caught in a rocksli.de

Colorado sucks again

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:31:56 -0700

I love paying taxes. I do! Roads and schools and infrastructure and all that good stuff. One day I plan on actually having an income again, and I will happily pay more taxes.

States, there is a right and wrong way to do things. This is not the way. See below or google the silly bill for more info.

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate: We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.

Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

somebody get a forklift (via chiam)

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:36:18 -0700

somebody get a forklift

(via chiam)

Gorillaz - White Flag (ft. Kano, Bashy & Lebanese National...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:37:53 -0700

Gorillaz - White Flag
(ft. Kano, Bashy & Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arab Music)

omnialx

poortaste

Can’t wait for this to come out.

Journey to the Arctic Circle via nevver

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:18:01 -0700

Journey to the Arctic Circle via nevver

fred-wilson: Go Do - Jonsi Jonsi is the lead singer of Sigur...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:39:29 -0700

fred-wilson:

Go Do - Jonsi

Jonsi is the lead singer of Sigur Ros. he’s got a new solo record coming out. i love his voice and music.

"Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from..."

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:37:38 -0700

“Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting “because people are being paid even though they’re not working.” Unemployment insurance “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,””

- This Is Getting Good

He’s also against ships having life rafts, which discourage people from learning how to swim.
(via southpol)

Reading T H E HOM E B R E W I N D U S T R I A L R E V OL U T I ON “As Roderick Long put...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:35:44 -0700

Reading T H E HOM E B R E W I N D U S T R I A L R E V OL U T I ON

“As Roderick Long put it, In the absence of licensure, zoning, and other regulations, how many people would start a restaurant today if all they needed was their living room and their kitchen? How many people would start a beauty salon today if all they needed was a chair and some scissors, combs, gels, and so on? How many people would start a taxi service today if all they needed was a car and a cell phone? How many people would start a day care service today if a bunch of working parents could simply get together and pool their resources to pay a few of their number to take care of the children of the rest? These are not the sorts of small businesses that receive SBIR awards; they are the sorts of small businesses that get hammered down by the full strength of the state whenever they dare to make an appearance without threading the lengthy and costly maze of the state’s permission process.”

this is simultaneously very smart and very ignorant. Let’s turn someplace, say Detroit, into a free economic zone & see how things shake out. I posit there would be both very good and creative small biz systems, but also a lack of redress for poor/dangerous models that would sprout.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:06:37 -0700

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Trying hipstamatic on Einstein

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:46:59 -0700

Trying hipstamatic on Einstein

Canada Wins! via nevver edit: and a gold medal. well played.

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:45:00 -0700

Canada Wins!

via nevver

edit: and a gold medal. well played.

urbangreens: Ballard Library green roof, Seattle, WA photo...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:33:55 -0700

urbangreens:

Ballard Library green roof, Seattle, WA

photo courtesy Hydrotech USA

waxandmilk: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant ChildDirected by...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:30:38 -0700

waxandmilk:

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Directed by Tamra Davis
2010

New documentary from Tamra Davis on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. I’m a fan of both director and subject so I can definitely get into this. I got into Basquiat and jazz music when I started design school, so to me this is on point. Oh, to be a young starving artist.

Sidenote: big fan of the Blue Note style typography

nevver: The Art of the Steal Poster

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:27:19 -0700

nevver:

The Art of the Steal Poster

love urban landscapes. see the guy below for great pictures of...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:22:47 -0700

love urban landscapes. see the guy below for great pictures of korea

(via chiam)

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed...."

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:56:47 -0700

“

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

—

”

- Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860)

Liberals & Atheists More Intelligent

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:56:47 -0700

Just posting a pape I read…..

More intelligent people are statistically significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds….

In the current study, Kanazawa argues that humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is evolutionarily novel. So more intelligent children may be more likely to grow up to be liberals.

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) support Kanazawa’s hypothesis. Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as “very liberal” have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as “very conservative” have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.

Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans’ tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see “the hands of God” at work behind otherwise natural phenomena. “Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid,” says Kanazawa. This innate bias toward paranoia served humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers. “So, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become atheists.”

Young adults who identify themselves as “not at all religious” have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as “very religious” have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence….

One intriguing but theoretically predicted finding of the study is that more intelligent people are no more or no less likely to value such evolutionarily familiar entities as marriage, family, children, and friends.

Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse New York, Sam O’Hare via nevver

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:19:36 -0700

Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse New York, Sam O’Hare

via nevver

Last second gpoyw

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:01:08 -0700

Last second gpoyw

radiative forcings: USGS Reports Dramatic Retreat of Ice Shelves in Southern Antarctic Peninsula

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:48:25 -0700

radiative forcings: USGS Reports Dramatic Retreat of Ice Shelves in Southern Antarctic Peninsula:

Every month brings more evidence the world’s greatest ice sheet is disintegrating much faster than the “consensus” forecast (see Satellite data stunner: “Our data suggest that EAST Antarctica is losing mass…. Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea-level rise”). …

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21)

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:48:13 -0700

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz