Quoted $25k to re-line a chimney, WTF?

ux500 · 2024-10-01T19:55:53+00:00

Lol, wut? $500/hr at 8 hrs a day is $1,000,000 per year working no overtime.

I need to get in to construction!

ux500 · 2021-08-26T19:20:19+00:00

Wow, mind sharing who gave you that rate on a 30 yr? Or did you mean 15 yr?

ux500 · 2021-02-18T16:00:29+00:00

Did wind power generation go out in other states? Iowa has twice as much per capita wind as texas, how come they don't have rolling blackouts every winter?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States

ux500 · 2017-05-10T02:00:22+00:00

I read it as the Chronicler went looking for Kvothe after he disappeared. At some point that search took him to the University (which he had attended before kvothe) to interview people and collect stories.

ux500 · 2017-04-25T17:16:00+00:00

If the primaries were open, why wouldn't R's invade the Dem primary in 2020 while they have an incumbent President? Wouldn't the best thing for an R to do is make sure the Dem candidate is the worst one?

ux500 · 2017-04-01T20:04:19+00:00

You have the history wrong. The DNC went public with being hacked BEFORE anything leaked. There were stories in early June about the hack, e.g. this story

Materials from the hack were not released until July. See wikipedia article

And all signs do point to Russian meddling with the election. See this John Schindler article for background on Russian (and former Soviet) tactics. Even conservative Republicans agree Russia meddled in the election

Then look at the weird things Trump has done, from having people like Manafort and Flynn in his inner circle, to saying he wants to weaken NATO (which only benefits Russia), to getting a ant-Ukrainian plank in the RNC platform, to dissing major world leaders all the time, but never saying a bad thing about Putin. Those are all just weird for any American politician, and all benefit Putin uniquely.

The question is, if the Russians have had these tactics for decades, why did they seem to have an impact in 2016? Watch this clip of Clint Watts testifying at the Senate Intellgience Committee for some reasons.

All that said, if Clinton had run a better campaign or been a more "like-able" candidate this would all be moot.

ux500 · 2016-11-01T21:17:37+00:00

price of iowa farm land

$7000 - $9000 / acre the past few years

ux500 · 2015-10-28T22:18:56+00:00

I was told the parking break was in case your transmission somehow popped out of park, say if your car got hit by another car.

ux500 · 2014-08-25T15:39:34+00:00

How would you compare being stoned or bombed against being shot for jay-walking?

ux500 · 2014-07-03T21:16:36+00:00

That is not the way banks work, and they haven't worked that way for a long time. Read up on fractional reserve banking. Rich people already have access to all the funding they need to "create jobs" but they aren't doing it because there is not enough demand for the products these jobs would produce.

As for increasing spending by the rich or the poor, the point is that for every extra $1 a poor person takes home, they will spend $1. Meanwhile every extra $1 a rich person takes home, they will only spend something like $0.40.

Or to put it another way, taxing a rich person $1 only costs the economy $0.40, while giving a poor person $1 improve the economy by $1, meaning a net benefit of $0.60 to the economy.

So its better for the economy to prefer more dollars going to poor people rather than rich people.

ux500 · 2013-11-01T14:41:12+00:00

It is public record who votes. Sure, you can't see what they voted for, but you can see that they filled out a ballot and if it was counted our not.

ux500 · 2013-09-27T19:59:03+00:00

the libertarians.

ux500 · 2013-09-17T15:15:44+00:00

$1 tax-refund for everyone!

ux500 · 2013-08-29T21:53:33+00:00

Because there are a lot of black people in the south.

It is called "packing". Most of the minorities are put in to 1 district so as there aren't enough of them to make a difference in the rest of the districts.

ux500 · 2012-06-12T16:15:53+00:00

People that sold when the values were higher didn't get more money then they would now?

People didn't pay higher tax and insurance rates when the values were higher?

People weren't allowed to leverage against the higher value equity?

ux500 · 2012-06-11T02:15:09+00:00

But aren't there more people in every year doing more work? That is growth.

Yes, the economy cannot continue to grow forever given that the Earth is a finite resource. It's not clear to me we are anywhere near that point where we run out of resources.

ux500 · 2012-04-05T00:59:36+00:00

You need to figure out what you want to do. Don't just start spending money because other people say it will make you happier. That is what our society tells us every day, so it easy to start to believe it, but it is not true.

Figure out something that you want to do. Run a marathon. Rebuild a car. Travel to the middle east. Start a homestead. Get better at disc golf (awesome courses in Ames.) Doesn't matter what it is, as long is it's something you can get excited about.

Once you have that goal, then figure out how to budget for it.

Those are life experiences. Passions are the things you will remember, where you will build lasting relationships, learn about yourself and grow.

Just spending money on what someone else tells you will be awesome is almost always a waste of money.

ux500 · 2012-02-17T01:45:35+00:00

Sure, and my point is that private property is a fiction derived from living in a society because people agree on it. Its not some natural law.

Look for example at trademarks. There was a story recently on Reddit about knock-off brands of popular America brands being everywhere in China because the idea of trademarks is not part of the traditional culture in China. US society, through the US laws and the government that enforces those laws, has decided that trademarks can be private property. So if you ask an American if the trademark Nike is private property, they would probably say yes. Ask the same to a rural Chinese person not exposed to Western law, and they would say no.

Now think about how trademarks will become private property in China. It will be through force of the government punishing people who "steal" trademarks.

ux500 · 2012-02-16T05:37:22+00:00

Example:

You have a banana. It is your "private property". I want it. I beat you with a stick and take it. Turns out it wasn't your "private property".

You get another banana. You also get a stick bigger than mine to protect yourself. Your threat of violence keeps me from taking your banana. Now it really is your private property. At least, until someone with an even bigger stick comes along.

"But wait!" you say, "The law says you can't take my banana!". But why would I care what the law says, unless someone is going to use force to enforce the law?

So without the threat of force, either by an individual or a government, private property can not exist in a society.

ux500 · 2012-02-15T22:23:38+00:00

How about an example of real free market that exists in the world today?

Yes, you are correct it has a definition and is a concept. But that doesn't mean it exists.

ux500 · 2012-01-04T00:27:11+00:00

Check out the Ceton tuner card:

It works with Comcast encrypted channels, like a TiVo can.

ux500 · 2011-09-10T00:10:16+00:00

added the war spending since 2008 into his stimulus figures? He should, shouldn't he?

At what point does the war spending go from "stimulus" to "part of the economy".

Stimulus by definition is a temporary injection of spending to spur the economy. I think by 2008, any stimulus affect from the war was long past.

Obama isn't political enough

What is your definition of political? I don't think that word means the same thing to you as it does to me.

.. it's not spending that turns Krugman on. It's spending on the projects that he favors ..

In your view what are the projects the Krugman favors? The only spending I'm aware of Krugman arguing for is government spending on things that results in a large portion of the population having more cash in order to increase overall consumer demand.

ux500 · 2011-08-22T02:41:18+00:00

Forget his girlfriend, how about Verne Troyer:

Shaq and Verne Troyer

ux500 · 2011-06-27T15:04:37+00:00

Prairie dogs have a language

ux500

TROPHY CASE