Pssst....guess what the IRS dealt with before electronic filing existed.
Yes, back then they had the (trained, experienced) workforce to deal with this amount of paper. I am pretty sure they fired most it when the work was no longer necessary due to electronic filing.
It is not arbitrary!. Using the power of two allows a simple, possible even trivial analytical solution of the problem (Matlab and similar have it built-in and can do it in a single line).
Of course you could use other norms to minimize the regression error - l1 norm, linf norm or any other norm in between, or even any other norm you can come up with. But in these cases, you end up with optimization problems that do not have analytical solutions and require iterative approximation of the real solution (unless the problem is simple enough that it can be solved by inspection).
Reference: "Convex optimization" by Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe.
The book covers regression problems with other norms than the l2 norm.
When you've gone so far left that everybody looks right wing, maybe the problem is you.
Compared to the political landscape in most other countries, the US has two major right-wing parties. And zero parties of importance that are left wing. Most people in the US (including most democrats) would probably get a heart attack if they talked to left-wing (or worse, extreme left-wing) people from other countries.
Just get a significant portion of the filers to file everything in paper. Preferably using forms printed with a broken printer and filled in so that they are human- but not machine readable.
I can live with that, especially considering that a little bit of civilization is provided in return.
What I object to are mind-bogglingly complex, time-devouring, unreasonably expensive bureaucratic nightmares from hell that seem to be purposefully designed to create as much misery as possible.
Typically, prior years kids were $165/yr to file their little returns.
Now picture yourself living on a different continent, with the nearest accessible H&R block office being thousands of miles away, and all the correspondence with the local banks is in the local (non-English) language. Oh, and none of the securities the money is invested in are registered with the local financial authorities, but not the SEC.
Oh, and official translations of the correspondence are on the order of $0.20 per word.
In many countries there's no need to file taxes at all. My payroll deductions are withheld and paid to government by my employer. As I make no other taxable income, I have no paperwork to do at all.
You don't have any expenses that are tax deductible?
They may only exist in US military bases, depending on the country. If you are not affiliated with the US military, you will be shot, beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested (not necessarily in this order) if you try to go there.
More fuel for the dumpster fire that is known as "the US tax system".
It's already a version of hell for expats; this change means that you'll be paying hundreds or thousands of dollars just to prove that you don't owe any taxes. And this will be necessary even if you only make $15k a year.
The problem with this is that the naive folks who bought cryptocurrency on its run up, mortgaging their homes and running up their credit cards, aren't going to be in the market that way a second time.
You just wait for the next generation of naive folks. There's a sucker born every minute...
Stuff between galaxies that is a) accelerating the expansion of the universe and b) through its negative gravity, compressing galaxies so it looks like they have extra mass?
Dark matter is considered to be "invisible" mass that makes galaxies behave the way they do by its gravitational effects. But the dark fluid stuff could be sitting between galaxies, and "push"/compress them via negative gravitation?
We shuffle the CVs, split the pile on two, and throw away half - they were the unlucky ones!
This is a way for reducing the number of possible candidates that is unbiased. There are worse methods... like HR criteria that are actually biased against competent candidates.
The thing is, if you really want to make a long-term self sufficient outpost on Mars (or another planet), you will need to think big.
"Big enough". You will need to figure out what exactly to ship to Mars in what order to creat a settlement that can expand on its own with a minimum of regular supply flights from Earth.
This may include some technologies that are not available yet. I would put a universal, configurable chemical synthesis apparatus (capable of synthesizing decent-sized quantities of complex molecules from simple precursor substances) and fusion power fairly high on the list.
Heat:
Antarctica lowest: Ã'89.2 ÃC
Mars lowest: Ã'153 ÃC
Compared to Antarctice, Mars does not have any atmosphere to speak of. Compared to Antarctica, heat losses by convection will therefore be tiny. Also unlike Antarctica, you won't have people opening doors to go outside all that often.
Power isn't free either, you need a whole bunch of equipment with a limited lifespan in a very harsh environment (see above) producing an AWFUL lot of power just to keep the temperature up and the lights on.
The equipment generating all this power will be *inside*, where the environment isn't harsh enough to kill people. Getting the equipment and the supplies there is a matter of those supply flights I mentioned. Those are an issue, not the generation of power itself.
Water:
Collect it from where?
Mars. Heck, if you really can't manage to get it from the frozen sources near the surface there, or find it deeper underground, you could condense it out of the atmosphere.
And that food doesn't grow out of nothing. It requires energy. From the soil, fertilizers, the sunlight, etc.
Again, we have arrived at the two real problems I have mentioned - regular supply flights of sufficient capacity, and how to set up a production infrastructure to reduce the dependency on those supply flights eventually, preferably to zero.
Small groups may be able to survive for limited amounts of time presuming they have a reliable supply of very expensive and heavy equipment coming from Earth all the time.
The point of having a small group there and sending all the expensive and heavy equipment there should eventually be to reduce the need for sending all those things there from Earth. That is the real challenge. What is the minimum amount of stuff you need to send to achieve self-sufficience, what exactly do you need to send, how do you get it to survive the trip, and what as-of-yet unavailable technology do you need? (I would assume that a near-universal chemical synthesizer that can build custom molecules in appreciable quantities from simple precursors is very high on the list, so you don't have to wait half a year for that aspirin, fertilizer, glue or lubricant).
It's not reasonable because it's so cold. And there is hardly any water. There's absolutely no food, and the big thing, I just remind these guys, there's nothing to breathe.
Cold? Well, you are going to generate power somehow, and most methods generate plenty of heat as a by-product.
Hardly any water? Well, collect some and keep reusing it. Sounds icky? Well, here on Earth we're doing the same thing, except that the water here has been recycled and reused for millions of years. That's even more icky than anything you'll find on Mars.
Absolutely no food? We've just talked about power, heat and water. If you have those three, you can make/grow food.
Nothing to breathe? There's CO2. There are plants (for growing food, see above). Why shouldn't there be oxygen?
Seriously. Dismissing life on Mars and then talking about the things that are among the easiest? What about radiation, (temporary) dependence on supply flighty that take half a year to arrive, or how to build a production infrastructure (so you can build enough domes that taking a walk won't involve donning a space suit)?
The chapter ended with a simple, and straight-forward comment to the effect of: nothing is better than simply placing a small pebble in one of your shoes.
... if you're trying to figure out if someone is following you, look at their shoes. Your shadow might be able to change clothing, headwear, glasses, gait, etc. fairly easily, but few people carry an extra pair of shoes.
Slashdot Mirror
Spilled diesel fuel is a mess. Spilled gasoline is dangerous.
Yes, back then they had the (trained, experienced) workforce to deal with this amount of paper. I am pretty sure they fired most it when the work was no longer necessary due to electronic filing.
It is not arbitrary!. Using the power of two allows a simple, possible even trivial analytical solution of the problem (Matlab and similar have it built-in and can do it in a single line).
Of course you could use other norms to minimize the regression error - l1 norm, linf norm or any other norm in between, or even any other norm you can come up with. But in these cases, you end up with optimization problems that do not have analytical solutions and require iterative approximation of the real solution (unless the problem is simple enough that it can be solved by inspection).
Reference: "Convex optimization" by Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe.
The book covers regression problems with other norms than the l2 norm.
Compared to the political landscape in most other countries, the US has two major right-wing parties. And zero parties of importance that are left wing. Most people in the US (including most democrats) would probably get a heart attack if they talked to left-wing (or worse, extreme left-wing) people from other countries.
Let them deal with 20 million returns on paper.
I can live with that, especially considering that a little bit of civilization is provided in return.
What I object to are mind-bogglingly complex, time-devouring, unreasonably expensive bureaucratic nightmares from hell that seem to be purposefully designed to create as much misery as possible.
That's the plan. I mean, if you can show people more clearly that is sucks to be poor, maybe more of them will stop being poor? SCNR.
Oh, and none of the securities the money is invested in are registered with the local financial authorities, but not the SEC.
should be
Oh, and all of the securities the money is invested in are registered with the local financial authorities, but not the SEC.
Now picture yourself living on a different continent, with the nearest accessible H&R block office being thousands of miles away, and all the correspondence with the local banks is in the local (non-English) language. Oh, and none of the securities the money is invested in are registered with the local financial authorities, but not the SEC.
Oh, and official translations of the correspondence are on the order of $0.20 per word.
You don't have any expenses that are tax deductible?
They may only exist in US military bases, depending on the country. If you are not affiliated with the US military, you will be shot, beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested (not necessarily in this order) if you try to go there.
It's already a version of hell for expats; this change means that you'll be paying hundreds or thousands of dollars just to prove that you don't owe any taxes. And this will be necessary even if you only make $15k a year.
That alone simplifies traffic and scheduling significantly.
Barring any "patent continuation" shenanigans, any patents covering its technology should have expired two years ago at the latest.
Someone wanted their snake oil and patent medicines back.
All of them. At least twice. And then nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
You just wait for the next generation of naive folks. There's a sucker born every minute ...
Dark matter is considered to be "invisible" mass that makes galaxies behave the way they do by its gravitational effects. But the dark fluid stuff could be sitting between galaxies, and "push"/compress them via negative gravitation?
This is a way for reducing the number of possible candidates that is unbiased. There are worse methods ... like HR criteria that are actually biased against competent candidates.
"Big enough". You will need to figure out what exactly to ship to Mars in what order to creat a settlement that can expand on its own with a minimum of regular supply flights from Earth.
This may include some technologies that are not available yet. I would put a universal, configurable chemical synthesis apparatus (capable of synthesizing decent-sized quantities of complex molecules from simple precursor substances) and fusion power fairly high on the list.
Compared to Antarctice, Mars does not have any atmosphere to speak of. Compared to Antarctica, heat losses by convection will therefore be tiny. Also unlike Antarctica, you won't have people opening doors to go outside all that often.
Power isn't free either, you need a whole bunch of equipment with a limited lifespan in a very harsh environment (see above) producing an AWFUL lot of power just to keep the temperature up and the lights on.
The equipment generating all this power will be *inside*, where the environment isn't harsh enough to kill people. Getting the equipment and the supplies there is a matter of those supply flights I mentioned. Those are an issue, not the generation of power itself.
Water: Collect it from where?
Mars. Heck, if you really can't manage to get it from the frozen sources near the surface there, or find it deeper underground, you could condense it out of the atmosphere.
And that food doesn't grow out of nothing. It requires energy. From the soil, fertilizers, the sunlight, etc.
Again, we have arrived at the two real problems I have mentioned - regular supply flights of sufficient capacity, and how to set up a production infrastructure to reduce the dependency on those supply flights eventually, preferably to zero.
Small groups may be able to survive for limited amounts of time presuming they have a reliable supply of very expensive and heavy equipment coming from Earth all the time.
The point of having a small group there and sending all the expensive and heavy equipment there should eventually be to reduce the need for sending all those things there from Earth. That is the real challenge. What is the minimum amount of stuff you need to send to achieve self-sufficience, what exactly do you need to send, how do you get it to survive the trip, and what as-of-yet unavailable technology do you need? (I would assume that a near-universal chemical synthesizer that can build custom molecules in appreciable quantities from simple precursors is very high on the list, so you don't have to wait half a year for that aspirin, fertilizer, glue or lubricant).
Mars has two big advantages: Far fewer people than the North Pole. Second, Mars kills stupid people much more quickly than the North Pole.
Cold? Well, you are going to generate power somehow, and most methods generate plenty of heat as a by-product.
Hardly any water? Well, collect some and keep reusing it. Sounds icky? Well, here on Earth we're doing the same thing, except that the water here has been recycled and reused for millions of years. That's even more icky than anything you'll find on Mars.
Absolutely no food? We've just talked about power, heat and water. If you have those three, you can make/grow food.
Nothing to breathe? There's CO2. There are plants (for growing food, see above). Why shouldn't there be oxygen?
Seriously. Dismissing life on Mars and then talking about the things that are among the easiest? What about radiation, (temporary) dependence on supply flighty that take half a year to arrive, or how to build a production infrastructure (so you can build enough domes that taking a walk won't involve donning a space suit)?
> we will have AI and self-driving cars.
Fusion-powered flying cars, please.