Lala.com failure

It was a nice idea. Listen to songs off-line for 10 cents. Rather than 1 dollar. I can't figure out why a music publisher who choose to let someone pay them 1/10 of the avg price per song except that Lala is betting that it's customers will set them on their playlists and Not listen to Most of the songs Most of the time and fixate on a couple of songs. I guess that probability didn't work out and they ran out of business. maybe that was why their music quality was subpar to Pandora's.

What do you think?

Love is the most interesting

Of the five basic emotions: love, joy, anger, grief, and fear; it is not the most powerful. Fear is the most pronounced but love may be the most interesting because it encompasses a little of each of the others.

Why has no one suggest an Even Sink Idea for the Titanic?

Over the litany of uncontrollable or unforeseen circumstances surrounding the titanic sinking, I wonder why no one has tried to wonder if the crew could have engineered a better outcome to the disaster?

Uncontrollable
1) No moonlight
2) No waves
3) Captain rushed to increase speed
4) California operator sleeping
5) Steel brittle

Controllable
1) Even sink idea -> Since the bulkhead doors were closed, water was trapped at forward sections; causing ship to tilt over and snap, accelerating the sinking process. Perhaps if they engaged an even sink policy, it might have bought enough time (1 hour to the nearest Carpathia liner to come).
2) Impale the ship on the iceberg and ride on top of it?
3) ?? -> ??

Is the reason for the inequitable blind for .......

I think it’s to compensate the small blind for having a lesser spot. What do you think?

It has to be more than 1 person in order to maintain the purpose of the concept of the the blind: which is to force ppl to play the hand or lose some $. If there was only 1 blind, others could theoretically withdraw and that single blind would just take back their own $; a zero-sum game.

Is Apple the next Microsoft? No, not that way (market-cap)

It’s hard for any established routine to incorporate new things because it has to be integrated with existing processes or be destroyed. That’s why Microsoft loses out to Apple (for now). But Microsoft was once very innovative (tech or business sense). (Microsoft has done in 3 times already I think: Dos -> Windows -> Office -> IE). Now Apple (OS X, iPod/iTunes, iPhone, iPad). Will this mean Apple will fade away in the future?

Trickle-Down or rather Trickle-Up Taxation

The point of tax season (at least in the US circa-now) is social engineering, don't let anyone tell u otherwise.

The point of taxes originally was to ensure each portion of the population pays their fair share of nation maintenance. But with some estimates of it costing 2x as much to collect 1x tax comes in, that fair share is exhausted before it reaches gov't budgets. The only way to make it back is thru the manipulation of ppl making choices conducive to the gov't (encourage retirement savings thru tax credits/thrifty-ness to buy a home) via the portion of their income not taxed. Perpetual debit balance is resolved thru monetary policy of managing inflation/deflation?

You might think that filing taxes on an individual level provides a 2ndary perspective to ensure the rich (or employers) don't cheat. (since headcount is the primary expense). But if you go thru the mechanics, you come to realize it's not inefficient for the rich to profit from that method. No, the key of enforcing filing taxes on individuals is to educate the american ppl on the perks of following how the gov't wants us to live.

I forgot why I called in Trickle-Up or Down taxes.

*Note the subtlety of taxes and tax season. It's different but related.