I don't think the information in that link is reliable. I can't speak for most countries, but for Australia it's just wrong. No tipping is ever expected here in any circumstances. For exceptional service it may be offered, but even then it would be a small token amount, like rounding up to the nearest whole note.

The suggested amounts for Indonesia and France seem high, too. Or maybe I have only traveled with very cheap companions.

Swapping would still work with this kind of rapid degradation, as well (assuming the kind of costings detailed above). People may not want a full charge every time, in which case it doesn't matter if they swap with a degraded battery.

When a swapping location gets too many batteries at a certain level of degradation, they can simply adjust the price to encourage sales. When a battery is too degraded to sell, even at a discount, then it is ready to be shipped off (for recycling or whatever the case may be).

I feel your pain.

My parents decided to give me six names. That's right.

Because they couldn't give me more than two middle names on the birth certificate they hyphenated them together. For example (not my actual name): First Second-Third Fourth-Fifth Last.

My name would often not fit on official documents so I always had trouble identifying myself. It was actually impossible for me to get a driver's licence because my various forms of ID were inconsistent, so I had my name changed by deed poll to: First Second Third Last (again, not my real name).

Incidentally, this was when I discovered that I spelled one of my middle names wrong my whole life. Now I have much less trouble, but my name still barely fits on tax forms - to the letter.

The binary option is there to catch the bots, isn't it?

Nice try, but you won't catch us out that easily.

I never had a pen-pal or a reason to write letters, until just this week.

My last girlfriend and I are geographically very distant and after a period of letting each other move on realised that neither of us wanted to lose the very good interpersonal relationship we have. Email just wasn't cutting it. Something about it is just too hasty. So we decided to start writing letters to each other, and I have to say I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.

I was taught proper letter writing etiquette back in school, but I don't recall much of it now. Does anyone have any good letter writing tips?

As an Australian, I find it depressing that we are now apparently perceived by the rest of the world as one of those "overly conservative nations".

What happened to our traditional spirit of rebelion? What would those who took a stand in the Eureka Stockade think of us now?