http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/04/just-how-progressive-is-the-tax-system.html
more.....
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Monday, April 13, 2009
Tax share
more.....
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Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
LED
test
The coming LED lighting revolution
LED lighting will eventually replace CFLs, halogen and incadescent lighting. This post will track the field.
Here are a few sources of good information:
Energy Star Requirements
LED magazine
Caliper testing
LED manufacturers
LED packaging manufacturers
Everlight
LED lamps
LED power supply
Catalyst
more.....
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Income and Health
Check out this talk by Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen.
Try the software here
more.....
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Saturday, December 15, 2007
Housing Graphs
A few charts pointed to by Paul Krugman
Housing Charts: Genesis of a Crisis
Price to Rent ratio
Homeowners With Negative Equity
Equity distribution among homeowners
Historic Housing Prices
Price to cost
more.....
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Ethyl-Poisoned Earth
At the turn of the twentieth century, as the age of automobiles was afoot, the newfangled gasoline-powered internal combustion engine began to reach the limitations of the fuel that fed it. As higher-compression designs were tried, an engine-wrecking condition known as "knock" or "ping" would invariably develop. Though they didn't know it at the time, the noisy destruction was caused when the the increased heat and pressure prompted the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder to detonate all at once as opposed to an orderly burn. In spite of this problem, there was a demand for high-compression designs since they provided increased horsepower and fuel efficiency. The latter was particularly appealing in light of America's forecasted fuel famine.
From Damm Interesting
more.....
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Plan for getting elected
Basic Principles
- Our common bond is the rule of law
- Governance is by the people and for the people and the earth
- Trust is the scaffold of peaceful existence.
- Lead the way towards meaningful progress
- Measure results with science and diligence
- Protect basic human and environmental rights
- Promote the common good
- Provide common trust
- Provide for health and income security
- Aggression and repression
- Promotion of fear
- Commerce
- Theft of public and private funds
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Sunday, December 9, 2007
Compact Florescent and LED lamps
LED bulbs may be finally here. Check out the pharox LED bulb, or buy it here
The table below compares the LED bulb to 40W, CFLs and incandescent bulbs plus 75 W CFL bulbs data.
| cost | watts | Lux | Lumens | lifetime (hrs) | Hg (mg) | Time on/day (hrs) | cost | hrs/yr | kwh/yr | $/KWh | Energy $/year | Bulb $/year | Total $/year | 1year$ | 10 yrar $ | carbon /year (Kg) | mercury /year (mg) |
| led | 4 | 230 | 50,000 | 0 | 10 | $59.00 | 3,650 | 15 | $0.12 | $1.75 | $4.31 | $6.06 | $60.75 | $76.52 | 6.7 | 0.3 | |
| cfl | 9 | 230 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $3.00 | 3,650 | 33 | $0.12 | $3.94 | $1.83 | $5.77 | $6.94 | $42.42 | 15.1 | 3.8 | |
| incadescent | 75 | 975 | 230 | 1,000 | 0 | 10 | $1.10 | 3,650 | 274 | $0.12 | $32.85 | $4.02 | $36.87 | $33.95 | $329.60 | 125.6 | 6.4 |
| N:vision | 19 | 925 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $5.97 | 3,650 | 71 | $0.12 | $8.50 | $3.63 | $12.13 | $14.47 | $90.94 | 32.5 | 4.7 |
| westinghouse | 18 | 840 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $6.00 | 3,650 | 64 | $0.12 | $7.67 | $3.65 | $11.32 | $13.67 | $82.65 | 29.3 | 4.5 |
| Phillips Marathom | 21 | 865 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $3.00 | 3,650 | 76 | $0.12 | $9.11 | $1.83 | $10.94 | $12.11 | $94.10 | 34.8 | 4.8 |
| max lite | 20 | 900 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $4.50 | 3,650 | 74 | $0.12 | $8.89 | $2.74 | $11.63 | $13.39 | $93.41 | 34.0 | 4.8 |
| sylvania | 19 | 822 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $5.75 | 3,650 | 69 | $0.12 | $8.28 | $3.50 | $11.78 | $14.03 | $88.53 | 31.7 | 4.7 |
| westinghouse doft | 18 | 830 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $6.00 | 3,650 | 65 | $0.12 | $7.80 | $3.65 | $11.45 | $13.80 | $83.96 | 29.8 | 4.6 |
| GE | 20 | 843 | 1,200 | 6,000 | 5 | 10 | $5.00 | 3,650 | 72 | $0.12 | $8.67 | $3.04 | $11.71 | $13.67 | $91.72 | 33.2 | 4.7 |
And some good info on mercury in CFL
How much mercury is contained in a CFL?
Each bulb contains an average of 5 milligrams of mercury, “which is just enough to cover a ballpoint pen tip,” says Leslie, associate director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer. “Though it’s nothing to laugh at, unless you wipe up mercury [without gloves] and then lick your hand, you’re probably going to be okay.”
Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.And some info on lux and Lumens
The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI derived unit of illuminance or
illumination. It is equal to one lumen per square metre.
• sunlight on an average day ranges from 32 000 to 100 000 lux
• TV studios are lit at about 1 000 lux [i.e. 1000 lumens
per square metre]
• a bright office has about 400 lux of illumination
• At sunset and sunrise, ambient outdoor light is also about
400 lux (if the sky is clear).
• moonlight represents about 1 lux
• starlight measures a mere 0.00005 lux
And here is the rest of it.
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Saturday, December 1, 2007
sets
Math links on set theory, etc
- Topoi by Goldblatt
- Topos by John Baez
- Everything -
And here is the rest of it.
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Monday, November 19, 2007
A Geometric TOE
I've become intrigued with learning a bit about mathematical structures which are used in physics, and I've stumbled across Garret Lisi's map of spacetime, gravity, physical forces and particles onto the E8 simple exceptional group. Titled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" (the title is a bit of a play on E8). Here are a few links to study
An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything
E8 mapping project
Garrett's Blog
John Baez on E8 etc
E8 applet
Tony Smith on Lie Algebra
E8 from aimath
wikipedia
And here is the rest of it.
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Sunday, October 7, 2007
Obediantarians
How do we control society? How do we control our own lives? This question gets little thought these days, but in times past it was a question under active discussion. How we answer this is fundamental to our existence. How we go about making individual and collective decisions defines our culture and our form of government. Let's look at a few example of what motivates us and how we control our acts. Physical motivations include discomfort, hunger, fear, pain, sex and boredom. As we look beyond our physical we find the motivations which enable us to work now for future rewards. At a slightly more abstract level our emotions including jealousy, hate , dominance and submissiveness, love are powerful motivators. Interestingly the actions driven by our emotions tend to be societal in nature. We might say that our emotions help us to survive in the family and large kin group. Even more abstract are activities like planning and engineering to create value or a profit. Beyond these we find motivations for learning, adventure, music and art. The physical and societal motivation for these activities is minimal. They seem to be driven by a creative individual impulse to progress.
Regardless of motivation, our acts are controlled by our free will which is unconstrained. It's a wildcard which can lead to arbitrary acts. As such it is unpredictable and dangerous. More predictable is authoritarianism and enforced or voluntary obedience. I will call such voluntary obedience 'obedientariasm'
These motives may produce unacceptable behavior. How as a society do we control it? We use religious custom, culture, rule of law, respect and revenge to control behavior. We seem to have two basic paths; One path is 'self directed' and runs on trust, respect and informed voluntary acceptance of the rule of law. The other path can be called obedience to authority.
This gets me to the point of this post, we can either let people decide for themselves what to do or we can tell them what to do. Society benefits from an informed self directed populace, but it is uncontrolled. Many of us are not comfortable with making our own decisions. This is generally because we fear taking control. Those of us in this category, wish to be told what to do and wish to do what we are told. I will call these people 'obedientarians'.
In fact this division is an epic battle that has been fought for ages. The small but accumulated victories for the self-directed can be called the arrow of progress and has directly led to the age of enlightenment, tolerance, the rule of law and modern protections for basic freedoms and social security.
If this ancient struggle is obscured in modern life, it is because those who have fought and won are now dead. It is on us to advance or to be led.
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Shut up and calculate
From Max Tegmark's new paper on the Theory of Everything
Dept. of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
I advocate an extreme “shut-up-and-calculate” approach to physics, where our external physical reality is assumed to be purely mathematical.
...
Mathematics has played a striking role in these suc-
cesses. The idea that our universe is in some sense math-
ematical goes back at least to the Pythagoreans of an-
cient Greece, and has spawned centuries of discussion
among physicists and philosophers. In the 17th century,
Galileo famously stated that the universe is a “grand
book” written in the language of mathematics. More
recently, the physics Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner ar-
gued in the 1960s that “the unreasonable effectiveness of
mathematics in the natural sciences” demanded an ex-
planation.
Here, I will push this idea to its extreme and argue that
our universe is not just described by mathematics — it is
mathematics. While this hypothesis might sound rather
abstract and far-fetched, it makes startling predictions
about the structure of the universe that could be testable
by observations.
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democratic-principles
Democratic Principles 5. All laws should apply to all citizens of the 6. In the interest of the common good of the citizenry 7. All health care decisions should be made between 8. No corporation should be treated in law as a 10. The Social Security System should be maintained 11. The principle of intelligent, informed self-defenseDemocratic Principles
Free America blog 1. Respect for the right to practice
the religion of one's choosing, or none.
2. Respect for the Constitutional principle
of seperation of Church and State,
which honors all religions by singling out
none for special treatment. 3. Respect for the Constitutional guarantees
of legal due process, including unobstructed
access to the court system. 4. Respect for the Constitutional guarantee that
the citizens of the United States should be free
from unwarranted searches and siezures without
probable cause, whether a search is of a
citizen's person or property. It should be
understood that no search so denied to
government agents shall be allowed by agents of any other entities, including corporations.
United States equally, including the authors of
the laws.
of the United States it is recognized that health
care for all citizens is a reasonable, desirable
and reachable goal.
health care professionals and patients -- not
insurance companies, HMOs, or politicians.
citizen of the United States, or granted any
privilege or benefit, whether financial or other,
that is not availible to all corporations and citizens
of the US.
9. The chemical composition and DNA encoding of
all citizens is the personal property of those
citizens and subject to Constitutional property
protections.
as established and contracted with the American
public. The SS fund should be untouchable for
any use other than that for which it was intended.
is paramount to the security of the United States,
but not as an excuse for Imperialist military
expansion and war profiteering. International
cooperation is recognized to be of utmost
importance when engaging a confirmed
international menace, because it is unreasonable
to expect the citizens of the US to bear the
entire expense in life and lucre of being the
world's policeman.
From http://home.earthlink.net/~makenoise/id3.html
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Progressive Principles
FIRST, Liberty is the necessary state of humanity, and liberty only exists in governments where the rights of all minorities are protected and preserved.
SECOND, a free, fair, unbiased, co-equal, and ethical judiciary is necessary for the working of liberty. Without justice, there is no freedom.
THIRD, the Constitution limits the powers of the government, not the rights of the people. Government can do nothing without the express consent of the Constitution, which is the voice of the people.
FOURTH, the people are the country, not the government.
FIFTH, Foreign Relations are for the benefit, protection, and security of the American people. The citizenry of the United States are compassionate, just, and freedom loving people. These principles should be mirrored in our foreign policy.
SIXTH, We must return to the long American tradition of developing and honoring International Law.
SEVENTH, Personal Responsibility is one of the most cherished and central American value, which must be reflected in our Government, taught in our schools through civics and sex education classes, preserved in a woman's right to choose, and in living wills. Personal Responsibility should govern what people watch, read, and listen to, not the congress.
EIGHTH, the power of the Government to take life should be limited and exceedingly rare. The shadows of the Armenian, Jewish, Rwandan, and Sudanese Genocides being so fresh in our minds, no government should have the power to imprison and kill people. Preemptive war is a license to empire, and should be abandoned.
NINTH, we are an industrious people, who should be unionized, paid a living wage, aided in entrepreneurial enterprise, and not handicapped by so-called "Free Trade" agreements.
We enact these principles by:
THIRD, Voting Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
http://projectshadow.com/sophia/liberal/philosophy/05-03-25_principles.htmor
A Declaration of Progressive Principles
Drafted online by the members of The Principles Project and adopted March 1, 2005
Drafted online by the members of The Principles Project and adopted March 1, 2005
We believe in America's historic promise of liberty, justice and the expansion of opportunity for all people. These commitments to fundamental human dignity and a better nation for all animate the American spirit and give us a sense of common purpose. We honor these commitments by recognizing that with the great freedoms afforded us comes an even greater responsibility to see that those freedoms are extended to all people in all places.
We believe that this sense of shared responsibility -- for our families, our communities, our nation and our world -- strengthens our country and secures our future.
_______
We believe in defending dignity:
“All people are created equal�? is not just a fact -- it is a call to action. Either we create justice for all or we have justice for none.
All people have the right to lead their personal lives in accordance with their own beliefs, free from imposition or monitoring by others.
All people have a right to the basic necessities required to lead dignified lives and to pursue happiness.
We believe in strengthening democracy:
It is the shared responsibility of a nation to ensure each citizen’s freedom, security and equality. Through government, we honor our responsibility to promote the common good.
Government must be transparent, accessible and open to all citizens who wish to oversee its workings and share in its benefits.
America must work to enhance the democratic process by ensuring an educated citizenry, equal opportunity for influence, honest public debate, competitive elections and robust civic participation.
A healthy democracy requires tireless vigilance against corruption and abuses of power, and a government that is accountable to its people.
We believe in promoting progress:
We must promote innovation and entrepreneurship, cultivate the arts and sciences, and ensure a quality education for everyone. When we invest in individual potential, the benefits are shared by all.
America must continue to be a welcoming home to all people. We believe that diversity of faith, culture and perspective enriches our nation.
America must keep a watchful eye on the economy to ensure fairness, transparency and genuine opportunity for all.
Each generation has a duty to protect and improve those resources we hold in common -- our community spaces, our public institutions and our natural environment.
We believe in embracing leadership:
America’s security requires an effective military and a commitment to enduring alliances, but we must remember that America’s true power is found in its wisdom as well as its strength.
Our security and prosperity rely on the security and prosperity of people throughout the world. By helping others, we will help ourselves.
America must join with other nations to build global institutions that protect the vulnerable, promote democratic self-government, and improve the health and welfare of all people throughout the world.
America must never suspend its belief in democracy and human rights in the pursuit of its global objectives. Noble ends require nothing short of noble means.
_______
As progressives, these are our guiding principles -- to defend dignity, to strengthen democracy, to promote progress and to embrace leadership. We believe that our country must always be looking toward a better and brighter future for all people, and in this pursuit we pledge to come forward and work with whomever we can. We will fight for these principles in every community, every forum and every office of government, because the struggles of this new century will not only be about preserving the freedoms we already enjoy -- they will be about expanding those freedoms for all people.
from the principle projest
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GOP principles
Republican Principles
I'm a Republican Because...
I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.
I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.
I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.
I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.
I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.
I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.
I BELIEVE Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.
I BELIEVE Americans value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.
FINALLY, I believe the Republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.
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Native American Code of Ethics
Native American Code of Ethics
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.
2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.
| This originally appeared in the "Inter-Tribal Times," October, 1994 |
Inspiration
I don't know the history of the above but it's a nice set of principles.
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Saturday, October 6, 2007
Physics of Will
Let me start with a question that has been asked before: What is the most powerful weapon? Here are a few choices to get us started -
- Nuclear Bombs
- A well trained Army
- An educated Population
- An determined leader
- A occupied populace with guns
- 'Precision Technology
- Oil
- Computer Networking
- Critical Thinking
- A hit tale, song, tv show or book
- A new invention
- An idea whose time has come
- Non violent protest
- Peace Love and Understanding
- Paper-Scissors-Rock
Science can predict what is possible in natural processes. These systems are driven by energy flow, and constrained by the physics of our universe. In an important sense, physics does not so much tell us what is possible, but what is impossible. Any configuration of matter in space and time is possible provided that the configuration is not prevented by physics. However not all possibilities are likely to be a instantiated in an evolving universe. For a configuration of the universe to exist it must also conserve energy and matter and it must also be possible to evolve to the new configuration from our current state.
In the 'natural' world, the range of possible future worlds is driven by energy flow. The sun forms from dust, the moon rotates, the tides follow, storms dissipate energy, rocks weather away. Life provides a new vector for energy flow redirecting energy into chemical pathways provided by metabolism. Life's impact in this sense, is limited to what happens as species evolve to exploit natural niches. The future will be an optimized version of the present withing the natural constrains of energy flow.
Will however is a different concept. Our will directs us to construct wholly unnatural worlds. Not evolved, but directed. Will fundamentally changes the equation of what is possible in our space.
Will however takes it's own path according to the opportunities available to it. Memes travel in a space, the space of free will. It is a open question what that space is constrained by. What are the physics of free will?
Will to alter our reality is not the end of this train of thought. We are not limited to constructing spaces which are physically possible to build. We can leap to the possible spaces which are not limited by physics of space, or by the mathematics of numbers. Such a world allows us for instance to travel at warp speed to save an angry race of aliens from an exploding star.
But what of the space limited solely by mathematics, and logic? It must conform to the combinatorial principals embodied in mathematics. Our physical reality is a subset of the possible set of mathematical equations, but not the only one. Our mental and computational spaces are also subsets of mathematical systems. For a fun look at this, check out Max Tegmark's TOE.
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
What I've learned
So maybe I've learned a few things in my life -
- Your word is the most important possession you have. Don't bullshit, be as accurate as you can, if you don't know - say so, disclose bad news as soon as you know, be skeptical, be honest. Work hard to improve your accuracy.
- Treat 'everyone' you encounter with respect at all times. Just do it and you won't have to think about how to treat people. The cast majority of folks are well intentioned, but not always strong or intelligent enough to not disappoint.
- Forgive. The past is not ours, it is our ancestors. They were not always right. We are not always right. Forgiveness and respect are the only way to break the cycle of historical violence and revenge.
- Be non violent. It's never going to work any other way. We are all in this planet together. You are going to have to get along, and any violence creates long term negative violence.
- Have a genuine interest in others. You will be surprised to lean that the more you know about them, the more you want to know.
- Belief is not the same thing as fact. It is dangerous. Neither are anecdotes or stories.
- Many things are unknowable. Some things are. You need to know the difference.
- The full past and the future are fundamentally unknowable. The present is hidden unless we look. Look.
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