Instead she has taken a job at a university in Kyoto, Japan, and the family are leaving the UK on March 29.In December, Dr Hirono won an appeal against the Home Office with a judge suggesting it would not be in the national interest to deport someone who had "made a significant and profound contribution to the academic framework of higher education in this country".But that ruling was later overturned and immigration bosses confiscated the family's passports a year ago."