The Myth of the Clinton Surplus Time and time again, anyone reading the mainstream news or reading articles on the Internet will read the claim that President Clinton not only balanced the budget, but had a surplus. This is then used as an argument to further highlight the fiscal irresponsibility of the federal government under the Bush administration. The claim is generally made that Clinton had a surplus of $69 billion in FY1998, $123 billion in FY1999 and $230 billion in FY2000 . In that same link, Clinton claimed that the national debt had been reduced by $360 billion in the last three years, presumably FY1998, FY1999, and FY2000--though, interestingly, $360 billion is not the sum of the alleged surpluses of the three years in question ($69B + $123B + $230B = $422B, not $360B). While not defending the increase of the federal debt under President Bush, it's curious to see Clinton's record promoted as having generated a surplus. Verifying this is as simple as accessing the U.S. . So why do they say he had a surplus?
Santa Claus Joke By: Hani@hyperion.demon.co.uk ("H. Abu Rahmeh") 1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen. 2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. 3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seemes logical). This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. 4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. 5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. In conclusion: If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Outline of basic music theory - www.oscarvandillen.com Professional music theory: an outline of basic music theory. Preface and Chapter 1 of the Outline of basic music theory – by Oscar van Dillen ©2011-2014 The beginner’s learning book can be found at Basic elements of music theory. Overview of chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Sound and hearing Chapter 3: Musical notation Chapter 4: Basic building blocks of melody and harmony Chapter 5: Consonance and dissonance Chapter 6: Circle of fifths and transposition Chapter 7: Concerning rhythm, melody, harmony and form Chapter 8: Further study Preface This outline offers a concise and complete overview of basic music theory. In order to speed up consulting this online book, its chapters can as of now be found on separate pages; unfortunately the original one-page version exceeded acceptable download times, because of the length of the total materials presented. © Oscar van Dillen 2011-2014 Chapter 1: Introduction integrating hearing-reading-singing-writing
presidents who kill people are popular David Henderson and Zachary Gouchenour have a paper on the topic of presidential ratings. The finding is simple. War casualties, as a fraction of the population, positively correlate with how historians rate presidents. More death = better presidents. This is consistent with sociological research on state building, which has traditionally linked wars, bureaucratic growth, and tax collection. Henderson and Gouchenour then spin out the policy implication. Adverts: From Black Power/Grad Skool Rulz Like this: Like Loading...
11 Of The Laziest Things People Have Ever Confessed To Sometimes we do, or in this case, don’t do certain things that make no sense. Why? Because, we just get into these dumb moods called laziness. While laziness can feel so good, it can also have the ability to do no good. 27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012 We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year. 1. Quadriplegic Uses Her Mind to Control Her Robotic Arm At the University of Pittsburgh, the neurobiology department worked with 52-year-old Jan Scheuermann over the course of 13 weeks to create a robotic arm controlled only by the power of Scheuermann’s mind. The team implanted her with two 96-channel intracortical microelectrodes. 2. Once the robot figures out how to do that without all the wires, humanity is doomed. 3. Photo Courtesy of Indigo Moon Yarns. At the University of Wyoming, scientists modified a group of silkworms to produce silk that is, weight for weight, stronger than steel. 4. Using an electron microscope, Enzo di Fabrizio and his team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa snapped the first photos of the famous double helix.Source: newscientist.com / via: davi296 5. 6. 7. 8. 10.
Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party The Best of Tumblr Mondays can be a drag, so to lighten things up a bit I've hand selected the best of Tumblr posts.. because I care about your happiness, not because I've been wasting time. Hope those made you smile! Know of some others you'd like to share? Comment below.
I Love You But Don't Call Me, OK? I don’t have a definitive answer as to whether introverts and extroverts make perfect, complementary couples or are destined to drive each other crazy. The bottom line is, like everything else, it depends on the people. And like everything else, if both parties respect and compromise, everything’s cool. No matter how much common ground they have otherwise, introverts and extroverts have different needs, and they do things differently. My husband is only slightly less introverted than I, and even so we have had to negotiate a few things. General guidelines for socializing. I'd love to hear from introvert-extrovert couples about your talking points. Hooray, hooray, my book is out! Institutionalizing Extra-Judicial Execution: Obama is a Mass Murderer Featured in our news section, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has published an important new investigation into America’s drone war in Pakistan, finding that many strikes have deliberately launched follow-up attacks, killing people “who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals.” As Glenn Greenwald points out (again) the Bureau’s methodology for tallying civilian deaths is very rigid and “virtually guarantees significant under-counting of civilian deaths,” but nonetheless the report finds that “at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims” and “more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners.” The high-end estimate for total casualties in the U.S. drone war, according to the Bureau, is 3,019, including up to 815 civilians (175 of them children). Here’s what I think is the most important passage of the report: Join the Discussion!