Education to Help Your Gun Arguments

There several different types of rifles, but the primary difference in classifying the rifle is based on the size of the projectile the rifle fires and the speed at which the projectile is fired from the rifle.

Pictured are 6 rifle cartridges that all have very different size/speed; all are completely legal in the US, labeled 1-5.

Cartridge #1 is known as a “50-cal round.” The 50-cal round travels 3,000 feet per second and delivers up to 18,000J of energy. The 50-cal round is shot by an “anti-material” rifle. These rifles are primarily used to disable things at long range. For example, the Coast Guard uses 50-cal rounds to shoot outboard boat engines to disable them. These rounds are not practical to shoot back-to-back-to-back in short bursts without the gun being securely mounted due to the massive amount of “kick” produced after each shot. The rifle that shoots the 50-cal round weighs about 30 pounds and is about 5 feet long. Rifles that shoot these rounds are not concealable on a person. These rounds cost about $5/ea

Cartridge #2 is a known as a “magnum rifle round.” The magnum rifle round is shot by a rifle called a “sniper rifle” or “military long range” rifle. Magnum rifle rounds travel about 3,100 feet per second and deliver up to 5,000J of energy. The magnum rifle is primarily used as a long range anti-personnel weapon. For example, a US Army commander would order the use of a Magnum rifle when they need an enemy person +700 yards out to be eliminated by a single shot with a high chance of success. These rounds are not practical to shoot back-to-back to back in short bursts due to the massive amount of “kick” produced after each shot. Rifles that shoot these rounds are not concealable on a person. These rounds cost about $7/ea

Cartridge #3 is known as a “battle rifle round.” The battle rifle round is shot by a rifle called a “battle rifle.” Battle rifle rounds travel about 2,750 feet per second and deliver up to 3,500J of energy. Historically, the battle rifle was primarily used as an anti-personnel weapon for distances between 100 yards and 1,000 yards. Today, the round is primarily used for hunting. The battle rifle round can effectively kill any animal native to North America 500+ yards out. These rounds are not practical to shoot back-to-back-to-back in short bursts without the gun being on some kind of mount due to an intolerable amount of “kick” produced after each shot. Rifles that shoot these rounds are not concealable on a person. These rounds cost about $1/ea

Cartridges labeled #4 are known as “intermediate cartridges.” (AK47 round on the left, AR15 round on the right) The intermediate cartridge round is shot by a rifle called an “assault rifle.” Assault rifle rounds travel about 2,100 feet per second and deliver up to 1,600J of energy. The assault rifle is almost exclusively used as anti-personnel weapon for distances out to about 300 yards. An assault rifle is capable of hunting game up to the size of about a deer, but may require follow-up shots to ensure a quick kill. These rounds produce a very manageable amount of “kick” and can have several back-to-back-to-back shots placed relatively accurately. Rifles that shoot these rounds are concealable on a large person. These rounds cost about $0.75/ea

Cartridge #5 is known as a “plinker round.” The plinker round is shot by a rifle known as a “twenty-two.” The plinker rounds travel about 1,300 feet per second and can deliver up to 200J of energy. The twenty-two is used for target practice and for hunting small game such as squirrel and rabbit. The twenty-two rifle round produces virtually no “kick” and can be shot back-to-back-to-back very smoothly and accurately. Additionally, due to the low amount of recoil, the round can be used in handguns. Rifles (and handguns) that shoot these rounds are concealable on a person. These rounds cost about $0.15/ea

Buying Alcohol - Scruffy vs. Clean-shaven

Is a man less likely to be carded when buying alcohol if he is sporting a scruffy look as opposed to being clean-shaven?

I purchased alcohol 43 times over the past 3 years (January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2014); 19 times with a clean-shaven face, 24 times with stubble on my face.

# of times I was carded over the past three years while my face was clean-shaven: 17
# of times I was carded over the past three years with stubble on my face: 3

Conclusion: 12.5% chance of getting carded with stubble, 89.4% chance of getting carded while clean-shaven.

There certainly could have been other variables that would have influenced the experiment such as my hair length and whether or not I was wearing a coat/hat, whether or not I was with someone, etc. However, I made a note to do a fairly good job of controlling this and would purchase alcohol at different stores at similar times of the day.

I live in Missouri, which allows for alcohol to be purchased in gas stations. Often times, I would simply buy a six-pack of beer while I was conducting my Gas Mileage tests and record whether or not the gas station attendant who sold me the beer carded me.

The results will probably not translate perfectly to every man out there in his twenties. However, there seems to be a clear advantage to having stubble on one's face when buying alcohol.

Google Fiber

How fast is Google Fiber?

Is Google Fiber worth the money?

Is the rest of the internet being slow going to effect Google Fiber?


Being from Kansas City, Missouri... I'm blessed with Google Fiber as one of my internet service provider options.  I'm often asked if my internet-browsing experience is worth the extra $30 or so I pay every month?  My answer is unequivocally "yes" every time!

I regularly use my fiber connection for uploading/downloading huge Minecraft map files for my friends who play on a server I own. I typically upload and download these map files from my Google Drive account around the 7.5MB/s - 9.2MB/s mark.

8.1MB/s from Google Drive

Here are a few speedtest results I ran on December 24th, 2014:

Juneau, Alaska

Kansas City, Missouri

Seattle, Washington

Tampa Bay, Florida

Midwest Tornadoes

Has a tornado ever crossed over the same piece of land more than once?

According to a map I generated on the Tornado History Project, an F3 tornado in 1965, F4 tornado in 1990, and an F5 tornado in 1991 have crossed over a small area in Haysville Kansas at the coordinates  37°33'23.3"N 97°21'23.8"W

There is an old idiom that says lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Tornadoes don't seem to abide by this concept!

Interestingly enough, around noon on May 4th, 1977 an F3 tornado that killed two individuals passed through the backyard of the house that I grew up in. (Long before the neighborhood was developed)

Solar Panels vs. Investing in Electric Company

Does it make more financial sense to purchase solar panels to cover the price of household electricity usage or instead to invest the money that would have gone into the purchase of solar panels into the local electric company and use the dividends to pay for the respective household electricity usage?

There are several factors to consider that the average individual may not think of:

Difficulty to Establish
Investing in a utility company and receiving a dividend check in the mail every quarter is pretty straight-forward and a great way to hedge against inflation and the future cost of electricity seeing as the stock price of the electric company would likely rise with the cost of electricity rising. However, that dividend yield is subject to taxation, there is a small-yet-real risk associated with investing in a public company, and there are investing fees associated with the transaction to purchase the electric company stock.

Tax Incentives and Value
There are massive tax incentives and subsidized loans available for folks wishing to purchase "green" solar energy products. However, once the solar energy system is purchased, your home's value doesn't necessarily increase one-dollar-for-every-dollar-paid and you're basically stuck with an asset that has to be insured, maintained, and may even increase your local property taxes.  Additionally, you are still going to need to be connected to the local grid to avoid storing the solar energy in super-expensive batteries to cover your electricity usage during nights and cloudy days. Since your home is still connected to the grid, you may still be subject to local franchise fees and "hook-up" fees.

Liquidation Viability
Unlike the investment in the utility company, the solar panels you purchased are relatively difficult to sell for cash... and if they do sell, you would almost certainly take a substantial loss compared to the panel's purchase price since the cost of installation and uninstallation is fairly high.

Amount of Sunlight Hitting Panels
I live in a developed urban neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. We average about 4.5 hours of sunlight per day. However, Kansas City happens to be located in an environment that several species of Oak, Poplar, Elm, and Ash trees thrive in. These trees grow tall and contain large leaves that in turn provide a great amount of shade. Because of all the trees in my neighborhood, a large section of my roof only sees roughly 3.5 hours of sunlight per day instead of the 4.5 hour average.

Price of Electricity, Solar Panels, and Installation Labor
The price of electricity and the solar panels are obviously large factors in this equation. The higher the price of electricity, the quicker the solar panels would pay themselves off.  The cheaper the solar panels/installation, the quicker the solar panels would pay themselves off.

Political Legislation
The political environment could one day lead to the passing of a carbon tax.  Electricity produced via the release of carbon (fossil fuel) will inevitably get more expensive if this occurs.

Proximity to Grid-Electricity
In some remote areas you may not have access to an electrical hookup without spending thousands of dollars to reach the grid. Solar panels would likely be a pretty viable option in this case.

New Technology
It's possible that in the future solar panels are not only cheaper, but also produce twice the amount of electricity.  Or better yet, scientists discover a new cheap-clean power source that is economically viable which renders solar panels obsolete.

Capacity Concerns
I own a 220V hot tub that I keep at 102 degrees F all winter long. The hot tub uses a vast amount of electricity. (A price I glady pay as I sit in 102 degree water while it snows) Couple that electricity usage with TVs, a microwave, a clothes drier, and the electricity that goes into powering two computers containing Intel I7 processors and I'm looking at roughly 1000 Kilowatt-Hours per month. Generating 1000 kWh of electricity on my relatively shady roof in a deciduous climate might prove to be a bit of a challenge.

Conclusions:

At current prices and interest rates, I would be better off investing a large sum of money in my local utility company than I would be investing a large sum of money in solar panels. The solar panels, after factoring in what was mentioned above, would have to cost less than roughly $22,500 over 20 years. The system I would need to generate my current electricity usage would cost me well over $40,000 over 20 years.  This calculation would be drastically different if I lived in a remote area that receives a lot of sunlight.

Ideally, a company would come along to provide me with a long term solar panel lease that lowered the price I paid per kWh!

Your First Name and Employment

Does your first name affect your chances of being considered for a job interview?
What is the response rate I can expect when reaching out to a listing related to a legitimate-looking low-paying position on Craigslist?

Objective:  To gather data to identify trends related to a job applicant's first name and the effect the first name has on receiving a postive e-mail response from a Craigslist ad for a low-paying job

"Low-paying job" is defined as a position that either advertises or has a market labor rate of less than twice minimum wage. (Roughly $13.50/hr)

"Postive e-mail response" is defined as an e-mail response from the potential employer that either greets the applicant by first/last name, provides further information about the job, or requests more information from the job applicant.

Procedure:     A Gmail address with the applicant's first and last name with less than 4 random numbers included in the e-mail address was created for each applicant.  The last name of white and black applicants was based on the top popular shared last names between caucasian and black Americans according to 2010 Social Security Administration information.  Hispanic first names were chosen based on popular "hispanic-only" names per a quick Google search, Hispanic last names were chosen based on top common shared Hispanic last names per the 2010 Social Security Administration data.   The Craigslist cities chosen were a Midwestern metropolitan area of approximately 2,000,000 individuals and a Southern metropolitan area of approximately 6,100,000 individuals.   A total of 300 emails were sent to employers.  Each of the 300 emails sent to employers were sent within 4 hours of one another between 5:45pm CST and 9:45pm CST on Thursday, September 4th 2014.   E-mails sent to employers contained basic language made up of less than 3 sentences with no spelling/grammar mistakes inquiring further about the position.  The applicant's name (signature) was evident on all e-mails sent.  The applicants were made up of 6 female, 9 male applicants; 3 perceived white female names, 3 perceived black female names, 3 perceived white male names, 3 perceived black male names, and 3 perceived hispanic male names.  Of the 15 applicants, 2 from each perceived group (a total of 10 applicants) sent an e-mail inquiring about each job.  A total of 30 jobs were selected from the respective city's Craigslist "help wanted" website.  The jobs selected were unique by city and selected at random based on the Craigslist ad's post date.

Special notes:   13 of the 45 jobs the applicants inquired about received no response for any applicant. (28.8% no response rate)

Study Part II:  Added Craigslist City #3 (Metro area of 2,700,000 individuals on East coast) with job applications sent from the fifteen applicants the evening of Wednesday, September 10th.

Data Source

Conclusions:

- When it comes to low-paying jobs on Craigslist (less than $13.50/hr) the perceived gender and ethnicity from your first name is going to heavily influence the chances of a potential employer calling you back for an interview. Many employers appear to have a predetermined gender/ethnicity in mind and make interview-consideration decisions accordingly.

- Roughly 70% of Craigslist job inquiries are responded to. (Much higher than I thought!)

YouTube Advertising Revenue

How much money do YouTube videos make?

This is an experiment I've been running for the past several years.  The average revenue earned per view seems to vary quite a bit.  The YouTube monetization tools are constantly changing; however, the picture below should give you a pretty good idea of the revenue I've been receiving from YouTube advertisements.

Conclusions:

- The more views and the more minutes watched the higher the revenue.

- The revenue I have generated per view is roughly 68 cents per 1,000 views.

Gas Mileage Tests

How much gas does my car burn when the engine is idling?

Does my vehicle get better gas mileage when I go faster?

Does my vehicle get better gas mileage when I have the windows down?

Does my vehicle get better gas mileage when I have the air conditioning on?

Does my truck get better gas mileage when the tailgate is down?

Over the past 9 months, I've been running experiments on my vehicles to measure the fuel-usage in different situations. This involved a lot of daily trips to the gas station using the exact same gas pump and several hours of my time to ensure variables such as tire pressure and wind/weather were consistent. Each of these situations was tested a minimum of 6 times, shift points and acceleration were consistent, the same GPS device was used in both vehicles, the route never changed and highway speeds were set/maintained with cruise control. Here is what I've found:

Vehicles tested:
4.6L V8 1996 Thunderbird LX 4spd Automatic
4.3L V6 1998 4x4 F-150 short bed 5spd Manual

Engine idling in the Thunderbird cost me 0.46 miles worth of fuel every 60 seconds.
Engine idling in the F-150 cost me 0.38 miles worth of fuel every 60 seconds.

Driving at 45mph on the highway (in Overdrive) in the Thunderbird achieved 23.42mpg.
Driving at 55mph on the highway (in Overdrive) in the Thunderbird achieved 22.17mpg.
Driving at 65mph on the highway (in Overdrive) in the Thunderbird achieved 20.38mpg.

Driving at 45mph on the highway (in 5th gear) in the F-150 achieved 17.91mpg.
Driving at 55mph on the highway (in 5th gear) in the F-150 achieved 16.81mpg.
Driving at 65mph on the highway (in 5th gear) in the F-150 achieved 14.58mpg.

Driving with the windows down in the Thunderbird achieved better fuel mileage at speeds lower than 46mph compared to driving with the A/C on. Driving with the windows down in the Thunderbird at 60mph lowered the fuel mileage by 3.31mpg compared to having the A/C on. (Over 15%!!!)

Driving with the windows down in the F-150 achieved better fuel mileage at speeds lower than 53mph compared to driving with the A/C on. Driving with the windows down in the F-150 at 60mph lowered the fuel mileage by 1.36mpg compared to having the A/C on.

Driving the truck with the tailgate in normal position at 65mph achieved 14.58mpg
Driving the truck with the tailgate down at 65mph achieved 14.12mpg
(I tested this 7 times in multiple weather conditions, each time the tailgate was down I achieved slightly less fuel economy. I always thought the tailgate-up increased the drag!!!)

Driving to work and back with 180lbs of sand in the trunk of the Thunderbird =19.97mpg average. Driving to work and back with no sand in the trunk of the Thunderbird = 20.62mpg average.

Driving to work and back with 180lbs of sand in the bed of the F-150 = 14.97mpg. Driving to work and back with no sand in the bed of the F-150 = 15.31mpg.

Conclusions:
-Drive slower on the highway to save gas. (Physics says the faster you drive the harder the wind pushes back and more drag you create, this is clearly evident.)

-Drive with the windows up and A/C on if driving faster than about 45mph. (Likely also related to the exponentially-increasing drag at higher speeds.)

-Get as much weight as you can out of your vehicle to save fuel. (Not necessarily true in slick conditions where traction may be an issue and thus fuel is used to spin tires without moving forward.)

-If you drive a truck keep your tailgate up. (This came as a surprise to me, I'm assuming it has to do with the way the Ford engineers designed the truck? Seems like the tailgate down would be more aerodynamic and therefore more fuel efficient... but aerodynamics are complicated!)