Why does he need a pointer with a plastic hand to point at something clearly within his reach?
Why does he need the creepy plastic female hand with the bright red nail polish?... Look, this is the same person whose thought when asked what to do with sewage was 'eat it'
Most localities do have special taxes just on hotel stays.
I wouldn't say that. I've been to very few nations where the government has a special "tourist tax" as that's an ideal way to alienate tourism.
They call it 'lodging tax' or 'hotel tax', not 'tourist tax'. Many, many, local jurisdictions around the world have them for hotels only or hotels and restaurants. Malaysia apparently calls it 'service tax'. So I suppose the question is how does the 600K compare to what was taken in by these taxes and what portion of that came from tourists vs locals who just wanted to eat out?
Well then let the BUSINESSES (hotels, amusement parks, restaurants, etc) that stand to profit from the tourism do the spending, rather than using tax dollars
Most localities do have special taxes just on hotel stays. These go in to the general government fund and usually are more than what the government's tourism promotion agency spends. Umm, a well-run government tourism agency that is, not one spending piles of money on a facebook profile. In this case does it sound like a hotel association could oversee how advertising dollars are best spent but then you run in to a game theory problem; hotels that do not belong to the association spending on promoting tourism benefit from tourists being more attracted to the area without having the expense. This is why a general promotion of a city/province/country is better consolidated through a tax (preferably a tax on hotels and other direct travel related activities) subsidized program.
They hope the new approach "will encourage fewer students to give up on their studies". So it will still encourage students to give up, only fewer than the old method?
No, it will encourage them to continue study in a field for which they have no aptitude and no serious interest
Because they're not just 'iCloud' - they're 'iCloud Communications'. They think the name Apple picked is too close to their own name. Kind of like 'Apple Computer' is similar to 'Apple Music' and one might think they are two subsidiaries of the same company, like 'Sony Computer' and 'Sony Music'.
Not only do I get to lose that extra weight I gained, but, as an added bonus.... lung cancer!
Actually since it takes a few decades to improve your cancer odds you can at least be safely thin in old age. Just wait you're 70 or so to start smoking. I guess the trick is to make your heart last til then if you're already significantly overweight.
Exactly. Which is why they sometimes illegally shorten the yellow lights
The NTSB puts out recommended lengths of time for yellow lights but I doubt you will find a lot of local jurisdictions having actual laws to break regarding yellow light times. Shortening the yellows is highly dangerous and makes money from tickets. Guess which factor is overriding to city managers.
Why do people assume they can be successfully sued for all sorts of things? Everyone's a lawyer.
Whether the suit is successful or not isn't as important as the threat of the suit itself. Sure, you can defend yourself against a lawsuit: hire a lawyer, go to the lawyer's office, go to court, etc. Counter sue for your legal expenses. But an annoying lawsuit that you defend against can eat up years of your life and all your savings. Your lawyer wants to be paid up front when defending you, not like a contingency paid lawyer in a big injury suit. And then you have to actually collect even if you win a judgment for expenses and the collection process might not work out.
So people assume (correctly) that they can be sued for all manner of dumb things and they assume (correctly) defending against a stupid suit is time consuming and expensive. Lives have been ruined by lawsuits that were eventually successfully defended against.
I expect the IRS has some safeguards in place to to prevent this.
You expect a bit much; the IRS agents will, with a completely straight face, insist that since you worked full time as a roofer on the opposite coast from your second job as a full time database administrator then you must pay taxes on the roofing job's salary from which you claimed 15 deductions. It's totally up to you to jump through the hoops to show your identity was stolen; they just want to collect. If an agent can appropriate the money from your checking account before you get through enough hoops, they get a bonus for collecting on an overdue account.
I believe that if everyone had the resources Steve has, then that mortality rate would be very different.
What special resources might that be, anyway; that he lives in the USA where chemotherapy centers are plentiful and treatment is highly successful compared to other countries?
I was just at that one today and I didn't see any tiny data centers. What does one use for a Tiny Town data center, anyway? I suppose on an array of those usb stick computers.
That's forward thinking right there! Why beat the competition if you can pay them a pittance to fail outright early in life?
A pittance to fail? He's giving high school grads $50k/yr for 2 years to not go to college. After that, they can either succeed at whatever or go to college. Where else is a high school only degree going to make this much right away without inheriting it? Sure, people with high school only have succeeded later, but making that much to start? I would have traded two years between high school and college for $100K to experiment in failing at some business.
I always decline to list a party affiliation on the voter registration form to avoid being a pawn in the gerrymandering process. It's pretty bad in Colorado this year.
Perhaps the joke is that in 3 years of filthy rich private aircraft travel they only found one filthy rich person using their plane to go to a tropical island for a holiday. Clearly all the other private aircraft owners are only using them for humanitarian aid.
The best joke is the congresscritters taking a trio of Air Force jets to a climate change conference.
Yes, and there's some international group that puts out a recommendation for keep / don't keep every ten years. The US and Russia both ignore the no keep recommendation and it generates a news article. Expect to hear about it again in 2021.
Slashdot Mirror
The legions of staffers write laws and they're on the list of people playing video games in the gp's hypothetical world.
2. A massive conspiracy in which congressmen and women and their staff do nothing but play videogames
I wish; then they wouldn't have time to write up multi-thousand page laws to shove on us.
Lulzsec/Anon etc. are going to be using this at concerts,tourist places etc. etc. wherever people would want to take pics.
Nevermind that - what about mounting one on every police cruiser?
Why does he need a pointer with a plastic hand to point at something clearly within his reach?
Why does he need the creepy plastic female hand with the bright red nail polish? ... Look, this is the same person whose thought when asked what to do with sewage was 'eat it'
Most localities do have special taxes just on hotel stays.
I wouldn't say that.
I've been to very few nations where the government has a special "tourist tax" as that's an ideal way to alienate tourism.
They call it 'lodging tax' or 'hotel tax', not 'tourist tax'. Many, many, local jurisdictions around the world have them for hotels only or hotels and restaurants. Malaysia apparently calls it 'service tax'. So I suppose the question is how does the 600K compare to what was taken in by these taxes and what portion of that came from tourists vs locals who just wanted to eat out?
Well then let the BUSINESSES (hotels, amusement parks, restaurants, etc) that stand to profit from the tourism do the spending, rather than using tax dollars
Most localities do have special taxes just on hotel stays. These go in to the general government fund and usually are more than what the government's tourism promotion agency spends. Umm, a well-run government tourism agency that is, not one spending piles of money on a facebook profile. In this case does it sound like a hotel association could oversee how advertising dollars are best spent but then you run in to a game theory problem; hotels that do not belong to the association spending on promoting tourism benefit from tourists being more attracted to the area without having the expense. This is why a general promotion of a city/province/country is better consolidated through a tax (preferably a tax on hotels and other direct travel related activities) subsidized program.
They hope the new approach "will encourage fewer students to give up on their studies". So it will still encourage students to give up, only fewer than the old method?
No, it will encourage them to continue study in a field for which they have no aptitude and no serious interest
Then why didn't they apply for a trademark?
Because they're not just 'iCloud' - they're 'iCloud Communications'. They think the name Apple picked is too close to their own name. Kind of like 'Apple Computer' is similar to 'Apple Music' and one might think they are two subsidiaries of the same company, like 'Sony Computer' and 'Sony Music'.
Not only do I get to lose that extra weight I gained, but, as an added bonus .... lung cancer!
Actually since it takes a few decades to improve your cancer odds you can at least be safely thin in old age. Just wait you're 70 or so to start smoking. I guess the trick is to make your heart last til then if you're already significantly overweight.
YOU PINKO FUCKS!
What is this, the late 70's/early 80's? Who says 'pinko' anymore??
Exactly. Which is why they sometimes illegally shorten the yellow lights
The NTSB puts out recommended lengths of time for yellow lights but I doubt you will find a lot of local jurisdictions having actual laws to break regarding yellow light times. Shortening the yellows is highly dangerous and makes money from tickets. Guess which factor is overriding to city managers.
1% of the population controls, demands, consumes and excessively wastes better than 85% of the available resources on Earth
Politicians make up a lot less than 1% of the population. If they stopped artificially controlling food and energy the prices would plummet.
Why do people assume they can be successfully sued for all sorts of things? Everyone's a lawyer.
Whether the suit is successful or not isn't as important as the threat of the suit itself. Sure, you can defend yourself against a lawsuit: hire a lawyer, go to the lawyer's office, go to court, etc. Counter sue for your legal expenses. But an annoying lawsuit that you defend against can eat up years of your life and all your savings. Your lawyer wants to be paid up front when defending you, not like a contingency paid lawyer in a big injury suit. And then you have to actually collect even if you win a judgment for expenses and the collection process might not work out.
So people assume (correctly) that they can be sued for all manner of dumb things and they assume (correctly) defending against a stupid suit is time consuming and expensive. Lives have been ruined by lawsuits that were eventually successfully defended against.
Half of China probably doesn't believe it's own propaganda.
The guy in 1984 didn't believe the propaganda either, but he jumped up and down yelling 'death to Eastasia' with the rest of them.
I expect the IRS has some safeguards in place to to prevent this.
You expect a bit much; the IRS agents will, with a completely straight face, insist that since you worked full time as a roofer on the opposite coast from your second job as a full time database administrator then you must pay taxes on the roofing job's salary from which you claimed 15 deductions. It's totally up to you to jump through the hoops to show your identity was stolen; they just want to collect. If an agent can appropriate the money from your checking account before you get through enough hoops, they get a bonus for collecting on an overdue account.
Please do not transfer the ex-admin to work the phones at the IRS. That will not end well for anybody.
I'd rather talk to an ex-systems admin than the people they have answering their phones now.
oregon has no sales tax.
But Texas has jobs.
But Texas has no Amazon.com jobs.
I believe that if everyone had the resources Steve has, then that mortality rate would be very different.
What special resources might that be, anyway; that he lives in the USA where chemotherapy centers are plentiful and treatment is highly successful compared to other countries?
I was just at that one today and I didn't see any tiny data centers. What does one use for a Tiny Town data center, anyway? I suppose on an array of those usb stick computers.
That *should* read, "Researchers Grow a Brain In a Dish, Gets Anamatronic Body, Creates smarter elected representative"
That's forward thinking right there! Why beat the competition if you can pay them a pittance to fail outright early in life?
A pittance to fail? He's giving high school grads $50k/yr for 2 years to not go to college. After that, they can either succeed at whatever or go to college. Where else is a high school only degree going to make this much right away without inheriting it? Sure, people with high school only have succeeded later, but making that much to start? I would have traded two years between high school and college for $100K to experiment in failing at some business.
I always decline to list a party affiliation on the voter registration form to avoid being a pawn in the gerrymandering process. It's pretty bad in Colorado this year.
Perhaps the joke is that in 3 years of filthy rich private aircraft travel they only found one filthy rich person using their plane to go to a tropical island for a holiday. Clearly all the other private aircraft owners are only using them for humanitarian aid.
The best joke is the congresscritters taking a trio of Air Force jets to a climate change conference.
Don't see why this is news; it's not like the US is the only place with virus reserves
No kidding; The US-centric headline doesn't even read the summary. It says right there an inch underneath that Russia is keeping theirs.
Didn't everybody know this 10 years ago?
Yes, and there's some international group that puts out a recommendation for keep / don't keep every ten years. The US and Russia both ignore the no keep recommendation and it generates a news article. Expect to hear about it again in 2021.