Since each AA is nominally 1.5V, it takes four in series to reach 6V, but lantern batteries need amps to go with those volts in order to power the big devices. This could be done by wiring in parallel eight such groups of four. Batteries connected positive-to-negative will add their voltage but provide the same amperage (current). Batteries connected positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative will add their amperage but provide the same voltage.
Now, just because the physics and math work out, it does not mean that all (or even any) 6V lantern batteries are made this way, just that you cannot use that argument to prove that it's fake. You must actually cut open different brands to see whether the second video is typical. The first video shows that the wiring must be cut, but it does not show all of it in detail, and there's an edit point between that point and the dramatic dump onto the table. It certainly leaves me suspicious.
I guess I was thinking of ordinary individuals who might be receiving dubious bills from a business, or from another individual, when I suggested refusing to accept old bills.
A business (at least, one in a fixed location) is in a much better position than an individual to do a careful check--for example, using a UV light--so they shouldn't need to turn money back unless they have good reason to think it actually is counterfeit.
My hubby wanted me to emphatically mention NOT TO DRY baseball caps. His somehow magically end up in the dryer... and they never fit on his noggin again... LOL
One thing I noticed is that the original video compared 4 AA Alkaline batteries for $5 with one 6V Heavy-Duty for $5, and claimed that you could get substantial savings by using the 32 AA cells in the 6V battery as AA batteries.
The chemistry with Alkaline and Heavy-Duty cells is vastly different, and there's a reason why Energizer and DuraCel advertise on the long-life and high power of their batteries. The packaging always compares their performance to heavy-duty batteries.
Even if the 6V battery did have 32 AA Heavy Duty batteries, I wouldn't want to use them in my electronics, for they will surely lack the juice.
While it is correct that you are not legally obligated to take them (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=281625), this would certainly introduce a lot of ill will in your customers if you adopted this policy at your business. I get older bills ALL OF THE TIME and I'm sure a lot of others do too. Usually not out of the ATM, but from other businesses as change. If you're going to make me "take it to the bank", I'm just going to take my business elsewhere.
I was on a plane once looking through the Skymall and saw an ad for a counterfeit money detection kit aimed at business owners. (Maybe this one) where they said "If you are worried about having a bank teller confiscate counterfeit bills in your deposits then this is the right tool for your business." Note that the emphasis isn't on not *accepting* counterfeit money, but on detecting it before you pass it on the bank. The clear implication that the business owner could circulate it back out to the public. Creepy.
I used to do all of those in one foul swoop, except for putting them under a blacklight(although i could have if i wanted to turn around).
Instead of holding it up in the air, and possibly making a customer get annoyed that you dont beleive its real, I would just hold it up to the computer screen that was in front of me and used its light to shine through it. It would be right there and i didnt have to move any extra to check all of the security features.
sure, i doubt everyone has a brightly colored screen in front of them, but if you do, and are as lazy/cautious about their reactions, thats something to think about.
(i used to work in a Spencer's store for a while, so i could have used the UV light too, but it was behind me and again, im lazy lol)
I've worked in clubs and casino's in vegas and we've used thumb or finger print for credit card purchuses for a long time 10 years or more.If your in public your on camra, I guess i've wrote off privcy freedoms already.
Wow you guys still use that? We've been using polymer notes for 20 years next year in Australia. Significantly harder to forge, four times as resilient as paper so requiring replacement less often and therefore saving the government a mint (pun fully intended).
I wash all my athletic shoes in the washer AND dry them in the dryer with the dog towels. I think they actually last longer this way, because they smell a LOT better. Sure, they're a little tight for a while, but after that, just clean and stank-free.
Thank you for wonderful blog I really look forward to reading it. I wanted to share with you my experience recently of a debt collection agency from here in Australia. the Man (bully would be a better description) on the other end of the phone basically called me a liar when it came to me saying I had not received a letter from a law firm which he reckons I had.. I explained to him that i would not be the firtst time I have had mail go awol for several week or even months he gave a half hearted laugh and he goes I guess they were all bills? I nearly jumped down the phone at him at this stage and corrected him and I said no they wern't. I told him I could pay no more then 20 per fornight on the outstanding bill (489.00) becuae of my current obligations and my current working hours (hubby just lost his job) He said that wasn't good enough.
I told him I wasn't going to be able to pay anymroe until I had further funds to do that he asked me when that would be and I said in a about 2-3 months time due to my daughters school fee's and a few other bills that I am in the process of getting out of the way.
He still would not accept that...I aksed him his name, where he worked, and asked him for the phone number of his work and who was his boss the last two he would not give me at all.
He kept pushing that I pay more each week and I stuck my heels in and said no I won't be paying any more because I simply can not afford it. He wanted me to pay an extra $2.50 a week (yes I probely could of managed that from somewhere but at this stage every single cent is accounted for) and I told him no that was not possible as I needed every single cent I had to get by he laughed and said you are not going to starve if we take that money...I corrected him and said no I probley won't starve but my kids will because to us that is a loaf of bread that makes their breakfast and lunches for school...He told me that was a lie and I was making this more difficult for him.
I then moved on and he gave me two payment options to pay them dirctly or to pay the company that I owe the money too....I opted to pay the money directly to the compnay that I owe the money too. I asked him send out the details of the payments and the account details and he then said they don't do that I have to write it down and do it that way I declined and said I won't be paying anything until I have the payment agreement in writing and the account details in writing to make sure I have something to back me up if the account number i wrote down was wrong or he had given it to me wrong.
He still refused...I dug my heels in even further and informed him that i will not be paying anythign until I have the debt amount, to whom it is owed, and how much my agreed payment and the agreed account to which the money was to be paid was sent to me in writing. He got cranky at me and said that I was being difficult and his manager would be in contact!
I (being a bitch that i am) said whooo hooo that is good I can tell them how rude you are and how uncoperative you have been in regards to this debt I will also be lodging a complaint with the company you have been hired to represent and I will also be lodging a complaint with the relative authorities (Dept of Fair Trading in NSW).
The result he hung up on me with the parting words "we will see you in court"
that is my story with debt collection thank you for posting what rights some people have.
Ok, everyone, I occasionally have sensitive teeth, but I was desperate, so I tried this. IT WORKS. As instructed, I took hydrogen peroxide 3% solution, mixed it with the baking soda, and applied it to my teeth. Because you can't swallow, I ended up spitting a lot and getting rid of the paste at the same time, so I reapplied it repeatedly during the 20 minutes I left it on. My teeth are definitely whiter (I got a second opinion too). My teeth feel smooth and clean. They do not feel more sensitive. If this goes bad ways in a few days, I will report back, but I'm fairly convinced it's safe. By the way, I don't know how you can avoid getting the paste on your gums, but it had no effect whatsoever (it's not like your gums go white). Don't know how long this whitening effect will last, but right now I am very pleased with the results.
Well, the images wouldn't have scared me at all (although they are disturbing) if it wasn't for the fact that my speakers volume was kinda high and my ears were ringing. But me being used to looking at creepy images like that (I am against abortion and have seen perfectly formed full sized fetuses in pieces) I have also studied aliens and looked at findings of extraterrestrial life on earth... on top of that my husband is an artist who sketches and paints monsters. Oh gosh, I had no idea I was exposed to creepy stuff that intensely until now, LOL! Anyway, the warning should be in red letters and it should warn about the sound, the warning only states scary images. It doesn't talk about sounds so loud that can leave you deaf. It is also very disturbing since its basically static.
Let's face it, Wikipedia is an information cesspool, not a reliable source source about anything, really.
Jimmy Wales idea of Neutral Point of View (NPOV) is one of the "big lies" of the 21st century, and Wikipedia is filled with biased, undocumented opinion passed off as fact.
Another lie about Wikipedia is that "everyone" can edit it it. The fact is, even well documented things are deleted by editors. And if 'everyone" can edit it, why not governments and corportaions? In the free market of ideas, the people in governments and corportaions should be able to express their documented views. Wikipedia eliminates such views because Wikipedia is so biased.
Wikipedia Scanner is nothing more than an intrusive spy tool. Virgil Griffith is no different than Bush, in my opinion, when it comes to violating privacy.
The question is why use AA's or C's, or other batteries to make up 6 Volt batteries? The answer is production run costs and simple economics.
I will tackle the latter answer first. The reason why AA's cost so much in comparison is because the market will pay it. Why should companies charge less, if we pay this amount?
I know it's simplified, but it is the bottom line.
Now to the more technical issue, production costs. The cost equation for a battery can be broken down into raw material costs, assembly costs, packaging costs, transportation costs (to get product to market), marketing costs, and finally any product mark-up along the way. As can be seen, the raw material and assembly costs are just a small part in the overall process.
The assembly line (at least the one I am familiar with, again back in Wisconsin) had three parts. The first part mixed the chemicals that make up the inner parts and fed into the battery case (i.e., assembly of the battery inards). The chemicals, depending on whether alkaline or normal are all the same, the only cost difference would be in the housing and other parts of the base battery, plus the volume that could be produced per hour. Now here is one of the cost savers when it comes to the 6 Volt. Larger Batch runs are more efficient than smaller batch runs (i.e., setup time for line factors in). If a line can produce a product for both AA's and 6 Volts, let's say, it would be more cost effective. There is no difference at this point, other than the small incremental cost of additional raw materials per battery for the 6 Volt. The raw material cost would most likely, however, be negligible compared to production run costs.
The second part of the assembly line is the wrapping. This is where as another person pointed out the Ray-O-Vac, Kmart, or Wal-mart, etc. label gets put on the battery. My guess is here there would be a little additional cost for this portion of the line, but as long as you can sequence your day/shift runs properly so as not have assembly machine down-time, you could have a proper queue on this segment of the line.
The final line segment in the plant is the bubble-pack line. This is where the batteries get packed into their end-market packaging (e.g., 4-Paks, 8 packs, etc.) and the packaging get put into boxes for shipping. This is where the AA's and AAA's have higher costs since there is more handling of the individual units as compared to 6 Volts where are packed directly into boxes (most likely -- I only worked on a study during college regarding the bubble-pack line of AA's and AAA's). So, here you would add an additional cost factor into the assembly process due to the additional machine and handling time the smaller batteries require.
I hope this helps in understanding the plant costs. I have no idea what the marketing and transportation costs may be.
You could still fake an old $100 using a $1 bill, but it has gotten to the point where many people will no longer take old $100 bills, because an increasingly large fraction of them are counterfeit--the genuine ones have been taken to banks and exchanged for new ones.
I would certainly look askance at any old $100 bill that anyone tried to give me.
With $500k, getting over 5% shouldn't be too tough. Even good old Bank of America has a 5.55% money market savings account if you have at least $50k (check out their MyExpression accounts). Just using that will give after-tax income of $20,812.50, which out-does the annuity idea.
More importantly, ALL of the income being taxed at the 25% rate implies that she is earning approximately $30k to $50k aside from this income (since otherwise the effective tax rate would be less than 25%). If that's the case, and she expects to continue to receive that income, she can probably increase her risk in the investment and earn a higher return (maybe put 30% in stocks?).
If that's not the case (i.e. she will lose that other income), then we need to look at the effect that has on her taxes. $500k @ 5.55% investment income, using 2007 tax tables, will give her $23978.75 after taxes (effective tax rate of 13.6% instead of 25%), which is quite a bit better. That's also ignoring the standard deduction and any other deductions or credits she might have, which should push it to $24500 or more.
I bought a Rayovac Heavy Duty 6V and after cutting open the plastic casing I found four D cell diameter batteries that were about 1 1/2 times the length of a normal D cell.
Upon further investigation, I have discovered that the 32 AA batteries can be found in the 6V available from Walgreens.
Since each AA is nominally 1.5V, it takes four in series to reach 6V, but lantern batteries need amps to go with those volts in order to power the big devices. This could be done by wiring in parallel eight such groups of four. Batteries connected positive-to-negative will add their voltage but provide the same amperage (current). Batteries connected positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative will add their amperage but provide the same voltage.
Now, just because the physics and math work out, it does not mean that all (or even any) 6V lantern batteries are made this way, just that you cannot use that argument to prove that it's fake. You must actually cut open different brands to see whether the second video is typical. The first video shows that the wiring must be cut, but it does not show all of it in detail, and there's an edit point between that point and the dramatic dump onto the table. It certainly leaves me suspicious.
Hmmm...I haven't figured out what to do with the Amazon gift certificate yet...maybe buy that new OJ book...just kidding. Never! :)
Thanks for the gift certificate! First time I've won anything in a long time. :)
Why do you need cash for small purchases? The store has to take a card by agreement with their card processor.
I guess I was thinking of ordinary individuals who might be receiving dubious bills from a business, or from another individual, when I suggested refusing to accept old bills.
A business (at least, one in a fixed location) is in a much better position than an individual to do a careful check--for example, using a UV light--so they shouldn't need to turn money back unless they have good reason to think it actually is counterfeit.
opened a Duracell + got 4 branded D batteries,
opened an Eveready an got double sized cells.
What has the AAs?
opened a Duracell + got 4 branded D batteries,
opened an Eveready an got double sized cells.
What has the AAs?
My hubby wanted me to emphatically mention NOT TO DRY baseball caps. His somehow magically end up in the dryer... and they never fit on his noggin again... LOL
One thing I noticed is that the original video compared 4 AA Alkaline batteries for $5 with one 6V Heavy-Duty for $5, and claimed that you could get substantial savings by using the 32 AA cells in the 6V battery as AA batteries.
The chemistry with Alkaline and Heavy-Duty cells is vastly different, and there's a reason why Energizer and DuraCel advertise on the long-life and high power of their batteries. The packaging always compares their performance to heavy-duty batteries.
Even if the 6V battery did have 32 AA Heavy Duty batteries, I wouldn't want to use them in my electronics, for they will surely lack the juice.
While it is correct that you are not legally obligated to take them (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=281625), this would certainly introduce a lot of ill will in your customers if you adopted this policy at your business. I get older bills ALL OF THE TIME and I'm sure a lot of others do too. Usually not out of the ATM, but from other businesses as change. If you're going to make me "take it to the bank", I'm just going to take my business elsewhere.
I was on a plane once looking through the Skymall and saw an ad for a counterfeit money detection kit aimed at business owners. (Maybe this one) where they said "If you are worried about having a bank teller confiscate counterfeit bills in your deposits then this is the right tool for your business." Note that the emphasis isn't on not *accepting* counterfeit money, but on detecting it before you pass it on the bank. The clear implication that the business owner could circulate it back out to the public. Creepy.
I used to do all of those in one foul swoop, except for putting them under a blacklight(although i could have if i wanted to turn around).
Instead of holding it up in the air, and possibly making a customer get annoyed that you dont beleive its real, I would just hold it up to the computer screen that was in front of me and used its light to shine through it. It would be right there and i didnt have to move any extra to check all of the security features.
sure, i doubt everyone has a brightly colored screen in front of them, but if you do, and are as lazy/cautious about their reactions, thats something to think about.
(i used to work in a Spencer's store for a while, so i could have used the UV light too, but it was behind me and again, im lazy lol)
I've worked in clubs and casino's in vegas and we've used thumb or finger print for credit card purchuses for a long time 10 years or more.If your in public your on camra, I guess i've wrote off privcy freedoms already.
That's a great explanation. Much appreciated.
Wow you guys still use that? We've been using polymer notes for 20 years next year in Australia. Significantly harder to forge, four times as resilient as paper so requiring replacement less often and therefore saving the government a mint (pun fully intended).
I wash all my athletic shoes in the washer AND dry them in the dryer with the dog towels. I think they actually last longer this way, because they smell a LOT better. Sure, they're a little tight for a while, but after that, just clean and stank-free.
Hi,
Thank you for wonderful blog I really look forward to reading it. I wanted to share with you my experience recently of a debt collection agency from here in Australia. the Man (bully would be a better description) on the other end of the phone basically called me a liar when it came to me saying I had not received a letter from a law firm which he reckons I had.. I explained to him that i would not be the firtst time I have had mail go awol for several week or even months he gave a half hearted laugh and he goes I guess they were all bills? I nearly jumped down the phone at him at this stage and corrected him and I said no they wern't. I told him I could pay no more then 20 per fornight on the outstanding bill (489.00) becuae of my current obligations and my current working hours (hubby just lost his job) He said that wasn't good enough.
I told him I wasn't going to be able to pay anymroe until I had further funds to do that he asked me when that would be and I said in a about 2-3 months time due to my daughters school fee's and a few other bills that I am in the process of getting out of the way.
He still would not accept that...I aksed him his name, where he worked, and asked him for the phone number of his work and who was his boss the last two he would not give me at all.
He kept pushing that I pay more each week and I stuck my heels in and said no I won't be paying any more because I simply can not afford it. He wanted me to pay an extra $2.50 a week (yes I probely could of managed that from somewhere but at this stage every single cent is accounted for) and I told him no that was not possible as I needed every single cent I had to get by he laughed and said you are not going to starve if we take that money...I corrected him and said no I probley won't starve but my kids will because to us that is a loaf of bread that makes their breakfast and lunches for school...He told me that was a lie and I was making this more difficult for him.
I then moved on and he gave me two payment options to pay them dirctly or to pay the company that I owe the money too....I opted to pay the money directly to the compnay that I owe the money too. I asked him send out the details of the payments and the account details and he then said they don't do that I have to write it down and do it that way I declined and said I won't be paying anything until I have the payment agreement in writing and the account details in writing to make sure I have something to back me up if the account number i wrote down was wrong or he had given it to me wrong.
He still refused...I dug my heels in even further and informed him that i will not be paying anythign until I have the debt amount, to whom it is owed, and how much my agreed payment and the agreed account to which the money was to be paid was sent to me in writing. He got cranky at me and said that I was being difficult and his manager would be in contact!
I (being a bitch that i am) said whooo hooo that is good I can tell them how rude you are and how uncoperative you have been in regards to this debt I will also be lodging a complaint with the company you have been hired to represent and I will also be lodging a complaint with the relative authorities (Dept of Fair Trading in NSW).
The result he hung up on me with the parting words "we will see you in court"
that is my story with debt collection thank you for posting what rights some people have.
Shay
Ok, everyone, I occasionally have sensitive teeth, but I was desperate, so I tried this. IT WORKS. As instructed, I took hydrogen peroxide 3% solution, mixed it with the baking soda, and applied it to my teeth. Because you can't swallow, I ended up spitting a lot and getting rid of the paste at the same time, so I reapplied it repeatedly during the 20 minutes I left it on. My teeth are definitely whiter (I got a second opinion too). My teeth feel smooth and clean. They do not feel more sensitive. If this goes bad ways in a few days, I will report back, but I'm fairly convinced it's safe. By the way, I don't know how you can avoid getting the paste on your gums, but it had no effect whatsoever (it's not like your gums go white). Don't know how long this whitening effect will last, but right now I am very pleased with the results.
Well, the images wouldn't have scared me at all (although they are disturbing) if it wasn't for the fact that my speakers volume was kinda high and my ears were ringing. But me being used to looking at creepy images like that (I am against abortion and have seen perfectly formed full sized fetuses in pieces) I have also studied aliens and looked at findings of extraterrestrial life on earth... on top of that my husband is an artist who sketches and paints monsters. Oh gosh, I had no idea I was exposed to creepy stuff that intensely until now, LOL! Anyway, the warning should be in red letters and it should warn about the sound, the warning only states scary images. It doesn't talk about sounds so loud that can leave you deaf. It is also very disturbing since its basically static.
Let's face it, Wikipedia is an information cesspool, not a reliable source source about anything, really.
Jimmy Wales idea of Neutral Point of View (NPOV) is one of the "big lies" of the 21st century, and Wikipedia is filled with biased, undocumented opinion passed off as fact.
Another lie about Wikipedia is that "everyone" can edit it it. The fact is, even well documented things are deleted by editors. And if 'everyone" can edit it, why not governments and corportaions? In the free market of ideas, the people in governments and corportaions should be able to express their documented views. Wikipedia eliminates such views because Wikipedia is so biased.
Wikipedia Scanner is nothing more than an intrusive spy tool. Virgil Griffith is no different than Bush, in my opinion, when it comes to violating privacy.
The question is why use AA's or C's, or other batteries to make up 6 Volt batteries? The answer is production run costs and simple economics.
I will tackle the latter answer first. The reason why AA's cost so much in comparison is because the market will pay it. Why should companies charge less, if we pay this amount?
I know it's simplified, but it is the bottom line.
Now to the more technical issue, production costs. The cost equation for a battery can be broken down into raw material costs, assembly costs, packaging costs, transportation costs (to get product to market), marketing costs, and finally any product mark-up along the way. As can be seen, the raw material and assembly costs are just a small part in the overall process.
The assembly line (at least the one I am familiar with, again back in Wisconsin) had three parts. The first part mixed the chemicals that make up the inner parts and fed into the battery case (i.e., assembly of the battery inards). The chemicals, depending on whether alkaline or normal are all the same, the only cost difference would be in the housing and other parts of the base battery, plus the volume that could be produced per hour. Now here is one of the cost savers when it comes to the 6 Volt. Larger Batch runs are more efficient than smaller batch runs (i.e., setup time for line factors in). If a line can produce a product for both AA's and 6 Volts, let's say, it would be more cost effective. There is no difference at this point, other than the small incremental cost of additional raw materials per battery for the 6 Volt. The raw material cost would most likely, however, be negligible compared to production run costs.
The second part of the assembly line is the wrapping. This is where as another person pointed out the Ray-O-Vac, Kmart, or Wal-mart, etc. label gets put on the battery. My guess is here there would be a little additional cost for this portion of the line, but as long as you can sequence your day/shift runs properly so as not have assembly machine down-time, you could have a proper queue on this segment of the line.
The final line segment in the plant is the bubble-pack line. This is where the batteries get packed into their end-market packaging (e.g., 4-Paks, 8 packs, etc.) and the packaging get put into boxes for shipping. This is where the AA's and AAA's have higher costs since there is more handling of the individual units as compared to 6 Volts where are packed directly into boxes (most likely -- I only worked on a study during college regarding the bubble-pack line of AA's and AAA's). So, here you would add an additional cost factor into the assembly process due to the additional machine and handling time the smaller batteries require.
I hope this helps in understanding the plant costs. I have no idea what the marketing and transportation costs may be.
Cheers,
TC
You could still fake an old $100 using a $1 bill, but it has gotten to the point where many people will no longer take old $100 bills, because an increasingly large fraction of them are counterfeit--the genuine ones have been taken to banks and exchanged for new ones.
I would certainly look askance at any old $100 bill that anyone tried to give me.
With $500k, getting over 5% shouldn't be too tough. Even good old Bank of America has a 5.55% money market savings account if you have at least $50k (check out their MyExpression accounts). Just using that will give after-tax income of $20,812.50, which out-does the annuity idea.
More importantly, ALL of the income being taxed at the 25% rate implies that she is earning approximately $30k to $50k aside from this income (since otherwise the effective tax rate would be less than 25%). If that's the case, and she expects to continue to receive that income, she can probably increase her risk in the investment and earn a higher return (maybe put 30% in stocks?).
If that's not the case (i.e. she will lose that other income), then we need to look at the effect that has on her taxes. $500k @ 5.55% investment income, using 2007 tax tables, will give her $23978.75 after taxes (effective tax rate of 13.6% instead of 25%), which is quite a bit better. That's also ignoring the standard deduction and any other deductions or credits she might have, which should push it to $24500 or more.
I bought a Rayovac Heavy Duty 6V and after cutting open the plastic casing I found four D cell diameter batteries that were about 1 1/2 times the length of a normal D cell.
Upon further investigation, I have discovered that the 32 AA batteries can be found in the 6V available from Walgreens.
i have similar situation. got a very small ding on front passenger door and it's on the most outward spot. have you try any method?