firehose

White people

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Yesterday I reported on the clever economics behind Apple’s US$17 billion bond deal, specifically pointing out that the interest Apple will owe on each share it repurchases will be less than the dividend it would have otherwise been responsible for.

Going a bit further, Businessweek did some calculations surrounding Apple’s $17 billion bond deal and deduced that the company is avoiding a $9.2 billion tax hit by borrowing the money as opposed to using its own cash pile.

Specifically, if Apple wanted to raise $17 billion by using its foreign stash of cash, it would have had to repatriate upwards of $26.15 billion. With a 35% corporate tax rate, Apple would have owed about $9.15 billion in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Instead, Businessweek notes that Apple’s annual interest payments on its issued bonds will only come out to about $308 million. And again, those payments are tax deductible.

All in all, Apple’s structured bond deal appears to be the result of some extremely shrewd financial planning.

”

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Apple’s $17 billion bond deal allows it to avoid $9.2 billion tax hit | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

tl;dr: Apple borrowed money to avoid paying taxes

alphatel writes "Citing a wide range of symptoms, a federal report (PDF) released yesterday has concluded that no single event, pesticide or virus can be held responsible for CCD in North American bee colonies. Meanwhile, Europe has moved towards banning neocotinids for two years. EPA's Jim Jones stated, 'There are non-trivial costs to society if we get this wrong. There are meaningful benefits from these pesticides to farmers and to consumers, as well as for affordable food.' May R. Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a participant in the study, said, 'There is no quick fix. Patching one hole in a boat that leaks everywhere is not going to keep it from sinking.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

““Got my first chickens—38 chickens,” Miller said from the team’s facility in Englewood, Colo. on Thursday. “I’m pretty excited about it. You’ve got to start somewhere. As you guys all know, getting into the poultry industry is something that I always wanted to do. I just didn’t want to go out and buy a [chicken] house and do all this stuff and throw money at all that stuff. I really wanted to get to the fundamentals, get back to just raising chicks, and I’m just going to go from there. I raised chicks in college in class and stuff, but now it’s just a project for me to do it on my own and see where I go with it. I’m pretty excited about it. The chickens are not out here in Denver—the weather is fluctuating way too much right now. I’ve got them back in Dallas. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a start for Miller Farms right now.””

- Denver’s Von Miller wants to be a poultry tycoon | Shutdown Corner

jerkcity #3603

-blue

ABC News

PepsiCo drops Lil Wayne over Emmett Till lyric in rap song CNN (CNN) -- PepsiCo is ending its relationship with rapper Lil Wayne over what the company calls an "offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon" -- 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was killed nearly 60 years ago. The rap superstar, featured in the song "Karate ... PepsiCo cuts ties with Lil Wayne over crude lyricsCentre Daily Times PepsiCo Parts Ways with Lil Wayne Over Emmett Till ControversyEurweb.com Lil Wayne, PepsiCo's Mountain Dew part ways after controversyLos Angeles Times San Jose Mercury News -AceShowbiz all 136 news articles »

Major-league baseball player Glenn Burke was comfortably out to his teammates and friends in 1976—but back then, it was the press that wasn't ready for a gay male athlete.

Boston Globe

Boston bombing inquiries prompt new look at student visas Los Angeles Times The federal government will tighten oversight to help ensure that foreign students seeking to enter the United States have valid student visas — the latest step to increase security after the Boston Marathon bombings. The heightened scrutiny by U.S. Customs ... US orders new visa reviews for arriving studentsSan Antonio Express International Students with Visas Face Tougher Security Measuresabc40 GOP senator wants info on student in Boston caseWGME all 114 news articles »

	rachel shared this story from The Atlantic Wire:
	Tavi seems like a great kid.

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An anonymous reader writes "Soon anyone will be able to head out to the store and buy a 3D printer: 'Staples, one of the leading office supply retailers in the U.S. announced it would begin selling 3-D Systems' entry level personal 3-D printer, The Cube. This is quite simply the single largest 3-D printer retail move to date by any 3-D printer manufacturer.' 'The Cube is one of a number of 3-D printers designed with traditional consumers in mind. Specifically, this unit can print items up to 5.5 inches tall, wide and long in one of 16 different colors. The retail bundle includes 25 free design templates to get users started but the real fun is designing and building something all your own.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I love me some Evil Clown code.

I've been informed by my bosses at io9 that an article consisting of nothing but the vilest profanity I can think of is inappropriate for some reason, so let me only state the facts: For issue #4 of their Masters of the Universe comic, DC has redesigned He-Man's iconic look. Care to check it out?

Read more...

OH GODDAMMIT LOOK AT THIS MAJESTIC CREATURE CRASHING YOUR PROM AT THE SCIENCE MUSEUM.

May the Fourth! Tomorrow's the day we celebrate all things Star Wars — which makes it the perfect day to recognize one of the great unsung contributors to the galaxy far, far away: Leigh Brackett wrote the first script draft of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back, and her contributions helped make the saga epic.

Read more...

Commonly called the “Eye of the Sahara,” the Richat Structure is a deeply eroded dome whose exposed rock dates all the way back to the Proterozoic age. Should you care to glimpse into the depths of the desert, you’ll have to travel to Mauritania.

See it on Scoop.it, via Interesting Photos

Original Source

While people in the U.S. are still sending trillions of text messages per year, they sent 5 percent less in 2012 than they did in 2011.

Most of the dashboard camera videos coming out of Russia depict accidents, bad behavior, and other mayhem. To provide an alternative view of Russian drivers, ArkadiYM93 has created a compilation of feel-good moments captured by dash cams—a cop and passerby shepherding a family of ducks across a boulevard, a burly motorist manhandling a fellow driver’s car out of heavy snow, and many instances of drivers stopping to help old ladies cross busy streets.

via Jalopnik

Wired Underwire released a movie review of Iron Man 3 that is in the form of a comic. Culture and entertainment editor Laura Hudson of Wired (former ComicsAlliance founder and editor) has joined forces with artist Jim Rugg and comic book letterer Thomas Orzechowski to create this project. You can view the full Iron Man 3 review at Wired.

image via Jim Rugg

via Wired Underwire

By Emily Gera on May 03, 2013 at 2:30p

Ubisoft's long-running Assassin's Creed series is driven as much by its story as it is assassinations, but during the first public look at Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag not a whole lot was said about its narrative. The game's first trailer only nudged fans gently in the direction of a plot; something that quickly became overshadowed by a montage of pirate debauchery and wench-based threesomes.

But Black Flag's lead scriptwriter Darby McDevitt tells us this sexually explicit motif is actually at the heart of the game's narrative. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will be the story of immorality and repentance.

According to McDevitt, the game's protagonist Edward Kenway is a married man whose strained relationship with his wife is punctuated by relationships with other women.

"there is a special woman in Edward's life, but there are also other not-so-special women as well."

"Edward Kenway is a raucous and bawdy chap," McDevitt explains, "but he's also a married man, and one of his primary motivation in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is to get rich and prove himself a ‘man of quality' to his family and betters. So there is a special woman in Edward's life, but there are also other not-so-special women as well."

The theme is followed through in Black Flag's gameplay. Like in the earlier installment of the series, you can use NPCs to achieve certain goals. In Black Flag, Kenway can direct female NPCs to seduce and distract targets. We see this in action in the earlier trailer, says McDevitt who points to one of the women in the first trailer's threesome scene as an example.

"While this scene in the reveal trailer was clearly designed hint at the pirate lifestyle, there is a gameplay element here, to show that you can use certain NPC characters to more effectively achieve your goals. You might have noticed that the woman in the foreground seduced his target at the end of the trailer (eagle-eyed fans have already pointed out that they are the same woman)."

Black Flag will be 'more open and free than ever before.'

Like all titles in the series, the game will be pre-scripted for dramatic effect — That means there won't be any element of choosing who Kenway can have a relationship with in the main story; however, McDevitt says that gameplay has been designed to be "more open and free than ever before," suggesting there may be more decision-making is on the cards. While Kenway's relationship with his wife is one of the central struggles in the game, McDevitt adds the protagonist will also have a few significant close relationships with other women, including the infamous Anne Bonny.

McDevitt remained tight-lipped about what exact role the ever-present Templars will play this time around, on the other hand. He would only reveal that the Templar consortium would be made up of a "diverse" cast of characters from three different empires. But the story of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag seems to be sustained as much by the repercussions of pirate-style sexuality as it is by the familiar Templar mythology.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is scheduled to release Oct. 29 on Windows PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

An anonymous reader writes "In a case stemming from a Jacksonville burglary, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 Thursday that police must get a search warrant before searching someone's cell phone. 'At this time, we cannot ignore that a significant portion of our population relies upon cell phones for email communications, text message information, scheduling, and banking,' read the majority opinion (PDF), authored by Justice Fred Lewis. 'The position of the dissent, which would permit the search here even though no issue existed with regard to officer safety or evidence preservation, is both contrary to, and the antithesis of, the fundamental protections against government intrusion guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Oil tank explodes in Louisiana, about 30 homes evacuated - Leader Post Regina Leader-Post DENHAM SPRINGS, La. - An oil tank has exploded in Louisiana in an area outside Baton Rouge, prompting the evacuation of 30 to 35 homes. The explosion happened late Thursday night near Denham Springs. No injuries had been reported early Friday. and more »

by Gian

By Emily Gera on May 03, 2013 at 7:00a

Bethesda has opened a new play test lab in Dallas, Texas, and is making its home inside the offices of id Software, according to an announcement on the studio's official blog.

The new testing area will let local Dallas gamers test upcoming titles. Bethesda promises to compensate testers with "games or swag."

You must be at least 18 years or over and live in the Dallas area to apply for a tester role at the Bethesda lab. According to its blog, the studio is searching for all varieties of gamer — from casual to hardcore. Those interested can head over to the official website to sign up.

The Cutter Alicia: First UK STID reviews:

thecutteralicia:

Now that Star Trek Into Darkness has had its U.K. press screening, more reviews about our boy are starting to trickle in…

“There are moments in Cumberbatch’s hypnotic, placid performance where you’ll question whether Harrison is a villain at all - until he strikes, and you wonder how you ever…

Early reviews…

Brandon Stanton, the photog behind mega-popular portrait site Humans of New York, is posting specimens from his trip to Zuckerberg's Money Den. The results? Portlandia meets Palo Alto.

Thomas: 'Elites' like Obama - USA Today USA TODAY The Supreme Court's only African-American member says he's not surprised to see an African-American president -- but it had to be one backed by "the elites." Justice Clarence Thomas said during a recent interview at Duquesne Law School that he always ... and more »

photo via Zhang Wei for Imagechina via South China Morning Post

The new headquarters for Chinese newspaper the People’s Daily is under construction, and currently the building looks a lot like a giant penis. As noted by many across popular Chinese social networks like Sina Weibo, the scaffolding around the top makes the building appear phallic when viewed from the right angle. Photos of the 500-foot-tall building have since been censored, and according to the South China Morning Post searches for “People’s Daily Building” return the message “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, search results cannot be displayed.”

image via Xie Qing

via South China Morning Post, MSN, Nerdcore

Thank God it’s Frida

Lightning strikes extremely close to a beach wedding in the Florida Keys in this video uploaded by dekathornton.

via PetaPixel