Rather, it has a lot more to do with people resisting the change... especially retail businesses.
If you don't actively withdraw the bills from circulation and maybe just gradually stop printing them -- say, in 2007, print 75% of 2006's volume, 2008 50%, 2009 25%, 2010 10%, 2011 0% -- then businesses will have time to adjust to the new conditions.
Thereby triggering deflation. While it's generally not good for the economy, it would solve the problem right?
I'm not sure that eliminating the penny would trigger deflation. We're not playing with the *total* amount of currency in circulation. If anything, having the 5c coin as the minimum unit in circulation would ultimately serve to *decrease* its value. If anything like this is done, BTW, it would have to be over a number of years. Don't actively withdraw the pennies from circulation, just reduce the number of new pennies minted to zero over a number of years.
a specifically engineered glass impregnated with various polymers to increase it's give and prevent shattering perhaps?
That's actually a cool idea. You could make some really interesting looking coins that way. Maybe even make it a composite with dark fibers embedded so you could see a distinctive pattern while looking through a coin.
I don't actually use pennies, I buy everything with a credit/debit card.
Bully for you. It's your privacy and your money. Sometimes, I prefer to be anonymous. Also, you can't buy a lot of things with credit cards. No street vendors. Many small stores and diners discourage purchases under $10 or $15 with a credit card since the fees get expensive. You don't want to use the card at bars either, since if you keep a tab on a card open, there are mooching asshats who will think that it's a good idea to drink on it.
It's also illegal to mutilate or destroy paper money.
Incorrect in the US. It's illegal to do so with fraudulent or malicious intent. Ripping someone else's $100 bill to bits is illegal. As is ripping a bill in half in such a way so both halves look like more than 50% and trying to pass the two halves of the bill as valid currency.
And deprecate the coins equivalent to the penny and have the lowest monetary unit be 5 cents (it's obviously possible to make a coin for under 5 cents since a penny costs 1.75 cents to make). Also, encourage the use of $1 coins and create $2, $5 and possibly $10 coins as well (keep the $10 bills at least though). That way, it'll be easier for automated machines to give change. When I go to NJ from NYC, there's few things more annoying than the river of $1 coins that the ticket machine vomits as change when you put a $20 in to buy a $10.25 ticket!
And for folks who'll ask, replacing cash with electronic transactions isn't the answer. I for one like the anonymity of cash and the fact that I'm carrying a physical object of known value that can handle some pretty heavy abuse before becoming worthless.
Absolutely correct, because it's always all about you.
Does my playing (or not playing) of ball games benefit the company in any way? Make them money? If the answer is no, then STFU and don't tell me what activities I *should* enjoy in my *free* (yes, free to do whatever I want to with it within the law!) time. This is not the USSR ca. 1950 when everyone had to go to the mass meetings and be a good Party man or be ostracized or possibly jailed.
So....now besides going to work 9 to 5 monday to friday and beyond...you go on company branded organised excursions with your fellow employees and their families...at which you all bond and the company tries to let you know about how much they care about you?
The problem is that in su*burp*ia, you often don't see a lot of faces outside the company since everyone's working different hours, taking care of kids, whatever, and in most suburbs, people don't even walk on the street that much. So it isn't a matter of disconnection from the company as from life in general. If more people lived in cities and smaller towns rather than in uptightass developments, maybe we'll make some progress there.
I think you've got the wrong attitude there. Don't see it as a "competition" - see it as a chance to have fun with your workmates.
I bike, I ski, I hike. But I just look silly playing "catch the ball" for some reason and am not very much good at it[1]. I want to be able to do sports that *I* like, not the sports that others tell me that I *should* like.
[1]- possibly due to a brain infection of unknown origin as an infant that caused temporary paralysis.
Get a decent paying job AWAY from the big cities where a house is sanely priced, cost of living is sane and you can live 15 minutes from work (GASP!) your life is better. FAR BETTER.. I'll take a $44,000 a year job in a small town over a $250,000 year job in the city any day.
Housing is more expensive in the city. Then again, salaries are higher. And, yes, you can live 15 minutes away from work - if you're lucky, you won't even have to drive in. As far as the corporate ladder, there are plenty of opportunities with small companies in the cities and opportunities to start your own business. In fact, with a large density of potential clients in the area, finding clients seems to be easier than in BFE.
Sure, I don't have a lot of money but if I worked full time in London I'd spend it all on going to the mountains on holidays.
The problem with large corporations is that they're moving their employees to bumfuckia to save costs, and then paying them less, so they don't end up with more disposable income. I *like* being in the city (NYC in this case). Then again, I'm freelancing so I have the advantages of being in the city and of (somewhat) flexible hours.
I can't speak for Britain, but for the US the reason can be summed up in my word: guns.
Guns are *not* difficult to get in most of the US. Maybe in some Northeastern areas - NJ, NYC, DC, and MA being the ones with the most evil gun laws - and California to a lesser extent. A few states, VT and AK, don't even require licenses to carry concealed handguns. About 30 of the other states are "shall issue" states - if you have no felony convictions in the past, they're required to issue a concealed gun permit to you.
Britain? Aren't they the people who banned the private ownership of all handguns in 1998 or so in response to the Dunblaine, Scotland school shootings?
Not sure but I assume when security is checking for explosives, etc. All of those elements are on their hit list.
I don't think that they have a distinct odor or outgas much, so I'd say they'd be pretty difficult to find especially if put inside something like a laptop battery or an electric toothbrush.
The event you cite was a single explosive liquid being brought onboard and detonated with a mechanical device, which is easily detected with modern security measures.
How so? Modern security measures mainly look for metals and nitrates. Picture a few D-cell batteries in an electronic device filled with acetone peroxide (TATP - not a liquid but a powder and not really producable in an airplane toilet) with a phosphorus detonator. Phosphorus burns when exposed to air. Just encase a stick in a helium filled case that'll go *pop* when the pressure of the cabin drops.
-b.
Re:Not a good place to colonize
on
The Sierras of Titan
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
you would melt through the surface (which is 'rocks' made up of water ice).
Two possible solutions:
(1) restrict the inside of the colony to 0C. Not unthinkable - keep in mind that the native peoples of the Arctic used to live in ice houses. Place a nuclear reactor on stilts on top of the ice layer and transmit power to the colony using electricity or even insulated steam piping.
(2) how deep is the ice layer? Melt through and place the colony either in a pit or at the bottom of a columnar artificial lake with an access tunnel to the surface.
If more than all life is extinct -- how did you write this message?
Our intellects all got assimilated into a giant hive-mind computer about 42 years ago. We just *think* we're still on Terra. I guess you can call it life, but it ain't carbon-based.
because as a species we are not going to bend over backwards and harm our own civilization to save another species.
If it becomes a trend (I know, TFA said "first mammalian species in 50 years" - but what about the non-mammal species?) then it's worrisome. We need other species on the planet to survive, not to mention that an Earth without other animals would be damn boring.
Statutory rape, err, "sex without the permission of the moral guardians" is a strict liability offense. Do it and you're thrown in jail even if she or he looked 25 and had the best fake ID in the world, which you checked.
That's what jury nullification is for, then. If I was called on such a case, I'd perjure myself to get on jury duty and then refuse to convict. I have no scruples about lying in court when the cause is saving someone's freedom and possibly their life (prison is a rough place).
A VCR interface is complex because multiple modes and functions are assigned to a single button.
This is done for price reasons, believe it or not. Software is cheap. Switchgear is more expensive, takes up space, and is prone to breakage. Of course, having fewer buttons really doesn't help reliability (more buttons=more things to break doesn't hold) since a single button will be used more and just wearout faster.
To set this, you flip the ignition key on and off some certain number of times, while hitting the door lock button in a certain way, with your left foot out the driver's window, and the truck parked facing east. It's in the manual somewhere...
That's *good*. In some Euro cars, you need to connect a dealer scan tool to change the settings and that'll be $50 please sir. Ideally, cars would come with a USB port and CD so you can change parameters that aren't deemed essential for safety or pollution control but aren't important enough to have a dedicated button. Also, the software should be able to get all diagnostic data, not just the limited subset that the Federal OBD 2 standard required mechanics with a standard scan tool to be able to retrieve. As for the dealers, fuck 'em, they're mostly a bunch of overcharging shysters anyway. Actually, provision of diagnostic and parameter changing software (or building an interface directly into the dashboard) should be mandated by Federal consumer protection laws.
The big thing about power windows is that with no power, there's no rolling up or down of the window. Manual windows don't have this problem...
Not 100% true, BTW. Older BMW's had the other side of the motor shaft from the window mechanism under a plastic plug in the door panel. The end of the shaft had a hex head on it. If the window failed, you popped the plug with a coin and used the car's tire wrench (included in the toolkit) to roll the window up.
How is auto window failing (motor died) different from manual window failing (handle fell off)?
Manual windows just have a handle attached to the shaft of the mechanism. Power windows have switches, a geartrain, and a motor, in addition to the same mechanism. Maybe even some sensors to avoid squishing a kid or dog between the window and frame.
I'll take manual windows any day, especially in a small car where it's easy to reach across. And I'm 27 - far from geezerdom.
I'm not a direct supporter of the death penalty purely because I don't believe our legal system is capable of proving with 100% accuracy the innocence or guilt of any individual and that there is always a risk of an innocent person being put to death.
That's why I said "repeat offenders." You're not only proving that a crime occurred beyond reasonable doubt. You're proving that several instances of a similar crime occurred over a period of time - the burden of proof is much higher.
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Go get laid before you become such a condescending arsehole. Rudeness and condescension isn't conducive to good debate.
-b.
If you don't actively withdraw the bills from circulation and maybe just gradually stop printing them -- say, in 2007, print 75% of 2006's volume, 2008 50%, 2009 25%, 2010 10%, 2011 0% -- then businesses will have time to adjust to the new conditions.
-b.
Nevermind, I thought you were discussing removing the penny, not contracting the money supply.
Cheers,
-b.
I'm not sure that eliminating the penny would trigger deflation. We're not playing with the *total* amount of currency in circulation. If anything, having the 5c coin as the minimum unit in circulation would ultimately serve to *decrease* its value. If anything like this is done, BTW, it would have to be over a number of years. Don't actively withdraw the pennies from circulation, just reduce the number of new pennies minted to zero over a number of years.
a specifically engineered glass impregnated with various polymers to increase it's give and prevent shattering perhaps?
That's actually a cool idea. You could make some really interesting looking coins that way. Maybe even make it a composite with dark fibers embedded so you could see a distinctive pattern while looking through a coin.
-b.
Bully for you. It's your privacy and your money. Sometimes, I prefer to be anonymous. Also, you can't buy a lot of things with credit cards. No street vendors. Many small stores and diners discourage purchases under $10 or $15 with a credit card since the fees get expensive. You don't want to use the card at bars either, since if you keep a tab on a card open, there are mooching asshats who will think that it's a good idea to drink on it.
-b.
Incorrect in the US. It's illegal to do so with fraudulent or malicious intent. Ripping someone else's $100 bill to bits is illegal. As is ripping a bill in half in such a way so both halves look like more than 50% and trying to pass the two halves of the bill as valid currency.
-b.
And for folks who'll ask, replacing cash with electronic transactions isn't the answer. I for one like the anonymity of cash and the fact that I'm carrying a physical object of known value that can handle some pretty heavy abuse before becoming worthless.
-b.
Does my playing (or not playing) of ball games benefit the company in any way? Make them money? If the answer is no, then STFU and don't tell me what activities I *should* enjoy in my *free* (yes, free to do whatever I want to with it within the law!) time. This is not the USSR ca. 1950 when everyone had to go to the mass meetings and be a good Party man or be ostracized or possibly jailed.
-b.
The problem is that in su*burp*ia, you often don't see a lot of faces outside the company since everyone's working different hours, taking care of kids, whatever, and in most suburbs, people don't even walk on the street that much. So it isn't a matter of disconnection from the company as from life in general. If more people lived in cities and smaller towns rather than in uptightass developments, maybe we'll make some progress there.
-b.
I bike, I ski, I hike. But I just look silly playing "catch the ball" for some reason and am not very much good at it[1]. I want to be able to do sports that *I* like, not the sports that others tell me that I *should* like.
[1]- possibly due to a brain infection of unknown origin as an infant that caused temporary paralysis.
-b.
Housing is more expensive in the city. Then again, salaries are higher. And, yes, you can live 15 minutes away from work - if you're lucky, you won't even have to drive in. As far as the corporate ladder, there are plenty of opportunities with small companies in the cities and opportunities to start your own business. In fact, with a large density of potential clients in the area, finding clients seems to be easier than in BFE.
-b.
The problem with large corporations is that they're moving their employees to bumfuckia to save costs, and then paying them less, so they don't end up with more disposable income. I *like* being in the city (NYC in this case). Then again, I'm freelancing so I have the advantages of being in the city and of (somewhat) flexible hours.
-b.
Guns are *not* difficult to get in most of the US. Maybe in some Northeastern areas - NJ, NYC, DC, and MA being the ones with the most evil gun laws - and California to a lesser extent. A few states, VT and AK, don't even require licenses to carry concealed handguns. About 30 of the other states are "shall issue" states - if you have no felony convictions in the past, they're required to issue a concealed gun permit to you.
Britain? Aren't they the people who banned the private ownership of all handguns in 1998 or so in response to the Dunblaine, Scotland school shootings?
-b.
I don't think that they have a distinct odor or outgas much, so I'd say they'd be pretty difficult to find especially if put inside something like a laptop battery or an electric toothbrush.
-b.
How so? Modern security measures mainly look for metals and nitrates. Picture a few D-cell batteries in an electronic device filled with acetone peroxide (TATP - not a liquid but a powder and not really producable in an airplane toilet) with a phosphorus detonator. Phosphorus burns when exposed to air. Just encase a stick in a helium filled case that'll go *pop* when the pressure of the cabin drops.
-b.
Two possible solutions:
(1) restrict the inside of the colony to 0C. Not unthinkable - keep in mind that the native peoples of the Arctic used to live in ice houses. Place a nuclear reactor on stilts on top of the ice layer and transmit power to the colony using electricity or even insulated steam piping.
(2) how deep is the ice layer? Melt through and place the colony either in a pit or at the bottom of a columnar artificial lake with an access tunnel to the surface.
-b.
I suspect that if you actively try to destroy almost anything, you'll succeed. Unless it's bigger and stronger and destroys *you* first :)
-b.
Our intellects all got assimilated into a giant hive-mind computer about 42 years ago. We just *think* we're still on Terra. I guess you can call it life, but it ain't carbon-based.
-b.
If it becomes a trend (I know, TFA said "first mammalian species in 50 years" - but what about the non-mammal species?) then it's worrisome. We need other species on the planet to survive, not to mention that an Earth without other animals would be damn boring.
Cheers, -b.
That's what jury nullification is for, then. If I was called on such a case, I'd perjure myself to get on jury duty and then refuse to convict. I have no scruples about lying in court when the cause is saving someone's freedom and possibly their life (prison is a rough place).
-b.
This is done for price reasons, believe it or not. Software is cheap. Switchgear is more expensive, takes up space, and is prone to breakage. Of course, having fewer buttons really doesn't help reliability (more buttons=more things to break doesn't hold) since a single button will be used more and just wearout faster.
-b.
That's *good*. In some Euro cars, you need to connect a dealer scan tool to change the settings and that'll be $50 please sir. Ideally, cars would come with a USB port and CD so you can change parameters that aren't deemed essential for safety or pollution control but aren't important enough to have a dedicated button. Also, the software should be able to get all diagnostic data, not just the limited subset that the Federal OBD 2 standard required mechanics with a standard scan tool to be able to retrieve. As for the dealers, fuck 'em, they're mostly a bunch of overcharging shysters anyway. Actually, provision of diagnostic and parameter changing software (or building an interface directly into the dashboard) should be mandated by Federal consumer protection laws.
-b.
Not 100% true, BTW. Older BMW's had the other side of the motor shaft from the window mechanism under a plastic plug in the door panel. The end of the shaft had a hex head on it. If the window failed, you popped the plug with a coin and used the car's tire wrench (included in the toolkit) to roll the window up.
-b.
Manual windows just have a handle attached to the shaft of the mechanism. Power windows have switches, a geartrain, and a motor, in addition to the same mechanism. Maybe even some sensors to avoid squishing a kid or dog between the window and frame.
I'll take manual windows any day, especially in a small car where it's easy to reach across. And I'm 27 - far from geezerdom.
-b.
That's why I said "repeat offenders." You're not only proving that a crime occurred beyond reasonable doubt. You're proving that several instances of a similar crime occurred over a period of time - the burden of proof is much higher.
-b.