comments encouraged..: January 2018

this week i

bought a second investment property at 18th and kalorama, just south of adams morgan. goal is to rent it forever and live off the interest.

published on health insurance trends by sexual orientation.

read how income correlates with life expectancy.

men in the bottom 1% of the income distribution at the age of 40 years had an expected age of death of 72.7 years. men in the top 1% of the income distribution had an expected age of death of 87.3 years, which is 14.6 years (95% ci, 14.4-14.8 years) longer than those in the bottom 1%

the differences in life expectancy by income imply that the social security program is less redistributive than implied by its progressive benefit structure. men and women in the top 1% of the income distribution can expect to claim social security and medicare for 11.8 and 8.3 more years than men and women in the bottom 1% of the income distribution

read the timeline of the far future.

38,172 ad: a transit of uranus from neptune, the rarest of all planetary transits

7.2 million: without maintenance, mount rushmore will erode into unrecognizability

50 million: maximum estimated time before the moon phobos collides with mars

180 million: due to the gradual slowing of earth's rotation, a day on earth will be one hour longer than it is today

600 million: the sun's increasing luminosity begins to disrupt the carbon-silicate cycle; higher luminosity increases weathering of surface rocks, which traps carbon dioxide in the ground as carbonate. as water evaporates from the earth's surface, rocks harden, causing plate tectonics to slow and eventually stop. without volcanoes to recycle carbon into the earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide levels begin to fall. by this time, carbon dioxide levels will fall to the point at which c3 photosynthesis is no longer possible. all plants that utilize c3 photosynthesis (~99 percent of present-day species) will die

1/25

this week i

work in sicap karak. there's the swamp cooler and i swear i have furniture, and one tree.

read the education of henry adams.

the happiest hours of the boy's education were passed in the summer lying on a musty heap of congressional documents in the old farmhouse at quincy, reading "quentin durward," "ivanhoe," and "the talisman," and raiding the garden at intervals for peaches and pears. on the whole he learned the most then

all experience is an arch, to build upon

on may 13, he met the official announcement that england recognized the belligerency of the confederacy. this beginning of a new education tore up by the roots nearly all that was left of harvard college and germany. he had to learn - the sooner the better - that his ideas were the reverse of truth; that in may, 1861, no one in england - literally no one - doubted that jefferson davis had made or would make a nation, and nearly all were glad of it, though not often saying so. they mostly imitated palmerston, who, according to mr. gladstone, "desired the severance as a diminution of a dangerous power, but prudently held his tongue"

his third season in london society saw the end of his diplomatic education, and began for him the social life of a young man who felt at home in england - more at home there than anywhere else. with this feeling, the mere habit of going to garden-parties, dinners, receptions, and balls had nothing to do. one might go to scores without a sensation of home. one might stay in no end of country houses without forgetting that one was a total stranger and could never be anything else. one might bow to half the dukes and duchesses in england, and feel only the more strange. hundreds of persons might pass with a nod and never come nearer. close relation in a place like london is a personal mystery as profound as chemical affinity. thousands pass, and one separates himself from the mass to attach himself to another, and so make, little by little, a group

the mere suggestions that a sun existed above him would outrage the self-respect of a deep-sea fish that carried a lantern on the end of its nose

the happy village was innocent of a club. the one-horse tram on f street to the capitol was ample for traffic. every pleasant spring morning at the pennsylvania station, society met to bid good-bye to its friends going off on the single express. the state department was lodged in an infant asylum far out on fourteenth street while mr. mullett was constructing his architectural infant asylum next the white house. the value of real estate had not increased since 1800, and the pavements were more impassable than the mud. all this favored a young man who had come to make a name. in four-and-twenty hours he could know everybody; in two days everybody knew him

the progress of evolution from president washington to president grant, was alone evidence enough to upset darwin

the old new englander was apt to be a solitary animal, but the young new englander was sometimes human. judge hoar brought his son sam to washington, and sam hoar loved largely and well. he taught adams the charm of washington spring. education for education, none ever compared with the delight of this. the potomac and its tributaries squandered beauty. rock creek was as wild as the rocky mountains. here and there a negro log cabin alone disturbed the dogwood and the judas-tree, the azalea and the laurel. the tulip and the chestnut gave no sense of strugle against a stingy nature. the soft, full outlines of the landscape carried no hidden horror of glaciers in its bosom. the brooding heat of the profligate vegetation; the cool charm of the running water; the terrific splendor of the june thunder-gust in the deep and solitary woods, were all sensual, animal, elemental. no european spring had shown him the same intermixture of delicate grace and passionate depravity that marked the maryland may. he loved it too much, as though it were greek and half human. he could not leave it, but loitered on into july, falling into southern ways of the summer village about la fayette square, as one whose rights of inheritance could not be questioned. few americans were so poor as to question them

senators can never be approached with safety, but a senator who has a very superior wife and several superior children who feel no deference for senators as such, may be approached at times with relative impunity while they keep him under restraint

1/18

this week i

landed at the new airport between dakar and thies (pronounced chess) on new year's day. sim card at the airport, called and woke ulisse around sunrise and we hauled my bags up four flights. introduced myself to elias and he warmed quickly, andrea has always been endlessly happy.

dad, you have two cars but i have many cars

passed out a few christmas gifts which did not hurt anyone. luzete cooked famous fish.

count leahy, cochran, grassley who have been senators longer than i've been alive after hatch retires.

moved in to an unfurnished house with private front and back gardens in sicap amitie 3.

waited for internet and bought some cupboards too.

returned for sunday attieke alloco brunch.

1/11

this week i

loafed around with my father.

drove to the philadelphia suburbs for the christmas holiday.

met ruffles (now he knows what i smell like) and viewed two years of home improvements to a corner rowhouse between school and jail.

1/4

this week i

re-published on two hot topics: work requirements for medicaid recipients then the uninsured primer.

left the largest population agglomeration of the developed world where i have no right to stay.

met the physical presence test despite zero new countries this twenty seventeen calendar year, sent fifteen hundred dollars to friends overseas.

worked in the washington dc office. lunch and dinner with gary and cristina and curtis and cynthia and george and ethan and scott and thais and kristina and zoe and oliver and jay and marcie and david and rachel. sup babay.

noticed his known for sort of matches simba.

toured five investment properties, placed an offer on the last. notarized power of attorney forms and a tenant not yet vacated, so we will see.

12/28

this week i

conducted our way through the big city.

cooked soba and donburi on the sumida riverbank with a master who spoke with the intonation of christoper walken. matthew does not like wasabi.

red chili, not so much. too much using makes korean

thought the class was supposed to end three hours before it did, wondered if we were in hanzel and gretel.

drank a moscow mule to ease the dread of upcoming trans-kamchatka flights.

lost matthew to the pull of the plane, somewhere south of yokohama. here's yuki, my neighbor in addis ababa last summer, with momoyo, his friend also volunteering with jica. momoyo introduced us to her japanese tradition woodworking school in zushi. googling that town alone fails.