Friday, December 30, 2022
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Monday, December 26, 2022
Kelo
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Saturday, December 17, 2022
The Atlantic on weak property rights
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/weak-property-rights/608476/
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Friday, December 2, 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Friday, November 25, 2022
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Monday, November 21, 2022
Friday, November 18, 2022
Friday, November 11, 2022
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
BuySportCards.com
https://buysportscards.com/product/6c1691780e420136d4b34cef7facfa3c
Stole pics from TCDB, but look good otherwise
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Monday, October 24, 2022
Friday, October 14, 2022
Insanely impressive stats for Belgian player
http://www.frbbs.be/statistique.php?licence=76/027
The Belgian League is probably awful, but these stats are still fun.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Economic Freedom
https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/EconomicFreedom.html
The key ingredients of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete in markets, and protection of person and property.
Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please.
Friday, October 7, 2022
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Kitson
“Moral conduct is that line of human action, conformity to which tends to promote the life, happiness and well-being of society and its members” (Arthur Kitson, The Money Problem, Ch. 1).
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Trickle down economic theory
https://ethicalunicorn.com/2021/06/30/what-is-trickle-down-economics-why-it-doesnt-work/
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107919/1/Hope_economic_consequences_of_major_tax_cuts_published.pdf
but tax increases help the owners.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/trickle-economics-flood-drip/
see 4 arguments p.138
Monday, September 26, 2022
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Cheo Hernandez
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=hernan017jos
12-10 in NNL, 1920. Had similar records in C level Florida State League in next few years.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Quality of early Mexican League
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Do trees talk to each other?
By the time she was in grad school at Oregon State University, however, Simard understood that commercial clearcutting had largely superseded the sustainable logging practices of the past. Loggers were replacing diverse forests with homogeneous plantations, evenly spaced in upturned soil stripped of most underbrush. Without any competitors, the thinking went, the newly planted trees would thrive. Instead, they were frequently more vulnerable to disease and climatic stress than trees in old-growth forests.
When Europeans arrived on America’s shores in the 1600s, forests covered one billion acres of the future United States — close to half the total land area. Between 1850 and 1900, U.S. timber production surged to more than 35 billion board feet from five billion. By 1907, nearly a third of the original expanse of forest — more than 260 million acres — was gone. Exploitative practices likewise ravaged Canada’s forests throughout the 19th century. As growing cities drew people away from rural and agricultural areas, and lumber companies were forced to replant regions they had logged, trees began to reclaim their former habitats. As of 2012, the United States had more than 760 million forested acres. The age, health and composition of America’s forests have changed significantly, however. Although forests now cover 80 percent of the Northeast, for example, less than 1 percent of its old-growth forest remains intact.
And though clearcutting is not as common as it once was, it is still practiced on about 40 percent of logged acres in the United States and 80 percent of them in Canada. In a thriving forest, a lush understory captures huge amounts of rainwater, and dense root networks enrich and stabilize the soil. Clearcutting removes these living sponges and disturbs the forest floor, increasing the chances of landslides and floods, stripping the soil of nutrients and potentially releasing stored carbon to the atmosphere. When sediment falls into nearby rivers and streams, it can kill fish and other aquatic creatures and pollute sources of drinking water. The abrupt felling of so many trees also harms and evicts countless species of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects.
Ryan told me about the 230,000-acre Menominee Forest in northeastern Wisconsin, which has been sustainably harvested for more than 150 years. Sustainability, the Menominee believe, means “thinking in terms of whole systems, with all their interconnections, consequences and feedback loops.” They maintain a large, old and diverse growing stock, prioritizing the removal of low-quality and ailing trees over more vigorous ones and allowing trees to age 200 years or more — so they become what Simard might call grandmothers. Ecology, not economics, guides the management of the Menominee Forest, but it is still highly profitable. Since 1854, more than 2.3 billion board feet have been harvested — nearly twice the volume of the entire forest — yet there is now more standing timber than when logging began. “To many, our forest may seem pristine and untouched,” the Menominee wrote in one report. “In reality, it is one of the most intensively managed tracts of forest in the Lake States.”
Trees have always been symbols of connection. In Mesoamerican mythology, an immense tree grows at the center of the universe, stretching its roots into the underworld and cradling earth and heaven in its trunk and branches. Norse cosmology features a similar tree called Yggdrasil. A popular Japanese Noh drama tells of wedded pines that are eternally bonded despite being separated by a great distance.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/02/magazine/tree-communication-mycorrhiza.html
Monday, September 19, 2022
Did Britain Stole $45 Trillion From India
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/19/how-britain-stole-45-trillion-from-india
response: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/09/british-india-and-the-45-trillion-lie/
deserves further looking in to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Victorian_Holocausts
https://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006/06/getting-into-it-with-niall.html
"The British fundamentally changed patterns of land and resource ownership. Furthermore, they changed the taxation system in a way that imposed onerous burdens on the average farmer. This change of taxation is remarked upon by Adam Smith in his wealth of nations. Previously, taxes by most kings was in proportion of earnings. The British imposed absolute tax requirements, and given the nature of agriculture, this meant that the tax burden could often not be met."
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Eminent domain
- "The right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation."
"The right of eminent domain, or the state’s ability to seize land for public use (paying the owners fair market value), is longstanding. But over the years the phrase “public use” has taken on broader and broader meaning."
According to Norman Siegel, the civil-rights lawyer and former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a 1954 Supreme Court decision allowing land to be taken by a public agency put the court’s stamp on the urban-renewal boom that followed. A 1981 decision in Michigan, allowing a neighborhood to be condemned for a GM plant, transformed eminent domain into the voracious creature it is today. “From my perspective,” says Siegel, “eminent domain has run amok.”
Putting the squeeze on landowners in order to build a shopping center or marina may seem harsh, defenders of the use of eminent domain for private development admit. But they maintain that it's an essential tool for community revitalization, a means of reshaping shopworn inner cities and suburbs to meet new economic exigencies.
If local governments didn't have recourse to eminent domain, recalcitrant property owners could hold cities and developers hostage, demanding payment far in excess of fair market value, the legal standard for just compensation. Or "you could have an individual who at any cost, any price would not sell," observed Sherman Malkerson, a Twin Cities real estate broker who has served as a court-appointed commissioner in condemnation cases. "That may not be in the best interest of the community as a whole."
Condemnation powers make it easier for built-up communities to assemble large redevelopment tracts from multiple, individually owned parcels. If a few holdouts jeopardize the comprehensive plan, a condemning authority can acquire their property at fair market value (under state laws, landowners may also receive compensation for relocation costs), then resell it to a developer.
Such takings fulfill a legitimate public purpose, say proponents of eminent domain. Yes, for-profit companies—the developer, property management firms and corporate tenants—reap much of the benefit from government intervention in redevelopment projects. But putting land acquired by eminent domain to a higher, better use improves the welfare of city residents: Property values in the project area and surrounding neighborhoods rise; additional office workers and new homeowners buy groceries, shoes and DVDs from local merchants; increased tax revenues may help pay for public services and amenities that the city might otherwise be unable to afford.
Is the use of eminent domain for private development critical to the continued vitality of communities? If municipalities and port authorities no longer had a big stick, would frayed downtowns and dowdy inner-ring suburbs go into decline, starved of private investment and consumed by blight?
That's difficult to say, although recent history in Seattle, where a statewide ban on condemnation for economic development is in effect, suggests that cities can indeed prosper without resorting to eminent domain.
One thing is certain, however: Property targeted for taking is almost never as run-down and in need of redemption as condemning authorities say it is. Findings of blight are often a smoke screen for a local government's true motivation in moving to condemn private property—increasing employment and expanding the tax base. Under current law in most district states, it's easy for local officials to declare viable neighborhoods and commercial areas blighted and ripe for redevelopment.
Real or imagined blight was not an issue in the Kelo case; in condemning working-class homes to make way for a waterfront hotel, housing, marinas, and retail and office space, the City of New London never claimed that the neighborhood was dilapidated or even slightly seedy. City planners simply saw an opportunity to create more than 1,000 jobs and boost tax revenues in an economically depressed community. By a narrow 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court ruled that economic rejuvenation, in and of itself, fulfills a "public purpose.
The case confirmed what has been true on the ground in many cities in the district and around the country for at least 25 years: Local government can take private property for redevelopment virtually at will, as long as it can demonstrate some benefit to the community.
But from a regional or national perspective, using eminent domain to grease the wheels of private development is at best a zero-sum game and at worst a loss for the economy as a whole. The inescapable economic truth about government takings for private development is that without condemnation, the development would almost certainly have occurred somewhere else.
In practice, condemnation often results in a net economic loss, because eminent domain is routinely used in conjunction with TIF, tax abatements and other tax incentives designed to entice developers and major employers to build in a particular community.
The City of Richfield collected $1.9 million in incremental taxes from Best Buy in 2005—revenue that wouldn't exist if the campus had not been built. But only about $1.1 million of that money was actually spent on infrastructure and services that benefit city residents. Under the terms of the TIF agreement, the rest flowed back to Best Buy to pay off debt incurred in developing the campus. The city won't capture its full share of taxes levied on Best Buy's headquarters until 2026.
Giving away a portion of property tax revenue to local businesses means that cities have fewer resources to spend on law enforcement, snowplowing, schools and other public services that have been shown to stimulate private investment and business activity. In contrast, unsubsidized private development contributes fully to the local tax base. Assuming that civic leaders allocate resources wisely, the additional revenue finances public services that benefit city residents and the overall economy.
Basic economic theory states that markets operate most efficiently without government interference, and for many economists, that premise extends to the use of eminent domain to further redevelopment. Private businesses and investors, not politicians, are in the best position to decide when and where development should occur, said V. V. Chari, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota and consultant to the Minneapolis Fed who has done research on eminent domain.
"We have learned through painful experience that in lots of situations, markets—individuals acting in their own self interest—lead to better outcomes than the outcomes that we can attain if governments or central planners undertake those kinds of activities," he said.
LD sources
Historians J.L. and Barbara Hammond in The Village Labourer 1760–1832 (1911) describe the workers who were driven into factories by the Enclosure Acts:
The enclosures created a new organization of classes. The peasant with rights and a status, with a share in the fortunes and government of his village, standing in rags, but standing on his feet, makes way for the labourer with no corporate rights to defend, no corporate power to invoke, no property to cherish, no ambition to pursue, bent beneath the fear of his masters, and the weight of a future without hope. No class in the world has so beaten and crouching a history.
As even the anti-libertarian historian Christopher A. Ferrara explains, “England’s response to the crisis of poverty among the landless proletariat” was a
system of poor relief supplements to meager wages, adopted de facto throughout England (beginning in 1795) in order to ensure that families did not starve. The result … was a vast, government-subsidized mass of wage-dependent paupers whose capitalist employers, both urban and rural, were freed from the burden of paying even bare subsistence wages.
English Enclosures and Soviet Collectivization: Two Instances of an Anti-Peasant Mode of Development
The Village Labourer: 1760-1832 : A Study in the Government of England Before the Reform Bill
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Friday, September 9, 2022
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Monday, August 22, 2022
Monday, August 8, 2022
Friday, August 5, 2022
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Friday, July 29, 2022
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Monday, July 11, 2022
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Tabletop baseball game stuff
Two Base Errors
From
I did a lot of research into this for Season Ticket Baseball.
1-Base Errors: 4.3 per 600 Plate Appearances that let the batter reach base (ROE) are rarer in real life than they are in a game like Strat-O-Matic.)
I broke out the ROEs into slow runners (Speed or 2 or less in Season Ticket) and fast runners (Speed of 5 or more) and found that 2-base errors generally only occur with fast runners: So it didn't make sense to have 2-base errors occur randomly on every infield error result. To get the right result without an extra die roll, I put 86% of 2-base errors on the Batting Cards and the remaining 14% in the Rare Plays table*: next In Strat-O-Matic baseball, the percentage of 2-base errors for INFIELDERS differ arbitrarily between each of the various error ratings, but it appears to shake out as an overall 20 percent. Gamers can choose whatever 2-base error percentage they like by using a percentage dice roll whenever certain errors occur in replay, instead of accepting the 2-base error that the game you're playing spits out. For INFIELDERS, I allow for the possibility of a three base error occurring, but only for PITCHERS , THIRD BASEMEN, FIRST BASEMEN, and CATCHERS...and only for them on BUNT plays... On such BUNT plays, if a 2-base error comes up (my modification allows for pitcher, catcher, third basemen, and first basemen to be charged with errors when SPEED or DEFENSE readings occurs from the bunt charts)... a 3-base error may occur when the lead runner tries to advance [a DECIDE play] and score. In Strat-O-Matic, I use runners SPEED minus 7 plus/minus rightfielder's ARM rating plus rightfielder's RANGE to calculate the safe range of the lead runner for wild throws to first base by infielders on bunts. |
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Friday, April 22, 2022
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Monday, April 11, 2022
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Monday, April 4, 2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Friday, February 25, 2022
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Friday, February 11, 2022
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Friday, January 21, 2022
Monday, January 10, 2022
Krazy Kat reference in Big Nate
https://www.gocomics.com/bignate/2005/03/21
Officer Pupp appears on the walls of the comics store.