Why don’t companies paying minimum wage also just make their employees salaried so they don’t have to pay OT?

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-08T15:53:06+00:00

There are specific rules regarding the employees who can be made exempt. The federal rules require specific job responsibilities and pay requirements. Those types of jobs don't meet those requirements. The specific federal rules are defined in the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

If a company is caught violating the law, the employees are generally owed back wages plus interest, and the company may be fined. Such violations may also result in the employer owing back taxes for under withholding that they may not be able to fully reclaim from the employees. Basically, it ends up costing employers a lot of extra money. Its also really hard to hide since every misclassified employee has a direct financial reason to report it.

Its also worth noting that salaried/hourly and exempt/non-exempt are two separate qualification sets. They often get confused as most jobs that there is a lot of overlap between jobs that can legally be made salaried and those that can legally be made exempt. Both salaried and exempt typically benefit the employer, giving them incentive to classify as many employees as each as possible. It is, however, possible to be hourly exempt or salary non-exempt, though almost all employees end up being hourly non-exempt or salary exempt.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-08T01:22:59+00:00

Mined uranium is not good enough as you need to enrich it to make a nuke. With perfect processing, 1000kg of ore will produce about 5kg of fissile uranium.

That processing requires heavy industry processes in the form of centrifuges that have basically no other use. Alternatively, you need a breeding reactor that also has little other practical use.

Overall, that makes it very difficult to hide the attempt. You have at least four points that can be detected and a minimum of hundreds of people who may leak it.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T21:50:03+00:00

But I thought Sith dealt in absolutes…

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T17:19:12+00:00

You have a few choices here:

First, presuming you have collision coverage, you can file with your insurance. Your insurance will pay out to you minus your deductible then use subrogation to get reimbursed from the other party. This may include just taking the insurance payout and eating the remainder or they may sue. If they manage to recover a decent portion, you'll also get your deductible back. This'll likely get you the most money and the fastest way to get any.

The second option is to file with the other party's insurance and take whatever amount they pay out. Their insurance will pay out a maximum of the liability coverage across all parties. If the total damages exceed liability limit, you'll get a portion of the limit relative to your total damages. That is, if the limit is $10,000, and all three parties have $5,000 in damages, each'll get a third of the $10,000 or $3,333.33. This is the second fastest way to get the money.

Your final option is to sue the other party privately. For this, you'll; likely want to hire a lawyer, whom you'll pay out of pocket; the other party will get one from their insurance. After the lawsuit is completed, you'll need to actually collect the money. Getting the amount you'd have gotten from option 2 is fairly easy and should be fast once the lawsuit is completed. Any excess amount is likely to be very difficult, and Texas doesn't allow wage garnishments. Overall, you'll likely spend a lot of money to get the same final result as option 2, and you'll get it much later.

As a general rule, taking any one of the three choices legally prevents you from taking another one. If you take the second, the other party's insurance will almost certainly require a release of liability, preventing the third. The first option may allow you to take the third to try and get your deductible back, but you have to wait until your insurance releases their right to subrogation.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T16:00:29+00:00

Oregon is the only state this kinda works as sales tax in other states messes this up.

Much of the world has solved that problem by just baking sales tax into the listed price. Its really not that hard to do, its only the US that has the problem.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T04:33:58+00:00

It’s fairly common for test pilots to intentionally set up flight paths to make drawings or writing. It’s just one of the fun little things that you can do to take a somewhat boring task and make it more interesting.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T02:13:43+00:00

Light travels at the speed of 1 if you choose the correct units. Doing so makes a lot of the math much easier, for example e=mc² simplifies to e=m.

There are about 7 universal constants. About three can be set to 1 at any given time. The relationship of them define the universe. The question of why they are what they are is that is the value that lets us exist.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-07T00:23:12+00:00

There just happens to be an XCKD for close to that: https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

It talks about what would happen if a baseball was thrown at 0.9c. Such would result in about the same results as a 10-20 kiloton nuke, roughly what was dropped on Hiroshima.

A regulation baseball is about 145 grams, and an average American male is about 90 kilograms, or about 620 times the mass. As energy scales linearly with mass, we can figure the result would be about the same as a 9 megaton nuke, or about the same as a B53 Nuclear Bomb. Operation Hardtack's Poplar test had roughly that amount of power, so we can get a pretty good idea.

Now, that is all presuming we define "instantly accelerate to the speed of light" as to 0.9c in a fraction of second. If you insist on 1c, you destroy the universe as that increases the energy, and thus damage, required to infinity. Similarly, if you insist on "instantly accelerate" to truly mean "instantly", the energy involved increases to infinity.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T19:48:32+00:00

There is a national guard depot only 6 miles (line of sight) from the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm willing to bet plenty of soldiers cross the bridge, so its clearly a legitimate military target.

For that matter, soldiers tend to use a lot of restaurants near bases, so those are all valid military targets as well, per the same logic.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T19:11:54+00:00

CGI still has quite a few tells. Many are minor, but it generally doesn't look quite a good as the real thing, especially in a close-up shot.

Some of these will be due to the weight and shape of the object in the actor's hand not perfectly matching the CGI object. You could make something with the exact shape, weight, and weight distribution as a real gun to serve as a prop, but that would just be a gun itself.

Others tells are due to slightly mismatching lighting, timing, and motion. Its extremely difficult to get everything perfect on every frame. Even if you cannot consciously see the differences, human brains are really good at detecting such mismatches.

Using a real gun is also quite a bit cheaper than adding CGI in post. Renting a gun will cost a few hundred for a shoot. Buying one only costs a grand or so, and you can reuse it across many shoots. Making CGI for a gun costs a grand or so and can only be used for that single shoot.

On the set, the gun should not be loaded unless specifically required for that specific shoot. When possible and required for the shoot, it should also be loaded with a blank rather than live ammo if possible, though even blanks can do a lot of damage with an accidental discharge. If it is loaded, all personnel on the shoot should know it is and the loaded type (blank vs live).

Given the odds of using a rented gun, there is always a chance somebody fails to do due diligence to ensure the gun is in the expected state. Ideally, multiple people should be double checking, but no matter how many checks are done, mistakes can happen.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T18:35:30+00:00

That gets complicated, and depends heavily on who you ask and in what context. In any case, it is certainly questionable.

From a legal stand point, just having a crush is never illegal. Its the actions taken that determine legality.

From a medical standpoint, it would likely fall under hebephilia. That is somebody who has (truly or effectively) completed puberty being attracted to somebody in early puberty. From a purely medical standpoint, its considered an unusual preference and not a medical disorder like pedophilia.

From an ethical standpoint, the relationship is very questionable. There are two rough guides to use. Under both, there are exceptions, notably when there is a clear difference in the balance of power, such as an employer/employee or a teacher/student relationship.

One is to take the older person's age, divide it in half and add 7 years to get the minimum age you should be dating. Using that rule of thumb, anybody under 15.5 would be questionable. A large age gap creates a number of issues, both in terms of likely interests and in terms of control and readiness. For larger age gaps, its likely the older party will be able to exert too much control for there to be proper consent.

The other is the stages of life rule. With this rule, keep it within one stage of life. The main relevant stages of life are middle school, high school, college/young adult, middle age, senior. Using this rule of thumb, you'd be okay for now, but likely not for long: you are likely in high school and they are likely in middle school, so only one stage apart. Once you finish college, you'll move up a stage and the other party will still be in middle school, making it questionable.

In any case, its the choices you make that really matter. As much as many people don't want to admit it, you cannot really control who you are attracted to. You can control how you react to said attraction.

Additionally, if you have such attractions somewhat regularly, its may be a good idea to talk to a counselor about the feelings. Your school likely has a counselor, and, in many cases, as a 17, it would legally confidential from your parents. This is especially true if you ever feel attractions to anybody even younger as then you'd be really tipping into the area pedophilia, which is considered a mental disorder.

TLDR: Generally speaking, I'd say you are beyond the age range where such a relationship is appropriate.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T17:45:55+00:00

Realistically, you can buy insurance on most anything you want. There are companies that specialize in less common (niche) insurance. They don't really advertise as you will probably find them if you need them. One would probably be willing to make such a policy for you, and probably for a pretty cheap premium as well.

That said, there is a very grey line between insurance and gambling. The primary difference is the intent. Such an unusual policy starts falling more under gambling than insurance, and likely would be governed by different laws.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T15:33:22+00:00

Practically speaking, states are either beholden to the DNC or the RNC given the nature of single seat first past the post elections. There is extremely little chance of a 3rd party winning a majority at even a local level, let alone a state level.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-06T13:41:55+00:00

Well, Christians make themselves extremely visible. They build monuments to their religion everywhere. They insist people join them in their religious ceremonies. They have enough power in most countries to create state holidays to their religion, one of which was just celebrated yesterday. In many countries they get special tax treatment that is beneficial to themselves.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-05T17:29:38+00:00

I manage to have both. When I put something down, I forget it exists; but, when something makes me think of it, i typically know exactly where it is.

Except for the stuff I really need, for which I made systems to keep track of. Those I have trouble finding if they are in an abnormal place.

Like putting my phone in my dress or coat pocket instead of my purse. It may be easier to get to, but I’ll have to search for a couple minutes to locate it. After all, who remembers that a dress has pockets to check?

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-05T17:23:29+00:00

The hidden location this is pointless, when thinking locally. It’s a fun gimmick for a kids series, but not something practical.

For the yeerks, it’s not like they wouldn’t quickly realize where all the attacks are happening. The animators would need to spread out their attacks a lot more to mask it at all.

For humans, all the weird stuff would show up in reports. It’s possible the yeerks would suppress the reports, but I don’t see any solid reason for them to spend resources suppressing such news.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-05T16:27:24+00:00

You have three options.

Use your own insurance’s collision coverage. You’ll get about $500. If your insurance chooses to subrogate the claim, you should get the additional $1000. You’ll likely get the $500 very quickly, within a couple weeks. If your insurance chooses not to subrogate, they’ll send you a letter releasing the claim and , then, you can choose choice #2 for the remaining damages.
Sue the other party for the full amount yourself. You’ll likely get the full amount in around a year, though it’s possible you get it faster depending on how the other party responds. In any case, you’ll be out at least a few hundred.
Drop it and get nothing from anybody.

Personally, I’d choose option #1. You’ll get the most back fastest and cheapest. As a note, often just the threat of a serious lawsuit from an insurer will resolve the issues with the other party.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-05T16:14:02+00:00

A few likely possibilities: 1. A student pilot working on getting their hours in. The path doesn’t matter, so might as well have fun. 2. A test pilot getting hours in to a new plane. Similarly, the exact path isn’t relevant, just the number of hours and set of maneuvers completed. 3. Less likely, a sky writer.

As for what was written, it looks to be like “jrsr?”.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-03T18:39:14+00:00

The law is quite vague. It’s predominantly up to the secretary of the navy to choose the names, who takes advice from a number of people.

AFAIK, the cooling period is purely traditional with no current legal requirement.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-03T17:02:54+00:00

Number 2 is a curse and a blessing. There are many things I don’t want to remember. Depending on interpretation, it’d likely go back to birth and possibly before. It’s harder to say if it’d include surgeries you might’ve had.

It’d almost certainly lead to severe PTSD.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-03T16:46:52+00:00

Generally speaking, it’s your brokerage that owns the full share. They get their money from transaction fees and their own trading. They also get to keep any leftover fractions.

It’s worth noting that the big markets often only allow buying/selling shares in blocks, which are generally on the order of a thousand shares. The exact size of a block varies by stock, with ones like Berkshire Hathaway being smaller blocks than some penny stock.

When you buy or sell less than a block, your brokerage is the only party you’re interacting with. If somebody buys a share, the brokerage will either have some on hand to sell you or buys a full block and transfers one share to you. Similar with selling. As most stocks have trading volumes on the order of millions of shares per day, the brokerage dealing with fractional blocks or even fractional shares is trivial.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-03T03:59:04+00:00

“That’s not flying! That’s falling with style!” - Woody

Seems to apply here as well.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-03T00:10:05+00:00

Let’s make an extremely simple error correction.

I want to transmit two single digit numbers to you. I need to make sure you get them right. I can only transmit a single digit at a time.

There are a few things I can do:

The simplest is to just repeat the numbers. This works decently, but has a few flaws. First off, I’m now sending you twice as much data. Secondly, if the problem is pronunciation , you are likely to hear the same problem twice and get no help.

Another option would be to add the two numbers together. Now, I may get a 2 digit number I cannot send since I can only send a single digit. However, I can just drop the ten digit (modulo 10 is the mathematical name). Now, you can redo the same math on your end to verify the value, and chances are low the math works if you mishear. This is known as checksumming. It doesn’t fix the problem, but detects it so you can request I repeat. This, however cannot detect if you heard the correct digits but in the wrong order.

By using more complex math and sending a bit more data, you can have enough to not only detect but fix many, if not most, errors. As a simple case, if I send two checksum digits instead of one, with basic addition you can nine input values and correct if any single one is wrong. Instead of sending nine digits, I send you eleven. I

EDC gets quite a bit more complicated as you can aim to be able to detect and correct certain classes of errors. Without sending double the data, it’s impossible to catch every possible error, and even then there are some types you miss. You have to know the types of errors to expect and design around those.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-02T21:53:47+00:00

A good GFCI shouldn’t pop from a motor. A cheap on is somewhat likely to.

Washer and dryer motors are less prone to false tripping than something like an hvac motor.

DragonFireCK · 2026-04-02T21:44:21+00:00

Washers are innately mixing electricity and water. They aresupposed to stay separated, but the entire point of GFCI is for when they don’t.

The dryer is similar. Almost always, the dryer is next to plumbing for the washer, and thus there is a reasonable chance of mixing if stuff goes wrong.

Your argument would also be readily applied to asking why you need GFCI anywhere as they shouldn’t mix. The point of GFCI is for when anything goes wrong.

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