In other news... (humorous news items)

[ucim]

And nilahol…?

Yeah, I didn't want to mention that one (it's proper name is zeronol) because it might lead to college kids drinking old water to get drunk, and that would be a YUGE problem for society. Let's keep this one under the table... as it were.

Jose

[Coyne]

And nilahol…?

Yeah, I didn't want to mention that one (it's proper name is zeronol) because it might lead to college kids drinking old water to get drunk, and that would be a YUGE problem for society. Let's keep this one under the table... as it were.

Jose

The prefix should be Greek shouldn't it? Maybe medenol or oudenol. Numeral prefix.

[ucim]

The prefix should be Greek shouldn't it?

You mean, like meth- eth-, prop-, buty-

Jose

[Coyne]

The prefix should be Greek shouldn't it?

You mean, like meth- eth-, prop-, buty-

Jose

I knew I should have mentioned this article:

Prefixes for alkanes that have 1-4 carbons are rooted historically. These are methane, ethane, propane, and butane, respectively. On the other hand, for 5 carbons and up a prefix derived from greek is given.

[CorruptUser]

If I had a time machine, I'd be too busy correcting all the stupid things in science and math to do anything actually important. Carbon dioxide would be considered an organic compound, percentages wouldn't exist, electrical current would be in the same direction that electrons travel, the meter would be defined as 1 billionth of C instead of 1 ten millionth this distance between the equator and the poles, "food calories" would never have existed...

[Quercus]

If I had a time machine, I'd be too busy correcting all the stupid things in science and math to do anything actually important. Carbon dioxide would be considered an organic compound, percentages wouldn't exist, electrical current would be in the same direction that electrons travel, the meter would be defined as 1 billionth of C instead of 1 ten millionth this distance between the equator and the poles, "food calories" would never have existed...

Agree on most points, but carbon dioxide sometimes makes sense considered as organic, sometimes as inorganic. For example, considering carbonate minerals as organic salts, while continuing to regard silicate minerals as inorganic strikes me as odd and unhelpful.

[Sableagle]

And nilahol…? (Bangs own trumpet/blows own drum.)

Society frowns on blowing one's own trumpet.

[ucim]

...for 5 carbons and up a prefix derived from greek is given.

So, zero is greater than (or equal to) five? This new learning amazes me! Tell me again how the earth is banana shaped!

Jose

[Coyne]

...for 5 carbons and up a prefix derived from greek is given.

So, zero is greater than (or equal to) five? This new learning amazes me! Tell me again how the earth is banana shaped!

Jose

Well, being a computer nerd I think of it as more like a switch statement, that has terms for 1 through 4... And then the default clause...

And, of course, the default is Greek.

[ucim]

Yeah, it's always the Greek's fault.

Jose

[Sableagle]

Reported in the Times, the Telegraph, the Sun and the Daily Mail,

The effect of 2 per cent nitroglycerin paste applied to the penile shaft of impotent subjects was evaluated in a placebo controlled double-blind study under laboratory conditions. After application of nitroglycerin paste or a placebo ointment base, penile tumescence was recorded through a strain gauge transducer while subjects viewed an erotic video presentation. Relative to the placebo paste the number of subjects demonstrating an increase in penile circumference after nitroglycerin (18 of 26) was significantly different than all other outcome possibilities (p less than 0.05). Noninvasive vascular assessment by ultrasonography demonstrated an increase in diameter and blood flow in the cavernous arteries after application of nitroglycerin paste. Nitroglycerin paste increases blood flow in the cavernous arteries and improves tumescence after erotic stimulation. This agent may represent a new therapy for impotence.

Looking for hot stuff? I'm dynamite between the sheets, baby! When I blow my load, I guarantee fireworks.

[eran_rathan]

makes me think of:

[commodorejohn]

*trying real hard not to make a joke about "explosive orgasm"*

[Sableagle]

That last paragraph.

[ColletArrow]

Excellent! And also completely random; where did he even find that?

Although it's a month old, I still like this one: Man 'cements microwave to head' in Wolverhampton. Don't worry, he was fine somehow, but it took a few hours to get him out. It certainly raises more questions than answers though.

[jewish_scientist]

You know in Mythbusters when they make molds of their own bodies for the ballistics gel. $20 says these guys were trying to do something like that. My favorite part though is that they put the person's head in a plastic bag before surrounding it with cement.

[Soupspoon]

You know in Mythbusters when they make molds of their own bodies for the ballistics gel. $20 says these guys were trying to do something like that. My favorite part though is that they put the person's head in a plastic bag before surrounding it with cement.

I used plastic wrap over my shoulders and down when using some spare squirty-rock-foam-stuff to make an inverse mould for self-manikin torso, once, for a little idle project of mine.

Worst part was that I dripped some of the foam onto my hairy leg (didn't quite get the bottom of the plastic curved up, as I'd wanted, to catch all the dribbles, and I was wearing shorts - which was maybe good planning and maybe bad) and necessitated some nail-scissor clipping of leg-hairs small bits of the hardened rock-stuff and eschewing anything but long trousers in public for a little while.

I was young (well, younger, it was a decade and a bit ago, but I was definitely more than a decade-and-a-bit of age at the time) and it was perhaps not completely thought through. But I still think I did a far better job of thinking things through.

(Could have used an extra hand, the fuss of applying the foam as required while keeping my upper arms still enough and swapping the can from hand to hand to apply across the covered back and chest was why I didn't notice the dripping in time. But then it wouldn't have been the interesting experiment that it was if I had 'cheated', thus.)

[elasto]

Commuters who face daily tailbacks to cross a toll bridge for 12p have been saved their misery - as local residents pay for them all in one go.

In recent years, motorists have gone through the time-consuming process of each handing their pennies to an attendant in the booth on Warburton Toll Bridge, the only route across the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal between the M6 and M60 motorways.

It has caused hours of delays on Warburton Bridge Road and surrounding routes as hundreds of drivers await their turn, with reports that gridlock sometimes lasts from 3pm to 10pm. The traffic has even prompted the local bus operator to cut services around the area.

But desperate locals have found a temporary solution.

Residents in nearby Warburton village, who claim the privately-owned bridge has left them ‘prisoners in their own homes’, have started bulk-paying the toll to ease the congestion - handing over around £120 a week.

Each afternoon Diane Grant, 65, often aided by Marshal Butters, 28, braves the cold to walk down the road from their homes in Warburton, Trafford, to pay up to £30 and wave through hundreds of drivers in super-quick time.

Initially, Diane paid the fee out of her own pocket, but thanks to a Facebook campaign by the Warburton Toll Bridge Action Group, they now receive donations. Many drivers also drop cash at Diane’s café in Rixton, while some even post money through her letterbox.

The toll was created after the passing of the Rixton and Warburton Toll Bridge Act 1863, which gave the Manchester Ship Canal Company the right to build the bridge and charge those using it. It originally cost one person on horseback or in a cart 1p to cross.

Sounds like a perfect case for a compulsory purchase order...

link

[sardia]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/02/ ... -san-jose/
In an update on middle class couple who bought rich people street, the rich won. They appealed to the board of supervisors who, no surprise, cut the filthy rich a break. It's ironic that even though they own the street, the couple isn't allowed past security.

Updated article. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/10/ ... uple-sues/
The couple is suing in court. The city has yet to pay the couple back even though they ruled against the couple. They did however send the couple a tax bill, which was promptly paid.
It looks like the city is siding with the filthy rich here. The rich can afford to tie this up forever in the courts. I'm surprised the couple could afford the 100k to buy the street, but can't raise more for an average lawyer.
200000$ settlement seems way too low here. But IANAL.

[jewish_scientist]

I bet that the buyers need more than an average lawyer though, especially when you consider how the home owners will probably plan to stall until they go broke.

That said, I think that the home owners may actually have a point. They claim that they were not notified that the property was being sold at auction due to unpaid taxes, which is a perfectly reasonable objection. On the other hand, they say that an error had happened when they changed accountants 30 years ago that resulted in the city sending the tax bill to the wrong address, which I find a little suspicious. I imagine that the average person would try to figure out why they are billing for a street. This is especially true for an accountant who was until recently handling the accounts of the home owners association of that street. Plus, the city could claim that it is the home owners responsibility to keep the records up to date and are therefore at fault.

[idonno]

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/face ... onNum=3701.

Not less than 45 days nor more than 120 days before the proposed sale, the tax collector shall send notice of the proposed sale by certified mail with return receipt requested to the last known mailing address, if available, of parties of interest, as defined in Section 4675. The notice shall state the date, time, and place of the proposed sale, the amount required to redeem the property, and the fact that the property may be redeemed up to the close of business on the last business day prior to the date of the sale, and information regarding the rights of parties of interest to claim excess proceeds, as defined in Section 4674, if the property is sold and excess proceeds result from that sale.
The tax collector shall make a reasonable effort to obtain the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest.
The validity of any sale under this chapter shall not be affected if the tax collector’s reasonable effort fails to disclose the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest or if a party of interest does not receive the mailed notice.

They certainly fulfilled the basic obligation by sending it to the address they had and it was the homeowners responsibility to get that updated. The question comes down to whether or not they made a reasonable effort to obtain the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest.
Given that it was a street, there is a pretty good argument that they could have figured out parties of interest. If I wanted to argue against this, I would look at how many low valued properties (this has to have had a low valuation to have that small of a property tax bill after 30 year) are sold and try to build a case that it would be unreasonable to physically look at each one. I can predict from having actually seen other property tax systems that it would have proven very difficult to match to the homeowners without actually looking at the parcel. I am not a lawyer and am not 100% sure what constitutes a party of interest so sending the notice to the homeowners representatives last known address may cover this but I'm guessing this is the part being disputed and at least one judge thinks it does not.

[sardia]

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=3701.

Not less than 45 days nor more than 120 days before the proposed sale, the tax collector shall send notice of the proposed sale by certified mail with return receipt requested to the last known mailing address, if available, of parties of interest, as defined in Section 4675. The notice shall state the date, time, and place of the proposed sale, the amount required to redeem the property, and the fact that the property may be redeemed up to the close of business on the last business day prior to the date of the sale, and information regarding the rights of parties of interest to claim excess proceeds, as defined in Section 4674, if the property is sold and excess proceeds result from that sale.
The tax collector shall make a reasonable effort to obtain the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest.
The validity of any sale under this chapter shall not be affected if the tax collector’s reasonable effort fails to disclose the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest or if a party of interest does not receive the mailed notice.

They certainly fulfilled the basic obligation by sending it to the address they had and it was the homeowners responsibility to get that updated. The question comes down to whether or not they made a reasonable effort to obtain the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest.
Given that it was a street, there is a pretty good argument that they could have figured out parties of interest. If I wanted to argue against this, I would look at how many low valued properties (this has to have had a low valuation to have that small of a property tax bill after 30 year) are sold and try to build a case that it would be unreasonable to physically look at each one. I can predict from having actually seen other property tax systems that it would have proven very difficult to match to the homeowners without actually looking at the parcel. I am not a lawyer and am not 100% sure what constitutes a party of interest so sending the notice to the homeowners representatives last known address may cover this but I'm guessing this is the part being disputed and at least one judge thinks it does not.

Quick note, this is a filthy stupid rich neighborhood with private security. The reason taxes are so low is that the association pays for everything. (aka none of the money they spend leaves the neighborhood). If the case is as bad as they think, the couple should settle for a quick payout on their investment.

[Chen]

Its hilarious how people side with this "middle class" couple because the action is against richer people. Taking advantage of the homeowners AND city's mistake regarding this ridiculous tax bill is not an action that should be cheered on.

[Quercus]

Its hilarious how people side with this "middle class" couple because the action is against richer people. Taking advantage of the homeowners AND city's mistake regarding this ridiculous tax bill is not an action that should be cheered on.

Meh, I'm not so much siding with the couple responsible as enjoying quite a large amount of schadenfreude that some filthy rich people are getting just a taste of the fucking over that poor people endure on a daily basis when it comes to housing.

[sardia]

Its hilarious how people side with this "middle class" couple because the action is against richer people. Taking advantage of the homeowners AND city's mistake regarding this ridiculous tax bill is not an action that should be cheered on.

I could say the same thing about how the rich treat poor people, but you do have a point. The board of supervisors did side with the rich association.
If you bought the street, what would you do with it? I'd sell parking spots to the highest bidder. Unless my lawyer doesn't like my chances in court, then I'd settle for a few hundred grand plus expenses.

[idonno]

Quick note, this is a filthy stupid rich neighborhood with private security. The reason taxes are so low is that the association pays for everything. (aka none of the money they spend leaves the neighborhood). If the case is as bad as they think, the couple should settle for a quick payout on their investment.

I don't know for sure there but property taxes don't tend to work like that. Areas that are levied against are much much larger than single neighborhoods. They are usually based on what units of government need to operate over the entire region. Neighborhoods do not just pay for what they consume. It is pretty likely that they are in a more well off area though which keeps tax rates down but even with really low taxes, that property can't be assessed for very much.

Its hilarious how people side with this "middle class" couple because the action is against richer people. Taking advantage of the homeowners AND city's mistake regarding this ridiculous tax bill is not an action that should be cheered on.

What mistake did the city make? Have you ever seen how much a burden poor reporting puts on local government. The neighborhood association has the assets to afford an accountant to take care of things. Their side screwed up. It is not the governments job to hold their hand on this and such hand holding would be cost prohibitively expensive to do this for everyone. People literally lose their houses to tax sales so why should we feel bad if some rich people lose a piece of property that was only ever private property in the first place as a means of keeping undesirables out?

[pogrmman]

Quick note, this is a filthy stupid rich neighborhood with private security. The reason taxes are so low is that the association pays for everything. (aka none of the money they spend leaves the neighborhood). If the case is as bad as they think, the couple should settle for a quick payout on their investment.

I don't know for sure there but property taxes don't tend to work like that. Areas that are levied against are much much larger than single neighborhoods. They are usually based on what units of government need to operate over the entire region. Neighborhoods do not just pay for what they consume. It is pretty likely that they are in a more well off area though which keeps tax rates down but even with really low taxes, that property can't be assessed for very much.

OK. I don’t know if I’m remembering right, but I think that in California, your property tax assessment is fixed on the date of purchase (so the property doesn’t get reassessed until you sell it). Being a road, this particular property wouldn’t have a super high assessment (at least compared to the homes around it). While I’m not sure which jurisdictions in CA can set property taxes (here in TX it’s state, county, city, and school district), but if it works similarly, people in one of those suburban “cities” that is well off will have a lower tax rate.


In this case, I think a combination of low assessment value, lack of reassessment, and maybe lower tax rates in that area resulted in the low bill.

[idonno]

I skimmed the code. It is a little spread out but It looks like a base assessment value is established when a property is sold or has construction done on it and this value is inflated by some calculation for cost of living increases. Code changed in 1997 and it wasn't obvious how that was handled so it might have been assessed as recently as 1997 to bring it into line with whatever the new practice was. I didn't think finding tax code that is 20 years out of date and looking at it was worth the effort though.

[jewish_scientist]

I am pretty sure that the home owners were paying a lot in taxes. The problem was that there was this one $30 annual tax that they did not know about.

[Chen]

What mistake did the city make? Have you ever seen how much a burden poor reporting puts on local government. The neighborhood association has the assets to afford an accountant to take care of things. Their side screwed up. It is not the governments job to hold their hand on this and such hand holding would be cost prohibitively expensive to do this for everyone. People literally lose their houses to tax sales so why should we feel bad if some rich people lose a piece of property that was only ever private property in the first place as a means of keeping undesirables out?

From what I read it's not even that the association just switched accountants, but that the accountant that the tax slips were going to had DIED. You'd think after a couple of mail returns or the like the city would send the the tax slips to SOMEONE else. In fact I'm pretty sure that's the argument the people used to win the court case. We're not taking a single letter. Here. They sent 30 years worth of letters to someone who died (granted I don't know at what point in the 30 years they did). To my understanding the thing was in fact SOLD and even after that they weren't notified until someone asked them the buy it back. Unlike a car or some other asset to be repossessed this is real estate. You KNOW where the people are.

[CorruptUser]

If some bureaucratic slipup had resulted in the homes of a middle-class or poor person being seized, we'd be furious. That we are happy it's happening to rich people isn't justice, but schadenfreude. Just because it shouldn't happen to poor people but seems to anyway, doesn't mean it should happen to rich people.

Third world residents tend to suffer from horrible parasites and worse, doesn't mean we should celebrate an outbreak of measles in Florida.
Black people get brutalized by the police too often, doesn't mean we should be happy when a white guy gets murdered by the police while the cop is found innocent.


The world becoming equally unjust does not make it more just.

[elasto]

If some bureaucratic slipup had resulted in the homes of a middle-class or poor person being seized, we'd be furious.

Au contraire, these hings happen routinely to the poor and it rarely even makes the news.

Take a look at this article for example, where the poor have to choose between homelessness and granting sexual favours to housing inspectors and landlords.

Sure, you might be furious on reading this article but how often does this kind of thing make the headlines? It makes the news when it happens to the rich because it happens so rarely. It doesn't make the news when it happens to the poor because abuse of the poor is so commonplace.

Personally I wouldn't call it 'schadenfreude' so much as 'hey, now the injustices are happening to you too are you ready to get serious about fixing stuff for everyone..?' (And, of course, they aren't)

[Grop]

And then there's the part about wealthy people benefitting from the poors' hard work and not doing much in order to improve their situation.

[morriswalters]

@elasto
This is a French farce.

It would be difficult for this to happen to a home that is a single dwelling. People walk away from property every year because the property is worth less than the taxes. And the tax authority can't do anything about it, which is why the properties are put on the market. Various government entities seize private property all the time. Up to and including money.

This was caused by the disconnect in a HOA, where no one person was watching the boat. It is uproariously funny. It has nothing to do with inequality.

In terms of your link it is purely corruption. The tender was sexual favors rather than money.

In the point under discussion you have some opportunists, some people who aren't used to thinking about their street being private property, subject to taxes, and a comedy of errors involving government employee's who have no vested interests. As I said, a farce. There isn't a sympathetic person involved.

I worked at a place where they involved the fire inspector in a poker game where they lost to him deliberately. There are a thousand petty and not so petty events like this that happen under your very nose.

Now having been pompous, I must tell you this was amusing when I first heard of it, and it just gets better with age.

[Chen]

The people who bought the street qualified their "middle-class" status by saying "for San Francisco". This is one rich person attempting to exploit a bunch of other richer people.

@elasto: I'll grant I didn't read the whole article but most seemed like willful bad acts there rather than bureaucratic mistakes.

[idonno]

I am pretty sure that the home owners were paying a lot in taxes. The problem was that there was this one $30 annual tax that they did not know about.

I'm sure they were paying a lot in total but in relation to the value of the property they were probably paying a lot less than other less well off individuals. Lower rates for governmental units with higher property values is simply a mathematical fact of how most property taxes systems work out.

From what I read it's not even that the association just switched accountants, but that the accountant that the tax slips were going to had DIED. You'd think after a couple of mail returns or the like the city would send the the tax slips to SOMEONE else. In fact I'm pretty sure that's the argument the people used to win the court case. We're not taking a single letter. Here. They sent 30 years worth of letters to someone who died (granted I don't know at what point in the 30 years they did). To my understanding the thing was in fact SOLD and even after that they weren't notified until someone asked them the buy it back. Unlike a car or some other asset to be repossessed this is real estate. You KNOW where the people are.

So what if the accountant died? You expect them to search all death records from every state and cross reference it with all of their delinquent taxes to make sure the person they are sending notices to has not died then somehow determine the correct address? The law very clearly states that they have a responsibility to notify "the last known mailing address". If that was legally the last known mailing address, which unless there some odd definition in California it was, the local government did its job. A judge may find that they did not make a "reasonable effort to obtain the name and last known mailing address of parties of interest" but I am very skeptical that an accurate assessment of what is actually a reasonable effort given the information they have available to them would actually come to this conclusion.
They know where what people are? The neighborhood that provided an address to contact them via? A property with whatever owner name the neighborhood association was operating under 30+ years ago. The info which has almost certainly seen at least 2 migrations into new systems. It is almost certainly no associated with all the houses. Of course no one was notified even after it was sold. If they knew enough to notify them after they sold, they would have notified them before it. It is typically the buyers responsibility to take care of any issues they need to in order to take ownership including notifying the people controlling access through a gate. it may seems trivial to sort this out when you look at a single instance but I can tell you with absolute certainty that at the scale they were dealing with, this is not trivial because I have seen how much work it is at much smaller scales.

This was caused by the disconnect in a HOA, where no one person was watching the boat. It is uproariously funny. It has nothing to do with inequality.

This isn't really true. They had a new accountant that was one person watching the boat. The accountant absolutely should have known that the property was supposed to be paying taxes and absolutely should have known that it was not. Honestly, unless the neighborhood signed a stupidly unfavorable contract, there is a pretty good case the accountant is liable for this.

The people who bought the street qualified their "middle-class" status by saying "for San Francisco". This is one rich person attempting to exploit a bunch of other richer people.

I think the people that bought this are outright lying about their motivations and were jerks about the entire thing. They knew exactly what they were doing and I don't have much sympathy for them if this blows up in their faces. I think they have a pretty strong case though and given the rich and powerful nature of the neighborhood, I am skeptical that they are going to be given fair treatment by the legal system. Even jerks deserve fair legal treatment.

[morriswalters]

This isn't really true. They had a new accountant that was one person watching the boat. The accountant absolutely should have known that the property was supposed to be paying taxes and absolutely should have known that it was not. Honestly, unless the neighborhood signed a stupidly unfavorable contract, there is a pretty good case the accountant is liable for this.

Unless it works differently in that locale, the HOA are the owners in concert. Once the developer is gone, they own it, lock stock and driveway asphalt. The only difference is that it is a complex ownership arrangement. Churn over time in staff and owners makes it easy to lose track of details. Every detail would be in the master deed, or whatever they call it in that location. Obviously the people who had the greatest reason to care, couldn't or didn't care enough, to read it. I bet you somebody is reading it now.

However I don't care to push this. I get too much pleasure from just thinking about it. This is just my opinion, and it's worth what you paid for it.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

Details here. As far as I've read, nobody got hurt.

[idonno]

This isn't really true. They had a new accountant that was one person watching the boat. The accountant absolutely should have known that the property was supposed to be paying taxes and absolutely should have known that it was not. Honestly, unless the neighborhood signed a stupidly unfavorable contract, there is a pretty good case the accountant is liable for this.

Unless it works differently in that locale, the HOA are the owners in concert. Once the developer is gone, they own it, lock stock and driveway asphalt. The only difference is that it is a complex ownership arrangement. Churn over time in staff and owners makes it easy to lose track of details. Every detail would be in the master deed, or whatever they call it in that location. Obviously the people who had the greatest reason to care, couldn't or didn't care enough, to read it. I bet you somebody is reading it now.

However I don't care to push this. I get too much pleasure from just thinking about it. This is just my opinion, and it's worth what you paid for it.

I'm sure that is the way it works here but they hired an accountant to manage it. The accountant was a single set of eyes responsible for handling the finances. Their accountant was negligent.

I can tell you that in many places the procedure is to distribute the value of common property across the other properties and charge taxes that way. This is a much more stable system because if someone doesn't pay their taxes they lose their share of the common property to whoever buys the house but the common property itself remains the property of the neighborhood.

[ObsessoMom]

The driver, who admitted to using narcotics[...]

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that he was driving high.