Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2008-01-11 09:12 pm
silveradept) wrote2008-01-11 09:12 pm
Off and off again - 11 January 2008
Well, turning in this one early because I’ll be away for the weekend. More work, and hopefully some fun, to be done with friends. I might be able to check e-mail on occasion, but you’ll probably have to do without the digests for a bit. Should arrange for a guest poster or something.
Leading off tonight - if your Adjusted Gross Income is less than $54,000 USD and you live in the United States, there are several services and software programs that you can do your taxes on for free. Hat tip to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
welah for pointing it out, and to the IRS for providing such a handy resource.
Yesterday, the man who climbed Everest first, with his guide Tenzing Norgay, Sir Edmund Hillary died at 88 years of age. I wonder if the next group up will clean up much of what’s been left behind and erect a small memorial to the mountain’s pioneer.
Regarding the incident with Iranian speedboats and United States naval vessels, the United States Navy is saying that the voices they heard may not have originated from the speedboats, but could have come from shore or another ship in the area.
The Republican political primary gets more vicious each day. First accusations about Govenor Romney’s role in the release of someone who ended up killing, now Mike Huckabee is the target of an attack ad regarding a serial rapist and murderer apparently released under his watch.
A marine who was about to testify in an incident has gone missing for a month now, and the longer she goes missing, the more likely it is that a permanent crime has captured her. What was the incident, I wonder?
Naomi Schalit warns America against the charge of politicians mixing as much religion into their campaigns as possible. Despite railing against fundamentalist Islam, and having an object lesson of what happens when religion and politics mix from the second World War, the signs continue to point toward politicians and the voting populace craving more God-talk in their government talk. I’m worried at how skillful we’re getting at establishing religion without establishing religion, and wondering when the trap will snap and a large part of America finds itself very much on the outside.
Speaking of the events of World War II, Mr. Bush demonstrates his cluelessness by declaring that America should have bombed Auschwitz. No doubt with the prisoners still inside, Mr. Bush.
Texting and driving is a bad idea - what you think was a mailbox when you hit it might actually be a 13 year-old child. Said child died from the incident. Driving while distracted isn’t something you want to do all that much, and with texting, which requires you to take at least one, if not both, hands off the wheel, it was really only a matter of time before something like this happened.
Looking the part does wonders for convincing people you are who you say you are. For example, a man posing as a security guard for a bank stole more than $100,000 by wearing a uniform that looked like a security guard uniform and making a bank's deposit pickup. Only after the actual guard came, was told another guard had picked things up, than reported to his supervisor about that fact was the crime part discovered.
If you are a fan of cannabis herbs, even if you don’t get charged with a crime, if the police show up at your house, they'll seize your cash and make you prove that you got it all legitimately. Because any sort of money obtained while there’s known presence of cannabis has to be drug money gotten by selling. The gentleman in the article finds this out the hard way, to the tune of more than $400,000 USD. He’s going to fight to get it back, but when your life savings have just been seized, it’s hard to find a good lawyer. Continuing in the money vein, the national taxpayer advocate has some suggestions on how the IRS can make more money, and how it should offer apology payments to those taxpayers who suffer unduly when the IRS messes up.
Forty-seven United States senators are asking the Interior Secretary to remove the restriction on firearms in national parks. Right now, regulations require that guns be difficult to access while on national park land. Those in favor of keeping current regulations note the low crime rate, and raise concerns about what happens if the wildlife on the land is subjected to hunters and guns.
A Japanese education company is recalling their "smart" globes because the entry on Taiwan was changed by the Chinese government. The globes were not going to be made, it appears, unless the entry on Taiwan made it part of China. That’s one way of making sure your side of the story is the official one.
Significantly weirder, Gizmodo has obtained scans of a Microsoft children's book about... servers in the home. You know, I doubt Rod Serling ever envisioned even the Twilight Zone like this. Serling probably never imagined that Pink Tentacle would report on the actual cost of a Gundam-type mobile suit made of aluminium alloy outside - $725 million USD. So, if you have that kind of money to burn, oh billionaires, and the space to set it up, why not try and create your own mobile walker?
If Gundams aren’t your thing, though, perhaps investing in a floating zepplin-like hotel? All the money in these ideas might be better spent, though, in building islands on top of ocean garbage deposits. Some part of me likens this to building a barn long after the horse has long bolted, but some other part says, “Well, it is making the best of a bad situation.” Good ingenuity, bad that there’s enough garbage there to do it in the first place.
For those of us without billions to spend, perhaps our odd indulgent luxury will be Monkey Picked Tea. Or the People's Car, a tiny (3.1m x 1.5m x 1.6m), 54mpg car meant for India. Or you might be one of the first in line to invest in a device that purports to be able to extract petroleum product from just about any organic matter, so long as it has hydrocarbons that can be freed by the microwave emitter. If philanthropy is your idea, though, you may want to join Pixel Qi's quest to build a laptop that will cost approximately $75 USD.
On a potentially NSFW front, more advice for aspiring authors - things to think about when writing about prostitutes.
Adopted children should know about their birth parents, one of the members of the House of Lords said, so that cases such as the twins that were separated and ended up marrying each other doesn’t happen. Once their true natures were revealed, their marriage was annulled. It is a pretty convincing reason to know, just so that people aren’t affected in that sort of manner.
Last for tonight, a good thing for managers and the self-employed to read. Rewarding Creatives talks about how choosing thoughtful gifts, sometimes even non-monetary ones, will help keep your creatives’ morale high and continuing to do their best work.
Okay, I’m gone for the weekend. Leave messages by mail or something.
Leading off tonight - if your Adjusted Gross Income is less than $54,000 USD and you live in the United States, there are several services and software programs that you can do your taxes on for free. Hat tip to
welah for pointing it out, and to the IRS for providing such a handy resource.Yesterday, the man who climbed Everest first, with his guide Tenzing Norgay, Sir Edmund Hillary died at 88 years of age. I wonder if the next group up will clean up much of what’s been left behind and erect a small memorial to the mountain’s pioneer.
Regarding the incident with Iranian speedboats and United States naval vessels, the United States Navy is saying that the voices they heard may not have originated from the speedboats, but could have come from shore or another ship in the area.
The Republican political primary gets more vicious each day. First accusations about Govenor Romney’s role in the release of someone who ended up killing, now Mike Huckabee is the target of an attack ad regarding a serial rapist and murderer apparently released under his watch.
A marine who was about to testify in an incident has gone missing for a month now, and the longer she goes missing, the more likely it is that a permanent crime has captured her. What was the incident, I wonder?
Naomi Schalit warns America against the charge of politicians mixing as much religion into their campaigns as possible. Despite railing against fundamentalist Islam, and having an object lesson of what happens when religion and politics mix from the second World War, the signs continue to point toward politicians and the voting populace craving more God-talk in their government talk. I’m worried at how skillful we’re getting at establishing religion without establishing religion, and wondering when the trap will snap and a large part of America finds itself very much on the outside.
Speaking of the events of World War II, Mr. Bush demonstrates his cluelessness by declaring that America should have bombed Auschwitz. No doubt with the prisoners still inside, Mr. Bush.
Texting and driving is a bad idea - what you think was a mailbox when you hit it might actually be a 13 year-old child. Said child died from the incident. Driving while distracted isn’t something you want to do all that much, and with texting, which requires you to take at least one, if not both, hands off the wheel, it was really only a matter of time before something like this happened.
Looking the part does wonders for convincing people you are who you say you are. For example, a man posing as a security guard for a bank stole more than $100,000 by wearing a uniform that looked like a security guard uniform and making a bank's deposit pickup. Only after the actual guard came, was told another guard had picked things up, than reported to his supervisor about that fact was the crime part discovered.
If you are a fan of cannabis herbs, even if you don’t get charged with a crime, if the police show up at your house, they'll seize your cash and make you prove that you got it all legitimately. Because any sort of money obtained while there’s known presence of cannabis has to be drug money gotten by selling. The gentleman in the article finds this out the hard way, to the tune of more than $400,000 USD. He’s going to fight to get it back, but when your life savings have just been seized, it’s hard to find a good lawyer. Continuing in the money vein, the national taxpayer advocate has some suggestions on how the IRS can make more money, and how it should offer apology payments to those taxpayers who suffer unduly when the IRS messes up.
Forty-seven United States senators are asking the Interior Secretary to remove the restriction on firearms in national parks. Right now, regulations require that guns be difficult to access while on national park land. Those in favor of keeping current regulations note the low crime rate, and raise concerns about what happens if the wildlife on the land is subjected to hunters and guns.
A Japanese education company is recalling their "smart" globes because the entry on Taiwan was changed by the Chinese government. The globes were not going to be made, it appears, unless the entry on Taiwan made it part of China. That’s one way of making sure your side of the story is the official one.
Significantly weirder, Gizmodo has obtained scans of a Microsoft children's book about... servers in the home. You know, I doubt Rod Serling ever envisioned even the Twilight Zone like this. Serling probably never imagined that Pink Tentacle would report on the actual cost of a Gundam-type mobile suit made of aluminium alloy outside - $725 million USD. So, if you have that kind of money to burn, oh billionaires, and the space to set it up, why not try and create your own mobile walker?
If Gundams aren’t your thing, though, perhaps investing in a floating zepplin-like hotel? All the money in these ideas might be better spent, though, in building islands on top of ocean garbage deposits. Some part of me likens this to building a barn long after the horse has long bolted, but some other part says, “Well, it is making the best of a bad situation.” Good ingenuity, bad that there’s enough garbage there to do it in the first place.
For those of us without billions to spend, perhaps our odd indulgent luxury will be Monkey Picked Tea. Or the People's Car, a tiny (3.1m x 1.5m x 1.6m), 54mpg car meant for India. Or you might be one of the first in line to invest in a device that purports to be able to extract petroleum product from just about any organic matter, so long as it has hydrocarbons that can be freed by the microwave emitter. If philanthropy is your idea, though, you may want to join Pixel Qi's quest to build a laptop that will cost approximately $75 USD.
On a potentially NSFW front, more advice for aspiring authors - things to think about when writing about prostitutes.
Adopted children should know about their birth parents, one of the members of the House of Lords said, so that cases such as the twins that were separated and ended up marrying each other doesn’t happen. Once their true natures were revealed, their marriage was annulled. It is a pretty convincing reason to know, just so that people aren’t affected in that sort of manner.
Last for tonight, a good thing for managers and the self-employed to read. Rewarding Creatives talks about how choosing thoughtful gifts, sometimes even non-monetary ones, will help keep your creatives’ morale high and continuing to do their best work.
Okay, I’m gone for the weekend. Leave messages by mail or something.
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The texting hit and run?
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?! Texting while driving?! That's a special league of stupid. I hope they totally make an example of this fucker and throw the book at him.
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(Even if they wanted to have kids - the risks aren't a lot worse than those for a 50 year old woman giving birth, and that seems to be somewhat accepted nowadays. In addition, we have pretty good genetic screening resources available, to minimise the potential risk.)
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There's an article on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest) about incest that states that children who are raised together are less likely to have sexual relationships with each other, which helps to further prove our point that since they were not raised together, it shouldn't matter as much that they happen to be siblings.
What if they never found out they were siblings until 10,20 years down the road? Would they really be forced to annul their marriage of many years just because it turned out they were long lost siblings?
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The entire thing just makes me sad, for so many reasons.
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I can see it now. "If you really loved me, you'd buy me a Window's sever!". *shakes head* But, the German "where do babies come from" (http://annaonthemoon.livejournal.com/737419.html) still wins for best children's book.
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rule number one: don't let cops into your house unless they have a warrant, even if they have reason to be there for some other purpose! you just can't trust cops to do the right thing, even when it appears that they're on your side. 8/
the only time i've ever been busted, the cops were there for some other reason and came into my house without a warrant. fortunately, my attorney realised this and had all of the cops "evidence" thrown out, whereupon they had no case, but, unfortunately, i'm not sure courts would see things that way these days.