The IRS doesn't play fair

I rarely get into work on this blog, but in case the average person was to ask me how often the IRS was fair in their audits or the adjustments that they propose, I'd like to point this out as an example:


"The Tax Court held that the IRS's determinations are arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. The court further held that T's comparable uncontrolled transaction method, with appropriate adjustments, is the best method to determine the requisite buy-in payment."

So in a nutshell, the IRS made a determination in this case, which goes beyond "we think" and actually means "pay up" and the taxpayer had to go to tax court, where tax court determined the IRS was "arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable" and the taxpayer's method was "the best method."

This is the mentality that I bring in every time I see an audit or proposed adjustment on a tax return because the IRS really does have a history of getting it completely wrong.

Winged Migration

I don't usually blog about movies I've seen but the movie Winged Migration had a unique back-story that puts the entire movie in a different perspective.

Winged Migration very much bills itself as an artful documentary, following the migratory paths of many species of birds.  It has amazing shots that were taken of the birds in flight that make it seem like the camera wasn't more than inches away from the birds, even as they were flying right along the water or high in the sky.  As the credits rolled I noticed a section that I thought was interesting: Animal Trainers.  So we were very curious to see how they got these shots and started watching the special feature on the making of the movie.  That's where it all got very interesting.

We were fast-forwarding past people talking when we saw someone hand-rearing baby birds.  We hit play and they were talking about how baby birds "imprint" their parental figure at a young age.  As it continued, we learned that many of the bird groups in the film had been hand-raised from a young age and imprinted with the idea that their human trainers were their parents and taught to be comfortable with the various cameras and equipment being used.  As the making of continued we saw the loading and unloading of animals in beautiful settings, saw how so many of the shots we marveled at were arranged for that purpose, and realized that this was not at all the documentary we had thought before seeing this feature.

It doesn't take away from the beauty of the film but it does mar the natural wonder that I initially had from watching it.  The movie also tries to make a few ecological points, which I of course agree with but within the context of them being willing to stage shots you also have to question the authenticity of the scenes meant to make you upset at how humans interact with nature.

Can we review the reviewer?

This is a one-star review for a laser cat toy on Amazon.  I'm thinking maybe it's the reviewer that deserves one star (emphasis added by me).

"Any LASER beam TOY may initiate a seizure in your pet. Even though most pets love this type of toy, one of our cats has a history of mild seizures. I'd forgotten this fact when I purchased the laser mouse. The cat loved it, but it brought on a seizure."


Hopefully this person doesn't have any kids, but if they do hopefully the kids don't have any allergies.  

Broken Record

"The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes."


I know I sound like a broken record to most when I post misleading quotes and headlines and then complain about them, and maybe nobody who reads my blog cares, but I have to vent sometimes.  The headline: "Economy grows at best pace in 2 years" but nobody should be patting themselves on the back that the recession has ended just because the government is paying people to buy things and that resulted in a modest growth!  Why not hand everybody $10k and announce that we as a country all got magically richer?  The new home credit is over and the CARS program ended a month ago so will the recession still be over once all these programs stop paying?  Is everyone getting hired over Christmas to their new permanent lifetime job that will also provide a fully funded magical pension?  Yes, all that, and world peace coming right up!

Technology FAIL... turns into government FAIL!

I knew everyone was anxiously awaiting an update on the advancement of trashcans, so I was going to offer the picture below as an update of my earlier post.  It tells a lot.

I didn't feel the need to state that I walked by the solar trash can every day for months and had one recurring observation, that it was always full, with a blinking red light, and wouldn't take any more garbage.  I thought the trash can dropped off next to it last week was a sign that someone had come to their senses.  That was it, until I read this:

PASADENA - (10/6/09) The city will soon be installing 40 solar-powered trash compactors on city streets.The compactors use power smash down garbage making city staff able to come empty them less frequently.
Staff estimates that garbage men will now only have to empty those trash cans once a week instead of five times a week.
That will save the city an estimated $61,400 in fuel and maintenance costs, and should reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions since garbage trucks will go out less frequently.
The city has already installed the solar trash cans in six spots as part of a pilot project.

Now how exactly did the city not see in this pilot program that was so painfully obvious to me?  Oh yeah, it's the government.  Sorry, forget I said anything.

The Copyright proves it's Legit!

This is an e-mail I received.  I have not modified the formatting at all.  I'll never have to work again!


"Good Day, This letter is from GoodFunds Inc. invented by the World Financial Service Authority United States Of America/United Kingdom. This body was set up to discover an outstanding unpaid fund being owned to Governments or Individuals all over the world through Contract Payment, Accumulated pension funds, Inheritance and Lottery Winning Prize Awards. It will interest you to know that we have discovered an outstanding unpaid/unclaimed sum worth the sum of Five hundred thousand Euros in favor of your name and a mandate has been given to this body to ensure that this fund gets to you through diplomatic check delivery without any delay. NB.. you shall be liable for the delivery fees of the courier company. Send your name,delivery address and phone immediately for your cheque delivery. Send your reply only to goodfunds.inc@live.com Regards, Dr. Malone fray Head of Operations GOODFUNDS ECB/02354 Email: goodfunds.inc@live.com ----- © 2009 Goodfunds Inc. All rights reserved."

Crows are Smart

There's a lot of evidence that crows are smart, and I'm not shedding light on anything nearly as cool as some of the things they do, but I still thought I'd share.

I have managed to open my 6th story office window.  Right next door is a fire escape, and crows like to hang out on it.  So I tossed some bread that was going to get thrown out on the fire escape.  A little later I poked my head through the window and scared off a crow that just had the courage to go for the food, and I watched as it flew off to a nearby parking structure.

It waited about 15 minutes, sitting with another crow at the parking structure.  Then it took off, but I couldn't follow exactly where to.  Then I heard crow sounds, so I slowly looked out my window.  There was a crow on the 5th floor fire escape landing, and another one hopping up the stairs to exactly where the bread was located.  It grabbed the bread and flew off.  Freaking genius bird!