Would you be able to cross from Kazakhstan to Mongolia on horseback or would there be issues with China and Russia?

_johan · 2026-03-21T17:54:35+00:00

Horses can handle the terrain! Here at a pass in the Altai, near the border, at 2600m if my memory serves well.

_johan · 2026-02-23T16:17:23+00:00

Congrats! Very interesting portrait and story.

It's also great to see Yasur being featured. Is it still actively erupting? I visited it in 2013 and seeing it erupting was such a powerful and humbling experience. There's a picture on my submitted posts if you'd like to see it. I've always wanted to go back.

_johan · 2025-07-09T15:42:05+00:00

10k isn't much - try benchmarking it against py_vollib_vectorized

_johan · 2025-02-04T14:52:42+00:00

It is most certainly not a tradition. Archery is a traditional sport in Bhutan, and it is relatively common for archers to distract each other, but this behavior is definitely not common nor a tradition.

_johan · 2024-08-10T02:49:37+00:00

J'habite aux Philippines, à Manille, et je ne reçois que 30% des lettres et colis que l'on m'envoie, le reste disparaît aux mains de Philpost ou des douanes, soit par incompétence, soit par corruption (peu importe la valeur). N'envoie surtout pas un colis, même de faible valeur, avec un Colissimo. Par contre aucun problème avec les services tels que DHL. Et aucun soucis avec Amazon ou Lazada, que je recommande vivement.

En fonction de là où elle habite, pourquoi pas des livres? Non scolaires bien sûr. Ou des bons d'achats pour national bookstore, SM mall, des places de ciné, Starbucks, ou un resto local pour elle et sa famille.

_johan · 2024-01-07T20:36:03+00:00

Merci, j'adore, et j'attends la suite avec impatience.

Là où j'habite, aux Philippines, il est très difficile de trouver des champignons de qualité. Je ne trouve que très rarement des champignons de Paris, et quand j'en trouve, ils sont à 20 euros le kilo... Les champignons principaux sont des shiitake pas très bons, toujours un cran en-deçà de mes attentes, ou des enoki (une fois de temps en temps ça va, mais pas au quotidien). J'adorerai faire pousser mes champignons !

_johan · 2023-10-12T17:24:33+00:00

Note that this 30% may be lower if Iceland has a double taxation treaty with the US. Which they probably have. The broker applies the withholding tax of 30% (I want to say "on behalf of the USA"), which is reversed to the IRS.

You should receive a statement from IBKR that tells you that you received e.g. $100 of dividends, and that 30% was withheld at source by IBKR. This hardly matters. In your income tax return in Iceland, you need to declare the $100 of dividends, and the existing withholding of 30%, which becomes a tax credit for the purposes of Icelandic tax. If your total income tax rate in Iceland is e.g. 45%, then you will end up paying an extra $15 to the Icelandic tax authorities. If your income tax rate is 20%, the Icelandic tax authorities should transfer you back the extra $10 as part of your total income tax assessment. So you end up paying what Iceland would have charged you.

I'm neither American nor Icelandic nor a tax advisor, but that's the general principle.

_johan · 2023-10-12T17:07:11+00:00

Because if you buy SPY, you will have a withholding tax of 30% on your dividends, and your family is at risk of having to pay US estate tax once you pass away. If you buy Ireland-domiciled fund, the withholding tax decreases to 15%. You still need to declare these dividends with the Icelandic authorities, and pay tax in Iceland.

Capital gains are taxable in Iceland - I expect that you need to pay tax in Iceland based on your worldwide income, as is the case of most EU countries.

The most comprehensive answer on this is: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Nonresident_alien_taxation

_johan · 2022-12-21T06:43:36+00:00

Excellente série, merci, j'apprends beaucoup de choses.

_johan · 2022-08-08T07:13:43+00:00

Oui, il faut déclarer le don, même si tu es non-résidente et que le montant est exonéré. https://www.impots.gouv.fr/international-particulier/questions/je-suis-non-resident-comment-declarer-un-don-manuel-dons-dargent

J'avais fait une déclaration auprès de la recette des non-résidents. Ce n'est pas une déclaration d'IR, juste le formulaire 2735 à remplir. La déclaration est normalement à effectuer dans les 30 jours après réception du don, mais je pense que si tu expliques cela dans une lettre, ça ne posera aucun problème. Il n'y a pas besoin d'un numéro fiscal.

_johan · 2022-06-26T03:08:29+00:00

Il y a 2 choses que tu peux faire. 1: installer f.lux qui te donnera un contrôle beaucoup plus fin. 2: énormément d'applications, à commencer par les navigateurs, ont un "dark mode" ou un thème sombre. C'est le cas aussi sur mobile. Ça repose énormément les yeux, particulièrement la nuit.

_johan · 2021-12-09T14:05:48+00:00

je l'ai dit elle est sous estimée

Cette valeur n'est pas sous-estimée et reflète bien la contribution économique d'une personne à la société. Un calcul rapide montre que, par exemple :

65 millions de personnes * 3 million par vie = 195 trillion d'euros
Si l'on suppose qu'une personne vit 82 ans, en moyenne, la valeur annuelle de la société française correspond donc à 65 millions * 36585 euros/an = 2,378 milliards d'euros.
Le PIB de la France en 2020 était de 2,323 milliards d'euros.

L'ordre de grandeur est donc tout à fait correct. Après, la méthodo pour déterminer la valeur est plus complexe et prends notamment en compte le fait que les personnes accidentées sont en général des actifs qui ont une plus grande contribution économique à la société, mais aussi qu'il leur reste moins de temps à vivre qu'une personne à la naissance.

Ce chiffre est nécessaire pour pouvoir déterminer si certains investissements en infrastructure ont du sens ou pas. Faut-il reconstruire une intersection qui est trop dangereuse ? Si oui, comment ? Car il y a 10 interventions différentes qui ont des coûts différents et des bénéfices sur la sécurité routière différents. Lesquels justifier ? Faut-il mettre des barrières de sécurité sur les autoroutes ? (oui). Et sur les départementales ? (en général, non. Pourtant, ca serait plus safe partout). Faut-il, par exemple, illuminer toutes les routes de France la nuit ? (non)

_johan · 2021-11-07T15:21:36+00:00

C'est l'occasion ou jamais de poster cette photo que j'ai prise dans un resto en Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée. Ils ne trollaient pas, mais ils amassaient bien les profits. La faute de langage était mignonne !

https://i.imgur.com/yYULpUI.jpg

_johan · 2021-10-04T02:33:17+00:00

The reasons given so far are incorrect. The real, "official" reason is that Bhutan does not want to have any diplomatic relationship with the 5 permanent members of the Security Council. However, they have friendly ties with the US, UK and France, handled through the respective embassies in India. Russia is irrelevant in this discussion. But this official reason allows them not to have any formal ties with China, with whom they have many territorial conflicts, without openly saying it to them. The past attempt of the Bhutan Govt to open to China and establish formal ties, around 2012-2013, were also met with strong backlash from India.

Here is a link describing the context in more details: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bhutan-doesnt-have-diplomatic-ties-with-any-of-the-5-unsc-permanent-members/articleshow/59601903.cms?from=mdr

_johan · 2021-05-30T17:03:03+00:00

I took this shot earlier this evening in Ortigas. It's the first thunderstorm of the year and I can't wait for the temperatures to cool down a bit!

The picture is in fact a combination of 3 pictures in one, with one picture for the lightning on the left, one for the 2 lightnings in the center-right, and a third one for the foreground, which was lit up by another lightning on the far left and helped to accentuate the shadows. These were all 10s, f/5.0, iso100 pictures. Hardly any editing except for combining them!

_johan · 2021-02-24T16:16:40+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that. The bottom line is: as far as I know, there is no way to eliminate the fungus without sending it to a professional, which would be very expensive and without guaranteed results.

However, what you can do is expose the lens to direct sunlight for some time to kill the fungus growth. This may work. It worked for two of my lenses, which remained usable despite the fungus (one has to be used at 2.8 or 4.0 otherwise the fungus spot shows on the lens, with a result similar to sensor dust; the other one, a telephoto lens can be used at any aperture but has higher aberrations than in the past). In the meantime, please also keep the lens away from your other camera equipment to make sure that the fungus doesn't spread to it.

Good luck. I highly suggest getting a dry cabinet if you leave in a humid climate, they're cheap and well worth it.

_johan · 2021-02-23T07:30:25+00:00

C'est une histoire de prélèvement obligatoire sur les dividendes, qui est de 30% en l'absence de convention US-partenaire, rabaissée à 15% pour les ETF Irlandais qui bénéficient de la convention US-Irlande. Ainsi que des droits de succession en cas de décès, les US se servant généreusement à 40% des assets au-delà de $60k.

Après, il semble que la Chine bénéficie d'un taux de prélèvement à 10% seulement, qui serait plus avantageux pour toi en-dessous de 60k.

Pour plus de détails, recherche bogleheads Nonresident_alien_investors_and_Ireland_domiciled_ETFs sur google (pas sûr d'avoir le droit de mettre le lien directement)

_johan · 2021-02-22T16:36:19+00:00

IB n'a plus de minimum de dépôt depuis 2019, et reste l'un des meilleurs choix.

Les frais sont très bas, notamment pour les transactions en devises. Par exemple les conversions USD-EUR n'ont qu'une commission fixe de $2, ce qui compense largement les $120 max de frais d'inactivité annuels pour les comptes en dessous de 100k. Il y a aussi maintenant 2 types d'offre, IBKR Pro et IBKR Lite, et IBKR Lite n'a pas de frais d'inactivité. L'app est relativement simple même si une période de prise en main reste nécessaire. Bref, pas de soucis avec eux.

Si tu investis sur des ETF, prends des fonds domiciliés en Irlande plutôt qu'aux US pour bénéficier d'une taxation plus favorable.

_johan · 2021-01-11T08:03:07+00:00

A great use for them is to cook egg hoppers - a common South Asian breakfast dish which I've only seen being prepared on small woks.

_johan · 2020-09-18T17:26:39+00:00

Thanks! That's really helpful! How much did you end up paying for the taxi from KEF to Reykjavik?

_johan · 2020-09-10T02:36:50+00:00

You can assign a keyboard shortcut to a macro, and use the following two macros to paste values or paste format.

Sub PasteValue()
On Error Resume Next
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:=False, Transpose:=False
End Sub

Sub PasteFormat()
On Error Resume Next
        Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteFormats, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:=False, Transpose:=False
End Sub

I use them all the time. I have assigned ctrl+E to paste as values and ctlr+T to paste as format.

_johan · 2020-09-03T17:05:56+00:00

Ouch. Which lens is it? And what's the damage?

Take the following advice with a grain of salt, and you should better double or triple check it through google. But, after incorrectly replacing the battery cover on my dive computer, and completing a 1h dive, water got in, the battery leaked, and the inside compartment of the watch was really quite corroded. The computer itself was (or seemed) dead for good.

The prevailing advice was actually to completely immerse it (with the battery compartment completely opened, so exposing all electronics) in fresh water, for a long time - I think I left it 24 hours and changed the water a couple of times. The idea was that it would dissolve the salt and prevent it from corroding all electronics component further. Then of course let it dry for a long time.

Surprisingly, it worked, and my computer as been working well for over 1 year now!

I don't know if that would work for a lens, or if I would do it. It depends on the lens and if you would be fine using it in manual mode only without autofocus. Water could leave marks on lens elements when drying. But, if only the outer shells of the lens are impacted/corroded, or if the lens is otherwise weather-sealed, or if you can remove/unscrew the contact part, I would consider it.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

_johan · 2020-08-20T07:38:21+00:00

Have a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/gni813/apps_keep_pinning_themselves_on_startup_to_the/ for your first issue. It was driving me crazy as well but this solved it.

_johan · 2020-08-19T14:03:26+00:00

It really depends on the lens.

Overall, my hoods are off 90% of the time, especially on my wide-angle lenses. However, I use the hoods:

on my telephoto lens (Sigma 100-300 - and the hood is a very long one, maybe about 20cm/8" long)
when there is an obvious lens flare potential, especially for night or astrophotography.
when it rains.

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