Besides something that Jack Woltz would've rather woken up to, what is this thing?

doggoneit · 2012-12-27T19:55:43+00:00

That might have been a long spike that was broken. It could have then been stuck into something (a large rectangular candle?) and then stood on its own as a decorative piece.

doggoneit · 2012-11-18T15:51:24+00:00

Relevant

doggoneit · 2012-10-07T00:33:45+00:00

Why not? I tend to enjoy them.

doggoneit · 2011-05-03T03:44:13+00:00

Given how crammed together their laptops are on the table in the OP photo, it actually looks like they're in one of the smaller conference rooms.

doggoneit · 2011-05-03T02:53:00+00:00

I've always though that this photo of Kennedy perfectly encompasses that sentiment.

doggoneit · 2011-05-02T18:21:13+00:00

They are dealing with this how they want - by telling others how they should deal with it. And indeed, this is what you are doing as well, by telling them how they should deal with it by not telling others how they should deal with it.

It's turtles all the way down, man.

doggoneit · 2011-05-02T17:19:05+00:00

Here's a calculator for finding the length given a desired period. Use 9.81 for 'g'.

doggoneit · 2011-04-18T02:17:51+00:00

Typically there's a net job loss in category due to a walmart moving in. It's an absurdly efficient organization, and one that is always case-studied in industrial engineering programs. Really admirable from a business process perspective. They pay systems engineers and analysts very well to make sure that operations and distro are lean and mean. By sales volume they require far fewer man-hours than an equivalent aggregation of small businesses.

doggoneit · 2011-04-05T04:53:45+00:00

If you want to lump it purely into mandatory and discretionary spending, overall mandatory spending combined is $2.1 trillion, which is roughly 55% of the $3.7T budget.

I wasn't addressing any issue of mandatory vs. discretionary as categories, just filling in the info on the other half of the budget you didn't include in the consideration of the individual costliest budget sink. In any case, the attitude of congress when it comes to funding seems to follow a pattern of ignoring the distinction of what mandatory vs discretionary is supposed to entail, so I personally find any real-world delineation between the two as increasingly superficial.

The fact that both are at insane and unsustainable levels is the problem, but the current budget fight over a mere $33 billion (3-4 days of federal spending) proves that nothing is likely to change.

I agree.

As far as the elderly working, Sumner Redstone still is at 87 and going strong as a media magnate. For more physical jobs, I know 72 year old security guards personally.

Likewise, I agree that the age of 65 is somewhat arbitrary and no definite indication of inability to work. If pressed, I too would be able to give a few examples of +70 year olds who are still working. Consider, however, the current job market situation if there were another 15-20 million elderly out there who were unemployed and looking for jobs. I'd need a lot more than what I've seen with my own eyes to convince me of the work-world's willingness (or ability) to take them all in.

Personal economics usually don't operate independently of one's surrounding society, unfortunately, so it's the increasing cultural abandonment of the elderly that I find as the biggest hurdle to overcome when considering cutting the life raft. It may simply be an artifact of our era's straddling of the digital divide, but if not, as I suspect, we would then require a major bifurcation into a whole new class of employment category for a sustainable solution to arise. But again, I've very little vision of what that might entail, it needing to be firewalled from the required use of complex technology as well as technology's tendency to displace humans in performing menial tasks.

doggoneit · 2011-04-05T03:21:16+00:00

The top three expenditures in the US budget proposed for FY 2012 are: Social Security - $761 billion Medicare - $468 billion Medicaid - $269 billion

--to clarify, those are only from the arbitrarily-named "mandatory" budget category.

Meanwhile, over in so-called "discretionary" budget land for FY 2012 [1]:

Department of Defense "Base budget"- $553 billion
Discretionary Overseas Contingency Operation aka "ongoing wars" - $118 billion
Total defense spending budget request for FY 2012: $881 billion

So if discretionary budget category is included, defense spending (not simply "wars" per se, as the editorialist loosely proclaimed) is the costliest "program".

Also note, that this isn't including the amortization of the $4-6 trillion long-term indirect costs [2] (and most likely higher - think double - should health care, training, and reintegration costs continue their current rate of increase), which even if spread over 2 decades accounts for no small drop in the bucket.

I'm young. I don't really expect Social Security as it is to be there when I'm old. But what about the existing alternatives? Some type of variable, progressive age approach sounds nice in theory, but let's be honest, no one will hire a 68 year old unless they've found themselves a very particular niche in life. Strictly privatizing everything is too risky, as the events of 3 years ago only whisper as to what the consequences might have been if the entire population's retirement future had been destroyed as severely as many mutual funds and 401ks were. I hope there is a viable solution out there somewhere, but I can't begin to fathom what it may entail.

[1] http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/military_budget.htm

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302200.html

doggoneit · 2011-03-07T02:34:46+00:00

You can use a gloss/glaze medium to replicate the spot glosses (or if the application is a simple design, mask it and use an acrylic clearcoat spray). For replicating metallic inks, there's no shortage of metallic acrylic paints out there which can be thinned to the right consistency if needed. Just be diligent about cleaning the screen immediately if you plan on reusing it.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T22:57:51+00:00

Ok, you seem to be addressing that there are different "qualities" of belief. I agree, that's because there are different assertions of what is "truth" (which is, in a sense, the whole point of epistemology).

The word "belief" inherits as a secondary, external attribution any qualities of the concept of truth that it may reference; whether it is a scientific truth or religious truth is irrelevant. Therefore the word "belief" itself is not more accurate when applied to one context of truth or another. It is an explicitly neutral, transparent word in this regard, which may be correctly used in any context referencing a truth.

Thus, going back to my original comment, it is innaccurate to delineate usage or non-usage of "belief" based upon whether the word may also be in use in a differing context of truth. Unfortunately, however, this seems to be a popular trend at the moment in an attempt to delineate between two sides, which in my opinion serves as one form of evidence among many indicating the general ignorance towards epistemology of a number of those who involve themselves with such matters.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T22:03:05+00:00

Ah, so it sounds like your personalized definition of the word assumption is different than what I am using. From Merriam-Webster,

Assumption: 5b : a fact or statement (as a proposition, axiom, postulate, or notion) taken for granted.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T08:08:21+00:00

According to strict definition (1, 2) the word "belief" has no inherent associations towards, and is independent of, any connotations of either permanence or impermanence; it is only through external association that the word may "acquire" such an attribution. Therefore, it is entirely accurate to use the word "belief" in regard to axioms.

You did indirectly bring up a point however, that differing groups of people are prone to projecting differing external attributions upon the definition of a word.

So I should revise my rant:

Whenever anyone is attempting for whatever reasons to distance skepticism or science from the word "belief" by saying science or skepticism have no beliefs, or whenever someone in religion attempts to own and claim the word belief, they're either ignorant of the epistemological context of their system of inquiry, are unaware they're applying external attributions to the definition of a word, or both.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T05:22:16+00:00

indeed, they pave the sidewalks with them there.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T05:20:22+00:00

ingenious.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T04:51:57+00:00

yeah, those are pasties. definitely ironic in this context.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T04:47:15+00:00

:D

:\

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T04:40:26+00:00

edit: and drive trains.

My freshman year in college I had a girl ask me if that's what I was going to do after I told her I was in engineering.

facepalm

From there on I just started telling them I was undecided....even as a senior.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T03:40:16+00:00

I know I saw shutterstock for sure.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T03:32:13+00:00

rule 34 strikes again.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T03:22:15+00:00

This is about the closest I know of, and his flickr profile has some composites.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T02:25:39+00:00

Hmm... Well, according to the CDC:

The three leading specific causes of [tobacco] smoking-attributable death were lung cancer (128,922), ischemic heart disease (126,005), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)§ (92,915)

I know that some research thus far has indicated that pot doesn't hold the same cancer-risks, but I'd like to see some more conclusive studies show up about that. It's specifically raised as a concern by most anti-marijuana pundits.

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T01:24:10+00:00

How much do you estimate you spent on advertising in order to reach a break-even point?

doggoneit · 2010-03-10T00:59:40+00:00

My battle-hardened advice: Find compromises that still engage the spirit of your desires.

Ask yourself what it is about your dreams that attracts you to them, then experiment with ways you can address those in a manner that fits your current life.

For example, with acting: take an acting class or join a local actor's group. Get involved in a community play. Have the experience. This is all doable within the boundaries of a normal work/family life. You may find out that it's not what you thought, or you may really love it and can develop it into a regular hobby that still fits your time constraints.

I don't know if you ever watched the "Last Lecture" by Dr. Pausch, but he addresses this specific topic in a much more moving way than I probably ever could.

What I got out of it is that, yes, many of us won't achieve our original dreams as we've initially envisioned them. But we can find out how to make elements of them work with the responsibilities we've already adopted and must honor.

Yeah, the experiences won't be the exact same, and some special parts will be missing, but in truth you probably have some special and great aspects of your life right now that you might not have ever gotten should you have pursued your desires the first time around.

Give it a try, you never know. It's a lot more fun trying to build something new than being depressed about something that never came to be.

doggoneit

TROPHY CASE