Main Page

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Researching
As far as research, Social Security Death Index, Ellis Island Records, US Censuses up until 1930 (1940 will be released on April 2, 2012), European censuses and so forth have all been useful. Ancestry.com has scanned ship manifests on it, with the names OCR'd, which was useful for me. It also had draft cards, passport applications and other things.
 * Take LDS Utah university (ask Grandpa Chuck) class
 * Cemeteries to find & GPS gravesites

Software and Data Standards
Investigate: The Family History Information Standards Organisation was established in 2012 with the aim of developing international standards for family history and genealogical information.

Gramps and Gramps XML
Gramps has a number of features and views, including stored geographic information and media, citations and sources, events records, and a dashboard interface called "Gramplets" to help you keep track of the progress of your research. You can bookmark individual relativees for easy access, and it handles historic calendar formats for dates not in the modern Gregorian calendar.
 * Gramps sounds like a great/best open-source tool & better (XML) than GEDCOM data structure!
 * Coded in Python using PyGObject, and released in 2001.
 * Supports GEDCOM imports/exports. Can export to PhpGedView
 * Way to share it web-based? You can export to web pages: "Export to Web Pages -Select the entire database, family lines or selected individuals to a collection of web pages ready for upload to the World Wide Web."

Gramps data

 * Data format: Gramps XML
 * Importing GEDCOM data (like .ged exports from Family Tree Maker):
 * 1) GEDCOM 5.5 Standard is usually the safest type of GEDCOM to export your files from the non-Gramps program (like FTM).
 * 2) In Gramps, choose the Family Trees icon in the toolbar, or in the menu Family Trees -> Manage Family Tree, to open the Family Tree Manager. Create a new family tree, choose a name, and click on the Load Family Tree button to open.
 * 3) Now that a family tree is loaded, select Family Trees -> Import from the menu.
 * 4) Locate the GEDCOM file created by your program, and select Open.

GEDCOM

 * LDS de facto open source standard: GEDCOM (lineage-based, as opposed to evidence-based, linkages)
 * Validation tools
 * Tools that support GEDCOM: FamilySearch.org,

Family Tree Maker - Ancestry.com

 * Grandpa Chuck Bullock used Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker (FTM), which is _____(?)

Weather

 * According to Kurt Zumwalt, this is 'da troof' (paraphrasing Mr. Zumwalt) for Pacific Northwest weather forecasts: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

Measures and Lengths
Decimal Places - Aprox. Distance

1 - 10 kilometers 6.2 miles

2 - 1 kilometer 0.62 miles

3 - 100 meters About 328 feet

4 - 10 meters About 33 feet

5 - 1 meter |About 3 feet

6 - 10 centimeters About 4 inches

7 - 1.0 centimeter About ½ an inch

8 - 1.0 millimeter The width of paperclip wire.

9 - 0.1 millimeter The width of a strand of hair.

10 - 10 microns A speck of pollen.

11 - 1.0 micron A piece of cigarette smoke.

12 - 0.1 micron You're doing virus-level mapping at this point.

13 - 10 nanometers Does it matter how big this is?

14 - 1.0 nanometer Your fingernail grows about this far in one second.

15 - 0.1 nanometer An atom. An atom! What are you mapping?

Moving Checklist

 * Find a new place and sign a lease. Break old lease if needed.
 * Reserve a Uhaul/schedule movers
 * Eat all the food
 * Take a lotta stuff to Goodwill/sell on Craigslist/free box
 * Change USPS postal service address: https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/move-info/icoa-main-flow.do?execution=e2s2&_flowId=icoa-main-flow
 * If moving out of state: Register to vote in new state [do NOT use the crappy & outdated process online at USPS. Instead, google your new state's voting registration and do it online. You may need to print out a form.]
 * Find a new public library and register for a card (will need proof of new address)

Old Time Radio

 * Nelson Olmsted feature on the Northwest: https://archive.org/details/PacificPowerland

Mystery/Horror/Suspense

 * Nelson Olmsted:
 * https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/sleep-no-more
 * Edgar Allen Poe and other Tales of Horror: https://archive.org/details/103DickensGautierAndStevenson

Firesign's radio programs
https://wfmu.org/playlists/FT

Richard Feynman's CalTech commencement speech (1974)

 * On Cargo Cult Science: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/3043/1/CargoCult.pdf "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool."

Herbert Hoover: A Biography - Lyons
Read Winter-Spring 2018 in Palo Alto after visiting Hoover Tower & memorial on Stanford campus Hoover's formula for combating tough times/economic depression: Excerpts from the first Hoover Commission report, which was focused more on government process and not on programs/objectives:
 * 1) Local resources-neighbor, existing social agencies, municipality, the state-represent first line of defense against distress. They won't be as easily imposed upon 'by chiselers and malingerers, thus leaving more for families in real trouble.'
 * 2) Federal Government is last line of defense. Tries to reduce problem in the meantime by generating jobs, stimulating capital investment, providing credits for endangered farms & businesses, spreading available work.
 * 3) US Treasury grants are given strictly in relation to concrete needs when necessary, and administered through state and local committees. This removes patronage and pork-barrel diversions, Federal bureaucracy, and maximizes human good will.
 * 4) Effort as a whole is treated as 'emergency program' for meeting specific needs in specific places, not an excuse to 'relieve individuals of their responsibilities to their neighbors, or to relieve private institutions of their responsibilities to the public.'
 * IDEA: a 'Hoover Commission' for non-partisan analysis and proposed fixes to government (efficiency, consolidations, etc.)
 * That competition between two or more agencies in the same area of operation be eliminated. Ex: Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service in the same Dept of Agriculture.
 * Responsibility for land management activities be concentrated in one department (vs many agencies)
 * No duplicated hospitals by Army, Navy, Public Health service, VA.
 * Purchasing, inventory, and other 'house-keeping' functions by simplified and consolidated
 * More money on preventive medicine and basic medical research and less on medical benefits to non-service veterans
 * Post Office be completely removed from politics [WW: I'd add the IRS!]
 * Less agencies reporting to the President, and reassigned to various Departments for 'more rigid accountability'
 * On Retirement: 'There is no joy to be had from retirement except in some kind of productive work. Otherwise you degenerate into talking to everybody about your pains and pills and the other fellow talks about his. Any oldster who keeps at even part-time work has something worth talking about. He has a zest for the morning paper and his three meals a day. The point is not to retire from work or you will shrivel up into a nuisance to all mankind.'
 * 'This nation needs a rebirth of that great spiritual force which has been impaired by cynicism and weakened by foreign infections. Call it nationalism if you will. But there is an American kind of nationalism, which is neither isolationalism nor aggression and embedded deep within it is compassion for distress both at home and overseas. It is the kind of nationalism which recognizes changes in the world and requires that we meet them with forward-looking measures... The spiritual forces of which I speak is enshrined in the word America. We do not use that word merely as a geographical term. At one time--and even now for millions of Americans--that word summoned to mind the whole background of our nation. The word America recalls that millions of people for over three hundred years have sought our shores as a refuge from oppression. To these millions the word America came to mean a civilization unique on earth by the fusion of the attainments of scores of nations. For centuries the word America among the great masses of people over the world has been an emblem of hope, of more security in life--and more freedom... The word America means that our wars were not fought for the glory of war but for freedom in the world. It means a country where the doors of opportunity are open to every boy and girl. It means law and order, freedom of choice and callings. It means glorious strides in the advancement of civilization. The word America envisions the rills of freedom springing from our mountains and plains, pouring into a mighty river which refreshes not only our own people but the whole of mankind.'

The Roads to Modernity by Gertrude Himmelfarb
Loaned to be me by Uncle Craig Edmund Burke in explaining the virtue of 'prejudice' (i.e.: Pre-conceived notion, it seems), from 'Reflections on the French Revolution': We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature. Ibid.: Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure—but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence; because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, propounded in "one of his best-known and often repeated sermons, | The Use of Money: Gain all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can. [Editor's note: sounds like the motto for me!]

Note: George Washington's Farewell Address is read annually to the US Senate on the date of his birthday (Feb 22nd, celebrated on the third Monday each February.)

Tocqueville, after describing the "diverse nature of the component parts of the Union", wrote: A time will arrive, therefore, when one can see one hundred fifty million men in North America, equal among themselves, who all belong to the same family, who have the same point of departure, the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same mores, and through whom though will circulate in the same form and be painted in the same colors. All the rest is doubtful, but this is certain. Also Tocqueville: [Self-interest] is a doctrine not very lofty, but clear and sure. It does not seek to attain great objects; but it attains all those it aims for without too much effort... [It] does not produce great devotion; but it suggests little sacrifices each day; by itself it cannot make a man virtuous; but if forms a multitude of citizens who are regulated, temperate, moderate, farsighted, masters of themselves; and if it does not lead directly to virtue through the will, it brings them near to it insensibly through habits...

Social Science

 * Hardin's The Crippled Epistemology of Extremists

Iliad translation recommendations
From https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R22JXF64GBZQ90/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B06XSXBLV6

By Librarian Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: The Iliad (Kindle Edition) UPDATED 05/28/17: Homer's "Iliad" is truly a great work of literature, and I certainly agree with all the other reviewers who extol its virtues, but the person who translates this epic poem into English from the archaic Greek is all-important to one's appreciation and enjoyment of it. One needn't suffer through a poor translation when good ones are available. This public domain translation by Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley Derby (hereafter referred to as Lord Derby) is outdated and not particularly good; it is certainly not enjoyable to read. (For that reason, I suspect few of the rave reviewers, though they quite rightly love and enjoy the "Iliad," have actually endured THIS particular public domain translation of it.)

Faithfulness to the original language AND readability are what one seeks in any translation of the "Iliad," and the translator must strike a proper balance between the two. Greek sentences are structured differently from English sentences, and adhering too strictly to Greek word order and syntax will result in very awkward English. Throw poetic form into the equation and the result can be a very unreal English syntax. The translator has to determine what Homer said and meant (back then) in Greek and decide how BEST to communicate that to us (today) in English.

There is no particular virtue in reading a sometimes convoluted Elizabethan or Victorian rendering of the "Iliad" in iambic pentameter or heroic couplets (since Homer used neither) unless one especially enjoys reading such. In fact, foundational differences in the two languages prevent a true equivalence in English of Homer's original poetic structure in Greek; that is the reason why many translators, considering any such versification to be artificial at best and dishonest at worst, render this work in prose. But at the very least Homer's poetic form was comparatively simpler and his linguistic expression was more direct than some older translators using English poetical formats make him seem; that is why other translators now often choose free verse as being an acceptable alternative to either complex metrical forms or prose.

Of course, being readable or "understandable" is not the same as being "easy," and being too simple or too contemporary is no more of a virtue than being too difficult or too old-fashioned; rendering Homer's Greek into remedial-reader English or today's slangy vernacular is inappropriate, inaccurate and does the modern reader a disservice -- so one must choose one's "Iliad" (and one's translator of it) very carefully (a task not made any easier by countless Kindle Store editions whose blurbs fail to identify the translator, or which seem to describe one translation but actually provide another).

Below (in no particular order) are various translations (most, but not all of them, good) that I have read and can personally attest to. Several are available as ebooks; others may have to be obtained new or used in paperback or hardcover. Some adopt a poetic format; the others (which I have specifically indicated) are in prose.

(1) Robert Fagles' 1990 free verse translation from Penguin is particularly readable (and the introductory information by Bernard Knox is invaluable). Perhaps due to its having been somewhat over-hyped, academicians now seem less enthralled by it than they once were, some on the grounds that Fagles does not always strictly adhere to Homer -- but usually that claim is made when comparing Fagles' to more literal translations, ones that are more scholarly but much less readable. I find his version quite sound, and I (and many others) still like it. I think it merits serious consideration as an excellent first choice and a contender for favorite translation.

(2) E.V. Rieu's original 1950 prose version (from Penguin) was very understandable but in some specific instances treated Homer a tad too freely. This has been remedied in the present prose version, expertly updated by Peter Jones in 2003. I liked the original very much, but I like the update even better. This is also a very good first choice and a favorite of many.

(3) W.H.D. Rouse provided a sometimes loose but generally serviceable, 1938 prose rendering which was long available as a popular, low-priced paperback. At one time this self-proclaimed "plain language" version was widely used in many public schools because it was inexpensive and considered easier-to-understand than other (pre-1938) versions then available; with newer versions today, that ease is debatable. An ebook edition of it as a Signet Classic from Penguin is currently available in the Kindle Store.

(4) Ennis Rees' refreshing, 1963 free verse translation from Random House/Modern Library is my favorite and not too dissimilar in style from Fagles' but (perhaps) more straight-forward. At present, it may not be easy to locate a copy outside of a used book store since it seems to be out-of-print.

(5) Michael Reck's 1994 version, from HarperCollins, stresses its adherence to the oral tradition and is an honest, solid, respectful, and understandable translation. Though it seems to be lesser known, it is faithful to the Greek yet with comfortable English syntax. It also is not easy to find; an ebook edition, available when I originally wrote this in 2012, has sadly since disappeared from the Kindle Store.

(6) Alfred Hurd Chase & William G. Perry Jr., wrote a prose version in 1950 once available in paperback from Bantam and used in schools. I haven't seen this lately, but it is very readable, and I treasure my battered old copy.

(7) Richmond Lattimore's VERY accurate 1951 translation is published by the University of Chicago. It is much heralded but more scholarly and more difficult to read than other modern versions; it is widely regarded as THE very best translation. While I recognize its true greatness, it is not my favorite due to its awkward English syntax (making it, for me, a chore to read).

(8) Robert Fitzgerald's 1974 translation from Doubleday is very highly regarded, but it is not an easy read. Many names are spelled less familiarly (such that "Achilles" becomes "Akhilleus"). I have a love-hate relationship to this version. It would not be my first choice for story comprehension and ease-of-reading, but its rich visual imagery and keen word-play amply reward anyone willing to make the effort to read it and devote the time to fully savor it. As I become disenchanted by the shallow simplicity and flippancy of some newer translations, I find this one becoming ever more appealing to me. After Lattimore, this is generally regarded by many as the second-best translation.

(9) Robert Graves made an exciting novel-like, prose translation in 1959 titled "The Anger of Achilles" which is literate, generally respectful to the original, and particularly enjoyable. This lively version is great fun to read -- and an ebook edition recently appeared in the Kindle Store.

(10) Stanley Lombardo's well-received 1997 translation is one I didn't fully read, because what I did read of it didn't impress me. Both in tone and in linguistic style, I found it to be an odd and inconsistent mix of formal and informal, noble words and deeds juxtaposed with jarring colloquialisms. I am probably in the minority, but I did not like this version.

(11) Alexander Pope's classic version (1715-1720) is arguably more Pope than Homer, though some people love his heroic couplets, and it IS truly a poetic masterpiece in its own right. For many Pope fans, THIS is the one and only "Iliad," and if Homer didn't write his this way, he SHOULD have.

(12) William Cowper's 1791, blank verse version demonstrates, by comparison, just how good Pope's is. Cowper's rendering results in awkward English syntax that is not as much to be read as deciphered. When I have to mentally re-translate a translation, I seek another.

(13) Stephen Mitchell's 2011 translation demonstrates that being new and easy isn't necessarily always better. Like Lombardo, he uses too much inappropriate and sometimes jarring colloquial English, but unlike all the others, he expunges quite a few sections (and one entire book) of traditional text he feels are post-Homeric additions. (But what if he is wrong?) Given the accretive nature of this epic at virtually every stage in its development and transmission to us, this excision seems ill-advised. Being thus different in material-content from ALL the others, this ipso facto abridgment causes it to be something of a secondary or niche translation.

(14) Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf, and Ernest Myers rendered the "Iliad" into late 19th century, "modern" English in their 1883 prose version. Although slightly old-fashioned in style, it is quite readable and has a reputation for accuracy. My copy is an old Modern Library Giant.

(15 & 16): Two new translations currently available in the Kindle Store, one by Ian Johnston (2006) and the other by Barry P. Powell (2013), I have only sampled. I found nothing dramatically wrong with either of them, except a colloquialism or two in Powell's that seemed incongruous to me, such as when he has Agamemnon say to his men, "So don't rub me the wrong way" (Book 1, Line 33). Both pass muster in that Homer is generally honestly and powerfully rendered, but I personally don't care for Powell's translational flippancy and style. Neither translator offers a significant qualitative improvement over other recent translations, though Johnston comes close, and I prefer him to Powell.

(17) Caroline Alexander's 2015 translation from HarperCollins DOES offer a superb and significant improvement over other recent translations, and I highly recommend it. Without a doubt the best among new ones, it is also superior to many old ones. Though solid and true to Homer, her English syntax is direct and natural, never flippant or colloquial. The ebook formatting of its long lines, necessarily divided on small-screen, Kindle-type devices, is uneven and distracting -- but that is easily remedied by switching to landscape mode.

(18) Peter Green's 2015 translation, published by the University of California Press, is rightly praised for its faithfulness to Homer's Greek (not unlike Lattimore) and its lush poetic imagery, but because of that, its English syntax is not always as smooth or direct as might be desired. Nevertheless, it is superior in many ways to other recent versions mentioned above (by Johnston, Lombardo, Mitchell, and Powell), but NOT (in my opinion) to Caroline Alexander's (which I find more readable).

(19) A.S. Kline's 2009 translation provides a version for the average, non-specialist reader and is currently bargain-priced at only $1.99, but his heavy use of commas every few words makes for choppy reading.

(20) George Chapman was the first translator of Homer, and his formal but majestic, Elizabethan verse edition of 1611 was (and by some, still is) highly regarded. Today, its interest to us is more in the realm of literary history than as a practical choice for general reading.

(21) Theodore Alois Buckley's public domain version (1873) is no better than Lord Derby's, and like it, should probably best be avoided.

(22) Samuel Butler's sturdy, 1898 prose version is worth considering (and I will say more about it below as a public domain alternative to Lord Derby's).

The above list is by no means complete, but it hints at the number and variety of translations that exist. Each of these translations (whether prose or poetry) has particular strengths and weaknesses as well as supporters and detractors, and none is perfect. That, not unexpectedly, creates some robust debate among readers of them. But, in my opinion, most of them are preferable to this public domain version by Lord Derby.

I would certainly encourage you to consider trying some or all of the above, but I might suggest (purely as a practical and inexpensive starting point) the public domain, prose translation by Samuel Butler, available for free from various online sources. No such free verson is currently offered in the Kindle Store, but several well-formatted editions are sold there for as little as $.99, and for that low price some even include Butler's translation of "The Odyssey." Although a well-known, late 19th century translator of Homer's two epics and the favorite of many readers, Samuel Butler isn't necessarily the scholar's favorite, and (like virtually every other translator of Homer) he has a few idiosyncrasies [see the NOTE below]. Therefore, he may not be considered the "best" translator from an academic perspective, but Samuel Butler's English IS straightforward, comparatively easy-to-read, and appropriately majestic but quite understandable; you will certainly be able to better appreciate and enjoy the drama and sweep of the "Iliad" in HIS version rather than struggle with the awkward English of Lord Derby's.

NOTE: One of Butler's idiosyncracies (which is by no means unique to him) is a preference for using the names of Roman deities rather than the Greek (as in "Jove" rather than "Zeus"). He did so because he felt readers of his time were more familiar with the Roman names; today, the opposite is true. I do, however, own two hardcovered editions of Butler's translation in which all the Greek names have been restored, so presumably there MAY be a similarly treated ebook available (though I haven't yet found it). Not all (nor even, most) Greek names have been so treated by Butler; "Achilles," for example, remains "Achilles" (though "Odysseus" does become "Ulysses"). But for most readers the occasional appearance of a Roman name should prove to be little more than a minor distraction from an otherwise enjoyable text. Since no translation is perfect, at least this imperfection is quite bearable.

ADDENDUM: Today the distinctions between poetry and prose treatments are fading due to the replacement of old, rigid metrical forms with new, free verse translations that are as direct, pleasant and comfortable-to-read as their prose counterparts. By going with the flow and reading the text as written, adhering to punctuation, pausing at commas and stopping at periods, but NOT slavishly and artificially stopping at the end of lines UNLESS punctuation dictates, readers should find in these free verse translations language as natural and understandable as that contained in prose versions. With so many wonderful translations currently available (whether in prose or in poetry), NOW is truly a great time to find and read an "Iliad" that's just right for you.

Audio book recommendations
-- From an Amazon reviewer -- One of the best readings I have ever heard is Simon Prebble's reading of Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana," issued in cassette tapes and now sadly out of print. (Why are some of the most superb audio recordings no longer available? Some other examples are Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" with Irene Worth - who came from America - reading Cleopatra; and John Milton's "Paradise Lost" read by Anthony Quayle, only

Wildfire Smoke

 * Wearing a paper/dust/surgical mask will NOT protect you against smoke particulate. You need a two-strap NIOSH-certified mask like an N95, available from your local hardware store: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/334-353.pdf

Tan
If you wanna tan without burning, it appears you can sit in the sun for the minimum required to tan, but below the time to get a sunburn/cancer. This might be 15 minutes in Spring/Summer midday sun for a light-skinned person, and perhaps an hour for a dark-skinned person. You should start off with several days between sessions, but then you can lay out once per day, say, afterward. Chapter 6 Understanding MED and MMD · Minimal Erythemal Dose · Minimal Melanogenic Dose
 * Skin Type descriptions here: https://www.tanningtraining.com/btc/ch7.html?prodid=4
 * This site has great preliminary info on tanning, including this discussion of MED (actually meaning how much it takes to BURN in this case) and MMD, how much it takes to get a more permanent tan: https://www.tanningtraining.com/btc/ch6.html?prodid=4

Two terms commonly used in the indoor tanning industry is Minimal Erythemal Dose (MED) and Minimal Melanogenic Dose (MMD). Both terms seem to be self-explanatory, however, the true definition of each term is necessary for a clear understanding of the science of tanning.

Understanding MED and MMD MED is the Minimal Erythemal Dose and is defined as the threshold dose that may produce sunburn. MMD on the other hand is the Minimal Melanogenic Dose and is equal to the lowest dose required to develop a visible suntan.

Even though the terms MED and MMD seem to be self-explanatory at first glance, the translation of these values in the daily practice of indoor tanning often leads to misunderstandings and wrong interpretations, especially when it comes to determining exposure times based on MED and MMD values.

How Threshold Dosages are Determined Assume that unprotected skin has been exposed to UV radiation for the first time. In order to determine the MED, the reaction of the skin will be recorded 24 hours after exposure. The minimal dose that induces any visible reddening at that point is defined as one MED.

Redness that occurs immediately after exposure, however, and disappears during the following three to five hours is mainly caused by heat and is not comparable with real UV erythema. This is the reason why the reading is not taken until 24 hours later.

For users of tanning units, the MED provides important information about the sunburning effect of the equipment, since an even perceptible reddening is the first sign of a sunburn reaction. In order to prevent possible acute or long term risks due to indoor tanning, the MED should not be exceeded during a session.

The MMD is determined in a very similar manner. In contrast to the MED examination, however, the readings are taken seven days after exposure instead of 24 hours. The minimal dose required to produce an even noticeable tan, which can be observed seven days later, is defined as one MMD. The interval between exposure and reading is necessary to permit the occurrence of new melanin biosynthesis (melano-genesis), which only becomes evident after several days of UV application.

Why Standard Values? To better understand MED and MMD, it should be said that both are individual values. The lowest effective dose developing a sunburn as well as the value of producing a suntan depend distinctly on the skin sensitivity of the person (i.e. skin types).

In order to eliminate these individually influencing factors, MED and MMD have been standardized. With standardized MED and MMD values, sunlamp products can be characterized and specified and become comparable with respect to their biological capabilities.

Such information based on these standard values is of greater meaning than statements about the physical data such as UVB/UVA ratios or UVB percentages.

Standard MED and MMD Compared By comparing MED and MMD values of tanning units, it may be surprising that the required exposure time for reaching one MMD is usually longer than the corresponding time for one MED. This seems to indicate that it is impossible to tan without first developing red skin. At the same time, the question comes up: How can we achieve tanning slowly, progressively, and safely without producing a sunburn?

To shed some light on this question, consider the following: As mentioned above, MED and MMD are standardized values and valid for unprotected and untanned Skin Type II. This means that such given values are basically only valid before undergoing the first exposure.

The effect on the skin of a melanogentic dosage will become evident only three to five days after exposure, at the earliest. Further, Melanogenesis is a long lasting process, therefore single doses work cumulatively. In other words, the skin does not forget the induced pigment effects and accumulates these single pigment-producing dosages over time.

Besides Melanogenesis there exists the ‘IPD’, an immediate pigment darkening effect which is a rather superficially effective tanning mechanism. IPD is a transient reaction induced by the photochemical oxidation of preformed melanin pigments by long-wave UV, darkening the skin during exposure.

By the use of a sunbed, for example, which is characterized by an exposure time of 20 minutes for one MED and 45 minutes for one MMD. Melanogenesis can be induced in two different and, at least theoretically, conceivable ways.

MED/MMD-Based Schedule Consider the given MMD exposure time of 45 minutes. Although the applied melanogenetic dose is high enough to produce new pigments, an exposure of this duration cannot be recommended because the MED would be exceeded more than twice during such a session.

It is better to get a suntan by starting an exposure schedule consisting of three applications of 15 minutes each during one week. The advantage of such a procedure is twofold. The applied dose per session does not reach the limit of one MED, however, at the same time the skin has received a total melanogenetic dose of one MMD. This means that the process of new pigment formation will be induced without the risk of sunburn. Furthermore, at the beginning of each session series, this exposure schedule is in agreement with FDA regulations. In additions to Melanogenesis, even during the first exposure session the skin will be tanned immediately if the horny layer contains some weakly colored, preformed pigments which then can be darkened by IPD. Generally, human skin has some pigment pre-stages available (except Skin Type I). In this context, it may be helpful to know that with most of the commonly used sunlamps, the threshold dose to initiate IPD will be reached quicker than 1 MED.

Depending on the amount of available pigment (and skin types), the effect of IPD usually remains only for hours, at the most a few days. With an increasing number of sessions, the amount of pre-stage pigment will be enhanced.

Talking about indoor tanning as well as outdoor tanning, the mechanisms of ‘immediate pigment darkening’ and of ‘pigment formation’ (Melanogenesis) interact so that a clear differentiation between them is often impossible. As a rule, it can be established that IPD is more important during the first sessions while Melanogenesis comes more and more into play during the following exposures.

By using suntanning units, both mechanisms are utilized. At the beginning, the tanning results are mainly caused by IPD. With increasing sessions, the obtained suntan becomes darker and deeper due to further melanin synthesis. Further, with well-tanned skin, the required exposure time to develop erythema will be prolonged, and thus offers an effective sun protection. Sun Exposure
 * According to Mark's Daily Apple:

The sun feels great on your skin, doesn’t it? That it offers health benefits like increased vitamin D and nitric oxide production is another reason to get sun. But there’s a point where vitamin D production stops and skin damage sets in, where your skin blisters and the vitamin D formed by your body must be diverted away from general health promotion, bone health, and sex hormone production toward protecting your skin. That point is the minimum effective dose of UV.

Hovering around the MED for sun will also give you freedom in addition to vitamin D. If you’re nursing a bad sunburn, you’ll have to stay out of the direct sun for a week or two. If you stuck to the MED, you can go back out the very next day and enjoy the weather.

Your MED for sun exposure will depend on several variables:

Skin color – The darker your skin, the more time in the sun you’ll require for optimal vitamin D production and the longer you can stay before incurring damage. For a light skinned person, 15 minutes of midday spring/summer sun might be sufficient. For a dark skinned person, it might be an hour.

Diet – Nutrition affects skin vulnerability. Omega-3s, saturated fats, antioxidant-rich anti-inflammatory plants (tea, tomatoes, berries), spices, and animals (salmon, shrimp) all affect it positively, while inflammatory seed oils high in omega-6 fats affect it negatively.

Sleep – Skin resistance to sun damage follows a circadian rhythm, and bad sleep leaves you susceptible to UV rays.

Whatever your situation, a sun MED exists. The point is to discover and hew to it.

UV radiation and Sunscreen
What is the difference between UVA, UVB and UVC?
 * UVA is longer-wave (320 - 400 nm)/lower-frequencyand lower-energy UV radiation that is primarily responsible for immediate tanning, and also for skin aging/wrinkling, and 'may' enhance skin cancer, and makes up most of the UV light that gets through the atmosphere and down to our skins (95%.)
 * UVB is shorter-wave (290 - 320 nm)/higher-frequency & higher-energy and is primarily responsible for 'delayed tanning', sunburns, and 'enhances' skin aging & skin cancer, but doesn't penetrate below the top layer of skin.
 * My physics-based thought: why not just block the UVB (tanning booths are almost entirely UVA) with an appropriate sunscreen and tan for the 'min effective dose' (15 minutes, say) with that, then cover up with zinc oxide to block all UV for the rest of the day? Titanium Dioxide is a 'physical barrier' (so no chemical worries) that apparently blocks both UVB and UVA2, leaving only the least-energetic (and presumably least dangerous) UAV1, which might be enough for tanning!
 * Apparently, this is partly 'why not': UVA doesn't make Vitamin D, according to Mark Sisson: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-engineer-a-successful-day-of-sunbathing/
 * Better descriptions of UV from WHO: http://www.who.int/uv/faq/whatisuv/en/index2.html

The three types of UV radiation are classified according to their wavelength. They differ in their biological activity and the extent to which they can penetrate the skin. The shorter the wavelength, the more harmful the UV radiation. However, shorter wavelength UV radiation is less able to penetrate the skin.

Short-wavelength UVC is the most damaging type of UV radiation. However, it is completely filtered by the atmosphere and does not reach the earth's surface.

Medium-wavelength UVB is very biologically active but cannot penetrate beyond the superficial skin layers. It is responsible for delayed tanning and burning; in addition to these short-term effects it enhances skin ageing and significantly promotes the development of skin cancer. Most solar UVB is filtered by the atmosphere.

The relatively long-wavelength UVA accounts for approximately 95 per cent of the UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface. It can penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin and is responsible for the immediate tanning effect. Furthermore, it also contributes to skin ageing and wrinkling. For a long time it was thought that UVA could not cause any lasting damage. Recent studies strongly suggest that it may also enhance the development of skin cancers.

Types of FDA-approved sunscreen ingredients by UV blocking
http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/uva-and-uvb FDA-Approved Sunscreens Active Ingredient/UV Filter Name	Range Covered UVA1: 340-400 nm UVA2: 320-340 nm UVB: 290-320 nm Chemical Absorbers: Aminobenzoic acid (PABA)	UVB Avobenzone	UVA1 Cinoxate	UVB Dioxybenzone	UVB, UVA2 Ecamsule (Mexoryl SX)	UVA2 Ensulizole (Phenylbenzimiazole Sulfonic Acid)	UVB Homosalate	UVB Meradimate (Menthyl Anthranilate)	UVA2 Octocrylene	UVB Octinoxate (Octyl Methoxycinnamate)	UVB Octisalate ( Octyl Salicylate)	UVB Oxybenzone	UVB, UVA2 Padimate O	UVB Sulisobenzone	UVB, UVA2 Trolamine Salicylate	UVB Physical Filters: Titanium Dioxide	UVB, UVA2 Zinc Oxide	UVB,UVA2, UVA1

Miracle Stain Remover
This is legit. It seems that you can use any kind of dish soap. This works on sweat stains, grease/oil stains, and most other stains, but I have encountered a few mystery spots that won't come out.

Mix a little dish soap, hydrogen peroxide (2 H202 to 1 soap) directly on the stains, sprinkle a little baking soda for fun, and rub it into the stain with an old toothbrush or other scrub brush. Let sit for a couple hours or overnight, then launder as usual: http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/how-to-remove-yellow-armpit-stains

Norway
http://www.norwayonabudget.com/food-drinks/supermarkets/

Grocery Stores
https://oslobudgetstudents.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/the-cheapest-grocery-stores-10-2/

Rhine River area

 * Rhine Castles trail (left/west side of the Rhine, opposite the Rheinsteig): http://www.germany.travel/en-mobile/leisure-and-recreation/hiking/rhine-castles-trail.html
 * Do the entire 320 KM Rheinsteig someday: https://www.rheinsteig.de

Ward's list of things to do in Seattle

 * Walk around Green Lake on a nice day, then grab an omelette (comes with hashbrowns) andcoffee breakfast at Beth's, or lunch or dinner at Cuban spot Bongo's, or what is apparently excellent fried chicken at Duck Island, all across the Aurora freeway on the west side of the lake.
 * Wander around Ballard or the smaller Fremont and grab some drinks at the trendy bars there. Brouwer's in Fremont is my favorite bar and specializes in Belgian and other beers, and has good Belgian food as well. Fremont Brewing company has a great dog-friendly outdoor patio for summer days, but it gets crowded.
 * See Pike's Place market, including the first Starbucks. The market is pricey on veggies, but has great deals on flowers (like $5 - $15 for very nice seasonal bouquets.) There's places to eat too. Check out the waterfront while you're there also.
 * Wander around the University of Washington campus, focusing on seeing Red Square and visiting the Reading Room in the magnificent neo-Gothic Suzzalo Library, and wandering through the Quad. For a few weeks in Spring, usually sometimes in April, the cherry blossoms are in bloom in the Quad and are a must see, if you can make your way through the hoards of Asian tourists (and locals) taking selfies. The Quad is a good place to picnic or sun yourself with the students on a nice day. The Henry Art Gallery, adjacent to Red Square, has a small, mostly local collection of art. I think it's free/discounted on certain days, which makes a quick stop worthwhile. The Burke Museum on the northwest corner of campus has interesting anthropological exhibits. Get lunch at any of the small, cheap ethnic (mostly Asian) restaurants on University Way (known as 'the Ave' for inscrutable reasons.) Thai Tom's is an institution. Eat in the cramped, dark, smokey and crowded restaurant for the full experience. Come at an off time to avoid a long wait.

Sunsets, outdoor views and picnicking spots around Seattle

 * The Ballard Locks that separate Lake Union from the Puget Sound (and therefore the Pacific Ocean) are impressive, and a fine place to picnic on a nice day and watch the boats go by.
 * Kerry Park is the quintessential (and most crowded) view of Seattle, and gets packed at Sunset or on weekends. To avoid the crowds, head to...
 * ... Gas Works park in Fremont, which is fascinating and has beautiful views of Lake Union and downtown Seattle, and is walking distance to the Fremont Brewery... Picnic or have a drink on the hill with everyone else at sunset.
 * The Washington Park Arboretum near the University of Washington is nice, especially in Spring or Summer when the rhododendrons (the Official State Flower of Washington!) or other plants are in bloom.
 * If you're south of Seattle, the Kubota Gardens are worth a quick visit, though I'd recommend the Arboretum instead.

Art Museums

 * Seattle Art Museum has free days to the regular collection on the First Thursdays of each month (which is also 1/2 off on the special exhibits.)
 * There's also the smaller and cheaper Seattle Asian Art Museum up in the scenic Volunteer Park area of Capital Hill. Stop by the conservatory that's just north of the museum. Wander around and gawk at the wealth people's houses that surround the area, and check out St Mark's Episcopal church on 10th Ave if it's open.
 * The Frye Art Museum in First Hill is always free, with parking across the street. Check out the nearby St James cathedral too. Sometimes they have choir concerts.

Theatre and Performance Art

 * There's free Shakespeare in the park in the summer time (usually July & August, which is about all you get for summer in Seattle!) This is a good excuse to check out Seattle's extensive parks system too (and there are performances outside of Seattle as well, including Lynnwood, Mercer Island, and Issaquah.)
 * Between Thanksgiving until just after Christmas, see the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker.

Hikes and walks within Seattle

 * One of my favorite parks is Discovery Park. Park in the South Parking lot and hike all the way down to the beach, and further along the beach out the lighthouse if you like.

Zaid's list of things to do in Seattle

 * Bite of Seattle
 * Chihuly Garden of Glass
 * Pop Culture Museum (formerly known as the EMP)
 * SAM
 * Pike's Place Market
 * Giant Shoe Museum (really?)
 * Hiking:
 * Vashon Island
 * U-District and UW campus (Suzzalo library)
 * Bad Art Museum
 * Waterfall Garden Park (?)
 * Columbia Tower Sky View Observatory (higher than the Space Needle and cheaper!)
 * Bruce Lee grave site at cemetery near Volunteer Park. Many other famous Seattleites buried there too.
 * Capitol Hill for food, scene, bars, and clubs
 * Washington Park Arboretum in the Spring and summer (free)
 * Olympic Sculpture Park (free)
 * Green Lake park (walking around the 3 mile perimeter takes about an hour)
 * Pinball Museum in the International District. Get dim sum beforehand at Harbor View (Ward's favorite), or Jade Garden (other white people's favorite.)

Eat

 * Paseo's (get the Caribbean roast, or the Smokin' Thighs if you don't eat pork.) Go to the tiny Fremont shop for the true experience, and then take your order to go and eat in the park nearby, or at one of the outdoor tables. Paseo's has a location in SODO too which serves the same food, but it's not the same experience as crowding in line in Fremont!
 * Bongos (really good, and also Caribbean food. Try the spicy shrimp plate or Desi plate, and get a side of Yucca fries or patacones.)
 * Oddfellow's in Capital Hill. Good food in a nice, hip setting for very reasonable prices given the quality. Nice casual date spot. The mussels were good when available. You can go dancing afterward upstairs at the Century Ballroom, or get ice cream at Molly Moon's, which is an over-rated, but good, local chain. I.e.: standing in line for 5 minutes to go there is worth it, but not for 20!
 * Dick's burgers is the Seattle equivalent to California's In-n-Out. It's an old-fashioned take-out only place that's often open until 2 AM with several locations around town, including Wallingford, Greenwood, Capital Hill, etc. The burgers are, in my Seattleite opinion, about as good (get the Dick's Deluxe), and the naturally-browned fries at Dick's are better-tasting than the chalky nightmare that is In-n-Out's fries.
 * Beth's near Green Lake is a divey institution for breakfast. The omelettes (which comes with hashbrowns) are large & tasty and the coffee is solid. It's not fancy, but last time I ate there I thought it was pretty good value for the money!
 * The Burgundian in Tangletown near Green Lake has a good beer selection and solid food at slightly upscale prices (matching the higher quality of the food), but getting the chicken & waffles on Thursday for $5 off is a steal!

Dessert

 * Molly Moon's for ice cream in Wallingford and Capital Hill
 * Blue Bird creamery for ice cream (and beer!) in Greenwood and other places. It's the less popular, but just as good in my unfussy opinion, alternative to Molly Moon's.

Drink
Finally, a subject that I'm interested in!

Beer
There are a ton of choices for excellent beer in the city that, along with it's Oregonian neighbors to the south, pioneered craft beer, especially the hop-heavy IPA styles.
 * Browuer's is my favorite bar for atmosphere and excellent Belgian, American, and other beer selections. Try to time your visit to attend 'Sour Beer Fest' in May. It's usually on a Thursday. Be warned that the service can sometimes be a bit snooty, and on weekends its often impossible to find a table, but you'll just have to put up with it. The have a great whiskey list and solid Belgian food menu as well. Get frites or poutine if you need a snack to soak up those boozy Belgian Abbey-style ales.
 * The Fremont brewery is a great place to have a very drinkable beer outside in their dog-friendly beer garden. Stumble over to nearby Gasworks park to catch the sunset afterward.
 * If you find yourself in Greenwood, Prost is an institution for German beer and simple brats (split a 2 liter 'boot' amongst 3 or more of your friends!), with the slightly overpriced (especially for food) 74th St Ale House a good choice for a British pint, and has an older crowd. Keep walking north on Greenwood and any bar you find along the way should be alright (skip the divey ones, or make a point of picking them, depending on your preference.) Naked City around 87th St is a good choice for beer lovers, and serves good bar food.
 * 2 Beers which shares space with Seattle Cider Company is an excellent choice for pub atmosphere in Georgetown/south Seattle.

Whiskey
There are several microdistilleries now around Seattle, but the best is probably Westland distillery (now owned by Remy Cointreau) in SODO, which sells very good Scotch-style whiskeys. Split a tasting flight of ~4 whiskeys for ~$10 or something. They gave solid pours when I went, hence the splitting recommendation (you can always order another if needed!)
 * Mischief in Fremont is conveniently located, but not particularly impressive. Their 'Reserve' bourbon-style whiskey was the only one that tasted close to a 'professional' whiskey when I went in 2017, but things will probably improve with age. Skip paying extra for the very limited tour, and instead buy the tasting ($5 when I last checked) and ask your pourer all the question you would've asked during the tour (which is really just of the small distilling room next door to the tasting room!)

Wine
A weekend trip to Walla Walla for wine-tasting is nice. Closer are several wineries in the Bothell area near the St Michele winery.

Free and cheap museums and days
First Thursdays are free at many Seattle museums, including the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and its cousin the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM). The latter is also free for 'families' (the definition is up to you a guess, so bring a friend at least!) on the first Saturday of the month.
 * Pretty comprehensive-looking list: http://freemuseumday.org/sea.html
 * List organized by theme of museum (kids, culture, transportation-related): redtri.com/seattle/free-or-cheap-museum-days/

List of free Seattle museums and days

 * Burke Museum: http://www.burkemuseum.org/calendar/free-first-thursday
 * The Frye Art Museum in First Hill is always free, and even has a limited free lot parking. (God bless you Charles & Emma Frye, as well as Walser Sly Greathouse and his feisty wife Ida Kay!)
 * MOHAI: http://mohai.org/event/free-first-thursday-2/
 * SAM:
 * SAAM:

Planning a trip

 * Andrew Skurka's checklist: http://andrewskurka.com/2015/backpacking-trip-planning-checklist-to-do/

Gear planning

 * Skurka's 3 season gear checklist: http://andrewskurka.com/2015/backpacking-gear-list-template-checklist-3-season/
 * Backpackinglight 3-day 3-season gear examples

Downloadable/Printable Maps

 * NatGeo has launched a free PDF map site! http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads
 * I used (and pay ~$30/year or something) Alltrails.com to download maps to my phone (using GPS on the phone + the map overlay is super convenient) and also print out a paper copy to keep in a zip lock sandwich bag while I hike as backup.
 * Green Trails has excellent physical maps, as are the National Geographic ones which you find in many ranger stations. Green Trails and Nat Geo maps are available at stores like REI. They'll cost you around $10 apiece, FYI, hence why a cheap bastard like me uses the electronic ones from Alltrails for short trips. But, I like to buy the nice ones if I'm going to repeatedly go to an area, or am on a longer trip and want nicer detail and a whole view of a surrounding area.

Snow information

 * Snow depth visual map of Washington state: http://www.weatherstreet.com/weather-forecast/washington-snow-cover.htm
 * Capitol State Forest map: http://file.dnr.wa.gov/publications/eng_rms_cap_forest_scan_full_08.pdf
 * Pics of the mounds: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wastatednr/sets/72157617006187363

Day trips and Car Camping

 * Car camp (at established sites, May 1st - Nov 30th) and check out Mima Mounds.

Wonderland trail - Mt Rainier

 * Get a permit (March 15th - April 1st to entery the lottery)
 * Awesome itinerary planning tool that compute elevation per day based on starting point, # of days, direction, and where the campsites are!: https://www.wonderlandguides.com/hikes/wonderland-trail/itinerary-planner
 * Nice guide with suggested routes based on days. Plug these into the calculator above! https://rootsrated.com/stories/93-miles-around-mount-rainier-how-to-thru-hike-the-wonderland-trail
 * Read the Hiking the Wonderland Trail (or something) by the Mountaineers (SPL library)
 * How to ship/cache your food: https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/caching-food-and-fuel.htm "The only locations in the park where you can purchase basic supplies are at the General Store at Longmire and the Day Lodge at Sunrise." --> Maybe just do that! Stock up on what they don't have.

Lost Coast Trail
25 miles one way (leave a car): https://www.wonderlandguides.com/hikes/king-range/lost-coast-trail

Stetattle Ridge and Sourdough Lookout trail
There's a ridge just behind Sourdough that is supposed to be an amazing hike; http://www.summitpost.org/stetattle-ridge/695049 6,728 ft gain

Read this guy's account of it; http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7981587

Topo map here: http://www.willhiteweb.com/north_cascades/stetattle_ridge/sourdough_mountain_087.htm

Seam sealing a tent

 * http://sectionhiker.com/seam_sealing_a_tent/

Scholarly writing and essays
Sample bibliography for author: http://politics.as.nyu.edu/object/RussellHardin

Seattle-area

 * http://www.seattletimes.com/life/top-20-new-cheap-eats-for-2016/
 * Odd Fellows in Capitol Hill is always a good bet for a nice-yet-casual and good food but not-too-pricey meal. Take a first date there or visit while you're a tourist.

Rice
Eighth Wonder, Inc in Ulm, Montana. Fancy filipino rice at www.heirloomrice.com. The purple-looking Mountain Rice should be the one Cheryl's mom from Bontoc is used to for the good suman rice (cook in coconut milk then add sugar [I'll omit...]) C's mom's family used the brown, less-tasty rice to make bubud rice wine, and the good-tasty white rice to eat, and the best tasting dark sticky rice for sugary suman (wrap in banana leaves, or just eat it.)

Christmas Pudding

 * Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih5mTrE3iCk
 * Recipe: https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/traditional-christmas-pudding
 * Notes: "The 'mixed spice' of British cookery is primarily used in sweet baking and is a fragrant reminder of Christmas recipes. Very similar to France's sweet quatre-épices, it typically incorporates cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves or allspice." "Self-Raising flour is low-protein, low-gluten white or wholemeal flour with a raising agent mixed in. The most usual raising agent added is baking powder, but some brands also use bicarbonate of soda or other agents."

Cast Iron Skillet bread recipes
http://www.wideopeneats.com/15-cast-iron-skillet-bread-recipes/

Sourdough
Sourdough starter from scratch: Use equal parts by weight flour and water (e.g.: 4 oz wheat flour + 4 oz filtered water (no chlorine), 'feeding' with the same once per day for 5 - 7 days)
 * More complicated, but helpful: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/
 * Simpler, less detailed: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-sourdough-starter-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-47337

Extras to ask for
"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.” ― James Joyce, Ulysses These should all be thrown in for free, assuming they're available, which they should be 'cause white people don't eat them:
 * Offal: including the heart, ox tail (simmer for 3 - 4 hours and make pho, kare kare, or Korean ox tail soup), tongue (slow roast or braise and make into tacos or slice and eat cold. So good!), and liver (might be inedible in the sense that mine tasted so much like a farm/barn that I couldn't eat it, and I generally love liver, but worst case you can give it to the dog!) Apparently the cheeks are good too! Ask for kidneys and you'll probably get them (I did), but my understanding is that the USDA bans them out of ignorance.
 * Soup bones (usually come with some tasty meat on them too. Get a stew going!) Ask for the neck bones too for delicious soup.
 * Fat (the 'leaf lard' around the kidneys, known as suet, I believe, make excellent tallow): I ask for 10 (with a 1/4 cow) - 20 (with a 1/2) lbs of the stuff

Cuts of beef
See this butchering checklist to instructing your butcher IF you get a 1/2. With only 1/4, your options are limited to nil since you gotta split with a stranger:
 * Overview: This has a nice picture of the different sections of beef: http://thatmamagretchen.com/2014/07/what-to-tell-the-butcher-when-you-order-a-quarter-beef.html
 * http://galvinell.com/pdf/butch.pdf
 * http://galvinell.com/pdf/BEEF-BUTCHERING-FORM.pdf
 * or this one: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/751/CustomerBeefCutOrderForm.pdf
 * This one helps you determine what you should expect to get (and gives you one potential configuration): http://www.newgrassfarm.com/ordering-quarters-halves-whole-beef


 * Also think about specifying the fat % of the ground beef. Ask the butcher that 'typical' is. I'd guess somewhere around 20 - 25%. I personally love fat, but might recommend 30% as a max, 'cause even at that level you get a lot of rendered fat in the pan, which is fine in saucy dishes like tomato sauce, but not as easy to deal with in 'dry' taco meat.
 * Your butcher might give you the option (for free or a small extra charge, like $0.70 / lb) to have some of your ground beef shaped into hamburger patties, which is really handy and well worth it considering your time.

Individual Cut 	Quarter/split half 	Half Beef 	Whole Beef Chuck Roast 	10-12 lbs 	20-24 lbs 	40-48 lbs Rolled Rump Roast 	3 lbs 	5-6 lbs 	10-12 lbs Sirloin Tip Roast 	3 lbs 	5-6 lbs 	10-12 lbs Round Steak, or Stew Meat 	3-4 lbs 	6-8 lbs 	12-16 lbs Ribeye Steak 	2.5-3.5 lbs 	5-7 lbs 	10-14 lbs NY Strip Steak 	2.5 lbs 	5 lbs 	10 lbs Sirloin Steak 	2 lbs 	4 lbs 	8 lbs Tenderloin Filets 	1.5 lbs 	3 lbs 	6 lbs Flank Steak 	.5 lbs 	1 lbs 	2 lbs Skirt Steak 	1.6 lbs 	3.2 lbs 	6.4 lbs Brisket 	2 lbs 	4 lbs 	8 lbs Short Ribs 	2 lbs 	4 lbs 	8 lbs Soup bones with meat 	4 lbs 	8 lbs 	16 lbs Liver 	1 lb 	2 lbs 	4 lbs Ground Beef 	45-50 lbs 	90-100 lbs 	180-200 lbs Total amount of beef 	84-93 lbs 	 168-186 lbs  	 336-372 lbs Approximate Freezer space needed 	3 cubic feet  	6 cubic feet  	 12 cubic feet

Advice from Splendid Table: http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-should-the-butcher-prepare-my-cow: First of all, you want the meat aged for about 3 weeks, and not in plastic. A lot of times they'll take the primal cuts, the big cuts of the steer, and they'll just put them in Cryovac and tell you that the meat has been aged. Aging dehydrates the meat and gets enzymes going to make it taste delicious. You want it hung. And if they do any kind of aging at all, they're going to know it.

Now, you're going to lose some weight with that, because they're going to have to trim off mold. Crustiness develops, and it's not harmful, but they have to trim it off. You're going to pay for weight and then it's going to be lost.

If the animal is divided from nose to tail, you want them to keep for you the hanger steak, the skirt steak, the flank steak, the belly and the short ribs. You also want the shanks; the best stew comes from the leg of the animal, so you don't want them to skip giving you the shanks. You want those cheeks, the tongue and the liver. And the other thing is that you want to ask them to cut the chuck (the shoulder) into a seven-bone pot roast, a chuck arm roast. These are things you're going to cut up to make burgers, or you can just cook them whole.

Then what you want them to do is dress out the entire top loin, because the top loin is where the great steaks come from. Dress out means to cut that top loin as a solid piece of meat with no bone in it, because then you have the option of slicing it into steaks or treating it as an entire roast, which could be stunning. If they're going to be freezing it, you want them to cut that into steaks 1 1/2 inches thick. Nothing thinner than that.

The rib area is the other area that's utterly prime -- you can have part of that cut as a rib roast, which could be a holiday treat. Then you could have the rest of it cut into thick steaks.

And you do want the bones. You want the shank cut into 2-inch thick slices across the bone. That is going to give you some of the most phenomenal stew you'll ever eat in your life -- the bone, the marrow and the meat. And you want the neck, because the neck is also going to give you phenomenal stew meat.

-Lynne Rosetto Kasper This was helpful too: http://www.chowhound.com/post/cow-butchered-929927?page=3, and including advice such as: Be very forceful/clear about you wanting the the tongue, brisket, short ribs, bones, etc.

I ask for the ground to be packaged into 1 pound packages. I ask for flank steak, flat iron cut, brisket, t bone, ribeye. I like the tail too. I usually get two oxtail packages from one steer. Femur bones cut for soup

I always made sure to ask for bones (for stock and for the dogs). Do go for the "cube steaks" if that's an option... they make great sandwiches and Chicken Fried Steak. Get the tenderloin, not the porterhouse steaks, if that's an option. I always asked for the brisket (they'll usually grind it if you don't ask) and to have the chuck cut into small roasts... I could always grind them, if I wanted, or cut into chunks for stew or cook as pot roasts... gives you lots of options. I always asked for 2" steaks, knowing they'd be 1" or a little more at best (for some reason, our butcher just wouldn't cut them THICK).

Splendid Table

 * Eat radish greens: http://www.splendidtable.org/story/try-radish-greens-in-sandwiches-or-salads
 * Roast beans: http://www.splendidtable.org/story/dont-overlook-roasting-as-a-cooking-technique-for-beans

Tea
Intro to the world's great teas: https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/02/more-tea-for-everyone.html

Filipino Rice Beer - Tapuy

 * Making bubod to brew tapuy: http://dentan-nan-dalikan.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-make-bubod-wine-yeast.html, read this one too: http://foodrecap.net/recipe/make-bubod/
 * Brewing tapuy: http://ilocanoyork.com/making-binubudan/
 * Science article on tapuy: https://www.scribd.com/doc/53323411/Standardization-of-starter-culture-for-rice-wine-Tapuy

Japanese Sake

 * Making koji (from spores purchased online): https://timogarden.wordpress.com/how-to-make-koji/, http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/koji-rice-101, http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/05/making-koji-for-sake.html
 * Making sake (and koji) from a guy the Mad Fermentationist says is the most knowledgeable: http://www.taylor-madeak.org/how-to-make-sake/

Session beers
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/01/vienna-malt-session-ipa-recipe.html

Sparkling Wine
[I]f you are going to even try to make it using a fermentation in the bottle, please get some sturdy champagne bottles that have a full punt (the curve at the bottom). They are designed to withstand an outrageous amount of pressure.
 * Overview from a helpful winemaker on method champenoise (in-the-bottle fermentation) method: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=294226

[Don't] ferment it to the full volume of Co2 that commercial sparkling goes to and you will have a much more successful time and it is relatively simple to do.

Although sparkling wine can be made from a variety of materials, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Riesling are the preferred grape varieties. It is best to use a good quality all-grape product for making champagne. [...] It is essential that the starting gravity be between 1.070 and 1.080 no higher.
 * Read this primer too: http://byo.com/bock/item/586-easy-steps-to-great-sparkling-wine
 * This one's quick: http://www.homewinemakingjuices.com/manual11.html,
 * and so is this one: http://homebrewingcaps.com/home-brewing-champagne-or-sparkling-wine/

Carefully rehydrate one package of ***Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast*** following these instructions exactly: stir the yeast into 2 oz. (50 mL) of water at 100ºF (40ºC). Wait 5 minutes, then stir yeast thoroughly and gently into wine. Siphon your wine into 30 clean and sanitized sparkling wine bottles leaving 1 inch (2.5 cm) of head space at the top of each bottle.
 * http://www.brewerylane.com/wine/sparkling-wine-champagne-method.html:

Corn

 * If you wanna try eating some feed (aka dent, usually #2) corn into whiskey, read this: https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/threads/grinding-feed-corn-for-human-consumption.445608/ It's the same type of corn that's used for whiskey, but you might have to clean all the bug parts of out it if you buy the kind marketed to animals...

Bourbon mash information
Four Roses is famous for their 10 different bourbon recipes which uses 2 different mashbills and 5 different strains of propriety yeast and if you’re only passingly familiar with those cryptic 4 letter codes here’s a quick reference before we dig into the evening.
 * Mash bills: https://modernthirst.com/home/bourbon-whiskey-mash-bills/
 * From here:

O = From the Four Roses distillery B / E = The mashbill. B = 60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley E = 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% malted barley S = Straight whiskey V / K / O / Q / F = The yeast strain

Seattle distilleries to try
This article looks GREAT! http://seattle.eater.com/maps/best-distilleries-seattle-alcohol (There's also this one, with some overlap of the first)
 * Take Fremont Mischief's tour for $17 including 5 tastings. https://fremontmischief.com/tours-3/ [DONE: Just do the tasting for ~$5 & ask questions. The tour isn't much or worth the extra ~$10.]
 * Westland Distillery: One of the most buttoned up distilleries in the city, this SODO spot is beautiful and well-stocked with some of the best booze in town. Try some Scotch-style peated whiskey, still an uncommon product for American producers, or the Pedro Ximinéz and Oloroso cask-aged Sherry Wood whiskey, infinitely drinkable alone or in a cocktail.
 * 2bar makes Washington-grained whiskey and sounds good! 2960 4th Ave S #106, Seattle, WA 98134. They have a tasting room (Tues - Thurs 12 - 4pm, Fri - Sat 12 - 6pm), and you can schedule a tour via email: http://2barspirits.com/Tours.aspx They buy all their grains from Wilbur, WA, probably from these guys: http://www.cwgg.net/, or another grower that's part of the Highline LLC group.
 * Old Ballard Liquor company: http://www.oldballardliquorco.com/tasting-room.htm, "And don't miss the Cherry Bounce, an aged sour fruit liqueur."
 * Sound Spirits distillery off 15th Ave NW in the Interbay area: whiskey + other stuff
 * Batch 206 off Elliot Way make a bourbon!
 * Copperworks Distilling off Alaskan Way downtown [DONE]
 * OOLA: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjn1ZzF-9PQAhVW92MKHQTVCxIQgU8IOzAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ooladistillery.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNESuOa60h7qlUz5M0BhRQn404qKTQ&sig2=y1ZQhAoM5GsMHP1PfiFW8g&bvm=bv.139782543,d.cGc

Seattle Home Business rules
Home Business Rules See also: Illegal Businesses If you have a home business, you need to limit impacts on your neighbors. What Is It? You’re allowed to run a business out of your home in Seattle as long as it doesn’t interfere with other residents in the neighborhood. The home occupation rules in our Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) contain limits designed to minimize the impact your commercial activity has on your residential neighborhood.

What It Isn’t This code section does not cover:

Illegal businesses in commercial properties Bed and breakfasts Marijuana businesses Rules to Follow Our ordinance requires that you:

Live in the unit where you operate your home business Limit the number of your employees to two, in addition to you Limit deliveries to your business to one a day on weekdays Use only small signs to identify your business from the outside to discourage drop-in traffic Limit signs in single-family zones to the name of the occupant, not the business name (for example Joe Smith, Attorney at Law, not Seattle Premier Attorneys) In addition, your business cannot produce noise, odors, or other emissions that can be detected from your property line. You cannot change the character of the dwelling from residential to commercial. Our rules are slightly different for home-based child care programs. Bed and breakfasts are subject to different rules.

Tip 236, Home Occupations Allowed in Residential Zones Tip 108, Regulations Governing Child Care Centers Read the Code Director's Rule 8-87, Home Occupations SMC 23.42.050 Fines If you violate the home occupation standards you could be charged penalties of $150 to $500 a day. Your fines can accumulate if you do not correct the violation in a timely way. We will also charge for inspections.

Opening a craft distillery
Licensing The WA license lets the craft distillery product up to 150 K gallons of spirits, and ...
 * Read this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/09/04/federal_state_and_local_regulations_make_opening_a_craft_distillery_a_long.html
 * And this from the WA liquor board: http://www.agbizcenter.org/FilesUploaded/file/WSLCB%20Presentation_Richard%20Manoli.pdf (some info seems wrong/outdated. This should be accurate: http://lcb.wa.gov/enforcement/distillery-faq)
 * Sell spirits of its own production for off-premises consumption - limit 2 liters per day per person
 * Samples - maximum of 2 ounces per person per day - free of charge at the distillery
 * Spirits used for samples and off-premises sales must be purchased from the board
 * Requires MAST for any person involved in the service of samples

Alcohol server permits (WA 'MAST' permit class 12): http://lcb.wa.gov/mastrvp/mandatory_alcohol_server_training Mandatory Alcohol Server Training (MAST) is required by law for persons who serve, mix, sell, or who supervise the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption at liquor licensed establishment. Class 12 is for those 21+, Class 13 for those 18 - 20. Class 12 allows you to...
 * Draw alcohol from tap and mix drinks
 * Perform duties included in the Class 13 permit
 * Manage the establishment
 * Conduct alcohol tastings at an approved locations with a tasting endorsement
 * At least one Class 12 permit holder must be on duty

Helpful info on what you can/can't do: http://www.servercertificationcorp.com/state.php?statecode=%27WA%27 Washington Regulations for Bartenders/Sellers/Servers: Happy Hour Laws: Washington state law does not allow the following types of promotions:
 * Two for the price of one,
 * Buy one, get one free,
 * Two drinks for a fixed price, and/or
 * All you can drink.

A business also may not sell (or offer or advertise to sell) alcohol for a price that is less than the acquisition cost. There may be exceptions under certain circumstances, such as when a product is discontinued or seasonal (after the season for the product) or the goods are damaged or have deteriorated. Dramshop/Liquor Liability: No. Third Party Liability

Buying a still

 * This one (30L, or about 8 gallons) with a built-in temperature gauge, straight from Portugal looks perfect, and is only $332 including shipping ($116) + euro exchange fees (~$9 from Paypal.)

Cleaning your still
https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/14125973-how-to-clean-brewing-and-distilling-equipment To clean the inside, fill the boiler with a gallon of white vinegar [other sites recommend 50-50 water-vinegar, which might be safer on the copper], attach the column, and boil for about an hour. After you boil the vinegar for an hour, carefully dump out the the vinegar. It will be HOT- we recommend using Ove Gloves. Also, it will kill your grass - so dump it in your neighbors yard.

After you dump the vinegar fill the still with PBW, let is soak, then scrub the copper still with a toilet cleaning brush (one that is new and only for your stils!). Dump the water out and fill the still one more time with clean water. Scrub the still once more with your new still scrubbing brush and dump the water out one last time. For info on cleaning the outside, read this article: http://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/2847832-how-to-clean-a-copper-moonshine-still

Clean Your Equipment After Each Run

After a long day of distilling the last thing you might want to do is clean your still... However, if you want to own a safe, clean, still that produces excellent product then you MUST clean your still after EACH run. Put the mason jar down, pickup your hose and still scrubbing brush, and get to work. Trust us, spending 10 minutes at the end of a run cleaning your still is well worth the effort. First, we recommend wearing a pair of oven gloves as the still will still be hot. Loosen the flour paste seal on the column by gently rocking it back and forth. Once the seal is broken and the column is lose - completely remove the column from the still. Rinse the column with clean water, and scrub the inside of the column with a carboy cleaning brush (these are the perfect size and work really, really well). Once the column has been cleaned, dry it off and place it in safe dry spot for storage. Put on your Ove Gloves and dump your the leftover wash onto an area of your yard you don't care too much about. Fill the still with 1/2 gallon of clean water and scrub the still with your still toilet scrubbing brush. Dump the water out and then rinse it one more time with clean water. Dry it really well, and store.

[...]

Examine the Copper Before Use Before you transfer any liquid into copper equipment- physically inspect it. If you notice any copper salts building up, you must clean the surfaces before use. You can usually get away with a light white vinegar cleaning. Dump a bit of white vinegar into the pot and scrub it down really well with your still toilet scrubbing brush, then rinse it really well with clean water. If you don't have luck with this method you can do another boil session with white vinegar or use a brewing product called PBW

Similar, but slightly different advice (suggests washing with hot, soapy water before a 1:1 water:vinegar run): https://www.whiskeystillpro.com/blogs/news/17489613-how-to-clean-a-copper-still-inside-and-out

Measuring alcohol
Gravity hydrometer formulae
 * Alcohol hydrometer temperature corrections table from the Feds in 1913: https://www.ttb.gov/foia/Gauging_Manual_Tables/Table_1.pdf
 * ABV = ABW * (FG / .794)
 * ABV = (76.08*(OG - FG)/(1.775-OG)) * (FG/0.794) -- Based on Balling and
 * ABV = (OG - FG) * 131.25 -- Simplified Dave Miller calculation

What Washington grows
http://planwashington.org/blog/archive/whats-growing-in-washington-state/

Grains Washington grows
No one will be surprised to learn that Washington is the nation's largest producer of apples. However, it's in the red raspberry market where our state holds the largest market share. Washington leads the nation in production of twelve agricultural commodities. [Could make kirshwasser and a raspberry liqueur/spirit, as well as applejack!] - See more at: http://planwashington.org/blog/archive/whats-growing-in-washington-state/#sthash.cwRaeKZX.dpuf
 * A lot of wheat and barley, and some sweet corn. What kind of wheat is good for whiskey...? http://wagrains.org/all-about-wheat/varieties-of-wheat/types-of-wheat/
 * Great Western Malting Company makes malted barley from Washington: http://www.greatwesternmalting.com/gwm/products/products
 * Especially for craft brewing & distilling sales: http://countrymaltgroup.com/
 * Any rye...?
 * Oats...?
 * 1) Red raspberries, 90.5 percent of U.S. production
 * 2) Hops, 79.3 percent
 * 3) Spearamint Oil, 75 percent
 * 4) Wrinkled seed peas. 70.4 percent
 * 5) Apples, 71.7 percent
 * 6) Grapes, Concord, 55.1 percent
 * 7) Grapes, Niagra, 35.9 percent
 * 8) Sweet cherries, 62.3 percent
 * 9) Pears, 45.6 percent
 * 10) Green peas, processing, 32.4 percent
 * 11) Carrots (2011), 30.6 percent
 * 12) Sweet corn, processing (2011), 29 percent

New Jersey estate and inheritance tax

 * Overview: http://riker.com/publications/lifetime-gifting-and-the-new-jersey-estate-tax Try this too: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/new-jersey-probate-an-overview.html
 * Exclusion of NJ Estate tax is $675,000 per spouse. Should use Credit Shelter aka A/B aka Bypass Trust to use both spouses' exclusions (for $1.3 M total). Otherwise, an estate of $1.5 M would cost $64 K in estate taxes.
 * NJ Inheritance tax is exempt for 'immediate family' including spouses, children, & grandchildren.
 * Use gifts ($14 K per parent = $28 K per recipient per year) to reduce taxable estate.
 * List of handy NJ strategies, like a Credit Shelter Trust: http://www.njlaws.com/NJ-Estate-Tax.html
 * New Jersey Estate Tax rates based on estate value: http://www.robertaufseeser.com/Chart%20-%20New%20Jersey%20Estate%20Tax%20Rates.pdf

New Jersey Probate

 * Simple, easy, and cheap (avg $150) in NJ. It's based on the length of the will, not the value of the estate: http://www.eldercarelawyer.com/blog/2014/12/do-i-need-to-probate-the-will/

Selling a home in Pennsylvania

 * Steps (simplistic): https://www.sapling.com/6570016/owner-can-sell-home-pennsylvania
 * Necessary disclosures: http://research.lawyers.com/pennsylvania/selling-a-house-in-pennsylvania.html
 * Legal code: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/68/00.073.004.000..HTM
 * Disclosure form for sellers in PA: http://www.dos.pa.gov/ProfessionalLicensing/BoardsCommissions/RealEstateCommission/Documents/Board%20Documents/Sellers%20Property%20Disclosure%20Statement.pdf

Gift tax (and how it relates to estate tax)

 * Very helpful article with example of the gift tax, how it works with the estate tax, and cost basis of inherited ('step up' aka market value at death basis) vs gifted (= the giver's original basis): https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Tax-Planning-and-Checklists/The-Gift-Tax/INF12036.html

Giving your home to your children
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-give-your-home-to-your-children-tax-free-2015-02-23

Equity compensation (RSUs, Options)
In general, I think Restricted Stock Units (with a dividend equivalent) are the way to go in employee equity compensation to best simulate owning common stock. Options are a 'heads a win, tails you lose (and I get nothing, but don't lose)' form of compensation that may encourage employees to go for everything or nothing, and not prudently protect against downside risks of their actions.

Amazon famously figured this out early on, and apparently so did Bill Gates at Microsoft. The one thing that could be better about RSUs is the ability to delay taxes, which apparently Blue Leaf figured out how to do per the bottom of this primer on RSUs vs Options
 * Another related article with more details: https://www.personalcapital.com/blog/investing/stock-options-rsus-equity-compensation-primer/

Best Practices

 * The guy at corpgov.net seems thoughtful. http://www.corpgov.net/2015/10/best-practices-spread-from-well-governed-companies/
 * Includes link to Council of Institutional Investors best practices: http://www.cii.org/files/publications/misc/08_05_15_Best%20Practices%20-%20Proxy%20Access.pdf

Cumulative Voting
PLACEHOLDER: Is this a good idea?

Majority Voting

 * Discussed here: http://www.corpgov.net/2015/10/best-practices-spread-from-well-governed-companies/, which cites this paper.

Chairman of the Board
In general, it's a good practice to have the Chairman of the Board be a large shareholder and NON-executive, and definitely not the CEO. Exceptions would be those like Warren Buffett, or Jeff Bezos, who own such large chunks of the company and have such unimpeachable integrity. Clues to integrity include low CEO pay (Buffett & Bezos both take practically nothing, $100 K for Buffett and $83 K for Bezos, and NO stock options or other 'performance bonuses', taking success of their enterprises instead, and 'free' perks like a pleasant work environment. They are also candid and upfront about their performance, and highly skilled.

Mandatory Ownership of the company by Executives
All executives should own a piece of the company to ensure true alignment (in ordinary, common stock.)

Written Q&A should be a thing
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/04/15/one-shareholder-friendly-trend-every-company-shoul.aspx

Share Repurchases
https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2013/03/14/questions-surrounding-share-repurchases/ A few excerpts from the above: In order to come under Rule 10b-18’s safe harbor, a company and its affiliated purchasers, taken together, must meet all the following conditions:

1. Manner: all of the bids and purchases must be made through only one broker or dealer on any single day;

2. Timing: the purchases must not:

(a) constitute the opening transaction, (b) for a security that, during the preceding four weeks, has an average daily trading volume (ADTV) value of at least $1 million and a public float value of at least $150 million, be made during the 10 minutes before the scheduled close of the primary trading session in the security’s principal market, and during the 10 minutes before the scheduled close of the primary trading session in the market where the purchase is made, and (c) for all other securities, be made during the 30 minutes before the scheduled close of the primary trading session in the security’s principal market, and the 30 minutes before the scheduled close of the primary trading session in the market where the purchase is made;

3. Volume: the aggregate purchases on any given day must not exceed 25 percent of the purchased security’s ADTV. “Block” trades typically will be included in computing a security’s ADTV. However, once per week, “in lieu of purchasing under the 25 percent of ADTV limit for that day,” a company or its affiliated purchasers may make one block trade of its shares without regard to the volume limit, provided that it does not make any other Rule 10b-18 purchases on the same day. Purchases made pursuant to this block trade exception will not be included in computing a security’s ADTV for purposes of Rule 10b-18 volume limits; and

4. Price: the purchases must not be made at a price that exceeds the highest independent bid or the last independent transaction price (whichever is higher) quoted or reported in the consolidated system at the time the purchase is made.

The safe harbor applies on a daily basis, and a failure to meet any one of the four conditions will remove all of a company’s repurchases from the safe harbor for the day.

Generally, companies attempt to comply with Rule 10b-18. Companies typically enter into an arrangement with a broker or dealer that agrees to implement the repurchase program according to the companies’ instructions and in accordance with the requirements of Rule 10b-18. All of the major brokerage firms understand the Rule 10b-18 requirements and implement programs accordingly.

Highly-Compensated Employee rules
https://captain401.com/blog/non-discrimination-testing-ndt-the-basics-of-401k-compliance/

GitHub Guides and Tutorials

 * Really nice-and-simple overview: http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/
 * Another nice guide with helpful examples: https://github.com/GarageGames/Torque2D/wiki/Cloning-the-repo-and-working-with-Git

Unix Terminal Commands
https://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/superap/unixcmd.html

Windows 10

 * Add back Recent Places to file explorer: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-add-recent-places-to-left-pane-of-file-explorer-in-windows-10/

Tableau

 * Ward's Tableau Public page: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ward.williams5371

FRED St Louis Fed Economic database

 * Great source of data, and in downloadable formats. I heart the St Louis Fed. Here's the state-by-state datasets.

US Census Data

 * Follow this guide: https://public.tableau.com/s/sites/default/files/Census%20template%20how-to.pdf
 * Other thoughts: https://community.tableau.com/thread/193034

Washington State data
data.wa.gov
 * Filter pages by 'datasets': https://data.wa.gov/browse?limitTo=datasets&sortBy=most_accessed&sortPeriod=week&utf8=%E2%9C%93 (963 results as of 2017-12-03)
 * Nice metadata! https://data.wa.gov/Politics/Contributions-to-Candidates-and-Political-Committe/kv7h-kjye
 * Population Density by County by Decade
 * Unemployment Rates in King County 1990 - 2010

SQL Practice and Testing
For instance, you can use this query to prove how JOINs work (duplicating rows on duplicate JOIN'd column values): SELECT * FROM Customers a INNER JOIN (SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Paris') b -- Note: there are exactly 2 rows in this table where city = Paris, so the result here will be 4 rows, not 2 as is commonly assumed by SQL neophytes. ON b.City = a.City WHERE a.City = 'Paris'
 * Use this to test SQL concepts: https://www.w3schools.com/sql/trysql.asp?filename=trysql_op_in

Humor

 * The hubris and impatience one feels when dealing with somebody else who can't figure out what it easy for oneself: video and meme.

Excel questions
Q: How do you write functions in Excel, and can you give me an example of a function you've used recently, and what it does?|'=....' Q: Used pivot tables? Q: VLOOKUP?|Write/describe the syntax and what it does (= VLOOKUP(. Any difficulties/shortcomings of the function that you've run in to? Difficulties/shortcomings: Can only select first column as the index column. The 'default' isn't exact match, etc.

SQL questions
Basic shizzle SELECT employee_id, job_title FROM employees WHERE last_name = 'Williams'
 * Q: How do I return rows 'employee_id' and 'job_title' from a table called 'employees', returning only employee records with last_name 'Williams'?
 * A:
 * Q: How about last_name starting with 'W'?
 * A:

Aggregate functions Usually I skip this if I can safely assume the person is already a SQL guru, but if NOT, you might wanna ask... SELECT book_id , SUM(sales) AS sales_total -- Bonus points for you as an interviewer if you ask them to re-label the column as 'sales_total' , COUNT(DISTINCT customer_id) -- Ask them to tell you the number of unique customers purchasing the book FROM books WHERE publishing_date BETWEEN '2014-01-01' AND NOW -- Or sysdate in Oracle, etc.  You can decide if you wanna make them use a function vs a hard-coded date GROUP BY book_id HAVING SUM(sales) > 1 -- Add this in if you wanna complicate things and ask them to include ONLY books with at least two sales. There are other ways of doing this, like by using a sub-query and THEN filtering with WHERE sales_total > 1, but using HAVING shows l337 status.
 * Q: Ask them some question about SUMming things or COUNTing [DISTINCT] things. For example, 'sum all sales & the number of unique customers purchasing a given book_id' from a table that has sales transactions (individual purchase orders) with book_id, customer_id, and quantity_sold (the number of books purchased in the order.)
 * A:

LEFT JOINs
 * Q: How does a LEFT JOIN work?
 * A: It returns all rows from the 'left' (FROM) table and only the rows that match (on the column you JOIN on) in the 'right' (LEFT JOIN) table. Nulls are returned for rows from the right table with NO match in the left table [make sure they say this.  Ask what happens to these values if they don't explicitly tell you.]
 * FUQ: If I have duplicates of a value in the left table (column A = 1 and 1 in two rows) and also in the right table (column A = 1 and 1 in at least two rows), and I JOIN both tables on their column As, what is my result set from that JOIN?
 * A: You'll get 4 rows with 1 in the JOINed Column A. [WW: This duplication of rows is a commonly missed thing among SQL neophytes, and tests whether they really understand what's being done in a JOIN. Some people get confused and seem to think JOIN aggregates the rows to two, or perhaps even one, rows in this scenario.]

Keys
 * Q: Can you explain to me what Primary Keys & Foreign Keys are, and why you might use them in a database?
 * A: [Something like...] Primary Keys uniquely identify rows in a database Bonus points if they add: they can be made up of 1 or more columns. Foreign keys are constraints on a column in one table that refer to a primary key column in another table.  They restrict values in the [first table's] column and ensure data integrity.
 * Q: I usually give them an example using the employees table and saying 'if I have an employees table with employee_ids 1, 2, and 3, and a 'paychecks' table with a foreign key constraint on employee_id in that table (referencing employee_id in my employees table), can I insert a row into 'paychecks' with employee_id = 4? (The answer is 'no', unless you do something like first REMOVE the FK constraint and/or disable it (which you can do in Oracle & MySQL, and probably other SQL 'flavors' as well.)

Data Architecture questions
Designing a grocery store orders database
 * Q: [This is my favorite question, as it tends to separate the wheat from the chaff] Let's say I'm a grocery store owner & I decide I need a database to track each order in. So, I decide to create a table called 'orders', which will have one row for each customer's order, and I'll have columns like 'customer_id', 'time_of_order', etc, and I want to keep track of what items the customers buy.  I propose to have an 'items' column where I can store a string like 'apples,pears,kleenex' to track this.  What do you think about the way I've stored this data?  Is it ok, or is there a better way to do it (and why is it bad/good)?
 * A: This is bad because you shouldn't stuff multiple values into one column (why? Because it makes it hard to query, basically, 'cause you gotta do intensive operations such as LIKE 'apples')
 * Q: Usually I follow this with "How about I have a separate columns for each item, so my table now becomes 'order_id,pears,apples,kleenex, etc'"? Is this ok?
 * A: No, because every time you gotta add an item you have to add a columns (and/or you'll have way too many columns if you have a lotta items.)
 * Q: So, how would you structure the table(s)?
 * A: Some normalized version like an orders table for order_id, customer_id, time of order, etc, and then a separate 'order_items' table which has one row per order_id + item_id with things like 'quantity' (one thoughtful interviewee pointed out that 'weight' is another important attribute, which spawned a great discussion on how to store that, and whether it should be stored in the same column as quantity, or two separate columns [the latter is the correct answer!]). AND a separate (bonus points, sorta) table for the 'items' with primary key of item_id and info about the items (like item_name, price (maybe), quantity in stock (maybe), etc.)

Visualizing data/Reporting

 * Q: We're launching ebook self-publishing in a new marketplace (Croatia, say), and your job is to show one Powerpoint slide to our Senior VP that will give him the information he cares most about to determine how the marketplace launch is going. What would be on that slide?
 * A: Something about revenue or profit (cash rules!) mapped over time is the usual (good, I think) response. If they list too many things, I like to give them a hard time about paring it down to what's MOST important to the exec.  Bonus points if they suggest splitting things up by demographics (income of customers, age of customers, genre of book, etc.


 * Q: If you see a spike in [sales/profit/units], how would you figure out the cause of it in order to explain it? [I thought this question was kind of a softball, BUT then I got a guy who could answer the SQL questions, but couldn't tell me HOW he would actually 'dive deep' (which is what he kept saying...) and slice the data to investigate his hypothesis for the spike.  So now I love this question, because it separated him from the other guys that could do SQL AND explain how they would solve a real problem.]
 * A: They need to say how they would drill into the data at a more detailed level, by author, time period, book level, etc and they need to both suggest reasons (best-seller, seasonality) AND explain exactly how they would slice the data to figure out the answer. I generally ask some follow-up questions like 'ok, and what if when you look at the data this way you see X, what does that tell you?' etc until I'm satisfied that they could actually perform this analysis (assuming they knew enough SQL/Excel to effectively slice & pivot.)

(This next question brought to you by guest contributor soihahra@)


 * Q: Say you're working in to support HR at your last role, and you need to come up with a way to quantify and evaluate everyone who is a *insert last role for candidate here*. Walk me through how you would go through that process, assuming your audience for this hypothetical metric is the VP of HR and people managers.
 * A: In other words, "judge people, in front of me." (lolz) This is actually a pretty good exercise, one that I believe every BA goes through at some point: observe, quantify, and report something that is fairly ambiguous for the purposes of supporting a business decision. This works best if you can pick something from their resume where the candidate has spent a reasonable amount of time at, and where the work is something less quantifiable than manufacturing. I'm not looking for a specific metric here, but rather the ability to walk through different ways of measuring and reporting quality of work, and being able to speak to the strengths and weaknesses of each proposed metric.

Invent/Business Thinkin'

 * Q: I've recently started asking 'if you had to design and launch a new ebook self-publishing feature, what would it be?' I give a preamble on the KDP Select program as an example.  The idea in my head is to make sure these guys can think creatively like business owners beyond just doing SQL & reporting on data.  Hopefully this question does this, but feel free to use better ones! (And post them here in this wiki!)
 * A: Something interesting that makes sense from a business perspective. Usualy candidates start by brainstorming several ideas, and then I choose one I think is interesting and ask them to explain in more detail how it would work.

John Hoole's Cat Question
John Hoole created this question for certain interviewees. It seems very interesting, open-ended, could test multiple things, and I've used it for on-site Business Intelligence/Analyst types:

Enter The Cat Question: Q. Hypothetical: ebook self-publishers like to publish books with cat pictures on the cover -- you can find books with cat pix all over the store. 5% of our customers hate books with cat pictures on the cover. Most of our browsing customers are not actually looking for books with cat pix on the cover. 5% of customers only want to purchase books with cat pix on the cover. How would you determine the financial impact of: a) banning cat picture books from Amazon? b) continuing the status quo of allowing cat picture books to be sold?

Hadoop
Hadoop is a distributed file system databased that's highly reliable and redundant for high processing on commodity hardware.
 * Intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoEpfb6yga8
 * And/or read this: https://opensource.com/life/14/8/intro-apache-hadoop-big-data

MapReduce

 * The processing part of Hadoop. Appears to be programmed via Java. JobTracker keeps track of individual 'TaskTrackers', and these that map tasks onto a given machine (and 'live' on a given machine, I believe. I.e.: TaskTrackers are 1:1 with machines.) Tasks that fail are automatically redone. Data is usually stored on multiple machines as well for redundancy.
 * Hadoop is 'batch-oriented' for efficiency, but sometimes need to read-write data in real-time, so HBase does that. (Top-level Apache project with interface to distributed data for 'incremental processing', and can be accessed by Pig, Hive, MapReduce and stores the info in HDFS. Used by apps like Facebook Messages. Zookeeper stores info for different servers that need to work together.

HDFS

 * Hadoop Distributed File System: scales out to petabytes of storage (say, 4,500 machines and 25 petabytes.) The NameNode oversees the DataNodes, which are blocks of data that live on individual (I think) machines, providing high bandwidth access.

Pig
High-level language that translates down into MapReduce (e.g.: a scripting language for MapReduce jobs.)

Hive
SQL-like language that can be used instead of Pig, and translates also to MapReduce (used by Facebook a lot, for example: 90% of their computations.)
 * Cheat sheet: https://hortonworks.com/blog/hive-cheat-sheet-for-sql-users/

HCatalog

 * Hive metadata catalog/store which is now available for all applications.

Mahout
Machine-learning MapReduce applications

Sqoop
Helps run MapReduce applications to pull/push SQL data (e.g.: MySQL, Oracle) out of/into Hadoop.

Cascading
Another alternative to Pig/Hive for getting data out of Hadoop

Oozie
Scheduling MapReduce runs.

Flume
For streaming data inputs into Hadoop/HDFS

Fuse-DFS
Provides standard Linux tool access to HDFS.

OCR text recognition
Try these:
 * http://www.manejandodatos.es/2014/11/ocr-python-easy/
 * Step by step PDF OCR guide: https://pythontips.com/2016/02/25/ocr-on-pdf-files-using-python/
 * Libraries: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pytesseract, https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pypdfocr
 * Amazon OCR library (not Python): https://w.amazon.com/index.php/A9/VisualSearch/OCR

Ecommerce sites

 * Tutorial on how to build ecommerce site with Wordpress (and plugin Woo Commerce). Skip to around 15 min or so to bypass the purchasing of a domain & webhost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih-0oIfBTZc

Web hosts specifically for Python

 * Read this: http://www.goodwebhosting.info/article.py/15
 * A conventional choice per PC mag: https://www.siteground.com/
 * Programmer-specializing sites: https://www.webfaction.com/

Financial Accounting

 * Coursera intro from Wharton: https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting
 * Very useful reference guide covering many aspects: https://www.accountingcoach.com/financial-ratios/explanation/1

XBRL
XBRL is a business reporting data standard. It is an XML-based accounting language for financial and regulatory (SEC) form filling out.
 * XBRL for Python: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-xbrl
 * Reading XBRL forms from SEC's EDGAR: https://github.com/lukerosiak/pysec

Security Deposit and wear and tear vs damage
From Washington state Tenant's Union: http://housingsearchnw.org/pdfs/Guide_to_Damages_and_Normal_Wear_and_Tear_English_Oct_2011.pdf Ordinary Wear and Tear: Landlord's Responsibility        Damage or Excessive Filth: Tenant's Responsibility Curtains faded by the sun 	Cigarette burns in curtains or carpets Water-stained linoleum by shower 	Broken tiles in bathroom Minor marks on or nicks in wall 	Large marks on or holes in wall Dents in the wall where a door handle bumped it 	Door off its hinges Moderate dirt or spotting on carpet 	Rips in carpet or urine stains from pets A few small tack or nail holes in wall 	Lots of picture holes or gouges in walls that require patching as well as repainting A rug worn thin by normal use 	Stains in rug caused by a leaking fish tank Worn gaskets on refrigerator doors 	Broken refrigerator shelf Faded paint on bedroom wall 	Water damage on wall from hanging plants Dark patches of ingrained soil on hardwood floors that have lost their finish and have been worn down to bare wood 	Water stains on wood floors and windowsills caused by windows being left open during rainstorms Warped cabinet doors that won't close 	Sticky cabinets and interiors Stains on old porcelain fixtures that have lost their protective coating 	Grime-coated bathtub and toilet Moderately dirty mini-blinds 	Missing mini-blinds Bathroom mirror beginning to "de-silver" (black spots) 	Mirrors caked with lipstick and makeup Clothes dryer that delivers cold air because the thermostat has given out 	Dryer that won't turn at all because it's been over-loaded Toilet flushes inadequately because mineral deposits have clogged the jets 	Toilet won't flush properly because it's stopped up with a diaper
 * http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/chart-cleaning-repairs-landlord-deduct-29017.html:
 * http://homeguides.sfgate.com/normal-wear-tear-rental-home-1914.html

Broker information

 * Look up Washington State brokers by license number (all it tells you is when they got their license and its status...): https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/

County assessors

 * King County assessor 'parcel viewer': type in the address and write down the 'parcel number': http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/
 * View both the District and 'Property' reports.
 * View the county's valuation of the property, noting the separate land & 'improvements' (building(s)) values, and the other characteristics of the property.

Checking for liens and title problems

 * County records page: Use the parcel number in the 'tax parcel' field (you can leave the others blank) to find any liens or other title problems filed against this property.
 * First, do 'Official Public Records' search): http://146.129.54.93:8193/search.asp?cabinet=opr
 * Make sure to ALSO search by the owner of the Property in the Official Public Records search to find more on Deeds and Liens. I've noticed they often don't have them under the Parcel search. Search also by the Plat number (ex: H E ORR PARK DIV NO 5)
 * You can check Excise Tax records too
 * Check your city archives too. Seattle archives: https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/search-collections/research-tips-and-tools/resources-for-property-research

Searching for other permit and property records

 * Seattle Permit and Property Records: http://web6.seattle.gov/dpd/edms/

Mortgages

 * Check inflation forecasts to estimate your real interest rate: https://www.clevelandfed.org/our-research/indicators-and-data/inflation-expectations.aspx
 * Ex: if your 30 year mortgage APR is 4.2% and forecasted inflation is 2.2%, your real interest rate over that 30 years is about 2%.)
 * Next, estimate your itemized deductions to see if you'll save on taxes, and subtract tax savings against your interest for an effective rate.

How to do the most good with the least amount of money

 * All your significant charitable contributions should go to the most effective place they can, which tends to be cost-effective healthcare such as vaccines, essential vitamins, malaria prevention, etc overseas. Givewell.org's Top Charities are the absolute best place you can put your charitable dollars. I can't recommend them highly enough!
 * If you want to list Givewell's Top Charities as the beneficiaries to your investment accounts or life insurance, you can find their tax information and addresses here.

Data

 * Free US data compiled by some helpful dude! Has an API too: http://usfundamentals.com/download
 * Quandl gives some data away free via API too: https://blog.quandl.com/api-for-stock-data

Macro stock market valuations
http://www.multpl.com/ for 1-year S&P 500 PE ratios and http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/ for Shiller's 10-year ratio. Market-to-book ratio: http://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-price-to-book
 * 3-year stock returns following various levels of the Shiller/10-year PE ratio: http://www.businessinsider.com/shiller-pe-versus-subsequent-3-year-real-equity-returns-2015-6
 * Interpretation (take with a grain of salt!) of the current Shiller ratio from gurufocus.com: http://www.gurufocus.com/shiller-PE.php

Ben Graham

 * The Intelligent Investor
 * Security Analysis (1941 version, 6th ed.)

Buffett-related

 * Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein: This book best describes the attitude of a successful individual company investor, and is filled with interesting bits about the life of arguably the world's greatest investor, and unarguably the businessman with the highest integrity, Warren Buffett.
 * The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America: Great condensation and organization of all the lessons taught in Berkshire's Letters to Shareholders. Serves as an intro to corporate governance, financial statement analysis, the right attitude to investing (how to think about stocks and markets), and valuation.
 * Warren Buffett's Ground Rules by Jeremy Miller: Insightful analysis of Buffett's earliest letters to 'shareholders', his investment partners, in his partnership activities pre-Berkshire. Very inspiring and helpful for individual investors who can pick small/OTC companies.

Phil Fisher

 * Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits: Helpful methods for stockpicking, including scuttlebut.

Peter Lynch

 * One Up on Wall Street
 * Beating the Street

Motley Fool

 * Motley Fool Investment Guide: Probably a good one to start with. The Fool has a lotta of good articles (and a lot of trashy link bait to filter out), and I cut my teeth on their advice early in my investing career before I'd even heard of Warren Buffett.

Letters to Shareholders

 * Buffett/Berkshire's letters to shareholders: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
 * WESCO/Munger's letters to shareholders (1983 - 2009): https://rememberingtheobvious.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/wesco-charlie-munger-letters-1983-2009-collection.pdf
 * Jeff Bezos' letters to shareholders: https://wordsofward.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/all-amazon-letters-to-shareholders-combined/

More Bezos wisdom
a senior Amazon brand manager from 2007 to 2011, recalls tense moments previewing television ads for the soon-to-launch Kindle. Early versions included a whimsical snippet where a Kindle-carrying reader transformed into a brave matador, tossed into the air by a charging bull. Everyone giggled--except Bezos. He hit the rewind button and silently replayed the matador scene. Then he turned to the group and adopted a grade-school teachers somber voice: "I know its cute, and lots of people will think the bull is funny. But the customer right there is getting his ass kicked. We can't let him get hurt."
 * One of my favorite Jeff B anecdotes that describes his ferocious protection of the customer as told in this Forbes article:

Other investment reading

 * Whitney Tilson's articles at Fool.com:
 * Some guy's list: http://www.investorgeeks.com/articles/2006/09/06/reading-list-for-the-investing-master/

Watching

 * TV/media expert Laura Martin (Harvard MBA) of Needham & Company and Capital Knowledge. (She asked sharp questions at Q1-2016 WWE earnings call.)
 * Her talks on media/TV (probably smart to watch for understanding WWE, VIAB, etc): https://www.ctam.com/events/pages/meet-laura-martin.aspx
 * On mobile monetization and it's importance: https://www.twst.com/interview/mobile-monetization-key-to-higher-growth-trajectory-for-internet-content-providers
 * Her 'tip' ranking: https://www.tipranks.com/analysts/laura-martin

Mergent Manuals

 * Mergent took over from Moody's the 'Manuals' that Buffett found OTC info from. They live on in an annual physical volume (~$1535 for 2,200 unlisted OTC companies!) which can be found at Seattle Central Library 	REF - Level 6 Desk 	332.6 M776U in MICROFICHE form!
 * Other interesting Mergent data sources: http://www.mergentarchives.com/,
 * Access Mergent online via a library (Boston - Eugene?): http://suffolk.libguides.com/c.php?g=654201&p=4589495
 * Data feeds: http://www.mergent.com/solutions/datafeeds
 * Digital manuals: http://www.mergent.com/docs/product-sheets/mergent-digital-manuals.pdf
 * Catalogs of earnings reports you can get online from Mergent: http://www.mergent.com/docs/news-reports/2017_otcunlisted_news_index_20170606.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Insurance companies
Most importantly, investors need to figure out whether employees get compensated based on volume or profitability. Volume-based incentives rapidly deteriorate underwriting quality, as we've seen in banking, mortgage lending, and insurance. In fact, WR Berkley's (NYSE:BER) management once jokingly replied that they were insulted when an analyst asked whether the company used volume-based incentives.
 * Emil Lee pt 1: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/09/24/valuing-insurance-companies-part-1.aspx


 * Emil Lee pt 2: https://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2007/09/28/valuing-insurance-companies-part-2.aspx
 * Insurance Basics series also by Emil Lee is great: https://www.fool.com/personal-finance/2006/12/05/insurance-industry-basics-float.aspx
 * Understanding Insurance Industry's Balance Sheet (Emil Lee, 2007): https://www.fool.com/personal-finance/2007/01/26/understanding-an-insurers-balance-sheet.aspx
 * Same article from 2015 by Dan Caplinger: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/22/understanding-an-insurers-balance-sheet.aspx

General
Return on Invested Capital: http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/forum/discussion/944/invested-capital-calculations Another definition: https://www.newconstructs.com/invested-capital-definition-and-formulae/

Price-to-Sales Ratio over time
https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/using-the-price-to-sales-ratio-to-value-stocks.aspx

Valuing Amazon by Price-to-Sales ratio
Damn I wish I'd kept my Amazon stock at Jan 2015 with Price to Sales ratio of 1.5: Y Charts has a great set of clean-looking metrics for this: https://ycharts.com/companies/AMZN/ps_ratio Morningstar: http://financials.morningstar.com/valuation/price-ratio.html?t=AMZN

Valuation screens
Try this one for ROIC: http://www.marketinout.com/stock-screener/stocks.php?screen=20_to_30&picker=roic&fundamentals=43=7&sorting=roe http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/stock-screener/cash-return-on-invested-capital-croic-stock-screen.php

Ben Graham's Net-Net (NNWC) and NCAV definitions
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3610196-two-definitions-net-nets-net-net-working-capital-versus-net-current-asset-value Two different "versions" of net-nets have evolved from the teachings of Benjamin Graham in his two books "Security Analysis" and "The Intelligent Investor."

The first definition of net-nets involves comparing the net current asset values (current assets - total liabilities) (NCAV) per share of stocks against their share prices and buying them if the P/NCAV ratios are below two-thirds.

The second definition of net-nets, more commonly known as net-net working capital (NNWC), makes an attempt at "revaluing" NCAV with the following adjustments:

+100% of cash and short-term investments +75% of accounts receivables I   +50% of inventories [Ward's note: Buffett suggests also adding an 'auction' value to PP&E (= tangible long-term assets), perhaps discounted down to +15% of value without the ability to look up actual auction prices and estimate from that.] -100% of all liabilities

Both definitions of net-nets try to incorporate a margin of safety for the collectability risk of accounts receivables and the salability of inventories to a certain extent (the former through an arbitrary discount assigned to the net current asset value; the latter via specific discounts for accounts receivables and inventories).

Most deep value net-net investors tend to use the first definition of net-nets, P/NCAV, in their search for potential investment candidates, as the screening for low P/NNWC stocks is more difficult in reality (compared with low P/NCAV stocks).

Firstly, there is a greater likelihood of data services providers getting the calculation of accounts receivables wrong since a significant number of companies tend to lump accounts receivables and other receivables and may not provide the necessary disclosure to differentiate between them. If one incorporates all receivables (including non-operating receivables) in the calculation of low P/NNWC net-nets, he or she may be overstating the value of NNWC.

Secondly, simply taking 100% of cash and short-term investments at their face values may not be the wisest thing to do since the market values of short-term investments will fluctuate and not all cash are unencumbered and excess in nature.

Thirdly, the 25% and 50% discounts assigned to accounts receivables and inventories respectively may not be appropriate for all companies. For example, some companies may have customers which are MNCs or government-linked where the probability (and history) of defaults is close to zero, so even a 25% discount for accounts receivables is considered harsh. On the other hand, for companies which sell products with short lifecycles and shelf lives and are witnessing growing inventory days, a 50% discount for inventories may be simply too little. The second definition of net-nets, buying at less than two-thirds of NCAV tries to solve this problem by assigning a blanket 33% discount to all the current assets on the balance sheet.

Idea Generation

 * Good post for follow up companies: http://seekingalpha.com/article/4010102-10-micro-caps-never-heard
 * Interesting blog: http://www.oddballstocks.com/2012/03/value-mirage.html

Stock Screens

 * Simple but useful OTC stock screen (no valuation screening tools, just by country, marketplace, stock type): https://www.otcmarkets.com/research/stock-screener

InvestSnips - Lists of companies by industry and capitalization

 * Very handy! http://investsnips.com/sectors-and-industries-u-s-exchanges/

Arbitrage Ideas
CAB (Cabela's) purchase by Bass Pro Shop for $65.5. Might close end of Q1 or end of Q2 2016. If the changes of closing are $65.5 * 90% + $46 (pre-pre-buyout price) * 10% = $63.55 which is a 3.67% premium over the (current/my purchase) price of $61.30. So if it takes 6 months, that's about 7.3% gain annualized, or 3.7% for 1 year.

Still, less than 4 percent of deals raise enough concern that antitrust agencies launch an in-depth investigation called a “second request,” and only about 2 percent of all deals are ultimately challenged in court by antitrust agencies. That’s according to Hunton & Williams, a Virginia law firm that represents corporate clients on antitrust matters. Those figures have held fairly steady under the Obama and Bush administrations, the firm said.
 * 'Typical' justice department/FTC blocking on antitrust grounds is < 2% per Omaha Herald: http://www.omaha.com/money/could-federal-regulators-block-the-bass-pro-takeover-of-cabela/article_085cf28b-e367-5050-97c2-14532ddbd93c.html
 * Plus, there's a chance the shareholders reject the deal, but in this case, the premium over previous trading price is very high ($65.5 was ~19% over prior-announcement price, and even higher over historical trading price.)
 * Could always cash out early if the price fluctuates up enough to make the risk/benefit proposition lower (say, the $63.5 range.)

DIS - Walt Disney

 * Bought at $103/shr on 6/11/2017 trading around 18 times earnings (TTM, forward: 15.4) at market cap around $160 B with FCF avging $6 B or so for the past 3 years, giving a FCF 'coupon' around 5.5 - 6%, with growth still happening (maybe ~4% per year? I forget). Great brands in Marvel, Pixar, Lucas Films, Disney, ESPN (failing a bit due to cable, but I still figure ESPN is good), and ABC (also facing tough competition.) Seemed like a reasonable price based on historic PE (closer to ~16x earnings, so maybe I'm overpaying a bit, but the economics in terms of operating margin and returns on capital have kept improving and are better than ever. See the ValueLine report for this.) Debt net of cash was ~$17 B, which seems ok.

FRSH - Papa Murphy's Take & Bake Pizza
Story for why I'm buying at $4.76/share * 16.9 M shrs = ~$81 M market cap. Has $100 M in debt (!) Sales of $120 M and FCF expected to be $15 M (good! Too good...?) for 2017 which is a yield on the equity of 18.75%, or ~$19-20 M (adding back in the interest paid of ~$4-5 M) / $189 M of Enterprise Value = 10 - 10.5%. Historically FCF has been around $7.8 M (5 yr trailing at end of 2016) for yield range of 9.6 - 6.25%, which isn't too shabby, and perhaps provides enough 'margin of safety'. From https://seekingalpha.com/article/4062161-sell-pump-papa-murphys: Short the Model
 * Story: I like the interim CEO Birch a lot. She seems smart, humble, and eliminated two C-level positions, made pizzas at a store, trying to rebuild the franchisee relationships (read the 'pact' when you get it), and has the idea of making ordering more convenient (online/app, which makes up 8% of order volume and have ~20% higher per order avg + delivery (3rd party from Amazon Restaurants and 'other partners' coming soon), working with franchisees, and figuring up the right way to advertise/reach customers (on the negative, they spent $8.3 M of franchisees' money on fixed bag/failed 6 weeks of expensive cable advertising. Birch concluded that digital probably gonna be better, but franchise owner word of mouth with customers is best.)
 * Also, goal is to get back to growth via franchises and reduce stores owned to 5% (~75 stores) by 2020, and apparently use the money to pay off the massive debt. Birch stated that there will be NO increase in company-owned stores in FY2017, which is a very good thing, I think.
 * Price to sales is 0.66 ($81/$120 M) [P/B NOT meaningful since tangible book value is NEGATIVE since ~$170+ M of assets are trademarks + goodwill ($100 M). P/E hard to tell, but maybe around ~16 going forward, which is less than competitors Papa Johns & leader Dominos that have around 25 - 30 P/E, and MUCH higher market caps (and footprints) and P/S of 4 - 5x, which seem WAY too high to me. FRSH's FCF/shrs seems like the key part to me, and that the franchise business model requires very little capital for the returns. For example, at Q1 $37.1 M tangible assets + working capital (W/C) minus $26.6 Current Assets = $10.5 M in net assets with FCF of ~$8 - $15 M = cash return of tangible equity of ~75 - 140%! Also has some $40 M of deferred tax liability as a bonus, I think... See this on [0000001&mrr=1.00 https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/15/understanding-deferred-tax-assets.aspx Deferred Tax Assets.]
 * One thing I'm not sold on is management's shareholder orientation. Birch seems rightly focused on franchisees and their operations, and also seems to be more prudent on the cap ex, but I don't here a clear plan for how SHAREHOLDER'S are going to benefit. Maybe she saves all that for private conversations with Lee Equity...?
 * On the bad side, franchisees are closing stores on net, not growing them, and comps are down (5% in FY 2016, but 7.8% in Q42016, so comps decline seems to be ACCELERATING!, and 10% down in company-owned stores, which, to be fair, may intentionally be in less-developed markets.) The guidance in Q12017 was comps FY2017 of -2% - 0%, but we'll see... Cap Ex spending was big to open new stores & do IT stuff, and the online app is ok but not great. (Dominos apparently get 50% of their orders online vs only 8% from FRSH so far. Room for growth there, though, I guess.) There are apparently MANY take & bake competitors now, including 7-Eleven and Costco, and OTC take & bake company Noble Romans:

Papa Murphy's take-n-bake model may have once been a great idea (probably in the early 1990s), but it just won't work in the long run. Every grocery store, Big Box retailer, convenience store, drug store, and gas station can compete with the company on price and, for the most part, quality. You can buy a fresh take-n-bake pizza from just about anywhere now. The reason is that the supply chain for fresh made foods has expanded significantly in the last 20 years, due in part to changes in consumer preference and the efficiency of delivery and management systems. More short cases here and here: Earlier this year, FRSH started rolling out its own online ordering system despite the obvious fact that online ordering only makes sense for delivery. Why would anyone order something online that they have to pick up in person anyway? In response to the weak reception and low usage, FRSH started aggressively making 50% off promotions that franchisees are required to honor. Thus, selling pizzas well below cost and only adding further pressure to the financially strained franchise base.
 * Large owners: Lee Equities owns 26% and as a result basically controls the company (as long as they stay about 25%. 20% nets them 2 board seats. 10% = 1 seat.)
 * Michael Price's value fund MFP Partners just bought a 1.3 M 7.7% stake declared as of 6/1/2017 (not sure at what prices, but couldn't have been lower than just under $4/share)
 * Birch, CFO and other directors collectively own a few percent

APAM - Artisan Partners Asset Management
First investigated on April 24th 2017 at $28.50 per share (with ~39 M common + ~32 M partnership/non-controlling interest shares outstanding.) APAM: investment company. $260 M in FCF over 2.3 B mkt value at $28.50 share price with trailing PE = 18 and forward = 12. 3x P/S ratio, 9x P/B ('cause few assets.) HUGE ROE/ROIC (~60%) numbers, which makes sense.

CONCLUSION: No! Probably typical tricky games with the outperformance data. Market could crash and drag down their earnings even though yield is high now. People are fleeing at the rate of ~5% of assets per year.

BAD: Revenue falling a lot. Net client outflows from Jan 2013 - Jan 2017 of $2.7 B despite good market returns. Huge (14.4 B) drop in US Value outflows, while other groups gained in net flows.

REALLY BAD: in 2016, 4.8 B in new client outflows, and 5.8 B drop in 2015! WHY!?

GOOD: DIV ratio about 8%, and could be pumped up a little more to the FCF rate of closer to ~11 - 13%!

5+% insider ownership, including ~1% of the company owned by the CEO (who takes in 5 M though...) 49.01 M shares outstanding x $28.50 = 1.4 B, so I don't get the total market cap... Preferred shares?

2.4 div rate = 8.56% and payout ratio at a suspect 153% (but less suspect when you look at FCF.)

AUM = $103 B in 3/31/2017. Check this over time AND check a net inflows/outflows thing maybe. How to value these companise? Ask the Fool, or Peter Lynch?

* With revenue of ~709 M over 103 B = avg expense rate of 0.69%, which is reasonable. How exactly DO they get paid for their services?

http://www.apam.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=245718&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2261433

"MILWAUKEE, April 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) today reported that its assets under management (AUM) as of March 31, 2017 totaled $103.8 billion. Separate accounts accounted for $51.2 billion of total firm AUM, while Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds accounted for $52.6 billion."

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT BY STRATEGY As of March 31, 2017 - ($ Millions) Global Equity Team Non-U.S. Growth 	25,173 Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth 	880 Global Equity 	1,219 U.S. Value Team U.S. Mid-Cap Value 	6,810 Value Equity 	2,117 Growth Team U.S. Mid-Cap Growth 	13,543 U.S. Small-Cap Growth 	2,164 Global Opportunities 	12,030 Global Value Team Non-U.S. Value 	18,581 Global Value 	17,545 Emerging Markets Team Emerging Markets 	258 Credit Team High Income 	2,145 Developing World Team Developing World 	1,297 Firm Total 	$ 	103,762

In their deck they claim to have beaten the market by ~2% per year (if I calculated that right... check this!) relative to their benchmark from March 1995 - March 2017 net of management fees. Really!?

BORN - China New Borun
UPDATE on 2018-09-12: deeper digging (which I shoulda done WAY before!) turns up the work of short-seller Jon Carnes (on his site, Alfred Little,, who in 2010 made apparently convincing claims that significant accounting statement fraud was going on. Recently, BORN CEO withdrew his bid to take the company private, which perhaps he did solely to try and prop up the stock price/sell some shares, and the day after the withdrawal the CFO resigned, and about a year or so before that, their auditor resigned... So, I'm a dummy and need to get out most likely, even though after correcting the earnings by 75% or so the earnings would still seem good. I should listen to Buffett's adage that you can't do good business with bad people, however. Apparently this kind of fakery is rife in China.

Sells neutral corn spirits to baiju (Chinese liquor) distilleries. Pretty good-sized. Level III ADR trading on the NYSE for $1.32, but received an offer for all of its stock on Jan 10th 2018 from CEO and largest shareholder (King River) for $1.67! Spiked to $1.55-something, but then tapered off. That said, asking price is still $1.50 even though bid is only $1.27. Taxes & fees...?
 * $1.33/$1.67 = 80% if you can get it for that. Really seems to be worth WAY MORE than $1.67, but since it's 55% controlled by the folks that wanna take it over, it seems like the 'independent' board members would just capitulate, especially since shareholder rights' seem to be nil in this situation (ADR registered in the Cayman Islands...) Worth writing to the board members to ask them to ask for more...?
 * Per BNY Mellon, fees 'up to $0.05 per ADS (= per share in this case) for cash distribution', and ditto for dividends! Expensive, since that equals about 4% of the price...! Depository IS BNY in this case. Depository server fee of $0.02/ADS (1:1 with shares) charged on March 2nd 2018 by BNY. Local trading appears not to exist for this company (or just for the ADSs..?)
 * Tax rates in China for dividends, royalties, etc appear to be 10% per this search.

ADR - American Depository Receipts

 * Overview of ADRs from the Fool
 * More info on ADRs from Fidelity
 * Check what 'level' an ADR is here on JP Morgan, and here on BNY Mellon (Level I = OTC, II and III = legit exchange like NYSE): https://www.adr.com/

CWH - Camping World

 * Recently IPO'd when I read about them on 4/24/2017. RV buy & sell + supply store. Competing likely with Walmarts etc. They own 'Good Sam' too, which is apparently a big deal in the RV world.
 * Article about them from a guy who really likes them (see his '3 stocks I won't be selling' article too): https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/09/camping-world-stock-just-keeps-on-rolling.aspx?yptr=yahoo

PRKA
http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/PRKA/filings Industry Report - Starting a New Business Chapter
 * Spat with ex-CEO and 19% shareholder in 2009: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eastland-sends-open-letter-to-the-board-of-directors-of-parks-america-inc-61890297.html
 * BWLT Bowlin Travel Center (lacklust family company, but might have great land assets 'hidden' and have 0.5 bk to equity. Throws off a lot of cash, but consumes it via capex.
 * OTCQX:SMID (precast concrete seller on the east coast in West Virginia, North Carolina)
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precast_concrete
 * (TRY TO FIND AT SPL) US econ report on precast concrete: http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=556:

The Precast Concrete Manufacturing industry produces a diverse range of concrete products with end uses ranging from ornamental to structural multistory support beams. Entry into the smaller niche markets may be achieved relatively easily, but significant barriers exist for entry into the major industry segments.

Existing manufacturers already enjoy an established market profile and product reputation within their regions. Leading players also have a high level of vertical integration into cement and concrete production, which affords them cost and resource advantages potentially unavailable to new operators. Furthermore, the difficult-to-transport nature of this industry's products places severe constraints on the geographic market a new player could easily serve
 * Precast.org: http://precast.org/2016/01/precast-forecast-2016/

NWPX
Northwest Pipe Company
 * 2016 outlook for large diameter pipe industry: http://www.freedoniagroup.com/brochure/29xx/2974smwe.pdf
 * GOOD THINGS:
 * No debt. Management seems reasonably able & focused on 'long term profitability'. Some ownership by management (could be more, if I recall.)
 * Large water pipe shipping must generally happen locally, it seems, so facilities aren't easy to reproduce.
 * Generally cash flow positive, assuming cap ex is wise and no silly acquisitions happen.
 * Was cheap relative when trading around $10 - $12/share to assets (trading ~40 - 60% at likely fair market value of assets).
 * CONCERNS:
 * uses of cash! Working capital will go up a bit. Will be 'cautious' in Q3 2016 with cash. GOOD!
 * Commodity product that's often the victim of municipal market downturns and no pricing power (due to too much capacity.)

BREW
Craft Brewing Alliance includes Redhook, Widmer (both declining a LOT) and Kona (growing around ~13 - 18%). At around $15.10 per share, market cap is ~$300 M. They are on track to sell around ~800 K barrels of their own beer (+ a little contract brewing of ~50 K barrel, I think). Kona is on pace to hit around 400 K barrels, which probably makes them worth at least $200 M (at $500/barrel), and MAYBE equal to the entire value of BREW (or more!) at ~$750/barrel ($300 M) or $1000/barrel ($400 M, unlikely NOW given their large size & sllow down in craft beer, maybe.)

This 'sum of the parts' math suggest Kona worth about $200 M at $500/barrel + Widmer & Redhook at, maybe, ~$250/barrel = $100 M (~400 K barrels * $250/barrel), which is pretty close to what they're at. BUT, if Kona keeps growing/is worth more than $500/barrel, and maybe the other brands + contract stuff is worth ~$300 - $350/barrel, BREW might really be worth closer to $420 M in market cap, or trading close to a 30% discount.

Plus, the insiders bought a little stock (C-level folks) around $14 and then $15.40 (the CFO) per share: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95666&p=irol-sec

Newer news

 * Feb 2018 FINALLY announced expansion to South Carolina and Tennessee (in 'spring') AND switching from 16 oz cans to 6-packs 12 oz cans: https://www.brewbound.com/news/cba-partner-appalachian-mountain-brewery-expand-distribution-south-carolina-tennessee

Old news
From this: Leading the way in North Carolina last year was Asheville's Highland Brewing Co., which notched about 38,000 barrels in 2014 and has set its sights on hitting 43,000 during 2015, according to a recent article in the Asheville Citizen-Times.
 * Info on craft beer M&A for guessing at valuations: http://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/business-marketing/craft-beer-mergers-acquisitions-esops-liquidity-transactions/ **Firestone was acquired for, maybe, $250 M and was 208 K barrels, so $1200/barrel, maybe.
 * 2016-10-12: relative popularity on untappd.com: 'Monthly' ratings: AMB - 3258, Highland Brewing Co - 7599, Foothills Brewing Co - 8424, Wicked Weed - 35,995, Deep River - 1904, Natty Greenes - 2111. 59,291 total ratings, 5.5% relative share for AMB.
 * 2016-11-03: relative popularity on untappd.com: 'Monthly' ratings: AMB - 3085, Highland Brewing Co - 7327, Foothills Brewing Co - 8308, Wicked Weed - 33,681, Deep River - 1837, Natty Greenes - 2115. 56353 with 5.5% share for AMB (total down a little, same share.)
 * Conclusion: everyone's down a little bit, and AMB appears to be about the same relative to other folks (down ~6% in popularity, same as Wicked Weed. Other breweries down a big less, like 2 - 3%, but whatever.)
 * 2017-01-06: relative popularity on untappd.com: 'Monthly' ratings: AMB - 2654, Highland Brewing Co - 10729, Foothills Brewing Co - 8054, Wicked Weed - 37,911, Deep River - 1532, Natty Greenes - 2853 / 63733 and 4.1%! Popularity overall up 13% by AMB down 25% in a relative weighting (and down ~14% in absolute terms too!)...
 * 2018-05-31: 'Monthly' ratings: AMB - 2088, Highland Brewing - 5470, Foothills - 4673, WW - 15631, Deep River - 1308, Natty Greene - 755. 2088/27837 = 7.5% 'ratings share'! Much better in RELATIVE terms, though everyone else is about halved in absolute terms. Much better vs historical avg of 5.5%.

Close behind them was Winston-Salem's Foothills Brewing, which hit 32,487 barrels last year and now has a 50,000-barrel capacity at its brewery.

Greensboro's Natty Greene's recently increased its annual brewing capacity to 30,000 barrels, and it's now in the planning stages for an expansion that could cost as much as $10 million and help it hit a capacity of 100,000 barrels. OTC Pink Sheets: http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/secdocuments.aspx?symbol=hops&GDLTab=Financials Financials at morningstar (check for Q2 2016 release soon, maybe around mid-August 2016?): http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/secdocuments.aspx?symbol=hops&GDLTab=Financials Question from the below: where are the remaining 5.1 M Preferred B outstanding at...? (8,125,724 Preferred B shares outstanding as of May 16th 2016) Number of Shares Beneficially Owned and Percentage [as of May 16th 2016, per OTC disclosure linked above from otcmarkets.com] Sean Spiegelman   7,200,000 Common       89.57% 1,000,000 Preferred B     11.9% 9,998,889 Preferred A     99.9% CEO, President and Chairman Name and Address Stephanie Spiegelman 163 Boone Creek Drive Boone, NC 28607 Number of Shares Beneficially Owned and Percentage Stephanie Spiegelman 2,000,000 Preferred B 23.8% From Dec 31st 2015 year end financial press release: Revenue increased 79% to $1,735,418 compared to $968,470 year-end 2014 as wholesale distribution with Craft Brew Alliance continued to expand throughout Western North Carolina including one month of additional statewide release of its core portfolio in draft only. Gross margin remained strong at 65% for year-end 2015 as the Company continues to apply diligent cost control measures with all beer and cider production. Total barrels of beer produced for 2015 was 3,840, a 330% increase compared to 890 barrels produced in 2014 and 580 barrels produce in 2013 respectively. This increase is attributed to expanded demand for company products through its master distribution with Craft Brew Alliance. From July 6th, 2016 Press Release: For the three months ended March 31, 2016, revenue increased 47% to $511,743 compared to same reporting period last year. Total revenue increased 88% to $1,735,418 for year-end December 31, 2015 compared to year-end 2014. [= Rev/barrel of $451.93, way too high, and must account for food etc rev.]
 * Beer industry stats on major breweries (sales per barrel, etc) which sounds useful: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/SABMiller_(LON:SAB)
 * More helpful financials, this time on otcmarkets.com: http://www.otcmarkets.com/financialReportViewer?symbol=HOPS&id=155279
 * Diluted shares, including full conversion of Series B (issued at $2.50/share, and having a discretionary dividend provision), would be 16.4 M shares (EXCLUDING the 10 M, apparently, of Series A outstanding, which require unanimous board approval to be converted to 4 * (# of series A + # of common shares outstanding) common shares.)
 * Series B info was found in the comments here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3978918-time-belly-appalachian-mountain-brewery at this link: http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR\2013\1230\54436784.Tif&documentNumber=L52786
 * At $1.55/shr * 16.4 M shares = $25.4 M valuation, which is between 13 K (~current 2016 production) - 52 K barrels/year at valuation (respectively) of $2000 - $500/barrel. There are other NC breweries close to that production, like Highland at ~43 K barrels in 2016. Lower cap ex seems possible due to CBA distribution and brewing (in Portsmouth, NJ) deal. Will that hurt the local brand...?
 * At $1.45/shr * 16.4 M = ~$22 M valuation, about 22 K barrels/year, which seems doable.

In the first six months of 2016, the Company has surpassed its total Craft beverage production for all three previous years combined since the Company’s inception (2013-2015) by over 30%.

[Extra info as of 11/17/2016: revenue from that period was 1.123 M (ending 6/30/16) + 0.511 M (ending 3/31/16) = 1.634 M with 6903+ barrels PRODUCED, which is ~$236/barrel, although the true barrel rev is probably less since they have food truck, draft beer sales mixed in there. If we take the current revenue of 2.9 M from the year ending 9/30/2016 and divide by $236.7/barrel, that's 12,251 barrels, which is about on track for hitting around 16 K barrels for 2016 (and would need 3748 more barrels, or rev of $887 K in last quarter, which seems reasonable.)

Company valued today with full Series B dilution and 16.4 M total diluted common shares * $2.35 = $38.5 M, but really should probably just used existing common shares of 8.04 M * $2.35 = $18.9 M. A little high is you give a $1,000/barrel valuation, but could be argued to be low/reasonable if they're still gonna grow fast, like to ~32,000 barrels/year by Dec of 2017, say.

Quarter ending 9/30/2016 indicates YoY ANNUAL growth of 1.70, 70%. BUT, the quarterly growth was around 2x YoY (slowing slightly in 9/30... Is that concerning...?)] So, from 2013 - 2015, that's 580 + 890 + 3840 = 5310 barrels * 1.3 = 6903+ barrels in 1st 6 months of 2016 (run rate of 13.8 K barrels by year-end 2016.) From Q2 2016 quarterly report (end of 6/30/2016, submitted 8/15): Rev in Q2 2016 of $1.124 M & gross prof of $287.3 = margin of 74.4%, up from 65% for year end 2015 (probably lumpy though.) Op Inc was about 0 this year (1%), which is good! (It was negative ~20% for year-end 2015.) To add some color to that, according to Soundbrew, beer sold retail by the glass in a brewpub generates between $700 - $1,000 per barrel. By comparison, beer sold wholesale in bottles to distributors on generate about $145 - $190 per barrel.
 * Also, let's assume the diff in revenue between 2015 and 2014 (= $766,948) is due solely in increased beer sales (3840 - 890 = 2950 more barrels). This gives rev of 766948/2950 = $260/barrel, which seems reasonable, although maybe a little high. This also means 'fixed' revenue in 2014 of $968,470 - 890*$260 = $737,000 for a year, or $184,000/qtr. If we subtract that from Q1 and Q2 rev, we get 1260 barrels in Q1 and 3611 in Q2 (4871 total.) The actual number was > 6903, though, so maybe the rev/barrel is more like $183/barrel (or maybe it's dropped as a result of the distribution agreement...?)
 * Latest news: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/appalachian-mountain-brewery--announces-record-growth-20160818-00455 Need #s for barrels by channel in 2015 to compute new barrel figures!!! Ask IR for 2015 data?
 * Good article including data on per barrel revenues of beer: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3987711-smaller-craft-breweries-taking-market-share-big-brewers

Because most of its craft beer was sold at the AMB brew pub in Boone in 2013 and 2014, a very simplistic analysis of production and revenue showed a ratio between $884 - $1,037 in revenue for every barrel produced. In 2015, that figure dropped to around $451 in revenue for every barrel of production, presumably because of increased distribution
 * Article on BREW: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3985244-something-brewing-craft-brew-alliance

Questions send to IR
Q from me on 2016-10-04: Dear AMB investor relations - I'm trying to understanding the impact (on dilution/debt) of our company's preferred shares. I noticed here that only 3,000,000 of the roughly 8 million Preferred B shares are held by Mr & Mrs Spiegelman (who are apparently the only 10+% holders of those shares): http://www.otcmarkets.com/financialReportViewer?symbol=HOPS&id=155279

Could you please describe who holds the remaining 5 M of Preferred B shares? Are they members of the board, or other controlling parties, or were they sold to 'ordinary' shareholders?

Also, can you please confirm/explain the conversion features, and also any interest provisions, on these Preferred B shares? From this: http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR\2013\1230\54436784.Tif&documentNumber=L52786 it appears that the shares can be converted 1:1 with common stock at any time with a conversion price of $2.50/share (i.e.: in exchange for giving up the $2.50 owed by the company per Preferred B share, the converter gets 1 share of common stock), with (majority) board approval.

Lastly, if each Preferred B share represents debt of $2.50/share, and there are 8.1 M shares outstanding, why doesn't roughly $20 M show up in debt on the balance sheet? Does the debt not have to be redeemed, and is therefore being treated as equity (and would presumably be shown diluting earnings, etc)?

If you could briefly described the Preferred A shares as well (I see Mr. Spiegelman owns all 10 M of them) in terms of the questions above, that would also be helpful.

Thanks for the help in understanding your financials! Ward Williams, shareholder

MENB - Mendocino Brewing Company
TOO DANGEROUS: looks to be headed towards bankruptcy, and no faith in the management. It's been losing money, and only the UK distributorship looks profitable. Maybe try to buy it as it comes out of bankruptcy once the debt has been solved...? Could be bought out, but that's the only hope/long shot.
 * ~75% owned by debtor and fugitive Vijay Mallya.
 * Initial DPO offering info from 1994: http://www.dfdpo.com/clientsum6.htm
 * SEC files: http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Registrant.asp?CIK=919134
 * Amended articles of incorporation: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/919134/000089155402001878/d50241_ex3-1.txt
 * Write to H. Michael Laybourn: http://www.bloomberg.com/Research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1333734&privcapId=981591

Overview
http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/MENB/profile
 * 12,611,133 outstanding at $0.205/share = $12.8 M market cap as of 8/18/2016. At 75 K barrels brewed, that's $34/barrel (BBL), which seems cheap, but maybe isn't since a bunch of that is probably contract, and might dry up (Kingfisher US/UK, for example) if Mallya sold his interest, since he owns UB which owns India's Kingfisher.
 * Only 736K in float, though, which makes sense, and is only $150 K, which is 6% of the company. 2,139 shareholders of record, though, somehow? Employees? Small time guys?

WWE

 * International concerns (despite growth in Network internationally.) Questions: do local stars & live attendance matter that much with the Network...? How does WWE fare vs AAA in Mexico (-1 to -.5 in ratings per some guy. Side ?: How do ratings work?) and New Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan, and also in other countries? Apparently UK & Australia are doing well, but no where else.) https://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?385863-How-bad-WWE-is-doing-Internationally-in-Popularity-Ratings-Attendances-etc
 * My main concern and reason for passing earlier is that I don't trust Vince McMahon to really look out for shareholders except himself & his family. I would feel better if he and his fam were large minority shareholders instead. Luxury items & corporate jets loom large here, as well as executive pay packages. I love the brand & business otherwise though!

To research/watch

 * DIT - Amcon distributors and health stores

Portfolio research and tracking
wardw123 @ https://www.stockrover.com

Berkshire's holdings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshire_Hathaway

Investment Performance

 * CURRENT: I use a simple XIRR Excel sheet based on cash in/out (assuming only ONE cash in date, and one cash 'out' date (= market value of total portfolio, including cash, as of current date).
 * It's called Vanguard Roth IRA brokerage transactions AND Portfolio Performance XIRR ww2.xlsx on my Work 'PERSONAL1' folder. Look on the Invested_portfolio_performance tab as the table. All you need is that table!
 * DEPRECATED #2: Wikinvest portfolio tools: seems promising! https://www.wikinvest.com/portfolio
 * DEPRECATED: finance.google.com, or this to track performance: https://www.fool.com/scorecard, BUT it doesn't have OTC stocks..., so you could use this https://www.google.com/finance/portfolio, BUT that doesn't compute XIRR or, I think, really compare a benchmark very well (not sure about that, and not sure about dividends).

Inflation calculator
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Taxable brokerage

 * 744 BRK.B (down vs S&P over life of investment by pretty substantial amount: -53.80% (+43.8% vs S&P's total return of +97.58%)

Closed Positions

 * COH (loser by 35% vs S&P)
 * MVL (big winner by XX% vs S&P. The only reason this 'past' portfolio (pre-2016) was a net winner over the S&P.)
 * DIS (owned as result of MVL sale to DIS; should've kept it longer in hindsight, probably, but sold 7/2011!)
 * HOC (lose by ~30% vs S&P. Was -50% vs S&Ps -20% over same period)

Quotes

 * Marketwatch seems pretty good, even for OTC stocks: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/SMID
 * Yahoo! Finance is fine for exchange-traded stocks, usually, although sometimes it seems inaccurate: http://finance.yahoo.com

Idea Generation

 * Joel Greenblatt's stock market screener: magic value investing
 * Ben Graham Intelligent Investor screen:
 * Fat Pitch appears to show major investors in stocks: http://www.fatpitch.biz/cgi-bin/f.cgi/psp/extn/lmt_entry/cik.1598207.1059.html

Value Investment Shops

 * Wax Asset (they own SMID) http://waxasset.com/StrategyStatement.html
 * Tweedy Browne?
 * Tilson Parters: Whitney Tilson

Opinions and analysis

 * Motley Fool
 * Seeking Alpha

Insider Trading
This is tracked in SEC Form 4 submissions. Make sure to distinguish between actual open market stock buys vs Options and RSU grants/vesting
 * NASDAQ compilation of insider trading: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nwpx/insider-trades (example for NW Pipe Co, Ticker: NWPX)

Form 4
How to Read SEC Form 4 – Transaction Code Definitions

General Transaction Codes

P – Open market or private purchase of securities S – Open market or private sale of securities V – Transaction voluntarily reported earlier than required

Rule 16b-3 Transaction Codes

A – Grant, award, or other acquisition D – Sale (or disposition) back to the issuer of the securities F – Payment of exercise price or tax liability by delivering or withholding securities I – Discretionary transaction, which is an order to the broker to execute the transaction at the best possible price M – Exercise of conversion of derivative security

Derivative Securities Codes

C – Conversion of derivative security (usually options) E – Expiration of short derivative position (usually options) H – Expiration (or cancellation) of long derivative position with value received (usually options) O – Exercise of out-of-the-money derivative securities (usually options) X – Exercise of in-the-money or at-the-money derivatives securities (usually options)

Other Sections 16b Exempt Transactions and Small Acquisition Codes

G – Bona fide gift L – Small Acquisition W – Acquisition or disposition by will or laws of descent and distribution Z – Deposit into or withdrawal from voting trust

Other Transaction Codes

J – Other acquisition or disposition (transaction described in footnotes) K – Transaction in equity swap or similar instrument U – Disposition due to a tender of shares in a change of control transaction

Read more: http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/blog/investing-strategy/sec-form-4-transaction-code/#ixzz4HcP22MmW

Research

 * Seattle Public Libraries: http://www.spl.org/library-collection/articles-and-research/business-finance-and-fundraising
 * Value Line: https://ezproxy.spl.org/login?url=https://research.valueline.com/secure/dashboard
 * CSI Market price to book ratios by industry (for P&C Insurance, in this example): http://csimarket.com/Industry/industry_valuation_ttm.php?pb&ind=705

SEC Filings at NASDAQ
http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nwpx/sec-filings

Chances of Startup success
From this in 2009: "I spoke with an investor recently who told me that 1,500 deals get funded (presumably by VCs?) / year in the US, 80 (5.3%) eventually sell for $50 million and only 8 (0.5%) eventually sell for $150 million or more."

Also, Band of Angels says their track record (since 1994 through 2016; presumably many are still in limbo) was 277 deals ($231 M) had 10 IPOs and 55 acquisitions.

General Startup Investing Guides

 * Tim Ferris 'Make your own MBA' (read part I too): http://fourhourworkweek.com/2010/07/05/how-to-create-your-own-real-world-mba-part-ii/

Startup Lawyers
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/how-to-work-with-lawyers-at-a-startup-cf4f15feb8d3#.b23cmpxit

Financing

 * Term Sheet roundup: http://www.feld.com/archives/2005/08/term-sheet-series-wrap-up.html

Convertible Notes
Kyle Hill, Bona-fide aesthete. Updated Sep 5, 2012 Typically, a convertible note has ten critical features;
 * Convertible note implicit liquidation preference overhang: http://siliconhillslawyer.com/2015/04/29/capped-convertible-notes-liquidation-overhang/
 * Very helpful example with 'cap table': https://www.capshare.com/blog/understanding-convertible-debt-and-how-it-affects-your-cap-table/
 * In-depth post series with helpful examples:https://dragonlaw.io/blog/post/fundraising-via-convertible-note-explained/
 * Helpful slide show: http://www.slideshare.net/MarkHaddad/understanding-vc-term-sheets
 * Typical convertible note terms for (Silicon Valley, etc) startups? https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-typical-terms-in-convertible-notes

(1) Amount—which usually ranges from $25k to $500k and higher; (2) Duration—how long the note has to mature, which is usually at least 24 months; (3) Interest—the simple interest rate that will be accrued, which is typically around 6%; (4) Discount—the discounted price paid by qualified investors in a next qualified round, which ranges from 20-30%; (5) Conversion Cap—the maximum valuation cap that the shares can convert in the next qualified round; (6) Liquidity Event—the amount paid back to the investors in the case of an acquisition, which is usually 2X or 3X; (7) Maturity Terms—specifies what happens if maturity is reached before raising a Series A or other qualified round (usually the shares convert at a pre-negotiated valuation that is close to the cap amount); (8) Pre-Payment—allows or disallows the company to pay back the principal to the investor. If this is permitted, you will also need to negotiate whether or not to require prior consent from the investor before prepaying the principal, because this usually isn't what the investor wants; (9) Qualified Round—essentially sets the minimum aggregate proceeds that need to be raised in the next round of financing in order for the investor's note to be eligible for conversion. This is usually $1.5M or more (Series A). And lastly, (10) Type—the loan can be secured or unsecured. Most convertible notes I've seen have been unsecured.

It's important to remember that the conversion in the next qualified round shall be the lower of (i) a [discount%] of the Series A preferred stock share price, or (ii) the price-per-share assuming the Series A pre-money valuation was set at [cap amount]. For more info, here's a great resource on convertible debt fundraising: http://flwtb.co/Mer75t

Liquidation Preferences
Basically, be very wary of VCs/companies that give more than 1x liquidation preferences. Also, 'full participation' seems like a scam too (I think it means AFTER the VC gets the entire amount of 'liquidation preference' (equal to their initial investment if 1x, or (shudder) DOUBLE their initial investment if 2x, etc), the remaining amount is split up at the proportion of equity that the VCs (preferred) shares represent: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-liquidation-preferences-work-2014-3
 * Example: VC has 1x liquidation preference with (I think) 'full participation' and buys $10 M of company with $20 M post-money valuation, and therefore owns 50% of the company. Company doubles in value to $40 M and is sold. VC first takes out its initial 1x investment of $10 M, leaving $30 M left. BUT, VC also gets 50% of that, or $15 M, so VC takes home $25 M, leaving only $15 M for common stock shareholders. They gained 50% on their investment (1.5x), but the VC gained 150% (2.5x).

Startup Equity guide for employees
Learn the three standards that define Startup Equity and three questions to ask to know if you have the real thing. 1. Ownership - “Can the company take back my vested shares?” 2. Risk/Reward - “What information can you provide to help me evaluate the offer?” [how many shares are outstanding (e.g: what % of the company will I own)? What are the liquidation preferences of Preferred shareholders?] 3. Tax Benefits - “Is this equity designed for capital gains tax rates and tax deferral?” [WW: Examples of equity with tax benefits include Incentive Stock Options (ISOs), Restricted Stock + 83(b) election, Early Exercise NQSO + 83b election]
 * Startup employees bill of rights: http://stockoptioncounsel.com/blog/startup-equity-standards-a-guide-for-employees/2014/4/15
 * 3 ways VCs and CEOs screw over startup employees: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-22-year-veteran-of-startups-says-employees-are-getting-screwed-by-vcs-and-ceos-2014-3

Catching prawns in prawn trap (basket)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5nfrehyWDM

Wattle and daub aka mud hut

 * Primitive Technology: Wattle and Daub Hut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKkHqlx9dE

Making lye from ashes
Use the method described here, which is essentially just running (soft) water through (hard)wood ashes, and perhaps concentrating the resultant 'lye' (really potash lye, potassium hydroxide, vs the store-bought sodium hydroxide lye): https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-make-soap-from-ashes-zmaz72jfzfre

Here's how I did it (CAUTION: lye is caustic and will burn you and can corrode things, like your clothes, so wear safety goggles and gloves/long sleeves to be completely safe. Lye is chemically basic, so keep a weak acid like vinegar nearby in to dump on any that you get on your skin, and/or have a sink handy to rinse it off):
 * 1) Burn a bunch of hardwood (soft woods like pine apparently don't make good soap/lye) in your fireplace and collect the ashes over time.
 * 2) Take a large vessel with a small hole in it that the lye will run out from. I used a ~3-5 gallon ceramic planting pot with a small hole in the bottom, and set it on top of a smaller ceramic planting pot with NO hole in it. (Don't use any material that lye would corrode, like aluminum. Plastic is ok too to store your lye in afterward.)
 * 3) First, layer some rocks in the bottom of your large pot, which will keep the hole at the bottom from getting clogged up later. Then, layer on top of that a few inches of straw, which will keep the ash above in place. I used handfuls of small sticks since I didn't have straw.
 * 4) Next, dump your dry wood ash on top of the straw layer all the way to the top of your vessel.
 * 5) Then, slowly pour tap water (or let rain soak it) over the top of the ash evenly, until its saturated and starts to drip out the bottom hole. Be patient here as you don't want to use too much water and end up with really diluted lye. I poured about a 1/2 gallon of water through my ~2 gallons (by volume) of ash, which soaked the ash through, but didn't result in any runoff, and then poured some more water until about a pint or so of runoff poured into my smaller pot.
 * 6) Once you collect enough of this lye water, you could pass that same water through the ash again to try and concentrate it.
 * Now, test your lye for strength by dropping an egg into it. The egg should float about halfway up in the lye solution, ideally.
 * 1) I couldn't get my lye strong enough to float the egg at all, even by re-running it through, so I 'freeze distilled' it by pouring the lye water into a plastic food container (label it poison and DON'T reuse for food), closing a lid on it, and freezing it in my freezer (at 0 degrees F) for a couple hours, then scooping out and discarding the ice portion (which will contain mostly water, leaving more concentrated lye solution) with a stainless steel spoon (wash it well after if you're gonna eat off it later!) This reduced the volume by about half, and was sufficient to float the egg about 1/2" above the surface. I probably should've condensed it further, but I called it good at this point.
 * Now, make soap with your lye water! The trick will be to balance the right about of (unknown strength) lye with your fat of choice. I used beef tallow that I had recently rendered from a 1/4 cow purchase. We'll see if my soap smells beefy after fully curing...

I'll update this later with my soap 'recipe' once I get it right.

Making beef tallow

 * This is a good overview for how to render out beef tallow.
 * When I make mine, I cut up about 10 pounds of beef fat into ~1" chunks (trim off any meat still on there), dump the pieces into my dutch over, and leave the pot in the oven at around ~240 F for 12 - 24 hours (or set it on your stove burner at the lowest setting overnight.) Then, strain the fat through metal mesh into a large Pyrex measuring bowl (say, 2 quart). You can either discard the solid bits, or if they still look like they have fat on them, add them back to the dutch oven and render some more and repeat.
 * Pour the liquid fat from your Pyrex into wide-mouthed (for easier scooping) pint (most ergonomic) or quart-sized Mason jars, or (even better, really, since they freeze and stack nicely) clear plastic food containers: 16 oz, or 32 oz).
 * 10 lbs of solid beef fat makes about 1 gallon (= 4 quart-sized containers) of tallow.
 * Now you can make pemmican like the American Indians did!

Storing your tallow

 * Keep one jar near the stove for cooking where it'll keep for at least a month or so (worst case you'll eventually get some mold near the top if your kitchen is warm and wet, which you can wipe away with a paper towel), and the rest in the fridge or freezer (I do the latter, but I hear it'll keep for at least a year in the fridge.) I've never had mine go rancid when sitting out, but I live in a moderate climate and use up my tallow in relatively short order :). Throw it in the fridge if it's hot out or if you're going to be out of town for a while.

Types of fuels and heaters

 * Fuel comparison by BTUs: http://www.erpud.com/comparison.htm
 * Kerosene vs Propane heaters (propane is 'cleaner' in terms of CO output): https://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/eeh/EEM-00253.pdf

Earthquakes
From this helpful article: At least do the following: (1) bolt your house to its foundation, (2) strengthen your cripple wall, (3) install flexible connections on all your gas appliances and make sure the main shut-off valve can be turned off quickly in an emergency, (4) secure your water heater, and (5) make sure that large pieces of furniture or large ceiling fixtures won’t collapse on anyone in bed. This protects you against a catastrophic collapse of your house, and against fire or serious injury.

Gas Shutoff
PSE: https://pse.com/SAFETY/NATURALGASSAFETY/Pages/Gas-Shut-Off.aspx

Getting licensed

 * 1) 'No-Nonsense' Study guides from KB6NU
 * 2) Technician class guide
 * 3) General class guide (dated 2011, but probably still fine!)
 * 4) Amateur Extra class guide
 * 5) Practice tests (you need 26/35 question to pass each of the first two. I'm gonna try to pass BOTH the Technician (1st) and General (2nd) exams in one sitting): http://aa9pw.com/
 * 6) Find and register for an exam session near you (make sure to 'Register', most VE-administered exams are $15 CASH) here: http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/

Phonetic alphabet

 * NATO/ITU phonetic alphabet is recommended for identifying your station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

Equipment and software

 * 1) While you're waiting to get licensed, order something like the Baofeng UV-5R (any 'version' of it) for a good 'starter' hand-held radio. They're about $25-$30. You'll want a good USB programming cable too (Prolific driver 3.2.0.0 is apparently what you want with the cheapo USB cables I bought: http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Drivers.php), and
 * 2) you'll want to use the CHIRP software instead of the (apparently) crappy Baofeng software.

Seattle-area
Here's one in Seattle I actually heard an ID signal from: Out freq          In freq            Tone out      Tone in 444.42500     449.42500     141.3 PL     141.3 PL     WW7SEA         Queen Ann Mixed Mode*

100	146.82000 	146.22000 	103.5 PL				W7LED		Mike n Key ARC (Tiger Mtn.)* 101	441.55000	446.55000 	103.5 					W7WWI		Cougar Mtn [Sea-Tac Repeater Association]* 102 440.52500 	445.52500 	141.3 PL 	141.3 PL 	WA7UHF 		Beacon Hill Mixed Mode 103	147.08000 	147.68000 	103.5 PL 	103.5 PL 	W7WWI 		SeaTac Repeater Association* 104	442.87500 	447.87500 	141.3 PL 	141.3 PL 	WA7UHF 		Capitol Hill Mixed Mode 105 444.42500 	449.42500 	141.3 PL 	141.3 PL 	WW7SEA 		Queen Ann Mixed Mode*
 * 1) 	Output 		Input 		Tone Out 	Tone In 	Callsign 	Description


 * I have heard traffic here.

Satellite communication

 * AMSAT software recommendations: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/software.php
 * Other: http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/satellite/sat-information/tracking/

Radio waves and spectrum

 * Overview of the radio spectrum and how it works: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio-spectrum.htm
 * How information is actually encoded into radio (sine wave) signals (with helpful wave pictures): http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio7.htm

Build a radio

 * Try these things out! (9V battery & a coin with a nearby AM radio receiver): http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio1.htm
 * Make a baby monitor: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio4.htm
 * Build an AM receiver! (2 simple parts): http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio9.htm

Radio scanners
Intro: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio-scanner.htm
 * Scanner laws: http://www.fireline.org/scanlaws/

Voice encryption
About: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_voice
 * Interesting forum on why police don't encrypt their communications over radio (TL;DR: it'd be expensive and complicated): https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-the-police-encrypt-their-radio-comms

Masonic history
Origins of Freemasonry (in Scotland, circa 1599): http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161209-secret-history-of-the-freemasons-in-scotland

Ski Gear

 * Ski sizing chart: https://www.evo.com/guides/how-to-choose-skis-size-chart (Choose length between your chin & top of your head. Longer = better ability. If you're 6', 170 - 190 cm, closer to 170 cm for beginner/intermediate (greens/blues.) Width of ~85-90 mm might be good for the generally packed/groomed snow trails.)

Wise quotes
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1135–1204), commonly known as Maimonides, said: “Teach thy tongue to say I do not know, and thou shalt progress.”

Standards of Living
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_the_United_States
 * A history of standard of living in the US: https://eh.net/encyclopedia/a-history-of-the-standard-of-living-in-the-united-states/

Feelings and Sentiment

 * Gallup poll from Jan 2008 - Jan 2015 ('highest standard of living in 7 years'): http://www.gallup.com/poll/180449/standard-living-index-climbs-highest-years.aspx

Mortality

 * US Infant and Maternal mortality over time (1915 - 1997): https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm#fig1

Income

 * 1989 - 2011: GDP vs median income (shows GDP increase while median income stagnated): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Gdp_versus_household_income.png
 * US Median Income: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
 * 1985 - 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#/media/File:US_Real_Household_Median_Income_thru_2014.png

Spending

 * 2016 Consumer Expenditure data press release and summary: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm

Rent vs Buy home

 * Interesting note that spending on rent vs buy spending (excluding equity) was a wash: https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budget

Food, Drink and Nutrition

 * Food prices and spending (especially note the % of disposable income spent on food graph, showing its large decline over the last ~50 years): https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/
 * Showing large (82%) price declines in food (and gasoline) over the past 90 years (1919 - 2007): https://seekingalpha.com/article/92689-over-the-past-100-years-food-prices-have-fallen-by-82-percent

How we spend our food budget and calories
Results The percentage of daily energy consumed from home food sources and time spent in food preparation decreased significantly for all socioeconomic groups between 1965–1966 and 2007–2008 (p ≤ 0.001), with the largest declines occurring between 1965 and 1992. In 2007–2008, foods from the home supply accounted for 65 to 72% of total daily energy, with 54 to 57% reporting cooking activities. The low income group showed the greatest decline in the proportion cooking, but consumed more daily energy from home sources and spent more time cooking than high income individuals in 2007–2008 (p ≤ 0.001).
 * https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-choices-health/food-consumption-demand/food-away-from-home.aspx
 * According to this, Americans between 2007 - 2008 consumed 65 - 72% of their daily calories from 'home supplied' foods. Per this, 57.2% of food spending is in the home ($3,008 of the $7,023 dollars were spent on eating out -- 42.8%.) This suggests food cooked at home costs 0.88 - 0.79 vs 1.22 - 1.53, so eating out costs between 1.22/0.88 - 1.53/.79 = 1.39 - 1.92 times as much per calorie as eating at home (39% - 92% more.) So, if all meals were eaten at home, on average, Americans might save between (3008 - $3008/1.39) to 3008 - $3008/1.92 = $844 - $1441 per year, or 12 - 20.5% of their food budget.

Conclusions US adults have decreased consumption of foods from the home supply and reduced time spent cooking since 1965, but this trend appears to have leveled off, with no substantial decrease occurring after the mid-1990’s. Across socioeconomic groups, people consume the majority of daily energy from the home food supply, yet only slightly more than half spend any time cooking on a given day. Efforts to boost the healthfulness of the US diet should focus on promoting the preparation of healthy foods at home while incorporating limits on time available for cooking.

Relationships

 * Really good. Print this out and read once a year with your significant other! https://markmanson.net/relationship-advice

Washington State politics
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Sir Ernest Benn (sp?)

Legislative calendar and key dates

 * The legislative session generally runs from early January through April in odd years (e.g.: 2019), and January through ____ in even years.
 * Calendar: http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/cutoff.aspx

Contacting your lawmakers

 * The best way to find your WA state legislators' emails is here (filter by your district number): https://app.leg.wa.gov/MemberEmail/
 * District 43 (includes Wallingford Seattle neighborhood) copy/pastable emails for our two House reps + State Senator: frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov; nicole.macri@leg.wa.gov; Curtis.Knapp@leg.wa.gov; jamie.pedersen@leg.wa.gov;
 * Or a pre-filled email template [mailto:frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov,nicole.macri@leg.wa.gov,Curtis.Knapp@leg.wa.gov,jamie.pedersen@leg.wa.gov?Subject=I%27m%20in%20your%20district%20and%20requesting%20your%20support&Body=Dear%20District%2043%20House%20reps%20%28and%20assistant%29%20%26%20Senator%2C%0A%0A%20%20I%27m%20a%20voter%20in%20your%20District%20and%20would%20like%20your%20support%20on%20... link] (details on how to customize your own URL email link here, and use this to actually create it)

=District 43 (includes Wallingford)
= Reps: Nicole Macri (D) [No email given. Leg Assistant is Curtis.Knapp@leg.wa.gov]& [mailto:frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov Frank Chopp] (D) (as of May 2017. Check here for the latest.)
 * Rep Macri sits on these committees:
 * Community Development, Housing & Tribal Affairs (Vice Chair)
 * Health Care & Wellness (Vice Chair)
 * Capital Budget
 * Speaker of the House Rep Chopp sits on these: Rules (Chair)

Senator: Jamie Pederson

Contacting your Federal congresspeople

 * Put in your zip code in the search (or replace 98105 with your zip code in the URL) to find phone numbers and links to other contact info for your Representative and State Senators: http://congressional-district.insidegov.com/l/1620387/98105

Naughty and Nice List
I don't trust many politicians, and will start tracking whom can be trusted and whom can't based on whether and when they have integrity.

Unknown affiliation

 * Trust: Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell stood up for letting markets function by opposing 'surge pricing' in ride-sharing, and wanted to actually allow taxis to be more competitive with Uber by loosening restrictions. He also explained the economic reasoning nicely and straight-forwardly.

Democrats

 * Can't trust: John Conyers, for playing politics with the Trevon Martin thing (wearing a hoody into congress, when no one's supposed to wear a hat, just to get thrown out to score political points. Just listen to him talk for 5 minutes and you'll feel manipulated & dirty.)
 * Mixed bag/unsure: Keith Ellison: he gets integrity points for swearing on the Qu'ran, but loses some for berating Wells Fargo CEO over the fake accounts thing without even attempting to get any useful information (most congressional hearings seem to be shaming contests, unfortunately.) I'm also suspicious of him because Michael Moore is a huge fan. Alan Dershowitz (very pro-Israel, but also a libertarian somewhat) hates him because he (apparently) lied about his friendship with known bigoted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
 * Mostly trustworthy: Bernie Sanders, in the sense that he has major integrity, but I think he has some bad economic ideas (but I'd kinda trust him anyway to be smart, although that could be a bad idea.)
 * Total trust: Barack Obama is probably the most qualified man for President in 100+ years, or at least 50.

Independents
Tom Campbell of California sounds like a hero to me, and pretty much everything I want in a politician. Socially liberal, libertarian-leaning, fiscally-conservative, a fantastic problem-solver, and honest, courageous, and forthright. He ran formerly as a Republican (unfortunately for humanity, he was defeated in US Senate races), but announced that he would leave the party if it elected Trump, which he did. What a man! Vote for him if you ever get the chance, regardless of your party!

Republicans
Sen Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) came out against the measure Saturday evening in a post on the blogging site Medium. Flake, a longtime opponent of the Muslim ban touted by Trump, said the administration is right to be concerned about national security but objected to the measure for broadly blocking those who already have gone through the immigration process.
 * Can't trust: clearly, Trump, Pence, and sadly Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnel (sp)
 * Jeff Sessions: From his wikipedia page: "In a May 2006 floor speech, he said, “Fundamentally, almost no one coming from the Dominican Republic to the United States is coming because they have a skill that would benefit us and that would indicate their likely success in our society.” [He] has advocated for expanded construction of a Southern border fence."
 * So foolhardy and a liar/misrepresenter on most issues as not to be trusted (climate skeptic, anti-planned parenthood & anti-net neutrality, etc) Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, who vented frustration over Michael Flynn receiving payments from a Russian-backed group.
 * Might be trustworthy:

“It’s unacceptable when even legal permanent residents are being detained or turned away at airports and ports of entry,” Flake said in his post. “Enhancing long term national security requires that we have a clear-eyed view of radical Islamic terrorism without ascribing radical Islamic terrorist views to all Muslims.”

Some conservatives worried that denying entry to permanent residents and green-card holders could violate the Constitution. Many worried privately that the order will face significant challenges in court. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) was among the few GOP members to air his concerns publicly. Amash posted on Twitter that the order “overreaches” and “undermines” the Constitution.

“It’s not lawful to ban immigrants on basis of nationality,” he tweeted. “If the president wants to change immigration law, he must work with Congress.”


 * Often trust-worthy: John McCain seems to be a stand-up guy, and helped correct some government excesses like poor contracts bidding, but he makes some questionable, for me, positions on social issues.

Overview of Whigs and Whiggism
Read F.A. Hayek's Why I Am Not a Conservative to understand what Whiggism is all about (essentially: individual freedom, progressivism, tolerance, and skeptical rationalism with an admission of our uncertainty and need to adapt to changes in our knowledge.)

Modern Whig Party (American)
Gettin' Whiggy with it!

Voting and Contacting Elected Representatives
[T]hat insidious and crafty animal, vulgarly called a statesman or politician, whose councils are directed by the momentary fluctuations of affairs. - quoted by F.A. Hayek in Why I Am Not A Conservative from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, I, 432.

VoteSmart - Campaign Finance and tracking political contributions

 * Cool tool. Example for politician Stacey Abrams (just search by name): https://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/67385/stacey-abrams

Washington State Civic Education

 * Detailed 'How a Bill Becomes Law' legislative process overview: http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Overview.aspx
 * WA State resources: http://leg.wa.gov/CivicEd/Pages/Resources.aspx

Districting and Gerrymandering

 * Read this: http://uselectionatlas.org/
 * And this: https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2013/09/why-creating-house-districts-could-make-the-washington-state-legislature-more-diverse.html
 * And this on 'nationwide redistricting: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/6/1115538/-What-if-We-Had-Non-Partisan-Redistricting-Nationwide
 * Dave's Redistricting App (seems to be the Gold Standard for doing sample maps!): http://gardow.com/davebradlee/redistricting/launchapp.html

Finding and tracking legislation
This looks useful too for tracking legislation: https://legiscan.com/WA/bill/SB6379/2015

WA State Legislation

 * Cutoff dates for WA legislature (roughly Jan 11th - March 10th each year): http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/pages/cutoff.aspx
 * "​The 2017 Regular Session begins January 9, 2017 and ends on or by April 23, 2017. " per this http://leg.wa.gov/
 * Track WA legislation via automated notifications: https://app.leg.wa.gov/DLR/user/login.aspx?justregistered=1&ReturnUrl=%2fdlr%2fbilltracking%2fdefault.aspx
 * WA Legislature bill tracking: http://app.leg.wa.gov/DLR/billtracking/
 * How a bill becomes law: http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Bill2Law.aspx
 * Tour the WA State capitol in Olympia: http://www.des.wa.gov/services/facilities-leasing/capitol-campus/tours
 * Testify in the legislature for a bill! http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Testify.aspx (wear a suit & tie, practice, and write everything down, with citations, facts & figures!)

Federal legislation
''The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class.'' - Lord Acton in Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone, ed. H. Paul (London 1913), p. 73, via F.A. Hayek's Why I Am Not a Conservative
 * Automatic voter registration:
 * House version: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5779?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Robert+Brady%22%5D%7D
 * Senate version: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/3252?resultIndex=1

Finding and contacting your elected officials

 * This has other elected officials governing the state as a whole: http://elections.mytimetovote.com/elected_officials/washington.html
 * Just type in your address & hit Submit to find your Fed and State reps! Great tool: http://www.commoncause.org/take-action/find-elected-officials
 * No email addresses here though... Check this: http://app.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/
 * How to effectively email politicians: https://www.planning.org/advocacy/toolbox/emails.htm
 * 1) Put Your Name and Address at the Top of Message.
 * 2) Humanize Your Message: This is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your e-mail makes an impact. [...I]t is this information that separates one's message from the standardized, bulk messages drafted by interest groups. These messages are more likely to be read than simply tallied.
 * 3) Be Brief.
 * 4) Be Clear About Your Position: concrete, actionable item, e.g., "I would like you to support H.R. 100."
 * 5) Make Your Message Timely: Send your message when the legislation is being considered. Your message is worthless is it arrives after a critical vote. Look to APA to keep you informed about the timing of critical stages in the legislative process.
 * 6) Don't "Flame."
 * 7) Avoid Attachments.
 * 8) Don't Become "Spam."
 * 9) Establish Your Credibility: Explain if you are an expert in some area. Also, do not shy away from saying that you are either a personal supporter or a party supporter (but never imply that because you voted for somebody or contributed money to their campaign that they owe you a vote).
 * 10) Don't Lie.
 * 11) Don't cc Everybody: Resist the urge to send a copy of your message to every member of Congress. You will persuade no one and annoy everybody. A legislative office wants to know that you have appealed to them for specific action.
 * 12) Proofread Your E-mail.

Find addresses for your representatives in Congress in APA's Legislative Action Center.

Washington state-level officials

 * WA State Senators: http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Senators/Pages/default.aspx
 * WA Senate Transportation committee members: http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/TRAN/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx
 * WA State House Representatives: http://leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/default.aspx
 * WA House Transportation committee: http://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/TR/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx
 * Washington Statewide Elected officials: http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/ElectedOfficials.aspx
 * Great example of an easy-to-read and complete list of representative contacts from the city of Lakewood, WA: http://www.lakewood-chamber.com/elected_officials

Automatic Voter Registration
https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/automatic-voter-registration

State officials comparison
https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_state_legislative_salaries, WA state clocks in at $45,474/year with per diem of $120/day

Recommended Reading

 * These? https://mises.org/library/ten-books-state and https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/8-essential-books-government-leadership/, which included Sunstein's Simpler
 * Christian Science Monitor's list: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2013/0808/11-best-political-books-of-all-time/Democracy-in-America-by-Alexis-de-Tocqueville
 * Locke, Jeremy Bentham? Founding fathers like Jefferson! Keyenes, Hayek.

Already read

 * See 'Words of Ward' post of 25 books to read. Specific to government including Nudge for policy, microeconomics texts.

Evidence-based Policy
Background and some key takeaways: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_policy
 * Best-practices from Campbell Collaboration: https://www.campbellcollaboration.org/blog-list/blog/just-keep-testing-four-principles-for-evidence-based-policy-and-practice
 * Organizations:
 * https://www.campbellcollaboration.org/ (Sister organization of the Cochrane Collaboration, which focuses on evidence-based medicine)
 * http://www.alliance4usefulevidence.org/
 * http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/initiative/evidence-based-policy-innovation/

Open Government organizations
http://sunlightfoundation.com/

Indiana
Indiana and governor Mike Pence seem to be the model for this:
 * http://www.govtech.com/data/Data-Analytics-Helps-Indiana-Change-its-Approach-to-Infant-Mortality.html
 * http://www.nascio.org/events/sponsors/vrc/Infant%20Mortality%20-%20KSMC%20branded%20SAP%20sheet.pdf
 * http://www3.gcn.com/Articles/2016/10/06/Indiana-CIO-QA.aspx

Utah
http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/5-Best-Practices-Open-Local-Government.html With support from prominent Utah elected officials and community organizations, students will formally ask all 273 local governments in Utah to adopt the following five best practices in support of local government openness.

1.   Local governments should establish a dedicated open government webpage, providing a searchable repository for all public information, accessible in three clicks or less.

2.   Online information needs to be collected, generated and maintained in a digital form and made available on the open government webpage in a timely way.

3.   All electronic communications made with government supplied equipment, including emails and instant messages, should be considered public records.

4.   Elected officials and senior administrators should post their schedules publicly, maintain open settings on social networking sites and commit to a culture of transparency.

5.   Governmental bodies should make all public meetings as open as possible by posting agendas and meeting materials in advance, streaming live meeting audio or video, posting recordings within 48 hours and allowing remote participation.

The complete list of the five transparency best practices for local governments from the Utah Transparency Project is available here.

Washington State data
DSHS:
 * https://www.dshs.wa.gov/sesa/research-and-data-analysis/client-data
 * https://www.dshs.wa.gov/sesa/research-and-data-analysis

Washington State office of statistics:
 * http://sac.ofm.wa.gov/, Directed by Thea Mounts as of Nov 2016

Washington State Budget summary data

 * 2016: http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/WM/Documents/Publications/2016/2016%20CGTB_Final_website.pdf

Grit
https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

Complaining

 * Try the 21-day No Complaint experiment!

Macroeconomics
* I definitely do not have the credentials to judge the quality of Harford's macroeconomic advice, but he seems to be even-handed in his treatment of things, and I trust him from the tone to at least be providing something close to a 'consensus' view of macro. But again, I'm really not qualified to judge...
 * Great*, concise, readable summary of macro is Tim Harford's 'The Undercover Economist strikes back'

Tax Policy
[F]our objectives of tax policy: simplicity, efficiency, fairness, and revenue sufficiency. [...]
 * Econlib's Concise Economic Encyclopedia on Taxation (very helpful summary of how economists think about taxes!): http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Taxation.html


 * Economists (at least those of the classical liberal school in the US) seems to dislike both income & wealth taxes, including estate taxes, as discouraging to economic growth and accumulation of capital. Instead, they like progressive consumption taxes. (Although, to be honest, why saving should be preferred to consumption is not entirely clear to me at any objective level, but if the goal is to build a wealthy society and the expense of consumption, I can understand, and the saver (read: miser) in me supports this.) The idea is actually pretty simple: government has you give them proof of your income (which they have today) minus your savings (which presumably your financial institutions could send you & them as easily as the already do your income), and the difference is assumed to be your consumption, which you pay progressively higher rates on, including a large deduction for all, say, $30,000 per family. Thus, people only get taxed essentially on their standard of living, not their income or wealth, and being productive and accumulating (presumably productive) capital is also not discouraged.

One difficulty would seem to be the single year nature of taxes. What if I make a big purchase in year 1 for a durable good like a car, house, or even refrigerator or TV that I plan to use for many years? Is it fair to tax me at a high rate on that in one year vs, say, eating out a fancy restaurants spread out over a number of years? Why should spending an extra $10,000 in one year be taxed at a higher rate than $1,000 over 10 years? Maybe there's some 'smoothing' that could be done to avoid having to game this system through timed purchases, especially considering beneficial Keynesian effects of spending in a recession/depression. The nature of relatively constant income (with exceptions of capital gains realizations, bonuses, and other 'windfalls') usually avoids this issues with income taxes. Perhaps part of the solution is more gradual (and more numerous) marginal rates. E.g.: 10%, then 12%, then 14%, etc vs 10%, 15%, 25%, 35%, etc.

This would replace taxes on income including wealth-like income taxes on capital gains & dividends.

Winner-take-all effects and policy

 * Robert H. Frank covers some interesting topics on the implications of |Winner-take-all markets. Very good read!

Corporate Income Taxes
The Tax Foundation believes these are the most harmful (to economic growth/GDP) types of taxes, with personal income taxes coming next. The general agreement seems to be 'lower the rate, broaden the base' for all kinds of taxes (and cut out loopholes in order to lower rates and remove distortions!), but this of course is somewhat at odds with progressivity/wealth redistribution. (Although of course, taking 25% from the rich generates a lot more revenue than 25% from the poor. Marginal rates are by no means fixed dollar poll taxes!)

Wealth Taxes

 * Marginal Revolution summarizes some thoughts on wealth taxes. In general, economists seem to dislike them, and the evidence from France seems to suggest their very bad for the economy (wealth leaves the country.) "The French try to tax wealth per se, and that is a big reason why so many French people have ended up in London. People hate this, feeling they’ve already “given at the office.”  A higher and more progressive income or consumption tax, if needed, usually is better than a wealth tax.  The wealth tax hurts savings and investment to a disproportionate degree, plus it makes all property rights insecure.  You never know when your earnings are safe from further taxation."

The Tax Foundation is similarly bearish on wealth taxes. Apparently they're very expensive to administer as well.

Property Taxes
Per Marginal Revolution, "A property tax already is a wealth tax. This form of taxation works fine, although as much as possible value taxes on land should be replaced by taxes on the unimproved value of land, for the reasons suggested by Henry George. " The Tax Foundation believes that property taxes are the least bad form of existing taxation (vs income and capital gains/dividend taxes). Perhaps a progressive consumption tax could be combined with one on unimproved land value (presumably IMPROVED land value would be taxed as part of the consumption tax, perhaps over a number of years?)

Sales and Consumption Taxes
https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/why-im-soft-on-sales-taxes/
 * [https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-consumption-tax/ Pros and Cons of a consumption tax per the Brookings Institute (generally left-centrist)
 * Economist on Robert Frank's proposal of a consumption tax. Frank is a left-leaning economist who gave a good talk on EconTalk with classic liberal host Russ Roberts. They both agree on a progressive consumption tax.
 * Ben Cardin, Maine Senator, is also in favor of consumption taxes.

Health Care
Health care as a % of GDP worldwide (worldwide avg was 10% in 2012, 17% in US, up from ~13% in 1999)): http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS

Public Transportation

 * Costs of public vs private transportation, including some externalities. That guy (the 'Anti-planner') has some great data and articles on the 'con' side of public transit, and also insights in how to make public transit more useful.
 * The upshot is that public transport is much more expensive that private vehicles, generally.
 * It would be interesting to see cases of when public transit is more cost-effective, i.e.: break-even or profitable: the northeast Accela (Amtrak) rail corridor, packed buses, super-dense urban areas like NYC, Tokyo?):

Legal costs

 * Comparison and analysis of legal costs by country (EU and US/Canada): http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/uploads/sites/1/ILR_NERA_Study_International_Liability_Costs-update.pdf

Income gap in voter turnout

 * Income gap at the polls: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/income-gap-at-the-polls-113997

Felon disenfranchisement

 * State by state felony voting rules: http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000286
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement#In_the_United_States

Homelessness Data

 * US national homeless data: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/Whois.pdf
 * The need for homelessness data explained: https://www.uwkc.org/homelessness/homelessness-and-big-data/
 * Seattle spending on the homeless: http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/HumanServices/Reports/HomelessInvestmentAnalysis.pdf

Alcohol addiction

 * Problem and data: Amount of drinking by population decile in America shows 10 drinks per DAY among 1 in 10 people (as of 2001): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?utm_term=.61d706bf475f
 * Article on this data gathering and the proponent behind it: https://business.highbeam.com/410209/article-1G1-172776337/historical-roots-ledermann-theory-distribution-alcohol
 * CDC deaths due to alcohol data: https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0293.htm
 * Solutions: AA fails. The correct way for most to reduce drinking to safe levels is the Sinclair Method, involving taking an opiate blocker called naltrexone, per this great Atlantic article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/
 * Stream 'One Little Pill', a documentary about this approach, from SPL here: https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/3196880030_one_little_pill, or rent it for $4 to watch online here: http://www.onelittlepillmovie.com/watch-now.html

Alcohol health concerns
https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/Hangovers/beyondHangovers.htm

Alcohol Tax Policy
Mississippi Judge Noah "Soggy" Sweat's 1948 "satirical speech on fence-sitting politicians who avoid taking a stand on the issue of liquor control": My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey: If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it. This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise. Read 'Paying the Tab' by Philip Cook for excellent overview.

Notes from Paying the Tab by Philip Cook
It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing. - Abraham Lincoln

In 2006, Federal excise tax is $18/31 gal beer barrel, $1.07/gallon of still wine, $13.50 per [100] proof gallon (= 50% abv) of spirits.
 * % of population reporting ANY drinking in the past 12 months:
 * 60 vs 72% for women vs men
 * 77% age 21 - 25 (61% 18 - 20), 75% 26-34 years old, 69% 35 - 55, 52% 55+
 * Whites 70%, Hispanic 60%, Blacks 53%
 * No H.S. diploma 46%, GED/Diploma 61%, Some college 71%, College grad 75%
 * Less than $20K 50%, 63% $20 - $50K, 72% $50-$80 K, $80K+ 79%

Typical price elasticity estimate for beer might be -0.3, meaning for every 1% increase in price, quantity demanded falls by 0.3%. Avg elasticities: -0.35% beer, -0.68% wine, -0.98% spirits. The lower beer elasticity is quite well-established "though still somewhat mysterious". When elasticity was measured from 1971 - 2000 to estimate the impact of sales taxes on sales, it was -0.74 beer, -0.49 wine, -1.47 spirits.
 * In 2002, 41% of fatal crashes had a driver or pedestrian who had at least 1 drink, snd 35% involved BAC > 0.08% legal limit.
 * Experiments and simulations have found that driving skills are degrading at 0.05% BAC and above. Drinking reduces the chances of survival as well, despite conventional wisdom. Other studies have demonstrated that BAC between 0.02 - 0.05 "were associated with elevated risk of fatal accident by a factor of about 3". (Emphasis mine.)
 * Elasticity of outcomes with changes in drinking levels: A 10% increase in per capita drinking is associated with a 5% increase in homicide and suicide, a 9-10% increase in accidents (motor vehicle - 9.2%, or falls 9.6%), and a 15% increase in cirrhosis deaths. These estimates control for changing economic conditions that might impact drinking levels.
 * Per RASPP data, with a 10 cent increase in taxes per ounce of ethanol (100% abv), which at 0.6 oz ethanol per standard drink = 6 cents per drink, at 2003 prices, that would decrease ethanol per capita by 12%, and motor vehicle fatalities by 7%, fall fatalities by 9%, homicide would INCREASE by 11% (que pasa?), suicide decrease by 6%, and cirrhosis drop by 32%.
 * Cook found that 10 cent increase per ounce ethanol (= 6 cents per standard drink) would result in short-term reduction in all-cause, all-age mortality rates of about 3.4% +/- 2%. [WW: This seems WAY too high to me, since in the US, 2.5 million people die annually, and thus 1% = 25,000 people, so that's ~85K lives saved, but that's about double the number of people who die in auto accidents! I guess I'd have to add up all the other causes of death and their individual rate reductions.]
 * Threshold dose for liver disease for men is 5-6 drinks per day for 20 years, and about 1/4 - 1/2 that (1.33 - 3 drinks) for women.
 * Inverse relationship between heart disease and moderate drinking, but that is all correlational, and NOT based on clinical trials, so should be suspect like Hormone Replacement Therapy.
 * Bratt system of alcohol control in Sweden required adults to get an application to buy liquor, and then have their purchases recorded in a motbok to ration alcohol based on sex, marital status, social responsibilities, and community of residence. 4 liters per month was the max for married males, and married women got nothing (had to use husband's quota.)
 * IDEA: progressive taxes within category of alcohol under the logic that you'll be less likely to abuse/get drunk of 'small beer'? (See Dutch mayor limiting stadium sales at world soccer match to 3.5%, and the resultant lower British soccer hooligan violence.) E.g.: Beer that's less likely to get you drunk should be taxed less per unit of alcohol. Say, lowest rate for beer from 1-2%, 2 - 3.5%, 3.5 - 4.5%, 4.5 - 5.5%, 5.5 - 7%, 7%+. Could do a similar thing with unsweetened wine: 1-7%, 7-10%, 10-12%, 12-15%, 15+. Try to make these rates comparable in cents/oz ethanol for comparable strengths across beverages. E.g.: 4.5 - 5.5% beer should be taxed like 35 - 45% booze and 12 - 15% wine.
 * The appropriate tax to control for alcohol externalities is estimated to be between 48 - 63 cents per ounce of ethanol (63 cents when including injury costs, and not just fatalities, from road accidents). 48 cents is 'double the average state & federal tax' rate. This is 29 - 38 cents per standard drink. So adding, say, "a quarter per drink" would hit the high end of that range.
 * Beer is disproportionately preferred by high risk groups include youths, men, and those who drink a lot in one session. (Most drinkers prefer beer in general, at about 50-55% of all ethanol consumption in the US.) A 'best guess' is that beer should be 1.25 times spirits tax rate, and wine 1.08 times. [But I personally feel an equal tax per unit ethanol would be 'fairer' and simpler.]
 * The 21 year old minimum age works, and is a good idea. Example, contrary to opinion, American teens tend to drink less frequently and get drunk less often than European teens.
 * Cook supports the idea of a uniform tax on ethanol regardless of type of beverage.
 * While increasing taxes, reduce the grip of large distributors over the market, and reduce interstate issues, and allow more direct sales from producer to consumer. This will help small wineries/distilleries/breweries. Wine & spirits have the most expensive distribution system of any packaged-good by far, per WSJ, suggesting market power by their distributors, supported by state laws.

Alcohol taxation in Nordic countries
https://thl.fi/documents/605763/0/NordicAlcoholMarket.pdf/c7f5f189-0093-4e34-a0e8-8022d93a72f2

Charitable Giving

 * www.givewell.org Top charities For The Win
 * For evaluation of US charities: http://www.givewell.org/united-states/process, and http://www.givewell.org/research/other-charity-reviews#AllUnitedStatescharitiesconsidered
 * To check on tax-deductibility (for US Federal tax itemizers), search for the organization name in double quotes here on the IRS's website.

Education
The social benefit from Pell Grants, which allowed talented and motivated incarcerated people to earn college degrees before being put back on the streets, may have been the greatest of all. The demise of this program and the declining real value of grants to low-income students in general provide clear evidence that politics dominate efficiency considerations in the design of federal subsidy programs. Individual Outcomes of Education The first conclusion from this [...] is that for both genders, at any given age, individuals with more education perceive higher wages. Moreover, these estimates suggest that the incremental benefit from additional education grows with experience: the differences in wages between people with varying degrees of education become larger as they advance in their careers. In other words, education pay-offs are not constant over the life cycle. Other studies using different data have found similar results (see, for instance, Blundell et al. 201320)
 * The Federal Role in Financing Education: https://www2.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/FinPostSecEd/baum.html
 * Human Capital externalities and education: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22434/1/MPRA_paper_22434.pdf
 * Overview of education and historical influences: https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education

These estimates can still not be interpreted causally, because there are yet other potential sources of bias that are unaccounted for, such as innate ability. To address this issue, the economics literature has developed different strategies. For example, by contrasting the wages of genetically identical twins with different schooling level, researchers have found a way of controlling for unobservable characteristics such as family background and innate ability. The conclusion from these ‘twin studies’ is that the average estimates suggested by the figure below, are not very different to those that would be obtained from more sophisticated models that control for ability. In other words, there is robust evidence supporting the causal effect of education on wages (for more details see Card 1999).

Social Outcomes of Education [...] [A]dults with higher qualifications are more likely to report desirable social outcomes, including [increased trust in others,] good or excellent health, participation in volunteer activities, interpersonal trust, and political efficacy. And these results hold after controlling for literacy, gender, age and monthly earnings.

As usual, correlation does not imply causation – but it does show an important pattern that supports the idea that education is indeed necessary to produce social capital. [...] Countries with higher educational attainment in the past are more likely to have democratic political regimes today

[T]his positive correlation is indeed supported by the data. [... C]ountries where adults had a higher average education level in 1970, are also more likely to have democratic political regimes today (you can read more about measures of democracy in our entry on Democratization).

As usual, these results should be interpreted carefully, because they do not imply a causal link: it does not prove that increasing education necessarily produces democratic outcomes everywhere in the world. However, the academic research here does suggest that there is a causal link between education and democratization – indeed, a number of empirical academic papers have found that this positive relationship remains after controlling for many other country characteristics (see, for example, Lutz, Crespo-Cuaresma, and Abbasi‐Shavazi 201023). [...] Women’s education is inversely correlated with child mortality

An important body of literature stipulates that women’s education leads to lower child mortality because it contributes towards healthier habits and choices, including child spacing (see Brown and Barrett 1991 for a more detailed conceptualization of the mechanisms).24

The following visualization shows the strong cross-country correlation between child mortality and educational attainment. [...] “better education does not only lead to higher individual income, but also is a necessary (although not always sufficient) precondition for long-term economic growth.” [...] This coincides with other studies showing that historical increases in the number of universities across countries are positively associated with subsequent growth of GDP per capita (Valero and Van Reenen 2016).28
 * READ THIS: Causal Impact of Education, Harvard Biz School: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/aghion/files/causal_impact_of_education.pdf
 * Econ Lib Public Goods: http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/08/public_goods_ex.html

School drop out/graduation rates

 * Drop out prevention programs work generally! https://www.campbellcollaboration.org/library/dropout-prevention-and-intervention-programs-effects-on-school-completion-and-dropout-among-school-aged-children-and-youth-a-systematic-review.html

Teacher income vs student achievement

 * According to this, when controlling properly for other 'non-pecuniary variables', a 10% increase in teacher salaries = 3 - 6% decrease in dropout rate. Also, a 20% increase in teacher salaries in the 70s and 80s would've reduced current dropout rates today by 8.4% (maybe I didn't capture that quite right.) ALSO, the extra cost slighly OUTWEIGHS the lifetime (present value) of benefits to the students of these salary increases. I.e.: teacher's salaries do not appear to be the 'magic bullet' for improving educational outcomes, at least for dropout rates: http://cepatest.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/loebpage.pdf

From the paper's conclusion: Our estimates suggest that, holding all else equal, raising teachers’ wages by 10% (which would undo the 10% fall in relative wages that occurred during the 1980s) would reduce dropout rates by between 3% and 6%. Likewise, if the 20% increase in real teacher wages that occurred between 1959 and 1989 had been a relative increase (that is, the alternative opportunities for female college graduates had remained constant), then dropout rates would be at least 8.4% lower than they are today. A back-of-the-envelope comparison of the costs and bene ts associated with raising teacher wages by 10% indicates that the increase in individuals’ discounted lifetime wages that would result from the additional educational attainment produced by such an increase would be slightly outweighed by the cost. An increase in teacher wages is likely to affect outcomes other than the educational attainment measures that we have focused on in this study, however. Moreover, targeted increases may be more effective than across-the-board increases. A more complete analysis of the total costs and bene ts associated with such a policy is certainly warranted.