On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:08:24 +0100, Stephen wrote:

>>In retrospect, it probably was funnier if you were there.
>>
> Makes sense to me.

:-)

> Ke-wrist, Someone did that to me once but it involved acid and bad trips
> Ho, ho, ho!

He does that sort of thing sober.

> Strange, as you get older these jokes seem less funny.

I s'pose that could happen.  He's not a spring chicken, though.

> I actually heard one about someone pretending to have a heart attack and
> one kind soul punched him on the heart in preparation to giving him CPR.

Yeah, I think that might've been a concern if he hadn't been on a stage.  
I think that separation from the audience helped avoid something like 
that - though kinda surprising nobody called 911....

>>The guy he was presenting with - a mutual friend from Aaland - said that
>>when he dropped, a ton of people in the session *immediately* switched
>>their phones off.
>>
>>He's tried to plan things ahead of time, but it just never seems to
>>work.  Only when it's improved does he seem to hit something that works.
>>And while it *sounds* like it might've scared people in the audience,
>>he's well known in his field for being a bit of a clown.
>>
>>He also makes an *excellent* chili. :-)
> 
> As you say, from my part of the world :)

<g>  We have a party at my house each year (the show is in town) after 
the show's done, and he usually cooks for us.  He's taken a class in 
Oxaca recently (and going to take another this October), so it evolves a 
little bit each year.  We stayed with him and his wife both times we went 
to the UK, and that's how it got started - he made it for dinner one 
night.

Jim

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> If the car is used (IIRC 6+months old), you'll get discount from the tax 
> and it's not *that* much anymore (it still is much, just not *that* much).

I hear stories here all the time of Americans coming over, picking up their 
shiny new BMW from the factory, driving it to some shipping agent and then 
flying home again.  Apparently it means they can avoid some tax in the US 
because it's not counted as a brand new car when it enters the country.

>> I assume you're allowed foreign registered cars there for a certain 
>> amount of time, it's 6 months here I think.  You could just replace your 
>> car in Germany every 6 months, although I'm sure they thought of that 
>> already and made it illegal.
>
> Nnnope, a Finnish person ain't allowed to drive foreign-registered car in 
> Finland.

Oh wow.

> It wasn't so long ago when the news had a great story about some Estonian 
> guy with a Finnish wife/gf - she moved his Porsche for 10m oslt and 
> Finland started to demand them to pay cartax (that 96%) of that Porsche.

Hehe, that really is strict then.  But I guess if you have to enforce that 
96% tax, you can't afford to leave open any loopholes.

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> But a good example: Audi A4 2.0TDI FWD with Business pack and no other 



I guess it can't be much more than 2k.

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And lo on Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:46:04 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> As I said, I blame the endless cartoons where the cleaver people are  
> always the evil villans or the hopeless geeks who get beat up all day...

I enjoyed reading "Soon I will be Invincible" which on the very first page  
made the observation that the more intelligent the person the greater the  
probability that they'll become a villain rather then a hero.

I think we should all be keeping a much closer eye on Stephen Hawking.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:32:53 +0100, Chambers  
<ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> did spake, saying:

> A more realistic immediate goal for them is allowing you to do your  
> taxes online at the IRS's web site, rather than paying a third party to  
> do them for you (there is a partnership program between the IRS and  
> various tax prep companies that allows those companies to do your taxes  
> online for free, but only for certain qualifying individuals {your  
> income has to be in a certain range, and your return can't be very  
> complex}).  This would eliminate a large part of the business of tax  
> firms, but the IRS actually seems more concerned about the taxpayers  
> than the tax preparers.

That's something our lot are doing at the moment, pushing everyone to fill  
out tax returns online and giving monetary incentives to the early  
adopters.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:04:18 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

>   And do you even know how much gasoline/diesel costs here? An American
> would drop his jaw into the ground if he saw it. Translated to the US
> units, gasoline is about 9.5 dollars/gallon, and diesel is 8.3.

Due to some of the strikes here unleaded blipped up to £1.99/litre which  
at the time was $14.83/US gallon. At the moment it's about $8.88/US gallon

>   Oh, and cars cost almost double what they cost, for example, in Germany
> because of all the taxes. (In Germany, IIRC, a tax of 16% is put on the
> price of sold cars, while in Finland it's something like 96%.)

17.5% standard VAT here on new cars.

>   Not only that, you have to pay mandatory annual car insurance (good
> thing, I suppose)

Ditto

> as well as a mandatory annual car tax (you receive
> nothing in return, it's a *pure* tax for simply *owning* a car, without
> any benefits).

Supposedly here it goes towards the upkeep of the road and the licencing  
authority; ha.

>   Own a TV (or, for that matter, any device capable of decoding TV
> signal)? Tax.

Hmm more specific here - tax is only on devices that can play programmes  
that have been broadcast - so if you buy a small TV to hook up to your  
security camera you don't need a TV licence for it.

> Own a house? Tax.

Ditto.

> Own land? Tax.

Ditto.

> Inherit some money or property from a relative? Tax.

Depends on the amount inherited.

> Win a car abroad and want to bring it
> to Finland? You'll have to pay almost the original price of the car
> in taxes.

Yep Customs and Excise want their slice here too.

>   And if you think you'll get rid of the RIAA by moving to Finland, guess
> again. (Ok, the situation might still not be *so* bad here, but it's
> quickly going in that direction.)

We [heart] RIAA

>   On the plus side, you'll usually get a fast broadband internet  
> connection for a quite moderate price here.

Depends on where you are and your definition of fast.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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scott wrote:
>
> I hear stories here all the time of Americans coming over, picking up 
> their shiny new BMW from the factory, driving it to some shipping agent 
> and then flying home again.  Apparently it means they can avoid some tax 
> in the US because it's not counted as a brand new car when it enters the 
> country.

So I think we may come to the conclusion: Finland != US.

:)

>> It wasn't so long ago when the news had a great story about some 
>> Estonian guy with a Finnish wife/gf - she moved his Porsche for 10m 
>> oslt and Finland started to demand them to pay cartax (that 96%) of 
>> that Porsche.
> 
> Hehe, that really is strict then.  But I guess if you have to enforce 
> that 96% tax, you can't afford to leave open any loopholes.
> 

Yep. Highest taxes would always be rounded, if possible.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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scott wrote:
>> But a good example: Audi A4 2.0TDI FWD with Business pack and no other 

> 

> but I guess it can't be much more than 2k.
> 



225/55/16 tires etc).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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On 7 Jul 2008 17:16:26 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:

>On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:08:24 +0100, Stephen wrote:
>

>> Ke-wrist, Someone did that to me once but it involved acid and bad trips
>> Ho, ho, ho!
>
>He does that sort of thing sober.
>
Ho, ho, ho! :)

>> Strange, as you get older these jokes seem less funny.
>
>I s'pose that could happen.  He's not a spring chicken, though.
>

Pray that it does before he becomes an old broiler :)


>Yeah, I think that might've been a concern if he hadn't been on a stage.  
>I think that separation from the audience helped avoid something like 
>that - though kinda surprising nobody called 911....
>

Yeah that would have served him right. Especially if he got the bill from the
emergency services ;)
Maybe I'm being to hard on him. It is good to have a sense of humour, so I'm
told :)


>>>He also makes an *excellent* chili. :-)
>> 
>> As you say, from my part of the world :)
>
><g>  We have a party at my house each year (the show is in town) after 
>the show's done, and he usually cooks for us.  He's taken a class in 
>Oxaca recently (and going to take another this October), so it evolves a 
>little bit each year.  We stayed with him and his wife both times we went 
>to the UK, and that's how it got started - he made it for dinner one 
>night.

Is that Mexican food? I've never tried it. I liked the Cuban food when I was in
Florida but not when I went to Havana for a weekend.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:49:52 +0100, Stephen wrote:

>>He does that sort of thing sober.
>>
> Ho, ho, ho! :)

Not that he doesn't like a pint or a glass (or three) of wine when the 
time is right. :-)

>>I s'pose that could happen.  He's not a spring chicken, though.
>>
> Pray that it does before he becomes an old broiler :)

I think the phrase "young at heart" applies - but yes, hoping for a good 
long life for him.

> Yeah that would have served him right. Especially if he got the bill
> from the emergency services ;)

Here in the US, it wouldn't have been much.  I think the company would 
probably have covered it.  But also, there is perhaps an irony that 
people may not have dialed for fear of causing more harm. ;-)

> Maybe I'm being to hard on him. It is good to have a sense of humour, so
> I'm told :)

A little, there again, you had to be there....

>><g>  We have a party at my house each year (the show is in town) after
>>the show's done, and he usually cooks for us.  He's taken a class in
>>Oxaca recently (and going to take another this October), so it evolves a
>>little bit each year.  We stayed with him and his wife both times we
>>went to the UK, and that's how it got started - he made it for dinner
>>one night.
> 
> Is that Mexican food? I've never tried it. I liked the Cuban food when I
> was in Florida but not when I went to Havana for a weekend.

Yeah; I'm pretty sure I spelt the name wrong (or as Shaun would say, 
"wrongly".)  Good Mexican food is actually quite bland - the hot stuff 
tends to be Tex-Mex instead.  I spent a couple weeks in Mexico back in 
the early 80's and *really* liked the food I had there.  There's a couple 
places in Salt Lake City that do good Mexican food as well, might have to 
track some down for lunch today.  Mmmm...

Jim

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