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People Are Occasionally Quite Nice To Each Other

January 25, 2025 No Comments

It’s easy, and tempting, to simply doomscroll the intertunnel, looking for trouble. Pick your favorite intellectual rathole, and there’s a silo waiting for you. There’s no worldview too outre to come up empty. But sometimes, if you get to poking around, you find whole worlds off the beaten path that you never knew existed. They can serve to remind you that the world is not uniformly awful, and people are occasionally quite nice to each other.

e-Nable Italia

So You Can’t Afford a House, Eh?

January 24, 2025 5 Comments

So, everyone says they want a house, but they can’t afford one. Various explanations for this unaffordability are proffered. Interest rates are higher than they were for a short period a few years ago. That isn’t helping, although anyone who lived through the 1980s would snicker at you if you mentioned it. Wages haven’t kept up with inflation very well. But in general, what I hear, no matter what is being said about the topic, is that everyone thinks they should be able to live exactly where they prefer, and the houses should be cheap there. Uh-huh.

Good luck with that. I’d like to roll a different ball out onto the field. If you’re modestly intrepid, you can find a house for a relative pittance and live in it while you fix it. Then sell it, take the dough, and live where you want, or maybe do it more than once if you’re young and nimble. I’m living proof that it can be done. All you have to do is adjust your way of thinking about owning a home.

Everyone from realtors to talking heads on teevee refer to a home as “an investment.” It isn’t, at least in the way they’re blabbing about a roof over your head. A home is an expense. It may or may not be worth the money you spend on it, but it’s not an investment. For the most part, all the money you’ll gain if your house rises in value is just inflation rearing its actuarial head. Money is worth less, so the house eventually sells for more. You’re going to have to have an amazing nose for real estate to find a place where property goes from worthless to expensive without relying on inflation. You could have bought some bombed out property in many places in New York City back in the early 80s, and made a killing on it later. However, you’d also have to avoid someone making a killing on you in the interim, in a more direct way.

So, you’ll get no advice to buy rock-bottom real estate in murder capitals from me. But you can still find interesting and potentially valuable houses out in the sticks. And you can turn them into real investments, if you turn them into a part time job for yourself. I did it recently, and made a 900-percent profit on the deal. Tax-free, too, because as long as you live in it for at least two years before you sell it, you can make $250,000 before capital gains taxes kick in. Or $500,000, if you’re married, which I highly recommend. One of you can make peanut butter sandwiches while the other holds up the kitchen floor with a post jammed under the floor beams.

How about an example, Sippican? Sure thing.

Here’s a little number in Sangerville, Maine, that you can pick up for around $50,000:

Someone already thought they could make a killing with no effort on this place. They bought it four years ago for fifty grand, never touched it, and the town took it away from them this year because the house was unlocked and unattended, and they never paid their taxes on it.

It’s a 2,500 square foot, 5-bedroom, 2-bath Shingle Style wonder. Big old barn, too,

It needs some serious work, but so what? The more work it needs, the more money it will bring when you’re done. Unlike a lot of houses this age, the entire fabric of the place hasn’t been defaced with vinyl siding and gray plastic floors. Viz:

Sand the floor, replace the wallpaper, and put a fresh coat of clear on the wood work and you’ll be dining in style in no time.

The kitchen and baths won’t make it into Architectural Digest or anything, but so what? I’ve seen people ripping out ten-year old kitchens because they watched Better Homes Than Yours on teevee and noticed that everyone had quartz countertops instead of granite. Might as well plan on replacing everything in there. But I’ll bet those appliances still work. You can use them while you’re banging on the place.

Everyone is looking at this sort of project with the wrong idea. House flippers would love to wreck this place in their inimitable gray everything style, but the numbers won’t work. Not many people want to move to Sangerville, Maine from places where the trolleys run. It’s a tiny town in unfashionable Piscataquis County. You’ll have to be your own first customer. Buy it from yourself, as it were. When you’re done working on it, you can sell it to someone else in Sangerville whose house is still a mess, and doesn’t want to put in the work. Banks will lend them the money to give you a big return on your sweat and purple thumbs.

The smartest way to look at a house like this is to add up what it would cost to produce the same mess you see in the pictures. You’d have to find a 3/4 acre lot, then get town water and town sewer and electrical service to the place, and basically build a half-million dollar, partially completed structure to get the same value. Taxes? A hundred bucks a month. Crime? Well, there really isn’t any anywhere in Maine. If you’re willing to live in any city in the US, this place should hold no terrors for you.

There’s nothing to do in Sangerville. On Yelp!, the first two things to do and see are a farm stand, and sled dog excursions. The town’s only claim to fame is that the man who invented the machine gun once lived there. But then again, why would you need something to do in Sangerfield? Your house will be the biggest something to do in Sangerfield. If you need a hobby, you can stop trying to fix the wallpaper in the living room and fix the floor in this room for a change of pace:

So, you want a house.  Sangerville is over there. It’s only a matter of going.

Related: So You Can’t Afford a House, Part Deux

The How Did It Get To Be Thursday Already Trash Day

January 23, 2025 No Comments

Well, we went down the happiness rathole on Tuesday, and fell into a reverie. Languor like that is hard to achieve, so I let it ride. But we must clean out our bookmarks toolbar, or it gets backed up like Javier Milei’s shower drain. Let’s get to it!

How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

I work from home everyday, I am susceptible to eye strain, eye pain, and dizziness. Having a working environment that’s as easy on my eyes as possible is of critical importance. I hope that by sharing what I’ve learned, it can be helpful to you if you work from home, and like many, have experienced WFH eye strain.

Sometimes the eyestrain from my working from home setup is so bad I spill my tumbler of whiskey on my pajamas.

Florida man eats diet of butter, cheese, beef; cholesterol oozes from his body

What could go wrong with eating an extremely high-fat diet of beef, cheese, and sticks of butter? Well, for one thing, your cholesterol levels could reach such stratospheric levels that lipids start oozing from your blood vessels, forming yellowish nodules on your skin.

See, this is what happens if you skimp on bacon.

AI Mistakes Are Very Different from Human Mistakes

Humans may occasionally make seemingly random, incomprehensible, and inconsistent mistakes, but such occurrences are rare and often indicative of more serious problems. We also tend not to put people exhibiting these behaviors in decision-making positions. Likewise, we should confine AI decision-making systems to applications that suit their actual abilities—while keeping the potential ramifications of their mistakes firmly in mind.

I bolded that section to remind myself to ask this guy how long he’s been asleep. Van Winkle naps always leave you out of the loop.

‘Once-in-a-century’ discovery reveals spectacular luxury of Pompeii

Next door to this beautiful space, in a cramped room with barely any decoration, a stark discovery was made – the remains of two Pompeiians who failed to escape from the eruption. The skeleton of a woman was found lying on top of a bed, curled up in a foetal position. The body of a man was in the corner of this small room.

I’m put in mind of Twain’s visit to Pompeii in The Innocents Abroad:

But perhaps the most poetical thing Pompeii has yielded to modern research, was that grand figure of a Roman soldier, clad in complete armor; who, true to his duty, true to his proud name of a soldier of Rome, and full of the stern courage which had given to that name its glory, stood to his post by the city gate, erect and unflinching, till the hell that raged around him burned out the dauntless spirit it could not conquer.

We never read of Pompeii but we think of that soldier; we can not write of Pompeii without the natural impulse to grant to him the mention he so well deserves. Let us remember that he was a soldier — not a policeman — and so, praise him. Being a soldier, he staid, — because the warrior instinct forbade him to fly. Had he been a policeman he would have staid, also — because he would have been asleep.

Nevada Court Shuts Down Police Use of Federal Loophole for Civil Forfeiture

The case arose from the 2021 seizure of retired Marine Stephen Lara’s life savings during a traffic stop. Without any evidence that Lara committed a crime and without even charging him with a crime, NHP handed his money to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), bypassing Nevada’s stricter forfeiture protections. Lara had to fight for months to get his money back, exposing how police used the federal program to sidestep state laws that require higher proof to seize property and give property owners the right to much more quickly present their case to a neutral judge.

I’ve had my life savings seized during a traffic stop, too. At a toll booth.

Miracle Cures and Murder For Hire: How A Spoon-Bending Turkish Magician Built A $600 Million Nasdaq-Listed Scam Based On A Lifetime Of Lies

Invoking his close friendship and mentee relationship with Dr. Anthony Fauci and his relationship with Bill Gates, Dybul called Gumrukcu a “rare genius” who had come up with platforms to cure HIV, hepatitis B, all strains of influenza, Zika, dengue fever, and COVID. Dybul also wrote that the now-accused murderer was “deeply compassionate, empathetic, and approachable”, providing his “strongest recommendation”. In February 2017, Gumrukcu was arrested by authorities after the State of California accused him of a slew of white-collar crimes, including fraud, identity theft, and check kiting – a total of 14 felonies.

I once received a resume from a job applicant that said he had worked for Bin Laden. I thought it might have been better for him if he left that off. But I think I’d rather put that on my resume than mention those two guys.

How shutdown Bay Area tech companies ditch their fancy gear fast

“Most companies, to be honest with you, don’t have any plan,” Carroll said. “When you get your VC funding, you go out and you spend like mad, and next thing you know, ‘We’re running out of money.’ But had you gone and bought $200,000 worth of furniture from an auction, you could have saved $150,000.”

Well, on second thought, let’s not go to Camelot San Francisco. It is a silly place.

1995-2025: The Decline of Germany & Japan vs US & China. Can All-Purpose Robots Fuel a Comeback?

In 1995, in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), a combined Germany and Japan were almost 1:1 economically with a combined USA and China, according to IMF (see chart above). Only 3 decades later, this ratio is now down to 1:5! Self-replicating AI-driven all-purpose robots may be the answer. Around 2000, Japan still was the country with the most robots; Germany was 2nd. Today, China is number 1. However, most existing robots are dumb. They are not adaptive like the coming smart robots that will learn to do all the jobs humans don’t like, including making more such robots.

No.

Well, he asked, so I told him. This is not going to save Germany:

People Are The New Brands

One might argue that Abby Phillip is a person. But this neglects the intimate nature of podcasting as a medium. Abby Phillip reads off a teleprompter, wears makeup and a suit, and sits in a multimillion-dollar production studio. Rogan wears a T-shirt and talks with his buddies in a room that looks like a converted garage. For millions of Americans, Rogan isn’t a newscaster or even a celebrity, he’s a friend. And you will find this dynamic at all the top podcasts in America. (Side note: I surveyed 10 friends on their preference between Abby Phillip vs. Joe Rogan; none of them knew who Abby Phillip was.)

Neither did I. Then again, I only know Joe Rogan as the electrician on NewsRadio.

MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years

The payment card giant MasterCard just fixed a glaring error in its domain name server settings that could have allowed anyone to intercept or divert Internet traffic for the company by registering an unused domain name. The misconfiguration persisted for nearly five years until a security researcher spent $300 to register the domain and prevent it from being grabbed by cybercriminals.

I think it’s amusing that web developers are Exhibit A. for people who say proper spelling is unimportant. By the way, MasterCard didn’t even thank the guy who alerted them to this.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone. It should be easier now that you have two days experience at dealing with it.

Over On the Corner, There’s a Happy Noise

January 21, 2025 8 Comments

So yesterday reader and commenter Blackwing asked the question, “I’m curious, what’s your #1 sunniest song?” I’d offered I Can See Clearly Now, originally performed by Johnny Nash, as being in the running for the sunniest song ever. That doesn’t mean it’s not Numero Uno or anything. It just seems to me that music isn’t a competition. The possibility of a thousand-way tie is more likely than a Top Ten list. But I’ll give the question a whirl.

It’s only fair that I pull rank a little. For a long time, I played in a cover band that specialized in playing Happy Hours. By definition, we played happy music. If songs didn’t make the audience happy, they’d go over the side in a heartbeat. So I’m bound to have more experience with this sort of thing than many others.

We also have to stipulate for the record that I’m going to refer only to songs that are manifestly and thoroughly happy. There are many, many songs that might end up on a list like this that are at least partially wistful. Things sucked, but now they don’t, one-two-three-four. I’m leaving those out, too, or the list is going to look like a phone book.

So here goes. These are the happiest, sunniest songs I can tease out of my cobwebby brain. Feel free to add some of your own in the comments.

If you don’t mind, we’ll skip past the Gregorian Chants and hurdy gurdy music and so forth, and skip forward to locate the happiest song to emerge from Classical Music. A Little Night Music:

Then Beethoven showed up and we ended up with Romantic music, which wasn’t very often. It was mostly solipsistic, and you have to wade through a lot of stuff that sounds like another invasion of Poland to get to the Ode to Joy. Hard pass from there on in.

Luckily opera showed up and saved the day. There were a lot of jolly murders, and plenty of tubby girls stepping out on their significant others. They also perfected an entire art form: Brindisi, otherwise known as the Drinking Song.

Opera was the pop music of the early 20th century, but two world wars and some depressions and pandemics and similar amusements kinda put a damper on manifestly happy music. Even songs like Happy Days Are Here Again have a tacit acknowledgement that happy days had been seen on milk cartons for some time. So we’ll leave them out.

When the wars were over, people didn’t want to hear anyone crying in their beer anymore. They put fins on their cars and men into space and atoms in their bombs. They wanted to party. America led the way, but even when Europeons tried to skewer the vibe, they ended up making the best advertisement for it yet: You Want To Be an American

You can watch Sophia Loren shimmy to it if you prefer.

Postwar life was all about simple things like finding a mate, having some kids, and figuring out where to live. It lent itself to charming attestations of profound things. Maybe the sunniest voice of all time, Nat King Cole, expressed the simple joys of falling in love:

South of the border, they caught on to the whole space age vibe, or maybe invented it, I don’t know. But I guarantee you can’t be sad when you’re listening to Esquivel!

Something about Mexican heritage produces genuinely happy songs. The following band was named after Gene Autry’s horse, but saxophonist Danny Flores remembered his roots. One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, FLOOR!

We’re not done mining this vein of rich ore from the navel of the moon. This one is an ancient, trad number, a wedding song from Veracruz. It is literally impossible to feel bad while this song is playing:

Closing out the fifties, the Isley Brothers came up with an outro riff at the end of their performances. It went over so big they turned it into an entire song that might just be the happiest sound ever made by humans. Twenty years later, it helped make Animal House into a hit, and twenty years after that, you could still make drunk college kids do the worm when you played it. Shout!

The sixties isn’t really a decade. It’s two decades. The early sixties were really a coda on the fifties. The late sixties were the on-ramp to nowhere that the seventies represented. Four dead in Ohio isn’t going to set your foot tapping. But man, the sixties had all sorts of happy songs. To wit:

If that one’s a little to downtempo for you, try the Young Rascals on for size:

If you don’t think this next one is the happiest song ever composed, you’re obviously not a girl. The fun is exponentially increased by this video mashup, watching Van Morrison face the wrong way on teevee, and then twitch a bit in his Carnaby Street jacket during some obligatory lipsynch performance. The lp version of the song is pasted over it to increase the weirdness. It’s the “Rosebud” of rock remembrance.

Musical happiness comes in all sorts of flavors. It’s not possible to frown while listening to the band perform Ophelia. But I prefer a drunkard’s dream for our list:

Roots rock guys provided most of the happy music as the decade ticked over. Go ahead, try to listen to this CCR song without singing along.

But I know we’re going to get into trouble here. There are people out there that use Born To Be Wild as their wedding song. They think Queensryche ballads are touching. They name their firstborn and their pitbulls after Led Zeppelin songs. We need to include these folks in our happiness parade. That ain’t easy without stretching the definition of: happy. But I’m up to the task. Ladies and germs, I give you unalloyed joy, courtesy of some motorheads:

If riding your dirtbike while shirtless and barefoot isn’t happiness squared, I don’t know what is.

About the same time as that last one, disco was the official happy music of the cocaine and big lapel set. A big divide opened up between people who liked rock, and people who liked the Bee Gees. Sooner or later, though, someone had to bridge the gap. And that’s how Play That Funky Music became the National Anthem of fun.

A very long musical ride from Grand Funk, you could plug an awful lot of Al Green songs into our list to get the same effect. This one is as good as any. It even has “happy” in the name: Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)

I wouldn’t spend too much time parsing the reverend Al’s lyrics on this one, or any of his others. This is the fellow who intones, “I’ve been trying to call you all day, but I don’t have your number.” Just bounce along with it, and smile like he does.

Rock and pop and opera and classical music is fine and all, can bring a sunny smile to any face if you choose your battles carefully, but it’s all conversation compared to the right kind of church:

Well, whatever I forgot, put it in the comments. I’m in too good a mood to erase anything.

Nothing But Blue Skies

January 20, 2025 2 Comments

That’s a cover of Johnny Nash’s big hit from 1972. It’s in the running for the sunniest song I ever heard.

The bass player/singer, Nicki Parrott, is from the Antipodes, but has long since moved to New York. She’s performed with all sorts of interesting people over the years. Olli Soikkeli from Finland is playing the gypsy jazz guitar on the left. Vinny Raniolo is playing what looks like some version of a Gibson L-5.

Month: January 2025

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sippicancottage

A Man Who Has Nothing In Particular To Recommend Him Discusses All Sorts of Subjects at Random as Though He Knew Everything.

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