Some food delivery services guarantee a minimum payment for their drivers, which seems like a good thing on the surface. Basically, the company will pay the driver the agreed-upon base payment, even if it’s a slow shift and they don’t actually reach that amount in delivery charges. But it also means that everything they earn, including tip, is going toward that base payment. In other words, your tip is saving the company from having to pay more of the base payment.
The best way to ensure that your tip goes into your driver’s pocket is to give them a tip that they can literally put in their pocket—namely, cash. If you don’t have cash around or like to keep your finances digital for credit card rewards or tracking purposes, you should choose a delivery service that promises to pay their employees the full amount of whatever they earn, including tip.
I always keep cash on hand for this very reason.
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Already, Vancouver’s 18-storey Brock Commons tower stands as a testament to the vast possibilities of wood. Once the world’s tallest timber building, it was built cheaper, faster and with less environmental impact than a comparable steel and concrete structure would have been – offsetting an estimated 2,432 metric tonnes of carbon.
Now the provincial government has changed its building codes, effectively doubling the height limit for wood-frame buildings to 12 storeys (Brock Commons was granted an exception when it was built). The Canadian government is expected to match BC’s codes nationwide.
Uh-huh. You first.
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Essentially, tumors are “tricked” into inviting the chemotherapeutics inside, allowing the drug to destroy them from the inside out. After making it inside the tumor, the hidden drug activates and kills cancer cells. This innovative delivery method is also lower in toxicity, thus causing less harmful side effects than most other chemotherapy treatments available today.
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As we’ve said in many articles, a new wave of investments in automation is already underway, could eliminate 20% to 25% of the current American workforce by 2030, or about 40 million jobs.
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A recent promotional video shows the step-by-step preparation of this “meat vegetable,” which consists of turkey breast wrapped in cheesecloth and coated in a carrot marinade. “If they can make meat from veggies (and other stuff),” a caption on the video says, “we can make veggies from meat.”
That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
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The New York Times fudged book sales data in order to deny top-five billing to the best-selling “Justice on Trial,” the definitive and deeply reported account of the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which was written by Carrie Severino and Mollie Hemingway, a Senior Editor for The Federalist. Industry sales figures show that the New York Times ignored actual data on nationwide sales in order to depress the rankings not just for the Hemingway/Severino book, but also Mark Levin’s latest book on the corruption of modern journalism.
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The Canadian government has issued the notice of commencement of an environmental assessment for a small modular reactor project proposed by Global First Power (GFP) with support from Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG). The companies describe the move as a significant “first” for the Canadian nuclear industry.
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President Trump announced on Thursday that the amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, shot down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz in a defensive action.
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Up until the mid-2000s, circadian rhythm science had been mostly viewed as a kind of cute, niche little corner of biology. But advances in gene sequencing technologies post-Human Genome Project led scientists to realize that the clock controlled more than 10,000 genes in nearly every cell in the human body. Even more recently, they discovered that clock was malleable. “Almost all the important functions in your body have a temporal component that we can tweak through the power of circadian manipulation,” says Jake Chen, a biochemist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He’s spent the last ten years hunting for compounds with circadian-boosting properties and testing the hypothesis that they can make people live happier, healthier, longer lives. If he’s right, curing or preventing some of society’s most common and costly diseases might come down to chemically resetting our clocks. “The time has come for the biomedical research community to recognize that biological timing is a bonafide therapeutic target.”
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A bold claim about gorilla societies is drawing mixed reviews. Great apes, humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, were thought to lack our social complexity. Chimpanzees, for example, form only small bands that are aggressive toward strangers. But based on years of watching gorillas gather in food-rich forest clearings, a team of scientists has concluded the apes have hierarchical societies similar to those of humans, perhaps to help them exploit rich troves of food.
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Is it possible to create an internet meme that could be embraced by both the left and the right? Charles Pierce, the extreme TDS politics writer for Esquire magazine, might have created one on July 15 while in a fit of fury over the incredibly fast pace of Trump administration Federal judiciary appointments which now numbers 43 since his term began according to this report.
As a result, Pierce went off the deep end yet again. However, the good news for all is that he might have created what could be destined to be a popular internet meme: “Larval Scalias.”
I’ll drink to that.
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One of the core concepts of calculus is known as the “derivative”, which is a ratio between two types of changes. For instance, your car’s speedometer gives the you speed in “miles per hour.” This is a derivative—a ratio of the change in distance and the change in time. You can also have a “second derivative,” or a derivative of a derivative. For instance, acceleration is the ratio between the change in speed and the change in time.
However, the notation for the second derivative has always been strange and usually baffles students. In most mathematics textbooks, the notation is presented without explanation for the reasons for why it looks the way it looks. In an effort to provide more background for his students, Jonathan Bartlett decided to pursue the matter further, and figure out why the notation is the way that it is.
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Last summer, we reported how the US Navy completed the first comprehensive Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOTE) of the Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. One year later, the Navy declared initial operational capability (IOC) for the MQ-8C, a Naval Air Systems Command press release read.
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Amidst the ocean of publicity, Rush Limbaugh decided to do something. Consulting with wife Kathryn the two quickly came up with a T-shirt bearing the Betsy Ross flag. Beneath the flag were the words: “Stand Up For Betsy Ross!” Beneath that it read simply “The Rush Limbaugh Show” with Rush’s name in signature form. Proceeds would benefit the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the late Mr. Siller a Brooklyn fireman who lost his life saving others during the 9/11 attack in New York.
And suddenly? Suddenly The Rush Limbaugh Show Store was inundated with requests for the shirt. Tens of thousands — say again tens of thousands — were sold within minutes — minutes! — of Rush’s announcement on his show. Rush was astounded at the massive, instant response. I asked him about this and he told me the shirt had on the spot become the Rush store’s “hottest selling item. We had to re-order after 5 hours yesterday and we do NOT do small quantities.”
Rush is a dab hand at recognizing a sales opportunity out of left-wing cluelessness.
During a summer vacation season marked by long security lines and record-setting air traffic, it is easy to overlook a trend in U.S. ground travel that is winning converts from those who would otherwise fly: the rapid expansion of bus lines offering first- and business-class service on short-hop routes. These carriers, many of which have onboard attendants, snack and beverage service, and low-density seating, are a far cry from the conventional intercity bus lines that most business travelers are loath to use. Most offer frequent traveler programs and reserved seats like airlines. They also offer more spacious “2 x 1” seating (one seat and two seats on opposite sides of the aisle).
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AMP Robotics, an artificial intelligence and robotics company that is automating the recycling industry, has rolled out new trash-picking robots for recycling centers that will replace countless low-skilled jobs, reported The WSJ.
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Nearly 100 nuclear reactors in the US provide about 20% of the country’s electricity. While these reactors generate practically no greenhouse gases, companies are planning to shut down more and more of them. At the current clip, none may be operational by 2050, according to a 2017 government study.
The reasons for these reactor shutdowns are numerous and complicated; politics is playing a role, as is the rise of wind and solar energy. But current US regulations are to blame, too, since they make implementing upgrades to aging reactors — in particular new electronics that would improve safety, reliability, and longevity — hard and expensive to do. Meanwhile, supplies of approved analog parts are waning and their costs increasing.
That’s why the announcement that Indiana’s Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1) has swapped out all of its dated analog controls for modern digital ones may represent an important turning point.
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“The party in my opinion, for me personally, has moved too far to the left,” said Robert Johnson, founder of the cable network Black Entertainment Television and RLJ Companies, during a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
A self-proclaimed Democrat and centrist, Johnson, 73, went on to say, “And for that reason, I don’t have a particular candidate [I’m supporting] in the party at this time. I think at the end of the day, if a Democrat is going to beat Trump, then that person, he or she, will have to move to the center and you can’t wait too long to do that.”
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Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, the former second lady, routed their book-deal earnings through an S-Corp, a pass-through entity that allowed the two to avoid a self-employment tax of 3.8%. While that might not seem like much, the Bidens’ saved $500,000 thanks to the strategy.
As I said earlier.
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Popular Science takes a break from virtue-signaling and actually does some science for a change.
High-fructose corn syrup has been a scapegoat for American obesity for the past decade and a half, so you might be surprised to learn that sugar and honey both have more fructose than high-fructose corn syrup.
Let’s break down the numbers here. Despite its misleading name, the most commonly used form of HFCS only has 42 percent fructose in comparison to table sugar’s 50 percent. Honey, the beloved natural sweetener, has 49 percent. Standard corn syrup doesn’t have any fructose because it’s 100 percent glucose, which explains how HFCS got its name: it was a kind of corn syrup with more fructose than normal.
This is true for every form of natural sugar you see advertised on organic food because sucrose, the molecule you know as sugar, is made up of one fructose molecule and one glucose molecule. Honey is a bit different, as its fructose and glucose molecules aren’t bound together, but instead are free-floating—much more like HFCS.
“People say you should use honey, but what’s interesting about honey is that because the sucrose is split apart [into glucose and fructose], you can fit a lot more of those molecules into a tablespoon,” says Andrea Giancoli, a registered dietician and consulting expert on dietary policy. “A tablespoon of honey has more calories than a tablespoon of table sugar.”
Instead of one big nuclear reactor, Reyes says his company will string together a series of up to 12 much smaller reactors. They would be built in a factory and transported by truck to a site that would be prepared at the same time.
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Yes, in an Alternating Current system there is no “plus” and “minus,” so in theory the two wires should be interchangable. However, the real world is a bit more complex than the theory. Other issues crop up and cause trouble.
You see, lenses are made from spherical surfaces. The problem arises when light rays outside the center of the lens or hitting at an angle can’t be focused at the desired distance in a point because of differences in refraction.
Which makes the center of the image sharper than the corners. Which leads to countless YouTube reviews on lenses. And countless hours of watch time. And makes advertisers and YouTubers happy.
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If there was one legal clue telegraphing Occidental Chemical’s recent investment by Warren Buffett before it happened, it was that an Occidental owned private jet had been spotted at the Omaha airport. That’s why, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, more hedge funds are now tracking private jets and flight data for information on potential coming merger and acquisition deals.
Life imitates the movies. (I really dislike the colloquialism ‘try and’ for ‘try to’.)
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Last one: In 2002, the medical journal The Lancet published an article on the concerning potential for depleted uranium—the waste leftover after uranium-235 extraction—to end up on the battlefield. The concern is that its high density would make it an incredible projectile, capable of piercing even the most well-enforced battle tank. Worse yet, it could then contaminate the surrounding landscape and anyone it.
Except that it doesn’t, any more than other traditional munitions. The ‘depleted uranium’ is U-238, which the article has just informed us is not radioactive. This ‘contaminate the surrounding landscape’ is just eco-Nazi fear-mongering. Sure, if it’s ingested, it’s bad for you — but so is lead.
Depleted uranium makes an excellent anti-tank penetrator rod because (a) it’s damned heavy, (b) it’s damned hard, (c) when it abrades going through something, it does so in a way that sharpens, rather than blunts, the projectile, and (d) it is pyrophoric. It’s about as effective a munition as you’re going to find.
The autocannons used by the Stryker fighting vehicle and the A-10 Warthog use depleted uranium ammunition, but the eco-Nazis have managed to get rid of uranium ammo for tanks and the Navy’s Phalanx CIWS.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled against Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) in a case that could expose the online retailer to lawsuits from customers who buy defective products from third-party vendors through its website.
Numerous other courts, including two federal appeals courts, have held that Amazon cannot be held liable as a seller of products from third-party vendors. The new ruling from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which reversed a lower court decision, appeared to be the first to buck that trend.
A conflict between Circuits is a classic precursor to Supreme Court review.
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A huge development Thursday regarding enforcement of Iran sanctions and the West’s economic war on both Damascus and Tehran: British Royal Marines seized an oil tanker in Gibraltar off Spain’s southern coast while it was en route to Syria in what’s being called an unprecedented and aggressive move to enforce EU sanctions.
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Factory OS is in the business of designing and building homes using pre-fabricated, modular components. Its first customer was Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which in 2017 ordered 300 apartment units from the company, according to Wall Street Journal reporting from the time. The reported value of that deal was between $25 million and $30 million. Unnamed experts cited by the Wall Street Journal said that modular, pre-fabricated construction can reduce construction costs by 25 to 50 percent in the Bay Area.
In 2018, the company opened a sprawling manufacturing facility in Vallejo which can produce 2,000 to 3,000 units per year, according to local Fox affiliate KTVU. Describing the facility, the KTVU article states that, “[h]ouses will be moved along the assembly line by cranes and industrial air cushions. At two dozen assembly stations, 150 to 250 union employees will build the modules from the inside out. The modules, some as large as 16 feet by 70 feet, will likely contain two or more living units, studio sized to multi bedrooms.”
The housing units are then loaded onto trucks and shipped whole to building sites. Factory OS is currently working on developments in West Oakland and El Cirrito.
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Electroactive bacteria were unknown to science until a couple of decades ago. But now that scientists know what to look for, they’re finding this natural electricity across much of the world, even on the ocean floor. It alters entire ecosystems, and may help control the chemistry of the Earth.
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