Everyday Freethought

Recently there have been a few lists ranking cities. The Milken Institute put out one. The Brookings Institute put out one that was reported in Business Insider: Most Miserable Cities and Least Miserable Cities. Also the Urban Institute put out a list on their MetroTrends website (I found out about this one from the twitter feed of the Urbanophile).

A lot of the lists are pretty equal. They look at things like the unemployment rate, the real estate market, gross metropolitan product, and recent trends in those statistics. Texas cities have done well, California did badly, Illinois did okay (but kind of on the bad side of okay).

When I would tell people that I was thinking about moving to Texas, a lot of people would regurgitate the fact that Texas has no state income tax. A lot of people seem to think that lowering taxes is the answer to all our problems. And the source of all our goodness. But is that true?

On one of the lists, Seattle ranked pretty low. Las Vegas scored the lowest. And everything in Florida scored near the bottom. Washington, Nevada and Florida have no state income tax. If no state income tax was the answer to all the world’s problems, then why aren’t those states doing better?

On top of that, some of the states that have no income tax (like Texas, South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska) get a lot of money by leasing land to oil and gas companies. Which sounds kind of socialist to me.

Image from Wikipedia

I found out about a web comic called A Softer World. They put captions on photos. They usually use the same photo for different panels, changing the size or emphasizing different sections. Some of them are funny, some are bizarre, some are disturbing, some are a combination. It’s like Doonesbury meets Post Secret.

So here is mine for this week:

Panel 1: Her family in Spain is driving her crazy

Panel 2: Maybe when she comes back she will decide to stay for good

Panel 3: Does she want to have children?

Image from Wikimedia

One thing that has been bugging me recently is that a lot of what is going on in technology is stupid and pointless. I think the big issues facing not only the USA, but the world as a whole are peak oil and climate change. If we don’t find something to replace fossil fuels, I think we will backslide technologically and deal with a lot of societal and geopolitical tensions.

Hedge funds and banks on Wall Street hired people with degrees in math and physics to develop software that figured out ways to trade more profitably. I think society would be better off if mathematicians and physicists actually worked on math and physics. And the financial-industrial complex nearly drove society off a cliff. So much for the idea that the best and brightest know how to allocate resources effectively. Or that they were all that bright to begin with.

The free market may be good at solving short-term wants, but it does not seem very good with long-term needs. Perhaps in a country where more people look at the web sites for Fox News and ESPN than The Oil Drum or Oil Price it’s a futile quest.

I was at a startup conference about six months ago here in Chicago. It seemed like most of the companies were “building mobile social networks so you can send your tweets to your friends’ iPhones.” I felt like playing “Worthless Copycat Technology Bingo”. There was one that was trying to commercialize a new process for manufacturing solar panels. Pretty much everything else was Garbage 2.0. One was a social network for men so they can get together and do manly things. They had pictures of guys playing cards, and mountain biking, playing video games. What they offer that you couldn’t get from Meetup, Craigslist or Facebook was unclear to me.

There were a few articles a few months ago on Business Insider about a presentation by Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, on their hiring practices. It went on and on about how they want “A-players”, and how to reward them, blah blah blah. A few commenters pointed out that it’s absurd for Netflix to talk about how they want the smartest people. All they do is rent movies; they are not curing cancer. Given that the stock price has gone from $300 to $66, that their plan to split the company in two was withdrawn after about 3 weeks, that they took a lot of heat for raising prices dramatically and that they are losing subscribers, I think it’s fair to ask if Mr Hastings deserves even mediocre employees.

If you are not solving an A-problem, then you don’t really need A-players.

Image from Kristian Dela Cour on Flickr

I am sure this has been covered before, but I will post a few of my thoughts on the subject.

One thing atheists hear a lot from believers is “Why are atheists so angry?”

Here are a few thoughts.

Once Friendly Atheist had a post about Rick Warren. It referenced an article in which Rick Warren said he never met an atheist who was not angry. One commenter said that it might be due to the fact that Rick Warren keeps saying things about atheists that are not true.

Usually people start the “angry atheist” trope when they find out that someone is an atheist. And when you tell someone you are an atheist you frequently hear the same BS again and again and again.

When you tell someone you are an atheist, some people will say, “You’re just angry at god.” How can I be angry at someone who does not exist? Plus it’s irritating when you make a clear statement, and someone tells you that you really think the exact opposite of what you just said. I guess some people say this because they think that just because they believe in god that everyone must believe in god. I am not limited by your preconceptions.

Another repetition that you get when you tell someone that you are an atheist goes something like this:
1. Have you read the Bible?
2. Have you been to church?
3. (Especially if the answer to 2 is “Yes”) You should come to our church. Our church is different.

Yes, I have read the Bible. A lot of atheists know more about the Bible than a lot of Christians. In fact, a lot of atheists became atheists because they read more of the Bible than the little bits their churches repeat ad nauseum. Yes, I have been to church. And no, your church is not really different. Since all churches accept the same basic premise (that god exists) they are all pretty much the same.

The irritating thing is that people will ask these questions as if they are the first person to ever ask these questions. If you tell them they are not the first person to ask these questions, they seem to think that it somehow will be different just because it comes out of their mouth.

If I was not convinced by an argument when it was given by 500 other people, it does not magically become convincing when it comes out of your mouth.

Image from Wikipedia

There was another bill submitted in Congress to punish China for pegging its currency. Personally I think China is pegging its currency, and that does give it an unfair advantage. But I think that declaring China to be a manipulator would be a mistake. I think that it could hurt the USA economically.

I think one reason these bills are no good is because they never seem to explain why China would benefit from floating their currency. Right now I think China is kind of like a shark. If a shark stops swimming it will die. If China does not grow quickly enough, it will have a lot of social unrest. So I can see why China pegs its currency.

I can see why it would be good for the rest of the world for China to float its currency. But I think people are basically asking China to implement a policy that would hurt China. Why should they do that? From what I can tell, all these bills that want to declare China a currency manipulator never explain how China benefits by floating. If you were China, would you replace a policy that benefits you today with one that will be bad for you know and might be good for you in some way at some undetermined point in the future? I think most people would not take that offer. Until floating the currency can be justified as being good for China, then I think it is a pointless debate.

Image from Wikimedia

Originally posted on 2011-06-12 15:04:24.

There has been a slight wrinkle in my plans. My car may need some work, and that will cost me money.

I have a car, but since I live in Chicago and take the CTA most of the time, I do not use it very often. I occasionally take trips: I went out to Texas last year,  I have driven to Georgia a few times, I went all over Illinois taking photos of our state, and I go out to the suburbs once a month. I like having a car, but I really like not needing one even more.

Yesterday I took my car out to get the oil changed. When I started, there was a loud knocking sound coming out of the right front side when I went in reverse. Then I started hearing it when I braked. By the time I got it to the dealer, it was making the noise all the time.

So I will have to pay to have them look at it. Depending on what it is, I may have to pay a lot to have it fixed. Or decide if I want to junk it. I have had this car for ten years. It has 110,000 miles on it.

If I move to Texas, I will certainly need a car. So if I go through with my plans, I might be looking at expending a LOT of money.

BTW: I don’t own a Prius. I just think it looks better than my car.

Image from Wikimedia

Originally posted on 2011-05-10 03:31:33

My plan was to post a couple of times a week. Over the past few days I have been busy with my job, and studying some new software technologies to improve my marketability.

I have also been contacting people I know in Texas on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as getting on some mailing lists to make more connections in Texas. I have been there once, and I have been reading about it. I want to get some more contacts in Texas before I decide if I want to take the plunge.

Plus I plan on posting more. I figure if I can get a good site going, maybe some info about Texas will come to me. We will see what happens. I will also try to get some images on my posts. I heard on a podcast that is a good way to get traffic. At some point I will post my pictures from my trip to Texas. I plan on going sometime in the summer, and I will probably take pictures then. I may also take some pictures from Wikipedia.

Image from Wikipedia.

Here is a link to Title 8/Chapter 12/Subchapter 3/Part 1/Section 1401, which gives information on who is a natural-born US citizen.

Somewhere there is the part that specifies how long a woman from abroad would have to be married to me until she can get her green card. Gotta plan ahead.

As of 2011-01-25_08.14.00, here is the latest tweet from @Rep_Giffords (Gabrielle Giffords):

My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later. 8:58 AM Jan 8th via Twitter for iPad

Pretty interesting. I wonder when it will be updated.

Here are some tweets from the anonymous BurritoMonday account.

Look out @BurritoTuesday, Burrito Monday is here! 2:57 PM Nov 23rd via web

15 minutes until @BurritoTuesday on a Monday 11:45 AM Nov 29th via web

Thanks for following @BurritoFriday, although you do not seem to post about Burritos 12:08 PM Nov 29th via web

It is now @BurritoTuesday on a Tuesday. Can you feel the Burrito resonance? 11:03 AM Nov 30th via web

It’s #Friday, and we are thinking about @BurritoTuesday 11:09 AM Dec 3rd via web

48 minutes until Burrito time! Can’t touch this! 11:13 AM Dec 7th via web

@djspiewak Everything is a burrito 12:34 PM Dec 13th via web in reply to djspiewak

@puredanger The Burrito is the fundamental grounding of reality 12:34 PM Dec 13th via web in reply to puredanger

@burritofriday There is nothing wrong with the way Canadians talk – stay as Canadian as possible 12:36 PM Dec 13th via web in reply to burritofriday

Testing with Echofon – GET TO THE CHOPPA!! 11:04 AM Dec 14th via Echofon

Almost time for a #burrito 12:34 PM Dec 14th via Echofon

Another @BurritoTuesday has passed – this time with brownies from #QDoba 1:59 PM Dec 14th via Echofon

Trying to follow all the beautiful ladies on twitter 11:55 AM Dec 16th via Echofon

I am not ready for @BurritoTuesday on a Monday 12:50 PM Dec 20th via Echofon

Someone needs to open a Burrito Resort and Casino – #burrito #casino 2:09 PM Dec 20th via Echofon

Our building is angry today 3:19 PM Dec 21st via web

If you are going to be a #douchebag, at least be a #webscale douchebag 3:20 PM Dec 21st via web