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Even More Fun With Charts: Making the Poor Look Rich

Posted on by Gregg Hilferding

So it started with a graph. Which was followed by a rebuttal and a follow up graphic.

The claim? Well, rich people are actually a single category of wage earner and “rich” starts at (according to Jonathan Chait) $200K. So any chart that breaks down income in increments larger than $200K is faulty.

If it makes sense to lump all “rich” people into one category, it hardly seems fair to break down all other income levels. So let’s see how income is truly distributed if all income earners at $100K and below are lumped together:

Sweet, turns out the “poor” have more money than the “rich” after all.

Maybe we should stick to data in the first place?

Noise

Stress is a good thing

Posted on by Gregg Hilferding

In high school Psychology class, we once took a test that assigned point values to different life events. Of course, being in high school wasn’t listed but probably would have been worth 100 points. :)

After checking off events that occured during the last 12 months, you would be able to gauge how the stress in your life was affecting your susceptiblity to illness. Presumably, striving to avoid stressors was the key to a long and healthy life.

I found one of these stress tests online and took it today, but I only included things that have occured in the last TWO months. The results?

Your total stress score is 426

If your score totals 150 or more: You have a 50-50 chance of developing an illness.

If your score totals 300 or more: You have a 90 percent chance of developing an illness.

In the last couple years, I have specifically tried to seek additional stress in my life. I’ve taken on more volunteer work, become more active in local interest groups, and tried to fill my schedule however I can. To me, if I’m not doing those things, I’m not actually living. And, while I may suffer from a few additional colds each year, I can’t imagine giving it up.

Signal/Webmaster

This is long overdue.

Posted on by Gregg Hilferding

I’ve made some additions to my /etc/hosts file:

66.135.33.106 gizmodo.com
66.135.33.106 experts-exchange.com
66.135.33.106 techcrunch.com

I already avoid reading these sites since I dislike their business practices. But search engines I use and people I know keep linking to these sites despite my opinions. ;)

When I click those links without realizing the destination, I twinge imagining that I’ve contributed even 1ยข to any of these sites by loading a CPM ad.

Never again.