It's very simple: if the terms are satisfactory and against an agreed upon collateral (e.g. shares) banks will give you a loan that does not require periodic payments. The interest on the loan does accumulate of course, and is just added to the principal that the borrower owes. The bank is happy as long as the value of the collateral is higher than the current outstanding loan. If the loan is in danger of going "under water" the bank can either liquidate the collateral to pay itself, or the borrower can renegotiate the loan and deposit additional shares.
It's similar to a reverse mortgage. Say Fred and Wilma own a house worth $4MM with no mortgage on it. With a reverse mortgage a bank will lend them $2MM. Fred and Wilma make no payments and continue to live in their house, spending the $2MM while the interest on that loan just increases the amount they owe the bank. After both Fred and Wilma have passed away the house is sold and the proceeds are used to pay back the outstanding loan. If there's still money left over, it goes to their heirs. If the sale comes up short, the bank loses money, which is why these reverse mortgages are typically less than 50% of the value of the house and they typically have higher interest rates than conventional mortgages. From Fred and Wilma's point of view, they can use the value of their house now, while continuing to live in it. They essentially spend their children's inheritance.
Plus, the money he borrows is not taxable. If he sold stock he would have to pay taxes before he could spend the income. Sure, he now owes money to someone, but he can refinance those loans again and again, and live tax-free the rest of his life while we, poor working stiffs, pay the taxes that built the airport where he parks the private jet he bought with the money he borrowed.
I also think that the system of party primary elections by popular vote is a big part of the problem. To win the Republican primary you have to be more "Republican" than your opponents. Ditto for the Democratic primary. Then you end up with candidates at the far ends of the spectrum instead of more centrist ones.
In congress this means a complete inability to compromise, resulting in the current stalemate. In the presidency, you end up with someone who thinks of his opponents as criminals deserving prosecution.
Florida must be using cheap cameras. My daughter got a red light ticket in Beverly Hills a couple of years ago. They mailed the ticket to her as the registered owner of the car, including the photographs from the cameras which showed that a) she entered the intersection on a red light, b) her car front and back showing the license plates and c) the face of the driver, establishing it was her. From her expression on the photograph you could tell she was saying "oh, shit!" She just paid it.
Back in 1969 I had a summer job in the engineering department of a factory. The Chief Engineer was an old guy who was a slide rule artist. He taught me how to solve second degree equations (ax^2 + bx + c = 0) with just a slide rule. The standard formula that I had learned in high school includes adding and subtracting, which a slide rule cannot do. His method involved pulling out the slider of the slide rule and inserting it backwards. Then, through some clever manipulation using the D and B scales (which now faced each other) and the A and C scales, he could actually solve the equation with just the slide rule. I wish I could remember exactly how it was done.
You don't have to multiply the powers of ten in your head. In your examples, the slider of the slide rule must be moved to the left of the body of the rule. This means the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands.
If the slider had been to the right of the body, the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands MINUS 1.
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I have been getting repeated emails saying something along the lines of "We have a family office who has a strong interest in making an investment into <MY_COMPANY_NAME> industry. Can we set up a time to discuss this opportunity?". They are signed with different names, always female, and coming from email addresses with a TLD of .help or .shop
It's obviously a scam and I am not replying, but I'm curious what the scam is here.
If your definition of Democracy is based on how we elect our leaders, then Hitler's Germany was a Democracy because Hitler was elected Chancellor by a majority. You need to define Democracy based on how we replace our leaders. In that case, Hitler's Germany was not a democracy since it was impossible for the people to replace the Fuhrer had they wished to. In Trump's case, we may still be a Democracy but there are worrysome indications ("Trump’s recent musing that there should be no 2026 election may or may not have been jocular").
When using a slide rule, keeping track of the number of digits to the left of the decimal point (DLDP) in the result is fairly simple if you know the basic rule:
For multiplication, the DLDP in the result is:
- the sum of the DLDPs of the multiplicands MINUS 1 if the multiplication is done with the slide sticking out to the right of the ruler's body (for example 2.0 x 3.0 = 6.0).
- the sum of the DLDPs of the multiplicands if the multiplication is done with the slide sticking out to the left of the ruler's body (for example 5.0 x 4.0 = 20.0).
There's a similar rule for division, but that's left as an exercise for the student.
Every child should have a dog. It gives them valuable life lessons about responsibility, fidelity, unconditional love and to always turn around three times before you lie down.
The whole thing does not make sense to me because the grammars are so different. In English you say "Mary's house". In French it's "La maison de Marie."
I run a cronjob at 2:30AM every day that uses dirvish (a perl wrapper around rsync) to perform backups of several computers. In the fall, at 2AM the clock is rolled back to 1AM. The cronjob runs at 2:30AM, which is 25 hours after the previous day's run. That's not a problem.
However, in the spring, at 2AM the clock jumps to 3AM. Vixie cron seems to be smart enough to run all the cron jobs that were scheduled between 2M and 3AM at that point. However, dirvish is started but exits without running the backups! After some troubleshooting I concluded that dirvish does not make the backups because the previous day's run happened less that 24 hours ago (because that day was shortened by the change to DST) so it sees no need to run a backup yet. This problem would persist even if I moved the cronjob to a different time because it has to do with the day having only 23 hours. I solved this by adding a second entry to the crontab that runs at 3:45AM only on the 2nd Sunday in March.
I had cataract surgery about one year ago. Prior to surgery I needed glasses for longer distances (e.g. driving) but not for near objects like the computer screen or newspapers. I was not a candidate for the panoptix lenses for reasons not related to cataracts. Post surgery I have 20/20 vision for distance so no glasses. But for the computer screen I now need 1 diopter glasses and for newspapers or books I need 2.5 diopters, so two pairs of cheap drugstore glasses. This is livable, except when I have to work with a piece of paper and the computer at the same time. Switching glasses back and forth is a PITA. I got a set of bifocals but can't seem to get used to them. Sometimes I'll even scan the sheets of paper so I can also display them up on the screen.
There are videos made by the Hamas attackers on October 7, using their own cellphones. There are recordings of cell phone calls by the same terrorists: "Dad? I killed a f**g jew just now!".
Interesting: the article says the B29 does not have a steerable nose wheel, but the video clearly shows the nose wheel being steered but then talks about changing engine speeds to steer.
In our condominium building (42 floors) the rule is that every apartment owner is responsible for any damages to their apartment, even if they are caused by an apartment in an upper floor. This is because otherwise the owners of the upper floors would have to have million-dollar insurance premiums to cover the possibility of a leak in their apartment causing damages to multiple floors below. We had an event where a burst pipe in the 28th floor caused damages all the way down to the 8th floor.
This was also our experience while owning three homes in single-family neighborhoods over a 35-year period. We knew our neighbors enough to say "hello", but that was it, and we never associated with them. However, 13 years ago we bought an apartment in a large high-rise condominium building. To our surprise - because that was not a consideration when we moved - we have made many good friends among our neighbors. We go out to dinner together, we invite each other to our homes and to family celebrations. The downside is an aspect of communal living. For example, we needed a new carpet in the building's lobby, so all the owners voted on the color. The majority chose green and we hate green, but we have to live with it.
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On the other hand, Pinochet in Chile held an election in 1988. The choices were to keep him as president or replace him with a constitutional government. He lost (55% to 45%) and he stepped down, allowing a democratic government to replace him. This negates the main thesis, of a 0% success rate in stopping fascism.
Sammy the poodle (http://matrixmark.kesug.com/Sammy.jpg) is prone to severe ear infections. Every time he gets one of those and I take him to the veterinarian, they give him an antibiotic injection, an anti-inflammatory injection and drops to put in his ear. That's $402.85 out of my wallet. Or I can give him the same injections myself. However, in the United States I can shoot my dog with impunity (see Noem, Kristy) but I need a prescription from a veterinarian to give him an antibiotic - that will be $402.85 please. Heck, I need a prescription to give him flea pills too. Or I can order the same medications from Great Britain, without a prescription.
I buy a veterinary grade vaccine for my dog from Great Britain. I'm sure it contains a few micrograms of aluminum salts (those RFK Jr. doesn't like) as a stabilizer. And now I need to pay a 100% tariff on the aluminum?