He also helped develop a petition to the government begging not to use it. Growing up means recognizing that "good" people do "bad" things all the time, and vice-versa, or put another way, people who don't make mistakes have never learned anything new. I'm not religious but I think Jesus was onto something with the "throwing the first stone" thing.
First of all, WoW gold is not a currency, it's an amusement park ticket, AKA in game currency.
Secondly you can't have it both ways, either it's a currency and mining it is subject to income tax, or it's not a currency and is subject to capital gains tax when it's spent or converted to a different currency. The OP is indirectly claiming it is subject to capital gains, I don't know for sure but it sounds right to me. Why don't you google it and get back to us when you know the difference between income and capital gains, or at least the practical difference between a ticket and a coin.
Believe it or not, the money that buys WoW gold is already taxed, Blizzard pays the tax because it is Bizzard's income. It does not matter what happens to WoW gold because it's an irreversible transaction, you cannot turn it back into real gold, it's just a fancy ticket that allows the buyer to play in Blizzard's amusement park. As far as tax is concerned WoW gold is no different to an all day pass to Disneyland, the company selling the tickets is liable for the tax.
This stuff isn't complex, it's a very basic tax policy that is universally accepted in all modern governments. The central idea is to tax profit, profit is defined as income minus costs. If you make a profit from bitcoins then it is taxable as income (or "capital gains", which is just a fancy way to say "effortless income" ). Just because the IRS isn't interested in chasing pennies it's owed from the current level of bitcoin activity doesn't mean they won't chase dollars in the future.
That's a good summary, Japan was all but defeated in the Pacific and on the mainland, the nukes just drove the point home. It's often been said that Hitler fought the wrong war, he opened the East front first which prompted Stalin and Churchill to align against him (even though they detested each other). The history we (everyone, not just yanks) learned at school comes from a nationalistic POV, this is why many Chinese do not like Japan, the Japanese are not taught about the atrocities in Korea, Burma, China, etc, and many Japanese see the victims ( such as surviving "comfort women") as a bunch of liars denigrating their country. The same "winners history" can seen in every public school, here in Australia it was the abhorrent treatment of aboriginals that got swept under the carpet in history classes.
I admire his aims, but I don't respect the hypocrisy with which he aims to meet them.
The scientific method is hypocritical? - In what way? I've been a Randi fan for 33yrs, if he has a fault in his approach I would say he could lighten up a bit when it comes to certain fictional works.
As for the rest of your post, ignorance is curable, you seem to be laboring under the misconception that confidence in Science as a reliable way to know the universe equates to a closed mind, this suggest you do not fully comprehend the central role of skepticism in science and would benefit greatly from reading some of Randi's books. I think I can speak for Randi when I say that if someone can pass the JREF tests then the contribution to mankind's knowledge would be worth much more than the prize.
Hard to believe that the US military in Iraq was trying to detect IDE's with dowsing sticks, but it happened and Randi was instrumental in exposing the scam.
I also credit the man with teaching me the difference between science and woo by explaining the proper role of skepticism in science. You see, I was a teenage fan (18-20) of Uri Geller back in the late seventies, he "fixed" my broken watch by starting at the TV, pretty strong proof, huh. Thing is, Randi's book did in one night what years of HS science could not, taught me the meaning of scientific skepticism and it's role in assessing ANY claim. For this I am eternally grateful to the man and a great admirer of his lifetime of work that not only exposes dangerous scams, but has also given countless people a basic "bullshit detection kit" that can dramatically alter the course of people lives.
I think *honest* forms of placebo can be developed. Placebos don't operate on the rational/analytical levels of the brain
Agree, I think meditation and placebos rely on the same mechanisms in the brain (which can be tricked into releasing very powerful pain killers). When cold, wet and hungry the mere thought of a roast dinner warms me up and stops the uncontrollable shivers. I know the hot meal is imaginary but it still works. I have serious doubts about claims that mind tricks can cure ulcers, warts, etc, these thing often inexplicably cure themselves. Physical pain is a perception, magic works by exploiting the imperfections in human perception. A placebo is part of a Jedi mind trick, it plays the same role as a magician's wand and the monk's navel, it's a distraction.
Yep, no job seekers strees back then, every new years day some bloke on TV would play the role of a bingo caller and pull out a bunch of golf balls from a wire cage, if your birthday was written on one of the balls the military just picked you up by the testicles and dropped you into an Asian jungle./sarcasm
Old fart Aussie here, working life summary; rural HS drop out -15ys blue collar - Degree - 20+yrs white collar. (military draft ended when I was 15).
Agree with the your "relativity" theory. You want stress then drive a taxi at night, you want physical and mental exhaustion to the point of visual hallucinations then work as a deck hand in the souther ocean. Most of the stress in an office comes from two sources, yourself and bully boy superiors. Out of those two, it's your own "wheels" that are more likely to drive you crazy. I find it helps if you have a soothing soundtrack for your memories..
Take it easy, take it easy.
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy .
Lighten up while you still can.
Don't even try to understand.
Just find a place to make your stand,
and take it easy.
There is quite a lot of evidence that societies where the wealth gap is smaller (say Norway) are a happier. In other words it's not so much what you are getting, it's more about getting your "fair" share of it. Makes sense when you look at a bunch of smiling African villagers all living hand to mouth. If you follow the money = happiness theory those villagers should all be suicidal.
Don't often agree with MichaelSmith but his post is spot on this time. Worrying about 3D printers is the same as worrying about a metal lathe, pointless navel gazing by people who do not understand what a tool maker does for a living.
I've been saying it for years, MS Office is evil. Seriously though, the fact that this guy was shouted down is a "good news" story, it's rare evidence of sanity in the US political system.
Our modern day western table manners are an imperfect solution to people who had a bad habit of stabbing each other over the dinning table, gun control is no different.
Nobody would seriously argue that we should ban sharp pencils, similarly nobody would support the right to bear WMD's. Everyone falls somewhere between those two extremes. As an Aussie I think the recent proposals in the US to limit magazine sizes were perfectly reasonable, quite likely unworkable because of the culture and porous borders, but nonetheless a sane and reasonable proposal.
More often than not I wake up with a tune playing in my head, sometimes it's a tune I haven't heard in decades. It doesn't annoy me, it fascinates me.
Apparently Paul McCartney from the Beatles does the same thing, but unlike me his tunes are original. McCartney would wake up with a brand new tune in his head, he would not write it down straight away but rather play with putting words to it in his head for a few days, he figured if he couldn't remember the tune after a couple of days it wasn't worth keeping.
A good example is the song "Yesterday", he woke with the tune in his head, the first words he put to the tune were at breakfast...
Scrambled eggs.
How I love to eat my,
scrambled eggs.
"Moving west" was more akin to systematic genocide than "anarchy", as with the internet there was never a question about the need for rules, the fighting in the "wild west" was all about who's rules would apply, the natives with their Buffalo herds, the Rancher with his cattle herds, the Shepard with his fences, the robber baron with his train tracks. Anarchy is by definition contrary to human nature, our species spontaneously forms hierarchical societies (as do many other mammals). A "strongman" (AKA an "alpha male") will always emerge from anarchy and assert territorial control.
In short, anarchy can only ever exist in a "power vacuum" and human nature abhors a power vacuum.
Agree that there is a bubble that requires bursting, but I don't believe it's mine. You seem to be suggesting that the internet is not firmly embedded in the "physical world", that the global communications infrastructure it rides upon can somehow spontaneously emerge from anarchy, when in fact the two concepts are mutually exclusive.
I earned my CS degree as a "mature age student" around the time Mosaic was released, the early days were never about whether or not to have rules, they were (and still are) about which rules to have. Even the BBS my son built in the late 80's could not have existed without a telephone number that represented an incredible amount of rule based co-operation between countless humans.
Simply put, the fruits of co-operation cannot grow where anarchy prevails.
Couple of points...
1. There are many examples of more widely known problems in maths that have taken centuries to solve.
2. The US military is by far the most powerful entity on the planet, it could literally nuke the bitcoin system from orbit but most of us trust that it won't.
Slashdot Mirror
He also helped develop a petition to the government begging not to use it. Growing up means recognizing that "good" people do "bad" things all the time, and vice-versa, or put another way, people who don't make mistakes have never learned anything new. I'm not religious but I think Jesus was onto something with the "throwing the first stone" thing.
As an American that was an eye opener.
We got the same story in Oz (at least I did in the 70's).
Replied to the wrong post - a tad embarrassing!
First of all, WoW gold is not a currency, it's an amusement park ticket, AKA in game currency.
Secondly you can't have it both ways, either it's a currency and mining it is subject to income tax, or it's not a currency and is subject to capital gains tax when it's spent or converted to a different currency. The OP is indirectly claiming it is subject to capital gains, I don't know for sure but it sounds right to me. Why don't you google it and get back to us when you know the difference between income and capital gains, or at least the practical difference between a ticket and a coin.
Believe it or not, the money that buys WoW gold is already taxed, Blizzard pays the tax because it is Bizzard's income. It does not matter what happens to WoW gold because it's an irreversible transaction, you cannot turn it back into real gold, it's just a fancy ticket that allows the buyer to play in Blizzard's amusement park. As far as tax is concerned WoW gold is no different to an all day pass to Disneyland, the company selling the tickets is liable for the tax.
This stuff isn't complex, it's a very basic tax policy that is universally accepted in all modern governments. The central idea is to tax profit, profit is defined as income minus costs. If you make a profit from bitcoins then it is taxable as income (or "capital gains", which is just a fancy way to say "effortless income" ). Just because the IRS isn't interested in chasing pennies it's owed from the current level of bitcoin activity doesn't mean they won't chase dollars in the future.
You need a citation to demonstrate income will be taxed?
That's a good summary, Japan was all but defeated in the Pacific and on the mainland, the nukes just drove the point home. It's often been said that Hitler fought the wrong war, he opened the East front first which prompted Stalin and Churchill to align against him (even though they detested each other). The history we (everyone, not just yanks) learned at school comes from a nationalistic POV, this is why many Chinese do not like Japan, the Japanese are not taught about the atrocities in Korea, Burma, China, etc, and many Japanese see the victims ( such as surviving "comfort women") as a bunch of liars denigrating their country. The same "winners history" can seen in every public school, here in Australia it was the abhorrent treatment of aboriginals that got swept under the carpet in history classes.
I admire his aims, but I don't respect the hypocrisy with which he aims to meet them.
The scientific method is hypocritical? - In what way? I've been a Randi fan for 33yrs, if he has a fault in his approach I would say he could lighten up a bit when it comes to certain fictional works.
As for the rest of your post, ignorance is curable, you seem to be laboring under the misconception that confidence in Science as a reliable way to know the universe equates to a closed mind, this suggest you do not fully comprehend the central role of skepticism in science and would benefit greatly from reading some of Randi's books. I think I can speak for Randi when I say that if someone can pass the JREF tests then the contribution to mankind's knowledge would be worth much more than the prize.
What work?
Hard to believe that the US military in Iraq was trying to detect IDE's with dowsing sticks, but it happened and Randi was instrumental in exposing the scam.
I also credit the man with teaching me the difference between science and woo by explaining the proper role of skepticism in science. You see, I was a teenage fan (18-20) of Uri Geller back in the late seventies, he "fixed" my broken watch by starting at the TV, pretty strong proof, huh. Thing is, Randi's book did in one night what years of HS science could not, taught me the meaning of scientific skepticism and it's role in assessing ANY claim. For this I am eternally grateful to the man and a great admirer of his lifetime of work that not only exposes dangerous scams, but has also given countless people a basic "bullshit detection kit" that can dramatically alter the course of people lives.
I think *honest* forms of placebo can be developed. Placebos don't operate on the rational/analytical levels of the brain
Agree, I think meditation and placebos rely on the same mechanisms in the brain (which can be tricked into releasing very powerful pain killers). When cold, wet and hungry the mere thought of a roast dinner warms me up and stops the uncontrollable shivers. I know the hot meal is imaginary but it still works. I have serious doubts about claims that mind tricks can cure ulcers, warts, etc, these thing often inexplicably cure themselves. Physical pain is a perception, magic works by exploiting the imperfections in human perception. A placebo is part of a Jedi mind trick, it plays the same role as a magician's wand and the monk's navel, it's a distraction.
"faith healing" provides the hope of getting better.
Faith healing provides FALSE hope for REAL money.
No faith needed.
Not quite that simple.
Life was simpler back then too
Yep, no job seekers strees back then, every new years day some bloke on TV would play the role of a bingo caller and pull out a bunch of golf balls from a wire cage, if your birthday was written on one of the balls the military just picked you up by the testicles and dropped you into an Asian jungle. /sarcasm
Old fart Aussie here, working life summary; rural HS drop out -15ys blue collar - Degree - 20+yrs white collar. (military draft ended when I was 15).
Agree with the your "relativity" theory. You want stress then drive a taxi at night, you want physical and mental exhaustion to the point of visual hallucinations then work as a deck hand in the souther ocean. Most of the stress in an office comes from two sources, yourself and bully boy superiors. Out of those two, it's your own "wheels" that are more likely to drive you crazy. I find it helps if you have a soothing soundtrack for your memories..
Take it easy, take it easy.
Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy .
Lighten up while you still can.
Don't even try to understand.
Just find a place to make your stand, and take it easy.
There is quite a lot of evidence that societies where the wealth gap is smaller (say Norway) are a happier. In other words it's not so much what you are getting, it's more about getting your "fair" share of it. Makes sense when you look at a bunch of smiling African villagers all living hand to mouth. If you follow the money = happiness theory those villagers should all be suicidal.
For arguments sake, lets say I accept you parinoid rant as a facimile of the truth, WTF has it got to do with my post?
Ever heard of the right to be left alone?
Yes, it's the title of an excellent documentry about Larry Flynt.
Let me guess the plot - Science gone mad?
Don't often agree with MichaelSmith but his post is spot on this time. Worrying about 3D printers is the same as worrying about a metal lathe, pointless navel gazing by people who do not understand what a tool maker does for a living.
I've been saying it for years, MS Office is evil. Seriously though, the fact that this guy was shouted down is a "good news" story, it's rare evidence of sanity in the US political system.
Our modern day western table manners are an imperfect solution to people who had a bad habit of stabbing each other over the dinning table, gun control is no different.
Nobody would seriously argue that we should ban sharp pencils, similarly nobody would support the right to bear WMD's. Everyone falls somewhere between those two extremes. As an Aussie I think the recent proposals in the US to limit magazine sizes were perfectly reasonable, quite likely unworkable because of the culture and porous borders, but nonetheless a sane and reasonable proposal.
More often than not I wake up with a tune playing in my head, sometimes it's a tune I haven't heard in decades. It doesn't annoy me, it fascinates me.
Apparently Paul McCartney from the Beatles does the same thing, but unlike me his tunes are original. McCartney would wake up with a brand new tune in his head, he would not write it down straight away but rather play with putting words to it in his head for a few days, he figured if he couldn't remember the tune after a couple of days it wasn't worth keeping. A good example is the song "Yesterday", he woke with the tune in his head, the first words he put to the tune were at breakfast...
Scrambled eggs.
How I love to eat my,
scrambled eggs.
"Moving west" was more akin to systematic genocide than "anarchy", as with the internet there was never a question about the need for rules, the fighting in the "wild west" was all about who's rules would apply, the natives with their Buffalo herds, the Rancher with his cattle herds, the Shepard with his fences, the robber baron with his train tracks. Anarchy is by definition contrary to human nature, our species spontaneously forms hierarchical societies (as do many other mammals). A "strongman" (AKA an "alpha male") will always emerge from anarchy and assert territorial control.
In short, anarchy can only ever exist in a "power vacuum" and human nature abhors a power vacuum.
Agree that there is a bubble that requires bursting, but I don't believe it's mine. You seem to be suggesting that the internet is not firmly embedded in the "physical world", that the global communications infrastructure it rides upon can somehow spontaneously emerge from anarchy, when in fact the two concepts are mutually exclusive.
I earned my CS degree as a "mature age student" around the time Mosaic was released, the early days were never about whether or not to have rules, they were (and still are) about which rules to have. Even the BBS my son built in the late 80's could not have existed without a telephone number that represented an incredible amount of rule based co-operation between countless humans.
Simply put, the fruits of co-operation cannot grow where anarchy prevails.
Couple of points...
1. There are many examples of more widely known problems in maths that have taken centuries to solve.
2. The US military is by far the most powerful entity on the planet, it could literally nuke the bitcoin system from orbit but most of us trust that it won't.