patrick.net

>> They don’t seem any happier than anyone else.

You simply do not have the feel for happiness in leading simple life. For example buying a sexy HD TV does not bring entertainment ... the content that is played in that HD TV bring entertainment. Now to be happy you need few basic ingedients:

1. SPACE

2. TIME

3. CONNECTION

In Silly Con Valley all three are missing for general public. Space is rare, time is rare and connection (community) is rare as well.

I think that's the main reason I would not be happy up there. Just visiting SF gave me claustrophobia, and I agree that when people fill emotional voids by buying stuff they won't be happy, just in debt and even more stressed than if they kept things simple. BUT, why not enjoy what the world has to offer? I probably won't climb Mt Everest but when you see something like that in HD it really is an amazing persepective.

I hate waste and gluttony but I think technology has the potential to solve mankind's problems. Just look at what the Internet has done for us. It is amazing to me that it is possible for the two of us seperated by such a great distance to even be able to exchange ideas. Wouldn't you get tired of talking to the same villagers day in and day out?

"The statement “no amount of X is safe” is vapid and pointless. Everything involves a certain degree of risk because nothing is deterministic.

Try this: “no amount of air is safe”. After all, a single bubble of it well placed in your bloodstream can turn you into Schrodinger’s pet much faster than a couple millirads."

It's vapid and pointless unless you're health is impaired by it. (radiation)

And while we're at it, the newest tech-stupid fascination, WiMax, will be a long-term experiment in blanketing communities with much larger amounts of radiation.

Don't worry, believe industry.

Monkframe and Randy,

I think the statement "no amount of radiation is safe" has the following meaning:

Every event that involves the release of a quantum of ionizing radiation has some nonzero probability of causing DNA damage and therefore a mutation of a cell.

That's all it means. I think problems start when the exact meaning gets transcribed or extrapolated into something else, using words such as "safe".

Nice to have you back, Randy. And welcome to Monkframe (I thought I'd seen your name before, but just in case, welcome!)

I've been playing around with some numbers. This will illustrate the difference between sinking costs into maintaining a problem verses investing in the future.

Hillary's $30 billion with a B plan for counseling homeowners and patrolling empty neighborhoods. If the government grew a pair of testicles and stepped up to the plate we could do this instead:

At $3 per watt we could buy 10 billion watts of solar panels. (Forget the efficiency STC ratings, assume 1 watt bought is 1 watt of actual capacity) So 10 billion watts = 10,000 megawatts = 10,000,000 kilowatts
Most normal sized homes use about 2 kilowatts at peak power, therefore we could supply 5 million homes peak power potentially. Instead of it just being a government giveaway you make it a real initiative and have private homeowners like me pay for half, now you have doubled that providing power for 10 million homes. Say average household is 4 people and 300 million people in the country equals 75 million homes.

Conclusion:

We could invest that money and provide the energy needs for 13% of the households in the country. Putting aside some very good arguments from the pure free market types and the technology guys like Randy who have legitimate different visions it should be understandable why people like me get so frustrated with the system. We spend spend spend studying problems, and to me energy is one issue unlike many other social issues that can be taken care of by writing a one time really big check.

From another board:

I earn a six figure salary, and, as I live on the beach in LA, must have a roommate. My roommate is a female. Her boyfriend purchased 3 homes in Palm Springs during the RE boom. Both of them have not really worked for a couple of years, yet they have afforded themselves lavish vacations and fine automobiles and personal expenditures. His RE value is now turning on its head and he wants out (because he is now starting to lose money). Problem is, what does he now do for money? He has no skills other that a general handyman around homes, etc. He now feels "guilty" for owning so many homes where a couple of months ago, he was touting his financial "successes".

I think he should be bankrupt and not allowed to compete with the rest of us for years ( hell, for the rest of his life for all I care) I want these 20 something, non-working folk to hit a deep depresion to at least earn some character, 'cause life aint taught them no character yet.

I can't wait for the entire system to collapse and these worthless individuals find themselves...er, um, worthless : )

==============

Hilary Clinton (basically Democrats) wants to bail these kind of folks ...

PermaRenter - right on. I'm one of the down-and-out, and I feel that if one's overspent (as I did, building my small biz, I should have gone to work at McDonald's or something) then one should be willing to "drink the cup of bitterness" for a bit, BK should bee used when it's the ONLY option, etc.

It does a soul good to live under REALLY strict financial constraints, it may not feel good but it does.

Ideally it'd result in a large enough part of the population taking on the values our ancestors did in the last Great Depression, never a borrower nor a lender be, and very distrustful of banks and userers. This results in the ultimate kick in the teeth being taken by the banksters, while we little guys have cried in our oatmeal a bit, picked ourselves up, and carried on - learned to barter, trade, grow some stuff ourselves, raise chickens, etc.

Anyone read Ray Kurzweil's books? hes a futurist who says among other things if you can live to year 2060 you can become immortal because we can 'copy your brain to a hardrive' by then. He goes into great detail how it WILL be you and not a copy of you etc. Friggin awsome stuff, just sci-fi for now though.....but when you think about blogging,WOW, 2nd life etc- lots of people could live quite happily being a brain in a hard drive and it would free up more time for leveling in WOW - no more wasted time sleeping, eating, etc. And if your a programmer you can still keep your day job!

I won't live to 2060, so it's all just musings to me, but I highly doubt they'll be able to "copy" your brain's state and function into a purely digital form by then. I doubt such will be possible by 2160 or 2260 either. Moore's "law" doesn't apply because of the barrier that's approaching, which means we have to first go through an entire development curve on quantum computers or some such advancement first, then we'll get around to tackling the complexities of modeling the human neural net/connection machine.

Any copy of you would be a copy, not you. You can prove this to yourself with a thought experiment:

You enter a quantum state replicator -- let's say a Star Trek transporter device. Normally this device creates an exact copy of you down to the quantum state, and instantaneously destroys the original. Theoretically, that copy becomes you. But maybe not. What happens when there's a malfunction, and the original is not destroyed? The original is you, and the copy, from the first interval of Planck time forward, diverges in quantum state and becomes a uniquesomeone else who just happens to share everything in common with you up to that moment.

So given the choice of surrendering so a copy can live out his/her own life in a body that looks like yours with your memories, or simply extending your *own* life, most people would chose the latter. And in the case of those Star Trek transporters -- every time you "beam" somewhere, all that's happening is a copy of you is being fooled into thinking it's still you, while you get killed. After 10,000 or so permutations of that algorithm who knows what unintended effects will arise.

And Second Life? That's just a good old fashioned cult. Those people don't need to wait until 2060. They'll end up accomplishing the same by putting on some Nike's and drinking the magic punch.

Cupertino day care provider found guilty of abusing children
By Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
Article Launched: 01/07/2008 03:31:35 PM PST

A Cupertino day care operator is facing a sentence ranging from probation to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted her on two felony counts of abusing children in her care.
Giti Karimpour, 47, was found guilty Friday on one charge of causing great bodily injury to a 9-month-old boy who suffered a fractured femur, and another charge of conduct likely to cause injury to a 21-month-old who was stabbed with a fork in the back of his throat during feeding.

In her defense, several longtime customers of Giti's Family Day Care testified during the trial that Karimpour had been reliable and treated their children well. But Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker argued that Karimpour may have been overwhelmed by her workload.

"Frustration, exhaustion and fatigue were the motivators here," Braker said.

While there were no witnesses when the 9-month-old was injured, Braker said evidence showed Karimpour was the only adult present when the boy suffered a spiral fracture, which requires significant twisting force to occur.

Defense attorney Kenneth Robinson had argued the evidence didn't prove his client injured the 9-month-old. Robinson also said his client admitted feeding the 21-month-old, but he argued the boy was moving his head and was injured by accident.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day before returning guilty verdicts. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Edward Lee ordered Karimpour held without bail until she is sentenced on Feb.

http://www.gitisfamilydaycare.com/#

How should the US deal with Illegal Immigration?
created by: Topix Pollster

Deportation 34663 69%
Path to citizenship 6167 12%
Guest worker program 5038 10%
Amnesty 2218 4%
Other (leave a comment) 1734 3%

Current Total 49820

How about "catch, geld, and release"?

HelloKitty - I used to be really big on robotics and AI and all that, and well.... the term "batshit crazy" comes to mind when Kurzweil is mentioned.

Even if we had the energy it'd take to create this George Jetson future, would anyone who's not batshit crazy want to live in it?

I mean, come on!

@Randy
Yes the 'its not really you' is a common argument, however you would have to agree that to OTHER people it would effectively be you. Soooo now imagine how cool it would be to have a copy of Abraham Lincoln around right now? I bet he might be very opininated about politics....would he support Obama(he did set 'them people' free) Anyway its fun stuff....mostly fodder for fiction and the awsome Futurama cartoon -best episode ever:"I'm dating a robot" where Fry downloads a copy of Lucy Lui from Napster and makes a copy from a blank robot body and dates her....plus the celebrity heads in jar. Don't tell me my head cant live in a jar on life support by 2060, thats totally reasonable right?

Anyway things change fast... in 10 years we went from 'only dorks use computers' to 'only dorks DONT use computers in high school'. My dad asked me a few years ago 'what IS the internet'....hilarious question so I answered with the funny 1994 internet decription 'a way to screw the phone company out of long distance charges when calling a bbs out of your local calling zone'.

@ex-sunnyvale-renter
Kurzweil isnt any crazier than people who believe in heaven and Jesus. He is just describing a techno version of 'the afterlife' dream. Its sells books. Look at the best selling book ever - the bible. People belelive thier own BS when thier living depends on it. Look at James Kunstlser - struggling fiction writer who rights a book about life after oil -which sells very well - now he makes a great living giving speechs and peak oil/environmental conferences and hes books sell better now. People want to hear that bs, true or not. Kunslter predicted disasters from Y2K! haha he'll never live that down.

Anybody here find this funny about UBS?

I found in my statement a slip which reads in pertinent part:
"please be advised that our Firm will request an extension from the IRS to delay the mailing of 2007 Forms 1099 for targetted accounts until late February or early March."

I've never heard of any company - let alone a BANK - asking the IRS for relief from filing timely 1099s. Is UBS about to file BK or something? My sister, who's an accountant, said she has NEVER heard of anyone asking for 1099 relief.

Randy H Says:
Let the fun begin, boys and girls. We’re off to the races to see which cynical, boomer politician can promise more of the country’s treasure to swing voters the fastest.

negative treasure, you mean. how many holes does it take to fill the albert hall?

condi is evil

OO Says:
A friend told me that he finished his RE reading materials on the toilet.

when you say he finished them, do you mean he hasn't had to pay for loo paper for quite some time? (look up the origin of 'bumpf' also ;) )

*No* level of radiation is safe? Does that mean that cosmic rays and background radiation present everywhere on Earth and in the Universe is a dire problem? I assume you avoid the sun, walking on concrete sidewalks, and entering brick buildings then.

The earth's atmosphere and magnetic field screens out a lot of the gamma radiation etc emanating from the sun that would otherwise be fatal to all life on earth. it's wise to avoid too much exposure to the sun, especially when fair-skinned, as UV rays cause skin cell mutations and fatal cancers. (Oz has the highest rate per capita in the world due to north european settlers in a sunny climate - ditto for CA, TX and FL?) I note the tailings from a uranium mine in australia were accidentally plumbed into the drinking water supply a couple of years ago; plus there can be groundwater leakage issues. just some thoughts.

States Investigating Sale of Securities That Included Riskier-Than-Subprime Loans

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Authorities in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether Wall Street banks hid crucial information about high-risk loans bundled into securities that were sold to investors, Connecticut's Attorney General said Saturday.

The investigations, first reported Saturday by The New York Times, center around "no-doc" or "exception" loans, that did not even meet subprime standards, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

"The loans were made to people who did not have any documents to verify their income or other verification for key requirements normally applied to mortgage borrowers," he said. "Many of the lenders made large amounts of loans, so that the exception swallowed the rule, or became the rule."

The loans were sold by subprime lenders to Wall Street firms that bundled them with other, less risky, loans into securities.

Investigators want to find out whether the banks properly disclosed the high risk of default on those loans when selling those securities to investors in Connecticut and elsewhere, Blumenthal said.

"The investment banks may have used very broad, boilerplate disclaimer language that effectively failed to disclose fully and fairly all the information," he said.

For twenty years we have allowed ourselves, our society, to be re-defined from the top down, as a stubbornly resisting sludge through which we must somehow drive the economy. In this warped view of the world, society reappears only as a generic externality of the economy; as a frustration to the market that must somehow be overcome; as an idiot host; or just simply as a dump for the unpriced human and social costs of operating corporations - overwork, unemployment and underemployment, degradation of the public domain, scrambled time-horizons, unsettled expectations, personal aggression, disrespect, stress related illness, depression, and the list goes on - with all of this 'collateral damage' uncontroversially demonstrated by international comparative studies.

A generation ago, economic development used to mean industrialisation. Now it means eating yourself, your culture and your social ties to intimates and strangers alike. Americans have always had a healthy regard for self-reliance, but that does not mean that they are willing to redefine themselves only as strategic actors who face each other as competitors for scarce resources - so that the big end of town can have from them always more!

DS quoting from the boomer handbook.

is it? hmm

How should the US deal with the immigration "problem?"

When was the last time that any of you applied for a job to clean a house?

How about being a nanny, or bussing tables, or picking fruit in the fields?

Not too recently I'll wager.

How about our economy collapsing because we are xenophobic idiots who don't recognize "free trade agreements" as being the root of a real problem?

"Now it means eating yourself, your culture and your social ties to intimates and strangers alike."

The whole thing reads as a commentary of a generation that has perverted great ideals to the benefit of corporations, selfishness, and a distortion of the balance between property rights and social good.

It rings true and is the core of many a disagreement I've had with people who don't understand that it is a balance, not all or nothing. It is the root of why I despise that generation.

HelloKitty 3:12 PM - OK you're not crazy. Whew! Brilliant post BTW.

"Top Ten Cities for Jobs
Rank City State
1 Salt Lake City Utah
2 Wichita Kansas
3 Austin Texas
4 Atlanta Georgia
5 Fort Worth Texas"

Oddly enough its also listed as Top Ten cities with low rental / housing costs.

"1. We are an international market place, there are buyers coming from all over the world investing here.
--- intl investment also means acquiring our jobs and technology.
2. We have an ongoing growing high tech, bio tech development industry.
--- ongoing! the failure rate is 75% and we past the peak of innovation in SF Bay Area. Tech is far spread worldwide along with jobs.
3. This brings us high income levels for buyers and sellers.
--- The best years of high income have peaked. Its cutthroat price competition.
4. We have the transportation to handle the traffic.
--- They stopped Bart into the southbay and the cost is beyond our abilities.

5. We have good schools so your children can get a high level education.
--- So does the next guy!

6. We have a multicultural environment welcoming all nationalities to our area.
--- OH YEA Add more fat to the argument... utterly useless.

7. The weather is great.
---- More useless agrument... it sure doesnt snow in Florida yet prices are a third or less.

8. The crime rate is low.
----- Excuse me! we had plenty of incidents of people machine gunning folks.

9. The development is limited so the prices will hold.
--- The curb and anti growth measurements were done away with back in mid 90s. Everywhere in SF Bay area more new homes are bing put up. Far more than in decades before.

10. Investment in rental property is good due to limited rentals available."
--- See 9 above ... more apartments are also going up.

----I like to chew the crap out of your realtors who keep saying this crap... damn most havent even lived in SF or California but a few years now.

Yes, Randy welcome back. Maybe I will go back to reading this blog regularly again. You and Zephyr got into a pissing match for no real good reason. I hope he comes back as well.

Based on this post, Tracy homes lost about 25% of their value in one year.

http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond5/California~Tracy~aliciaramirez

The average selling price for December 2007 was $399,842 with the average home being 2143 sqft. Compare that with December 2006 price of $546,295 with the average home being 2122 sqft. You are sure to get a great deal on a home in Tracy as compared to one year ago.

monkframe Says:
January 12th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
"How should the US deal with the immigration “problem?”"
-No amnesty first of all-

"When was the last time that any of you applied for a job to clean a house?"
-1990-

"How about being a nanny, or bussing tables, or picking fruit in the fields?"
-My girlfriend was a nanny to the same family for 8 years, and is still a preschool teacher who just got a notice with her last check that the teachers there may be eligible to qualify for the earned income credit, she loves her job and continues even though she shares a huge net worth with me-

Not too recently I’ll wager.
-No, these are great jobs for people who are just starting out. The illegals make them careers which disrupts the normal social pattern of people starting out at the bottom and working their way up.-

How about our economy collapsing because we are xenophobic idiots who don’t recognize “free trade agreements” as being the root of a real problem?
-Walmart claims to save the average family $2,000 per year. I've never heard an actual statistic for what that costs the average family per year but I know of former $30 per hour machinists whose jobs no longer exist.-

@Malcolm

I am a Nurse Practitioner at Kaiser and do prescribe meds.

The drug industry has been running Wesern Medicine but Kaiser (where I work) is now fighting back to stem the outrageous costs. The drug representatives have been banned from approaching us in our offices to push their drugs.

Kaiser committees decide which drugs will be placed on our formulary - which is a long list of meds that are appropriate, and cost effective. All the meds that are prescribed that are off formulary, are monitored and need a good reason to be used. Many times, the patient will pay extra for these off formulary meds.

Drug companies in a never ending search for more profits are now bypassing practitioners and hope that the general public pressures us to prescribe their products.

Long term effects of many of these drugs are unknown, and there are many safer solutions to medical problems. Many times, if someone is bugging me relentlessly, I will just order the med and with appropriate warning, just let them suffer the consequences.

Jimbo,

Although Randy and I had a couple of tense debates, they were really quite mild. It was a different poster who was ranting at Randy and caused his departure. I think it was Allah - but I am not sure. Obviously, Randy would know who it was.

I continue to periodically visit here, but I usually do not post unless the discussion relates to an area where I have significant experience, and I feel that I can add something of value to the discussion.

Randy H Says:

"Any copy of you would be a copy, not you. You can prove this to yourself with a thought experiment..."
_____

I'll even simplify it more than that.

Since we are half spirit half physical beings, you can never create an eternal spirit, which is supernatural, via a complex computer program.

Physicist Frank Tipler's book "The Physics of Immortality" does propose some interesting scenarios for being resurrected via a giant computer.

I guess his thesis is as computing capacity approaches infinity, we can program everything in a finite universe. However, such capacity is ultimately asymptotic and I'm not sure if we can ever get "there." Not sure I'd ever want to be there...

Well, I have an app in at a local restaurant probably starting out bussing tables and sweeping the floor etc. Move up to dishwashing! Last time I was at Wal-mart I was thinking what a great job just working in the parking lot would be - get all those carts coralled and help people take stuff out, probably get some tips too. Great exercise and fresh air, it would be great.

McDonald's is also a consideration, or a local place called AllClean that cleans houses.

I'd love to find a place that wants to hire an "illegal gringo" just pay me $30 or $40 cash for the day, wash dishes, clean floors, cut cilantro, whatever, and maybe if I'm lucky get a couple'a tacos for lunch. That would be a great gig.

As it happens I'm far enough out of town to make the commute to anything like this kind of a PITA, especially when the temperature's in the teens and keeping in mind I don't have a car.

But I am really willing to take any work. Most whites are. It's the "work ethic", a white thing.

As it happens, being so far out of town, I'm probably going to have to develop good, pro level caricature skills and get into town when I can, entertain and draw for tips and maybe make a very good per-hour wage but low hours.

And I'm not sure what to do during the 4 cold months of the year. It seems to be an enforced don't-work period around here, Have to work on that.

Thanks Danville W, that helps a lot. I hope you don't now get a flood of people emailing you to give them prescriptions.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — A suspect in the sexual assaults of several young girls in Chandler has been arrested and police said Saturday that DNA positively links the man to the case.

Santana Batiz Aceves, 39, was booked into a Maricopa County jail in Phoenix on 25 counts of kidnapping, sexual assault and trespassing in connection with the assaults that began in June 2006, police announced at a news conference. They said the most recent attack linked to the case occurred June 8 on a 14-year-old girl.

Click here for video reports on this story at MyFoxPhoenix.com

Police had been searching for months for a man who raped four girls and attempted to assault two others in the Chandler area.

All of the victims have been girls between the ages of 12 and 15, according to authorities.

Chandler Police Chief Sherry Kiyler said Aceves is an illegal immigrant who was deported twice for drug charges in California in 1999 and 2003.

Authorities said Aceves worked as a heavy equipment operator and lived in the area of the sexual assaults for the last 18 months.

As of Sept. 30, Countrywide's savings bank held about $79.5 billion of loans as investments. Three-quarters of these loans were second-lien home-equity loans -- where Countrywide doesn't have first crack at the collateral in case of default -- or option adjustable-rate mortgages, which let borrowers make minimal initial payments and face sharply higher ones later. Overdue payments by Countrywide borrowers are surging as house prices drop and loans reset to higher payments.