I just used this to order a book via Book Depository, and I'm somewhat concerned. The site never asked me where I wanted to have the book shipped, and just assumed I wanted it delivered to the address associated with my PayPal account, when in fact it was a gift. There was no way to change the delivery address after the order was placed. I had to send a message manually explaining the situation. :(
I guess Amazon, for all its faults, has a few things going for it.
I'm actually a college admissions consultant and this doesn't really tell the whole story. For one, university admissions at selective colleges are holistic, so "scores" doesn't really mean very much, especially since many schools are now test optional.
You also lump Asians and white people together in a way that's inaccurate. In fact, by some accounts, white people are the largest beneficiaries of current college admissions practices at top universities, thanks to legacy admissions practices / donations, a preference for athletes, and race-based admissions policies.
I recognize the last two of these may seem counterintuitive, so I'll explain. With regards to athletics, the sports represented at top schools lean heavily towards those played in affluent, predominately white areas — think squash, crew and tennis.
With regards to race-based admissions, yes Hispanics and black people benefit (to be fair, they almost never benefit from legacy), but the real "victims" are Asians, whose representation at Ivy League schools has remained flat since around 1990, in spite of the fact that the Asian American population has almost tripled over the same time period.
Here are some Facebook posts made by Allyn Gibson (son of the store owners / same guy who chased the black shoplifter):
“I wasn’t racist ever … but this ** and the way people treat me now because I am “white” is racist and is making me racist,” Allyn Jr. wrote. “I don’t owe a damn person a damn thing. If these lazy *** want to start working then they could earn their own money. That’s what my family does for money… work.”
///
So yes, he is a racist, and the family could well be. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
"if people treat me bad and call me racist by being white, then I'm racist" is not a definition of real racism.
Is another case of: "if all is racism, then nobody is racist". The term has been abused to defend thievery, so now is devoid of any real meaning. This is a big problem in itself.
Well, that depends a lot on where you are. Here in Bangkok, Thailand, that would cost $5.86 with standard delivery, or $6.28 with priority delivery. Basically comes down to the fact that labor costs are much lower here (minimum wage is $10 a day); delivery is done via scooter, rather than car (lower fuel costs); population density is high (restaurants are close to customers).
> We found that Haitians paid about $560 million in today’s dollars. But that doesn’t nearly capture the true loss. If that money had simply stayed in the Haitian economy and grown at the nation’s actual pace over the last two centuries — rather than being shipped off to France, without any goods or services being provided in return — it would have added a staggering $21 billion to Haiti over time, even accounting for its notorious corruption and waste.
Strange that the hundred of millions of debt to France is considered by some as a reason of missed opportunities for the country, but no one take into account as "true loss" the money that was embezzled by the presidents and co not so long after:
It’s believed that Papa Doc pocketed $150 million during his presidency, which is a pittance compared to the $1.6 billion his son grabbed
That comes out to foreign debt consisting of something like 2-3% of GDP. In the US, in the present day, foreign debt is like 6% of GDP.
By contrast, for what it's worth, France's payment to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War was about 22% of GDP. Paid over 3 years, so the payments themselves would have constituted like 7% of GDP.
Germany imposed another massive financial penalty on France after defeat in June 1940, too. I don't have the exact figures on me, but it was a) stupendously large and b) accumulated daily and paid monthly.
Is it just me or is no one addressing the most obvious disadvantage of this plan? Building a city along a "line" is simply a terrible idea. As far as I can tell, every major city in the world is based around a downtown "core" with less dense areas radiating outward from it, except where geographical barriers prohibit this. The advantages of this model are so manifold that I can't even begin to enumerate them—everything from (relatively) short commute times to equidistant access to central services from every direction. I cannot think of a single advantage of having a city that is a straight line.
Major cities in the world were built before linear mass transport like trains were invented, often around a single building of importance like a castle, church, or factory.
I guess it simplifies transport a great deal? You can just stack everything up and send it back and forth at high speeds, sort of like a conveyor belt. I suppose the natural equivalent is shipping and settlement along rivers like the Nile in Egypt?
One of their claims is that you can travel end-to-end in 20 minutes. If that actually worked and was easy to use I think most of your advantages would not be super relevant.
I guess Amazon, for all its faults, has a few things going for it.