New efforts!

[Soul Resonance]

more often than not I went with Mutation, I always liked the ideas of my characters' backstories involving a sudden awakening of their powers due to some kind of event or stressful situation

As it was pre-shutdown and as it will be again post-revival: Magic.  ;D

[MM3squints]

It was $429 million on case payout yesterday. Certainly its pushing $500 million tonight.

I calculated that from what a lump sum is and 40% federal tax of the lump Sum. Funny thing back in 2013, Forbes did an article with a hypothetical chance of winning $900 million and recently updated (what the jackpot was at last) and what you will get because the article was based on a tax hike of 35% to 39.6%.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2013/03/23/tax-on-320-million-powerball-jackpot-millions-more-than-in-2012/

Edit By "calculated" meaning I did not do any calculation by myself, because it was stated in the article itself:

Should a resident of one of those eight states that don't tax jackpots be the sole winner and opt for the lump sum, he or she will fork over around $221 million to Uncle Sam—$25.6 million more than he or she would have owed in 2012 on a $558 million lump. Bottom line: If a lucky resident of one of these states is the sole winner of the $900 million jackpot and takes a lump payment, he'll get to keep $337 million.  Not so shabby, although it will hardly get you on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, which in 2015 required  a minimum net worth of  $1.7 billion.

[JaguarX]

So with potential $330 ish million dollars up for grabs after taxes (federal not including state), who thinks CoX will comeback in less than a month from tonight xD

never know.

but think it will take bit more than a month and still...even with cold hard cash need willing and ready to sell seller.

What is tax rate about 39.9% bracket? So about 500 odd cash pay out?
300 million let along one hundred million is lot of dough.  The person should be set for life that is for sure. Hell I dont have enough stuff left that i want ot buy to spend all of that. 300 million to get rid of it would have to spend 6 million a year for next 50 years. Assuming one live for another 50 years. Hell I would give it a shot with that sort of dough. They say yay they say yay if they say nay they say nay.

[MM3squints]

never know.

but think it will take bit more than a month and still...even with cold hard cash need willing and ready to sell seller.

What is tax rate about 39.9% bracket? So about 500 odd cash pay out?
300 million let along one hundred million is lot of dough.  The person should be set for life that is for sure. Hell I dont have enough stuff left that i want ot buy to spend all of that. 300 million to get rid of it would have to spend 6 million a year for next 50 years. Assuming one live for another 50 years. Hell I would give it a shot with that sort of dough. They say yay they say yay if they say nay they say nay.

According to the Forbes article, the tax rate is now 39.6%. I know 300 million can set someone for life, or 10 crazy seconds. You bet it all on Black and you get this:

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.thegamehunter.co.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F3d-roulette1.jpg

[Taceus Jiwede]

Life looks like helix in DNA,
therefore galactic Helix is life on a grander scale.
The universe is a simulation being operated by advanced aliens (thank you History channel)

Close.  The universe is a simulationby aliens who created a simulation of us creating machines that we programmed to think they were aliens who created a simulation of what they think is our universe.  It's to keep the machine's in check.  Its like a Matrix inside of a Matrix.  Except with less kung-fu(Sadly)

*Wanders off after being distracted by a shiny object*

EDIT: Fixed Wonder to Wander.  Typed it on my phone and didn't even noticed that it got auto corrected to the incorrect word.

[Arcana]

IMHO, there is a lot of verbiage to insist that science is precise, and I do not dispute that.

No, there is no verbiage that insists that.  It insists the video maker is completely wrong, and the video maker is wrong in a way so common to the way people think that the scientific method is designed to avoid that error.  Precision had nothing to do with anything I said or (to the best of my recollection) what the Bad Astronomy article talks about.

I did say the merry-go-round, the whole she-bang, was being pulled in the direction of the polar axis of the solar system which compares in appearance if not precise detailed language in my opinion to "The gravitational forces by the Milky Way accelerate *every* object into orbit around the galactic center.  That's the Sun, the Earth, the moon, you and me.  Superimposed on that is the moon's orbit around the Earth, and the Earth's orbit around the Sun."

It compares in the sense of being completely different.  You say "the whole she-bang" is being pulled in the direction of the polar axis of the solar system.  Even assuming the entire plane of the solar system was oriented 90 degrees from the galactic plane (its not, which is another horrible error on the part of the video maker, but lets assume it was) the gravitational forces that accelerate the solar system into an orbit around the galactic center do NOT accelerate the solar system in the direction of their travel.  They actually accelerate the solar system towards the center of the galaxy.  We are *moving* in one direction: in the direction of galactic rotation.  But we're *accelerating* in a different direction: towards the center of the galaxy.  All objects in a gravitational orbit accelerate towards the center of the orbit (technically, towards one focus of the ellipse of the orbit).  The Earth accelerates towards the Sun, the Moon accelerates towards the Earth.  Gravity doesn't pull things in the direction of their motion, it accelerates them in the direction of center of gravitational attraction (treating gravity as a force, which is a non-relativistic simplification always).

[Arcana]

According to the Forbes article, the tax rate is now 39.6%.

I believe the federal government taxes lottery winnings essentially as normal income.  So the federal marginal tax rates in 2015 (for single filing) are 10% for taxable income up to $9,225, 15% for taxable income from $9,225 to $37,450, 25% for income from $37,450 to $90,750, 28% for income from $90.750 to $189,300, 33% up to $411,500, 35% to $413,200, and 39.6% for all taxable income above $413,200.  For something like a $300 million jackpot, a reasonable estimate of the taxes is 39.6% because the difference is pretty small relatively speaking.  But there's no special tax rate for lottery winnings.

The total taxes on the first $413,200 is $120,031.25, or about 29% of the total.  The total tax on exactly $300 million of taxable would be $118,756,404.05, or about 39.59% of the total.  So, basically the top rate of 39.6%.  Theoretically speaking, the lottery winner would have potential tax deductions, but they would also likely have normal income.  Overall, its likely to still be pretty close to 39.6%.

[Vee]

Hope one of you guys win. I didn't buy a ticket as all my money is tied up in magic bean futures.

[Arcana]

300 million to get rid of it would have to spend 6 million a year for next 50 years.

That's assuming you just leave the money as a big pile of cash somewhere.  Lets say you do the most conservative thing and buy a bunch of treasury bills that pay something like 2% yield.  That pile of money would throw off $6 million a year.  You could spend $6 million a year forever.

Interestingly, many lottery winners do manage to blow all their money and end up bankrupt.  The problem with big lottery winners is that the numbers can be so large they cease to feel real.  At that point, its possible to spend the money without any notion of its value at an extremely high rate.  Also, large amounts of money can get people into large amounts of trouble.  Like if you don't properly pay taxes on it.  Or trust untrustworthy people to manage it.

[MM3squints]

I believe the federal government taxes lottery winnings essentially as normal income.  So the federal marginal tax rates in 2015 (for single filing) are 10% for taxable income up to $9,225, 15% for taxable income from $9,225 to $37,450, 25% for income from $37,450 to $90,750, 28% for income from $90.750 to $189,300, 33% up to $411,500, 35% to $413,200, and 39.6% for all taxable income above $413,200.  For something like a $300 million jackpot, a reasonable estimate of the taxes is 39.6% because the difference is pretty small relatively speaking.  But there's no special tax rate for lottery winnings.

The total taxes on the first $413,200 is $120,031.25, or about 29% of the total.  The total tax on exactly $300 million of taxable would be $118,756,404.05, or about 39.59% of the total.  So, basically the top rate of 39.6%.  Theoretically speaking, the lottery winner would have potential tax deductions, but they would also likely have normal income.  Overall, its likely to still be pretty close to 39.6%.

Basically what the Forbes article said and a long answer short, you will be taxed at 39.6% plus whatever your state taxes. Also according to the article, there are 6 states that exept winnings, 4 of them due to not having state income tax, while California and Pennsylvania has a lotto winnings exempt, but Cali's winning ticket needs to be from a Cali registered store (that would suck if you bought the winning ticket from an outside state and live in Cali)

Now back to the not so small matter of tax.  Of the 44 states participating in Powerball, six–Florida, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota and Washington  —don't have a state income tax. Two others, Pennsylvania and California, exempt lottery winnings from their income taxes, although California requires that you buy the winning ticket in-state. (Delaware used to exempt winnings, but no longer does.Washington, D.C., which also participates, does tax lottery winnings.)

Fun fact also according to the article, if you win the jackpot and you are a residence of New York, you will get hit with an additional 8.82% state tax while another 3.88% city tax for income over $500,000 so you are giving back 48.5% of the winning back to the government.

As for state and local income tax, since high-tax California doesn't tax lottery winnings, the Big Apple takes the biggest bite out of  its own Powerball winners. New York City residents get hit with an 8.82% top state tax on income over around $2 million per couple and a 3.88% city levy on income over $500,000, for a combined top 12.7% rate.  Their only consolation: State and local taxes are deductible from federal taxable income. Unfortunately, as part of the fiscal cliff deal, a sneaky provision that gives a haircut to the value of deductions claimed by the better off came back. Bottom line: according to calculations by Gerald T. Prante and Austin John of the Lynchburg College School of Business and Economics, if a New York City resident wins the jackpot, he or she will end up paying at a top 48.5% combined federal, state and city rate, up from 43.3% in 2012, for a whopping total tax bill of $270.6 million, and a take home pot of $287.4 million.

So the new question is who wants to win 1.3+ billion dollars now?

[Triplash]

Life looks like helix in DNA,
therefore galactic Helix is life on a grander scale.
The universe is a simulation being operated by advanced aliens (thank you History channel)

Worst. Haiku. Ever.

:P  ;D

[brothermutant]

I usually went Mutant but did Magic a lot and grabbed any of the others as theme dictated. For example, I liked the knife for Natural (?) origin so much when I was forced to get it, that I grabbed it on a MM Merc/Traps toon once. It was ok, and I liked chucking a knife into someone's chest a little too much :) Otherwise, I agree that Mutation made the most sense for why my character had powers.

[blacksly]

Where does the chicken sandwich figure into this?

Pouting on the bench, I suppose, since it looks like the ham sandwich got the nod at the Happy Sandwich slot.

[brothermutant]

Pouting on the bench, I suppose, since it looks like the ham sandwich got the nod at the Happy Sandwich slot.

Ah, the great sandwich wars of...um, never? But ham sammich, yeah. It'd win over a chixn sammich. Everytime.

[BadWolf]

So, what was everyone's Origin of choice for their characters? Science? Tech? Magic? Mutation? Natural?

Tended to go with character concept, but I had a couple of Natural characters I loved. Primarily because they were running Incarnate content, and it was always so damn funny to hear, "You're the only one whose power Mot truly fears" when you're playing a Street Justice/Willpower Brute who hadn't even filled their Alpha slot yet. :) I also had a War Mace/Willpower Tanker with the mace switched out for a Louisville Slugger, and the very thought of him going toe-to-toe with Tyrant amused the heck out of me.

[Abraxus]

Magic and Mutation for most of mine.  Of course, it depended on their back-story, but in most cases my "vision" about a character entailed some kind of magical embodiment, or mutagenic incident that accounted for their incredible abilities. 

[Thunder Glove]

I learned everything I need to know about the Solar System from Schoolhouse Rock.  If Janet says that Pluto is a planet, who are all these "scientists" who dare contradict her?  Do they travel in space with a baseball team with rockets for legs?

[Tubbius]

I learned everything I need to know about the Solar System from Schoolhouse Rock.  If Janet says that Pluto is a planet, who are all these "scientists" who dare contradict her?  Do they travel in space with a baseball team with rockets for legs?

Okay, that was catchy.  :)

[Arcana]

I learned everything I need to know about the Solar System from Schoolhouse Rock.  If Janet says that Pluto is a planet, who are all these "scientists" who dare contradict her?  Do they travel in space with a baseball team with rockets for legs?

I think I was nine when I first saw Interplanet Janet, and I used to wonder why Janet thought Mercury was too hot to visit when she had just come from the Sun.

If I had to pick a favorite Schoolhouse Rock, it would probably be Interjections.  But I loved pretty much all of the original run.

Also, by the time I thought to make my hero Zero, the name was taken.

[ivanhedgehog]

I think I was nine when I first saw Interplanet Janet, and I used to wonder why Janet thought Mercury was too hot to visit when she had just come from the Sun.

If I had to pick a favorite Schoolhouse Rock, it would probably be Interjections.  But I loved pretty much all of the original run.

Also, by the time I thought to make my hero Zero, the name was taken.

when I was in HS govt class, taking the "preamble to the constitution" test, 2/3rds of the class was humming the song