Category Archives: soapbox

Test Scores, Profits, and Page Views are Measurements, Not Primary Goals

January 23, 2012 – 1:42 pm

I’m a little disturbed by at least a couple of news story themes that I’ve heard recently:  ”Can Eliminating [X program] Improve Test Scores?” and “Students to be Moved to Schools to Improve [the school's] Test Scores.” The former concept sounds like a fishing expedition to find a way to take money from “non-essential” programs. [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

College grads make a million dollars more in their lifetime? Statistics and false correlation.

December 21, 2009 – 5:38 am

Post hoc ergo propter hoc – “false cause” fallacy. This topic has been written about fairly recently:  (See Forbes:  The College Hoax).  However, it has really started to irk me because of the 268collegenow.bs commercials on cable TV quoting this erroneous statistic. Some cause for concern: The number is not a comparison of lifetime earnings [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Carpooling is not part of a solution because it serves no ones’ “special interests”

May 27, 2009 – 7:35 am

I wrote my congressperson, naïvely thinking that a “Washington outsider” Democratic representative would be open to any options which led to a greater fuel economy (higher passenger miles per gallon) and  less energy usage.  My proposal: expand creation of HOV lanes, basically mandating 1 HOV anywhere that at least 3 lanes of limited-access highway existed.  [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Tax and labor policies gone awry

April 24, 2009 – 11:03 am

EDF strikers cut power to French homes California Taxation Leads to Mass Migration California is 49th (New York 50th) in the Economic Freedom Index: http://www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/econfreedom.htm Nevada is 12th Other notables: Kentucky is 39th, Michigan 34th Indiana is 14th, Texas is 17th

By ThomasPowell | Tagged , | Comments Off

Thoughts while having CNBC drone in the background:

April 24, 2009 – 6:43 am

- Today is Trump family suck up day. (Was Ivanka just asked about real estate investing?) – Gotta love the insecurity-based advertising from BDO. – We must in a full force BS bear rally if earning disappointments are sending stocks higher now. – “Ex post facto?” The correct term is “Bill of Attainder”, in regards [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged | Comments Off

Populism’s income water marks

April 20, 2009 – 7:33 am

If votes went strictly by household/household income, the barrier for A simple majority: $44,389 A super majority (60%):  ~$57,000 2/3 majority:  ~$67,000 3/4 majority:  ~$82,000 Household income in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

By ThomasPowell | Tagged | Comments Off

Failure to communicate

April 15, 2009 – 1:07 pm

I don’t dread income tax filing because of the complexity. I dread it because I pay 2x the SSI contribution + at my highest marginal tax rate on all of my music gigs, and I dread the day that I don’t withhold enough throughout the year to offset the robbery that I experience. Obama: Get [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged , | Comments Off

A draft of my new success book

March 26, 2009 – 9:56 am

It’s an extremely rough draft. the-secret-to-flipping-the-switch-of-success Please feel free to suggest improvements. 

By ThomasPowell | Tagged | Comments Off

Can you hear me now, #SPRINT?

March 16, 2009 – 10:55 am

After following @sprint, they heard me: stringsn88keys: Thanks to @JGoldsborough for assisting with my #Sprint issue. half a minute ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet JGoldsborough: @stringsn88keys Hey. Work 4 Sprint. We hear u . Pls e-mail details, # & I’ll help. justin dot goldsborough at sprint dot com #Sprint 15 minutes ago [...]

By ThomasPowell | Tagged | Comments Off