viking

joined 2 years ago
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[–] viking 2 points 8 months ago

There are official recognition bodies that maintain accredited profiles for professional climbers, so without them formally recognizing the peak as such, you can't claim an ascent. Though in my understanding it's possible to claim retroactively, if you've been up there prior to the recognition.

If you're a private person and climb it for fun, you don't need to care about anything like that.

[–] viking 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

My point is rather that the tipping system has become so exploitative and expected, that some people rather don't eat out at all than don't tip to avoid stigma.

So this is less about canceling tipping rather than reining it back in. Getting rid of it would be preferable imho because it ensures everybody gets at least minimum wage and can set their priorities straight with regards to setting expectations, but 'back to the roots' where 10% was considered exceptional.

[–] viking 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hm. Wenn dass Sinn und Zweck von dieser Community ist, blockier ich die besser gleich. Gar nicht mein Humor.

[–] viking 0 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] viking 3 points 8 months ago

I guess around 8-12, sometimes more, rarely less.

[–] viking 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What exactly do you think happened with slaves too old to fulfill their duties?

[–] viking 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah I wouldn't want to live here again anymore, it's not fun long term. I could imagine Taiwan on the other hand side, it's pretty awesome. Though I could imagine the constant threat from China looming over you isn't particularly nice.

Japan is also lovely, friend of mine just moved over last year. He married a Japanese woman he met in China though, that made it rather easy.

Personally I would consider Vietnam or Thailand and maybe Philippines long term (especially after retirement), mid term we are headed for Scandinavia first.

[–] viking 7 points 8 months ago

Anytime! You could also check some blogs like nomad capitalist and others, they offer solutions like incorporating a ltd. company in Georgia (the country) or Belize and stuff, but that also comes with a host of other requirements, reporting and otherwise.

Depending on your assets, there are also some countries like Grenada for example that come with a citizenship by investment program, where you get a passport if you invest either into government bonds or buy a property that you must hold for a certain number of years. If you'd be a citizen from there and casually forget to tick the box for US citizenship when opening your Hong Kong account, you might just get away with it. (Strictly not legal, though).

[–] viking 45 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Outside of the immediate reach requires you to open an offshore brokerage account; however thanks to FATCA reporting requirements, most banks don't want to deal with you unless you have significant assets under management.

Back when FATCA was first introduced I was working in private wealth management for a bank in Luxembourg, and we decided to terminate all but 3 accounts held by US citizens, all of whom had assets above 700k USD. I believe 500k was the internally communicated cutoff.

Banks in Switzerland now typically require 1M CHF to open new accounts for anyone who isn't onshore (Swiss citizen or resident), Hong Kong, Singapore and Panama also require minimum amounts between 500k to 1M USD. I think Bahamas, Bermudas, Virgin Islands, Caymans and all the other money islands ask for even higher deposits now.

One thing you could consider are the British channel islands (Jersey and Guernsey in particular), since Brexit they've had a bit of an offshore renaissance. HSBC Jersey for example only requires 100k GBP to open offshore accounts (though I didn't check about FATCA requirements since I'm not a US citizen myself).

If all you want is keep smaller amounts outside of the US, you could look into wise.com, revolut and other money transfer services, they allow you to hold different currencies in physical accounts domiciled in other jurisdictions. Read: If you deposit USD and convert it to GBP, AUD or EUR, those funds will be physically stored in UK, Australia and Belgium respectively. Since wise is a British company (revolut as well btw), the US government at least won't have immediate access.

If there are any online brokers that accept US customers with casual portfolio sizes, no idea.

Crypto of course is also an option, but I don't trust it enough as long term asset storage solution.

[–] viking 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

Native German, fluent English, conversational Norwegian (and by extension passable Swedish; and I read 100% Danish but suck at speaking/listening comprehension), passable Dutch, Luxembourgish and French, and basic Chinese (mandarin).

Edit: And I passed Latin in high school (grades 5 through 10), so I do manage to read inscriptions in old buildings and churches, and pick up written Italian and Spanish because of it.

[–] viking 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

HDD tray with external fan, I had one just like this.

[–] viking 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Trucks with an empty weight above 3.5 metric tons require separate licenses, and are also tested for road safety in accordance with stricter standards.

I'm not very familiar with how it works in the US, but at least on paper the requirements are pretty much on par with most of Europe.

The main difference is that there are no laws requiring drivers to keep rest periods, and maximum loads are considered a recommendation at best. That's why you still have a fair number of incidents involving trucks, their brakes for example are tested to decelerate while hauling 20 tonnes, but if in reality it's closer to 40, even the most generous tolerances aren't working out.

Fines are a slap on the wrist really, and checks are very random and uncommon (in my 7 years I once encountered a road block on the highway where they actually checked vehicle's weights, and that was right after a bridge in the city of Wuxi collapsed under an overloaded truck).

Let me check if there's an English article about that.

Edit: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/eight-people-dead-two-injured-in-bridge-collapse-in-china

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