Incognito mode simply deletes any history and cookies stored in a given session. Your browser and device information can still be queried.

Check here: https://www.deviceinfo.me/

You’re right- theory probably wasn’t the best word. It is known that companies do this but it’s impossible to concretely say how and in what circumstances prices change.

There is a theory that travel websites use trackers and other information readily available about your device and browser to advertise different prices to different people. A lot of VPN companies use this in their marketing actually— showing different prices for the same airline tickets depending on which VPN server you’re connected to in the world.

I haven’t done much research on this personally, but you may be able to see it in action by opening the same site in a normal and an incognito window and searching for a flight/hotel. Or trying the aforementioned VPN trick. There however doesn’t seem to be any specific rhyme or reason for it, and no one can say that XYZ browser connected to ABC server will get you the cheapest prices. There are just way too many variables in play and these kinds of algorithms the websites use are all well-guarded secrets.

The benefit at least in Germany is for commuters. My monthly pass went from costing over 150€ to 49€ as I had to pass through two transit agencies to get from my home to work. The fact that every transit company sets their own fares and doesn’t cooperate with neighbouring companies is fully irrelevant now to the joys of many.

I don’t know if France is structured the same way, or if the plan of this is also to include local transport, but the Deutschlandticket is saving me a lot of money and headache.

My company will give you a blank laptop if you have confidential information on it when traveling to the US. The policy is always to comply and hand over everything if asked so they want to minimize any risks of information falling into the wrong hands.

That policy also applies for traveling to China. So it’s pretty telling that my company thinks the US and Chinese governments are both risks to its intellectual property.

Because the alternative is a 3 hour climb down into the valley and up another mountain to get to school.

But yes, this was a death trap from the beginning. Hopefully they learned some lessons from this and get actually qualified people to build a new one.

Was only a matter of time…

This is unfortunately a fallacy. Those paying rent don’t have nothing to show for it — they pay for a roof over their head. So do you with your mortgage. At the end of your mortgage term, yes, you have an asset that those paying rent don’t, but you also had to drop a large sum of money upfront that they didn’t. Theoretically they were able to invest that money you paid into other assets that may or may not have appreciated more over that same period of time. Additionally, renters are often much more able to move should their living circumstances change.

At the end, you both pay for shelter for a period of time. And yes the argument is largely theoretical and vastly dependent on external factors, but it’s not true that owning is always better than renting.

(I say this all as a homeowner as well, FWIW).