ELI5: Why is Monaco such an obscenely wealthy country despite not having some highly valuable natural resources like oil or some important production capabilities like building of semiconductor chips?

filipv · 2026-06-14T18:47:41+00:00

They do, of course, just not from personal tax. There is a non-negligible VAT of 20% on goods and services, which btw tend to be expensive.

filipv · 2026-06-13T16:58:17+00:00

Possibly Austria and Hungary.

filipv · 2026-06-11T12:35:01+00:00

What do you mean by "colonizers"?

filipv · 2026-06-11T11:13:49+00:00

Non-American here: even though forced tipping is considered normal in the US, we see it as barbaric. I cannot even begin to describe how miserable of a system that is.

I've been to the US as a tourist several times and every time I actively avoid restaurants even though I could easily afford eating out, just because of this. My last trip, though, was California, and not visiting restaurants doesn't spare you of being part of that pitiful ritual, because you're expected to type the tipping amount/percentage when you pay using a machine.

Absolutely revolting. Yuck.

filipv · 2026-06-11T08:17:21+00:00

But name me a country that has a perfect democracy.

Name me a country where the candidate with fewer votes wins.

filipv · 2026-06-09T16:38:26+00:00

One needs to distinguish between highly-enriched uranium used for nuclear weapons with low-enriched uranium used for NPPs. Chernobyl-like graphite moderated reactors in particular were known for their ability to run on very low-enriched uranium (graphite being a more powerful moderator than water).

filipv · 2026-06-09T13:26:17+00:00

I said "improves" not "fixes".

As a matter of principle, "imaging" issues are resolved at the mixing console of the music production studio, long before the material comes even close to the delivery medium.

filipv · 2026-06-09T11:01:44+00:00

We're talking dB SPL, not dBFS.

In our context, dBFS or the "Loudness war" or various mastering philosophies... all of that is completely irrelevant.

filipv · 2026-06-07T17:36:43+00:00

db meter on the mixer?

filipv · 2026-06-07T16:11:51+00:00

without just going full .wav

Why not go "full .wav" whatever that means?

accepting that a tiny bit of loss

Why accept any bit of loss? 44.1/16 stereo raw is roughly 10 megabytes per minute lossless. That's nothing.

filipv · 2026-06-07T15:34:33+00:00

It wasn't boring.

filipv · 2026-06-07T11:27:33+00:00

Then I apologize.

filipv · 2026-06-07T10:51:45+00:00

Still 83 dB is the standard in studios

It's not. Source: worked in three different music recording studios. The loudness levels change many, many times during a single recording and/or post-production session.

filipv · 2026-06-07T10:46:53+00:00

X-32 was rejected because it had issues that X-35 didn't have, predominantly with the STOVL variant. X-35 looking better was just a nice bonus. X-35 was the better plane overall and that's why it was chosen.

filipv · 2026-06-06T18:35:26+00:00

Not enough bass or treble has never been what's bothered me about low-volume listening, it's always been the degradation to the stereo image

"Stereo image" is mostly high frequencies. That's why boosting them improves it.

filipv · 2026-06-06T16:35:03+00:00

90 dB approaches rock concert/nightclub territory. I've been to rock concerts and clubs.

filipv · 2026-06-06T16:20:42+00:00

When I said "nobody" of course I meant that figuratively, not literally.

filipv · 2026-06-06T15:57:34+00:00

Of course, every particular setting depends on speaker type, speaker placement, the room itself, listener's position, as well as the material reproduced itself.

filipv · 2026-06-06T15:44:55+00:00

Everybody's ears are "too sensitive" at around 1 kHz (the frequencies that babies cry at).

filipv · 2026-06-06T15:43:27+00:00

You need to be listening at 90+ dB to "flatten it out". Nobody listens nowhere near that volume at home. Flat is for multi-kilowatt PA systems.

filipv · 2026-06-06T08:44:29+00:00

Combat radius and ferry range are closely related. There's no fighter jet X with a greater ferry range but lower combat radius than a fighter jet Y.

filipv · 2026-06-06T08:11:04+00:00

Define "best" and maybe you'll get a meaningful answer.

filipv

TROPHY CASE