Alami.com

Economics of the Free Market

Jeff — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:23:03 +0000

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it’s a free market.

A toy company can out-source to a Chinese sub-contractor and claim it’s a free market.

A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it’s a free market.

BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare to want to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy!

Whoah. Somebody got lazy.

Jeff — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:00:18 +0000

Haven’t posted here in a while… I’ll get to some very fascinating articles this week. Something new for you boys and girls.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Explained

Jeff — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:21:34 +0000

If any of your guys are into quantum physics (or maybe just Star Trek), you may have heard that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is the statement that locating a particle in a small region of space makes the momentum of the particle uncertain; and conversely, that measuring the momentum of a particle precisely makes the position uncertain. What?

Well for any of you who are still confused, I give you the ultimate corollary and/or analogy to it: the Jeff’s Remote Control Under Couch Unattainability Principle. It goes like this:

When a TV remote control is dropped from a person’s hand, and slides under the couch, it is rendered unattainable using normal techniques. If the person were to reach his hand under the couch to locate the remote control, the very act of locating it (and likely bumping it further in) irrevocably changes its position.

free keylogger software oem software viagra
soccer scheduling software oem software viagra
macintosh macro software oem software viagra
subtitle removal software oem software viagra
self software test oem software viagra
digitek software oem software viagra
iren software oem software viagra
pareto software freeware oem software viagra
software wholesaler oem software viagra
webcam live software oem software viagra
software port hp-ux oem software viagra
recipe senter software oem software viagra
microfiche software oem software viagra
vehicle replacement software oem software viagra
dvd title software oem software viagra
software quality analyst oem software viagra
buy software quark oem software viagra
palmone software oem software viagra
software for presentation oem software viagra
disk replication software oem software viagra
hybrid design software oem software viagra
advisor software inc oem software viagra
biromsoft webcam software oem software viagra
nokia softwares downloads oem software viagra
software for pebl oem software viagra
mobile repair softwares oem software viagra
cpm software oem software viagra
contractor tablet software oem software viagra
cash management software oem software viagra
design software demo oem software viagra

Monday Morning Questions

Jeff — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:59:13 +0000

OK, my friend’s blog has 56 interesting questions answered, thus securing my Monday morning entry:

1. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT? When I was 8 years old, I was running around in a campsite in the dark and my face got clotheslined by a tent rope. I was down for the count and blood was everywhere. By a great stroke of luck it happened to get only my upper lip, instead of a lot of worse places on my face that I can think of. Now that I’m older not only has it faded but it’s behind a beard.

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM? Just paint. Yeah, I’m lazy.

3. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN? 2:22am.

4. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW? To travel the world on a shoestring budget.

5. WHAT DO YOU MISS? Snowboarding. Had a chance to do it in March and thoroughly enjoyed it.

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION? I’d have to say my laptop. I care more about it than most people, given that with its help, rent gets paid. I can’t say that about most people.

7. HOW TALL ARE YOU? 5′8. Short in Canada, tall here. I don’t miss being short.

8. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DAY? Depends on which extreme activity I’m doing…

9. WHAT’S YOUR WORST FEAR? Going through the aging process really badly. I’d like nothing more to be one of those people who go through their old age without serious problems.

10. WHAT KIND OF HAIR COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX? Doesn’t really matter. I’ve been partial to jet black though.

11. WHAT ABOUT EYE COLOR? Any regular color will do. I once met a chick with yellow eyes, I kid you not, and it wasn’t because of any disease or anything, just that the brown was light enough to be yellow.

12. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINK? Yerba Mate every day.

13. FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING? Pepperoni.

14. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE? A porterhouse T-bone always hits the spot. It’s gotta weigh in over 20 ounces or else it’s too small.

15. FAVORITE COLOR OF ALL TIME? Always agreed with red. Like, Coca-Cola red.

16. HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A GOLDFISH? Hell no. Bigger fish only please.

17. WHAT WAS THE FIRST MEANINGFUL GIFT YOU EVER RECEIVED? I once received the perfect wallet and I used it every day until it fell apart. Never been able to find the same kind of wallet since.

18. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH? Sure, what’s life without impossible dreams?

19. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND? Not too particular on that.

20. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU WANT? I’m going to love owning a Unimog. Notice that I’m sure about that.

21. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING? I guess anything can happen.

22. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE USA? I’m hardly ever in the USA.

23. YOUR WEAKNESSES? Gadgetry. Some gadgets scream at me to be purchased.

24. MET ANYONE FAMOUS? Sure…

25. FIRST JOB? Doing odds and ends at a small local Internet Service Provider one summer.

26. EVER DONE A PRANK CALL? Definitely.

27. DO YOU THINK EVERYONE OUT THERE HAS A SOUL MATE? No clue on that one.

28. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED THIS OUT? Working!

29. HAVE YOU EVER HAD SURGERY? Yes, 4 times on the same eye.

30. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST? I guess a lot of people say I’m intelligent or smart or whatever, but in reality I don’t know as much as I’d want.

31. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY? Surprise me.

32. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT? None would be fine by me.

33. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope.

34. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST TURN OFF WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX? So many to pick from… I’d have to say blatant disregard for the practical and efficient. I’m sure some don’t have this problem though.

35. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU MISS ABOUT GRADE SCHOOL? I was glad to get out of it.

36. WHAT KIND OF SHAMPOO DO YOU USE? I’m always stocked up with American Crew.

37. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Can you imagine it’s deteriorated a lot? I don’t have the patience to write well anymore.

38. ANY BAD HABITS? Nail biting, twitchyness, and absent-mindedness.

39. ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON? I am a human being. I try to keep it in check though.

40. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Depends on which other person… but yeah, I guess so.

41. DO YOU AGREE WITH FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS? Tried it, doesn’t work.

42. HOW DO YOU RELEASE ANGER? Listening to AWM (Angry White Man) music.

43. WHAT’S YOUR MAIN GOAL IN LIFE? To have a positive impact on people.

44. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? Legos!

45. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE? Not too many… most phone numbers I store in my head.

46. WERE YOU A FAN OF BARNEY AS A LITTLE KID? I was too grown up by the time Barney came out.

47. MASHED POTATOES OR MACARONI AND CHEESE? Mashed potatoes.

48. DO YOU HAVE ALL YOUR FINGERS AND TOES? Yes.

49. DO YOU HAVE A COMPUTER IN YOUR ROOM? There’s one in the spare room.

50. PLANS FOR TONIGHT? Nothing planned… sit home and enjoy the couch.

51. WHAT’S THE FASTEST YOU’VE EVER GONE IN A CAR? Not fast enough.

52. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO? Offspring.

53. LAST THING YOU DRANK? Drinking yerba mate right now. Alcoholic: a beer yesterday.

54. REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT? No thanks.

55. DO YOU HAVE A LOW SELF ESTEEM OR A HIGH SELF ESTEEM? I guess it’s high, depending on what skills we’re talking about.

56. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Waiting for a friend to finish a book so I can get started on it.

Where Do I Sign Up???

Jeff — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:50:04 +0000

Ever felt like you just wanna stay in bed forever and ever? Well, now you can get paid to do just that! NASA is paying $17,000 for human test subjects to lie in bed for 90 days in order to emulate long-term zero-gravity effects on the body. If you’re lazy enough to do it and can handle the boredom, apply now.

The Failure of Projections

Jeff — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:36:06 +0000

Here’s a fairly optimistic article on BBC News from 1999 about how the U.S. was going to buy back nearly all its national debt by 2009:

Official projections suggest trillions of dollars in budget surpluses over the next 15 years, boosted by a strong economy and strict controls on spending.

U.S. federal debt as of April 2008: $9.5 trillion

Privacy Rights Get Violated… Twice.

Jeff — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:49:22 +0000

Yea I know they don’t use this currency anymore… it’s just so much cooler than the boring Euro.

So Italy made a serious faux pas by releasing the salary details of all of its citizens for a reason that I couldn’t possibly comprehend. Of course this deliberate and obvious breach of citizen’s privacy rights wouldn’t have been possible without the first breach of privacy — requiring all citizens to report their personal income and keep accounting records.

OK, OK, I know my views in this matter might be in the minority. But Personal Income Tax is a breach of the basic privacy of the individual that wouldn’t be done in a truly free society. One of the basic human rights should be the Right Not To Do Accounting. You can force corporations (which are imaginary legal constructs that are created and destroyed at the whim of the people and have no inherent rights whatsoever) to do pretty much anything, including full accounting statements on a monthly basis for sales tax, corporate income tax, this tax, that tax, and I’m all for that. But requiring citizens to report their income and do accounting is telling the populace a very strong and obvious message: WE OWN YOU, NOW PAY UP, BITCHES.

Muddled Priorities

Jeff — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:19:13 +0000

This morning’s news in Costa Rica are a little disappointing given the current state of world affairs. While the government’s ombudsman flatly rejected the concession (Spanish) to conduct a feasibility study on a metropolitan electric light rail system, plans are underway to build overpasses, underpasses (Spanish) and highways for petroleum-guzzling vehicles from one coast to the other.

Exhibit A: The Growing Problem

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of traffic congestion, but adding highways, lanes and overpasses to solve a traffic problem is akin to buying a bigger belt to solve an obesity problem. With fuel prices going through the roof at a frantic pace, and this country producing exactly zero barrels of oil per year, you’d think the highest possible priority would be to alleviate that immense burden on the economy.

Exhibit B: The Admittedly Old-School, Yet Unabashedly Practical Solution

Reviving the coast-to-coast cargo/passenger train, plus adding a light rail urban network on existing tracks (or at least the free land that they’re on), would go light-years towards both alleviating traffic congestion and the yearly petroleum bill. And that’s just on the transportation end of things — don’t get me started on the electricity generation hoopla going on down here.

Funny Billboards

Jeff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:12:28 +0000

Why Launch A Satellite…

Jeff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:22:00 +0000

…when you can launch 10 of them at once? Leave it to resourceful, highly intelligent Indians (yes, the ones from India, sheesh) to figure out how to make do with the resources you have. The Indian Space Research Organization set a new world record for multiple satellite launches (in the Launch section, next to “longest distance milk has been launched from someone’s nose”) with their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Reading it, it’s actually kinda cool… but I wonder how many Indians are pissed off that their government can launch 10 satellites but can’t get running water and there’s a food shortage.