BASIC interpreter written in Python, good solution for teaching

After reading this article
(http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2006/09/14/basic/) on "kids
these days" not having availability of BASIC to tinker with on modern
PCs I thought "I bet it would be pretty easy to write a BASIC
interpreter in Python and it could be used anywhere".

Naturally, it's already been/being done: http://code.google.com/p/pybasic/

I can't speak to the quality of the implementation, but the idea I
think has great merit. The interpreter itself will be portable, able
to run anywhere that Python can be installed (basically everywhere).

Better yet, once the student has mastered the idea of what BASIC can
do, they can then look at the source code for the interpreter written
in Python, and then move on to Python as a higher-level language.
Brilliant!

real tax burden distribution

Media_httpvoiceswashi_kbibe

Saw lots of interesting discussion in my social nets on taxes today. Some of it even reasonable :-).

The graph above was from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/do_the_poor_really_pay_no...

It's important to keep this one in mind, because it compares total tax liability and income percentages, and not just income tax.

Because income tax gets focused on one day it's easy to get wrapped in how many people or what percentages are paid of income tax. But the real thing to consider should be total tax liability if you want to compare how "fair" taxes burdens are.

Personally, I think that the graph above is important to keep in mind. I think it shows why saying that almost 50% of people pay no taxes is dubious. It makes me think that things aren't as bad as I usually think they are! :-)

8-bit music - less is more?

I got pointed to an 8-bit conversion of a Pink Floyd song today, and I
have to say 8-bit music could be addictive. I'm actually thinking it
would be easier to work to 8-bit music since it's less distracting. I
guess the other bits free our minds up for other things? Here's the
one I started with.

Pink Floyd's Money:

I also liked Metallica's Fade to Black:

and Master of Puppets:

Philip K. Howard: Four ways to fix a broken legal system

I wanted to embed this talk from TED.com, but couldn't get it to not auto-play, which was just too annoying.

The video is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_howard.html

This is a fantastic talk. I love that he got applause at points before the end. And I love that you could really tell at the end that he felt what he was saying, even though to many it may seem a dry philosophical concept. Now the hard part - how to make the change happen?

I'd add two points to his talk. One is that another danger of how complex the law has gotten is that basically everyone has always broken a law. This opens up the State to being able to selectively apply the law - a dangerous dynamic.

I wasn't expecting it, and he nailed it with his point on what happened in the 60's. I've long thought, but couldn't articulate as well (or as credibly perhaps given it was before my time), that there was an overshoot in the laws in the 60's. He put it perfectly.

The problem is, I think it takes real dedication to the principle of freedom to change how people think about what laws should be. On average we get too overwhelmed by emotion, and by what sounds like a good argument, to realize that a law we favor is another drop in the bucket of this ocean-size problem. A good sign that a law will add to this problem: if it gets referred to as "X's law".

We've shown in spades that we're driven by fear and easily manipulated thereby. So then how do we become unstuck?