Barack and Michelle Obama - a long time ago

Dranharelo · 1 day

I noticed that. This page says the picture was from 1992 - they married in October of that year. I believe it was after they married - Obama wanted his grandmother to meet his "new wife".

jrearp · 1 day

True. And even if he put in something more meaningful like time spent in bars, pie charts are bad - they should only be used when the item matters as a percent of the whole. For comparisons of like items a bar chart is the way to go. And even then, using a 3D pie chart is just crazy talk.

MP3Hoarder · 1 day

You're ahead of most people, so don't worry. The most important thing is that you are now planning for it rather than waiting until your 50's.

The max 401k contribution is probably much higher than 4% - the 4% might we what you need to get the match. Get the employer match, then open up a Roth IRA (it's easy). Max contribution is $5,000/yr so if you hit that, put the rest back into the 401k, even if it's unmatched (the profits on your funds still aren't taxed, unlike non-retirement funds).

Paying extra towards a mortgage is a good idea, but it's not as great as you might think, so keep retirement a priority. The advantage of paying any loan early comes into play if your interest rate is much higher than inflation (if it's lower, it actually costs you money to pay off the mortgage early because you could have made more by sticking that money in super-safe funds like I-bonds which are guaranteed to make at least the inflation rate), and rates are very low right now. (That said, I'm paying mine off early, but my contributions to retirement and to savings are both high) If you really want to save on a house, 1) don't buy an expensive one, 2) get at least 20% down and 3) do a 15-year mortgage. All those things will save you more than paying off a more expensive, 30-year mortgage early.

oldspicerolldadice · 2 days

cos(P) * 1,040mph, where P is the parallel where you are located. (1040 because that's the length of the equator divided by 23.9 hours, a sidereal day).

oldspicerolldadice · 2 days

Well first, if the plane went north and turned off its engines, it wouldn't travel west, I don't think even a little bit. The plane, the Earth, and the atmosphere all have the same angular velocity. And the atmosphere (and hence everything in it) doesn't slow down because there's no drag to slow it down.

So the equator is about 25,000 miles, and completes a revolution in about 24 hours, so let's say that the equator moves at 1,000 miles an hour, with respect to, say, a UFO sitting way out in in space, looking down at the Earth. If a plane were to take off at the equator, and go 1,000mph west, it would look like it was standing still to the UFO, despite of course moving at 1,000mph as observed by the pilot and passengers.

So if you say your point of view is outside the Earth, it's fair to say that a plane traveling westward "stays still" while the Earth moves beneath it.

The part about being further north (or south) comes from the fact that commercial planes only fly at about 500mph. So in order for a commercial plane to "stay still" with respect to the UFO, it would need to be further up, around the 60th parallel - think Stockholm. Because then the path to get around the world (flying directly east or west) is only half of the 25,000 miles at the equator.

oldspicerolldadice · 2 days

It can be argued that's what planes do when traveling westward.

They use their engines to slow down their angular momentum. And if the plane is fast enough and far enough north (or south) they can get to the point where they stay in the same spot relative to the center of the Earth.

DrToonz · 2 days

All 3 endings are on YouTube I believe. Worth checking out.

DrToonz · 2 days

There are 3 endings, all available on YouTube:

Theatrical - Ashton Kutcher's character's final 'event' is to go to a party with Amy Smart's character and just goes up to her and acts like a jerk. She, and her parents, now want nothing to do with him. Back in the present, the two characters walk by one another on a crowded city street and they each kind of pause, and do the cliche "look behind just as the other person looks away" routine. So no eye contact. They each continue walking on their way.

Alternate - When the two lovebirds walk by each other, they catch each other's eye, think they might know one another (they do, it's just that they hadn't seen each other since they were 5) and they agree to go have a coffee.

Director's Cut - Instead of going back to to a party as kid, Ashton goes way back into the womb and strangles himself with an umbilical cord. Side note: there's one or two extra scenes in the movie, one in which Ashton's mother confesses Ashton was like her fourth or fifth child - all the others died in the womb. So presumably, Ashton was in a long line of time travelers who went back and killed themselves.

archduke_of_awesome · 2 days

Hah, this is the app I wanted to write. I figured I'd missed the boat on iOS so I learned Javascript for the Palm Pre, but then the Pre bombed.

I liked flashcards because it's user-generated content so it seemed like an easy, write-once-and-sell app with no upkeep. You could even spin it off into a medical one, a law one, etc and have multiple apps with just one engine. But as you certainly know, then users started demanding interfaces into different flashcard web services, so that kind of killed both of those advantages.

Parsleymagnet · 3 days

LA is denser - LA city has 3.7M residents while Orange County has 3M. But I'd imagine if you just nudge the OC boundary north a few miles, you could take a lot of the southern LA residents and add them to the Orange County 'state'.

t2150 · 3 days

A) Congrats!
B) My plan - which I'm not following BTW - is to make sure I have 50% of the down payment for my next car (including selling off the old car). Then the car after that will be 100% paid for, so no financing. But you'll likely find other uses for that extra cash (house, emergency fund, etc.)
C) I was in car debt forever as well. After college I got a Mini Cooper, a Jetta, a Mercedes and and now I'm back to a Mini Cooper - all of which were nearly 100% financed, but now the Cooper is paid off. Buying (and maintaining) German cars is not cheap. I will try to stick by my 50% rule above, which will mean the difference between something like a Ford Fusion and a BMW 3-series. I consider both cars to be the benchmark for their class... but they're obviously different classes :)

credit_y_n · 3 days

Oh yeah, the "airline credit card" is really a credit card issued by a financial institution, just branded with an airline's logo. Any airline will (and has to, per the Merchant's Agreement they sign with MC/Visa/AMEX) accept all credit cards even if it's tied to another airline.

credit_y_n · 3 days

A lot of carriers fly to Japan, certainly all the major international airlines (United, AA, USAir). If you're west coast, you could do well with something like ANA - they are part of the same alliance as United, for example, so miles are transferred between the two, but they base reward redemption on actual miles vs "zones" commonly used by US carriers. So SFO to Narita will cost you a lot less using ANA miles vs United. Flyertalk.com can help you on that front.

I will say, however, I tend not to get too worked up on sign-up bonuses. Long-term, your best bet is to find a rewards card that matches your usual spending habits, and get that. So even if you miss out on a reduced airline fare this one time, you can probably reap hundreds of dollars per year in rewards if you get the right card, so it's a better long-term strategy.

jax440 · 3 days

That's interesting. While it's probably common knowledge (around here, anyway) that paying off the highest-interest rate accounts first saves you money, the fact that paying off smaller-principal debts first is psychologically bad for your debt is new information.

The advice given by people like Dave Ramsey (IIRC) is to pay off smaller loans first because that gives you confidence to further pay down debt. But if this study says otherwise, then there's yet another important reason to just tackle the higher-rate loans first instead.

Relevant part:

According to Rick, proponents of this strategy [pay off smallest account] claim that closing a small account gives you a psychological boost that makes you more committed to becoming debt free. “Research on goals indicates just the opposite. You tend to take your foot off the gas and reward yourself for hitting an intermediate goal.”

credit_y_n · 3 days

Just check the interest you'll pay ($244 if the card is 18% and you charge all $1,600 and pay $100/mo) and see if it's worth the price.

As long as you know you can pay it off, I'd go for it. People rarely regret travel (Japan is pretty awesome if I don't mind saying so myself). It's not worth falling into a financial hole for, but just keep the payments timely and substantial.

Also, if you don't have a credit card, plenty of airline credit cards come with bonus sign-up miles. Probably not enough to get to Japan, but look around at nerdwallet.com just in case one has 100,000 miles as a sign-up. You might be able to do one-way or something.

widnam · 3 days

As the other response says, cash is legal tender for debts, but you're correct they don't need to be accepted for point-of-sale transactions.

But they are legal payments for debt to keep lenders from unduly keeping people in debt. If I loaned someone money and said he had to pay me back in narwhal tusks and then killed all the narwhals, that person would be in debt to me forever.

On the other hand, judges have ruled that paying large fines with all pennies is disorderly conduct and such, and so once in a while people get in trouble when they intentionally cause hardship on others, even if they're just paying a debt. Same with people who tape bricks to those little postcard mailers or magazine subscription flyers where the business has to pay return postage. The Post Office will just refuse it, because they know you're just being an asshole :)

ta112233 · 3 days

I don't get the "retiring as a federal employee" bit. The Roth TSP is just like a Roth 401k which is available to many people already, and the primary factor on Roth vs Traditional is how much taxes you expect to pay at withdrawal vs the taxes you pay when you make the contribution. Lower taxes now = Roth, lower taxes later = Traditional.

My wife is a government employee and I'm advising her to split contributions evenly between Traditional and Roth, but keep all existing funds (and employer match of course) as Traditional, because I expect our taxes to be lower in retirement. But the Roth is there to diversify our tax liability.

The Roth TSP does have the same funds, so therefore the same great low costs, so definitely use it.

tanpopo · 3 days

I've given that advice here a few times (and haven't seen others give it, either) so I feel I should clarify what I mean when I say it:

I've heard that for retirement funds, not net worth. Back when everyone graduated at age 22 and got jobs right away, getting to your salary in your retirement fund was pretty easy, and you'd usually hit it by saving 10% of your pre-tax salary. It's just a very simple yardstick.

If you have 120% of your salary at age 27, that means you're probably on a pretty good track... although if you're only saving 6% for retirement, you'll want to bump that up as soon as you can - you're missing out on some of that great compound interest.

vogon008 · 4 days

One of the stories said 7 pairs, IIRC.

There's actually two stories of Noah's Ark, both are complete and intertwined with one another, so that's why there's confusion between how many animals were brought aboard.

The cheater's way to tell the two stories apart in the King James Version (there's lots of other doublets, like the story of creation - Eve came from the earth in one story, the rib in the otehr), is one uses "Lord" in its passages while the other uses "God".

tassysurfer · 4 days

Winners of the Lyttle Lytton Contest would do well here:

2012 - "Agent Jeffrey’s trained eyes rolled carefully around the room, taking in the sights and sounds." (Davian Aw)

2011 - "The red hot sun rose in the cold blue sky." (Judy Dean)

2010 - "“I shouldn’t be saying this, but I think I’ll love you always, baby, always,” Adam cried into the email. " (Shexmus Amed)

2009 - "The mighty frigate Indestructible rounded the Horn of Africa and lurched east’ard." (Pete Wirtala)

2008 - "Because they had not repented, the angel stabbed the unrepentant couple thirteen times, with its sword." (Graham Swanson)

2007 - "It clawed its way out of Katie, bit through the cord and started clearing." (Gunther Schmidl)

2006 - "This is the cipher key for all that follows: |||||| || |!" (P. Scott Hamilton)

2005 - "John, surfing, said to his mother, surfing beside him, 'How do you like surfing?' " (Eric Davis)

2004 - "This is the story of your mom's life." (Rachel Lambert)

2003 - "For centuries, man had watched the clouds; now, they were watching him." (Stephen Sachs)

2002 - "The pain wouldn't stop, and Vern still had three cats left." (Andrew Davis)

2001 - "Turning, I mentally digested all of what you, the reader, are about to find out heartbreakingly." (Top Changwatchai)

tassysurfer · 4 days

I was going to post this:

It was the best of times... it was the blurst of times!? You stupid monkey!

... because if I ever write a novel, it will be a weird meta-analysis of The Simpsons.

spsheridan · 4 days

They'll certainly have an in-line converter for sale. Apple knows that accessories are a big part of of their business and so far have provided tools (like hardware 'molds') to enable previous-generation comparability with newer iPhones.

spsheridan · 4 days

Because they can just sell you a product to align with those regulations while still locking-in existing customers who don't feel like shelling out for that converter.

Nightstorm600 · 4 days

Oh, they do. I thought some pencils were missing at first!

WarDamn17 · 4 days

I'd check out nerdwallet.com to look for a card that best suits your needs and habits. Try to get a card with no annual fee, and after that, look for rewards that match you spending habits. If you spend a lot on groceries, look for 3%+ back at grocery stores, etc (if you spend a lot, a rewards card with a fee can make you more money that a no-fee card, but if you're in college you're probably not spending that much).

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