From the Notebook

Cover via Amazon

Books Read:

- The Man Who Sold the Moon, Robert Heinlein. First Heinlein book I’ve read in a few years. This is a collection of short stories from Heinlein just after WWII. Heinlein famously predicted it would take a private industrialist, and not the government, to get to the moon. He also believed nuclear reactors were too dangerous to have on Earth and that more efficient solar panels were imminent. Those ideas were all wrong. However, in this book we do see Heinlein talking about personal transportation devices very similar to the modern Segway, along with some other neat things. Good stuff.

- Trickle Up Poverty, Michael Savage. Normally I like Savage’s books. Not this book. This book, while filled with many facts, was also filled with many inferences, guesses, theories and speculations that had scant supporting evidence. This book’s chapters on Healthcare and the Military are invaluable for highlighting incredible facts about Obama. However, there’s too much not-quite-fact for me to recommend this book.

- Short month, didn’t get a lot of reading done. I was also busy with the final edit of my novel, which should be published this summer. I’m working on some short stories and I’m currently outlining another novel. And no, I still don’t have plans to start blogging in a meaningful way. Sorry.

Related Articles

• The Heinlein Biography (volokh.com)
• Hoyt On Heinlein – A Forest Of Jungian* Knives (accordingtohoyt.com)
• Heinlein slammed scifi fandom during WWII [Robert Heinlein] (io9.com)
• Robert Heinlein’s Experience with Political Ignorance (volokh.com)

links for 2011-02-27

• The R Project for Statistical Computing
  (tags: mathematics programming r software statistics tools)
• Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit | The Onion – America's Finest News Source
  (tags: humor satire weekendreading)
• Legality of cameras debated | The Columbia Daily Tribune – Columbia, Missouri
  Quote:"A Missouri Department of Transportation study, released in January, found a 44.7 percent reduction in potentially fatal right-angle collisions at monitored intersections. The study found an increase in rear-end collisions, but MoDOT concluded the cameras increase safety everywhere they are in place

  // A Florida study found red-light camera really do increase accidents as well. Whether they increase fatalities (which I've read in other places) I'm not sure.

  (tags: numbersandstudies red.light.cameras roads)

links for 2011-02-26

• Grey Divorce Part II: Census Data and the Shifting Sexual Marketplace | Dalrock
  // More interesting marriage data
  (tags: aging dating Marriage numbersandstudies relationships weekendreading)
• Post-marital spinsterhood part two: the data. | Dalrock
  (tags: aging divorce numbersandstudies relationships weekendreading)
• Exploding “Grey Divorce” | Dalrock
  Quote:"Almost 9 in 10 men (87%) dated after their divorce, compared to 8 in 10 women (79%)… Among those who dated after the divorce, more than half of men (54%) but fewer women remarried (39%). (Page 39)

  Many women, especially those who have not remarried (69%), do not touch or hug at all sexually. An even larger majority of women who have not remarried do not engage in sexual intercourse (77% saying not at all), in comparison with about half of men (49%) who have not remarried. (Page 6)

  // AARP study on "Gray" divorces.

  (tags: aging divorce numbersandstudies relationships)
• How to Speed-Clean Your Kitchen – Yahoo! Shopping
  (tags: cleaning home kitchen maintenance)
• Bernard Nathanson Dead at 84 | Daily News | NCRegister.com
  Quote:"After performing his last abortion in 1979 and declaring himself to be pro-life, Nathanson produced the 1985 film The Silent Scream, which shows sonogram images of a child in the womb shrinking from an abortionist’s instruments, and the documentary film Eclipse of Reason, which displays and explains various abortion procedures in graphic detail. Both films had a significant impact on the abortion debate, solidified his credentials among pro-life advocates and earned him the scorn of his former pro-abortion friends and colleagues.

  He also published a number of influential books, including Aborting America, written in 1979 with Richard Ostling, then a religion reporter for Time magazine, in which he exposed the deceptive and dishonest beginnings of the pro-abortion movement and undermined the argument that abortion is safe for women.

  (tags: abortion education health history faith obits life)

links for 2011-02-25

• The Best Fitness Gear and Gadgets – Yahoo! Shopping
  (tags: fitness health weekendreading shopping)
• myths-about-resumes: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
  // The third myth, the idea resumes actually reflect the skills of an individual.
  (tags: career resume jobsearch business HR)
• Tax News from Yahoo! Finance
  Quote:"In the end I was there about an hour, and she accepted most of my documented proof. Some things she disallowed. For the items I didn't have any receipts for, she approved 40% of what we'd claimed, calling it a "customary business expense."

  She reminded me that I had the right to appeal her decision. And then she gave me the bill: $1,874.10.

  I wrote the check

  // the business, and the records, had burned down. Destroyed in Colorado. It was her husband's business, and they were getting divorced. She gets audited in New York, has no way to get most of the records, and gets hit with an 1,800 dollar bill. That doesn't sound like a victory, it sounds like (insert something awful).

  (tags: IRS taxes)
• Psst. No shutdown during a 'government shutdown' – Yahoo! News
  Quote:"But from a practical perspective, shutdowns usually aren't that big a deal. They happened every year when Jimmy Carter was president, averaging 11 days each. During President Reagan's two terms, there were six shutdowns, typically of just one or two days apiece. Deals got cut. Everybody moved on.

  In 1995-96, however, shutdowns morphed into political warfare, to the dismay of Republicans who thought they could use them to drag Clinton to the negotiating table on a balanced budget plan.

  // A gov't shutdown is a great way to get to "core" services.

  (tags: economy budget obama politicalhackery government)

links for 2011-02-24

• Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2010 | OpenSecrets
  // Sure is a lot of blue at the top.
  (tags: data Democrats Elections Political politics reference)
• Pajamas Media » Manning Up or Wimping Out: Men Don’t Exist to Serve Women’s Desires
  (tags: weekendreading gender maleness books culture feminism psychology)
• Analog Science Fiction & Fact
  (tags: science sci-fi magazines randomlinks)
• The Mad Monarchist: Monarchist Profile: Sir Robert Filmer
  (tags: monarchism weekendreading)
• Governor Arne Carlson
  (tags: mnpolitics randomlinks blogs Arne.Carlson)
• Crustaceans – Boxer Crab
  (tags: weekendreading aquariums)
• Ben Wetmore.com: 02/20/2011 – 02/27/2011
  Quote:"…the web would seem to offer entrepreneurs a chance to circumvent onerous bank lending for the public.

  100 people at $50 a month would be 5k a month in loans, if those people committed for one year, that would be $60k in loans ready from within your general pool of friends, well within the price-range of most. Problems with my little scheme would be whether most upstart businesses could exist with such money paid over the entire year and not simply up front. Also whether 50-60k per business plan would be enough to launch the business

  // I like Ben's idea. Bundling micro-loans would be a great way for the haves to really help out the have-nots. And not in the charitable "micro-loan" sort of way, but in the entrepreneurial give-me-double-my-money-back-or-nothing sort of way. Unfortunately, the financial industry, from banks to payday loans, are regulated to a mesmerizing level of stagnation. I would not like to be the guy tasked in trying to create a for-profit agency.

  (tags: business weekendreading economy)

links for 2011-02-23

• On prank call, Wis. governor discusses strategy – Yahoo! News
  // Ugh.
  (tags: gop politicalhackery politics unions wisconsin)
• 4 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Fighting Ab Flab
  Quote:"The occasional DVR-athon can be just what the doctor ordered, but people who tuned in for two or more hours daily had weaker ab and back muscles (by up to 10 percent) than those who viewed less than two hours, regardless of their overall activity level, researchers from the University of Oulu note. An hour of tube time is fine, especially if it motivates you to hit the gym. Schedule your workout to coincide with your favorite dramedy or reality show, and then tune in while you log some miles on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike.

  // I'm screwed.

  (tags: diet health numbersandstudies weightloss)
• It’s Your Life
  Quote:"The emptiness, the inner death, the quiet desperation, only strikes men who know, deep down, that what they’re doing is pointless. The majority of jobs in law, finance, government, the foreign service and academia fit this description, as do a growing proportion of jobs in the corporate world (i.e. HR and anything to do with regulatory compliance). The fraction of Americans actually producing is shrinking every day.

  // Fun article.

  (tags: feminism business maleness weekendreading)
• Calculated Risk: January Existing Home Sales: 5.36 million SAAR, 7.6 months of supply
  // There's still too much housing available, a five month supply is the norm.
  (tags: housing economics business)

links for 2011-02-22

• Census: Near-record level of US counties dying – Yahoo! News
  // But at least we're moving towards sustainability.
  (tags: debt demographics)
• Arvada Police arrest 11-year-old over 'inappropriate' stick figure drawing – KDVR
  // Handcuffing a child, who is working with a therapist, and booking him and taking him to jail is not the way to mental health.
  (tags: childhood psychology public.schools insane)
• Harry Reid: 'The time has come for us to outlaw prostitution' – Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 | 9:45 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun
  // From what I remember, prostitution is legal in Rhode Island. Wonder how they do it…
  (tags: prostitution)
• A VC: MBA Mondays
  // 59 total posts, great readings for small businesspeople who are smartly not going to college.
  (tags: business finance MBA entrepreneurship management Blog toread weekendreading)
• Eighteen Ways To Get Tax-Free Income – William Baldwin – Investment Strategies – Forbes
  Quote:"Rent Your House Out

  If you rent out a house for 14 or fewer days, the income is scot-free. Not only that, you don't have to prorate or reduce your otherwise deductible mortgage interest and property taxes. Unlike the remodeling gambit, this one works on vacation homes, too.

  // There are a lot of other really great ideas here.

  (tags: business personal tips finance taxes)

links for 2011-02-20

• Midterms and Markets: Wall Street May Fare Better if Republicans Gain Control of the U.S. House Next Week
  Quote:"Recent studies suggest some aspects of the economy generally perform better under Democratic presidents than Republicans. This seems to be true of the stock market. Between 1975 and 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 11.6 percent annually on average during Democratic administrations, compared to 8.5 percent during Republican presidencies. But stock market performance over the same period has been markedly better under divided control of government—when one party has controlled the White House but not both chambers of Congress. The Dow rose by 6.1 percent annually on average during unified government over this period, but climbed at more than twice this pace (by 11.1 percent annually on average) during episodes of divided control.

  The Dow also seems to fare slightly better under Republican control of the U.S. House, growing by an average 11.1 percent annually between 1975 and 2009, compared to 9.0 percent when Democrats control the House.

  (tags: economics government numbersandstudies)
• The New Refugees: Americans who give up citizenship to save on taxes.
  Expatriating? Give up U.S. citizenship? Who in his right mind would give up his U.S. citizenship? Lots of people. You could practically fill a Boeing 747 with well-heeled U.S. citizens who have taken on foreign citizenship rather than submit to what Learned Hand called "enforced exactions" at a level that amounts to virtual confiscation. The exodus may speed up under an Administration that campaigned for office on a tax-the-rich platform.

  In 1981 Ronald Reagan lowered taxes. The following year not a single American gave up his citizenship. In 1993 the expatriate community grew by 306 names.

  The expatriates of recent years have included:

  Michael Dingman, chairman of Abex, and a Ford Motor director. Dingman is now a citizen of the Bahamas and lives there.

  Billionaire John (Ippy) Dorrance III, an heir to the Campbell Soup fortune. Dorrance is now a citizen of Ireland and lives there as well as in the Bahamas and Devil's Tower, Wyo.

  J. Mark Mobius, ….

  (tags: economics expatriation taxes weekendreading)
• The long term budget problem begins now | KeithHennessey.com
  (tags: budget debt deficit economy obama weekendreading)
• First Person: 10 Home Renovations That Don't Necessarily Add Value – Yahoo! Finance
  (tags: home tips weekendreading)
• Where Have the Good Men Gone? – WSJ.com
  Quote:""We are sick of hooking up with guys," writes the comedian Julie Klausner, author of a touchingly funny 2010 book, "I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters and Other Guys I've Dated." What Ms. Klausner means by "guys" is males who are not boys or men but something in between. "Guys talk about 'Star Wars' like it's not a movie made for people half their age;

  // Hey, no dissin' the Fett.

  (tags: feminism gender weekendreading women)
• Captain Capitalism: Accusing Men of Immaturity Because They Don't Wish to Marry
  (tags: culture feminism gender maleness relationships weekendreading)

links for 2011-02-19

• To escape blame, be a victim, not a hero, new study finds
  Quote:"In the study, participants responded to a number of scenarios that mirrored real-life moral transgressions, from stealing money to harming someone. Results revealed that, no matter how many previous good deeds someone had done, they received just as much blame — if not more — than someone with a less heroic background.

  "People may come down even harder on someone like the Dalai Lama, than they do on 'Joe Blow,' said author Kurt Gray, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maryland." However, in our research those who have suffered in the past received significantly less blame — even if such suffering was both totally unrelated to the misdeed and long since past."

  The article, titled "To Escape Blame, Don't be a Hero — be a Victim" is published in the March issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

  (tags: culture numbersandstudies psychology)
• Should You Read Non-Catholic Materials? | Blogs | NCRegister.com
  (tags: catholic faith weekendreading)
• Didache – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Quote:"In modern scholarship a new consensus is emerging which dates the Didache at about the turn of the 1st century. At the same time, significant similarities between the Didache and the gospel of Matthew have been found as these writings share words, phrases, and motifs. There is also an increasing reluctance of modern scholars to support the thesis that the Didache used Matthew. This close relationship between these two writings might suggest that both documents were created in the same historical and geographical setting. One argument that suggests a common environment is that the community of both the Didache and the gospel of Matthew was probably composed of Judaeo-Christians from the beginning
  (tags: Bible catholic faith toread)

links for 2011-02-18

• America's Worst Speed Traps- Yahoo! Autos Article Page
  // FYI
  (tags: roads speed.limit taxation)
• Review & Outlook: Athens in Mad Town – WSJ.com
  Quote:"Mr. Walker's very modest proposal would take away the ability of most government employees to collectively bargain for benefits. They could still bargain for higher wages, but future wage increases would be capped at the federal Consumer Price Index, unless otherwise specified by a voter referendum. The bill would also require union members to contribute 5.8% of salary toward their pensions and chip in 12.6% of the cost of their health insurance premiums.

  If those numbers don't sound outrageous, you probably work in the private economy. The comparable nationwide employee health-care contribution is 20% for private industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average employee contribution from take-home pay for retirement was 7.5% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

  // Good read.

  (tags: unions weekendreading wisconsin)
• Could Minnesota See Similar Union Fights As Wisconsin? « CBS Minnesota
  // ugh
  (tags: Minnesota mnpolitics unions)
• Obama joins Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill
  // Sadly, Obama doesn't realize he wasn't elected emperor of Wisconsin.
  (tags: obama wisconsin)
• Chihuahuas, Shi Tzus among city's bitiest dogs – NYPOST.com
  Quote:"
  There were a record number of dog bites in the city last year — with pint-sized Chihuahuas and Shih Tzus surprisingly among the top five culprits, The Post has learned.

  The city's most vicious dog — measured by the number of bites on humans reported last year — was the pit bull, with 815 reported chompings. That's nearly a quarter of the 3,609 bites recorded in 2010, the highest annual number in the data provided by the Health Department.

  The pit was followed by the Rottweiler, Shih Tzu, Chihuahua and standard poodle.

  // Never mind the fact little dogs are never properly trained or disciplined by their owners.

  (tags: dogs numbersandstudies)