fr0sty

In the interests of correctness, that's a (rather common) misunderstanding of the phrase "immaculate conception".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

"The Immaculate Conception should not be confused with the perpetual virginity of Mary or the virgin birth of Jesus; it refers to the conception of Mary by her mother, Saint Anne."

> solicitors (lawyers) are paid based upon how much work they've actually done on the case - with a flat rate.

Which is it: a flat rate or an amount based on the amount of work done?

> if he invested some time

If he invested some time then he would not just be selling the car as-is where-is. He would be selling the product of the car + his effort which may actually be a net loss depending on how much time he spent and how much of a better price he received.

Cars which are "written off" by insurance companies are also known as a "total loss" or "totaled" and the title for that car will be branded as such. These things only happen in the case of insurance claims after accidents and such.

Those cars are, as you say illegal to operate as-is, but there are many non-running cars which would be (if certain repairs were made) perfectly legal to drive. Buying up several of these cars and assembling the best pieces is neither illegal or nefarious. Even buying a few "totaled" cars as donors for certain parts is perfectly fine as well.

> I got less than half of what the car was actually worth...

First, the car is worth whatever someone will pay for it and not a cent more. Also, as of January 2005 you cannot use the KBB value or "fair market value" of your car for your deduction and rather MUST use the auction price for the car.

Here is the KBB page about that change: http://mediaroom.kbb.com/index.php?s=43&item=130

Here is the State of Illinois catch-all approach to addresses (from their voter registration form:

http://www.elections.il.gov/downloads/votinginformation/pdf/...

    IF YOU HAVE NO STREET ADDRESS, 
    below describe your home: list the name of subdivision; cross
    streets; roads; landmarks; mileage and/or neighbors' names.

> nobody will care about it.

I disagree. If the company in question is large enough having documentation that you were actively trying to avoid disaster, were competent enough to raise concerns and suggest solutions, etc. can be helpful when people come trying to assign blame after the fact.

If the company as a whole will survive the impending train wreck then having evidence of competence, however meager, is certainly useful in many situations short of criminal prosecution.

For Me:

    Location: Home
    Coverage: ~1k sqft
    Hardware: 1 Buffalo Wireless router/ap
    Firmware: ODM, tried DD-WRT with no success (~2years ago)
    Features: Nothing fancy

Comments: I originally bought the Buffalo device on the recommendation of Jeff Atwood but I was never able to get the DD-WRT firmware he was so excited about to work reliably so I fell back to the default firmware which is adequate, so far as it goes.

This one is even more relevant:

http://what-if.xkcd.com/16/

To argue by analogy, are the (no doubt hundreds) of "clocks" listed on etsy that are no more than a cheap prebought movement mounted through a hole in a piece of wood in violation of the same policy? What about the driftwood lamps and such which are just prebought components fished through holes someone drilled?

And who's to say that every other item on that site was not made by some sweatshop that churns out crates of knick-knacks?

This is a "featured item" on the front page:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88946705/tomato-art-print-lovely...

Does the creator need to send documentation of them creating the original? Why not?

One additional benefit to the water sign: It doesn't leave the roadway strewn with debris.

Even in the face of "complete information" from a doctor there is a log of "awareness" being raised elsewhere which is almost uniformly in the battle/fight/beat/win direction.

In such a case it is very easy to see how it would be possible for the patient to choose treatment which is in fact against their best interest.

Also, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread the current regulatory/legal climate leaves a vanishingly small upside and massive downside to the doctor who would advise against treatment.

I doubt that is true. The overall market moved less than 1% and I don't think individual names moved much more than their normal daily trading ranges.

Subtitle should be: Realization that Tweet was Fake Creates $136B in Stock Market. In less than 5 minutes everything was back to normal.

The interesting question is whether the people panic selling were skittish human traders or twitter-based algorithms trying to get a jump on the headline.

More info re: formatting:

http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Sunday_comics

Once you "flag" an article the text changes to "unflag" and clicking again changes it back (at least for me).

But downvotes are forever.

Does Costco offer free 2-day shipping? (or free shipping, period?)

If you are comparing an in-store price to the amazon Prime one you have to factor in the costs (implicit and explicit) of actually making a trip out for a particular item or waiting for your monthly Costco run to pick-up X rather than having it here by Saturday.

> Mt. Gox is at $120 right now

Actually, Mt. Gox has no active market now so the last quoted prices there are irrelevant.

It is non-trivial to get dollars into accounts on exchanges. It is also not an instant transfer of bitcoins from one exchange to another. your two step process really is a four step one:

     0. Get dollars to Bitstamp to buy bitcoins
     1. Buy bitcouns from Bitstamp
     2. Transfer bitcoins from bitstamp to bitfloor
     3. sell bitcoins on bitfloor (assuming the price hasn't changed).

What you are describing is "location arbitrage" (exploiting differing prices for the same goods in different locations). and it is one of the ways that prices get moved back into line.

That is only effective if you have all exchanges working in a coordinated fashion. Halting trading on a single exchange (even if it is the largest) does nothing to arrest the fall since trading can (and will) continue at other marketplaces.

Just for reference: as of 2:26ET last trade I can get from the mtGox API was for $157.

EDIT:

2:52:00 last trade: $142

2:56:58 last trade: $135

3:10:10 last trade: $117.57

3:20:52 last trade: $106.00 (this is the lowest price I've seen)

3:42:ish trades between $125-$150

This is off by at least three orders of magnitude.

1BTC = 10M satoshi.

2012 US Penny Production = ~6B

6bn/10M = 600

Total number of us pennies made in the last 10 years tops 43B which pushes the difference from 600x to 4300x

It is the non-committal answer. the other '0' options have an attached attitude (interested, not interested, scam) and I people are choosing "other".

Also, you can own a fraction of a coin so 0-1 does not overlap completely with 1-9.

git branch gives you a nice asterisk too: $git branch * MyBranch NotMyBranch

It prints the branch as the first line of git status: $git status # On branch Foo ...

It also ships with a 'bash-competion' file which gives you a very simple way to disply the current branch (among other things) rather simply.

And of course you can also create your own alias if it is something you wish to do often.

> it's not backed by anything of real, unchanging value.

Are you actually arguing that gold's value does not change?

Also, what are you using to measure the "volatility" you claim fiat money has so much of?

What is ridiculous about that?

Tbonds are pretty much the definition of the "risk free rate of return" for USD. Is there an alternate (non-zero) "risk free rate" for gold that you would like use instead to make comparisons?

Just to pick some other dates: 100 ounces of gold in 2000 was worth ~$28k which wouldn't buy much house anywhere.

Also, comparing gold @ ~$20/oz in 1913 to a dollar stuffed under a mattress in the same year is a bit of a false comparison. The Compounding the same $20 in 10year Tbonds (a decent 'risk free rate' starting in 1928 (the first year I could find data) would yield ~$679 in 2000 (outperforming gold by over 2x) and ~$1385 in 2012 (underperforming slightly, but with almost no volatility).

Think of it this way:

Person A: one who gives Bitcoins in exchange for Widgets. Person B: one who gives Widgets in exchange for Bitcoins.

Notice the symmetry. The name buyer and seller are arbitrary designations depending on what you consider the currency and what you consider the good being sold.

The inflation/deflation symmetry exists but it is not in the same terms. Deflation for bitcoins is the same as inflation for widgets. The widget holders are desperate to trade their widgets for bitcoins since their widgets's purchasing power is decreasing, but bitcoin holders are reluctant to buy widgets since their value is decreasing.

> Protip: you can file an extension until October with no penalty.

Caveat: This is true ONLY if you are due a refund. If you owe tax you will be charged interest (and possibly penalties) for paying after the deadline[1].

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Extensions-and-Payment-Options