lyrrad

I don't think ending commingling will stop that from happening, since Subscribe & Save is set to switch to a different seller with a lower price by default.

In the US, when Subscribe & Save is set up, it is set by default to receive orders from "Amazon.com and other top rated sellers". If you want to change it, you need to go into the Subscribe & Save page and change it to "Amazon.com only".

I've had an order where I initially placed a new subscription sold by Amazon.com, but a 3rd party seller would lower their price by a few cents, and Amazon would change the seller and I would receive grey market goods.

I haven't found a way to change the default for new subscriptions to always use the same seller that I set up the subscription with, so I need to manually change it for every single new subscription.

I think 70 tests is overkill. As long as you are able to analyze and learn from your mistakes, you should be able to improve doing a fraction of the tests.

My experience was from almost two decades ago and is atypical. I had decided to write it only just a month before the LSAT, and so I started prior tests only four weeks before the test date. In that time, I did 27 official practice tests. I also read a couple books and tried two unofficial tests.

I tracked my results in a spreadsheet and had a marginal improvement from 173.4 to 176 for the first five and last five tests. But, essentially all improvement happened after just ten tests.

In all practice tests, I did best in logic games, answering 98.1% correct, compared with 93.5% for logical reasoning and 91.4% for reading comprehension.

I was somewhat lucky and got 97/99 on the actual test, enough for a 180 that time (2 incorrect in logical reasoning). I had only got that twice in the practice tests with an expectation between 174 and 180 with a median of 176.

After each test I analyzed every incorrect answer as well as the ones I was less sure about. There were online forums where I could ask about, or see other people's analysis of the problem questions.

I think a strategy aimed understanding wrong answers in your weakest area can be a more efficient use of preparation time.

I only buy portable Li-ion batteries from manufacturers with a history of product recalls in my country or directly from major retailers that regularly recall defective products.

I also only buy portable battery models that I believe will sell or has sold many thousands of units so any widespread manufacturering defects should become apparent sooner.

I believe that's what this directive is for:

"To the Federal Aviation Administration:" " Once you complete the certification of Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ design enhancement for ensuring the complete closure of Boeing 737 mid exit door (MED) plugs following opening or removal, issue an airworthiness directive to require that all in-service MED plug-equipped airplanes be retrofitted with the design enhancement. (A-25-15)"

This article: https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/boeing-completes-design..., suggests that the design enhancement will add "secondary retention devices" that "prevent installation of the cabin sidewall panels unless they are properly engaged." The article indicates that the existing bolts will also get lanyards that will "'permanently secure the bolts to the plug' and provide a visual indication' of whether they have been installed correctly."

Apparently, if only one of the four bolts was installed, it may have been sufficient to prevent the accident, according to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/boeing-alaska...

There is financial friction involved.

As I understand it, this product involved using fractional shares to try to adhere to an index, while using tax loss harvesting to optimize for tax.

Fractional shares cannot be transferred between brokerages and are generally sold when transferring brokerages. If you owned on average, half a share of the largest 250 US companies, you'd may need to sell about $30,000 in shares, which could result in an unexpected tax bill.

There are large brokerages and companies offering similar direct indexing products, generally at a higher cost. However, I expect those products are less likely to be shut down.

The Verge reports that the rearview camera will be on "a small display behind the steering wheel as a gauge cluster."

https://www.theverge.com/electric-cars/655527/slate-electric...

I believe data from all New York City trips from companies like Lyft and Uber since 2019 [1] can be downloaded from Taxi & Limousine Commission [2]. This data appears to include information such as the fare, date and time and TLC taxi zones for the pickup and dropoff [3].

I wonder if there is enough granularity in this data to make a determination if there's a large discrepancy/variation in fare in certain taxi zones at the same time with Uber, compared with Lyft or other competitors.

[1] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/tlc/downloads/pdf/trip_record_use...

[2] https://www.nyc.gov/site/tlc/about/tlc-trip-record-data.page

[3] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/tlc/downloads/pdf/data_dictionary...

There were liquidity issues at many brokers for short term T-Bills in the days and weeks before the debt ceiling crisis was resolved last year.

Some brokerages may have better liquidity and/or prices than others.

It can be prudent to have multiple cash holding types in case there are issues with some of them.

One issue I have with this article is that it doesn't discuss the distinction between Government money market funds that invest in US Treasury debt and repurchase agreements, and Prime money market funds, that also invest in riskier assets like corporate paper.

I'm comfortable with holding significant amounts in a Government MM fund, but less so with Prime MM funds.

Note that BOXX had a capital gain distribution this week. It's unclear what portion of future growth will be distributed.

There are some limitations so those with higher incomes or more complex tax situations are unable to use this option: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/calf...

Seems to be roughly even, with somewhat more TSA PreCheck-only members than Global Entry members (including NEXUS and SENTRI).

As of March 2023, TSA said [1]: "TSA PreCheck® application program has surpassed 15 million active members" and "Thirty-two million travelers now benefit from TSA PreCheck expedited screening after being vetted though TSA PreCheck ®, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry or another federal vetting program."

As of September 2023, CBP announced stated that there were over 12 million Global Entry members in a press release. [2]

This appears to include SENTRI and NEXUS members, since as of July 2022 it was stated: [3] "There are over 7.6 million participants enrolled directly in Global Entry, and over 1.8 million members of NEXUS and SENTRI that also receive Global Entry benefits."

[1] https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2023/03/02/tsa-prech...

[2] https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-anno...

[3] https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/202...

The example "Chicken Fried Rice" recipe does not include rice in its ingredients list or the instructions.

In my experience, resort fees in Las Vegas are still subject to the same lodging tax as the rest of the room rate.

My understanding is that when you book through an online travel agent, the regular room rate is subject to a commission of up to 30%, while the resort/destination fee is not. That's why many hotel chains provide incentives for customers to book directly with them.

I've heard in some jurisdictions outside of the US, hotels are required to show the total price including all taxes and fees when advertising rates. So if AirBnb isn't doing this, it could be a problem.

Looks like this microwave hasn't been sold (as new) on Amazon since May 2022, using CamelCamelCamel to look at the price history of this item (B07894S727), being last sold at $75. However, there are four other Alexa-enabled microwaves currently being sold on Amazon, for $143, $144, $300 and $2197.

I wonder how long the Alexa integration will last. I suppose even if the Alexa integration is discontinued in the future, they would still continue to function no worse than regular microwaves.

Looks like this is an agreement between Visa/Mastercard and banks with the Canadian Federal government to lower credit card transaction fees for small businesses.

The government's press release is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2023/05/gov...

Applies to annual charges below $300K/$175K CAD for Visa/Mastercard.

They still will charge higher fees to large businesses. "As part of these new agreements with Visa and Mastercard, Canada’s large banks have agreed to protect Canadians’ reward points."

Notably, this seems to be a partial extension to a 2018 agreement with Visa, Mastercard and Amex to lower fees to 1.40% for five years for "small and medium sized businesses": https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2018/08/new... The prior agreement was for medium businesses with credit sales under $5 million CAD and small businesses with sales under $1 million CAD.

The 2018 agreement claimed that it would save businesses "$250 million [CAD] per year", while the 2023 agreement claims "$1 billion [CAD] over five years". Since less companies are covered in the 2023 agreement, I assume rates will be going up for some businesses that no longer qualify under the voluntary agreement.

I think the asset figure did not include unrealized losses on bonds that they intended to hold to maturity as banks are not required to deduct those from their total assets. As deposits flowed out of the bank, they sold some assets and realized those losses.

The FT reported a couple weeks ago that they had an unrealized loss of $15B in bonds: https://www.ft.com/content/0387e331-61b4-4848-9e50-04775b4c3...

I think we'll have a much better idea of the shortfall, if any, over the weekend as the FDIC tallies up the remaining assets and deposits.

Personally, I think that this is a political problem, and a political solution would be the best way to resolve it.

There are various legal gimmicks, like the trillion dollar coins or premium bonds (discussed in the article), that have been proposed that might work temporarily. However, I'd expect them to be either struck down by the courts, or banned in a future must-pass government funding or omnibus bill. I don't think the uncertainty created by using one of these gimmicks is worth the benefit of delaying a political solution.

I'm not an expert in this topic, so I'm keeping my mind open to other ideas.

I've been donating to charities through affiliate links and Smile for a while. Whenever I plan to make a purchase I go to the smile.amazon.com URL while also appending a charity's affiliate link (e.g. "/?tag=AFFILIATE-ID") to the URL.

I think charities will still get a significant amount from my purchases, since AmazonSmile was only 0.5%, while affiliate links for many categories are 4% or higher.

The tax harvesting feature can be worth it for many people.

- There can be diminishing returns with higher balances and over time, since one can ordinarily deduct a net of $3000 from income a year and carry forward further losses, so one may at some point be carrying forward losses every year and only deduct $3000 from income. However the fee would continue to grow proportional to the balance. It may make sense to reevaluate whether the service is still worth the fee once one has several years of losses to carry forward. - Depending on how much effort one wants to put in, one may be able to get much of the benefits of tax loss harvesting by doing it oneself. - One may have significant balances in tax advantaged accounts. If those are managed by Wealthfront, one may not be able to get the benefits of tax loss harvesting on those balances.

Put your money in a broad index fund and don't look at it for 10 years.

You should check on their investments accounts on a regular basis.

If your bank or brokerage makes an error, there is likely a limited period of time during which it can be fixed.

Also, if you do not have activity on your bank or investment accounts for a period of time, the contents may be escheated by a state and investments may be sold automatically.

Planet Money had an episode about escheatment a couple of years ago: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159 They mention that Delaware, where the person's broker was incorporated escheats investments after three years.

My LG CX tv can be updated without internet by downloading the firmware file and loading it onto a USB drive.

A quick search shows that at least some Samsung models have this capability as well.

Yeah, it won't remove any contractual liability. Many companies will just cancel/pause a subscription on a failed payment until a valid payment method is added.

I usually use these virtual numbers if I had concern that there could be a database leak from the company, or if I felt that there was a chance that they would not follow my cancellation instructions.

Some US credit card providers provide virtual account numbers, allowing you to obtain separate/unique card numbers tied to a specific credit card, and can have short expirations, or be revoked early.

There are also some services that provide these virtual cards tied to debit cards or bank accounts. I haven't tried these types of services since I prefer the protection of credit cards, which often offer significant points or cash back rewards.

From what I can tell, for those sets without physical instruction books, you can still get the traditional instructions in PDF form from the LEGO website or in the instructions app. That way you don’t have to use the interactive instructions in the LEGO Super Mario app.

I've been buying Series I Treasury Bonds (I Bonds) for the past few years. They're currently yielding a fixed rate of 0% for up to 30 years from purchase, which above the market rate for TIPS for periods from 5 to 30 years. Both TIPS and Series I bonds track CPI-U. They never lose nominal value, but can't be sold on the open market.

The main downsides of these Bonds are that they are limited to purchases of $10,000 per calendar year, they can typically only be purchased electronically from Treasury Direct, they can't be redeemed for the first year, and have a three month interest penalty if redeemed in the first five years.

I'm mainly purchasing them for a portion of my emergency fund, but they're an interesting long term investment, since they currently offer a guaranteed return significantly more than TIPS held to maturity.

It looks like the smallest increment before decimalization was 1/16 of a dollar, or $0.0625, which could be represented exactly in 4 decimal places. So, by storing the value of the stock to this precision, both old and new prices could be stored in this format.

It's possible. I've had Samsung and LG TVs that I've left disconnected most of the time and used them with external boxes like the Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, PCs and game consoles.

I've used wired connections or temporary Wifi network in order to prevent the TV from connecting to the internet without my knowledge.

I was able to update the firmware on my LG TV by downloading it and loading it onto a USB drive. Some firmware updates may improve picture quality or compatibility with external devices.

One annoyance is that there may be buttons on the remote that launch built in internet connected apps. It's important to have a TV that can easily switch between inputs.

I assume it's a joke to test if reality is a simulation or a dream.

I have a master's degree or higher from a US school. When I applied for an H1-B a few years ago, my employer's immigration lawyers decided not to submit applications under the master's cap, since my degree was unrelated to my position.

Are there potential issues if the master's degree is unrelated to the position? I have a related undergraduate degree.