Category: Conspiracies

Grow the Pie

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, PolitickingLeave a comment

This is Economics 101, people. Everyone knows if you slice every pizza the same way, your piece is bigger if the pizza is larger.

“Grow the Pie.”

If you take a bigger slice (percentage of the pie) with no incentive to grow the pie larger, someone loses whatever part of the pie originally meant for someone else. If you take the same slice (same percentage) of a bigger pie to by incentivizing growth, that same percentage is a bigger slice. How does increasing taxes grow the pie? It can’t… it just takes away more of the same pie and forces business to work with what’s left: raising prices, cutting quality (or production), or laying off workers.

What’s being discussed in congress right now isn’t a tax cut; it’s extending the same cuts that were about to expire. Second, the super rich very often stay super rich by spending money as investments that create business and spawn jobs. Finally, no one says you can’t contribute more than money to help the less fortunate, but it isn’t the government’s job to take from the rich and give to the poor.

We’re talking about an INCOME TAX increase, right? This doesn’t tax money that’s sitting in account earning almost no interest right now, just money that’s INCOME. The bulk of that is from money that’s working (businesses) and even small businesses with as little as 10 employees making $25K a year is a $250,000 business, even if the owner can’t take a profit. The 1% “super rich” will ALWAYS find a loophole to pass their tax increase down to the middle class.

The rich do not work as hard as the middle class.. would you? Their money does, however, if they intend to stay super rich. Let’s say congress passed a bill that only raises Walmart’s income taxes by 20%… that should be plenty, and they can afford it, right? If Walmart decides to instead go out of business rather than pay the targeted increase, what’s 20% of zero? But cutting the taxes (or, in this case, extending the cuts) allows growth, and the same percentage of a bigger pie is more money.

Seriously, does anyone want a smaller piece of their pizza?

Holding On to the Past ‘Till the Future Gets Here

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, Existentialism, PolitickingLeave a comment

Have you ever done something and thought, “There’s gotta be a better way to do this,” or decided to remake something to work better?

I do this constantly; ask anyone who’s seen my computer desk. I have my high speed modem and separate router (with WiFi) mounted vertically on the side (for easy access without taking up desk space) along with a dedicated analog telephone that runs off the phone line (no batteries or plug ins.) The underside of the desk has a protected screen over the power center (my cat loves chewing wires when you aren’t paying her proper attention) with a UPS/surge suppressor and “power off” outlets that secure against phantom power feeds when the computer is off. The desk hutch lights are all low-power super-bright LED and also power down with the computer.

I’m also all for gradual change to improve things, like moving away from leaded gasoline, replacing paper bags with plastic, or using green technologies, but only when it makes sense to do so. Have you heard how loud wind farm windmills roar to make electricity (60-70 decibels?) Have you priced how many solar panels it would cost to run your home or business (285 square feet for 600 MW a day?) As technology improves to become more efficient, green technologies will also improve until it makes sense replace old technology. If you can get your 600 MW of power consumption down to 100, you’d only need 1/6 as many solar panels, or just 48 square feet.

If world leaders mandate that the world must stop using oil by 2015, maybe that will happen and maybe it won’t, but making it a crime to use oil thereafter even if the problem hasn’t been solved is just foolish. Need a better commercial space orbiter? A car that drives itself to a destination while avoiding obstacles? Fifty miles per gallon? DARPA and the X Prize Foundation has had the better answer for years: offer a prize to create the competition for solving a technological problem. This is why free market business competition works.

So, if you’re done inside a room, turn off the light as you leave. If you can replace an appliance with a more efficient one that can do more with less, buy it and properly dispose of the old one (or better yet, recycle it.) I cannot wait for my own electric car that goes a thousand miles on a single fuel cell that plants wildflowers as it roars down the highway at 120 mph steering with only the power of my mind, but please don’t ask me to park my car in a land fill and walk around in the dark eating tree bark just because the future hasn’t been invented yet.

And speaking of the future, where are my cheap, solid-state, everlasting LED replacement light bulbs so we can quit making these florescent bulbs that need a Level 5 HAZMAT team to properly dispose of?

Getting a Death Grip on Your Smart Phone

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, TechnologyLeave a comment

The movie Thank You for Smoking had a clever epilogue ending. After a career putting a positive spin on the negatives of tobacco, the main character is shown training board members how to spin cell phone radiation. The truth, of course, is mixed: it isn’t whether or not there IS any radiation, only how much. Additionally, it’s also a fact that the harder a cell phone has to work to hold a signal, the more it has to boost the signal (ie increase the radiation) to serve the whim of its master.

Now with Apple’s so-called “antenna-gate” crisis, Steve Job’s said that all smart phones were subject to this. In other words, if the user holding the phone covers enough of it using a “death grip,” the smart phone has to fight by boosting the signal (and in the case of the iPhone, drop it if it can’t boost it enough.) An independent company, Tawkon, has created an app to demonstrate the effect and predict the radiation output based on the clarity of the signal, whether caused by being in a bad location or holding the phone like a kung fu master. This video demonstrates the effect… interesting stuff, eh?

Filtering Copyrighted Material Requires Infringement?

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, Existentialism, Internet, Satire, TechnologyLeave a comment

According to an article on Wired.com, collecting the information that allows a filter to compare an image, a book, a song, or a video to existing material is itself an uncompensated use of the material it is meant to single out for violation. In other words, even “fair use” isn’t enough of a reason for website to police themselves prior to actual notification by a copyright holder since the website would have to have legal copies (aka paid for) of everything being filter to compare it to.

If this holds up, no website can currently be held responsible to filter its own bandwidth for violations because they would have to purchase and own a copy of whatever is being searched for (read: everything and anything) to check and see if it’s real. Ha!

Blue is NOT the New Black Dragon

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, ExistentialismLeave a comment

There’s many ways a film can make money. Box office receipts, DVDs, rentals, and first broadcast rights. But the most immediate thing fans of a film can do to support it (in addition to telling their friends to go see it) is to buy up a little merchandise. T-shirts, action figures, the novel version, whatever. But why are there some franchises who insist on providing things nobody wants or has to settle for?

Case and point: How to Train your Dragon. Fun flick, neat characters, and, of course, dragons. The dragon everyone wants seems to be Toothless, a “night fury” who’s disappears against the darkness of a night sky and breaths fire bolts like air-to-air missiles. His head is flat with bright green eyes, resembling (and acting like) a giant winged black cat.

So why is EVERY plush animal at the toy store blue? Or purple? Only the teeny, tiny figurines seems to have access to actual black dye, because the makers of anything bigger than that currently in stores looks nothing like what’s on screen. Is blue supposed to be family friendlier or something? Was there a surplus of blue fur and felt after Lilo and Stitch stopped making cartoons?

To paraphrase Stephen King: “Give was what we want and we’ll go away.”

Tiger Woods: “I’m Evil and Must Be Destroyed.”

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, ExistentialismLeave a comment

Yeah, I’m paraphrasing, but isn’t this what the media wanted to hear?

So what he lined up a legion of tanned, golden-haired lookalikes that would make Hugh Hefner jealous to meet him at various locations on tour. He can STILL beat anyone at a round of golf, and that’s even following a car accident and multiple assaults by his spouse.

Let the name of Tiger Woods be stricken from every book and magazine. Stricken from every pylon and obelisk of the PGA Tour. Let the name of Tiger Woods be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time. Amen.

The Thrown Cell Phone Conspiracy

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies1 Comment

Ever watch any of these teen-angst fueled dramas like “Gossip Girl,” The Vampire Diaries,” or “90210?” If you have (even in passing on whatever commercial they’re running), there seems to be a similarly scripted scene that occurs over and over again: angry or jilted characters throwing their cell phones, often destroying them.

I don’t know about you, but these little suckers cost money! Plus, who wants to reprogram their “smarter” phones with all their old contacts, apps, settings, ring tones, and such? Sounds like the cell phone industry is behind it all. After all, how many cell phones will you sell encouraging teens to takes out their frustrations on the phones they have now?

Aspect Ratio: Learn It, Love It

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies2 Comments

Why is it that half the US population doesn’t seem to be aware that all the people they see on their new televisions and computer monitors have squished, flat heads? I’m talking aspect ratio, the vertical versus horizontal measurement of your picture. Having the wrong ratio seems to be more common than not when people upgrade to wide screen monitors and televisions. Doesn’t it hurt peoples eyes like it does mine, or is it that people can’t really tell?

I have created a simple test. Below is a circle that I have drawn at exactly 600 pixels by 600 pixels, a PERFECT circle. Using a ruler or tape measure, measure from top to bottom through the + (plus sign) in the center and compare it to measure from left to right through the same + (plus sign) in the center. The measurement should be the same. If the measurement is off by more than half an inch either way, you should adjust that aspect ratio settings to correct “squished head” and “tall folk” (see your computer or television instructions for help if you don’t know how to do this.)

Now you can view image and video content the way their creators intended. You’re welcome!

Perfect Circle Aspect Ratio Test

Right Turn, Clyde

On By Kevin A. RansonIn ConspiraciesLeave a comment

Traffic law question: if you come to signal in a right turn lane and the signal shows a red right arrow, are you allowed to make a right turn if the way is clear? I’ve seen local cops make a right turn on a red arrow all the time, but my roommate swears that a right arrow implies “no turn on red.”

While your local laws may differ, according to StateofFlorida.com under Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings, you can conditionally turn right on a red arrow by treating it like a normal stop light unless specifically marked otherwise:

Come to a complete stop at the marked stop line or before moving into the crosswalk or intersection. After stopping, you may turn right on red arrow at most intersections if the way is clear. Some intersections display a “NO TURN ON RED” sign, which you must obey. Left turns on red arrow from a one-way street into a one-way street are also allowed.

I love right turn on red states, but have you ever noticed their aren’t any right turn on blue states? Yeah, it was a stretch…