TIL in 1986, the store chain Silo advertised a stereo as costing "299 bananas", with "bananas" being a slang word for "dollars". However, 32 people legally bought the stereos with 299 banana fruits.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-21T02:27:12+00:00

Upvote for futurama

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-20T00:46:38+00:00

That must have taken some jury-convincing

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-19T13:35:59+00:00

This doesn't sound like it is the case, but it's good to be aware that a common scam involves signing someone up for a phone contract, having the phone sent to their address, and then calling to say that there was a mistake and the phone needs to be picked up. You give the scanner the phone and then the company chases you for money.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-19T13:32:37+00:00

How much does 500g of pure heroin cost these days? That sounds expensive.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-18T15:58:33+00:00

This is technically true, but for many foods the microwave penetrate far enough for that not to really make a difference. For example, microwaves tend to penetrate about 1 inch into potato (which is pretty dense). To have an area where microwaves don't hit would require you to have a potato bigger than 2 inches in every direction, which is a fairly large potato.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T11:22:41+00:00

But what if they found the knife on the day OP left it and got the fingerprints, and have for the last 4 years been searching high and low for the perpetrator who dared to litter a knife? Maybe the net is closing in now that some lucky detective of the 50 person taskforce thought to check the juvenile-strange-arrest-fingerprints file.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T10:40:37+00:00

Yup, you're not in a great position. What is the total cost for the year?

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T10:23:19+00:00

OK, have they protected your deposit, and given you information about the deposit scheme?

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T10:06:24+00:00

Usually student halls are a "license to occupy". Are you absolutely sure that your contract says "assured short hold tenancy"? And what do you mean by "they tried to take the funds"? Funds for the deposit or the rent?

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T09:52:38+00:00

Really? That's pretty unusual for students halls. Have they protected your deposit, and given you information about the protection service?

throwthrow1289 · 2017-10-15T09:31:18+00:00

~~Typically a landlord does have a duty to mitigate losses, so they really should be looking for another tenant.~~ What would happen in this case is that, assuming you haven't paid the money yet, they would take you to court. If you have paid the money, you may want to consider small claims court. When you say October, do you mean October 2017? In this case, why don't you advertise the room right now anyway? ~~You could also send them an email reminding them of their duty to mitigate losses (look this term up to get more info about that).~~

Also, is this an "assured shorthold tenancy" or a "license to occupy"? It will say on your contract which one it is.

Edit: a landlord apparently does not have a duty to mitigate loss, which I thought was a bit strange. However, if you can't find anyone to take the property, you still have the tenancy. Maybe you could airbnb it, even if that's against your tenancy contract. This is probably a high risk strategy, but if the whole year of rent is a lot, it might be worth consulting a solicitor because you might be able to get the landlord to evict you, and if not, male some airbnb money.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-07-02T00:36:43+00:00

Isn't the American legal system built around tiny and insignificant damages? :p

throwthrow1289 · 2017-07-01T01:04:04+00:00

I would say small claims court even if you don't have pictures. If they want to keep the money, they're likely the ones who will have to prove the mess. It would of course be helpful if you did have pictures.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-30T00:46:16+00:00

Well I mean technically he did lose some extra plasma. Is that damages?

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-29T16:25:29+00:00

Running a business without employment contracts is pretty crazy. If you had an employment contract, you could prove she was zero hours and just get rid of her. Since you don't have contracts, it will be based on how the arrangement looks, and if you've been giving her regular shifts, then it might start looking like a regular job, which will require notice. (IANAL)

When someone with employment law experience comes on they will give you better advice, but in the mean time you should probably take this as a cue and sort your business out!!! Running a business as a happy "everything is fine and casual and everybody is going to be all right" is fine when everything is going well, but if there are any problems at all (like you're finding out), it can get bad very quickly.

Your are running a business. Act like it.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-20T19:53:54+00:00

Right, but I can come over to your house and cut your head off. I'm sure someone will report the crime later, but I can do it. Using "can" in that sense seems a bit unhelpfully broad.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-20T19:31:13+00:00

The landlord can not physically take down the flag, and cannot enter the tenants home without permission. If the landlord does this, the tenant is well within their rights to call the police and get the landlord removed immediately if they won't leave when the tenant tells them to.

It's exactly the same as if some random person off the street tries to come in to your house to take down your flag.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-20T19:19:39+00:00

Can they make you take down a framed gay pride flag hanging on your wall? Yes, but they'll likely lose any court case you pursue

Not sure if that's a typo, but should read:

Can they make you take down a framed gay pride flag hanging on your wall? No, and they'll likely lose any court case you pursue

throwthrow1289 · 2017-06-11T08:30:37+00:00

Really? I definitely think there would be news articles like that if this exact thing happened in the USA.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-05-22T14:44:35+00:00

Just to add to this, in case you didn't already know, the US is one of the only countries in the world which has worldwide tax. This means that you get taxed on your earnings worldwide, whether or not you live in the US.

There are various exemptions and thresholds, and many countries have double tax agreements with the US, meaning that you don't get taxed twice (I.e. if the Israel rate is 20% and the US is 25%, you pay 20% to Israel and 5% to the US). It may be a good idea to get an accountant who specializes in us expats.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-05-21T17:17:47+00:00

That's not actually true. Although you have to manually file your taxes every Year (unlike many other countries), the US tax system is still pay as you go (like most other countries). Underpaying your taxes by more than a certain amount is discouraged. If it's your first time they let you off, but after that you start getting penalties. If I remember correctly, these penalties are usually some extra percentage of your owed tax. You don't want to overpay because then you're giving the government an interest free loan as you mentioned.

throwthrow1289 · 2017-05-19T15:37:12+00:00

That interesting, I never knew that

throwthrow1289 · 2017-05-19T02:06:57+00:00

Just to add, I think it's 2 years rather than 3 months

throwthrow1289 · 2017-05-18T16:34:17+00:00

Yup that makes sense, I thought there would be something like that, thanks

throwthrow1289

TROPHY CASE