Most countries tax residents and not their citizens abroad. Not so for ego-centric America. The United States has one of the must punitive and arbitrary tax regimes for Americans who choose to live in foreign countries. Not only are they required to pay whatever taxes are required abroad, but they are required to…

Where the hell were you educated? I learned about the Roanoke colonists multiple times during my schooling. We covered everything from the triumph and promise of things like the Revolution to the tragedy of the Trail of Tears and slavery. Nothing was "conveniently forgotten." And that's just the American side of…

You know, it seems implausible that a terrorist would ever do anything like putting deadly powders into the tampon supply. But, after a little reflection, such an idea does seem like it would be pretty terrifying if it were ever carried out....

So basically virus makers and scammers prey disproportionately on people who are inherently trusting and maybe old, and/or less educated? That speaks volumes of the kinds of people who produce viruses and malware.

I take comfort in that as it's pretty much the only religious website I visit. Although Ghostery does note that [lds.org] likes to use Omniture for web optimization...

There wouldn't have been much of a seize at Masada if that had been the case, eh?

I actually read an article a while back about Share Mouse's pricing justification. The developers claimed that they found that they made the same amount of revenue from basically any price point. Namely, when they raised the price, the drop in quantity demanded was offset such that they made the same amount of…

It's nice to see some alternatives to Synergy making their way out. Synergy is amazing because it is cross-platform, but its development has been spotty at best. I just wish ShareMouse had a Linux version.

Reading about the process is and the controversy is interesting and I thank io9 for publishing this. I bring this up for people who would like to read more: The Economist published an editorial-like piece in its leaders arguing that it was important to get these papers published. The reason is mother nature has a…

True Story: I've always been more of a language arts person than a math person. When I started attending a university, I realized that my high school math education had been woefully inadequate. I decided to correct the problem and waded through the remedial courses. I then chose the math centric version of my…

Meh, it's best not to worry about it. Go to Yellowstone and enjoy its beauty instead. It's an amazing place, really.

Gah, this caught me right as I was studying for a final. Cannot focus. Cannot focus. Must watch again.

So hopefully we'll balance everything out with our carbon emissions. Even Steven, right?

You have nothing to apologize for. I was just trying to clarify that nobody was ignoring Illinois.

I don't think it has much to do with ignoring or not ignoring a state. Instead, the taxes line up with those states that both have Amazon distribution centers and whose legislatures have made a stink about getting sales taxes from Amazon.

I just got an email from Amazon today with a tally of all of my purchases during 2012 and a link to a [Tennessee.gov] site for paying sales tax. It was a highly disappointing experience.

But especially California.

So what you're saying is, let's get together and create a fiscal union with national powers over the fifty states. What an amazing idea! Maybe we can get some experts to write a document that will give a national legislature taxing and spending powers and power over interstate commerce. Then it can set national tax…

Thankfully, the Nazis have since reaped historical scorn for their crimes. Sadly, the communists in the Soviet Union implemented similar policies and terrorized their own people - and the people of eastern Europe - to an extent as great or greater than the Nazis. And yet it took decades for our best academics to…

To the extend that any representation of Nazism is awful, I suppose that's true. BUT, the forest swastika is actually a real: [en.wikipedia.org]. Using such for a book about the environmental polices of the Nazis actually kind of makes sense.