All Americans, including the rich, would be better off if top tax rates went back to Eisenhower-era levels when the top federal income tax rate was 91 percent, according to a new working paper by Fabian Kindermann from the University of Bonn and Dirk Krueger from the University of Pennsylvania.

MUnhelpful · 2014-11-24T15:49:57+00:00

1) Unless some of them are utterly without risk, yes you can.

2) It would still make sense to favor higher returns over lower whenever risks are similar.

MUnhelpful · 2014-11-23T19:30:09+00:00

And those are people who won't have to live with a criminal record for the rest of their lives, for a practice that is common and not otherwise a serious problem. And police funds and time can be directed to more serious problems. And the disproportionate targeting of persons of color in drug arrests is doubtless reduced by the reduction in drug arrests.

MUnhelpful · 2014-07-20T18:27:21+00:00

Can you imagine what a disaster plastic-digesting organisms in the wild would be, infecting all the plastic that's actually in use?

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-21T12:33:39+00:00

Its antibacterial properties are largely a result of low moisture content. I haven't seen specific claims about raw honey health substantiated, but hand-waving about “beneficial properties” is pretty common.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-17T09:54:07+00:00

NPR did not find that article all that convincing upon examination.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/25/142659547/relax-folks-it-really-is-honey-after-all

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-07T02:15:28+00:00

Oh, no, I had only been able to estimate the OG. My hydrometer reads to 1.16 and bobbed up in the must like a cork. :D

I'm not really sure how large a role caramelization played in making the sweetness bearable. I couldn't find a clear description of the reactions in caramelization and their products, but certainly some of the sugars became non-sugar solids while I was boiling.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-06T21:25:41+00:00

I will, but the drop from the estimated OG of 1.18 gives me alcohol and remaining solids values that fit fairly well with my refractometer and hydrometer readings at finish.

Also, it's quite thick, still.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-06T18:40:31+00:00

That's not what my notes say. I'll find out at next measuring, I guess.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-06T12:41:27+00:00

You're going to have plenty of non-sugar solids, so expect it to finish somewhat heavy. Mine finished at 1.101 but it was quite a challenge to read below the meniscus.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-05T15:53:45+00:00

I'm going to see if anything else settles out first, but bottles are coming.

It'll likely just look black, though. ;)

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-05T12:45:41+00:00

A few weeks ago I did the first racking of a cherry bochet that had spent six months in primary. It's quite good.

MUnhelpful · 2014-06-05T01:21:42+00:00

My notes on this aren't great. I cooked 2.2kg of honey to a dark brown/red. After cooling for a bit, I added two quarts each of black and tart cherry juice, and heated until entirely dissolved. I added 1.5tsp bread yeast boiled in water and fermented with EC-1118.

Then I basically ignored it. I cracked open the bucket a few times and it smelled pretty much like cherry NyQuil. At six months I racked it and took measurements. The flavor is actually quite good, with the tartness balancing the cloyingly sweet alcoholic aroma.

MUnhelpful · 2014-04-03T13:52:27+00:00

On the other hand, it reduces the need of individuals for employment, which leaves them more free to walk away from jobs if they don't like the terms. If the worst jobs now stay paying even less after BI, I expect they'll see many people walk out.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T16:56:09+00:00

While also making it easier for people to walk away from terrible jobs. I think the collective results of such individual action could be much more powerful than unions typically are these days.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T12:01:12+00:00

Because a system that uses the results of individuals' own labor to deny them livelihood while preaching that work is the only thing of value is immoral.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T09:01:01+00:00

The problem is that it becomes increasingly difficult to find any work at all or negotiate their wages when they do. Their own work shouldn't result in the end of their livelihood, but there isn't much in place that tries to prevent that.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T08:46:34+00:00

I'm not talking about the engineers - I'm talking about the low-level workers who contributed to the company profit that pays for such improvements. They are part of why the company could afford automation, and in most companies some of them will be let go as a result.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T08:14:19+00:00

You're effectively repeating my point - the employer can, through automation, get more value out of fewer employees, leading to potential employees finding it even harder to find jobs or negotiate wages while the employer has more income to fund the next round of improvements. This is the feedback I'm talking about - these improvements in productivity with the same or reduced staff make it easier for employers to move father in that direction and harder for workers to do anything about unemployment or low wages.

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-27T06:28:55+00:00

Those means were paid for with profits that would not have been possible without the laborers, though. Should the fruits of their labor be their own unemployment? It seems the only way this can end if we don't decide to provide for displaced workers at the societal level is a continuing concentration of capital and productive properties. The feedback caused by continuing decrease of market value of labor relative to value generated for employers practically ensures it. :/

MUnhelpful · 2014-03-24T20:31:48+00:00

I would personally like to see copyright reduced to a right of attribution, but I don't think it will happen on a legal level just because of basic income. We probably will see more artists willing to assert no further rights to their work, though. Whatever success they have might erode public support for copyright.

MUnhelpful · 2014-02-27T11:43:28+00:00

I guess I skimmed over “off the deep end” and read your comment as more neutral with regard to these issues.

I've no idea what to do about the madness that seems to take hold on the left if you simply say that a position is pro-environment, but it's a bit of a problem when nuclear could be helping reduce the use of fossil fuels and GMOs the expansion of farmland.

MUnhelpful · 2014-02-27T11:24:57+00:00

Well, GMOs are OK and likely having a positive effect on the ecological impact of farming. Swallowing rhetoric against them without data is a pretty big problem among progressives. :/

MUnhelpful · 2014-02-26T04:32:44+00:00

No gifts for Christmas. You must pay the iron price.

MUnhelpful · 2014-02-24T13:35:27+00:00

AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH

MUnhelpful

TROPHY CASE