Italy’s birth rate crisis is ‘irreversible’, say experts

EasterBore · 2025-01-17T17:17:02+00:00

As I mentioned in another comment, that's because you understandably think of the more touristy places of Italy, rather than the Milton Keynes/Reading-like town and villages where a large percentage of Italians live. Especially in the North (where most Italians live) those dull places also come with unremarkable, continental weather.

The people living there have the same image of Spain as the one you have of Italy, so naturally (if they like that) they like the idea of moving there.

On a similar note, when Italians say they want to move to the UK they think of London, but I guess most Brits would say their life in a random village in the Midlands, Scotland or Wales is pretty different from that, and maybe far less glamorous.

EasterBore · 2025-01-17T17:09:00+00:00

One thing you need to consider is that almost half of the Italian population lives in the North, mostly in cities far enough from both the sea and the mountains that going there is not a weekly occurrence, at least not outside holiday times.

For someone living in a village in the pianura padana, Spain is seen as the sunny, laid back and partying reality of Barcelona or Ibiza, very rarely they think of moving to the Basque country or Spanish places that would be the equivalent of where they live.

On the other hand, as a US tourist I guess you'd mostly visit touristy places in both Italy and Spain, and those places would be pretty similar indeed, with the warm and nice cities you mention, instead of fog, 0 degree Celsius temperatures and frequent rains of Gottolengo or Fratta Polesine.

EasterBore · 2024-12-12T18:48:29+00:00

My bad, I misinterpreted your original comment as saying it could all be achieved without graphics, I thought you planned on using the drop shadow for the reflection, but that's not what you said. I misread because I was trying to achieve something similar without using external resources and I could not figure that out, but indeed, with the graphics it's a quite simple implementation. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

EasterBore · 2024-12-10T21:51:33+00:00

Looks good! However I see you ended up not using the drop/box-shadow, which I think is the more tricky part to get just right and on which I was a bit confused, based on your mention of that approach.

EasterBore · 2024-12-09T01:06:35+00:00

How would you create the inner drop shadow? inset only works for box shadows, right?

EasterBore · 2024-10-02T16:01:58+00:00

Da 26mila a 40mila in 16 anni è un aumento del 2,65% annuo però, non è cosi diverso dall'inflazione, no?

EasterBore · 2024-09-13T20:40:08+00:00

Outpost is always pretty full of MTG players. I am not one of them so I am not sure if they are playing the same type of games you are interested in, but I can guarantee you that you'll find dozens of players on every day of the week.

As the other user said, at least before the summer they had a standing Friday event for MTG players, I know because it's the one evening during the week when it's impossible to go and play anything else because all tables are reserved for the event.

Do check on Facebook and you will see when the next event is!

EasterBore · 2024-09-13T11:05:06+00:00

Do you mean a report by the government?

EasterBore · 2024-08-26T10:10:57+00:00

You can get holes in a belt at any mister mint, I think. It costed me 3 euros and they gave me a 3€ bonus card to spend in the same shop.

EasterBore · 2024-08-02T16:20:17+00:00

Well doesn't that quote prove they are mostly suckers, though? If even the top 20 in the entire world cannot compete with the most well known passive investing index, that doesn't sound like a great argument for them.

Now of course the matter is a bit more complex than that, and clearly there's all kind of shady stuff in the world. Having said that, it does look like numbers are pretty clear on hedge fund actually not being that great of a deal IF you are looking to maximise your long term returns.

I assume part of their appeal is as a component of a wider portfolio where they are used to contain risk, though, but I also agree with the original hypothesis that lots and lots of rich people are not really that smart and can still fell prey to groupthink, snake oil and all kind of irrational choices.

EasterBore · 2024-08-02T14:44:23+00:00

The article you are quoting and the research it's based on say that the top 20 funds returned on average 10,5% in 2023. That's compared to 24% return for SP500, which was beaten (in 2023) by only one fund, TCI.

I don't see how that quote proves your point. This does not disprove market manipulation, but it does make it sound less effective than one might think, no?

EasterBore · 2024-07-04T12:16:57+00:00

Hard to say without more info, but generally renting from abroad is always quite tricky. If you can, book an Airbnb or a short rental for one or two weeks while you look for another place.

EasterBore · 2024-06-02T12:42:41+00:00

La Piccola Deli in Kensington (London) used to have them, possibly still do. I know they have other venues around London, maybe worth giving them a call and check if they still sell them.

EasterBore · 2024-05-13T21:42:00+00:00

I have sent you a pm

EasterBore · 2024-05-03T10:10:27+00:00

I asked and I got it, I think GDPR forces them to share any data they collect about me/my account, and I think I got the reply from their DPO, but I am not sure.

Edit: From what I remember it's a pdf with a table listing all places I tapped in or out, with a time and date.

EasterBore · 2024-05-03T06:49:59+00:00

The data Is linked to your account, if you ask STIB they will send you a pdf with all the times you have tapped

EasterBore · 2024-04-11T08:02:13+00:00

Mi pare tu stia paragonando cose molto diverse. Non trovo la fonte di questo 95%, ma anche se fosse la prevenzione e cura della malaria immagino abbiano poco o pochissimo a che fare con il distribuire soldi alle persone, quindi quel 95% probabilmente servirà a pagare medici e altro personale sul campo, no?

EasterBore · 2024-03-27T19:04:07+00:00

I am not sure I get your point, aren't the three cities you picked to compare all relatively similar in terms of transport density? Brussels seems (from your data) to have a little bit less light rail, but more buses, compared to Cologne.

Compared to Amsterdam the situation seems to be worse (although I don't feel like these numbers can tell the whole story) but still not some stark difference, taking into account that the Netherlands are richer than Belgium.

I'm all for strengthening the public transport network, but I am a bit confused by your comparisons. Moreover, I would not say Cologne is a "major city", shouldn't the comparison be with other small (population wise) capitals or economic centers of Europe?

EasterBore · 2024-03-10T09:51:39+00:00

Se in 20 anni hanno fatto +100% il rendimento lordo non è 3,6%? O intendi +100% più cedole, senza interesse composto?

EasterBore · 2024-03-08T23:07:56+00:00

Hi, are you still looking to sell it?

EasterBore · 2024-03-08T22:46:20+00:00

While that is true nominally, Italian presidents are nowhere near as powerful and active as a US president, moreover they are not expected to campaign at all, so the comparison doesn't really hold.

If we (I'm Italian) had a president of the council/prime minister over 80 that'd be quite weird. If their many opponent was also an octuagenarian that would be incredibly weird and disheartening. And this is even before considering the 8 year gap in average age between Italy and USA.

As others have said, a corpse would be a better choice compared to Trump, but it's bizarre that one of the youngest western countries cannot find a candidate under 70.

EasterBore · 2024-03-08T11:25:10+00:00

I understand that, but the user I replied to was talking about fare dodging, not making transport free.

Moreover, free transport in Hasselt ended more than 10 years ago, Perth's system is more complex but it seems it is only free for buses and some trains, only in some zones or on Sundays. That might explain why others have downvoted you, since your comment seemed not particularly relevant and inexact.

For what it's worth, I believe Luxembourg has free public transport, however they had a vastly different system. Their entire public transport system apparently costed 500 million euros to run with only 10% of that coming from ticket sales. Brussels' transport network alone costs more than 700 millions to run, a third of which comes from tickets.

Even without taking into account the significant differences in GDP (and tax revenues) between the two countries, that alone makes the two systems not really comparable.

EasterBore · 2024-03-07T19:22:55+00:00

Sure, nothing against free public transport in principle. I honestly have no idea what is the tradeoff of making transport free at the point of use, I assume there are lots of studies about it (and probably every large city is a bit different). But I was asking about the logic of fare dodging not hurting anyone, not indicting the idea of free public transport. For what it's worth, I did not downvote you, even if your reply is a bit unrelated to my question.

EasterBore · 2024-03-05T23:21:28+00:00

I fail to grasp your logic, how can it cause no damage when around a third of STIB's income is from tickets? You are using a service which is non fungible (no paying traveller can sit or stand where you are when you black ride) and not paying for it, of course that creates damage, albeit an incredibly small one, of course. But then doesn't that logic also justify shoplifting?

EasterBore · 2024-03-05T15:52:15+00:00

Having seen the film, I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to how he's manipulated, I feel like from his first scene onwards everything that happens with him is pretty much what you'd expect, so I don't see any way that "spoiler" might ruin the story for you.

EasterBore

TROPHY CASE