Nick's Blog

Nor-Cal Life and Adventures in Entrepreneurship

Entries for the ‘Education’ Category

On Ancient Demons, the Black Death, and Allergy Season

A sneeze is an involuntary reaction caused by mild illness, dust or allergens, sunlight, or even strong odors.  And during allergy season, there are plenty of sneezes going around.
Most of these sneezes are immediately followed by a “bless you,” or a “gesundheit.”  Funny how we’re quick to dole out the blessings even though we’re not [...]

Minimum Fines

I’ve been seeing some “minimum fine” signs like the one below, and it made me curious.

Other common ones are “Red light violation: minimum fine $438″ or “Blocking the intersection: minimum fine $297.”
I was curious:

If that’s the minimum fine, what is the maximum?
What determines any fine amount above the minimum?  Sir, the court finds you guilty [...]

The Wild World of Destructive Testing

This week, a 10-man demolition crew entered our home to perform “destructive testing.”
1. Destructive = putting holes in the walls
2. Testing = looking for construction defects not visible on the outside
Because of attorney-client privilege, I can’t say the exact nature of the testing, but suffice to say our HOA is suing the builder to correct [...]

On Stop Signs, Physics, and Oil

I have a hypothesis that most stop signs could be safely turned into de facto yield signs, and generate tremendous gains in time, energy, and money.  I’m not advocating blowing through stop signs at 70 mph, I’m just saying if the intersection is clear at 10 mph, it will still be clear at 0 mph.

Time
Let’s [...]

Cash Accounting vs. Accrual Accounting

There are two primary methods of accounting for the income and expenses of a business: cash and accrual.  In general, if your company’s revenue is less than $5 million per year, you are free to choose either one.
Cash Accounting
Cash accounting is the more common choice for small business accounting.  Income is not reported until the [...]

What Would Jesus Do?

It turns out the people who don’t care about Jesus (or any other deity) appear to make better choices when it comes to obeying the law.   There is an oft-cited (if outdated) study of the U.S. prison population that found only 0.2% of inmates described themselves as atheist.
Recent estimates put the population of atheist/agnostic/secular/non-religious Americans [...]

What Time is It?

Daylight savings time last weekend.  While the lost hour sucks, I’ve been enjoying the extra evening daylight.
Did You Know?
Daylight savings time gained widespread use during World War I as a measure to conserve coal.  The theory was that if it was light out longer, people would burn less power lighting their homes in the evening.  [...]

Totino’s Pizza: Cheap Calories

I’ve been spoiled by Bryn’s excellent cooking for almost three years now.  Before that, I was more interested in the most efficient ways to get the necessary calories into my body.
One of the best (read: worst) products I found was Totino’s Party Pizza.  These little frozen pizzas would go on sale for $1 , and [...]

Strategic Default: The Next Big Thing In Real Estate

You heard it here first:
By the end of this year, “strategic default” will be a familiar media buzzword describing the next phase of the foreclosure crisis.
In a strategic default, mortgage borrowers who owe more than their house is worth, but who can afford their loan payment, decide it is simply smarter to stop paying.  In [...]

PZEV – “Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle”

Have you seen these PZEV stickers and badges on cars?  It stands for “partial zero emissions vehicle.”

The acronym was devised by the State of California, which makes sense, because it makes no sense.  What part of zero are we talking about?
PZEV Defined
A partial zero emissions vehicle has zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system, [...]