Automated Archives for May, 27th 2023
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Wallabag Additions
These are articles that which I saved today so that I may read them later. Substance and quality will vary drastically.
- How Life (and Death) Spring From Disorder | Quanta Magazine (quantamagazine.org)
Chess For the Day
Record: 1-1-3
Net Elo Change: -12
Games Played
- matiandrei07 - LOSS
- lilsamer - DRAW
- DamiGC - LOSS
- Equivocation - WIN
- thangappan - LOSS
Blog Posts On This Day
- 2022-05-27 (6 posts)
Washington wealth tax delivers huge income to the state (seattletimes.com 🗝️)
This spring, after decades of discussion, the state finally imposed its first wealth-related levy. The capital gains tax, passed in 2021 and upheld by the state Supreme Court in March, taxes not extreme wealth but the machinations of it — the selling of assets, mostly stocks, in amounts that lead to profits of more than $250,000 in a year.
Estimators modeled that Washington has about 7,000 people who live in this rarefied financial air. These one-tenth percenters would book roughly $8 billion in capital gains, mostly in stock options or returns from investment funds (real estate sales are not taxed). The 7% capital gains tax would then raise $440 million in 2023, to be used for schools.
What ended up happening blew the models out of the water.
According to the state, 3,190 people have paid a total so far of $849 million — nearly twice what was expected. That reflects about $13 billion in underlying capital gains booked by these 3,000-plus people in 2022. That's fewer people than expected. But they turned out to be far richer.
May 26th, 2023
Automated Archives for May, 26th 2023
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Chess For the Day
Record: 5-0-4
Net Elo Change: +8
Games Played
- Juankpg - WIN
- Ddiapp - LOSS
- TimaEretin - WIN
- joniswd - LOSS
- Andres123458889 - WIN
- Malbagg - WIN
- paulinhoferraz - LOSS
- Hartman1968 - WIN
- travnik666 - LOSS
Blog Posts On This Day
- 2022-05-26 (5 posts)
May 25th, 2023
Automated Archives for May, 25th 2023
This post was automatically generated
Wallabag Additions
These are articles that which I saved today so that I may read them later. Substance and quality will vary drastically.
- It's Okay if You Can Only Take Care of Yourself Right Now (jessicawildfire.substack.com)
Chess For the Day
Record: 6-0-1
Net Elo Change: +27
Games Played
- sinca22 - WIN
- josetarifa - WIN
- Invecilsanchez - WIN
- joao_lamesa - WIN
- grecoAttAck - WIN
- taifun6767 - WIN
- luigedo1 - LOSS
Blog Posts On This Day
- 2022-05-25 (9 posts)
This season of Survivor was fascinating. For some of the best people in a long time on the show, I found this season so meh sadly.
A look behind the MLS weekly stream production on AppleTV (inquirer.com)
Tesla whistleblower drops lots of data on German newspaper (jalopnik.com)
A look at Sergey Brin's LTA and a brief history of airships (bloomberg.com 🗝️)
Built inside a giant hangar in Mountain View, California, the Pathfinder 1 is 122 meters long (400 feet) and 20 meters in diameter at its fattest part. From the outside, it looks much like any airship you’ve ever seen in photos. It’s white and tapered at the back and front, and it has a dozen propellers along with a gondola. Inside the airship, though, are intricate patterns of carbon-fiber tubing and titanium joints that give it structure and strength and 13 helium bladders that provide lift—and nonflammable lift at that. It’s a fraction of the size of the vehicles LTA plans to build in the future, and yet no rigid airship of its scale has been constructed since the 1930s.
The article goes on to give a bit more history and also educate readers about what an airship is versus a blimp.
Very few people reading this article have ever ridden in a proper airship. Even the Goodyear Blimp isn’t what Brin and Weston have in mind—those are just big, inflated bags with a minimal gondola stuck to the underside. A blimp lacks a sturdy inner structure, so its engines must be attached to the gondola, which, among many other limitations, makes conditions noisy and inelegant for the pilots and passengers.
I still remember the amazing idea of having airships able to dock with skyscrapers, as was done once for the Empire State building.
Hand Talk - A look at the sign languages of the First Nations (youtube.com)
Found via kottke.org, thanks Jason!
I love learning about this, for example - the Plains Indian Sign Language condenses What, When, Where, Why, and How, into just the gesture for 'Question.' Absolutely fascinating to see!
The History of the Power Grid (construction-physics.com)
A fascinating read on the whole as it gives a good overview of the history of electricity and its growth from World's Fair attraction to home mainstay.
I found this tidbit fascinating:
To put this in perspective, the average yearly outage time in the US is around 475 minutes per year, which is considered especially unreliable despite representing ~99.9% uptime. By comparison, Germany averaged just 12.7 minutes of power outages per year in 2021—a remarkable 99.998% uptime.
Of course the US is much larger than Germany and serves a great deal more people. I would be curious to compare outage time averages for countries of both similar geographical size to the US (Canada, Brazil, China), and also comparing for countries of commensurate population (China, India.) Though China, India, and Brazil are not as "industrialized" yet.
May 24th, 2023
Coach Beard's backstory from Ted Lasso monologue (youtube.com)
BEARD
Ted and I met playing college football. He was a backup punter I was a backup kicker. We never got in the game but we spent a lot of time together jogging and doing box jumps. After school we went our separate ways; and he was dating Michelle got into coaching and I got into prison. When I got paroled, I had no money. Family didn't want me. I had nowhere to go. So, I looked up Ted. He took me in, fed me, let me crash on his couch. And in return I stole his car.
I didn't get far. And I would have gone straight back to prison if Ted didn't come down there and convince those cops that he gave me the car.
NATE
It's like in Les Mis.
B
Our story is very similar to Les Mis, yes.
N
You went to prison?
B
Yes, for stealing a loaf of Meth. And then I stole from my friend, who forgave me. And gave me a job. And a life.
So, to honor that, I forgive you. I offer you a job. The life part's up to you.
Automated Archives for May, 24th 2023
This post was automatically generated
Wallabag Additions
These are articles that which I saved today so that I may read them later. Substance and quality will vary drastically.
- A mental-health crisis is gripping science — toxic research culture is to blame (nature.com)
- Why the Idea of Western Civilization is More Myth Than History (lithub.com)
Chess For the Day
Record: 3-0-5
Net Elo Change: -9
Games Played
- ArthurPeep - WIN
- Gennnady - LOSS
- dark_horse35 - LOSS
- FidelerBauer - WIN
- Aabarros - LOSS
- ErichG57 - LOSS
- soleimaniyasin - LOSS
- adelzayan - WIN
Blog Posts On This Day
- 2022-05-24 (8 posts)
"Tokyo’s trash-collecting samurai takes a fun, zany approach to cleanup" (theworld.org)
"Inflation in G20 Countries" (tradingeconomics.com)
The Worst (> 9%)
- Argentina 109%
- Turkey 43.7%
The Kinda Bad (6-8.9%)
- United Kingdom 8.7%
- Italy 8.2%
- Germany 7.2%
- Australia 7%
- Euro Area 7%
- South Africa 6.8%
- Mexico 6.3%
The Middle (4-5.9%)
- France 5.9%
- Singapore 5.7%
- Netherlands 5.2%
- United States 4.9%
- India 4.7%
- Canada 4.4%
- Indonesia 4.3%
- Brazil 4.2%
- Spain 4.1%
The Best (1-3.9%)
- South Korea 3.7%
- Japan 3.5%
- Saudi Arabia 2.7%
- Switzerland 2.6%
- Russia 2.3%
The Liar
- China 0.1%