jetcat
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Posts posted by jetcat
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23 hours ago, Rave said:
It's a bit odd of Funn3r's chap to have blamed Honda for the demise of the two stroke; while it's true that Soichiro Honda didn't like them, they made some perfectly competent ones in the 70s, and some bloody excellent ones once they finally realised that trying to beat the two-strokes in GP racing with ludicrously exotic four stroke engines was a fool's errand. They even built a direct injection 2 stroke in 1995 and took it to a 5th place finish in the Paris-Dakar.
http://www.honda-museum.com/honda-exp-2/
Quite why the idea wasn't developed further, I have no idea :(.
It looks like they did! http://newatlas.com/honda-two-stroke-with-fuel-injection-patent-filing/38529/
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They should make it 1% of the property value per year.
1% of LAND value. Unregistered land should be registered or sold at a market rate for productive use.
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Snap! (This registered date is four days earlier.) I wonder how many more there are.
ADDRESS: 2, Forbes Street, Bredbury, SK6 2NPPROPRIETOR: HOMESELECT FINANCE (NO. 3) LIMITEDCOUNTRY: JERSEYDATE REGISTERED: 11/02/2005PRICE PAID: £48,295,950TITLE: GM600125An otherwise ordinary working-class terrace house.- Telephone: 0300 200 3700
- Textphone: 0300 200 3719
Call HMRC for advice about money laundering and how to report suspicious transactions.
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It didn't make much of a financial sense, given need for to maintain and repair, even with the current tariff. If, on the other hand, there are cheaper and longer serving batteries available (which are coming), then a low-voltage and partly off-grid custom installation will save money. That is, with low voltage LED lighting and low-voltage USB sockets for everything but kitchen appliancies.
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They're the pioneers of wearable tech and in very good position to set the standards for constant personal activity/sleep/health/position tracking. They're not only good in capturing, but evidently great at processing the data. Whoever makes it first, will out-capitalize Apple and Google, since health and location data for millions of people is more valuable than whatever Google captures from search and mail.
The value of wearables for the manufacturer is the data they gather from their customers, not just income from selling the devices.
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That's people changing lenders to get cheaper rates. My approval was one of them, though I didn't buy anything.
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It seems like the the whole point of tax avoidance is to make HMRC aware of ways to legally avoid tax (to subsequently make it illegal). It is an offense not to disclose the details of the avoidance scheme and probably worse in terms of consequences than dodging tax. Therefore, however clever, it becomes known to HMRC the moment it starts working, and the hole gets plugged when there's a political will to do so.
I think it is generally a good system that does not work better because of political cronyism and HMRC being understaffed and underfunded. Ideally, each scheme should only work for two years before being legislated against.
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I'd heard rumours of CWI being a bad idea, but it is so all pervading that one could be forgiven for presuming it is a sound principle.
It is sound, as long as the moist air is removed from house and replaced with dry. I'm not sure I buy the moisture from the outside penetrating the inside walls via insulation, but the better the house insulated (and the more people live in it), the more moist the air inside gets.
Take a normal 2 up 2 down, add PVC windows, cavity wall and loft insulation, cover the vents (which, if not covered, totally defeat the purpose of the above) and the house does get warmer, but also very very wet. It's just a matter of time then until the mold settles and timbers start to rot (unless the felt paper promptly destroyed itself to save them). Properly chosen (see building regs) and installed MVHR with a heat exchanger sorts it out in a week. Then there's a science to properly run MVHR and lack of programmable controllers that do the job, but that's a different story.
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As simple as a letter through the door with an automatic calculation based on average rental for the property in the area and PAYE taxes paid. Just let them prove voids and repairs themselves to contest the estimate. As for those who actually earned more, they'll be happy to pay the amount asked and this will not stop HMRC for demanding more once the proper IT is in place. and new facts are discovered.
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At 1:17 there is a book on "New Graphic Design" ... now we know his secret.. he's in media!
Graphic designers are generally much less stressed at work and do not grow a mustache with no beard to go with it.
The book is good though. The fact that this was the only book in his living room is a sign of a really troubled mind.
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The LA issued a s21 two months into the 12 month AST (already thinking about the 'renewal' fees). As it turned out we wanted to move after the 12 months and had found another place. A month or so before the end of the tenancy the LA started to leave messages to call, which we ignored. Told them to come and collect the keys and were told we had not given notice ... true, but they had .... LL refunded the deposit within 7 days but apparently was not happy with the LA and the two month void.
Lol, thought about doing that myself, since S21 was each time stapled to a tenancy agreement.
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Had been renting in London for nearly 10 years before buying. My experience was that the landlords were OK (each of mine only had one or two properties and had almost no mortgage to pay), but letting agents were (and are) utter scum. They always, at least in my case, pushed landlords into increasing rents promising that if I decide to leave they will find a new tenant with no fuss (and were probably right). Short contracts, "renewal" fees, useless insurances and rent hike on every renewal. Reason was, they charged landlord for every renewal as well, and hiked rent to "repay" the landlord.
Now bought on repayment mortgage, overpay the maximum allowed by my bank foo free within fixed period, and stoill afout £100 better off than if I was renting next door.
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LOL! The Western media are totally out of touch. People are just sick of the lies coming from the West. To be fair, Russia is as well, which is why they have virtually given up on any hope of a sensible conversation with the US/UK etc.
Even more hilariously, it's the US that has been found to be spying on everyone, bugging phones and engaging in all manner of dodgy behaviour.
As someone who's occasionally subjected to watching Russian TV, even the Soviet Channel 1 and 2 in 1980s had in my opinion a much more balanced and unbiased approach to journalism. At least back then I had not heard a threat to make a quote "nuclear dust" out of Western countries within a national news broadcast. Russian TV from the moment of the annexation of Crimea up until late October-early November sounded like WWI British war propaganda. Luckily, the further the oil price slides, the less threatening and ant-Western it gets.
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What will happen when Putin start to pump more oil to cover losses? And everybody else will do the same.
Russian Siberian oil is lower quality and cheaper than Brent. Extreme climates and remote locations make its wast resources much harder to harvest and transport since it requires building thousands of miles of expensive pipework. The ports are hard to access and freeze in winter (hence the Soviet projects of submarine tankers) and the Soviet-built infrastructure is starting to crumble. The margins are therefore thinner than even with hydraulic fracturing and time works against Russia because the much-needed upgrading gets delayed or altogether cancelled because of falling oil prices and Western sanctions, which in turn makes margins even thinner. Russian gas export, AFAIK is in better shape.
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This sort of thing would never happen in Russia, under Putin. It shows how fecked up America is...and it's coming to the UK soon.
Just wait a few months and see. Natural-resource-exploitation-based authoritarian states with no infrastructure and economy to speak of outside harvesting of said natural resources do not normally display a good degree of political stability.
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Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine proper. The East is now a separate, defined area. They will merely supply the Donbass with whatever is required to protect themselves from the Kiev nazis.
With intentions to invade or without, there have been plenty of proofs of Russian direct involvement, including aforementioned T-72B3, BTR-82A, MTLBs modified by Muromteplovoz (just 15 ever built!) and various AT weapons unique to Russia and manufactured in 2013-14. How many of the tanks, heavy weapons and artillery claimed by rebels to have been captured from Ukrainian army but in fact came from Russia's identical stock we'll never know. Ukrainians keep crying wolf but are occasionally right judging by that equipment, captured "lost" Russian soldiers and columns of Russian military filmed in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. There may not have been thousands, but a few hundreds just seen on the videos, who intervened with superior equipment and training to break the back of Ukrainian offensive. Furthermore, their presence was confirmed by Strelkov and various DNR and LNR field commanders, and even the Russian defense minister who claimed they were volunteers who go there in their spare time (as if a serving officer or soldier can go anywhere without their commanders' approval).
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I thought this issue was to be rectified by likes of the Apache attack helicopter?
Drozd and Arena APS systems were the Soviet MBT designers' answer to the threat from Apache Mavericks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_%28countermeasure%29
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Great technical info! What do you think about this baby to destroy a complete tank column in no time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBU-97_Sensor_Fuzed_Weapon
It costs close to $1 million, but it is still cheaper than a single tank ...
Don't know much about air to ground equipment, but suppose that's what APS systems like Arena should help against. Also, the conflict in Ukraine proves that ex-Soviet-derived MBTs are indeed very vulnerable to attacks from above. Most of Ukrainian tanks are lost from conventional artillery and MLRS, including APS-equipped Oplots.
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wiki is also saying the Russians have 930 T-90 A's as of 2014. remember that there are different models too so there will be more than 930. They also have a new MBT program, the Armata universal combat platform which will have another 2,300! MBT's in service by 2020! this is on top of the t-90's.
According to your link they also 4,500 T-80's in mothballs.
Russian MBTs are a long story of lobbying, counter-lobbying and waste of money. USSR ended up with 3 MBTs in the 1980s, all with incompatible engines, drivetrain and supplies and requiring different training. Of them T-64 and its development T-80 relied on Ukrainian-built parts and therefore (and as a result of lobbying) retired, and T-72B3 is currently the latest model, produced since 2013 and with at least 3 confirmed to be lost in Ukraine (that's the proof of Russian regular military involved since rebels can't operate them and even, as proven by Russian Cahnnel 1 interview, even recognize them). They have stopped making T-90 because its optics and electronics was far behind the current Western standards, and upgrading T-72s with it was cheaper. T-72B3 uses a lot of Western optical and electronic components, both imported and license-built, and further production may therefore suffer from sanctions. T-72B3 is finally approaching modern Western MBTs with its optics and electronics but still lacks protection. It is argued that Kontakt-5 reactive armor is ineffective against NATO rounds and does not cover some vital spots, and they had extensively tested the purchased T-72s and T-80s in the UK and US and know their weak spots very well, which translates into much longer effective engagement distances for the NATO tanks. This, however, should not matter too much when you have 5 Russian tanks against a single NATO MBT.
Unlike other Russian military projects heavily relying on Western parts (see for example the Boomerang family of vehicles delayed yet again, UAVs, I can go on), new Armata MBT is believed to be relatively on schedule and we are likely to see a few of them on the 9th of May on Red Square.
This proves to me that the whole break up with West was not planned. In another 3-4 years Russian army would have been very well equipped; as it stands now, they have lots of money committed to various ambitious projects that are not likely to go much further without Western cooperation... and they run out of money quickly which is likely to result in another Maidan, this time on Red Square. Against it is the fact that the West indeed needs a stable allied Russia, not the mess that Ukraine is now, but that time projected from Europe to the Far East, and proven to be willing to put up with a lot of anti-Western propaganda and bullying to avoid dealing with the unknowns that social unrest and overthrowing of government in Russia will be if it happens. If, however, the tensions continue growing as they do, the West may have no other way than completely isolate Russia's economy and suffer the consequence above. The most convenient way for everyone in the world including Russia now seem to be Putin suddenly and unexpectedly dying of stroke and his successor continuing tough rhetoric towards West internally but fully cooperative and allied in reality, which was how Putin was so successful until he illegally but with full public support became president in 2012.
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Spent 3 years living there (next to New Beckenham station). Very quiet away from the high street and the transport links are great. The downsides were that the area has become 30% more expensive to buy and £300 to rent over the last couple of years and of course Penge across the road, so had to move further towards South-East. Over said three years two very large family houses next door were rebuilt into 4 or 5 flats each!
To illustrate the madness is the anecdote about one neighbor sold for 300K in 2010 and the other had pretty much exactly the same house on the market for 560K 2,5 years later.
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So circa 15% of gross rental incomes in the UK are syphoned off by letting agents?
What a crazy way to run a countrys housing.
I've seen a minimum of 5%. Plus they charge both landlord and tenant for every renewal.
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I much preferred Pest to Buda.
Agreed!
Not absolutely necessary. I know several Brits and Americans who have lived and worked here for years and can't speak a word of the language. I know a British farmer here who speaks no Hungarian whatsoever yet seems to do alright. I can speak it conversationally, after studying hard for four years, but I don't think I'll ever be fluent in it. I have to get my wife to do any official stuff such as tax etc.
It's more about being self-employed and/or setting up a business. All of the tax forms, bank accounts, and all interaction with the state in Hungarian, no translators to Urdu on taxpayer's expense... To me, any other European language, even Romanian, is at least a little bit understandable and way easier to pick up.
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A very decent 2-bed flat with 5m ceilings is about 60K euro in a central area of Pest, if one's willing to do some renovation. Shops and offices are walking distance or a few minutes on public transport. Schools and gymnasiums that I've seen are all very good. Budapest is way better than anything in Poland, let alone Romania.
A lot of locals are good German speakers, and Vienna is just a relatively short train journey away, so many just go there.
Would have moved to Budapest any day if it wasn't for the language which is ridiculously complex and absolutely necessary to live and work there.
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When they say "runaway costs" as applied to F35, the right question would be: compared to what? I suggest googling the procurement costs of current 4th gen aircraft, like Su-30 (for the nations that didn't fly a Su-27 platform before like Uganda), and compare.
Also of interest will be googling "fighter mafia" and their legacy's role in anti-F35 propaganda. And then see what their product, F16, have become after successive upgrades (hint: it's anything but the "lightweight fighter" they advocated for).
There's so many vested interests employing engineering, military and political heavyweights on both sides that it's probably not possible for ordinary people to have an educated opinion on the subject.
Universal Basic Income
in House prices and the economy
Posted
I'm generally pro-CI, for the record, but my position has everything to do with ideology rather than logic; there are plenty of arguments one can make either way.
For every anecdote about a free rider on benefits there will be an equally persuasive story about somebody who genuinely requires everything they receive from the system. Persuasive politically charged anecdotes about real or imaginable "victims of evil Tory cuts" are the main reason the current system is so hard to fix.
Trying to obtain actual data does not make it easier; the number of those on disability benefit who aren't actually disabled is unknown and unknowable, and establishing every claimant's personal circumstance with certainty requires more resources than anyone on Earth has, unless it happens in a totalitarian surveillance state with a functioning AI doing the data processing.
There's no simple answer like CI to a complex and centuries-old problem of public finances wasted to gain short-term political benefits.
If the goal is "everyone who works to be better off and everyone who does not work to be worse off", there's no need to implement CI. It is possible to fix within current system with some political will (but risk not getting back in power for the next generation), and much less of said political will and risk-taking than it would require for a total overhaul of the system towards CI.
From the top of my mind, the way to really sort this particular problem out (i.e. the public sentiment that whatever any government does to fix the unsustainability of welfare state, at least half of the population feels it it "unfair") is to localize the welfare state expenditure, down to local community/ward level, calculated per person living there, and let the communities decide in what way they see fit to distribute, with some limitations and enforcement of equal/non-discriminatory treatment. This fixes the main thing and allows for flexibility and a variety of "labs" to establish the best way of organizing the safety net. This makes every "freerider" and everyone suffering hard times a local problem; social influence is proven to be a much better incentive for people than threat of punishment by the state. It will adjust everyone's behavior to what's considered "fair" in their particular area and sidestep the real (and unsolvable) question, which is everyone agreeing what is "fair" for the whole nation.