On primaries I agree that they should be paid for by the parties not the states. I would however still think that they all should be on the same date. Most of the voting populous doesn't vote in primaries as it is usually the politically active and typically more informed voters. By having them all on one day it would avoid the undue influince of states like Iowa and New Hampshire which basically get to decide who will be the nominee.
As far as financing of elections I did mean campaigns. To make if fair a campaign gets money if in any one state they managed to garner 1% of the popular vote. I would love to see removals of the PACs (527s or what ever they are) and if an individual or corporation wants to run an ad (no committees, trade groups or anything like that) they are free to but I would like it so they have to state at the beginning and end who paid for the ad. Granted this would probably never hold up given the Citizens United ruling which I think was decided incorrectly because it was too broad, it should have been much more narrowly defined.
No one can always time the market perfectly but a good planner/adviser should know through careful analysis when you are nearing the top of a peak or bottom of a trough. Granted you won't gain as much as you won't be getting in at the absolute bottom or out at the absolute top, but you will be able to catch most of the upswing and avoid all of the down swing (and no I don't mean daily market variations) so it becomes easy to beat the market when doing that. This is also why casinos won't let you skip more than one hand of blackjack in a shoe since if you are counting cards you would only play when the count is favorable.
That actually doesn't look too different from what I have for my 401k and other investments. I have less in money markets but generally it is similar. A more general form is label the categories would be stocks, commodities, bonds, and cash.
Now It is possible to get better than market returns fairly consistently but it requires that one studies and analyzes the data for long term gains and not chase fads, or has a planner who's job it is to do that. Over the last 7 years I have had an average return closer to 10% and that includes the worst year (2008) where I still came out ahead (it was only about 1% but it was still up for the year). Every year things get rebalanced and within each category there are other buckets. All of this is managed by the financial planner my wife and I have (he is a real certified financial planner) so we don't have to keep up on all of the details of analyzing and picking the various funds.
I wish that were the case here but at least here in US the electoral college would temper possible abuse with early reporting. Granted there is a lot to dislike about it but it does have some benefits.
For problem #2, you are also talking about people who are too lazy to actually know what any of the people running are actually like.... By increasing voter turnout without actually increasing the number of people who pay attention, politicians can get away with doing unpopular things by doing them early in their term.
And you hit the nail on the head. I follow my politicians closely and when the local door to door people for the campaign come buy I bring up my beefs with them have gotten "but that was 1-5 years ago" on issues I raise. To have a functioning democracy you need an informed electorate but we seem to lack that as there is just too much apathy, or blind partisanship. If I were king for a day and could fix the system I would implement the following reforms for our election process:
Primaries are held in all states on the same day
Elections are publicly financed
Tax day and election day are the same day
ID is required (government provides these free of charge)
All ballots are the scantron like ones we have in Minnesota that everyone seems to be able to figure out and can easily be machine or hand counted
Personally I would like some other things as well but can't in my mind figure out how to implement them without it being easy to game that it becomes pointless or enables disenfranchisement. Personally I would love some sort of test to determine if someone is fit for being able to vote but that would never happen for the above reasons. They should have the basic understanding of how the government works such as the 3 branches, know who is the current president, vice president, speaker of the house, speaker of the senate, and their state governor is at the minimum.
Is that like the economics of narcotics, other illicit drugs, illegal firearms? As much as I wish that spam was the same as those economies (I don't have to deal with it unless I wanted to) it isn't because it actively tries to harm me or take my stuff. It is more like that of the meth head who tries to break into you house than the drug king pin. Too bad the castle doctrine doesn't extended to spammers and virus writers.
There is probably a very large overlap of people who where e-mailing NASA about comet Elenin and those who believe that the Tunguska blast was not caused by a comet or rocky meteorite but instead a failed test of Tesla's, alien space craft, alien weapon, or some other goofy thing. Probably not a direct mapping because there are people like my mother who if she heard that a comet was going to hit earth would believe it but generally isn't into conspiracy theories (just don't ask about Kennedy).
If they want to be bored and unhappy and get excited about something that is likely to bring about the end of their lives, they should simply follow the US Presidential Election campaign. Eighteen months and counting!
We need a US Presidential Election Campaign drinking game. Now that I could get excited about and it probably would bring about the end to some people's lives.
My understanding is that the Global Flood myth that is in almost every religion is there because these early cultures (some settlements going back as far as the end of the last ice age) tended to settle in the fertile flood plains. Now given that there are such things as 1 in 100, 500 and 1000 year floods which wipe out large areas today I can only imagine what those primitive people would have thought of a flood like when Glacial Lake Missoula would empty. A story like that would be carried down for generations by those who survived it passed on to other cultures and changed, because really how powerful is your god if they can only flood a river valley.
My impression of India from the Indians I have met is that Pakistan seceding wasn't that big of an issue, now granted both of them want all of Kashmir, but there were issues with the majority Muslim Pakistan majority Hindu India. As far as Indian and their forces they have some rather impressive units that have served well throughout history. The two most notable ones are the Gurkahs and the Sikh. Now the Gurkahs are not Indians, but from Nepal, but still serve in the British, and Indian armies. From what I have read the Gurkahs (the most recent example I am aware of) are pretty bad ass warriors as are the Sikhs.
Ok I didn't know that as I mostly deal with US, Canadian, or Mexican, coinage. Now I do wonder about the quality (are they really 999 coins) and if they are similar to companies like the Franklin Mint or the New York Mint.
If/. really wanted to produce and sell them it could contact a company like Paridise Mint or Sunshine Mint and have some 999 silver rounds cast. Now/. couldn't have actual dollar amounts put on them so maybe they could be called mod point tokens.
Fortunately or unfortunately it would take and infinite amount of Bitcoins to acquire one of these bullion coins as the people who buy bullion as a value store are the ones who want to have a real tangible asset and not some random bits on a computer. Also thank you for reminding me about the Franklin Mint and the cheesy crap they sell which is similar to that which is sold by the New York Mint. I had forgotten about the Franklin Mint until you brought them up. These coins seem to be similar to the collectable coins sold by the US Mint. In all actuality these will probably have a value similar to other non US bullion coins like the Silver Canadian Maple Leaf, Chinese Panda or other such Bullion coins minted by governments.
Also you picked a really poor coin as the American Buffalo Coin from the US mint isn't plated but is a pure gold coin. The US mint tends to stay away from the dodgy crap like that as there is a reputation that they need to maintain. Unfortuantly there have been copies offered for sale by dodgy companies that are gold clad so the true American Buffalo coin isn't as highly valued in the market as that the American Gold Eagle Coins are even though the American Gold Eagle coins are only 91.67% (22 Karat).
Well given that it is being minted by an actual real government mint (New Zealand) and not some dodgy place (New York Mint I'm looking at you and your "uncut sheets of $2 bills" that only have 4 bills instead of the full 32) I wouldn't be too worried. If you want to see if something is valid wait for it to show up at a coin shop. The people there are knowledgeable and can spot 99.999% of fakes from a mile away. Personally I wouldn't trust any place that advertises on late night TV or with full page ads in the news paper (yes I still get it) or a magazine but there are some companies that make bullion rounds that are legit and respected in the coin collecting community. They don't advertise on TV of anything like that but are quality outfits (Engelhard and Pamp Suisse are 2 notable ones) that will deliver quality product if you want bullion.
When it comes to commemorative coins there are 2 values for them. You are correct that there is the melt value (the value of the coin) but then there is the collector value as well. The US government does the same thing and is still producing silver dollars as commemorative coins that are actually legal tender some are even are bullion coins as well. This similar to other coinage from such countries as South Africa, Canada, and China. Some of these coins carry a substantial premium above their melt value, others not so much. Even some non legal tender ingots have collector value to them since they are prized for their quality or rarity, the one of these I am most familiar with it the Engelhard American Prospector silver round.
Actually if you really wanted to get technical horsepower does affect how quickly a vehicle does accelerate, but there are other factors to include. Typically you need to know the various gear ratios, shift points and power curve (calculated from a dyno test which gets the torque at each RPM). To have a quickest accelerating vehicle you want to maximize the area under the power curve for the sum of all forward gears ideally thus keeping the engine producing near the maximum horsepower for as long as possible. In drag cars you also want to engine to be turning as close to the maximum RPM when you cross the finish line. Peak horsepower or peak torque don't mean anything if they are produced in a very narrow band as they typically are in most small high revving engines. The joke at the tracks are it is easy to make a car that can produce good dyno results, but it is hard to make a car the can really perform. A good example of this is my dad's old 1972 Chevy Nova with a properly built 350ci small block (there is still room to improve but my dad doesn't want to run in a faster class). It only puts out a peak hp of about 340 and peak torque of around 300 foot pounds but he can stomp the little rice cars that produce a claimed 500+ peak horsepower with claimed 350+ peak foot pounds of torque. Now granted he probably is a better racer but he does leave substantially later later (he does E.T. racing where the fast car leaves later so that both cars should cross the line at the same time) than the other car.
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On primaries I agree that they should be paid for by the parties not the states. I would however still think that they all should be on the same date. Most of the voting populous doesn't vote in primaries as it is usually the politically active and typically more informed voters. By having them all on one day it would avoid the undue influince of states like Iowa and New Hampshire which basically get to decide who will be the nominee.
As far as financing of elections I did mean campaigns. To make if fair a campaign gets money if in any one state they managed to garner 1% of the popular vote. I would love to see removals of the PACs (527s or what ever they are) and if an individual or corporation wants to run an ad (no committees, trade groups or anything like that) they are free to but I would like it so they have to state at the beginning and end who paid for the ad. Granted this would probably never hold up given the Citizens United ruling which I think was decided incorrectly because it was too broad, it should have been much more narrowly defined.
No one can always time the market perfectly but a good planner/adviser should know through careful analysis when you are nearing the top of a peak or bottom of a trough. Granted you won't gain as much as you won't be getting in at the absolute bottom or out at the absolute top, but you will be able to catch most of the upswing and avoid all of the down swing (and no I don't mean daily market variations) so it becomes easy to beat the market when doing that. This is also why casinos won't let you skip more than one hand of blackjack in a shoe since if you are counting cards you would only play when the count is favorable.
That actually doesn't look too different from what I have for my 401k and other investments. I have less in money markets but generally it is similar. A more general form is label the categories would be stocks, commodities, bonds, and cash.
Now It is possible to get better than market returns fairly consistently but it requires that one studies and analyzes the data for long term gains and not chase fads, or has a planner who's job it is to do that. Over the last 7 years I have had an average return closer to 10% and that includes the worst year (2008) where I still came out ahead (it was only about 1% but it was still up for the year). Every year things get rebalanced and within each category there are other buckets. All of this is managed by the financial planner my wife and I have (he is a real certified financial planner) so we don't have to keep up on all of the details of analyzing and picking the various funds.
I wish that were the case here but at least here in US the electoral college would temper possible abuse with early reporting. Granted there is a lot to dislike about it but it does have some benefits.
For problem #2, you are also talking about people who are too lazy to actually know what any of the people running are actually like. ... By increasing voter turnout without actually increasing the number of people who pay attention, politicians can get away with doing unpopular things by doing them early in their term.
And you hit the nail on the head. I follow my politicians closely and when the local door to door people for the campaign come buy I bring up my beefs with them have gotten "but that was 1-5 years ago" on issues I raise. To have a functioning democracy you need an informed electorate but we seem to lack that as there is just too much apathy, or blind partisanship. If I were king for a day and could fix the system I would implement the following reforms for our election process:
Personally I would like some other things as well but can't in my mind figure out how to implement them without it being easy to game that it becomes pointless or enables disenfranchisement. Personally I would love some sort of test to determine if someone is fit for being able to vote but that would never happen for the above reasons. They should have the basic understanding of how the government works such as the 3 branches, know who is the current president, vice president, speaker of the house, speaker of the senate, and their state governor is at the minimum.
Is that like the economics of narcotics, other illicit drugs, illegal firearms? As much as I wish that spam was the same as those economies (I don't have to deal with it unless I wanted to) it isn't because it actively tries to harm me or take my stuff. It is more like that of the meth head who tries to break into you house than the drug king pin. Too bad the castle doctrine doesn't extended to spammers and virus writers.
Does this really surprise anyone. It is like a damn hydra. Chop off one head and 2 new ones grow in its place.
There is probably a very large overlap of people who where e-mailing NASA about comet Elenin and those who believe that the Tunguska blast was not caused by a comet or rocky meteorite but instead a failed test of Tesla's, alien space craft, alien weapon, or some other goofy thing. Probably not a direct mapping because there are people like my mother who if she heard that a comet was going to hit earth would believe it but generally isn't into conspiracy theories (just don't ask about Kennedy).
They probably do.
If they want to be bored and unhappy and get excited about something that is likely to bring about the end of their lives, they should simply follow the US Presidential Election campaign. Eighteen months and counting!
We need a US Presidential Election Campaign drinking game. Now that I could get excited about and it probably would bring about the end to some people's lives.
My understanding is that the Global Flood myth that is in almost every religion is there because these early cultures (some settlements going back as far as the end of the last ice age) tended to settle in the fertile flood plains. Now given that there are such things as 1 in 100, 500 and 1000 year floods which wipe out large areas today I can only imagine what those primitive people would have thought of a flood like when Glacial Lake Missoula would empty. A story like that would be carried down for generations by those who survived it passed on to other cultures and changed, because really how powerful is your god if they can only flood a river valley.
You have never walked the strip and seen all the guys handing out "calling cards"
I didn't know NASA was rolled into the DHS. I guess it is a good way of getting funding.
Sounds like both. He has a thing for ATMs especially when they vibrate when discharging money.
I don't think most real pirates would be after bacon or any other pork product for that matter.
My impression of India from the Indians I have met is that Pakistan seceding wasn't that big of an issue, now granted both of them want all of Kashmir, but there were issues with the majority Muslim Pakistan majority Hindu India. As far as Indian and their forces they have some rather impressive units that have served well throughout history. The two most notable ones are the Gurkahs and the Sikh. Now the Gurkahs are not Indians, but from Nepal, but still serve in the British, and Indian armies. From what I have read the Gurkahs (the most recent example I am aware of) are pretty bad ass warriors as are the Sikhs.
Ok I didn't know that as I mostly deal with US, Canadian, or Mexican, coinage. Now I do wonder about the quality (are they really 999 coins) and if they are similar to companies like the Franklin Mint or the New York Mint.
Probably because there is a legal requirement, like in most of the Commonwealth countries, that the head of state must appear on the legal tender.
If /. really wanted to produce and sell them it could contact a company like Paridise Mint or Sunshine Mint and have some 999 silver rounds cast. Now /. couldn't have actual dollar amounts put on them so maybe they could be called mod point tokens.
Fortunately or unfortunately it would take and infinite amount of Bitcoins to acquire one of these bullion coins as the people who buy bullion as a value store are the ones who want to have a real tangible asset and not some random bits on a computer. Also thank you for reminding me about the Franklin Mint and the cheesy crap they sell which is similar to that which is sold by the New York Mint. I had forgotten about the Franklin Mint until you brought them up. These coins seem to be similar to the collectable coins sold by the US Mint. In all actuality these will probably have a value similar to other non US bullion coins like the Silver Canadian Maple Leaf, Chinese Panda or other such Bullion coins minted by governments.
Also you picked a really poor coin as the American Buffalo Coin from the US mint isn't plated but is a pure gold coin. The US mint tends to stay away from the dodgy crap like that as there is a reputation that they need to maintain. Unfortuantly there have been copies offered for sale by dodgy companies that are gold clad so the true American Buffalo coin isn't as highly valued in the market as that the American Gold Eagle Coins are even though the American Gold Eagle coins are only 91.67% (22 Karat).
And I don't have any mod points.
Well given that it is being minted by an actual real government mint (New Zealand) and not some dodgy place (New York Mint I'm looking at you and your "uncut sheets of $2 bills" that only have 4 bills instead of the full 32) I wouldn't be too worried. If you want to see if something is valid wait for it to show up at a coin shop. The people there are knowledgeable and can spot 99.999% of fakes from a mile away. Personally I wouldn't trust any place that advertises on late night TV or with full page ads in the news paper (yes I still get it) or a magazine but there are some companies that make bullion rounds that are legit and respected in the coin collecting community. They don't advertise on TV of anything like that but are quality outfits (Engelhard and Pamp Suisse are 2 notable ones) that will deliver quality product if you want bullion.
When it comes to commemorative coins there are 2 values for them. You are correct that there is the melt value (the value of the coin) but then there is the collector value as well. The US government does the same thing and is still producing silver dollars as commemorative coins that are actually legal tender some are even are bullion coins as well. This similar to other coinage from such countries as South Africa, Canada, and China. Some of these coins carry a substantial premium above their melt value, others not so much. Even some non legal tender ingots have collector value to them since they are prized for their quality or rarity, the one of these I am most familiar with it the Engelhard American Prospector silver round.
Actually if you really wanted to get technical horsepower does affect how quickly a vehicle does accelerate, but there are other factors to include. Typically you need to know the various gear ratios, shift points and power curve (calculated from a dyno test which gets the torque at each RPM). To have a quickest accelerating vehicle you want to maximize the area under the power curve for the sum of all forward gears ideally thus keeping the engine producing near the maximum horsepower for as long as possible. In drag cars you also want to engine to be turning as close to the maximum RPM when you cross the finish line. Peak horsepower or peak torque don't mean anything if they are produced in a very narrow band as they typically are in most small high revving engines. The joke at the tracks are it is easy to make a car that can produce good dyno results, but it is hard to make a car the can really perform. A good example of this is my dad's old 1972 Chevy Nova with a properly built 350ci small block (there is still room to improve but my dad doesn't want to run in a faster class). It only puts out a peak hp of about 340 and peak torque of around 300 foot pounds but he can stomp the little rice cars that produce a claimed 500+ peak horsepower with claimed 350+ peak foot pounds of torque. Now granted he probably is a better racer but he does leave substantially later later (he does E.T. racing where the fast car leaves later so that both cars should cross the line at the same time) than the other car.