In Europe the harmonica is widely accepted as the prominent instrument for folk music and since everyone is posting harmonica videos here's one of the most famous song (very difficult to play)
Too late for you to edit, but "harmonica" is a false friend; that word refers to a very different instrument in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonica
Button accordions come in two kinds: classic piano full scale, and melodian, which is a harmonica attached to bellows and buttons. It's the same "what you get push and pull can differ" model, which real accordians don't do: same note push and pull.
I am unsure what a Bandonion does. Wheatstone concertina (yes, the guy who made the wheatstone bridge I believe) are also same note push-pull. More buttons. more. Wheatstone concertina sell for $10,000 or more. Melodions sell for $100
Zydeco typically uses the harmonica-aligned melodion. Bandonion music is what Astor Piazzola plays.
(can play a melodion. cannot play piano accordion or concertina)
Just to show how confusing this can get, I’ll elaborate on this a bit.
One confusion is that the word “melodeon” is used more in the UK, Ireland, and Australia (according to Wikipedia) and “diatonic accordion” in the US, but they’re words often used for the same thing, I think?
Harmonicas have free reeds and so do accordions and concertinas, but they don’t use the same parts as someone might guess from the way you said it. Harmonicas (and melodicas) have many reeds cut out of a single metal plate. (Or plastic for some harmonicas.) Accordions typically have pairs of reeds (one push and the other pull) held into a wooden reed block by wax, so they can be individually removed by melting the wax. Some less expensive concertinas use accordion reeds and the crazy-expensive ones use hand-made concertina reeds.
Also, a piano accordion or chromatic button accordion could be tuned to play some notes differently on push versus pull. (For example “Arabic tuning.”) This is rare, though.
A fundamental reason to have different notes on push versus pull is to use fewer reeds, saving weight and complexity, which is more important on smaller instruments. But this resulted in different music and playing styles too so they’re also culturally different.
I think it's very common in Europe to adapt your working hours to your situation in life. Many of my European friends decrease their hours for a small pay cut since they have children now or have to take care of elderly. Just call HR and discuss the deal. Done.
I recently worked for a Belgium startup in the NY office. Many of my coworkers in the old world had an agreement to work less for less pay. When I asked my HR in US to reduce hours for less pay due to Covid-19 the answer was exactly like OP listed: "we have always done it this way... it's not possible in US ... if you decrease your hours by one hour you will count as half-time employee and lose all benefits".
In an instant I would give up 20% pay for an extra day off. Covid-19 is far from over and lots of parents are still juggling all sorts of issues.
The thing is, as I understand it (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong—with citations if possible!), there is no law that mandates that non-full-time employees get no benefits. Indeed, I know of some part-time employees (though still fixed-time, like half- or three-quarter-time, not variable hours like retail or food service generally is) who get prorated or full benefits.
If they are saying their hands are tied, it is because there is an institutional policy of not providing benefits to those who are less than full time, not because they are not allowed to do so.
In other words, if they implied that they can't do this because of US law, they were lying to you.
This isn't actually a law though, in the US. Its just the most prevalent corporate/insurance/hr policy. I have worked several places where "full time" employment counted as 30 hours or more, with access to benefits, etc.
Is it always true? When I worked for a grocery chain, I was part time but because I averaged over a certain threshold of hours per week that was less then 40, I received full time benefits. This might have been a union requirement rather then a legal one but it worked out the same for me regardless of whose requirement it was.
This. Happened to me as the agency I worked for got bought and pretty much everyone lost their job due to redundancy. I was CTO back then and I it hurt to see my team of engineers, creatives dissolve within a few days.
Since I was unable to find another position in an instant (was on H1B) I took the offer of the purchasing agency to work as a database admin just to stay in the country. I took a huge pay cut and a significant change in my career. Never was I able to return to a managerial position after.
It seems racist to bully the crém de la crém of tech workers to find a job in such a short period or to get the hell out of the country. I have not experienced such a hostile work environment in any other country.
Now that I have a family I'm thinking to move to Europe where there's health insurance even if I lost my job. You receive financial aid for children (if you happen to have some), most countries in Europe offer free nursery schools, just to name a few pros.
"Thanks US for taking advantage of all H1B workers. But I'm outta here."
Oh, on my visa category, which was employer-linked, finding another job wasn't allowed. To remain in the US I would have had to first leave, then find a new employer, then get a new visa, then fly back to start again. I decided to leave.
Had to switch to MBP last year due to work and have been using SensibleSideButtons from the first day.
I am missing an "always on top" application to pin windows to the top layer - like there is in most Linux distros. Anyone knows a little app that provides this function?
You could use a data governance tool, eg. [0], to ingest data from several different sources. I think the cover most databases (ie. postgres, mysql, mssql), S3, Hive, Snowflake, just to name a few.
When I announced the birth of my child the company I worked with fired me instantly and living off one income (my spouse was still working) was tough. Money got so short that I started looking for cheap but "healthy" food options. I decided on organic potatoes. For the last 2 years I have been boiling 5 potatoes for lunch (exactly 32 mins on the stove), serving it with white balsamic vinegar, sunflower oil and salt. I feel with all the junk food around full of crappy soy and corn sirup this is the least bad alternative. It is always a challenge to feed myself especially when I train for a Marathon. I do lose weight during this period and very often I go to bed extremely hungry only to wake up at 4am for yet another training run. I stay focused and try not to spend any money on anything for me. Temptations are everywhere though! I only spend money to feed my child.
What I learned over the last 2 years is important: don't ever eat crap out of convenience - there's lots of healthy alternative options out there even if you live in a very expensive neighborhood (like I); never ever through out limp vegetables! You can still throw it in a pot with broth and make "soup/stew"; invest into your future (your kids) and don't be ashamed to admit your days are counted ...
I take this as a life lesson. Once I have a job again, I will appreciate food even more.
Targeting permanent Director of Software Development / VP of Engineering / CTO / hybrid hands-on & managerial roles in well-established start-up or mid-sized mature company.
This. I think if we, as a species, wanna survive the next two generations we need a more radical approach to fix climate change. It should be ranked as the #1 issue to resolve, quasi the "ultimate goal". And this, my fellow HNers, won't happen by pointing fingers or call out people.
The political establishment as we know it has to go. We _ALL_ have to pull in the same direction and have to put common interests above individual wealth and greed. I'm not at all left but I can't tolerate that big corporations are getting a tax cut or even cheat the tax system while the little man has to pay their fair share. I have seen how much money goes down the drain every year with authorities (eg. Pentagon) don't even know what they are spending it on. All this has to stop. We need common sense here: take $ out of politics (make senators can only be elected for 2 terms max), stop fighting wars overseas, address climate change where people don't wanna see it (ie. Superbowl half time show, Sunday television, etc), change our perfectly trimmed backyards into mini farms, completely stop relying on fossil fuels, replace plastics wherever possible (eg. food industry could leverage technologies based on corn starch), and much more.
And all begins with you!
Unfortunately a Trump or even Sanders won't help us here either. We need to skip the forward thinking by at least 20 to 50 years or the planet will be in jeopardy.
(Disclaimer: Granted, it's not always easy to hear the truth about what's wrong with the world. But the sooner we start rolling up our sleeves and cleaning up the mess the sooner we will be getting ROI, ie. clean water, clean air, progress in healthcare, just to name a few).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQVpQTwJYBk