>> ^BoneRemake:

http://oi54.tinypic.com/10h6cup.jpg
I had started drawing and reaching for the camera before I even got to step fours way for ten. For a guy with a lot of time this is a good contest.


I like your handwriting.

You know you can't knock the shit out of the Easter bunny either-He bleeds marshmallow and shits chocolate.

>> ^blankfist:

@NetRunner, what's stimulus money got to do with money supply? Are you serious? You must be trolling. For the benefit of others, I'll answer that question:
The Treasury Department borrows the money from the Federal Reserve. This money is printed new and is NOT already in circulation. So, once those trillions get circulated into the economy, what happens? It inflates the money supply. Presto!

Are you serious? You must be trolling. For the benefit of others, I'll correct you.

The Treasury Department borrows the money by selling Treasury bonds on the open market. Domestic investors and banks buy most of it, a big chunk of it is bought by other governments. Some might be purchased by the Fed using freshly printed money, but that's entirely based on what the Fed wants to do with the money supply, and has nothing to do with whether we did stimulus or not.

Not to mention, even if the Fed prints money and buys a treasury, there's no guarantee the buyer won't just hold the dollars as a reserve of some sort, and keep it out of circulation.

>> ^blankfist:
And you asked what happens to wages during inflation? Well, I don't know

An honest answer. Too bad you kept writing...

>> ^blankfist:
[L]et's look at history, shall we? There are plenty of examples in history (Rome, Germany, Yugoslavia), but let's look at Zimbabwe in the 2000s because it's really easy to google. According to wikipedia, Zimbabwe's "annual inflation was estimated at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent (6.5 x 10108%, the equivalent of 6 quinquatrigintillion 500 quattuortrigintillion percent, or 65 followed by 107 zeros – 650 million googol percent)."

Yes, inflation can happen. But looking at nominal price levels alone doesn't answer why inflation is bad.

>> ^blankfist:
But that's fine, right? Because they just increased the wages and everyone went back to happy Krugman land and ate marshmallows and played with bunnies. Oh no, that didn't happen at all, did it? No. In the end the Zimbabwean Dollar was destroyed, and the people were forced to adopt foreign currencies.

Well here's the thing, have you actually looked at what's happened to the wage level in Zimbabwe? Is the problem that wages never increased at all, and that inflation meant no one had any purchasing power at all?

Or was it something a little more esoteric like a collapse of market confidence that really buggered them?

>> ^blankfist:
It's not as easy to fix as "putting upward pressure on wages". In fact, the people who are first impacted are the people on the bottom, because ALL (and I mean absolutely ALL) inflation enriches the government first, the big businesses with government contracts second, the rich third, and ultimately it's the poor and retired who suffer through the adjustment phase.

Again, you're hamstrung by not actually understanding the underlying economic principles. If the main issue with inflation was really this confiscatory debasement you're talking about, then that would in large part be fixed by greater wage flexibility.

>> ^blankfist:
And what of the people with savings? Are you so willing to write them off with a big dildo shoved up their asses, because they're not currently "earning" a wage? What of those people who saved and saved because that's what society told them was prudent for their retirement? What does your precious Krugman messiah say of the grandmothers and grandfathers who see their savings diminish while their social security payments play catch up with the current cost of living changes?

The answer there is that inflation screws people with large amounts of liquid money (the rich), and helps people with debt (the not-so-rich), while making holding assets look more promising than holding cash in any form. People who saved for retirement by stuffing $100 bills into their mattress get screwed. People who put their money in a savings account may get screwed if the bank doesn't offer them competitive interest rates. People who invested in a mix of stocks and bonds will see those stocks go up in nominal value, while the bonds will likely become worthless (depends on the exact terms though).

People who rely on Social Security will be fine, so long as a) wages as a whole go up with inflation, and b) conservative morons don't come in and cut the COLA below inflation for no reason. It's part of why anyone who wants to privatize Social Security is pretty much a fuckwad.

In the end, the negative effects of stable but high (~10% or so) inflation wouldn't be so bad. There's basically no downside to inflation around 2-4%. And by the way, we're sitting somewhere around 1% right now, with not even the remotest hint of hyperinflation.

The only way for us to really trigger hyperinflation right now is if conservatives follow through on threats to make the US go into default on its debt. But that won't be hyperinflation because of the Fed printing money, it'll be because conservatives will have trashed our nation's credit rating because they're stupid.

@NetRunner, what's stimulus money got to do with money supply? Are you serious? You must be trolling. For the benefit of others, I'll answer that question:

The Treasury Department borrows the money from the Federal Reserve. This money is printed new and is NOT already in circulation. So, once those trillions get circulated into the economy, what happens? It inflates the money supply. Presto!

And you asked what happens to wages during inflation? Well, I don't know, let's look at history, shall we? There are plenty of examples in history (Rome, Germany, Yugoslavia), but let's look at Zimbabwe in the 2000s because it's really easy to google. According to wikipedia, Zimbabwe's "annual inflation was estimated at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent (6.5 x 10108%, the equivalent of 6 quinquatrigintillion 500 quattuortrigintillion percent, or 65 followed by 107 zeros – 650 million googol percent)." But that's fine, right? Because they just increased the wages and everyone went back to happy Krugman land and ate marshmallows and played with bunnies. Oh no, that didn't happen at all, did it? No. In the end the Zimbabwean Dollar was destroyed, and the people were forced to adopt foreign currencies.

I'm sorry, but inflation is bad. Very bad. It's not as easy to fix as "putting upward pressure on wages". In fact, the people who are first impacted are the people on the bottom, because ALL (and I mean absolutely ALL) inflation enriches the government first, the big businesses with government contracts second, the rich third, and ultimately it's the poor and retired who suffer through the adjustment phase.

And what of the people with savings? Are you so willing to write them off with a big dildo shoved up their asses, because they're not currently "earning" a wage? What of those people who saved and saved because that's what society told them was prudent for their retirement? What does your precious Krugman messiah say of the grandmothers and grandfathers who see their savings diminish while their social security payments play catch up with the current cost of living changes?

Un. Fucking. Believable.

This reminds me of the Spaghetti Marshmallow game I put on my phone recently...

This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by ponceleon.

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by Seric. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

As highlighted above, this is indeed a *dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-marshmallow-test

Come on Buck, I found this by searching 'Marshmallow' and 'Test'

http://videosift.com/video/The-marshmallow-test

Conan really showed that car who's boss with all that soft toilet paper, soft laundry and soft marshmallows.

>> ^robdot:

im a 30 year pro firefighter. [...] we have maps to show us the corp line. and the addresses of those not in the city limits. i cant take my dept out of service to help you, and leave the citizens who do pay unprotected. or use up their resources. if you want depts to protect more people, you must pay up front for more vehicles, equipment, personnel , training, etc. extremely self evident.


I think the problem's that the FD drove out, told the guy to his face that there was nothing they would do (not could do - that's different), got out the marshmallows, and had a party while the guy's life burned down around him. They were there. They could have helped.

How about this? You're getting beat up by a mugger. An off-duty cop walks by. He decides he doesn't want the overtime pay so he just keeps walking. You end up in the hospital with four less teeth, internal bleeding, and broken bones. Is that acceptable?

...Marshmallow her Smore

Beard-toting dudes of the world, unite! Let the sticky goo of ... uh ... marshmallow paste bind us together in fellowship.

>> ^Shepppard:

Rice Crispies treats


Actually, Rice Krispie treats are made using the cereal and melted marshmallows, and they are delicious beyond words.

http://www.ricekrispies.com/recipes/the-original-treats.aspx#/recipes/the-original-treats

>> ^Gabe_b:

>> ^ForgedReality:
>> ^Gabe_b:
It's like a cat version of The World's Most Useless Machine
Angry declawed cats are the best. Ours was tearing up the wallpaper and my hands till we had her declawed. Now all she has is marshmallows of rage

Declawing is horrible cruelty. I think it should be made illegal. What's wrong with clipping the cat's nails every so often? Don't be lazy. It pretty much shows your lack of affection and concern for your animal.
Please read this: http://www.declawing.com

No doubt it is. I had to watch her pad around on bloody bandaged paws for a fortnight. We did it as a last resort. Living as expats, not sure of how long we could keep an animal it didn't seem moral to get a kitten so we got a shelter cat. Turned out she'd been abused by her first owners fiance, and then spent several months locked up alone in a tiny box. By the time we got her it wouldn't have even been accurate to call her feral as a feral cat has survival skills and will often be quite friendly.
After a couple of months of her tearing up everything, and attacking us for petting, sitting near or just walking part her we asked the shelter guy for advice. He suggested dumping her out on the street, but at 3 years old already, and in a country where it's common to abuse and cut the tails of stay cats for kicks, it didn't seem fair. She was going to live as an apartment cat for the rest of her life, and if every interaction with humans resulted in her panicking and hurting them, making them freak out at her and reinforce her fears, then it was going to be a pretty miserable life.
I have lived with half a dozen cats that have lived since kittenhood in stable situations and never have for a second considered having their claws ripped out to make my life easier. This seemed, after exhausting plenty of other options, to be the best option.
Since we had it done, things have improved considerably for her. She spends most nights on the sofa snuggling with me or my girlfriend and sleeps in bed pretty much every night. She still has attacks of rage, but when she does now she isn't confronted by a yelling similarly pissed of human. If that's too much ambiguity for you then shrug


Sad. I can say I would probably have tried harder to work with her, and teach her we're not all out to get her, but then I wasn't in that particular situation, so I don't really know. The story you relate softens the blow a bit, but it still personally feels a bit extreme. Maybe if I had been in your situation, I would be able to better relate.

I could never have a cat declawed. Even if it took years of therapy and calming down, I would do anything in my power to rehabilitate, rather than chop my cat's toes off. It seems like adding more abuse to an already disturbed animal. But like I said, I wasn't there, so I'll assume you did everything in your power.

I do commend you for taking in a shelter cat and not having it put down when you discovered its mental state, though. That at least shows good intentions.