PLC

Check out the Top Gear comparison of the Audi and the Porsche (you can find it on YouTube). They said the Audi is superior in almost every way. The 911 is a nice car and great fun to drive, but I like the looks of the Audi better, it gets better mileage, and it's easier to drive. I'm hoping that it will be cheaper to maintain, as well, which is the only reason I'm not going to get a V8 Vantage.

Source is the USDA "Family Farm Report"

No, I own a Toyota Sequoia and an Infiniti G35, but I'm thinking about trading in the Infiniti to get one of the new Audi R8s. By the way, were you aware that the number of small farms in America is growing by 2% per year?

All data comes from the US Department of Agriculture. Just search for USDA "Major Uses of Land in the United States"

Here's a satellite image of the Pacific Northwest to counter the lights at night image...

Infrastructure is include in the 6.1% of occupied land. The problem with sprawl is not WHAT is being sprawled upon, but WHERE. Namely, everyone wants to be the last person the purchase a house in their town/city/state. It's a question of proximity. People don't care about small farms, they care about having a small farm near their house. There are plenty of small farms, just move to Vermont or Iowa or Oklahoma or Texas or upstate New York or North Carolina...

There are 2.3 billion acres in the US. Of these, 1.9 billion are in the lower 48. Only 6.1% of all land is occupied by urban development or rural residential development. Of that, about 1/3 consists of lots larger than 10 acres. We use another 18% of the land to grow crops, but almost all of this is used to grow livestock feed. Less than 1/10th of 1% of land in the US is used to grow fruit and vegies. The rest of the land in the US is split pretty much evenly between grasslands and forests. That's almost 80% of the land in the lower 48. I don't think we're running out of land anything soon.

Yes, sprawl = progress. It means more people with the money to live where they want, in their own home, with a little land. Everywhere you look, sprawl is associated with freedom and wealth. As to running out of places to plant foor - you're kidding right? Have you ever flown across country? Look out the window. The whole country is nothing but woods and farmland, desert and mountain. People have hardly made a dent on the land in the US. Did you know that if every single household in the US lived on a one acre parcel, that would leave 96% of the country untouched?

Real estate for homes in the $1M + price range is a very seperate market. Demand for less expensive homes has dried up in the past six months for a variety of reasons, none of which should impact the demand for luxury properties. I just looked at zillow, and in a two mile radius around my home, there have been 14 $1m+ sales in the past six months, which is just slightly below average. Again, it is very normal for a $2m home to take two years or more to sell. When I first moved into my neighborhood, there was a house for sale for $7.2m which took four years to sell.

So, some dude risks everything to go into business for himself, providing good jobs for dozens of people and supplying goods which are in ready demand and somehow he's a parasite? I don't think you know what that word means. Actually, it means exactly the opposite of what you think it means.

I happen to live in a 4000 square foot house in Woodinville, but my house has been around for almost 15 years, so I guess I'm not in any danger of hippies burning it down... To all those who oppose "sprawl" - where, exactly, do you think all the people who've moved here over the past twenty years should live? Sprawl is a sign of progress, it means people are rich enough to afford their own home and a little piece of land. It is an unmitigated good.

First off, it's not uncommon for a $2m house to take a couple years to sell. That's part of what drives up the price. Also, the Street of Dreams was just the first phase in a much larger development and the first section of houses take the longest to sell, because owners don't want to deal with construction traffic and noise. Secondly, insurance will not cover the full cost of the homes. Large contractors don't burn down houses for insurance money. They just declare bankruptcy and continue on with their business.

Yes, I'm better off and so are just about all of us. People have an amazing tendency towards myopia, along with a short memory. Four years ago was a damn long time. Just look at iPod from four years ago vs. today. Look at what you can get in computing power. Look at the growth in GDP over the past four years, or the growth in employment. I just bought a new SUV to replace my truck that died. The new car cost a little more than my old truck, but the gas mileage is slightly better, the horsepower is up 50%, there's eight real seats, a DVD player, GPS nav, etc. I mean you can't even compare the quality of the two vehicles. Things just keep getting better all the time...

In some national parks up in Alaska, the park service requires you to carry a gun, for your own protection. When I'm visiting Denali, Glacier, etc., I'm always armed because my wife won't enter grizzly country without a gun. The way I figure, I'd rather do a couple months in prison than the rest of eternity under ground... And, yes, a .357 is plenty powerful enough to deter an inland grizzly. It would prove next to useless against a coastal brown bear, but an inland grizzly is a much smaller critter.

Fifteen years ago, I was a dirt poor grad student. Now I'm filthy rich. The article is correct in that my life isn't significantly better today - everything I own is more expensive, but it doesn't necessarily work any better. My house is bigger, but its not like I was homeless before. My car is a lot nicer, but I had a car back then, too. I have a subzero and it cools food pretty much exactly the same as the free brown fridge I found on the side of the road. The one real benefit to being rich is the freedom from worry. If my car broke down when I was poor, I was fucked until I could figure out a way to fix it. Now, if my car breaks down, I just buy a new one.

The divorce rate in the US is not nearly as bad as it is made out to be... First off, the divorce rate has been declining steadily since the early 1980s. Secondly, the divorce rate increases rapidly with each succeeding marriage - meaning if your first two marriages fail, your third is almost certain to fail as well. When you remove subsequent marriages, the divorce rate for first marriages is actually only about 25%. If both parties have a college education, the rate is only about 10%. Another interesting tidbit is that social scientists in the 80's did an expirement where they polled wedding attendees to see if they thought the marriage would last. It turned out that the guests at a wedding where able to predict with nearly 100% certainty if the marriage would last. So, make sure you have one honest friend, and listen to their advice. Me, I'm married ten years and I couldn't be happier. Easily the best thing I've ever done and it gets better every single day...

I am the rich climber everyone likes to complain about, but I will never wear Patagonia. My wife loves their clothes, but I absolutely refuse to allow any of their crap into my house. As a company, Patagonia has chosen to focus on genetics and GMOs as thier number one environmental priority. The sheer stupidity and arrogance of this stance is what has turned me away from the company.

How long until this shows up in REI? New Instant Water Filter

No - it was a hydraulic brake cable, so it didn't take much strength to cut it, especially with the fancy new Fiskars tool... Honestly, I was more mad at myself for leaving out a dangerous tool where he could grab it.

He's four years old. I'm just glad he didn't cut off a finger... With a four year old, nothing is malicious - they don't have forethought.

My son just cut the brake cable on my mountain bike yesterday with a pair of garden shears. I told him not to touch tools anymore without permission or he would get timeout. There's no need to yell or get upset; it doesn't help - if anything it just makes the situation worse. Calm down, a rope is like a $100. Big deal. If I gave you $100 to yell at your kid, would you do it?

That would only be true if the government were providing some sort of collective service in return for taxes paid. Fortunately, 90% of our taxes are tossed into a shithole and set afire. Here's a sad little lesson for you - if they raise my taxes, they ain't gonna lower yours. So, the mortgage deduction ain't costing you shit.

I would be more than happy to get rid of all deductions, if the government would then cut all marginal tax rates by 5 percentage points or so, such that the total revenue to the government were unchanged. The proposal to only change the law for large houses is just a means of increasing taxes on the wealthy. It would be a lot easier (and more transparent) to just raise the tax rate.

Since when is 3000 sq ft a mansion? My house is 3900 square feet, and my wife thinks we need more space when we have another kid...

When I was in high school and college, I mowed lawns all summer. I charged $25 per lawn and paid no taxes. On average, it took me about 45 minutes to mow a lawn, so I was making about $30 an hour, getting exercise, no boss, out in the sun all day. My friends were making $4 an hour after taxes sitting in an ice cream shop in the mall. Suckers.