It’s a bit long, but it’s a great discussion about power and inequality. Plus, it features my man-crush, Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Gah, the embed isn’t working for some reason. Here’s the link.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Partly, it’s because this is the the last holiday that the whole family usually all gets together in one place. Partly, it’s because my (favorite) aunt makes an unbelievable Thanksgiving spread.
Mostly, though, it’s because Thanksgiving, to me, has always been the most welcoming of holidays. Our family casts a wide net. Friends with no family, come on over. Friends who can’t make it out of town to be with family, come on over. Friends who’d rather not be with their family, come on over. I get to see familiar faces that I really only see on Thanksgiving. I get to see faces that I may never see again. It is a time of eating and drinking and talking in a safe, cozy, relaxed, crazy atmosphere. It is a time of love.
And at the end of the day, when people are starting to head home and I’m drinking my last B&B (nectar of the gods) and my cousins’ friends start showing up to pay homage to their foster family, I can’t help but smile. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t feel incredibly lucky, but on Thanksgiving, I feel luckiest.
Machine Gun Jetpack
XKCD’s What-if answers the tough science questions. Questions like, “Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns?”
You are a loser!
Have you ever used those lottery scanners to see if you can finally retire? Sure, we all have! When you do, it gives you the innocuous message, “Sorry, you are not a winner.” and you know that you will have to show up for your despairingly boring job for at least another few days.
Playing the lottery is a colossally stupid way to spend your money. As my friend says, it’s a idiot tax. This, of course, doesn’t stop me from playing every once in a while when the jackpots are large enough for my entire family to retire. But it certainly isn’t something that we should be encouraging people to do.
Therefore, I suggest that we change the lottery scanners to throw up random discouraging slogans. Things like, “You are a loser!” or “Man, I’d hate to be you!” or “Who has two thumbs and just wasted their money? Point to yourself!”
Society offers way too many carrots to people to waste their money. It’s time to start providing some sticks.
You should be watching Minute Physics
If you are at all interested in science, you should be subscribed to Minute Physics. Why? Because they produce things like this:
I learned more about 
A lesson in basic tax policy
You see people making this mistake a lot. Otherwise smart, successful people think that if they make just one more dollar, their tax burden will suddenly shoot up.
This is not, nor has it ever been, how our tax system works. Here are the current tax brackets:
| Marginal Tax Rate[6] | Single | Married Filing Jointly or Qualified Widow(er) | Married Filing Separately | Head of Household |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 to $8,700 | $0 to $17,400 | $0 to $8,700 | $0 – $12,400 |
| 15% | $8,700 to $35,350 | $17,400 to $70,700 | $8,700 to $35,350 | $12,400 – $47,350 |
| 25% | $35,350 to $85,650 | $70,700 to $142,700 | $35,350 to $71,350 | $47,350 – $122,300 |
| 28% | $85,650 to $178,650 | $142,700 to $217,450 | $71,350 to $108,725 | $122,300 – $198,050 |
| 33% | $178,650 to $388,350 | $217,450 to $388,350 | $108,725 to $194,175 | $198,050 – $388,350 |
| 35% | $388,350+ | $388,350+ | $194,175 | $388,350+ |
We’ll do a simple example of a single person. If you make less than $8,700, you are paying 10% in taxes. So if you made $5,000 last year, you paid $500 in taxes. Your effective income tax will always be 10% if you only make $8,700.
Say you made $20,000, though. What would your taxes be? Well, that puts you in the 15% tax bracket, but you won’t be paying 15% total. You will be paying 10% on the first $8,700 and 15% on the next $11,300. That is $870 and $1,695 for each respective bracket for a total of $2,565 tax burden. That makes your effective tax rate 12.8%. Which is about what Mitt Romney pays despite the fact that he makes millions more per year than you.
So, no, if you’re making $390,000 a year instead of $388,000 a year, you’re not going to suddenly own the government a whole lot more money. And no, there is absolutely no reason to decide to take a vacation just because you are going to advance a tax bracket.
There you have it. The progressive tax system! It’s the only tax system that is fair if your definition of fair is making sure your fellow citizens can do things like eat and sleep in a bed. It’s not so fair if your definition of fair is my money is mine and I got mine jack!
Eye graveyard
Ever wonder what happens to all the dust and dirt and eyelashes that get stuck in your eye? Sure, most of it ends up falling out in a fusillade of tears and blinking, but what about the others? Surely, some of it ends up travelling to the back of the eye.
The back of the eye must be an eye graveyard where all the micro-detritus is put to rest. I wonder if there are little caretakers that make sure things are kept neat back there. Or is it more like a mass grave with eyelashes stacked haphazardly together.
I sense a great disturbance in the force
Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone free-to-play. I sense a giant time-suck in my future. As if millions of hours suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I haven’t created a character yet, but I’ll be on Jedi Covenant if anyone reads this and wants to join me. Let me know your character’s name.
Short sales are rising
I have noticed that the percent of foreclosures has been dropping recently and the percent of short sales has been rising. Now, we have a possible explanation. It turns out that the big banks, as part of a settlement are required to provide either principle reduction or allow short sales. The banks get credit for either. So they are offering as many short sales as allowable per the agreement.
In some ways, this is good. Families can get out of their debt burden without the massive credit hit that foreclosures would cause. But I’m pretty sure the spirit of the settlement was to keep as many homeowners in their house as possible and the missed mortgage payments have already hurt their credit rating. Plus, they will still need to find a place to live after the short sale. So, in the end, it’s just more of the same. As they say, banks will be banks.
Images from a UFO landing
Ok, its not a UFO, but it certainly looks eerily like what I’d expect such a landing to look like. Strange light source? Check. Semicircle of shadowy governmental vehicles? Check.
Imagine being in a Soyuz capsule, which I understand is pretty harrowing to begin with, and the parachute doesn’t open in time. Longest five seconds ever!