That said, barring any new legislation, the SALT cap abomination will expire at the end of next year, so two years from now, we'll probably be back at close to 30% of people itemizing, give or take.
Speaking personally, I stopped itemizing when the standard deduction went up. It's now so high that my "big three" deductible items (charitable giving, mortgage interest and state income tax) no longer come close to the standard deduction... so I don't even bother trying to add up all the little ones.
As far as US football goes IMHO Mike Ditka of people was right about helmets and concussions: the more advanced helmets get the harder players learn to hit with their heads. Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder. Ditka advocated going back to leather earflap helmets to reduce concussions and while it was said in a "back in the day we were real men" mode I'm not sure he was wrong about that.
[1] yeah, I know, there are rules changes in place to prohibit direct hits with the top of the head. We'll see how that works in the long run [prediction: it won't]
One thing about the FDA is that it uses very specific and, to the untrained reader, peculiar language in letters of this type. Which can lead those without the specific pharmaceutical and legal background to underestimate what is being alleged and what the consequences could be. "Unapproved new drug" and "misbranded", and "adulterated" are as bad as it gets in FDA letters and can lead directly to referral for criminal prosecution of both the organization and its officers as individuals. Civil penalties can include shutdown of the entire business, as well as oversight agreements, massive fines, etc. If you or an organization of which you are an officer or you as named individual [1] ever receives a letter of this type run do not walk to an attorney admitted to the Federal bar for both regulatory and criminal law and do exactly what they say.
[1] the FDA can issue orders barring specific individuals by name from working in the pharmaceutical or food industry for periods from one minute to life - any individual, not just an officer of an incorporated entity
"Ironic that stores get persecuted for finding ways to defend themselves against shoplifters,"
Just a reminder that false accusations of criminal activity and false filing of criminal complaints are themselves crimes. And of course using false information to have even licensed store security personnel detain Citizens is not only a crime but can be prosecuted as abduction.
"Retail Group Retracts Startling Claim About ‘Organized’ Shoplifting
The National Retail Federation had said that nearly half of the industry’s $94.5 billion in missing merchandise in 2021 was the result of organized theft. It was likely closer to 5 percent, experts say."
Standards XKCD: https://xkcd.com/927/
I should clarify I searched and found about a dozen articles from various publications discussing this claim. Some are just cribbing from the others, but a few have more in depth discussion. Almost every one of them has that same softening sentence though.
Every one of these article has a softening sentence along the lines that "it is unlikely your devices are listening to you". Why it is 'unlikely'? The technology exists and the PII-stealing data sellers have done worse in the past. Seems like a fairly logical next step attack vector for them.
Those 150 mph 2x4 spears would never hit me!
How do you hide your data? Create a forest to hide it!
Set up random boring channels like CSPAN. Or channels of polar opposite interest, like Classical music and wresting. And keep streaming them to the tv whenever you go out. With enough randomization, they will never know what you are really watching and what is shown to the empty room
No organization that takes actions due to genuine concerns about abusive behavior ends up with Lawrence Summers on the BOD - Summers is the dictionary definition of abusive behavior (and stupidly abusive at that). Something else was going on.
(Is there an emacs project to stream it to emacs))
Variables don't; constants aren't.