Discover: Sex, Ys, and PlatypusesInstead of the XY/XX chromosomes that most mammals have, the platypus has a much more complicated sex chromosomes: five pairs instead of one. The male platypus is XYXYXYXYXY. That's the biggest number of sex chromosomes of any vertebrate. Man, platypus is weird. And so are the others. Christian Science Monitor: Pepsi …
Tag Archives: business
Links for March 11th
The Blaze: Does Raw Video of NPR Expose Reveal Questionable Editing & Tactics?This undercover video of an NPR exec is such a hack job that even Glenn Beck is calling foul. Comparing the edited version to the raw video makes obvious that unrelated bits of audio were edited together to make it appear that the …
Links for March 9th
Richmond Times-Dispatch: 1,100 felons regain rights in McDonnell’s first yearColor me surprised. I would happily have put down $50 saying that McDonnell wouldn't restore the civil rights to but maybe 10% as many felons as Gov. Tim Kaine Kaine did. He's on pace to match Kaine. This is still a terrible system—we're one of just …
Links for March 8th
Wikipedia: Adjective OrderThe "red, big ball"? Of course not—it's "big, red ball." There's an adjective order in English: quantity, quality, size, age, shape, color, proper adjective, and purpose. One has a "nice, little, old, white, brick house," not a "brick, old, little, white, nice house." City Pages: Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring businessThanks to NCLB and …
Links for March 2nd
The Gavel: 0—Number of Republicans Who Voted To Cut Taxpayer Subsidies for Big OilWhether we should continue to subsidize big oil companies (the world's most profitable businesses, let's remember) came to a vote in the House. Republicans voted unanimously in favor. IT World: Asus motherboard box doubles as a PC caseAsus is going to start …
Incentives for G.M., not a bailout.
Instead of letting G.M. go bankrupt, why not give them a bailout with strings? Say, $1B for every additional MPG/year in CAFE standards. If they agree to hit the 32 MPG mark in 2011, they get $1B. 33 MPG, they get $2B. 34 MPG in 2012, they get $2B. Etc.
Berkshire Hathaway: An Owner’s Manual.
“Berkshire Hathaway: An Owner’s Manual,” written by Warren Buffett in 1996. It’s only five pages long, but a wonderfully candid, interesting read, especially for those of us accustomed to rather drier corporate manifestos. Given that BRK is trading for $122,000 / share, you’ve got to trust that the man knows what he’s talking about.
GAO: Most companies pay no taxes.
The GAO has found that two thirds of all U.S. corporations pay no income tax. I’ve started and run three corporations, and none paid income tax. Why? Because they were all S-corps, so the shareholders paid the income taxes. I’d like to know if this study took that into account; CNN’s article doesn’t say.