If true, that’s really amazing. There are billions of pages on the web. I realize that you probably wouldn’t want to click to some of them, but the idea is fascinating just the same.

Its a small Web after all. As the six-degrees of separation notion says that any two people are only six introductions away from one another, researchers claim that any two webpages are no more than 19 clicks apart. The Royal Society, a scientific organization established in 1660, this week published a paper that has found a similar model works for the Web as well as it does for people. Despite the billions of pages on the Web , you can get from one page to any other in about 19 clicks, according to Albert-László Barabási, a networking theorist in the U.K. and member of the Society. Barabási used network science to model the Web, finding it to be a ‘small world’ of about a trillion documents connected by relatively short paths.

via 19 Clicks Separate Any Two Web Pages | Web Is Small World | LiveScience.

Hold the Pepperoni, and Bring Your Gun. Va. Beach Pizzeria Offers Discount for Customers Packing Heat

February 19, 2013

Liberty & Freedom

An interesting approach. Wonder how many customers it might scare off, and whether that outweighs the apparent popularity with gun owners?

A Virginia Beach pizzeria is serving up pies with a big slice of politics, offering a 15 percent discount to anyone who walks in with a firearm or shows a concealed weapon permit. The owner of All Around Pizzas and Deli says its his way of showing that the gun-control movement turns his stomach.”Ive always been a supporter of the right to carry,” Jay Laze told NBC affiliate WAVY. “You’re either on one side or the other and it seems like more politicians are against us rather than for us.”I want to show them they really aren’t representing the people or the constitution they are sworn in under.”

Laze said the gimmick is a hit and that 80 percent of his customers are coming in packing heat. One brought an AK-47, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

via Hold the pepperoni — and a gun — at Virginia pizzeria – U.S. News.

Jesse Jackson Jr. “Illegally Spent” $750,000 in Campaign Funds. Translation: He’s a Thief.

February 15, 2013

Economics & Politics

Don’t you just love the obfuscatory language of the plea? “Conspired to illegally spend” – where I come from, that’s theft. I’m sure he thought they “deserved” the money, in whatever twisted way that liberals who deem themselves society’s “elite” reckon using other people’s money. They even bought freakin’ mounted elk heads – what the hell did they need something like that for? I’m sure all his friends know he’d never touch a gun, much less engage in a plebeian sport like hunting. He’s going to plead guilty, so he’ll probably get a sweetheart deal that ordinary folks like me would never have a chance at.

Former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) will plead guilty to conspiring with his wife to illegally spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including a $43,000 Rolex watch, fur coats and memorabilia associated with Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Bruce Lee, according to information obtained by POLITICO.

The charges against him will include conspiracy, making false statements, and mail and wire fraud.

Jackson’s wife, former Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, is expected to plead guilty to a tax offense, according to a source close to the investigation. At different times, she has served as her husband’s campaign manager and campaign treasurer. Both Jacksons resigned from office amid the Justice Department’s investigation into their finances.

I love how the article goes on to say he’ll have to forfeit a “yet-to-be-determined” portion of the misspent funds. Why shouldn’t he have to forfeit ALL of it? He stole all of it.

via Jesse Jackson Jr. to plead guilty to federal charges – Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan – POLITICO.com.

Stuff I Like: Mercedes Benz A45 AMG

February 15, 2013

Me gusta, Stuff I Like

This is an awesome-looking little car, with super specs. Too bad, like the Uncrate article says, we probably won’t see one over on this side of the pond.

We may never see it on this side of the pond, but that won’t stop us from lusting after the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG ($TBA). Boasting the most powerful production 4-cylinder in the world — a turbocharged, 2.0L inline four cranking out 360hp — this compact four-door hatchback sprints from 0-62 in just 4.6 seconds on its way to a top speed of 155mph. Other features include a seven-speed AMG dual-clutch transmission, a high-performance cooling system inspired by the SLS AMG, 4Matic all-wheel-drive, 3-stage ESP, an AMG sports suspension and aerodynamics package, 19-inch alloy wheels, and red accents spread throughout the interior.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If…Um, No – The Real Minimum Wage is Zero.

February 15, 2013

Economics & Politics

Blah, blah, blah, the minimum wage ought to be $10, $21, $47, $1,000 – doesn’t matter what number they pick, they’re wrong. I always love those pronouncements about what the minimum wage ought to be. By whose reckoning ought it to be that number? Or any other number? This article in the Huffington Post tries to use increases in worker productivity to justify an increase in the minimum wage.

President Obama’s call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his

The standard textbook model of a minimum wage (price floor) set above the equilibrium wage. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

The current minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour. In 2011, more than 66 percent of Americans surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute supported raising this figure to $10.

I love that little red herring thrown in at the end. So what? If you had asked all those people if they supported an increase in the minimum wage to $15, I’m sure they would have responded yes – or at least the economically ignorant ones would have. The fact remains that an increase in the minimum wage raises the cost of employing low-skill workers. And raising the minimum wage doesn’t necessarily make workers more productive, so employers must look for other ways to compensate. One of them is hiring fewer people. Whenever you raise the price of a good (in this case labor), consumers of that good are going to buy less of it. Which in this case means that businesses are going to higher fewer low-skill workers.

Thomas Sowell, in his excellent Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy
says it succinctly:

“Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government mandated minimum wage, because they either lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force.”