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Submission + - Facebook paid no taxes despite record profits (msn.com) 2

Frosty Piss writes: Despite earning more than $1 billion in profits last year, social media juggernaut Facebook paid zilch when it came to federal and state taxes in 2012. In fact, the website will actually be getting a refund totaling $429 million thanks to a tax reduction for executive stock options. In the coming years, Facebook will continue to get monster tax breaks, totaling about $3 billion. 'The employees cash in stock options, and at that point there is tax deduction for the company,' Robert McIntyre, of watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice, said. 'Because even though it doesn't cost Facebook a nickel, the government treats it as wages and they get a deduction for it. And usually it doesn't wipe out companies whole tax bill, although many companies get big breaks from it.'
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Submission + - Unigine's Newest Benchmark Features Huge, Open-Space Expanses

jones_supa writes: Unigine announced a new GPU benchmark known as Valley Benchmark. From the same developers who created Heaven Benchmark, the Valley Benchmark is a non-synthetic benchmark that is powered by the Unigine Engine, a real-time 3D engine that supports the latest rendering features. The Valley Benchmark includes massive area of 64 square kilometers of very detailed terrain that includes forest, mountains, green expanses, rocky slopes and flowers. The area can be freely explored by means of walking or flying. All major operating systems are supported.

Comment Re:Idiots gives suspended taxes (Score 2) 297

Is there a single constituent of any of these politicians pushing this Internet Tax bill, in fucking FAVOR of said bill?

There certainly are SOME constituents in favor of it. I've heard support for this kind of thing from brick and mortar store owners/employees who feel like they are at an unfair advantage since they not only have the overhead of a physical storefront but also have to charge sales tax. If people had to pay sales tax either way then they may be more likely to buy locally to avoid shipping charges.
Also, a lot of people in local/state governments probably think it's a good idea as they would ostensibly be getting a lot of the proceeds.

Submission + - Webmail and online banks targeted by phishing proxies (netcraft.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Netcraft confirms a recent increase in the number of malicious proxy auto-config (PAC) scripts being used to sneakily route webmail and online banking traffic through rogue proxy servers. The scripts are designed to only proxy traffic destined for certain websites, while all other traffic is allowed to go direct. If the proxy can force the user to keep using HTTP instead of HTTPS, the fraudsters running these attacks can steal usernames, passwords, session cookies and other sensitive information from online banking sessions.

Comment Re:Your best bet is to (Score 1) 800

You freedom-loving libertarians need to understand this concept. It really is a flaw among you libertarians to think that you somehow live in a "free" country. No, you do NOT live in a free country. You never have. Try breaking a law, and see how much freedom you have.

This just shows that you don't know what "libertarian" means. It's not the same as anarchist. Libertarians believe in being restrained by laws. The difference between libertarianism and more intrusive governmental philosophies is the KIND of laws it prefers. The kind of laws generally supported by libertarians are ones that protect people from coercion and harm.

Comment Re:More food for thought for the mentally starved (Score 1) 1130

You might think that it couldn't happen here but all militaries do their best to cultivate obedience in their troops, not compassion. They used the National Guard to illegally confiscate guns from people after hurricane Katrina. Until that happened I would have said that our troops would never agree to do such a thing on our soil. Forcibly entering peoples' homes without a warrant and illegally confiscating their property is already an act of violence. It's not much of a leap to imagine them doing worse given the right circumstances.

Comment Re:Don't make him angry. (Score 1) 1591

In a home invasion situation, if you need more than 7 shots to take someone down either: A) you are a terrible shot

When people are under intense stress they tend to become far less accurate in their shooting. 7 shots is a lot if you're at a range shooting at paper but it's not that much if you're scared to death and just trying to stay alive. That goes double if you're also being shot at.

more bullets would result in more property damage than safety

Kind of a silly thing to say. The safety of my family is way more important than any property damage to my home.

Comment Re:"likely to do harm"?? (Score 1) 1591

I have lived and worked in some of the most horrible, manky, poor, deprived, crime-ridden areas of my country. I have had people try to walk into my house past me, and have had physical threats against my person. And not once did I ever think "What this situation really needs is another gun".

You might be surprised to know that most people who own guns don't think of them as the answer to every confrontation, in my experience. In fact, in all of the training I've received has emphasized that bringing a gun into the equation should be the last resort and should only happen if you fear for your life or for the safety of others. Some dude threatening to pummel me wouldn't do it. Some dude trying to rob me wouldn't do it. Even some guy in my house stealing my TV wouldn't make me shoot as long as he didn't look threatening (although I'd certainly keep my gun handy and my family behind me while we wait for the cops). I can't see myself pulling the trigger or even aiming a gun at somebody unless they clearly pose a serious threat.

I can't emphasise it enough, if you point a gun in my direction, accidentally or not, I will do anything up to and including killing you to stop that situation occurring or continuing.

Luckily for the other party, you wouldn't be armed so there's not much chance of you being able to do anything about it if they were pointing a gun at you.

But owning a gun expressly for that purpose will only cause the same reaction from the other party.

I guess if a person owns a gun expressly for the purpose of pointing it at people then, yes, at some point one of those people might be inclined to aim a gun back at them and possibly pull the trigger. Maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by "expressly for that purpose". The "purpose" of self-defense guns is to protect the innocent from serious harm. Like the concealed-carry permit holder in my area that drew his gun to stop a guy who was stabbing random people in the parking lot of a grocery store. The gun-owner held him at gun-point until the police arrived. Personally, I sure am glad he had a gun.

Submission + - NetBeans 7.0 is Now Available (netbeans.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Oracle releases NetBeans IDE 7.0 which introduces language support for development to the proposed Java SE 7 specification with the JDK 7 developer preview. The release also provides enhanced integration with the Oracle WebLogic server, as well as support for Oracle Database and GlassFish 3.1. Additional highlights include Maven 3 and HTML5 editing support; a new GridBagLayout designer for improved Swing GUI development; enhancements to the Java editor, and more.
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Facebook Leads To Increase In STDs in Britain 270

ectotherm writes "According to Professor Peter Kelly, a director of Public Health in Great Britain: 'There has been a four-fold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected, with more young women being affected.' Why the increase? People meeting up for casual sex through Facebook. According to the article, 'Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex. There is a rise in syphilis because people are having more sexual partners than 20 years ago and often do not use condoms.'"

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