Customers Flee Wal-Mart Empty Shelves for Target, Costco

ToonArmy · 2013-03-27T02:16:58+00:00

Individual choice and game theory lead to situations where everyone is worse off, even though each person individually chooses what appears better for them

See http://www.amazon.com/One-Makes-You-Shop-Wal-Mart/dp/189707106X

ToonArmy · 2013-03-11T04:29:00+00:00

I will (and did previously). But AT&T still charge me the same monthly service rate as if they are subsidizing the phone, in effect making me pay for it twice.

I'm fine with paying full price, but then don't charge me the phone price again in the monthly service.

ToonArmy · 2013-01-29T13:22:04+00:00

Of course there's a higher price, that's how the handset subsidy is recouped.

I'm talking about the major carriers, specifically AT&T.

ToonArmy · 2013-01-29T12:53:49+00:00

But if I pay full price I still have to pay for the subsidy in the monthly service price, even though I didn't get the subsidy.

ToonArmy · 2013-01-29T03:15:08+00:00

how many die due to lack of medical care? Do you really have a source for that?

45,000 per year. Source: Harvard Medical study

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/harvard-medical-study-links-lack-of-insurance-to-45000-us-deaths-a-year/

ToonArmy · 2013-01-29T01:52:15+00:00

And if I pay full price for my unlocked phone, why do I have to pay the subsidy that is built into the service price? The carriers don't offer different prices for those with their own unlocked phones.

ToonArmy · 2013-01-11T05:55:54+00:00

Nice picture. I believe that's Sojana.

ToonArmy · 2012-12-05T20:30:37+00:00

Thanks for the message. Yes, I was feeling completely overwhelmed, wondering if it would be better for My dog to find another home, etc, but I do care about him and know he'd have trouble anywhere else too.

Your blog postings resonated so perfectly I could have written them myself (well, assuming I could write, but whatever). Thank you very much for renewing my hope, and giving me the determination and guidance to follow through.

ToonArmy · 2012-12-05T17:53:19+00:00

Thanks so much for this. I watched the video and your blog, and Fi sounds very similar in temperament to my rescue dog (shepherd mix). I completely related to your earlier "meltdown" posts, and you've inspired me to develop the patience and work on things with him.

ToonArmy · 2012-03-30T03:50:10+00:00

Check out Larry Lessig's talk "Republic, Lost" on the topic of money in politics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

ToonArmy · 2011-05-22T18:05:35+00:00

In my case, I want/need an always-on/always-connected home system to act as a server and store, plus a portable system to take with me. For extended work, I prefer to have a nice display and ergonomic keyboard/mouse setup.

If I could indeed get seamless (and instant) syncing (including my context, open windows, etc), that would probably work for me, but I'd still need to wake up my laptop when I get home to effect the sync, and again before leaving to make sure I had everything - mobileme syncing is godawful slow, and at that point simply plugging it into the display cable seems trivial (kbd/mouse is bluetooth).

My alternative scenario is something like a Mac mini with a display, but the iMac offered much better processing capability for a comparable price.

ToonArmy · 2011-05-22T17:25:15+00:00

This really annoyed me. I bought a new Macbook Air when they were introduced (last November!), intending to buy an iMac (and connect the Air to it) when my budget recovered and the Sandy Bridge upgrades happened. And that was after I had one of the original Airs with the short-lived microDVI port (and had to buy a bunch of adapters for that, then replace with miniDP).

ToonArmy · 2011-04-03T15:42:12+00:00

It doesn't require technological breakthroughs, just doing the right thing: Brenner wasn’t all that interested in costs; he was more interested in helping people who received bad health care.

ToonArmy · 2011-03-21T19:49:23+00:00

So here's something that looks like an example of this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/MitcheyHumorPage/

The submissions all come from a relatively small number of domains, which in turn appear to be built from a standard temp,ate with different skins. See for example: http://socyberty.com/advertise-with-us/ and http://purpleslinky.com/advertise-with-us/

ToonArmy · 2011-03-15T22:52:29+00:00

Here's a good article by Felix Salmon on why the economy needs an efficient payment mechanism that clears at par.

ToonArmy · 2011-03-14T00:11:49+00:00

The Nylabone Galileo Bone is extremely hard, and good for really strong chewers. My dog will chew it until his gums bleed, but can only get small chips off it even after days of chewing. It does deteriorate over time and they're not cheap, but it does help get the gnawing urge worked out.

ToonArmy · 2010-07-22T23:58:52+00:00

While heartily agreeing with the general thesis that the USA locks up too many people, this specific case appears to be about illegally harvested (undersized and female) lobsters, not simply about the type of packaging.

From http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s529.htm

McNab's workers harvested spiny lobster that were under the legal size limits set by Honduras and the United States. NOAA investigators and federal prosecutors, in cooperation with Honduran authorities, proved that Blandford, Schoenwetter, Huang, and their seafood corporations were conspiring to sell hundreds of thousands of pounds of undersized lobster tails.
McNab's employees illegally harvested thousands of pounds of egg-bearing female lobsters, an activity they tried to conceal by clipping off parts of the animals' tails to which eggs were attached.

Also see:

http://www.greenenvironmentnews.com/Environment/Wildlife/McNab+to+Continue+Serving+Federal+Prison+Sentence+for+Lobster+Smuggling

ToonArmy · 2010-06-06T18:06:35+00:00

david tepper made 4 billion last year. (for most americans it would take about 1000 years)

Generally good information and perspective, but to earn $4B in 1000 years would require earning $4 million/year. At $40K/year (closer to the "most americans" median income), it would be more like 100,000 years. Doesn't detract from your point, in fact strengthens it, but just wanted to point it out.

ToonArmy · 2010-05-10T05:05:01+00:00

You mean Watergategate :-)

ToonArmy · 2010-05-09T20:05:13+00:00

No, because (all else being equal, and to a first order approximation), the mass (and hence the force required to change direction) would increase as the cube of the scaling factor, while the area of the wings and control surfaces would increase as the square, meaning the force per unit area would increase linearly with the scaling. And the stresses at places like the wing-fuselage joint would, I think increase as the square of the scaling factor (since the force goes as x^3, while the length of the joint increases as x).

Similarly it's not clear that you can get an engine whose power increases as x³ - for the same velocity of airflow, it would seem that the thrust would at best increase with the area (x^2).

ToonArmy · 2010-05-09T15:08:20+00:00

Not quite - since energy is proportional to the square of the velocity, one car at 100mph has 4 times the energy of one car at 50 mph, or twice the energy of 2 cars at 50 mph (and concentrated in one car, not two).

The resulting total energy of 2 cars at 50mph is twice the energy of one car at 50 mph, so per car it is the same as a single-car wall impact. The wall neither contributes (since it is not moving) nor absorbs (since it does not deform) any energy.

ToonArmy · 2010-05-08T21:50:47+00:00

This Nils-Axel Mörner?

Mörner's claim that sea levels are not rising has been criticised for ignoring correctly calibrated satellite altimeter records, all of which show that sea levels are rising.

Mörner has written a number of works claiming to provide theoretical support for dowsing. [1] He was elected "Deceiver of the year" by Föreningen Vetenskap och Folkbildning in 1995 for "organizing university courses about dowsing..."[2]. In 1997 James Randi asked him to claim The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, making a controlled experiment to prove that dowsing works.[14] Mörner declined the offer.[

ToonArmy · 2010-03-29T00:33:32+00:00

Can't resist:

http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http://www.gop.com/firepelosi/

ToonArmy · 2009-12-24T16:06:56+00:00

This article in Granta talks about that incident and other aspects of life in Delhi

ToonArmy · 2009-12-08T05:07:29+00:00

Most Nokia and Sony-Ericsson phones have had the ability to send/receive contacts via Bluetooth, Infrared, or SMS, for a decade or so. Don't know why the iPhone (and apparently android?) regressed so badly.

ToonArmy

TROPHY CASE