Scoutwalkers at Play
Scoutwalker doing, well take your pick, warming up or winding down. From the Scoutwalker Kama Sutra.
Via The Gamer’s Nook.
Yearly Archives: 2003
Tired of high gas prices?
Looking for better gas prices? Take a look at Gas Buddy. I quickly found a reasonably convenient station at $.20/gallon less then my local station.
The Way of Castenada
I have read all or part of each of Carlos Castenada’s books and still reach for one from time to time when I need to refresh the way I look at the world, when my vision has stagnated. Castenada himself was always a mystery and early on I decided that while I’d be happiest if the narratives could be verified through peer review (I don’t think this has happened) that they might be fiction did not really take away from their transformative power.
Amy Wallace has released a new book, SORCEROR’S APPRENTICE: My Life with Carlos Castaneda, which Castenada aficionados may want to read.
On the Dole
You and I are subsidizing the builder and the folks who are going to live on this new hillside scar. According to the Seattle Times:
About one-fifth of the funding for the nearly $178million interchange and road, and much of the drive, came from Port Blakely Communities, the company building a 3,250-home “urban village” called the Issaquah Highlands on the south end of the Plateau.
The rest came from taxpayers to the tune of about $43,815 per home (assuming 80%).
There is a lot of glowing talk in the article about future tax benefits to the state and local communities and improvements in traffic flow. But there were other solutions to the traffic problem that did not involve lining a corporate pocket book with tax payer’s money (cf, bush and the Texas Rangers). Look at these projected tax revenues on a net instead of gross basis they won’t glow quite so brightly and, of course, they do little or nothing to compensate the out of area taxpayers who contributed significant federal dollars to the project.
Let’s send Port Blakely an additional bill.
Late Night Reading
Robert Musil explores the question: Is California a high tax state? The answer is not as simple as we might think at first glance.
Body and Soul links to Allen Brill’s discussion of bush’s faith: here and here.
bush does some math at Dohiyi Mir.
The Angry Economist suggests that NASA is already providing too much safety for their astronauts.
Good Night!