“Wood heat is not new. It dates back to a day millions of years ago, when a group of cavemen were sitting around, watching dinosaurs rot. Suddenly, lightning struck a nearby log and set it on fire. One of the cavemen stared at the fire for a few minutes, then said: Hey! Wood heat! The other cavemen, who did not understand English, immediately beat him to death with stones. But the key discovery had been made, and from that day forward, the cavemen had all the heat they needed, although their insurance rates went way up.” WayYearsMadeSaidMillionsFireGroupsMinutesKeysNeededBeatsHumorousSittingDiscoveryYears AgoStonesRateWoodsHeyHeatLightningDinosaursSitting AroundCavemenInsurance Rate Author:Dave Barry
“Who's counting? It was, of course, the minority who were counting. It always is. Most of the women I know today would dearly like to use their fingers and toes for some activity more enthralling than counting. They have been counting for so long. But the peculiar problem of the new math is that every time we stop adding, somebody starts subtracting. At the very least (the advanced students will understand this) the rate of increase slows. ... The minority members of any group or profession have two answers: They can keep score or they can lose.” KnowsLongHas BeensTwoUseProblemTodayCoursesLosesAnswersGroupsStudentsActivityMembersRacismIncreaseFingersRateMathProfessionDiscriminationInequalityScoreMinoritiesPeculiarToesCountingFingers And Toes Book:Making Sense Source: Making Sense
“Unless a group of workers know their work is under surveillance, that they are being rated as fairly as human beings, with the fallibility that goes with human judgment, can rate them, and that at least an attempt is made to measure their worth to an organization in relative terms, they are likely to sink back on length of service as the sole reason for retention and promotion.” KnowsHumansMadeReasonTermWorkHuman BeingsGroupsJudgmentOrganizationWorkersRateLengthRelativeSolePromotionSurveillanceFallibilityRetention Author:Mary Barnett Gilson
“Let's take the nine states that have no income tax and compare them with the nine states with the highest income tax rates in the nation. If you look at the economic metrics over the last decade for both groups, the zero-income-tax-rate states outperform the highest-income-tax-rate states by a fairly sizable amount.” IfsLooksStatesLastsNationsGroupsEconomicAmountTaxesHighestRateDecadesNineIncomeCompareZeroIncome TaxMetrics Author:Arthur Laffer
“The major changes that will be occurring within the new merged partnership are exciting in many ways. First, we will have the highest forecast distribution growth rate of any of the major MLPs. Second, our coverage will be above average for the same peer group with expected $1.1 billion of excess cash flow coverage through 2017 and the Access cash flows, along with our major new fee based projects continue to dramatically reduce exposure to commodity prices.” WayFirstsGrowthGroupsProjectsMajorsHighestFlowExcitingRateAverageExpectedAccessBillionsExcessCashPartnershipPeersCommodityDistributionExposureCoverageFeesForecastsCash FlowAbove AverageMajor ChangePeer GroupCommodity Prices Author:Alan Armstrong
“People (a group that in my opinion has always attracted an undue amount of attention) have often been likened to snowflakes. This analogy is meant to suggest that each is unique - no two alike. This is quite patently not the case. People, even at the current rate of inflation - in fact, people especially at the current rate of inflation - are quite simply a dime a dozen. And, I hasten to add, their only similarity to snowflakes resides in their invariably and lamentable tendency to turn, after a few warm days, to slush.” PeopleTwoFactsTurnsAttentionOpinionCasesGroupsAmountUniqueAddRateCurrentsWarmTendenciesDozenInflationSimilarityAnalogiesDimesSnowflakeSlush Book:The Fran Lebowitz Reader Source: The Fran Lebowitz Reader
“Communication media enabled collective action on new scales, at new rates, among new groups of people, multiplied the power available to civilizations and enabled new forms of social interaction. The alphabet enabled empire and monotheism, the printing press enabled science and revolution, the telephone enabled bureaucracy and globalization, the internet enabled virtual communities and electronic markets, the mobile telephone enabled smart mobs and tribes of info-nomads.” PeopleActionFormSocialCommunityGroupsMediaCommunicationRevolutionInternetCivilizationSmartPressesRateAvailableScalesEmpiresCollectivesInteractionTribesBureaucracyTelephonesGlobalizationMobilePrintingAlphabetNomadSocial InteractionPrinting PressMonotheismCollective Action Author:Howard Rheingold
“No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population. The teachers' unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.” Has BeensLostBlackInterestPartyPayTeacherGroupsCrimeBuildingUnionsDemocraticEnvironmentalRatePopulationLiberalismAgendasElsewhereHousingRestrictionDemocratic PartyFanaticsGhettoWholesaleCrime RatesTeachers Unions Author:Thomas Sowell
“These settlements [Justice Department with lenders] include requirements that banks lend to minorities at below-market rates and, in effect, dish out cash to politically favored 'community groups.' It's a good bet that many of these loans will eventually go bad.” CommunityJusticeGroupsEffectsRateDepartmentMinoritiesCashDishesRequirementsLoanSettlementLenders Author:Mary Kissel