Jason's Notes About Stuff

In the news: Another high profile case of a Canadian getting a huge bill in the States and not being covered. They were on vacation and were caught off guard with a baby that came 9 weeks early. They had proper travel insurance, but it Blue Cross, an American insurance company, decided that they're not covered due to preexisting conditions . Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens all the time. I had my own expensive lesson in 2001 when I moved down for a new job, and had a medical emergency in the short time gap before my employer health insurance took effect. Citizens of (every country except the United States) may be shocked to realize that a huge number of Americans must pay for emergency care out of pocket , bankrupting about 2 million people per year. Not realizing the scale of the costs involved, and thinking that my Canadian government coverage applied (it did, but only for a tiny fraction) I went to the hospital and was treated. I received random bill...

Check out the following article: UW study shows direct brain interface between humans This is really cool stuff. I first remember this technology concept from the original 1987 movie Robocop . It's also been featured more recently in movies like Iron Man and Avatar . I've always been interested in BCI (Brain–computer interface)  advancement, and the last decade or so has seen some amazing progress. Perhaps my prediction of BCI going mainstream by 2025 will come true after all...

A million dollars isn't cool , but do you know what would be cool? If you could target posts to your friends the same way you with Facebook ads. When you " boost your post " from a Facebook Page, you can target your audience by Location, Age, Gender, and Interests. The interface looks like this: I think it would be really interesting if you do something similar when you created a personal post.

Many have criticized Amazon.com for being unprofitable since inception. If you ask me, they're just being ultra-efficient . Take a look at this chart: Amazon's revenue has grown exponentially, but they've always kept their net profit/loss pretty close to zero. You see, the taxation system in most countries is actually a bit paradoxical . The purpose of a corporation (as defined by law) is to generate a profit , but that is also what is taxed. So if you make a profit, you lose a good chunk of it to taxes . On the other hand, if you re-invest those would-be-profits back into your business for growth, you get to keep it all . Meanwhile, massively profitable companies like Apple and Google end up engaging in complicated IP licensing schemes in tax havens to lower their taxes. Of course, a flat tax could put an end to some of these complex games...

Here is the update to my post last month entitled " Losing weight is hard ". Through a program of restricted eating and intense exercise, I was able to lose most of my December "Christmas baking" weight: I'm back down to around 160lbs and about 13.5% body fat. Surprisingly, this is still on the high end of normal! Mid-range for my height should be about 155lbs and 12.5% body fat. That will be my goal after we return from the wedding. Even 130lbs would still be in the "healthy" range. I can actually remember quite well when I was 130lbs. It would have been in high school, where admittedly, I was a bit of a beanpole :-) Another interesting chart is my one-year plot (missing the period when the scale was being shipped ): When I look back and see how I was up over 170, that seems so high, but meanwhile it had become the "new normal." It's important to keep things in perspective, and I've found that our Internet scale ...

A formula for success and happiness, in both business and life: Keep your own expectations tempered, but always try to exceed the expectations of others.

Stocks have been on a major upswing for the past five years, but haven't gained quite as much as the big 1990's bull market: But the big question on investors' minds is: When will the next crash happen? This article about bull markets shows us how the current market compares historically. We're at about the median time length, and not quite the median gains. So although it's quite possible stocks will keep increasing for another year or two, it's unlikely to go much further than that. Another unique factor with this market is that it is being infused with money by something called " quantitative easing ", a large financial experiment with unknown side effects. Meanwhile, corporate profits are doing very well, but earnings ratios are starting to get high. And interest rates continue to stay extremely low . It will be interesting to see what direction the stock market takes in 2014/2015. More reading: How Does Our 5-Year-Old Bull ...