🙅 THE BAD IDEAS THREAD
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Another good IQ test for people in political debates is to find out whether they take a lot of exemptions to get a bigger refund, or minimize their refund.
There can be reasons for doing that. I know a few people that do so as refund gets put into some kind of savings and they don't trust themselves to not spend money that is sitting in an account. It's a way of making things easy on yourself which some think is worth the cost of an interest free loan to the gov.
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Shouting things like that is translated to "be rougher!" and I'm not into that kinda stuff like you are so don't think I'll take it up yelling it when getting manhandled.
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I know a few people that do so as refund gets put into some kind of savings and they don't trust themselves to not spend money that is sitting in an account. It's a way of making things easy on yourself which some think is worth the cost of an interest free loan to the gov.
To be fair, though, is that not a good political IQ test? I mean, if you can't even trust yourself with your own money..
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To be fair, though, is that not a good political IQ test? I mean, if you can't even trust yourself with your own money..
Yeah, but they know they can't trust themselves, which puts them above people who don't even realize they can't trust themselves with their own money.
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Shouting things like that is translated to "be rougher!" and I'm not into that kinda stuff like you are so don't think I'll take it up yelling it when getting manhandled.
Oh, I never say it, nor would I. But I like to go to protests to watch hippies get beat down, and you'd be surprised how often people do. It's usually some string bean in a black T-shirt or with a black bandana over his face. They do something dumb and the cop goes to grab them and they start struggling and shrieking "THIS IS WHAT FASCISM LOOKS LIKE! THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING! THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!" at which point the officer pulls out his night stick and starts choking them out.
That's usually when you'll here the "I pay your salary, pig!" bit. That's when another couple of 250 pound cops descend on him and start pepper spraying, punching and tasing his ass. My only regret is they never bring out the water canons or German shepherds any more.
*sniff* I think there's something in my eye..
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Yeah I can see that. Same reason I never sign up for credit cards, even if they do have cash back deals that could benefit me (in theory, if I paid off the card on time.)
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Yeah I can see that. Same reason I never sign up for credit cards, even if they do have cash back deals that could benefit me (in theory, if I paid off the card on time.)
I feel weird about those credit cards. I buy everything on CC if I can, because I average something like 1.5% cash back. But that means essentially somebody else is paying for me to get those rewards with their 26.99% APR, which is kind of nuts. On the other hand, it's free money.
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To be fair, though, is that not a good political IQ test?
If it is, then so would other things that have some long term cost. Say smoking, or drinking lots of soda, or whatever other minor thing. So long as you acknowledge that it is a cost there is no problem with paying it.
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If it is, then so would other things that have some long term cost. Say smoking, or drinking lots of soda, or whatever other minor thing
I'm out.
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Back to the spirit of this thread: The Windows "Shake Window To Minimize All Other Windows" thing. I have 2 monitors, 4 instances of Visual Studio up, and a ton of other stuff. I try to move one VS window a bit so I can see what's behind it and focus another VS instance, and Windows helpfully minimizes EVERYTHING and then I have to waste a bunch of time getting my 20 bajillion windows restored to where I can use them.
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I feel weird about those credit cards. I buy everything on CC if I can, because I average something like 1.5% cash back. But that means essentially somebody else is paying for me to get those rewards with their 26.99% APR, which is kind of nuts.
Yep yep. But it depends on how you feel about those "some other guy I don't know" (most people evaluate random person differently than someone they know) getting screwed.
@morbiuswilters said:On the other hand, it's free money.
So long as you aren't bothered by being associated with someone taking such advantage of people. Personally I'm fine with that, but then I'm not exactly what most people would hold up as a moral exemplar.
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The Windows "Shake Window To Minimize All Other Windows" thing.
That's a thing? Since when?
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because I average something like 1.5% cash back. But that means essentially somebody else is paying for me to get those rewards with their 26.99% APR, which is kind of nuts.
Not quite. The creditcard company takes 3% of payments for "transaction fees" or whatever you want to call it. So the stores mark up all the sales 3% because everyone pays with creditcard and creditcard company takes 3% of the store's profit. Your 1.5% back is just the credit card company giving you back some of the money they took and made interest on.
And at this point, you might as well do it, because the 3% markup already happened (which is why some mom&pop shops charge less if you pay cash).
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Vista. Welcome to the 21st century. Please remove all trash and personal belongings from your timepod.
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That's a thing? Since when?
Not sure, I don't think I've ever seen it until recently. I'm running Windows 7 Pro at work.
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Hey, I'm from the old forums.
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Is it on by default? I've not noticed it. (or I turned it off years ago and forgot).
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Is it on by default? I've not noticed it. (or I turned it off years ago and forgot).
You probably could have tested for it in the time it took you to type up that post.
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Yes. And for the record, just shake again to restore all the windows to how they were before.
That feature threw me a few times too when I did it by accident.
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You probably could have tested for it in the time it took you to type up that post.
Doesn't happen on my work machine, but I was asking as on by default may depend on what version you are running.
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I should also point out that a lot of this is the modern American psychosis of "mental health". We can't accept that boys are different than girls, that they are more rambunctious and have energy they need to burn off, so we diagnose 'em with ADHD and put them on Ritalin. We do this to millions of boys.
The mental health system has just become an arm of the state. It would be unconstitutional for the courts to keep you locked up after you have served your sentence, but they routinely take people coming off their sentences and have them involuntarily committed for mental health reasons. Do you know how many people are on SSI (not SSDI) because they can't find a job, or don't want to? (Their official diagnoses of depression or anxiety disorder notwithstanding.)
Look at how many kids they're putting on anti-psychotics today. It's sickening. Those are dangerous drugs with powerful effects and side-effects meant to treat the very ill, but now they give them to 7 year olds who keep getting into fights (probably because they have a shitty home life.. but we can't fix that and it's passe to shame single mothers who spend all day watching TV and letting their kids run wild.) So we dope them up and the social workers start the paper trail that will eventually give them legal justification to have the kid locked up or put on SSI when he is an adult and commits his first crime.
That rant reminded me of this:
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Yes. And for the record, just shake again to restore all the windows to how they were before.
Clearly shaking it should close everything instead. Where's my Etch-A-Sketch Slate regression testing??edit - I suppose the minimize on first shake is sort of etch-a-sketch like, they just "added a feature" by letting you "un-shake"?
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Well, in the same way the word "retard" is offensive to people who are actually retarded, I guess: "I'm an Aspie because I don't interact well with others" trivializes people who actually are Aspies (and of course people with the regular version of autism). Or maybe, people who are related to those with autism, on behalf of the latter?
Autism is a real disease. The reason it's diagnosed more is because the criteria have widened. I completely agree, btw, with your second paragraph.
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Someone's doing that right outside my apartment--right in front of my back door--and I am about ready to do that in response.
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Well, in the same way the word "retard" is offensive to people who are actually retarded
No it's not, they're too retarded to be offended. It's offensive to the people that know, are related to, and/or like retards.
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Not quite. The creditcard company takes 3% of payments for "transaction fees" or whatever you want to call it. So the stores mark up all the sales 3% because everyone pays with creditcard and creditcard company takes 3% of the store's profit. Your 1.5% back is just the credit card company giving you back some of the money they took and made interest on.
And at this point, you might as well do it, because the 3% markup already happened (which is why some mom&pop shops charge less if you pay cash).
I don't know if I buy that, though. Sure they charge a fee, but it costs money to run the credit card company. (And 3% is higher than most clearinghouses charge.) They have to process transactions, keep customer support employed, and every single dollar I spend is an short-term advance loan. But that means they're loaning millions of dollars a day.
If everybody paid on time and incurred no interest or fees, would they still be able to offer 1.5% cash back on less than 3% merchant fees? I somehow doubt it. So I think in the calculus of things, I am benefiting from others paying so much in interest and fees.
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If everybody paid on time and incurred no interest or fees, would they still be able to offer 1.5% cash back on less than 3% merchant fees? I somehow doubt it. So I think in the calculus of things, I am benefiting from others paying so much in interest and fees.
If they double their cardholder count (or double the # of purchases you're willing to do on your CC as opposed to debit or cash) by offering 1.5% cash back on their 3% merchant fee, then yes (assuming that double the number of issued cards wouldn't incur a large increase in business cost due to the base costs already being covered by the company's existence in the first place).
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Autism is a real disease. The reason it's diagnosed more is because the criteria have widened. I completely agree, btw, with your second paragraph.
I'm not disputing it's a real disease. The "widening criteria" is what pisses me off.
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A bit of research reveals we are both right (though you a little more so).
The number one money-maker for credit card companies is interest charged on outstanding balances... Visa and MasterCard get about 20% of their revenues from merchant fees. American Express gets 65% of its revenues from merchant fees, because it relies less on interest payments (most American Express card holders don't carry a balance).
So most of them make more on Interest charges, but AmEx proves that they all could probably still manage to profit even if their main source of income was from the merchant fee.
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I'm not disputing it's a real disease. The "widening criteria" is what pisses me off.
Absolutely. Although what pisses me off is having a family member who actually was diagnosed with Asperger's, so yeah, I'm one of those people who are annoyed on someone else's behalf.
Huh, I wrote that sentence badly--I'm not pissed he has it, but that people would try to steal the disease to excuse their own "in my parents' basement"-ness.
So it turns out probably the #1 thing you can do is notice if a kid--usually a boy, of course--stops looking people in the eyes when he's about 1-2 years old. Insist that the look you in the eye when he's talking to you, every time, until he starts doing it again. Later, he'll still have the problems with things like understanding body language, but he's not likely to turn into Rain Man.
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I had Assburgers a couple of times, but I try to make sure that I wipe them off pretty soon after.
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If they double their cardholder count (or double the # of purchases you're willing to do on your CC as opposed to debit or cash) by offering 1.5% cash back on their 3% merchant fee, then yes (assuming that double the number of issued cards wouldn't incur a large increase in business cost due to the base costs already being covered by the company's existence in the first place).
Can you back that up? They're getting--at best--1.5% off my transactions. And certainly less when you factor in the costs of support, transactions processing, dispute resolution, monitoring merchants, etc.. Let's be generous and say they get 1% on every dollar I spend. In exchange, they are loaning me that money. It seems like they could get a better rate than that for such a short-term, high risk loan.
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"All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's something big and sinister going on in my social life."
"No, that's perfectly normal awkwardness. Everyone in the universe gets that."
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A bit of research reveals we are both right (though you a little more so).
The number one money-maker for credit card companies is interest charged on outstanding balances...Visa and MasterCard get about 20% of their revenues from merchant fees.American Express gets 65% of its revenues from merchant fees, because it relies less on interest payments (most American Express card holders don't carry a balance).
So most of them make more on Interest charges, but AmEx proves that they all could probably still manage to profit even if their main source of income was from the merchant fee.
Okay, fair enough. Although, the card I use most is AmEx, so they're making more bank on merchant fees.
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the card I use most is AmEx, so they're making more bank on merchant fees.
Irony wins. I was more wrong in general and you were more wrong in your own specific case.
The best kind of ending.
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Don Lemon is an idiot of the useful variety. You don't get to make up your own definitions. Van Jones sure liked him spreading disinformatya, though.
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I repeat: I did not self-diagnose. I didn't even know that Aspergers Syndrome Disorder was a thing until my doctor told me I had it. Can we stop the personal attacks now? This is the equivalent of telling someone wearing a cast on their arm that "their arm isn't broken and they should take the cast off and stop being such a wuss".
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None of my posts today were intended as attacks on you, just "people in general".
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I don't seem to be replying to you with that post, just "people in general".
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I don't seem to be replying to you with that post, just "people in general".
Well that doesn't seem like in the spirit of this forum. Are you depressed or something? You should try to get over that.
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Dang. I'm getting confused by which thread is the autism flame war and which is the depression flame war.
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As someone that is currently being referred onwards for both, where do I sign up?
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Dang. I'm getting confused by which thread is the autism flame war and which is the depression flame war.
Thanks! One likes to hear one's efforts are appreciated!
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I repeat: I did not self-diagnose. I didn't even know that Aspergers Syndrome Disorder was a thing until my doctor told me I had it.
Dude, the criteria for autism/Aspergers has been broadened to the point of uselessness.
Can we stop the personal attacks now?
What personal attacks? Turning every single emotional or social issue into a disease is startlingly awful. That's not personal, that's a very valid criticism of the state of psychiatry.
This is the equivalent of telling someone wearing a cast on their arm that "their arm isn't broken and they should take the cast off and stop being such a wuss".
No, it isn't. And that thinking is precisely why I despise trying to classify every single fucking deviation from "ideal" behavior as a disease. It's insane. "Oh, hey, I've got the Aspergers so I can't lift my arm.. I mean, I can't leave my room. Don't expect me to change starts up Dwarf Fortress"
If it's a disease, what treatment are you undergoing? What hope for improvement does it offer? This isn't a personal attack. I'm trying to get you to question what you've been told. Do you see the people who undergo treatment for shyness--oh, I mean "autism"--getting better? Or do you see them being sucked into the maw of the absolutely shitty psychiatric system which is glad to take their money so long as they keep telling them they are incurably sick?
Are you telling me millions of kids just developed this crippling disease in the last decade? That millions of American kids, out of the blue, just got ADHD over the last two decades? Or maybe, just maybe, the entire thing is mass delusion? Where are all the kids in the third world who have Aspergers? Or is this just a disease that afflicts shy, middle class white kids who have access to technology? (I'm not disputing Aspergers is real, or even that you have problems, I'm saying that accepting an incorrect diagnosis is a death sentence. Not immediate death, but if you don't think you can improve your situation, then you will not.)
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damnit stop ninja editing all those typos.
oh wait it took too long, the edit was no ninja at all.
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damnit stop ninja editing all those typos.oh wait it took too long, the edit was no ninja at all.
Huh? I edited one word that I accidentally left out. No typos..
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So you're right... I assumed that when you added the "not" in, you also made "startling" into the adverb it should be.
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So you're right... I assumed that when you added the "not" in, you also made "startling" into the adverb it should be.
I'm quite sure I have no idea what you're on about. It's always said "startlingly".
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Exact.
