From back when rock and roll still fucking rocked. AC/DC tearing it up in ‘91.

Kids' lemonade stand shuttered by police chief

I found 3 more cases of lemonade stands being shut down in 2011 while hunting around the interwebs. This is exactly the kind of bullshit that keeps me from wanting to move back to the states.

Dollar sinks to three-year low against Euro. This is extremely bad news for the poor souls (like me) who earn their income in USD and live in the eurozone. I find myself in a state of shock at how much money I will be losing this year (and have lost in past years) due to the exchange rate. Watch the decline live on the BBC! Here’s what my currency exchange provider (TransferMate), has to say: “The dollar sank to a three-year low against Euro on Thursday and was at risk of a drop to $1.50, with momentum-driven investors piling on in anticipation U.S. interest rates will be low for a long time. Analysts said more dollar weakness was likely after the Federal Reserve said overnight that it would end its bond-buying programme in June as planned and appeared in no rush to tighten monetary policy further. It’s clear that dollar selling has been given a green light and we have many central banks intervening. So that suggests further upside for euro. It’s pretty much open water until $1.50 and the euro may even rise to around $1.52 next week.” Fucking bleak.
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Dollar sinks to three-year low against Euro.

This is extremely bad news for the poor souls (like me) who earn their income in USD and live in the eurozone. I find myself in a state of shock at how much money I will be losing this year (and have lost in past years) due to the exchange rate. Watch the decline live on the BBC!

Here’s what my currency exchange provider (TransferMate), has to say: “The dollar sank to a three-year low against Euro on Thursday and was at risk of a drop to $1.50, with momentum-driven investors piling on in anticipation U.S. interest rates will be low for a long time. Analysts said more dollar weakness was likely after the Federal Reserve said overnight that it would end its bond-buying programme in June as planned and appeared in no rush to tighten monetary policy further. It’s clear that dollar selling has been given a green light and we have many central banks intervening. So that suggests further upside for euro. It’s pretty much open water until $1.50 and the euro may even rise to around $1.52 next week.”

Fucking bleak.

Simon’s Theme from Super Castlevania IV is easily the best game theme ever. Just listening to it brings me back to my childhood bedroom with my NES hooked up to my C64 monitor playing the night away. Good times..

Shopping online in Europe is expensive!

Europe is expensive, especially when compared to the states. This goes for physical purchases made online as well as downloadable purchases like games and music. Following years of frustration and claims of “always being ripped off by the fucking EU,” I finally decided to do a bit of research to determine why.

I found the same product (Corsair 120GB Solid State Drive) available for sale on several Amazon sites. After shipping and taxes amazon.com charged ($235.57), amazon.co.uk ($301.42) and amazon.de ($295.62). Why the ~30% increase in price in the EU? Well, it turns out that online sales are (somewhat amazingly) still subsidized in the US. US stores only have to charge sales tax when shipping in state, when shipping out of state no sales tax is charged. On the other hand, all European online stores are required to charge VAT (currently 20%) for all purchases, VAT is the European equivalent of US sales tax. When you add VAT onto the amazon.com order total you end up with $282.57, just slightly less expensive than amazon.de and amazon.co.uk. I’m assuming that the additional price difference has to do with fluctuations in the currency market and the weak dollar.

So that’s it I guess. The difference in price appears to be mostly due to US e-commerce subsidies. Although, even if the US charged sales tax for online purchases the current mean rate is 10% (compared to 20% in the EU), so things would still be cheaper. I guess the EU isn’t ripping me off in the end, the US government is simply eating the sales tax to encourage e-commerce. All said, considering that European taxes provide universal education and healthcare and all we get in the US is constant war, I guess I shouldn’t complain so much about paying a bit extra on this side of the pond.

Here’s the raw numbers from Amazon:

Amazon.com
Items: $229.99
Shipping & Handling (to USA): $5.58
Total Before Tax: $235.57
—————————————————————-
Order Total: $235.57

If VAT were charged (20% / $47) then the total would be $282. If the mean US sales tax were added (10% / $23) then the total would be $259.

Amazon.co.uk
Items: GBP 150.98
Postage & Packing (To Spain): GBP 0.00
Total before VAT: GBP 150.98
VAT: GBP 27.18
—————————————————————-
Order Total: GBP 178.16
Payment Total: USD 301.42**

Amazon.de
Artikel: EUR 161,22
Verpackung & Versand (To Spain): EUR 6,05
Gesamtsumme ohne MwSt: EUR 167,27
MwSt (VAT): EUR 30,11
—————————————————————-
Gesamtbetrag: EUR 197,38
Rechnungssumme: USD 295.62

Joseph Stiglitz on wealth and power concentration

This is an excellent article by the nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. I agree with it in its entirety. Read the full article here.

“Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East.”

Terrence Malick is one of my all time favorite directors. This is the trailer for his new film “The Tree of Life” and it looks amazing and beautiful. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this makes up for The New World, which as much as I wanted to love it just couldn’t.

Holy nuts does Hawken look awesome! I mean, just look at it! The mech combat feels fast, but heavy and the environments are gorgeous and exploding with detail! It’s been almost 10 years since Mechwarrior 4 was released and as far as I’m concerned there hasn’t been a really decent mech game since. Speaking of Mechwarrior 4, the fine lads at MekTek have re-released it for free, go blow up some robots will ya!

Remember kids, just because someone types something in a computer doesn’t mean its the truth.

I gotta get me one of these shovels! Seems like it’d be worth $70 since it does EVERYTHING.

Thanks for spotting this Marcus!