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This clear-winged butterfly looks like a Photoshop job, but it's just a defense mechanism of semi-invisibility through camouflage.
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"Here’s a self-enforcing protocol for determining property tax: the homeowner decides the value of the property and calculates the resultant tax, and the government can either accept the tax or buy the home for that price." Very clever.
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Seven press releases in which tech companies announce what turned out to be famously terrible ideas, complete with the original glowing language in which the companies praised their own brilliance. Circuit City's layoffs, AOL/Time Warner's merger, the launch of Vista, and more.
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Well, there goes that. We're back to voodoo like polygraphs, I guess.
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The Times points out that, when examined, most supposed federal-spending boondoggles are nothing of the sort, with some notable exceptions. As a bonus, the origin of the word "boondoggle" is provided—and the etymology is something that linguists would never guess.
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I recall Heinlein mentioning the house valuation idea in one of his novels.
Regarding property taxes, I liked the way they did it where I lived in NY state. The county passed a budget detailing the total amount of revenue needed for the year. Individual property taxes were owed based upon the proportion of the value of your property relative to the total property values of the county. If your property value assessment went up, likely so did everyone else’s, so your actual tax amount stayed about the same unless the new budget had significantly higher revenues projected. That way, there is never a shortfall or a surplus in tax revenues. It would be nice to have a program like that here as well.
Then, the government borrows a tonne of money from China, and buys all of the houses. End of private property!
Huzzah!