solson

- Intermittent Fasting - Paleo Diet, - Strength Training 4x a week - Weighted Pull-ups, Weighted Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Leg Extentions, Weighted Lunges, Weighted Dips - Stand 50% of the time while I work. - Minimal alcohol and caffeine

Temple of Apshai is big omission from this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Apshai

This is complete bullshit.

As a moderately anxious person I have a completely different internal experience on an American subway vs. one in Tokyo. I have almost no anxiety in Tokyo. Why? it is one of the safest big cities in the world. Theft, terrorism, assault, and general creepiness are almost non-existent and everyone knows it and behaves accordingly.

In contrast, you have to be much more aware on American mass transit to avoid problems. American mass transit is far more dangerous than in Tokyo and it is almost instantly apparent to anyone paying attention. You'd be a fool not have situational awareness on an American subway because there is a higher probability of personal harm.

The stages do get progressively harder. Stage 2 is 1 in 10 and I think stage 7 is 1 in 36.

My 13 YO son made this. The current Powerball jackpot got his attention and he wanted to simulate just how hard it is to hit 1 in 290,000,000.

My response to Hawking would be a question: Who or what is smart enough to decide how much wealth each person should have and design a efficient system to distribute it and what evidence do you have that the outcome would be better than a free market?

To one degree or another authority implies the threat of violence. For the person confronted with violence, subconscious automatic action is required for survival. Mistakes may be made, but trust in your training is essential. It is the same in sports (football, basketball, ice hockey, tennis), if you have to hesitate and consciously think, you are "in your head" and you'll be beaten. Some of us have been trained to react automatically by our environments. The best training ground for criminal behavior is juvenile detention and other forms of incarceration where hesitation will get you in trouble quickly. Our system is creating these kids who act on auto pilot. If they lose respect they have lost nearly everything they have.

Flappy Bird and Geometry Dash were his inspiration for making the game. Thanks for the feedback!

I'd argue that the big money in education is contributing to financial inequality as much as any CEO or attorney.

When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills.

It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education.

I grew up working class and was a boxer. I love Ice Hockey, Football, UFC, NASCAR, Motocross, and heavy metal, but I am also an academic and an intellectual. Many highly educated people have told me so, I just don't have the paper to prove it.

My oldest son is highly gifted earning math test scores putting him in the top tenth of one percent and placing 1st in regional Math Masters competitions. He also plays ice hockey so he interacts socially with the 'jocks' and the 'brains' preferring the company of the 'brains.'

Most of his 'smart' friends show contempt for sports which is a social problem since he is an athlete.

When a kids says, "Hockey. Meh. It is a bunch grown men with sticks chasing a black piece of rubber around a sheet of ice" he is saying in effect "What you love is obtuse and low brow and I don't care how that makes you feel." And that is just rude.

One other thing most people don't know about this: Free shipping actually costs the buyer more than actual shipping costs. The seller has to guesstimate what actual shipping costs are and add that to the margin. Most estimates will be higher than actual costs since estimating under costs will put you out of business fairly quickly. If they aren't over actual costs initially they will be adjusted to higher than actual costs over time.

eBay is doing the same thing. They are pushing sellers to offer free shipping which simply means don't line item your shipping costs. The sellers still need to pay for shipping. Amazon still needs to pay for shipping too. It is built into their model.

I mean really people, I hate to sound condescending, but... when you do a "buy one get one free" do you really think you got something for free?

Maybe one day we'll all get free healthcare and free schools and freeways too. Don't kid yourself, you're paying for them.

I think the obvious answer is that this isn't FREE shipping. Nothing is FREE. "Free" shipping is nothing but marketing speak, and if this is illegal so is "Buy one get one Free" or "Buy one get one half price" since the discount is built into the business model.

My wife is an Amazon seller and yes when she ships prime she must pay for shipping which would force her to lose money on each shipment so she builds the cost of shipping into the cost of the item. The cost of her taxes are in the item. The cost of her employees are in her item. The cost of software licenses are built into the item.

The only thing you get with FREE shipping is a receipt that doesn't include shipping as a line item. Someone has to pay the driver, buy the truck, and put fuel in it, pay for the insurance, etc, etc, etc. It can't possibly be free.

300 million Americans x $2,000 per month x 12 Months = 7.2 Trillion annual printing of new money. Total M2 Money Supply is currently 10.5 Trillion and the entire US GDP is only 15.6 Trillion. So adding approx 70% to the money supply every year or adding 50% of GDP as new cash to the economy every year will only result in 2% more inflation??? If you believe that, I've got a dot com to sell you...

Yes college was more affordable and for many it is unaffordable today. Young people and parents need to seriously consider forgoing college entirely, that will be the only thing that will force the price down. These parents and students freely choose to pay these absurd tuition fees. Until you stop paying them, they will keep raising them.

Cars in 1984 are not comparable to cars in 2012. There are many emissions and safety requirements on modern cars that have forced the price up. Also the reliability and quality of most modern cars far exceeds 1984 models. Most young people would not want anything like a 1984 car. Ford Pintos were cheap, problem is they exploded when they were rear ended.

Housing is expensive, but it depends where you choose to live. Hip areas have always been expensive. Toronto wasn't hip in 1984 and nor was silicon valley. In Mpls I rented a decent 2 bedroom apartment in 1986 for $550 per month, the same apartment today rents for $850. if you want to live near the "cool" people it will cost you.

The concept of opportunity cost has nothing to do with the "average individual" it is the cost of the "next best alternative usually forgone". I did not go to college, during most of my "college years" (18-22) I worked a total of 50-80 hours at as many 3 different jobs. That was my next best alternative. I still work 50-70 hours, between different jobs and businesses and transitioned from working class to upper middle class. In retrospect, I can see, for me, the opportunity cost of attending college would have been very high...

Agreed, but if there is no paper or coin cash like Sweden is proposing, how would the "Somali Banker" get digital currency to a party in the jurisdiction without paper currency? I assume it is all done in paper cash today. Barter seems impractical.

Meanwhile in the highly planned and regulated Swedish economy... they are planning to end cash, a step which the government elites tout as progress and sell as a safety measure. Looks like the underground will need to find an alternative currency. Bitcoin? http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/economy/voice-of-opposition...

Yes it is a tax on unsold inventory. If I spend $100 on inventory, my business has $100 less cash. IRS rules do not allow my business to write off that cost until the goods are sold (COGS). If I do not sell that inventory, the IRS treats the unsold physical inventory the same as $100 cash for tax purposes, however my $100 is gone and I have no customers, so unless I destroy my inventory, I have to come up with tax payments for $100 I already spent. I've witnessed retailers smashing mass amounts of merchandise in compactors to avoid taxes on sunk cost. Some publishers have incinerated train loads of books for the same reason. Unsold inventory is a liability... Regardless of what the IRS says, inventory isn't worth anything until someone pays you for it, and you can never be sure if anyone will pay you for it or exactly what the price will be until the transaction occurs.

Inventory is a liability, not an asset and the tax code should reflect that. Taxing unsold inventory is simply one more thing that creates an unfair legal advantage for internet delivered content over traditional print content.

The government should not attempt to even the playing field by clamping down on technology and the internet. Instead it should eliminate taxes on unsold physical inventory and eliminate retail sales taxes and retail property taxes.

I don't know exactly what sets the flag off, but it is something like IP address, cookies, hardware, or some combination.

I also got the impression from the way they described the multiple phone calls to Amazon CS that the decision was made by an algorithm or some bunkered third party security firm that CS could not contact.

I'll have to check with these folks and see if they are willing to do a blog post about it. The one that is still selling is justifiably afraid of what could happen to that business.

I've seen this and yes there are false positives. It is unfortunate they have no reasonable appeal process. Amazon will ban you with no recourse if two selling accounts appear to login from the same network/same computer. It does not need to be a banned account. At least that's what appeared to happen in one case I've seen. Maybe it is cookies too, who knows.

Two internet merchants in the same family. Both have separate businesses, separate tax IDs, separate locations, etc. One family member is older and needs a lot of help with IT stuff. The younger family member comes over on the weekend to help with network/computer problems and happens to login and check their orders. Amazon sends an email to both of them demanding that one of the accounts be immediately closed or they will both be terminated. Again, they tried everything to get a human being to listen. No help from Amazon. The older family member closed his account and lost 50% of his revenues because he felt responsible for the entire situation. The younger seller 's account remained open. It was extremely heavy handed.

I have close relationships with both of these people and I am 100% sure neither of them are involved in any fraud.

Why? It is fair play. The government has been openly coercing and blackmailing private individuals and businesses since the beginning of governments.

Questions I have frequently pondered are...If one could as easily replicate and distribute physical products as we can digital products, what would that do to creativity and innovation?

Say you you could make infinite cheap copies of a car or a TV, would anyone make a better one?

With the elimination of scarcity what would we do with all our stuff and our free time? Would we sit around and turn into blobs or would we make things better just for the joy of it? Just for the recognition?

Isn't it apparent that IP laws/copyright in the digital age are just a way to impose artificial scarcity where it no longer exists naturally?