Today's Random Fact
Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing the recipe for French Fries to the US in 1802.
May 2008
24 posts
April 2008
37 posts
Today's Random Fact
The life expectancy of a fine guitar is about fifteen years, on the other hand, fine violins improve with age and sound better after one hundred years than one.
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Today's Random Fact
Broccoli contains more Vitamin C than an orange.
Minimum Rage
I think a minimum wage makes about as much sense as having a maximum wage. Yes, I understand all the reasons for why minimum wage came about, and I think there is a need to limit//prevent collusion and exploitation. But, setting these limits artificially imposes restrictions on what a “job” can be. If I have a very easy task (eg. I want to hire someone to give me a high five every hour, on the hour), I either have to skirt the law paying them under the table, or value this service at a government-imposed wage. Being a law-abiding American, I wouldn’t circumvent the Federal and State laws, and I also do not believe this service is worth the $9.36 minimum wage of San Francisco. Therefore - as a business owner - I am unable to create this job for anyone, nor can I have the service I require provided.
“Well said, Jessica. Even $5/hour leaves someone working 40 hours a week with $200 to live off - near-impossible as a single person, let alone someone supporting a family.” - miss-r
Q: What about the homeless guy who can’t get hired for the $5/hour minimum wage job, but would be qualified for a $3 an hour job?
A: He will have no job, because no $3 jobs exist. He will dig through trash cans for empty bottles and pizza crusts.
Q: But that’s not fair. It is my belief that no one should have to dig through trash cans.
A: Then why do you advocate laws that make digging through trash cans inevitable? Why do you eliminate the role of the least skilled people in the economy? Why do you insist that the ladder have no bottom rung?
Q: Nobody’s talking about ladders. I’m talking about the basic human right of a well-paying job.
A: What about the right to earn a living that, while meager, is better than no living at all?
Q: Easy for you to say! You’ve made plenty of money — you’re just trying to squeeze every last penny out of the underpriviledged!
A: I’ve made plenty of money because I’m good at evaluating complex systems and understanding how they could be made more efficient. There is an inefficiency here that hurts everyone. It bothers me because it could so easily be reversed, because it causes so much misery, and because it makes the economy worse off for me! But nobody wants to learn basic economics, so they go on repeating the same reality-denying mistakes that have been made, putting forth an agenda that cannot work but sure does sound nice.
Q: What do you want?
A: I want an economist to refute my arguments with facts derived from reality, not with implausible hypotheticals about tomatoes.
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Today's Random Presidential Facts
Lincoln was the only president to ever hold a patent, James Buchanan was the only unmarried US President.
Today's Random Fact
Male monkeys can suffer from male pattern baldness.
“Everyone talks about “monetizing eyeballs.” We all know that if you can amass a giant audience, you can make a fortune selling them off to the highest bidder. Google this. YouTube that. Rupert Murdoch macking on up on the Facebook. So if all these people are willing to pay out the nose to try to sell Adjustable-Rate Mortgages, Dating Services and Credit Cards to your audience, it begs a question. If they think they can sell something to my audience, why can’t I sell something to my audience?”
—
This is such a good point.
(via jakoblodwick)
Google Website Optimizer →
google.com
Works to automate the process of A/B and multivariate testing - neat stuff!
“I want what every man wants. I just want it more.”
—Achilles
For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse →
yaledailynews.com
“Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.”
Whoa.
Today's Random Fact
Walt Disney was the only Disney organization employee allowed to have facial hair.
Ram
Is the noun (a male sheep) named after the verb (as in battering ram), or is it the other way around, or totally coincidence that a ram rams?
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Today Also Happens to be Tax Day.
April 15th 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci is born.
April 15th 1850 - The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
April 15th 1856 - President Lincoln dies from a gunshoot wound sustained the night before.
April 15th 1912 - The Titanic Sinks.
April 15th 1923 - Insulin becomes generally available, saving the lives of millions of diabetics.
April 15th 1924 - Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
April 15th 1945 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
April 15th 1955 - Ray Kroc opens his first McDonalds restaurant in Illinois.
