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Showing posts from 2010

Historical Income Tax Rates

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Before you say "BORING!!!!!", all you have to do is look at a picture. If you want a more time-consuming analysis, check out the wikipedia article . But anyway I found it rather interesting that the current top-tier tax rates are much, much lower than historical highs dating back to the 1910s. Now the top-tier individual back then was making $10,000,000 and up (in 2007 dollars) as opposed to the $400,000 or so and up of today so it is apples and oranges... But come on, a 94% income tax rate!?! Are we reverting back to feudalism or something? Ok, I've said enough. Just look at the picture.

Ancestry.com

A couple months ago I created an account with Ancestry.com. IT IS AWESOME. I was able to trace direct lineage back to the William Brewster on the Mayflower. I was funny to think that I have the ultimate fundamentalist in my family. If you grew up in a fundamental church, you've heard of separation and the unsupported notion of secondary separation. William Brewster beats them all. It's not tertiary separation or 4th, 5th, 6th, etc... No, they left the entire continent to separate from the unbelievers. That's like infinity separation. Sorry Jack Hyles, he's got you beat. But anyway Mayflower relatives are cool, but I could not find much else that was really awesome, because that's all I care about in doing this. Who am I related to who is awesome? I could trace back to Bavaria before the Thirty Years War and England during the Tudors , but that's just a cool time not really cool relatives. I cancelled my subscription and left ancestry.com alone for six months or

History vs. History

I for one get a major kick out of creating and reading lists. Greatest bands of all-time, greatest athletes, awesomest people evah, biggest a-holes of all-time. Anything with the words "all-time" immediately has my undivided attention. The fun and intrigue is never ending. My brother and I would love to create a fighting video game in the style of street fighter compiled with the most badass dudes in history. Each of the characters would have a special move or two that plays to the strength of that historical character. For instance, Theodore Roosevelt would have strong health and, of course, would carry a big stick, or call upon the Rough Riders to win the day. Now to create a game like this, one has to compile the list. These have to be historical characters, so Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer from Predator won't be present but Arnold as himself is more than welcome. We toyed with the idea of combining certain characters, such as Hannibal–Scipio Africanus or Pat

Khufu's Pyramid

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Every morning I generally sit at my computer for an hour or so and look to read things. I try to find something that is new to me that is interesting instead of perusing some almost-stranger's photos of his or her trip to Folly's Beach. Much to my chagrin, the latter creeps up more than I care to remember. This past weekend I stumbled across some articles about the Pyramids of Giza–Khufu's Pyramid in particular. Fascinating stuff. There is something super mysterious about this structure from antiquity. It's mondo old and big. It's survived over 4500 years of wars, famine, natural disasters, and looting. It's well preserved–the only intact Wonder of the Ancient World, and in my opinion, the most recognizable building on earth. The most intriguing of all, it tells us a great deal about the intelligence and craftsmanship of its makers, the Egyptians. Ok, we all know about the Egyptians to some extent and that they all wear eyeliner and don snakes for hats. Hey, I a