DancingSamurai.ca

Playing a little catchup today, with a mishmash of links:

• Michael Geist puts out some facts to face the media industry propaganda machine in his video “Putting Canadian Piracy in perspective” (also covered on BoingBoing)
• The Globe and Mail put out an article about a focus group’s advice on how to spin the war in Afghanistan to make it more palatable to Canadians. I would love to write a whole article on this but have been trying to cut back on my bogging so suffice to say: I’m disgusted.
  

  The Harper government has been told to stop referring to “fighting terrorism” and the Sept. 11 attacks, and to banish the phrase “cut and run” from its vocabulary if it is to persuade a skeptical public that the military mission in Afghanistan is worth pursuing.

• A few blogs are discussing the latest health developments south of the border, namely that the US Surgeon General was prevented from releasing medical information that was contrary to Republican political ideology. Can anyone say Lysenko?
  

  President Bush’s first surgeon general charged today that administration officials prevented him from providing the public with accurate scientific and medical information on such issues as stem cell research and teen pregnancy.

• I also found a great looking Canadian tax tip site. Some great basic information + calculators.

As a follow-up to my earlier post on Cory’s speech at Google, here’s his stance in article form.

The futurists were just plain wrong. An “information economy” can’t be based on selling information. Information technology makes copying information easier and easier. The more IT you have, the less control you have over the bits you send out into the world. It will never, ever, EVER get any harder to copy information. The information economy is about selling everything except information.

The United States traded its manufacturing sector’s health for its entertainment industry, hoping that Police Academy sequels could take the place of the rustbelt. The United States bet wrong. But like a losing gambler who keeps on doubling down, the United States doesn’t know when to quit.

Local cache: Cory Doctorow – How Hollywood, Congress, and DRM are Beating Up the American Economy

(via Digital-Copyright.ca)

You know the one. Us men prefer to leave the toilet seat in the last used position, and women prefer it in the down position. This clearly is not a problem until a man and woman cohabit and share the same toilet.

Well, here’s an economic analysis of the toilet seat problem.

In this paper, we internalize the cost of yelling and model the conflict as a non-cooperative game between two species, males and females.We find that the social norm of leaving the toilet seat down is inefficient. However, to our dismay, we also find that the social norm of always leaving the toilet seat down after use is not only a Nash equilibrium in pure strategies but is also trembling-hand perfect. So, we can complain all we like, but this norm is not likely to go away.

My SO always yells at me for leaving the seat up, too. She grants that it may be inefficient, but argues that it is better from an aesthetic perspective. Very well, then, I implement the “toilet lid solution” (see Remark 6 at the end of this older paper). You may think it spiteful but if aesthetics is what she truly wants (instead of offloading all toilet seat operations onto me) she should be happy, no?

(via BoingBoing)

Local cache: Game Theory – Toilet Seat Problem

Once again, taking some time off while trying to get some work done this weekend to go through the pile of links I have collected over the last little while. Here they are in no particular order:

• Open Medicine – a made in Canada, free, publicly accessible medical journal begins! They even have an RSS feed, which I have added to my Bloglines subscription… (via Michael Geist)
• Lots of blame has been thrown around in the Virginia Tech shooting this past week, from blaming Bill Gates to vaccines. Unfortunately, it seems, nobody is blaming the shooter. I’m reminded of that movie where these two russians come to the US, and one of them states the great thing about the US is that “nobody is responsible for their own actions”. (Anybody remember what movie this is?) It is also pointed out that horrible things like this happened even a long time ago… (via Respectful Insolence)
• I think I found the digital camera I want: The Lumix FX07. Word of mouth advertising? Works great!
• Rogers traffic shaping causing more problems – like degrading VPN and e-mail access. I have been ranting for a long time that an ISP who has a bandwidth cap has no business telling you what you use that bandwidth for. That’s why I’m glad my ISP is Teksavvy – unlimited bandwidth, great service. I have only great things to say about them!
• A wonderful Forbes article [ local cache ] on an alternative strategy to deal with crime in on-line social networking sites… (via TLF).
• The Automobile Protective Association is an interesting idea — make some deals with car dealerships for a no-nonsense, haggle free purchase of an automobile. They also list common problems with most models of cars. I’ll have to go back there when looking to buy a vehicle…
• Canadian High Interest Savings Accounts – a nice, comprehensive review.
• It seems drug companies aren’t the only ones being sleazy with drug prices — pharmacies (at least in the states) are also inflating drug prices. (via Get Rich Slowly)
• A passionate account (that’s becoming all too common) of how the music industry is comitting suicide.

JLP at All Financial Matters has posted a neat link to Bankrate’s FICO score estimator. The FICO score, according to wikipedia is “a number typically between 300 and 850, based on a statistical analysis of a person’s credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person, which is the likelihood that the person will pay his or her bills.” In other words, it’s very important if you’re applying for loans and such. The estimator was quite accurate for me, which is nice since the credit bureaus will give you your actual score but charge you extra money for it.

You can get your credit report online for a small fee or for free by writing (apparently also faxing or phoning) any of the credit bureaus, such as Equifax.

[Original Post from October 25, 2006]
With our recent “Practice Management” seminar day, I was reminded of something I’ve been meaning to post about — the fact that by far the majority of new residents are overpaying their taxes.

Before you get too far, I want to make one thing clear: I’m a doctor, not an accountant. Talk to someone who’s studied the area for real tax advice. This is just meant as a little tip to raise awareness, and for you to look into things. Your individual situation may vary.

(more…)

I’ve recently stumbled on “Get Rich Slowly“, a blog about personal finances and the like. There’s some decent advice there for beginners in the financial realm. I don’t agree with everything there, but for the most part it’s solid, basic stuff that somehow most people still haven’t internalized. The most recent post is “10 Common Money Mistakes“. Check it out if you get a chance!

1. Procrastinating. The best time to make any sort of financial improvement is now. The best time to start paying off your debt is now. The best time to start saving for retirement is now. The best time to start a budget is now. Mathematically, psychologically, and financially, the best time to start is now. Put compound returns to work for you.
2. Spending more than you earn. Yes, the government deficit spends. You are not the government. Yes, there are lots of things that are tempting to buy. Yes, you could use credit to purchase them. Don’t. Don’t spend more than you earn. It’s only by mastering this fundamental principle that you’ll ever begin to accumulate wealth.

I stumbled on this interesting financial planning site while searching for something or other on the Internet: Get Rich Slowly. This article has 7 tips for 2007, which is a great place to get started.

Personally, I track everything I spend, and have been doing so for years. As the article says, don’t be judgemental while tracking — it’s to gather information. Once you know what you’re spending your money on, it’s much easier to consciously change it, if you feel it is necessary. Plus, those meetings with financial planners and self-budgeting will be a breeze. Need to know how much you spend on average on eating out? No problem, it’s right there. No more guessing involved!

Also read a good, basic book if you’re new to thinking about these things. The Wealthy Barber is a good place to start!

As for saving for a retirement? Do it now. Check out this chart if you doubt me.