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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1608 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 9, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Not-so-fun fact: All the little icons on this website are, not actual emoji characters, but private-use characters in custom fonts. For example, underneath a front-page post you see icons that look like this:

đŸ’ŹïžŽ 81â€ąïžŽ View sourceđŸ‘ïžŽ SubscribeđŸ’ŸïžŽ Save⚑ Report

But that is just in appearance. In reality, each of those icons is a private-use character (inserted as a CSS pseudo-element, so it doesn't even really exist in the page and therefore can't be copied-and-pasted) that shows up as a blank box if you try to use it without the custom font—e. g., , "private-use-F4AD", instead of the proper "speech balloon" emoji. (For details, run searches for 'content:"\f', 'content: "\f', and "font awesome" in this file.) I guess modern web developers don't like Unicode, and prefer to retvrn to Wingdings.

The UN's official "degrees of urbanization":

  • Rural area: Density < 300 per km2

  • Semi-dense town: Density ≄ 300 per km2 and population ≄ 5000

  • City: Density ≄ 1500 per km2 and population ≄ 50,000

The next step is obvious (another ×5 density and ×10 population).

  • Mega-city: Density ≄ 7500 per km2 and population ≄ 500,000

From a glance at the downloadable dataset, using the very-roughly-equivalent criterion "density ≄ 7500 per km2 and area ≄ 67 km2" (which is all that I feel like figuring out in QGIS—I used the "reclassify by table" and "polygonize" tools):

  • Mega-City One (393 km2) is the only US mega-city. Los Angeles (60) is not yet worthy of the title Mega-City Two.

  • Mega-Ciudad Mexico is gigantic, at 673 km2. Guadalajara (152) and LeĂłn (72) also qualify, but Monterrey (56) does not.

  • If you keep going south, Tegucigalpa (92 km2) and Managua (86) qualify as mega-cities, but Panama City (53) does not.

  • London, 316 km2; Paris, 344; Brussels, 67; Berlin, 88; Istanbul, 230; Cairo, 593; Beijing, 537; Tokyo, 1498; Jakarta, 1865; Lagos, 463; et cetera.

When you make a mistake on your US federal income-tax return, the IRS sends to you a letter telling you that you made a mistake and informing you of your new tax bill. In November, the president signed into law a bill that will require this letter to actually explain what mistake you made, rather than merely saying that a mistake exists and giving to you a new tax bill with no explanation of how it was recalculated.

Quotes from the committee report:

Each year, the IRS sends millions of "math error" notices to taxpayers that propose to adjust their tax liabilities. These math error notices often do not explain the reasons for the adjustments, and some are never received by the taxpayer due to lost mail.

With respect to the description of the math error adjustment, the IRS must include the type of error, the section of the Code to which the error relates, and the line on the return on which the error was made. In identifying the type of error, the notice may not rely on a list of multiple categories of math errors in the alternative. Instead, it must identify the specific type of math error authority relied upon for each specific error on the return.

The itemized computation of the adjustments must address all changes to any component of the computation of taxable income and tax liability or tax due. These items include adjusted gross income, taxable income, itemized or standard deductions, credits (whether or not refundable), losses, and other items specifically listed in the provision.

Some recent commodity prices:

  • Gold (lot of 100 troy ounces): 4500 dollars per troy ounce

  • Platinum (lot of 50 troy ounces): 2300 dollars per troy ounce

  • Silver (lot of 5000 troy ounces): 78 dollars per troy ounce

  • Copper (lot of 25,000 kilograms): 5.9 dollars per pound (0.40 dollar per troy ounce)

  • Aluminum (lot of 12.5 tons): 3100 dollars per ton (0.11 dollar per troy ounce)

Notes:

  • These prices are based on large lots. Individual copper coins (called "rounds", since they aren't minted by a government as currency) actually cost around 3 dollars per troy ounce (when they're in stock, which they are not at the time of writing—but they were a week ago).

  • Iron is traded as raw ore (100 megagrams at 62-percent purity), and steel is traded as finished product (20 tons of hot-rolled coil), so those metals cannot be properly compared with the metals listed above. (If you insist on doing it anyway, 62 percent pure iron ore is 110 dollars per ton or 0.0037 dollar per troy ounce, and hot-rolled steel is 970 dollars per ton or 0.033 dollar per troy ounce.)

When you make a mistake on your US federal income-tax return, the IRS sends to you a letter telling you that you made a mistake and informing you of your new tax bill. In November, the president signed into law a bill that will require this letter to actually explain what mistake you made, rather than merely saying that a mistake exists and giving to you a new tax bill with no explanation of how it was recalculated.

I guess I never thought about it, but I didn’t know this wasn’t already how it already worked. It’s amusingly irritating. To build off the common internet joke about taxes:

IRS: “fyi you owe us taxes”
Taxpayer: “how much?”
IRS: “guess”
Taxpayer: *submits tax filing*
IRS: “the amount is wrong btw”
Taxpayer: “how do i fix it?”
IRS: “guess”
Taxpayer: “what happens if i don’t get it right?”
IRS: “fees, interest, penalties, maybe prison
 idk”

Anarchotyranny in action. Low income earners and those who work under-the-table don’t have to bother with tax returns, while more productive citizens have to stress over filings lest they get sent to prison.

The hostility of the IRS is quite a thing to behold. Way back when, when I was still on Reddit, I ran into a thread where someone asked for advice on what to do with some income they, or someone in their family didn't declare. In my naivete I asked why don't they just come clean, and got told ny someone else this could land them in prison. Now I don't know if this was just Redditors spreading Redditisms, but I was rather surprised. This actually works in Europe! If you actively confess before they catch you, they don't even charge interest.

The first indication that DOGE was going off the rails was when Elon proudly tweeted that he had shut down the IRS Direct File program. That might be the most out-of-touch thing I have ever seen him do.

The hostility of the IRS is quite a thing to behold. [...] This actually works in Europe! If you actively confess before they catch you, they don't even charge interest.

There is much to complain about Finnish taxes but the tax office's customer service certainly isn't one of them. I haven't heard a single complaint about them and apart from the rather long queuing times on phone (billed as a regular private phone number, not as a typical expensive service number) and some services only being open a few hours per day, their service has always been excellent and friendly. Taxes are of course calculated automatically and most changes and declarations can be done online but if you need to do something Right Now, you may need to call them on the phone.

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