warrenwilkinson

What are other property taxes based on?

I'd say every labour saving device invented would qualify as property that can create more time.

Doesn't look like anything to me. This shows the tax rates: http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php. They climbed up for WW1 & WW2, and now are falling back to historical levels.

And here is income distribution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Income_Distr...

which again, shows nothing sinister. Where one man made $2 to anothers $1, now that man is making $200 to the others $100.

Also can anyone substantiate the claim that the super rich lend the government money? As far as I knew only the Federal Reserve lent money to the government.

Bad parking or Murder?

Instead of what?

On a more serious note, this would be a complete non-issue, except that education is state controlled. So now it's politics. Where it private people could choose what's best for their child without choosing what's best for everyone elses.

Pretty easy.

Compare the sum with the expected sum. Compare the sum of squares with the expected sum of squares.

Two equations, just solve them. I wrote the final equations in the blog comments.

I notice this in politics. Some people vote for charitable political parties, while they themselves never give to charity.

Sometimes software stinks because it IS bad. Perhaps the software he is using grew from simple to complex and nobody did any housework, thus the smell. Maybe it does need some work.

Quick question: Is this suitable for streaming video? Just wondering, thanks.

Also, once you have a permanent address you can trade. Civilization does well in places with trade routes (like coasts, big slow rivers, or well defended roads)

Forth is number 1 on my list of greatest languages -- and I've been coding Lisp full time for years. If you want to have your mind blown, take a look at what Moore has done recently with Color Forth. It's tricky to piece together the story from bits on the internet, but the resulting language is enlightened in a way no other languages can claim.

My criteria is when someone mentions a right, can I meaningfully append the question 'At whose expense'? If I can, it's bogus.

These are rights: Right to liberty, to own property, to your life, to the pursuit of happiness, to freedom of speech.

These are not: Right to a job, to a 'fair' wage, to an education, to internet access, to clean water, to a pig every month.

Real rights prevent someone from doing awful things to you, basically "No one will harm you, or interfere with you doing this" (where this might be living, owning property, speaking, etc). The bogus rights are basically promises of free stuff.

I'll bet the version off pirate bay works fine. I know this is kind of snarky, but if they want to successfully combat piracy they need to make the pay-and-play experience better than the pirate one. DRM only affects those who play the unmodified game.

Or maybe they are? Or maybe a bit of both? Some people (myself included) feel a contract is a contract is a contract.

Having courts retroactively redefine contracts based on their fairness weakens contract law greatly. Besides being very subjective, things that start fair often seem unfair in time. For example Microsoft's deal with IBM, or Mosaic's deal with Microsoft. It's better if the rules stay the same, the ball will be played where it lands.

That's what I thought too. I stumbled across this yesterday, while searching for a market for my script.

The deal sounds great, I'm too busy to market my script properly, but I can just upload it to them, get feedback, exposure, possibly win some money, and maybe make $200,000 if they buy it.

Worst case scenario is I leave in 18 months with just my script again -- but I figure that's the expected case for self promotion anyway.

OSM doesn't own volunteer time. If the volunteers find Googles platform & terms more pleasing, then more power to them.

However, if the original article is correct in that Google misleads volunteers, then I hope his post helps correct that.

I agree. The only thing standing in the way is state licensing. The AMA lobbied for medical practitioner licensing in the earlier 1900s on the grounds that they would set high standards for future doctors. The end result was different:

"The licensing boards in each state soon began refusing licenses to health professionals who had not been trained at one of the 'approved' medical schools. Only half of the existing medical schools were approved, so most of the others had to close their doors by 1920. By 1932, almost half the medical school applicants had to be turned away. Those who apprenticed, went to unapproved schools, or developed their own therapies were stopped- at gunpoint, if necessary- from healing. As a result, the number of medical doctors per 100,000 people dropped from 157 in 1900 to 125 by 1929. Specialists, such as midwives, were usually forbidden to practice unless they had a full-fledged medical degree."

Source: http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/chap5.html

True, but that value isn't for sale, it's manifest as easements owned by your neighbors. (the true price is buying the land and the easements that conflict with your agenda).

For example, if you fish the wetland, or set up a water front hotel, or drink the water then you have an easement right to clean water. It cuts both ways though; if a polluter moves to unoccupied land and pollutes 10 barrels a day, then he has an easement right to continue polluting at this rate.

Today most of the environment is federally owned as crown or public land. 89% of Canada and at least 20% of the US are in this state (some western states are between 25% and 75% public land).

As government property the land is not salable and its true worth is unknown. Currently, businesses approach government and lease access rights for grazing, timber, oil, etc.

This leads to environmentally unsound decisions because most businesses only understand the land as is relevant to their work. And politicians make the deals because it adds jobs, builds the economy, and improves their re-election chances.

If the land was sold, the market would bring a wider range of buyers: developers, businesses, speculators, and environmentalists. Land important to wildlife would be prized by conservationists and their respective charities. They could buy and protect that land, and only permit sustainable development. Farmers could no longer lease cheap graze land from the government, they would have to buy it (and treat it sustainably) or lease it from private owners. Oil producers would have an incentive to work cleanly: if they work clean, the land will resell at a higher price when they finish.

Land is an asset of various values. Setting price tags stops it from being undervalued.

In theory, if it could identify the food & quantity, it should be able to produce every useful food statistic. From daily nutrition, to calories, to a map showing which regions of the earth commonly grow the fruit and vegetables in it.

I'm glad you said it first. This is a REALLY well written essay. The writer obviously knows something about Ghandi. He has clearly read much of the man's letters, knows who he associated with, has read several biographies, and seems to know the time period like the back of his hand.

And yet that doesn't seem to matter.

The other day I was pondering if non-violent resistance really would help the Tibetans. If Gandhi's revolution really wasn't non-violent (and the transition was already well underway), that doesn't leave many cases where non-violence worked.

I did some napkin math on the 10,000 hour thing.

10,000 hours is N hours daily for M years

3 hours for 10 years.

4 hours 15 min for 7 years

5 hours for 6 years

6 hours for 5 years

7 hours 30 min for 4 years

10 hours a day for 3 years

15 hours a day for 2 years

Just incase somebody wants to pick up a new skill =).

I found it funny that after he read that quote, suddenly his wife and friends became 10,000 hour superstars.

I think the point is that 10,000 is necessary to mastering a skill; and some people who master skills will be superstars. Not 'everyone you admire is a 10,000 hour superstar, and nobody but you realizes it'.

I wonder: are these people lying to themselves, or just lying to him? I eat meat, but if I thought it would upset a vegan who'd brought it up, I'd probably 'enhance' the truth.

The author claims a right he doesn't have (a right to private correspondence). Something I've never seen mentioned anywhere before. I know most war time letters are censored, and I've never seen rights activists even mention (let alone protest) that.

Your ISP analyze packets, sometimes deeply. Google opens your mail to look for spam (does this violate the spammers right to private communication?). Norton opens your email attachments, and it might be mandated by your employer. A post office might scan or open suspicious packages to ensure they are safe for the receiver. These all involve 3rd parties analyzing and modifying messages.

I wish that the sample footage he shot at 24,48 and 60 fps was available somewhere I could download it =(.

Mary Ruwart (a doctor and also a leading candidate for the libertarian party's presidential nominee in 2008) has written on this subject: http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/chap6.html.

When I was in Switzerland, I lived mostly on home made Greek salads (Tomatos, Cucumbers, Onions, Olive Oil and Feta Cheese -- eaten 4x a week for about a year). They were delicious.

I made one when I got back to Canada, but the flavor was gone. I haven't made another one in over 4 years.