The Rich Get Poorer

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Shocked Monopoly man

Here is a fact that you might not have heard from the Occupy Wall Street crowd: The incomes at the top of the income distribution have fallen substantially over the past few years.

According to the most recent IRS data, between 2007 and 2009, the 99th percentile income (AGI, not inflation-adjusted) fell from $410,096 to $343,927. The 99.9th percentile income fell from $2,155,365 to $1,432,890. During the same period, median income fell from $32,879 to $32,396.

These recent numbers illustrate the broader phenomenon, discussed in this paper, that high-income households have riskier-than-average incomes.

— Greg Mankiw’s Blog: The Rich Get Poorer

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Aside

Disclaimer: EppsNet is produced without benefit of focus groups, town-hall meetings, phone polls, or, in fact, any input from the public at all.

Don’t Make Me Laugh

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A new study says that men are funnier than women — but just barely.

— latimes.com

Men are a lot funnier on average, a few women are very funny, and women who have a reputation of being funny, like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett, are usually not funny at all.

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No Photos, Please, of Obama’s L.A. Fundraisers

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Presidential entourage in Hancock Park

The White House wants you to see President Obama bash the rich, and everyone in the press corps is invited to cover the various rallies and speeches where he claims average people can’t get a break and the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.

What the White House doesn’t want you to see is Obama schmoozing the rich so that he can pocket some of their money for his campaign.

So not surprisingly, news photographers were barred from both of Obama’s L.A. fundraisers Monday. . . .

Tickets cost $35,800 per person.

Actor Will Smith, looking dapper in a three piece suit . . . Magic Johnson sat at a table to the president’s right . . . imposing Spanish-style mansion of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith . . . POTUS entered with Eva Longoria.

Meanwhile, news photographers were welcomed earlier in the day when Obama made an unscheduled stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles in West L.A., where he ordered the No. 9, “Country Boy” – 3 wings with choice of waffle, potato salad or French fries for $8.90.

— No Photos, Please, of Obama’s L.A. Fundraisers | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier

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Unhappiness is Good for You

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As a society, we are not actually all that interested in happiness. If we were, people would stop relocating for jobs, people would stop eating french fries, and people would stop scheduling their kids for activities that happen close to dinnertime. If anything, I think people are focused on hiding the fact that they desperately want more money and more passion in their lives even though it’s not fashionable to admit it.

— Penelope Trunk

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USC 31, Notre Dame 17

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Notre Dame came into the game at 5-2, USC at 5-1, both unranked, but for some reason Notre Dame was a 9-point favorite.

USC icon

The Trojans dominated on offense and defense, gave up a touchdown on a kickoff return, and left some points on the field at the end of the game when they let the clock run out on the Notre Dame 2-yard line.

Looking ahead, the Irish played a lot of juniors and seniors, while the Trojans were playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores.

I don’t know why the Irish, trailing by 14, let the Trojans run out the last four minutes of the game without ever calling a timeout to try to get the ball back.

FIGHT ON!

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I Am the 99 Percent

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I am the 99 percent

But I’m not clear on what constitutes a win with regard to the Top 1 Percent?

What if we take away everything they have and leave them with nothing? Then the Top 2 Percent roll up to become the Top 1 Percent and we’d have to stage another round of protests against them, right?

Why can’t we just count our blessings and enjoy what we have?

You think you’d be happier with a lot of money? You wouldn’t. Where’s the evidence?

The guy making a million a year wants to make 2 million a year. The guy making 2 million wants to make 10 million. The guy making 10 million is in jail for trying to steal an extra 10 million.

As Epictetus used to say, “None of these objects that men admire and set their hearts on is of any use to those who get them, though those who have never chanced to have them get the impression, that if only these things were theirs their cup of blessings would be full, and then, when they get them, the sun scorches them and the sea tosses them no less, and they feel the same boredom and the same desire for what they have not got.”

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Rick Neuheisel is the Right Man for UCLA

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We have to say it was a game that obviously got away from us in the first half. We take from it what we can learn. We put the tough loss behind us and go forward.

— Rick Neuheisel, after last night’s 48-12 loss to Arizona

USC icon

Amazing . . . Neuheisel’s in his fourth year at UCLA. He’s playing Arizona, a program in disarray, in a critical game for Bruin bowl aspirations. The Wildcats haven’t won a game against an FBS opponent in a year, since last season’s victory over UCLA. They fired their coach last week.

Doesn’t Neuheisel expect to win games like this?

And after losing 48-12, in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score indicates (it was 42-7 at halftime), all he can say is “Good learning experience. Let’s move on.”

I can only echo what I said four years ago: Rick Neuheisel is a great hire for UCLA! “Five more years” should be the rallying cry!

FIGHT ON!

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Bye-Bye, Bevatron

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Bevatron top shielding blocks

If you drive up the hill to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one thing you can’t help noticing is the large (approx. 125,000 sq.ft.) circular pit where the Bevatron is in its final stages of demolition.

The Bevatron, as its name suggests, was used to make beverages. For example, the Bevatron could take enormous quantities of tequila, triple sec and lime juice, smash them together at the speed of light, and produce an excellent batch of margaritas.

Wait, what?

I’m now being informed that the Bevatron was in fact a particle accelerator put into operation in 1954 and used in the work of multiple Nobel Prize-winning physicists.

Bye-bye, Bevatron.

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Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011

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Dennis Ritchie was the inventor of the C programming language and a major contributor to the UNIX operating system. He died last week at the age of 70.

His brilliantly clear tutorial on C, written with Brian Kernighan, was affectionately known as “K & R” by those of us for whom it was an integral part of learning to be programmers.

R.I.P. Dennis Ritchie.

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Get What You Want

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Occupy Wall Street

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Occupy Wall Street is on the move … uptown.

Why uptown? Because that’s where the rich folks live!

— CNNMoney

I’d have more respect for these rubes if they marched to the homes and looted them. That’s what they want, right? Forced redistribution of assets?

Break into the homes, beat people over the head and take their stuff. Fuck their wives, drink their scotch, smoke their cigars, put your feet on their desks.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

Don’t just stand there waving signs like a bunch of losers. What problem is that intended to solve?

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The Most Interesting Man in the World?

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UPLAND, Pa. (AP) — Two pregnant women were allegedly involved in a fight in which one slashed two other people inside a Philadelphia-area hospital room.

Upland police say the pregnant women, ages 21 and 22, were fighting with a woman and a teenage girl inside a room at Crozer-Chester Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Upland police Chief John Easton says the women were all visiting a male patient who is recovering from a gunshot wound.

— Police: Pregnant Woman Slashes 2 Inside Crozer-Chester Medical Center « CBS Philly

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3 Laws of Usability

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  1. Don’t make me think!
  2. It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.
  3. Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.
— Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

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