The additional bathroom is a completely superfluous asset for at least 362 or 363 days each year
"The additional bathroom is a completely superfluous asset for at least 362 or 363 days each year, whereas a long commute does become a burden after a while." For instance, a recent study found that, when a person travels more than one hour in each direction, they have to make forty per cent more money in order to be as "satisfied with life" as someone with a short commute.
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/07/buying_the_wrong_house.php
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_paumgarten
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/07/buying_the_wrong_house.php
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_paumgarten
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army (S.L.A.) was an American self-styled urban guerrilla warfare group that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders and other acts of violence between 1973 and 1975.
Wikipedia entry
Wikipedia entry
The failure of a small cafe is not a question of competence.
The failure of a small cafe is not a question of competence. It is a sad given. The logistics of a food establishment that seats between 20 and 25 people (which roughly corresponds to the definition of "cozy") are such that the place will stay afloat-barely-as long as its owners spend all of their time on the job. There is a golden rule, long cherished by restaurateurs, for determining whether a business is viable. Rent should take up no more than 25 percent of your revenue, another 25 percent should go toward payroll, and 35 percent should go toward the product. The remaining 15 percent is what you take home. There's an even more elegant version of that rule: Make your rent in four days to be profitable, a week to break even. If you haven't hit the latter mark in a month, close.
A place that seats 25 will have to employ at least two people for every shift: someone to work the front and someone for the kitchen (assuming you find a guy who will both uncomplainingly wash dishes and reliably whip up pretty crepes; if you've found that guy, you're already in better shape than most NYC restaurateurs. You're also, most likely, already in trouble with immigration services). Budgeting $15 for the payroll for every hour your charming cafe is open (let's say 10 hours a day) relieves you of $4,500 a month. That gives you another $4,500 a month for rent and $6,300 to stock up on product. It also means that to come up with the total needed $18K of revenue per month, you will need to sell that product at an average of a 300 percent markup.
Complete article here
A place that seats 25 will have to employ at least two people for every shift: someone to work the front and someone for the kitchen (assuming you find a guy who will both uncomplainingly wash dishes and reliably whip up pretty crepes; if you've found that guy, you're already in better shape than most NYC restaurateurs. You're also, most likely, already in trouble with immigration services). Budgeting $15 for the payroll for every hour your charming cafe is open (let's say 10 hours a day) relieves you of $4,500 a month. That gives you another $4,500 a month for rent and $6,300 to stock up on product. It also means that to come up with the total needed $18K of revenue per month, you will need to sell that product at an average of a 300 percent markup.
Complete article here
Page turning is an important ancillary process of reading
This mechanical process, however, is a source of great challenge and inconvenience to many people, including musicians, people with disabilities, and avid readers. PageFlip now introduces a revolutionary, patented, electronic page turner to solve this problem. The page turner can be placed directly on a piano, music stand, kitchen counter, exercise equipment, or on the bed for convenient hands-free reading.
http://www.pageflip.com/
http://www.pageflip.com/
Bao Xishun
In December 2006, Bao Xishun was asked by veterinarians to assist them in removing shards of plastic from the stomachs of two dolphins. The dolphins had accidentally swallowed the shards, which had settled in their stomachs and caused a loss of appetite and depression. Veterinarians had failed to remove them, so Bao Xishun used his 1.06 metre-long arms to reach into the dolphins' stomachs, to remove the plastic manually.[3] The manager of the aquarium, the Royal Jidi Ocean World, confirmed, "When we failed to get the objects out we sought the help of Bao Xishun from Inner Mongolia and he did it successfully yesterday. The two dolphins are expected to make a full recovery."[4] (A similar operation was performed by American basketball player Clifford Ray, who was asked to use his long arms to save a California dolphin in 1978.)[5]
Bao Xishun married saleswoman Xia Shujian on 24 March 2007.[6][7] At the time they got married, Beijing News said that "Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng, even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world."[8][9]The authentic Mongolian ceremony took place on July 12, 2007 at Genghis Khan holiday resort on the grasslands near Ordos city (sponsored by at least 15 companies). Bao was draped in a shimmering blue silk coat, and guests ate lamb and cheese.[10][11]
Wikipedia Article
Bao Xishun married saleswoman Xia Shujian on 24 March 2007.[6][7] At the time they got married, Beijing News said that "Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng, even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world."[8][9]The authentic Mongolian ceremony took place on July 12, 2007 at Genghis Khan holiday resort on the grasslands near Ordos city (sponsored by at least 15 companies). Bao was draped in a shimmering blue silk coat, and guests ate lamb and cheese.[10][11]
Wikipedia Article
Doug Rushkoff on the Technologies of Persuasion
"Centralized currency -- invented during the Renaissance, really -- favors the kinds of business practices and centralization of power that actually works against good, honest, local commerce. In short, it favors Wal-Mart over, say, Community Supported Agriculture.
There are other kinds of money – and they were in existence until they were outlawed by kings and queens looking to centralize authority. Money that is lent into existence by a central bank will tend towards scarcity and competition. Money that is earned into existence by people in a specific place has very different properties, and works on a model of abundance.
Even sacred economic doctrines, like the law of competitive advantage, are based on a series of assumptions. The models that prove their effectiveness, for example, assume 100 percent employment. And that just isn't the case in the nations that signed onto NAFTA and other open-market agreements.
So the first step is to separate commerce from the very specific commercial and economic architecture created specifically to favor corporations and promote competition for scarce resources."
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007341.html
There are other kinds of money – and they were in existence until they were outlawed by kings and queens looking to centralize authority. Money that is lent into existence by a central bank will tend towards scarcity and competition. Money that is earned into existence by people in a specific place has very different properties, and works on a model of abundance.
Even sacred economic doctrines, like the law of competitive advantage, are based on a series of assumptions. The models that prove their effectiveness, for example, assume 100 percent employment. And that just isn't the case in the nations that signed onto NAFTA and other open-market agreements.
So the first step is to separate commerce from the very specific commercial and economic architecture created specifically to favor corporations and promote competition for scarce resources."
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007341.html
The Slave Trade
"There is a fundamental reason for forced slavery: human nature. Economic advancement does not improve character. It does not reduce greed and selfishness. Unless human nature changes, mankind’s problems cannot be solved—and the slave trade, to take merely one example among a host of human evils, will continue."
From The Trumpet: entire article by Robert Morley here.
From The Trumpet: entire article by Robert Morley here.
University of Lawsonomy
Alfred William Lawson (1869-1954) was a professional baseball player, manager and league promoter from 1887 through 1916 and went on to play a pioneering role in the US aircraft industry, publishing two early aviation trade journals. In 1904, he also wrote a novel, Born Again, clearly inspired by the popular Utopian fantasy Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, an early harbinger of the metaphysical turn his career would take. He is frequently cited as the inventor of the airliner and was awarded several of the first air mail contracts, which he ultimately could not fulfill. The crash of his ambitious "Midnight Liner" during its trial flight takeoff on May 8, 1921 ended his best chance for commercial aviation success.
In the 1920s, he promoted health practices including vegetarianism and claimed to have found the secret of living to 200. He also developed his own highly unusual theories of physics, according to which such concepts as "penetrability", "suction and pressure" and "zig-zag-and-swirl" were discoveries on par with Einstein's Theory of Relativity. He published numerous books on these concepts, all set in a distinctive typography. Lawson repeatedly predicted the worldwide adoption of Lawsonian principles by the year 2000.[citation needed]
He later propounded his own philosophy-Lawsonomy-and the Lawsonian religion. He also developed, during the Great Depression, the populist economic theory of "Direct Credits", according to which banks are the cause of all economic woe, the oppressors of both capital and labour. Lawson believed that the government should replace banks as the provider of loans to business and workers. His rallies and lectures attracted thousands of listeners in the early 30s, mainly in the upper Midwest, but by the late 30s the crowds had dwindled.
In 1943, he founded the so-called University of Lawsonomy in Des Moines to spread his teachings and offer the degree of "Knowledgian," but after various IRS and other investigations it was closed and finally sold in 1954, the year of Lawson's death. Lawson's financial arrangements remain mysterious to this day and in later years he seems to have owned little property, moving from city to city as a guest of his farflung acolytes. A 1952 attempt to haul him before a Senate investigative committee and get to the bottom of his operation ended with the cagey old gentleman leaving the senators outwitted and baffled.
A farm near Racine, Wisconsin is the only remaining university facility, although a tiny handful of churches may yet survive in places such as Wichita, Kansas. The large sign, formerly reading "University of Lawsonomy", was a familiar landmark for motorists in the region for many years and visible from I-94 about 13 miles north of the Illinois state line. Although the sign still exists, the "of" has now been replaced by the URL of their website.
From the Wikipedia article.
In the 1920s, he promoted health practices including vegetarianism and claimed to have found the secret of living to 200. He also developed his own highly unusual theories of physics, according to which such concepts as "penetrability", "suction and pressure" and "zig-zag-and-swirl" were discoveries on par with Einstein's Theory of Relativity. He published numerous books on these concepts, all set in a distinctive typography. Lawson repeatedly predicted the worldwide adoption of Lawsonian principles by the year 2000.[citation needed]
He later propounded his own philosophy-Lawsonomy-and the Lawsonian religion. He also developed, during the Great Depression, the populist economic theory of "Direct Credits", according to which banks are the cause of all economic woe, the oppressors of both capital and labour. Lawson believed that the government should replace banks as the provider of loans to business and workers. His rallies and lectures attracted thousands of listeners in the early 30s, mainly in the upper Midwest, but by the late 30s the crowds had dwindled.
In 1943, he founded the so-called University of Lawsonomy in Des Moines to spread his teachings and offer the degree of "Knowledgian," but after various IRS and other investigations it was closed and finally sold in 1954, the year of Lawson's death. Lawson's financial arrangements remain mysterious to this day and in later years he seems to have owned little property, moving from city to city as a guest of his farflung acolytes. A 1952 attempt to haul him before a Senate investigative committee and get to the bottom of his operation ended with the cagey old gentleman leaving the senators outwitted and baffled.
A farm near Racine, Wisconsin is the only remaining university facility, although a tiny handful of churches may yet survive in places such as Wichita, Kansas. The large sign, formerly reading "University of Lawsonomy", was a familiar landmark for motorists in the region for many years and visible from I-94 about 13 miles north of the Illinois state line. Although the sign still exists, the "of" has now been replaced by the URL of their website.
From the Wikipedia article.
Phantom Energy and The Cosmic Doomsday
For constant w = −3/2, the Milky Way will get stripped roughly 60 million years before the Big Rip. Curiously, when this occurs the horizon will still be ~ 70 Mpc, so there may still be other observable galaxies that we will also see stripped apart (although given the time delay from distant objects, we will see the Milky Way destroyed first). A few months before the end of time, the Earth will be ripped from the Sun, and ~ 30 minutes before the end the Earth will fall apart. Similar arguments also apply to objects bound by electromagnetic or strong forces. Thus, molecules and then atoms will be torn apart roughly 10−19 seconds before the end, and then nuclei and nucleons will get dissociated in the remaining interval.
(...)
It will be necessary to modify the adopted slogan among cosmic futurologists - "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice" - for a new fate may await our world.
Time: Event
~10−43: s Planck era
~10−36: s Inflation
First Three Minutes: Light Elements Formed
~105 yr: Atoms Formed
~1 Gyr: First Galaxies Formed
~15 Gyr: Today
TRip − 1 Gyr: Erase Galaxy Clusters
TRip − 60 Myr: Destroy Milky Way
TRip − 3 months: Unbind Solar System
TRip − 30 minutes: Earth Explodes
TRip − 10−19 s: Dissociate Atoms
TRip = 35 Gyrs: Big Rip
[ TRip = Time of Big Rip ]
TABLE I: The history and future of the Universe with w = −3/2 phantom energy
Details here.
(...)
It will be necessary to modify the adopted slogan among cosmic futurologists - "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice" - for a new fate may await our world.
Time: Event
~10−43: s Planck era
~10−36: s Inflation
First Three Minutes: Light Elements Formed
~105 yr: Atoms Formed
~1 Gyr: First Galaxies Formed
~15 Gyr: Today
TRip − 1 Gyr: Erase Galaxy Clusters
TRip − 60 Myr: Destroy Milky Way
TRip − 3 months: Unbind Solar System
TRip − 30 minutes: Earth Explodes
TRip − 10−19 s: Dissociate Atoms
TRip = 35 Gyrs: Big Rip
[ TRip = Time of Big Rip ]
TABLE I: The history and future of the Universe with w = −3/2 phantom energy
Details here.
Ragnarok
Ragnarok by Micha F. Lindemans
Ragnarok ("Doom of the Gods"), also called Gotterdammerung, means the end of the cosmos in Norse mythology. It will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the end.
The wolf Skoll will finally devour the sun, and his brother Hati will eat the moon, plunging the earth [into] darkness. The stars will vanish from the sky. The cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock Gullinkambi will crow to the gods. A third cock will raise the dead.
Complete text here.
Another take on the subject.
Ragnarok ("Doom of the Gods"), also called Gotterdammerung, means the end of the cosmos in Norse mythology. It will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the end.
The wolf Skoll will finally devour the sun, and his brother Hati will eat the moon, plunging the earth [into] darkness. The stars will vanish from the sky. The cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock Gullinkambi will crow to the gods. A third cock will raise the dead.
Complete text here.
Another take on the subject.
Safe for American oil interests
"I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested…. Looking back on it, I felt I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents." Complete article here
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Stockhausen on a beautiful day:
Stockhausen on a beautiful day
Karlheinz Stockhausen "Helicopter String Quartet":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13D1YY_BvWU
Stockhausen on 'sounds', 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPVc2Jvd0w
Stockhausen on human evolution, 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTeLI5dUzKw
"The Greatest Work of Art in the Entire Cosmos":
http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=14377
Stockhausen on a beautiful day
Karlheinz Stockhausen "Helicopter String Quartet":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13D1YY_BvWU
Stockhausen on 'sounds', 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPVc2Jvd0w
Stockhausen on human evolution, 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTeLI5dUzKw
"The Greatest Work of Art in the Entire Cosmos":
http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=14377
Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered
The most massive known black hole in the universe has been discovered, weighing in with the mass of 18 billion Suns.
The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years.
Article here.
The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years.
Article here.
Tank Man
Tank Man, or the Unknown Rebel, is the nickname of an anonymous man who became internationally famous when he was videotaped and photographed during the Tiananmen Square protests on 5 June 1989. Several photographs were taken of the man, who stood in front of a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks, preventing their advance. (Wikipedia)
Video here.
Video here.
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