The Avarice List: A rough draft

Adventures

Achievements

Early retirement

1 year of living expenses in ready cash ($48,000)
6 months of living expenses in ready cash ($24,000)
3 months of living expenses in ready cash ($12,000)
1 month of living expenses in ready cash ($4,000)
1 week of living expenses in ready cash ($1,000)
1 day of living expenses in ready cash ($150)
1 hour of living expenses in ready cash ($6.50)

$1,000,000 saved in 2008 dollars
one minute of freedom – $2.00
one hour of freedom – $120
one day of freedom – $3,000
one week of freedom – $20,000
one month of freedom – $80,000
one quarter of freedom – $250,000
1/2 year of freedom – $500,000
1 year of freedom – $1,000,000

Services

Alcor membership

Skills

Private salsa lessons ($300.00)

Things

Motorcycle
Shoei RF-1000 Helmet ($350.00)
Ultra Trek One Piece Air Mesh Kevlar Suit ($1000.00)
Aerostich Combat Touring Boots #400 ($300.00)
Kevlar Racing Gloves ($130)

NRA Basic Pistol course ($189.00)
Motorcycle Safety Foundation course ($250.00)
Yamaha Virago 250
Samsung SyncMaster 245T 24″ LCD Monitor (x2, $720.00)
dancing shoes (x1, $120.00)
Benchmade 710 knife
5 acres of land
restored ’89 – 93 4WD Dodge pickup with a 12 valve Cummins engine
Canon 5d body
Canon 40d body
The Remote Studio Setup Package
Aptera
Blauer High Gear suit
Glock 19 (x 4)
AR-15 (x 4)

Country Living Grain Grinder
ShopBot

Reality Based Fighting Concepts

Anybody take this course? Thoughts?

(more…)

Wall-E, Herbivore, Salsa, Places in the Heart

WALL-E is superb. Go see it!

****POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS****
My only criticism: I thought it had an excessively pessimistic view of the future of humanity. The movie depicted humans as rotund, bland cruise ship passengers, incapable of even walking without the help of their ubiquitous robot servants. And due to reckless disregard for the environment, the earth has been turned into a gigantic toxic waste dump.

I don’t think that’s happening. If anything, I think humans have become much more capable, complex beings than they were 100 years ago. And the environment is cleaner now (in the west), due to increases in wealth and knowledge. And I expect that trend to continue, as we become ever more efficient.
****END MILD SPOILERS

Today, I had lunch today with James, Kim, Alex, Darryl, and Kai, in honor of Alex’s soon departure for London. We were originally scheduled to have brunch at Universal, but it was too crowded. So, at Kai’s suggestion, we relocated to Herbivore. I had the green papaya salad. I’d never had it before, and I was expecting a green salad, with chunks of papaya added. It was, in fact, a huge mound of shredded papaya. A little would’ve been okay, but as an entire dish it was too much. I liked the decor though, and everyone else seemed to like their dishes. I’d go again.

It was fun to watch Kim’s reactions to the boy talk.

Immediately afterward I had private salsa lessons. I really should film myself. I’m sure my moves right now are comic gold.

After salsa, a nap.

Then dinner with Carly, Doug and Marcus. They’ve been in the typical new baby hermit mode–this was the first time I’ve hung out with them since Marcus was born six months ago. We had steak, baked salmon, fruit salad, and mashed potatoes. So yummy. Then we watched Places of the Heart. Sally Fields was so cute!

A fun weekend.

Digg the Understanding Aging conference!

From the desk of Susan Fonseca-Klein, of the Methusaleh Foundation:

“…We have great news! Wired just released an article about the Methuselah Foundation and Aging 2008.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2008/06/methuselah

We would love to get your help ensuring that a lot of people see the article today and learn about this effort.

Here’s what we can all do:

1) Digg the article at www.digg.com. This is one of the best ways to reach more eyeballs. Registering only takes seconds.

Click “digg it” at the Wired article page, or here:

http://digg.com/health/The_Fight_to_End_Aging_Gains_Legitimacy_and_Funding

2) Add a (hopefully positive!) comment about the article at the Digg page.

3) You can also give the article a point on www.reddit.com by clicking the up-arrow on the Reddit button at the Wired article.. Like Digg, registering for Reddit only takes seconds.

4) You can add a comment at the Wired article page itself. A lot of comments will help show Wired and other media outlets that there’s major interest in the science of regenerative medicine, increasing the odds of more coverage in the future.

Thank you everyone for helping us spread the word. We’ll see you tomorrow!

Best wishes,

Susan Fonseca-Klein
Aging 2008 Coordinator
Methuselah Foundation Director of Development
http://www.mfoundation.org/aging2008/”

Cobworks cabin

“And I’ll be 100% protected from the sand!”

Note: Not for the squeamish.

The coming robot war

[Note: some scenes not for the squeamish.]

Well, someone has to pick the low hanging fruit…

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits”

Fear of heights

Via flutterby “Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an aproach to makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro.”

Hauser’s law: you can’t soak the rich

Via Wall Street Journal article: You can’t soak the rich. by David Ranson, May 20, 2008.

“…Mr. Hauser uncovered the means to answer these questions definitively. On this page in 1993, he stated that “No matter what the tax rates have been, in postwar America tax revenues have remained at about 19.5% of GDP.” What a pity that his discovery has not been more widely disseminated.

The chart [above], updating the evidence to 2007, confirms Hauser’s Law. The federal tax “yield” (revenues divided by GDP) has remained close to 19.5%, even as the top tax bracket was brought down from 91% to the present 35%. This is what scientists call an “independence theorem,” and it cuts the Gordian Knot of tax policy debate.

The data show that the tax yield has been independent of marginal tax rates over this period, but tax revenue is directly proportional to GDP. So if we want to increase tax revenue, we need to increase GDP.

What happens if we instead raise tax rates? Economists of all persuasions accept that a tax rate hike will reduce GDP, in which case Hauser’s Law says it will also lower tax revenue.

What makes Hauser’s Law work? For supply-siders there is no mystery. As Mr. Hauser said: “Raising taxes encourages taxpayers to shift, hide and underreport income. . . . Higher taxes reduce the incentives to work, produce, invest and save, thereby dampening overall economic activity and job creation.”

Putting it a different way, capital migrates away from regimes in which it is treated harshly, and toward regimes in which it is free to be invested profitably and safely. In this regard, the capital controlled by our richest citizens is especially tax-intolerant.”