If you want to live and work in Ireland for Irish companies, then you could easily renounce your US citizenship, and have absolutely zero obligation to good old Uncle Sam whatsoever.
And, since you and I both know that you're probably not making billions of dollars a year, it's extraordinarily likely that you'd get a tax credit for taxes paid to the Irish government for all or very nearly all of the taxes you "would" owe to Uncle Sam, which means that, in effect, you have to simply file a tax return each year, which says "I owe nothing."
Stop whining.
Unfortunately, you cannot "easily renounce your US citizenship and have absolutely zero obligation to good old Uncle Sam whatsoever."
Under US Law, the US Government will refuse to recognize a renunciation of citizenship if it is determined the renunciation is solely to avoid US Income Taxes.
I have no problem whatsoever with paying a reasonable amount of money for quality news journalism.
The problem is not at my end.... trust me. The problem is you pay your $20 a month (which is all it is worth to me) and you get...
The same drivel, lack of fact checking, and bizarre typo's from the Spill Chucker (those two words are an example of what the spell checker would pass) that show not only was someone without the required skill to even be writing in a news journal in the first place given the job, but there wasn't an Editor within a thousand miles of the story before it was plublished.
I can get that for nothing, which is just slightly less than what it's worth.
Provide value, and you would get revenue. It's not rocket science (which your journalist would fail at writing about anyway).
I once ran a Macintosh Performa 5215CD for six and a half years ( 1995+) without a shutdown. It was still operational when it was replaced by a G4 Power Mac desktop in 2002. The funny part of the story , however, is this model's reputation amongst the Mac faithful at a time when Apple's prospects were looking ever more tenuous day by day. It's usually referred to as a "Road Apple" and considered one of the worst Macs ever released. For me, it was one of the best computers I've ever owned.
It had all the options available for this machine (plug in boards) which included a full TV tuner, a video encoder / decoder board, the CD-ROM drive which powered my music collection via a reasonably competent HiFi (NAD receiver; Energy loudspeakers), and a voice/data modem with, I swear, the best telephony application I've ever ran or am aware of (MegaPhone, Cyprus Research). It's service as my telephone answering system was the reason for it's 24/7 operation.
Megaphone was purchased by someone,can't remember who, and never properly updated... the feature set shrank and never recovered... when OSX v10.0+ was introduced. There is currently an app with that name, but it's completely unrelated.
This was an all-in-one Mac, Motorola 603e PowerPC @ 75 MHz, maxed RAM (64 MB), 1 MB VRAM, 15" Trinitron monitor, 4x CD-ROM, OS 7.5.1 (running OS9.1 when retired), $2300 but I won a $500 rebate in a promotion Apple was running at the time (most buyers got $100 off).
However, I can claim another longevity feat, kind-of-sort-of on topic... the Motorola 68000 CPU, the very same chipset that ran Apple's original Macintosh from 1984... is the CPU that Mazda used for the Engine Management Computer when my Miata rolled off the assembly line in Hiroshima, Japan, on February, 1990.
It's still running the motor. I can't claim the continuous uptime, but the car does have 300,000 Km (186,500 Miles) on the original engine, and still runs like a top. I drive it like I stole it, with full-throttle runs to the 7,200 RPM redline in every gear at least once every month, and usually more often.
Erm no, because the banks in turn borrowed that money from other people... investors, savers, the government, etc.
That is not how the Banking System works. I know it sounds crazy, but the Bank does not borrow anything from anyone; when they make a loan, they write a check, and it's the writing of the check that creates the money out of thin air.
The process is made stable by the Bank's strict assessment of the borrower's ability of paying the loan back. You should be able to see from this that the amount of money in circulation is constantly expanding, which is what happens when the economy is robust.
If the Banks assessment of borrowers' ability to pay falls, then they stop or reduce the making of loans. This reduces the amount of currency available in the economy (the economy "shrinks").
There is a process whereby accounts are settled daily between the Banks and the Federal Reserve to satisfy technical requirements of currency, but it's a mistake to equate that with the Government (via the Federal Reserve) creating the money the Bank "borrows"; it's actually the other way around. The Bank creates the money, the Federal Reserve prints the currency the Bank has already created via a loan.
Should the Government want to create money, it lowers the interest rate the Banks pay to the Federal Reserve, which encourages the Banks to create more money out of thin air (commonly known as "loaning"). If it wants to discourage the creation of money, it raises the interest rate the Banks pay to the Federal Reserve, and since loans are being repaid to the Bank at a rate lower than the Bank can create money out of thin air, this discourages the creation of "loans".
The cost of manufacture of coins or paper money is irrelevant if you operate a Fiat Currency, which is what we do.
The cost to make a penny at 0.5c does not make the value of a penny any different than if the cost is 2c... it's still a penny worth exactly one cent.
You can make an argument that the low value coins have no purpose in the settlement by cash in the payment of goods, but that isn't the same as arguing the coin has no purpose because it costs more than it represents.
The manufacture of your national currency costs what it costs... it has nothing to do with the agreed value the coin represents (the proof being the value of a given coin doesn't change with changes in the cost of manufacture).
"... The new record was caused by the long-term warming of the planet due to human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, combined with a extra bump in temperature due to the strongest El Niño event ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific...."
This is, of course, the Kool-Aid of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); here is another summary from the IPCC's webpage:
"... the human influence on the climate system is clear and is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system...." http://www.un.org/climatechang...
This has nothing to do with whether Global Warming is real or imagined; it's about the causes of Global Warming. There is (at least) one other contributing factor, namely a historical record of patterns in Earth's climate that predicts that we should be experiencing a warming trend, regardless of human activities.
The reason is the IPCC is limited to considering the human activities affecting Global Climate and is prohibited from even considering any other cause, including the Geological record.
In other words, when you read that humans are the only cause of Global Warming, you are drinking the IPCC Kool-Aid, which is a very narrow view of the issue that specifically ignores well regarded science on the subject. Ignoring science is a poor method to investigate the causes of Climate Change.
One should get a life sentence (to which 30 years might be pretty close depending on your age) for murder, but for a financial scam ? That will be pretty costly for the taxpayers and would not be much more of a deterrent to his colleages than, say 3 or 5 years in prison. Let's hope the guy gets to pay the money back and then some and somehow kept away from computers for 30 years...
You clearly don't understand the US legal system, nor the real-world implications of elected legal officials.
Let's deal with the latter first ( the real-world implications of elected legal officials)... in order to be re-elected Sheriff, Judge, Prosecutor, etc as is the common practice in the USA, you need headlines that support your effectiveness as someone who, to use the short answer, is "tough on crime". Therefore all headlines will:
A)... refer to the longest potential sentences B)... ignore the implication of any sentence with regard to inmates serving less than the final legal sentence due to rules regarding "Time Off for Good Behavior" which is mandatory due to Supreme Court rulings on the Constitutional prohibition of "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" C)... ignore the implication of any Federal Sanctions that may apply on time served due to overcrowding of prisons in a given State D)... ignore the implication of the granting of Parole, which varies from State to State but could concievably make the inmate eligible after serving as little as 1 year. E) Note that most States will not keep an inmate on Parole for the length of the original sentence; in many cases the longest time Parole will be in effect is around 5 years.
Note that compared to State Justice Administration, The Federal Government will, on the other hand, maintain Parole for the length of the original sentence, and has the least generous time off for Good Behaviour (not eligible until 1 year is served, and the least number of days off per month served compared to any US State.
As to the former ( the US legal system), news headlines always quote the sentence the accused is likely to face should they plead "Not Guilty"; in reality they will be offered a Plea Bargain that will "save the State the cost of an expensive trial" and will result in, typically, a vastly lower maximum sentence (due to a different charge being applied from the agreed upon Plea Bargain).
It's not strictly correct to say something along the lines of "no-one ever gets the 30 years for this crime" since people who insist they are innocent or have other principled reasons to refuse the Plea Bargain will surely be sentenced to the 30 years (or some other reduced but still long sentence). Also there are occasions when the Prosecutor does not offer a Plea Bargain to the suspect; that could be political (see "I have to be re-elected", above) or practical; it's somewhat rare but can't be ruled out completely. Still, re-read B) above.
There is a 16 Km (10 mile) radius operations ban in Canada (Federal Law) of drones from any airport with military or commercial aviation activities.
In my city (pop 300k) the location of the airport and the city limits intersect in such a way as to ban the use of drones pretty much anywhere in the city. Interestingly, one of the world's most successful drone manufacturers (more than 10 years in operation) with mostly military, research, university, and law enforcement clientele is based in the city, but have to foray out of town to demonstrate outdoors.
Let's Not Forget that a pre-requisite for owning a Used Book Store is the proprietor must be clearly insane. I don't mean that he or she would "have to be crazy" to be in the used book market in a "market" sense... I mean that if they were not certifiable lunatics, they would not even consider possessing large quantities of used books sufficient to offer them for retail sale. Plus, the inventory multiplies like rabbits, since they sell one used book for every 20 used books they buy.
One of the big issues Used Book Stores have to deal with are commercial leases... they are not necessarily ideal tenants because the weight of the product they sell is probably higher than just about any other product, and that includes New Books, since resellers of new books generally make an effort to have the inventory look good, versus stacked 10 rows high covered in dust with extremely narrow shelf pitches making browsing difficult except for the super skinny.
What they have going for them as tenants is they are very reluctant to move. So shady landlords love them, since the leaseholder is putty in their hands. Want to raise the rent? Go ahead, and make it unreasonable while you're at it. 50/50 they will pay rather than move.
Considering that the majority of Linux contributors are openly hostile to User Interface and Application "Look and Feel" considerations, and there is a general apathy to writing documentation to the "Hand Holding" level the average consumer demands, you only need to think about it for a moment to grasp the answer to "Is Linux ready for the Desktop" question.
It isn't, and never will be; a Geek has to be there somehow or Grandma isn't buying, regardless of how useful it would be to her.
As has already been mentioned, when I took my Pilot's License the Cessena Student Kit included a Circular Rule, and was the standard tool used everywhere in Aviation. If you boarded an aircraft during the 1980's, you were depending on a type of Slide Rule to get wherever you were going safely; if you were flying a light aircraft you probably used one up until sometime in the last decade.
When I owned a retail store in an industry where discounts from MSRP were Standard Operating Procedure, we kept our Wholesale Price Lists at the front counter and staff made quotes and/or sales based on Cost Plus [our required margin]. The margin was based on paying all the bills and taxes and leaving between 5 and 10% as Net Profit for the year.
We used a Circular Slide Rule for that and other calculations, such as "We Pay The Tax" calculations to find the required retail price, the required Sales Tax amount, to, say, sell an item for $120 all in. And so on.
Our Retail stores used them up until the late 80's. With a manual entry sales invoice, a Cardboard Box for record storage (File Storage Boxes) and a Cash Box, we sold $Millions annually and had records of sales (e.g. for warranty work) for a decade that would fit in a closet.
We used Pocket Calculators to do addition/subtraction math, such as adding up the quote or writing the Sales Invoice. The "lack of precision" of the Rule made quotes much easier since you would get a visual representation of your cost plus margin, which made rounding to two or fewer decimal precision very easy.
One notable feature of the system was speed... it was WAY faster to create a quote, give "ballpark" figures for transactions during the Sales or Demo phase (over the phone, like 5 seconds) or do a complete transaction of, say, 10 items with brief descriptions and Serial Numbers in less than a minute. It still drives me a bit crazy in retail as a customer today when it comes to how long it takes for simple transactions.
The TPP covers enough of the current Global Economy (some of South America, Some of Asia, North America) so that it serves as a blueprint for future Trade Treaties between the current signatories and future signatories. It's important to get the deal crafted in such a way that anyone who wants to join in the future has to basically take on the same compromises and advantages. And make no mistake; other nations will want to join in the future.
If you don't get this deal done, you run the risk that future trade deals compromise your position further than maybe your country feels is reasonable. One thing that is almost certain is that the current signatories are looking at a weakening economic position in the future; by signing and crafting now, they negotiate from a position of strength that probably will not exist to the same extent in the future.
It might not be ideal for all the current signatories, but at least now we know where the advantages and disadvantages will lie, and current treaty nations can adjust accordingly so that they are in a position to take advantage in the future, with rules the future signatories will have to agree to.
Monster does not make a bad cable. I'm sure they make a nice profit after they account for their marketing costs. The genius of their pricing is the huge margin they offer resellers. Let's use the "$10 cable" example. Standard assumptions with electronics is manufacturing cost... the Bill of Materials and assembly... is 20% of retail MSRP. There is packaging, shipping and marketing on top of that. Retail margins on accessories are close to 50% (100% markup). So... the $10 cable should wholesale for maybe $25 and MSRP would be $50. Monster would put a MSRP on that item of $75, leaving the dealer with $50... or 200% markup (67% margin). You don't need to be a Rocket Scientist to see how much a reseller is going to push the sales force to sell that brand over others, and there is plenty of money to go around for cash or other incentives to be paid directly to the sales staff. As for Apple vs Monster, well, Monster is famous for sending an office tower's worth of lawyers at anyone and everyone they can scare into settling, most notably any Mom + Pop who dare use the word "monster" for anything at all. So it's no surprise they are in court, yet again.
You have to read the Ingredients list and seek out "hydrologised" or "partly hydrologised" fats. Because a small amount of trans fats below a certain threshold are allowed to be listed at zero in the main Nutritional Information list the manufacturers manipulate the Serving Size so that Trans Fats are below the threshold, you can't go by the Nutritional Information list. Also they can use "Trans Fat Free" banners on the package if the serving size is so manipulated.
Take ISP's modem / router, place on top of microwave oven (I *know* you have long cables, if necessary, sitting around somewhere).
Fill a very large bowl with water and heat on low for 20 minutes.** Do not touch bowl of water for at least an hour.**
Take portable AM radio, tune to a station low on the dial, and place on top of modem / router.
Call tech support.
In Canada there are basically two prison systems. One, for those sentenced to less than two years, is run by the province (thus a common sentence is "two years less a day"). The second, for those sentenced to two years or more, is run by the Federal Government. Recidivism rates for those sentenced to provincial jails is roughly 45% re-offend (statistics are lifelong, not three years as in the parent post's research). For the Federal system, it's less than 5%. Provincial inmates are released to the community they came from, while Federal inmates are paroled to a different community. They balance the releases by placing people based on the incarceration rate in a given community; in other words if 5 criminals are sent to Federal prison in a town, then 5 are released to that town, but are not from that town.
There is plenty of Uranium to go around; the current operating mines in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada can supply all Western needs for any foreseeable future needs. Proven reserves in the area are massive... new mines take a decade or more to be approved and operating, but if needed there is so much available known deposits in the Athabaska Sand Basin in SK that supply is clearly not the issue. The Russians also have their own needs well met. Uranium spot prices are lower than in the past due to current market oversupply vs demand, although it's important to note that supply is almost always based on long-term contracts of 25 years or more... power utilities contract for the expected life of the reactor at a fixed price. Now, if you want to talk the Chinese cornering the market for Rare Earth Minerals, well, maybe there is a story...
Been there, done that.
Oh, did I mention it works?
I worked and resided in a part of Canada that still retains a Microwave Transmission Network... a tower every 60 miles stretching north... as part of a strategic backup communications network. Most Microwave systems have been de-commissioned in Canada but a few were retained (Canadian teleco and media satellites were launched in the early 60's and that is the primary network to this day).
But all our telephone and data networking is via a box about 12" square that has a direct line-of-sight to a tower, T1 speeds, plus telecom and DSL to a community about 20 miles from our worksite, plus a couple of other worksites with more than 200 employees each.
Fast and reliable, we have on average 160 devices connecting at any given time. Cheap, too... WAY cheaper than stringing poles.
"... spread misconceptions about what it takes to be self-sufficient — and stop global warming."..."
There will be no stopping of Global Warming. Maybe reducing the rate of Global Warming. But no stopping, or at least no stopping without a time machine.
Although Bootcamp is an option, and the price is right, I recommend installing Parallels Desktop 10. Choose your Guest OS or (choose multiple versions of Windows, for example) and be done with it.
On modern hardware the VM's are fast. Once you boot an OS (which takes about the same time as booting via Bootcamp) you can suspend and resume, which takes about 10 seconds. Dynamically sized virtual drives makes the task of dedicating a Bootcamp partition size seem primitive. I've yet to run an application that is not compatible including those that require a dongle. Fullscreen or Windowed mode (which is handy for those Patch Tuesdays... keep working in MacOS). Build a base SystemOS and dedicate VM's to tasks where on Windows machines problems can be expected in a do-everything system. (eg, build an Audio-Only VM). And so on. And Linux is no problem either. I run XPSP3 on a 2013 MacBook Pro without issues; older OS's don't present problems. Parallels can be purchased cheaply by adding it to a hardware order from OWC. And so on.
VHS was licensed by JVC to anyone who asked, while SONY refused to license BetaMAX. So inertia built on the VHS format because everyone would sell you a VHS deck, even off-brand units at Wall-Mart. Then the *other* studios started dropping their BetaMAX releases. SONY did eventually decide to license their format, but once the software supply narrowed, it was just a matter of time. I'm not sure "marketing" had much to do with it, but even so, SONY's well-known propensity for exclusive formats was the real killer.
When surveyed, people claim their #1 Priority criteria for headphones is "sound quality". And then they buy "Beats by Dr. Dre", which do not sound terrible, but have never won a direct comparison versus the brands that have been building 'phones for Pro's for 60+ years. The premium headphone market ($100+) is worth about $1.6 Billion annually; "Beats" sells about $1.5 Billion annually.
This SONY seems to be trying to compete with the ASTELL & KERN products, such as the $2500 AK240, which sells in small volumes but does sell.
As for $ six-figure+ sound systems being "off the shelf", well, no, they're not. They are a fixed specification, but sales figures like "5" or "2" are not unheard of. Lexicon, a fairly well known Home Theatre manufacturer, indicated in print it expected to sell "about 30" copies of it's flagship BLU-Ray player, for example.
I had a little hassle with my Cable Company over cancelling my service, so I just hung up and redialed.
The second call was to "remove the cable drop" because the "house was being demolished".
They actually gave me a little grief over this, so I said "either you remove it or I will, and I won't be careful".
This costs them (around here) about $200 because they contract this to a third party company.
Don't worry if you want cable again in the future, they will happily re-install the drop. Costs them ANOTHER $200).
You can do this any number of times you want. They will always remove and reinstall at their expense.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to live and work in Ireland for Irish companies, then you could easily renounce your US citizenship, and have absolutely zero obligation to good old Uncle Sam whatsoever.
And, since you and I both know that you're probably not making billions of dollars a year, it's extraordinarily likely that you'd get a tax credit for taxes paid to the Irish government for all or very nearly all of the taxes you "would" owe to Uncle Sam, which means that, in effect, you have to simply file a tax return each year, which says "I owe nothing."
Stop whining.
Unfortunately, you cannot "easily renounce your US citizenship and have absolutely zero obligation to good old Uncle Sam whatsoever."
Under US Law, the US Government will refuse to recognize a renunciation of citizenship if it is determined the renunciation is solely to avoid US Income Taxes.
I have no problem whatsoever with paying a reasonable amount of money for quality news journalism.
The problem is not at my end .... trust me. The problem is you pay your $20 a month (which is all it is worth to me) and you get ...
The same drivel, lack of fact checking, and bizarre typo's from the Spill Chucker (those two words are an example of what the spell checker would pass) that show not only was someone without the required skill to even be writing in a news journal in the first place given the job, but there wasn't an Editor within a thousand miles of the story before it was plublished.
I can get that for nothing, which is just slightly less than what it's worth.
Provide value, and you would get revenue. It's not rocket science (which your journalist would fail at writing about anyway).
I once ran a Macintosh Performa 5215CD for six and a half years ( 1995+) without a shutdown. It was still operational when it was replaced by a G4 Power Mac desktop in 2002. The funny part of the story , however, is this model's reputation amongst the Mac faithful at a time when Apple's prospects were looking ever more tenuous day by day. It's usually referred to as a "Road Apple" and considered one of the worst Macs ever released. For me, it was one of the best computers I've ever owned.
It had all the options available for this machine (plug in boards) which included a full TV tuner, a video encoder / decoder board, the CD-ROM drive which powered my music collection via a reasonably competent HiFi (NAD receiver; Energy loudspeakers), and a voice/data modem with, I swear, the best telephony application I've ever ran or am aware of (MegaPhone, Cyprus Research). It's service as my telephone answering system was the reason for it's 24/7 operation.
Megaphone was purchased by someone,can't remember who, and never properly updated ... the feature set shrank and never recovered ... when OSX v10.0+ was introduced. There is currently an app with that name, but it's completely unrelated.
This was an all-in-one Mac, Motorola 603e PowerPC @ 75 MHz, maxed RAM (64 MB), 1 MB VRAM, 15" Trinitron monitor, 4x CD-ROM, OS 7.5.1 (running OS9.1 when retired), $2300 but I won a $500 rebate in a promotion Apple was running at the time (most buyers got $100 off).
However, I can claim another longevity feat, kind-of-sort-of on topic ... the Motorola 68000 CPU, the very same chipset that ran Apple's original Macintosh from 1984 ... is the CPU that Mazda used for the Engine Management Computer when my Miata rolled off the assembly line in Hiroshima, Japan, on February, 1990.
It's still running the motor. I can't claim the continuous uptime, but the car does have 300,000 Km (186,500 Miles) on the original engine, and still runs like a top. I drive it like I stole it, with full-throttle runs to the 7,200 RPM redline in every gear at least once every month, and usually more often.
Erm no, because the banks in turn borrowed that money from other people... investors, savers, the government, etc.
That is not how the Banking System works. I know it sounds crazy, but the Bank does not borrow anything from anyone; when they make a loan, they write a check, and it's the writing of the check that creates the money out of thin air.
The process is made stable by the Bank's strict assessment of the borrower's ability of paying the loan back. You should be able to see from this that the amount of money in circulation is constantly expanding, which is what happens when the economy is robust.
If the Banks assessment of borrowers' ability to pay falls, then they stop or reduce the making of loans. This reduces the amount of currency available in the economy (the economy "shrinks").
There is a process whereby accounts are settled daily between the Banks and the Federal Reserve to satisfy technical requirements of currency, but it's a mistake to equate that with the Government (via the Federal Reserve) creating the money the Bank "borrows"; it's actually the other way around. The Bank creates the money, the Federal Reserve prints the currency the Bank has already created via a loan.
Should the Government want to create money, it lowers the interest rate the Banks pay to the Federal Reserve, which encourages the Banks to create more money out of thin air (commonly known as "loaning"). If it wants to discourage the creation of money, it raises the interest rate the Banks pay to the Federal Reserve, and since loans are being repaid to the Bank at a rate lower than the Bank can create money out of thin air, this discourages the creation of "loans".
The cost of manufacture of coins or paper money is irrelevant if you operate a Fiat Currency, which is what we do.
The cost to make a penny at 0.5c does not make the value of a penny any different than if the cost is 2c ... it's still a penny worth exactly one cent.
You can make an argument that the low value coins have no purpose in the settlement by cash in the payment of goods, but that isn't the same as arguing the coin has no purpose because it costs more than it represents.
The manufacture of your national currency costs what it costs ... it has nothing to do with the agreed value the coin represents (the proof being the value of a given coin doesn't change with changes in the cost of manufacture).
" ... The new record was caused by the long-term warming of the planet due to human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, combined with a extra bump in temperature due to the strongest El Niño event ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific. ..."
This is, of course, the Kool-Aid of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); here is another summary from the IPCC's webpage:
" ... the human influence on the climate system is clear and is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system. ..."
http://www.un.org/climatechang...
This has nothing to do with whether Global Warming is real or imagined; it's about the causes of Global Warming. There is (at least) one other contributing factor, namely a historical record of patterns in Earth's climate that predicts that we should be experiencing a warming trend, regardless of human activities.
The reason is the IPCC is limited to considering the human activities affecting Global Climate and is prohibited from even considering any other cause, including the Geological record.
In other words, when you read that humans are the only cause of Global Warming, you are drinking the IPCC Kool-Aid, which is a very narrow view of the issue that specifically ignores well regarded science on the subject. Ignoring science is a poor method to investigate the causes of Climate Change.
One should get a life sentence (to which 30 years might be pretty close depending on your age) for murder, but for a financial scam ? That will be pretty costly for the taxpayers and would not be much more of a deterrent to his colleages than, say 3 or 5 years in prison. Let's hope the guy gets to pay the money back and then some and somehow kept away from computers for 30 years...
You clearly don't understand the US legal system, nor the real-world implications of elected legal officials.
Let's deal with the latter first ( the real-world implications of elected legal officials) ... in order to be re-elected Sheriff, Judge, Prosecutor, etc as is the common practice in the USA, you need headlines that support your effectiveness as someone who, to use the short answer, is "tough on crime". Therefore all headlines will:
A) ... refer to the longest potential sentences ... ignore the implication of any Federal Sanctions that may apply on time served due to overcrowding of prisons in a given State ... ignore the implication of the granting of Parole, which varies from State to State but could concievably make the inmate eligible after serving as little as 1 year.
B)... ignore the implication of any sentence with regard to inmates serving less than the final legal sentence due to rules regarding "Time Off for Good Behavior" which is mandatory due to Supreme Court rulings on the Constitutional prohibition of "Cruel and Unusual Punishment"
C)
D)
E) Note that most States will not keep an inmate on Parole for the length of the original sentence; in many cases the longest time Parole will be in effect is around 5 years.
Note that compared to State Justice Administration, The Federal Government will, on the other hand, maintain Parole for the length of the original sentence, and has the least generous time off for Good Behaviour (not eligible until 1 year is served, and the least number of days off per month served compared to any US State.
As to the former ( the US legal system), news headlines always quote the sentence the accused is likely to face should they plead "Not Guilty"; in reality they will be offered a Plea Bargain that will "save the State the cost of an expensive trial" and will result in, typically, a vastly lower maximum sentence (due to a different charge being applied from the agreed upon Plea Bargain).
It's not strictly correct to say something along the lines of "no-one ever gets the 30 years for this crime" since people who insist they are innocent or have other principled reasons to refuse the Plea Bargain will surely be sentenced to the 30 years (or some other reduced but still long sentence). Also there are occasions when the Prosecutor does not offer a Plea Bargain to the suspect; that could be political (see "I have to be re-elected", above) or practical; it's somewhat rare but can't be ruled out completely. Still, re-read B) above.
There is a 16 Km (10 mile) radius operations ban in Canada (Federal Law) of drones from any airport with military or commercial aviation activities.
In my city (pop 300k) the location of the airport and the city limits intersect in such a way as to ban the use of drones pretty much anywhere in the city. Interestingly, one of the world's most successful drone manufacturers (more than 10 years in operation) with mostly military, research, university, and law enforcement clientele is based in the city, but have to foray out of town to demonstrate outdoors.
Let's Not Forget that a pre-requisite for owning a Used Book Store is the proprietor must be clearly insane. I don't mean that he or she would "have to be crazy" to be in the used book market in a "market" sense ... I mean that if they were not certifiable lunatics, they would not even consider possessing large quantities of used books sufficient to offer them for retail sale. Plus, the inventory multiplies like rabbits, since they sell one used book for every 20 used books they buy.
One of the big issues Used Book Stores have to deal with are commercial leases ... they are not necessarily ideal tenants because the weight of the product they sell is probably higher than just about any other product, and that includes New Books, since resellers of new books generally make an effort to have the inventory look good, versus stacked 10 rows high covered in dust with extremely narrow shelf pitches making browsing difficult except for the super skinny.
What they have going for them as tenants is they are very reluctant to move. So shady landlords love them, since the leaseholder is putty in their hands. Want to raise the rent? Go ahead, and make it unreasonable while you're at it. 50/50 they will pay rather than move.
" ... mine costs me $318 every quarter. ..."
Just got my water bill the other day.
[Location: Western Canada, city of $300k]
Water Service Charge $0.2893 per day
30 days $8.68
Residential Water
$0.02924 per ft3 $2.14
Total Water $11.02 [1 month]
In $Canadian, so $US 8.29
Considering that the majority of Linux contributors are openly hostile to User Interface and Application "Look and Feel" considerations, and there is a general apathy to writing documentation to the "Hand Holding" level the average consumer demands, you only need to think about it for a moment to grasp the answer to "Is Linux ready for the Desktop" question.
It isn't, and never will be; a Geek has to be there somehow or Grandma isn't buying, regardless of how useful it would be to her.
As has already been mentioned, when I took my Pilot's License the Cessena Student Kit included a Circular Rule, and was the standard tool used everywhere in Aviation. If you boarded an aircraft during the 1980's, you were depending on a type of Slide Rule to get wherever you were going safely; if you were flying a light aircraft you probably used one up until sometime in the last decade.
When I owned a retail store in an industry where discounts from MSRP were Standard Operating Procedure, we kept our Wholesale Price Lists at the front counter and staff made quotes and/or sales based on Cost Plus [our required margin]. The margin was based on paying all the bills and taxes and leaving between 5 and 10% as Net Profit for the year.
We used a Circular Slide Rule for that and other calculations, such as "We Pay The Tax" calculations to find the required retail price, the required Sales Tax amount, to, say, sell an item for $120 all in. And so on.
Our Retail stores used them up until the late 80's. With a manual entry sales invoice, a Cardboard Box for record storage (File Storage Boxes) and a Cash Box, we sold $Millions annually and had records of sales (e.g. for warranty work) for a decade that would fit in a closet.
We used Pocket Calculators to do addition/subtraction math, such as adding up the quote or writing the Sales Invoice. The "lack of precision" of the Rule made quotes much easier since you would get a visual representation of your cost plus margin, which made rounding to two or fewer decimal precision very easy.
One notable feature of the system was speed ... it was WAY faster to create a quote, give "ballpark" figures for transactions during the Sales or Demo phase (over the phone, like 5 seconds) or do a complete transaction of, say, 10 items with brief descriptions and Serial Numbers in less than a minute. It still drives me a bit crazy in retail as a customer today when it comes to how long it takes for simple transactions.
The TPP covers enough of the current Global Economy (some of South America, Some of Asia, North America) so that it serves as a blueprint for future Trade Treaties between the current signatories and future signatories. It's important to get the deal crafted in such a way that anyone who wants to join in the future has to basically take on the same compromises and advantages. And make no mistake; other nations will want to join in the future.
If you don't get this deal done, you run the risk that future trade deals compromise your position further than maybe your country feels is reasonable. One thing that is almost certain is that the current signatories are looking at a weakening economic position in the future; by signing and crafting now, they negotiate from a position of strength that probably will not exist to the same extent in the future.
It might not be ideal for all the current signatories, but at least now we know where the advantages and disadvantages will lie, and current treaty nations can adjust accordingly so that they are in a position to take advantage in the future, with rules the future signatories will have to agree to.
Monster does not make a bad cable. I'm sure they make a nice profit after they account for their marketing costs. The genius of their pricing is the huge margin they offer resellers. Let's use the "$10 cable" example. Standard assumptions with electronics is manufacturing cost ... the Bill of Materials and assembly ... is 20% of retail MSRP. There is packaging, shipping and marketing on top of that. Retail margins on accessories are close to 50% (100% markup). So ... the $10 cable should wholesale for maybe $25 and MSRP would be $50. Monster would put a MSRP on that item of $75, leaving the dealer with $50 ... or 200% markup (67% margin). You don't need to be a Rocket Scientist to see how much a reseller is going to push the sales force to sell that brand over others, and there is plenty of money to go around for cash or other incentives to be paid directly to the sales staff. As for Apple vs Monster, well, Monster is famous for sending an office tower's worth of lawyers at anyone and everyone they can scare into settling, most notably any Mom + Pop who dare use the word "monster" for anything at all. So it's no surprise they are in court, yet again.
You have to read the Ingredients list and seek out "hydrologised" or "partly hydrologised" fats. Because a small amount of trans fats below a certain threshold are allowed to be listed at zero in the main Nutritional Information list the manufacturers manipulate the Serving Size so that Trans Fats are below the threshold, you can't go by the Nutritional Information list. Also they can use "Trans Fat Free" banners on the package if the serving size is so manipulated.
Take ISP's modem / router, place on top of microwave oven (I *know* you have long cables, if necessary, sitting around somewhere). Fill a very large bowl with water and heat on low for 20 minutes.** Do not touch bowl of water for at least an hour.** Take portable AM radio, tune to a station low on the dial, and place on top of modem / router. Call tech support.
In Canada there are basically two prison systems. One, for those sentenced to less than two years, is run by the province (thus a common sentence is "two years less a day"). The second, for those sentenced to two years or more, is run by the Federal Government. Recidivism rates for those sentenced to provincial jails is roughly 45% re-offend (statistics are lifelong, not three years as in the parent post's research). For the Federal system, it's less than 5%. Provincial inmates are released to the community they came from, while Federal inmates are paroled to a different community. They balance the releases by placing people based on the incarceration rate in a given community; in other words if 5 criminals are sent to Federal prison in a town, then 5 are released to that town, but are not from that town.
There is plenty of Uranium to go around; the current operating mines in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada can supply all Western needs for any foreseeable future needs. Proven reserves in the area are massive ... new mines take a decade or more to be approved and operating, but if needed there is so much available known deposits in the Athabaska Sand Basin in SK that supply is clearly not the issue. The Russians also have their own needs well met. Uranium spot prices are lower than in the past due to current market oversupply vs demand, although it's important to note that supply is almost always based on long-term contracts of 25 years or more ... power utilities contract for the expected life of the reactor at a fixed price. Now, if you want to talk the Chinese cornering the market for Rare Earth Minerals, well, maybe there is a story ...
Correct, but the complete correct answer is "the geographic North Pole".
Been there, done that. Oh, did I mention it works? I worked and resided in a part of Canada that still retains a Microwave Transmission Network ... a tower every 60 miles stretching north ... as part of a strategic backup communications network. Most Microwave systems have been de-commissioned in Canada but a few were retained (Canadian teleco and media satellites were launched in the early 60's and that is the primary network to this day).
But all our telephone and data networking is via a box about 12" square that has a direct line-of-sight to a tower, T1 speeds, plus telecom and DSL to a community about 20 miles from our worksite, plus a couple of other worksites with more than 200 employees each.
Fast and reliable, we have on average 160 devices connecting at any given time. Cheap, too ... WAY cheaper than stringing poles.
" ... spread misconceptions about what it takes to be self-sufficient — and stop global warming." ..."
There will be no stopping of Global Warming. Maybe reducing the rate of Global Warming. But no stopping, or at least no stopping without a time machine.
Although Bootcamp is an option, and the price is right, I recommend installing Parallels Desktop 10. Choose your Guest OS or (choose multiple versions of Windows, for example) and be done with it. On modern hardware the VM's are fast. Once you boot an OS (which takes about the same time as booting via Bootcamp) you can suspend and resume, which takes about 10 seconds. Dynamically sized virtual drives makes the task of dedicating a Bootcamp partition size seem primitive. I've yet to run an application that is not compatible including those that require a dongle. Fullscreen or Windowed mode (which is handy for those Patch Tuesdays ... keep working in MacOS). Build a base SystemOS and dedicate VM's to tasks where on Windows machines problems can be expected in a do-everything system. (eg, build an Audio-Only VM). And so on. And Linux is no problem either. I run XPSP3 on a 2013 MacBook Pro without issues; older OS's don't present problems. Parallels can be purchased cheaply by adding it to a hardware order from OWC. And so on.
VHS was licensed by JVC to anyone who asked, while SONY refused to license BetaMAX. So inertia built on the VHS format because everyone would sell you a VHS deck, even off-brand units at Wall-Mart. Then the *other* studios started dropping their BetaMAX releases. SONY did eventually decide to license their format, but once the software supply narrowed, it was just a matter of time. I'm not sure "marketing" had much to do with it, but even so, SONY's well-known propensity for exclusive formats was the real killer.
When surveyed, people claim their #1 Priority criteria for headphones is "sound quality". And then they buy "Beats by Dr. Dre", which do not sound terrible, but have never won a direct comparison versus the brands that have been building 'phones for Pro's for 60+ years. The premium headphone market ($100+) is worth about $1.6 Billion annually; "Beats" sells about $1.5 Billion annually. This SONY seems to be trying to compete with the ASTELL & KERN products, such as the $2500 AK240, which sells in small volumes but does sell. As for $ six-figure+ sound systems being "off the shelf", well, no, they're not. They are a fixed specification, but sales figures like "5" or "2" are not unheard of. Lexicon, a fairly well known Home Theatre manufacturer, indicated in print it expected to sell "about 30" copies of it's flagship BLU-Ray player, for example.
I had a little hassle with my Cable Company over cancelling my service, so I just hung up and redialed. The second call was to "remove the cable drop" because the "house was being demolished". They actually gave me a little grief over this, so I said "either you remove it or I will, and I won't be careful". This costs them (around here) about $200 because they contract this to a third party company. Don't worry if you want cable again in the future, they will happily re-install the drop. Costs them ANOTHER $200). You can do this any number of times you want. They will always remove and reinstall at their expense.