Interesting Links for 01-07-2018

[andrewducker]

All of Super Mario Bros. in one image

(tags: games nintendo )

Facial recognition rolled out by London police

(tags: faces technology police London uk )

Elsevier are corrupting open science in Europe

(tags: research OpenAccess )

How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library

(tags: books poison history )

Brexiters are either seriously ignorant or are not telling the truth about how the WTO works.

(tags: trade UK Europe fraud )

America continues to have horrifying immigration policies

(tags: usa immigration OhForFucksSake children )

Taking photos means you remember less

(tags: memory photography )

Gaming Gets X-Rated–and Very Profitable

(tags: gaming porn )

Is EU Tax Evasion Regulation The Reason For Brexit?

(tags: Europe UK tax )

Patreon Is Suspending Adult Content Creators Because of Its Payment Partners

This is actually the main reason I think Bitcoin is useful. Banks are very prudish. (See also, legal marijuana businesses)
(tags: Banks censorship )

Immigrant toddlers ordered to appear in court alone

(tags: immigration usa children OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[jack]

"Brexiters are either seriously ignorant or are not telling the truth about how the WTO works."

I'll take "both" for 100, Alex.

"Is EU Tax Evasion Regulation The Reason For Brexit?"

It would make sense there's SOME reason some people are pushing this very hard.

"Patreon Is Suspending Adult Content Creators Because of Its Payment Partners"

I have very conflicted feelings. The increasing torrent of serious problems with bitcoins have made me realise it's likely unsalvagable. But what I always said about it, is that it's incredibly useful to have the electronic equivalent of "posting an envelope stuffed with used fivers" for reasons like this -- despite being excoriated by both "no, bitcoin is magically perfect" opinions and "banking regulations exist for a reason so there's never any reason to have any transactions not under government control" opinions.

[dewline]

Seconding the "both" about the WTO, and it applies to DT-45 and his coterie in Washington as well.

[(Anonymous)]

It would make sense there's SOME reason some people are pushing this very hard

Well, yes; it's to get away from all kinds of EU regulations, and the EU dictating rates of taxation (as they are trying to do to Ireland) is one of them.

Competition on tax rates is a good ting: it allows countries which maybe don't have much else to offer to make themselves attractive to businesses, and so boost their economies (as Ireland has been doing, very successfully), so it's good for the countries; and on the flipside it acts as a counterweight to the instincts of governments to raise taxes as much as they can get away with, by enabling people to leave if the tax burden is too high by giving them somewhere else to go. As all business taxes are ultimately paid by consumers, because they ultimately feed through into the prices we pay, this is good for all of us.

If the EU does start to dictate its members' minimum tax rates, its basically acting as -- oh, what is it, there's a word for when a group decides to get together and fix prices to the detriment of the consumers -- oh, yes, it's a cartel.

[nojay]

Ummm, the EU, a grouping of sovereign nations has no control over taxation levels set by each nation. Ireland has a low Corporation Tax level of 12.5% but that's not a problem for the EU. The problem was that the Irish government was offering special low-tax and no-tax deals to big companies like Apple which was processing all its European sales earnings through a third-story office in Dublin at near-zero tax rates before pocketing the money. Meanwhile other Irish and EU companies which hadn't filled the back pockets of various Irish pols[1] with used 5Eu notes had to pay the going rate of tax.

If Ireland gets away with it then other nations can do the same and then it's a race to the bottom and a disregard for the law. At worst it says that big money gets special treatment and the rest of us can go hang.

[1]Ben there, Dunn that, bought the Taoiseach...

[snippy]

Bitcoin is a horrible excuse for an anonymous payment system, as it is detrimental to the environment by using as much or more electricity as a small town to generate wealth for a very few people.

[birguslatro]

I doubt banks are prudes. Much more likely is they're scared of damaging international business. The toss-up is probably between supporting freedom of expression and losing their Saudi Arabian and similar conservative customers.

[poshmerchant]

Bitcoin's not anonymous. Every transaction goes on a permanent record public ledger that is distributed to everyone using Bitcoin. It's pseudonymous until you tie it to a bank account by converting into a real currency. There are also clever-stupid tumbler schemes for mixing your bitcoin with everyone else trying to do money laundry -- if I trade my illgotten bitcoin for your illgotten bitcoin at 1:1 rates, the serial numbers will be different!

There are other cryptocurrencies that try to be anonymous like Monero and Zcash. Increased anonymity attracts black hats, alas.