In other news... (humorous news items, etc)

[bigglesworth]

Yeah, no-one is suggesting punishing people, just re-adjusting the incentives. These things have to be kept up-to-date and unintentional problems ironed out.

[Chen]

Cathy gave an accurate description of why this is caused avoidance. If you read the article, Osbourne does admit that what they're doing is legal. It's just when they do things solely to avoid taxes (ie instead of doing the behaviour encouraged by the tax to build a business or whatever) it's a bit unscrupulous.

HMRC found the main methods used by people to reduce their bills was writing off business losses, offsetting the cost of business mortgages and borrowing on buy-to-let properties - all against their income tax bills

None of those seem like things they're ONLY doing to avoid taxes. There seem to be significant benefits to doing those things anyway and the government did at one point think those incentives were reasonable.

[Angua]

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

Also, the phrase 'all against their income tax bills' makes it sound like the individual is doing it against their income, not the business income, but that could be poor reporting.

[lutzj]

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

If you take out a loan you don't need purely as a tax write-off you're probably losing money, since you still have to pay for that loan.

[Angua]

Depends if you can pay it off fast enough that the write off is lmore than the interest.

[AvatarIII]

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

Also, the phrase 'all against their income tax bills' makes it sound like the individual is doing it against their income, not the business income, but that could be poor reporting.

I think that's part of the problem, but i think the bigger problem is that money opens up the possibilities to avoid tax that regular workers don't have.

I am under the assumption that the article is talking about their take-home income, not business income, businesses get tax breaks anyway, which is fair, i don't really see why individuals should be able to access these loopholes

[Nylonathatep]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10 ... ringfield/

[Vaniver]

Well, tax avoidance is using legal loopholes to pay a relatively tiny amount. Tax evasion is using illegal loopholes to pay nothing or next to nothing.

Avoidance is what we call it when someone pays less than we want but we can't prosecute them. Evasion is what we prosecute gangsters for.

Thanks! I didn't realize those were already technical terms. To me "avoidance" and "evasion" both looked like "dodging," and so I wish they were a bit more distinct. ("Mitigation" appears to be the term that tax lawyers use for avoidance to make it sound less bad.)

[Qaanol]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10/matt-groening-reveals-the-location-of-the-simpsons-springfield/

Awesome.

[rvalenzuela]

Browsing in a site, I found this extremely early example of xkcd art:

http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2011/07/15/8170/

R

[Nylonathatep]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... ion-1?bn=1

Welcome to Suckerville.... population: You!

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/12 ... ario-farm/

My best bet is that they sheeple abducted the sheep.

[LaserGuy]

Hamster becomes stuck to cage after eating magnet. The lack of good photos in this story is extremely disappointing though.

[SlyReaper]

Hamster becomes stuck to cage after eating magnet. The lack of good photos in this story is extremely disappointing though.

I read that story this morning, and upon reading the headline, I was horrified. However, when it was made clear that the hamster was fine, I was able to laugh a little.

I wonder what would have happened if it was one of those crazy strong neodymium magnets.

[Xeio]

I wonder what would have happened if it was one of those crazy strong neodymium magnets.

If you send me a hampster I have a few hundred of those at my desk to test with...

[Qaanol]

I wonder what would have happened if it was one of those crazy strong neodymium magnets.

If you send me a hampster I have a few hundred of those at my desk to test with... :twisted:

You may expect several hundred hamsters to arrive through your mail slot without warning, good sir or madam.

[SlyReaper]

I wonder what would have happened if it was one of those crazy strong neodymium magnets.

If you send me a hampster I have a few hundred of those at my desk to test with...

I don't have any hamsters (which, by the way, does not have a P in it), but I do have seventy three bears. I've sent you 5 of those bears. You can expect delivery some time in the next few days, assuming the postman survives.

[addams]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10/matt-groening-reveals-the-location-of-the-simpsons-springfield/

Awesome.

O.K. Awesome. Because?

I lived there. Yeah. The divide between Eugene and Springfield makes for some weirdness. I don't know what to think. And; I LIVED THERE!

I went to meetings after the 2000 and 2004 election. I heard some weird stuff. I looked into it. Some of it was true. Like Siamese Twins fighting.

Springfield has to pump its raw sewage up hill to the processing plant in Eugene. Eugene can turn the electricity off on the east side of I-5.
If, Eugene turns the power off, then, the overflow of sewage runs into the river above Eugene. That shit is funny.

That is like two guys with guns to one each other's heads. Right?

I was there when EWEB checked the system. So, funny. Everything east of I-5 was dark. Springfield has its own public utility, but, it seems that EWEB is the big boy in town or the guy that flips the switch lives in Eugene. Many of the people that run Springfield live in Eugene. It is a bicycle commute.

It is a beautiful area. Down in a valley that has loads of topography from volcanic action.

The power plant is a pulp mill. Springfield Oregon is a place, just, like any other place. ech. It has its problems. It has huge problems. It was ground zero for some kind of political weirdness for a while.

Camera crews: FOX news was doing a build up piece for the noble stand in support of the Patrot Act there. All the build up and all the secrecy; For what?

The Police are into performance art.
The New Justice Center has state of the art surveillance equipment.
Eugene does not get off the hook. Eugene's Police are into performance art, too. Eugene has a New Justice Center of some kind, too. It has George W. Bush in four foot tall letters out front. What is a common citizen to think?

Of course, Eugene outclassed Springfield. Eugene's New Justice Center is a Balboa Museum of Modern Art kind of thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_Museum_Bilbao

Springfield's New Justice Center is a Wal-Mart/Target knock off architectural style.

Oh. Now; Will Springfield become a mecca for Simpson fans? Can't hurt. Some of the bars downtown are rough. Be careful.

I had a little Oasis in the city. It was nice enough. Politics! I hate politics! I loved my little Guest House.

This is funny? Fine.

Outside Portland? It is a two hour drive to Portland. That is in the middle of the night. During the day there are traffic jams all the way up that valley.

[buddy431]

This article was on the front page of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. I can't find it anywhere on their site - I think they might be too embarrassed and are trying to erase it from the records. Or something. Anyways, I scanned it in:

Page 1
Page 2

Spoiler:

I think the best part is the picture.

I also typed it up if you can't access the photos

Spoiler:

By Patrick Wade
pwade@news-gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN - They say it comes out at night and follows you. Maybe is sounds like something out of a science-fiction horror movie, but a group of Champaign residents say they are legitimately frightened by a light in the sky.

And they want the police to do something about it.

"Really, when you first see it, it's kind of intimidating," Linda Turnbull said. "It's really a scare tactic."

A small group of people who have seen if flying a few dozen feet over the Garden Hills neighborhood and West Washington Street area near downtown Champaign cannot identify the flying object, but they know it scares the heck out of them. They say it's small and circular, it doesn't make a noise and emits a white light.

Try to get away, and it follows you with ease, they say.

"I have no idea (what it is), but it scared the hell out of my little niece," said resident Crystal Hayes. "She literally started crying."

Turnbull lives in Garden Hills, and she often visits her mother at the Washington Square apartment building near downtown Champaign. She said she and others have seen it at both locations.

She met with Police Chief Anthony Cobb to talk about it earlier this week. Cobb said, on its face, it's not necessarily a crime. But given that a community member is concerned about it, he feels an obligation to at least look into it.

"Is it crime No. 1 in the city of Champaign? Not at this point in time," he said.

It's not a common complaint, he said. No one has ever reported to Cobb a claim of harassment via model aircraft before, and he said police need to figure out what is going on before they move forward.

"At this point in time, I don't know where we're going to end up," Cobb said.

Without seeing it, it's hard to tell what it could be and where the pilot might be located, said Gerald Sappenfield, president of the Champaign County Radio Control Club. But based on its description, he said it is possible that it could be a radio-controlled device.

If it is, the pilot certainly is not following general flying etiquette, he said.

"We do make that pretty clear how important it is for all of our club members, both for safety and for insurance reasons, to tell them to fly at our designated area" on West Bloomington Road near the interstate, he said.

The city of Champaign has received complaints about model airplanes flying over residential properties before, according to city documents. In 2000, residents of the Meridian Estates subdivision, across Interstate 74 from the club's flying field, complained after a model airplane crashed in the area. The city got another complaint in 2006, and the club was quick to correct the issues, according to documents.

The city has not received any complaints since 2006, and it is unlikely the club's flying field would be the source of Turnbull's complaint. Sappenfield said the flying field is much too far away from the Garden Hills neighborhood.

Turnbull said the object is so frightening that it has been the source of a few 911 calls.

"A lot of people were not used to it, and they didn't know what to think," Turnbull said. "They were just scared."

When officers show up, she said, they have not exactly been receptive to the idea of investigating a UFO.

"They try to make a joke of it, and that's not right." Turnbull said.

But the frustration is no laughing matter, she said. When she sees it, she feels disrespected and emotionally stressed. She rented a telescope to try to catch a close-up look, and she's distributing fliers asking people to be on the lookout and report anything they see to champaignreporting@gmail.com.

It could be any number of things, Turnbull said - a spy plane, meddling kids or maybe something more sinister. But resident Pam Barrett said it is the "fear of the unknown" that is really affecting those who have seen it.

"One time, I got where I didn't want to look at it," Barrett said.

If it's some kind of remote-controlled plane, there are not a whole lot of rules in the city of Champaign - or anywhere, for that matter - governing when and where it can be flown, said City Attorney Fred Stavins.

If it's recreation, there is not a whole lot the authorities can do. But if the pilot is intentionally harassing his neighbors, Stavins said, then maybe police could intervene.

"I want the police to do something," Turnbull said. "I want this thing to stop stalking people."

Basically, a couple local residents have called police a few times for a UFO that's following them. It's probably either some dick with his model plane, or else a couple residents that want some attention.

[Link]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10/matt-groening-reveals-the-location-of-the-simpsons-springfield/

Or not.

[Iulus Cofield]

Sorry Oregon, you won't be able to claim Homer, Bart and the rest of The Simpsons clan as your own.

We've been doing it for decades and I don't think we'll stop any time soon.

[morriswalters]

And people tell me that reason is king. Police officer blinded by science, argues physicist.

[Angua]

[quote="the article']decelerated at 22.36 mph.[/quote]
The journalist doesn't seem to be a physicist either.

[SlyReaper]

And people tell me that reason is king. Police officer blinded by science, argues physicist.

To understand or poke holes in Krioukov's defense, you'd probably need a degree in math or physics

What? It's not that hard to understand. The rozzer's view of the yaris stopping was obscured by a larger passing vehicle, and by the time it was un-obscured, the yaris was moving again. That's not high-level mathematics or physics.

[Shivahn]

What? It's not that hard to understand. The rozzer's view of the yaris stopping was obscured by a larger passing vehicle, and by the time it was un-obscured, the yaris was moving again. That's not high-level mathematics or physics.

Clearly, you don't really know you're happy until you have a degree in neuroscience with a minor in biochemistry.

[Iulus Cofield]

The lesson of this story is the best defense is something that is hard for the judge/jury to understand. I think that's taught Lawyery 101.

[addams]

Sorry Oregon, you won't be able to claim Homer, Bart and the rest of The Simpsons clan as your own.

We've been doing it for decades and I don't think we'll stop any time soon.

Rose from The Golden Girls had some wonderful lines written for her.
She was going to take a criminal that she had a crush on into hiding.
When asked, "Where will you live?"
She said, "Springfield."
When asked, "Which Springfield?"
She said, "See? They will never find us."

[lutzj]

decelerated at 22.36 mph.

The journalist doesn't seem to be a physicist either.

Maybe 22.36mph was the precise point where he started decelerating

[Technical Ben]

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

If you take out a loan you don't need purely as a tax write-off you're probably losing money, since you still have to pay for that loan.

I'm guessing most loans they take out won't be coming out at 40% cost (unlike the tax could be).

[lutzj]

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

If you take out a loan you don't need purely as a tax write-off you're probably losing money, since you still have to pay for that loan.

I'm guessing most loans they take out won't be coming out at 40% cost (unlike the tax could be).

Let's say you're making $10 million this year. You could pay your country's normal top tax rate of 50% and end up with $5 million.

You could also take out a loan for another $10 million, which costs you $1 million in interest over time (let's ignore inflation for the moment). To encourage this sort of loan, the government grants you a tax break of $x which counts against the $5 million you'd normally pay. You end up with $(4 million + x)

If the tax credit x is less than $1 million, you still lose money. If it's greater than $1 million, the government is apparently subsidizing loans to the point that loaning money is instantly profitable and the economy has already collapsed by now.

[Randomizer]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10/matt-groening-reveals-the-location-of-the-simpsons-springfield/

Or not.

I'm unsurprised. I had read the interview by Smithsonian and it certainly didn't look like Matt said Springfield was *in* Oregon, despite what the headline said. Named after =/= the same as.

[morriswalters]

Nobody seemed to question if the guy had really run the red light. I guess that it is easier to believe since he used math. ROFL.

[Hawknc]

Nobody seemed to question if the guy had really run the red light.

Doesn't matter - there's no way to prove that he committed the offence he was accused of, so he shouldn't be fined for it.

[PhoenixEnigma]

Forget cloud computing, it's time we moved on to crab computing!

[buddy431]

The mayor of Newark , Cory Booker, saved a woman from a fire. It's been doing the rounds on the internets (especially twitter), with people making Chuck Norris-esque jokes about it. This is the same mayor who continued to live in one of the poorer parts of town after being elected, traveled with police to lecture drug dealers, and helped residents shovel out their cars after a blizzard. He's generally well liked, and seen as a possible candidate for governor at some point in the future.

[Technical Ben]

Spoiler:

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

If you take out a loan you don't need purely as a tax write-off you're probably losing money, since you still have to pay for that loan.

I'm guessing most loans they take out won't be coming out at 40% cost (unlike the tax could be).

Let's say you're making $10 million this year. You could pay your country's normal top tax rate of 50% and end up with $5 million.

You could also take out a loan for another $10 million, which costs you $1 million in interest over time (let's ignore inflation for the moment). To encourage this sort of loan, the government grants you a tax break of $x which counts against the $5 million you'd normally pay. You end up with $(4 million + x)

If the tax credit x is less than $1 million, you still lose money. If it's greater than $1 million, the government is apparently subsidizing loans to the point that loaning money is instantly profitable and the economy has already collapsed by now.

PS, I think that IS what happens? At least in some "inventive" banking. Think if you are the bank lending the money to the company you own. Now any cost of that loan is going back into profits of your own lending company. Minus the taxes.

[kiklion]

Spoiler:

Yeah, but if the government say, intended the loan thing to make it easier for poor/middle class people doing start-up companies, and the rich people don't really care if they take out the loan or not but are doing it solely for the purpose of getting the tax break, don't you see a difference in those two scenarios?

If you take out a loan you don't need purely as a tax write-off you're probably losing money, since you still have to pay for that loan.

I'm guessing most loans they take out won't be coming out at 40% cost (unlike the tax could be).

Let's say you're making $10 million this year. You could pay your country's normal top tax rate of 50% and end up with $5 million.

You could also take out a loan for another $10 million, which costs you $1 million in interest over time (let's ignore inflation for the moment). To encourage this sort of loan, the government grants you a tax break of $x which counts against the $5 million you'd normally pay. You end up with $(4 million + x)

If the tax credit x is less than $1 million, you still lose money. If it's greater than $1 million, the government is apparently subsidizing loans to the point that loaning money is instantly profitable and the economy has already collapsed by now.

PS, I think that IS what happens? At least in some "inventive" banking. Think if you are the bank lending the money to the company you own. Now any cost of that loan is going back into profits of your own lending company. Minus the taxes.

First off, I believe people have been mis-using credit and deduction, however lutzj is slightly wrong in that loaning money isn't instantly profitable in that scenario. It only reduces your tax burden, which isn't the same as making a profit. Even if you own the bank, you are just shifting the tax burden from the individual to the bank. (And if you are a sole ownership, I believe the IRS treats it as one.)

Secondly, whatever event the government is subsidizing, is still happening. You are still using that loan to increase demand for colleges, or to encourage home ownership, or for some green endeavor.

[Randomizer]

The almighty Al Lowe has put up a Kickstarter: Make Leisure Suit Larry come again!

I trust you are all familiar with the classic Leisure Suit Larry game series. Al Lowe and his team are going to remake the first Larry game, and if that's successful they're going to work on the rest and, hopefully, build up enough cash to be able to finance finally making the long awaited Leisure Suit Larry 8: Lust in Space!

Also in the news: They've made some ultra-thin (and flexible) sub-2-μm-thick organic solar cells.

[buddy431]

Commercial Pilot dives to avoid Venus. The incident was in January, but the Canadaian Transportation Safety Board released their report about it yesterday.

[Adacore]

Frozen cows in Colorado wilderness park ranger cabin must been blown up, or the cabin burned down.

[Jave D]

Commercial Pilot dives to avoid Venus. The incident was in January, but the Canadaian Transportation Safety Board released their report about it yesterday.

If I was a passenger on that plane I'd be thankful we did not crash into Venus. Venus is very hot.