Just what the country needs right now: more tax cuts

A bill for hurricane relief passed the house at 422 to 0. This is all well and good, but tax breaks aren’t an efficient way of distributing goods to the needy. Economically, the only difference between giving a tax break for hurricane-related charitable donations and just raising taxes and giving the money directly is the fact that in the former case you can tax future generations through deficit spending. What ever happened to just giving them aid? I’m confused.

Is the problem really the lack of funds? After all, we are burning food aid from Great Britain and sending ice trucks in the wrong direction, it sounds like the problem has been due to too little logistics and too much red-tape.

Of course, I don’t know what a rich person can do with things like food and water. But a tax cut…

Guess what the South needs is more corporate welfare programs.
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Posted on by tychay 7

Bad Design Kills

Bad Design Kills—Command Z

bad design kills sticker from baddesignkills.com.

It makes sense that with business internet and insta-companies that people would looking to have instant original logos (and on the cheap).

That’s why it is so fascinating when BoingBoing pointed out a fascinating site that catalogs stolen logo designs by one such online logo design services.

Wow! talk about blatant. My favorite has to be the Ernst & Youngrip off, for so many reasons that I can’t begin to name it. It actually has me scratching my head wondering how a company like this is allowed to stay in business. If anything is cause for a lynching by a bunch of pencil-wielding design geeks, this has got to be it.
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Dell DJ Ditty

Dell DJ Ditty

Dell DJ Ditty, originally uploaded by tychay.

Dell is about to introduce the long-awaited (I’m sure) DJ Ditty (purchase).

An eyesore and an eight month turnaround to copy a device consisting of generic components. Is this what “player-hater”, Robert Enderle, meant when he said, “Historically staid companies like Gateway, HP, Acer, and even Dell are much more aggressive on design today, often surpassing Apple, which was preeminent in this area in the 90s.” Enderle singing a dirge for Apple: Seventh time’s the charm Rob!
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Posted on by tychay 7

Since when did being a geek mean being moron?

A simulation of how filiaments might form as the universe evolves

A simulation of large-scale structure
formation, from University of Chicago Center for Cosmological Physics.

This Wired article is a wonderful example about how unpractical our country’s basic math education is.

The reporter wastes the first page on his idiot attempt to find a truly random playlist. A little knowledge is a highly dangerous thing. After learning that computer generated random numbers are not truly random, he assumes that this is why he sometimes gets his Rolling Stones songs clumped together.

The limitations of pseudorandomness is a serious issue in statistical physics (Monte Carlo simulations) and theoretical physics (modeling). In some cases, poor psuedorandom number generators have allowed people break encryption algorithms.

But even the most primitive random number generator causing a problem with your iPod playlist? C’mon!

One difficult issue when looking at maps of the large scale structure of the universe is that our eyes detect spurious filaments (chains of galactic structures) that aren’t there, even though such things have been found to exist.
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The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Caitlin pointed out that the Complete Calvin and Hobbes is out:

Complete Calvin and Hobbes

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, originally uploaded by tychay.

The design seem similar to the Complete Far Side which I once picked up at Costco. If that is the case, then the hardbound books should be very large in print with Sundays in color. My only complaints are that it is too large for a regular bookshelf, the books are too heavy to read in your lap, and it costs a boatload.
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Posted on by tychay 0

A one party country

Paul Krugman writes about cronyism rampant in this administration. For me, the problem isn’t that cronyism is occurring (every administration is guilty of being partisan in their appointments), but that the appointments are unqualified and incompetent. I find it hard to believe that either side can’t find partisans that are competent.

This seems a natural continuation of the steady establishment of the Right Wing dominance on American’s politics. What little states identity and power there was left after the Democratic control from the Great Depression to 1968 has become eviscerated as the Right Wing has moved control from grass roots to the national level. The Republicans have done a great job burning their bridges in their march to Washington.
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Posted on by tychay 8