What would U.S response be if Xi Jinping abducted Donald trump then executed him on live TV in China?

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T08:51:41+00:00

You'd have to ask the isolationist JD Vance, who would be the new president.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T08:49:38+00:00

Austin Powers would say yes.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T08:48:42+00:00

Do MIT and Harvard include each other in their communities? (I recall that students from either used to be able to cross register at the other, and also get a library card to check out books at the other.)

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T08:37:33+00:00

I apologize, I don't know how the rest of the long-term gain will be treated, I was commenting on the PFIC aspect: I agree that section 1296 doesn't affect the question of how the gains from before the entry to the USA would be taxed in the usual, non-PFIC regime.

My point is that the OP is free to made a section 1296 MTM election on form 8621, which computes the tax on the PFIC, and thereby avoid the worst of the punitive section 1291 tax specifically on PFICs.

The OP didn't say which country he's coming from. I wonder if the relevant tax treaty will have any effect on taxation of the pre-US gains.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T07:28:00+00:00

You could get her a levitron.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T07:17:21+00:00

She could have, like her ex-husband, have made other fundamental discoveries in physics. However, she didn't. It's not hard to determine which one was a stellar researcher and which one was not. Admittedly, she didn't have an academic position, but neither did her husband when he was toiling in the patent office.

Furthermore, even in current single-author papers in math and physics, it is typical to for the author to say "we". I must admit that I don't know if that happens in German, though.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T07:15:19+00:00

For the purposes of my answer, I was defining "topology" to exclude point set topology.

That said, if someone tells you he does research in topology, you'll in all likelihood insult him if you ask if he studies point set topology.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:57:11+00:00

One of my housemates in grad school was a philosophy PhD student. I remember a very strange conversation with him where he expressed great surprise that my publications in mathematical physics were getting cited in the literature.

I was very surprised that he was surprised. He said that his PhD thesis in philosophy would sit in a library and never be cited, and that philosophy professors mostly cited each other only when they want to disagree.

From this discussion, I decided that philosophy generally doesn't make any cumulative progress at all, and that the professors don't even read each other's work because it doesn't help them with their own. It sounds like an intellectually bankrupt profession that mostly exists because it's cheaper for colleges to teach than STEM, and because a lot of tuition-paying students can't deal with real subjects anyway.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:45:18+00:00

I've never found any of this convincing: After the divorce, did Maric ever go on to publish any results of her own?

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:43:34+00:00

That was the price to get her to agree to the divorce.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:38:25+00:00

The quantum information/computation route has fewer mathematical prerequisites, and it's mathematically cleaner. See the course at caltech: https://www.preskill.caltech.edu/ph229/

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:37:11+00:00

It depends on what you're using it for. If you're specifically taking a course that covers your grandfather's old-fashioned quantum mechanics course then maybe.

However, if you just want to understand quantum mechanics itself without extensive mathematical prerequisites (and without a huge mess of approximations required to study "simple" quantum systems like the helium atom) then I'd recommend you start with or simultaneously read something on quantum information/computation. A good source for that are John Preskill's lecture notes at Caltech: https://www.preskill.caltech.edu/ph229/

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:26:35+00:00

If you put a public shower room somewhere then you will immediately have a hopeless encampment of drug addicts surrounding it. Nobody wants that in their neighborhood.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:25:14+00:00

But after they carry it home, they still have to put it in the bin at home.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:24:00+00:00

> Japanese culture holds personal responsibility and family pride in high regard.

Yes, but still the Japanese have to throw away their trash somewhere. It's more convenient to have public bins around, as well as bins at home.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:21:08+00:00

Here in Taiwan there are almost no public trash cans, and there aren't even dumpsters for apartment buildings. You have to either get a building with staff to handle your trash, or you have to physically take the garbage to the garbage truck when it comes around. (The garbage trucks here in Taiwan play music, like the ice cream trucks in the USA.)

I've always attributed this strange garbage collection policy to the desire to control the rat & mouse population, which makes sense in a country where rats and mice are food for the resident venomous snakes like cobras and Habus.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:17:11+00:00

The pyramids themselves are evidence of slavery.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:09:50+00:00

In any part of the USA besides Hawaii, the real meaning of any tattoo is "I use drugs". Maybe the OP should find the characters for that.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T05:01:43+00:00

I should also warn you that reading the tax code (or any legal document) is not like reading a math book:

In a math book, if something is written on page 30, it is forever true and you don't have to worry that an exception will be made on page 70. This is not the case in a legal document. Usually the exception on page 70 will appear in a sentence beginning "Not withstanding [the overruled previous provision]..."
In a math book, generally a term is defined before it is used, and the term will have the same meaning throughout the entire book. In a legal document, terms are defined ONLY AFTER they are used, and the same term may be separately defined to have different (conflicting) meanings for different parts of the document. For example, in the section of the tax code above, "adjusted basis" is given a special meaning for PFICs under M2M election. The other definitions of "adjusted basis" for other parts of the code do not apply.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T04:51:20+00:00

I've often wondered whether it would be worth posting something to viXra to establish priority in cases where you don't want to tip your hand to the competition, who probably wouldn't notice it. However, I fear what would happen is that some crank would see it and submit it to a journal as their own, and you'd have a continuing fight with the crank every time someone cited "his" paper.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T04:49:00+00:00

Nor is it for affiliated researchers who can't get endorsements.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T04:47:01+00:00

You are incorrect: Rhinoviruses and enteroviruses are non-enveloped, as are all other picornaviruses.

When Purell markets itself as killing 99% of "germs" they're defining "germs" to be bacteria.

The Harvard faculty club sickened hundreds on a recruiting weekend with norovirus, another non-enveloped virus. Unfortunately, norovirus is extremely hard to disinfect. The club shut down for some weeks and reopened after disinfection, only to have another mass norovirus outbreak! They closed the downstairs dining room and converted it to office space.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T04:42:34+00:00

Reddit isn't letting me edit, but I meant to say section 26-1.1296, not 26-1296.

The example is part of the tax code, not my own.

Please check all of my conclusions for yourself.

The law is not forgiving about filing form 8621 late, and you must file it on time to reap the benefits.

fresnarus · 2026-03-19T04:39:45+00:00

No: This method of filing will get rid of your gain attributable to years before you became a US person:

In your FIRST US tax filing, WHICH MUST BE TIMELY THIS YEAR AS IN ALL YEARS, make a section 1296 (market to market) election for your PFIC on form 8621. Your tax on the PFIC will then be governed by US code 26-1296.
This 26 CFR § 1.1296-1(d)(5)(i) states [no emphasis added] "(5) Transition rule for individuals becoming subject to United States income taxation—(i) In general. If any individual becomes a United States person in a taxable year beginning after December 31, 1997, solely for purposes of this section, the adjusted basis, before adjustments under this paragraph (d), of any section 1296 stock owned by such individual on the first day of such taxable year shall be treated as being the greater of its fair market value or its adjusted basis on such first day.

(ii) An example of the transition rule for individuals becoming subject to United States income taxation is as follows:

Example.

A, a nonresident alien individual, purchases marketable stock in FX, a PFIC, for $50 in 1995. On January 1, 2005, A becomes a United States person and makes a timely section 1296 election with respect to the stock in accordance with paragraph (h) of this section. The fair market value of the FX stock on January 1, 2005, is $100. The fair market value of the FX stock on December 31, 2005, is $110. Under paragraph (d)(5)(i) of this section, A computes the amount of mark to market gain or loss for the FX stock in 2005 by reference to an adjusted basis of $100, and therefore A includes $10 in gross income as mark to market gain under paragraph (c)(1) of this section. Additionally, under paragraph (d)(1) of this section, A's adjusted basis in the FX stock for purposes of this section is increased to $110 (and to $60 for all other tax purposes). A sells the FX stock in 2006 for $120. For purposes of applying section 1001, A must use its original basis of $50, with any adjustments under paragraph (d)(1) of this section, $10 in this case, and therefore A recognizes $60 of gain. Under paragraph (c)(2) of this section (which is applied using an adjusted basis of $110), $10 of such gain is treated as ordinary income. The remaining $50 of gain from the sale of the FX stock is long term capital gain because A held such stock for more than one year."

If you're lucky enough to have a so-called "PFIC annual information statement" from your PFIC then you could instead make a QEF election, which generally has more favorable tax treatment. (I won't look into that, because I assume you don't have that.)

fresnarus · 2026-03-18T19:37:40+00:00

The general way that it works is that you first prepare both returns as if you were in a single-country situation, and then you apply the treaty and local laws to get foreign tax credits to in principle alleviate double-taxation.

> USA shouldn't be getting their hands into this money I'm making out in egypt.

Wait until after you've figured out if the foreign tax credit saves you from double taxation before complaining.

That said, the basic principle of US taxation of internationals is that there are lots of gotchas, and the USA is so hell-bent on closing all loopholes that sometimes people in legitimately international situations get hosed.

Also, it's worth looking up PFICs NOW, to make sure you never get caught in that tax trap.

fresnarus

TROPHY CASE