mauler's New Writeups

carbon bubble (idea)

2013-05-02T14:54:32Z

In the world of financial markets, the "carbon bubble" is the notion that companies around the world involved in drilling, refining, and marketing fossil fuels are currently dramatically overvalued by financial markets, because their sky-high valuations are based on vast proven and expected reserves that will never be drilled or burned due to our growing understanding of anthropogenic global warming. Proponents of the carbon bubble idea argue that sooner or later, this financial bubble will pop, leading to a crash in the valuations of these companies - either sooner because governments around the world preemptively place caps or other limits on carbon, or else later as the devastating effects of global warming caused by unrestricted fossil fuel burning give nations no choice but to drastically curtail consumption.

In recent years, increasing demand for fossil fuels, especially from China and other developing markets, has made fossil fuel companies fantastically…

Oscar Schmidt (person)

2013-04-24T04:18:19Z

Oscar Schmidt (1954- ) was a legendary Brazilian basketball player who came to international attention as the star of the Brazilian National Basketball Team in the 1980s and 1990s, including star turns in the 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996 Olympic Games. Standing in at 6 feet, 9 inches, Schmidt played the small forward position. Nicknamed MÃ£o Santa, the "Holy Hand," Schmidt was one of the greatest pure shooters of all time, and is widely regarded as the greatest player never to play in the NBA. In fact, Schmidt was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in the 1984 NBA Draft and thereafter was repeatedly offered chances to play in the NBA, but he turned them all down because he wanted to maintain his amateur status in order to continue to play for his beloved Brazilian National Team (NBA players were not allowed to play in the Olympics until 1992).

Instead, Schmidt played quasi-professionally…

Totomi (place)

2013-02-18T19:47:56Z

遠江

Located in what is now western Shizuoka prefecture, Tōtōmi was one of the 68 ancient provinces of Japan. Located on the Pacific coast in south central Japan, it was bordered by Mikawa province to the west, Shinano province to the north, and Suruga province to the east.

The name "Tōtōmi" derives from a colloquial contraction of an ancient name for Lake Hamana, Tohotsu-afumi (遠つ淡海, "distant fresh-water lake"). In feudal times and during the Edo period, the province's name was often abbreviated with the Chinese character readings "Enshū" (遠州).

The most important city in the former Totomi province is Hamamatsu, which has been famous since feudal times for its "Enshū" brand of cotton and silk textiles, and is now an important industrial center. In more recent years, the Totomi region has become renowned for producing extremely fine green tea.

expatriation tax (thing)

2013-01-22T04:52:18Z

An expatriation tax, also known as an exit tax or an emmigration tax, is a tax levied on someone who permanently moves to another country or renounces their citizenship.

The United States levies an expatriation tax to prevent the super-rich from simply renouncing US citizenship and moving to a country with a more favorable tax regime. Previously, US expatriates were required to pay normal US tax rates for 10 years following their expatriation. However following a change in the law in 2008, expatriates now have to immediately pay an exit tax as if they had sold or cashed in all of their assets, including real estate, retirement plans, pensions, and stock options, at whatever the going market rate was the day before their official renunciation of citizenship. Renunciants get an exclusion, indexed to inflation and currently $651,000, after which they pay taxes on all the rest of their assets at currently prevailing tax rates.

The expatriation tax not only applies to…

Puffery (idea)

2012-12-17T17:08:53Z

"Puffery" is a legal term used to describe a defense used against charges of fraud or breach of contract. In this defense, the defendant argues that claims made (typically in advertising) are so extravagant or so subjective, that no reasonable person would take them seriously, and thus constitute "mere puff" rather than fraudulent claims. Examples might include "the world's best fried chicken," "America's favorite beer," Coca-Cola's representation that polar bears drink its product, or Energizer claiming that the Energizer Bunny "keeps going and going and going" even though in reality Energizer batteries do, in fact, eventually go dead.

The defense originates from the infamous "Carbolic Smoke Ball" case of 1893, in which the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company argued that their claims that their smoke ball would prevent influenza were just "a puff." Although the puffery defense actually failed in this case, it has since been used successfully in a wide variety of instances.

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Penis captivus (event)

2012-12-17T06:55:15Z

Penis captivus (literally "captive penis" in Latin) is a medical term used to describe a rare occurrence during heterosexual sexual intercourse when the female's vagina suddenly clamps down so tightly that the male's penis is unable to be withdrawn for up to several minutes, as a result of a particularly strong vaginismic reflex.

Penis captivus was first described in medical literature in the 19th century, but well-documented accounts by medical professionals have been exceedingly rare. In a 1979 article in the British Medical Journal titled "Penis Captivus - Did it Occur?," a doctor named F. KrÃ¤upl Taylor conducted an exhaustive review of medical literature on the condition and found that "almost all the cases mentioned in medical publications and in textbooks are based on hearsay and rumor."

Reasoning that if any case of penis captivus were treated professionally in a hospital, the attending physician would surely have written the case up in…