Change around us – Page 15

More good stuff on the open technology frontiers – 4-24

Have lots of articles on the open frontiers to comment on. Will break into several posts. Today, the amazing wide open frontier of publishing:

Publishing

3/25 – Amazon – Reaching for His Dream. At 40. – Mr. Barry Davis had a book in him but devoted himself to getting educated, working as an engineer and raising his children. At 40 he wrote his first book. Nobody in the industry would touch the book.

Why? No audience. Nobody will buy it.

Until….

Continue reading “More good stuff on the open technology frontiers – 4-24”

“29 Ways to Stay Creative” plus a few bonus ideas

Check out this video on how to stay creative:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-mlSrKo16D0]

A few more ideas:

30 – Read political, economic, and social opinions from people with a different worldview – Twitter is a superb for this.

31 – Read a book by an author you haven’t looked at before. I just did this and got an amazingly depressing view of post-reconstruction America while finding I enjoy someone whose work I’ve not read before.

32 – Write a blog. You will be amazed how much it stretches you.

Next post: there are times when we shouldn’t be creative.

Revolution in higher ed is slow to arrive; still desperately needed

The Economist has a suggestion on how to reverse the current situation where some college degrees aren’t worth the time and effort: Making college cost less.

A few points from the lead article:

Thirty years ago there one college bureaucrat for two academic staff. Now the ratio is one support staff to one academic.

The tech revolution is working its way into academia, but the progress is very slow.

Continue reading “Revolution in higher ed is slow to arrive; still desperately needed”

About 40% of American households don’t have a landline

Cool graph in the Wall Street Journal article Consumers Weigh in on AT&T’s Move to Cut Landlines shows the steadily increasing number of households that have dropped a landline and only use cell phones.

My estimates from reading the graph show this portion of US households don’t use a landline:

’05 – just under 10%, I estimate 8%
’07 – over 10%, estimated 14%
’09 – just over 20%, estimated 22%
’11 – just over 30%, estimated 31%
’13 – 39.5%

Last September, I mentioned About one-fourth of households rely on cellphones instead of landlines. So, 28% last fall, 39% now.

Article describes a town in Alabama where AT&T wants to drop landline service completely.

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-20-14

A few articles on technology, energy, and publishing that are worth a read and a brief comment. Reusable first stages of rockets, several updates on Yutu (Chinese lunar rover), commercial drones, lightly armed drones, and another shale field with big potential.

Education

3/4 – The Feed – Home-Schooling for Higher Ed – Mentioned this idea before. How ‘bout hiring a college professor to privately tutor you for your first year of college. Read the article and think about it a few minutes. Intriguing idea, huh?

Space

3/13 – Technology Review – SpaceX Set to Launch the World’s First Reusable Booster – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-20-14”

Tax revenue projections and first month of sales tax report from Colorado for state-legal-federally-illegal marijuana sales

As an experiment in the heavy hand of tax and regulation, I’ll be watching the results of Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana. My hypothesis is the heavy sales tax burden and regulatory requirements will cause unintended consequences.

January tax revenue

First month of tax revenues in Colorado were announced this week. In January, the state collected $2.1 million in taxes and fees from recreational marijuana sales and an additional $1.4 million from so-called “medical” sales, for total of about $3.5M for the month.

Continue reading “Tax revenue projections and first month of sales tax report from Colorado for state-legal-federally-illegal marijuana sales”

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-3-14

More good stuff on the open frontiers: energy, space, education, publishing. Good info but only time to summarize in a paragraph:

Education

2-9 – Grumpy Economist – Mooconomics – Superb article assessing current state of MOOCs from a professor who actually taught one. Most of the technology looks like it is still very much version 1.0. Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-3-14”

What percentage of total income taxes are paid by the top 1% of tax filers and the bottom 50% of tax filers? A: 37%. 2%.

You read that right. 37% and 2%.

Over a third of individual taxes are paid on tax returns in the top 1% of filers and 2% paid by the bottom half combined.

That’s according to IRS stats from 2009. Here’s the graph from the IRS’ Individual Income Tax Rates and Shares, 2009:

Continue reading “What percentage of total income taxes are paid by the top 1% of tax filers and the bottom 50% of tax filers? A: 37%. 2%.”

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”

That’s a quote attributed to Seneca in a post at Philosiblog with the same title.

The immediate implication of the phrase is that one should get ready in advance of the opportunities appearing. Get yourself prepared!

Great advice, for many situations.

The other part is to watch for and jump at opportunities.

The post at Philosiblog spends most of the discussion on the part that is missing from the saying, which is the action necessary to apply preparation to opportunity.

That missing connection is the best part of the quote.

Continue reading ““Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity””

More good stuff on surveillance – 2-20-14

Here is my tenth list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

Big brother

1-16 – Schneier on Security – Today I Briefed Congress on the NSA – Mr. Schneier visited for an hour with six Members of Congress. Apparently they haven’t been getting much information from the NSA (seems to me a fairly serious oversight/constitutional issue) and wanted some description from someone who has access to the Snowdon documents to explain what’s going on at the NSA (see previous parenthetical comment re: oversight failures).

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 2-20-14”

Tidbit to remember next time someone says the private sector deserves 100% of the blame for the financial crisis.

The Wall Street Journal editorial on 1-28 evaluated The Bernanke Legacy.

In dividing his tenure into three parts, before/ during/ after the financial meltdown, they provide a good assessment of the during phase. An evaluation of the after phase will have to see how the Fed unwinds the gazillions of dollars of quantitative easing.

On the before phase the assessment places much blame for the housing bubble on the Fed in general and Mr. Bernanke in particular. Their comment: Continue reading “Tidbit to remember next time someone says the private sector deserves 100% of the blame for the financial crisis.”

That brand new news organization is up and running – check out First Look Media

Mentioned a while back that Pierre Omidyar, the founder of E-Bay, was starting a news organization from scratch. It will be designed for the digital era.

Well, it is up and running.

Check out The Intercept. It is the first ‘magazine’ of the First Look Media organization.

Continue reading “That brand new news organization is up and running – check out First Look Media”

What strange, mysterious, magical force is loose that increased US production of both oil and gas by one-third in six years?

Is it targeted federal subsidies? Breakthrough law from the Congress? Socialist industrial policy? Keynesian monetary policy? Blockbuster documentary from Hollywood that changed minds across the country? More support for college loans? A landmark special on network TV? Quantitative Easing?

No. It’s none of those things.

Barron’s is pondering the question as well: The Secret of U.S. Energy Success.

Federal subsidies have produced a substantial increase in some things. The editorial provides a partial list. Subsidies have given us…

..our national surpluses of grain, milk, unemployment, nonprofit companies, disabilities, and mortgage debt.

Those subsidies didn’t produce the massive increase in oil production in Bakken and Eagle Ford.

The best paragraph from the editorial: Continue reading “What strange, mysterious, magical force is loose that increased US production of both oil and gas by one-third in six years?”

More good stuff on the open frontiers — space, education, publishing- 1-20-14

New frontiers are wide open. Here is my latest list of articles on education (articles), publishing (1) and space (3 articles) that help me sort out the massive change around us:

Education

As I turn my near-sighted, feeble gaze across history, I see education as one of several major factors that lift people groups out of the grinding dust of poverty. That is why I see the revolution in education as a wonderful thing.

1-3 – Via Meadia – Winds of Change Still Blowing Through Groves of Academe – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers — space, education, publishing- 1-20-14”

3 background articles on the energy revolution – – Energy boom may expand into Mexico, What energy crisis?, and Bakken in graphs

Bloomberg – North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly

Potentially another game changer for world-wide energy – – the Mexican legislature has changed national law to allow foreign investors to own oil reserves. This will draw the major oil companies with their talent, equipment, funding, and infrastructure. Speculation is oil production from Mexico could double in a decade.

Still some major obstacles, but the potential is huge. The Mexican government and her people could benefit tremendously. I really hope they handle this well, for their good and the good of everyone who uses energy.

Newsday – Remember the energy crisis? Fracking fixed it.

Notice that the constant stories of the “energy crisis” isn’t in the news anymore. If you were around in the ‘70s you remember long lines to buy gas on your assigned even or odd day. Crisis stories continued for years, through the entire Carter administration and beyond.

Continue reading “3 background articles on the energy revolution – – Energy boom may expand into Mexico, What energy crisis?, and Bakken in graphs”