ToaKraka
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User ID: 108
Please remember that "50 percent plus 1" is an incorrect description of a simple majority. Robert's Rules of Order edition 10 § 44:1:
The word majority means "more than half". For example (assuming that there are no voters having fractions of a vote, as may occur in some conventions):
- If 19 votes are cast, a majority (more than 9.5) is 10.
- If 20 votes are cast, a majority (more than 10) is 11.
- If 21 votes are cast, a majority (more than 10.5) is 11.
"More than half" is not the same as "at least 50 percent plus 1". Assuming integer votes, if 19 votes are cast, "more than half" = "more than 9.5" = "at least 10", while "at least 50 percent plus 1" = "at least 9.5 + 1" = "at least 10.5" = "at least 11" = wrong.
What is your favorite puzzle game? Tetris? Puzzle League? Klondike? Minesweeper?
I recently started playing Puzzle League (specifically, emulated Tetris Attack), and I have to say that it's the most fun I've had with a video game in a while.
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Tired: Camping out at the electronics store to buy the latest underpriced graphics card
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Wired: Camping out at the govt.-owned liquor store to buy the latest underpriced bourbon whiskey
"It's really crazy. People are climbing into delivery trucks to look around, stalking clerks, sneaking into storerooms. Sometimes they will line up before opening just to be the first to ask whether there's anything new," said the press secretary for the PLCB [Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board]. "We want to give the average Pennsylvanian the opportunity to buy a once-in-a-lifetime bottle. We don't jack up the price, and we don't make it hard to find."
Through the Attestations, the PLCB showed that Pennsylvania's bourbon-whiskey enthusiasts have a strong desire to lawfully purchase bourbon whiskey at the PLCB's [govt.-owned liquor] stores, causing annoyance and inconvenience. With regard to a "risk of physical harm to or the personal security of an individual" [sic], as required by [the law], the Attestations provided mere speculation. Therefore, we conclude that the PLCB failed to meet its burden of establishing that the requested records are exempt from disclosure under the personal-safety exemption.
When will people learn that high prices are better than shortages?
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
Dungeon Crawler Carl is probably the "best" example of LitRPG/Systems.
*Worth the Candle enters the chat*
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
Congratulations! Our near-omnipotent alien/demon/wizard/AI society has decided to impose an all-encompassing system of RPG elements upon your primitive world. Please do not resist.
Or, alternatively, the all-encompassing system of RPG elements has merely existed since time immemorial, rather than being suddenly imposed from outside.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
I think there was also a recent thread about homeschooling experiences on here.
The thread in question (including my contribution)
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
all the surrounding media seems too juvenile
Again, it depends very heavily on the series. I don't think anyone would call Armored Core juvenile.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
one in the same
Most of the migrants went to just two metropoles, DFW and Houston. Somehow, this avoided triggering a housing crisis.
Thank zoning (or lack thereof).
Houston is often presented as a counter-example to growth-management planning [i. e., greenbelts and urban growth boundaries] because it has no growth management and no zoning. As a result, it has highly affordable housing and is one of the fastest-growing large urban areas in the country
Unlike Houston, Dallas does have zoning, but it has had little in the way of growth management. Zoning has responded to local residents’ desires to protect neighborhood values, which was the original intention of zoning when it was first conceived in the 1910s, rather than to planners’ desires to reshape suburban lifestyles. Dallas’s housing record is therefore similar to Houston’s except that Dallas is a bit less influenced by swings in the oil industry.
Ultimately, what is wrong with the White House toolkit is that it is focused on local zoning when it should be focused on regional growth management. If there are no regional growth constraints, local zoning won’t make housing more expensive because developers can always build in unrestricted areas. Dallas has zoning, Houston doesn’t; yet in 2014 both had value-to-income ratios of 2.4. Only regional growth constraints make housing expensive. Every major city in America except Houston has local zoning, yet only those cities that have growth constraints have become unaffordable.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
It's impossible to fund a modern government with land taxes alone.
America's annual land rents are sufficient to cover 18–40 % (Fed) or 34–78 % (Smith) of annual federal spending. The low-end figures come from 2020, which was a major outlier in federal spending thanks to COVID.
But wait, what about state budgets? Many states are funded by property taxes, so if we're going to shift to land value taxes, we need to take states into account, too. So let's add state budgets into the mix (minus federal funding to states so we're not double counting). If we do that, we drop to 18–30 % (Fed) or 36–58 % (Smith) of annual spending.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
I think you're confusing the Constitution with the Articles of Confederation.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
Well, you just watch the cool-looking giant robots zoom around with reactionless thrusters, swing energy swords, and shoot giant guns, interspersed with some human-focused drama. (Note that different series can have vastly different appeal. For example, I enjoyed Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, but was not able to enjoy Mobile Suit Gundam (ugly animation) or Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (overwhelmingly stupid characters).)
My personal favorite mecha to look at probably are Zeta Gundam (sleek and with a cool fold-out thruster on its back), Delta Gundam (sleek (unlike its overly edgy child Delta Plus) and with a cool shield (unlike its parent Hyaku-Shiki)), and Kshatriya (four shields and two free arms, without an ugly backpack contraption like Full Armor Gundam's).
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
Gundam Battle Operation 2 gameplay: 42-Year-Old Gamer and Spider-Chieftain
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
IIRC (I probably don't): A while ago, a user on this site kept posting about how he was going to be dropped off by helicopter with nothing but a knife in an isolated location as a way to forge himself into a real man or die trying. The isolated location was Hock Mountain, so he called this escapade "the Hock". The moderators eventually banned him for being a single-issue poster, since he kept talking about it but never actually did it.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
something preposterous like $25
Presented without endorsement:
“My view, which is backed up by language in the U.S. Constitution, is that gold and silver coins are money and are legal tender,” Rep. Mooney said. “If they’re indeed U.S. money, it seems there should be no taxes on them at all. So, why are we taxing these coins as collectibles?”
Acting unilaterally, Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats have placed gold and silver in the same “collectibles” category as artwork, Beanie Babies, and baseball cards – a classification that subjects the monetary metals to a discriminatorily high long-term capital gains tax rate of 28% [versus the rate of 21 percent applicable to, e. g., stocks].
Sound money activists have long pointed out it is inappropriate to apply any federal income tax, regardless of the rate, against the only kind of money named in the U.S. Constitution. And the IRS has never defended how its position squares up with current law.
Furthermore, the U.S. Mint continuously mints coins of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium and gives each of these coins a legal tender value denominated in U.S. dollars. This formal status as U.S. money further underscores the peculiarity of the IRS’s tax treatment.
New J*rsey has joined the surprisingly wide ranks of states that impose no sales tax on precious-metal bullion. However, capital gains on bullion remain taxable by both state and federal governments, despite one federal representative's efforts (1 2).
Project Gutenberg was ready for Public Domain Day, and released a rendition of All Quiet on the Western Front.
ToaKraka
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11mo ago
Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2020:
| Facility | Allegations (%) | Substantiated incidents (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Jails | 1.5 | 0.12 |
| State prisons | 2.4 | 0.13 |
| Federal prisons | 0.75 | 0.02 |
| All prisons | 2.1 | 0.12 |
Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011–2012:
| Facility | Rape by other inmates (%) | Rape by staff (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Jails | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Prisons | 1.1 | 1.1 |
Significantly higher rates—up to 10 percent, but with large uncertainty of ±4 percent or so—were reported at some facilities.
ToaKraka
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1yr ago
ToaKraka
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1yr ago
The Wisconsin school shooter, Natalie Rupnow, has been misidentified in posts online as Samuel Hyde, a comedian falsely linked to deadly attacks in the past as part of a long-running internet hoax.
Hyde told Reuters, however, that neither of the two photographs in the posts about Rupnow is him.
ToaKraka
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1yr ago
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway (GWR), a series of steamships including the first purpose-built transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.
In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the "100 Greatest Britons".
ToaKraka
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1yr ago
(I guess this comment may be somewhat low-effort and/or more suited to the Wednesday Wellness thread, but in light of recent discussion I feel that it may still be appropriate for this thread.)
Are racial sexual preferences natural and mentally healthy, or racist, unnatural, and mentally unhealthy? Is a white man who finds himself afflicted with "jungle fever", an Indian woman who feels a desire to become "bleached", or a black man who has succumbed to "yellow fever" suffering from a delusion that has been inflicted upon him by stereotypes in the media (both pornographic and non-porn)?* Or are these preferences inherent and natural? Is a person obligated to find sexually attractive all people who share the same general category of sex/gender, weight, and figure? Or is attraction permitted to hinge on such minor attributes as skin/nipple color, hair texture, and lip size?
*For example, perhaps the aforementioned black man suffering from "yellow fever" actually just finds skinny, demure-seeming women attractive, but has been brainwashed into thinking that the women who fit that role are overwhelmingly East Asian, and there's no use looking for them elsewhere. Maybe the Indian woman thinks that only white men are capable of building attractive levels of muscle, with few exceptions. Et cetera.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1yr ago
I'm just using BSNES on my computer.
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